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.
Folkston, GA
An elevated public platform overlooks the busy rail corridor where trains funnel toward and from Florida. The town embraced railfan culture with shelter, information and a dedicated viewing area, turning freight traffic into an around-the-clock roadside attraction.
Doylestown Township, PA
Henry Chapman Mercer built Fonthill between 1908 and 1912 as an experimental reinforced-concrete home filled with handmade tiles and architectural fragments. Guided tours wind through dozens of irregular rooms, stairways, terraces and alcoves in one of Pennsylvania's strangest private homes turned museum.
Borrego Springs, CA
A remote badlands overlook reveals deeply eroded ridges that resemble a miniature Grand Canyon; sandy access roads may require four-wheel drive.
Ann Arbor, MI
Six oversized concrete carrots stand outside the Food Gatherers warehouse at the appropriately named 1 Carrot Way. The sculptures turn the nonprofit food bank's carrot logo into a large roadside landmark; visitors should keep the active warehouse driveway clear.
Sevierville, TN
Guided tours descend through a large cave system once associated with Eastern Woodland peoples and later moonshiners. Illuminated formations, underground streams and the cavern's regional history give it a much stranger character than a typical scenic stop.
Clermont, KY
Danish artist Thomas Dambo built three enormous troll-like figures from recycled wood inside Bernheim Forest in 2019. The giants are hidden along trails rather than clustered beside a parking lot, turning the search for the sculptures into part of the attraction.
Franklin, KY
A roughly 21-foot stainless-steel dinner fork rises from a literal fork in a rural Simpson County road. The deliberately obvious visual pun has become one of the county's signature roadside-photo stops.
Soda Springs, ID
Nature preserve with unusual spring-fed pools and travertine formations created by mineral-rich water. Stay on established public routes to protect fragile formations and habitat.
Bismarck, ND
This late nineteenth-century house served as the official home of North Dakota governors for decades. Period rooms and later additions show the oddly domestic side of state political history before the modern executive residence.
Casey, IL
Casey’s giant knitting needles were created by Jim Bolin and officially held the world-record title from 2013 to 2017. They are 13.75 feet long and are now presented as the former world’s largest, displayed with the town’s giant crochet hook at 2 East Main Street.
North Platte, NE
This classic roadside stop combines a gift shop with Old West displays and a large hand-carved miniature recreation of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Its deliberately oversized and nostalgic presentation fits OddWay better than a conventional souvenir store.
Cairo, IL
At Illinois' southern tip, visitors can stand where the muddy Mississippi and Ohio rivers visibly meet at a site once fortified during the Civil War.
Statesville, NC
Archaeology allowed historians to reconstruct North Carolina’s only preserved French and Indian War fort on its original site. Costumed interpretation and a full-scale fortified barracks recreate the frontier outpost that was attacked during the Anglo-Cherokee War. Official site: https://historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/fort-dobbs
Edgecomb, ME
Built in 1808–09 to defend the busy port of Wiscasset, Fort Edgecomb is dominated by an unusual two-story octagonal wooden blockhouse. The rare structure survives as a state historic site overlooking the Sheepscot River and is among Maine’s most distinctive early coastal defenses.
Kittery, ME
Fortifications have guarded this bluff above the Piscataqua River for centuries, although the site saw remarkably little actual combat. Surviving earthworks, granite structures, and the distinctive blockhouse create a layered military ruin spanning multiple periods of American history.
Fort Peck, MT
A colossal earth-filled dam built during the New Deal, stretching across the Missouri River and creating Fort Peck Lake. Its scale and remote setting make it a striking engineering stop.
Fort Rock, OR
A vast ring of volcanic tuff rises from the high desert like a ruined stone fortress, formed when magma erupted through an ancient lake.
Greenback, TN
Floyd Banks spent decades constructing towers, walls, tunnels and religiously themed concrete forms by hand, creating a sprawling castle-like environment on private property. Access depends on the owner's current rules; visitors should never assume unrestricted entry.
Kershaw, SC
Despite its name, the centerpiece is an exposed granite outcrop of roughly 14 acres rather than forty. Shallow pools on the almost lunar-looking stone support rare plants, while the preserve also contains trails, a waterfall, cave-like formations, and other granite exposures.
Minneapolis, MN
The Art Deco Foshay Tower contains a small museum about utilities magnate Wilbur Foshay and an outdoor observation deck high above downtown. Foshay's spectacular rise and fraud conviction add an unusually dramatic human story to the skyscraper's architecture.
Rockford, IA
A former quarry exposes Devonian-age rock packed with brachiopods, corals and other fossils that visitors can search for and collect under park rules. Historic kilns and restored prairie add an industrial and ecological layer to the site.
Medicine Bow, WY
A 1930s roadside cabin was built from thousands of dinosaur bones collected around Como Bluff; the historic attraction itself is closed.
Kemmerer, WY
Exceptionally detailed fossils from a 52-million-year-old lake include fish, reptiles, plants, birds and mammals.
Little Lake, CA
Ancient lava was polished and sculpted by glacial-era Owens River water into smooth black chutes and potholes that now sit completely dry.
