Aberdeen, Washington: Kurt Cobain Concrete Guitar

Nirvana frontman's birthplace and hometown commemorates the musician with an 8 1/2 ft. guitar in 2011. He committed suicide (perhaps) in 1994.

It's taken a while, but Aberdeen has finally accepted Kurt Cobain as someone worth remembering. The Nirvana frontman, born and raised in Aberdeen, died from a shotgun blast to the head on April 5, 1994. Seventeen years later an 8.5-foot-tall left-handed guitar, modeled after one that Cobain used, was unveiled at a spot next to a bridge where he hung out, and where some of his ashes were later scattered into the Wishkah River. The guitar is made of reinforced concrete because that's what its backers could afford, and because they liked its grunge aesthetic. The tiny park also has a granite plaque set into the ground with some Cobain quotes, one of which was later sandblast-censored by an Aberdeen politician who found it offensive. [RoadsideAmerica.com Team, 04/05/2011]