Illinois

Find Illinois travel tips, stories, maps, videos and news for unusual tourist attractions and sights.

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Old Joliet Prison
Joliet, Illinois
1858 prison, best known from the Blue Brothers movie as the jail where "Joliet Jake" was released, had many infamous inmates.
Busy Beaver Button Museum
Chicago, Illinois
Thousands of buttons used for promotion and political views, displayed in a business that makes buttons.
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.
Puppet Opera in Focus
Rolling Meadows, Illinois
Puppets perform opera scenes and show tunes in their own custom theater. Backstage tour after each show.

Sights for Oddball Excursions

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 late 20th century Cicero, 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.
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!
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 Piasa Bird
Alton, Illinois
Monster bird of legend merits a tourism roost along the river.
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.
World's Largest Catsup Bottle
Collinsville, Illinois
A water tower painted to resemble a bottle of Brooks Tangy Catsup.
Muffler Man - Indian
Crystal Lake, Illinois
Displaced by the closing of a local water park, the towering Indian brave now greets customers at a garden center.
Muffler Man - Bunyan
Crystal Lake, Illinois
A Paul Bunyan Muffler Man, once an attraction at Ozzie Water Park in Palatine, has retired to gardening.
Big John - Grocery Clerk
Eldorado, Illinois
A grocery clerk giant, Big John clutches three car-crushing bags of groceries in a supermarket parking lot.