The Big Stuff Project

Cloquet Voyageur

2011-11-16T22:20:00.001-06:00

June 25th, 2011 - Cloquet, MN

There are various voyageur statues scattered across northern Minnesota. This one is located in Cloquet on an island in the St. Louis River. The plaque on it's base calls it "A Cloquet Bicentennial Project". It was dedicated on July 5th, 1976 by Senator Hubert H. Humphrey and Representative Jim Oberstar. It's made of fiberglass and is still in pretty good shape. Up close you can definitely see some wear and tear and some vandalism, but until you get pretty close to it it looks really good. It also didn't hurt that the sun was hitting it at a great angle for viewing.

Dala Horse - Cloquet

2011-10-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

June 25th, 2011 - Cloquet, MN

This oversized Dala horse stands in front of Berquist Imports, a Scandinavian gift shop, along the main road through Cloquet. A much larger one exists in Mora, MN. I don't have any information on this one. The statue itself is probably around 12 feet tall. For more on Dala horses, see the Mora post.

Buffalo House

2011-10-13T21:18:00.000-05:00

June 25th, 2011 - Duluth, MN

This giant buffalo on a trailer sits just off of I-35 southwest of Duluth. It's used as a sign for the Buffalo House restaurant and bar... and campground... and sports complex. The Buffalo House is down the road past the giant buffalo. The buffalo itself is not the prettiest giant buffalo I've ever seen. The road ditches around the buffalo were pretty wet, so we opted not to go up close. Instead we took this shot from the road and headed on to Cloquet.

Fiberglass Moose of Minnesota

2011-09-14T00:11:00.000-05:00

June 25th, 2011 - Moose Lake

We came across a few large (nearly life-sized since moose are large anyway) fiberglass moose in northern Minnesota. The first was in Moose Lake. A moose is an obvious mascot for Moose Lake. It's located on the main road through town next to the tourist information building.

June 25th, 2011 - Biwabik

A very similar moose resides in Biwabik. This one, however, is based on a children's book. Honk The Moose was written in 1935 and was based on a true story about 2 boys who discovered a moose in the town of Biwabik. The boys called him Honk because of the honking noise he would make. Most of the characters in the book were based on actual residents of Biwabik. The book won some awards including the 1936 Newbery Medal Runner-Up. Back around 2001, the mayor of Biwabik acquired the rights to the story and brought it back into print.

The fiberglass Honk The Moose stands in a park in downtown Biwabik. The park also has a nice building for holding wedding receptions that can make you feel a little uncomfortable when you drove into town for the sole purpose of taking pictures of/with Honk but instead you're almost crashing a wedding. Not that that's what happened or anything...

July 1, 2011 - Karlstad

Finally, a third moose stands in a park along Highway 59 in Karlstad. The city of Karlstad makes the claim of "Moose Capital of the North". Since moose are native to northern climates, this begs the question what is the Moose Capital of the South? Moose Lake? When your town is about a half hour drive from Canada, almost everything is "The South".

"World's Largest Walleye"

2011-08-28T21:02:00.001-05:00

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

2011-08-13T18:53:00.000-05:00

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

2011-07-17T16:55:00.000-05:00

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

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

2011-07-09T17:20:00.000-05:00

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.

Big Stuff is Back

2011-07-06T14:31:00.000-05:00

I mean it this time. We just got back from a vacation to beautiful Crane Lake in far northern Minnesota. We have a bunch of new blog material from this trip plus I have a couple of old ones that I never did post. So stay tuned.

World's Largest Mallard

2010-01-11T16:36:00.001-06:00

September 22, 2009 - Wheaton, MN

After we stopped in Starbuck for the giant hobo, we made our way to Wheaton to see the World's Largest Mallard. The statue stands 26 feet tall and depicts a mallard taking flight from a stand of cattails. It also has the county name, Traverse, around the base and some other words that I don't remember encircling the base; looks like "Living", "Farming", and something else. The statue was designed by Robert Bruns using "a paperweight, a Grain Belt Beer ad, and a dime store statue" as models. It was constructed out of concrete in 1959 by Elmer Oslon. The statue is showing it's age a bit.

The World's Largest Mallard has helped to cement (pun intended) this region of the state as the Land O' Ducks. Unlike much of the state, this part of Minnesota doesn't have a lot o' lakes but does have plenty o' ducks.

The Giant Hobo

2009-12-18T18:18:00.001-06:00

September 22, 2009 - Starbuck, MN

Ok, it's time to get back to this blog thinger and finally get caught up. We got very busy buying a house and moving into that house and settling into that house and because of that and other fun grown-up stuff like figuring out insurance policies and retirement accounts, I haven't had much time to post. Like I mentioned in the last post, we now live in Plymouth, MN.

