Roadside Attractions

By Ian Hodder.

Standing out among a nation of attention seekers is no easy feat, but when civic pride or commercial gain is at stake, Americans rise to the challenge. Witness this collection of roadside attractions, ranging from giant animals to amazing architecture to more giant animals. This summer as you cruise our country's highways, keep one eye on the yellow line and the other peeled for offbeat reasons to pull over. Here are 10 worth a detour.

Carhenge

Alliance, Neb.

Built: 1987

England has Stonehenge, built by ancient man around 2300 B.C.; America has Carhenge, built by a Nebraska family in 1987. Using the original's layout, Jim Reinders and his kin assembled their replica in a field outside Alliance from 38 gray-painted junkers. Both town and state initially deemed Carhenge an eyesore, but today embrace the attraction -- featured on the Today show, a Steely Dan cover and Nissan commercials -- for drawing 80,000 annual visitors. [Web]

Audio: Reporter - Kristin Espeland / Special to MSNBC.com. Subjects - Heidi, Audri, Ron Clark, Manny.

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Blue Whale

Catoosa, Okla.

Built: 1970 to 1972

A beached whale in Oklahoma? This 80-foot rebar, wood and concrete cetacean was an anniversary present to Catoosa resident Zelta Davis, who collected whale figurines. Husband Hugh built it in the early '70s at their swimming hole, where kids could enter the grin and slide down the fins. The big blue became a Route 66 icon until the Davises retired in 1988. Save the whale, locals protested, sparking a 1997 renovation. [Web]

Audio: Reporter - Debra Woodall / Special to MSNBC.com. Subjects - Steven Kirk, Alec Mohr, Dylan Bunch, Marcel Pibes, Butch and Ruth Markel.

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Paul Bunyan

Bemidji, Minn.

Built: 1937

Paul Bunyan dots roadsides from Maine to California, including at the lumberjack's alleged birthplace on Lake Bemidji, Minn. In 1937, locals led by Cyril Dickinson, who owned a construction firm, sculpted wood, steel and concrete into this 18-foot Bunyan, modeled on Bemidji's (considerably shorter) mayor, Earl Bucklen. Trusty companion Babe the Blue Ox soon followed. Winters here, so harsh even the fish wear fur coats, necessitate repainting the Bunyan statue every spring. [Web]

Audio: Reporter - Jim Seida / MSNBC.com. Subjects - Nik Nerburn, Jaime Owens, Chance Voigt.

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Fremont Troll

Seattle

Built: 1990

Under Seattle's Aurora Bridge lurks the Fremont Troll, a popular sculpture named for the quirky 'hood he inhabits. When locals sought to enliven a dark nook prone to collecting debris, artist Steve Badanes dreamed up this 18-foot character, partly to honor the city's Scandinavian heritage. Construction took seven weeks in 1990, plus two tons of concrete and a real Volkswagen Beetle the creature appears to be chomping. [Web]

Audio: Reporter - Jim Seida / MSNBC.com. Subjects - Amber Forsyth, John Hart, Jayden, Mills Croslin.

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Giant Muskie

Hayward, Wis.

Built: 1978 to 1979

Lacking the friendliness of most jumbo critters, the giant muskie of Hayward, Wis., celebrates the ornery personality of the lake angler's most sought-after catch. Landed in 1979 by Bob Kutz, this building-size trophy (45 feet tall by 143 feet long -- one of the world's largest fiberglass structures) is the highlight of Kutz's National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame. Resembling bits of live bait, up to 20 view-seeking visitors can climb behind the beast's sharp teeth. [Web]

Audio: Reporter - Jim Seida / MSNBC.com. Subjects - Donna Gajewski, Sam Hagins, Lorraine Kalpinski.

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Prairie Pheasants

Regent, N.D.

Built: 1996 to 1998

Inspired by a favorite target of area hunters, the pheasants and other giant sculptures along artist Gary Greff's 32-mile Enchanted Highway near Regent, N.D., are intended to attract tourists armed only with cameras to a remote corner of the Great Plains. With help from area high-school students, Greff erected "Pheasants on the Prairie" -- a brood of chicks, hen and 70-foot-tall rooster -- starting in 1996 by bending pipes and wire mesh like a supersize taxidermy project. [Web]

Audio: Reporter - Jim Seida / MSNBC.com. Subjects - Irene Seidler, Joanne and Betty Hull.

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Wheel Turtle

Dunseith, N.D.

