Top American Roadside Attractions

1. With discarded building supplies, marbles, bricks, tiles, pipes, seashells, costume jewelry and plastic animals, Brother Joseph Zoettl constructed more than 125 miniature reproductions of many of the worlds most famous religious structures and landmarks. The Benedictine monk of St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Ala., devoted some 50 years to the project. To pass the time, I started hobbies, he once said. After he made 5,000 small grottoes, which we .....

The Beer Can House Houston

2. In 1968, John Milkovisch, a retired upholsterer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, decided he got sick of mowing the grass, at his Houston home. So he laid marble, rock and wood into landscaping features. Not wanting to stop there, Milkovisch then covered his house with aluminum siding made entirely of flattened beer cans. Over 18 years, he attached an estimated 50,000 beer cans, including beer can garlands that hang from the roof and sing in t .....

Benewah Milk Bottles Spokane Wash

3. All thats left of the once booming Benewah Dairy Company in Spokane, Wash., are two bottles of milk: two giant milk bottle buildings, that is. Veer off westbound Interstate 90 and youll see one bottle just off the freeway. The other, on Garland, is home to Mary Lous Milk Bottle, a caf? famous for award winning milkshakes. (The huckleberry and lemon custard milkshakes come highly recommended.) Dairy owner Paul Newport hoped the uniquely shaped sto .....

Biosphere 2 Oracle Ariz

4. Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Ariz., is a spaceship like glass facility, elevated on a ridge nearly 4,000 feet above sea level at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains. You can learn about the past and future of our planet there, and be sure to visit the Phoenix Mars Lander exhibit, which holds the spacecraft that landed on Mars in 2008. TIME LIFE Books named the site a scenic drive north of Tucson one of the 50 wonders of the world. .....

The Blue Whale Catoosa Okla

5. Drive along Route 66 through a pair of side by side bridges and youre bound to come across an even more bizarre sight: a famous beached whale. Built in the 1970s as an anniversary gift from one man to his wife, Oklahomas grinning Blue Whale is 80 feet long, and rests in a pond that has since become a favorite watering hole for locals and passing travelers. Although the original park which once featured an animal reptile kingdom closed in 19 .....

Cabazon Dinosaurs Cabazon Calif

6. Towering 30 feet above the I 10 heading south to Palm Springs, Calif., a T. rex and an Apatosaurus are part of the Worlds Biggest Dinosaurs museum in Cabazon. More than 12 million drivers pass by the dinos annually, and tourists are invited to stop and wander through a museum, located within the T. rex, or participate in a fossil dig. The dinosaurs have been featured in various media, from Coke commercials to bad 1980s films (see Fred Savage in T .....

Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo Texas

7. Just west of Amarillo, Texas, 10 sets of graffiti covered tail fins stand as a tribute to the American dream. The art installation, known as Cadillac Ranch, features 10 classic cars, half buried nose first at the same angle as the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Although originally intended as a temporary display, the monument developed by millionaire Stanley Marsh III and an architect trio from a group known as the Ant Farm has been an iconic touris .....

Carhenge Alliance Neb

8. If you cant make a trip across the pond, your next best option may be the Cornhusker State. On a 10 acre plot in Alliance, Neb., stands Carhenge a monument that looks like the artistic offspring of Stonehenge and Cadillac Ranch. Envisioned by artist Jim Reinders in 1987, Carhenge is an arrangement of 38 autos, painted slate gray and placed in a formation mimicking Englands medieval wonder. In 2009, TripAdvisor gave it the No. 2 spot on its list .....

Desert of Maine Freeport Maine

9. When you think of Maine, you think of fresh seafood, idyllic sunsets and endless blue water. So a desert is probably the farthest thing from your mind. But if youre around the Freeport area, this natural wonder is a must see. Bad farming after 1797 led to soil erosion and the creation of natural desert like conditions. Surrounded by green hills, this unlikely wonder covers nearly 50 acres and can be explored with 30 minute coach tours or on foot. .....

