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.
Montrose, AL
Henry Stuart, diagnosed with tuberculosis, built this tiny round domed concrete home by hand in the 1920s as part of a simple-life experiment he called Tolstoy Park. The preserved hut now sits improbably within a modern office complex.
Rhyolite, NV
Built in 1906 from thousands of discarded glass bottles set in mortar, this preserved miner’s house turns boomtown trash into one of Rhyolite’s strangest structures.
Dewey, OK
This museum is devoted to silent-film cowboy star Tom Mix, who worked in the Dewey area before becoming an early Hollywood western icon. Costumes, saddles, photographs and memorabilia preserve the strange bridge between real ranch culture and manufactured screen mythology.
New Orleans, LA
A small memorial outside St. Augustine Church honors unnamed enslaved people who died in New Orleans. The marker is a compact but powerful physical stop tied to the city's history of slavery and remembrance.
Bottineau, ND
Tommy is a giant turtle riding an equally oversized snowmobile, a deliberately strange tribute to Bottineau's winter recreation. North Dakota Tourism describes him as the world's largest snowmobile-riding turtle.
Columbus, OH
Topiary Park recreates Georges Seurat's painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte using sculpted shrubs instead of paint. More than 50 human figures along with boats, animals and landscape forms fill the public park, which can be walked during normal park hours.
Toppenish, WA
Dozens of large murals across downtown depict regional history, railroads, ranching, and community life. The entire historic district functions as a dispersed outdoor gallery rather than a single attraction.
Tortilla Flat, AZ
This tiny former stage stop on the Apache Trail survives as a miniature roadside settlement with a saloon, general store and outsized Old West character. Its remote canyon setting makes the few remaining buildings feel far more isolated than their distance from Phoenix suggests.
Notre Dame, IN
Millard Sheets' enormous 1964 "Word of Life" mosaic on the Hesburgh Library depicts Christ with raised arms directly beyond Notre Dame Stadium. Students quickly nicknamed it "Touchdown Jesus" because the pose resembles a referee signaling a touchdown and the mural is visible from inside the stadium.
Klamath, CA
A privately operated redwood with a vehicle tunnel offers another surviving example of the once-common drive-through-tree era of California tourism.
Phoenix, AZ
The tiered desert landmark often called Phoenix's 'wedding cake' castle rises above a cactus garden and has decades of mystery attached to its isolated appearance. Interior access is through scheduled docent tours that commonly sell out.
Towanda, IL
A walking trail follows abandoned Route 66 pavement past interpretive signs, old alignments, roadside relics, and recreated historic signage.
Yellowstone National Park, WY
A 132-foot waterfall framed by eroded volcanic pinnacles that give the area its 'tower' name.
Sault Ste. Marie, MI
This stark 210-foot tower was built by the Catholic Church in 1968 as part of a proposed religious complex before becoming a public museum and observation tower. Its high viewing decks overlook the Soo Locks and passing freighters, while the unusual concrete structure dominates the city's otherwise low skyline.
Cascade, MT
A massive rock formation rising beside the Missouri River and Interstate 15, recorded by Meriwether Lewis as a prominent landmark on the expedition route.
Crawford, NE
The museum’s signature display is the fossilized remains of two Columbian mammoths found with their tusks locked together, apparently killed during combat. The dramatic specimen makes this small museum inside Fort Robinson one of Nebraska’s most visually distinctive fossil stops.
Fairbanks, AK
A public pull-off north of Fairbanks lets travelers walk directly beneath an elevated section of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and inspect interpretive displays. The exposed silver pipe turns one of the state's biggest industrial systems into a literal roadside attraction.
Union, CT
A roadside restaurant on the Massachusetts line where every diner is invited to leave with free used books. Shelves crowd the dining room and thousands more books are stored throughout the property, turning a highway meal into an unusually literal food-and-books stop.
Conway, SC
This miniature roadside church was built as a quiet place for travelers to stop, pray, or simply look inside. Only a handful of people can fit in the tiny sanctuary at once, making it look like a full-size church that has somehow been shrunk. Current status: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/location/sc/all
Windsor, CT
A roughly 30-foot version of Travelers Insurance's red umbrella logo stands outside the company's Claim University campus. The giant corporate symbol was moved from Hartford to Windsor and is visible from the public approach even when the facility is closed.
Arco, ID
A signed spur from the Broken Top area reaches molds left where lava flowed around and burned away trees. The mapped point is the shared public trailhead rather than an off-trail feature coordinate.
New Orleans, LA
This enormous live oak is one of the most recognizable trees in Audubon Park, with massive low branches spreading close to the ground. Its age, scale and sculptural form make it a strong natural OddWay landmark.
Greensburg, IN
Trees have mysteriously managed to grow from the courthouse tower high above Greensburg since the nineteenth century, with successive trees replacing earlier ones over time. The living courthouse-top tree became such a local symbol that Greensburg adopted the nickname "Tree City."
Fairmount, IN
A dead tree outside a Fairmount residence has been turned into a vertical junk-art display with a Volkswagen Beetle and bicycles lodged high among its branches. The installation is on private property at 819 N. Morton Street and should be viewed only from the public road.
