Skip to Main Content

UFO Landing Port -- with the new sign.
UFO Landing Port -- with the new sign.

UFO Landing Port

Field review by the editors.

Poland, Wisconsin

Bob Tohak is worried about his sign. It's been up for only a few years and already the paint is peeling. Rusty patches show through. "The guy who painted it did a bad job," Bob says, his voice edged with irritation. He assures us that he will have the sign repainted. He wants it to look respectable. Especially if the Space People show up.

"U.F.O. Landing Port," reads the lettering on the sign, and "We're Not The Only Ones." A bulb-headed alien points a skinny finger at a hovering saucer from beyond for emphasis.

The sign is attached at the top of a 42-foot-long fuel tank that has been raised upright into a vertical shaft. It stands in the middle of the gated compound of Tohak & Son Welding, among the flat corn and oat fields east of Green Bay. The compound is spotless. Bob understands the importance of presentation.

His appearance is a departure from the usual wan, would-be contactee. Bob sports an earring, a Marvin the Martian tattooed on one forearm attached to a beefy fist that could hammer nails. A gray rubber alien, topped with a Green Bay Packers knit cap, rides shotgun in his truck.

Bob Tohak and his space alien.
Bob Tohak and his space alien.

"It's something I believed in ever since I was a kid, that there was somebody else out there," he explains, handing us a snapshot of the landing port. On the back is a printed label, stating that U.S. law expressly forbids contact with extraterrestrials. Bob views this as evidence of a conspiracy. He gives a copy of the photo to everyone who visits.

Bob erected the tank in 1994. A year later he topped it with a welded steel landing platform, outlined with flashing blue lights (which can support the weight of helicopter -- or a flying saucer). "It was just the thought that, 'Hey, one day when they do show up, maybe they'll come to me first,'" he said. Bob also sees his landing port as freedom of expression, a gentle rebuke of the local human government that tried to get him to move his business to the other side of town. "My thinking was, if I can't deal with a black man or a red man or a yellow man, why don't I deal with a green man?' What could they say to me, that I'm dealing with green people? Well, I guess I'm crazy then, aren't I?"

Tohak Welding truck, UFO Landing Port.

Bob ushers us into the tank. It's pitch black inside, a condition that he promises to remedy with lighting and futuristic control panels, when he has the time. Bob has welded a spiral staircase up to the top, but it's a steep climb, with many hard, grimy surfaces that are painful to bump into. There's no room to maneuver. It reminds us of the nerve-wracking tetanus ascents up the Genoa Wonder Tower and the now-destroyed Pettibone Pagoda. It smells of warm metal. "It's not for everyone," Bob concedes, sprinting ahead to the top. "No fat people. You know, aliens are not fat."

We haul our sorry selves onto the platform through a hatch that Bob salvaged from the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea, an architectural detail of which he is particularly proud. From up here, you can see, well, the road, and the fields stretching to the horizon. But it's the view above our heads that interests Bob. "We sit up here some time. Look at the sky," he says. It is an ideal vantage point to spot a passing space roadster, and to wave its occupants down for a Blatz or a Stroh's.

Tower beacon.

"People say, 'Yeah, well, that's that crazy old bastard down the road,' Bob answers when we ask him what the locals think of his creation. "And I say, 'Yeah, I am!'" What does his family think? Bob shrugs and grins. "My wife really doesn't say much. My son thinks I'm crazy. And he tells people that, too."

Casual visitors, some of whom drive hundreds of miles to see the landing port, are more supportive of Bob's work, and Bob is willing to please. "I gotta have something to do," he tells us. He's currently building a 24-foot-long submarine and he hopes to begin work on "a big aluminum spaceship." Bob has plans for the landing port as well, "I'm gonna put two big light boards up there so I can shoot lights into outer space," he tells us, "and I'll be able to turn them sideways so I can shoot them forward. Like in Close Encounters. I'm gonna have the music playing and everything."

And by then, of course, he'll also have the new sign in place*.

"People are telling me that I should petition the President," Bob says. "That I should be a spokesman for the aliens."

"I'm just hoping that something'll show up."

*After we left, Bob informed us that he finally did get that new sign up on his tower. He added that the "tower now has a satellite up top, and soon to have Ion Cannons."

UFO Landing Port

Tohak Welding

Address:
4885 State Rd 29, Poland, WI
Directions:
Tohak Welding. Southeast of Green Bay. I-43 exit 178. Follow the signs for Hwy 29 (Kewaunee Rd). The Landing Port is about 3-4 miles east on Hwy 29, on the north side, just across the line into Poland. Private property, gated when Bob isn't around.
Hours:
If Bob isn't busy he may give you a tour. (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
Phone:
920-863-2541
RA Rates:
Worth a Detour
Save to My Sights

Nearby Offbeat Places

12-Foot-Tall Iron Viking12-Foot-Tall Iron Viking, New Denmark, WI - 3 mi.
Soldier with Truck and CannonSoldier with Truck and Cannon, Bellevue, WI - 4 mi.
Strawberry HeadStrawberry Head, West Kewaunee, WI - 10 mi.
In the region:
12-Foot-Tall Badger, Manitowoc, WI - 26 mi.

More Quirky Attractions in Wisconsin

Stories, reports and tips on tourist attractions and odd sights in Wisconsin.

Explore Thousands of Unique Roadside Landmarks!

Strange and amusing destinations in the US and Canada are our specialty. Start here.
Use RoadsideAmerica.com's Attraction Maps to plan your next road trip.

My Sights

My Sights on Roadside America

Create Your Own Bizarre Road Trips! ...Try My Sights

Mobile Apps

Roadside America app: iPhone, iPad Roadside America app for iPhone, iPad. On-route maps, 1,000s of photos, special research targets! ...More

Roadside Presidents app: iPhone, iPad Roadside Presidents app for iPhone, iPad. POTUS landmarks, oddities. ...More

Wisconsin Latest Tips and Stories

Latest Visitor Tips

Sight of the Week

Sight of the Week

JFK's World Famous Twine Ball, Highland, Wisconsin (Mar 18-24, 2024)

SotW Archive

USA and Canada Tips and Stories

More Sightings