Devils Rope Museum McLean Texas

10. Unless they are incarcerated criminals, most people probably dont spend a lot of time thinking about barbed wire. However, those who do have a clear vacation destination in the Texas panhandle: the Devils Rope Museum, which commemorates the thorny strands contributions to the fields of ranching, warfare and security. Located in a former bra factory, the museum has thousands of strands of barbed wire on display, and demonstrations of how to make y .....

Dinosaur Park Rapid City

11. Jurassic Park this is not. Though they mirror the size of the creatures that once roamed earth, the concrete and iron figurines at this 75 year old outdoor park look more like Gumby than an awe inspiring Tyrannosaurus rex a projection of the 1930s understanding of these near mythical monsters. But while they lack lifelike leathery scales, the reptiles of Rapid City, S.D., dont fail to impress. Its a testament to the dinosaurs ability to hold up .....

Forbidden Gardens Katy

12. Cant afford a trip to China? See some of Chinas most famous landmarks (in a much smaller scale) at the Forbidden Gardens. The attraction is home to a 1:20 scale Forbidden City; a scale model of Suzhou, dubbed the Venice of China; and a 1:3 scale model of the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi, complete with his terra cotta army of 6,000 soldiers. The Gardens location in Katy, Texas, was chosen due to its many rice fields and proximity to Houston, which has .....

General Sherman Tree Sequoia National Park California

13. A trip here is sure to be more pleasant than General William Tecumseh Shermans 1864 march through the South that devastated the Confederacy. James Wolverton, a naturalist who had served among Shermans troops, named the tree after the Civil War general in 1879. It stands as the worlds largest tree by volume, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, measuring 275 feet off the ground and coming in at over 52,000 cubic feet. That park, famed .....

Geographic Center of the U S Lebanon Kans

14. Apparently, Toto, we are in Kansas. That is, if you are searching for the geographic center of the continental United States, which was calculated to be just outside this northern Kansan town, located off U.S. Highway 281. The calculation, which was made in 1918 by the U.S. National Geodetic Survey, has since been contested over questions regarding the model used to locate the center. But most analysts agree that the physical center would have to .....

Golden Driller Tulsa Okla

15. At the turn of the 20th century, Tulsa struck oil. The city exploded as entrepreneurs rushed to capitalize on the growing number of oil fields in the area. To celebrate its good fortune, the city erected the Golden Driller in 1953. The 22 ton concrete and iron man, built to withstand a 200 m.p.h. tornado, was declared Oklahomas official state monument in 1979. A plaque at its base reads, To the men of the petroleum industry who by their vision a .....

Gorilla Holding a VW Bug Leicester

16. According to the owners of Pioneer Auto Sales, just south of Leicester, Vt., the conversation that led to their lawns hosting a giant gorilla holding a Volkswagen Beetle went something like this: When they asked local artist T.J. Neil to make a statue for the dealership, Neil responded, How about a giant gorilla? When they asked why a giant gorilla, Neil replied, So I can make him hold a car. The owners conclusion: Sure, but make his other h .....

Graceland Too Holly Springs

17. Paul McLeod is obsessed with Elvis. He named his son Elvis Aaron Presley McLeod, and when he dies, hed like to be buried in a gold lam? suit formerly owned by the King. Ideally, when his casket opens, the box will play the song Return to Sender. Its appropriate, then, that he is the proprietor of Graceland Too, located halfway between Graceland and Tupelo, Elvis birthplace. McLeods home is full, floor to ceiling, room after room, of thousands u .....

Grotto of the Redemption West Bend Iowa

18. You dont have to be religious to appreciate the Grotto of the Redemption, built by West Bend, Iowa, pastor Father Paul Dobberstein after his fight with pneumonia. The grotto was built as a shrine to the Virgin Mary to thank her for healing him. And what a shrine it is. The entire structure is built from agates, geodes and semiprecious stones, and it makes up the worlds largest collection of minerals and petrified material, with a geological value .....

Jimmy Carter Peanut Statue Plains

19. What has to be the strangest monument ever to an American President, the Jimmy Carter Peanut Statue began far from its current home. During the 1976 presidential campaign, members of the Indiana Democratic Party built the statue to honor Carter as he swung through the state. The 13 ft. tall peanut crafted from plaster and mesh pays homage to the 39th Presidents early career as a peanut farmer and features a spot on toothy grin. In 2000, a careles .....

