Willow Creek's Hardest Working Monster
It was 50 years ago that Bigfoot first shambled across a film frame and into America's hearts. While he only appeared briefly in that 1967 home movie captured outside Willow Creek, California, it was enough to give the town decades of creature-seeker publicity. The haunts of the hairy giant are now the Bigfoot Capital of the World, with an annual Bigfoot Days festival every Labor Day weekend, and enough year-round sights to thrill all who crave cryptids.
Bigfoot Museum and Statue
Bigfoot Gas Station Statue and Mural
Community-Spirited Bigfoot Mural
Home of the Bigfoot Burger
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Car Smashed by UFO
First contact with space visitors is problematic at high speeds and head-on. The car -- a police car -- is preserved with its mysterious damage intact. Weirdness in a small Minnesota town. Story
Everyone's Dead On Boot Hill
The original boneyard for the Wild West bad guys, later accessorized with a museum, a fake Main Street, can-can dancers in a saloon, and outdoor gun battles twice a day in the summer. Story
Who Made The Crystal Shrine Grotto?
An artist-crafted cave, dug into a hillside, filled with crystals, cement stalactites, and offbeat Christian art. Nearly five decades were needed to complete the chamber, which fills up with piped-in harp music. Story
Quirky Relics of the Woodman Museum
Four buildings packed with apparently every oddity that frugal citizens squirreled away in their New Hampshire attics and basements, including a four-legged chicken and several glass hand grenades.
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A Moment In The Tour-Thru Tree
Experience the brief thrill of driving through a living thing -- an 800-year-old coastal redwood. The moment lasts forever if someone leaves your vehicle, snaps a picture, and doesn't accidentally delete it later.
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Digging The Dug Up Gun Museum
Centered in the crosshairs of history, this large collection of 19th and 20th century corroded and broken firearms -- displayed in dirt -- were recovered from where they fell. Their previous owners may have fallen, too.
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This Exit: Slug Bug Ranch
Five Volkswagen Beetles are buried hood-down in the ground, an obvious nod to the nearby Cadillac Ranch. Visitors use spray paint and blunt force to modify the display.
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There's Never Traffic In This Tunnel
Tunnelvision, a deceptively realistic, painted highway entrance, was an idea that came to artist Blue Sky in a dream. Blue Sky's thoughtful choice of canvas, a wall facing a parking lot instead of a main thoroughfare, has probably saved the lives of countless drivers.
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Say Hello To The Town Gator
A fixture in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, since 1972, "Ole Hardhide" serves as the city's mascot, and lives in a big custom-built open-air mini-swamp in the heart of downtown.Story
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Hurricane Aftermath Advisory
The record-smashing rains and floods brought on by Hurricane Harvey make it unwise -- if not dangerous -- to visit many roadside attractions along the Texas Gulf Coast from Beaumont to Corpus Christi. The condition of destinations such as The Orange Show and Space Center Houston will become clear over time. For now, call ahead, or check status on Facebook.
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M.T. Liggett, Bad Boy of Kansas Outsider Art, Dies
RIP folk artist M.T. Liggett (1930-2017). He was a terror to his neighbors but a favorite of visitors who enjoyed his opinionated roadside sculptures. "I guarantee that if the people of western Kansas had anything to do about it, they'd tear it all down and haul it off to the junkyard," he told us when we spoke with him six months ago (We'd visited him several times over the years). The New York Times gave M.T. a feature obituary, using RoadsideAmerica.com as source. We will miss M.T., but we didn't live next to him.
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Update: Snooty the Manatee
For all of you who read last month's Sightings headline -- "Just Try to Outlive Snooty, World's Oldest Manatee"...
Sadly for Snooty, you did.
Your hairy biped travel pals,
The RoadsideAmerica.com Team
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