Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Stories a place tells about itself, passed down and still repeated.
Manhattan, KS
The giant green Johnny Kaw figure represents a fictional Kansas folk hero invented in the 1950s as a regional answer to Paul Bunyan. His exaggerated legends involve shaping Kansas geography, fighting giant creatures, and performing impossible farm feats.
Topeka, KS
Rochester Cemetery is attached to a long-running Topeka legend about an 'Albino Lady' said to appear among the graves. Treat the story as local folklore rather than fact, visit only during lawful cemetery hours, and do not disturb graves or residents nearby.
Stull, KS
Stull Cemetery became nationally notorious through late-20th-century legends claiming the site was a supernatural gateway. Those claims are folklore, not established fact; this is an active cemetery and visitors must obey posted rules, avoid nighttime trespassing, and treat burials respectfully.
Hotels, theatres, prisons and back roads with a reputation.
Ellinwood, KS
The restored 1894 Wolf Hotel is a working lodging and event property connected with Ellinwood's underground tunnel network. It also markets paranormal and history experiences, so ghost claims should be treated as part of the property's lore rather than established fact.
Atchison, KS
This imposing 1889 brick mansion is both a historic home and one of Atchison's established paranormal-tour locations. Stories of apparitions and unexplained activity are part of the property's visitor experience, but should be understood as reported lore rather than verified events.
Atchison, KS
The 19th-century house is the center of Atchison's best-known ghost story, commonly associated with a child called Sallie and decades of paranormal reports. It operates as a bookable attraction, so entry should only be through official tours or reservations.
Kansas City, KS
This 1870s Italianate mansion has accumulated generations of ghost stories, family legends, and local fascination. It remains private property, so OddWay visitors should view it only from lawful public areas and never enter the grounds without permission.
Lawrence, KS
The Eldridge stands on a site repeatedly tied to Lawrence's violent Bleeding Kansas and Civil War-era history, and later generations attached ghost stories to the hotel. The haunting is folklore, but the building's documented destruction and rebuilding give the stories a real historical setting.
Real events too strange to have made the textbook.
Atchison, KS
The Gothic Revival house overlooking the Missouri River is the birthplace of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart. Period rooms and personal material tie one of aviation's most enduring mysteries to a very specific Kansas home.
Atchison, KS
A modern museum at Amelia Earhart Airport centers on Muriel, the world's last remaining Lockheed Electra 10-E of the same model Earhart flew on her final journey. Interactive exhibits explore her life, aircraft, navigation, and disappearance.
Wilson, KS
A decommissioned Atlas F intercontinental ballistic missile complex has been repurposed for tours, camping, and an evolving underground adventure project. Visitors can see Cold War infrastructure that was designed to launch a nuclear missile, but advance booking is required.
Baxter Springs, KS
Baxter Springs combines Route 66, mining, Civil War, and frontier history in a town that repeatedly sat on important transportation routes. The museum is a strong context stop before visiting the town's surviving Route 66 structures.
West Mineral, KS
This enormous electric mining shovel once stripped overburden from southeast Kansas coal fields and now stands preserved as a museum centerpiece. Its scale is difficult to understand until standing beneath the 16-story machine.
Greensburg, KS
The museum allows visitors to descend into the enormous hand-dug municipal well completed in 1888. Exhibits also document Greensburg's destruction in the 2007 tornado and the community's reconstruction.
Small, specific collections run by people who care far too much.
Liberal, KS
Liberal built a replica of Dorothy Gale's Kansas home and an indoor Yellow Brick Road attraction around the state's connection to The Wizard of Oz. Guided visits lean heavily into handmade sets, memorabilia, and roadside-theater charm.
Oakley, KS
The Fick Museum combines western Kansas fossils with Vi Fick's eccentric folk art made from shark teeth, fish bones, shells, wax, and other materials. Large marine fossils are a reminder that this dry region once lay beneath the Western Interior Seaway.
Abilene, KS
This museum documents greyhound racing, breeding, famous dogs, trophies, and the culture surrounding the sport. Its single-subject focus is unusually specific, and retired greyhounds are often part of the visitor experience.
Goodland, KS
Goodland's city museum mixes regional artifacts with exhibits tied to inventions, transportation, and the unusual history of the High Plains. Its location only a short walk from the giant Van Gogh makes it a useful second OddWay stop rather than a generic local museum.
Liberal, KS
Liberal's long-running pancake race against Olney, England, has its own museum filled with racing memorabilia, frying pans, photographs, costumes, and international gifts. Outside the annual event it is generally visited by appointment.
Manhattan, KS
Kansas State University keeps live insects, arachnids, and other arthropods in a converted dairy barn beside its gardens. The collection turns creatures people usually avoid into a close-range museum experience with living specimens rather than pinned displays alone.
Giant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
St. Francis, KS
Deep ravines and rugged loess formations cut through the far northwest corner of Kansas, producing terrain more often associated with neighboring states. Most land is private, but the breaks can be viewed from lawful public gravel roads.
Baxter Springs, KS
A restored cottage-style Phillips 66 station now serves as a Route 66 visitor center. The tiny station preserves the look of early automobile travel on the Kansas segment of the Mother Road.
Ashland, KS
A broad natural sink and a smaller water-filled sinkhole known as St. Jacob's Well interrupt the prairie south of Dodge City. Local folklore and the unusual karst terrain make the preserve more than a normal scenic stop, but road and weather conditions can affect access.
Abilene, KS
A 28-foot steel spur forms an arch outside a western-wear business on Abilene's north side. It once held a Guinness record as the world's largest spur and remains a conspicuous monument to the town's cowboy identity.
Lucas, KS
Lucas turned a public restroom into a giant mosaic toilet-themed art environment, complete with sculptural plumbing references and colorful found-object details. It is functional civic infrastructure deliberately built as an absurd roadside attraction.
Belleville, KS
Paul Boyer's hand-built wooden automata move through elaborate mechanical scenes powered by gears, cams, wire, and motors. The museum preserves decades of one-person engineering and folk art rather than mass-produced displays.