Jolly Green Giant Blue Earth

20. You can tell youve done a good marketing job if you can convince people that they should pay to advertise your product. Thats what happened in 1978, when the town of Blue Earth, Minn. wanting to commemorate the completion of nearby I 90 chose to erect a 55 ft. tall statue of the Jolly Green Giant. (Green Giant has a plant in the area.) The vegetable company gave the town permission to use its symbol as long as the townspeople provided 100% of .....

Land of Giants Unger

21. At a little over two hours from Baltimore or Washington, D.C., the Land of Giants (also known as the Farnham Colossi) is perfect for a purposefully strange day trip. When Mr. and Mrs. Farnham, a former Washington lawyer and a city girl from New York, wanted a change of pace, they moved to West Virginia. Thanks to a satellite dish and the Internet, they were able to order collectible statues. Lots of them. And not just any statues 20 ft. tall on .....

Leaning Tower Niles

22. The Midwestern version of the Italian classic is only half as tall (94 ft. to Pisas 177 ft.) and half as leaning (7.4 ft. off of vertical vs. the Italians 15 ft. lean), but the Leaning Tower of Niles makes an outstanding snapshot if you cant fly halfway around the world. Built in 1934, Niles leaning tower once stood in front of a YMCA but is now the center of a park. Couple a visit to the tower with a swing by the first franchised McDonalds in ne .....

London Bridge Lake Havasu City

23. London Bridge was falling down, so it got relocated to Lake Havasu City, Ariz. No, really. It is the very London Bridge built in 1831 that once sat astride the Thames across the pond. But by the mid 20th century, it could no longer handle the load of Londons traffic and got auctioned off to an Arizona oil baron he spent $2,460,000 on the bridge and then an extra $7 million to have it dismantled and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City in 1971. Gui .....

Longaberger Basket Headquarters Newark

24. For 500 lucky employees of Longaberger Basket Co., every day is a picnic. Between 1995 and 1997, the Ohio based company spent $30 million to build a new home office modeled after one of its baskets. According to the companys website, the structure is 160 times longer, wider and taller than its Medium Market Basket. The seven story replica, which sits on 25 acres of land, even features 150 ton handles and two 725 lb. gold leaf painted tags. Not su .....

Longhorn Grill Amado

25. A pair of giant white horns pierce the sky alongside Interstate 19, calling drivers back to the days of the Wild West. The horns are part of a larger longhorn skull, which serves as the entrance to the Longhorn Grill in Amado, Ariz. Slightly south of Tucson, the skull was built sometime in the early 1970s, but locals are strangely mysterious about its origins. Its attached to an adobe building that is occupied by a bar and restaurant, reached by .....

The Lost Sea Sweetwater

26. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Americas largest underground lake is tucked away underneath Tennessee. First, you embark on a tour of giant caves 140 feet below ground, and then hop on a glass bottom boat to float across The Lost Sea . Rare collections of cave formations and 20,000 year old jaguar tracks await you. (The ancient cats bones have been preserved at New York Citys Museum of Natural History.) Another plus; the tempera .....

Lucy the Elephant Margate City

27. Ever hear about the wave of animal shaped buildings that swept the nation in the 1800s? No? Thats probably because it never happened. But it wasnt for a lack of effort from Victorian speculator James V. Lafferty, who hit upon the idea of driving up interest in beachfront property he owned by constructing Lucy, a building shaped like an elephant. Though zoomorphic architecture failed to take off, Lucy became a popular tourist attraction, her belly .....

Miracle Cross Garden Prattville

28. On two small hillsides abutting County Road 86 in Alabama stand thousands of wooden crosses and a smattering of old washing machines, fridges, and other pieces of scrap metal. They all hold messages of despair. Hell is hot. You Will Die. Stuff like that. William C. Rice, who died in 2004, built this garden as a testament to his salvation by Christ in the late 1970s. While frightening in its fervor, the collection is an example of folk art a .....

Mystery Spot Santa Cruz

29. During a drive through the redwood forests of Santa Cruz, California, tourists often stop to witness firsthand the effects of suspending their own disbelief. The Mystery Spot is 150 ft. in diameter and features a slanted shed that visitors wander through and witness strange variations of gravity, such as an object rolling up a plank rather than down it. The Spots web site speculates that aliens planted metal cones in the ground, scrambling the ar .....

