Tuesday, May 10, 2011

A Great Big Ball of Twine

Saturday, May 7th - - Upon leaving Lebanon, if you continue south on Kansas Highway 181 about 20 miles then turn east on Kansas Route 9 and go six miles to Cawker City you'll see it on the right just as you get into town.


“It” is the World's largest ball of twine. In 1988 it had a circumference greater than 40 feet. Another sign on the right proclaims that it was started in 1953 by Frank Stoeber and in 2006 it was composed of 7,801,766 feet of twine weighing in at 17,886 pounds. At the bottom of the sign is Frank's mantra Thrift + Patience = Success.

Kind of makes you wonder about some people! But then, if he was a farmer he had to do something with all of that extra twine left over from baling hay and straw! This particular ball of twine gets more twine gets added each August in a community twine-a-thon.

According to Wikipedia there are even more of these wonders of human endeavors.


Yeah, it's big.


Up close.


And again.


Downtown Cawker City.

7 comments:

Sheri Fenley said...

See - now you are visiting the hotspots! Can't wait to see where you are headed next! Miss you!

Linda Edwards said...

And to think I purposely avoid Kansas on my trips to S.F.

Barbara Poole said...

Amazing.

Amy Coffin, MLIS said...

Love this. You're hitting all the important spots. Keep up the good work!

Steve Danko said...

From the first photo, it looks like the great ball of twine has its own mailbox!

Donna Hague Wendt said...

I missed this on my 2-year journey, although it was always in the back of my mind to find it if I got to Kansas. Keep up the good work and great photos!! Donna

Elizabeth O'Neal said...

Wow, I've heard of this, but I thought it was a joke. Do people just wander by and add pieces of twine?