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.

Paul Bunyan's Anchor, or The World's Largest Coat Hanger

September 22, 2009 - Ortonville, MN



We were a little disappointed with this one. We were hoping for something a bit more anchory. While I'm sure it's effective, it looks more like a hanger made from a huge slab of granite and some giant chain links.

The legend goes that Paul Bunyan was quite the fisherman and that Big Stone Lake was one of his favorite lakes to fish in. According to the plaque, "Big Stone Lake, visible here to the north-west, and the state's 10th largest, was one of Paul's favorites, not only for the variety and size of its fish, but because here he found a stone heavy enough to anchor his mammoth boat. Squared roughly from the region's famous granite, it weighed 110 tons." It goes on to say that this anchor was (conveniently) rediscovered on the eve of Minnesota's statehood centennial in 1958 and then was hoisted to the hilltop it now resides on as a memento of the state's 100th birthday.

Now this is a lovely story, but it seems to me that it has one Bunyan sized hole in it. Big Stone Lake is a large lake covering 12,610 acres and stretching 26 miles long, but it is a really shallow lake. At it's max, Big Stone Lake is only 16 feet deep. I would think a boat big enough to carry Paul alone would displace enough water that he would be scraping the bottom, if not completely stuck, but then you add a 110 ton rock too. I don't think that boat is going to be able to navigate Big Stone Lake. I wonder what happened to his boat... and boat trailer.

On the plus side. The anchor is next to the county museum. We didn't go in the actual museum, but they had some kind of wild bird exhibit thing in a separate building that was actually very interesting. They had a large and varied collection of taxidermied birds and an informational CD about 10 minutes long to guide you through the collection.

World's Largest Peace Pipe

August 15, 2009 - Pipestone, MN



Pipestone... the bane of our Big Stuff existence. You see, we were in Pipestone once before. We went there for a friend's wedding in July 2003. It was about 98 degrees that day and the church lacked air conditioning and it was the full-on Catholic mass wedding ceremony. The country club did have air conditioning, though, and cheap drinks that were also very strong. All-in-all it was a fun day.

The problem was that in 2003 there was no Big Stuff Project. It was only a couple years later that my wife came up with the idea. Why is that such a big deal, you may ask yourself. Well, if you've ever been to Pipestone you know that the city of Pipestone is, in fact, not near anything at all. This is something that is easily illustrated by looking at the Big Stuff map (although I will be adding a point in Luverne, which is 24 miles from Pipestone). We really had no reason at all to go to Pipestone again and we liked it that way. But then there was the peace pipe. We had no idea when or how we were going to get that stupid peace pipe.

That's when the Big Stuff gods kinda, sort of, maybe slightly but not really smiled upon us. My youngest brother got a job in southern Minnesota and ended up moving into an apartment in Luverne. This was great. There is a state park just north of Luverne, so we thought we would pick a weekend where we could go camping and visit my brother. And this is what we did... and it turned out to be a very interesting camping trip.

We left from the Twin Cities Friday (8/14) after work. Due to our late departure and some road construction, we didn't get to the park until about 10:15 that night. We then set up our large tent, just the two of us, in the dark with two lanterns for light. We did a pretty good job. The most interesting thing was trying to partially inflate our air mattresses inside our Nissan Sentra so we wouldn't bother other people as much with our noisy electric pump. As we were getting close to being finally settled in, the people who reserved the site behind us showed up to set up their camp. It was after 11pm by then.

The next morning we woke up and it was raining. This put a damper on our plans for the morning. We sat in the tent and played some cards for a little while and then decided to try to make breakfast. It was still a little rainy and drizzly, but we managed to make eggs, pancakes, and heated up pre-cooked bacon on our camp stove.

Us 1
Nature 0

We then prepared to go hiking like we had planned, albeit later than we had hoped. It was still drizzling a little bit as we started, but that soon stopped. The air was humid but the clouds kept the sun from making it very steamy, which would have sucked, and there was a nice breeze. The weather was actually pretty nice for hiking. The rain did make certain spots on the trails kind of slick, but we weren't about to let nature ruin our enjoyment of nature..... stupid nature. The park was pretty neat (some of my pictures) and the campground was rather nice too.

Us 2
Nature 0

After hiking we ate some lunch and headed to Pipestone for the World's Largest Peace Pipe. On the way there it looked like the weather might just clear up a bit... until we got to Pipestone... where it was raining. We found the pipe and the rain let up a little bit so we snapped a few pictures and, with little to absolutely no fanfare, left Pipestone. We probably weren't really going to enjoy Pipestone anyway, so I think that's another point for us.

