Exploring the Ruins of President's Park: A Journey into History

Scott: 00:00:15

Welcome to Talk With History.

Scott: 00:00:17

I am your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian,

Jenn: 00:00:20

Hello.

Scott: 00:00:21

On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired

Scott: 00:00:23

world travels, YouTube channel journey, and examine history

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through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers, and

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the history lovers out there.

Scott: 00:00:34

Now, Jen, before we get into our main topic, it's review time.

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So we actually got a couple of reviews, so I actually really appreciate that.

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And we bumped up to our 10th five star review.

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Huzzah.

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And, uh, we got another five star review on Apple podcast

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from a miss Paula Daniels.

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So her five star review said, love this episode.

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Thank you for giving us a little more background to masters of the air.

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That was a really fun episode to do.

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And if you're listening, you can go back and find that.

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In the podcast episodes, or we actually did a full video version of that

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podcast on the Walk With History, our Walk With History YouTube channel.

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She continued, My husband and I have been watching My husband's uncle was a B 17

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radio tech slash gunner based in, I think it's Fugia, Italy from 1943 to 1944.

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Uncle Mickey enlisted after the bombing of Pearl Harbor as many young men did.

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This series and your podcast really help us understand the

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dangers these guys encountered.

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It's mind blowing and makes us respect our American soldiers so much more.

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Well, thank you so much, Paul.

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That was really, really nice.

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And I love.

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Absolutely love hearing from our listeners.

Jenn: 00:01:45

too, that really is, uh, encouraging.

Jenn: 00:01:48

So thank you.

Scott: 00:01:49

That was great.

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And for anybody else listening, please keep those reviews and feedback coming.

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If you ever want to just reach out to us directly, you can,, find our contact

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information over at talkwithhistory.

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com.

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Today we embark on a presidential pilgrimage unlike any other, a journey

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to the enigmatic and awe inspiring ruins of President's Park here in Virginia.

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Imagine this, sunlight filtering through leaves as you stroll through rolling

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fields and suddenly you come face to face with a 20 foot bust of George

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Washington or Abraham Lincoln and 41 other American leaders who came before them.

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It's an experience that's both humbling and unforgettable.

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But these aren't your typical, pristine presidential statues.

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Weathered and decaying, they stand as remnants of an ambitious dream

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that never quite materialized.

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Get ready to ponder the legacies of our past presidents, marvel at the power of

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nature, reclaiming man's creations, and maybe even unearth some unknown secrets

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you can use with you on your next journey to Maybe South Dakota of all places.

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So whether you're a history buff, a fan of the unusual, or simply looking

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for a virtual adventure this episode is for you, grab your headphones, buckle

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up, and let's embark on a journey to the ruins of president's park.

Scott: 00:03:27

So Jen, this was a lot more fun than I expected it to be.

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So tell us what we're talking about today.

Jenn: 00:03:36

So if you ever wonder what happens to old theme parks when they close, think

Jenn: 00:03:41

of like old Scooby Doo episodes and stuff.

Jenn: 00:03:45

So this was an established theme park outside of Colonial

Jenn: 00:03:50

Williamsburg, and it opened in 2004.

Jenn: 00:03:53

And it was busts of the first 43 presidents.

Jenn: 00:03:58

Now there's only 42 busts because Grover Cleveland served

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twice with someone in between

Scott: 00:04:04

that's right.

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So I got my little intro.

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My intro was off

Jenn: 00:04:07

And I didn't know that either until I read it a couple of times like

Jenn: 00:04:09

42 busts, but there's 43 presidents.

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And they say, cause Grover Cleveland had a break.

Jenn: 00:04:13

He's 40, he's 25 and 27 or something like that.

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He's in, he has.

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He's served twice with a president between him.

Jenn: 00:04:20

So it's these 18 feet to 20 feet busts of these presidents and they are really

Jenn: 00:04:28

grand and very intricate and detailed.

Jenn: 00:04:32

It's just amazing to see them.

