The Quirkiest Roadside Gem in Every State

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to lost luggage or suitcases that never get picked up from the airport carousel, wonder no more. Some of it ends up at Unclaimed Baggage, a retail store in northeastern Alabama. Customers sometimes get to open a bag and see what’s inside, but if you can’t make it to the store, you can visit their online shop.

This concrete igloo-shaped hotel is a popular tourist stop halfway between Fairbanks and Anchorage, though it never actually opened because it didn’t meet building code requirements. It was built in the 1970s and has gone through many owners, none of whom has been able to bring it up to standards.

Designed in 1799 by Scottish engineer John Rennie, London Bridge was completed in 1831 but due to the weight of car traffic crossing the bridge in the early 20th century, it began sinking into the Thames. In 1967, the City of London began looking for potential buyers for the bridge and Robert P. McCulloch, Sr., founder of the planned community of Lake Havasu City, believed that reconstructing this icon in his development would lure tourists and prospective buyers of residential lots. He bought the bridge for $2.4 million and had it transported to Arizona, where it stands today.

If the Christ of the Ozarks statue looks familiar, it’s because it is an homage statue of the famous Cristo Redentor, or Christ the Redeemer, that overlooks Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The seven-story Arkansas version is, according to local publicity claims, the third-tallest statue of Jesus in the world (there are actually 19 taller statues elsewhere in the world, mostly in Mexico and South America). This version still makes for a commanding sight.

This interesting roadside attraction can be found along the old Route 66 in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles. This forest of metal “trees” was welded together by Elmer Long, who then hung dozens of colorful glass bottles from each one. Atop each tree, there is an object such as a sewing machine, a guitar, a rifle, and various signs.

Herkimer, known as the world’s largest beetle, is a monster-sized model of a West Indian Hercules beetle. It acts as a draw and intends to attract passersby to the May Natural History Museum.

One of the more unique displays is this collection of deceased brains found in Yale’s Cushing Center in the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library. It was donated in 1939 in the name of Dr. Harvey Cushing, considered the father of neurosurgery. Known as the Cushing Brain Tumor registry, the collection has more than 2,200 case studies that include human whole-brain and tumor specimens.

Visible from Highway 1, this car-crushing, red-eyed monster rises 46 feet from the site of the Dover International Speedway. With its nickname of “The Monster Mile,” it’s fitting that the racetrack would have a mascot named Miles the Monster.

The World’s Smallest Police Station on U.S. Highway 98 is a replica of the original phone booth in Carrabelle that served as the department’s call box. In those pre-cell phone days, calls would come to one location – in this case, a phone booth bolted to the outside of a building.

You can find the smiling, peanut-shaped statue of our 39th president – a former peanut farmer – in front of the Davis E-Z Shop in Plains, Carter’s birthplace. The 13-foot statue has been a major attraction in the state for more than four decades. It was commissioned by the Indiana Democratic Party as a part of Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign. Carter, at 99, is not only the country’s oldest living former president but the oldest living president in U.S. history.

The Dole pineapple plantation, on the island of Oahu, is home to one of the longest plant mazes in the world. Upon its second expansion in 2008, it took the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Pineapple Maze. The maze is made of 14,000 tropical plants, covers over two acres, and has three miles of footpaths. It takes from 45 minutes to an hour on average to complete the maze, though it has been done in as little as seven minutes.

The Museum of Clean’s motto is “exemplifying the idea and value of clean.” Perhaps few people would have been drawn to such a museum before the age of the pandemic. It encompasses one city block and is filled with interactive displays and exhibits of cleaning equipment and other gadgets aiming to inspire visitors to be clean in everything they do. Aslett, not surprisingly, is a businessman and author who specializes in cleaning and housekeeping products and services.

This 170-foot catsup bottle is not just a roadside kitsch in Illinois but is a working water tower that was named to the National Register of Historic Places in August 2002.

The world’s largest ball of paint is the creation of one man, Michael Carmichael, who has worked on it for more than four decades. What started as somewhat of an art project for his toddler son has turned into a 14-foot-across, 2.5-ton (9,000 lbs) unique attraction. As of today, the ball has around 24,700 coats of paint.

For Trekkies, Riverside, Iowa, is Mecca. That’s because it is the future birthplace of James T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise. His date of birth – March 22, 2228 – is engraved on a stone monument behind a hair salon at Riverside’s Voyage Home Riverside History Center. The town also hosts an annual Trek Fest.

Erika Nelson dedicates her time to visiting roadside attractions then photographs them, goes home, and makes miniature versions to display at her little traveling museum of little versions of big things – which is open only by appointment. The museum first opened on April Fool’s Day in 2018.

This full-size replica of Noah’s Ark – located halfway between Cincinnati and Lexington right off I-75 at the Ark Encounter- is a family-friendly attraction offering three decks of exhibits and other activities, including a zip-line tour, a zoo, and a restaurant.