Us 3
Nature 0

Next we went and picked up my brother and went back to the campground. We got a fire going and made some pizza pocket sandwich things and apple pies with our pie/sandwich irons and later had some smores. During the evening we were watching the clouds. It looked like some storms were coming so we readied the campsite for a quick getaway if a sudden downpour came. There was some pretty good lightning, but that storm ended up moving north of us. The weather settled down and we had a nice night. Then at about 11:30 we brought my brother back to his apartment and we checked the radar. Wouldn't you know it, a big line of thunderstorms was headed our way. We had a decision to make. Our options were to a) go back and sleep in the tent and hope for the best, b) stay at my brother's apartment and crash there, or c) go back to the campground, tear down, and sleep on my brother's floor. We chose c, since we wanted to keep the inside of our tent dry as well as our sleeping bags, pillows, and mattresses. So now it's midnight and we do a quick tear down of the tent and leave the campground. We then enjoyed some microwaved smores before going to bed. I think nature won that round.

Us 3
Nature 1

We hold on to the lead and claim victory. Take that, nature!

About the Peace Pipe

The peace pipe, or calumet, is 30 feet long and stands outside the old Rock Island Depot near the entrance to the Pipestone National Monument. Native Americans used pipestone to make ceremonial or sacred pipes. Pipestone, or catlinite, is the second softest rock in the world and Native Americans were able to carve it for use as peace pipes. The Pipestone National Monument contains a large quarry of catlinite that is still in use today. Enrolled Native Americans are allowed to extract rock from the quarry and only use hand tools to do it.

Giant Molecules and a Tin Man

May 31, 2009 - Minneapolis, MN



We both had been itching to get out and see some more Big Stuff and this Sunday turned out to be a great day for it. We headed out to the University of Minnesota to find our latest additions to our collection.

The East Bank of the Minneapolis campus has two such Big Stuff sculptures. The first is a new addition to the university. Located on Washington Avenue in front of the Molecular & Cellular Biology building is a 30 foot tall, 10,000 pound molecule sculpture. It was created by artist Amy Toscani and installed in the fall of 2008. It's not a real molecule, but rather an artistic one based on science. There's some more info and quotes from the artist here.



The other sculpture is a large tin man looking thing by the Mechanical Engineering building and is only a couple hundred yards north of the molecules. It is apparently called Platonic Figure and was made in 2001 by Andrew Leicester. It's made out of steel with limestone bases. You can send it as an E-postcard!

World Record Largest Rocking Chair

I received an email yesterday morning that contained a photo and press release. The press release was about The Guiness Book of World Records official designation that the rocking chair near Cuba, MO along Route 66 is indeed the World's Largest. This chair is 42' 1" tall, 20' 3" wide, and estimated to weigh about 27,500 pounds. In order to be the world's largest rocking chair, Guiness did require that the chair actually rock, so the welds that held the chair in place were cut and they got that chair a rockin'. It was then re-welded into place.

The chair was built by Dan and Carolyn Sanazaro and placed next to The Fanning Outpost General Store in an effort to draw customers to their complex of businesses. It was designed by artist and friend John Bland and fabricated by welder and friend Joe Medwick. It was lifted into place on April 1, 2008.

For more info, read the press release.

Thanks to Jane for the tip.

International Spotlight: World's Largest Axe

Nackawic, New Brunswick, Canada


Photo by blamstur.

We head back to Canada for another International Spotlight. The town of Nackawic, New Brunswick received the title of Forestry Capital of Canada in 1991. The giant axe was built to honor that and, as the bronze plaque reads, it "symbolizes the importance of the forest industry, past, present and future, to the Town of Nackawic and the Province of New Brunswick."

From what I can gather, it seems to be about 60 feet tall (I've also seen it listed at 49 feet and 66 feet.), is 23 feet wide, and weighs about 7 tons. Also, there may or may not be a time capsule in the axe head.

Town of Nackawic.

On Assignment: Snowzilla - Anchorage, Alaska

When my sister-in-law went on a post Christmas trip to Anchorage, we asked her if she could take some pictures of Snowzilla. She was kind enough to oblige.

Snowzilla is a creation of Billy Powers and his kids. It made it's original appearance in December of 2005 and measured roughly 16 feet tall. A 16 foot tall snowman requires quite a bit of snow, so they used buckets and sleds to collect snow from their neighbors' yards. Snowzilla was resurrected in 2006, they were unable to do it again in 2007 due to a lack of snow, but they were at it again this winter. This year, however, the city tried to put a stop to that. Tried, but failed.



