Underwater Alex

Spring Green, Wisconsin

The House on the Rock was the mad vision of Alex Jordan Jr, a recluse who transformed his home into America's largest, strangest indoor sideshow. Although he died in 1989, and the House has since continued under different management, Alex is still its spiritual caretaker -- as evidenced by this dummy of him in a fake diving helmet in the "Heritage of the Sea" room, a brain-searing four-story blimp-hangar-of-a-space dominated by a 200-foot-long sea monster battling a giant squid.

It's a testament to Alex's love of eye-wearying excess that we didn't even notice him nestled among the ship models and other flotsam until we looked at our photos later that day. He stands in front of a blue-painted wall and behind what is claimed to be a Hand-Operated Diver's Pump. According to its accompanying sign, Alex the diver "descended with a prayer that his buddy on the pump would continue to turn those heavy wheels and refrain from the temptation of a coffee break."