PHOTO: WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

To promote its status as the big cheese of America's dairy producers, Wisconsin created just that – a gigantic hunk of cheddar for the Midwestern state's pavilion at the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York. The 34,591-pound block required 170,000 quarts of milk, 23 pounds of coloring, and the labor of 25 men working more than 43 hours. After 12 million people viewed it at the fair, the Borden Co. purchased the cheese and showcased it at the 1965 annual meeting of the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association, where attendees promptly consumed the 6-by-14-foot piece of fromage.