Some people may associate balls of twine with feline playtime, but the small specimens our feline friends play with are just the beginning. Some twine balls weigh thousands of pounds and are taller than full-grown people!
As is often seen in world records, numerous people have claimed to have built the world’s largest string ball.
Learn more about the 4 largest string balls in the world and learn how each grew to the staggering size for which it is famous today.
Biggest ball of nylon twine
Location: Branson, Missouri, USA
Saved from ripleys.com
From 1987 to 1991 J.C. The man known as Payne collected nylon string from as many neighboring dairies and ranches as he could.
Payne had his creation certified in the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s largest ball made of nylon twine, and soon thought of ways to profit from his prized record-breaker.
In 1993, Payne sold his ball of nylon twine to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum and some claim he made $25,000 doing so!
Ripley’s Museum in Branson, Missouri, which houses Payne’s ball of twine, is said to have actually been built around this oddity by manager John Dixon!
Largest ball of sisal string made by one person
Size: 12 feet in diameter, 17,400 pounds
Location: Darwin, Minnesota, USA
This twine ball is known for being one of the biggest roadside attractions in all of Minnesota, and it all started out as a laid-back pastime.
Francis Johnson had a reputation for being a bit of an eccentric, and his laid-back hobby of spinning sisal hemp quickly turned into a dedicated project.
In fact, Johnson rolled amazing sisal burlap balls for 4 hours a day, every day for 29 years!
Johnson originally started working in his basement, but had to move it outside before his project became too large to fit in the doorway.
Johnson originally started rolling with his own string, but neighboring farmers took an interest in his project and began donating their own sisal string, contributing to his newfound charm.
Size: 21,280 pounds
Location: Lake Nevagamon, Wisconsin, USA
Producer: James Frank Cotera
Source: atlasobscura.com
This mammoth ball of twine spent many years as the heaviest and largest ball of twine in the world, but has since been surpassed and heavier.
This heavy ball of twine was created by James Frank Kotera, a natural with “JFK” or “Groundhog”.
He claims to have spent four days a week since 1979 winding countless twine around this ongoing project and plans not to stop wrapping until he dies.
He is said to have told God that if he quit drinking, he would become famous as ‘the world’s only real Ground Hog JFK Twine Man of the World’.
In addition to his pride and joy, Kotera created a small ball of twine called “Junior” that weighed 47 pounds to honor his birth year, 1947.
Largest ball of sisal string made by the community
Size: 41.42 feet girth, 19,973+ lbs
Size: 41.42 feet girth, 19,973+ lbs
Location: Cawker City, Kansas, USA
Producer: Frank Stoeber and others
Source: wikimedia.org
Source: wikimedia.org
A ball of sisal twine in Cocker City, Kansas is the largest ball of twine in the world.
A man named Frank Stoeber started winding twine in 1953 and presented the finished ball to Cawker City in 1961.
Stoeber began rolling old twine in haystacks that were fed to livestock and continued to do so for several years as a fun way to pass the time.
This world-famous attraction was already impressive when Stoeber handed it over and is only growing. The city hosts an annual “twisting contest” each August where visitors and community members can participate in making sisal twine balls. bigger.
When Stoeber provided the ball of twine to Cawker City, he incorporated the 1,600,000-foot ball of twine into a giant sphere!