Offbeat museums, historic curiosities, surreal super-structures, mind-bending art experiences and plenty of roadside kitsch – the US is scattered with strange sights. Buckle up and take a mind-bending tour of some of the country’s oddest offerings, state by state, each of which gives a unique insight into American culture.
Read on to discover the strangest sight in your state...
Erected in 1919, this classical-style monument in central Enterprise shows the figure of a woman holding a bowl aloft. So far so ordinary. Take a second look, though, and you'll see that a giant weevil sits within the bowl. This curious feature was added 30 years later along with an intriguing plaque that reads: "In profound appreciation of the boll weevil and what it has done as the herald of prosperity...” Why is this voracious pest being honored? While it decimated the South's cotton industry, the boll weevil forced farmers in this region to diversify their crops, turning to peanuts among others, which were highly profitable.
An abandoned igloo-shaped building along the east side of the George Parks Highway is likely to elicit as many 'ooos' as the dramatic landscapes you’ll see in this area just east of Denali National Park and Preserve. The dome structure, which looks particularly striking in winter when it blends into the snow-clad landscape, was constructed in the 1970s by a man called Leon Smith, using wood from old railroad camps. His ambition of opening it as a novelty hotel didn’t come to fruition. The igloo became a curiosity next to a gas station for a time and there have been reported plans to turn it into a distillery recently.
This yawning chasm in the parched Colorado Plateau sits along the iconic Route 66 and is an alluring stop. Around a mile in diameter and 550 feet (168m) deep, it was caused by a 150-foot-wide (46m) iron-nickel meteorite that is thought to have walloped Earth with a force 150 times greater than an atomic bomb. It was the first crater to be verified as caused by extraterrestrial impact. Dating back 50,000 years it’s also one of the most recent (the Chicxulub crater in Mexico occurred 66 million years ago, for context). Also known as the Barringer Crater, it is used to train astronauts. Join guided rim tours to ogle at the scale of the crater, and learn more incredible facts about impact cratering.
Rising above the forests of leafy Eureka Springs on Magnetic Mountain since 1966, this beatific, 67-foot-tall (20m) statue of Christ was the work of Emmett Sullivan, who was also one of the sculptors at Mount Rushmore. Made by hand and named Christ of the Ozarks, the gleaming white landmark sits within The Great Passion Play campus – the play that enacts Christ’s last days on Earth has been performed here since 1968. Victorian-era Eureka Springs is full of quirky charm, and lays claim to another religious curiosity – the town’s catholic church St Elizabeth is the only church you enter through the bell tower, according to Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
A bright, multicolored, man-made mountain splattered with religious verses and proclamations of love, Salvation Mountain was the wacky vision of a folk artist called Leonard Knight. This 50-foot-high (15m) sculpture in Slab City can be found in the Southern Californian desert, just east of Salton Sea, and is now a destination for lovers of offbeat attractions. Knight’s homage to God’s love began to take shape in the late 1980s after he experienced an epiphany. He originally made this colorful creation from old junk, sand and cement, but after the mound collapsed he rebuilt it using local adobe clay, straw and paint donated by supporters.
Anyone open to the existence of aliens and lovers of quirky roadside attractions will have the UFO Watchtower in Alamosa on their road trip stop-off list. The spaceship, which appears to hover above the stark and sweeping San Luis Valley, is an intriguing sight. This desolate area is said to be a hotspot for strange activity and draws curious passersby in the droves to see the tower, alien figures and healing garden. Looking for more signs of extraterrestrial life? Keep driving to the nearby Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, a designated Dark Sky Park to go starship gazing.
A hefty hilltop stone castle is an unexpected sight in the woodlands of Connecticut, but it chimes in well with its leafy surrounds. Overlooking the Connecticut River from its lofty perch in the Seven Sisters hills, Gillette Castle was the creation of William Hooker Gillette, an actor, director and playwright. Despite its medieval features, it only dates back to 1914. The grounds and stone fortress were bought by the state after Gilette died and are now a public park. You can take tours and camp in the estate.
