The Oddest Roadside Attraction in Each State

You'll find this supersized seating apparatus plopped outside an office supply store in Anniston-around halfway between Atlanta and Birmingham. It stands over 30-feet tall and it was honored by Guinness as the "World's Largest Chair" when it debuted in 1982. Sadly, a gigantic seat in Switzerland has since swiped its crown.

The tiny town of North Pole does everything it can to take full advantage of its festive name. This 42-foot tall version of the St. Nick stands near the Santa Claus House-a souvenir store and workshop where letters to the Santa Claus are answered by a diligent team of helpers.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's The Thing.

Anyone who has driven between El Paso and Phoenix knows what it's like to be constantly bugged to visit The Thing in Dragoon by the dozens of billboards that sit alongside I-10. So what exactly is The Thing? Well, you will have to stop to see it for yourself.

Who needs snakes on an airplane when you can get them on the side of the road? Snake World near Berryville is home to dozens of the cold-blooded critters alongside plenty of riveting reptilian-focused information. And if you're lucky, you might even get the chance to do a spot of snake-handling.

If you love the great outdoors but aren't smitten enough to step foot out of your car, then Chandelier Tree in Leggett is the roadside attraction for you. Here you can drive your ride right through a hole carved in the base of a giant redwood to see firsthand what makes these trees so special.

Finally, someone has recognized that too many of our nation's chicken statues have their heads firmly attached to their bodies! In Fruita, you will find a headless chicken honored with a statue.

But it's not just any headless chicken: a local bird that is said to have lived 18 months after being beheaded.

St. Edmund was a devout English clergyman who experienced a divine vision of Christ. While he went on to become the Archbishop of Canterbury and inspire thousands, what's really important is that his decaying arm is now on display at the Chapel of Our Lady of Assumption near Mystic.

Dover International Speedway picked up the moniker "The Monster Mile" due to its demanding racing conditions, so when they needed a mascot, Miles was the man for the job. Visit him just outside the track where he can be found with a racecar in his hand looking as though he's about to spike it into the ground.

Real live "mermaids" perform underwater at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park in Florida every single day of the year. While the audience watches from a 400-seat auditorium, a roster of actresses-with-tails act out tales like The Little Mermaid and execute "tricks" like eating and drinking underwater.

One of the granddaddies of odd roadside attractions, Rock City has been attracting curious motorists since 1932. It may be just as famous for its advertisements-painted barns scattered throughout the country that declared "See Rock City"-than the quality of its quirky attractions, but no trip to Lookout Mountain is complete without a pitstop.

At the Dole Plantation in Wahiawa, you will find the certified "longest plant maze" in the world. Spread out over three acres, the meticulously-landscaped labyrinth includes over two miles of pathways and plenty of lush local flora. As an added bonus, if you finish the maze in a flash, you could get your name added to the record book.

Bordellos positively flourished in the Wild West but in Wallace, they were going strong well into the 1980s. That is until someone tipped the staff at the Oasis off that the long arm of the law was heading their way.

The ladies left in a panic, and the building has been preserved in the precise state it was in on that fateful night-albeit with the addition of an informative guided tour.

Superman and Clark Kent are from Metropolis. Metropolis is also the name of a small town in Illinois. Logically, one thing led to another and now we've got ourselves a fantastic 15-foot tall statue of Superman to snap selfies with. (The quaint riverside town is also home to a Lois Lane statue, too.)

What happens when you cover an object with tens of thousands of coats of paint? You set world records, that's what. Back in 1977, Michael Carmichael let his son paint a baseball and then decided to diligently keep adding to it over the decades. Today, you can stop by Alexandria and add your own layer to the two-ton orb.

You don't have to be a Trekkie to appreciate the chutzpah behind this oddity.

When a Riverside councilman first read that Captain Kirk from Star Trek was born in a "small town in Iowa" on March 22nd during the year 2228, he sprung into action. The result is a plaque enshrining the spot where the fearless leader of the Starship Enterprise will enter the world.

In a category that is more crowded than it really should be, Cawker City comes out on top. A gentleman named Frank got the ball rolling back in 1953 before eventually donating the ever-expanding twine ball to the city. Now, every August the town's citizens celebrate a twine-a-thon and add layers of string to their favorite sphere.

The world's only museum dedicated to ventriloquism, the displays at Fort Mitchell's Vent Haven Museum may be dummies, but they will still teach you a thing or two about the craft. This peculiar pitstop is home to nearly 1,000 dummies and a collection of displays relating to ventriloquism through the years.

