The Strangest Tourist Attraction in Every State

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 (opened in 1992), 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 in 1926 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 Tommy is the largest turtle of its kind in the world 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 actually the corporate headquarters of the Longaberger Basket Co., 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 was built in 1997 at a cost of $30 million.