Monday, May 27, 2013

Freeze a jolly good fellow: the world's largest penguin of Cut Bank, Montana






As we were heading east through Montana on a road trip in 2006, we passed through the small town of Cut Bank and encountered one of those spontaneous roadside attractions that make these kinds of trips well worth the ride: something that claims to be the world's largest something or other, in this case, a penguin.
According to howstuffworks.com, to commemorate its hometown's status as the coldest town in the United States, the town of Cut Bank constructed this concrete penguin in 1989. It looks much older, though, more like it was built in the 1930s. At 27 feet tall and a solid five tons, it beckons to passersby from its spot in front of the Glacier Gateway Inn, a furniture-shop-turned-motel. The penguin talks (when its speaker works), bleating out the slogan, "Welcome to Cut Bank, the Coldest Spot in the Nation!". We were unaware this was a multimedia display, however, so we did not hear the narration, but it was impressive just the same. If big penguins are your thing, Cut Bank awaits you. For more fascinating facts about Cut Bank, you can read about it in black and white here: http://www.answers.com/topic/cut-bank-montana?cat=travel

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