What’s unusual?
Criteria for “unusual places” can vary quite a bit from person to person. For the list below I chose places I did not think of as typical tourist attractions.
There are a few repeating themes: unusual art, giant things, unusually small things, underground sites, spooky places, filming locations, food sites, historic sites, treasure hunt sites, and for me, I am especially attracted to geographic sites.
This list (more than any of my others lists) is subject to change based on finding new unusual places that I had not heard about before.
Unusual U.S.
Northwest
1. Glacier bears (black bears that are blueish-gray) of Glacier Bay
2. Arctic Circle Photo Op (geographic site)
3. Adak “National Forest” – only 33 trees (unusually small)
1. Beacon Food Forest in Seattle (food site)
2. Seattle and Port Angeles Undergrounds – abandoned (underground sites)
3. Point Roberts (geographic site)
1. Mill Ends Park, Portland (unusually small)
2. Shanghai Tunnels, Portland (underground site)
3. Astoria (filming location)
1. Black Cliffs volcanic basalt pillars near Boise
2. Map Rock petroglyph map
3. New Plymouth – only U-shaped town grid in U.S.
1. Grasshopper Glacier – north of Yellowstone
2. Earthquake Lake – west of Yellowstone
3. The Berkeley Pit – colorful and toxic pool from copper mining waste
Mid-Pacific
1. Glass Beach near Fort Bragg
2. Cabazon Dinosaurs – Inland Empire (giant)
3. Salvation Mountain – Inland Empire (unusual art)
Honorable mention: World’s Tallest Thermometer – Inland Empire (giant)
1. The Blue Room grotto on Kauai
2. Captain Cook Monument on the Big Island
3. Stairway to Heaven on Oahu – permanently closed
Honorable mention: King Kamehameha’s Lost Burial Chamber (treasure hunt!)
Rocky Mountains
1. Bighorn Medicine Wheel stone circle
2. Hell’s Half Acre landscape
3. Tree in the Rock – in the median of I-80 in Buford (population: 1)
1. Mile High Capitol Steps in Denver
2. Rocky Mountain Adventures Cache la Poudre River rafting Pigeon Express
3. Stanley Hotel in Estes Park – The Shining location (spooky!)
1. Pando “The Trembling Giant” – quaking aspen grove in Fishlake National Forest, which is one of the oldest and largest living organisms on earth
2. Montezuma’s Lost Aztec Gold – possibly near Kanab (treasure hunt!)
3. Metaphor, the Tree of Utah (unusual art)
Honorable mention: The Spiral Jetty (unusual art)
1. Extraterrestrial Highway – Nevada State Route 375 – near Area 51
2. Republic of Molossia (geographic site)
3. Seven Magic Mountains (unusual art)
Southwest
1. Lost Dutchman mine site outside Phoenix (treasure hunt!)
2. London Bridge in Lake Havasu City
3. Apache Death Cave along old Route 66 (spooky!)
Honorable mention: Bucket of Blood Street in Holbrook along old Route 66
1. Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe
2. Zuni-Cibola Complex National Historic Landmark (meritorious to be a national historical park) – Legendary Seven Cities of Gold (treasure hunt!)
3. Chile Pepper Institute in Las Cruces
Honorable mention: Bernardo Waterfowl Area in Bosque – winter home to thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese
1. Cadillac Ranch along old Route 66 (unusual art)
2. Congress Bridge Bats in Austin – largest urban bat colony in North America
3. Prada Art Installation in Marfa (unusual art)
1. Picher – “The most toxic town in America”
2. Pops in Arcadia
3. Blue Whale of Catoosa along old Route 66 (unusual art)
Honorable mention: Jesse James’ loot – hidden somewhere near Robbers Cave in the Wichita Mountains (treasure hunt)
Great Plains
1. Enchanted Highway Sculptures (giant)
2. Salem Sue (giant)
3. World’s Largest Buffalo (giant)
1. Hall of Records in Mount Rushmore
2. Wall Drug
3. Mitchell Corn Palace
1. Dorothy’s House and Land of Oz in Liberal (filming location… sort of)
2. Dalton Defenders Museum in Coffeyville (historic site)
3. World’s Largest Ball of Twine (giant)
Honorable mention: Smallville – sure, it doesn’t actually exist, but who cares! (filming location… sort of)
1. Riverside – future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk! (filming location… sort of)
2. Field of Dreams (filming location)
3. Hobo Museum in Britt
1. Marceline – Hometown of Walt Disney – from which Main Street USA in Disneyland is based off of
2. Kansas City Library’s Giant Bookshelf
3. Adam-ondi-Ahman
1. Abandoned Detroit – Grande Ballroom, St. Agnes Church and School, Michigan Theatre, Packard Automotive Plant, Abundant Life Christian Center, Vanity Ballroom, and Fisher Body Plant 21
2. The Heidelberg Project in Detroit (unusual art)
3. American Museum of Magic in Marshall
Honorable mention: Hell (spooky!)
1. House on the Rock (unusual art)
2. National Mustard Museum in Middleton
3. Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay, Door County – with goats on the roof!
