Category: Big Things/ tourist traps/ road-side attractions

America is full of things like this, with the world’s biggest ball of twine probably being the most famous (In the movie “Michael” (1996) the Arch Angle Michael — played as less than angelic by John Travolta — comes to earth to see these things); I argue that anyone doing a roadtrip across America is sort of obliged to search them out… because they are “Americana” — (that said, I’ve found them in Australia as well)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world%27s_largest_roadside_attractions#Illinois

Found a very good quote on the topic, courtesy of Neil Gaiman
“So what is this place?” asked Shadow, as they walked through the parking lot toward a low, unimpressive wooden building.
“This is a roadside attraction,” said Wednesday. “One of the finest. Which means it is a place of power.”
“Come again?”
“It’s perfectly simple,” said Wednesday. “In other countries, over the years, people recognized the places of power. Sometimes it would be a natural formation, sometimes it would be a place that was, somehow, special. They knew that something important was happening there, that there was some focusing point, some channel, some window to the Immanent. And so they would build temples or cathedrals, or erect stone circles, or…well, you get the idea.”
“There are churches all across the States, though,” said Shadow.
“In every town. Sometimes on every block. And about as significant, in this context, as dentists’ offices. No, in the USA people still get the call, or some of them, and they feel themselves being called to from the transcendent void, and they respond to it by building a model out of beer bottles of somewhere they’ve never visited, or by erecting a giant bat house in some part of the country that bats have traditionally declined to visit. Roadside attractions: people feel themselves being pulled to places where, in other parts of the world, they would recognize that part of themselves that is truly transcendent, and buy a hot dog and walk around, feeling satisfied on a level they cannot truly describe, and profoundly dissatisfied on a level beneath that.”

― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

World’s Biggest Hockey Stick & Puck, Duncan B.C.

Over the front door of the Duncan Arena and performing arts center is a HUGE Hockey Stick and Puck. IMG_1400

This hockey stick weighs 61,000 pounds and is 205 feet long. The Guinness world book of records has certified it is the biggest hockey stick in the world, Minnesota USED to have the biggest but what there is now ranked as third in size.

Ironically, I’d driven past this thing multiple times and never saw it, thanks to the Atlas Obscura website for finding it for me.

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Taken by Thomas Malone

For the obligatory Ken Josephson inspired shot, for those who don’t know…  he was the modern artist who originally explored distortions of scale in photography — and was also one of my favorite teachers at the Art Institute of Chicago, they’ve actually mapped out exactly where you and the person taking the shot need to stand with yellow marks on the pavement.

Talking Penguin Statue, Cut Bank MT

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Located off the side of Highway 2 on the way to Glacier National Park, I hadn’t actually found this on any my traveling apps, just happened upon it while heading to my hotel. Upon later research I learned that, assuming it is working — which it often is not, this statue is supposed to talk — “bleating out the slogan, “Welcome to Cut Bank, the Coldest Spot in the Nation!“. The title of coldest spot in the Nation is apparently contested, and I suppose it kind of depends on the year.

Sip ‘n Dip Lounge & Tiki Bar

There is a mermaid with bright purple hair swimming in the tank in front of me; seriously. Sip’n Dip was named the #1 bar on earth by Gentleman’s Quarterly (GQ) in 2003 (I shit you not)

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This place embraces everything that is tacky and garish; It has patent leather yellow and blue furniture, woven palm fonds on the ceiling (along with bamboo) and folks drinking lots of fruity drinks with little umbrellas in them. It is Americana that hit it’s heyday back in the 1960’s (shortly after Hawaii became a state), that then almost disappeared, only to revived again in the 1990’s:

I present to you a Tiki bar where girls in mermaid costumes swim in front of you.

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I ordered a shrimp cocktail and an herbal tea — is it me or does the shrimp cocktail remind you of the movie Beetlejuice? 

Unfortunately, Piano Pat who was 79 in 2013, may have passed away, as I didn’t even SEE a Piano in there

Salem Sue

Salem Sue is a MASSIVE cow statue, so big you can see it from at least 3 miles away while Driving down Interstate 94

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I was a little bit concerned that maybe this cow was overhyped, because I’ve seen a lot of very large cows recently, however…. Damn! That is a big cow! You start seeing it about 5 miles down the road, and you can’t help but see it  

The view from up there is also pretty nice… well not the cows backside, but the view

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I had to go into google to change their location for Sue, which was majorly wrong… the one below is parallel to her, but just after where you meet the entrance to the dirt road that drive to get to her.

