I used to be able to jog to the “World’s Largest Rotating World” a 28-ft. diameter steel ball on the campus of Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Today the jog would be a little further - about 140-miles further actually - right up the New England coast to the town of Yarmouth, Maine, just up from Portland and on the way to L.L. Bean in Freeport.

Currently, the title of “World’s Largest Rotating World” is held by Eartha. Eartha was built by renowned Maine mapmaker DeLorme, and was measured by the Guinness World Records at 41.5 ft in diameter.

In case you’ve not heard of DeLorme, to say they’re just another mapmaker is like saying Denali is just another mountain. If you were stuck in Maine’s North Woods or deep in Vermont’s Green Mountains where road identification is spotty at best and non-existent at worst, then to ensure survival you’d want to have one of DeLorme maps with you.

DeLorme maps are the gold standard in these parts and as dependable as fall foliage appearing here each October.

Now with GPS systems and other computer gadgetry taking over from the washable maps, DeLorme has also moved into the software market, providing sophisticated systems for the changing needs of their customers. DeLorme is producing innovative and ground-breaking devices, but it’ll take some trumping to eclipse the work they did producing Eartha.

Back in 1998 and after two years of intense engineering design and construction, DeLorme unveiled Eartha in a specially built weatherproof three-story glass atrium at Delorme headquarters in Yarmouth. At night it is illuminated making a spectacular sight from any outside vantage point.

The globe itself is composed of 792 separate map sections printed from a special composite database of satellite imagery, shaded relief, ocean depth data, and other sources. This makes it the largest image of earth ever produced and a fascinating 3D experience.

Eartha is tilted at 23.5 degrees - the same as our actual earth - but it revolves once every 18 minutes, and offers three different close-up vantage points at the South Pole, the Equator, and Greenland.

You can visit and see the globe for free, and the lobby hours are daily from 9:30am - 6:00pm. DeLorme is located just off exit 17 I-95, and phone 207-846-7100 or visit their web site for more details about the globe here

For more suggestions on things to do in Maine visit the Maine vacations section of my web site by clicking here.

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Cliff Calderwood
Publisher
New England Travel Online Magazine

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