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Virginia Oddities

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

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10 documented oddities Highest curiosity first

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Curious Landmarks

Great Stalacpipe Organ

Luray, Virginia

Deep inside Luray Caverns, an organ console sends electronic mallets across acres of cave to strike tuned stalactites and turn the cavern itself into a musical…

Strange Museums

World’s Oldest Ham

Smithfield, Virginia

A ham cured in 1902 became a local celebrity, acquired a brass collar, traveled to exhibitions, and now spends retirement inside a museum with its own…

Giant Objects

Earth Kugel

Richmond, Virginia

A nearly nine-foot granite Earth weighs about 29 tons, yet a thin layer of pressurized water lets visitors rotate the entire planet with one hand.

Giant Objects

Roanoke Star

Roanoke, Virginia

An 88.5-foot neon star built as a holiday shopping decoration in 1949 never came down and still glows from the top of Mill Mountain every night.

Curious Landmarks

Mount Trashmore Park

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Virginia Beach turned a 640,000-ton pile of garbage into a sixty-foot mountain and public park, then gave the former landfill the most honest name possible.

Giant Objects

World’s Largest Apple

Winchester, Virginia

A giant red apple that once rolled through Winchester as a parade float now sits permanently on a downtown lawn as a monument to the region's…

Curious Landmarks

Markel Building

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond's strangest office building was inspired by a baked potato wrapped in foil and covered with enormous sheets of aluminum deliberately hammered into wrinkles.

Roadside Attractions

Dinosaur Land

White Post, Virginia

More than fifty old-school dinosaurs, prehistoric creatures, and oversized monsters lurk beside a Virginia highway in a gloriously vintage roadside park.

Curious Landmarks

Foamhenge

Centreville, Virginia

Virginia has a life-size Stonehenge replica made from foam, complete with carefully shaped fake stones that survived relocation across the state.

Historic Oddities

Kiptopeke Concrete Fleet

Cape Charles, Virginia

Nine World War II ships made from concrete sit permanently sunk in Chesapeake Bay, lined up offshore to form one of the strangest breakwaters in America.