Top 20 Roadside Attractions

You’ll find tons of funky and kitschy roadside attractions along Historic Route 66, and Cadillac Ranch is among the best. The sight of 10 vintage Caddies, noses in the ground and tail fins pointing skyward, is truly a sight to see. Visitors are encouraged to BYOSP (Bring Your Own Spray Paint) and add their signature touch to these memorable motorcars.

Location: I-40 west of Amarillo, Texas, USA, between exits 60 and 62

Website: http://www.libertysoftware.be/cml/cadillacranch/crmain.htm

Who can resist a photo-op with this 35-foot-tall, 3200-pound hunk of man? The sculpture was donated in 1959 to the city of Bangor, Maine, in honor of its 125th Anniversary. There’s a copper time capsule in its base that will be opened in 2084, on the city’s 250th Anniversary. A symbol of enormous strength and can-do spirit (after all, he’s rumored to have carved many of America’s and Canada’s geographic wonders from the Great Lakes west to the Pacific Ocean) this Paul can sustain 110-mph winds, making it hurricane-proof. Bonus for Stephen King fans: This Bunyan came to life in It, “…in order to commit murder with an axe roughly the size of a deluxe motor home.” This isn't the largest Paul Bunyan statue, though. A 49-foot-tall Bunyan along with a similarly jumbo Babe the blue ox can be found in Klamath, CA.

Location: 519 Main Street, Bangor, Maine, USA

Website: http://www.bangorregion.com/about_the_region/paul_bunyon.html

After nearly 140 years, this old girl still puts on a great show — like clockwork every 90 minutes or so. Located in Yellowstone National Park — the first national park in the United States — Old Faithful is the most popular of the many geysers and hot springs in the Upper Geyser Basin. Each eruption lasts as long as five minutes and climbs as high as 184 feet, spurting up to 8,400 gallons of boiling water.

Location: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA (Portions of the park also extend into Idaho and Montana)

Website: http://www.nps.gov/yell

Amid the prairie of the Nebraska panhandle, artist Jim Reinders and members of his family have put their spin on the ancient British landmark with 38 cars in a 96-foot circle. Built as a tribute to his father, the site now features other works of car art, including Reinders' "Ford Seasons," inspired by Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and built entirely of — you guessed it — Fords.

Location: 2141 County Road 59, Alliance, Nebraska, USA

Website: http://www.carhenge.com/

Step foot on this spot where physics and gravity go haywire, and you’ll be singing the theme from the Twilight Zone faster than you can say Rod Serling. Located in the redwood forests outside of Santa Cruz and about 20 miles from San Francisco, it's worth checking out if you're in Northern California. The land was discovered in 1939 by surveyors, and many theories exist as to what makes balls roll uphill, chairs sit on walls and bodies tilt perilously without falling — but nothing has proven conclusive. It’s as they say, a mystery.

Location: 465 Mystery Spot Road, Santa Cruz, California, USA

Website: http://www.mysteryspot.com/

This is the only place in North America where four state borders — Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona — intersect at a single point. After you’ve stood in all four states at once, take some time to checkout the jewelry and crafts made by Navajo artisans. (The marker is on Navajo land.) A short drive west on Highway 160 will take you to majestic Monument Valley, site of the many great movie westerns.

Location: Off Highway 160, about 33 miles northwest of Shiprock, Colorado, USA

Website: http://www.navajonationparks.org/htm/fourcorners.htm

You know that little bunny that keeps going and going? Well this ball of twine keeps growing and growing. This northern Kansas town is not only home to the biggest ball of sisal twine — 40 feet around, 7.8 million feet long, and 18,000 pounds — but also host to an annual "twine-a-thon” where folks can wind their own contribution to the ball. If you miss the annual party (which is held in late August and also includes a picnic and parade), you can contact the Cawker City Community Club and they'll have twine waiting for your visit so you, too, can be part of the phenomenon.