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Originally part of an interactive large-scale installation at Burning Man in 2007, the Steampunk Treehouse is now very much at home in the Dogfish Head Milton Brewery, where it was installed in 2010. The 40-foot-tall (12m) retro-futuristic structure, which was constructed partially from recycled and reclaimed materials, now sits in the grounds of the Delaware brewery’s Milton base and can be admired on brewery tours or as you enjoy a Punkin ale in the beer garden of the Tasting Room.
Drive along Florida’s Gulf Coast and you could get a little confused. The town of Tarpon Springs has a strong Greek heritage, its population boomed with an influx of Greek sponge divers in the early 1900s. Learn about the town’s fascinating history at its Sponge Docks and walk along Dodecanese Boulevard to find Spongeorama, which claims to have the largest selection of natural sponges in the world. Natural sponges are abundant on the floor of the Gulf and harvesting them was one of the area’s main industries for a time.
The USA has plenty of kooky towns and Helen in northeast Georgia is one of them. Rather than professing any ties to Bavaria, the town remodeled itself in the form of a traditional German village simply to draw in tourism and it worked, helped by its alpine-esque setting – all woods, lush mountains and river. People come to hike, tube along the Chattahoochee River and pick up German delicacies or sip beers in biergarten like Hofer's, a German-style bakery and cafe. The town is especially charming to visit during Christmas, although its twinkly Christmas store is busy all year round.
If you think white and black beaches have the wow factor, what about green sands? Papakolea Beach on the southern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island is one of just four in the world – the others are in Norway, the Galapagos Islands and Guam. To see this striking volcanic wonder, you’ll have to make the effort, though: it’s a five-and-a-half mile (9km) round trip on the Papakolea Beach Trailhead in South Point and steep descent to the sand. Papakolea, more commonly known as Green Sand Beach, is set within Puu Mahana, an ancient cinder cone, and its soft olive green sand is caused by olivine crystals, a green mineral common in Hawaiian lavas.
Carb lovers can’t resist a detour to the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, lured in by the oversized fiberglass baked spud that sits outside the entrance. Inside, a feast of potato-themed memorabilia and historic facts about the state’s crop await in this museum that celebrates the superiority of Idaho potatoes (the state claims to grow the best in the world). Don’t miss the Mr Potato Head collection nor the largest crisp in the world. Be sure to put your order in for baked potatoes at the cafe before you look around, though, as it recommends two hours for the perfect fluffiness. They know their spuds.
When it comes to larger than life quirky attractions, it’s hard to beat the small town of Casey in east central Illinois. It’s home to an array of 'World's Largest' items and assorted 'Big Things'. There’s the World’s Largest Rocking Chair, along with the World’s Largest Wind Chime, the World’s Largest Golf Tee and the World’s Largest Pitchfork among others. Then there are the Big Knitting Needles, Big Taco and Big Bookwork. Local businessman Jim Bolin was the brains behind Big Things Small Town with all but two of the items constructed by him and his team. They’re all free to see and dotted around town.
It’s not just big things that we love. Miniature attractions are equally alluring, as you’ll see when you enter the tiny realm of the Museum of Miniature Houses in Carmel. This enchanting collection is dedicated to the art of fine scale miniature. Don’t make the mistake of referring to its pint-sized houses as dolls houses, however. As the website firmly states: “Miniature houses are exact replicas of the real thing, unlike a dollhouse that is designed as a plaything”. The spooky little Addams Family House is worth a visit alone.
Discover the most impressive bridge in every US state and DC
A bona fide Route 66 icon, Iowa 80 Truckstop sits along Interstate 80 between Des Moines and Chicago. Proclaiming itself to be 'the world’s largest truckstop', it has become a destination in itself. Open 24 hours a day, Iowa 80 not only has a variety of places to eat and shop for all those essential road trip snacks, but also a driver den, workout room, dentist, chiropractor and movie theater for long-distance truckers to relax and recoup in. There’s also a Super Truck Showroom. Motorheads mustn’t miss the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum, opened by Iowa 80 Truckstop founder Bill Moon as part of his mission to preserve the country’s trucking history.
