Fiberglass Mold Graveyard

The FAST Fiberglass Mold Graveyard in Sparta is one of Wisconsin’s strangest roadside attractions: a sprawling field of hundreds of giant fiberglass molds belonging to FAST Fiberglass, the company behind many of the oversized figures, roadside attractions and water-park creations seen around the country. Spread across roughly five acres along County Highway Q, the weathered molds look like the remains of some bizarre civilization, with giant animals, fish, guitars, ice cream cones, water slides, Paul Bunyan pieces and other larger-than-life shapes scattered through the grass. The business traces its roots to the late 1960s or early 1970s and became FAST Corporation in 1983 before being purchased by Ryan and Rebecca Lakowske in 2020.

Despite the name, this isn’t really a graveyard. The field is an outdoor storage yard for molds that can still be used to reproduce fiberglass figures, making it a strange behind-the-scenes archive of American roadside Americana. FAST’s creations include the 145-foot muskie at the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, Pinkie the Pink Elephant and the giant Paul Bunyan in Wisconsin Dells. Visitors are welcome to walk around the mold yard and explore it on their own, but don’t climb on the molds: fiberglass can have sharp, exposed edges, and bees and wasps sometimes build nests inside them. Located at 14177 County Highway Q in Sparta, the FAST Fiberglass Mold Graveyard is free to visit and is exactly the kind of wonderfully weird Wisconsin stop that rewards curiosity.