A Day Trip To Chester Illinois: Home of Popeye the Sailor Man

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Without a doubt, most of you haven’t heard about Chester Illinois, home of Popeye the Sailor Man. But you probably heard about Popeye Village in Malta, a film set of the 1980 Musical Production ‘Popeye’.

First time I heard about Popeye in Illinois was when I looked for places of interest around Mt. Vernon in Illinois. We’ve been to that city several times, and I ran out of places to go. Google searches took us to Chester Illinois, home of Popeye the Sailor Man.

Where is Chester Illinois?

Chester is a city in the southwestern part of Illinois. It is on the National Scenic Byway Great River Road and sits atop the bluffs overlooking the beautiful mighty Mississippi River.

How far is Chester Illinois from Chicago Illinois?

There are 348 miles from Chicago to Chester towards the southwest. If you drive non-stop, you will arrive after a 5 hours and 24 minutes drive.

How far is Chester Illinois from St. Louis Missouri?

From St. Louis to Chester is closer than from Chicago to Chester. It’s only 66.6 miles towards the southeast. If you drive non-stop from St. Louis, you will arrive after 1 hour and 19 minutes drive.

Why is Chester Illinois the Home of Popeye?

Simply it’s because Chester was the birthplace of E.C. Segar, creator of Popeye the Sailor Man. Years after his death, a group of sorority sisters in his hometown decided to honor him. Not with a statue of Segar, but of Popeye. 

Chester Illinois: Popeye & Friends Character Trail

In 1977 a bronze statue of Popeye was erected at the Segar Memorial Park in Chester, Illinois. The park is located by the Mississippi River, and also the location of Chester Welcome Center. The bronze statue is 6 feet tall and 900 pounds.

Over three decades later, the Popeye & Friends Character Trail was established  to enrich tourists’ enjoyment of Popeye and friends. Every year a granite statue of a character from Popeye’s friends is added to the trail. The trail begins at the Chester Welcome Center.

Chester Illinois is also a stop place for steamboat river cruises over the Mississippi River. The dock is not too far from the visitor center, so the location of the Popeye statue is really a good place to start Popeye and friends’ statue hunting.

In the middle of Chester, there’s a Spinach Can Collectibles, a museum and gift store. It’s the only Popeye Shop and Museum in the world! You will go here when cruising Popeye & Friends Character Trail.

Hunting for Popeye & Friends Character Statues

As we entered Chester from a different direction, we began our Popeye & Friends statues hunting from Sea Hag & Bernard the Vulture near Wal-mart and McDonalds.

Chester is not a big city, but you must have an eagle eye to spot the statues. We missed a statue of the Roughhouse that is located at Reid’s Harvest House. We were supposed to spot it before Sea Hag, but ended up visiting it before we left town.

Next stop on the trail was Castor Oyl & Whiffle Hen by Chester Memorial Hospital. Followed by Wimpy near the Spinach Can Collectibles. It was located in Gazebo Park where visitors can find cut-outs of Popeye and friends, as well as murals. 

Then we went to the Spinach Can Collectibles museum and gift store. You never know how many Popeye and friends collectible items that were ever produced until you go to this museum.

When we walked to the museum, a bus load of river cruise passengers had just left. So we had the museum for ourselves.

From here we visited Cole Oyl at Chester Public Library and Olive, Swee’Pea & Eugene the Jeep in front of Randolph County Courthouse.

Finally, we saw the Popeye bronze statue at Chester Visitor Center. It’s a nice visitor center where you can learn about the history of Chester that includes Mary’s Covered Bridge, Fort Kaskaskia, and Pierre Menard Home. Of course, about E.C. Segar.

Then we made a quick drive to the river to see the steamboat that was docked for a few hours. It was a huge boat, and I thought it would be nice to experience the mighty Mississippi River Cruise in the future from that steamboat.

From here we continued our Popeye and friends statues hunting in Chester Illinois to the west. We found Alice the Goon & her Child at Chester Center on Lehmen Drive (Route 3 North) and Poopdeck Pappy at the Cohen Recreational Complex. 

Then we drove back toward the center where we met Bluto aka Brutus at the corner of Swanwick Street and W. Holmes Street near the Buena Vista Bank parking lot area. You must park your car to get a picture of Bluto because it’s at the intersection.

Our next stop was the front lawn of Chester High School to see Prof. Watasnozzle. It is located at 1901 Swanwick Street. It was followed by another stop at a school, this time at Chester Community Grade School on Opdyke Street. Here we saw statues of Popeye’s nephews. My husband and I didn’t remember about the Nephews from any of the comic books or cartoons.

Last stop on the trail was Roughhouse on Reid’s Harvest House. It was a restaurant and they were open, so we had supper there before we left the town. It is located at 2440 State Street.

Annual Popeye Picnic at Chester Illinois

Each year the city of Chester conducts a Popeye Picnic on the weekend after Labor Day. Usually, that’s where they introduce the new addition on the Popeye & Friends Character Trail.

Here are the new additions since our visit:

1. King Blozo in the front yard of a City Hall at 1330 Swanwick Street.

2. Nana Oyl at Manor at Craig Farms, 3030 State Street.

3. Popeye’s Pups at Chester Firehouse.

4. Sherlock & Segar at Baskerville Hall.

5. Toar at St. Nicholas Landmark.

6. Harold HamGravy at FKCG Law Office (coming this year).

7. Oscar at Cole Memorial Park (coming next year).   

So many characters, right? How many of them do you recognize?

To learn more or refresh your memory about Popeye, go check his timeline here. On this trip, we also went to visit Superman in Metropolis (story coming soon). Then we went to Casey, home of the world’s largest things on a different trip. Both cities are also located in Illinois.   

So, before you fly that far to Europe, why don’t you visit Popeye in Chester Illinois first? You can fly to the nearest city then drive to Chester, or simply make a road trip through Chester Illinois. It’s a fun day trip!