This Small U.S. Town Holds 12 of the World’s Largest Objects

The wind chime is the piece that started it all. Built in 2011 as a precursor to support the Whitling Whimsy Café next door, it was inspired by Bolin’s childhood memories listening to the wind chimes on his grandmother’s porch. Today, the wind chime is the largest in the world, standing 54 feet tall with its longest chime 42 feet long.

Faith is at the core of Bolin’s works, with many pieces including an accompanying piece of scripture from the Bible and/or Christian symbols. The wind chimes feature two Stars of David on the structure’s east and west sides, reflecting Jesus’ Jewish heritage. The north and south sides feature a fish, a symbol representing Jesus in Christianity. Visitors are encouraged to ring the wind chime.

Across the street from the wind chime, the world’s largest rocking chair is impossible to miss. It stands at 56 feet and weighs 46,200 pounds. The chair actually rocks a feat that required 10 grown men to accomplish. It also includes intricate carvings, with a dove of peace featured on the center of the headrest and olive branches on the armrests. The chair took two years to build, and Bolin said it was the most difficult to create of all the objects.

“If you look at it, there are so many angles and twists to it,” he said. “We built that whole thing in our shop. We put parts and pieces of it together to make it, but we didn’t know how it would fit together until we built it on site.”

Though perhaps not the world’s largest, the birdcage is one of Casey’s most popular large objects. Located next to the wind chime, the cage is 8 feet wide and 10 feet tall on the inside, and 13 feet tall on the outside. It features a swing inside, also making it a prime spot for photos. Like most of the structures, the birdcage was made with used objects. The top is made from the end of a propane tank, and the floor is made from an old oil field tank. They are surrounded by sucker rods from an oil pump jack to make the cage.

“That is one that always has a line, and there’s always somebody sitting inside of it,” said Bailey Maulding, Casey’s Economic Development Director.

Like many of Casey’s large objects, the barbershop pole stands adjacent to a complementary business. In this case, the pole stands in front of Tina’s Barber Shop–a staple business in downtown Casey. The traditional blue, red and white striped pole is the world’s largest and is 14 feet, 7 inches tall, and 3 feet, 11 inches wide. Bolin said when he partners with a business, he usually has the idea first before approaching them and then later presents them with a surprise.

“I may talk to the store owner or something, but then when we erect something, like the barbershop pole, we come in there like at four o’clock in the morning and put it all in,” he said. “By the time everybody’s going to work at 6:30-7 am, boom, there’s a barbershop pole there!”

The world’s largest mailbox is 32 feet tall and spans 5,743 cubic feet in downtown Casey. The structure is a replica of a traditional rural mailbox–representing the small-town lifestyle of the community–and is made from old telephone poles and steel.

The mailbox is fully functional, a requirement for the Guinness World Records designation. Visitors can climb up the stairs in the back to mail a letter inside, complete with its own cancellation stamp with a mailbox logo and the words, “World’s Largest Mailbox, Casey, Illinois.” It also has a functioning red flag that goes up when mail is posted.

Located inside Casey’s Candy Depot downtown, the world’s largest wooden shoes are 4 feet 9 inches tall and 11 feet 5 inches long. Each shoe weighs approximately 2,500 pounds and is large enough to hold 15 people inside.

Bolin created the first shoe himself, a process he said took him an average of 20 hours a week for six months to create half of one. Starting with a template based on a traditional shoe, Bolin glued and screwed layers of wood together before using a chainsaw to create the basic shape, followed by hand-sanding to fine-tune and smooth.

Casey’s knitting needles and crochet hook held the world’s largest titles from 2013-2017. The knitting needles are 13.75 feet long, 3.25 inches in diameter, and 25 pounds each. The crochet hook is a little over 6 feet tall, 3 inches in diameter, and weighs 9 pounds. Bolin built them for his wife’s cousin’s shop, The Yarn Studio (now closed, but still prominently displayed in the storefront) and are the second objects he built following the wind chime. Also, the tools actually work. Former studio owner Jeanette Huisinga had to knit and crochet a 10-stitch by 10-inch tension square to earn the titles, a feat she completed with the support of the local elementary school.

Sixty feet long and weighing 1,940 pounds, Casey’s pitchfork is the world’s largest. It stands at Richards Farm restaurant, a family barn-turned-restaurant that features a room with pitchforks on the wall.

The pitchfork is completely made from recycled materials. Old western red cedar telephone poles make up the handle, while the tines are made from discarded pipeline pipe and streetlight illuminator arms.

“[The farm] is a great place to stretch your legs and learn more about the town,” Maulding said. “There’s a lot of history there.”

The town’s antlers stand out as the only large object not made locally. After being featured on the Travel Channel’s “Epic Lists,” Casey caught the eye of All Access Staging and Productions, a production company that had built the antlers for a Jägermeister commercial. The company no longer needed them and decided to gift them to the town.

Each antler weighs approximately 1,567 pounds and is 28 feet wide and 24 feet 3 inches tall. They live in front of Bolin’s JJET Rental store, with an added seat at the bottom so visitors can take photos.

Along with the wind chime and mailbox, the teeter-totter is one of Casey’s few interactive giant objects and arguably its most fun. It’s the world’s largest at 82 feet long and one of Maulding’s favorites. Visitors can ride it on Saturdays in the summer with the assistance of volunteers, but they can climb on it on their own year-round.

The world’s largest gavel is the area’s only large object not located in Casey. Instead, it stands in the neighboring town, Marshall, in front of the county courthouse. The gavel is 16 feet, 8 inches long, and 5 feet tall. After Casey’s economic boost following the tourism from its large objects, Bolin wanted to support neighboring communities, which had lost traffic after the construction of the interstate. Maulding said Marshall is worth a visit.

“They have a lot of new shops that are popping up, they have murals all over town, they have painted lions, and they’re the county seat,” she said. “I think that if we can create awareness that we have so much, not only as a city to offer but as a county, I think more and more people are making that trip.”

The piggy bank is Casey’s latest large object. It made its debut this summer in front of one of the town’s newest businesses, The Butcher Shop, next to the rocking chair. The piggy bank is estimated to weigh 450 pounds, measuring 4 feet tall and 5 feet, 7 inches long. The pig is designed from an existing ceramic piggy bank using an old propane tank, with legs made of 8-inch pipe and ears made of pipeline sleeves. It includes a slit at the top so visitors can deposit money inside, with donations supporting tourism efforts downtown.

Bolin aims to do a new structure every year but hasn’t decided what’s next for 2023, perhaps a fishing pole.

“When I see a piece of junk or disregarded materials,” he said, “I think, ‘I wonder what that could be turned into.’”

Casey’s additional large objects include:

• Golf Tee (world’s largest)
• Key (world’s largest)
• Swizzle Spoon (world’s largest)
• Golf Driver (world’s largest)
• Softball Bat
• Poké Ball
• Minion
• Spinning Top
• Toy Glider
• Wooden Token
• Pizza Slicer
• Bookworm
• Nail Puzzle
• Anvil
• Horseshoe
• Cactus
• Ear of Corn
• Mouse Trap
• Rocking Horse
• Yardstick
• Pencil
• Taco