August 6th, 2018
Dickinson, ND

The days don’t get any longer, but the number of states per days gets shorter as I leave the woodlands of Wisconsin and southern Minnesota and drive out onto the Great Plains. And this was a day for superlatives. One, anyway, that being “largest.”  Many “largests” today which is good, as the roadside oddities and statuary grow scarcer from here on out.

I had a somewhat early start and had breakfast at a local diner called Brigettes.  It looked like a dive from the outside, and the inside did nothing to dispel that impression.  An old dive with equally old staff. But it was clean and was the kind of place where the waitresses call you “Darlin’,” which works for me.  Standard breakfast fare for a decent price.  No complaints.

The thick woods of southern Minnesota quickly give way to rolling farmland dotted with occasional woods and small towns or hamlets.  Pleasingly pretty country.  First stop of the day was for Alexandria, MN, where, at Big Ole Park, one finds the World’s Largest Viking Statute.  Named Big Ole.  Really.

My guide for all things silly on this trip, roadsideamerica.com, has this to say about Big Ole:

Big Ole’s conquest of Alexandria, however, was far from easy. In 1967 the town dressed him for the holidays in a Santa suit — into which someone shot a flaming arrow that sent Ole up in flames! His sword was snapped off by another vandal, and the Viking has often had an extra piece of anatomy added between his legs.

In 1996 he was knocked cockeyed by a freak windstorm, and when he was lying prone for repairs, his leg was crushed under the collapse of a snow-covered roof.

But, no matter the misfortunes and indignities, Big Ole has never ceased being the Largest Viking Statue in the World.

While providing no superlatives, Ashby did deliver in the coot category.

About an hour up the road is the exceptionally pleasant town of Fergus Falls.  Or at least pleasant in Summer.  I doubt anyone would call it pleasant in, say, February.  Wikipedia gives it a population of about 13,500 and it has wide tree-lined streets of brick buildings and no empty storefronts to be seen.  If one were on the road and needed a place to stay, this would be a good choice.  It also offered up not only a flying goose, but Otto the Big Otter, the latter of which was on this morning a thing of joy for a father and his little daughter.

Returning to the World’s Largest theme, I proceeded to Rothsay, MN.  With apologies to Rothsayans, Rothsay wasn’t much.  What it does have is it’s pride in being the Prairie Chicken Capital of Minnesota and home to one of the absolute most coolest things in the world, something that no doubt soon will be dedicated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  You may need to sit down for this, Dear Readers, as I now present to you…The World’s Largest Booming Prairie Chicken!!!

As an exercise in honestly, and at the risk of being a letdown after the excitement just presented, journalist ethics require me to say that the World’s Largest Booming Prairie Chicken does not, in fact, boom.  It’s a statue of prairie chickens that boom, not a booming statue.   And, in point of fact, the live prairie chickens don’t really boom anyway, as can be seen in this video.

After the excitement of a morning such as this, one might be forgiven for feeling a tad peckish.  So I crossed the state line into North Dakota and ate at the Fargo Brewing Company and Alehouse. A fairly attractive place in a strip mall, the food and beer were adequate, if not inspiring.  Recommendation withheld.

Next, and not for the last time today, I found yet another Largest.  And this thing really was huge.  Also, unlike many of these oddities, done rather tastefully.  Jamestown, ND, has a buffalo exhibit which includes a fake small pioneer town.  It also has the World’s Largest Buffalo Statue.

Next up was New Salem, ND, with Salem Sue, a massive statue of a Holstein cow.  Sue is, as you may have guessed, the World’s Largest Holstein Cow.  The superlatives just never end in North Dakota!  Some of these things can be a little hard to locate, but you can see Sue from 2-3 miles aways as you approach from the east.

BUT WE ARE NOT YET DONE WITH LARGEST!!!  No, sir.  When it comes to Largest, North Dakota just keeps giving and giving!

The last stop of the day before my overnight in Dickinson was for the World’s Largest Sandhill Crane.  Whew.  By this point I was exhausted by the sheer excitement of it all!

The day ended in Dickinson, a small college town with little to recommend it.  It is the county seat and has Dickinson State University, but little else is immediately apparent.  Oddly there seems to be a housing boom here with lots of new apartment buildings going up.  I later discovered that there is an oil boom here and it is one of the fastest growing cities in the country.

No brewhouses here.  Dinner at The Crossing, which was somewhat pretentiously fancy for a town where I doubt anyone ever dresses up.  God knows I didn’t.  Nice menu with somewhat sketchy execution.  Skip it.

On to Butte, MT, on the morrow.