The Popeye statue, located at the Chester Welcome Center

Chester Illinois is a town with loads of history. But, some of the most interesting and known history about Chester is the statues. Let’s start with some background history. The author of all the Popeye characters is Elzie Crisler Segar. Born on December 8th 1894, Elzie was a cartoonist who originated the “Popeye the Sailor Man” comic strips. He grew up in Chester and then moved to Chicago to start the cartoonist chapter of his life. He moved to Crystal City, Texas and that is where he got his idea of making a character that gets huge muscles from eating “his spinach”.

He introduced Popeye on January 17,1929 as a minor character into his Thimble Theatre comic strip. Popeye was an instant hit.

Segar had passed away 40 years before a group of sorority sisters from Chester decided to honor him in his home town and commissioned a sculptor to design a statue of Popeye. In 1977, the first Popeye statue was built, made of bronze, standing 6 feet tall on a matching base, the 900 pound Sailer man with his weathered face etched with years of seafaring and muscular arms was placed in the Segar Memorial Park where the Chester Welcome Center is located.

The statue is as tough as his namesake. In 1996, A group vandalized the Popeye statue by tying it up with a rope and pulling it from its base with a truck. The statue fell face-down, but surprisingly, it was not badly damaged. Fans from across the country called Chester and made donations to restore the Popeye. The human Blutos were caught and prosecuted.

After the first Popeye statue was built, many more popped up of Popeye’s famous friends.