Pandemic Post-Summer: Roadside Attractions Status

September 4, 2020

Like a giant, shiny fishing lure on a cable attached to a construction boom, roadside attractions tempt us out from under our rocks, even in times of danger….

Certainly 2020 has been full of unparalleled danger, starting with the Covid-19 pandemic. International travel lockdowns meant no flitting off to Tuscany or Paris or Bali for the weekend, so the Great American Road Trip seemed destined to enjoy another resurgence. And it did. Yet the fifty states have been a patchwork of discouragement — with shifting safety recommendations and often contradictory rules.

Was it still feasible to hypertour from Los Angeles to New York without quarantining for two weeks at each state border?

Was it safe to order and eat food from a drive-thru window?

Over time, some fears were declared unfounded (or overstated), while others turned out to be much worse, as the pandemic’s effects spread. Mix in erratic news reports, election year politics, social justice protests, and Mother Nature’s bounty of hurricanes and wildfires — and Americans might have stayed home in record numbers (except, of course, those fleeing hurricanes and wildfires).

But then — still keeping in mind the well-being of their families, friends and themselves — millions hit the road. The antidote for uncertainty and existential dread is different for each of us. Spend time with the 50-ft. tall Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, MN? Yes. Drive through a tree? Yes. Visit a dinosaur park, and wonder how those prehistoric creatures prevailed over adversity? Yes. Okay, we’re answering yes to everything, but you get the idea….

Back in March, the traditional opening of the Spring travel season, we checked in on 49 of our favorite attractions (We lost the 50th somewhere). Thirty-one were closed, with no idea when they would reopen. Now, six months later, we checked the same 49. Only seven were closed.

It’s no surprise to us that many of America’s roadside attractions found a way to weather the summer of Covid-19, through a combination of advance reservations, limited occupancy, social distancing, and mask requirements, often improvised on the fly.

Nearly all public attractions currently post Covid-19 visitor safety information on their websites or Facebook pages. Some require digging to find it, while others are upfront about the rationale for their restrictions. The most detailed we found were on the website for the prudently detail-obsessed House on the Rock. In contrast, Noah’s Ark anchored theirs at the bottom of their FAQ page and blamed them on Kentucky’s governor.

As we head into Fall 2020, we expect attractions will continue to adjust access and hours, and pivot (or close) as required. Online updates and notifications on official attraction websites often lag. If you’re planning a visit soon, we recommend a call, email, or text to them directly to find the most current information. Be patient if you don’t hear back right away. And remember: the most important criterion is for you and your loved ones to be safe.

Status of Select Roadside Attractions

As reported on attraction FB and web pages on September 4, 2020:

State	Town	Attraction	Status
AL	Birmingham	Sloss Furnaces	Reopening Sept. 26
AL	Cullman	Ave Maria Grotto	Open with social distancing
AL	Huntsville	U.S. Space & Rocket Center	Open with masks
AZ	Dragoon	The Thing	Open
AZ	Green Valley	Titan Missile Museum	Closed
AZ	Holbrook	Wigwam Village Motel No. 6	Open
AZ	Picacho	Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch	Open: social distancing outdoors, masks indoors
CA	Felicity	Official Center of the World	Seasonal; reopening Thanksgiving.
CA	Klamath	Trees Of Mystery	Open with social distancing
CA	Leggett	Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree	Open
CA	Niland	Salvation Mountain	Closed
CA	Piercy	Confusion Hill	Open with masks
CA	Santa Cruz	Santa Cruz Mystery Spot	Open with masks
CO	Colorado Springs	Dragon Man’s Military Museum	Open
FL	Homestead	Coral Castle	Closed
FL	Kissimmee	Gator Land	Open with masks
FL	Weeki Wachee	Mermaids of Weeki Wachee	Closed
GA	Lookout Mountain	Rock City	Open: social distancing outdoors, masks indoors
KS	Cawker City	World’s Largest Ball of Twine	Open
KS	Lucas	The Garden of Eden	Open with masks
KY	Williamstown	Ark Encounter and Creation Museum	Open with masks
LA	Abita Springs	Abita Mystery House	Open with masks
LA	New Orleans	Mardi Gras World	Open with masks
MD	Baltimore	National Great Blacks In Wax Museum	Open with social distancing
MD	Silver Spring	National Museum of Health and Medicine	Closed
MI	Dearborn	Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation	Open: social distancing outdoors, masks indoors
MI	Ishpeming	Da Yoopers Tourist Trap	Open. Sells zany custom face masks.
MN	Darwin	Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota	Open
MO	Branson	Titanic Museum	Open with masks0
MO	St. Joseph	Glore Psychiatric Museum	Open with masks
MO	St. Louis	City Museum	Open with masks
NE	Minden	Harold Warp’s Pioneer Village	Open
NJ	Margate City	Lucy the Elephant	Open with masks
NV	Primm	Bonnie and Clyde’s Death Car	Open
OH	Wright Patterson AFB	National Museum of the United States Air Force	Open with masks
OR	Gold Hill	Oregon Vortex	Open by reservation
PA	Philadelphia	Mutter Museum	Open with masks
SC	Dillon	South Of The Border	Open
SD	Wall	Wall Drug	Open
TN	Memphis	Graceland	Open with masks
TN	Pigeon Forge	Alcatraz East	Open with masks
TX	Amarillo	Cadillac Ranch	Open
TX	Houston	National Museum of Funeral History	Open with masks
UT	Moab	Hole N" The Rock	Open with masks
VA	Danville	AAF Tank Museum	Open
VA	White Post	Dinosaur Land	Open
VT	Shelburne	Shelburne Museum	Open with masks
WI	Spring Green	House on the Rock	Open with masks
WV	New Vrindaban	Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold	Open with masks

