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There is no shortage of quirky roadside attractions in the US. And the history of roadside attractions runs parallel to the history of car culture. Starting in the 1920s, automobiles launched an entirely new infrastructure, one that was as reliant on interstate planning and technology as it was on the charismatic spontaneity of vagabonds hitting the road, intoxicated by wanderlust and the smell of gasoline. Driving became as much a pastime as a necessity, and quirky attractions and novelty architecture popped up like daisies along the road. Some attractions existed to fulfill a need; others were born out of an unapologetic desire to create something epochal and irresistible, something that was Polaroid-perfect and memory-friendly.
Ultimately, Americans are nothing if not eccentric, and the hotels, motels, statues, and shops alongside the highways, byways, interstates, and country roads are testaments to that eccentricity. As spring gets underway, the only way to embrace it is to pick a region and see how weird the journey can get.
Quirky Roadside Attractions In The Northeast US
Lucy The Elephant, New Jersey
Sandwiched between vendors selling saltwater taffy and those tempting customers with the scent of sticky-sweet funnel cakes, Lucy the Elephant rises like a kitschy deity amid sun-worshippers. Standing 6 stories tall and weighing about 90 tons, a million pieces of wood went into her creation in 1881. Why? As a gimmick to coerce buyers into spending money on land and development, of course. And it worked. Hotels sprang up like mushrooms around Lucy, and the rest is history.
- Address: 1 Lucy Plaza, 9200 Atlantic Avenue, Margate, NJ 08402
- Hours: Summer touring hours start June 19th and are 10 am to 8 pm Monday through Saturday; 10 am to 5 pm Sunday; Hours the rest of the year vary but are available on the website
- Prices: Children 3 -12 are $4; Adults 13 and up are $8.50
There is no charge to simply visit the grounds or to go into the gift shop. Ticket prices are for those wanting to take the guided tour. Even then, children under age 2 are free.
Wildwood, New Jersey
Another Jersey Shore gem that offers entire streets of roadside attractions is Wildwood, NJ where Doo Wop Architecture dominates as far as the eye can see. The garish Atomic Age construction sits aplomb in a town where one can do anything from breakfast atop a Ferris wheel in Wildwood to watching vintage cars and motorcycles compete in the Race of Gentlemen.
The way Cape May has embraced its Victorian buildings, so too has Wildwood championed its 1950s architectonics, all of which was built with the 1950s sensibility that worshiped the Space Age and cherished campy themes that exploited a landlocked person’s understanding of the tropics. To give a sense of history, it’s important to remember that Wildwood is sacred in rockabilly history, with Chubby Checker and Bill Haley and the Comets performing their epic songs and dance numbers for the first time in the town.
Like other shore towns, Wildwood exploded in the wake of World War II as the concept of ‘vacationing’ had a socio-economic shift. No longer were vacations an elite luxury; now they were a ritual to be enjoyed by all. Despite the democratization of vacation culture, however, most families still couldn’t afford island getaways, and so Wildwood offered a superb substitute in the form of hotels thematically fashioned - in their ‘50s sort of way - in a hodgepodge of tropical styles such as Polynesian and Hawaiian. Under this umbrella is the Caribbean Motel, which opened in 1957 and has since been named a National Historic Landmark. With a lemon-and-lime-and-coconut exterior, its plastic palm trees were de rigueur for the tropical vibe.
- Address: 5600 Ocean Ave., Wildwood Crest, NJ 08260
- Email: Fill out the form
The Caribbean Hotel features all the accouterments' signature of the Doo Wop aesthetic, from the ‘levitating’ ramps to the canted glass walls and recessed lights.
Astronomy was in vogue 1950s thanks to the Space Race, the battle between America and the Soviet Union to put a man on the moon. Even with eyes cast upwards, Wildwood hotels and motels catered to this zeal, providing accommodations to appease any cosmophile or astrophile.
Motels like the Starlux Boutique Motel have continued to cosmically beckon from the road with its neon blue sign. From the road, the beveled roofs and neon signage with its jagged letters all contribute to the spacey theme. Inside, amenities include an all-glass Astro lounge with a fireplace and in-room lava lamps. Also, the hotel has its now 27-hole mini golf course and onsite ice cream parlor.
