Illinois
Find Illinois travel tips, stories, maps, videos and news for unusual tourist attractions and sights.
Top Rated Attractions
Historic Auto Attractions
Roscoe, Illinois
History, via 20th century pop culture and you-are-almost-there artifacts. The way we like it!
Hot Dog Muffler Man
Atlanta, Illinois
An iconic figure from mid-20th century Cicero, Illinois, the Hot Dog Muffler Man has stood along Route 66 in Atlanta since 2003.
Dungeons and Dragons Park (Castle Park)
Carbondale, Illinois
Dungeons and Dragons fan killed in an auto accident is remembered with a fantasy memorial park.
Klairmont Kollections Museum
Chicago, Illinois
Rare and unusual cars and oddities, such as the electric chair from Sing-Sing. assembled by real estate millionaire Larry Klairmont.
America's 2nd Largest Cross
Effingham, Illinois
198-ft. tall interstate-convenient no-nonsense soul-saver.
Jerry's Hat Museum
Forrest, Illinois
At last count, Jerry had roughly 14,000 hats and 24,000 pens, uniquely displayed on the inside walls of an old church. Personal tours by Jerry.
Museum of Initiation Pranks
Greenville, Illinois
Tour the company that built "prank" devices for fraternal lodge initiations. Visitors can experience the Branding Iron, the Bucking Goat, and the Spanking Machine.
Pink Elephant Mall: Outdoor Retro
Livingston, Illinois
Eat your ice cream and gaze upon Roadside giants. A Futuro flying saucer house, Muffler Man, pink elephant, Uniroyal Gal waitress, and a big beach dude statue.
Super Museum
Metropolis, Illinois
The life's work of Jim Hambrick, stuffed with over 70,000 items relating to Superman.
Superman Statue
Metropolis, Illinois
The Man of Steel stands, larger than life and ever-vigilant in his hometown of Metropolis.
Miniature Golf in a Funeral Home
Palatine, Illinois
Funeral parlor owner's private basement mini-golf. Kids, keep the noise down during viewings!
Wheels O' Time Museum
Peoria, Illinois
Historical Peoria brought to life with the city's old clocks, cars and jukeboxes. Singing barbershop quartet of former Presidents!
Puppet Opera in Focus
Rolling Meadows, Illinois
Puppets perform opera scenes and show tunes in their own custom theater. Backstage tour after each show.
Russell Military Museum
Russell, Illinois
Back yard battle cast-offs fill a museum and adjacent lot. A mashup of military gear, more for the equipment geek than the historian, which is fine by us.
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum
Springfield, Illinois
An imagineered immersion in the life of the 16th President.
Kaskaskia Dragon
Vandalia, Illinois
Spend your dragon coins wisely at this fire-breathing beast contraption.
Volo Museum: Bonnie and Clyde Death Car
Volo, Illinois
Hollywood vehicles and outlandish Kustom Kars: million-dollar Cat-in-the-Hat car, 1966 Batmobile, Elvis's 1974 Cadillac station wagon.
Gemini Giant: Space Age Muffler Man
Wilmington, Illinois
Outfitted for short-sleeved space travel, this fiberglass giant has guarded the Launching Pad drive-in on Route 66 since 1965.
Robert Wadlow, World's Tallest Man
Alton, Illinois
Life-size statue at the birthplace of the World's Tallest Man, Robert Wadlow, who stood nearly nine feet tall.
The Soul Asylum
Alton, Illinois
Chastity belts, Native American foot torture, and "the much-dreaded Chinese Death Cage," in America's most haunted building and town.
Relics of the World's Tallest Man
Alton, Illinois
Robert Wadlow stood nearly nine feet tall, so everything he wore or used had to be big. A few relics have survived to impress later generations of tinier humans.
One and Only Hippie Memorial
Arcola, Illinois
The conceptual artistic legacy of the late Bob Moomaw, whose Hippie Memorial suggests that he liked the 1960s and disliked Ronald Reagan.
Frankenmufflerman
Burbank, Illinois
Frankenstein's Monster resembles a former Muffler Man, 20 feet tall, reworked into a smartly-dressed creature. Nonetheless he stretches our powers of creative categorization.
Sit with Roger Ebert
Champaign, Illinois
Famous movie reviewer Roger Ebert watched films in the Virginia Theatre when he was young. Empty seats allow visitors to critique alongside a bronze Roger.