You’ll definitely know you’re in Kansas when you see the emerald-green facade of the Oz Museum in Wamego, just off Interstate 70 on Kansas Highway 99. Set in Wamego’s historic downtown, the museum is dedicated to L Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz. Follow the yellow brick road through the exhibits to discover what inspired him to write this enduring tale and the many stories that swirled around the making of the 1939 MGM film starring Judy Garland. You can also see early editions of his books and rare artifacts from the film set. The shop sells collectible items too. Toto in tow? Dogs are welcome.
Creepy doesn’t begin to cover the sights inside the Vent Haven Museum, an oddball museum in Fort Mitchell. Devoted to the entertainment art form of ventriloquism, the museum began in 1973 when W S Berger first shared his niche collection with the public. Today, the Vent Haven has more than 1,100 dummies that have starred in stage shows from the 19th to the 21st centuries. One of them dates back to the Civil War. The fascinating and frequently changing collection also includes puppets, playbills, posters, recordings and photographs. This year there’s a special Punch and Judy exhibit. Tours are available by appointment only, so be sure to book ahead.
Voodoo runs in the veins of the Big Easy. Also known as Voodoo-Catholicism, the religion can be traced back to the enslaved West Africans and Haitians that were brought to work on the sugar and cotton plantations here. Learn all about this misunderstood belief system that centers on spirits in the intriguing New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum, set in the suitably atmospheric French Quarter. Read up on voodoo history and rituals, see altars, gris-gris dolls, talismans and various age-old artifacts from Africa, Haiti and New Orleans. Then sign up for haunted cemetery walking tours, run by the museum.
Fun for all the family is on offer at this idiosyncratic wild blueberry farm, shop and museum in the fields of Columbia Falls, known for its eye-catching blueberry-shaped geodesic dome. Learn about the nutritious crop that was first cultivated by Maine’s Indigenous peoples and don’t leave without buying a wild blueberry pie or wild blueberry syrup to sloosh over pancakes. The setting is nice as pie too: the farm overlooks Pleasant River with Acadia National Park’s Cadillac Mountain behind.
A googly-eyed do-gooder, Mr Trash Wheel has been cleaning Baltimore's Inner Harbor since 2014. The 50-foot-long (15m) water wheel-slash-rubbish collector sits at the mouth of Jones Falls River – the main source of the harbor’s pollution – and gobbles 500 tons of litter and debris each year, stopping it before it heads out to Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic. The city's semi-autonomous trash collector family has grown over the years, and the harbor also now hosts three siblings, known as Professor Trash Wheel, Captain Trash Wheel and Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West. The wheels are local celebrities, even inspiring the names of local beers.
The vision of a mechanical engineer called Elis F Stenman, Rockport Paper House was constructed from newspaper in 1922 to be his summer home. Stenman used newspaper, glue and varnish to build some of its furniture too. No one is sure exactly what his motives were, but the house has endured remarkably well. A little way north of Boston, the house is open to visitors from spring to fall. The old newspapers that line the walls and the piano are still legible, and give an intriguing glimpse into the era.
Fans of the weird and inexplicable will love this attraction in St Ignace where gravity is said to be off-kilter. The story goes that in the 1950s a group of surveyors found that their equipment didn’t work in the area, and began to feel queasy and light-headed. Further investigations determined that the phenomenon only occurred in a small area around 300 feet (91m) across, hence the name 'Mystery Spot'. Now guided tours take curious visitors into the site to experience these 'optical contradictions'. If you’re not too dizzy afterwards, you can launch yourself down a zipline or test your mind in the Human Maze.
Quite what possessed a Minnesota man called Francis Johnson to create a giant ball of twine is anyone's guess. He began his ball in March, 1950, and wrapped twine for four hours every day for 23 weeks. He continued adding to it thereafter, and the ball we have today – 13 feet (4m) in diameter, 40 feet (12m) in circumference and 7,900kg (17,400lbs) in weight – is 39 years in the making. The world’s largest twine ball made by one man, it’s now on display at the Darwin Twine Ball Museum. Not content with his creation, Johnson then started sculpting tens of thousands of pliers from single pieces of wood – many of them also on display.
