Let me preface this by saying there are way way more than 6 big roadside attractions in Illinois (specifically the town of Casey). I picked 6 because that’s how many I thought to stop and take a photograph of. There are WELL over 6, but… here are 6 with photos.
If you’re driving down Interstate 70 through Illinois, it’s impossible to miss all the signs for this crazy fun tourist stop. Now, I know what you are thinking. Tourist traps suck. They’re terrible. Quite awful. Rarely ever worth it. This little town in Casey is worth the stop, though! Illinois Road Side Attractions at their finest.
Some roadside attractions are altogether awful. You see 100 signs for a giant general store called “Ozarkland!” in the middle of nowhere Missouri and decide to stop? You may be rewarded with a lot of dust in a slightly run down looking gas station type building that sells fudge and some toys.
Fall for all those “The Thing” billboards alone I-10 in Arizona? I bet you were super surprised just to see a small possible mummified corpse under glass in a gift shop that isn’t taken care of properly at all, despite the billboard promises.
Casey, Illinois is a different kind of town, though. This isn’t just some random spot off the highway looking for a way to sell you some fudge (though, to be fair, they do have a kick ass candy shop in town).
All those signs going down I-70 had me convinced. Good or bad, it was time for a bathroom break and leg stretch anyway. It turned out to be a really good choice.
This place is your one stop town for everything BIG!
Casey is in the Guinness World Records for a whooole bunch of the largest stuff.
Over 6 Big Roadside Attractions in Illinois
Twelve things, to be specific.
The world’s largest Wind chime, golf tee, rocking chair, wooden shoes, pitchfork, mailbox, key, gavel, swizzle spoon, golf driver, barbershop pole, and teeter totter! Whew! That is a lot of big things.
I waited in front of this Wind Chime for around 15 minutes in order to get a photo of it without strangers inside making it do the chimey noise thing. You’re welcome hahaha. It did sound pretty!
In addition to all the largest things, there are other enormous things there as well. They might not be “the biggest”, but they’re still huge! How many different synonyms for ‘big’ can I come up with to use? It might be time to break out the thesaurus if I keep this up.
Most of the town was fairly dead as we walked around. It could have been because we stopped on a Sunday. Maybe just because it was later in the day? The candy shop was open, though!
You can climb up into the mailbox, or even lock your mother up in a bird cage. I wouldn’t want her getting free to terrorize this poor town, so it was a good place to keep her.
(please note, no mothers were actually harmed in the making of the birdcage joke)
The wind chime, chair, mailbox, yardstick, birdcage, yardstick, and pencil were all outside and easy to see just walking around a few blocks.
The wooden shoes are inside a cool candy shop!
There was a place to stop for some ice cream at the base of the mailbox.
I know this sounds like a very strange thing to comment on, but even the landscaping all around this town was amazing! Grass perfectly mowed, plenty of flowers around.
Many of the objects around town had bible verses and other religious phrases on them, if you’re into that kind of thing.
This ended up being a pitstop that tacked around two hours on to my driving for the day. Maybe a little more.
That rocking chair was over 30 feet tall and was made out of completely recycled material.
I wasn’t willing to bypass the fence to see if it actually rocked though. The last thing I needed was to be in the news as that one tourist who let a killer rocking chair rock it’s way down main street crushing everyone in it’s path.
Have you been through Casey to see all these Illinois road side attractions? Or do you have another favorite quirky stop? Head over to facebook and let me know where!