Honorable mention: Man Mound in Baraboo
1. Big Ole the Big Viking Statue and Runestone Museum of Alexandria, Minnesota (giant) (historic site… sort of)
2. Boxy Bunyan and Babe Statues of Bemidji, Minnesota (giants)
3. Northwest Angle (geographic site)
1. Superman Square, Metropolis
2. Liberty Bell of the West at Kaskaskia Bell State Memorial (historic site)
3. Giants of Illinois Route 66: Gemini Giant at the Launching Pad Drive-In in Wilmington, Paul Bunyon Hot Dog Statue in Atlanta, Lincoln on the Railsplitter Covered Wagon in Lincoln, and giants at the Pink Elephant Antique Mall in Livingstone (giants)
1. Market Street Catacombs in Indianapolis (underground site)
2. Decatur County Courthouse in Greensburg – tree growing on top of its tower
3. Modoc’s Market in Wabash
1. Cincinnati Subway in Cincinnati – abandoned (underground site)
2. West Side Market in Cleveland (food site)
3. Zanesville Y-Bridge
Northeast
1. Desert of Maine (geographic site… sort of)
2. Grand Derangement Memorial in Rumford – Plaque remembering the 18th century forced relocation of Acadians (historic site)
3. Maine State Building in Portland – built for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair Columbian Exposition then moved to Maine
1. Republic of Indian Stream (historic site)
2. Peterborough Town Library -first in the world to be entirely supported by taxation
3. Goffstown Giant Pumpkin Regatta
1. Ben & Jerry’s Factory Tour and Flavor Graveyard
2. Monument to Champ the Lake Monster in Burlington
3. New England Maple Syrup Museum in Pittsford
1. Witch everything in Salem (spooky!)
2. Bulb River of flowers at the Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich – blooms in mid-April
3. Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls – blooms April through October
1. Providence Athenaeum
2. Grave of Mercy Brown – New England’s last vampire? (spooky!)
3. Great Swamp Fight Monument of King Philip’s War
1. Louis’ Lunch in New Haven – Home of the Hamburger (food site)
2. Charles Island – home to Captain Kidd’s lost treasure? (treasure hunt!)
3. Skull and Bones Tomb in New Haven
1. Sleepy Hollow (spooky!)
2. New York City Hall Subway Station in New York City – permanently closed, but special tours possible (underground site)
3. Town Line – the unincorporated community that seceded from the United States during the Civil War (geographic site)
1. Centralia
2. Punxsutawney – Home of Punxsutawney Phil
3. Eastern State Penitentiary (spooky!)
Honorable mention: Night of the Living Dead Cemetery in Evans City (spooky!) (filming location)
1. Northlandz in Flemington – World’s largest model railroad
2. Site of the New Jersey Shark Attacks of 1916 in Matawan – the inspiration for Jaws (spooky!)
3. Madam Marie’s Psychic Booth at Asbury Park
1. Packet Alley in New Castle – 18030-40’s transfer point for all people traveling between Washington DC and northern cities – stagecoaches on the southside, riverboats on the north
2. Trap Pond State Park and the Great Cypress Swamp – northernmost cypress swamp in the country
3. Twelve-Mile Circle from the New Castle County Court House, the Arc Line, and the Wedge (geographic sites)
1. Mason-Dixon Line original markers (geographic site)
2. Site of Edgar Allan Poe’s Death in Baltimore (spooky!)
3. Vote Against Prohibition Sign in Baltimore
1. George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria
2. Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria
3. Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond
Special mention: Mosby’s Treasure – lost Confederate gold – possibly still buried somewhere in Fairfax County (treasure hunt!)
1. Mothman Statue in Point Pleasant (spooky!)
2. Greenbrier Bunker in White Sulphur Springs (underground site)
3. Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (spooky!)
South Central
1. Harland Sanders Cafe and Museum – Original KFC in Corbin (food site)
2. Kentucky Bend (geographic site)
3. South Union Shaker Village (historic site)
1. State of Franklin (geographic site)
2. Scott County – “The Free and Independent State of Scott” during the Civil War (geographic site)
3. Home of Casey Jones in Jackson (historic site)
1. Searcy County – home of the Unionist, anti-Confederate Arkansas Peace Society (historic site)
2. Gurdon Light
3. Boggy Creek Monster in Fouke
Honorable mention: Lost Old Spanish Treasure Cave in the Ozarks (treasure hunt!)
1. Jones County – “The Free State of Jones” (geographic site)
2. Mammy’s Cupboard in Natchez (giant)
3. Windsor Ruins
1. Boll Weevil Monument in Enterprise (giant)
2. Winston County – Home of “The Incident at Looney’s Tavern” (geographic site)
3. Magnolia Springs – only town in the United States to have their mail delivered by boat
Honorable mentions: Dismals Canyon bioluminescent site and Neversink Pit (underground site)
Southeast
1. Bioluminescent Blue Ghost Fireflies in Hendersonville
2. White Squirrels in Brevard
3. Grove Park Inn in Ashville – secret Cold War relocation facility for the U.S. Supreme Court
1. Oyotunji African Village – authentic Yoruba village established in 1970
2. Tunnelvision wall mural in Columbia (unusual art)
3. Poe’s Tavern on Sullivan’s Island
1. Covington (filming location of In the Heat of the Night)
2. Juliette (filming location of Whistlestop for the movie Fried Green Tomatoes)
3. Dade County (geographic site)
Honorable mention: Blackbeard Island – one of many possible locations of Blackbeard’s lost pirate treasure (treasure hunt!)
1. Seaside – New Urbanism designed city
2. Fountain of Youth (historic site… sort of) (treasure hunt!)
3. Mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park
Honorable mention: San Miguel de Archangel – lost sunken ship of the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet (treasure hunt!)