Oldest Bobs Big Boy Burbank

30. Just an exit away off the Ventura Freeway sits the oldest Bobs Big Boy restaurant in Burbank, California. Built in 1949, the diner features 1950s coffee shop architecture, an oversized roof and curved windows. Its glowing neon sign stands 70 feet tall. Now a State Historical Point of Interest, the restaurant features car hop service on Saturday and Sunday nights and a classic car show in the parking lot every Friday night. The Burbank restauran .....

Paper House Rockport

31. Newspapers across the country are losing money. New home construction has yet to recover from the bursting of the housing bubble. Heres a solution to both problems: Make houses out of newspapers! It may seem ludicrous, but the idea has a precedent: In 1922, engineer Ellis F. Stenman began to construct a summer home using newspapers as insulation. Curiousity got the better of him, however, and he began to make the entire house out of paper, holdin .....

Paul Bunyan Statue Bemidji

32. As the mythical hero of lumberjack camps nationwide, many Paul Bunyan statues dot roadsides across the U.S. But there is one that stands out among the pack. The boxy Bunyan in Bemidji, Minnesota is rumored to be the first in the nation. The 18 ft. tall, 2.5 ton shrine, erected in 1937, honors the mythic man who became a symbol of strength and vitality from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin to the Western frontier. And what Bunyan statue would be complete .....

Porter Sculpture Park

33. In 1983, Wayne Porter began to focus less on sheep, and more on sculptures. The result is South Dakotas Porter Sculpture Park. Located 25 minutes west of Sioux Falls in the town of Montrose, Porter Sculpture Park features over 40 larger than life, recycled metal structures from swimming goldfish to the hovering vultures perched at the 10 acre parks entrance. Porter reportedly sold his sheep to pay for the most famed structure on the property .....

Shoe Tree

34. On U.S. 50 near Middlegate, Nevada, blink and youll miss a cottonwood tree with some distinctive decoration. Its called (cleverly) the Shoe Tree, and more pairs of shoes than you can count hang from its branches. Tourists and locals alike drape the trees branches with footwear of all kinds. Highway 50 is often called the loneliest road in America, so a stop at the Shoe Tree might give you a taste of the social interaction you just might need at .....

Snake Alley

35. San Francisco, Schmam Francisco. If youre looking for steep and winding roads (and the bicycle ride of your life), head to Snake Alley. Ripleys Believe It or Not, noting the roads sharp turns and slope, dubbed Snake Alley The Crookedest Street In The World, ahead of San Franciscos famed Lombard Street. The alley developed in 1894 by German immigrants has a total of five half curves and two quarter curves spanning a 275 foot distance. Ironic .....

The Spud Drive

36. Precious few drive in movie theaters remain in the U.S., holdovers from the 1950s and 60s, when high schoolers went on first dates and families enjoyed cheap, kid friendly entertainment. But, thankfully, not all of the outdoor theaters have met their demise. The Spud Drive In has been showing flicks since the summer of 1953. But whats really notable about Spuds is Old Murphy, a 1946 Chevy truck that has a 2 ton potato on the back. Its parked in f .....

South of the Border

37. What do you call a 97 foot tall statue of a mustachioed Mexican wearing a sombrero? (Besides probably a little culturally insensitive, of course.) In South Carolina, thats just Pedro, the mascot of the famous South Of The Border rest stop. The complex was the dream project of one Alan Schafer, who in the 1950s realized the business opportunities available to any establishment with a liquor license across the border from North Carolinas dry counti .....

The Thing Dragoon

38. Billboards line Arizonas I 10 highway asking you, What is The Thing? If you dare find out, pull off exit 322 to check out this incredibly kitschy tourist site. It costs a dollar to walk through a creepy door, follow yellow footprints, and finally see the Mystery of the Desert. We wont spoil it and reveal what The Thing is, but you may be disappointed after all the hype. .....

