0:00

Go behind the wheel and under the hood on everything

0:02

automotive with high speed stuff from

0:04

how stuff works dot com.

0:10

Hi,

0:12

everybody, welcome back to the show. I'm Scott Benchman,

0:14

the auto editor here at how stuff works dot com

0:17

and as always, my name is Ben

0:19

Bowlin. I write some videos and hang out here

0:21

with Scott on high speed stuff that you do

0:24

that idea, and uh, when we're not hanging out, we're

0:26

usually out on the road kind of tooling

0:28

around doing our own thing usually. And I'll

0:31

tell you, I'm I'm kind of a sucker for some of these we're

0:33

gonna talk about today. Is

0:36

this a listeners suggestion? It is, Well,

0:38

we'll get to it, But I am a sucker for some

0:40

of these. And I just I'm just curious

0:42

about some of this stuff when I when I pass it, billboards,

0:45

signs, you know, lead twenty miles

0:47

this way to uh, the biggest ball of twine

0:49

in the world, Sea Rock City Friends, exactly,

0:52

the Lost Ce things like that. I'm

0:54

what the heck is that I need to find out? So um,

0:57

these roadside attractions, that's what we're talking about, eat side

0:59

attraction. And it was a listener suggestion,

1:02

and that comes from Chris, who

1:04

lives in Audubon, Pennsylvania, who wrote in and

1:06

said, um, he just wanted to see

1:08

a podcast really about roadside

1:10

car related attractions. UM, such as

1:13

need a couple of examples. The Cadillac

1:15

Ranch, which he included a photo of, which is really

1:18

ten Cadillacs buried nos down. We'll talk about

1:20

that, um. And also car

1:22

Hinge which is in Nebraska. And

1:24

he also wanted to know about classic roads and like

1:26

Root sixty six, you know things that would be along that

1:28

route, and there's there's plenty along the ways

1:31

a day that's that's its

1:33

own podcast. And

1:36

as far as car related attractions, Chris,

1:38

UM, I think we've got a couple of them

1:40

here. All of these are roadside

1:42

attractions that we're just gonna list

1:45

off. We've got We've got a million of you. There are a million

1:47

of these. We've got a few that we're going to mention. But UM,

1:49

you know, everybody's got their own favorite, something that they would rather

1:52

pass by, and others that they have to stop at.

1:54

Um. Some people just completely ignore them.

1:57

UM. I don't get suckered into too many, but

1:59

I feel like I need to stop. But I know that

2:01

you know, time constraints. I'm traveling or something

2:03

and I can't do it. But I think if I had an unlimited

2:06

week long trip, you know, and I just just going

2:09

wherever, you know, wherever the road took me, I

2:11

think I would end up stopping it nearly everyone.

2:14

Now, I think, if it's okay

2:16

with you, Scott, I'd like to advance a

2:18

bit of a clarification with our definition

2:20

or roadside attractions. Oftentimes,

2:23

when people talk about road trips, they

2:25

talk about tourist traps,

2:28

which seems to be a less

2:30

I don't know, complementary way of saying

2:32

roadside attraction, but to me, there

2:35

is a difference. The roadside attraction tends

2:37

to be unusual and bizarre

2:40

and in its own way, one of the kind, whereas

2:42

the tourist trap might just be a place

2:44

that sells over priced merchandise.

