I've got a bone to pick with the state of Washington.

It seems those Washingtonians are claiming to have the world's largest egg within their state borders.

In Winlock, Washington there sits a 12 foot long, 1200 pound fiberglass egg on a ten foot pole.

However, I believe the good people of Mentone, Indiana should be able to claim their egg as the largest egg in the world. Indiana's egg — and I think everyone in our great state should claim this egg with pride — is approximately 10 feet high, and it weighs 3,000 pounds.

Do you see the difference?

The Mentone (Indiana) Egg The Mentone (Indiana) EggTheir egg barely clears half a ton of weight. Ours weighs a ton-and-a-half.

Theirs is so light it sits on a pole, ten feet high. Ours is so heavy, it needs to sit safely on terra firma.

Washington's featherweight egg is made of fiberglass, which is some sort of itchy, unnatural plastic. Indiana's egg is made of concrete, which often contains limestone aggregate, which also comes from Indiana.

This means not only is our giant egg locally grown, but it's organic.

According to Mentone legend (well, their website anyway), the idea of the egg was created by Ed Ward, the manager of the Northern Indiana CO-OP Association, as well as some of the egg farmers around the Mentone area. (Mentone is well-known in the poultry laying world as having a lot of laying farms in the area, plus Rose Acres eggs.) The egg was built in late 1946.

I will grant that the people of Winlock, Washington conceived of their giant egg in 1923, but it was built out of canvas, and was then replaced by a plastic egg in 1944.

Which means our egg is also the longest continuing giant egg in the world.

Our egg took 12 men to load it on a truck, while Washington's first egg was probably tossed around by children who mistook it for a balloon.

Maybe I'm being a bit of a homer, but I take pride in the the notable items in our state — the world's largest sycamore stump and world's largest preserved steer are in Kokomo; the world's largest giant candle in Centreville; and, the world's largest ball of paint in Alexandria. So I'm not going to let some West Coasters sully the name and reputation of our giant fake egg.

I hereby restake our claim that Indiana has the world's largest egg.