World's Largest Ball Of Twine - Cawker City Kansas

Cawker City, home of the world's largest ball of sisal twine, has drawn thousands of people over the years to view this unique tourist attraction. The ball of twine has also been mentioned in Hollywood movies, national advertising, radio and television shows. It is HUGE, and it gets bigger every year.

When we took the first trip Round America in 2003, I looked forward to seeing the World's Largest Ball of Twine more than any other sight on the trip. Everything from the Grand Canyon to the World's Largest Ball of Twine -- that's how I had summed up the trip for folks. There isn't anything much in Cawker City except the World's Largest Ball of Twine, so I had no problem driving right up to it on the main street through town. This sucker is BIG. It's housed in a very nice open-sided building where you can walk right up to it and smell it and touch it.

Frank Stoeber started the ball of twine on his farm in 1953. By 1957, it weighed 5,000 pounds, stood 8 feet high, and had 1,175,180 feet of twine on it. Stoeber gave the ball to Cawker City in 1961 before his death in 1974. When I visited in 2003, it weighed 17,578 pounds (that's almost 9 TONS). It has a 40-foot circumference, and it consists of over 7,019,145 feet of sisal twine. If stretched out, it would extend 1,325 MILES. Like I said, this baby is BIG.

Frank Stoeber created it, and since he died, folks bring balls of twine, and they are weighed and measured and added to the giant ball. I bought a ball of brown "sisal" twine (the only type of twine that is accepted), and I left it in the box that's there for that purpose, so my twine is now a part of the World's Largest Ball of Twine. Be sure to take your own ball when you visit! It was wonderful to see that the townsfolk stepped in to build this special place for the Ball of Twine after the creator passed away.

The Cawker City Community Club is now the official owner/caretaker of the Ball of Twine. Each year a Twine-a-thon is held in conjunction with the annual Cawker City Picnic and Parade, so the ball never stops growing. The picnic and parade are on the third Saturday in August, with the twine winding held the Friday before.

The ball of twine has also inspired creation of the Gallery Walk of Twine, which is a series of paintings based on famous masterpieces that all incorporate a ball of twine. These are exhibited in storefront windows. Local resident Cher Olson says what started as a solution to fill up the windows of vacant windows to spruce things up turned into a community source of pride. There are now more than 40 paintings scattered throughout the city, almost all of which Olson painted.

One painting is Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" holding a ball of twine. Another is Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Can" as "Campbell's Twine Soup."

There are two other large balls of twine; one is in Darwin, Minnesota, and the other is in Branson, Missouri. Cawker City's ball is the biggest!

World's Largest Ball of Twine in the Movies: -- 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?" In the John Travolta movie "Michael," an angel badgers two reporters into taking him on a road trip under the pretense of seeing the World's Biggest Ball of Twine.

Location:

The World's Largest Ball of Twine is located in "downtown" Cawker City right along Wisconsin Street (Highway 24) on the south side of the highway. It is half a block west of Lake Drive, but you shouldn't have any trouble finding it (After all, this is a small town and a big ball of twine).

Date Visited: June 3, 2003.