2:47

You know, I gotta I gotta separate uh

2:50

definition of that. I guess that that if what

2:52

I've always thought it was a tourist trap, is

2:54

an area that I would tend

2:56

to keep you there for a long period of time

2:59

because it had many shops, many

3:02

many shops selling oftentimes the same

3:04

thing, you know, souvenirs that you

3:06

know all look the same from shop to shop, but you have to go

3:08

and everyone to see what they have because they have something a little

3:10

bit different. Um, what we're talking

3:12

about today is maybe the world's

3:14

largest something. Yeah, maybe it's

3:16

the world's largest pecan. Maybe it's the world's largest

3:18

peach um alligator, whatever,

3:21

and something that that maybe

3:24

draws you in from the road itself,

3:26

something that you can see on the way, or you

3:28

know, it could be just a clever marketing

3:30

scheme that gives you in the door. But whatever

3:32

it is, it's meant to draw you to their

3:34

their location to sell you something, or to

3:37

to get you near something where they can they can

3:39

somehow profit from that. I

3:41

couldn't almost always could

3:43

not agree more. I just tried to agree more, and I

3:45

couldn't because that's how much I agree we're

3:47

talking. We all know that road trips, no matter

3:50

how much you love them, uh, even if you love

3:52

them as much as us uh, you will end

3:54

up at some point having the

3:56

T d M start to overcome you. You get a

3:58

little board and then all of the sudd and there pops

4:00

up on the horizon

4:02

a sign and as you get closer, that sign probably

4:05

says something like, what do you got, Scott,

4:07

Oh, well, I mean, well, they're

4:09

all all regional, so you may you may

4:11

be in Florida and you may see that. Um hey, I'm

4:13

gonna be able to see a twenty five ft alligator as soon

4:15

as across the the the Florida

4:17

border. I would pull over and the signs

4:19

will start one miles deep into

4:21

Georgia say see

4:23

the world's largest alligator. And then

4:26

it gets more and more intriguing, and you see photos

4:29

of you know, past visitors with the alligator

4:31

in the nineteen seventies, you know, and they're they're

4:33

posing next to the alligator's open mouth or whatever.

4:35

Um. Just things that try to draw

4:38

you in from long I

4:40

guess if you're on the road for a long long time, it

4:43

will. It will lead you up to the point where you're like,

4:45

well, I've seen this thing for the last hour and a half. I

4:47

need to I need to find out what that is because it

4:49

plants that that thought in your head that I needed to

4:51

solve this mystery. So here's what we're doing,

4:54

Chris. We're actually we're gonna see

4:56

you car related roadside attractions

4:58

and we're gonna raise you a couple the other one. So

5:00

we are going to mention the two that

5:02

um, the two that he started with,

5:05

and that was the Cadillac

5:07

Cadillac ranch. Let's start out with Cadillac

5:10

ranch. That that is an Amarillo,

5:12

Texas and uh, the Catilic

5:14

ranch is right along where Root sixty

5:17

six was the historic Root sixty six UM.

5:20

It was built in nineteen seventy four and by

5:22

Stanley Marsh the third, who was

5:24

a Helium millionaire, which I

5:26

had no idea before this heliumlium

5:29

millionaire who owned He owned this great, big

5:31

dusty wheat field. And

5:34

that's where that's where this thing comes from. It's a it's

5:36

a collective art project,

5:38

I guess between Marsh and someone a

5:40

group called the Ant Farm, which

5:42

is the San Francisco Art collective, and

5:45

they took ten Cadillacs and

5:47

buried them nose first, all facing west

5:50

UM and it's meant to symbolize the golden

5:53

age of the automobile. And it has Cadillacs

5:55

from nineteen forty nine through nineteen sixty

5:57

three. So these are the big old Cadillacs

6:00

right now. There's a ton of graffiti on them, and

6:03

I guess there's some kind of

6:06

strangeness about this in now

6:09

is built in what I say. I

6:11

believe they said in there

6:15

was this development that was going

6:17

on in that area and they needed to move

6:19

Cadillac Ranch is gonna be torn down, and

6:22

March said, no, I can't do that. We're gonna, We're gonna move

6:24

it. So they moved Cadillac Ranch

6:27

two miles.

6:28

This whole thing has been moved two miles

6:30

out into this field, so it's

6:33

a it's kind of long haul to get to it now, but

6:35

um, that's wild. Yeah, that's kind of neat. And

6:37

the cool thing is that it's kind of it's

6:40

it's kind of spurned these other Cadillac or

6:42

not Catillake. I just want to say, like automobile

6:45

sculptors to come in and do their own thing nearby.

