Denver, Colorado: "Why I Love Her" USA Map

Roadside attraction map art with tourist snapshots covers maps on two corridor walls at Denver International Airport.

A roadside attraction celebrating roadside attractions! There are actually two maps just by baggage claim 3 and 4 and in eyesight of the gargoyle. It was neat to see!

Two large US maps in a busy corridor of Denver International Airport still attract interest from thousands of passersby each day. An exhibit since the early 1990s, "America: Why I Love Her" was the work of airline employee Gary Sweeney. Colorful wooden panels of the lower 48 face each other, covered with framed black and white snapshots of Gary's travels to Roadside America destinations, from the "Kansas Teacher's Hall of Fame" to the "World's Largest Peanut."

The maps are static, and many of Gary's still-featured faves have since disappeared ... Bedrooms of America, Capital Punishment Museum, the Fainting Goats of Montana, and others. But this large snapshot of offbeat Americana, circa 1992, is still fun to examine between flights.