Just beneath Mount Rushmore at a wide bend in the road on the outskirts of Keystone, South Dakota, the world's biggest bigfoot is impossible to miss.
At 23 feet tall, the chainsaw-carved mythical monster towers over the roadside Dahl’s Chainsaw Art property of brothers Jarrett and Jordan Dahl, drawing curious motorists who pull off the highway for a closer look.
The creature is seated, holding a flagpole that measures 54 feet tall — the height the supercolossal Sasquatch would be if he were standing.
He sits by the side of the roadway. His foot is taller than any tourist. The giant’s hands, face and enormous feet are carved. His limbs and torso are covered with round logs meant to emulate its shaggy outer coat.
David and Rebecca Simmons, from the Fort Worth, Texas, area, were in the Black Hills for Vacation Races’ half-marathon when they stopped at Dahl’s after seeing the enormous creature.
“We were just out wandering and pulled in,” David Simmons said.
Rebecca said the carvings reminded her of ones she has seen in New Mexico.
“This is another level,” her husband said.
A group of five women from New York and New Jersey, also in town for the half-marathon, made a stop on their way to morning coffee in Keystone.
“This is a delight on our way to coffee,” said Jen Brotman of Westfield, New Jersey.
None of the women had known about the largest bigfoot until he stopped them in their tracks on their way into town.
That’s how it usually goes.
The roadside attraction is just one piece of what has become a sprawling chainsaw-carving enterprise for the Dahl brothers.
“They’ve grown so much over 20 years,” said Brian Gibbons, a childhood friend who now essentially manages the Keystone property.
Neither of the Dahl brothers returned Cowboy State Daily’s request for an interview.
Gibbons said what started with a tiny tent on a corner block in Keystone has grown into an operation with multiple locations throughout the Black Hills.
The Keystone property, less than three miles from Mount Rushmore, is home to what Guinness World Records has recognized as the world’s largest bigfoot.
It’s a more recent masterpiece, created after Jarrett learned to carve with a chainsaw and make sculptures out of wood from a family friend in Soldotna, Alaska.
At 23 feet tall sitting down, a pair of South Dakota chainsaw artists have created the world’s biggest bigfoot, making it impossible for the mythical monster to hide. (Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily) 
While the 23-foot world’s biggest bigfoot draws people to Dahl’s Chainsaw Art on the outskirts of Keystone, South Dakota, there’s a lot more unique creatures and creations to see. Brian Gibbons, right, manages the Keystone, South Dakota, property (Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily) 
While the 23-foot world’s biggest bigfoot draws people to Dahl’s Chainsaw Art on the outskirts of Keystone, South Dakota, there’s a lot more unique creatures and creations to see. (Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily) 
While the 23-foot world’s biggest bigfoot draws people to Dahl’s Chainsaw Art on the outskirts of Keystone, South Dakota, there’s a lot more unique creatures and creations to see. (Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily) 
While the 23-foot world’s biggest bigfoot draws people to Dahl’s Chainsaw Art on the outskirts of Keystone, South Dakota, there’s a lot more unique creatures and creations to see. (Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily)
A Giant Bigfoot
Bigfoot has occupied his enormous space on the corner of Highway 16A since 2023.
Carving the giant took about two months and involved what Gibbons described as “a little team of people.” The Sasquatch is carved out of ponderosa pine, cedar and cottonwood.
The sculpture is not for sale.
“It’s not going anywhere,” Gibbons said.
But if someone wants a giant bigfoot of their own, Gibbons said the Dahl operation can make one.
Carvers who work for the business can travel to a site and carve a similar creature on location, Gibbons said.
“Just a little smaller,” he said, so as not to trump the world’s biggest.
The Dahl bigfoot earned its official title from Guinness in 2023, when representatives visited Keystone and measured the statue.
The designation prompted a celebration in the community.
“We threw a little party,” Gibbons said.
The party included a parade and food trucks.
The bigfoot replaced a pair of roughly 20-foot-tall Native American statues that once occupied the prominent corner. Those sculptures are now displayed elsewhere on the property, where they remain visible from the highway.
Jarrett Dahl carved the Native American figures in Colorado, Gibbons said.
Fairground To Black Hills
The Dahl brothers have been carving with chainsaws for decades.
Gibbons said he first encountered Jarrett and Jordan Dahl carving at the Minnesota State Fair in the early 2000s. He said he watched Jarrett carve a rose for his cousin’s girlfriend.
Years later, in 2017, Jarrett called Gibbons and asked if he wanted to come to the Black Hills and carve.
Gibbons came.
Today, he helps keep the Keystone operation running. He greets guests, runs the gift shop, monitors the property and works on his own chainsaw carvings.
The raw material for the work comes from all over, he said.
People drop off wood. Others bring logs they no longer want.
A bin of free firewood sits on the north side of the facility’s parking lot.
The carvers use Stihl and Husqvarna chainsaws, tools as much a part of the operation as the wood itself.
Gibbons was wearing sunglasses with the word “Stihl” printed in large white letters across the earpieces as he talked about the business.
Prices for the finished carvings range from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands, depending on their size and complexity.
And the work is not exactly quiet.
The buzz of chainsaws pulsed through the property Friday as visitors wandered among the carvings.
As Gibbons talked with Cowboy State Daily, acorns fell from a large oak tree onto the metal roof of the gift shop, pinging like hail.
“They sound like baseballs,” Gibbons said.
At 23 feet tall sitting down, a pair of South Dakota chainsaw artists have created the world’s biggest bigfoot, making it impossible for the mythical monster to hide. (Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily) 
While the 23-foot world’s biggest bigfoot draws people to Dahl’s Chainsaw Art on the outskirts of Keystone, South Dakota, there’s a lot more unique creatures and creations to see. (Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily) 
While the 23-foot world’s biggest bigfoot draws people to Dahl’s Chainsaw Art on the outskirts of Keystone, South Dakota, there’s a lot more unique creatures and creations to see. (Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily) 
While the 23-foot world’s biggest bigfoot draws people to Dahl’s Chainsaw Art on the outskirts of Keystone, South Dakota, there’s a lot more unique creatures and creations to see. (Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily) 
While the 23-foot world’s biggest bigfoot draws people to Dahl’s Chainsaw Art on the outskirts of Keystone, South Dakota, there’s a lot more unique creatures and creations to see. (Kate Meadows for Cowboy State Daily)
'Bigfoot Stopped Me'
For many visitors, the giant creature requires no introduction.
Friends George Harvey and Lee Carswell were on a road trip from North Carolina when they spotted bigfoot on their way to Mount Rushmore.
They immediately changed course.
“We just seen it as we was coming to Mount Rushmore,” Harvey told Cowboy State Daily. “Bigfoot stopped me.”
“We drove by it, and we turned around,” Carswell said.
That reaction was repeated throughout the morning as tourists pulled off the highway, wandered around the property and took in the larger-than-life carvings.
For people traveling through the Black Hills, the Dahl property offers something they aren't likely to find on an ordinary trip to Mount Rushmore; a roadside giant carved from wood, standing watch over the highway and inviting everyone who passes to stop and take a look.
And for those who do stop, the reaction is often the same.
They've seen bigfoot.
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