6:48

So there's you know, like one looks like a salmon,

6:50

I believe, another one looks like um,

6:53

let's see, I got a list of them here, one looks like one looks

6:55

like, um, oh

6:57

you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna pass on this for now because I

6:59

think I think there is one later. Um

7:02

you know what, maybe maybe getting my anyways

7:04

and maybe he's getting these mixed up but we'll get to it in a moment.

7:07

Um. So in two thousand

7:09

and five, all the Cadillacs, all these cattles are painted

7:11

bright pink to for breast cancer awareness.

7:14

And but but everybody's encouraged to leave

7:16

graffiti on these cars. So you know by now

7:18

it's probably covered up, of course, because it's five years

7:21

ago. So the people are actually encouraged

7:23

to leave graffiti. That's exactly right. And this guy,

7:25

I guess this, um, um, Stanley Marsh. He's

7:27

a little bit eccentric. He's about I think

7:29

he's sixties something now. I don't know how old

7:31

he is now, Um, maybe in his early

7:33

seventies. Um.

7:35

He really gets upset

7:37

if people steal his signs. I guess there are signs

7:39

that lead to Cadillac ranch or that are at the

7:42

and if you get caught stolen, it's still one of

7:44

the signs. I guess he can be downright

7:47

mean for shame. You shouldn't

7:49

steal any well exactly, but it's

7:51

a little kind of crazy. So I guess people

7:53

people are really just thinking about how

7:56

neat it would be to have that sign. But

7:58

if you really like the idea that much, you

8:00

should drive by it. And check it out and then you

8:02

can write on it. What more do you want?

8:05

You know what I've got. I

8:07

did kind of do a mix up here that the

8:09

other sculptors are along with the next one we're gonna

8:11

talk about, which is car Hinge, car Hinge, car

8:13

Hinge, which is in Alliance, Nebraska.

8:17

The car Hinge, by the way, is just a

8:19

I guess a a motor vehicle replica

8:22

of Stonehenge, exactly

8:24

exactly Stonehenge, which is in Wiltshire,

8:27

which is in the southwest part of England. And

8:30

I guess the thought is that that was built around

8:33

but um that Stonehenge.

8:36

Of course, car Hinge

8:38

built in as a result

8:40

of a family reunion. Um.

8:43

Wow, these people are partying a

8:45

lot more than my family, I

8:48

guess. So yeah, it was. It was meant to be a memorial

8:50

to um Um

8:52

Jim reindeers carry

8:55

I N D E R s. Almost looks like reindeers.

8:57

I want to say reindeers when I say it, but reindeers.

9:00

Um. It was kind of a memorium to his dad,

9:03

Um. And it's all painted just slate gray, just

9:05

like like Stonehenge would be or

9:07

not painted, but that's a colored stones and

9:10

Um, i'd looking sculpture.

9:12

I mean, it's really really strange, but it's it's an exact

9:14

replica of it. I would totally pull over

9:16

to see that. And again there's like

9:18

I said, there's these uh, these other

9:21

contributing artists who in the area of built

9:23

things out of vehicles, and that was where I made a mistake

9:25

earlier. But um, there's one that looks like a

9:27

salmon I believe nearby there there's one

9:30

called the the Ford Seasons

9:32

instead of the Four Seasons, which is a tribute to Wheat

9:36

exactly. And then something called

9:38

the Carnastoga Wagon, which is

9:40

like a like the old wagons that you know they used

9:43

a cross wagon exactly. And

9:45

that's a car that looks like an old Pioneer wagon.

9:48

You know what. I I think it might be

9:51

my childhood love of Oregon Trail that

9:53

game. Do you remember that? Yeah, that's I think

9:55

that's what what's making me love

9:57

the idea of a car that looks like a wagon. What

10:00

I'd kind of like to see these just to say that I've been there.

