Mike the Headless Chicken Sculpture: Fruita, Colorado

Mike the Headless Chicken Sculpture represents real fortitude.
Mike the Headless Chicken's sculpture in Fruita,
Colorado, represents real resilience.

In 1945, Lloyd Olsen chopped a chicken's head off but missed its brain stem. Rather than getting fried, the bird, dubbed "Mike the Headless Chicken," lived for another 18 months, with Olsen feeding it with an eyedropper.

In 2000, sculptor Lyle Nichols paid tribute to Mike's fortitude with this 300-pound interpretation, and the city of Fruita, Colorado, plays host to an annual festival that invites visitors to "party their heads off."

Learn about a sculpture fit for the president on the next page.

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