Da Yoopers Tourist Trap in Ishpeming is home to Big Gus and Big Ernie, two world records and the most Yooper roadside stop there is
Sitting on the side of US-41 just west of Ishpeming is a chainsaw longer than a pickup truck and a rifle as long as a school bus. And before you ask, yes, both of them actually work.
Welcome to Da Yoopers Tourist Trap, home to two genuine world records and quite possibly the most Yooper place on the planet.
Out front sits Big Gus, the world’s largest working chainsaw. He stretches 22 feet 11 inches long, stands 6 feet tall, and weighs around 3,500 pounds.
Under the hood is a V-8 engine, and the chain really does run. The staff just keep it at low speed, because nobody wants that giant bar flying off across the highway.
Moran Iron Works over in Onaway built Big Gus back in 1996, and he has held the Guinness World Record ever since.
A few feet away is Big Ernie, the world’s largest working rifle. Ernie is 35 feet long and tips the scales at about 4,000 pounds.
As the story goes around here, Ernie once fired a rock wrapped in duct tape two and a half miles into a corn field. The recoil reportedly knocked the whole rifle clean off the truck it was mounted on. He has been a little more relaxed since.
The whole place was started by the original members of Da Yoopers, the U.P. comedy band that has been making Yoopers laugh since 1975 with songs like “The Second Week of Deer Camp” and “Rusty Chevrolet.”
Owner Jim “Hoolie” DeCaire calls his giant creations “Yoopervations,” one-of-a-kind machines dreamed up out of necessity or pure boredom during those long winters.
Gus and Ernie are not the only ones. There is “Christine on Steroids,” a 1957 Buick welded onto a Chevy with a snowplow on the front. There is a tractor that runs on firewood. And there is a hunt camp display where the deer have turned the tables and strung the hunters up by their ankles.
Inside, the gift shop is stocked with the kind of Yooper humor you cannot find anywhere else, from moose ties to beer-can wind chimes.
Best of all, it will not cost you a thing. Admission is free, parking is free, and the sign out front famously promises free bathrooms too. It is open daily, though the hours shift a bit with the season.
It is the kind of gloriously goofy roadside stop the U.P. does better than anywhere, right up there with classics like America’s largest bear ranch near Newberry.
So next time you are cruising US-41 and a giant chainsaw appears on the horizon, pull over. It is one of those U.P. places, like the tiny town thousands drive past without stopping, that you will be glad you did not blow by.
Here is Big Gus getting fired up:
Because where else on earth can you stand between the largest chainsaw and the largest rifle ever built, grab yourself a moose tie, and use a free bathroom, all in one stop?
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Topics: Da Yoopers Tourist Trap, Ishpeming, Marquette County, Big Gus, world’s largest chainsaw, roadside attractions, things to do, Upper Peninsula, Yooper
Sources: Roadside America, Guinness World Records, and Atlas Obscura.
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