We headed north for vacation with the objective of visiting the north woods of Wisconsin during peak fall color season. On the way, we visited our niece and her husband in their new house very close to the south shore of Lake Michigan. To get there, we wound our way through central Illinois to hit some counties I’d never been in.
That’s why we were driving east on I-70 one lovely Friday morning. We had no plans to stop along the way, but suddenly I saw a sign along the highway advertising that World’s Largest stuff could be seen off the next exit. We’re suckers for tourist traps, so we hopped off the Interstate and found ourselves in Casey. It’s a town of only 2,400 people, and I’m not sure I’d ever heard of it. I know I’d never heard of their claim to fame as the home of the world’s largest Wind chime, golf tee, pitchfork, rocking chair, wooden shoes, mailbox, gavel, truck key, barbershop pole, teeter-totter, golf driver, and swizzle spoon. They also have other large things around the town — you can hardly walk a block without running into something or other.
In this view from the world’s largest mailbox, you can see the world’s largest barber pole and rocking chair, as well as a large pencil and piggy bank.
We strolled around and found many of the items. It began to feel like overload after a while, so we didn’t bother chasing down several items that weren’t right downtown. All of the sculptures have Scripture verses on them. We were in a store and overheard a woman asking the clerk about that. The clerk said that the family who created all the items “were very religious.” Most of the items were surrounded by impressive, well-kept gardens.
I’ve long had an issue with “world’s largest”claims. A statue is a statue, therefore, the world’s largest buffalo isn’t really the world’s largest buffalo, although it might be the world’s largest buffalo statue. Understand?
World’s Largest Wind Chime. We were told that a wind of 8 mph could ring it, which would have to get annoying for anyone living or working nearby. Sally hauled on a rope and made it chime a few times. This does chime in the wind, so this would officially qualify in my book.
World’s Largest Barber Pole. It sits outside a barber shop, so again, I’ll give them this one.
World’s Largest Mailbox. This was so much larger than I expected that I looked right past it and actually asked a couple of local ladies where it was when we were right across the street. They were nice about my stupidity. We climbed steps into the inside. You can actually mail letters from there, so it really is a mailbox. Sorta.
World’s Largest Wooden Shoes. These were inside a candy store. I hesitate on this one. They can’t be worn, so are they really shoes? but they could theoretically be worn if someone large enough came along, so I’ll allow it.
World’s Largest Truck Key. See, this is what I mean. Can you actually use this key to start a truck? No. So it’s not really a key, is it? It’s just the world’s largest sculpture shaped like a key. It was also one of the more boring items in town.
World’s Largest Golf Driver. I suppose, if you got a large group of coordinated people, they could swing this and hit a golf ball off a tee. I’ll allow it.
World’s Largest Rocking Chair. This is the second or third world’s largest rocking chair I’ve seen, so I don’t know if this is really the champion chair or not. Nor do I know if it really rocks. But one could sit in it, so it is a chair. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
World’s Largest Teeter-Totter. It wasn’t teeter-tottering this day. I walked to the top of it and … nothing. But apparently you can ride it on Saturdays during the summer.
Here are a few of the other large things in town.
Like I said, we wandered around until we decided we’d had enough. But it was fun, and we both thought that if we absolutely HAD to live in Illinois, Casey wouldn’t be a bad place to live.