So we've reached that special time of year. Winter is ending. The sun is starting to shine.

Birds are out. And there is definitely someone in your office trying to get you to bet $20

on a March Madness bracket. But we have our own March Madness showdown here at Atlas Obscura.

Basketball is not the only ball game around. And today we've got a matchup that is going to make

basketball madness feel tiny. It's going to feel insignificant because welcome everyone to the

world's biggest brawl of twine.

Here's the deal. Four decades. Two rival balls of twine have tussled for the title of the

world's largest. Well today we are going to settle it once and for all with a little help from

our places editors. We have Jonathan Carey representing the twined triumph of Darwin Minnesota.

And Michelle Cassidy representing the wound wonder of Cawker City, Kansas.

Jonathan, the ball is in your court.

Well, I'm going to tell you about a true artisan, a Vincent Van Gogh of twine if you will.

A craftsman who created the largest ball of twine rolled by one person. That man was Francis Austin

Johnson. His glorious creation became such a thing of awe and beauty and amazement that it

even inspired a song by one of America's greatest living musician. You know the one that goes.

Well, we'll get to that later. First, we have to start with the creation of the ball,

which begins in Meeker County, Minnesota. Not far from the ball's current location in Darwin, Minnesota.

See, Francis Johnson was a retired craftsman and a carpenter with plenty of time to build and

create his legacy. And in 1950, Johnson began to tinker and slowly craft the ball in his basement,

and which started as a simple hobby to pass the time soon became a massive passion project.

And Francis Johnson had a very specific method. You have to remember, he was a carpenter,

a craftsman, but most importantly, an artist. He meticulously unrolled the messy piles of twine

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