News from the offbeat tourist attraction landscape of Roadside America.
Sightings Vol. 13, No. 2 - February 24, 2017
Sightings

Prehistoric Gardens

Nestled deep in a primordial rainforest of Oregon -- and conveniently next to the coast highway -- the creatures of Prehistoric Gardens have outlived countless other "Age of Dinosaurs" attractions. They were built by Ernie Nelson, an artist with a dream and a wild color palette, in the mid-1950s. His family still runs the place.

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Prehistoric Movie Critic

Sit With Roger Ebert

It's been a mere blink in geologic time since we relied on respected movie critics to tell us what merited a trip to the theater. The hometown of the late Roger "Two Thumbs Up" Ebert provides a Sit with Roger bronze statue in front of the movie house where he watched and judged... for us all. Story

 

J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum

J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum.

It's a rare Route 66 attraction that has nothing to do with nostalgia, old cars, or Route 66. See the outlaw guns of Bonnie and Clyde, and possibly the world's largest collection of execution hoods and nooses. Founder J.M. Davis is buried in the museum. Story

 

Political Art of M.T. Liggett

Political Art of M.T. Liggett.

Outsider artist M.T. Liggett has amused and offended passersby with his roadside art since the late 1980s. Scatological humor; human caricatures with warty noses, buck teeth, and balloon butts -- M.T. certainly knows how to express his opinions. Story

 

Cape Blanco: Windy West Headland

Cape Blanco.

Just about as far west as you can go in the Lower 48, Cape Blanco receives the full force of winds that began as soft breezes 5,000 miles away. It's kind of like those "Stand Inside a Tornado" tubes you sometimes see in malls, except it's free and there's no way to turn it off. Story

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City Pages: Local Travel Hotspots

Our city pages and maps make it easier to find our stories on the best attractions in and around metropolitan areas. Favorite Quirky City Sights links are in the right column of state pages.

City Pages.

Tombstone, Arizona: Sun-bleached and cactus-studded, home of the O.K. Corral and Boot Hill. If your expectations of the Wild West were formed by watching TV shows and movie westerns -- Tombstone satisfies.

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Trunkations: The Roadside Blog

John Frank Kotera.

We had a 70th birthday chat with John Frank Kotera, who's spent 38 of those years winding the World's Largest Ball of Twine (a title claimed by other twine balls).

How do you clean 13,000 action figures? Kevin Stark at the Toy and Action Figure Museum shared with us his dusting and scrubbing secrets.

Frugality Remorse: the Corn Palace is learning the hard way that the one budget item it shouldn't cut is corn.

Check out the latest Trunkations posts.

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Until next issue,
The RoadsideAmerica.com Team

Spotted by Tipsters

Spotted by Tipsters

We're running out of pins. Many new attractions deemed worthy, updates from World's Largest this and that, and a heads-up on a recently rediscovered Uniroyal Gal.

Latest Tips

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Apps & Tools

Roadside America iPhone app Roadside America (iPhone)
12,000+ USA/Canada offbeat attractions, research targets, interactive Near Me maps. New places and "research targets" added frequently! Quirky categories, top-rated recommendations. Navigate with Waze, Google or Apple Maps.

$2.99 on the App Store (includes access to 1 of 7 regions); addtl. regions or "All Access" unlock is optional in-app purchase.
iPhone, iPod touch (iPad compatible)

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Roadside Presidents iPhone app

Roadside Presidents App for iPhone
US Presidents, VPs, First Ladies, even dastardly assassins -- visit where they lived, worked, played, died! Updated for faster performance, with place maps, a new President, and turn-by-turn directions via Waze, Google or Apple Maps.

$2.99 iPhone, iPod touch, (iPad compatible). Available on the App Store.

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Roadside America My Sights Planner My Sights Route Planner - Save places you read about on Roadside America, create a trip, and then email it to friends or export a .cvs file to upload onto a GPS device (Garmin, TomTom, etc.). Learn more and try it!

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Main image: Prehistoric Gardens, Port Orford, Oregon