Lomography

World's Largest Ukrainian Garlic Sausage
written by dirklancer on October 3rd, 2009 , 7 comments (3 votes)

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I went on a little road trip to show my kids some of the world’s biggest things a couple of weeks ago. Not things that much of the world has ever heard about, mind you, but in their own special highly qualified way, the world’s biggest things.
The first was this sausage. That’s right. A sausage.

You must understand that the town of Mundare – outside of the fact that one family there has been making some rather fine sausage for over 50 years – doesn’t have a lot going for it. They erected (I purposefully chose that specific word) this monument in 2001 in the distinctive shape of a Ukrainian garlic sausage to commemorate the fine work of the family that makes the previously mentioned Ukrainian garlic sausage. Indeed, to commemorate a full century of sausage making. Suitable, non?

Then they added a really big gold heart with the name of the town on it. Then they surrounded it by flag poles and light stands. Then they built a strictly functional staircase to a sturdy, yet unappealing, platform in the middle of the sausage.
Then, yes then, they strung Christmas lights between the top of the sausage and the flag pole/light stands.

I try not to get too negative about some of the peculiar locations that I shoot, but it seems to me – a lover of over sized roadside attractions – that when you build a World’s Largest (fill in the blank), your desire is for people to stop (maybe even drive out of their way) to read your signs, marvel at your work, and snap many pictures to share with their friends back home. But, in Mundare, they seem to have actually gone out of their way to make this unique monument as photogenic as possible.

I won’t even mention the painted fiberglass buffalo statue that sits encased in Plexiglas several meters from the sausage. I couldn’t bring myself to photograph that.

Sorry, Mundare. You may be a small town with a big heart, and I will boast that your sausage is mouth-watering delicious, but that statue just ain’t pretty.

If you’re driving out of Edmonton to the east toward the middle of nowhere, go about an hour to the town of Mundare and watch for the giant sausage signs…
http://www.mundare.ca/Giant-Sausage
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/8254