Roadside oddities27.4372° N, 81.9219° W
Ona, FL
Hand-built silver castle filled with Howard Solomon's found-object art and eccentric architecture.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
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 oddities38.9083° N, 77.0447° W
Washington, DC
A tiny triangular private memorial park contains a plaque to Sonny Bono and, according to its creator, a buried cache that includes sheet music.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities56.8105° N, 132.9590° W
Petersburg, AK
This waterfront hall is a visible anchor of Petersburg's unusually strong Norwegian identity, celebrated with rosemaling, festivals and Scandinavian traditions. Public access depends on events, but the building and surrounding Little Norway district remain a distinctive cultural stop.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities39.0711° N, 89.7354° W
Mount Olive, IL
The tiny 1926 Soulsby station is one of the oldest surviving filling stations along the Illinois Route 66 corridor.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities34.4978° N, 79.3097° W
Hamer, SC
This sprawling Interstate 95 tourist complex is impossible to miss thanks to its giant sombrero tower, neon signs, oversized animals, fiberglass figures, shops, motel, and aggressively kitschy Mexican-themed architecture. Decades of highway advertising make the attraction part roadside stop and part surreal landmark.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities44.9131° N, 69.7786° W
Solon, ME
The plain exterior of this early-1800s meeting house hides an interior almost completely covered in vivid frescoes painted by artists in the 1950s. Biblical, symbolic, and surreal imagery fills walls and ceilings, creating one of Maine’s most unexpected historic interiors.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities33.9867° N, 84.1543° W
Duluth, GA
Georgia's official transportation history museum maintains a large outdoor collection of locomotives, passenger cars, cabooses, buses and other equipment. The ability to walk through rows of full-size historic machines makes the site feel closer to a railway graveyard than a conventional display hall.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities34.4461° N, 77.5614° W
Surf City, NC
Visitors enter this beach souvenir store through the open jaws of a gigantic alligator facade. The oversized reptile turns an otherwise ordinary coastal shop into a classic piece of tourist-strip roadside architecture. Current business location: https://us.nextdoor.com/pages/waves-surf-sport-holly-ridge-nc/
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities32.9473° N, 112.7169° W
Gila Bend, AZ
A giant flying-saucer sign and space-themed architecture have made this motel a Gila Bend landmark since the Space Age. The property remains an operating motel, preserving mid-century futurism in the middle of the desert.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities41.5257° N, 73.4260° W
New Milford, CT
A real tire flown aboard Space Shuttle Discovery is mounted outside the John J. McCarthy Observatory at New Milford High School. The tire touched down after traveling millions of miles in space, turning an otherwise disposable spacecraft component into a hands-on local artifact.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities38.9311° N, 77.0716° W
Washington, DC
A stained-glass window in the National Cathedral contains an actual piece of lunar rock brought back by Apollo 11.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities35.1063° N, 85.3484° W
Signal Mountain, TN
This saucer-shaped Futuro-style house looks like a landed spacecraft above the Tennessee River. It is a private residence rather than a public attraction, so travelers should view it only from lawful public areas and avoid disturbing occupants.
- Access
- Private land, view only
- Roadside oddities41.4403° N, 72.1146° W
Montville, CT
A boulder outside the Montville fire company has been painted into a spotted firehouse dog named Sparky. It joins eastern Connecticut's unusual local tradition of turning roadside rocks into oversized canine faces.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities42.7311° N, 84.4875° W
East Lansing, MI
Michigan State University's massive Spartan figure is one of the school's defining landmarks and was originally created from glazed terra-cotta sections. A bronze replica now stands outdoors at the prominent campus site while the fragile original is preserved indoors.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities43.4417° N, 113.5578° W
Arco, ID
Accessible short trails lead to welded lava cones formed around vents. These are named, distinct volcanic features rather than arbitrary extra pins inside the park.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities44.3528° N, 103.9299° W
Savoy, SD
Spearfish Creek plunges roughly 47 feet over a rock ledge below the canyon community of Savoy. A public trail reaches the base, revealing a waterfall that was once largely hidden after hydroelectric development diverted water from the creek.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities36.1056° N, 109.3554° W
Chinle, AZ
A developed overlook faces the twin sandstone spires of Spider Rock rising from Canyon de Chelly. The formation is culturally significant within Diné tradition, so visitors should use the public rim viewpoint and treat associated stories respectfully.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities35.0285° N, 97.3360° W
Lexington, OK
A Volkswagen Beetle has been transformed into an enormous spider-like roadside sculpture. The familiar car body perched on long metal legs creates exactly the kind of inexplicable highway sight OddWay is built to surface.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities41.4377° N, 112.6683° W
Rozel Point, UT
Robert Smithson's 1970 earthwork coils more than 1,500 feet into the Great Salt Lake from black basalt shoreline. Water level changes can leave the spiral submerged, exposed or surrounded by pinkish salt water.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities43.0264° N, 91.2475° W
McGregor, IA
Visitors board small boats and travel directly into a flooded limestone cavern at this long-running northeast Iowa roadside attraction. The underground boat tour gives the site a classic mid-century tourist-stop feel.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities41.5227° N, 72.0188° W
Preston, CT
This black-and-white dog-shaped boulder has reportedly been maintained as 'Spotty' since 1935. A small plaque credits the original painter, making it one of the oldest surviving examples in eastern Connecticut's peculiar painted-dog-rock tradition.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities44.2773° N, 124.1125° W
Yachats, OR
Wave pressure forces seawater through a narrow opening in the lava shoreline, producing a natural geyser-like plume at favorable tides.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities21.8847° N, 159.4934° W
Kōloa, HI
Incoming surf compresses air and water through lava-rock openings, producing a plume and a distinctive rushing or groaning sound at this south-shore lookout. Stay behind barriers: blowholes can pull people toward openings as well as shoot water outward.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities40.5175° N, 88.9807° W
Normal, IL
A restored 1931 Tudor Revival gas station is one of the most architecturally distinctive filling stations on Illinois Route 66.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed