Route 66 in the News

Pig Hip Now in Stone and Bronze

2007-08-16 19:26:26

BROADWELL, Ill. - Piglet pink and far weightier than the heftiest hog at the Illinois State Fair, Ernie Edwards' birthday gift arrived Wednesday.

The 1,780-pound pink granite stone was hauled from Springfield on the trailer of a Chapman Stone and Marble truck.

Affixed to the stone is a 37-pound bronze marker, telling about the famous Pig Hip Restaurant and the museum, which sat on Route 66 in Broadwell until it burned this spring.

"It was one of two biggest stones they had," said Bobby Olson of Springfield, who organized the gifting effort with his daughter, Madeline, on behalf of Edwards' many friends.

"We didn't start organizing until the day after (Broadwell's sesquicentennial). It was a tight-run thing. We intended to have it here by Aug. 5, Ernie's birthday."

They only missed the goal by 10 days.

Olson also wrote the words on the plaque, which was cast by Franklin Bronze and Alloy, in Franklin, Pa.

The plaque reads:

"Pig Hip Restaurant, 1937-1991 at Broadwell, Illinois on historic U.S. Route 66. Operated for over 54 years by Ernest L. Edwards Jr. & Family. Home of the celebrated PIG HIP Sandwich -- baked fresh pork with tomato & lettuce on a toasted bun with the secret sauce. The PIG HIP Restaurant Museum with Ernie's fine personal collection of Route '66' memorabilia & artifacts was destroyed by fire on 5 March 2007 just prior to Ernie's 90th Birthday. But U.S. Route 66 "The Mother Road" Endures FOREVER. A concrete symbol of America's Freedom & Opportunity ALWAYS in the hearts and minds of her sons and daughters."

Bernie Becker of Franklin Bronze & Alloy provided the drawing of the Pig Hip sign at the top of the plaque.

"It's not a memorial, because the Pig Hip isn't dead yet," said Olson, as he and Edwards sat on the shaded porch a few feet from the Pig Hip site.

Olson said in terms of memorials, he thinks the book, "Pig Hips on Route 66," is more important than the stone.

"I still get three to five customers a day," said Edwards. "I've been selling a book a day."

"The stone is for cruisers out on Route 66," Olson said. "The traffic has been surprisingly good.

"Another reason for the boulder, it keeps people stopping."

Two of Edwards' most recent customers were young travelers from Spain and Italy. They stopped on their way to Chicago and had so much fun visiting with Edwards they made it a point to stop again on their way back.

Edwards welcomes everyone, except the people he calls his "pee customers."

He's reluctant to open his home to just anyone searching for a toilet.

"And our bathroom is really small," he said.

Surveying the Wisconsin granite stone, which was unloaded and set by Chapman Stone and Marble employee Dale Way, Frances Edwards was already envisioning it with a small evergreen on each side.

"This is really something," she said.

"Bobby did it. It's just unbelievable."

~Nancy Rollings Saul, LincolnCourier.com