Going Big
By Naperville Magazine
Appears in the March 2025 issue.
By Jeff Banowetz
Small-town Casey, Illinois, put itself on the map by taking ordinary objects to the max
Signs trying to draw tourists off the highway to explore local attractions are as old as highways themselves. But the town of Casey, Illinois—population 2,350—has taken the concept to greater heights by creating a menagerie of outrageously oversized objects. A dozen installations around town have been certified as the world’s largest by Guinness World Records, including the world’s largest rocking chair, golf tee, pitchfork, mailbox, and barbershop pole, each over-the-top and enticingly Instagramable. There are also more than a dozen other “big” objects as well—a piggy bank, crochet hook, mousetrap, horseshoe, pencil—that, while technically not the world’s largest, are probably still on the podium.
These oversize installations were the brainchild and creation of Jim Bolan, a lifelong Casey resident, who debuted the first one in 2011 to help publicize a tea shop and café that his family was opening.
The town (pronounced KAY-Zee locally) sits just south of Interstate 70, about 200 miles from Chicago and halfway between St. Louis and Indianapolis. Bolan was trying to think of ways to get more people off the highway. “I noticed the wind chimes outside our house, and I wondered how big do you think the world’s largest wind chime is?”
Bolan owns and operates a pipeline business, so the idea of creating a giant wind chime wasn’t quite as outrageous as it would be to most people. It took about two years of planning and construction, but he did indeed build the world’s largest wind chime (the structure is 54 feet tall, with the longest chime 42 feet long), and people did indeed start exiting the highway to visit it.
“We started seeing cars from all these different states downtown; it was nice to see,” Bolan says. “We run a family business, with 250 employees working all over the United States, often in small towns like ours. And it got us thinking about what else we could be doing for the town. It pushed me to try and do another one.”
The next was a knitting needle and crochet hook—at the time the world’s largest but since surpassed—and Bolan found he enjoyed the creativity involved with the projects. “It just kind of got traction, so I’d come up with another idea,” he says. “There was no grandiose plan in the beginning where we thought to do this. We just kind of stumbled across something that worked, so we just kept investing in it.”
The monetary investment has been relatively minor, according to Bolan (“We have a lot of old pipes lying around…”), and he has enjoyed the challenges of making these large objects look as realistic as possible. His biggest challenge was the largest and most visible project in town: the 56-foot-tall rocking chair that weighs an impressive 46,000 pounds and took two years to complete.
“It was probably the most difficult because it’s not a straight-back rocking chair,” he says. “I wanted to try to make a piece of furniture, like something that you might see inside your house…There were so many angles to get right. If you’re building a regular chair, if you make a mistake, you wasted two feet of material. You can’t make a mistake when dealing with something this big.”
The wood in the chair comes from repurposed telephone poles, made with western red cedar, which holds up well to the elements. “We collected these old telephone poles from different job sites, and we’d clean them up and take them to a sawmill to shape,” he says. “All the pipes were from different jobs and no longer usable for service. So the entire rocking chair is basically made of recycled materials.”
Perhaps most impressive is that the chair actually rocks (a condition necessary for the world record), albeit with the help of about 10 people.
Speaking of rocking, the world’s largest teeter-totter (82 feet long) also functions—and can be ridden during the summer tourist season.
On good weather days, as many as 2,000 people take the exit ramp to see the art installations. “It’s been very popular in town, and I think it’s given us more purpose,” Bolan says. “There’s a reason to make the town better, and everyone can get behind it.”
While Bolan is less interested in chasing world records now, he still has several large objects due to be finished this year, including a clothes hanger, a boomerang, and a picture frame that’s perfect for family portraits. He’s also working on a porch-style swing that will be able to fit 15 or so people, but he expects that won’t be finished until 2026. Bolan turned 60 last year and says he’s not finished creating unusually massive objects. “As long as it’s still fun, I’ll keep making them.”
Just in Casey
Most of Casey’s big attractions are within a two to three block radius of downtown, making for a very walkable trip. Most are outside, but be sure to check out the full list as some displays are inside businesses, such as the world’s largest wooden shoes (see below).
EAT
Start your day with a trip to the Casey Coffee Company (6 W. Main St.) and enjoy an espresso, coffee, tea, or smoothie. Indulge your sweet tooth at the Casey Candy Depot (20 W. General Roby St.), located in the former train depot. In addition to gourmet chocolates, fudge, popcorn, and other specialty food items, this is where you’ll also find the wooden shoes. The Whitling Whimsy Cafe (107 E. Main St.) has an extensive breakfast and lunch menu, as well as freshly baked goods. Richards Farm Restaurant (607 NE 13th St.) is just a five-minute drive from downtown and the place to go for steaks, chops, and seafood in a country setting. The Hometown Butcher Shop and Deli (108 E. Main St.) is the spot to hit for sandwiches to go.
STAY
Located downtown, Eighteen-Ninety Sleepover (14 S. Central Ave.) features “1890s charm with modern amenities.” It was created in a former town meeting hall dating back to that era, and each room is unique.
DO
Visit bigthingssmalltown.com for a map of all the art installations in Casey. All are free to explore.
Photos: Casey Chamber of Commerce (teeter-totter, mailbox, mousetrap); Illinois Office of Tourism (signs, pencil, top, wind chime)
