Only in Colorado: The World’s Largest Fork

If you visit Creede, Colorado, this summer (and here’s why you should), try not to blink. If you do, you just might miss this small town of 400—and an unusual piece of artwork: the world’s largest fork. The 40-foot-long piece of flatware greets visitors at they enter this small community tucked into the remote northeastern San Juan Mountains, and is the work of two local artists, Chev and Ted Yund. The pair created the sculpture after Keith Siddel commissioned them to make a birthday gift for his wife, Denise Dutwiler, owner of the local Cascada Bar & Grill.

Since the project would be erected next to the restaurant, everyone agreed that a fork would be a natural subject. Denise and Keith wanted something noteworthy, so they scoured books to determine the size of the record-holder at that time: the now-demoted Giant Fork in Springfield, Missouri, which—at a mere 35 feet in height—had already outdistanced the 31-foot tableware in Milan, New York, standing at a fork in the road. Denise and Keith are in the process of applying for Guinness Book of World Record recognition for the Creede fork and hope to announce the results later this summer.

Of all these notable utensils, Colorado’s fork, which has a short stem and extra-long tines, is the most artfully displayed, with its 600-pound aluminum bulk leaning away from the side of the building and supported by one unobtrusive post. During the summer, you can join the dozens of people who have a “fun tine” stopping here to snap selfies, buy T-shirts, and sink a (slightly smaller) fork into a slice of the grill’s tangy key lime pie.

Once you’re done exploring this mining-turned-arts town, you can trundle half an hour back down the road to South Fork, an equally small community that hosts Biggin, a 24-foot-tall lumberjack carved out of a 450-year-old Douglas Fir tree.

Visit: The fork is located outside the Cascada Bar & Grill and Cabins at 981 La Garita St. (Highway 149) in Creede, 68 miles northwest of Alamosa. The establishment is open from late May through mid-September and, as of June 1, the restaurant serves up three delicious meals per day.