Have you ever dreamt of exploring the insides of a fish four stories tall? What about beholding a ball of twine so massive it could crush a sedan? Yapping with a 16-foot tall bovine? Well, you’re in luck – Wisconsin is home to just such manmade wonders of scope and scale. The World Record Academy has certified these five Dairy State behemoths as the “world’s largest…”
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
1. Muskie Sculpture
10360 HALL OF FAME DR., HAYWARD
At 143 feet long and 41 feet tall, the fearsome muskie is the crown jewel of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum. And it’s not just for show – you can walk inside the fish through a door in the, uh, rear, and walk all the way up to an observation deck in its mouth. Open mid-April through October,
2. Ball of Twine
9360 S. DOUGHLAS COUNTY S., HIGHLAND
For 44 years, James Frank Kotera collected twine and wrapped it into a giant ball. When he died in 2023 at the age of 75, the ball weighed 24,100 pounds (roughly the weight of 20 adult cows). It’s not the largest ball of twine in the world, but it is the heaviest. After Kotera’s passing, a campaign raised over $6,000 to display the twine next to Highland’s town hall.
3. Penny
820 THIRD AVE., WOODRUFF
In 1953, a local doctor and a teacher led a campaign to collect 1 million pennies to help build a hospital in Woodruff. The story earned national coverage, and soon folks were sending in pennies by the pound. The effort raised about $106,000 – over $1.2 million in 2025 dollars. Woodruff got its hospital in 1954, the same year the town built this 10-foot-wide, 18-inch-thick penny to commemorate the campaign.
4. Talking Cow
1200 E. DIVISION ST., NEILLSVILLE
Say hello to Chatty Belle. She’s 16 feet tall, 20 feet long, and has a surprisingly soothing voice. Built in 1964 for the World’s Fair in New York and brought to Wisconsin afterward, she’s a fiberglass Holstein about seven times the size of the real deal and outfitted with a coin-operated voice box. 1200 E. Division St.
5. Six-Pack
1111 THIRD STREET S., LA CROSSE
In 1969, G. Heileman Brewing built these six 54-foot-tall beer tanks at its La Crosse brewery, and then painted them to look like its classic Old Style cans. The giant “cans” hold 688,200 gallons of beer – more than 1.2 million actual six-packs of Old Style.
