The Worlds Largest Rocking Chair is in Fanning MO 4 miles outside of Cuba on historic route 66. It is next to the Outpost general store and archery center.
It stands 42' 4" Tall 20' wide and weighs 27,500 lbs
We were told that once a year the local Volunteer Fire Department lifts people up to the chair for a small fee to raise money for the fire department.
"Giant rocker constructed at Fanning Print E-mail
Written by Jane Reed
Wednesday, 09 April 2008 11:53
Tuesday, April 1 may have been April Fool’s Day, but there was no kidding around when the Route 66 Rocking Chair was lifted by two cranes to its place of honor atop two 31 and a half foot steel rockers. The Route 66 Rocker was officially created, and Route 66 history was altered forever. The 42 and a half-foot rocker sits next to the Route 66 Fanning US Outpost & General Store owned by Dan and Carolyn Sanazaro in Fanning, west of Cuba.
The steel rocker with wooden back, seat, and arms displays the logo of the Outpost, the name of the chair (“Route 66 Rocker”) and the designation “World’s Largest Rocker.” The dream of the black and white rocker started almost a year ago and was known to only the Sanazaros and artist-craftsman John Bland.
Dan Sanazaro decided to build the rocker because he thought that their fledgling business, which opened in February, needed something to lure people to the store. Originally, the couple had thought of making their small business a gas station, but there was too much money involved in starting such a business and the Sanazaros had no experience with that type of operation.
After buying an old building in Fanning that was on its last legs, Sanazaro and his wife gutted it, put on a rustic facade, and settled on an interesting mix of lodge style décor, liquor, convenience foods, a taxidermy and sporting goods shop, Route 66 collectibles, and local artists’ wares.
Since they are also a full service archery sales and service site, behind the business there is an outdoor archery range. On cool days, the rock fireplace draws people to sit and enjoy the atmosphere. It’s a special kind of place, but the Sanazaros knew that they needed to draw travelers inside their shop by getting their attention.
So why wouldn’t you think of a 42-foot steel rocking chair as a roadside attraction?
Sanazaro liked the idea of a roadside attraction along Route 66 as they once had in the bygone days of the legendary road. He also remembered a large red rocker that was once on the road to Steelville.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, we need people to be drawn here,” stated Sanazaro.
After getting the idea and running it by his wife, who sometimes acts as a filter for his more creative ideas, Sanazaro took his dream to artist and soon-to-be engineer John Bland. As Sanazaro recalls it, he said, “John, what would think of building the world’s largest rocker?”
“I ain’t afraid of nothin’,” Bland replied.
With that statement of assurance, months of planning began before anyone besides Dan, Carolyn, and Bland were brought into the mix.
Bland, a local artist and one-time truck driver who retired because of health problems, drew the plans for the rocker. Then he changed the artistic vision into a blueprint and engineering plans of how to build it. In the Navy Seabees, Bland had learned underwater demolition blasting and had also done blasting at the Pea Ridge Mines. Building the rocker was a little bit on the opposite side of that experience. Ironically, Sanazaro had gone to school and learned underwater welding, so they both had diving experience. That they ended up in landlocked Missouri working on a joint project tickled their funny bones.
Both men liked the association with Route 66.
“People think Route 66 is dead, but it isn’t,” stated Sanazaro.
“It’s the nostalgia that keeps it alive,” Bland added.
“We didn’t tell anyone for a long time about the rocker because we didn’t want anyone else to build a bigger rocker, and we wanted to make sure it could be done,” Sanazaro stated.
When Bland was finished with his blueprints that were drawn to scale and the engineering, he took his plans to his nephew, a civil engineer involved with building bridges. He ran the plans through computer software to test the engineering specifications. Although Bland had no formal training as an engineer, he was off only by a fraction of an inch in his planning.
Bland and Sanazaro had the dream and the plan, but it was time to bring in the man who would actually construct the giant rocker.
“I kept telling Joe Medwick that we’d have a project for him after the first of the year,” Sanazaro stated.
In October, Medwick, of 5M Welding and Excavation and long time friend of Sanazaro, was brought into the loop. He had the equipment and the know-how to make the chair a reality.
With his 25 years of welding experience, Joe, who usually builds pipe fence and corral systems, was able to conceive how the job could be done. He took Bland’s drawing, blueprints, materials list and a scale model that was built from balsam. Medwick was soon on board with the idea and as enthusiastic about the project as Sanazaro and Bland.
By the time the Outpost opened in February, a public announcement about the rocker had been made, and Joe was moving ahead in building it.
Medwick, with his worker Joe Lea assisting, used a forklift and bucket truck to move the steel pipe used for the frame. The rockers, fabricated in Medwick’s shop, weighed about 2,000 pounds each.
“The biggest challenge was never having done it before,” stated Medwick.
After the rockers were fabricated in his shop, Medwick moved them with a tractor to the Outpost, where they were placed on concrete pads that were six feet deep. Then the steel pieces were moved to the site, and the rest of the chair frame was assembled on site, with Joe doing the measuring, cutting, and welding.
The frame of the rocker was built lying on the ground. Using painting mitts, the steel was primed with white paint and then applied with black paint. The back panel with the logo would be white, as would the seat and arms. The colors black and white were chosen as the traditional Route 66 highway sign colors.
Two cranes from Superior Crane were summoned to set the rocker frame atop the rockers. After the right balance was found and final adjustments completed, Medwick made the final welds. With the chair in place, using wood, the arms will be boxed in and the seat built.
Now the Sanazaros will find the truth in the saying, “If you build it, they will come.”
The Sanazaros, with Bland’s help with designs, are developing a line of Route 66 Rocker shirts, hats, and other merchandise.
Sanazaro will be following up the building of the chair with an application to the Guinness Book of World Records. While it may be hard to believe, because of its engineering, the chair can actually be made taller if the existing world record is broken.
Since Sanazaro, Bland, and Medwick are all from Cuba, they were able to consult when they wanted to make adjustments. All three of the men speak of a sense of pride accomplishment with involved in this once-in-a-lifetime project.
While the one-of-kind, 42-foot rocker is the story, it wouldn’t have become reality except for the intersection of the lives of the three men who built it.
“Danny has dreams. He tells me about them. I put them on paper,” said Bland.
As for Sanazaro, he said, “No one man can do anything. You need a team of people doing their part.”
The Outpost’s website is (
visit link) Although the site is still under construction, Dan and Carolyn can be emailed through the site. The phone number is 573-885-1474. They will be holding a grand opening May 10, with special events and offerings."
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visit link)