Loyal Fans Make Large Gopher In Driveway

May 12, 2008

Jim and Janice Beach are long-time fans of the University of Minnesota’s football team. The big oak tree that stood in the center of their driveway died, so the Beach’s have carved and painted its trunk to create a 12-foot-tall statue of “Goldy Gopher,” the team mascot. Their driveway on Main Street in Freeborn is now a tourist attraction, according to the Fort Mill Times.

Sports fans may be channeling their energy into home-made, permanent roadside mascots, something that everyone should keep an eye out for (and report here if you see one). For now, we can only wonder how Goldy, with his giant buck teeth, would fare in a smackdown against the fanged razorback hog that another fan-zealot has built in Arkansas.

Sections: Attraction News, Statues

Moms In Cars And Other Holiday Traditions

May 11, 2008

A article in the Illinois Beacon News reports that the owner of the Volo Auto Museum has opened his private auto vault for Mother’s Day. Moms were allowed to have their pictures taken sitting in cars not usually on display, such as a Rolls Royce used by Princess Diana, Don Johnson’s Ferrari from Miami Vice, and Julia Roberts’ Lotus from Pretty Woman.

“Normally I wouldn’t let anyone touch them, let alone sit in them,” the owner says in the article. “But I thought this year I’m going to do something special for the moms.”

Other attractions might consider pursuing similar holiday tie-ins, forging linkages even more natural than moms in cars. For example, the Tree Root That Ate Rogers Williams could dragged outdoors as a photo-op on Arbor Day; Centralia (a town being consumed by an underground fire) could open its steaming roads to daredevil drivers on Ash Wednesday; and the Chief Baconrind statue could be draped in festive bunting every September, which as we all know is All American Breakfast Month.

Sections: Attraction News

Big Stick Debate Redux

May 9, 2008

An article in the Mesabi Daily News reports that there is agitation to move the so-called World’s Largest Hockey Stick from downtown Eveleth, Minnesota, to a spot near the Hockey Hall of Fame, out by the interstate. Something about the story seemed familiar. Hadn’t we read this before?

We had. Turns out that the exact same suggestion was being argued in Eveleth ten years ago. And that was over the OLD world’s largest hockey stick; the one three feet shorter than the current model (Eveleth paid $60,000 in 2002 for the new stick, and it’s still shorter than one in Canada).

A town councilor named Tom Kallevig is the catalyst behind this latest proposed move, according to the story. “Kallevig said the hockey stick isn’t a vacation destination,” the article asserts. “But if the stick were visible from the highway, people might stop to see it and in turn visit the Hall of Fame.”

Rather than move a 10,000-pound hockey stick, wouldn’t it be cheaper to build a billboard announcing it? Then people visiting the Hall of Fame would certainly drive into town. But perhaps they do need an ancillary claim now that Canada rules. Hmm…. how about a colossal pair of front teeth embedded in the billboard?

“World’s Largest Teeth Knocked Out By Giant Hockey Stick”

Sections: Attraction News, Canada

Kidnapped Hot Dog Man Found Buried

May 8, 2008

Hot Dog Man is a popular, if relatively recent, mass-produced roadside statue: a six-foot-tall, bun-wrapped wiener, licking his lips in anticipation as he pours ketchup on his own head. The saucy sausage has been reported from New Jersey to Washington. And last month, a Hot Dog Man in Earlysville, Virginia, made the news when it was kidnapped on the night of April 9.

Now a story out of the Lynchburg News and Advance reports that “Harry the Hot Dog” has been found — buried in the woods next to a local trailer park. Both of his arms, including the one hoisting the ketchup, were broken off and are missing, but his owner has vowed to rebuild him. The police reportedly dug Harry out of his shallow grave with their bare hands after receiving an anonymous tip.

Was Harry abducted out of anger or love? His rude treatment suggests that some sort of “extraordinary rendition” was carried out on poor Harry, but why? Truly these are dark days for the formerly happy-go-lucky world of wienerdom — first those one-third-pound Angus burgers, and now this.

Update - May 10, 2008: Police arrested one of the suspected wiener-nappers, a 23-year old man from Charlottesville, and have a warrant for a second culprit. The charges are grand larceny and felony destruction of property.

Sections: Attraction News, Statues

No Monument For Mummy Group, No Monument For Nobody

May 8, 2008

A religious group named Summum, based in a golden pyramid in Salt Lake City, has blocked the erection of a monument for some World War II soldiers who died in a plane crash.

An article in the Deseret News tries to unwind the complicated tale. Apparently, Summum wants to erect a monument of its Seven Commandments next to a Ten Commandments monument in the Utah town of Pleasant Grove. The only way the town could block Summum’s monument was to ban ALL additional monuments — which nixed the soldiers’ monument. It isn’t clear, however, why the soldiers, who died in a troop transport crash in Australia, have to be remembered in a small town in Utah.

But it shouldn’t matter. Plane crash in Australia? Seven Commandments? Leventy-Leven Commandments? Pleasant Grove should take ‘em all — the more monuments the merrier. Certainly the Summum religion, which is the only one that still practices mummification, and which was founded in the 1970s by a man named Corky Ra, can be counted on to put up something memorable.

Sections: Attraction News, Statues

Fruit Jar Man Dies; Museum Closed

May 5, 2008

Phil Robinson, collector and owner of the World’s Only Fruit Jar Museum, Muncie, Indiana died today. The timing is eerie — we’d just heard over the weekend Phil had decided to close his museum and have a friend sell off the 4,000 piece collection via eBay and auctions (an estimated value of $300k). We’d hoped the museum would be preserved (ha), but it seems it was a product of Phil’s personal passion that defied the bottling attempts of others.

The Fruit Jar Museum had some ups and downs in the last several years, closing and then opening again. Phil, 85, finally decided to call it quits because of his struggle with prostate cancer. He got his museum affairs in order just in time…

Sections: Attraction News

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