The city decided that Snowzilla was a public nuisance due to the increased noise and traffic surrounding it and because of safety concerns for onlookers from that traffic and, apparently, the threat of a structually unsound Snowzilla toppling over and crushing small children... I guess. They also claim that not all of Powers' neighbors are so thrilled to have the giant snowman around.

Two weeks before Christmas, while Snowzilla still did not even have a completed torso, the city placed cease-and-desist orders at the base of Snowzilla and at Powers' door. This put a halt to the construction of Snowzilla and left a giant mound of snow.



In some kind of Christmas miracle, Snowzilla reappeared before dawn on December 23rd. Someone rebuilt the snowman, seemingly in the night. This time, he rose to about 25 feet. This year's version is not as shapely and well-proportioned as previous incarnations because of the speed of the build. It delighted the children nonetheless.

For more information or pictures of Snowzilla, just Google it. There will be plenty.

New Map! - Missouri

Photo by willsdad

Missouri lays claim to the World's Largest Pecan, Rocking Chair, Fork, Goose, and Ball of String as well as a number of giant pink elephants. My favorite Missouri Big Stuffs are the World's Largest Shuttlecocks, one of which is pictured above. There are four of them that are scattered on the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. They were created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, the same people who brought us the Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. See the map.

If your favorite Missouri attraction is missing, please let me know.

New World Record for Largest Pinata

A new Guinness World Record was set yesterday (or possibly a week before) in Philadelphia for the World's Largest Pinata. The pinata measured in at 28.5 meters (94′) long, 7.2 meters (24′) wide and 18 (60′) meters tall and was filled with 8,000 pounds of candy. This was all done for a Carnival Cruise commercial. Organizers had originally planned to break open the pinata in a public event, but became concerned over safety when 15,000 people showed up. They cancelled the event and broke (broke isn't really the right word) open the pinata secretly using about 300 extras for the commercial shoot. All the candy will be donated to a number of charities.

Most of it is explained on John Heald's blog, which includes the video below.

New World Record for Largest Pair of Jeans

Seamstresses in Peru set out to set a Guinness World Record for the largest pair of jeans sewn. (link) The pair of jeans measures 141 feet tall and 98 feet wide and weighs in at 7.5 tons. The current record is held by the city of Medellin in Columbia. That pair was 114 feet tall and 82 feet wide.

It sounds like they are just waiting for their record setting jeans to be accepted by Guinness. There wasn't a Guinness representative present, but a notary who can send documentation to the group was.

The pants will be recycled as backpacks for school children.

Another Giant Adirondack Chair

October 11, 2008 - Minneapolis, MN



After a beautiful morning at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (see), we went hunting for more Big Stuff. We headed to the Lake Pointe Corporate Center near Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis for the other giant green adirondack chair in the Twin Cities. Almost exactly 1 year ago we went to the giant chair in St. Paul. These two chairs are exactly the same and were built to promote the Green Chair Project, which you can read about in that post from a year ago. This one actually has a plaque next to it that reads, "We learn by doing."



I don't know if this one had to be replaced like the one in St. Paul was or if it is the original from 1995. This one, though, has a couple buddies. They aren't as big, but there should be one that meets your green adirondack chair needs.



I mentioned in that post from a year ago that there is also a giant green adirondack chair in Washington D.C (pictured below). It's a slightly different style, but it looks just as big. It's located on the lawn of the Duke Ellington School for the Arts.


Photo by lucindalunacy.

Tip: Holy lady beetles, Batman! That place was just swarming with them. We both smelled like lady beetles until we were able to get to Dairy Queen and wash our hands (which didn't totally get rid of the smell)... and eat ice cream of course.

Fallen Heroes: Spindle

Photo by paul goyette.

This Berwyn, Illinois landmark is no more. Spindle was a 50-foot spike with 8 cars impaled on it. It was built in 1989 by artist Dustin Shuler. It was located in the parking lot of Cermak Plaza in Berwyn. Spindle was featured in the movie Wayne's World in 1992. Plans were being made to remove the sculpture for more development at the shopping center, specifically a new Walgreens. The costs to move it would have been very high for the city, especially if the cars were in rough shape. In an effort to save Spindle, the sculpture was put up for auction on eBay. That auction ended with no bids.


Photo by BantikFamily.

On May 2, 2008, Spindle was disassembled. The top two cars were saved and, supposedly, if sufficient funds were raised, a new Spindle could be built using those two original cars.

