Archive for March, 2008
« Previous EntriesRoadside Creatures: Monster Pig Story
Monday, March 31st, 2008College road trip through the rural south. Our gas gauge below empty, we rolled into a no-service service station, miles from the interstate. The garage bays were open. The office door creaked in the hot breeze. No attendant. Everyone was gone…where? Suddenly, as if in answer, an inhuman grunting echoed off of the pumps. Around [...]
Surprise! Dillinger Museum Reopens
Monday, March 31st, 2008A fascinating “Crime and Punishment” tourist attraction has returned to public view. We first visited this shrine to former Public Enemy No 1 in the 1980s, when it was owned by Dillinger fanatic Joe Pinkston in Nashville, Indiana, and visited again in the ’90s. Joe died in 1996, and the collection (including John Dillinger’s [...]
Ultimatum for World’s Largest Pile of Oil Cans
Saturday, March 29th, 2008One of the tallest things in North Dakota, the World’s Largest Pile of Oil Cans, has been given a May 29 eviction date by its current owners. The 45-ft. tall pile was built in Casselton the 1930s next to a gas station, and quickly became a popular attraction. Its stewardship was assumed in [...]
“Unconditional Surrender” Headed Back East?
Saturday, March 29th, 2008And people in San Diego were just getting used to the World’s Largest Random Embrace. A brief news item on Florida news station WWSB claims that Sarasota, FL’s city commissioners have welcomed a return east to the city of the towering sailor - smooching - nurse statue.
“Unconditional Surrender,” by artist Seward Johnson, is a 26-ft. [...]
Tucson Tiki Noggin To Survive Magic Carpet
Friday, March 28th, 2008The immense stucco sculptures that have awed patrons of Magic Carpet Golf in Tucson, AZ since the 1970s will be saved. Well, most of them, anyway. Fears were raised earlier this year when it was learned that a Mercedes-Benz dealership from Phoenix had bought the old mini-golf course and was planning to bulldoze [...]
Shame of the North
Friday, March 28th, 2008An editorial in the March 25 Niagara Falls Reporter lambastes America for its wimpy approach to tourism in the face of a Canadian juggernaut. It notes that not a single new tourist attraction has opened in Niagara Falls, New York, since 1982, and that was a shopping mall that didn’t survive the 1990s. [...]
« Previous EntriesRecent Posts
- Kidnapped Hot Dog Man Found Buried
- No Monument For Mummy Group, No Monument For Nobody
- Fruit Jar Man Dies; Museum Closed
- Billy Carter Gas Station Museum Opens
- Has Water Monster’s Daughter Fallen From Grace?
- Bare-Bones Effort For Big Gator
Archives
Most Wanted
Critical missions! Help complete the roadside landscape by contributing photos of these "most wanted" landmarks:
- Big Jack Made From Fireplugs Shelburne, VT
- Volcano Toilets - Dino Park, Granger, WA
- Space Shuttle Replica, Coalwood, WV
- World's Oldest Edible Cured Ham, Smithfield, VA
If you have photos or new information, please submit a tip!
