A 65-foot-tall wooden soldier has put one small Minnesota town on the map, with visitors from across the globe coming to see the “world’s largest” nutcracker.
It took years for the Uncle Sam-style nutcracker to take its patriotic place atop a concrete platform overlooking Interstate 90 in Luverne.
“It ended up being kind of serendipitous that it was finished right before America 250,” Katie Walgrave, who designed the nutcracker, told The Independent, referring to the semisequincentennial of U.S. independence.
The red, white and blue nutcracker, fitted with a huge striped top hat, was put into place last month. In the short time that the wooden soldier has been up, it has drawn visitors from around the world, including China and Wales.
“This morning we had a group of people from Denmark,” Katie, who works at her family’s gift shop called Those Blasted Things located near the nutcracker, said on Thursday.
The new nutcracker is believed to be the tallest in the world — about double the size of a 33-foot nutcracker in Germany that held the record, Katie said.
Luverne has a long history of nutcrackers, and it all started with one woman named Betty Mann.
About 10 years ago, Mann was trying to figure out a way to get people to visit the Rock County History Center in Luverne.
“Betty had this collection of 2,500 nutcrackers in her home, and bus tours were stopping at her house to see these nutcrackers. So, she said, ‘How about instead of bus tours coming to my house, we get the bus tours to the history center,’” Katie said.
Now there are more than 7,000 nutcrackers, making it the second-largest collection in the U.S. and the third largest in the world, according to Katie.
Luverne’s nutcracker collection is what also inspired plans for a massive wooden soldier to boost tourism.
Just for Nuts, a nonprofit aimed at creating and maintaining landmarks in Luverne, was formed, and it fundraised around $600,000 to build the nutcracker.
The statue has already been generating money for the city.
“Any dollar amount that people are spending anywhere in Luverne, whether it’s a gas station or someplace to eat or the gift shops in town, is already putting money back into our local economy,” Katie said.
Now that the nutcracker is standing tall, the only thing left is a name for the statue.
Anyone who donates $20 or more can submit a suggested name, and a committee dedicated to the nutcracker will then choose the official name for the wooden soldier, which will be revealed at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 18.
For skeptics who believe nutcrackers should be stored away until the holidays, Katie said that the wooden soldiers transcend Christmas in Luverne.
“We just put up the nutcracker, not even two weeks ago…and the amount of tourists that come in over the summer has been dramatically increased just since he got his hat on.
“So, I would say that it’s not just Christmas season; people visit the nutcrackers down at the History Center year-round, also,” Katie said.
