Man saves President's Park busts

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (WAVY) - A Williamsburg man who helped construct them successfully moved the heads of 43 leaders of the free world to a plot of farm land.

Howard Hankins helped construct the President's Park in Williamsburg seven years ago. The cash-strapped park closed in 2010 and had seen 350,000 visitors since its opening in 2004.

Photos: Presidents Park gets new temporary home

Hankins is now storing the busts near the back of an old family farm a few miles from the site of the park.

"I'm storing them for a while until I can find a new home for them," Hankins said. "I couldn't see destroying them. There will be some kind of use for them. Somebody will come up with a plan or a place that can benefit the state and the education of the kids and everybody else from out of town. People will be coming to look at them."

It took Hankins and his friends about a week to move all of the heads, each one weighing in at 22,000 pounds.

"People were pulling up, slowing down and taking their cameras out. I got a lot of phone calls too," Hankins said.

Hankins isn't sure what he wants to do with the presidents' heads yet.

"I think it would be nice to work it in with some sort of welcome center. Have a two-fold operation where they could feed off each other. There are a lot of ideas being tossed around, but I just acquired them a month ago. I just started thinking," Hankins said.

If you have an idea for Hankins, he said to give him a call. His number is 757-873-2196.