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.
Tucumcari, NM
A concrete teepee entrance and vintage neon mark this surviving Route 66 curio shop. The building began as a gas station and now functions as a compact piece of roadside architecture and souvenir culture.
Dover, NH
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Dover in 1983, sketching the first turtle as a joke before developing the idea into a comic. A public marker and themed manhole cover now commemorate the city's unexpected role in launching the franchise. It is a compact but legitimate pop-culture pilgrimage stop.
Thermopolis, WY
Mineral water has coated an old cooling structure for decades, building a bulbous travertine formation that resembles a natural sculpture.
Chester Township, NJ
Rows of old utility poles stand upright in an open field at Highlands Ridge Park, creating the eerie appearance of a forest made entirely from telephone infrastructure. The unusual landscape is publicly accessible within the park.
Washington, DC
A much-mocked 19th-century fountain was donated by a temperance advocate who hoped free drinking water would steer people away from alcohol.
Wapakoneta, OH
Jim Bowsher began assembling the Temple of Tolerance from enormous stones, found objects and historic artifacts in his Wapakoneta backyard in 1981. Despite looking like a private residential property from the street, the stone sanctuary is intentionally open to the public for free; visitors should use the designated entrance and stay within the areas opened for guests.
Genesee Depot, WI
Broadway stars Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne turned this estate into a theatrical retreat filled with highly personal rooms, art and stage-world connections. The preserved property feels more like stepping into an eccentric private set than touring a conventional historic house.
Alamo, TN
A drive-through route brings visitors past camels, zebras, antelope and other animals in rural West Tennessee. The surreal roadside contrast of exotic species against farmland makes the park a memorable route stop; follow all posted feeding and vehicle rules.
Spearfish, SD
Artist Dick Termes paints complete scenes across suspended spheres designed to be viewed from every direction. Dozens of these rotating six-point-perspective paintings create a disorienting gallery where rooms, landscapes and figures wrap continuously around curved surfaces.
Des Moines, IA
The Iowa governor's residence occupies an elaborate 1869 Second Empire mansion with a towering central tower and ornate interiors. Guided tours reveal one of the state's most extravagant surviving homes.
Terry, MT
A rough-road overlook into the eroded Terry Badlands, a maze of sandstone ridges, hoodoos, and coulees. Road conditions vary sharply with weather; high-clearance travel is prudent.
Canyon, TX
A towering cowboy statue built in the 1950s to advertise a western store. Restored after decades of weather damage, he remains one of the Panhandle's best roadside giants.
Macon, GA
The Tudor-style house where members of the Allman Brothers Band lived communally has been turned into a museum packed with instruments, clothing, posters and personal objects. It preserves the domestic setting behind one of the South's most influential rock bands.
Bennington, VT
A monumental Abraham Lincoln stands outside the Bennington Museum in an unusually theatrical composition that also includes a small nude figure. Clyde du Vernet Hunt's sculpture, known as The American Spirit, has become locally famous for Lincoln's distinctive hat and imposing pose.
Sault Ste. Marie, MI
More than 200 animal mounts crowd the walls and ceiling of this long-running restaurant near the Soo Locks. The overwhelming collection of antlers, taxidermy and North Woods memorabilia makes eating here feel closer to dining inside an eccentric hunting museum.
Kearney, NE
A museum literally spans Interstate 80 in a giant bridge-like structure, interpreting centuries of travel through the Platte River corridor. Its unusual architecture makes the building itself a roadside oddity before visitors even enter the exhibits.
National Harbor, MD
J. Seward Johnson Jr.'s enormous sculpture depicts a giant apparently clawing his way out of the earth, with separate head, hand, arm, knee and foot emerging from the sand. The work was moved from Washington, D.C. to National Harbor in 2008 and is freely accessible on the waterfront.
Chesterfield, MO
A 70-foot aluminum giant appears to claw his way out of the earth in Chesterfield Central Park, with separate hands, head, knee and foot emerging from the ground. The installation is a second casting of Seward Johnson's famous The Awakening and is freely viewable in the park.
Lincoln, NH
A powerful whirlpool of water and stone carved this large, smooth granite pothole at the foot of a cascade in Franconia Notch. Nineteenth-century visitors compared its near-perfect rounded walls to an enormous natural basin. It is reached by a short public trail from the parkway. Secondary source: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-basin
Berkeley Township, NJ
A large old-school dinosaur statue stands beside Route 9 in Bayville, surviving decades of changing businesses around it. Its hand-built roadside-attraction look makes it feel like a leftover from an earlier era of highway tourism.
Thomasville, NC
Thomasville’s current Big Chair was erected in 1950 as a steel-and-concrete replacement for an earlier wooden giant chair built in 1922. The 30-foot landmark stands in the downtown Town Common and continues to symbolize Thomasville’s long furniture-manufacturing history.
Washington, DC
A huge chair in Anacostia continues the neighborhood's long-running tradition of an oversized furniture landmark.
Marietta, GA
A 56-foot-tall chicken-shaped KFC sign with moving eyes and beak has served as a local navigation landmark for decades. The structure is so embedded in Cobb County culture that residents routinely give directions relative to the Big Chicken.
Flanders, NY
Built in 1931 to sell ducks and eggs, this roughly 20-foot-tall duck-shaped building became such a famous example of novelty architecture that similar buildings are sometimes called "ducks." It is now owned by Suffolk County and operates as a visitor center and gift shop, generally open seven days a week.
