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.
Grand Rapids, MI
Artist Joseph Kinnebrew designed this concrete structure as both public sculpture and a functioning fish ladder around a man-made obstacle in the Grand River. During migration periods, visitors can watch fish work their way through the brutalist-looking channels, making the site an unusual mix of infrastructure, ecology and art.
Sullivan, MO
Fisher Cave lies beneath Meramec State Park and is opened for naturalist-led tours during the park's cave season. The tour follows an active cave environment with streams, wildlife and varied limestone formations rather than a heavily commercialized interior.
Regent, ND
A huge metal fish, fisherman and underwater scene fill this Enchanted Highway stop. Its scale and dense collection of welded aquatic forms make it one of the route's most elaborate installations.
Pequot Lakes, MN
Pequot Lakes painted its spherical water tower like an enormous red-and-white fishing bobber. The working piece of municipal infrastructure doubles as a giant roadside object visible across town.
Yellowstone National Park, WY
A hot-spring cone at Yellowstone Lake once associated with the old story of anglers cooking freshly caught fish without leaving the line.
Fitzgerald, GA
Free-roaming chickens descended in part from red junglefowl released in the area have become a recognizable feature of Fitzgerald streets and parks. The city celebrates the birds with an annual Wild Chicken Festival, making the flock an active local tradition rather than a one-off sighting.
Woodstock, VT
Artist Dan Ladd trained living elm trees into a sequence of architectural arches, using the trees themselves as a slowly changing sculptural material. Only part of the original work survives, but it remains visible at the Sculpturefest site in Woodstock.
Astoria, OR
This ornate 1886 Queen Anne mansion preserves period rooms, elaborate woodwork and the lifestyle of river pilot Captain George Flavel's family.
Providence, RI
Built in 1885 for the Providence Art Club, this highly decorated half-timbered studio looks dramatically different from the surrounding Colonial-era buildings on Thomas Street. Carved figures, patterned panels and an asymmetrical façade give it the appearance of an illustrated storybook building dropped into College Hill.
Albany, GA
The RiverQuarium's centerpiece is a 175,000-gallon open-air exhibit modeled on Southwest Georgia's blue-hole springs. More than a hundred kinds of aquatic animals inhabit the habitat, giving visitors an unusually direct look at the hidden freshwater systems beneath the region.
New Orleans, LA
The FLOAT House was designed after Hurricane Katrina as a prototype home able to rise vertically during flooding. It remains a private residence, so OddWay visitors should view it only from the street.
Brookfield, VT
A bridge has floated across Sunset Lake at this location in several different forms since the nineteenth century because the deep lakebed made conventional supports difficult. The present structure preserves the unusual floating-crossing tradition while serving as a distinctive village landmark.
Lucas, KS
Florence Deeble spent decades building miniature landscapes and travel memories from concrete, stone, and found material around her home. The result is a compact folk-art environment of mountains, villages, monuments, and personal geography.
Florence, KY
The famous tower originally advertised "Florence Mall," but highway regulations objected to using the structure as an advertisement before the mall had opened. Rather than repaint the entire tower, workers changed the M into a Y and added an apostrophe, creating the now-iconic "Florence Y'all."
Marianna, FL
Florida's only state park with public guided tours through large dry limestone caves.
Clermont, FL
1956 observation tower surviving from the era when citrus groves and roadside attractions defined Central Florida tourism.
Florissant, CO
The monument preserves an Eocene lake ecosystem with enormous petrified redwood stumps and exceptionally detailed fossil insects and leaves. Trails begin near the visitor center, and collecting fossils or petrified wood is prohibited.
Gerlach, NV
A multicolored geothermal formation created after drilling on private Fly Ranch land can only be visited through authorized tours or programs; there is no general walk-up access.
Everett, WA
Restored military aircraft, tanks, and armored vehicles fill this unusually machinery-heavy museum. Many objects are presented as functioning engineering artifacts rather than static replicas.
Watch Hill, RI
This nineteenth-century carousel uses horses suspended from chains instead of the up-and-down poles found on most carousels. As the ride spins, centrifugal force sends the wooden horses outward, creating the impression that they are flying. It is one of the oldest continuously operating carousels of its type and runs seasonally.
Burlington, VT
Winged monkey figures perch above Burlington's former Union Station, a strange architectural reference to The Wizard of Oz. The sculptures are easily visible from public areas around the station and have become a small but unmistakable downtown oddity.
University Park, IL
A 1977 sculpture by Jene Highstein: concrete over a steel frame, a dark oval sitting in the prairie grass like something that landed and settled. It is part of the permanent collection at Governors State University's Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park, which is free, has free parking, and is open dawn to dusk every day of the year. Walk out to it — just don't climb on it.
Centreville, VA
Artist Mark Cline built this full-size Stonehenge replica from giant Styrofoam blocks in 2004, and it later moved from Natural Bridge to Cox Farms. Foamhenge is on private property and is accessible only during designated Cox Farms seasons and hours, including Fall Festival and very limited shuttle access at other times.
Sautee Nacoochee, GA
This museum documents the distinctive alkaline-glazed pottery tradition of North Georgia and the families who kept it alive. Face jugs and utilitarian stoneware give the collection an especially strong OddWay fit because many pieces sit halfway between household object and folk creature.
