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.
Lake Geneva, WI
Lake Geneva was the home base of Gary Gygax and the early tabletop-gaming community that produced Dungeons & Dragons. A public plaque commemorates Gygax and the city's outsized role in creating modern role-playing games.
Verona, WI
The software company's enormous campus is filled with themed buildings, fantasy interiors, underground passages, giant sculptures and environments inspired by everything from storybooks to science fiction. Visitor access policies should be checked before going because it remains an active workplace.
Sparta, WI
Hundreds of weathered molds used to manufacture America's giant fiberglass roadside figures are stored in an outdoor field at F.A.S.T. Fiberglass. Visitors can walk among molds for animals, characters, food and Muffler Men; the owners ask guests not to climb on them and to watch for insects.
Lac du Flambeau, WI
A giant speared sturgeon sculpture outside the museum connects immediately to the Lac du Flambeau community's fishing traditions. Inside, exhibits interpret Ojibwe history and culture, giving the oversized fish a much richer context than a stand-alone roadside statue.
Lodi, WI
A flat-topped sandstone bluff rises hundreds of feet above the surrounding countryside. Trails climb through forest to dramatic cliff views, creating a geological landmark that looks far more mountainous than its southern Wisconsin setting.
Hubertus, WI
A twin-spired basilica rises above a heavily wooded glacial hill, visible for miles across southeastern Wisconsin. The complex combines pilgrimage shrines, chapels and a seasonal observation tower reached by a long staircase.
Fennimore, WI
A giant fiberglass rat clutching cheese stands outside a Fennimore cheese business, leaning fully into Wisconsin's dairy identity. The oversized rodent is a classic highway-photo oddity rather than a formal attraction.
Sheboygan, WI
James Tellen filled his wooded property with hand-built concrete people, animals and religious scenes. The figures emerge between trees like a homemade storybook and are now preserved for public viewing.
Marshfield, WI
Clyde Wynia builds whimsical metal creatures from scrap and presents them as the fossilized remains of extinct creatures from the fictional Jurustic Age. Dragons, insects and impossible animals fill the outdoor property in a mix of sculpture and deadpan mythology.
Kenosha, WI
This castle-shaped cheese shop near I-94 combines Wisconsin food culture with deliberately oversized roadside architecture. Turrets, a throne, cheese displays and a gift-heavy interior make it much more than a normal highway store.
Boulder Junction, WI
Boulder Junction's giant musky statue celebrates the community's self-proclaimed status as the Musky Capital of the World. The fish stands in town as a public landmark and a compact stop for Wisconsin's obsession with oversized freshwater creatures.
Fox Point, WI
Artist Mary Nohl transformed her lakeside property with concrete figures, painted surfaces, sculptures and handmade objects until the entire home became an art environment. The property is preserved but not a normal walk-in attraction; view only from lawful public areas unless attending an authorized program.
Camp Douglas, WI
Steep sandstone buttes rise from otherwise flat terrain, remnants of ancient sea stacks that became dramatic landmarks along today's interstate corridor. A staircase climbs Mill Bluff for a view across the strange isolated formations.
Milwaukee, WI
Santiago Calatrava's lakefront pavilion is topped by a movable brise soleil whose enormous white wings open and close over the building. The kinetic architecture turns a major art museum into a mechanical landmark.
Madison, WI
Frank Lloyd Wright first proposed a civic center for this lakefront site in the 1930s, but the completed building did not open until 1997, decades after his death. The sweeping structure and public rooftop preserve a rare posthumously realized Wright concept.
North Freedom, WI
A large sandstone arch spans a wooded hillside above a rock shelter used by people thousands of years ago. The combination of unusual geology and deep human history makes the small state park unusually dense with significance.
Hollandale, WI
Immigrant farmer Nick Engelbert surrounded his home with colorful concrete sculptures depicting animals, people, fairy tales and family memories. The restored site preserves both the sculpture garden and the painted house.
Watertown, WI
Built in 1854, this unusual eight-sided house follows the nineteenth-century fascination with octagonal architecture. Its preserved rooms, central staircase and historic grounds make the geometry itself the main attraction.
Green Bay, WI
This enormous industrial fastener was long promoted as the world's largest hex nut. Larger examples have since appeared elsewhere, so OddWay should present it as the original famous Green Bay giant rather than an uncontested current record-holder.
Merrimac, WI
A narrow sandstone-and-quartzite gorge shelters cool-climate plants and a stream that winds between high rock walls. Flooding has repeatedly changed the trail infrastructure, so visitors should expect a natural route rather than a manicured boardwalk.
Baraboo, WI
Skillet Creek cuts through a narrow sandstone gorge filled with dark pools, ledges and small waterfalls. The fragile site has special rules and no cliff jumping; OddWay should route visitors only to legal trails and viewpoints.
DeForest, WI
A giant pink fiberglass elephant wearing glasses stands beside County Highway V, a surviving piece of classic roadside advertising that has become a local landmark in its own right. It is best treated as a quick photo stop from the business property or other lawful public areas.
Fountain City, WI
Retired farmer Herman Rusch created dozens of concrete and found-object sculptures across his property, including animals, people and whimsical constructions. The site is preserved as an outdoor folk-art environment and museum.
Monico, WI
This giant jackalope-like roadside creature combines a rabbit body with antlers and has become known as the Rhinelapus. It is exactly the kind of improbable fiberglass animal OddWay is built for, but visitors should view it only from safe lawful areas near the roadside property.
