I’ve been on an Atlas Obscura binge and love finding out about the many oddities that exist in the US. What sorts of Atlas Obscura-esque things can be found where you live? Could be anything from paranormal things, art, cults/groups of people, structures/buildings, festivals, cryptids, whatever is out of the norm!
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Well, we’ve got a giant cast iron statue of a Roman god.
Going off the Atlas Obscura Map, there seems to be quite a few around here. Even things I never heard of like the ruins of the Eyrie Hotel in Holyoke. Which burnt down after someone tried cremating two horse bodies nearby and ended up engulfing a whole mountain including the hotel.
Also listed on there is the Quabbin Reservoir which I suppose is interesting. Every time I go I think its creepy there are still whole towns underneath all the water, and how the residents were all pretty much forced to leave their homes so it could be flooded.
[The USS Sachem ruins, and a few other things listed in the article](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/uss-sachem-ruins)
I’ve been to President William Henry Harrison’s tomb and monument many times and have friends who paddled to this ship. I’m 8 minutes away from the creation museum and no I’ve never gone
Gila monsters
We have a few in the county I live in and one in the area I’ll mention just for fun that is a neighboring county.
[Aliems? Kelly Little Green Men](https://www.history.com/news/little-green-men-origins-aliens-hopkinsville-kelly)
[Psychic? Edgar Cayce](https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/edgar-cayce-tales-from-the-sleeping-prophet/)
[Ghost Witch!](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-bell-witch-cave-adams-tennessee)
[Secret Bunkers?!? The Birdcage](https://www.kentuckynewera.com/ep/news/article_9eb94038-352f-11e7-b062-b38b7dea5a04.html)
We also have Amish, Mennonite, a historic Shaker Village, the birthplace and a monument to the confederate president Jefferson Davis, several tales of haunted Civil War battlegrounds and cemeteries, most of Fort Campbell is prob haunted — my house there the first time I lived here DEFINITELY was! and probably other stuff I don’t pay attention to because I live here and take it for granted.
I’m originally from Utah, that list would be quite different lol
*edit to add a creepy place
Well prior to a couple weeks ago there was the [guidestones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones), but some lunatic blew them up.
There’s a lot of preserved-ish ghost towns around Montana
Los Angeles AO has some really great gems. Just for starters theres the Museum of Jurassic Technology, a kind of modern “cabinet of curiosities.” On the humbler end of things, Los Angeles has a lot of midcentury Googie architecture that I haven’t found in such a high concentration anywhere else, besides maybe Las Vegas.
Philadelphians
We have a giant concrete troll under a bridge and a large statue of Lenin within easy walking distance of each other.
Not near me, but in my state we have Carhenge which is exactly what it sounds like… a Stonehenge replica made of automobiles.
[I live maybe 20ish minutes from this place nicknamed the Warlock House.](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=warlock+house+wesley+chapel&iflsig=AJiK0e8AAAAAYuF0QhxpZagFk36QiOvQJqGHRzcFNC-z&gbv=2&oq=warlocks+house+&gs_l=heirloom-hp.3.2.0i30i22l3j0i30i457i22j0i30i22l2j0i30i22i10j0i390l3.3860.6788.0.8901.15.15.0.0.0.0.157.1565.9j6.15.0….0…1.1.34.heirloom-hp..1.14.1407.O7jjljS8qI8) Although I’m pretty sure it went up for sale last year so not sure if it’s still the same. We drove by it years ago to see what it’s about
[I’ve taken the 1.5ish hours drive to check out spook hill.](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=hill+car+seems+to+go+backward+florida&iflsig=AJiK0e8AAAAAYuF1IYhZDirJomXV3eQct5UKeWeoJqTi&gbv=2&oq=hill+car+seems+to+go+backward+florida&gs_l=heirloom-hp.12…19275.19275.0.20010.1.1.0.0.0.0.92.92.1.1.0….0…1.2.34.heirloom-hp..1.0.0.oTxtR-NwvvY) Basically when you put your car in neutral it appears you roll backwards uphill. Just an optical illusion of the way the land is.
I guess devils tower could be considered weird.
Those aliens did land on it lol
We’ve got a [giant butt](https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g54240-d4258696-Reviews-The_Peachoid-Gaffney_South_Carolina.html) down the road a ways…
Florida Man
A few random ones.
A former governor (our first actually, George Hunt) is buried in a pyramid a la ancient Egyptian style in the middle of a public park.
Tovera Castle is a wedding cake style castle. Built by some Italian architect in the 20’s to be a resort (which flopped hard), turned private home, now a park. You can see it from one of the city’s major freeways, it looks very out of place.
Mystery castle is kinda out on its own but the TLDR is in the 1930’s a guy found out he had TB, moved to the desert for a better quality of life, built a castle by hand out of stone (it looks like a mix between medieval Europe and adobe), promptly died right after construction, and left the castle to his daughter who lived in it. Now people can take tours of the property.
[Gandinis Abandoned Circus](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gandinis-circus)
I’ve got a chupracabra, and the body of a union mobster underneath a stadium.
There’s a sunken kraut U-boat off the coast that was one of the last ships sunk before the end of the war.
The [Markel Building](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markel_Building) is pretty odd. It was inspired by a baked potato wrapped in tin foil and is also on Atlas Abscura.
Edit: lol apparently it was once deemed one of the ten ugliest buildings in the world.
[A massive blue termite that has served as an unofficial state mascot for decades](https://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_z/268792719).
Someone built an apartment complex that looks like [a castle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK_xDerQAis) here
About 10 minutes from my house we have a field of white corn statues that are all like 7 feet tall each.
[link](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/9527)
WORLD’S LARGEST wood and glue structure used for Aircraft EMP testing
[ATLAS-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATLAS-I)
A little ways north of me there’s the remains of a planned community that never took off and got reclaimed by the swamp.
Atlas Obscura actually lists it, Unit 11. It’s pretty spooky at night.
In the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago there’s a sidewalk that is made of yellow bricks outside of the house L Frank Baum wrote Wizard of Oz in.
Discovered this beautiful little creature (Central FL) in a terrifying way.
Red Velvet “ant” (wasp), aka “Cow Killer”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasymutilla_occidentalis
Providence Canyon State Park. The canyon was formed by erosion due to bad farming practices.
Philadelphia has the [Mütter Museum](https://muttermuseum.org/), if that fits.
>cults/groups of people
Well, I live in Utah now so take that for what it’s worth.