Strangest Roadside Attraction in Every State

Jim Bishop, the owner of this hand-built castle in Rye Colorado, started constructing the building in 1969 at the age of 15. Every year since, he has single-handedly collected and set the tons of stone that make up his fortress. He calls it a “monument to hard-working people.”

In case you’re ever in Connecticut and suddenly feel like seeing something unique, a collection of deceased brains ought to do it. The collection, which can be found in Yale’s Cushing Center in the Medical Library, was donated in 1939 in the name of Dr. Harvey Cushing, the father of neurosurgery. Known today as the Cushing Brain Tumor registry, the collection has over 2,200 case studies that include human whole brain specimens and tumor specimens. The center is currently closed due to COVID-19.

Visible from Highway 1, this car-crushing red-eyed monster rises up 46 feet from the site of the Dover International Speedway. With the nickname “the Monster Mile,” it’s fitting that the race-track would have a mascot named Miles the Monster, who was unveiled holding a real race car in 2008.

The World’s Smallest Police Station that stands on U.S. Highway 98 is a replica of the original phone booth that served as the department’s call box. Remember, those were pre-cell phone days, and calls would come to one location. The previous phone was bolted to the outside of a building. Standing inside the booth provided protection when it rained.

You can find the smiling, peanut-shaped statute of the former U.S. president, who used to be a peanut farmer, in front of the Davis E-Z Shop in Plains, Georgia. The 13-foot statue has been a major attraction in the state for more than four decades. It was commissioned by the Indiana Democratic Party as a part of Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign in 1976, the year he was elected president.