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The Trail of the Whispering Giants is a collection of sculptures by Hungarian-born artist Peter Wolf Toth. The sculptures range in height from 20 to 40 feet (6.1 to 12.2 m), and are between 8 and 10 feet (2.4 and 3.0 m) in diameter. Currently there are 74 Whispering Giants, with at least one in each of the 50 U.S. states, as well as in Ontario and Manitoba, Canada, and one in Hungary. In 1988, Toth completed his goal of placing at least one statue in each of the 50 states, by carving one in Hawaii, and in 2008, he created his first Whispering Giant in Europe, Stephen I of Hungary in Délegyháza, Hungary along the Danube River.
In 2009, eight more Whispering Giants were planned.
The sculptures
(Update February 2, 2015) The Trail of the Whispering Giants is an ongoing project and much of the material here especially the chart below is out of date and too extensive to edit fully this article. A traveler, David Schumaker, went on a quest to identify all the Whispering Giant statues and has documented 57 existing statues and identified 12 that are now missing or destroyed since Peter Wolf Toth began this project in 1972. Schumaker has documented his information on the WEB site Peter Wolf Toth which has the most current information on the Whispering Giants and messages from the artist himself.
The 74 Whispering Giants range from 15 to 40 feet (4.6 to 12.2 m) in height, and all resemble natives of the region in which they are located. Toth always donates the Whispering Giant he creates to the town he carved it in, and never charges a fee for his time. He does require that the raw materials (a large log between 8 and 10 feet (2.4 and 3.0 m) in diameter) be provided, as well as lodging and living expenses. The carvings have been appraised at a quarter of a million dollars each.
Toth uses a hammer and a chisel as the basic tools to create the Whispering Giants, but on occasion will use a mallet and an axe, or rarely power tools. Before starting work on a Whispering Giant, Toth confers with local Native American tribes and local lawmakers. The sculpture that is created is a composite of all the physical characteristics, especially facial features, of the local tribe or tribes, as well as their stories and histories.
Currently Peter Toth resides in Edgewater, Florida, where he has a small studio where he carves small wooden statues to raise money to create more Whispering Giants. He travels around America to repair Whispering Giants he carved in the past that have not been kept up, as well as to carve new ones. The latest Whispering Giant carved was in Vincennes, Indiana, in 2009 out of Black Oak, but there are still eight more statues planned to be built.