***Originally published in The Kewanee Voice Summer Adventure Guide 2025
Step inside Kewanee’s Hog Days building, located at 306 N. Main St., and you’ll find a fascinating collection of oddities and treasures that tell the story of the festival’s rich history. Whether it’s vintage memorabilia, quirky artifacts, or cheesy souvenirs each item has a tale to share.
With committee member Janie Metscaviz as a guide, you’ll get an insider’s look at the hidden gems that make the Hog Days building more than just a place to hold meetings and store things—it’s a living museum of local heritage.
Before the door of the building is ever opened, Metscaviz points to the large concrete hog that stands sentry at the front of the building. At one time purple in color in honor of Western Illinois University, the 400-pound pig was donated by local attorney Scott Clemens. The pig was painted to appear more pig-like and now greets visitors to the building.
Inside the building is a menagerie of hog items, and in the corner, towering over all it surveys is Count Henry, a fiberglass pig with a chef’s hat atop its head.
“It used to be on top of the building and he blew down,” she said. Metscaviz said it was placed on the roof in 1988, but no one can quite recall when it fell to the Earth.
At one time, Count Henry had a place next to the BBQ pits but was moved to a corner of the building on fears someone would abscond with him.
About ten years ago, Metscaviz and Larry Flannery, committee co-chair, repainted Henry and now he’s located in the corner and is a favorite spot for visitors to snap a photo.
On a wall facing the entrance to the building are two pink pig banks. Each one is dressed for the occasion. The pigs are affectionately named Dort, short for Dorothy, and Jim, in honor of Metscaviz’s parents, Dorothy and Jim Bryner. The couple loved to square dance and participated in the dances, which were held each year at Hog days from 1962 to 1970.
The female pig, complete with a wiglet and jewelry worn by Mrs. Bryner was given to the committee by Don and Debbie Pusey, owners of CDAC Amusements who provide the carnival for the festival. The male bank, aka Jim, was donated by a man who purchased it from an auction.
Through a north door inside the building is the one item Metscaviz could live without. It’s an adult-sized costume of a pig that was acquired many decades ago. The costume has come to be known as Arlene.
“Larry sometimes takes his frustrations out on it,” joked Metscaviz, but the entire thing creeps her out and when asked why, she replied, “Just look at it! It’s kind of self-explanatory.”
The source of the costume is a mystery, she said, although they used to wear it to different events to promote Hog Days. But as ghoulish as Metscaviz finds the item, it’s at the building to stay.
“It’s important to preserve historic items like these even though it creeps me out,” she said.
Plenty of pigs reside at the building from ceramic to glass, to metal and wood. In a curio cabinet is a collection of pig figures donated to the festival by Carolyn Anderson. A wooden box pig, crafted by Tony Ramos’s son, Ian, has a prominent place near Count Henry and on the floor next to his pig is a metal sculpture that was later painted pink, donated by the Kewanee High School shop class.
“We spruced it up,” said Metscaviz.
Recently, Anne Murchison, long-time committee member, donated a collection of vintage pig salt and pepper shakers that are still waiting to be displayed.
On every wall of the building are mementos that have been collected and created over the years. Flannery made a frame that holds Hog Days buttons made every year by Abilities Plus. The framed art showcases buttons from 1983 to 2010.
Other framed pieces include copper postcards sold at Murphy’s Office Supply, which used to occupy the space where Lock and Key Shop is now. The postcards are mounted on sheets of embossed copper and have several embossed illustrations. Metscaviz said the postcards were found mixed in with sale items at the Presbyterian Church yard sale and they were salvaged.
“Not even Anne knows anything about them,” she said.
Metscaviz said they would love to know more about the postcards’ origins and is asking anyone with information to reach out to them.
Also framed and hanging on the wall is a map from 1991 that features cartoon figures and illustrations of business all over town. The map was only printed a few times, Metscaviz said, and the Hog Days committee possesses one of only two remaining 1991 maps that are known to exist.
Off the main room of the Hog Days building, beyond a locked door, are dozens of souvenirs, some of them unique and most of them coming from the mind of Flannery, said Metscaviz.
A Hog Days beach ball went on sale a couple years ago; there are Christmas ornaments, boxer shorts that expand to actual size in water, bacon band aids, the best-selling pig snout, and of course the obligatory coffee mugs.
The least expensive souvenir, according to Metscaviz, is a Hog Days fan and the pig snout. The most expensive? A ball cap.
But the best part of the tour was saved for last as Metscaviz directed the attention to the storage area in the back. With its new floors and massive new garage door, the storage area has made setting up and pulling down the festival more efficient.
The old door was small and required jumping through hoops to get it opened or closed, Metscaviz said.
The new door, purchased from Sullivan door, opens like a dream and it is so large it’s easy to pull their trailers in and out.
At a cost of around $10,000, the door and the new flooring in the storage area, has further preserved the building for future generations.
“It’s something we never thought we’d get to have,” said Metscaviz.
