My wife and I are on a mission to visit all the oversized local landmarks throughout Minnesota. This blog chronicles those visits and covers other related topics.

Friday, December 18, 2009

The Giant Hobo

September 22, 2009 - Starbuck, MN

Giant Hobo

Ok, it's time to get back to this blog thinger and finally get caught up. We got very busy buying a house and moving into that house and settling into that house and because of that and other fun grown-up stuff like figuring out insurance policies and retirement accounts, I haven't had much time to post. Like I mentioned in the last post, we now live in Plymouth, MN.

Way back in September we went on a western Minnesota big stuff loop. The first stop on this loop was in Starbuck. We didn't waste our time stopping for the buck with a star in it's antlers (I'm not kidding) or the site marking where the world's largest lefse was made. The lefse isn't there, because they ate it back in 1983, but the rolling pin they used is.

The giant hobo stands in Hobo Park. In the 1930s during the Great Depression many men would ride the freight trains and stop in Starbuck for a few days or weeks looking for work or food from the locals. At night they would gather near this spot along Lake Minnewaska. Before long they would hop on another freight train and move on, like any respectable hobo would. They left behind shorthand signs informing other hobos where they could find work or food or other helpful information.