Many people know where they want to be buried, but perhaps not as many go as far as buying their own tomb. Actor Nicolas Cage (“Raising Arizona,” “Moonstruck”) bought his eventual final resting place, a nine-foot tall pyramid inscribed with the words “omnia ab uno” meaning “everything from one.” The tomb is a well-known attraction, on which you can find the occasional red lipstick kisses.

Founded by cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, this museum is filled with artifacts and “evidence” related to all the folklore animals you grew up hearing about, including exhibits on Big Foot and the Loch Ness monster. The museum also features displays of real fossils.

This museum is dedicated to demonstrating how techniques developed on the battlefields of the Civil War contributed to modern medicine. The museum is not for the faint of heart. According to the “Ammunition and Amputations” display, more arms and legs were cut off during the Civil War than in any other war in U.S. history.

After attempting to insulate his summer home with newspapers, mechanical engineer Elis Stenman took his experiment a step further and built nearly his entire house out of them. Besides the floor, ceilings, and frame, everything in the house, including furniture, walls, and doors, is made of newspapers – a total of 100,000.

If you’ve flown in or out of the Detroit airport, you’ve likely seen a huge tire off Interstate 94. Operated as a Ferris wheel – and advertisement for Uniroyal tires – during the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, it weighs 12 tons and stands 80 feet tall. It was moved to Allen Park and stands next to a Uniroyal corporate building.

The pranksters at the Spam Museum say the edifice “Puts a whole new spin on cubism.” At this museum, you’ll learn everything you ever wanted to know and more about this canned meat delicacy. You can also buy a t-shirt or register as a SPAMbassador.

The intersection of highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale is rumored to be where famous blues musician Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his guitar prowess. The location is now marked with a pole displaying three huge blue guitars and a sign designating it “The Crossroads.”

The former site of the Weldon Spring Chemical Plant, this artificial hill in Missouri is an entombed hazardous waste site. After 15 years of cleanup and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, the Weldon Spring Site Remedial Action Project Disposal Cell – as it’s called officially – is considered a safe recreational area and a popular spot for birdwatchers and stargazers.

Roadside attractions are usually above ground, but some underground sites are worth a visit. Havre Beneath the Streets is a historical tour showcasing life in Havre about a century ago when a fire destroyed most of the city and businesses had to move underground to stay open.

Nebraska is well known for its Carhenge, which is like the world-famous Stonehenge but constructed of cars. While that is worth seeing, keep going about two miles north on U.S. Highway 87 until you reach a lesser-known tourist attraction. Known as the Rest Area, complete with hay bales, a chair, and a toilet (that doesn’t flush), it was created by resident Leonard L. Green.

This is a sculpture park in the middle of the Amargosa Desert, near the ghost town of Rhyolite, known for its spectral, shrouded figures depicting Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” Belgian artist Charles Albert Szulaski launched the museum by creating plaster figures, adding two pieces to the museum – “Ghost Rider” in 1984 and “Desert Flower” in 1989 – but “Desert Flower” was destroyed in a windstorm in 2007. Several other sculptures have been added by other artists, beginning in the 1990s.

Installed to honor Mercury Seven astronaut Alan Shepard, the Redstone Rocket sits in a public park in Warren. The 66-foot-long missile was part of a line of U.S. projectiles that were the first to carry nuclear warheads during testing over the Pacific Ocean – and it was a launch vehicle based on the Redstone that launched Shepard into space in 1961. (Shepard is a New Hampshire native.)

You may think of this statue as a Wonder Woman that looks like Jackie Kennedy. The 18-foot “doll,” as she used to be known, has been around since 1965, standing guard outside Werbany Tire Town. Since then, it has been transformed a few times, most recently in 2007, when her makeover created a crossover between Super Girl and Wonder Woman.

The town of Roswell itself is a roadside attraction. The site of a purported UFO crash in 1947, it welcomes, tourists who can view makeshift spaceships, the International UFO Museum and Research Center, and a bogus alien autopsy site. The McDonald’s in Roswell is shaped like a flying saucer, complete with Golden Arches, of course.

Just outside Albany, New York is the town of Howes Cave — home of the Secret Caverns. Hand-painted billboards from every direction point the way to the caverns, which contain an impressive underground 100-foot waterfall.

Originally built by the High Point Chamber of Commerce to serve as the “bureau of information,” the chest of drawers has been rebuilt multiple times. The 38-foot-high dresser has two socks dangling out of one drawer and is proudly displayed in the middle of High Point, nicknamed the Furniture Capital of the World.

Turtles and winter are not a combo that comes to mind – certainly not a snowmobile-riding turtle. But 30-foot-tall, 30-ton fiberglass Tommy is the largest turtle of its kind in the world, built by native Boot Reynolds, and straddles the largest snowmobile in the world (34 feet long) while guarding the entrance to Bottineau’s municipal tennis courts. He’s meant to be a symbol for the nearby Turtle Mountains.

