21 September 2023
SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Many people may have seen the pink octopus driving down Highway 17, but not anymore.
Adventure Falls Golf was home to the staple in Surfside Beach, but now has a new home in Loris.
“My first thought when I heard this place was closing was, what about the octopus,” said Lisa Bethune Jones, a co-buyer. “What about her? What’s going to happen to her?”
The company ASL Signs brought their cranes and bucket trucks to Adventure Falls Golf on Wednesday.
In order to fit the octopus on their trailer, they had to cut off the back two legs and lay it flat.
“The movement of hashtag save the octopus came to life,” Jones said while laughing. “Here we are trying to move this crazy thing.”
The relocation project came after the course closed down last weekend.
“It kind of hits you in the heart when you hear that and you’ve grown up on the south end,” Jones said.
The octopus was built in 1989 with the intention of being used as a decoration for Adventure Falls Mini Golf along with dinosaurs. It was propped up on the course in a pond of water with its legs facing different directions, similar to how it will be in its new home.
“On that property, there is about a 2-acre lake, pond on there and we’re going to give her, her retirement home there so people will be able to come by and see her, visit her from the road and her legacy will go on,” Jones said.
Jones said the mini golf course owner, Chris Bethea, didn’t charge them anything for the octopus.
She said she and her husband only have to pay for its transportation and a fiberglass expert who will piece the octopus back together.
Bethea said it was actually one of his partners of the last 30 years who built the octopus himself.
He said that sadly, “Big” Jim Sidwell died after the course opened but would be laughing if he found out his octopus is being restored.
“I’m telling you, the folks on that list, the list was as long as my arm!” Bethea said. “All of the people that are excited about this octopus being saved. So, again, for them to be as passionate as they were, it just makes me know we’ve all done the right thing.”
Jones said she wants the community’s help in naming her octopus. She said “Pippy Long Tentacles” is her favorite so far.
It’s just unfortunate it’s not happening in October.
Bethea said everyone has won. The octopus is going to be restored and happy in her new environment. He said that he and his partner are moving onto a new chapter — starting construction on a new project coming to that area.