Welcome to Chester, Illinois: Home of Popeye the Sailor Man!

Roughly ninety minutes southeast of St. Louis, Missouri lies the quaint little river town of Chester, Illinois, which hails as the world-renowned home of Popeye the Sailor Man!

Despite my mother’s claims that I’d been there before when I was a child, I had no memory of such a visit, which is why for the past several years, I’d been longing to make my way down there to see all that Chester had to offer! So, earlier this month, my good friend Erin and I made the farmland scenic drive south for a daylong adventure worthy of Popeye, Olive Oyl, and all the Thimble Theatre characters!

As we entered town along State Route 3, we immediately saw the large “Welcome to Chester” sign on our left. With neither of us ever willing to pass up a good photo opportunity, I abruptly turned onto the road just before the sign. It just so happened this was a long private residence driveway with a pair of “no trespassing” signs about ten feet from the mainroad. I made sure to not take my car past them and finagled my vehicle just off to the side of the driveway. I knew we’d be quick, after all, we’re both skilled photographers, so I wasn’t in the least bit worried.

Now should you decide to go visit Chester after all the amazingness you’re about to see here in this blog, I would recommend NOT taking your photos at this spot. As it would turn out, there are about three other similar signs sprinkled across town at all the main entry roads and some had secretly better backdrops than this one, but alas, we didn’t take any photos with them because we’d already braved the risk of the private drive and got the one below.

Having done a little research beforehand, Erin and I knew we had to begin our day at Spinach Can Collectibles, the one and only Popeye Museum and Store in the world! Debbie, who owns this place with her husband, was FULL of knowledge and information about both Popeye and Chester. A pair of avid Popeye enthusiasts, they uprooted their entire life from Memphis, Tennessee in the early 90’s, so they could start a new one in Chester and thank goodness they did! Nearly all the Popeye statues, murals, and all else that you’re about to see is basically because of their passion and dedication to Popeye the Sailor Man!

The map above was our scavenger hunt guide that day in Chester. We followed the numbers all across town (NOT in numerical order, but rather our own path) to see and photograph every single one of the seventeen existing statues! It was THE BEST and I cannot wait for you to see all these fun-filled photos!

You’ll notice in the adorable mural above, it reads “E. C. Segar’s Thimble Theatre” well, let me tell you just what that represents…

Elzie Crisler Segar was born on December 8, 1894 in Chester, Illinois. As a young boy, he worked at the local opera house (which now houses the museum and store dedicated to his life’s work) and demonstrated an early talent for illustrating. He began taking a mail order cartooning course and eventually joined Hearst Syndicate as an artist. Segar created “Thimble Theatre” under their tutelage, a comic strip that featured cartoon characters posing as “actors” in daily skits. Eventually, the strip focused on the misadventures of the Oyl family until Popeye took center stage following his January 17, 1929 debut. Segar passed away on October 13, 1938 at the very young age of 43. His incredible legacy though has grown to a Guinness World Record holding phenomena of iconic proportions and the sole reason for our visit, and that of so many others, to Chester!

According to our Popeye and Friends Character Trail Map, J. Wellington Wimpy is the world’s most notorious hamburger-obsessed moocher. (I have a feeling McDonald’s Hamburglar would argue otherwise, but that’s neither here nor there.) Although a friend to Popeye, his deceptive tactics to secure nourishment often caused many problems for his friends. The likeness for this character was patterned after Chester’s Opera House owner, William “Windy Bill” Schuchert, who also happened to be the young Elzie Segar’s boss!

After leaving the cute lil’ square outside Spinach Can Collectibles, Erin and I were both STARVING! Debbie had given us a couple recommendations on where to eat and with one being right along the river, we chose it, and let me tell you what, I couldn’t be happier we did!

The St. Nicholas Brewing Company was housed in an old building that began as a warehouse, of which the first-floor walls are still in tact, and had a charming old time vibe that both Erin and I absolutely loved. With active bike trails positioned just across the railroad tracks, they themed themselves as an ideal stop along one’s cycling journey. Our waitress was super friendly and our food was phenomenal! During my first (of what we all already know was several trips) to the restroom an elderly lady fell down the single step heading to the bar causing quite a bit of commotion! I missed out on all the action while I was restrooming, but thankfully for everyone there, but especially her, the old lady was perfectly fine.

The statue above can be found at the far end of the St. Nicholas Brewing Company’s parking lot. This is Toar, the 20,000 year old caveman who originally debuted as Popeye’s foe, but soon became one of his most trusted friends. Each time we spotted one of these statues I felt a rush of excitement! It truly was a fun-filled scavenger hunt! Not that they were difficult to find by any means, but you’re only given the general area, so there’s a little work to be done on one’s own.