Jenn: 00:04:34

So this park.

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opened in 2004.

Scott: 00:04:38

It was originally called just President's

Jenn: 00:04:40

It was called President's Park.

Jenn: 00:04:42

And it was like, if you go to Colonial Williamsburg, it's very much a tourist

Jenn: 00:04:46

destination with the Historic Triangle.

Jenn: 00:04:48

We've done a lot of episodes, Jamestown, Yorktown, Colonial Williamsburg.

Jenn: 00:04:52

This is something else for people to do.

Jenn: 00:04:54

So basically, if you bring your family for a week to Colonial Williamsburg.

Jenn: 00:04:58

How are you filling the days, right?

Jenn: 00:05:00

Like you're taking them to New York town one day, you're taking them to

Jenn: 00:05:02

Jamestown one day, you're spending a day in Colonial Williamsburg, and

Jenn: 00:05:04

you're like, okay, what can I do?

Jenn: 00:05:05

Oh, I'll take you to President's Park.

Jenn: 00:05:07

So it was like a walk, it was outdoor.

Jenn: 00:05:10

And it was a kind of a walk with these bus with three plaques in front of them.

Jenn: 00:05:14

And the plaques would give you Just details of their lives, of

Jenn: 00:05:18

their presidencies, and then a bunch of like fun facts, trivia

Scott: 00:05:22

Yeah.

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And we actually, uh, funny enough, cause if you're listening to this,

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we have a full video, so I highly encourage anybody listening to go watch

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the video because you can really get a good feel for how big these busts are

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and like you said, how grand they are, but a friend of ours, Chris from over

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his, another history, YouTube creator at, at WhitDocs he commented on the

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video and he's I actually went there.

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In, I think it was 2005, and he says, I've got pictures somewhere, they may

Scott: 00:05:46

be lost to time, but he actually went there and paid and walked through

Scott: 00:05:49

the park and did all the stuff.

Jenn: 00:05:50

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:05:51

And if you have gone and have pictures, the gentlemen who

Jenn: 00:05:54

run it now want those pictures.

Jenn: 00:05:57

So if you, there's a website, the president's heads that are run

Jenn: 00:06:01

by the two men who now run these.

Jenn: 00:06:04

weekend visits, and they're looking for original pictures so they can

Jenn: 00:06:07

show those to people who come and visit what the park originally looked

Scott: 00:06:11

Oh, cool.

Jenn: 00:06:12

So, like I said, it was outdoor.

Jenn: 00:06:14

It was like a walk around.

Jenn: 00:06:16

We walked around and they were in order from other presidencies.

Jenn: 00:06:20

And then there was some it.

Jenn: 00:06:22

Exhibits inside and they said they had the first lady's dresses and things

Jenn: 00:06:25

like that things you can see today at the smithsonian But unfortunately

Jenn: 00:06:29

the museum went bankrupt in 2010.

Jenn: 00:06:31

So basically it only was around for six years and they auctioned off the land

Jenn: 00:06:37

and The bus was supposed to basically be Recycled destroyed they're made

Jenn: 00:06:43

of metal So there's metal inside of a metal framing which you could recycle

Jenn: 00:06:46

that and then there's cement on over the metal with plaster over the cement.

Jenn: 00:06:51

And the gentleman who was supposed to recycle them is the gentleman who actually

Jenn: 00:06:55

took them and put them on his property.

Scott: 00:06:58

I think he, he either purchased them or worked out a deal, adjusted it.

Scott: 00:07:01

They had, he had been hired to recycle and, and get, get them off the land.

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And then instead he was like, well, hey, let me work something

Scott: 00:07:08

out so I can take these and.

Scott: 00:07:10

Do something else with them.

Jenn: 00:07:11

Yeah, he figured maybe I can open another park.

Jenn: 00:07:13

Now they were originally created this Everett Newman, the second was a local

Jenn: 00:07:17

entrepreneur in Colonial Williamsburg.

