Casey, Illinois holds 12 world records and you can walk to every single one for free

Casey’s big things are hiding in plain sight

Casey, Illinois, covers 2.6 square miles and has about 2,300 people. You’d blow right past it on Interstate 70 if you didn’t know what was there.

But tucked into this east-central Illinois town, halfway between St. Louis and Indianapolis, are 12 Guinness World Record-holding oversized objects and more than 20 additional big things scattered across a walkable downtown.

Almost all of them are free, outdoors, and open year-round. The scale of what one town pulled off here takes a minute to sink in.

One man’s billboard idea turned a town into a destination

In 2011, Jim Bolin was talking with his family about opening a tea shop when he realized he needed a reason to pull drivers off the highway.

Bolin ran a pipeline and tank maintenance company called Bolin Enterprises, and he had workshops, scrap metal, and old pipes sitting around.

He built the World’s Largest Wind Chime, put up billboards on I-70, and travelers started showing up.

Over the next 15 years, Bolin and his crew built all 12 record-holders using recycled materials like old telephone poles and oil field pipes.

Bolin passed away in January 2026, but his company’s leadership has committed to carrying the work forward.

The 49-foot wind chime that started it all

East Main Street is where the whole thing began. The World’s Largest Wind Chime stands 49 feet tall, with the longest single chime stretching 42 feet. Bolin built it from used pipes out of his own pipeline work.

Pull the rope and the chimes sway and ring. The structure carries multi-faith symbols on its frame, and Guinness certified it in 2012.

It’s the kind of thing that stops you mid-step. You stand there looking up, and it’s hard to believe a scrapped pipeline became this.

A 56-foot rocking chair made from telephone poles

Right across the street from the wind chime sits the World’s Largest Rocking Chair, and it actually rocks. The chair stands 56 feet 1 inch tall, stretches 32 feet 10 inches wide, and weighs 46,200 pounds.

Bolin built it mostly from recycled telephone poles and metal pipes, with material costs under $1,000. A carved dove of peace sits on the headrest, and olive branches run along the armrests.

It took two years to build, and for the 2015 Guinness certification, 10 men had to push it to prove it could move.

The mailbox you can actually walk inside

The World’s Largest Mailbox measures 5,743.41 cubic feet, and Guinness required it to actually work as a mailbox, so it does.

Climb the built-in stairway inside the post and you come out inside the box with a view of downtown Casey. The red flag goes up when someone drops off outgoing mail.

You can slide in a letter or postcard and it goes out with a special cancellation stamp that reads “World’s Largest Mailbox, Casey, Illinois.”

Certified in 2015, it’s one of the few record-holders where you leave with a souvenir that already has a postmark on it.

Walk across an 82-foot seesaw on a Saturday

Beside the wind chime on East Main Street, an 82-foot teeter totter sits certified by Guinness since 2019. On select Saturdays, you can walk across it.

Gated sides run the length of the board, so you’re not about to tumble off, but there’s still something disorienting about standing on a seesaw the length of a semi truck.

It’s the kind of thing that makes you laugh before you even step on.

Most visitors don’t expect to feel like a kid again on a road trip through Illinois, but Casey keeps finding ways to make that happen.

A pitchfork outside a steakhouse and a golf tee at the country club

The World’s Largest Pitchfork stands 61 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 1,940 pounds.

It’s planted outside Richards Farm Restaurant, built to match the restaurant’s rural theme and honor Casey’s farming roots, and it’s Guinness-certified.

A short drive away at the Casey Country Club, the World’s Largest Golf Tee stands 30 feet 9 inches tall, shaped from yellow pine boards cut with chainsaws. Both records are certified.

The fact that a town this size has a record-holding pitchfork next to a steakhouse and a golf tee next to a country club says something about how Casey does things.

A spinning barbershop pole and a 45-foot golf club

At the Visitor’s Center on South Central Avenue, a 45-foot golf club stands outside. It weighs 731 pounds and was made with an aluminum light pole and persimmon wood.

A few blocks away on West Main Street, the World’s Largest Barbershop Pole stands in front of Tina’s Barber Shop. It’s painted red, white and blue, and it actually spins.

Both were certified by Guinness in 2019. The barbershop pole is the kind of record you don’t see coming.

You round a corner on Main Street and there it is, slowly turning.

Wooden shoes big enough to hold 15 people

Step inside Whisk + Lollies Bakery and Candy Shoppe on General Robey Street and you’ll find the World’s Largest Wooden Shoes. Each one weighs about 2,500 pounds and is large enough to hold 15 people inside.

Toss a coin in and the money goes to the Big Things Small Town maintenance fund.

Outside town, there’s also a 13-foot steel truck key, a Guinness-certified replica of the key to Jim Bolin’s own Chevrolet work truck, built with permission from Chevrolet to use their logo. It’s the most personal record in the collection.

A courthouse gavel 20 miles away and a swizzle spoon downtown

Not every record stays in Casey. The World’s Largest Gavel lives 20 miles east at the Clark County Courthouse in Marshall, Illinois.

It runs nearly 17 feet long and earned its Guinness certification in 2019.

Back in Casey, the World’s Largest Swizzle Spoon stands just over 11 feet tall outside Brownie’s Place on South Central Avenue, certified in 2018.

Two very different objects, two very different locations, one shared origin story.

Bolin built them both, and the gavel at a working courthouse might be the most quietly funny placement in the whole collection.

Minions, a mousetrap and a bookworm walk into a small town

Past the 12 record-holders, Casey has more than 20 other oversized objects spread across town. The Big Birdcage stands eight feet wide and 10 feet tall, with a swing inside you can sit on.

The Big Mousetrap comes with a sign that reads “Help me! I’m trapped in Casey, Illinois!”

The Big Bookworm stands in front of the public library. Elsewhere, you’ll find a Big Ear of Corn, Big Pencil, Big Minion, Big Cactus, and Big Rocking Horse.

Local shops have added a big pizza slicer and a big taco. Maps are available at businesses around town and on the Big Things Small Town website.

Walk the old National Road through Casey’s downtown

Almost everything in Casey sits within a few walkable blocks of downtown, centered on the intersection of Main Street and Central Avenue, the town’s only stoplight.

That stretch of Main Street was once part of the historic National Road, the first major road built to move settlers west.

Fairview Park adds another reason to linger, with a fishing pond, disc golf, horseshoe pits, a playground, picnic spots and camping sites.

Shops and indoor attractions run Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you want a guided loop, trolley tours are available through Model Tees LLC.

Explore the big things in Casey, Illinois

You can reach Casey from I-70 at the intersection of Main Street and Illinois Route 49.

It sits about 80 miles southeast of Champaign, roughly three hours from Chicago, and about two and a half hours from both St. Louis and Indianapolis.

Almost all the outdoor attractions are accessible around the clock at no charge.

Indoor attractions like the World’s Largest Wooden Shoes keep hours tied to the businesses that house them, so Thursday through Saturday works best for a full visit.

Check the official website for maps, hours and any updates before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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