10:02

I think, yeah, because I've

10:04

actually heard of car Hinge

10:06

before and you see photographs of it. Um,

10:09

I haven't been there yet, but

10:11

I would like to see it. The story about the family

10:15

making it as a memorial, uh

10:18

honestly, really makes me treat it

10:20

with a lot more reverence because at first,

10:23

I gotta admit, at first, I just thought,

10:25

Wow, there's some guy who has so many cars

10:28

and it's just crazy. Yeah, exactly,

10:30

yeah, they they I guess the community

10:32

originally thought it was just a pilot junk.

10:34

I wanted to get rid of it. But now there's signs that say,

10:37

you know, this way to car Hinge. That's

10:39

awesome. They accepted it. They accepted it.

10:42

Um, and it's kind of cool. It's a it's bringing people

10:44

into the city, and it's making it somewhat

10:46

famous for this. And I mean, I'm sure there's

10:48

other things. And Alliance, I say, Alliance

10:50

Nebraska, Yeah, Nebraska, Um, yeah,

10:52

it's it's it's just one

10:54

of the sites that you have to see when you're there, of course, of

10:57

course. And and these two these have

10:59

been around for long time. I've heard of I've heard of both

11:01

of these for quite a while. And you've probably seen

11:03

Cadillac Ranch. I mean, yeah, Calla Ranches

11:06

like iconic. It's in films, it's

11:08

in movies, there's stories, a lot of photographs

11:10

are taken there. Um, a lot of artsy

11:12

photographs are taken there. Um.

11:15

Those are some that are that are relatively permanent.

11:18

Relatively I mean they could anytime, they could

11:20

be you know, removed. But um,

11:22

a lot of these attractions that we're talking about today, that's

11:24

something we should point out is that some of these may

11:26

or may not still be here because

11:28

we're going by lists of people. You know, some of these

11:31

are some of the famous ones from across the United States.

11:33

Um, something, they can need to be burned down, torn

11:36

down, they could be just just left alone and

11:38

abandoned. Um, anything

11:40

could happen to these. So um, just

11:42

remember that as we go along that you know, some may or may

11:44

not exist, So do your research before

11:46

you go or decided to set out to see

11:48

the world's largest ball twine. I like that,

11:51

Mr B. That's due diligence there, because,

11:53

uh, you guys, what's got is saying is

11:56

absolutely true. A lot of

11:58

times the things that people enjoy as roadside

12:00

attractions can be pretty

12:02

obscure or even in

12:04

some cases mysterious. And I'll

12:06

get to one that is I have one. It's kind of cool.

12:09

But yeah, they may take. They may require

12:11

maintenance that's too expensive for the

12:13

upkeep. Boom ready

12:16

no, no, it's perfect, Yeah, go ahead, Oh

12:19

okay. Well, for instance, here's here's

12:21

a weird one. Um that's kind of explicable,

12:23

uh I meaning we can easily explain it

12:26

from a book that Scott and I have called

12:28

Weird Us. It's a travel guide to

12:30

local legends and obscure

12:33

secrets, and of course it has a great

12:36

there's a great section here on roadside attractions.

12:39

Scott, there's this thing that's in Amarillo,

12:41

Texas, uh called

12:44

the Ozamandious Legs. And

12:47

yeah, there are two giant concrete legs

12:49

standing in the field off Interstate and

12:53

it's actually just south of I'm gonna have maybe

12:55

you have this bit of information already, but did

12:58

you know you know who built those? Lay it on

13:00

me. I believe it's also part

13:02

of m Stanley Marsh's collection,

13:05

is it? I believe? So yeah, I think there's a connection

13:07

there. I'm gonna have to dig into that, but I thought

13:10

absolutely, I thought I remembered something about

13:12

these legs because it's in Amarilla, which is

13:14

the home of the Cadillac branch as.

