World's Largest Ball of Twine, Darwin, MN

 

If you ever find yourself in this small town in (relatively) rural Minnesota, or if you ever find yourself within say 20 miles of this town (because honestly, most people might not have a need to visit otherwise), make sure you stop, get out of the car, stretch your legs, and see this impressive ball of twine.

And no, I never thought I'd write those words either, but that's the kind of fun that can be just around the bend in MN. To be fair to other twine ballers (or do they say "ballerz"?) - this is the world's largest from Guinness' 1991 edition and also wound by a single person. I guess we could have newer records and larger balls since that time or perhaps wound by multiple people (A Twine Balling Ball, for example).

In any case, I give Francis A. Johnson a lot of credit for getting this thing done. As I was told by my travel buddy for the night (more high-jinx from the night in the next blog posts), this ball used to sit under something of an old pole barn on the farmers' property. The coworker used to stop and visit it each time they were headed to that part of the county. Now, it sits in this out-building in the heart of Darwin, donated by the man's estate... for all to enjoy for as long as it remains balled.

[You can see my reflection in the shot - sunny day made it hard to capture a clear pic]

[photo courtesy of J.A.]

 I have to hand it to Francis (though don't hand him any twine you want to re0use) - he really did build an impressive piece of Americana and I'm happy and proud to say I've seen it. I feel like native Minnesotans even look at me in a little bit better light because of it. Fine by me, thanks, Francis.