Who doesn’t drive a little off the beaten path to see the World’s Largest structures, or among the World’s Largest roadside attractions? If this is your road trip approach, Ohio is an ideal state for your adventures.
Ohio has more than a dozen structures claiming to be the “World’s Largest,” creating a new road trip theme.
There are reportedly more than 200 World’s Largest attractions across America. Here are some of the favorites in Ohio:
World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock
Ohio’s Amish Country in northeast Ohio is one of the most visited spots in the Midwest. Some of those visitors explore a community known as Little Switzerland – or Sugarcreek. That’s where they encounter the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock.
Featured on the cover of the Guinness Book of World Records in 1977, the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock is located in the center of Swiss Village in Sugarcreek. The clock is more than 23 feet tall and 24 feet wide.
Every half hour, a cuckoo bird pops out and you can hear Swiss polka music as the band emerges and a couple dances.
The clock features intricate wooden carvings and is a short walk from shops and attractions in Swiss Village.
Big Muskie’s Bucket
Once the world’s largest Earth-moving machine and also once one of the seven engineering wonders of the world, Big Muskie’s Bucket is now is the centerpiece of Miner’s Memorial Park, located 17 miles west of Caldwell along SR 78 in southern Ohio’s Noble County.
Miner’s Memorial Park is situated in Jesse Owens State Park.
The monument is a tribute to American Electric Power and its subsidiary Central Ohio Coal Company. Big Muskie’s Bucket is the featured attraction.
Big Muskie was the largest dragline ever built. The 220-cubic-yard, 240-ton bucket was built on site. In 1967, more than 300 railcars and 250 trucks hauled the necessary pieces to Muskingum Mine. A team of engineers worked more than two years to finish Big Muskie. When completed, the mammoth machine stood 240-feet tall.
The digger operated by dragging its bucket along the ground to strip away layers of soil and rock that covered high-sulfur coal. Big Muskie could lift 325 tons of earth and rock in a single bite. It operated 24 hours a day and 364 days a year between 1969 and 1991.
By the early 1990s, the demand for high sulfur coal had dramatically declined. Big Muskie was shut down. There was an effort to have Big Muskie preserved and relocated, but it was unsuccessful. In 1999, Big Muskie was disassembled and recycled. The bucket is all that remains.
Today visitors can climb inside the bucket and imagine what it took to make such an enormous thing move.
The Wall of Honor is another highlight of the area, showcasing past and present employees of Central Ohio Coal Company, the AEP subsidiary that operated the Big Muskie. In addition to the memorial features found in this part of the park, visitors can enjoy a picnic area with a shelter and a scenic overlook of the area.
The Longaberger Basket
The Longaberger Basket Company’s captivating former headquarters building in Newark stands as a testament to the basket maker’s hey-days.
Longaberger was a popular manufacturer of handcrafted maple wood baskets. The building is a replica – 160 times larger – of the company’s medium market basket, which was the company’s best-selling product.
The structure is 192 feet long and 126 feet wide at the bottom, and it spreads to 208 feet long and 142 feet wide at the roof line
“It is one of the most famous examples of mimetic or novelty architecture, in which buildings are designed to mimic or represent objects associated with their function,” according to Designing Buildings.
The 180,000 sq. ft. building cost $30 million to build and was completed in 1997. It stands seven stories tall and is topped by two steel handles.
It is no longer used as an office building, but it remains a widely photographed roadside attraction.
World’s Largest Horseshoe Crab
Hillsboro, located in the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio, seems like one of the least likely places to find what’s known as the World’s Largest Horseshoe Crab. But there it sits, along S.R. 124 just outside of the Highland County seat.
Known as “Crabbie,” the art masterpiece’s original home makes more sense. It debuted in a harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. It’s had four homes over the last three decades, including Baltimore, Kentucky, outside a church in Blanchester (in southwest Ohio), and Hillsboro.
Built in 1995, the fiberglass arthropod measures 67 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 12 feet high.
The structure is open on the inside, and you can even have a picnic there.
it was originally used as a place for teaching about the Chesapeake Bay’s marine life. Shark hunting videos were shown inside the massive shell.
The crab spent time at two churches in the Midwest before arriving at a family’s home outside of Hillsboro 10 years ago.
The roadside attraction is for sale again, if you’re interested!
