World’s Largest Ball of Paint: Alexandria, Indiana’s Colorful Roadside Attraction
Mike Carmichael, creator of the World’s Largest Ball of Paint, says, “I do not advertise. It’s all word of mouth. You tell somebody and just on and on and on. Every year I get more and more people. Last year I had over 3,500 people walk through that door and that's the most in one year. I’d expect this year to be even more.”
For more than 48 years, Mike Carmichael has been adding coats to this behemoth of a ball, layer by layer. This is number 29,807. Today, the ball is a monstrosity that weighs more than 11,000 pounds.
“It's all steel support on top of a concrete floor. I’ve welded supports all around it so it would hold quite a bit of weight,” explains Carmichael.
The ball wasn't always such a whopper. It all started when Mike, a house painter by trade, began a simple experiment.
“I started this ball in 1977 with my boy, who was three years old at the time. I took a rod like this, and I stuck it through a ball, and we just started painting it,” describes Carmichael. “He put the first coat on there for me, and then we just continued on that for the next 48 years.”
Day after day, with each new layer, the ball grew in circumference.
Carmichael states, “In the earlier days, the only people I could get here were my neighbors and friends and family. It still worked out pretty good.”
Why the World’s Largest Ball of Paint Keeps Growing
But after years and thousands of layers, they began to grow in reputation. That's when the Guinness Book of World Records took note.
“Guinness has actually turned me down about three or four times because there was no competition. There was no record to beat,” Carmichael explains. “They finally sent a guy from Guinness here, and they drilled a hole through the ball, like they do trees, and pulled out a core sample, and they sent it to Guinness in England. They put it under a microscope and counted all the layers, and that's how I got my certificate. That’s how it all started.”
These days, the world's largest ball is a busy roadside attraction. Mike says tourists pop in from all over the country and even the world. Each visitor has the chance to make a contribution to this colorful experiment.
“When you come in the door, I will take your picture, explain everything to you, and give you a roller of your choice of color. You’ll paint it, and after you get done painting it, you get to write your name in my book, where you’re from, and I'll give you a certificate with your name on it. Then you get to write your name on the wall. And at that time, you will have held the world's record until somebody else paints it,” says Carmichael.
By the way, that personal world record… free of charge! Can't beat that.
“No, I do not charge to walk in the door. I support myself with t-shirts and donations, that’s it,” Carmichael says proudly.
“I like seeing the expression of seeing something that they've never seen before. A lot of them come in here and they've never painted before. You don't have to be a professional to paint this. You just roll a little bit on there. For a family, it only takes a few minutes to paint it. I like to see the joy of everybody doing it,” concludes Carmichael.
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The above video is a clip from Journey Indiana from WTIU. You can watch more segments and full episodes at pbs.org/show/journey-indiana/
