Before Idaho had potato drops for New Year's Eve, Twin Falls had the copper ball – Idaho News 6 Boise Twin Falls

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Twin Falls has an interesting way of ringing in the new year, with a ball drop from the historic grain silos on the south end of Downtown. Dave Woodhead, owner of Lamphouse Theatre, has dropped the ball here for over 20 years.

• The large copper ball will be dropped at midnight on the 31st.
• Dave uses his 1961 Ford Econoline pickup to lower the ball on a 20-second count.
• There will be a warming fire at the silos, and the ball drop will be live-streamed at the Lamphouse Theatre for revelers, and on their Facebook page.

(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

Dave Woodhead has been dropping the ball on New Year’s Eve for over 20 years.

“I mean now they drop a sugar beet in Rupert and a giant potato in Boise but we have a big copper ball.

Dave owns the Lamphouse Theater in the warehouse district and has always been impressed with the historic silos nearby.

So for New Year’s Eve of 2000, they did their first ball drop and have done so every year since, with the exception of 2013, when he closed his bar, Woody’s. That same year, it was featured in a national magazine.

“Mental Floss had done a story about the most unusual things that people drop on New Year’s Eve state by state I think it was, and we were the one for Idaho. We were the only ones dropping anything back then.”

The ball is lowered by driving his 1961 Econoline Pickup towards the silos, thus lowering the ball.

The ball they drop is a large copper object, no one is really sure what it is.

It was even stolen once, right before New Year’s Eve. But it came back – A friend of Dave’s later found it in a ditch, with a big ol’ ding in it.

“I think somebody stole it they were gonna recycle it and they didn’t have their tailgate up and they were driving around the South Hills or do you know where the foothills Road is and maybe they made the turn and that’s where it fell out so any way we got the ball back.”

Forecasts for a mild evening make Dave optimistic, but just in case, he’ll be broadcasting a live feed from the Lamp House Cinema Facebook page.