"What does Bethel, Maine, do when it gets tough? We build a snowman!"
Height: 122'1 Weight: 13,000,000lbs
World's Tallest Snowman Made In Maine (Bethel, Maine)
By David Sharp, Associated Press
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The "snowwoman" towering over this village features eyelashes created from discarded skis and bright red lips made from painted car tires. She wears a giant red hat and a 100-foot-long scarf, and her blond tresses are made from rope. She gets a little bling from a snowflake pendant that's 6 feet long.
It took more than a month, dozens of volunteers and tons of snow to create Olympia .
With the temperature in single digits, several hundred people including busloads of schoolchildren turned out for Friday's dedication of the 122-foot-tall mountain of snow.
This ski town of about 2,400 residents already holds the record for tallest snowman [Angus, picture to right], dedicated in 1999. Since then, they have been waiting for someone else to break the record.. When no one rose to the challenge, the folks here decided they'd have to break the record themselves.
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"Olympia," named for Maine 's senior senator, Olympia Snowe, stands nearly 10 feet taller than "Angus, King of the Mountain," who was dedicated by the town in 1999. That snowman, named for then-Gov Angus King, was created by the same folks responsible for Olympia .
Although the snowwoman's namesake was unable to attend Friday's dedication because of her duties in Washington , a statement was read to the crowd. "I've joked that it's just my luck I'd have a world record-breaking monument named after me -- and it will be gone by summer," the senator said..
To get an idea of scale, Olympia is about 30 feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty (without the base). Her arms consist of 27-foot-tall evergreens. Her "carrot" nose, painted by schoolchildren, is 8 feet long. Her eyes are made from giant wreaths.
She was built with a series of concentric circles. The crane dumped the snow into frames, and volunteers climbed in for long hours shoveling and packing the snow.
Angus was certified as the world's tallest snowman by the Guinness Book of Records. It remains to be seen if Olympia will get the nod as tallest snowman, or snowwoman. There's currently no separate category for snowwoman, so residents are petitioning for one.
There was plenty of snow for the project. Parts of Maine have had more than 100 inches of snow this season, unlike 1999 when Angus was built.
In fact, more winter weather was on tap for Friday night. Alex Kaufman from Sunday River credited Olympia for bringing the snowiest winter in 12 years. Then he took a jab at Angus. "Angus didn't bring squat for snow," he quipped. "In this case, it took a woman to get it done."
BethelMaineSnowwoman.com
World's Tallest Snowman Made In Maine by David Sharp
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Friday, January 2, 2009
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