by Mark BROWN

Ma­te­ri­als: Sisal twine, patience

Dig Site: Cawk­er City, Kansas

Re­tail Val­ue: Ap­prox­i­mate­ly $72,000

Ap­peal: As a ball, as one of the world’s largest balls, it is an ab­ject fail­ure. Col­laps­ing un­der its own weight and fat­tened by well-mean­ing ad­mir­ers who over decades have wrapped twine around its equa­tor and base but failed to grow it even­ly, this im­po­tent mon­ster is more blob than ball. It is im­mense but with­out men­ace; no tor­na­do could bring this pur­port­ed ball to roll, no hooli­gan horde could bowl it through the streets of Cawk­er City. Still, it is there. It is big and dumb and it is there, ex­ist­ing, tes­ti­fy­ing bigly and dumb­ly that its cre­ator ex­ist­ed too. I sus­pect that’s all Frank Stoe­ber hoped for when he first wound one string of sisal over another.

Filed under Treasure Hunter Mark Brown Presents on August 16th, 2010

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