More info.

Vining Sculpture Park

June 29th, 2008 - Vining, MN



After checking out all the pelicans, we headed out for some Big Stuff hunting. Our first target was Vining, home of artist Ken Nyberg. Nyberg creates incredible sculptures by shaping and welding pieces of scrap metal. We have seen a Nyberg piece before. He did the giant art tractor in New York Mills. Nyberg has created many sculptures for his hometown of Vining, so many that there is a park in his name, Nyberg Park. Not all of Nyberg's Vining pieces are in the park. There are a few that are scattered around this small town. Some of his sculptures are Big Stuff, some are actual size stuff, and some are both.



The Foot might be the most famous piece. It sits on the west side of town (which is very close to the east side of town). The Foot was sculpted in 10 gauge steel and was donated to the town in 1991. It took Nyberg 2 years to complete.











This elephant is really cool. It's big and actual size. It's different from his other work in that this elephant is made entirely out of lawnmower blades.





The non-Big Stuff items around Vining are a little green alien, a buck, which is kind of big, a blacksmith (Could it be a self portrait?), a speared fish, an Indian on horseback, a cowboy (not pictured), and a tribute to his daughter.





Ken Nyberg's daughter is Karen Nyberg, who is a NASA Astronaut. She has been to the International Space Station on two separate occasions.

Tip: I actually think we may have missed a couple sculptures. I think there may be a plug and cord thing and a door knob.

World's Largest Art Tractor

March 20th, 2008 - New York Mills, MN



This was our last stop on this trip. This giant tractor is located on the north side of Highway 10 in New York Mills at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center Sculpture Park. The tractor was created by Ken Nyberg out of welded steel. Nyberg has a number of other sculptures in central Minnesota, most notably at the Vining Sculpture Park. The tractor is also the logo for the Cultural Center.


Nyberg signed this piece with his welder.

New York Mills is a unique town. It's a small farming community in central Minnesota, but is very close to the many lakes of Ottertail County. New York Mills puts a high value on art and culture, lead by the Regional Cultural Center. It's claim to fame is the Great American Think-Off. The Think-Off is open to anyone and everyone and is now in it's 16th year. Contestants submit an essay on the topic for the year and a panel selects four finalists. The finalists debate the topic in New York Mills and the audience votes to decide the winner, or "America's Greatest Thinker". Past finalists have included teachers, priests, retirees, a 15 year old cheerleader, writers, and others from many states. This year's topic is “Does immigration strengthen or threaten the United States?” The final debate will be June 14th.

The P-38 Fighter Jets have Moved

I drove past Owatonna this weekend and I nearly freaked out when I didn't see the jets where they belonged. The jets were gone and the place had been turned into an RV lot. Luckily, the jets had been moved only about a half mile south to the Owatonna airport. They are still visible from the highway and are on the same frontage road that runs past Cabela's and the former location of the jets.

More on the Jets

Giant Replica Runestone

November 24th, 2007 - Alexandria, MN



We were being very Minnesotan on this day. Few things are more Minnesotan than looking at an oversized replica of a Viking artifact when it's 32 degrees outside and quite windy (but we weren't cold because we are hearty Minnesotans and hearty Minnesotans are never cold, rather it was "brisk" out) and then going for ice cream. It can be 20 below and Minnesotans will still line up for ice cream. It's the key to Dairy Queen's success as a Minnesota franchise.

I talked a bit about the Kensington Runestone earlier when I posted about Big Ole. In brief, a large stone was found by a farmer near Kensington, MN with Viking runes carved into it in the late 1800s. The stone provides evidence that the Vikings were here before Columbus. Many people believe this stone to be a fake. The Runestone Museum makes a strong case for the stone.

The inscription in English, according to the Holland Translation, is:

On the front of the stone - We are 8 Swedes and 22 Norwegians on an exploring journey from Vinland through the west. We had a camp by a lake with 2 rocky islands one day's trip north from this stone. We were out and fished one day. After we came home we found 10 of our men red with blood and dead. Ave Maria save us from evil.

On the side of the stone - We have 10 of our party by the sea to look after our ships 14 day's trip from this island. Year 1362.



This replica is 5 times larger than the real runestone and is made from granite. It was commissioned by the Alexandria Kiwanis Club in 1951. Both the replica runestone and Big Ole went to the 1964 New York World's Fair.

