PORT ANGELES — It looks like an inverted ice cream cone, but this is one treat you won’t be able to lick.
With 210 tons of sand towering 29 feet, 3½ inches above downtown Port Angeles, the monolith on Saturday unofficially broke the world record for tallest sand sculpture.
A surveyor on Thursday confirmed the structure’s height, but the true test came Saturday afternoon when sculptors removed wooden supports from the base and scrambled to carve their last marks.
“Awesome,” head sculptor Charlie Beaulieu said as he viewed the finished product and high-fived his co-artists.
The creation measures 8½ inches taller than the 1999 world record sand sculpture and will be submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records.
The conical, firmly packed sand sculpture actually depicts a giant evergreen tree symbolizing Port Angeles’ 140th anniversary and is the cornerstone of the downtown Arts in Action festival, which ends today.
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