Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Giant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
Bloomington, IN
Indiana University's Psychological and Brain Sciences building has a seven-foot-tall, roughly 10,000-pound human brain carved from Indiana limestone outside its entrance. Artist Amy Brier and carver Mike Donham created the anatomically detailed sculpture, nicknamed Harlan, for the department's 125th anniversary.
Santa Claus, IN
This large Santa statue was dedicated in 1935 and became an early physical symbol of the town that had already turned its unusual name into a Christmas identity. Restored and now standing at the Santa Claus Museum & Village, it gives visitors a historic roadside Santa rather than a modern seasonal decoration.
Cloverdale, IN
Dozens of bells share this rural yard with oversized chains, huge buckets, traps jokingly sized for gigantic animals and other industrial curiosities. The unusual collection surrounds an unoccupied private house, so it should be viewed from the road unless access is clearly permitted.
Corydon, IN
Indiana Caverns provides public access to part of the Binkley Cave system, one of the state's major underground networks. Cave exploration in the system has revealed Ice Age animal remains and other paleontological material, while the commercial tour combines walking and underground boat travel.
Shoals, IN
Jug Rock is an isolated sandstone formation shaped like a giant stone vessel and is one of the largest free-standing table-rock formations east of the Mississippi River. It sits beside a short public access trail near Shoals, giving OddWay a natural oddity that can be visited without a major hike.
Kokomo, IN
KokoMantis is a giant praying mantis assembled from salvaged industrial material, including World War II-era fuel pontoons and recycled traffic-light poles. The roughly 17-foot-high sculpture stands downtown at Washington and Sycamore Streets and is one of Kokomo's most recognizable modern roadside oddities.
Marengo, IN
Discovered by children in 1883, Marengo Cave grew into one of Indiana's best-known commercial cave systems and is designated a U.S. National Natural Landmark. Guided routes take visitors through large underground rooms and extensive formations while preserving a very old-school roadside cave-attraction feel.
Fortville, IN
A huge pink elephant holding a martini glass sits on a trailer outside a Fortville beverage business, turning the old "seeing pink elephants" expression into literal advertising. The statue is occasionally moved for parades but normally serves as one of central Indiana's most unmistakable roadside photo stops.
Delphi, IN
A homemade metal dinosaur stands outside a rural Delphi property alongside an oversized fiberglass rooster. The mismatched pair gives travelers two classic forms of roadside folk art—scrap-metal sculpture and reused commercial fiberglass—in one stop.
Indianapolis, IN
Mr. Bendo is a towering fiberglass Muffler Man that has served as an Indianapolis auto-shop landmark for decades. The giant figure has survived moves, repairs and changing businesses and remains a recognizable piece of classic American roadside advertising on West 16th Street.
Kokomo, IN
Highland Park preserves two major Kokomo oddities under neighboring shelters: Old Ben, a famously enormous steer born in 1902 and preserved by taxidermy after his death, and the huge stump of an ancient sycamore. Combining them into one stop avoids sending travelers to duplicate coordinates while preserving both pieces of Kokomo roadside history.
Muncie, IN
A roughly 25-foot Paul Bunyan-style fiberglass giant has stood in Muncie since the mid-twentieth-century roadside-advertising era. Originally connected to a lumber business, the figure later moved to the property near Kilgore Avenue and remains one of Indiana's classic Muffler Man survivors.
Hammond, IN
A bronze boy has his tongue permanently frozen to a real flagpole outside the Indiana Welcome Center, recreating one of the best-known scenes from A Christmas Story. The tribute belongs in Hammond because author Jean Shepherd based the fictional hometown in his stories on his own northwest Indiana upbringing, even though the movie itself was filmed elsewhere.
Jasper, IN
Beginning in the 1960s, Father Phillip Ottavi directed the creation of an enormous religious art environment using geodes, concrete, stone and imported statuary. The resulting shrines, grottoes, planters and garden structures spread across several blocks and remain free and open to the public.
New Harmony, IN
Architect Philip Johnson designed this open-air sacred space in 1960 around a central sculptural canopy rather than enclosing the congregation beneath a conventional roof. Its stark walls, gates and dome make it one of New Harmony's most visually unusual structures.
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, IN
Sisters of Providence constructed this tiny nineteenth-century chapel and covered its interior with shells, creating an unexpectedly ornate space in the Indiana woods. The historic structure has undergone preservation work, so interior access can vary and tours should be checked before visiting.
Santa Claus, IN
The real U.S. Post Office in a town genuinely named Santa Claus receives huge volumes of holiday mail from people seeking the town's distinctive postmark. Local volunteers have answered children's Santa letters for generations, turning an otherwise ordinary federal post office into a functioning piece of Christmas folklore.
Fort Wayne, IN
A group of mariachi musicians fabricated from scrap metal performs permanently outside Cebolla's Mexican Grill. The welded figures transform automotive and industrial pieces into instruments, sombreros and human forms, creating an effective roadside-art stop at an active restaurant.
St. John, IN
This large outdoor devotional attraction uses dozens of life-size bronze sculptures to create an immersive walking route through scenes from the Passion of Christ. Regardless of religious interest, its scale and elaborate staged environments make it an unusually ambitious roadside art installation.
Ashley, IN
A water tower painted with an enormous smiling face, visible from the road through Ashley. It has been repainted over the years and is the thing the town is known for.
Bargersville, IN
A large, naturally lumpy boulder outside the South Central Soccer Academy has been painted again and again to resemble a giant soccer ball. The simple gag has survived for more than a decade and is visible from the soccer-complex grounds along Whiteland Road.
Farmersburg, IN
This tiny roadside chapel sits beside US 41 near the Vigo-Sullivan county line and was built as a quiet place where travelers could stop to pray or rest. Its miniature scale has also earned it a place in roadside-attraction guides, and visitor reports describe it as open to the public.
Bruceville, IN
A giant peach rises beside this seasonal farm market in southern Indiana, a deliberately oversized symbol for a business promoting locally grown fruit. The market traditionally operates during the warmer growing season, so the sculpture is best treated as a seasonal business stop rather than guaranteed year-round access.
Jeffersonville, IN
In an industrial corner of Jeffersonville, a large welded-metal female figure is paired with poetry and environmental elements designed to make the piece more than a conventional statue. The unexpected placement and scale turn the installation into a particularly strange public-art stop.
