Big Boots to Fill

We're currently on a cross country road trip from New Hampshire to Oregon and posting about sites along the way. This post is about stop in MN and NV.

If a giant even needed boots, the place to go would be the Red Wing Shoe Company. That's where we found this one-of-a kind boot, and it is just a single boot, no matched pair here, so a really BIG giant would be out of luck.

The GIANT of a boot is the star exhibit at the Red Wing Shoe Company in downtown Red Wing, MN. In 2005, the Red Wing Shoe Company celebrated its 100th anniversary by crafting the world's largest boot which can be seen on the first floor of its flagship shoe store  on Main Street. 

Aside from its enormous size, the world's largest boot was built using the exact same design and materials used to build the Red Wing Shoes classic style number 877. 

Over 60 volunteers worked 13 months to design, engineer and build a 16-foot tall replica of the  company’s classic work boot. The giant boot took 4,000 hours to design, engineer and fabricate.  It’s even too big for the Statue of Liberty to wear. Here's the specifications of this oversize footwear:

Size: 638 ½D (US), 638 (UK), 850 (EUR) 

Length: 20 feet (6.096m)

Width: 7 feet (2.133m)

Height: 16 feet (4.876m)

Of course, we had to take our photo next to this boot (who wouldn't?) It was a challenge to get the entire boot and ourselves in the shot, but we did.

This wasn't the only oversize footwear we saw on our road trip. Not to be outdone, the Cowboy Arts & Gear Museum and the Western Folklife Center, both in Elko, NV, had these big boots — western style. These boots were on a smaller scale, but still very large.

If you're wondering about that boot inscription, I was as well. Turns out there's a very big connection between crooner Bing Crosby and Elko, NV. 

Crosby is said to have caught Western fever after starring in the 1936 B&W cowboy musical Rhythm on the Range. In 1944, he purchased the Quarter Circle S, the first of seven Elko cattle ranches that he owned until 1958.  Crosby made Nevada his "home away from home" in between records, concerts, movies, and radio performances. He developed a reputation as a seasoned cattle and horse rancher. In 1949, Elko named Crosby honorary mayor — the first one in Nevada history. Crosby has been credited with helping to raise the town’s profile by holding the world premiere of his 1951 film Here Comes the Groom in Elko.

And now I know, and so do all of you.