Many people may not know this, but New Jersey is home to the world’s tallest water sphere.

The 212-feet-tall tower has resided in Union Township along the Garden State Parkway and Route 22 for 54 years. It used to bear a billboard proclaiming it to be “The World’s Tallest Water Sphere,” but that sign has since been taken down by American Water.

But the water sphere still remains popular and a Texas man has dedicated a blog and a museum to the structure.

Austin resident Dan Becker is a Union Township native. For the last 15 years, he has run the website WorldsTallestWaterSphere.com. Becker’s blog is very “Jersey” and has a tongue-in-cheek feel where the water sphere has mysterious mystical powers and sometimes dark intentions on humankind. There are interviews with the people who built the tower, discussions of what it does and the work of artists inspired by the water sphere.

“I didn't realize it would last this long. You know it started out as a joke and humor and sharing stories with each other,” he says. “The more we wrote about it, the more people emailed me and had more stories and more photos and information. And so it just grew from there. A lot of people have this kind of spiritual thing about the water sphere that I find amusing too.”

Becker does admit that attendance at his museum is low – pretty much nonexistent. But he says that any water sphere fans who find themselves in Austin should look it up.

The Union Township water sphere does have a challenger – in 2012 a water tower built in Erwin, North Carolina, was constructed 7 feet taller. But Becker says that the tower in Erwin is actually a spheroid – a slightly different shape than a sphere and so he says that the Union Township tower retains its title.