13:17

I've never seen a picture of them though until now, so it's worth

13:19

looking at. It's because do

13:23

we know him well enough to call him Stanley? I'll call him

13:25

Mr Marsh. It's because Mr marsh Uh

13:27

read the Shelley poem as

13:29

amandius. And then there's that

13:32

part where it says two vast and trunkless legs

13:34

of stone stand in the desert, and so apparently

13:36

he went, huh, you know what, I am gonna

13:38

do that, and he built him and there

13:41

there like, let's

13:43

see how one is thirty four

13:45

ft tall and the other one's twenty four feet

13:48

Isn't that weird? So that's what he does with this crazy

13:50

helium money. I know, and I love Helium

13:52

Millionaire. That sounds like a band name, doesn't it.

13:55

That's the new album by you two Helium

13:57

Millionaire. Um. And and

14:00

there's this other one. I gotta tell you this one.

14:02

I love this. I know, Chris,

14:05

I know that you wanted car things, but I think

14:07

you'll enjoy this one as much as I do, as much

14:09

as Scott is about to Scott,

14:12

what do you think the integraton

14:14

is? Integrit integratonh

14:20

um No, I have no idea. Well,

14:23

uh, let's decide that you want

14:25

to enlightening

14:27

and enriched mankind. Oh and by the way, you're

14:29

from another galaxy or world or you

14:31

think you are, okay news

14:34

to me. Okay, well, then of course

14:36

obviously Scott, you built a thirty eight ft

14:38

high, fifty diameter structure

14:41

and call it the Integraton. In

14:44

yes, uh, it's supposed it might

14:46

be a real life Let's

14:50

make sure I get this right, a real lifetime

14:52

machine built on a

14:55

magnetic vortex. It's

14:57

on Bellfield Road outside

14:59

of Landers, California, and

15:03

a lot of people say it's a wonder of the

15:05

world, and other people just think

15:07

it's it's kind of interesting. But apparently

15:09

the guy made at George van Tassel has

15:12

a lot of background calculation

15:15

going into it. And if you see here, it's

15:17

almost like a dome. It looks

15:19

like an observatory almost, And there

15:21

in the middle there's this chair that you can sit

15:23

into and you can sort of

15:26

his his mission was to change the course of history

15:29

with the Integraton, and so you

15:31

sit in it and it kind of rejuvenates you.

15:33

Appearances in Fairfield, California

15:35

is in Landers, Landers, California.

15:37

Okay, Landers, California. Interesting a time machine?

15:40

Hey, let me hit you with one. Here, hit me one. Hit

15:42

me with the world's largest musky. Muskie

15:47

fish musky. I don't want us, Okay,

15:49

Well, you're looking at me with a puzzled to face. There it's that

15:51

this thing is four and a half stories tall stories

15:54

tall, that's the height. Um.

15:57

Yeah, it's a hundred and forty feet long, ten ft

15:59

wide. It waghs five hundred tons. It

16:01

looks like a big muskie. It's a it's part

16:03

of the National Freshwater Fishing

16:06

Hall of Fame, which is in Hayward,

16:08

Wisconsin. And if that's not good enough

16:10

for you, And then there's also the world's largest hockey stick

16:12

and puck, which in

16:15

British Columbia, and that

16:17

was two and five ft long with

16:20

sixty one thousand pounds. It's over

16:23

it's over a community center right now. It's it's part

16:25

of their their building and facility. And

16:27

then there's also the world's largest pineapple. Where

16:29

would you think that would be? Sick?

16:31

I guess I'll just be wrong and say Hawaii.

16:34

Nope, Australia, Australia.

16:36

Yeah, I have no idea what it's doing in Australia. There, there's

16:39

gotta be some purpose there. I don't have any of the details

16:41

on that. One. World's largest pineapple

16:43

is in Queensland, Australia.

16:48

That's so crazy. I mean we can't drive

16:50

there, we'd have to fly there. No. I mean, like,

16:52

okay, the next one makes sense. World's largest buffalo,

16:55

New York. Nope, No, this one makes sense.