Located in New Orleans' City Park, Storyland offers an enchanting, albeit slightly strange tour through the fantastical world of fairytales. Afterall, where else will you get the chance to see Captain Hook's pirate ship floating in a pond and an alligator playing the accordion in the same place?

Don't show up at this odd spot in Freeport expecting to be served a banana split. The Desert of Maine is a bizarrely-barren stretch of land covered in sand that sits at odds with the rest of this verdant New England state. Take a tour of the sands-where you can snap a photo of a fiberglass camel-or take some grains home from the gift shop.

When the man who first patented the Ouija Board died, there was only one way to properly honor him: with an Ouija Board-inspired headstone. Sadly, his loved ones didn't think of it, so it was up to an Ouija enthusiast to track down his unmarked grave decades later and erect this eerie monument. No word if he speaks to visitors.

Everyone gets to be at the center of the world at the Mapparium in Boston. Here, visitors are able to stroll inside a massive stained-glass-and geographically-correct-globe to see what the planet looks like from the inside out.

Perhaps the most interesting part is that because the globe's details haven't been updated since 1935, you'll spot lots of outdated country names and borders.

An art installation inspired by sprites, these diminutive doors are a delight for kids of all ages. The tiny portholes first appeared in a private residence during the 90s but have since spread to several spots in Ann Arbor. Be sure to take a peek inside, because you never know what you will find.

Some despise it, some sort-of like it, but there's no denying that a visit to the SPAM Museum in Austin is a great pitstop. Here, you can take part in interactive exhibits that detail the history of everyone's favorite cubed-meat product all with assistance from one of the friendly "SPAM-bassadors".

You probably already deduced that Kermit the Frog wasn't delivered in a hospital, but did you know he was born in Leland? Yes, Jim Henson grew up in the area and is said to have taken inspiration for Kermit from the local swamps. At this museum, you can learn all about the famous frog's heritage and see other Muppets memorabilia.

If you have a soft spot in your heart for runners-up and also have a thing for enormous chairs, then head to Cuba, Missouri. When it was built in 2008, this rocking chair was the crowned the world's largest.

Sadly, it has recently lost its crown. It still makes the perfect place for a pitstop, especially since it happens to be located near one of the best hotels on Route 66.

A former copper mine near Butte, the Berkeley Pit is a festering cesspool of disgusting chemicals and freaky fungal material. And that's precisely why everyone pulls over to see it.

Copper, zinc and arsenic are just a few of the goodies swimming in the weirdly-colored water here, but there are also bits of bacteria that have miraculously adapted to the conditions. So the pit has that positive story going for it.

Think Kansas' twine is too boring and Indiana's ball of paint is pedestrian? Head to the World's Largest Ball of Stamps in Boys Town. A stamp-collecting club put this 600-pound beauty together, and now it's open to the public for visits filled with quiet contemplation of what it must have been like to lick the back of all those stamps.

More colorful kebabs made of stone than mountains, this unique art installation south of the Strip in Las Vegas is as eye-catching as they come. These stacks of rocks have been painted all manner of fluorescent and will take your breath away when viewed against the drab backdrop of the Nevada desert.

Simply put, nobody knows exactly what America's Stonehenge in Salem is really all about, and that's precisely why everyone loves it. At its core, the site consists of several strange stone features, a few underground rooms and grooves carved into granite. Theories abound as to who built the edifices, but the real fun is in the not-knowing.

A model train collection gone mad, this strange spot near Flemington is home to the self-proclaimed "world's largest miniature railway". Want to know where else can you can walk among tiny tracks and tunnels to your heart's content and then enjoy a haunting organ concert put on by the venue's proprietor?

Nowhere.

Not only do your car's tires get a chance to sing at this attraction, they get to prove their patriotism. The rumble strips in the road on Route 66 near Tijeras have been engineered to play "America the Beautiful" when you drive over them. It only works when you are driving the speed limit, providing both entertainment and a nudge to obey the law.

You might not expect to find the world's largest kaleidoscope in the middle of a mall in Upstate New York, but then again, where is the appropriate place to find a silo-sized kaleidoscope? The brainchild of a flower child-inspired artist, this sight in Mount Temper takes all who visit on a psychedelic journey.

A shining example of the enduring popularity of huge household furniture on our nation's roadsides, High Point's dinosaur-sized dresser comes in at over 30-feet tall. Meant to promote the city's reputation as the "Furniture Capital of the World", the chest even comes complete with two dangling socks.

Out of nowhere on a desolate stretch of highway in Western North Dakota, you will find a collection of huge metal sculptures. The pieces are the work of a local amateur artist in an effort to creatively revitalize his community.

