My Corner Online

Chester, Home of Popeye

My husband has some ancetry to Chester that we need to explore. I have also been here to explore my own heritage with ancestry to Randolph County, Illinois and the records being held here, although I did not find much because the good stuff is held at a location by appointment only. We have never been to the festival held here for the "Home of Popeye the Sailor Man." When one first crossed the bridge from Missouri, the first thing you see is the welcome center where in 1977 a bronze statue of Popeye was erected to honor the creator of Popeye, Elzie C. Segar at the Segar Memorial Park. Chester is Segar's hometown. There are other statutes of other characters in the cartoon around town and one can go an adventure to find them all.

The first time we visited Chester we merely ate at a restaurant by the river as we were passing through. We were the only ones there and the view was great and the children loved the food. It was memorable for us for an ununknown reason. It seems that this restaurant closed down not long after. I show that we were here in 2003, but the photo details indicate 2000, which cannot be right because I did not have a digital camera then, so it must have been 2003.

We visited in 2017 when we were exploring Crain's Island in Missouri, also a location where Hubby's ancestor's lived.

So I took a lot of photos of the bottom lands across the river from Chester where Crain's Island exists.