Set along Highway 82 in Leland, this free-to-enter exhibition is an essential stop for fans of the Muppets. This is the town where local lad Jim Henson conceived his best-known creation, Kermit the Frog, while playing in the amphibian-filled Deer Creek. The little but loveable attraction is located in Leland’s Chamber of Commerce building. Admire Muppet-and-Sesame-Street-related memorabilia, watch old episodes of Henson’s shows and stop by the gift shop for a little Kermit memento.
Sometimes the best museums are the ones that fully commit to a single subject. Kansas City’s Arabia Steamboat Museum is dedicated entirely to the Arabia, a steamboat that sank in the Missouri River in 1856. The museum tells the story of the vessel’s demise and retrieval over 130 years later from deep beneath a Kansas cornfield. It's crammed with well-preserved artifacts salvaged from the ship and is a fascinating insight into everyday life in the pre-Civil War US, when new settlers were heading west to the Kansas-Nebraska frontier. Treasures include bottles of 132-year-old pickles.
The big skies, wide plains and rugged mountains of Fishtail are the perfect backdrop for the arresting structures of Tippet Rise Art Center. Founded by artist pairing Cathy and Peter Halstead in 2014, this collection of indoor and outdoor classical music venues and oversized sculptures is scattered across a 12,500-acre working ranch. Pictured here is an ethereal work called Beartooth Portal by Ensamble Studio. Take a sculpture van tour to see the monumental modern structures or join a geo-paleo tour to discover the geological and paleontological features that also dot the land.
A classic 'only in the US' landmark, this zany sculpture along Highway 87 sees old, gray, spray-painted cars fashioned into a replica of the world’s most famous prehistoric site, Stonehenge. It was the work of Jim Reinders in 1987 and is built (pretty much) to scale with a circle of cars, a heel stone, a slaughter stone and two station stones. A memorial to his father (on whose farm he built the installation), Carhenge is open all year round and from dawn to dusk. Watching the sun lower between the standing cars in the Nebraska plains is quite something.
Alien hunters will know that Nevada’s State Route 375 is better known as the Extraterrestrial Highway, due to the high number of extraterrestrial sightings recorded on the road. The road runs close to Area 51, the mysterious US military base that’s surrounded by rumors of alien activity. Plenty of roadside stops have cropped up here including the Alien Research Center, the self-proclaimed 'Gateway to the E.T. Highway'. It's essentially a gift shop, but look out for the giant metal alien looming outside – a must-stop photo op. Earthlings are also welcome at the Little A'Le'Inn just down the road. Stay the night and see if you can experience some unexplained activity for yourself.
There’s a museum for pretty much every hobby in the US, including video games. This niche attraction in Laconia is devoted to classic coin-operated arcade machines. With an impressive collection of more than 250 machines, including some that go all the way back to the 1940s, the American Classic Arcade Museum is a brilliant place for lovers of retro games to hang out. You can buy tokens and play many of the machines, including arguably the ultimate retro classic arcade games – Pong and Pac-Man.
Set along the beach in Josephine Harron Park in Margate, this beloved 'big thing' is one of New Jersey’s best known landmarks. The 65-foot-tall (20m) tin and wood circus elephant called Lucy is a historic artifact, dating back to 1881. You can join guided tours into the listed structure, which was built by James Lafferty as an architectural folly to attract people to buy property in the town. Originally called the Elephant Bazaar, it was renamed Lucy the Elephant and became a tavern in 1902.
With a name like Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return you know you’re in for something wacky. This immersive, kaleidoscopic art experience from the Santa Fe-based art collective, Meow Wolf, promises to 'expand worlds and minds' with its immersive multimedia experiences. The New Mexico venue has 70 surreal and confounding rooms with mind-bending and reality-distorting installations that blend art and technology, and which are the vision of local and community artists.
