Roadside oddities29.6373° N, 82.3709° W
Gainesville, FL
Sculptural garden mixing Asian art, water features, and Florida landscape beside the Harn Museum.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
Roadside oddities
Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Roadside oddities2,517
Suggest a stopGiant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
- Roadside oddities48.9311° N, 99.6551° W
Rolla, ND
This eccentric stone residence was built by Maurice Coghlan and resembles a small prairie castle more than a conventional farmhouse. It is private property with controlled/check-ahead access, so do not enter without explicit permission.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities44.8599° N, 72.7624° W
Enosburg Falls, VT
More than 70 large-scale sculptures by David Stromeyer are spread across roughly 200 acres of fields and woods. The seasonal park lets visitors wander among massive steel forms in a landscape that functions as both sculpture garden and outdoor gallery.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities38.2746° N, 85.7529° W
Clarksville, IN
The enormous Colgate Clock was originally installed at the company's Jersey City plant before being moved to the Clarksville factory complex in the 1920s. Its roughly 40-foot face survives as a giant industrial landmark along the Ohio River even though toothpaste production at the old plant has ended.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities29.8966° N, 81.3136° W
St. Augustine, FL
Huge old live oak anchoring the courtyard of the Colonial Quarter.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities37.7054° N, 105.8706° W
Mosca, CO
A geothermal-water fish farm that evolved into a reptile rescue filled with alligators, crocodilians, snakes and other unusual animals in the San Luis Valley. The improbable high-desert setting is a major part of the appeal.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities32.0645° N, 110.6295° W
Vail, AZ
Guided tours enter a dry limestone cave system of passages, formations and historic graffiti east of Tucson. The cave also carries stories involving miners, outlaws and Depression-era improvements built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities40.2206° N, 74.4737° W
Roosevelt, NJ
A monumental sculpted head of Franklin D. Roosevelt sits in a wooded amphitheater in the town renamed for him. Roosevelt began as a New Deal resettlement community, making the enormous presidential head both civic monument and unusual roadside art.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities40.9269° N, 75.2023° W
Bangor, PA
This privately owned but publicly accessible sanctuary contains more than 90 large stone settings spread across more than 20 wooded acres, with most placed between 1980 and 2005. Visitors can wander several miles of rough trails from dawn to dusk for free; climbing the stones is prohibited and organized activities require permission.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.3231° N, 85.7672° W
Clarksville, IN
The main yard of Concrete Kingdom contains thousands of concrete figures, fountains and lawn ornaments ranging from animals and religious pieces to oversized characters. Because it is an active statuary business rather than a museum, inventory changes constantly and the grounds can look different from one visit to the next.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities40.1192° N, 76.7092° W
Conoy Township, PA
When the Susquehanna River drops low enough, the exposed diabase bedrock at Conewago Falls reveals deep circular potholes, sculpted channels and ripple-like forms carved by powerful water and sediment. The formations are only safely visible at low river levels; use the public boat-launch access and never walk onto exposed river rock during high or rising water.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities39.4085° N, 105.4933° W
Bailey, CO
A restaurant inside a giant hot-dog-shaped building that has moved around Colorado before settling in Bailey. The building itself is the attraction, with food service providing a legitimate reason to stop rather than just photograph it from the road.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities40.5753° N, 73.9798° W
Brooklyn, NY
Coney Island USA's Sideshows by the Seashore continues the neighborhood's freak-show and circus-sideshow tradition with sword swallowers, fire performers and other live acts. The organization describes it as the last permanently housed circus sideshow in the United States, but performances follow a seasonal schedule rather than running every day of the year.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities39.9189° N, 123.7649° W
Piercy, CA
Confusion Hill's tilted Gravity House uses perspective and slope to create apparent violations of gravity, continuing a roadside attraction that opened in 1949.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities30.2616° N, 97.7453° W
Austin, TX
The bridge houses one of the world's largest urban bat colonies. On warm-season evenings, huge streams of bats emerge at dusk.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities41.7620° N, 72.7368° W
West Hartford, CT
Conny was once a walk-through, life-size sperm-whale sculpture outside the Children's Museum. When the museum moved, the enormous whale was cut apart; its surviving tail was reinstalled beside the Trout Brook Trail as an intentionally strange remnant of the original landmark.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities29.9978° N, 91.8109° W
New Iberia, LA
The historic Conrad Rice Mill preserves belt-driven equipment and the industrial process behind one of Louisiana's staple foods. Tours operate on a schedule, so check current availability before routing.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities43.2231° N, 71.7139° W
Contoocook, NH
This long wooden bridge was built for railroad traffic rather than wagons or automobiles and survives as one of the country's oldest covered railroad bridges. Its heavy timber trusses once carried trains across the Contoocook River. Today the preserved structure can be explored on foot from public areas.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities39.8418° N, 75.0781° W
Glendora, NJ
This round novelty house was constructed to resemble an enormous cookie jar, complete with a lid-like roof. It remains a private residence, so OddWay travelers should view the unusual architecture only from public roads without entering the property.
- Access
- Private land, view only
- Roadside oddities35.0274° N, 114.3090° W
Golden Valley, AZ
Rebuilt on the footprint of a historic Route 66 stop, Cool Springs uses stone architecture, fuel pumps and desert isolation to evoke the old mountain road toward Oatman. The site operates as a small museum and gift stop rather than an abandoned gas station.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities43.6354° N, 72.8702° W
Mendon, VT
A rough stone-and-timber shelter sits high in the Killington backcountry along the Appalachian and Long Trail system. The primitive cabin is open to hikers but requires a real mountain approach rather than a roadside visit, so weather and trail conditions matter.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities47.1449° N, 124.1893° W
Copalis Beach, WA
Washington's Copalis State Airport is a designated stretch of Pacific beach where aircraft can land on the sand when conditions allow. Tide, weather, aviation rules, and beach users make this an access-dependent stop rather than a normal runway visit.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities44.0054° N, 92.4602° W
Rochester, MN
A working water tower painted as an enormous ear of corn rises above Rochester's skyline. The structure converts basic municipal infrastructure into a surreal agricultural landmark that can be seen from surrounding public roads.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities36.3789° N, 75.8322° W
Corolla, NC
A herd of Colonial Spanish mustangs lives along the remote northern Outer Banks, descendants of horses brought to the region centuries ago. They roam freely in the beach and dune environment north of Corolla; guided tours are the safest and most practical way for travelers to see them without disturbing the herd.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed