Biggest ball of twine

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Several places claim that they have the biggest ball of twine.

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[edit] Largest sisal twine ball built by one person

The Johnson Twine Ball
The Johnson Twine Ball

Darwin, Minnesota is the home of a ball by Francis A. Johnson. It is 4 meters (13 ft) in diameter and weighs 7,900 kg (17,400 lbs). He started his obsession in March, 1950 and wrapped four hours every day for 23 weeks. It is currently housed in a specially made gazebo across from the town park on Main Street, and the town celebrates "Twine Ball Day" the second Saturday in August every year. An adjacent volunteer-run museum and gift shop has displays on the ball's history as well as selling a variety of souvenirs.

[edit] Largest sisal twine ball built by a community

Another ball was started in Cawker City, Kansas by Frank Stoeber. He saw Johnson's ball as a challenge and started his own. Stoeber had 1.6 million feet (490,000 m) of twine on his 11-foot diameter ball (3.4 m) when he died in 1974. Cawker City built an open-air gazebo over Stoeber's ball where every August a "Twine-a-thon" is held and more twine is added to the ball. As of 2003, the twine ball has reached 17,000 pounds (7,700 kg), a circumference of 40 feet (12 m), with a length of over 7,000,000 feet (2,100,000 m). This is now the world's largest and heaviest ball of sisal twine. [1]

This should not be confused with the world's biggest ball of string, which was put together on 23rd May 1985 by locals, led by Australian Darren Gleeson, in Sheffield's Lowfield area. The ball of string is currently on display outside Sheffield United's Bramall Lane stadium.

[edit] Heaviest ball of twine ever built

In Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin, James Frank Kotera, who likes to be known as JFK, claims to have made the biggest ball of twine ever built. He started it in 1979 and is still working. JFK estimates, by measuring the weight of each bag of twine that he winds on, that the ball weighs 19,336 pounds (8,770 kg), making it the heaviest ball of twine ever built. The ball is housed in an open-air enclosure in JFK's lawn. The ball has a smaller companion, "Junior", that is made of string.

[edit] Largest twine ball ever built

Yet another ball claims the title of largest ball of twine in the world and this one has allegedly been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. It is owned by Ripley's Believe It or Not in Branson, Missouri and was reportedly built by millionaire J. C. Payne of Valleyview, Texas. By using a "system of pulleys" Payne claims he built the ball in four years all by himself. The ball measures 41.5 feet (12.6 m) in diameter.

[edit] Cultural references

  • In the 1983 film, National Lampoon's Vacation, the character Clark Griswold (played by Chevy Chase), declares "Hey, hey, easy kids. Everybody in the car. Boat leaves in two minutes... or perhaps you don't want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away?"
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic's album UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff has a song called "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota". Although ostensibly about the ball in Darwin, Minnesota, Yankovic takes artistic license with the statistics.
    • Intriguingly, the Twine Ball Inn and postcards that read "Greetings from the Twine Ball, wish you were here," fictitious inventions of Yankovic's, are now attractions in Darwin.
    • Yankovic refers to his previous work, and thus the ball itself, in the video for "White & Nerdy", wherein a Trivial Pursuit card which includes the question "In what city is the largest ball of twine built by one man?" appears on screen.
  • The Sam & Max Hit the Road adventure game by LucasArts includes a stop at a Biggest Ball of Twine, which is about 50 feet (15 m) tall with a rotating restaurant on top - this fictional ball of twine is located at Central Dis, Minnesota. An exhibit in the museum at its base claims that its mass will eventually cause the Earth to gravitate towards the sun, destroying the planet. The museum's docent also mentions that there is a second ball of twine of almost equal size in Canada.
Sam: It's things like this that make me wish I were Canadian.
Docent: They've got one of these too, but half of it's French.
  • In one episode of Time Squad, George W. Bush tries to lift the spirits of Americans by building the biggest ball of twine.
  • In Nora Ephron's lightweight John Travolta vehicle Michael, a hedonistic angel badgers two reporters into taking him on a road trip under the pretense of seeing the World's Biggest Ball of Twine.
  • In the Supernatural Season 2 episode 'The Usual Suspects', Sam Winchester is questioned by police about his road trip. He lies, 'We saw the second largest ball of twine in the continental U.S.'

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