- Address: 305 E. Rio Grande Ave., Wildwood, NJ 08260
- Prices: Depending on the season, price start as low as $79 a room
If just passing through Wildwood, road trippers can still enjoy the quirky vibes thanks to the numerous neon signs with highlighter-bright colors. Be on the lookout for Pink Cadillac Diner and Cool Scoops Ice Cream Parlor, whose sign is primed to send out Beverly Hills 90210 Peach Pit signals. Signs like The Vegas Diner and the Jade East Motel radiate Christmas green and red with wavelengths as strong as supernovas. Plus, for a more robust tour where nothing is missed, try the Doo Wop Museum and Back to the ‘50s Neon Night Tours.
Quirky Roadside Attractions In The Southeast US
The Titanic Museum, Tennessee
South of the Mason-Dixon Line is a world of seemingly mismatched homages to Progressive Era industry and to prehistoric beasts. The Titanic might have been built in Belfast, Ireland, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty to learn at the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Ford, Tennessee, whose two-story museum can be seen from the Parkway.
With a collection of over 400 personal artifacts valued at over four million dollars, the museum is shaped like the RMS Titanic as the ultimate laudation to the doomed ship that took to the seas with the Industrial Age hubris that anything manmade could conquer and quell Mother Nature. Guests are given an authentic experience as they are greeted by a crew dressed in era-appropriate costumes who lead them through a vessel that has over 22,000 square feet and is designed to honor the 2,208 passengers who perished.
- Address: 2134 Parkway, Pigeon Forge, TN 37863
- Hours: Monday to Thursday 9 am - 6 pm; Friday to Sunday 9am - 7 pm
- Prices: $15 and up
Dinosaur World, Kentucky
If there is any concern that you might drive past Dinosaur World, fear not. A giant Tyrannosaurus Rex stands vigil at I-65 as a reminder that all present and future paleontologists need to take notice. Kentucky might be synonymous with the Derby and Bourbon (especially Louisville, with its wealth of things to do), but thanks to a Swedish entrepreneur who purchased an alligator park in the 1990s, it’s now a mockup for a Jurassic Park to rise in Cave City. With the dense foliage and jungle layout, the idea that velociraptors might be dodging among the ferns isn’t totally out of the question. In this game of hide-and-seek, tourists will spy more than 100 dinosaurs all with explanatory signs.
Address: 711 Mammoth Cave Rd., Cave City, KY 42127
Contact: 270.773.4345
Hours: Open 7 days a week, 8:30 am to 4:30 am
Prices: Start at $9.75
As long as dogs are on their leashes, Dinosaur World is a dog-friendly spot, and there are water stations available.
Quirky Roadside Attractions In The Southwest US
Cathedral Of Junk, Texas
Maybe it’s the intense sunshine, or maybe it’s the wide open spaces, but the Southwest has more roadside oddities and this-and-that stops than seemingly any other region, with a fair amount of those in the state of Texas. In the state capital of Austin, one will find one of the quirkiest roadside attractions in the Lone Star State: the Cathedral of Junk.
An attraction that embraces the art of the miscellaneous, it doesn’t draw attention to itself with overt advertising or tours. Instead, the Cathedral perches on a street in the backyard of a small house in a suburb on the south side of Austin. Built by Vince Hannermann in 1988, the cathedral was not contrived around any kind of metacognitive philosophy or profound thinking. Hannermann built his Cathedral out of the simple desire to accumulate treasures and trinkets.
As if anticipating Little Mermaid's Ariel by a couple of years, this ode to baubles and gimcracks is quixotically constructed around native Texas vegetation, with bric-a-brac, bottles, lawn mowers, circuit boards, car bumpers, and a million other ‘things’ practically creating their own highways and byways in a metropolis of precious things that have been discarded but not forgotten.
- Address: 4422 Lareina Dr., Austin, TX 78745
- Prices: No fee to get in, but donations are welcomed. Typically, guests donate $5 - $10
Cadillac Ranch, Texas
Fast forward to about a million years from now, and envision aliens visiting Earth for the first time in a long time. What might they think when they stumble upon chunks of decorative metal stashed into the earth like sacred totems? Would they hypothesize about the purpose of such objects? Or would they just think, ‘hey, these look cool'? For humans passing by the roadside attraction that is Cadillac Ranch, they might ask the same questions and come to the same conclusion.
