A Trip Around Grant County To Find Garfield

Recently I became aware of 14 Garfield The Cat statues placed around Grant County, Indiana. On the last day of 2020, I decided I’d load up Caesar and we’d go find them all. We also invited my mom along.

Apparently, Jim Davis, creator of the Garfield cartoon, is from Grant County, and to celebrate the artist, the county has erected various Garfield statues and created a “Garfield Trail.” All but one of the statues was accessible on Dec. 31, 2020. The one statue we couldn’t get to was located inside of a golf course, which is only open from April to November.

To plan our trip, I visited showmegrantcounty.com and found the Garfield Trail. Here, you can download a map that takes you to each statue. I found this map very helpful and followed it in order, with the exception of statue 8, because that led toward Fort Wayne and that was my way home; so I saved it for last.

The tour took around 4 hours or so to complete, but we weren’t in a rush, and we stopped to look at other attractions.

I have always had a love for American actor James Dean, who was born and buried in Grant County. While finding a few Garfield statues in Marion, Indiana, I found the location memorializing James Dean’s birth home. The sign noted that he was buried in Fairmount, where he had grown up. So, on our way out of Fairmount, where the Cool Cat Garfield is located, we stopped at Park Cemetery and found James Dean’s gravesite.

I have to admit, Grant County is not flashy. It’s full of small towns that are often rugged. Another person I know who took the tour said she didn’t feel safe in some areas where the Garfields were, but I never felt that way. It’s simply a quiet little area in Indiana with not a lot going on.

If you do take the tour, I highly suggest going early in the morning. Keep in the mind that one Garfield in Marion, the Bookworm Garfield, is located inside of the Marion Public Library and Museum. So, if you go, make sure to check the hours of the library to make sure it’s open. All other Garfields are located outside, but from what I understand, they may also sometimes be unavailable due to maintenance. You can check the Grant County website linked above to see if any are down. However, when we went, the website indicated that the Firefighter Garfield was down for maintenance, but we decided to go anyway to make sure. Lo and behold, it was up––so I’m glad we double checked.

The suggested trip ends at Ivanhoe’s in the small town of Upland. We stopped to eat there, which I also suggest. The restaurant provides tasty diner style food, which provided a filling end to our trip.

Overall, I highly suggest checking out the Garfield’s in Grant County. I’m glad I got to take this tour with Caesar and my mom. I really wanted to get a photo of Caesar in front of each of the cats, which I mostly accomplished (save for Bookworm Garfield and Duffer Garfield). This tour is sure to be a moment in 2020 I will remember.

Check out the photos from our adventure below!