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Oregon Oddities

Unusual destinations, curious landmarks, and worthwhile detours across Oregon.

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10 documented oddities Highest curiosity first

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Roadside Attractions

Petersen Rock Garden

Redmond, Oregon

Castles, bridges, towers, tiny landscapes, a stone replica of the Statue of Liberty, glowing minerals, and roaming peacocks fill a handmade garden begun in 1935.

Roadside Attractions

Oregon Vortex

Gold Hill, Oregon

A violently tilted old building and carefully arranged sightlines make people appear to change height, objects seem to roll uphill, and ordinary balance feel completely unreliable.

Curious Landmarks

Tillamook Blimp Hangar

Tillamook, Oregon

A World War II wooden hangar more than a thousand feet long was built to shelter giant Navy blimps and contains over seven acres beneath its…

Natural Oddities

Thor’s Well

Yachats, Oregon

Pacific waves pour into a roughly twenty-foot basalt hole, creating the unnerving illusion that the ocean is draining through the Oregon coast.

Natural Oddities

Sea Lion Caves

Florence, Oregon

An elevator drops visitors into an enormous natural basalt sea cave where wild Steller sea lions gather beside the crashing Pacific.

Roadside Attractions

Enchanted Forest

Turner, Oregon

A hand-built forest of crooked storybook buildings, concrete characters, tunnels, monsters, rides, and homemade fantasy scenery has been growing beside Interstate 5 since 1971.

Natural Oddities

Darlingtonia State Natural Site

Florence, Oregon

An entire Oregon state natural site protects fields of cobra-shaped carnivorous plants that lure insects into hollow tubes and make escape deliberately difficult.

Roadside Attractions

Prehistoric Gardens

Port Orford, Oregon

Twenty-three enormous dinosaur and prehistoric reptile sculptures lurk among giant ferns, moss, and old-growth coastal forest along Highway 101.

Natural Oddities

Neskowin Ghost Forest

Neskowin, Oregon

Dozens of ancient Sitka spruce stumps emerge from the beach at low tide, revealing the remains of a forest that vanished beneath the Oregon coast centuries…

Roadside Attractions

Bigfoot Trap

Jacksonville, Oregon

Deep in the forest stands a heavy wooden trap built in 1974 to capture Bigfoot alive. Six years of baiting produced bears, but no Sasquatch.