Built: 1982

An original spin on the big-beast concept, the Wheel Turtle consists of 2,000 metal tire rims stacked into an 18-by-40-foot reptile, standing in tribute to the nearby Turtle Mountains. Dunseith, N.D., businessman George Gottbreht erected the attraction in 1982 to draw customers to his truck stop, Dale's Thrifty Barn. Visitors may climb the turtle at their own risk -- slippery in wet weather! -- or make it nod by shoving the 1-ton animated head. [Web]

Audio: Reporter - Jim Seida / MSNBC.com. Subjects - Gerry and Terry Flaherty, Lorraine Somers and Trey Poitra.

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Longaberger
Building

Newark, Ohio

Built: 1995 to 1997

To the architects designing Longaberger corporate headquarters, founder Dave Longaberger presented one of his company's baskets. I want the new building, he said, to look like this. And in 1997, employees of the Newark, Ohio-based manufacturer went to work in a seven-storey basket-shape building, 160 times larger than the original model. Clay stucco tinted to resemble wood covers the award-winning steel-frame structure, whose top "handles" are heated in winter to resist ice. [www]

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Watts Towers

Los Angeles, Calif.

Built: 1921 to 1955

In his Los Angeles yard starting in 1921, Italian immigrant Simon Rodia spent 34 years handcrafting 17 fantastic structures -- the tallest reaches 99.5 feet -- from steel rods covered in cement and decorated with ceramic tiles, broken glass and seashells. After civil-rights riots destroyed the Watts neighborhood in 1965, Rodia's Watts Towers stood unharmed, a symbol of rising above adversity. [Web]

Audio: Reporter - Josh Rogosin / Special to MSNBC.com. Subjects - Maribel Carrillo, Wally Hanley, Juan Rosales, Patty Lee, Sabrina Pratt, Tony Mack, Susan Hague, Valeria Castro.

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World's
Largest Buffalo

Jamestown, N.D.

Built: 1959

In 1959, Jamestown booster Harold Newman, a sign maker by trade, decided "to create something so big and magnificent that passersby would have to stop." His brainchild? A steel-and-concrete bison of traffic-halting dimensions: 26 feet tall, 46 feet long. Newman's statue did indeed draw crowds, plus other attractions, as well. Today, the animal stands amid a frontier village that includes the National Buffalo Museum, featuring a roaming herd of 30 non-concrete bison. [www]

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Fire Hydrant

Beaumont, Texas

Built: 1999

To promote the 1999 video release of 101 Dalmatians, Disneyland created this 24.2-foot fire hydrant -- white with black spots. The steel structure weighs 4,500 pounds and can actually blast water. Publicity duties fulfilled, the hydrant relocated from California to the Fire Museum of Texas in Beaumont, where a welcome band played "Cruella de Vil." Though no longer the world's largest (Elm Creek, Manitoba, has built one bigger), the hydrant remains a champion, Lone Star State-size photo op. [Web]

Audio: Reporter - Jim Seida/MSNBC.com. Subject - Gerry May.

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Smiling Peanut

Plains, Ga.

Built: 1976

When a smiley peanut farmer ran for president in 1976, three Indiana supporters crafted a 13-foot nut with a toothy grin to greet a Midwest campaign stop. Jimmy Carter won the election, and the wood, wire, foil and foam caricature traveled to his hometown of Plains, Ga. After weather, vandalism and a car crash in 2000 took their toll, the grinning goober was restored -- and now honors a Nobel Peace Prize winner. [Web]

Audio: Reporter - David Pollock / Special to MSNBC.com. Subjects - Philip Kurland, Jean Salter, Luther Wise, Carolyn Roberts, David, Cindy, Patrick Hitt.

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Hood
Milk Bottle

Boston, Mass.

Built: 1933

Lactose intolerant? Steer clear of the Hood Milk Bottle. Forty-feet tall, the all-wood structure could hold 50,000 gallons of moo juice. Arthur Gagner of Taunton, Mass., had the bottle built in 1933 for use as an ice cream stand, which it was until the late 1960s. In 1975, the Hood dairy purchased the empty container and recycled it two years later, shipping it by barge to Boston's Children's Museum, where it once again sells treats. [www]

World's Largest
Loon Decoy

Virginia, Minn.

Built: 1982

If hunters float decoys to attract game, reasoned residents of Virginia, Minn., an enormous fake bird would lure tourists. So in 1982, partly to highlight its annual Land of the Loon Festival, officials commissioned a 20-by-10-foot steel-and-fiberglass state bird and anchored it, the world's largest loon decoy, on recreation-centric Lake Silver in the center of town. But only during prime season; when vacationers migrate away each fall, Virginia's faux feathered friend roosts in winter storage. [www]