Jenn: 00:07:19

It was his idea to make this original president's park.

Jenn: 00:07:23

And then he hired sculptor David addicts to sculpt these sculptures.

Jenn: 00:07:28

And he really used a, if you can think of a Mount Rushmore as his inspiration.

Scott: 00:07:33

mean, and, and you, you can, this is a pretty easy Google search.

Scott: 00:07:37

Mm-Hmm.

Scott: 00:07:37

, right.

Scott: 00:07:37

Or look in our show notes for some links.

Scott: 00:07:39

But it, it looks very much like that.

Scott: 00:07:42

The, the models, the busts.

Scott: 00:07:43

It's the very, very much the same style.

Scott: 00:07:46

I mean, if you look at George Washington in our video.

Scott: 00:07:49

It looks like the George Washington sitting up there on Mount Rushmore.

Jenn: 00:07:52

Yeah, they're very, I'd say favorably done to depict the presidents.

Jenn: 00:07:56

And so they're 18 to 20 feet because I think some presidents

Jenn: 00:08:00

are taller and shorter than others.

Jenn: 00:08:02

So he wanted to play a little bit with scale, but not.

Jenn: 00:08:05

too much.

Jenn: 00:08:07

And he made three actually of each president.

Jenn: 00:08:11

So one was for Colonial Williamsburg.

Jenn: 00:08:14

They did do the same idea outside of Deadwood, South Dakota.

Jenn: 00:08:18

Same premise.

Jenn: 00:08:19

When you go visit Mount Rushmore, usually go for a week.

Jenn: 00:08:23

And there's only so many things you can do while you're there.

Jenn: 00:08:26

You see Mount Rushmore, you'll see crazy horrors and you're

Jenn: 00:08:28

like, how can we fill the rest of

Scott: 00:08:30

And, and that would be very much in, in theme with being there

Scott: 00:08:34

at Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, because of busts and presidents

Scott: 00:08:37

and all that kind of history

Jenn: 00:08:38

Yes.

Jenn: 00:08:38

You go to Deadwood for a day.

Jenn: 00:08:40

And then this park, kind of like President's Park, was around Deadwood

Jenn: 00:08:45

and, but the same thing happened.

Jenn: 00:08:46

It couldn't be financially sound.

Jenn: 00:08:49

I think it was actually in Lead, which is right outside of Deadwood.

Jenn: 00:08:52

Remember Lead is the mining

Scott: 00:08:53

Oh yeah,

Jenn: 00:08:54

And so it couldn't be financially sound and they closed as well.

Jenn: 00:08:59

Now what I read what happened to their busts is a lot of RV parks.

Jenn: 00:09:04

In the area, South Dakota, North, North Dakota, even Montana.

Jenn: 00:09:08

If their name for the president, like there was a Teddy Roosevelt Park, there's

Jenn: 00:09:12

a Lincoln Park, they took the busts.

Scott: 00:09:13

that's cool.

Jenn: 00:09:14

So you can still find them today in

Scott: 00:09:16

You could, you could drive into Lincoln RV park and there's Lincoln

Scott: 00:09:19

sitting out front, 20 foot bust.

Jenn: 00:09:21

And then the other set is in Texas because that's where the sculptor is from.

Jenn: 00:09:25

So he built one set there.

Jenn: 00:09:26

So I have people have commented online that they've seen them in Texas.

Jenn: 00:09:30

And I, I just assume that he has them maybe on his private

Jenn: 00:09:33

land where people can visit.

Scott: 00:09:34

Yeah, and one of the fun things about doing this video, I was like a

Scott: 00:09:38

kid in a candy store when I, there with my camera because it was just so unique

Scott: 00:09:44

with all of us, the average person is, hovers around just below or just

Scott: 00:09:48

above six feet, six feet tall, right?

Scott: 00:09:50

And all of us are walking around and it's families and it's kids and these

Scott: 00:09:53

busts, how they're grouped together, actually grouped very close together.

