7 Quirky Roadside Attractions in the USA

All the repetitiveness of the farmland and cattle landscape in North Dakota means you’ll be even more excited when you spot one specific member of the cattle drive from Interstate 94: Salem Sue. Built in 1940, Salem Sue is the world’s largest Holstein cow and was constructed in honor of the local dairy industry in New Salem. Salem Sue stands 11.6 meters tall and is surprisingly lifelike, thanks to veins on her underbelly and pink udders just begging for a milking camera shot.

Drive to the Enchanted Highway in Gladstone off I-94. Before you get visions of fairies and wizards and tree-lined magical forests, remember: This is North Dakota. The terrain along the Enchanted Highway is still flat and brown, but it is spotted with a giant metal grasshopper, geese in flight, deer silhouettes, leaping fish, giant pheasants, a tin family and even a glimpse of Teddy Roosevelt riding in a carriage.

Standing against the Amarillo, Texas, sky like tombstones gone colorfully wrong, the sight of Cadillac Ranch is a head-scratcher. You might be torn on what’s more puzzling: that someone thought it would be a good idea to paint a plethora of Cadillacs in psychedelic colors and plant them hood first into the earth, or that you find yourself surprisingly mesmerized by the eclectic art.

The aptly titled work of art is a perfectly constructed copycat of the ancient Stonehenge right down to astronomical placement, but instead of being made out of stone, it is created out of – you guessed it – foam. Find the artwork at its new home at Cox Farms near Centreville in Fairfax County, Virginia, where it was moved in 2017 after being in Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County since 2004.

The reason ET hasn’t been back to visit has nothing to do with lack of landing space for his spaceship. The family of Tohak and Son Welding in Wisconsin made sure of that by creating a UFO Landing Port out of an empty fuel tank and decorating it with stars and martians. It’s an interesting stop along Highway 29, southeast of Green Bay, and may have you leaving it wondering who else is out there in the universe and if they would really choose to land in Poland, Wisconsin.

Lucy the Elephant in Margate City, New Jersey, isn’t your average animal statue. She was originally built in 1881 to serve as an office of a real estate developer, followed by her serving as a home and a bar. Today, Lucy the Elephant is open to the public and you can walk around her cavernous belly and soak in views of the Atlantic Ocean while atop her back.

At Mount Angel Abbey Museum off of I-5 in St. Benedict, Oregon, you’ll find a collection of objects. The Benedictine Monks who live at the neighboring monastery and run the museum describe this collection as eccentric. Most people will probably come up with another adjective to describe the museum’s most famous artifact: gross. Why? Because it’s the world’s largest pig hairball and is as big as a football. Enough said.