5 Things You Didn't Know About the Big Freeport Indian

It has stood overlooking Route 1 in Freeport for over 50 years and is one of Maine’s most popular landmarks. The Big Freeport Indian, or as some call it, the Big F—— Indian sees visitors every year from all around the country, most of them stumbling across it on their way to L.L. Bean.

Here are 5 things you may not know about the Big Freeport Indian.

1. The owner of Casco Bay Trading Post commissioned ought the Statue in 1960

According to 2015 an article in Maine Magazine, Julian Leslie opened Casco Bay Trading Post in 1947 and was looking for a way to drive business to his store on Route 1 in Freeport. He ended up having a giant statue of a Native American created and shipped to Freeport for $5000 where it was placed on his property next to busy Route 1. When his statue was completed, it had to be shipped from Pennsylvania on a flatbed trailer until it arrived in Freeport on August 26, 1969.

2. The Big Freeport Indian was an advertising gimmick to sell mocassins

How wonderful were the 70s?? The Casco Bay Trading Post in Freeport, Maine.
byu/j3434 inMaine

Casco Bay Trading Post crafted and sold leather goods, including mocassins, hence the 30-foot tall statue. It seemed to have worked as Casco Bay Trading Post remained in business until 1989.

3. Arrows were often found lodged in the statue

While camping at Winslow Park every summer growing up, we’d drive past Casco Bay Trading Post and often notice arrows lodged into the fiberglass of the Big Freeport Indian shot into it by people who had nothing better to do with their lives. This must have been a pain to have removed regularly.

4. Businesses keep coming and going at the Big Freeport Indian

Since Julian Leslie closed the Casco Bay Trading Post in 1989 after 42 years, other businesses have occupied the space, but none have been as successful as Casco Bay Trading Post. As of this writing, the space is empty with the last tenant being Big Indian Country Store.

5. It may be the most famous, but it is not the tallest Native American Statue in Maine

Worlds Tallest Statue of a Native American/ Indian, Skowhegan, ME.
byu/horsesarecool111 inMaine

The world’s tallest statue of a Native American is the “Skowhegan Indian” which stands 62 feet high on a 20-foot base, double the height of the Big Freeport Indian. Coincidentally, the Skowhegan Indian was installed in 1969, the same year as the Big Freeport Indian.