That's right, it's the day after Thanksgiving and we are at the World's Largest Turkey, Big Tom. We were back up to my neck of the woods for the holiday and we took the opportunity to go to another nearby town to see another giant bird. What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than to visit a gigantic turkey? Well, eating turkey I suppose.....and stuffing and potatoes and lefse (I'm Norwegian).
Cooking a turkey isn't an easy thing to do. Butterball knows this. That's why they setup the turkey hotline. And I bet if you call the turkey hotline, they would advise against using a blowtorch as a cooking method to prepare your bird. It's just too bad that a couple of maintenance workers in Frazee didn't give Butterball a call.
On July 1, 1998 a pair of maintenance workers were working on removing Big Tom to make room for his replacement (Tom was slated for replacement due to frequent repairs) and accidentally hit his insulation with a blowtorch and within seconds their goose was cooked, or turkey I guess.
After the fire, a small egg statue was placed where the new Big Tom would stand and for the first time in 12 years, the Turkey Capital of the World had to celebrate their Turkey Days festival without Big Tom. The new Big Tom is even bigger and Tommier than the original. He now stands at 22 feet tall and weighs over 5000 pounds.
City of Frazee's World's Largest Turkey page
3 comments:
Is he solid or empty?
He is made of fiberglass and, other than steel reinforcements, is hollow.
My wife used to live on the property where Big Tom sits now.
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