Location: Wisconsin St. west of Lake Dr., Cawker City, Kansas, USA

Website: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Cawker/twine.html

Picture this: You’re driving down I-10, west from Palm Springs, minding your own business when suddenly you spot them — two massive dinosaurs. Do you keep driving? Of course not! You stop to have your picture taken with Mr. Rex and Dinny … and you’re not alone. For the past 30 years millions of other visitors have done the same thing, including Pee-Wee Herman, who found himself there on his big adventure. The famous dinos have also starred in numerous TV shows, movies and advertisements. And as you'd expect, where there are dinosaurs, you'll find a gift shop, museum and science center, too.

Location: 50800 Seminole Drive, Cabazon, California, USA — at the Highway 10 and Main Street exit, 13 miles west of Palm Springs

Website: http://www.cabazondinosaurs.com/

Metropolis, home to the Man of Steel, is also home to The Super Museum, a super-stuffed collection devoted to Superman. The museum is the life’s work of Jim Hambrick, who has been collecting Superman souvenirs and artifacts since 1959. The museum showcases about 20,000 of his 100,000-item collection. It features, among other things, a statue of Superman holding aloft a globe of Krypton and George Reeves’ original torso-molded special effects device that allowed Superman to fly on TV. Outside the museum, a huge monument to the Superman is the perfect backdrop for a family photo — you can even immortalize your visit by buying a brick in the pathway being constructed for the Lois Lane statue.

Location: 611 Market St., Metropolis, Illinois, USA

Website: http://www.supermansupersite.com/SuperMuseum/index.htm

Stop into Len Libby Candies in Scarborough, Maine, and meet their good buddy Lenny, an 8-foot-tall, 1,700-pound, milk chocolate moose. Thought to be the world’s largest chocolate animal of any kind, Lenny was sculpted in 1997 by plastering melted milk chocolate over a chicken-wire frame. Why doesn’t Lenny melt? Len Libby’s is also an ice cream parlor, so the store temperature stays well below 70 degrees. One note of caution: Don’t even think about taking a bite out of this mighty store mascot.

Location: 419 US Route 1, Scarborough, Maine, USA

Website: http://www.boston.com/travel/explorene/galleries/weird_roadside_landmarks?pg=6

Ellis Stenman, a Swedish immigrant, started building this two-room cottage almost entirely out of newspaper in 1922 as a hobby. (FYI, he’s the guy who designed the machines that make paper clips.) The framework, floors and roof are the only wooden components in the entire place. The walls consist of 215 layers of newspaper, and even the furniture (checkout the piano!), desk, chairs, curtains, and lamps are from little paper logs, cut to different sizes and glued or nailed together. In all, he used about 100,000 newspapers. These walls can’t talk, but they sure can read — even today visitors can make out headlines of days gone by on the newspapers that line the walls throughout the house.

Location: 52 Pigeon Hill St., Rockport - Pigeon Cove, Massachusetts, USA

Website: http://www.paperhouserockport.com/

Lucy was constructed in 1881 by James Lafferty. The idea of an animal-shaped building was innovative, and in 1882 the U.S. Patent Office granted Lafferty a patent giving him the exclusive right to make, use or sell animal-shaped buildings for seventeen years. Lucy is the oldest example of zoomorphic architecture, and the largest elephant in the world and has been designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Standing six stories tall, 60-feet long, and 18-feet wide, she weighs about 90 tons, and is made of nearly one million pieces of wood. Lucy was more than a roadside attraction and was a functioning building, serving first as a real estate office and briefly as a tavern, until drunks nearly burned her down. Jim Lafferty went on to build other elephants in Cape May and Coney Island, but only Lucy has survived.

Location: 9200 Atlantic Ave, Margate City, New Jersey, USA

Website: http://www.lucytheelephant.org/

You might say Harry Sperl is the ultimate “hamburger helper.” In his Daytona Beach, Florida, home he has assembled a beefy collection of more than 1200 items of hamburger Americana, including a hamburger Harley and a hamburger waterbed (which set him back a sizzling $3500). He has hamburger banks, music boxes, cookie jars, clocks, puzzles, posters and more. All of this sightseeing is bound to work up an appetite, but you won’t find any real burgers here — be prepared to satisfy your craving for a juicy treat as soon as you leave.