Now coming up below, we get the main man himself, Popeye! Whereas all of the other statues debuted in 2006 or later, Popeye’s has been around since 1977 when a group of sorority sisters in Chester decided to honor E. C. Segar, with a statue of his most famous creation, Popeye!

Popeye is the underdog with bulging forearms, a mean uppercut, and a love for canned spinach. This iconic hero was inspired by Chester native, Frank “Rocky” Fiegel. E. C. Segar replicated his “tough to the finish” neighbor when he designed the one-eyed sailor and introduced him to the readers of his Thimble Theatre comic strip in 1929 where he became an immediate star!

Popeye’s statue is six feet tall and sits atop a six foot base. It’s made of pure bronze and weighs a whopping 900 pounds! In 1996, the statue proved to be every bit as tough as Popeye when a group of vandals lassoed Popeye, chained him to a pickup truck, and ripped him from his stone pedestal. He landed on his face, but sustained surprisingly little damage. Popeye fans from across the country called Chester with donations to restore the statue to its place of honor and the human Bluto’s were apprehended and prosecuted for their dastardly deed.

Directly across from the Randolph County Courthouse lies the statue of Olive Oyl, Swee’ Pea, and Jeep. Olive Oyl is Popeye’s flighty and flirty girlfriend. Her looks were borrowed from another Chester local that E. C. Segar knew well, a general store owner named Dora Paskel. Swee’ Pea is Popeye’s adopted “infink” and proved to be quite a handful to raise. While Jeep is anything but a motor vehicle, yet rather a magical creature with strange powers and friend to Popeye.

So with the Stone Cottage above, there was an oddly worded and vague sign just outside it that made us think that maybe this was the Sheriff’s residence because the County Sheriff building was immediately across the street, but we weren’t really sure that’s what it said. I regret not taking a picture of it, but either way, this place was real cute, so a picture was a must.

Below we have the statue of Cole Oyl, who sits just outside the Chester Public Library. Cole is the father of Olive and Castor, and the husband to Nana. His appearance owes its inspiration to Chester’s early 1900’s patriarch Charles Briggs Cole. I would’ve loved to have gone inside the library, but unfortunately for us, it was closed.

The two images below are of the statue of Popeye’s Four Nephews which sits just in front of the Chester Grade School. The building itself was standard issue, but it sat atop these bluffs overlooking the river that I bet gave some the classrooms an absolutely amazing view. Popeye’s nephews are named, Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and my personal favorite, Poopeye. They were first introduced as Popeye’s look-alike children in Olive’s dream sequence, but soon returned and assumed their roles as the quarrelsome quadruplet nephews of the one-eyed sailor.

The statue above was found at the Chester Firehouse and is appropriately of Popeye’s Pups. Snits and Fido are early canine cohorts of the Thimble Theatre Thespians. Hy Eisman, the current artist in charge of the Popeye newspaper comic strip, named Chester the Dog as a tribute to Segar’s hometown.

The statue below is of Castor Oyl and Whiffle Hen and was found on the far right side of the Chester Memorial Hospital building at the far edge of their parking lot. Castor Oyl is Olive’s “little” brother, and believe it or not, it was his 1929 adventure with Bernice, the Whiffle Hen, that motivated Segar to add Popeye to the cast. Shortly after his first appear, Popeye and Castor bought a detective agency and they continued to solve cases together until Segar’s death in 1938.

Above we see the statue of Sea Hag and Bernard, which was located in the small grassy yard between the Walmart and McDonald’s parking lots. The Walmart was the same style that one would’ve seen in the 90’s and truly took me back. It looked frozen in time and I wish I would’ve taken a picture of it, but I was sweating pretty bad at this point, so all I got is the little bit you can see just behind the Sea Hag and her vulture Bernard here. The evil Sea Hag is both a witch and a pirate and became one of Popeye’s early antagonists. She uses a magical flute for some of her spells and to control her main ally, the vulture, Bernard.

Below we have Roughhouse, who can be found just outside Reid’s Harvest House restaurant. I was told they have some AMAZING fried chicken, but I’ll have to take one’s word for it since we never made it inside. The place looked cute though and you got a free Pepsi with your buffet according to the sign, so that’s a deal. Roughhouse is the much beleaguered café chef and owner of the diner where Wimpy’s infamous pledge was oft repeated, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today!”

Above us here we have Nana Oyl who is the mother of Olive and Castor and the long-suffering wife of Cole Oyl. She and her family are the original cast of Segar’s Thimble Theatre, running for over nine years before Popeye joined the troupe! We found Nana Oyl outside the Manor at Craig Farm nursing home at the far right side of their parking lot.

