At one time or another, you yourself have probably searched in vain for the world’s largest basket. I have finally found it. The most pendulous picnic pail on the planet can be found in the quaint hamlet of Dresden, Ohio. Just north of Ohio’s fabled pottery towns Zanesville and Roseville, Dresden is a company town with an economy based on the admiration, display, and sales of festive baskets. To commemorate the basket-making skill of Dresden’s citizenry, the Longaberger basket company commissioned this 48-foot-long, 11-foot-wide, 23-foot-high market basket on a green in the center of town. This exuberant display of wood-handling required 10 hardwood maples and 2,000 man hours to produce – no doubt turning its makers into basket cases.

– David Keeps

Photos: top, David Keeps; bottom, Katy McNerney