" JFK's World's Largest Ball of Twine at Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin"
What kind of man creates the World's Largest Ball of Twine? Drive to the Northwoods of Wisconsin and talk to James Frank Kotera. The ball is sitting in his back yard.
James Frank Kotera is quiet, shy. Three days a week he works at the Highland dump. The rest of the time he's usually home, adding twine to his ball. He's been doing it since 1979.
"My initials are JFK. I'm a famous man!" he said, greeting us out by his mailbox, which is decorated with duck decoys and other plastic birds stuck on poles. "People give them to me at the dump," he said.
In the back, by the tree line, sits JFK's enormous oval ball, shielded from rain and snow beneath an open-air shelter, resting on cinder blocks.
The fairest assessment of a giant twine ball's size would be the number of miles of twine in it, but no one really knows how much the biggest balls contain. They also sag as they grow, making girth unreliable as a gauge of largeness. Weight seems to be the best available measure, as it separates the loosely-wound from the honestly dense. If JFK's calculations are correct, his ball is the biggest of all at topping out at 21,280 lbs and 8 ft high, 22 ft wide and growing every week!
Visitors have these tales to tell: “Can't believe he's been working on it for 37 years!” “We were approached by the JFK who shared some of the history of the ball and part of his life story. We got a copy of his "flyer" before we could leave and were amazed that it was six pages of hand written notes torn from a college-ruled notebook. This was certainly some great Northwoods art therapy in action!” “While we were looking things over, JFK (as he likes to be called) came out of the house where he was taking a break. He says he puts in many hours a day adding twine to his creation, from sunup to sundown, except for the days he has to work at the dump.”
You will find this cache at N44 32.ABC W90 00.DCE
A = JFK describes himself as, “I'm a _____ man!” How many letters does this word have?
B = According to JFK’s calculations, how many feet high is the ball?
C = JFK has been building the ball since 197C.
D = The large twineball is at least 2D ft wide.
E = True = 4 False = 5 JFK’s Twineball is the largest in the world.