World's Largest Bowie Knife

Bowie, Texas, United States

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A Bowie knife sculpture welcomes visitors at the south entry to Bowie, Texas, according to the City of Bowie. Guinness World Records lists it as 20 feet 6 inches long; the Chamber of Commerce gives its blade as 14 feet 5 inches and its weight as 3,000 pounds. It was a Bowie Chamber of Commerce project; the Chamber's page describes fundraising through donations and sales of tiles and benches. Guinness World Records certified it as the largest Bowie knife on 8 April 2016. The Chamber says the idea came from the late local rancher and bronze sculptor Bob Hadley.

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World's Largest Bowie Knife

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Site-level location · 33.5665° N, 97.8453° W

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Bowie, Texas, greets drivers at its south entry with a steel knife 20 feet 6 inches long, made, Guinness says, to highlight the town's name.

Guinness World Records lists the Bowie Chamber of Commerce as record holder and gives the knife's length as 20 feet 6 inches. The Chamber says the blade is 14 feet 5 inches and the monument weighs 3,000 pounds. NewsChannel 6 reported in 2024 that it weighs over 3,000 pounds, with a blade a little over 14 feet long.

The Chamber says the idea was proposed by the late Bob Hadley, a local rancher and bronze sculptor. In July 2015 the Bowie News reported a groundbreaking at Pelham Park, with a planned 14-foot knife with a five-foot handle, set at an angle atop a three-foot granite base, and a fundraising drive under way. The Chamber says Albert Schlabs of ASAP Water Jet Cutting, an engineering company, manufactured, built and installed the monument, and that the Chamber helped design it. The city's page places the finished sculpture at the south entry to town.

The Chamber says it unveiled the knife on April 4, 2016, and Guinness dates the record to April 8, 2016. The Chamber's president told NewsChannel 6 that the project was funded entirely through donations from sales of benches and memorial tiles. The Chamber's page says tiles and benches are still available.

The city says it has become a popular photo stop and carries a QR code linking to an online guestbook, and that the Guinness record has yet to be surpassed. The Chamber's president told NewsChannel 6 that more than 2,000 people had signed the guestbook since 2021, and that the knife has withstood 90-mile-per-hour wind.

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