You can spend the night in a giant potato in Idaho

Frank Witsil
Updated

After crisscrossing America to promote the virtues of the Idaho potato, a steel-and-plaster spud the size of a small house is being converted into a place to stay in a field southeast of Boise, the gem state's capital.

The Big Idaho Potato, as Idahoans call it, will soon become the Big Idaho Potato Hotel. The Idaho Potato Commission, the group that created it, would love for you to consider it for your next vacation.

"It would make the best Instagram selfie!" Laura Martin, a lifelong Idaho native, Idaho potato lover, and director of the Big Idaho Potato tour, said Tuesday. "Plant this big potato in a field in the middle of Idaho and then sleep in it? That is just crazy amazing!"

Kristie Wolfe owns and designed the Big Idaho Potato Hotel, which re-purposed a massive potato structure.
Kristie Wolfe owns and designed the Big Idaho Potato Hotel, which re-purposed a massive potato structure.

To celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2012, the Idaho Potato Commission — a marketing board that represents potato growers in Idaho — created its 28-foot long, 12-foot wide, 11½-foot tall potato. It was made out of steel, plaster and concrete.

It was supposed to travel for a year. It ended up traveling about 175,000 miles for seven.

Idaho is an Indian word supposedly meaning "Gem of the Mountains," but the state is probably best known around the world for its potatoes. In fact, the spud is the official state vegetable.

There's even an Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho.

Potatoes were first planted in Idaho in the mid-1800s, and the state now grows about 13 billion pounds of potatoes a year, almost a third of the nation's crop.

But, last year the Idaho Potato Commission started building a new traveling potato — the Big Idaho Potato 2.0 — to take on a new national tour, stopping at famous landmarks, making its way in parades, and parking at NASCAR races.

As a result, version 1.0 was retired.

The commission considered giving the big potato to the potato museum.

But, Kristie Wolfe, who had been a part of the big potato tour team and also is a tiny house builder offered to transform version 1.0 into a structure suitable for human habitation. She is turning the potato into an Airbnb rental.

“If you put it in a museum that’s one thing," Frank Muir, CEO of the Idaho Potato Commission, said to the Idaho Statesman, which has written multiple times about the famous potato. "But if you put it out here near Mountain Home, it’s a way of inviting people to experience Idaho in a unique way."

To make the potato structure cozy, it was furnished with a queen-size bed, chairs and an antler chandelier.
To make the potato structure cozy, it was furnished with a queen-size bed, chairs and an antler chandelier.

To make the potato cozy for couples, Wolfe added insulation, a wood floor, electricity and running water, as well as heating and air condition. She furnished it with a queen-size bed, two chairs, and an antler chandelier.

She also built a bathroom, which has a whirlpool, fireplace and skylight for stargazing.

The hotel is set to open in late May. The rate is $200 a night, not including taxes.

By the numbers

Here are some stats about the Big Idaho Potato.

7,000: Years it would take to grow a potato that big

6: Number of tons it weighs

802: Number of times heavier than the largest potato ever grown

20,217: The number of services of massed potatoes it would make

1 million: Number of french fries it would produce

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: You can spend the night in a giant potato in Idaho