Roadside oddities44.9388° N, 123.0440° W
Salem, OR
A giant former industrial acid-storage tank was transformed into a colorful relief globe covered with continents, animals and landmarks in Riverfront Park.
- Access
- Open to visitors
Roadside oddities
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Roadside oddities2,517
Suggest a stopGiant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
- Roadside oddities36.4372° N, 95.4481° W
Foyil, OK
Self-taught artist Ed Galloway covered a rural property with concrete folk-art structures, including a towering hand-built totem pole and an elaborate concrete fiddle house. The site is one of the state's strongest genuine outsider-art stops.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities33.9972° N, 81.0482° W
Columbia, SC
Inside EdVenture stands Eddie, a roughly 40-foot-tall child that visitors can actually climb through. His internal organs, bones, stomach, brain, and other body systems become tunnels and exhibits, essentially turning a giant human body into a playground. Museum: https://www.edventure.org/
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities32.7597° N, 79.8406° W
Sullivan’s Island, SC
The island’s public library occupies part of Battery Gadsden, a former coastal-defense bunker, and is named for Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was stationed on Sullivan’s Island as a young soldier, and the setting later influenced stories including “The Gold-Bug.”
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities36.1420° N, 86.7866° W
Nashville, TN
Large white polar-bear statues preserve the memory of a long-gone frozen-custard business in the Edgehill neighborhood. The animals survived their original commercial purpose and became neighborhood mascots in their own right.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities32.5509° N, 80.2803° W
Edisto Island, SC
For years, passing motorists have decorated this roadside tree with an ever-changing collection of seasonal props, signs, toys, and costumes. No single display lasts forever, so the fun is seeing what bizarre version of the tree happens to exist when you arrive.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities38.8161° N, 90.1195° W
West Alton, MO
A short trail reaches the point where the Missouri River meets the Mississippi, allowing visitors to stand at one of the most consequential river junctions in North America. Seasonal flooding can affect access, so current state-park conditions should be checked before routing.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities41.9312° N, 88.7528° W
DeKalb, IL
A rare 1929 Egyptian Revival movie palace filled with scarabs, pharaoh motifs, hieroglyphic decoration, and an atmospheric auditorium.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities36.2868° N, 88.3001° W
Paris, TN
Paris, Tennessee answers its French namesake with a large Eiffel Tower replica rising over a city park. The intentionally literal landmark is classic small-city roadside branding and an easy photo stop.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities35.2920° N, 93.7284° W
Paris, AR
Downtown Paris has its own miniature Eiffel Tower, complete with a public plaza and Arkansas personality. The obvious name-based joke has become the town’s signature photo stop.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities34.9697° N, 108.0031° W
Grants, NM
This trail crosses lava tubes, cinder cones and collapsed volcanic terrain on the north side of El Malpais. Cave access can be restricted seasonally to protect bats, so travelers should check current NPS conditions.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities35.5283° N, 108.7429° W
Gallup, NM
Gallup's restored 1928 theater preserves a historic marquee and Pueblo Revival details along Route 66. Show schedules determine interior access, but the exterior remains a visible piece of the city's neon-era streetscape.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities35.5285° N, 108.7421° W
Gallup, NM
Built as lodging for movie stars working on Westerns, El Rancho fills its lobby and rooms with names, photographs and memorabilia from Hollywood's Southwest era. It remains a functioning hotel as well as a Route 66 landmark.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities35.5333° N, 97.9556° W
El Reno, OK
A modern Route 66 monument at Wade Street and Choctaw Avenue marks El Reno's connection to the Mother Road. It adds a clear routable photo stop to a town already rich in highway and railroad history.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities35.2146° N, 114.0252° W
Kingman, AZ
A tall neon sign and huge murals turn this 1930s Route 66 motel into a roadside landmark long before travelers reach the rooms. It remains an operating motel rather than a preserved museum piece.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities34.1112° N, 82.8675° W
Elberton, GA
A museum devoted to the granite industry explains how Elberton became one of America's best-known centers for quarrying and monument production. Antique tools, stoneworking displays and the infamous 'Dutchy' statue make the collection substantially stranger than a conventional local-history museum.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities37.6518° N, 90.6898° W
Belleview, MO
Enormous rounded granite boulders stand in rows and clusters that resemble a train of circus elephants. A paved loop trail threads among the 1.5-billion-year-old rocks and past traces of the area's quarrying history.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities46.0018° N, 98.5282° W
Ellendale, ND
This restored 1909 opera house preserves a surprisingly elaborate performance space in a small prairie city. Seasonal events and tours provide access to its stage, balcony and period architecture.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities32.3865° N, 96.8485° W
Waxahachie, TX
The ornate 1890s courthouse is covered in carved faces, creatures and grotesques, including famously expressive stone heads around the upper exterior.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities34.6631° N, 117.3332° W
Oro Grande, CA
Hundreds of welded metal 'trees' carry colored glass bottles, typewriters, tools and other salvaged objects across a dense Route 66 folk-art environment.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities47.4607° N, 115.8231° W
Mullan, ID
A homemade assemblage of old mining and logging parts that sprays water into a whimsical roadside fountain. It is one of the Silver Valley's stranger quick stops.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities36.0657° N, 79.7911° W
Greensboro, NC
A former three-story thrift store containing decades of accumulated merchandise was transformed into a living museum and artist residency where the old objects themselves become raw material for installations. Nothing about the building resembles a conventional gallery. Location: https://publicartgso.org/2018/06/12/elsewhere/
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities42.0286° N, 93.6386° W
Ames, IA
Reiman Gardens is home to Elwood, a towering concrete garden gnome built at a scale large enough to qualify as a former world-record holder. The whimsical figure sits within the public botanical garden grounds.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities42.2429° N, 71.3695° W
Sherborn, MA
A bronze cow marks the grave of Emily, who escaped a slaughterhouse in 1995 and survived hidden in the woods for weeks before being rescued by the Peace Abbey. She became a local symbol of animal welfare, and the memorial preserves one of Massachusetts' strangest animal-escape stories.
- Access
- Open to visitors