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What are some interesting landmarks in your neck of the woods?
Obviously I don't want anyone to dox themselves here, but if you're comfortable sharing, what are some interesting oddities or landmarks in your state, county, country, etc.?
Think like "World's Largest Teapot" or "Carhenge". Or even smaller oddities or things that are unique to your area.
A couple come to mind for me.
There's the Harrisburg Statue of Liberty, which was created as a prank in the 80s on an old railway piling in the middle of the Susquehanna river. It's kind of a local legend type thing and was made official in the 90s with an actual metal replacement when the original got wiped out by a storm.
There's also Mister Ed's Elephant Museum & Candy Emporium, which is tourist trap kind of place? They have a ton of old elephant figurines, statues, displays, etc. anything you can think of. And it's built around a candy store. It's very hokey, but it's a place my wife and I used to go when we were dating because we couldn't think of anything better to do with our day. They have very good fudge!
I don't have any photos of this, but there's a shopping center near by where for some reason a tiny spruce tree is growing out of one of the little planter medians in the parking lot. People started decorating it year-round and it's currently decorated for Halloween. Pretty sure it has its own Facebook page. And this seems to be a tradition when these trees pop up, because it happened a few years ago on the side of a nearby road and people started decorating that and it too had a Facebook page. There isn't much to do around here...
edit- thought of another one! There's the Earthoid Water Tower. I grew up nearby there and it's big enough that you can see an "earth rise" on the horizon if you're close enough. It's pretty neat!
This site is so tiny I wasn't expecting to see another person in the harrisburg region on here but it was the first comment.
Heinhold's First and Last Chance Saloon in Jack London Square Oakland California was built before the 1906 earthquake and the floor curves dramatically because of earthquake damage. It also has dollar bills pinned to the walls that were left by sailors who were shipping out to fight in the Pacific during World War 2.
That's cool! It's not every day you get see living geologic history like that!
I'll have to make an effort to stop by there the next time I fly into SFO (usually on the way to the central valley). That looks super awesome!
You can catch the ferry to Jack London Square, although I guess you might be driving if you are heading to the Valley. JLS has plenty of parking.
There is a topiary of Abraham Lincoln's head
https://www.visitforgottonia.com/lincoln-topiary-sculpture/
South Colorado's Gator Farm!
Throw kibble at a mass of 20-40 alligators! Pet an emu! See the owner's cats! If you don't mind the smell it's a pretty fun time, like being at the zoo but every exhibit is just more gators.
The town of Vulcan, AB is close to where I live! Small, but neat sight for any Star Trek fans. Live long and prosper!
But my personal favorite is the Nikka Yuko Japanese garden in Lethbridge, AB. It's a bit of a drive for me, but an unexpected find a couple summers ago when we were in Lethbridge for an event. The garden is located in a larger park next to a lake, and there is a very nice path that goes all the way around.
The Nikka Yuko garden is absolutely gorgeous.
Odense is the birthplace of H. C. Andersen so they have made it the city's trademark. Like, everywhere you go, there will be little signs he grew up here and there's even painted shoeprints on the pavement so that you can take a walk in his footsteps, and lots of monuments to his books.
Out of the dozens of landmarks about him, the most interesting one to me is the one that really just makes this H. C. Andersen obsession so hilarious: the place where his mother did laundry
I no longer live there, but my hometown set the world record for 'Largest cup of softdrink' back in 2017. The cup is still standing there today as basically decoration next to the Rhodes 101 gas station that built it. Sorta funny to see if not a grim reminder of the areas obscesion with giant Styrofoam cups full of soda lol
I grew up regularly hiking the trail to visit the ruins of an old, civil war era paper mill north of Atlanta. It's one of many monuments and historical remains from that time period around Georgia, but probably the one I'm most familiar with, from how often we hiked down there as kids.