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The World's Largest Popcorn Ball

Do You Know What Is Inside The Giant 60 Foot Tall Bull Head Off I-90?

What Did South Dakota's License Plate Look Like the Year You Were Born?

The first number on a South Dakota license plate is the county that the car is registered. For example, Pennington county where Rapid City is has a '2' starting its plates. In Sioux Falls you have either a '1' or a '44' depending on your relationship to 57th street.

When established in 1956 (and revised in 1987) the first nine counties were ordered by population. Starting with 10 they are in alphabetical order through Ziebach, with Oglala Lakota County (65) and Todd (67) rounding out the list.

Today the top 10 plate numbers and populations don't correlate anymore. 1 and 2 are still 1 and 2, but Lincoln (44) is now 3rd in population. Beadle is 4 but it's now 11th in population. See the list by population here.

On January 1, 2023, South Dakota started issuing a new license plate design for license plates.

So, let's take a look back at what South Dakota license plates looked like over the last 100 years.


I don't know about you but when I travel I spend time taking in the local flavor of the places I'm visiting. It so happens I get a real kick out of small-town roadside attractions.

There is one such attraction I just found out about 2 ½ hours Southeast of Sioux Falls in Sac City, Iowa. The Worlds Largest Popcorn Ball!

The Worlds Largest Popcorn Ball has an interesting history. The original was built in 1995. There have been 4 total balls constructed to date.

Folks at the Indiana State Fair built a record-holding pop cornball. So in 2016 not to be outdone volunteers in Sac City built a bigger popcorn ball which you can see today on the west side of town displayed in its own custom shed at the edge of the Sac City Museum Village.

This Guinness record-holding ball weighs 9,370 pounds is 12 feet in diameter and took 2300 pounds of popcorn to make. They regain the record.

We talked with Jessica Pierce, Executive Director Sac City Museum Village which oversees the Big Ball of Popcorn.

Jessica explained the reason the World's Largest Popcorn Ball was built in this town of around 2000 people is that “Noble Popcorn Farms is located here and they are known for producing some of the finest popcorn in the world. And they wanted to do something special and fun.”

Jessica added that people come from all over the world to see the attraction and take pictures alongside this 1-ton confection.

Traditional popcorn balls are made with popcorn, water, and corn syrup. The fine folks in Sac City constructed their record-breaker with all those ingredients plus a whole lot of muscle and pride!

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