Statue of Popeye
Chester, Illinois
Hometown of cartoonist immortalizes Popeye's ragtag entourage with statues around town.
Henry Darger's Room
Chicago, Illinois
The reconstructed room of janitor Henry Darger, where he lived for 40 years creating unsettling art that he showed to no one.
Trunkations
Roadside America's blog, offering news, rants and ruminations on the state of Illinois
Offbeat Landmarks and Oddities
Choice field reports and tips. Or check out: Complete list of Illinois attractions.
- Alto Pass: Bald Knob Cross of Peace [tips]
- Alton: Robert Wadlow, World's Tallest Man
- Alton: The Piasa Bird
- Alton: The Soul Asylum
- Alton: Relics of the World's Tallest Man
- Arcola: One and Only Hippie Memorial
- Atlanta: Hot Dog Muffler Man
- Atlanta: Happy Half-Wit Muffler Man [tips]
- Auburn: Brick 66
- Batavia: Mary Todd Lincoln's Sanitarium Bed [tips]
- Batchtown: Uniroyal Gal: Pirate [tips]
- Belleville: National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows [tips]
- Benton: Charlie Birger Gallows and George Harrison Artifacts [tips]
- Berwyn: Muffler Man: Chicken Wing, Cigar [tips]
- Bloomington: Concrete Giantess [tips]
- Bloomington: Poppy Plane Crash Memorial [tips]
- Braidwood: Nine-Foot-Tall Guitar-Playing Elvis [tips]
- Brookfield: World's Largest Bronze Gorilla [tips]
- Burbank: Frankenmufflerman
- Carbondale: Dungeons and Dragons Park (Castle Park)
- Carmi: Big John: Grocery Clerk [tips]
- Carthage: Lincoln Casket, Two-Headed Pig [tips]
- Casey: World's Largest Rocking Chair [tips]
- Casey: Big Things in a Small Town Workshop [tips]
- Casey: Giant Mailbox [tips]
- Casey: Giant Bird Cage [tips]
- Casey: World's Largest Pitchfork [tips]
- Casey: Giant Antlers [tips]
- Champaign: Giant Copper Chief
- Champaign: Sit with Roger Ebert
- Chatsworth: Horrible Train Wreck Happened Here
- Chester: Statue of Popeye
- Chicago: Henry Darger's Room
- Chicago: Klairmont Kollections Museum
- Chicago: Sliced Human Bodies, Cow Eyeball Dissection [tips]
- Chicago: Eyeglasses Muffler Man Indian [tips]
- Chicago: International Museum of Surgical Science [tips]
- Chicago: McDonald's Global Menu Restaurant [tips]
- Chicago: Oz Park - "Wizard of Oz" Statues [tips]
- Chicago: Blind Love, Three Arms [tips]
- Chicago: Harry Caray: Faces In His Pants [tips]
- Chicago: Crown Fountain - Spraying Faces [tips]
- Chicago: The Bean
- Chicago: The S--t Fountain [tips]
- Chicago: Cube of 1 Million 1 Dollar Bills [tips]
- Chicago: U-505 German Submarine [tips]
- Chicago: Fountain Of Time [tips]
- Chicago: Obama's Barber Chair, Encased in Plexiglass [tips]
- Chicago: Busy Beaver Button Museum
- Chicago: Wall of Bad Art [tips]
- Chicago: Assassinated Mayor Cermak Mausoleum
- Chicago: Chicago in Miniature [tips]
- Chicago: Great Northern Migration Monument
- Collinsville: World's Largest Catsup Bottle
- Covell: Charles Lindbergh Crash Site #2
- Crystal Lake: Muffler Man - Indian
- Crystal Lake: Muffler Man - Bunyan
- Darien: World's Largest Religious Wood Carving [tips]
- DeKalb: Barbed Wire History Exhibit, Little House [tips]
- Des Plaines: Meals Delivered by Train
- Dixon: Horsey Ronald Reagan [tips]
- East Moline: Tour World's Largest Farm Equipment Factory
- Edwardsville: Big T-Bone Steak [tips]
- Effingham: America's 2nd Largest Cross
- Elburn: Larsen's Christmas Lights [tips]
- Eldorado: Big John - Grocery Clerk
- Ellsworth: Wind Farm Lookout Platform [tips]
