The World Famous Arcola Lawn Rangers by Doug Haffner

1981 was a marquee year for the Arcola Broom Corn Festival. The Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore, was the Grand Marshall and a group of 15 inspired Arcola citizens formed the Lawn Rangers. These brave men felt the calling to become a part of the annual Broom Corn parade instead of hecklers. “They took an inventory and came to the conclusion that pushing mowers and twirling brooms was probably the best they could do. But they did it with gusto. Soon after, invitations to appear in other festival parades poured in and the Rangers went on tour. The rest is history.”

Wearing their trademark Lone Ranger masks and pushing their decorated mowers, more than 1,000 individuals have twirled their brooms and marched with the Lawn Rangers. New Rangers are subject to an intensive training session where they learn the Ranger “routine” consisting of an impressive number of lawn mower maneuvers and broom tosses. Their craft has taken them to numerous parades and events, including the Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the Indianapolis 500, the Holiday Day Bowl Parade, and Fiesta Bowl Parade. In January 2009, the Rangers answered the call to march in the Presidential Inauguration parade in Washington D.C. for Barack Obama, whom once had his picture taken with the Rangers while holding a green plunger prior to the start of the Chicago St. Patrick’s day Parade when he was a State Senator. Founder Pat Monahan coined the Ranger Motto, “You‘re only young once… But you can always be immature.”

The project was designed by Doug Haffner from Wyoming, IL. Doug operates Haffner’s Fantastic Creations, specializing in dimensional signs, murals and themed environments. Doug is a fairly new addition to the Walldog efforts getting his start at the Walldog meet in Danville, IL in 2010.