This seven-story roadside basket is the corporate headquarters of the Longaberger Basket Co., which is why is it also known as the Longaberger Basket Building, where hundreds of people work every day. The structure is 192 feet long and 126 feet wide at the bottom and spreads to 208 feet long and 142 feet wide at the roofline. It cost $30 million to build.

A relic from a 1970s tourist attraction called Nature Acres, this 80-foot-long sperm whale with a slide and diving platform attached was created by zoologist Hugh S. Davis as a gift for his whale-loving wife and was originally the centerpiece in a pond open to swimming. Dedicated fans maintain the concrete sculpture and paint it every few years.

The Oregon Vortex, also known as the House of Mystery, is one of the oldest “gravitational hills” (also called mystery spots) in America, where slanted buildings and geographical features create gravity-defying illusions, such as balls that appear to roll uphill.

Built by the millionaire owner of Haines Shoe Co., the Shoe House was originally an advertising platform and a very expensive billboard. Haines let honeymooning couples from nearby towns stay in the house for free, and even gave them a maid, cook, and chauffeur. The shoe is now a museum dedicated to company founder Mahlon Haines.

New England pest control company Big Blue Bug Solutions paid $20,000 for the right to say it has the world’s largest bug. Also known as Nibbles Woodaway, the nine-foot-tall, 58-foot-long blue termite, made of fiberglass, sits on the company’s roof and can be seen from I-95 in Providence.

The world’s largest fire hydrant structure was created by an artist named Blue Sky (ne Warren Edward Johnson) for the city of Columbia. (Not to be confused with the world’s largest functioning fire hydrant in Texas.) The city wanted another piece of original artwork from him since he had created the city’s “Tunnelvision” mural. Blue Sky worked in secret for months. To great fanfare, this 40-foot-tall, 675,000-pound fire hydrant, which once worked as a fountain, was unveiled on live, local television.

Amateur geologists and architects will be fascinated by the Petrified Wood Park that takes up an entire block of Lemmon’s Main Street. Walking through the cone-shaped trees, all made of pieces of petrified wood, the structure towers soar up to 20 feet and feature a castle composed of petrified wood and petrified dinosaur and mammoth bones.

This 30,000-square-foot replica of the doomed ocean liner and museum is worth a drive-by alone, but inside, tourists can dip their hands into 28-degree water to feel how cold the ocean was when unfortunate people fell in, enter a recreation of the first-class dining room, and view hundreds of real artifacts from the ship.

If you need to make a comfort stop on a road trip in Texas, consider stopping at Sulphur Springs. The town installed two all-glass public bathrooms, but no need to worry – it’s one-way glass and is the first of its kind in the United States. Each lavatory cost the town $54,000.

Far from a natural geologic formation, the Hole N” The Rock is a 14-room, 5,000-square-foot house carved out of stone that now serves as an odd museum and trading post containing a zoo, antique tools, and mining equipment, Native American pottery, and a metal sculpture exhibit.

Housed in a large vintage barn in Glover is a collection of puppets that once resided at Goddard College and another decade in NYC. The collection spans two floors and many dark hallways, all packed with puppets of various sizes – some massive and angelically white, others elaborately painted with menacing faces, and some wearing suits with no faces. The museum houses the collection of the Bread & Puppet Theater, a puppet theater with a radical political bent, founded in New York City in 1962 and now headquartered in Glover.

The Great Stalacpipe Organ is located inside the Luray Caverns near Shenandoah National Park. Instead of using pipes, the organ is wired to soft rubber mallets poised to gently strike stalactites of varying lengths and thicknesses. Leland W. Sprinkle created the organ by finding and shaving appropriate stalactites to produce specific notes; it can be heard anywhere within the cavern.

This unfinished art installation by David Govedare is called “Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies.” Currently composed of 15 steel horses along a high ridge, each weighing about 1,000 pounds, the sculpture was initially supposed to include a tipped-over 36-foot-tall basket, from which the horses would be emerging. According to the artist, the basket represents Grandfather, the Great Spirit.

The Mystery Hole bills itself as a gravity-defying wonder. It includes attractions such as balls that roll uphill and a Volkswagen Beetle, chopped in half, seemingly crashed into the side of the building. Original owner Donald Wilson “discovered” the hole’s mysterious powers in the 1970s and set up a kitschy tourist attraction that fell on hard times in the 1990s, but new owners are restoring it.

This walk-through attraction at Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park is just like the real White House where you’ll need a guide to take you through. Also known as Top Secret, it rests on its roof in the Wisconsin Dells.

The Ames Brothers were two swindlers – a railroad president and his congressman brother – who got rich selling shovels to gold miners, then inflated railroad construction costs to make another $50 million off of taxpayers. After their deaths, Union Pacific Railroad built the 60-foot-tall pyramid as a monument to the two. Since then, the nearby railroad was pulled up and the pyramid now stands crumbling, miles away from any paved roads. (These are the longest roads in America.)