18 Small Towns with Strange Claims to Fame

The population of this eastern Illinois town may only be about 3,000, but local businessman Jim Bolin had big dreams—and he made them come true. The daring DIYer has built such “world’s largest” attractions as the largest set of knitting needles (13 feet long), largest crochet hook, (6 feet long), largest wind chime (42 feet long), and largest golf tee (30 feet, 9 inches). All of Bolin’s creations are fully operational—now all he needs is a big friendly giant to put them to use!

Looking for a sizzling experience? Head on out to the aptly named Furnace Creek Ranch. Back on July 10, 1913, the hot spot then called Greenland Ranch “enjoyed” the hottest atmospheric temperature ever recorded on earth, of 134 °F. Generally speaking, the average high in the region during July and August is only around 115°F. So don’t try frying an egg on the sidewalk!

Talk about a snow day! On February 26, 2008, town residents erected a towering snow woman, standing 122 feet, 1 inch tall—just a tad shorter than the Statue of Liberty. Named Olympia, she was made from 13 million pounds of snow and had eyelashes fashioned from skis, lips made from red car tires, and arms formed by two 30-foot spruce trees. Of course it’s erroneous to call the construction feat the work of a snow day; Olympia actually took a hundred or so volunteers about a month to complete. So why a snow woman? Because in 1999, the people of Bethel built Angus, King of the Mountain, who stood a then-record-breaking 113 feet, 7 inches.

Related: 10 Surprising Tips for Dealing with Ice and Snow

And you thought gnomes were tiny! Not the one at Iowa State University's Reiman Gardens—he’s 15 feet fall and 3,500 pounds of metal-reinforced concrete! The handiwork of Wausau craft-folk Andy and Connie Kautza, the gnome was constructed out of a cubic yard of concrete—enough to pave about 20 feet of sidewalk—and traveled 400 miles to its current home, where he stands as a good luck charm. Yeah, it’s good luck he hasn’t fallen and squished anybody!

What’s cooking? How about 365 chickens in the same skillet! Totally doable in this 2-ton frying pan, built by the Queensboro Steel Corp in 1963 as a tribute to the area’s poultry industry. The cast-iron pan, which is 15 feet in diameter and can hold up to 200 gallons of oil, has been frying up chickens for local festivals for decades. Finger lickin’ loco!

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Like it or lump it—lump crabmeat, that is! This spot north of Baltimore, home to the Maryland State Fair, got a taste of the state’s signature dish, big time, on September 1, 2012. Thanks to seafood firm Handy International, the world’s largest crab cake, all 300 pounds of it, was dished up. You couldn’t exactly call it light and fluffy, but made of world-famous Maryland blue crab it had to be delicious!

The Cape Cod Canal, an artificial waterway connecting Cape Cod Bay in the north to Buzzards Bay in the south, is 7 miles long and a massive 480 feet wide; compare that to, say, the Erie Canal, a mere 40 feet wide. A dream of Miles Standish of the original Plymouth Colony way back in 1623, it was finally constructed between 1909 and 1916, but it was a $21,000,000 expansion project between 1935 and 1940 that increased the canal to its current width. Wow!

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If you appreciate quality over quantity, there’ll be a soft spot in your heart for this tiny circle, two feet across, in a median strip of the city’s SW Naito Parkway. The pint-sized park is on the site of a streetlight that never materialized—except for the hole dug for a pole. Local journalist Dick Fagan planted flowers there, then concocted a story that the park was a wish granted to him by a tricky leprechaun! Named for the wood scraps resulting from the area’s logging industry, Mills End Park was dedicated on St. Patrick’s Day in 1948 and became an official city park in 1976.

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Folks may argue over who makes the best barbecue, but there’s no disputing who put the most time into the tasty treat! That would be Jan Greeff, who—in association with grill and smoker company Char-Broil—cooked for 80 hours straight, culminating on April 27, 2014. Under a tent in the center of town, Greeff got busy with 1,000 hot dogs, 200 pieces of corn, 104 pieces of chicken, 558 hamburgers and 526 sausages. Though the food was given away free, the event was a benefit that raised more than $10,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Chow down, y’all!

No one throws down like New Orleans, and on October 31, 2010, the city made it official, hosting the biggest Halloween party ever. Organized by the New Orleans Saints and NBC Sports inside the Superdome, it boasted some 17,777 crazily costumed participants. The bash sure jazzed up the team, who went on to wallop the Pittsburgh Steelers that night. Go, Saints!

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