Cryptids37.7651° N, 89.3375° W
Murphysboro, IL
A downtown mural celebrates the shaggy three-toed creature reported around Murphysboro in 1973, keeping the Big Muddy Monster legend visible year-round.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
Strange stops in Illinois
Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Cryptids4
Suggest a stopCreatures people keep reporting and nobody has caught.
- Cryptids37.7642° N, 89.3355° W
Murphysboro, IL
A dedicated Big Muddy Monster figure gives Murphysboro's regional cryptid a physical roadside presence near the town connected to the 1973 sightings.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Cryptids37.7562° N, 89.3578° W
Murphysboro, IL
The wooded riverfront area evokes the landscape around Murphysboro where residents reported the Big Muddy Monster during the 1973 flap.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Cryptids37.5808° N, 88.3660° W
Herod, IL
A 2,600-pound roadside Sasquatch named Sassy stands near Garden of the Gods as southern Illinois' most overt Bigfoot photo stop.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
Folklore4
Suggest a stopStories a place tells about itself, passed down and still repeated.
- Folklore37.4693° N, 88.1522° W
Cave-in-Rock, IL
A huge riverside limestone cave once served as a landmark and shelter along the Ohio River and became notorious in stories about frontier outlaws.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Folklore41.9579° N, 87.6620° W
Chicago, IL
This life-sized statue of a young girl in Graceland Cemetery inspired persistent stories that the figure vanishes during thunderstorms.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Folklore37.5179° N, 88.7544° W
Vienna, IL
A memorial inside Camp Ondessonk, the southern Illinois Catholic youth camp founded in 1959 and named for the Huron name given to St Isaac Jogues, meaning bird of prey. Not an open roadside stop: the camp admits day hikers from mid-August to mid-May during set hours and closes the grounds entirely in summer.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Folklore38.8981° N, 90.1992° W
Alton, IL
A huge painted monster on the Mississippi bluffs revives the centuries-old Piasa legend recorded by early French explorers near Alton.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
Haunted16
Suggest a stopHotels, theatres, prisons and back roads with a reputation.
- Haunted39.4859° N, 90.3727° W
Roodhouse, IL
217 Terror is a seasonal Illinois haunted attraction that bundles several themed walk-through haunts into one ticket. Live actors, dark sets and different horror environments make it a dedicated October scare stop operating only on select dates.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Haunted41.6309° N, 87.7707° W
Midlothian, IL
A tiny abandoned pioneer cemetery deep in the forest preserve, famous for decades of phantom-house, ghost-car, and apparition stories.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Haunted41.8972° N, 87.6244° W
Chicago, IL
One of the few structures to survive the Great Chicago Fire, later wrapped into local ghost stories involving a spectral hanging figure.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Haunted41.5194° N, 90.5564° W
Rock Island Arsenal, IL
The 1830s home of fur trader George Davenport stands on Arsenal Island, where his 1845 murder became part of local ghost lore.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Haunted41.8751° N, 87.6248° W
Chicago, IL
One of Chicago's best-known haunted hotels, tied to decades of ghost stories, unexplained sightings, and dark tales surrounding its long history.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Haunted42.4147° N, 90.4297° W
Galena, IL
Illinois' oldest operating hotel hosted Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant and carries a substantial body of guest and staff ghost lore.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
Weird history44
Suggest a stopReal events too strange to have made the textbook.
- Weird history41.8629° N, 87.9064° W
Hillside, IL
The grave of Chicago crime boss Al Capone sits in Mount Carmel Cemetery among other figures connected to the city's organized-crime history.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history42.3185° N, 90.2127° W
Elizabeth, IL
A reconstruction of the small fort attacked during the Black Hawk War, with self-guided grounds and periodic living-history programming.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history39.5012° N, 89.7667° W
Virden, IL
A public memorial recalls the deadly 1898 confrontation between striking union miners and armed guards brought in by a coal company.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history42.4096° N, 90.4286° W
Galena, IL
A lavish 1857 mansion filled with period furnishings and film memorabilia, including pieces associated with Gone with the Wind.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history41.9265° N, 87.6498° W
Chicago, IL
Outside this historic theater, federal agents shot bank robber John Dillinger in 1934 after he left a movie screening.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Weird history41.2003° N, 90.1189° W
Bishop Hill, IL
A surviving 1848 building from the Swedish religious commune that founded Bishop Hill, preserving the town's unusual communal-colony history.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
Museums21
Suggest a stopSmall, specific collections run by people who care far too much.
- Museums40.2610° N, 89.2308° W
Atlanta, IL
A museum dedicated to Muffler Men and other giant fiberglass advertising figures explains the history of these classic roadside colossi.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Museums42.0346° N, 87.6798° W
Evanston, IL
Thousands of figural ceramic jugs fill a museum devoted almost entirely to Toby and character jugs, from historic examples to modern pop culture.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Museums42.2773° N, 89.0882° W
Rockford, IL
Home of Jane, one of the world's best-preserved juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex specimens, along with fossils and unusual regional natural-history collections.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Museums41.9172° N, 87.7123° W
Chicago, IL
A working button factory houses a free museum tracing more than a century of pin-back buttons, slogans, politics, advertising, and novelty design.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Museums41.0964° N, 88.4369° W
Dwight, IL
An independent collection celebrates 1980s cars, memorabilia, toys, and pop culture in a deliberately nostalgic specialty museum.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Museums42.4614° N, 89.0141° W
Roscoe, IL
An enormous private museum mixing celebrity vehicles, presidential artifacts, movie props, military displays, crime-history objects, and other eclectic Americana.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
Roadside oddities71
Suggest a stopGiant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
- Roadside oddities41.0939° N, 88.4396° W
Dwight, IL
A beautifully restored 1930s gas station and visitor center preserves the look of early Route 66 automobile travel.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities42.0744° N, 87.6844° W
Wilmette, IL
One of only a handful of continental Bahá'í temples worldwide, with an elaborate white dome covered in intricate symbols and lace-like ornament.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities37.5519° N, 89.3464° W
Alto Pass, IL
A 111-foot white cross crowns a high point above the Shawnee hills, creating a stark landmark visible across much of southern Illinois.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.9615° N, 89.7637° W
Livingston, IL
A towering fiberglass beach-guy Muffler Man joins the mall's collection of giant animals and Route 66 photo props.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities42.0342° N, 89.3332° W
Oregon, IL
Lorado Taft's colossal concrete figure towers above the Rock River at Lowden State Park; ongoing preservation work can affect close viewing.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities40.9363° N, 90.3659° W
Galesburg, IL
The poet's tiny birthplace, museum, grave, and memorial grounds preserve the Midwestern roots of one of America's most recognizable literary voices.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed