2000 - Volume #24, Issue #6, Page #24

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Nebraska Town Boasts World's Largest Porch Swing

Nebraska Town Boasts World's Largest Porch Swing FARM HOME recreation 24-6-24 When Tim O'Callaghan co-chaired the Hebron, Nebraska, Fourth of July Committee, he wanted to make sure it was a memorable celebration. So, despite the negative comments of a few naysayers, he asked John Davis, an engineer at Reinke Irrigation Co., to draw up plans for the world's largest porch swing. Once the plans were in hand, he commissioned his father, Paul, to build the giant swing's seat. A section of center pivot provided the top girder for the swing. Lyle Arnold, a local welder, did the necessary cutting and welding to set it firmly on the ground at the correct height, and added brackets to mount the chains for the swing. About 50 people helped get the swing together erected it in the town's Roosevelt Park just in time for the celebration. The swing seat itself is 32 ft. long and will hold up to 32 children, if they're small and sit close together. Sixteen adults can fit easily. O'Callaghan says the original swing his father built for the Fourth of July celebration was made of treated pine lumber and then painted. The weight of the swing caused a lot of wear around the bolts that held it together. So the heavy wooden swing was taken down and replaced with a wooden swing on a lighter-weight frame, which was built from 1- in. square steel tubing."Without all the wood for bracing and strength, the swing is lighter and sturdier, too," O'Callaghan says. "With the volunteer labor and materials provided by Reinke's, the original swing cost us only about $250 to construct," O'Callaghan says. "It got the town of Hebron into the Guinness Book of World Records for having the world's largest swing." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tim O'Callaghan, 735 Lincoln Ave., Hebron, Nebr. 68370 (ph 402 768-6768).