News from the offbeat tourist attraction landscape of Roadside America.
Sightings Vol. 13, No. 8 - August 30, 2017
Sightings

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

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

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?

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

>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. Story

 

A Moment In The Tour-Thru Tree

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. Story

 

Digging The Dug Up Gun Museum

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. Story

 

This Exit: Slug Bug Ranch

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. Story

 

There's Never Traffic In This Tunnel

Tunnelvision

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. Story

 

Say Hello To The Town Gator

Town Gator in a Cage

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

>M.T. Liggett

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

Spotted by Tipsters

Spotted by Tipsters

We wish the USA map still featured a push-pin for the old Frank-N-Stein, a long-gone restaurant concept that would make even a reanimated corpse smile.

We're smiling at the volume of visitor tips and updates that have poured into Roadside HQ all summer. Some great new discoveries (and some not so great). Our editors toil to get the best mapped and at your fingertips!

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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Copyright © 2017, This Exit LLC, All rights reserved.
E-mail Comments, New Tips and Photo Submissions

Main image: Bigfoot footprint casts, Willow Creek, California