Way back in September we went on a western Minnesota big stuff loop. The first stop on this loop was in Starbuck. We didn't waste our time stopping for the buck with a star in it's antlers (I'm not kidding) or the site marking where the world's largest lefse was made. The lefse isn't there, because they ate it back in 1983, but the rolling pin they used is.

The giant hobo stands in Hobo Park. In the 1930s during the Great Depression many men would ride the freight trains and stop in Starbuck for a few days or weeks looking for work or food from the locals. At night they would gather near this spot along Lake Minnewaska. Before long they would hop on another freight train and move on, like any respectable hobo would. They left behind shorthand signs informing other hobos where they could find work or food or other helpful information.

Big Fish Update

2009-11-04T22:35:00.002-06:00

I just received an update from the Fans of the Big Fish Facebook page that the Big Fish Supper Club is reopening this Friday, November 6th. It will be open 7 days a week from 3 pm to 10 pm. So if you're near Bena, MN then you should stop in.

Just to give everyone an update on the blog... I have been super, super busy lately and have had no time to post. We do have more stuff to post. I think we have 4 more big stuffs that are in the "queue" so to speak. Also, The Big Stuff Project will be moving it's base of operations from Bloomington to Plymouth this month.

Happy Chef

2009-09-11T16:35:00.000-05:00

August 16, 2009 - Mankato, MN

The Happy Chef restaurant in Mankato was the very first Happy Chef. It opened in 1963. At one point the Happy Chef chain grew to 56 restaurants in the Midwest. Today only 16 restaurants remain.

The giant Happy Chef statue was, and still is, an icon for the restaurants. Most of the restaurants had one. But, as I chronicled before, these statues are disappearing. The Mankato restaurant is the only one that still has a statue. Restaurant owners were instructed to destroy the statues rather than sell them, but some managed to survive. Regardless, the Happy Chef statue in any form is a rare commodity.

Jolly Green Giant & Sprout

2009-09-07T19:12:00.000-05:00

August 16, 2009 - Blue Earth, MN

The Jolly Green Giant first appeared in the 1920's as an advertising mascot for the Blue Earth Canning Company. In 1929 the Blue Earth Canning Company became part of Minnesota Valley Canning Company in Le Sueur, MN. In 1950 they changed their name to Green Giant and merged with Pillsbury in 1979. Pillsbury was ultimately acquired by General Mills, who still owns the brand. It seems that at some point possibly six canneries were sold to Seneca Foods.

The Jolly Green Giant statue, which cost the town $43,000, was erected in 1978 in time to overlook the completion of Interstate 90 connecting Boston to Seattle. He was temporarily erected in September 1978 at a roadside rest area north of I-90 where he could watch as the interstate was completed. Miss America was there too. He was permanently put into place a mile south of the interstate on July 6, 1979. This is where he still is today.

The statue is 55 feet tall, weighs 4 tons, has a 4 foot smile and size 78 elfin slippers, and is conveniently located next to a Dairy Queen. On this day he appears ready to run in the Relay For Life... assuming he can somehow free his feet from his platform.

The idea for the statue was that of Paul Hedberg, the owner of a local radio station. He got the idea after interviewing numerous travelers for a radio program where many of them expressed an interest in seeing the Green Giant. In 1977 he contacted the Green Giant Company and with their consent and input on the design was able to have the statue built.

Outside a gas station just off of I-90 and close to the Green Giant stands this statue of Little Green Sprout. Sprout appeared in Green Giant ads beginning in 1973. This Sprout was formerly an A&W Papa Burger, which explains the root beer in his hand. I guess they decided to replace the burger with a pizza box.

Big Buffalo

2009-08-30T21:54:00.003-05:00

August 16, 2009 - Luverne, MN

On our way out of Luverne after our super awesome camping trip we stopped at this sizable buffalo statue. It is located just a couple blocks north of the interstate. The buffalo is a little bit larger than a real buffalo and it says "Those Blasted Things" next to it. If you look closely at the picture you will see that Those Blasted Things is the name of the store behind the buffalo. It also says Minnesota Rocks & Gifts below it... so it's some sort of gift shop. That's all I really know about it.

If you pay attention while in Luverne, you will notice that the buffalo seems to be a bit of a theme. The area around Luverne is prairie and the type of place you would expect to see lots of buffalo... if we hadn't nearly killed all of them. Woops. Oddly, the school mascot is the cardinal.

