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.
Dubuque, IA
Discovered during nineteenth-century mining, Crystal Lake Cave contains stalactites, stalagmites and other mineral formations beneath the Dubuque area. Visitors enter only on scheduled commercial cave tours.
Cave City, KY
Discovered in 1960, Crystal Onyx is a privately operated show cave packed with calcite formations beneath Prewitts Knob. Guided tours descend into the cave through a developed route, giving travelers another underground stop that feels very different from the huge passages of nearby Mammoth Cave.
Polaris, MT
A designated Forest Service digging area where visitors can search for quartz crystals in decomposed granite. Snow and mountain-road conditions make access seasonal.
Memphis, TN
Artist Dionicio Rodriguez transformed part of Memorial Park Cemetery into a crystal-studded artificial cave filled with biblical tableaux and faux-natural concrete forms. The grotto feels like a fantasy cavern hidden inside an otherwise conventional cemetery landscape.
Plymouth, NC
A full-size floating replica of the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle sits beside the Port O’Plymouth Museum. The original armored vessel terrorized Union forces on eastern North Carolina rivers before being sunk by a daring torpedo attack in 1864. Location: https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm17Z0H_The_Port_o_Plymouth_Museum_Plymouth_NC
Washington, DC
A former church covered in large-scale murals and used as an arts venue, making it one of the most visually unusual buildings in Southwest D.C.
Cumberland, RI
Iron Mine Hill contains one of the best-known exposures of Cumberlandite, an unusually dense magnetic rock found in significant quantities almost nowhere outside this part of Rhode Island. The material was named the official state rock in 1966. Reaching the outcrops involves a real hike, so visitors should use established trails and leave the rock in place.
Southington, CT
A curiosity shop inside Factory Square filled with taxidermy, natural-history specimens, antiques, strange artwork, unusual collectibles and other objects selected for maximum oddity. It functions as both a shop and a cabinet-of-curiosities-style browsing stop.
Winterset, IA
This nineteenth-century covered bridge was moved to Winterset City Park for preservation. Visitors can walk through the enclosed timber span while exploring several other unusual park structures nearby.
Bridgeport, CT
A new Bridgeport curiosity shop from oddities collector Ryan Matthew Cohn combines antique medical objects, taxidermy, natural-history pieces and unusual decorative material. It opened in 2026 and currently keeps limited public hours with additional visits available by arrangement.
Tulsa, OK
This riverfront plaza honors Tulsa businessman Cyrus Avery, a central figure in the creation and promotion of U.S. Route 66. Sculptures, plaques and views toward the historic bridge turn the highway's origin story into a physical stop.
Cedar Rapids, IA
The Czech Village and New Bohemia district uses public art, clocks and restored immigrant-era buildings to preserve Cedar Rapids' Czech and Slovak identity. The streetscape makes a distinctive walkable cultural stop near the national museum.
Washington, DC
Fossilized remains of an ancient bald-cypress swamp have been found beneath downtown D.C.; modern bald cypresses in Lafayette Square mark the strange buried landscape.
South Milwaukee, WI
A bronze statue honors professional wrestler Reggie 'Da Crusher' Lisowski, the beer-drinking, blue-collar wrestling icon closely associated with South Milwaukee. Fans crowdfunded the memorial, which now stands publicly in his hometown.
Ishpeming, MI
This proudly ridiculous Upper Peninsula attraction mixes Yooper humor with homemade machines, mining jokes and enormous outdoor sculptures. Its best-known pieces include Big Gus, an oversized working chainsaw, and Big Ernie, a gigantic rifle, giving travelers multiple oddities at one easy roadside stop.
Harrison, NE
This trail leads through terrain containing the corkscrew-shaped fossil burrows once nicknamed “Devil’s Corkscrews.” Scientists eventually linked these spiraling structures to prehistoric beaver relatives, turning what first looked like a bizarre fossil plant into a classic paleontology mystery.
Honolulu, HI
Oʻahu's oldest Shinto shrine developed a distinctly Hawaiian-American pantheon, enshrining figures including Kamehameha I, King Kalākaua, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln alongside traditional kami. It remains an active religious institution, not a themed attraction.
Yellowstone National Park, WY
A frequently erupting geyser whose angled jets sweep across the basin rather than firing straight upward.
Newcastle, ME
A historic stone fish ladder climbs from the Damariscotta River system toward Damariscotta Lake, allowing enormous runs of alewives to bypass the old mill site. During the spring migration, thousands of fish can crowd the narrow channel at once, turning a piece of practical infrastructure into a strange natural spectacle.
Springfield, IL
Frank Lloyd Wright's extraordinary Prairie-style house contains more original Wright furniture and art glass than nearly any other site.
Linwood, NC
A giant bearded pioneer figure stands in the parking lot of Bill’s Truck Stop, where the old fiberglass advertising statue has survived multiple decades and relocations. A 2026 traveler report confirms the giant and the old-school truck stop are both still operating as an easy I-85 detour. Coordinates: https://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/pioneer-giant/ Current status: https://www.thetriumphadventures.com/glmc-trip-3/
Elk Horn, IA
A nineteenth-century Danish windmill was dismantled in Denmark, shipped to Iowa and rebuilt in Elk Horn. It now serves as an operating cultural landmark and museum for the area's Danish heritage.
Death Valley, CA
A mountaintop overlook looks down more than a vertical mile toward Badwater Basin and across to the Panamint Range.
Asheville, NC
Tucked inside Valiant Inscriptions Tattoo Gallery, this collection specializes in wet specimens, taxidermy, bones, skulls, malformed animals, and other macabre curiosities. Displays have included a cyclops deer, six-legged calf, Fiji-mermaid-style specimen, and human skulls. Current address: https://porcupine-icosahedron-hjxm.squarespace.com/faq
