World's Largest Decoy Duck (Gone)
Wichita Falls, Texas
The World's Largest Decoy Duck -- named "Walley" -- was built out of fiberglass, in a burst of inspiration, by artist Ralph Stearns. He didn't know what to do with the duck when he'd completed it, so he submitted it to Guinness World Records. They rejected the duck -- not because it wasn't immense enough to be a World's Largest, but because they couldn't decide what makes a duck a "decoy."
Ralph spent four months creating Walley, who is 16 feet long, eight feet high, and built around a two-person bass buggy. According to Ralph, the idea came to him when he climbed a nearby hill and had a vision of a gigantic duck flying down from either Heaven or the "Planet Gargantua," where, Ralph said, everything is exactly like on Earth but ten times larger. He named the duck after his uncle.
Ralph hopes that Wichita Falls will purchase Walley and make him a permanent attraction. To drum up public interest, Ralph is floating the duck in a Wichita Falls park pond at least through the summer of 2020.