If you’re a fan of the wild, weird, and unusual, then this will be a treat! Have you ever wanted to hit the open road in search of the offbeat, like for instance to find the world’s tallest rocking chair or biggest ball of twine? We’ve got a treasure map for you. Here are the strangest tourist attractions you can hit in each U.S. state.
Alabama
Unclaimed Baggage Center, and unusual roadside stop in Scottsboro, Alabama, is precisely what it sounds like. It’s a place where you can drop in and buy unclaimed baggage! Who knows, you might even find something worthwhile that you could resell for some serious money.
Alaska
Alaska is home to the world’s largest chocolate waterfall. The towering confectionary installation in Anchorage uses over 3,000 pounds of chocolate to do its best Wonka impersonation. Just try not to fall in or eat any of the chocolate, as this fixture is purely decorative.
Arizona
Arizona is a weird state, but perhaps its strangest attraction is Organ Stop Pizza. Massive pipes fill this pizzeria, which serves tasty pies and spooky organ music in equal measure. The store’s proprietors claim that the building houses the world’s largest pipe organ!
Arkansas
If you want a taste of some truly weird collectables, check out the Billy Bass Adoption Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. The fine folks at this attraction will adopt your singing, wall-mountable fish in exchange for a free basket of catfish.
California
California is a big, weird state, so it’s hard to narrow down one strange attraction. However, a visit to Magowan’s Infinite Mirror Maze in San Francisco is sure to make your head spin. The way the maze is laid out is confusing enough to get you lost forever if you’re not careful.
Colorado
There are some bizarre attractions in Colorado. Case in point: head over to Fort Collins and check out the Swetsville Zoo. There aren’t any real animals at this “zoo,” though. The unsettling assemblage of animal-like modern art installations is enough to perplex any visitor.
Connecticut
A quick visit to Orange, Connecticut wouldn’t be complete without checking out the PEZ Visitor Center. They’ve got a museum that has collected every single PEZ dispenser imaginable, and the attraction is even home to the single largest dispenser in the world!
Delaware
Travelers in Delaware can visit the bizarre DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum on Fenwick Island. This unusual exhibition features artifacts recovered from various shipwrecks, as the name implies. One of the strangest objects on display here is an elaborate Fiji Mermaid model.
Florida
Whimzeyland in Safety Harbor is easily one of the strangest tourist attractions in the country, let alone in Florida. It’s sometimes called the “bowling ball house” due to the hundreds of painted bowling balls in the home. You can visit the attraction, just be aware that people also live there!
Georgia
There’s plenty of weird stuff in Georgia, but let’s highlight Rock City in Lookout Mountain. A winding trail takes you through a variety of natural landscapes, twisting and turning through fairy gardens and stunning vistas. Its as weird as it is breathtaking.
Hawaii
If you get a chance to visit Hawaii, you could take a detour to Wahiawa and visit the world’s largest maze. The sprawling outdoor hedge maze is shaped like a pineapple, but you can only really tell that from above.
Idaho
A towering, metal bed and breakfast called Dog Bark Park Inn stands high over the flat landscape of Cottonwood, Idaho. It’s in the shape of a dog, and it’s exceptionally weird. It’s also the world’s tallest statue of a beagle, in case it wasn’t strange enough yet.
Illinois
Casey, a small town in Eastern Illinois, is home to a number of hilariously oversized tourist attractions. These include the world’s largest rocking chair, the world’s largest mailbox, the world’s largest birdcage… you get the idea.
Indiana
Not all tourist attractions are as flashy as “The World’s Largest Rocking Chair”. Some are as pedestrian as the world’s largest ball of paint, found in Alexandria, Indiana. It was originally a baseball dipped in paint, but it’s now a huge mound of acrylic and oil suspended from the ground by a metal hook. Cool!
Iowa
The High Trestle Trail Bridge is as much art installation as infrastructure, functioning as a foot bridge that passes through five cities in Iowa. It’s particularly breathtaking at night, when the lights on the bridge are activated, creating a trippy and otherworldly atmosphere.
Kansas
Kansas’s strangest tourist attraction is also its most embarrassing. Head to Bowl Station in Lucas, Kansas to find a public bathroom with an exterior shaped like a toilet bowl. The interior is decked out with beautiful mosaic art, at least!