A cute white clapboard church that appears to float in the middle of a pond, Cross Island Chapel in Oneida is one of the world’s tiniest churches. Complete with a teeny spire and a single arched window on each side, the non-denominational church seats just two people with room for an officiator standing. It was built in 1989 on a floating jetty and hosts weddings. Only accessible by boat, it's open to the public by appointment, or you can just ogle it over the water.
A shiny, giant metal head made of 40 stainless steel plates that weighs 14 tons in total, Metalmorphosis is a commanding presence in an otherwise ordinary Charlotte business park, the Whitehall Corporate Center. The mesmerizing 25-foot-tall (8m) head spins, spits out water and breaks apart into deconstructed shapes before reforming. It’s the head-scratching work of a Czech artist called David Cerny and was put up in 2007.
There’s plenty to enthrall passers-by as they drive along the Enchanted Highway, a 32-mile (51km) stretch of road on Interstate 94 that starts near Gladstone and ends in Regent. The eclectic collection of roadside art, the brainchild of local artist Gary Greff in 1990, includes soaring scrap metal sculptures of grasshoppers, pheasants and fish, as well as Teddy Roosevelt with a stagecoach and horses. Greff's 'Geese in Flight' won an official Guinness World Record in 2002 for largest scrap metal sculpture and is 110 feet (34m) tall and 154 feet (47m) wide.
Describing itself as "large-scale Burning Man-style art", this immersive, multisensory experience promises to expand minds through 47 mixed-reality rooms which merge art, drama and technology. Created by a 100-strong team of artists, builders and engineers, Otherworld revitalized an abandoned sports venue in the city of Columbus when it opened in 2019. This is as far from a stuffy arts venue as you can get – visitors are encouraged to explore freely and interact with its surreal exhibits.
Spotting curious roadside creatures while driving along Route 66 is a time-honored tradition, and the Blue Whale in Catoosa is a classic stop and photo op. The cartoonish waterfront structure was built by zoologist Hugh Davis by the family pond in the early 1970s as an anniversary gift for his wife. It was opened to the public and became a popular swimming spot for many years. You can't swim here anymore, but the wide-mouthed whale still brings a smile to the faces of passers-by.
Natural wonders abound at Cape Meares State Scenic Viewpoint, but one stands out for being weird as well as wonderful – the so-called Octopus Tree. With tentacle-like limbs and no central branch, this centuries-old Sitka spruce is the subject of much fascination. How exactly did its candelabra-like shape come about? Is it a quirk of nature, or did Native Americans train the sapling’s branches to grow outwards before allowing them to grow upwards? The mysterious tree is a short walk from the car park.
Live out a fairy-tale fantasy at the Haines Shoe House, a roadside attraction in York County that is now available for rental. The boot-shaped abode was built in 1949 by the owner of a local shoe store to advertise his business. Today its interior has been transformed into a snug but smart holiday house with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchenette in the heel and a recreation room (complete with table football) in the boot’s instep.
The pesky eastern subterranean termite has become an unlikely roadside icon in Providence. Known as the Big Blue Bug, this fiberglass-covered structure was built on the roof of New England Pest Controllers' new HQ in 1980. At 58 feet (18m) long and nine feet (3m) tall, the vibrant critter weighs 1,800kg (4,000lbs). It was originally purple – apparently the color of a termite swarmer under a microscope – but the paint eventually faded to its current blue hue. The name 'Big Blue Bug' caught on – so much so that the pest controllers renamed themselves Big Blue Bug Solutions in 2012.
A tunnel to nowhere is an unlikely highlight of Stumphouse Park, on the edge of Sumter National Forest. Stretching for just 1,600 feet (488m), this hand-dug passageway that leads into the Blue Ridge Mountains was built before the Civil War, and was meant to be the longest rail tunnel in the country, connecting Charleston with the Midwest. The war curtailed the ambitious construction project. The tunnel later found some use as a place for maturing blue cheese and is now an eerie spot for exploring.
Dating back to 1892, Mitchell’s famous corn palace was built as a venue for a fall festival to showcase the fledgling city’s fertile soil and agricultural prosperity in a bid to boost the population. The original building is long gone, with the current Moorish-style palace – officially named 'the World's Only Corn Palace' – completed in 1921. Its walls are decorated annually with local corn, grain and grasses. The tradition of a fall festival endures too with Mitchell's Corn Palace Festival held here every August.
