50 YEARS AGO: NEWS FROM THE ISSUE OF DECEMBER 10, 1957

Francis A. Johnson of Darwin is a man of many hobbies. He is an expert whittler who in 20 minutes can produce a pair of wooden pliers expertly carved from a match stick. He has a collection of over 4,000 pencils and 500 mechanical pens from all parts of the world. And in addition, he has what he believes is the world’s largest twine ball. The massive twine ball, which sits near the driveway at his new house just east of Darwin, weighed in at an amazing 2,140 pounds at the Darwin Elevator last August. Johnson began rolling the ball, which now towers over six feet, on a cold snowy day in March 1950. At that time he was operating a farm near Kingston and was annoyed by the scraps of twine which always seemed to pop up around the farm yard and he began rolling them into a ball.