Wisconsin Community Tackles 60,000-Piece Puzzle + Finish With One Piece Missing

Having grown up in the MTV generation, I applaud anyone who enjoys putting together puzzles. The MTV generation, of course, is known to have short attention spans, and as technology exploded through the 80's they often overlooked simple pleasures like board games and puzzles. I'm guilty of those characteristics.

That being said, even I can fully appreciate communities tackling The World’s Largest Puzzle by Dowdle as the puzzle itself is the ultimate challenge, and making a community event out of it brings people together.

The World’s Largest Puzzle by Dowdle, for those unfamiliar, is a 60,000-piece puzzle that is 8’ tall and 29’ long filled featuring "vibrant images of the world’s most interesting places." The puzzle is available through retailers like Cosco, which currently has it priced at $479.99

Here are some of the puzzle highlights, according to Dowdle:

• Features images from 187 Dowdle paintings
• World’s largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle with 60,000 pieces and measuring 8 feet by 29 feet
• 60 interlocking 1,000-piece puzzles can be assembled separately and brought together to make one gigantic masterpiece
• Each puzzle is sealed in a separate bag, simplifying the assembly process, and ensuring no pieces are lost
• The puzzle contains 60 reference posters and a master legend to show where each puzzle fits
• A fun, educational family and team-building activity
• Made with premium blue chipboard

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Recently, the Grasse Funeral Home in Wisconsin decided to build the puzzle as a fun and rewarding community project. For about a month, community members took turns working together to construct the 60 interlocking 1,000-piece individual puzzles so that they could all be brought together.

When they got close to completion, they organized a Grand Finale weekend where everyone in the community could watch them finish the labor of love.

On Sunday, community members gathered at Grasse Funeral Home to watch The World’s Largest Puzzle by Dowdle finally come together.

As the magic moment neared, they noticed something was wrong. Out of 60,000 puzzle pieces, one was missing. One.

Had I been there, my first assumption would be that someone was playing a joke and they'd whip the piece from a pocket and yell "Just kidding!" That, however, never happened and somehow one puzzle piece had indeed gone missing.

I reached out to Grasse Funeral Home on Monday to ask if they'd found the missing piece yet and they replied, "No. I even did a very deep cleaning of the meal room yesterday." Perhaps someone who assisted in the project will discover the piece in a pocket?

To be clear, missing one piece takes nothing away from the accomplishment of tackling a puzzle of this magnitude. In fact, in a way, it makes it even more special and certainly more memorable. Perhaps they isolate which piece is missing and reach out to the manufacturer to just send it to them? Come on, Dowdle, do the right thing here.

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