LUVERNE, Minn. (KELO) — Betty Mann of Luverne felt like treating herself, so that's what she did. "In 2000, I lost my husband and my oldest daughter, and that was a bad Christmas for me, and so the first Saturday in January of 2001 I was in the Cracker Barrel in Sioux Falls, and everything Christmas was half price, and I said to my daughter-in-law, I've always wanted a wooden nutcracker, and I had a tough Christmas: I'm buying myself a belated Christmas present," Mann said. "And I bought this one right up here for six dollars." That nutcracker dressed as Santa Claus was her first nutcracker: the first of many. In 2016, she donated more than 2,500 nutcrackers to the Rock County History Center. "I heard people say, 'Let's go see the museum,'" Mann said. "The next person would say, 'If you see one museum, you've seen them all,' and that bothered me. And so I went to my board and asked them if they would accept my collection. Maybe it would draw people in to the museum, and then they would see all the other great things that we have in the museum." Today, Mann says there are more than 6,300 nutcrackers in the building. "All of these are animals, all of the military together, all of the Uncle Sams are together," Mann said. Anderson, Duba comment on vote-counting delay A short drive from the history center – and past more nutcrackers lining the side of Main Street – is Those Blasted Things, a local rock shop owned by Vance Walgrave and his wife. Right next door is a giant pair of black boots, and eventually, these will belong to what Walgrave says will be the world's biggest nutcracker. Walgrave started the nonprofit organization that's building it; construction started in 2023, and they're hoping to finish it in the spring of 2025. Santella: Why are you building a giant nutcracker, Vance? "It started with Betty Mann at the history center," Walgrave said. "It's her fault." The huge nutcracker will look like a patriotic sentinel alongside Interstate 90. "His hand over his heart, and he's looking right down the interstate to the east," Walgrave said. The undertaking can weigh heavily. After all, the final product is set to be 65 feet tall on an eight-foot base. "Sometimes it wears us down a little bit, but then by the next morning we're up and at 'em again and all fired up, and we've just, it's been quite a long road, but we're making headway," Walgrave said. After all, he can always find inspiration in the 94-year-old Mann. "She says she gets tired, but it looks like, to us, that she has unlimited energy," Walgrave said. And just like she saw nutcrackers as a vehicle to draw people into a museum, he sees the nutcracker he's building as bringing people to this community. "The main objective of this thing is to draw business into Luverne," Walgrave said. "We're a bedroom community now of Sioux Falls, and people take a lot of money out of this community. We're trying to bring money back into the community." Mann served as president of the Rock County Historical Society for more than 25 years. Days gone by, she says, are important to recall. "I keep telling everybody, we can't live in the past, but we need to learn by it," Mann said. The past and present take communities to the future, which before too long will include a gargantuan nutcracker welcoming people to Luverne. And this historian loves what's coming. "I think it's absolutely fantastic," Mann said. Donations are still sought to help finish the nutcracker; you can contribute here.