CAWKER CITY, Kansas One day in 1973, The Wall Street Journal published a review of Kansas tourist attractions.
It was not kind.
Kansas is trying to promote tourism, the Journal noted, but it really doesnt have a heck of a lot to promote.
The column singled out the godfathers of Kansas roadside tourism the Worlds Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, the Worlds Largest Hand-Dug Well in Greensburg and the folk art town of Lucas for particular ridicule, with pause breaks in the spots where the Journal expected its audience to chuckle at Kansas expense.
Local newspapers from Salina to Lawrence to Atchison responded swiftly and defensively, standing up for the states quirky attractions and the simpler-times spirit they represent.
If modern Kansas only had some outdoor privies, the Atchison Daily Globe quipped, we would recommend a use for this Wall Street Journal.
As it happens, the town of Elk Falls in southeast Kansas bills itself as the states outhouse capital and celebrates its collection of privies with an annual festival.
No matter how kitschy, these offbeat attractions can offer a boost to rural economies. Dozens of Kansas towns take advantage of their locations to tempt travelers to spend a few dollars while driving through flyover country, often on their way to somewhere more glamorous.
Just as importantly, the sites give communities something to rally around and a feeling that their hometown no matter how overlooked deserves a nod from the outside world.
We hear that, Oh, its just a hole in the ground, said Stacy Barnes with a laugh. Shes the city administrator for the town with the Worlds Largest Hand-Dug Well. Well, its true. But it is ours.
David Condos
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Kansas News Service
For rural areas that have seen a steady exodus of residents since their populations peaked more than a century ago, finding some way to bring in more revenue is a matter of survival. And for better or worse, Kansas isnt blessed with the mountains or beaches that seem to effortlessly lure crowds of tourists to other places.
So if small towns around here want to stand out, theyve had to come up with their own larger-than-life wonders to put themselves on the map.
Like a cowboy boot spur big enough to drive a semi-truck through (Abilene). An easel taller than an eight-story building (Goodland). A souvenir travel plate made from a 14-foot satellite dish (Lucas).
Or a ball of farmers twine the size of a shuttle bus.
You do what you can with what you have, ball caretaker Linda Clover said. And we have a ball of twine.
Going big
Despite decades of doubters and the Wall Street Journals best efforts, the quirky attractions dotting Kansas roadsides may still have the last laugh.
A sign next to the Ball of Twine today credits that Journal article with single-handedly elevating the sites fame nationwide, setting off waves of out-of-state visitors that now stream through this tiny north-central Kansas town by the thousands each year.
David Condos
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Kansas News Service
Along the side of the highway that leads into Cawker Citys three-block downtown, the giant ball is impossible to miss. From its hilltop shrine next to an auto repair shop, it glows in the afternoon sun like an oatmeal-colored lighthouse beam beckoning travelers to drop anchor.
A retired school librarian who grew up in the next town, Clover took on the mantle of caring for Cawker Citys pride and joy more than two decades ago. She now lives close enough to the ball that, when she sees people stop by, she usually pops over with one of her twine spools and shows the visitors how to tie on their own piece.
I call myself the crazy twine lady, Clover said. Im the belle of the ball.
This ball got rolling back in 1953 when a local farmer, Frank Stoeber, became sick of tripping over extra bits of twine leftover from tying up his hay bales. So he began winding those scraps into a ball. Soon, that ball grew big enough to fill a barn door.
David Condos
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Kansas News Service
A few years later, Cawker City invited Stoeber to haul the ball into town to show it off in a parade celebrating Kansas centennial. And thus, one of the most famous tourist attractions in Kansas was born.
While the population of Cawker City has shrunk by more than one-third since that ridicule from The Wall Street Journal, the Ball of Twines size has ballooned along with its fame.
It now weighs north of 27,000 pounds, more than five Ford F-150 pickup trucks. And if you unraveled its 8.5 million feet of coiled twine, it would stretch from Cawker City, past New Yorks Wall Street and all the way to the eastern tip of Long Island.
David Condos
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Kansas News Service
A glance through the balls guestbook (yes, the Ball of Twine has its own guestbook) shows dozens of visitors from as far away as Oregon, Florida and Italy. In just a few days.
During the peak summer season, Clover said, it brings in around 200 travelers a day in a town of only 457 residents.
I have had people so excited they could hardly wait for the car to stop so they could come and see it, Clover said. And they keep coming.
David Condos
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Kansas News Service
Its a similar story at the Worlds Largest Hand-Dug Well, which last year drew 10,455 visitors from all 50 states and 14 countries to Greensburg, a town of just 740 people east of Dodge City. Out-of-state visitors far outnumber Kansans.
Jack Benigno, from Californias San Joaquin Valley, already visited the well six years ago. But when he planned this road trip through southwest Kansas which included another quirky stop at Liberals Land of Oz he purposefully made time to descend into Greensburgs hole in the ground once more.
I love it, Benigno said. And I love Kansas.
The well also has the distinction of being the oldest worlds largest thing in Kansas.
It dates back to the 1880s when Greensburgs founders sought a way to attract more people to their new town. So they carved out the type of sensational water source thatd be something to write home about.
