Stories for the curious traveler

Oddities Guide

Top 5 Arkansas Oddities

Discover five unusual Arkansas attractions, from diamond hunting and the Crescent Hotel to a forest chapel, a soaring lookout, and a mill made to fool the eye.

State Oddities

Top 5 Indiana Oddities

Discover five Indiana oddities, including a rotating jail, underground catacombs, a giant stone jug, and Kokomo’s oversized…

Regional Oddities

Best Oddities in the Midwest

Discover ten of the Midwest’s best oddities, from Carhenge and City Museum to giant prairie sculptures, a…

Odd Festivals

Explore all festivals →

Discover America’s Weirdest Oddities

Curious Landmarks

Wisconsin Concrete Park

Phillips, Wisconsin

A retired lumberjack covered a property with 237 concrete figures built from wire, broken glass, bottles, found objects, and an apparently unlimited supply of determination.

Strange Museums

John Hampson’s Bug Art

St. Johnsbury, Vermont

Thousands upon thousands of real beetles, moth parts, and insect wings were arranged into elaborate symmetrical mosaics that look decorative until viewers realize what they are…

Roadside Attractions

Ninigret Park Trolls

Charlestown, Rhode Island

Two enormous trolls made from reclaimed wood sit among ponds, boulders, and trees inside Ninigret Park, turning a public recreation area into a giant scavenger hunt.

Strange Museums

Mercer Museum

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

A six-story concrete castle crams thousands of preindustrial objects into rooms, balconies, niches, and a towering atrium where boats and horse-drawn vehicles hang overhead.

Strange Museums

Mütter Museum

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Anatomical specimens, skeletons, preserved tissue, medical instruments, models, and unusual case histories fill a museum that still feels like a nineteenth-century medical cabinet.

Historic Oddities

Landlocked Steamboat Ticonderoga

Shelburne, Vermont

A 220-foot passenger steamboat somehow ended up sitting on dry land two miles from Lake Champlain, where visitors can now walk through all four decks.