The World's Largest Working Chainsaw Guards a U.P. Gift Shop

Driving across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on US-41 near Ishpeming, you might spot something that makes you hit the brakes: a chainsaw the size of a school bus, pointed at the highway. Meet Big Gus, billed as the world’s largest working chainsaw.

Gus stands guard outside Da Yoopers Tourist Trap, a gleefully goofy gift shop and roadside museum run by the folks behind “Da Yoopers,” a beloved U.P. comedy and music group known since the 1970s for songs about deer camp, snow, and beer. The Tourist Trap is their tribute to “Yoopervations” — one-of-a-kind contraptions Yoopers dream up out of long winters and good humor.

And Big Gus is no toy. Built by Moran Iron Works in nearby Onaway, he’s about 22 feet, 11 inches long and 6 feet tall, and weighs in around 3,500 pounds. Under the hood is a real V-8 engine. The staff will actually fire him up for visitors — though they keep the speed low, because there’s a genuine worry that the giant chain could fly off and sail across the highway.

A few steps away sits Gus’s equally absurd companion, Big Ernie, billed as the world’s largest working rifle — roughly 35 feet long. As the story goes, Ernie once fired a rock wrapped in duct tape about two and a half miles into a cornfield, and the recoil knocked the whole rifle off its truck mount and broke the windows of a nearby farmhouse. He’s mostly retired now.

The best part? Admission and parking are free. You can walk right up to Gus and Ernie, browse a gift shop full of moose ties and beer-can wind chimes, and take in some proudly silly U.P. humor. It’s not high art — but as a slice of Yooper personality, it’s hard to beat.