Scott: 00:09:57

And so what happens in this field, it's on private property.

Scott: 00:10:00

It's not a public park.

Scott: 00:10:02

They only open it, I think eight times a year,

Jenn: 00:10:04

you have to buy your tickets beforehand.

Jenn: 00:10:07

Again, visit presidentsheads.

Jenn: 00:10:09

com.

Jenn: 00:10:10

They sell them on Eventbrite and they basically do it for a whole

Scott: 00:10:15

Yeah, they give you like a two hour slot.

Scott: 00:10:17

So you show up, you gather your two hour slot, they give you the intro and

Scott: 00:10:21

then they give you a fair warning and be like, Hey, typically, If it rains,

Scott: 00:10:25

it doesn't really dry out because these busts are tall and it doesn't let the sun

Scott: 00:10:28

in and so it's very, very muddy and so fortunately, they've actually purchased a

Scott: 00:10:32

bunch of boots, kind of rain style boots.

Scott: 00:10:34

You can take your shoes off, put boots on.

Scott: 00:10:36

And our kids love that.

Scott: 00:10:38

That was like their favorite part, was just walking around, traipsing around in

Scott: 00:10:41

this big, thick mud in these rain boots.

Scott: 00:10:44

And we kept yelling at them don't get dirty the whole time.

Scott: 00:10:45

And then you and I, I think you actually put rain boots on.

Scott: 00:10:48

I had my kind of boots that I didn't care if they got dirt.

Scott: 00:10:51

Dirty.

Scott: 00:10:52

But these, they are amazing to be close and personal with.

Scott: 00:10:58

The, the old ones, it was almost a little neater because they're decaying some.

Scott: 00:11:03

Because it's a little, it's just a different vibe.

Scott: 00:11:06

And I found some old videos from like 2017, so five or six years ago.

Scott: 00:11:12

And even Ronald Reagan was one that kind of really stood out to me because

Scott: 00:11:16

I guess he got struck by lightning just less than a year ago from when we went.

Scott: 00:11:20

He got struck by lightning in 2023.

Scott: 00:11:22

And so you could see nowadays his face has decayed quite, quite a bit.

Scott: 00:11:27

But the 2017 video that I Borrowed some of their footage and credited

Scott: 00:11:31

them and I wanted to show the contrast from just a few years ago to today I

Scott: 00:11:35

mean he looks fairly pristine and very white and and nowadays are decaying

Scott: 00:11:39

and you know You can see inside of some of them and who's the president

Scott: 00:11:43

that had his kind of jaw fall off

Jenn: 00:11:45

So Chester Arthur, who's the president after Garfield, after Garfield's

Jenn: 00:11:49

assassinated, he's the 21st president.

Jenn: 00:11:51

He has what they call mutton chops, which is where you can

Jenn: 00:11:54

grow the hair down the sides.

Jenn: 00:11:56

Not sideburns.

Jenn: 00:11:57

Like you can think of Elvis having the sideburns.

Jenn: 00:11:59

These go further down your chin and the mutton chops were long

Jenn: 00:12:03

and again, very, uh, detailed.

Jenn: 00:12:07

And because of the weight that the cement had with the plaster on his

Jenn: 00:12:12

face, it actually broke his face away.

Jenn: 00:12:15

So if you see, if you're on Instagram, you see me standing by a president

Jenn: 00:12:18

that looks like he has no face.

Jenn: 00:12:19

All you can see is the metal framing inside.

Jenn: 00:12:22

That's Chester Arthur because the mutton chops have.

Jenn: 00:12:25

broken his face

Scott: 00:12:26

And some of the detail on these presidents was really, really

Jenn: 00:12:29

I love that the most like walking up to Eisenhower and he's in uniform.

Scott: 00:12:35

ribbons and you had, you could see his five stars and who was it that,

Scott: 00:12:39

uh, I mean, had the horn rim glasses.

Scott: 00:12:41

And then Andrew Jackson up front was just, I mean, spectacular.