The graffitied Cadillacs alongside I-40 Frontage Road do indeed look cool, rising out of the earth at an angle, painted and polished so that they shine in the sun. Cadillac Ranch was the brainchild of local billionaire Stanley Marsh who, in 1974, teamed up with an art collective out of San Francisco called the Ant Farm. The purpose was simple: create an outrageous roadside attraction and photo hotspot; an artsy bit of boldness that would confuse locals and draw crowds from all over. Guess what? It worked.
- Address: 13651 I-40 Frontage Rd., Amarillo, TX
- Hours: Always open
Roswell, New Mexico
When a town exists as a haven for believers in extraterrestrials and UFOs, it basically has an obligation to fulfill the laws of all things kitschy, quirky, kooky. As a town, Roswell offers so many things to do - so much that it is its own roadside attraction, pixilated with multiple roadside attractions. It almost gives off the ambiance of an amusement park, a place that was planned and developed to entertain alien fantasies and what-ifs.
From the road, wanderers can enjoy the apple-green welcome sign and the Mcdonald's with its neon saucer roof while those on foot can gaze up at the alien-topped streetlamps. Then there is the International UFO museum and the Roswell UFO Spacewalk, where the black light and fluorescents might give older millennials and Gen Xers flashbacks to their raver days.
International UFO Museum and Gift Shop
- Address: 114 N. Main Street, Roswell, NM 88203
- Hours: Open 7 days a week, 9 am - 5 pm
- Prices: Prices start at $4
Quirky Roadside Attractions In The Midwest US
Enchanted Highway, North Dakota
Attractions channel both the Old World and the world of whimsy in the Midwest. Deemed one of winter's top roadside attractions, the Enchanted Highway in Regent, ND, is about 10 minutes east of Dickinson and starts on I-94 near Exit 72 near Gladstone, stretching for 32 miles until it reaches the quaint town of Regent.
This stretch of highway is populated with large metal sculptures, all of which come with a parking area and kiosk. The sculptures look like stencil cutouts and their titles tell visitors exactly what they are looking at. There is “Teddy Rides Again”, “Pheasants on the Prairie” and “Grasshoppers in the Field”. The sculptures were created by Gary Greff, a retired school teacher who, wanting to give Regent a must-needed economic boost, created the metal artwork in order to get people to slow down and take a detour into town. Some are made from old oil well tanks and others are crafted from pipes. Plans are in motion to add more in the future.
- Address: 1-94, Ext 72, Regent ND 58650
The Leaning Tower Of Niles, Illinois
As a quaint homage to Pisa, Italy, the Leaning Tower of Niles, IL is about half the size of the original. Roughly 15 minutes from Chicago O’Hare International Airport, the tower is a popular detour for anyone wanting to see the 94-foot tall replica of Pisa’s OG tower.
Built in 1934 by Bob Ilg, a plague states that the tower was created to honor Galileo Galilei and his legendary experiment of dropping objects from the tower in Pisa when exploring the paradigm of gravity. Since a 1990 renovation, tourists can now enjoy a fountain and reflecting pool when admiring the bit of Italian architecture in the plains of the Midwest.
- Address: 6300 W Touhy Ave, Niles, IL 60714
- Hours: Closes at 10 pm
Quirky Roadside Attractions In The West US
The World's Tallest Thermometer, California
With an entire infrastructure and culture built around automobiles, it is no wonder that the West Coast is home to some of the strangest of the strange roadside delights, including the World’s Tallest Thermometer in Baker, California, which is one of the largest roadside attractions in America.
It is perhaps fitting that the world’s tallest thermometer rises slender and high in a part of the world that feels like it bakes more thoroughly day by day. Casting a sleek shadow as it stands at 134 feet over the Mojave Desert, the thermometer can reach 134 degrees, a record temperature recorded in Death Valley on July 10, 1913. The thermometer has had many comebacks - having first fallen over in 1991 when high winds buffeted it to the ground - but is now a Mecca for visitors.
- Address: 72157 Baker Blvd., Baker, CA 92309
Bubblegum Alley, California
The college town of San Luis Obispo has an alley where, since the 1950s, blobs of bubblegum have started to accumulate, for no other reason than for students to leave the most lasting impression behind that they possibly could. In the 1960s, a halfhearted attempt was made to clean it up but was abandoned when the gum kept accumulating in chewy crustaceous layers atop the bricks and petrified gum from years ago. Today, Bubblegum Alley in San Louis Obispo is a bizarre attraction but one that surely sticks out.
- Address: 1039 Chorro St., San Luis Obispo, CA 93401