The grand Peabody Memphis Hotel draws visitors with its amenities and history – but also its wildfowl. The famous daily Peabody duck march dates back to the 1930s, when general manager Frank Schutt and his friend returned from a hunting trip and placed some of their live duck decoys in the lobby fountain. A bellman and ex-circus trainer called Edward Pembroke then trained the North American mallards to march to the fountain. He became the hotel’s first 'duckmaster', and continued in the role for 50 years. The post still exists today, with two daily duck marches open to the public at 11am and 5pm.
This eye-catching artwork in downtown Dallas is at once alluring and unsettling. A giant model of one of the artist Tony Tasset’s blue eyes, with veins and all, the 30-foot-tall (9m) sphere is made of fiberglass, resin and steel. It sits near the Joule Hotel in Dallas in a private event space. Although there is restricted public access, the giant peeper can be peered at (and snapped) from the street.
Like a scene from a disaster movie, a series of shattered and dilapidated 'solar trees' lie along a lonely stretch of road just west of Delta in the Great Basin, Millard County. The surreal structures were built as part of a solar power project that never came to fruition and attracted allegations of tax fraud. Today, the doomed project has a foreboding feel with its wind-whipped ruins towering above the Sevier Desert. It's become a popular spot for urban explorers.
Ever wondered where to find the world’s tallest cabinet? Anyone that’s been to Burlington in Vermont will be able to tell you. Built by local artist Bren Alvarez, the 38-drawer tower, titled 'File Under So. Co., Waiting for...', was inspired by bureaucracy. She created the art installation as a response to a long-delayed roadway (now the Champlain parkway), on which it was originally installed. When work finally began, the artwork was moved near to the site.
The vast chambers and intricate stone formations of the sprawling Luray Caverns are an otherworldly sight that are well worth a visit on their own. But it’s the attraction’s vast underground organ, created by organist Leland Sprinkle in 1956, that delights many visitors the most. Made using stalactites selected from over three-and-a-half acres of cavern, it is said to be the largest musical instrument in the world.
Peeking under the north end of the Aurora Bridge is a Seattle must-do. Once a notorious drug dealing and fly tipping spot in the Fremont neighborhood, the Fremont Troll now stands guard over a much cleaner and safer area. The troll's creators won a competition put on by the Fremont Arts Council in 1990 that aimed to clean up the underpass. The concrete artwork, inspired by the Three Billy Goats Gruff, has appeared in numerous films including The Twilight Saga and Sleepless in Seattle.
The US is peppered with abandoned attractions that lure visitors and Lake Shawnee Amusement Park is one of the spookiest. This old theme park in Mercer County is said to have been built on blighted land, a place where bloodshed occurred in the 18th century between an English settler family and a Native American tribe. A theme park opened here in the 1920s but several deaths followed, including those of a little boy and a little girl. It was later discovered the site stood on an ancient burial ground. Today tours take curious visitors into the creepy site.
Seven times larger than the average Holstein, Chatty Belle was built for the Wisconsin stand at the 1964 World’s Fair. She was saved from destruction by a blacksmith from Boscobel called Ivan Wilcox, and eventually found a home in Neillsville in 1966, where she still sits next to the yellow Wisconsin Pavilion, another relic from the fair. At 16 feet (5m) high and 20 feet (6m) long, the fiberglass farm animal – nicknamed the world’s largest talking cow – would apparently produce 122kg (270lbs) of milk a day if she were real.
Afton, a small town in western Wyoming, has been the proud owner of the world's largest arch constructed entirely of elk antlers since 1958. There are, in fact, over 3,000 antlers in this intricate arch that stretches 75 feet (23m) across the four-lane Highway 89. No elks were harmed in its construction, as the male mammals shed their antlers after each mating season. At the center of the arch are two male elks locking horns – to see the real deal, head to Wyoming’s National Elk Refuge where the arch's antlers were collected.