Sections: Attraction News, Roadside News, Trends
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You’ll Like Tim O’Brien’s “Roadside Pics & Picks” Book

July 14, 2020

We live in wondrous (and confusing) times. Driving in our ever-smarter cars, we ingest up-to-the-minute data and maps, then take advice from robots about where to eat and pee. Yet, along America’s highways and back roads, dinosaurs still roam; pigs fly; and junked cars park nose-down in the ground. Pink elephants stare into the distance and quietly wonder who stole their martinis.* 

Tim O’Brien might be able to answer that. He’s an expert at divining what may entertain you. 

Our friend Tim is a huge fan — and an investigator — of roadside attractions. He’s been a frequent contributor to the Roadside America website. He’s an award-winning photojournalist, has been a senior editor at Amusement Business magazine, and spent ten years as a public relations executive for Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!

Tim recently launched his 18th book: Tim O’Brien’s Roadside Pics & Picks — The Huge, The High, The Half-Buried. Publishing a book of roadside attraction photos during a lockdown pandemic might seem to be inauspicious timing — or it might be a perfect tonic for the new normal.

The book’s prelude starts with Tim’s warning: “I am a son of wanderlust and I have a camera.”

Roadside Pics & Picks is a photography exhibit of unique art environments, statues and other eye-catchers. It’s the visually weird stuff. The attractions are off the interstates, but conveniently along the highways and backroads — and accessible to all.

“I can’t imagine even one location featured in the book that is off limits or unsafe for a visit, ” Tim told us.

Tim’s photos exclusively feature each attraction — no tourists crowds or selfies. He groups themes of imagery — a leaping swordfish-on-a-pole in Ft. Lauderdale, FL shares a page with a catfish-on-a-pole in Burns, TN, and a spread of other skewered fish giants.

Many pages are devoted to scenes from RA mainstays such as the Forevertron, Salvation Mountain, and Cadillac Ranch — but also the less visited sites: International Car Forest of the Last Church, the House of Half-Buried Cars, and Boathenge. The images are large and colorful, and will leave you itching to hit the road yourself … and that includes us. Thanks, Tim!

Tim O’Brien’s Roadside Pics & Picks: The Huge, The High, The Half-Buried
174 pp, Casa Flamingo Literary Arts, Nashville, TN
From Amazon: Print: $34.99 Kindle: $19.99

* Excerpt stolen from the forward Doug wrote for Tim’s book.

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Graffiti Highway Returns To The Soil

April 12, 2020

Here’s an early, unexpected casualty of the covid-19 virus: the Centralia “Graffiti Highway,” a three-quarter-mile stretch of former Pennsylvania Highway 61 just south of town. It’s been closed since 1993. Centralia sits atop a burning coal mine, and fumes could occasionally be seen venting from cracks in the abandoned roadway.

Decades of visitors — trespassing where they shouldn’t — had subsequently covered the asphalt with graffiti in chalk and spray paint.

According to a report on local news station WNEP, during the nationwide covid-19 shutdown, desperate (and really dumb) partiers converged on the highway and began setting fires, which they recorded on video and posted online. That was too much for the property owner, who in early April paid a local coal company to haul in 400 dump trucks of dirt and bury the roadway.

