World’s Largest Ouija Board Unveiled in Salem, Massachusetts

If a young Rick “Ormortis” Schreck ever asked a Ouija board if he’d end up making the world’s largest Ouija board, the answer should’ve been yes.

“OuijaZilla,” as it’s affectionately called, weighs 9000 pounds and covers 3168 square feet—as big a footprint as five 18-wheelers. According to Popular Mechanics, the board took 99 pieces of plywood, 20 quarts of black paint, several gallons of deck stain, and one whole year to complete.

It contains all the classic elements of a traditional Ouija board, including the full alphabet, numbers zero through nine, and the words yes, no, and goodbye. Instead of using their fingers to move the planchette across the board, a few people stand inside the 400-pound planchette’s circular cutout and shuffle their way into a seance.

Schreck, a tattoo artist and vice president of the Talking Board Historical Society (TBHS), originally built the giant Ouija board in New Jersey and then transported it to Salem, Massachusetts, where it was reassembled and unveiled to the public on October 12.

The town, notorious for its witch hunts in the late 17th century, seems an especially eerie resting place for yet another spooky piece of America’s history. But it’s actually where Ouija boards were manufactured for years, after Salem-based toy company Parker Brothers bought the rights to the game in 1966. It’s also the town that inspired Schreck’s initial interest in Ouija boards in 1992.

According to the TBHS website, the Brobdingnagian board is nearly 2.5 times larger than the current Guinness World Record holder, and Ripley's Believe It or Not! has bestowed the title of "world's largest Ouija board" on Schreck's creation. It’s also “fully operational,” which hopefully means that you can use it to commune with extra-large dead people.

[h/t Popular Mechanics]