Kansas

New Reports

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  World's First Batwing Gas Station

  Haysville, Kansas

  Built in 1954, restored in 2007. Looks as extreme and futuristic as the day it opened, although you can't buy gas there any more.

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  Folk Art Headstones of Hoisington

  Hoisington, Kansas

  Inspired by unmarked graves in his hometown cemetery, folk artist Phil Webb has given the forgotten dead their own colorful sculpture-tombstones.

Sights for Oddball Excursions

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  World's Largest Ball of Twine

  Cawker City, Kansas

  The late Frank Stoeber's giant twine ball continues to grow under the supervision of Cawker City residents.

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  The Garden of Eden

  Lucas, Kansas

  Weird home of folk art and political statements; the late Sam Dinsmoor can be viewed in the back yard.

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  Grassroots Art Center

  Lucas, Kansas

  The "visionary" artists of the U.S. have their own space in Lucas, with sculptures made from aluminum can pull-tabs and portraits made from wads of chewing gum.

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  Famous Gunfighters Wax Museum

  Dodge City, Kansas

  Wax versions of notorious villains and lawmen from the wild west -- Jesse James, Wyatt Earp -- along with the Wolfman, Dracula, LBJ and JFK. Unchanged since the mid-1960s.

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  Strataca: Underground Salt Museum

  Hutchinson, Kansas

  Museum transports visitors 65 stories below ground to tour vast salt galleries.

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  Cosmosphere

  Hutchinson, Kansas

  Second only to The Smithsonian in space artifacts -- see Cosmonaut cast-offs, Nazi ballistics, and American moon diapers.

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  Dorothy's House and Land of Oz

  Liberal, Kansas

  Real-life Dorothys give tours. Plot points of the film are colorfully recreated and midget Munchkin mannequins are everywhere.

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  Political Art of M.T. Liggett

  Mullinville, Kansas

  Sculptures blown by the winds of politics, this Kansas man's viewpoint is writ in metal and bile. But he's not mad.

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  Subterra Castle: Missile Silo Home

  Shawnee County, Kansas

  Defunct nuclear missile complexes are 20th century castles, according to the 21st century couple who live in this one.

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  Truckhenge

  Topeka, Kansas

  A distorted Stonehenge, but also a playful poke at bureaucrats.

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  Evel Knievel Museum

  Topeka, Kansas

  World's largest collection of Evelabilia. See the iconic Skycycle X-2, and a display of Evel's x-rays.

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  Oz Museum

  Wamego, Kansas

  Thousands of Wizard of Oz artifacts help cement the everlasting association of over-the-rainbow and Kansas.

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  Big Brutus

  West Mineral, Kansas

  Big Brutus, a humongous earth mover, stands where it died and is now a tourist attraction.

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  Dalton Defenders Museum

  Coffeyville, Kansas

  Coffeyville remembers the day that the Dalton Gang rode into town to rob two banks, and got shot full of holes by an irate citizenry.

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  He Killed Lincoln's Killer, Then Lived In A Hole

  Concordia, Kansas

  Soldier Boston Corbett shot John Wilkes Booth. Later, this hole was his home.

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  That Grow a Beard Abe! Town

  Delphos, Kansas

  Abe Lincoln's insistent Grow-a-Beard girl lived here, but Delphos has greater claims to fame...

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  Boot Hill and Museum

  Dodge City, Kansas

  Museum at famous Wild West town boneyard shows off its guns, buffalo, Indians, and outlaws. Summer daily gunfights.

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  La Salsa Muffler Man

  Dodge City, Kansas

  Commissioned by movie star Dennis Hopper, La Salsa Man is a customized caricatured Mexican based on a California Muffler Man. Donated to Dodge City 2010, erected 2016, then taken down and moved to a new spot in Nov. 2017.

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  World's Largest Easel

  Goodland, Kansas

  A giant replica painting on a giant steel easel -- Van Gogh sunflowers for the Sunflower State.

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  The Big Well

  Greensburg, Kansas

  World's Largest Hand-Dug Well, the World's Largest Pallasite Meteorite, and a museum about Greensburg's destruction in a 2007 mega-tornado.

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  Valeda The Talking Transparent Woman

  Halstead, Kansas

  A life-size see-through plastic model explains her anatomy and the mysteries of life.

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  Comanche, Little Bighorn Survivor

  Lawrence, Kansas

  Comanche was the last U.S. Army survivor of Custer's Last Stand. He was the most famous horse in America, even after was dead and stuffed.

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  The Smithalo

  Longford, Kansas

  60 tons, stands on a hilltop. A personal monument to the American buffalo that was built by Ray Omar Smith, far from the normal tourist routes.

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  Bowl Plaza: America's Most Artistic Giant Toilet

  Lucas, Kansas

  The building is shaped like a toilet tank, the benches in front of the building are curved like a toilet seat, and the sidewalk in front undulates like an unspooled toilet roll.

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  Johnny Kaw, Bigger Than Bunyan

  Manhattan, Kansas

  Instead of chopping trees, giant Johnny mows down acres of wheat with his super scythe.