No more Highway 61, no more graffiti, no more parties.

A company spokesman told WNEP that “we’ll probably plant it, and hopefully there will be trees and grass growing there.”

Sections: Attraction News
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Roadside Attractions: Virus Safety Closings

March 20, 2020

We held our breath, scrubbed our smartphones, washed our hands, and decided we might have something to add to the endless stream of pandemic posts. Follow us down the rabbit hole for a glimpse of abrupt changes underway across America’s pockmarked face of quirky attractions.

In response to the COVID-19 situation, it’s no surprise that many roadside attractions are closing, or changing open hours and tour availability. In particular, even if a region’s leisure road travel is unrestricted, large indoor attractions and museums have paused activity to stop community spread. Hotels in many places are shut down, public festivals canceled or postponed.

It’s most important for you and your family to stay safe. Help slow down the virus spread by staying home. While cooped up, if it seems fun at all, poke around our website or app for ideas for a someday trip.

We conducted a quick Facebook and website check on a few of our favorite roadside attractions (see table below). Some have announced closings (not expected seasonality), some still appear to be open (barring a business operation restriction). Some attraction websites are late posting notification about closing (no surprise; an outsider artist with beer bottle palace skills may not be a WordPress wiz). One Philadelphia attraction — the Mutter Museum — announced its closing between the first time we checked and an hour later when we confirmed (on the plus side, when they do reopen, we anticipate great interest in their “Spit Spreads Death!” exhibit).

As the health crisis and response unfolds, some states have closed nearly all museums, indoor attractions, and theme parks. National park entrances fees have been waived, but many parks are closed (Yosemite N.P. gates shut today until further notice). In the last few days, California’s governor told everyone to stay home and non-essential businesses to shutter. Then Nevada, Illinois, Connecticut and New York issued similar emergency declarations. These restrictions will probably spread and tighten.

Keep in mind that an attraction’s status may change, and many don’t update online. Call or email them directly to find the most current info, and be patient if you don’t hear back right away or at all. These plucky businesses and projects — mom & pop, independent, volunteer-run, educational, nonprofit — may need your love and tourism attention when the dust settles.

Status of Select Roadside Attractions

As reported on attraction FB and web pages up to March 20, 2020:

State	Town	Attraction	Status
AL	Birmingham	Sloss Furnaces	Closed until further notice
AL	Cullman	Ave Maria Grotto	Open, Grounds, Gift Shop
AL	Huntsville	U.S. Space & Rocket Center	Closed thru April 12, 2020
AZ	Dragoon	The Thing	Listed as open
AZ	Green Valley	Titan Missile Museum	Closed until further notice
AZ	Holbrook	Wigwam Village Motel No. 6	Listed as open
AZ	Picacho	Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch	Listed as open
CA	Felicity	Official Center of the World	Listed as open, outdoor only.
CA	Klamath	Trees Of Mystery	Listed as open
CA	Leggett	Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree	Listed as open (stay in car)
CA	Niland	Salvation Mountain	Unofficial outdoors
CA	Piercy	Confusion Hill	Closed through April 6, 2020
CA	Santa Cruz	Santa Cruz Mystery Spot	Closed through April 7, 2020
CO	Colorado Springs	Dragon Man’s Military Museum	Closed until April 5, 2020
FL	Homestead	Coral Castle	Listed as open, outdoors
FL	Kissimmee	Gator Land	Closed until further notice, post daily "School of Crocs" video
FL	Weeki Wachee	Mermaids of Weeki Wachee	Closed until further notice.
GA	Lookout Mountain	Rock City	Closed until March 28, 2020
KS	Cawker City	World’s Largest Ball of Twine	Outdoor unattended attraction
KS	Lucas	The Garden of Eden	Closed until further notice
KY	Williamstown	Ark Encounter and Creation Museum	Closed through April 1, 2020
LA	Abita Springs	Abita Mystery House	Closed until further notice
LA	New Orleans	Mardi Gras World	Closed until further notice
MD	Baltimore	National Great Blacks In Wax Museum	Closed until April 2020
MD	Silver Spring	National Museum of Health and Medicine	Closed until further notice
MI	Dearborn	Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation	Closed until April 5, 2020
MI	Ishpeming	Da Yoopers Tourist Trap	Listed as open, partly outdoors
MN	Darwin	Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota	Outdoor unattended attraction
MO	Branson	Titanic Museum	Closed until April 10, 2020
MO	St. Joseph	Glore Psychiatric Museum	Closed until further notice
MO	St. Louis	City Museum	Closed until April 2020
NE	Minden	Harold Warp’s Pioneer Village	Listed as open
NJ	Margate City	Lucy the Elephant	Closed until April 2020 (reopened July 29, 2020)
NV	Primm	Bonnie and Clyde’s Death Car	Closed until further notice
OH	Wright Patterson AFB	National Museum of the United States Air Force	Closed until further notice
OR	Gold Hill	Oregon Vortex	Closed until April 15, 2020
PA	Philadelphia	Mutter Museum	Closed until further notice
SC	Dillon	South Of The Border	Listed as open
SD	Wall	Wall Drug	Listed as open
TN	Memphis	Graceland	Closed until April 4, 2020
TN	Pigeon Forge	Alcatraz East	Closed until further notice
TX	Amarillo	Cadillac Ranch	Outdoor unattended attraction
TX	Houston	National Museum of Funeral History	Closed until further notice
UT	Moab	Hole N" The Rock	Listed as open
VA	Danville	AAF Tank Museum	Closed until April 1, 2020
VA	White Post	Dinosaur Land	Listed as open
VT	Shelburne	Shelburne Museum	Closed until further notice
WI	Spring Green	House on the Rock	Closed until further notice
WV	New Vrindaban	Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold	Closed until further notice

