18. Giganticus Headicus and Antares Point

At the intersection of Route 66 and Antares Road, just past a string of mailboxes,

a humungous blocky green head incongruently juts up 14 feet from the ground. A few other- worldly, metal-sculpted creatures accompanied it.

A colorful, free-standing, futuristic Googie sign indicated this humongous, green Easter-Island-style head is named Giganticus Headicus and that it resided at Antares Point. The corner was also home to the Kozy Corner RV Park, Ranchero Motel, and a gift shop.

I approached the man in charge to ask about the giant head. The man handed me the business card of Gregg Arnold, the artist who created the head and other bizarre metal sculptures on the grounds. The latter, Pete explained, were for sale.

Gregg Arnold, I discovered, moved from the East Coast to Arizona in 2003. He bought three acres on this corner and sculpted Giganticus Headicus on site in 2004. The A-frame building and row of motel rooms, as far as I could determine, were built in 1965. The A-frame at one time contained a cafe, laundromat, and convenience store. The facility had also been a gas station, with Shell gas pumps out in front. Judging by photos on line and reference to bankruptcy, it appears the site was quite run down when Greg Arnold acquired the property. For a while, the Arnolds operated a gift shop and art gallery in the A-frame. Greg Arnold still owns the property.

At the time of my visit, the premises looked so inviting in a quintessentially Route 66 quirky sort of way. Consistent with a futuristic, space-age theme, the head of an alien grey, a rocket, and flying saucers had alighted on the front facade of the building.

I use the past tense to describe what I observed because the site has undergone some changes since. A news release in the October following our visit reports that the Kozy Corner Trailer Court and the Ranchero Motel were no longer; the property was scheduled to become a visitor’s center, the property leased and the center to be operated by the Grand Canyon Caverns, which is located 40 miles to the east….

(to be continued….) SUBSCRIBE to my blog at the very bottom of the page!