Cabin Fever

Long winters do strange things to people. Using a crane and volunteer muscle, Bethel, Maine, residents constructed Olympia, the world’s biggest snowman (and snow-woman) two winters ago—topping their own 1999 record. Named after U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe, the snowman is featured in the recently released Guinness Book of World Records 2010, and at 122 feet was only about 30 feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty. Olympia was a study in Maine thriftiness: Her eyelashes were 16 old skis, with five red automobile tires for lips, three truck tires for buttons and 30-foot spruces for arms. “As far as I know, her record still stands,” says Robin Zinchuk, executive director of Bethel’s Chamber of Commerce. The group is taking a break from setting world records but is holding its annual
WinterFest in January. It will feature a far less ambitious construction project. “We’ll have a snow maze,” Zinchuk says, “that will be four feet high.”