Location: 1000 N. Beach St., Daytona Beach, Florida, USA

Website: http://www.burgerweb.com/

No visit to South Dakota is complete without visiting Mt. Rushmore and, you guessed it, the Corn Palace. Every year, the elaborate murals that adorn its exterior are completely stripped down and replaced with new ones by local artists. Using such materials as corn, grain, wild oats, brome grass, blue grass, rye, straw and wheat, they bring new meaning to the term ‘mixed media.’ Each mural depicts an important facet of life in South Dakota. The building is host to many community events, stage shows and sporting events each year.

Location: 601 N Main Street, Mitchell, South Dakota, USA

Website: http://www.cornpalace.org/

The Longaberger Company’s seven-story office is a replica of their best-selling Medium Market Basket, complete with two 150-ton basket handles attached to the top of the building with copper and wooden rivets. (The handles are heated to prevent ice from forming). As you might expect, this one-of-a-kind building and its beautifully lanscaped grounds have won numerous awards.

Location: 1500 East Main Street, Newark, Ohio, USA

Website: http://www.longaberger.com/homeOfficeFacts.aspx

Each year, more than 50,000 people visit this museum to see the first motor boat ever designed by Evinrude, displays of classic lures and other fishing artifacts, and to stand in the gaping mouth of a 4-1/2 story “Big Musky” — a huge hand-sculpted concrete, steel and fiberglass leaping fish. His guts house the Shrine to Anglers museum and his mouth is an observation platform overlooking Lake Hayward.

Location: 10360 Hall of Fame Drive, Hayward, Wisconsin, USA

Website: http://www.freshwater-fishing.org/index.php

Sometimes also called Elvis City, Mini Graceland is a diminutive dollhouse version of all things Elvis, including The King’s Memphis home (complete with a replica of the Meditation Garden where Elvis, his parents and grandmother are buried), his two-room Tupelo, Mississippi, birthplace, various performance halls, and the Elvis Presley Car Museum. You know you’re in the right place when you spot the gold statue of Elvis by the front porch, one of the few full-sized items on the ‘tour.’ In recent years, it’s been in some disrepair but Mike Epperly, the founder’s son, has been working diligently to restore its original grandeur.

Location: 605 Riverland Road S.E., Roanoke, Virginia, USA

Website: http://miniaturegraceland.com/

The rain-starved desert area just east of Scottsdale, Arizona, is the last place you’d expect to find the World’s Tallest Fountain, but that’s exactly what you’ll find in the aptly named Fountain Park Lake in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Built in 1970, this manmade structure shoots 560 feet skyward for 15 minutes every hour between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. daily. On St. Patrick’s Day, stop by and see the fountain magically turn green!

Location: Avenue of the Fountains, Fountain Hills, Arizona, USA

Website: http://www.fountainhillsguide.com/attrac_fountain.html

Whether you say catsup or ketchup, this 170-ft tall structure is a towering example of roadside Americana. In 2002, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places and in June 2008 was inducted into the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame. Things weren’t always so rosy, though. In 1995, the landmark was nearly destroyed by demolition, until the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group saved the day.

Location: 800 South Morrison Avenue, Collinsville, Illinois, USA

Website: http://www.catsupbottle.com/

Bet you can still remember the words to “London Bridge is Falling Down,” but did you know that was the reason it was put on the auction block in 1962? Due to increased traffic, the 130-year-old bridge was literally sinking into the Thames, so the City of London sold it for $2.5 million dollars. The buyer was Robert McCulloch, founder of Lake Havasu and the chairman of McCulloch Oil Corporation. The bridge was carefully disassembled and each piece was numbered. These were shipped to the bridge’s present location (at a cost of $7 million) and the re-assembly was completed in late 1971. The bridge is 950 feet long, weighs 33,000 tons, and draws thousands of spectators each year.

Location: Lake Havasu City, Arizona, USA

Website: http://www.golakehavasu.com/history-of-london-bridge.html