Jenn: 00:12:47

Truman had the glasses.

Jenn: 00:12:48

Andrew Jackson's hair was like blowing in the

Scott: 00:12:52

It's blowing in the wind.

Scott: 00:12:53

And think about this, like picture this in your mind at 20.

Scott: 00:12:57

He was probably a little taller, probably 20 plus 22, 23 feet.

Scott: 00:13:01

Full metal frame, cement, and plaster, and it looks like he's standing there

Scott: 00:13:05

with his classic kind of hair blowing in the wind, he's wearing, he's in uniform,

Jenn: 00:13:09

with epaulets.

Scott: 00:13:10

epaulets on his shoulders, and those really stand out, just

Scott: 00:13:13

looks absolutely spectacular

Jenn: 00:13:15

Yeah, he blew me away with how incredible again, the

Jenn: 00:13:19

detail was on these on these bus.

Jenn: 00:13:21

And then you have George W.

Jenn: 00:13:23

Bush, who has little Elephants on his tie to represent the Republican Party

Jenn: 00:13:31

and they're very detailed elephants like they're sculpted out each one.

Scott: 00:13:35

we say little I mean little is like they're probably five inches tall

Scott: 00:13:40

five six inches tall But compared to the rest of the bus that they pair little

Scott: 00:13:44

so it was really neat to see some of these details because they Had details

Scott: 00:13:47

it everywhere And it was so much fun for me as a as an amateur videographer to

Scott: 00:13:54

just shoot and get all these fun angles.

Scott: 00:13:57

And he's just, it was super unique.

Scott: 00:13:59

And I, I, I enjoyed it so much more than I expected.

Jenn: 00:14:03

I would definitely say the reason, so there's two gentlemen who

Jenn: 00:14:07

privately run it now and they really want to get people out there because

Jenn: 00:14:11

cause of the rate of deterioration and they're only going to deteriorate more.

Jenn: 00:14:18

So if you want to see them, they're still very impressive.

Jenn: 00:14:21

They're still beautiful.

Jenn: 00:14:22

Uh, this is the time of year to go cause it's not a lot of

Jenn: 00:14:24

vegetation growing up around them and you can really get in and just.

Jenn: 00:14:28

look at how amazing just their facial features are like I got to see

Jenn: 00:14:32

Garfield really up close and personal.

Jenn: 00:14:35

I got to look at Madison and you see Ford, you see Reagan, you see Kennedy, FDR.

Jenn: 00:14:41

And what's crazy is they're not in any real order.

Jenn: 00:14:45

They're like.

Jenn: 00:14:45

As they took him out of the park and brought him in and just

Jenn: 00:14:48

set them down and they set them close, I think, for protection.

Jenn: 00:14:51

But like you said, rain can get in there.

Jenn: 00:14:52

It's make some of them sink down.

Jenn: 00:14:54

So there's deeper puddles around them and hard to to slide in between

Jenn: 00:14:59

them, but you can still do it.

Jenn: 00:15:01

And it's just super impressive to be there.

Jenn: 00:15:04

You have two hours.

Jenn: 00:15:05

It's absolutely more than enough time.

Jenn: 00:15:07

And then they have three out in front.

Jenn: 00:15:09

So they have George Washington, number one.

Jenn: 00:15:12

They have Andrew Jackson, number seven.

Jenn: 00:15:14

And they have Abraham Lincoln, number 16, right, the three out in front.

Jenn: 00:15:19

And then everybody else is scattered in these four rows.

Jenn: 00:15:22

But it's just super cool because you can get some great pictures

Jenn: 00:15:26

and get some great footage.

Jenn: 00:15:27

You can walk around and then they give two talks while you're there.

Jenn: 00:15:31

One is a president trivia.

Jenn: 00:15:33

So, how much do you know knowledge about President's lives?

Jenn: 00:15:37

And the other one is more about the history of the park

Jenn: 00:15:40

and before and now after.

Jenn: 00:15:42

And you can ask your questions there.

