Only at the corner of Abrams Road and Trammel Drive can you find a 7-foot-tall chicken, a cannibalistic order of fries and a bike-riding dinosaur all in one place.

Hundreds of commuters pass by the intersection in northeast Dallas’ Ridgewood neighborhood on a given day. Laura Digan lives nearby and has been wondering for years who is the mastermind behind the eclectic yard.

That’s why she asked Curious Texas: Who owns and decorates the lawn on the corner of Abrams and Trammel?

Curious Texas is an ongoing project from The Dallas Morning News that connects readers with journalists and their resources. The idea is simple: You have questions, and our journalists are trained to track down answers.

It took a little sleuthing, but we tracked down Gary Isett. He’s a born-and-raised Dallasite who moved to Richardson about 20 years ago to start his family, but moved into the house on Abrams in July 2012.

That winter, Isett ran electricity to every tree on the lawn and used Christmas lights to illuminate the yard. Isett called it the “Christmas Paradise.” Neighbors started to notice the lawn, but the Christmas display was just the start.

In March 2013, Isett hauled home a 7-foot Kip’s Big Boy statue and set it in the yard. A neighborhood celebrity was made.

He said he bought the statue off another Dallas resident who told him it had originally belonged to the Kip's on Northwest Highway and Hillcrest. The Big Boy started out on the corner, but was moved behind the house after a run-in with local code enforcement agencies.

“At first, everybody was like, ‘Who’s this guy and what’s he putting in his yard?’” Ridgewood resident Hugh Gifford said. “Then after a while, it just became a staple in the neighborhood. Everybody loves it. The kids love it; they want to drive by every night on the way home.”

Isett is a landscaper by trade. During Fall 2012, his company, White Rock Landscaping, was hired for a waste removal job.

The waste in question? A 3-foot tall concrete Billiken — as in the smiling imp that is the mascot for St. Louis University.

“Somebody paid me $100 to take it away from their house,” Isett said. “It was in their living room. They thought it was creepy.”

The Billiken found a new home in Isett’s front yard. A year later, Isett began a new tradition: painting the Billiken silver and blue for the Dallas Cowboys during football season and red and blue for the Rangers during baseball.

But in November 2015, the tradition abruptly ended when the Billiken disappeared.

A few folks in the neighborhood told Isett they’d seen the Billiken thieves. But he never reported the theft.

“I can’t watch my yard 24/7,” Isett said. “It was just a prank.”

He had no hopes of getting the original Billiken back, so he replaced it with a smaller statue. He painted it silver and blue just like always and set it out in the yard. That was two years ago.

Then in April, Isett’s phone rang. At first, all he could hear on the other end was laughing. But, they’d found the Billiken and it was ready to come home.

The caller tracked Isett down on Facebook after finding the Billiken in a house in West Dallas and brought it back to him.

“I mean, what are the chances that A) it’s found, and B) somebody that found it knew where it belonged,” Isett said. “That’s how popular that stupid little thing was.”

After the first Billiken went missing, Isett wasn’t the only person hunting for a replacement. Isett’s neighbor Hugh Gifford and his 9-year-old son, Trip, were scouring eBay for a lookalike of the neighborhood mascot.

The Giffords knew Isett through Zion Lutheran Church and School, where Isett worships and volunteers. Isett heard about Trip’s search for a replacement Billiken, so after the original statue was returned to Isett, he gave Trip the replacement statue as a token of thanks.

“Now I have someone to keep me company in my room,” Trip said with a smile.

Isett doesn't spend much time actively searching for new items for the lawn. Like the Billiken, most of it "finds" him. The community sends him tips on his Facebook page and friends tell him about whatever wacky thing they see and think he should buy.

“It’s just got to be unique,” Isett said. “It’s got to be unique and stupid. I’ve had people approach me with McDonald’s and Burger King signs — that’s just too ordinary.”

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