Central Ohio man mows 300-foot Statue of Liberty figure into lawn

In preparation for America250 and Independence Day, a single man in Ross County redefined 4th of July landscaping.

With a riding mower, push mower, lawn edger, and over 300 feet of precisely cut grass, RJ Donahue created the Statue of Liberty in his own yard.

The former surveyor used personal GPS equipment and 500 construction flags to map out the design. Then, with a drone, Donahue would mow a line, stop and check his work, and repeat. 

“I would look at [the picture] and see how it oriented with the face of the hill and try to stay out of the tree canopies and stuff on the edges,” Donahue said. “And once I got locked in, I basically just put the information in my data collector and went out there.”

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The entire process took several weeks, spanning 8-11 hours a week or until Donahue’s wife forced him to come inside before he caught heat exhaustion.

“She ended up loving it,” he said.

Donahue’s house sits on a hillside with part of the lawn open facing US Route 35 and 50. From the highway, drivers can see the house and almost make out the yard when at a full stop. 

The Lady Liberty lawn had quickly gained attention over social media; the positive reaction completely shocked Donahue.

“Someone said that it was AI-generated. I don’t even do Facebook, but she came back later and said, ‘Nope, I’m a believer!’,” he said.

Despite the heat and all the trial and error included, if Donahue were to do another yard project of this size again, he responded, “Oh, absolutely. Yeah!”

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