I’m very patient.

Sections: Attraction News, Roadside News, Tourism News
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In Praise of Tinted Copycat Statues

March 18, 2020

J. Seward Johnson passed away on March 10 of cancer. He was 89. His father was a Johnson & Johnson millionaire, and Seward himself made millions from a long career as a public sculptor, churning out artwork that average Americans loved and almost all art critics loved to hate.

Seward’s first roadside-worthy sculpture, The Awakening, featured a buried human giant clawing his way out of the ground — but it was an stylistic outlier. Seward really began infiltrating the public space when he started making full-color life-size bronzes of everyday people standing around, doing everyday things, which he would place on downtown sidewalks. The figures were so boring and realistic (except for their gold-tinted skin) that passers-by sometimes thought they were real people. The most conceptual of these early pieces, “Return Visit,” features Abe Lincoln talking to 1950s crooner Perry Como. Seward sold that one to Gettysburg.

Seward had made one oversized sculpture of an everyday thing — a giant tooth — and it proved so eye-catching that Seward began creating giant 3-D statue-versions of famous photos and paintings, which continue to be leased to cities and attractions for a year at a time, or permanently if they have the cash. There’s “Unconditional Surrender,” replicating the iconic sailor-nurse smooch at the end of World War II, and “Forever Marilyn,” mimicking Marilyn Monroe’s well-known pose in her billowing dress over a subway grate. Seward made a giant version of Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” and Renoir’s “A Dance at Bougival.” He even made a 31-foot-tall version of his own oddball Abe-Lincoln-Perry-Como statue, and cities happily pay to display it as a patriotic tribute.

Seward used some of his millions to create Grounds for Sculpture, a 42-acre park that displayed his artworks between their city-stops (and exhibited the sculptures of other artists as well). It was equipped with a foundry where Seward could pump out more sculptures for culture-starved Americans, who would rather see a giant Lincoln than abstract or high-concept public art. According to his various obituaries, Seward was busy making copycat sculptures right until the end.

Sections: Attraction News
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The Elephant Is The Room

February 27, 2020

Lucy, a six-story-tall elephant-shaped building on the Jersey Shore, has long been advertised as “the only elephant you can go into and come out of alive.” She will soon be the only elephant that you can go into, take a nap, and emerge undigested the next morning.

According to Save Lucy Committee Executive Director Richard Helfant, overnight stays for two people will be available on March 5, through Airbnb, for three days only: March 17, 18, and 19. Lucy’s innards will be decorated Edwardian-style, from the sheets to the rugs, to replicate how they looked in 1902 when a family from England used Lucy as a summer home.

Although Lucy offers a view of the beach through her eyeball-windows, there is no running water inside the elephant — just like in 1902 — so overnighters will have to walk outside to a bathroom trailer with a shower, toilet, and a sink.

Because Lucy is 138 years old, the price per couple will be $138. Helfant has hinted that if this first experiment goes well, Lucy may again welcome overnight sleepovers — although that’s unlikely to happen during the summer crush of sunburned Lucy fans.

Day visitors during March 17-19 will be able to see the retro-interior between its overnight guests. Then Lucy’s innards will return to their usual tourist-friendly, non-digestible configuration.

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