Jenn: 00:15:45

We always get questions like they only have up to George W.

Jenn: 00:15:47

Bush.

Jenn: 00:15:48

That's when.

Jenn: 00:15:48

They stopped making bus.

Jenn: 00:15:49

Now they have a prototype of President Obama.

Jenn: 00:15:53

It's like a little

Scott: 00:15:54

Yeah.

Scott: 00:15:55

I think the nickname there is baby

Jenn: 00:15:57

baby Obama because they were going to make a bust from that,

Jenn: 00:16:00

but they never got around to it.

Jenn: 00:16:02

And so they have that there so you can see it as well.

Jenn: 00:16:04

But after Obama, there's no other bust.

Jenn: 00:16:06

So don't ask this.

Jenn: 00:16:09

It's always someone's opinion about that.

Jenn: 00:16:11

But, uh, it, you can bring your dog there and we were able to find, fly the drone.

Scott: 00:16:16

Yeah, we asked him, they just said Hey, just watch out for the dogs

Scott: 00:16:19

and, just be respectful of people.

Scott: 00:16:21

So we got some, some fun drone shots.

Scott: 00:16:23

It was just, it was super cool.

Scott: 00:16:25

It was just one of those really neat kind of afternoon type things that

Scott: 00:16:28

if you live in the Norfolk area, the colonial Williamsburg area, or if

Scott: 00:16:33

you're in town I would definitely check out the links in our show notes.

Scott: 00:16:36

You can, we'll put the link to the website.

Scott: 00:16:39

So if you're in town the right time of year.

Scott: 00:16:41

Spring or fall, you can look it up and you can purchase tickets ahead of time.

Scott: 00:16:45

But they said they sell out pretty much every year that they've done

Jenn: 00:16:48

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:16:48

And we went president's day weekend.

Jenn: 00:16:49

It was sold out.

Jenn: 00:16:50

It's family friendly.

Jenn: 00:16:52

You can bring your children.

Jenn: 00:16:53

They have restrooms.

Jenn: 00:16:54

I would only say it is probably not disabled friendly.

Scott: 00:16:59

Yeah.

Scott: 00:16:59

I mean, it's, it's literally like in a field on some like contractor's land.

Jenn: 00:17:03

So you probably could bring a wheelchair if you didn't

Jenn: 00:17:07

want to get in between the

Scott: 00:17:08

Yeah.

Scott: 00:17:09

There's no way you'd be able to, to get in between.

Scott: 00:17:11

And again, this is, this is private property.

Scott: 00:17:13

So they, they, the two hosts work with the owner and they work that together.

Scott: 00:17:24

Well, there you have it, folks.

Scott: 00:17:26

Our journey through the ruins of President's Park has come to an end.

Scott: 00:17:30

Hopefully you've gained a new appreciation for these unique historical

Scott: 00:17:34

relics and the stories they hold.

Scott: 00:17:36

Remember, these busts may be weathered and silent now, but they still have a lot

Scott: 00:17:40

to teach us about ambition, perseverance, and even the fleeting nature of power.

Scott: 00:17:45

Maybe next time you see a presidential portrait or statue, you'll think

Scott: 00:17:49

about the real people behind the stone and the legacies they left behind.

Scott: 00:17:53

But our exploration doesn't have to end here.

Scott: 00:17:55

If you're curious to learn more about the ruins of President's Park, I've

Scott: 00:17:58

included some links in the show notes.

Scott: 00:18:00

And as always, if you know someone else that might enjoy this

Scott: 00:18:02

podcast, please share it with them.

Scott: 00:18:04

Especially if you know if somebody's going to be in the

Scott: 00:18:06

Williamsburg area sometime soon.

Scott: 00:18:08

Shoot them a text and tell them to look us up.

Scott: 00:18:11

We rely on you, our community to grow, and we appreciate you all every day.

Scott: 00:18:15

We'll talk to you next time.

Jenn: 00:18:17

Thank you.