Top 10 Must-See Roadside Attractions

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Carhenge

Alliance, NE

Constructed of 38 cars from the ’50s- and ’60s and mimicking both the number of rocks and the diameter of the circle at the original Stonehenge in England, this Carhenge was dedicated on the summer solstice in 1987. Just north of Alliance, the structure was conceived by Jim Reinders as a memorial to his father, who once lived on the field where Carhenge now stands.

The heelstone is a 1962 Cadillac. Three cars were buried at Carhenge after domestic cars replaced the original three foreign automobiles. Their “gravestone” is a car that reads: “Here lie three bones of foreign cars. They served our purpose while Detroit slept. Now Detroit is awake and America’s great!

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London Bridge

Lake Havasu City, AZ

The London Bridge, currently located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, USA, was originally constructed in London in 1831. By 1962, the bridge was not structurally sound enough to support the increased load created by the level traffic crossing it, and it was sold by the City of London for $2.5 million dollars.

The purchaser, Robert McCulloch, was the founder of Lake Havasu and the chairman of McCulloch Oil Corporation. The bridge was carefully disassembled and each piece was numbered. These were shipped to the bridges present location and re-assembly began in 1968, and was completed in late 1971. The bridge is 950 feet long and weighs 33,000 tons and it serves as a popular tourist attraction for the city

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Dinosaur Park

Rapid City, S.D.


Your own personal Jurassic Park can be found just outside of Rapid City, South Dakota. On a hill overlooking the city, dinosaurs made out of brightly painted green concrete stand ready to spring to life. The dinosaur park was built as a work project to be a tourist attraction in 1936, during the Depression. The five dinos, which include a Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex, are life size and can be seen from miles away. While they will not eat any on-lookers they are sure to entertain.
And because I’m from Virginia, here is our own Dinosaur land, with an Octopus, located near Winchester, VA and my hometown of Front Royal, VA.

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Paper House

Rockport – Pigeon Cove, MA


Ellis Stenman, a Swedish immigrant, started to build a two-room cottage almost entirely out of newspaper in 1922. The house is framed with wood, the walls consisting of 215 layers of newspaper. Stenman made his own glue, out of flour, water and apple peels. If you visit, take a close look at the furniture and curtains you’ll see they are also made from newspaper. Stenman wrapped paper around wire to build chairs, desks and lamps. In all, he used about 100,000 newspapers. Visitor can take time to read the walls and find newspaper headlines from years bygone. This house of paper certainly gives new meaning to the term “wallpaper”.