Highlights of the zany collection include a family made of tin and a group of pheasants.

Who among us hasn't watched A Christmas Story and wondered it would be like to see a leg lamp in person? You can do just that at the actual residence where the movie was filmed in Cleveland.

In addition to viewing the infamous light fixture, guests can crawl under the sink like Randy and see Ralphie's beloved Red Ryder BB gun.

Located directly off Route 66 in Catoosa, this bizarre blue whale chilling out in a pond has attracted quite a following. Originally intended to be used only by the children of the whale's creator, it became so beloved by locals and tourists alike that it continues to attract visitors long after the original owner's nature park closed down.

Somebody in the Portland Parks & Recreation department definitely has a sense of humor.

That's because this tiny circular patch of soil in the middle of the road is officially listed as a park-the world's smallest. Long before it was a park, a local journalist made the patch famous by writing about the leprechauns he spotted there and, well, the rest is history.

Sure the Grand Canyon is nice, but can you play music off the rocks there? At this unusual park in Upper Black Eddy, visitors who pack their own hammers can strike boulders in order to hear them chime like a bell. Only around a third of the rocks make music though, making the search for the melodic rocks an adventurous part of any trip.

The U.S. Naval Construction Battalion plays a major role in all American military engagements by helping to create and maintain military infrastructure. They also have a funny little mascot called the "seabee".

It gets its name from the abbreviation of the division's name (CB), and you can spot this wacky statue of a seabee manning a machine gun outside the Seabee Museum and Memorial in North Kingstown.

While it might not provide quite the change in latitude you'd expect from a place called "South of the Border", Dillon's most famous attraction makes up for it by cranking up the kitsch. Here you will find a 200-foot tall tower crowned with a neon sombrero, a reptile lagoon and a small amusement park.

Or you could always just get some gas.

Wall Drug is arguably the nation's most famous roadside attraction. An oasis of odd on the plains of South Dakota, this drugstore is one part pharmacy, one part shopping mall and one part taxidermist. You'll find an assortment of trinkets for sale and a fair share of goofy stuffed jackalopes too.

Unsurprisingly, this is America's only museum fully dedicated to those twin fixtures of the kitchen table: the salt & pepper shaker. Here in Gatlinburg, you can take a gander at over 20,000 sets. Or if you are the type who prefers to pulverize your pepper manually, there's also a primo collection of pepper grinders on display, too.

This Austin attraction has been known to move people in mysterious ways. A castle of clutter that evokes the work of Antoni Gaudi, this zany structure is made entirely of junk. Most of the bits used for the "cathedral" have been donated and include (but are certainly not limited to) old radios, hubcaps, toilets and even a surfboard.

This quartet of strange concrete tubes in the Utah desert is more than meets the eye.

The huge tunnels sit in a remote valley in the Great Basin Desert and are riddled with holes that match up to major constellations. The real treat comes on both the summer and winter solstices when the rising and setting sun lines up perfectly with the tunnels.

When you come up with as many wacky ice cream flavors as Ben & Jerry's has over the years, you are bound to have to say goodbye to a few of them. At the Flavor Graveyard in Waterbury, fans of decadent pints get to pay their respects to flavors that have gone on to a better place.

If you can't make it to England to see the original Stonehenge, then surely the next best thing is a roadside replica in America made entirely of styrofoam? These not-so-ancient foam stones have recently been relocated to the grounds of Cox Farms in Centreville, so you will need to plan ahead because they can currently only be viewed seasonally.

Trolls are known for taking up residence under bridges in folk tales, but showing up under a busy Seattle overpass? This slightly scary concrete sculpture has captured the city's imagination ever since 1990, and all it typically takes is one visit to become infatuated.

You are allowed to climb all over the giant goblin as, despite his glaring appearance, he is a very friendly troll.

Did you know that the laws of gravity are being defied in Arnsted? Yes, things are amiss-and full of kitsch-at the Mystery Hole. Seriously, where else can you witness occurrences that seem to go against all principles of science while snapping a picture of a giant gorilla on the roof or a car smashing into the side of the building?

The most beloved bovine in Neillsville-and there are lots of cows hanging around Neillsville-is Chatty Belle, who is said to be the world's largest talking cow.

She doesn't just make idle conversation about the weather either, Chatty Belle has an important message to tell you about the benefits of buying Wisconsin cheese.

This log cabin gone crazy near Cody was the work of one man constructing a family home from scratch.

After completing the basic residence, he forged ahead adding staircases and dangling balconies until he tragically fell to his death while toiling. Today, it stands as an eerie reminder of his steadfast dedication and a striking sight in the Wyoming wilderness.