World s Largest Ball of Twine

39. Anyone who thinks rugged individualism is the only way to make it in the American heartland has yet to visit the Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, Kansas. What began as an exercise in thriftiness for one farmer in 1953 has since been spun into a community project for the 500 person township in northern Kansas. Each year, a twine a thon is held on the third Saturday in August when anyone who wants can add more thread. At last official count, .....

Worlds Largest Baseball Bat

40. In Louisville, Kentucky, a carbon steel baseball bat leans against and towers over a five story building on West Main Street. The enlarged replica of a bat used by Babe Ruth in the 1920s marks the site of the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. But this is no bambinos bat. Weighing 68,000 pounds and measuring 120 feet tall, the bat which has been a downtown fixture since 1995 is considered the worlds biggest. In addition to viewing the s .....

Largest Bottle of Catsup

41. Its said this 170 ft. tall (50 m) water tower could hold up to 640,000 14 oz. bottles of ketchup. The Collinsville, Illinois water tower was built in 1949 for the G.S. Suppiger ketchup bottling plant, bottlers of Brooks Rich & Tangy Ketchup. It reads catsup after the original Brooks bottle. Brooks left the town in the 1970s, but the well loved bottle remains. Its so cherished, in fact, that the town gathers each summer to sing it Happy Birthday .....

Largest Buffalo

42. This concrete sculpture has been around for tourists to pose with since 1959. Its 26 feet tall, 46 feet long and weighs 60 tons. And while it went without a name for more than 50 years, it was finally dubbed Dakota Thunder earlier this year. After you take your pictures, theres more. The National Buffalo Museum is in Jamestown as well, and a Frontier Village complex is nearby with tourist shops and an old fashioned soda fountain. .....

Largest Light Bulb

43. If youre ever taking a scenic drive across New Jersey (it is called the Garden State after all) look for the 134 foot tower in Edison, New Jersey housing the worlds largest light bulb. The Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower stands on the site of Edisons Menlo Park laboratory where he perfected the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb. The 13 foot tall bulb at the top of the tower is meant to represent Edisons most famous invention, .....

Largest Pez

44. Pez hasnt been this controversial since the .....

Largest Rocking Chair Cuba

45. Need a break after a long drive on Route 66? Sit back in this 46 foot tall rocking chair, located four miles west of Cuba, Missouri. It was built by the owner of a nearby general store who was looking to draw attention to his business. The rockers at the base of the chair are more than 31 feet long and weigh about 2000 pounds each certainly sturdy enough for a few tourists to relax on. Though if you cant climb quite that high, there are handy b .....

Largest Santa Claus

46. The tiny town of North Pole, Alaska is not actually located at the North Pole. However, that doesnt stop the town from capitalizing on the thousands of letters to Santa Claus it gets sent each year. The center of the regions holiday cheer is The Santa Clause House, which offers Christmas souvenirs and personalized letters from Santa and is the site of the worlds largest Santa Claus statue. Standing 42 feet high and weighing in at 900 pounds, th .....

Largest Thermometer

47. Want to see how ridiculously hot this summer has been? Drive to Baker, California and read the temperature on the worlds largest thermometer. The 134 foot tall gauge is housed near the gateway to Death Valley, where temperatures soared to 134 degrees in 1913. While its an electronic sign rather than an actual thermometer, its known as the biggest on the planet. Next time youre in the area, it might be fun to keep a frying pan and some eggs handy. .....

Largest Truck Stop

48. When the original Iowa 80 truck stop opened for business in 1965 it had just one small store, an oil change and a restaurant. Now, the truck stop located off exit 284 on Interstate 80 in Walcott, Iowa boasts a 300 seat restaurant with a 50 ft. salad bar, a movie theater, a laundromat, a barber, a dentist, a game room, an embroidery center, a drivers den (complete with a fireplace and private showers), the Truckomat truck wash and a slew of fast f .....

Smallest Church

49. The precariously named Cross Island Chapel actually sits on a dock in the middle of a pond near Syracuse, New York. Built in 1989, the nondenominational church is only about three feet by six feet and has only two seats. For a 1990 wedding, there was only enough room in the chapel for the minister and the betrothed, leaving the guests to sit in boats outside. Although there are no regular services, the church is available for special occasions a .....