Kentucky
Are you a fan of dinosaurs? If so, check out Dinosaur World in Cave City, Kentucky. This fun amusement park is full of large statues of dinosaurs in a fun nod to Jurassic Park. Thankfully, none of these reproductions are going to run around and eat people!
Louisiana
Did you know you can visit the factory where they make the floats for Mardi Gras in New Orleans? It’s true! You can check out the delightful and weird parade centerpieces at the Mardi Gras World attraction in New Orleans!
Maine
Maine’s state fruit is the blueberry. That’s some important context to know before you learn about Wild Blueberry Land in Columbia Falls, Maine. It’s still weird, you just have that context now. They offer some yummy blueberries at the attraction, at least!
Maryland
Maryland’s got one creepy, otherworldly attraction you can visit in Silver Spring. The Wheaton Station Escalator is the longest escalator in the Western Hemisphere. It’s almost weirder that there’s a longer escalator out there, but it is what it is.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts is well-known for its gothic reputation, including the notorious Salem Witch Trials. If you want to experience some cool, creepy attractions, check out Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery in Salem. This museum is full of monster movie replicas and fascinating relics.
Michigan
While our previous entry was Halloween all year round, Frankenmuth, Michigan sports an attraction where it’s Christmas all the time! Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland features more ornaments and decorations than you could possibly imagine. Drop in any time of year for some Christmas magic!
Minnesota
The Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota is as strange as it sounds. It’s a museum commemorating the polarizing canned meat. If you happen to take a road trip that passes Austin, drop in and learn more about this emulsified mystery meat. It’ll at least give you a break from the highway!
Mississippi
Did you know that there’s a museum specifically dedicated to aprons? That’s right, Iuka, Mississippi is home to the Apron Museum, where famous aprons from across history and pop culture can be found. There are more types of aprons here than you ever realized existed.
Missouri
Take a trip through Independence, Missouri and discover the utterly odd Leila’s Hair Museum. This eerie destination is crammed full of pieces of artwork created from, you guessed it, human hair. This sprawling art exhibit is simultaneously gorgeous and genuinely upsetting.
Montana
One of the most interesting destinations in Montana is a fascinating underground shopping district in Havre. The town burned down in 1904 and enterprising business owners decided to rebuild their shops underground. You can still check out this historic and fascinating destination!
Nebraska
Alliance, Nebraska is home to a strange roadside attraction that is also a downright unforgivable pun. This is Carhenge, a silly joke given horrible life in the High Plains region. It’s just Stonehenge but remade with cars. Check it out if you like bad puns.
Nevada
Nevada is home to a high density of particularly weird places. One example is the horrendous and awful Clown Motel in Tonopah. Most people are afraid of clowns for understandable reasons, so it’s strange that such a motel even exists.
New Hampshire
Cat Alley in Manchester, New Hampshire is exactly what the name implies. It’s an alley full of street art depicting adorable cats! If you’re a fan of felines or just a connoisseur of public art, this is one catwalk you won’t want to miss.
New Jersey
New Jersey’s strangest tourist destination is the otherworldly Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton Township. It’s a museum that depicts numerous famous pieces of artwork as life-sized displays. Rather than observe the work from afar, you enter the art physically and experience it from a new angle!
New Mexico
The Musical Highway in Albuquerque, New Mexico will remind you why the state is also called the “Land of Enchantment”. This interesting section of Route 66 plays “America the Beautiful” through your car by using pits carved into the road as acoustics. Notably, the song only sounds right if you go exactly 45 miles per hour!
New York
There are plenty of weird attractions to see in New York. Chief among them is Pumpkin Chuckin’ at Varick Winery and Inn in the city of Romulus. As the name suggests, this attraction consists of firing pumpkins at stationary targets with a catapult while you drink wine. Phenomenal.
North Carolina
The next time you pass through Collettsville, North Carolina, make sure to stop by the House of Mugs. That’s right, North Carolina has an informal mug museum that started as a couple’s interesting choice of exterior decoration. There are now over 25,000 mugs in this ever-growing collection.
North Dakota
North Dakota is already a strange place. It’s made stranger when you see a towering Buffalo Monument rising over the horizon. If you visit Jamestown, you won’t be able to miss this larger-than-life monument to the animal that once dominated the Great Plains.
