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In this article:
- American towns have a tradition of building things that serve no other purpose than attracting tourists, which has led to some pretty mind-boggling results.
- You don’t really find this phenomenon in other countries, so visiting the world’s largest ball of twine or the SPAM museum is about as American as it gets.
- These are the 6 weirdest tourist attractions that need to be on your next road trip.
One of the things that people may not realize is unique in the United States is the phenomenon of strange tourist attractions. We will pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into projects that don’t have any practical use other than to attract tourists. And it may surprise any citizens of the USA reading this to know that this phenomenon can’t really be found anywhere else around the world.
Why would anyone ever create the largest ketchup bottle in the world? Was there any need for that? Well, no, but take a drive over to Collinsville, Illinois and you can see it with your own eyes.
Timonium, Maryland is home to the world’s largest engagement ring. Darwin, Minnesota is home to the world’s largest ball of twine. Rockaway Beach, Oregon is home to the world’s largest corn dog. All of these extremely needless tourist attractions hint at just what the United States is all about: doing things simply to prove that they can be done.
It doesn’t stop at building overly large versions of everyday objects. All around the country, there are a ton of weird and wacky locations to visit. Some of them are in big cities, others are in little hole-in-the-wall towns, but they’re all quintessentially American. Here are the six weirdest tourist attractions in the USA.
Leila’s Hair Museum
If you find yourself passing through Independence, Missouri, take a stop at Leila’s Hair Museum and experience the world’s only collection of art made from human hair.
Believe it or not, back in the Victorian era, making wreaths and jewelry out of human hair was fairly common, and people have passed down hair wreaths through generations. People would keep their hair after getting it cut and then the women of the family would weave it into a wreath, meaning that many of these wreaths incorporate the hair of many different family members.
At Leila’s Hair Museum, you can view over 600 hair wreaths and over 2,000 pieces of hair jewelry.
Why would anyone want to wear jewelry made from human hair? Your guess is as good as mine. But, if looking at a bunch of hair art seems oddly cool to you, Leila’s Hair Museum is the best place in the world to do so. There are even pieces containing hair from Michael Jackson and Marylin Monroe.
SPAM Museum
In the heart of Austin, Minnesota is a museum entirely dedicated to the famous canned meat brand SPAM. Whether or not you actually enjoy eating SPAM (this author, personally, finds the stuff repulsive), it’s worth checking out this attraction and seeing just how strange it is.
The museum features a total of nine different SPAM-related galleries, all of which have interactive exhibits that will keep you entertained (and possibly disgusted) for hours.
Inside the SPAM Museum, you can see how tall you are, measured in SPAM cans. You can see the evolution of SPAM’s packaging from the very beginning of the company to the modern era. You can even see a SPAM-branded rocket hanging overhead that stretches a total of 22 feet long.
Paper House
When mechanical engineer Elis F. Stenman started building his home back in 1922, he started out with a normal wooden frame. However, when it came to building the walls and the floors, Stenman decide to get a little unconventional.
He coated these parts of the house with over 100,000 varnished newspapers and managed to create an exceptionally sturdy structure. Why did he do this? Well, he just wanted to see if he could.
On top of that, Stenman decided to build all of the furniture in the house, including clocks, chairs, and desks, entirely out of paper. The Paper House is located in Rockport, Massachusetts where it has stood proudly intact for more than 80 years.
Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail
Weldon Spring, Missouri has a long history of highly volatile materials. Just south of the town once stood the largest explosives factory in the United States. During the Cold War, a facility near the town was used to refine uranium for building nuclear bombs. Sometime during the 1960s, the site was abandoned. In the ‘80s, the EPA showed up to inspect the site and found a massive mess of radioactive material.
The solution to this problem was to encapsulate all of the radioactive material in a massive 54-acre tomb shaped like a trapezoid. Visitors to the Nuclear Waste Adventure Tomb, as it’s now known, can walk up a long trail over what looks like an alien planet to the top of the tomb. Apparently, there’s no risk of getting radiation sickness while visiting the Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail.
Carhenge
Is there anything more American than taking one of the Seven Wonders of the World and rebuilding it with a Cadillac as the centerpiece? No. No, there is not. Whereas Stonehenge was built by the ancient inhabitants of Wiltshire, England by means still unknown to humankind, Carhenge was built by Jim Reinders in 1987 as a tribute to his father. The quirky structure consists of 39 automobiles and is located in Alliance, Nebraska.
The base is made of upturned trucks and cars that are buried as deep as five feet underground and the arches are made from other cars laid on top.
The vehicles used in the structure include a 1943 Plymouth Savoy, 1945 Jeep Willys, 1956 Buick Roadmaster Deluxe, 1957 Cadillac Eldorado, 1965 Ford Thunderbird, 1971 Chevrolet Nova, and a 1976 American Motors Gremlin.
If you know anything about cars, you know that these are some high-priced classics. In 2011, Carhenge went up for sale at a price of $300,000. However, it was eventually donated to the Citizens of Alliance.
Mitchell Corn Palace
Now, which state would you expect to find the Mitchell Corn Palace in? Nebraska, right? Wrong! The Mitchell Corn Palace is located in Mitchell, South Dakota and it’s one of the only places in the world where you can see extensive murals made entirely of corn and other grains.
The Moorish Revival building was built in the 19th century to promote the region’s crops and other products. Today, you can go there at any time of the year and see unbelievably impressive corn art designed by a variety of world-renowned artists.
The murals are made from 12 naturally-occurring varieties of corn that come in a variety of colors. All of the corn is sourced by local farmers and then applied to black tar paper labeled with numbers. Think coloring by numbers, except with corn.
Strangely, the Mitchell Corn Palace’s claim to fame was when it was revealed that the palace received funding from the Department of Homeland Security. This led to a massive inquisition into what exactly the Department was spending its massive budget on. Obviously, corn palaces aren’t doing much to protect our country. Either way, the Mitchell Corn Palace is one of the most unique and miraculous attractions in the United States.
