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Betty Mann has met her match.
Her name is Arlene Wagner, and she lays claim to the world’s largest nutcracker collection, which is on display in Leavenworth, Washington.
It has more than 7,000 pieces, and each is a functioning nutcracker, capable of cracking nuts.
At 95, Arlene is six years Betty’s senior, and like Betty, she shows no signs of slowing down.
The two women met last week when Betty was vacationing out west with Esther Frakes and her brother and his wife, Henry and Linda Huhnerkoch.
Betty is Rock County’s longtime Historical Society president and founder of Luverne’s famed 4,000-piece nutcracker collection, which she donated to the museum.
Just as Arlene donated hers in Leavenworth.
“When we walked into the place, I asked for Arlene and introduced myself as Betty Mann from Luverne, Minnesota. I hardly had the words out of my mouth and the women behind the counter threw up their hands and said, ‘Oh, we know all about you,’” Betty said.
“It was kind of fun.”
Both collectors saw the tourism potential in their nutcrackers after many years of requests from the public for private viewings of the collections in their personal homes.
Esther said it was a joy to observe last week’s meeting between the women who live thousands of miles apart but share the same passion.
“It was really neat to watch them,” said Frakes, who video-recorded a piece of their conversation in which Betty told the story of her History Center dream come true.
Arlene, too, dreams of a bigger, more accessible space for her collection, which draws hundreds of visitors — many on tour buses — to the town of roughly 2,000 people.
“She has endless energy,” Esther said about the Leavenworth woman.
Not unlike Betty.
Of course, timeless energy is necessary when organizing big plans.
Arlene and her community have already cultivated the nutcracker image as a tourism draw. The Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum was founded by Arlene and her husband, George, in 1995. It showcases nutcrackers from over 50 countries and has been visited by residents of over 70 countries.
The museum has been featured on television with the Food Network, Arts and Entertainment, and Sunday Morning CBS, and Arlene also made an appearance on the Conan show.
But the Leavenworth collection needs a better home, and that will be the next big task for Arlene, who has already started the arduous task of packing and moving.
Betty’s collection has a spacious and beautiful home, but the marketing has just begun.
Luverne’s nutcrackers have their own billboard on I-90, and hundreds of curious travelers make their way downtown each month to find the possibly second-largest nutcracker collection in the world.
And it now includes a rare, signed Steinbach nutcracker that Betty purchased at a special rate from her new friend, Arlene, who knew the world-renowned German artist Christian Steinbach.