David Condos
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Kansas News Service
And as the name suggests, the massive well 109 feet deep by 32 feet wide was hand-dug. That meant teams of men shoveling out and carting up countless loads of dirt until they reached the Ogallala aquifer.
Visitors who come to the Big Well today follow in those footsteps, down a 120-step staircase that spirals its way toward the water table.
Barnes, who directed the well museum for 10 years before becoming Greensburgs city administrator, has walked up and down these steps countless times.
Its just mind-blowing, Barnes said, gazing up from the final step near the bottom of the well, how they would have done it with nothing but hand tools and oxen.
David Condos
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Kansas News Service
The well didnt last too long as a water source for Greensburgs residents. But in 1939, it got a second chance at life as a tourist attraction.
By 1956, the well had welcomed 1 million visitors.
In 2021, the museums admission fees and gift shop sales brought in more than $215,000 to this tiny community. And that doesnt count the money tourists inevitably spent at nearby restaurants, hotels and gas stations before or after their stop at the well.
It still keeps our community viable, just in a different way, Barnes said. Not for water, but for tourism.
Kansas Tourism spokesperson Colby Sharples-Terry said these types of oddball attractions can translate into real economic benefits for small towns.
And shes glad to see so many rural Kansas communities get serious about finding unique ways to stand out, even if those ways might seem unorthodox.
They know that without change, Sharples-Terry said, the towns gonna die.
According to the states most recent data, tourisms per capita economic impact in Kiowa County home to the Big Well is $1,651 a year. Thats more than three times the $544 per capita tourism impact in Edwards County next door. And that far surpasses other nearby counties in rural southwest Kansas like Comanche ($913) and Clark ($337).
Its the same story for Cawker City. Tourisms annual per capita economic impact in Mitchell County home to the Ball of Twine is $1,425. Thats way more than neighboring counties Jewell ($655), Lincoln ($520) and Ottawa ($422).
And even though the tourism dollars Cawker City and Greensburg generate may pale in comparison to bigger cities, Sharples-Terry said that revenue adds up here in ways that it wouldnt elsewhere.
If you go to Los Angeles, they wont know that youre there, Sharples-Terry said. But if you go to Lucas and visit these sites and eat lunch, that is directly impacting that community so much more.
David Condos
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Kansas News Service
Small town superlatives
So what is it about these worlds largest attractions that has kept them relevant and profitable for so many years?
And why is Kansas and the middle of the country, more broadly such a hot spot for them?
Thats something Erika Nelson has pondered quite a bit during her time as a rural artist and worlds-largest-things aficionado.
Kansans will try the craziest ideas in a very serious way, Nelson said. The naysayers get shut down pretty quickly.
She would know.
Nelsons not only a fan of the worlds largest stuff. She also created one of the quirkiest giants in Kansas: the Worlds Largest Souvenir Travel Plate that greets travelers from the side of the highway as they drive into Lucas (population 394).
David Condos
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Kansas News Service
With an old phone company satellite dish as her canvas, Nelson painted it in the style of the gift shop tchotchkes tourists have taken home to their curio cabinets for decades.
True to form, she decorated it with a collage of illustrations that tell the story of Lucas from the towns over-the-top public restroom in the shape of a giant toilet (Bowl Plaza) to a mini Mount Rushmore replica a local artist built in her backyard to the Garden of Edens psychedelic-populist concrete sculptures, which put Lucas on the folk art map more than a century ago.
On Main Street, stands Nelsons other Kansas landmark: a very meta shrine to oversized kitsch called the Worlds Largest Collection of Worlds Smallest Versions of Worlds Largest Things.
Inside, a wall-sized U.S. map marks each worlds largest things location with a red dot. Kansas has a lot of red.
The Northeast doesnt have that same sort of need to prove themselves in a big manner, Nelson said. But theres this line from Texas up through Minnesota that is just littered with worlds largest things.
Nelson said these colossal creations particularly resonate with people in Kansas and other parts of Middle America because they elevate the ordinary.
In a region perceived as reserved and understated, she said, putting up the Worlds Largest Baseball (Muscotah) or Liberty Bell Made of Wheat (Goessel) offers a subtle way to show pride in accomplishing something extraordinary and unexpected in an often-overlooked place.
Its almost like a humblebrag, Nelson said. Its a lot of normal people living their lives who suddenly have this spark and say, Hey, you know what would make this really great? Put an -est on it."
David Condos
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Kansas News Service
Nelsons fascination with superlatives things bestowed with the title of worlds largest, smallest, tallest, etc. began as a kid.
She learned to navigate her small hometown in central Missouri based on the towns water tower, which had been painted by a local billiards factory into the worlds largest 8-ball. Then when she visited her grandparents in Minnesota, catching her first glimpse of the worlds largest Paul Bunyon statue let her know her destination grew near.
As a grad student studying art, Nelson began crafting her own diminutive versions of the worlds largest things as keepsakes from her travels starting with the one thats less than an hour from her home: Cawker Citys Ball of Twine.
That was more than two decades ago. She has now created close to 250 of these miniature replicas.
Once Nelson had enough fun-sized water towers and Paul Bunyans to start sharing her collection, she packed them up as a traveling roadshow. Sometimes she displayed them at official superlative events, like the giant ketchup bottle festival in Illinois, or at pop-up shows she held out of the bus that doubled as her living quarters.
David Condos
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