Since then, I got word back from Google, who have changed the location to where I said it was,

 

World’s Largest Buffalo & Frontier Fort

A nice FREE break if you’re driving past Jamestown, ND (I 94)

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This place is kind of cute and there’s plenty of free things to see: there’s the “world’s largest buffalo” (but of course it isn’t — it’s a statue of a buffalo), and frontier fort — a whole town just sitting there unattended, as in nobody standing around to make sure you don’t steal anything, and you can walk through all the different buildings.

There is also a (not free) museum devoted to the American buffalo with a petting zoo, but by the time I got to the town and found the place, it had closed.

And on that note, Oh boy did I get misdirected on the way to this the buffalo! I had learned about it via one of the many road tripping apps and the address they’d included may have been completely wrong, or maybe it was my GPS in my car. Anyway, I found myself in the middle of … not much, so I ended up waving down a passing car — which had two women in it, and they told me to drive behind them and they would lead me here… and it took us about 10 minutes to get from where I was to where this. The thing to remember is the buffalo museum, the worlds larges buffalo and the frontier fort are all located alongside each other

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Otto, the big Otter (and BIRDS!)

I’m not sure Otto is worth going out of your way for, but apparently if you do it in mid May you’ll get the double (and far superior) benefit of seeing the nesting ground for cranes and geese

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I came here to see the giant otter, and let’s just say, he’s kind of sad, and if he were all that I had seen I would have been a little let down…  but I saw something much more amazing. Apparently I’m not the only one making the trek to Canada! The river and trees along side him were FULL of gorgeous cranes, I think they were whooping cranes but I’m no expert in this area.

Looking at the google map for Fergus Falls there’s apparently another, larger, bird sanctuary that (if you’re there in the right season) you should consider checking out.

Also, as I was driving from Alexandria, MN to here the ground had gone inexorably up. I could actually see that I was climbing into a higher altitude…  It was like driving up a gentle slope that goes on for 100 miles and probably more. 

Viking Statue & Runestone Museum

Because nothing says Minnesota like a massive Viking!!
History of the area via its historic buildings and consumer goods,
and… the rune-stone

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Cute local museum: Essentially, it’s a combination of the trend of collecting historic buildings to one central location in order to save them from demolition and a history of the area via consumer goods. However, there is also a massive ‘rune-stone‘ which a farmer ‘dug up’ from his farm that he claimed is supposed to be proof that the Vikings came to America way before Columbus — while the museum refuses to say it, and some in the local community believe it’s the real deal… the fact is that it’s never been considered anything but a hoax by serious researchers.

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If you dial the number below, or scan the QR code (the box thing) you’ll hear about the stone and a translation of what it says.

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In fact one of the most interesting points, from my perspective, was how local small budget museums are able to utilize these technologies to upgrade the customer experience. Throughout this museum there are descriptions you can access via your cell phone or smart phone (using a QR scanning program), which are available in English AND Norwegian.

I had previously seen a TV show, I forget where, that talked about how in Norway there is a very popular reality TV show about kids who come to Minnesota to try to find their families and experience their lives in the USA. Apparently there’s a huge tourist population of Swedes and Norwegians discovering small town MN, and these narrations in Norwegian are the proof of that.

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Granted, this place is nowhere near as well laid out is the last local museum I went to, but they’ve done a fairly decent job of collecting junk from all of the surrounding town members and housing it in a way that at least people can see it and understand what it is.

Orange Moose

Off Interstate 94 this is a very large Orange Moose which, ironically, isn’t all that easy to see from the highway if you’re the one doing the driving.

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I got here by GPS more so than by eye… when you enter the roadside oasis, don’t be confused, the REALLY big moose is NOT the smallish one in front of the bar and grill — see picture below, (although that IS the one with the back story), and is the first thing you’ll pass —

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Nope, there’s a 2nd, newer and larger by half Moose which you can get to by driving further on, passing the restaurant, and the randomly placed mouse eating a cheese statue, (in the picture at the top of the post), which as far as I’m concerned is the one worth stopping for.

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And keep going to the parking lot just where that grey van is in the picture of the mouse (next to the lake), there is where you’ll see the big one located between the Arrowhead Lodge and the highway.

One really odd note… the farther north I drive today, the hotter it’s becoming — weird