World’s Largest Basket of Apples
The Longaberger Homestead, located in Frazeysburg around 17 miles east of the Longaberger Basket Building, is closed, but the World’s Largest Basket of Apples remains.
The basket is 20 feet tall and 48 feet wide.
World’s Largest Basket
Dresden, located in Muskingum County, is proud to lay claim to having the World’s Largest Basket.
The giant-sized model of a Longaberger market basket with two swinging handles is 48 feet long, 11 feet wide, and 23 feet high.
It was made from 10 hardwood maple trees.
The basket sits at E. Fifth Street and Main Street.
Cornhenge
Local sculptor Malcolm Cochran created “Field of Corn (with Osage Oranges)” on an empty half-acre site in Dublin in 1993.
He saw the line of old Osage Orange trees along the west edge of the field and recognized that early farmers had planted that type of tree as a natural bug repellent. In a former farm field that once grew corn, Cochran created an arrangement of 109 pieces of corn cast in white architectural concrete.
World’s Largest Acorn
The Oak Hill Chamber of Commerce said in April that it will soon unveil the World’s Largest Acorn.
Kurtis Strickland, who is president of the local chamber of commerce, said the idea was hatched from his personal travels.
“The idea first came about during my personal travels,” said Kurtis Strickland, president of the local chamber of commerce. His family visited the world’s largest ball of twine and the world’s largest rocking chair among other similar attractions.
“That’s what gave me the initial idea of, why can’t we have the world’s largest something?”
A towering acorn is the perfect fit for Oak Hill, a village of 1,400 located in Jackson County in southern Ohio.
“We were established by the Welsh back in the 1800s,” Strickland said. “They stopped and settled Oak Hill because of all the white oak trees surrounding the town.”
The school has an acorn-themed mascot. Now, travelers will flock to the community to see a 12 foot in diameter metal acorn.
World’s Largest Pumpkin Sculpture
Circleville is known for its annual Pumpkin Festival, so it is no surprise that the community is also home to the World’s Largest Pumpkin Sculpture.
Shaped and painted like a giant pumpkin, the sculpture is actually a water tower that was built in 1976.
While admiring the water tower at the festival, you can also marvel at the largest actual pumpkins. Last year, the biggest one weighed in at 2,226 pounds!
World’s Largest Loaf of Bread
Originally created as an exterior sign for the Colonial Baking Company in Montgomery, Alabama in 1970, the World’s Largest Loaf of Bread now sits near the entrance of the Bundy Baking Solutions headquarters at 417 Water Street in Urbana.
Russell T. Bundy, founder of Bundy Baking Solutions, bought the giant bread loaf, had it restored and redesigned.
it is constructed from foam, wood, steel, wire mesh, and fiberglass, and the loaf measures 33 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, and 8 feet tall.
The company reminds visitors that the loaf sits on private property, but it can be photographed from the sidewalk.
World’s Largest Drumsticks
In the heart of Warren, a town 14 miles west of Youngstown, David Grohl Alley is a colorful tribute to the hometown kid and Foo Fighters founder and Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.
The World’s Largest Drumsticks each weigh 900 pounds and stretch 23 feet long.
David Grohl Alley itself is a 900-foot-long outdoor art gallery with murals, sculptures, and artwork dedicated to the musician.
World’s Largest Soup Can
On the outskirts of Napoleon, a community located around 44 miles southwest of Toledo, you can find a sprawling tomato soup can at the Campbell’s Soup plant painted with the Campbell’s label.
The soup can is 33 feet wide and 33 feet tall.
Tomato soup was the anchor of Campbell’s, which is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.
A Campbell’s spokesperson said the soup can stores water for the warehouse’s sprinkler system. It was installed in 1989 and can hold 200,000 gallons.
It would take 2,178,645 cans of tomato soup to fill the tank, according to Campbell’s.
World’s Largest Washboard
The only remaining manufacturer of its kind in the country, the Columbus Washboard Company isn’t located in Columbus. Instead, it can be found in Logan in the Hocking Hills region.
It’s there, on the outside of the factory, where you can see the World’s Largest Washboard.
The relic stands 24 feet tall.
Frederic Martin founded the Columbus Washboard Co. in 1895 and it remained in Columbus until it was sold and moved to Logan in 1999. That’s when the owners built the World’s Largest Washboard.
The Washboard Festival in Logan is set for June 5-7 this year.
