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World's Biggest Pen?

I discovered in my local newspaper what is probably the world's biggest pen.  It was hiding in Vancouver, Washington's Central Park, disguised as a tower for Clark College.  The land it sits on was originally part of Fort Vancouver.  The U.S. Army handed over the land for civilian use in the 30's but was unable to move the object.

From my research, I have discovered that this pen was made by the L.E. Waterman company for Paul Bunyan.  It is composed of red mottled hard brick and is a modified eye dropper fill (a modified tanker truck is used to fill it), with a unique three-tined nib made from steel.  The original nib was 14K gold, but Paul wore that one out real quick.  The nib inscription reads, "Waterman Ideal N.Y. 100" and is a stiff BBBBBBBBBBB.  It is reported to be the only #2000 ever made.  The overall length of the pen is hard to determine, as an unknown portion is buried in the ground.  The story I found related that Paul was asked to go over to Germany to "see what that Hitler fella was up to," but when told he'd have to travel as cargo in the hold of a cargo ship, he took his mighty pen, wrote "Hell, no, I won't go" in the Florida, creating the swamp lands, and gave the pen a might heave.  It landed where it sits today, in the Pacific Northwest.

World's Biggest Pen

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This page was last modified on 03/18/2007 at 01:17 Pacific Time