World's Largest Peace Pipe

2009-08-27T18:03:00.000-05:00

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.

Wienermobile Crashes Into House

2009-07-20T12:18:00.002-05:00

The driver of one of the six Wienermobiles crashed into a house in Racine, WI Friday morning. She was apparently trying to turn around in the driveway and thought she had it in reverse when it was still in drive. Nobody was home at the time.

Read the entire story here.

I'm not sure how you can crash that far into a garage when you are trying to back up. How fast do you need to go? She must have really put some mustard on that. I bet she just got grilled by her boss. That's a call I wouldn't relish.

For the record, we saw the Wienermobile earlier this month stuck in traffic on Highway 10 near Hawley, MN.

Big Stuff, Small Children

2009-07-12T21:40:00.002-05:00

I recently went through some of my parents' old photo albums. One in particular was just of family vacations we took. It seems that Big Stuff is just in my blood. I pulled out a handful of photos and scanned them.

These first two are of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in Bemidji, MN circa 1984 or 1985 I believe. I'm the really little guy in the Babe photo surrounded by siblings and cousins.

This is me on the Jackalope at Wall Drug in Wall, SD in 1988.

These next two photos are from the same South Dakota trip in 1988. These are from Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, SD. I'm the guy in the Vikings shirt (front and center with the Brontosaurus and in the back with the Stegosaurus). Those other people are my siblings... except for that guy in the hat with his back to us in the first picture, I don't know him.

Same trip. My siblings and I in front of Mt. Rushmore and Mt. Rockmore, respectively (I know. I mix them up too.). The first pic also has two random women and the second pic has my dad. I'm the guy in the blue shirt.

I'm not sure what year these last two are from. I'm guessing around 1989 or 1990. The first is in front of the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (I'm in the middle with the white Valleyfair shirt.) and the second photo is Iggy the Iguana (I'm in the front.) at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The Science Museum has moved since then.

Giant Bronze Bulls

2009-06-07T12:35:00.002-05:00

May 31, 2009 - St. Paul, MN

On the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota you will find these three giant bronze bulls. They are the creation of sculptor Peter Woytuk and sit across the street from Haecker Hall. They were put into place in 2001.

The bulls are rather large. The tallest one is approximately 7 or 8 feet tall and I would guess they are all about 12 feet long. The bulls are also a lot of fun to climb on. I mean... uhhh... that's what I've been told... not that we would climb all over them and take a bunch of pictures of us doing that and have them saved on my computer. We wouldn't do that.

Giant Molecules and a Tin Man

2009-06-03T12:26:00.000-05:00

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!

Bena's Big Fish Endangered

2009-05-15T10:23:00.002-05:00

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.

Award Winning Photography

2009-04-12T15:14:00.003-05:00

Names have been blurred to protect the innocent.

My wife recently received an award from an organization she is involved with at school. Pretty good, huh? They actually give silly awards to all of the graduating 4th year students.

World Record Largest Rocking Chair

2009-03-10T21:24:00.000-05:00

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.

Popcorn Capital Reclaims Popcorn Ball Record

2009-03-06T12:54:00.002-06:00

The town of Sac City, Iowa has set the record for the world's largest popcorn ball... again. Sac County is the self-proclaimed "Popcorn Capital of the World". Each year it produces approximately 4.8 million pounds of popcorn. And, since you can't hardly be the capital of something without having a giant thing to acknowledge that (see: The Corn Capital), Sac City built the world's largest popcorn ball back in 1995. That original record ball weighed 2,225 pounds. It was later topped by the Iowa Boy Scouts, so Sac City blew up the original ball at the Iowa State Fair and built a new record setter in 2004 weighing 3,100 pounds. In the competitive world of giant popcorn balls, you just knew that wasn't going to last. A popcorn company in Illinois bested Sac City's 2004 effort with a ball weighing just over 3,400 pounds. Well that just made Sac City angry... and you wouldn't like them when they're angry.

On February 28th, Noble Popcorn, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, built a new popcorn ball weighing 5,060 pounds. That's approximately 48% larger. It is 7.5 feet tall and 29 feet around. Later it will be kept in the display barn that the 3,100 pound ball currently is, then, if it doesn't fall apart, the old popcorn ball will go on a tour around the state.

For more:
Des Moines Register, which has video and a photo gallery.
Roadside America

Big Stuff Postcards

2009-02-19T19:11:00.002-06:00

Check out these postcards of Minnesota Big Stuff at Postcardy.com. They have quite a few of them and they're all pretty cool.