Giant Stars and Stripes were set up at the RV store in Onalaska

It is believed to be the largest American flag for miles around. The 40-by-80-foot flag was placed in front of the Coachmen RV Store in Onalaska’s Crossing Meadows.

The company that operates Camping World stores has placed these large flags at its locations across the country. Coachmen’s Onalaska store manager Brian McConnell informed guests of the dimensions of the banner and its pole at an official flag-raising ceremony.

“It’s a 115-foot mast,” McConnell said. “13 feet of it is in the ground, so it’s 150 feet to the top of the truck.”

The “truck” is the name given to the gold ball that crowns the flagpole. McConnell says the majority of employees at the Crossing Meadows store signed that ball before the flagpole was installed.

“We have a flag at each of our locations,” McConnell said. “The vast majority have what we call the big flag.”

Soldiers and veterans were among those who raised the flag at noon on Tuesday. The actual raising of the flag from a shopping cart to the top of the mast took several minutes longer than expected because of electrical problems during the mechanical raising of the banner.