Many have claimed to created the Largest Ball of Twine, including a man from Darwin, Minnesota. Although one man from Highland Wisconsin, Jim Frank Kotera, had a dream to make the Heaviest Ball of Twine.

He started making the ball back in 1979, and continued making it bigger and heavier until breaking a World Record. Unfortunately, Kotera passed away in January of 2023. Many residents wondered where the 24,000 pound ball would end up.

Terri Nelson, one of Kotera’s neighbors, created a Go-Fund Me, to make a permanent structure for the ball of twine. She said many members of the community wanted to continue his legacy.

“But the fact he was so proud of it was one of the reasons I wanted to make sure we got to keep it. People started sending money and buy checks and stuff to us so that we could save it,” Nelson said. “It put Highland on the map, so we had to keep the ball of twine.”

Nelson said people all over the country and outside the US would visit Highland to see the Ball of Twine.

“He had seen the one in Darwin and he wanted to make a better one. So, you know, competition, you got to do it. So he that’s how he started this Ball of Twine,” Nelson said. “He was always so happy when you come to his house, he’d come running out the door because he wanted to tell you about the ball of twine. He could tell you exactly how much it weighed, and he weighed the ball every time that he got twine.”

Highland’s new shelter for the World Famous Heaviest Ball of Twine is located near the JFK transfer station; which is s where Kotera used to work. Nelson said there’s still some finishing touches on the new structure, but people are more than welcome to visit it in the meantime.

“He’s probably watching, but he’s making sure nobody touches it. He doesn’t want anybody putting any twine on there,” Nelson said. “Somebody asked me, ‘Are you going to let people come and add to it?’ And I said, ‘No.’ I said ‘That was his.’ He always made a point of saying that it was made by one man. Because they said, ‘Well, maybe you could add to it, make it bigger.’And we said, ‘No. That was his project. That was his ball.’

People who visit the 24,000 pound Ball of Twine can write their name and where they’re from in a mailbox at the new location.

For more information about Highland’s new shelter for the World Famous Heaviest Ball of Twine you can look here. Also for other stories happening in Northwest Wisconsin you can read more here.