Bad postcard of the week:

From: The Grand Rapids Press
Missouri, Texas and the fight over the world's largest pecan

This is the world's largest pecan. Maybe.

You wouldn't think there would be much competition for the title of “world’s largest pecan.”

Oh, but this week’s bad postcard leads us to a sordid tale of civic pride and competition, famously stubborn Missourians and Texans who believe everything is bigger there just because they say so.

Brunswick, Mo., hosts the subject of our postcard, which sits outside the Nut Hut roadside stand on the farm once operated by George and Elizabeth James.

According to RoadsideAmerica.com, the couple in 1982 had an “if you build it, he will come” moment and built a 12,000-pound, 12-foot-tall concrete replica of their Starking Hardy Giant pecan, a strain discovered on the farm in the 1940s.

And wouldn't you have loved to have been in the store when the order for all that concrete was placed?

The family declared their pecan the world’s largest, probably not thinking they had much competition.

Of course, that’s probably what the folks in Seguin, Texas, thought, too.

You see, they've been billing their town as “Home of the World’s Largest Pecan” since the 1960s. RoadsideAmerica reports that the town’s pecan was built in 1962 by a local dentist “who wanted to put his plastering skills to civic use.”

The Texas nut, which sits on a pedestal and resides under a large sign proclaiming the town’s claim to fame, is 5 feet long and 2.5 feet wide and weighing 1,000 pounds – and is not nearly as big as the Missouri pecan.

Good luck telling that to the Texans. After all, once you've spent all those years billing yourself as “Home of the World’s Largest Pecan,” you’re not going to let some one-horse town in Missouri walk off with your prized title, such as it is.

After simmering on this outrage for years, the town decided enough was enough. The time had come to restore the glory to Seguin and reclaim its rightful place in the small but still important circle of cities committed to large nut displays.

According to WOAI-TV, the new, fiberglass nut was rolled out in 2011. At 16 feet tall and 8 feet around, the new pecan is certainly a behemoth.But It tips the scale at just 2,300 pounds, well below the James family’s concrete nut. Everything is bigger in Texas, but not necessarily heavier.

"I'm just thrilled as mayor,” Seguin Mayor Betty Ann Matthies told the station. “After all, you know, we felt like something was taken away from us, and now we've got it back."

Of course, neither town can claim the true title since neither landmark is actually a pecan, but an amazing replica. We just don’t know the location of the true world’s largest pecan.

A couple of other mysteries remain.

First, was the James family aware of the Texas pecan when it embarked down this path? Did it intend to crush Seguin’s civic pride, or just give people in Northwest Missouri something to see? Will the James family seek to reclaim the title?

And, do we know where the world’s largest walnut and peanut are located, real or in statue form?

The answer, I’m sure, is one awful postcard.