Iowa's Largest Fryin' Pan

As I’ve said before, “World’s Largest” claims are sometimes dubious at best, but the large frying pan in Brandon, Iowa, only claims to be the largest in Iowa. The makers of the Brandon pan did have high aspirations, however, and it was originally designed to be the world’s largest frying pan. But the final pan turned out to be three inches smaller than the actual world’s largest frying pan at the time, located in Long Beach, Washington (which itself has since been usurped, and I’m unclear where the North Carolina contender ranks here).

Brandon’s slogan is “A Little Town We’re Proud to Call Home,” and you could just about fit the entire town inside of their large pan—according to the 2010 census the 0.32-square-mile town had a population of just 309 people. The post office is housed in what looks like a temporary construction site trailer, and despite being promised that the “Brandon Kwik Stop has a variety of “Fryin’ Pan” souvenirs for sale,” the clerk informed us that they were out of souvenirs, and had been for some time (the much-needed bathroom was also out of order).

The “Fryin’ Pan” was built in 2004 by locals to promote the annual Brandon Cowboy Breakfast, held the third Sunday in September. One thousand people a year have eaten the breakfast since 2000, which comprises “scrambled eggs, ham, sausage, pancakes, fried potatoes, sausage gravy and baking powder biscuits.” Proceeds from the breakfast initially helped to fund the construction of the Brandon Area Community Center and additional funds help with its maintenance. While the food is not actually cooked inside of the large pan—it’s purely for decoration—the 9’ 3” x 14’ 3” pan could theoretically hold 528 eggs, 352 half-pound pork chops, and 88 pounds of bacon.

---

Iowa’s Largest Fryin’ Pan
800-850 Main Street,
Brandon, IA 52210

Strawberry Point

Strawberry Point, Iowa, is located about an hour west of Dubuque and an hour north of Cedar Rapids. It has a population of under 2,000, but it is home to the Franklin Hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Wilder Museum, home to an heirloom collection of over 800 dolls dating from the 1700s, Iowa’s oldest state park and the world’s largest strawberry.

The town of Strawberry Point was founded in 1853 and named for the wild strawberries found in the area. The Franklin Hotel was built in 1902 and we had coffee in the hotel restaurant, which is unsurprisingly decorated with a strawberry motif—I love a town that really leans into a theme (like Roswell or Sleepy Hollow).

Strawberry Point is the very definition of a one-stoplight town and I love exploring small towns in the middle of America just as much as—and sometimes even more than—I like visiting more popular tourist destinations. The Wilder Museum was closed for the season, we were the only people in the hotel restaurant aside from our waitress, and the ‘bakery’ we saw advertised was just a table in the grocery store manned by a handless mannequin.

The 15-foot-tall, painted fiberglass sculpture was designed by a local ad agency, and it has been on display in front of the City Hall and police station since the 1960s. It’s incredibly detailed, much larger than I expected and appears to be well cared for (although it could use a little touch up at the bottom). This big roadside attraction is comparable to the world’s largest pistachio—neither are real examples of the food, which is an entirely different (and probably highly competitive) area of distinction.

‘World’s Largest’ designations are sometimes dubious at best—you might remember that I’ve already visited what claims to be the world’s largest strawberry, located in Ellerbe, North Carolina. While they do have the url worldslargeststrawberry.com, the Berry Patch farm stand could more accurately be called the world’s largest strawberry-shaped structure, while Strawberry Point’s version—unfortunately saddled with strawberrypt.com—could be more specifically described as the world’s largest sculptural strawberry.

---

World’s Largest Strawberry
111 Commercial Street,
Strawberry Point, IA