We saw the power of the runestone first-hand. On November 4th, we were at the Minnesota Vikings game against the San Diego Chargers. The actual Kensington Runestone was on display on the plaza before the game (we didn't know this until they announced it before kickoff) and was on the sideline during the game. The Vikings dominated the Chargers with exceptional defense and a record setting performance by Adrian Peterson. That's right, the runestone was there as the Viking rookie set the NFL single-game rushing record. What more evidence do you need than that?

Tip: If you are visiting this replica stone on a Sunday, prepare yourself for the possibility of encountering church traffic.

Giant Adirondack Chair

October 20, 2007 - St. Paul, MN



It's another new one!

The chair was built in 2002, but it is not the original chair. The first giant green adirondack chair fell victim to weather due to untreated materials. It was built in 1995 as a way to produce publicity for the Green Chair Project.

The Green Chair Project began in 1991 by Joel Sisson and Chris Hand after two lawn chairs were stolen from their backyard. With the help of kids from this rough neighborhood, they built 90 green adirondack chairs that they gave to everyone in the neighborhood.

You can find out more about the Green Chair Project at these links:
http://curtprins.com/pro_bono/greenchair.org/history.html
http://www.fortroadfederation.org/highbridge/greench.htm

This may be the world's largest adirondack chair, but I don't know for sure. There is also a giant green adirondack chair from the Green Chair Project in Washington D.C.

Thanks to Mykl Roventine for helping me find the chair and to Agilitynut for the information on the Green Chair Project.

Big Ear of Corn

June 3rd, 2007 - Olivia, MN



Travelling back from Marshall, MN to the Twin Cities (from a cousin's graduation party), we pass through Olivia and right by a giant ear of corn affixed atop a gazebo. The ear is 25 feet tall and made of fiberglass. The city of Olivia put up the ear in 1973 to help stake it's claim as "The Corn Capital". The capital of what exactly, I don't know.



Olivia Newton John showed up to dedicate the ear of corn and asked only for "fresh bread and two dozen ears of corn" for her trouble.

Rumor has it that the ear of corn hides a Minuteman Missile, since it made it's appearance during the Cold War. Considering the tremendous fire power hidden within North and South Dakota, I don't believe it was necessary to hide a missile in a fiberglass ear of corn on top of a roadside gazebo in Olivia, MN. It's just a hunch. Call me crazy.

Tip: Don't get too close to the ear of corn. It may go off.

World's Largest Ball of Twine by 1 Man

May 13th, 2007 - Darwin, MN



On our way home from Willmar, we decided to take Highway 12 so we could stop in Darwin for the twine ball. Francis A. Johnson built the twine ball, by himself, 4 hours a day for 29 years from 1950 to 1979. In 1979, the Guinness Book of World Records honored Johnson by giving his work the title of World's Largest Ball of Twine. The Guinness Book withdrew that title in 1994 when another twine ball surpassed Johnson's. Johnson's twine ball weighs 17,400 pounds, is 12 feet in diameter, and approximately 40 feet in circumference.

Francis Johnson died in 1989, partly from emphysema cause by the chemicals used to treat the twine. Love is a cruel mistress. Believe it or not, Ripley's tried to buy the twine ball after Johnson's death but they were unsuccessful. The city of Darwin moved the ball from Johnson's farm to a plexiglass-walled gazebo in the center of town. Every August, on the second Saturday of the month, Darwin celebrates Twine Ball Day.



There are two balls that are larger than the Darwin twine ball and a third up-and-comer.

The one that currently holds the record for gigantism is the ball of twine in Cawker City, KS. It was started in 1953 by Frank Stoeber and reached a diameter of 11 feet in 1961 when he turned it over to the city. Stroeber passed away in 1974. To honor Stoeber, the city took on the ball as a city project and holds a Twine-a-Thon every year so the ball keeps growing.

The other ball that is larger is owned by Ripley's Believe It or Not! and is made out of lightweight plastic string and was also a team effort. It's on display in Branson, MO.

There is one twine ball in Wisconsin that is a legitimate contender. It's the work of James Frank Kotera. Kotera tightly ties his twine making his twine ball much heavier than the rest. JFK's twine ball weighs an estimated 19,336 pounds.

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

October 20th, 2006 - Minneapolis, MN



Our final destination on my day off is the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Museum in downtown Minneapolis. It's the nation's largest urban sculpture garden and there's a lot of good stuff to see. The centerpiece, and most famous piece, is the Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.



There's art with movable parts that you can play on.



There's even a giant glass fish inside the conservatory.



So take a couple hours and wander through the garden. It will be worth it. Watch where you step, though. There are a lot of geese and they tend to make a mess.