‘Lizzie was a trailblazer’: Macombopoly unveiled, becoming the world’s largest Monopoly board

MACOMB, Ill. (WGEM) – What’s been roughly six years in the making has finally come to fruition. On Thursday morning, the ribbon for Macombopoly, the world’s largest Monopoly board, was cut, officially unveiling the game.

The unveiling also comes on the birthday of the games inventor, Lizzie Maggie, who is credited with inventing the Landlord’s Game, which eventually turned into Monopoly. The first ever board was modeled after the Macomb square, as Magie was born in Macomb.

The game requires an app, and the square is used as the game board. Like traditional Monopoly, you start on “GO,” on the southeast corner of the square. On the app, you roll the dice and play the game, which leads you around downtown. The game has many of the same elements as Monopoly, but along the way you can earn coupons to local businesses. Macomb and Lizzie Magie trivia is also a part of the game.

Finding a relative

Erin Anderson first found out about Macombopoly about one year ago while researching her family tree. This happened to be at the same time as Mr. Macombopoly, Allen Nemec, who is a part of the Macomb Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau’s Lizzie Committee, was doing the exact same thing.

Nemec started by researching Magie’s father, and eventually his children. While Lizzie didn’t have any, Nemec said her younger sister did, and he eventually found Anderson.

“At that point, I made a connection through a text message and she was indeed the Erin Anderson I was looking for,” Nemec said.

Anderson was skeptical about Nemec’s message at first, but learned about the ties to Macomb that Lizzie had.

“It wasn’t talked about a lot in my family, my grandma knew a bit, because my grandma’s grandma was Lizzie’s sister,” Anderson said.

Anderson flew in from Utah, where most of her family is. This week was her first time in Illinois, and the Midwest in general.

“The more I dug, I was like oh this area knows a bit about Lizzie more than I know about her, and she’s my family,” Anderson said. This really sparked my interest and I really wanted to dig in more.”

A tourism driver

The Deputy Director of the Illinois Office of Tourism, Daniel Thomas, addressed the crowed Thursday morning. He said Chicago is often thought of as the main attraction in Illinois, but things like Macombopoly can help drive tourism all across the state.

Last year, Thomas said 111 million people visited Illinois.

“If you look and break that down, about 54 million of those visitors went to Chicago, so that’s over 61 million visitors that are traveling to the rest of the state,” Thomas said.

Macomb received a $40,000 matching grant from Thomas’ office. The MCVB was able to raise about $50,000 to match the grant.

MACB Executive Director, Jock Hedblade, said 2024 is just the first step for Macombopoly, as he anticipates enhanced artificial intelligence and game pieces in the years to come. He will use the next year to test the game’s popularity.

“It’s remarkable that back in 1903 that when this was invented, nobody could have guessed that today we’d be standing here doing something like this 120 years later,” Hedblade said.

Hedblade said the app could also be expanded so there are more stops while playing Macombopoly. The game is available to play around the clock, all year long.

The MACVB partnered with eATLAS to create and design the app. A bar code on the “GO” block on the square will allow you to download the game.

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