When Lori Feltis, a member of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, was brainstorming with other members about publicity ideas for an upcoming farm show, she had an idea that everyone liked.

"I said it would be really neat to have a cornstalk mailbox because what farmer wouldn't like having one of those at the end of their driveway," she says.

She couldn't find anything like it on the market so she went ahead and welded one together herself. The committee liked it so much she made three more.

The lifesize cornstalk mailboxes are made from different sizes of rebar and 18 and 20 gauge steel that she pounded out. From a distance, they look real, thanks to realistic details like the metal "husk pockets" that each hold a real ear of husked field corn.

 While on display, Feltis says a lot of people took pictures of them. "They said, 'This wouldn't be too hard to make,'" she recalls. "And I do hope they make them because they are neat."