"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.

Lou T. Fisk - World's Largest Codfish

September 22nd, 2009 - Madison, MN



In 1982 two Madison Chamber members suggested to the city council that Madison should be nicknamed the Lutefisk Capital of the United States. So, naturally, they ordered a 25-foot-long fiberglass codfish from F.A.S.T Corp. in Sparta, WI. The project costs $8,000 (a bargain) and was funded by the Madison Chamber of Commerce.

Lou was officially dedicated in a ceremony on June 23rd, 1983 where he was paraded through town and placed in Jacobson Park at the south end of town. Lou was designed to be placed on a travel trailer so he could continue to participate in parades. He has even traveled the country including stops in Madison, WI, Madison, OH, Madison, NJ, Madison, NY, and Madison, CT.

On July 31st, 2008 a powerful storm packing winds of over 100 mph knocked Lou off of his base damaging the fish. He was sent back to F.A.S.T. and repaired. The repairs took about 6 months.

Each November, as part of Norsefest, the town holds a lutefisk eating contest, so if you've been itching to stuff your face with some delicious lutefisk then you should travel to Madison in November.

City of Madison's Lou T. Fisk page

Bena's Big Fish Endangered

Photo by jenniferrt66.

The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota added Bena's Big Fish, along with 9 other places, to its list of Most Endangered Historic Places last week. The fish was built in 1958 as a stand selling hamburgers and ice cream. Now it is used as a storage shed for the Big Fish Supper Club. The fish is endangered due to its deteriorating condition.

Story.

The Big Fish has received some national attention. Charles Kuralt once called it his favorite building in America. It has even made it to the big screen.

Sea Serpent

March 19, 2008 - Crosby, MN



Native American legend, or a local marketing campaign, has it that a creature named Kanabec has been living in what is now Serpent Lake. There is a seeming lack of evidence to support the existence of such a creature in Serpent Lake, but that only begs the question, what is the life expectancy of a northern Minnesota sea monster? I mean, I don't know how far back these Native American legends date, but I'm guessing that that would be one really old sea serpent if he/she were still alive today. It's likely that this serpent is now "swimming with the fishes", which makes a sighting by your average fisherman difficult.

This very colorful statue was erected in 1977 in a park on the east end of Serpent Lake. It stands about 20-feet tall.

Crosby is also home to the Viking (not the football team ... mostly) themed Nordic Inn Medieval B&B.

Here's an interesting bit of trivia about the town of Crosby that I found on Wikipedia.

"In the 1932 local elections, the voters of Crosby elected Karl Emil Nygard as President of the Village Council and thus became the first city in the United States to have a Communist mayor."

Was Kanabec a Communist? Or perhaps his/her disappearance was part of some kind of Communist cover up. We will probably never know.

The Garrison Walleye

March 19th, 2008 - Garrison, MN



Across the lake from Isle is the town of Garrison. Garrison definitely does claim to be the Walleye Capital of the World. The Garrison walleye stands in a place of honor, not just in front of some bank. This walleye is in the center of a kind of scenic overlook park type thing right on Mille Lacs. Here you can park your car and enjoy the walleye and the view of the lake. Or you can crack your window and eat your lunch in the car because it's maybe a little too cold to sit outside that long and the only place to sit would have been on a cold stone wall overlooking a frozen lake, as we did.

Garrison's walleye is bigger than the Isle walleye and at 15-feet it's shorter than the big mean walleye, which is fully extended, but it may still be larger overall.

Tip: I cannot stress this enough. Mmmmmmm.......walleye.

Big Mean Fish

March 19th, 2008 - Isle, MN



If you are in Isle visiting the giant walleye at the bank and find yourself saying "I would really like to see more giant fiberglass fish like this one but with an angrier disposition and huge teeth," then you are in luck. Just head a mile north out of Isle on 47 to Johnson's Portside Bait and Liquor, it's your one stop shop. At Johnson's Portside you can get gas, food, bait (don't confuse those last two), liquor, shirts, fishing licenses, and real estate. Ok, the real estate is next door, but they share the same building.



There are two big mean fish here. The first is a big mean muskie and the second is a big mean walleye. Both are 20-feet long. And mean.

Giant Walleye - 1 of Many

March 19th, 2008 - Isle, MN



This giant walleye is prominently displayed in front of a bank on Main St. in "Downtown" Isle. Isle is a small town on Mille Lacs Lake, a haven for fishermen in summer and winter. Isle once claimed the title of "Walleye Capital of the World". This giant walleye once had a sign proudly boasting said title, as seen in the following photo from June, 2000. It's unknown to me what happened to the sign. It's also unclear whether or not Isle still makes this claim. It is clear that the landscaping has changed.


Photo by Tiffibunny.

The race for the walleye capital title has more candidates than this year's presidential campaign had, it seems. There are five Minnesota towns alone that have a hat in the ring, including cross-lake rival Garrison. The battle for walleye supremacy isn't nearly as contentious as the fight for the title of "Icebox of the Nation" was. Thankfully, the good guys won that one.

Tip: Mmmmmm......walleye.

International Spotlight: Giant Lobster

Larry the Lobster
Kingston South East, South Australia


Photo by Johnsyweb

He is 18.2 meters tall, which is roughly 59 feet, and he is made out of fiberglass. Kingston SE is one of the best lobster fishing areas in all of Australia.

Tip: If you are visiting Kingston SE, order the lobster. I got a hunch that it's good.

International Spotlight

I realize that I haven't been posting as often. I will try to change that. It takes a little more time and effort to research for posts about "Fallen Heroes" or music than it does for posts about places we have visited, because, for the stuff we have visited, I have done most of the research beforehand. We are working on plans for a little Big Stuff trip in March, so stay tuned folks. I also would like some more variety than Fallen Heroes, music, music, Fallen Heroes, and the occasional map in my posts between visits. That brings me to my newest addition, International Spotlight.

I will be featuring various big stuffs from outside of the U.S. We aren't the only ones that love big stuff. Just look to our north. Canadians are quite big stuff crazy. While a lot of these posts may come from Canada, there are other nations as well that enjoy their big stuff like Australia, New Zealand, and Germany. So let's get it started.

Chuck the Channel Cat
Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada


Photo by ehmeelu

Chuck is a catfish, is 25 feet tall, and was built in 1986 out of fiberglass. Chuck was built in an attempt to promote tourism to the town. Selkirk is located just north of Winnipeg on the Red River. Selkirk is also home to a large ox cart. Crookston, MN claims to have the World's Largest Ox Cart. The World's Largest Catfish is also on the Red River in Whapeton, ND.



Time for a perfect cross-over post. I am going to add a song to the soundtrack list. I had meant to include it in the fish theme post, but forgot to, and it ties in perfectly with this post.

Please Come Back - by Catfish Haven

The band name alone warrants a spot on the soundtrack. Plus, they are pretty good, so I couldn't deny them. I chose this song because I'm sure the towns that build big stuff would like you to come back again for another visit. I also considered Crazy for Leaving. This is the perfect cross-over post because of the fish theme of the last music post, the catfish thing, and the fact that Catfish Haven are signed to the Simply Canadian record label (even though they are from Chicago).

You can hear both of these songs at Catfish Haven's MySpace page.