If you can’t take a detour from the interstate for the World’s Largest Ball of Twine, you’re not reading the right travel magazine. After researching the crazy and road trip-worthy attractions in Kansas, we added a couple of days to our itinerary just to try to take in as much as possible. The highlight of our world’s largest/craziest/smallest trek was the World’s Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, Kansas.
You don’t need directions, just drive through town and you’ll drive right past it.
What’s now a road trip lover’s dram stop began when, for whatever reason, Frank Stober started amassing his twine in 1953 and just kept on winding. The town isn’t clear on the reasoning, but when he turned the tourist attraction over to them, in 1961, the twine ball had over 1.6 million feet of twine. Not to let all that hard work go to waste, the town now has a yearly Twine-a-Thon, held the third weekend in August. Linda Clover, the unofficial spokesperson for the ball of twine, explained that it’s pretty much like you’d imagine. Everyone for miles around comes and runs around the ball until they get too hot and give up.
When you visit, be sure to visit Linda’s souvenir shop, and visit with her for a few minutes. She’ll gladly give you twine to wrap around the ball, which will be a big hit with the family. Email Linda at clover at nckcn dot com to make arrangements.
