Further Exploring Foster Park, The Infamous Great White Whale - Kokoma Indiana Great Places to Visit

We're back to talk about some of the awesome areas we discovered while we are out traveling for interviews, and in today's video, we visited the beautiful FOSTER PARK in Kokomo, IN! We showcase the well known great white whale that resides in the park! Let us know some cool areas you've discovered!

To find out more about Foster Park, visit it's website at:

https://www.cityofkokomo.org/departments/parks_and_recreation_department.php

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Biographical information on Foster Park the City of Kokomo's website (https://www.cityofkokomo.org/departments/our_parks.php):

FOSTER PARK - 721 W. Superior St. (30 acres)
This park is in Downtown Kokomo and is the site for many festivals, concerts and community events. The Kokomo Arts Pavilion is located in this park along with a large playground, a gazebo, tennis courts, basketball courts, a softball diamond, parking and restrooms that are open year-round. A new skatepark facility opened in December of 2019. The Walk of Excellence Trail runs along the south side of the park following the Wildcat Creek and has a loop that circles inside the park. This park is the location for the department's summer tennis lessons program and hosts a Free Family Movie Night during the summer. Kokomo's Senior Citizen's Center is also in this park along with an historical jackrabbit tank from World War II and Whilly the Whale.

KOKOMO, Ind. - Call me Willie.
A white whale has been set free inside Kokomo’s Foster Park, beckoning to passers-by along Wildcat Creek, urging them to stop and look and even step into its enormous, toothless jaw.

Its tail, mid flip, one end pointed toward the ground, the other flexing upwards, belies the whale’s otherwise stationary posture. Its mouth stands lazily, permanently agape, as it has for 55 years.

This whale, with its sleepy blue eyes, is far more welcoming than Captain Ahab’s obsession.
But its history may be equally bizarre.

Willie the Whale has been an iconic Hoosier landmark since 1964, the backdrop of hundreds of thousands of photos through the decades, chronicling trips to the Indianapolis Zoo, an amusement park and even a mini-golf course.
Now, he’s in Kokomo.

Willie, 16 feet tall, was placed inside Foster Park on April 25, the newest addition to an oddball Kokomo team that already included a 17-foot-tall metal praying mantis; a stuffed steer that in its day weighed more than 4,500 pounds; and a tree stump over 1,500 years old.

Willie washed ashore at the Eastside water park called Boogie Mountain near Shadeland Avenue and I-70. When that business closed several years ago, Willie and the water rides found a new home at the Fun Spot Amusement Park & Zoo in Angola, Ind. The whale was painted black and given more defined and "happier" facial features. The Fun Spot fell victim to an economic downturn and closed in 2008.
Willie the Whale sat in dry dock among the ruins of the abandoned park until 2015 when he was sold to the city of Rushville with intentions of making him a roadside attraction or piece of outdoor public art for the city. Rushville mayor, Mike Pavey, got the idea of saving Willie when he saw this original story on the iconic statue.

Earlier this year, the city of Kokomo purchased Willie and contracted Justin Olson of Olson Paint Studios in Indianapolis to restore him to his original color. Olson has reached out to Indianapolis Facebook nostalgia pages in hopes of finding Willie's true-self. "The feedback we’ve been getting is positive so far," Olson said.

In 2016, Willie was the center of attention when the Indianapolis Museum of Art opened its miniature golf course featured a slightly renovated Willie as the 18th hole.

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