The Surprising Origins of America’s “World’s Largest Ball of Twine” Craze

If you’ve ever taken a long road trip across the Midwest, you’ve probably seen a billboard promising something so wonderfully absurd you have to pull over: The World’s Largest Ball of Twine.

But, interestingly enough, there actually isn’t one largest ball of twine. There are somehow several! And depending on who you ask, each one is the biggest, the strongest contender, or the most “authentic.” In other words, it’s the pettiest, most wholesome rivalry in American history.

The Man Who Started it All

In 1950, Minnesota farmer Francis Johnson picked up some twine his nephew had left lying around and started rolling it into a ball, mostly to teach the kid a lesson about cleaning up. Unfortunately for him (and fortunately for roadside kitsch lovers everywhere), that little ball became a lifelong obsession.

Johnson spent the next 29 years rolling twine. He rolled so much that he had to move the ball out of his basement before it got permanently lodged there. Eventually, it grew so massive that he used railroad jacks to rotate it. By 1979, his twine titan stood 11 feet tall, weighed more than 17,000 pounds, and became the Guinness-certified “World’s Largest Ball of Twine.”

Darwin, Minnesota, was proud, and they still are. They built a plexiglass gazebo around the ball like it’s their very own Mona Lisa.

Other Cities Join in on the Fun

Unbeknownst to Johnson, another farmer named Frank Stoeber in Cawker City, Kansas, had started his own ball just a few years later.

But Stoeber worked very, very fast. By 1956, his ball was already 7½ feet tall and over 4,000 pounds. By 1961, it had grown to 11 feet in diameter. Guinness gave him the title in 1973… until he passed away the next year. And Johnson snatched the crown right back.

But Kansas wasn’t done! Cawker City turned their twine ball into a community project, dubbed the Twine-a-Thon. Every year, locals and visitors add more twine.

Because of that collective effort, Cawker City’s ball now weighs over 20,000 pounds and is absolutely larger than Darwin’s by circumference. However, some purists argue that since it’s a group effort, it doesn’t “count” the same way.

And, funnily enough, there are even more.

In the late 1980s, retired brick mason J.C. Payne decided that if Johnson couldn’t keep the solo-roller title forever, he would claim it. Payne used nylon twine (such a scandal!) and built a 13-foot monster certified by Guinness in 1992. Ripley’s bought it and literally built their Branson museum around it.

Traditionalists sniff at this one because it’s (a) plastic twine and (b) “too easy.” Imagine being so committed to twine that you care about twine purity standards.

So, Which One Is Actually the Biggest?

We suppose that it depends on the category (because of course there are twine-ball categories).

• Largest by a single person: Darwin, MN (the OG, rolled entirely by Francis Johnson.)
• Largest by weight: Lake Nebagamon, WI (where James Frank Kotera claims his wildly dense ball weighs over 23,000 pounds.)
• Largest by circumference and ongoing growth: Cawker City, KS (the people’s champion, growing every year.)

But, when you really think about it, the winner here is actually America. Because we have folks who are interesting enough to compete over balls of twine!

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