Ohio
When you’re on a road trip, you’ll see a lot of signs. If you want to double the number of signs you’ll see on your trip, drop by the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, you’ll get to check out signs from across the decades, with some even dating back to the 19th Century!
Oklahoma
You know how they say “pop” instead of “soda” in some parts of the world? If you want to discuss this at length with like-minded enthusiasts, check out Pops in Arcadia, Oklahoma. There, you’ll find a 66-foot tall LED soda bottle and an absurdly large assortment of soda flavors at the “soda ranch”.
Oregon
Bend, Oregon is the home of The Last Blockbuster in existence. Here, you can rent DVDs, Blu-Rays, and video games—just like you’d expect from a rental store! Of course, there are no other Blockbusters left, so this is a great tourist attraction to visit if you pass through Oregon.
Pennsylvania
If you take the time to visit Centralia, Pennsylvania, be aware that the locals resent tourists. However, this semi-abandoned town is home to a mine fire that’s been burning since the 1960s due to natural deposits of coal beneath the ground.
Rhode Island
Roger Williams, the man who founded Rhode Island, was buried in 1683 in a grave with no marker. Nearly 200 years later, the state’s authorities decided to exhume his remains and bury him with more ceremony. They discovered that an apple tree root had “eaten” the corpse, and the state put the root on display at the John Brown House in Providence.
South Carolina
If you find yourself traveling through Dillon, South Carolina, check out the iconic South of the Border complex. You can spot Sombrero Tower from miles away and enjoy Mexican restaurants, themed gift shops, and other fun attractions off Interstate 95.
South Dakota
Mitchell, South Dakota is home to the legendary Corn Palace. This absurd palace resembles a traditional Russian palace, except it’s adorned in murals made of corn. Each year wildlife feasts on the murals before they’re replaced the following spring.
Tennessee
Visit Chattanooga, Tennessee to find the International Towing and Recovery Museum. The world’s first-ever tow truck was built in Chattanooga in 2926, and now the Museum commemorates the concept of tow trucks, their drivers, and the help these trucks can offer to stranded motorists.
Texas
If you visit San Antonio, you could check out the interesting Toilet Seat Art Museum. Barney Smith, the Museum’s founder, was born to a family of plumbers. Rather than follow in their footsteps, he decided to create art on toilet seat lids and now owns over 1,350 unique toilet seat lid art pieces.
Utah
There’s a hole in a rock in Moab, Utah. In that hole, you can find a man-made cave that was one the home of Albert and Gladys Christensen. The aptly-named “Hole N”The Rock” [sic] has 14 rooms and sports a gift shop, Gladys’s doll collection, and taxidermy!
Vermont
Ben and Jerry’s is famously headquartered in Waterbury, Vermont. Beyond being the place where the company makes new flavors, its also where they keep a “graveyard” of retired flavors. Here, you can pay respects to flavors that have been pulled from the shelves. Interestingly, the company axes around ten flavors per year!
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Virginia
It might sound strange, but there’s a DEA Museum in Arlington, Virginia. This museum has fascinating and sometimes disturbing artifacts that showcase the Drug Enforcement Agency’s ongoing war on crime. The law enforcement attraction probably isn’t the best stop for families with younger kids!
Read More: The Most Amazing Museum in Each State
Washington
Take a trip to Olympic Way in Longview, Washington to discover the Nutty Narrows squirrel bridge. This adorable, tiny bridge over Olympic Way allows squirrels to safely cross over the road without falling to the traffic below. The bridge is regularly decorated for holidays and special events!
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West Virginia
There’s a holdout Cold War bunker beneath the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. This somewhat grim attraction was to house high-ranking members of the US government in the event of atomic war! People can now tour the bunker to see a weird relic of a bygone era of atomic anxiety.
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Wisconsin
In 1995, a 55-ton boulder rolled down a hill in Fountain City, Wisconsin, straight into Dwight and Maxine Anderson’s home. It ended up in the master bedroom, where it sits to this day. The home was purchased by investors who now allow tourists to visit and see the boulder sitting in the middle of the home.
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Wyoming
The Frontier Prison Museum sits where the Frontier Prison itself once operated. This dismal, dark museum showcases the punitive measures Frontier Prison used to keep prisoners in line. It’s weird and more than a bit unsettling. Don’t try to visit at night!
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