Guinness Designates World's Largest Rocking Chair Guinness World Records Designates 42' Rocking
Chair "World's Largest."
The chair was the dream of owner Dan Sanazaro who wanted an attraction for his Missouri Rt. 66 Outpost General Store.
CUBA, MO The steel 42’1” rocking chair that took its place on Route 66 on April 1, 2008, celebrates its 2009 birthday with the Guinness World Records designation of Largest Rocking Chair. The Guinness designated Largest Rocking Chair adds one more Route 66 attraction to the Show-Me State, which bills itself as “Close to Home, Far From Ordinary.”
Owners of the rocker, Dan and Carolyn Sanazaro, who grew up in Cuba, built the chair adjacent to The Fanning Outpost General Store to prompt travelers to stop and visit their complex of businesses: an archery range, a taxidermy shop, and a general store with lodge style décor, convenience items, and Route 66 mementos. The businesses center around a renovated Fanning, MO community building with a history as both a bar and a voting center at different times.
Dan Sanazaro, thought the Route 66 location, four miles west of Cuba, MO (pop.3500), in Fanning, MO, needed something special to attract folks to his fledgling businesses that opened in what some might call an out-of-the-way rural setting.
With this in mind, Dan asked his friend artist/designer John Bland to design a large rocking chair reminiscent of the roadside attractions of the 30s-50s along Route 66. Bland, with no formal engineering training, drew the plans for the rocker. When the plans were tested on engineering software, they were almost dead-on. With a little adjustment, the plans were ready for building.
For this phase, Sanazaro turned to another friend welder Joe Medwick. Using American ingenuity and the love of a challenge, Medwick built the 31’ chair rockers in his shop and then trucked them to the store. Medwick fabricated the rest of the rocker on site with the chair lying on its side.
On April Fool’s Day, Sanazaro contracted two cranes to lift the chair into place on its concrete pad. Medwick then cut and welded steel to make the chair stationary for safety purposes. During this process the chair went from its original 46’ to a little over 42 feet.
The Route 66 Rocking Chair is a focal point for travelers and locals alike and appears in the photographs of car clubs, motorcycles groups, family photos, and brings smiles to the faces of those who tilt their heads to take in its height. Its coordinates bring geocachers using their GPS devices.
As part of his plans for the rocker Sanazaro began the process to have the chair certified by The Guinness World Records organization. Cuba’s Mayor Kenny Killeen and family priest Father James Finder certified the official measurements and details of the rocker. Cuba Fire Department personnel measured the chair.
Officially, the chair measures 42’1” tall and 20’3” wide although heat and cold cause the chair to expand and contract. Sanazaro estimates that the rocker weighs about 27,500 pounds.
One more detail that Guinness requested was that the chair actually had to rock while it was videotaped. Joe Medwick cut the welds so that Sanazaro and some of his workers could push the chair
