- Almost eight tons to
17,400 pounds it was weighed
when they moved it into
town on the green scale
so they know the exact weight.
12 feet tall, 40 feet around.
(upbeat music)
Darwin Minnesota, holding the
world's largest ball of twine
made by one man.
(upbeat music)
Francis A. Johnson rolled
the ball from 1950 to 1979.
29 years, four hours a
day, every day he worked
on that on his
precious twine ball.
When it was his gift
to our community,
and we're happy to
share with the world.
(upbeat music)
The local farmers
would collect the twine
from their farms and
bring it to Francis.
And his family also had a farm,
where they would
accumulate the twine
and he would unravel it, square
knot together, spool it up,
and then unravel it
back on his twine bow.
Always took careful measures
to make sure it kept its
nice spherical shape.
He would turn it a quarter
turn every so often
with a railroad jack.
(upbeat music)
Francis's twine ball held the
Guinness Book of World Record
for the largest ball of twine
in the world for
many, many years.
He ultimately was
surpassed by a twine ball
that was worked on by a
group, a community actually,
Francis's twine balls is
still the world's largest ball
of twine made by one man, but
there is a larger twine ball
in Cawker City, Kansas,
by an individual
named Frank Stoeber who
was inspired by Francis
to take up his own cause and
I believe in the late 50s
or 60s he attempted to
surpass Francis's twine ball.
It sounded like it was
a pretty tight race
until Mr. Stoeber passed away.
(upbeat music)
Francis was able to continue
to roll his twine ball
for another seven,
eight years, I believe.
Ultimately, because of his
health, he stopped in 1979.
He lived into the mid-80s but
the community of Cawker City
took up Frank Stoeber's course
and they still add twine
to that twine ball.
But I think the feet to Francis
in being the world's largest
by one man, 29 years,
four hours a day,
I think that really
means something.
I think the path you
take to get there matters
and the amount of love
he showed in his creation
and the care for it, he took,
i think that's what
makes it quite a feat.
(upbeat music)
- I've seen on television a
guy who had a big ball of twine
and I said, well maybe
someday I'll be on television,
with my ball of twine.
(upbeat music)
- Some people may
question four hours a day,
every day for 29 years but,
I think if your life's work
leaves a generation, a
generations in the future
many days of joy and
an excitement and
happiness to be able
to see your masterpiece,
your life's work,
and then i think that's
a life well spent.
I don't know if he
would have expected
that his twine ball would go
on to add so much to community
and leave a legacy a dead.
(upbeat music)
Anything that involved
doing with your hands,
Francis was good at.
He was a skilled carpenter
and a black layer.
And so, besides many of
his other collection,
added to his twine ball,
he would make pliers
out of solid pieces of wood.
So we take a solid
piece of wood,
and he'd whittle it in
such a way that the pliers
actually worked and
actually opened.
And then in the
handle of that pliers,
he'd whittle another
pliers, and then that handle
he whittle another pliers
and so on and so forth.
So he would whittle these
pliers that actually worked,
and his largest pliers
is this seven-foot pliers
that he made from one
solid piece of wood.
And everyone works
when it's all open
that contains 27
different pliers
from seven feet to one inch.
And they would say he
could sit in front of a TV
and just not even thinking
just whittle all
these little pliers.
- [Female Voice] Looks
strange, how do you?
- Yeah, yeah.
It gets to be fair to say
that he was a little bit of
an eccentric individual, so.
(upbeat music)
He actually died of emphysema
and he was not a smoker.
So the family attributes
his ultimate cause of death
to 30 years of twine dust.
His nephew was ultimately in
charge of Francis's state.
And he and his wife
and his family,
were the ones responsible
for gifting the twine ball
to the Darwin Community
Club in the city of Darwin
to be stewards over it,
from that time forward.
(upbeat music)
I think the feat of
it being one person,
four hours a day,
every day for 29 years,
and he looked at the
size of that, it's,
to me that's pretty impressive.
Yeah.
- I just love that
someone thought,
oh, I'm gonna build a
really big ball of twine.
- Yeah, we love it too.
I'm glad he did.
(laughs)
(upbeat music)
Weird Al in 19, early 1990s,
had a very famous album
where he included a song
about a family traveling
to the world's largest
ball of twine in Minnesota.
So we get travelers
to the state.
And then they'll also
add upon their journey,
they'll include us where
they find out about us
through the song or social
media or whatever way,
and they decide that
Darwin and the time ball
is worth their time and I
absolutely agree with them.
♪ On our way to see the biggest
ball of twine in Minnesota ♪
(upbeat music)
It's fun to welcome the world
and to share Darwin
community with them.
It's a neat opportunity to get
to meet so many nice people.
So, it's always fun
working as a volunteer here
at the twine ball museum.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Postcards
is made possible
by the Minnesota Arts and
Cultural Heritage Fund
and the citizens of Minnesota.
Additional support provided
by Margaret A. Cargill
philanthropies,
Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleene
on behalf of Shalom Hill farms,
a retreat and Conference
Center in a prairie setting
near Windom, Minnesota.
On the web at
shalomhillfarm.org.
Alexandria, Minnesota,
a year-round destination
with hundreds of lakes,
trails and attractions
for memorable
vacations and events.
More information
at explorealex.com.
The Lake Region Arts
Council's arts calendar,
and Arts and Cultural Heritage
funded digital calendar
showcasing upcoming art
events and opportunities
for artists in West
Central Minnesota.
On the web at lrac4calendar.org.
Playing today's new music
plus your favorite hits
96 seven kram, online
at 967kram.com.
(whooshing)
(upbeat music)
