F.A.S.T. Foray

Who knew so many of you were such fiberglass aficionados?

I really must tell you about our visit to the Mecca of giant critters, the fantasy island of fiberglass fun. I have always been a big (heh) fan of these monstrosities, and once wrote a review for the Minnesota Marvels book.

In the book, Dregni highlights the origin of many of these roadside jewels, but I had forgotten about it until we were paging through some Sparta, WI tourist info. We immediately sidetracked to seek out this great place. WF was not yet convinced of the value of this search, and I was afraid we tourists would just be a nuisance (the listing in the brochure was under “shopping”- just in case you wanted to bring back a giant fish from your travels).

But hark! We were greeted with this sign:


I thought it would be a giant fiberglass critter heaven. But alas, most of the fancy, painted items are custom made and sent out to the buyers right away. The yard consisted mostly of other-wordly-looking shells and molds, mostly brown, grey and disintegrating. A bit spooky, actually. A distinct (and toxic?) odor of fiberglass resin emanated from the buildings.


But it was still a roadtrip highlight in rural WI! Local businesses and even homes showed a higher than normal incidence of giant fiberglass objects in their yards (hence the rooster in the previous post) than the standard American average incidence, so there WAS that added benefit. If you can’t make it to the factory, definitely check out the F.A.S.T. catalog online: Wow!