Where in the World is the World’s Largest Pecan?

It’s no secret that we’re nuts about pecans here at Stuckey’s; after all, the humble pecan is the drupe that our business was built upon.  On the other hand, we also like the tacky, the kitschy, and the weird, the biggest, the tallest, the widest, the weirdest (you get the idea), so  today we combined our two loves and set out to search the globe (well, our part of the globe here in America, at least) for the World’s Largest Pecan. And we found it…sort of.

You see, there are actually two places in the world that declare themselves to be the “Home of the World’s Largest Pecan”. The first is located in Seguin, Texas, and the other is 831 miles away in Brunswick, Missouri,  or, wait, was it Brunswick that was the first and…. never mind. We’re going to solve that right here and right now.

The Seguin Texas Pecan

According to the most trusted website for everything weird and wonderful about the good ol’ US of A,  Roadside America claims that the supposed “World’s Largest Pecan” of  Seguin, Texas is a five-foot-long, two-and-a-half-feet wide behemoth that weighs close to 1,000 pounds. Apparently, the idea of building the world’s largest pecan was the idea of a dentist who was pretty good at making stuff out of plaster, so he presented his idea to City Hall or somebody like that who was in charge of world’s largest things in Sequin Texas, and apparently they were “nuts” about the idea. (See what I did there?).

Erected in 1962 and dedicated to a Spanish explorer by the name of Cabeza de Vaca (literally translated to “Head of the Cow”) who was imprisoned for 10 years on the Guadalupe River, then known as the “River of Nuts” and only survived thanks to a daily diet of…get this…pecans! (We couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried, folks.) So, from 1962 to 1982 Seguin, Texas, was officially the “Home of the World’s Largest Pecan, ” a title it held until one fateful day in 1982.

The Brunswick Missouri Pecan

George James found a rather tasty goober on his pecan orchard in 1947 and patented it as the Starking Hardy Giant Pecan. Thanks to George and his pecan orchards, the Brunswick area thrived and became the pecan capital of Missouri in 1972.  Flash forward ten years to 1982. George and his wife, so proud of their highly palatable and patented pecan, built a giant replica on their property located on the outskirts of Brunswick in front of a roadside stand they called the Nut Hut.

Nevertheless, their pecan was a monstrous 7 x 12 foot, 12,000 pound goober the size of a bus making it, much to the chagrin of dentists and other citizens of Seguin, Texas, the “World’s Largest Pecan” that currently sits on the north end of a two lane road known as Missouri State Route 24.

After George died in 1998, however, the nut soon started to fall into disrepair, at which point the people of Seguin, Texas must have started rubbing their hands together in anticipation of taking their much coveted title back to Texas. However, after George and his wife Elizabeth died, their children, not so nuts about pecan growing, began selling off parts of the farm and the colossus pecan eventually made its way into the hands of the city of Brunswick so they could still reign supreme as the “Home of the World’s Largest Pecan”.

Until 2007, that is.

Seguin Texas Is Goes Nuts Over Its Pecan Title

You see, by 2007, the fine citizens of Seguin had had enough of all these shenanigans from the folks up in Brunswick, and that’s when Seguin Area Chamber of Commerce President Sherry Nefford-Esse traveled the 831 miles to Brunswick (we can only assume she disguised herself as a curious tourist) and brought back photographs of the Brunswick pecan. Now that Seguin knew what it was up against, the town promised the good people of their fair Texas city that they would, indeed, take back their coveted pecan title. With the battle cry of (again, we assume)  “C’mon! Everybody knows everything is bigger in Texas!” Sequin, Texas, unveiled their gargantuan 8’x 16’ pecan on July 4, 2011, thus indisputably regaining their title as the “Home of the World’s Largest Pecan” and “We Are the Champions” playing in the background. (Okay, we just made up that last part, but that would be so cool, wouldn’t it?)

Get Out and Go Nuts!

So, if your deciding on what to do this weekend, why not go and see the “World’s Largest Pecan” in Seguin? In fact, just go nuts and stop by their Chamber of Commerce and pick up the “Trail of Nuts” map at the Chamber of Commerce, 116 N. Camp Street, that will lead you to all three (yep, there’s another one) of Seguin’s giant goobers. Then, you can officially say you saw the world’s largest pecan… all three of them.

One thing’s for sure, we have the largest followers of the Stuckey’s Pecan Log Roll, so while you’re out there searching for the largest whatever, don’t forget to make a Stuckey’s stop at a Stuckey’s location near you, grab a few Stuckey’s pecan logs rolls (available now in our new retro style packaging)  for the road and some to take back to the farm. Don’t forget to by some souvenirs and other fine pecan candy from Stuckey’s for the folks back home. We can even send it to them so you don’t have to worry about it getting there fresh before you get back home. For more information on our pecan candies or other Stuckey’s merchandise, visit us at stuckeys.com today.