The next statue threw us off quite a bit actually because it isn’t at all on our Map to the Stars! We were looking for Professor Wotasnozzle outside the Chester High School and when we saw this statue as we came up on the building, we immediately thought we’d found it, so we hastily parked and rushed out to get our pictures. As we were standing there in the immense heat with a psycho dog across the street barking its head off at us, we realized that perhaps this statue of a yellow jacket was in fact NOT Professor Wotasnozzle and rather the high school mascot. Oh well, the statues still cute and it was made in the same fashion as all the rest. Plus the lettering on the gymnasium reminded us both of old school Hollywood. We loved that.

At the exact opposite end of the surprisingly lengthy high school was the statue we’d been searching for all along, Professor O. G. Wotasnozzle. This character personified E. C. Segar’s interests in science fiction, but the Professor never quite got his inventions to a successful or marketable stage.

Below us we have King Blozo, the ineffectual ruler of Nazilia. He was often seeking detective Popeye’s help in restoring order to his kingdom. Blozo was always worrying about everything, even when things were actually going his way! He could be found just outside the Chester Municipal Building.

Above we have me and Bluto outside the Buena Vista National Bank. Bluto is the hard-headed brute always trying to ruin Popeye’s life and steal Olive Oyl’s affections. He has remained the main antagonist of Popeye since his debut. His statue was probably at the busiest intersection in town actually. The bank was just behind him with a Hardee’s sitting across one street, the grain mill diagonal across the other, and this cute little bar and restaurant along the otherside. The crazy thing about Chester was that despite having over 8,000 residents, there were no traffic lights in town. That was quite a surprise to me if we can be honest.

Below us we have the statue of Segar as Sherlock that we could not find for anything for a little while. It was supposed to be before King Blozo’s, but we drove right past it and even after we backtracked a little, we couldn’t see it. Erin had to look it up on some random site for us to find it, then when we did, it was quite obvious where it was, making us feel like a pair of fools. It was hot as Hell out by this time though, so I think we were suffering slightly from heat exhaustion. Sherlock and Segar was listed as being outside the Baskerville Hall, but we saw no such signing showcasing that any such place exists. E. C. Segar had a compelling passion for the literary detective, Sherlock Holmes. He introduced hundreds of detectives into Thimble Theatre, and in the mid-1930’s, was working on a stand-alone Sherlockian detective release when he passed away. His new project was never pursued by Hearst Syndicate. They clothed the statue of Segar in the full regalia of his favorite sleuth in honor of his ardency and unfinished work.

Following our snafu with the Sherlock statue, we had visited all the statues in the main part of town and it was time for us to head on out. There are two more remaining, but after a lil’ pitstop at the Moto Mart, where we got some desperately needed drinks and used the restrooms, we stumbled upon this majestically old cemetery that we just couldn’t not go in and visit and let me tell you what, I’m so thrilled we did!

The second to last statue we came upon was for Alice the Goon and her child. Originally introduced as a fearsome monster, Popeye almost tossed Alice off a cliff before realizing that she was a mother. Her child’s appearance saved her life. She had been under the spell of the evil Sea Hag during her initial battle with Popeye. Alice quickly became one of Popeye’s closest friends and allies.

Lastly we have good old Poopdeck Pappy who we found at the Cohen Sports Complex at the outskirts of town, right near the private drive we stopped off at to take the Welcome to Chester picture at the beginning of our day. It was really nice for us to finish here actually because we officially felt like the entire day came full circle. Poopdeck Pappy is Popeye’s father. A crusty, cantankerous old sailor that liked to pretend he didn’t like his son, but he would help when things got rough, although it was his sneaky schemes that would often have created the problems he and his son were in in the first place.

Well, there you have it, our adventurous day in Chester, Illinois! It should be noted that while Erin and I did both find the town to be charming, there were a few unfortunate looking homes/apartments that had some even more unfortunate looking Trump shit embarrassingly displayed. Nonetheless, we ignored this trash just like we would any other time. I thought this warranted a mention in the event any of you do visit, I’d hate for you to be as taken aback as we were by the hatred on display.

As always, THANK YOU SO MUCH for reading! I appreciate you greatly! If you ever do get the chance to visit Chester, I would STRONGLY recommend it! We had THE BEST time! Erin and I both said we’d go back in a couple years after the additions of the final two statues that are to be unveiled this year and next. With that being said though, we’ll definitely be going on a spring or autumn day when it isn’t so hot and humid! The back of my shirt looked like I’d gone wading in the river!

If you’ve been to Chester I would LOVE to hear about your experience in the comments below! Even if you haven’t, I would LOVE reading and responding to anything you leave me! As I’m on a roll this month, I’ll be back again next weekend with another all new blog for your viewing pleasure, so until then, I wish you all all the best!