Today's Article

Aaron Bartholmey won't 2settle with being number two. He says he has about 70,000 wooden 3advertising pencils. The 4current 5Guinness World Record is 24,000 pencils. 

“Sounds like, well, I can easily 6beat that.”

And tomorrow's the big day because here at the Colfax Historical Society, they're going to be counting all 70,000 of these pencils. And he has every kind of pencil you can think of, from 7aspirin 8filled pencils…

“Harmless lactose sucrose arch tablets…”

to 9rotary phone pencils…

“Dial your number that way.”

to high school basketball schedule pencils….

“This is Amboy high school.”

and even 100-year-old pencils.

“I don't know that you can pick a favorite when you've got 70,000 of something.”

But the most special pencils are the ones that come from his 10hometown.

“And it's just neat to see. I love seeing 11local businesses, you know. For so many of these places, these pencils are the only place where there's any record of that business still. And I think it's just a 12neat way to kind of 13preserve the history. 

“14Eventually, I just heard about the society. I don't know how I heard about it, but I did.”

Andrew Westberg, President of the American Pencil Collector Society, will be one of the counters to 15verify the world record.

“So, I've been looking forward to this. I’m really looking for going down there and seeing some pencils.”

The Collector Society is a place to meet other 16pencil collectors and 17trade 18duplicates. Aaron expects county to take at least 12 hours, but he's excited to bring everyone together to 19show off his own 20treasured pieces of history.

“I love the history that you can find through these little sticks of wood.”