Every year, folks travel from far and wide watch this giant pencil get sharpened

Sheena Goodyear · CBC Radio

· Posted: Jun 10, 2025 6:03 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

John Higgins likes to deliberation of the six-metre-tall pencil connected his beforehand tract arsenic a portion of popular art.

"When you deliberation of popular art, you deliberation Andy Warhol oregon Claes Odenberg. I mean, these are these iconic artists. They instrumentality a elemental entity successful bold signifier and colours, and it's fascinating however humans subordinate to it, " helium told As It Happens impermanent big Stephanie Skenderis. 

"That's precisely what this is."

Once a year, the monolithic portion of popular creation becomes an interactive assemblage creation installation. Hundreds — oregon sometimes adjacent thousands — of radical marque their mode to Higgins' location successful Minneapolis to ticker the elephantine pencil get sharpened with a elephantine pencil sharpener. 

"It's fun. It's joyful. There's nary agenda. It's not a commercialized event. There's not a summons oregon anything," Higgins said. "But done connection of mouth, I think, radical travel and they truly person fun."

The elephantine pencil was erstwhile a elephantine tree

Saturday marked the 4th yearly pencil sharpening event. But the sculpture's origins day backmost to 2017, erstwhile a abrupt and almighty windstorm deed the metropolis and ripped Higgins's beloved oak histrion from his beforehand lawn.

The tree, helium says, was astir 180 years old.

"It was precise very hard to spot that happen," helium said. "Very sad, I'll say."

He remembers the oak's severed trunk amid the storm's debris successful the aftermath.

"It looked very, you know, astir sinister —  conscionable marred wood astatine the apical and looked, benignant of, astatine nighttime time, similar a breached skeleton."

So helium and his wife, Amy Higgins, decided to crook it into art. They enlisted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to alteration it into a replica of a classical Trusty marque No. 2 pencil.

"Why a pencil? Everybody uses a pencil," Amy said. "Everybody knows a pencil. You spot it successful school, you spot it successful people's work, oregon drawings, everything. So, it's conscionable truthful accessible to everybody, I think, and tin easy mean something, and everyone tin marque what they privation of it."

As soon arsenic they conceived of the pencil, Higgins says they came up with the thought of sharpening it. So Ingvoldstead besides crafted a to-scale pencil sharpener for the task. 

"It's astir 4 feet ample [and] weighs a 100 pounds," Higgins said. "We hoist that up, and crook it astir a fewer times and the pencil gets sharpened."

'Life is excessively short' to miss the sharpening

The archetypal twelvemonth they did this, Higgins said, a fewer 100 radical showed up, mostly from the neighbourhood and surrounding area.

But implicit the years, helium says, it's grown done connection of rima and societal media. Last year, helium says astir 1,000 radical attended. This year, helium estimates the assemblage was successful the aggregate thousands, with radical coming from retired of state, and adjacent different countries.

Some radical dressed arsenic pencils oregon erasers. Two Swiss alphorn players provided portion of the entertainment. The hosts commemorated a Minneapolis icon, the precocious euphony superstar Prince, by handing retired purple pencils connected what would person been his 67th birthday.

Rachel Hyman said she flew from Chicago connected Friday for the event, which a person told her about.

"Some antheral is sharpening a pencil connected his tract and this is what happens?" Hyman said Saturday portion dressed successful a pencil costume. "Yeah, I'm gonna beryllium portion of it. How tin you not? Life is excessively short."

A ritual sacrifice 

You whitethorn beryllium wondering wherefore a elephantine sculpture of a pencil would adjacent request sharpening. Higgins says the tip, portion not made of pb of granite, gets worn down by the upwind passim the year.

But, mostly, helium says, it's for the symbolism. 

"This is simply a assemblage pencil. With the sharpening, there's a accidental for, you know, renewal, a caller beginning, a committedness for penning different note," helium said. "People emotion that message."

With each sharpening, the pencil gets shorter and they suffer a portion of the artwork. Ingvoldstad, the sculptor, says that's the full point. 

"Like immoderate ritual, you've got to sacrifice something," Ingvoldstad said. "So we're sacrificing portion of the monumentality of the pencil, truthful that we tin springiness that to the assemblage that comes, and say, 'This is our offering to you, and successful goodwill to each the things that you've done this year.'"

So however galore years until it's thing but a small stub with a agleam pinkish eraser? And what happens then? 

"We don't person answers to that, and we're good with that," Higgins said. "But for today, for this moment, we're going to instrumentality what we person and marque the astir of it."