I’m a sucker for a huge ball of twine, giant pierogi, or enormous dinosaur replica. But it was news to me that an online museum is devoted to such things — specifically, such Canadian things. Big Things: The Monuments of Canada is an online catalog of “those fantastic and awe inspiring monuments built by communities to draw tourist dollars into their community. I am talking about the world’s largest oilcan, the world’s largest Easter egg, the world’s largest (fill in the blank).”

You can browse the, uh, collection by Subject Matter (don’t miss Processed Foods), Province (a winner: Manitoba), or by Artist. The curator of the museum, David Yanciw (pictured above next to a big Canadian Triceratops) explains his motivation:

…Me and a friend of mine (Samson Yee) undertook a road trip from my city (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) to Edmonton, Alberta. Well we decided to take a little detour in search of the world’s largest Pyrogy (Ukrainian dumpling) in Glendon, Alberta. I had seen a newspaper article about it and another good friend also mentioned it. I had to see, with my own eyes, how they can make something like this look realistic (it was on a giant fork). It actually did look really good but what was more amazing was we, like many others, have gone a great deal out of our way to see it. Glendon is out of the way for anybody. We stopped in at the gift shop and bought a plastic spoon with a decal and a miniature pyrogy on it and I realized what the monument really meant.

Although the site’s design is pretty dated, there’s lots of great stuff in the collection. Have a look, and don’t miss the anthropomorphized Pinto Bean from Bow Island, AB; the creepy Potato from Maugerville, NB; or the giant Catfish outside a McDonald’s in Selkirk, MB.