"World's Largest Walleye"

June 25th, 2011 - Rush City



The sign next to this giant fiberglass fish makes the claim that it is the world's largest walleye. It's not. Not even close. Rush City also makes the claim as the Walleye Capital of the World. According to Roadside America, there are several other cities that make this very claim.

This fish was allegedly caught in Rush Lake by Paul Bunyan. The fish allegedly weighed 1999 pounds and 15.5 ounces, just shy of a ton. Paul allegedly used a 62 foot white pine for a rod, a 3 ton logger's winch for a reel, and a 1 inch manila rope for his line. If you're wondering what kind of bait to use to catch a giant fiberglass walleye, Paul used a 35 pound tiger muskie... allegedly.

Bonus: World's Largest Totem Pole, Woodsy Owl, a fisherman, and a real castle

July 31 to August 4, 2010 - Northern California



This is the last old one before I get into the new ones from our recent trip. Last summer we went to visit my wife's sister and her husband who live in Eureka, CA. They were nice enough to take us to see the local big stuff.

The World's Largest Totem Pole resides in nearby McKinleyville. There are a number of places along the Pacific coast that claim the world's largest totem pole, often with some kind of qualifier like "from one log" or something. At 160 feet, this one is definitely a contender. It was carved from one continuous log and weighs 57,000 pounds. The base that holds it up weighs 214,000 pounds.

Our trip started by flying into Sacramento, where they drove down from Eureka to meet us. We spent that evening at the California State Fair, mostly because they had a beer fest that night. While exploring the fair grounds we came across a fiberglass Woodsy Owl.



The next day we spent in the Napa Valley. One of our stops was a winery called Castello di Amorosa. It's a real castle. It was built using parts of old European castles and anything they couldn't find was built by hand to be as authentic as possible. It was pretty neat and well worth the tour admission. The wine was also very good. We ended up buying a few bottles.





Finally, while in Eureka we went to the harbor and saw a large fisherman statue. It's surrounded by water, so you can't go right up to it. It's a memorial statue and it honors those "whom the sea sustained...and those it claimed." It was dedicated in 1981.