- Elmwood Park: Large Radio Flyer Wagon [tips]
- Eureka: Ronald Reagan Museum, Berlin Wall Slab
- Evanston: American Toby Jug Museum [tips]
- Forest Park: Memorial to Circus Train Wreck Dead
- Forrest: Jerry's Hat Museum
- Galena: John Martinson's West Street Sculpture Park [tips]
- Galva: Carpet Viking Giant: King Orry [tips]
- Gays: Two-Story Outhouse
- Geneva: Easy Chair Grave
- Granite City: Old Chain of Rocks Route 66 Bridge [tips]
- Greenville: Museum of Initiation Pranks
- Gridley: Telephone Museum of Gridley [tips]
- Griggsville: Purple Martin Capital of the Nation
- Joliet: Old Joliet Prison
- Lexington: Crazy Presidential Elephant [tips]
- Libertyville: Muffler Man and Bessie the Cow
- Lincoln: World's Largest Covered Wagon and Big Lincoln
- Lincolnshire: Par-King Miniature Golf [tips]
- Livingston: Pink Elephant Mall: Outdoor Retro
- Livingston: Giant Donald Trump [tips]
- Livingston: Muffler Man [tips]
- Long Grove: Sock Monkey Museum [tips]
- Macomb: Living Lincoln Topiary Monument [tips]
- Makanda: Monument to Boomer, 3-Legged Hero Dog
- Makanda: Smiley Face Water Tower [tips]
- Malta: Mighty Mouse and Elephant [tips]
- Metropolis: Super Museum
- Metropolis: Big John - Grocery Clerk [tips]
- Metropolis: Superman Statue
- Mount Carroll: Raven's Grin Inn [tips]
- Mount Vernon: Uniroyal Gal
- Murphysboro: Big Muddy Monster [tips]
- Naperville: Dick Tracy Statue [tips]
- Nauvoo: Erik: Carpet Viking HS Mascot [tips]
- Niles: Leaning Tower of Niles
- Normal: Carl: Ice Cream Muffler Man [tips]
- Norway: Agricultural Crash Monument
- Oak Lawn: Big Chief: World's Largest Cigar Store Indian [tips]
- Olney: Home of the White Squirrels
- Oquawka: Norma Jean, Elephant Killed By Lightning
- Oregon: Black Hawk, the Rock River Colossus [tips]
- Ottawa: Statue of the Radium Girl
- Palatine: Miniature Golf in a Funeral Home
- Peoria: Uniroyal Gal: Vanna Whitewall
- Peoria: Wheels O' Time Museum
- Peoria: Statue of Richard Pryor [tips]
- Pontiac: Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum
- Port Byron: Tug Fest - East Side of Mississippi River Tug-of-war [tips]
- Rantoul: World Champion Punkin Chunkin [tips]
- Rochelle: Railroad Intersection, Hobo Fire Pit [tips]
- Rock Island: Atomic Cannon
- Rockford: Rockmen Guardians [tips]
- Rockford: Home of the Sock Monkey [tips]
- Rolling Meadows: Puppet Opera in Focus
- Roscoe: Historic Auto Attractions
- Russell: Russell Military Museum
- Schaumburg: Medieval Times
- Springfield: 30-Foot-Tall Skinny Abe Lincoln Statue
- Springfield: Lincoln's Tomb and Lucky Nose
- Springfield: Lauterbach Tire Muffler Man [tips]
- Springfield: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum
- Springfield: Defiant Tomb Of Mr. Accordion
- Springfield: Pinky: Elephant with Martini [tips]
- Staunton: Henry's Ra66it Ranch
- Taylorville: Monument to Kay the Elephant
- Taylorville: JFK in a Graveyard, But Not His Grave
- Union: Illinois Railway Museum: Largest in North America [tips]
- University Park: Exhausted Paul Bunyan
- Vandalia: Kaskaskia Dragon
- Volo: Volo Museum: Bonnie and Clyde Death Car
- Wadsworth: Golden Pyramid House
- Washington: Giant Lincoln and Perry Como [tips]
- Waukegan: Ray Bradbury Rides a Rocket
- White Hall: Monument to the Schoolteacher Tornado Martyr [tips]
- Wilmette: Bahai House of Worship [tips]
- Wilmington: Gemini Giant: Space Age Muffler Man
- Woodstock: Groundhog Day Movie Town [tips]