16:57

It's in North Dakota. Yeah,

17:00

in a Jamestown, North Dakota ft

17:03

tall, forty six ft long, weighs

17:05

sixty tons, and the cost was eleven thousand

17:08

dollars when it was built in nineteen sixty. So

17:10

it's been around for a long time. I'm

17:12

going you know what, I'm starting to loose perspective,

17:15

Scott, because when you said that, I thought

17:17

eleven tho dollars, that's that's pretty reasonable.

17:19

Maybe I should until I realized I don't have a

17:21

use of nineteen said yeah, you would build the world's largest

17:24

buffalo right here in Atlanta. No, manute

17:26

over my house. Fantastic.

17:29

Yeah, there's all kinds of that. I mean, the world's

17:32

largest Oh, here's one that's gone. This is a good example.

17:34

This is one that people used to go to see is

17:36

no longer there anymore. The world's

17:39

largest six pack and

17:41

I'm not talking abs. What happened,

17:43

That's what I was thinking my side. Never

17:46

mind Lacrosse, Wisconsin.

17:48

It was in the Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Uh,

17:51

No, no one drank it. I think it's just been painted over

17:54

really, so the structure is still

17:56

there. It's no longer six

17:58

pack like now it's the large the

18:00

world's largest building that is six

18:02

cylinders exactly. Yeah, it's

18:04

gone. I've got I got one for you. Uh,

18:08

the world's largest globes got

18:10

globe? Huh. It's located

18:13

off Route one in Yarmouth,

18:15

Maine. And uh it's

18:17

called Earth Up and

18:20

h Yeah. It's behind the glass,

18:22

a wall of glass over three stories

18:25

high and it's

18:27

inside of let's see. It's been there since

18:29

about and

18:33

do do do I'm looking for some more stats

18:35

on it, you know what. That's probably all I

18:38

have on it. But it is the world's largest globe.

18:40

I've got one that's the world's largest tire. I'm

18:43

loving this largest stuff now. I think I think

18:45

it's the world's largest. Actually, it just has a large tired. I've

18:47

seen this one in person. It's just it's

18:50

a it's the big univeral tale tire,

18:52

which is on the side of four

18:54

in Detroit. It's right near the airport. Um

18:56

it was a ferris wheel at one point

18:59

in its life in nineteen sixty

19:01

four, I believe. I think that's when it was

19:04

um but it had when

19:06

they put it on display on the side of the road, it

19:08

had a nail stuck into

19:10

it because they had these run flat tires that had this

19:12

nail technology, and so

19:14

they put this nail in it, which was eleven feet

19:17

this nail, and then eventually they took the nail out

19:20

and they auctioned that off to some local businessman

19:22

there in Detroit. And this goes back into what you're

19:24

talking about with brilliant marketing. Yeah, exactly.

19:26

I mean, this is something that it's a landmark that everybody

19:28

sees when they enter and leave Detroit through

19:31

via the airport. And I know

19:33

I have passed by it a million times, but it no longer

19:35

resembles a ferris

19:37

wheel. That thing is

19:39

huge. It is big, and

19:41

that's a that's a ferris wheel. And of course, you know, everybody

19:44

thought it was great and a lot of fun. But um,

19:46

again, it was auctioned that that part of it was auctioned

19:48

off and the wheel still stands there. The tire still stands

19:50

there. I don't know if it's the world's largest at anything,

19:52

but what would you do? This

19:55

is really crazy. When they were going to

19:58

modernize it recently, um,

20:00

they found out that there were people living inside it. Some

20:02

some homeless people were living inside

20:04

the tire tire squatters. Yeah, this

20:07

this place, this thing is enormous. It's that it's that

20:09

large. Um, they found these people living in

20:11

it, and they I don't think this is gonna fly anymore.

20:13

We gotta get you out so we can revamp this

20:15

thing. Tangent. Do you remember Peewee's

20:18

big adventure We talked about this earlier. I do, Yeah,

20:21

and where he visits that roadside

20:23

attraction gigantic dinosaurs. Oh

20:26

yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Um he actually climbed

20:28

inside them, right right. I as

20:30

a kid, I remember telling my parents

20:32

that I I was going to run away and live in one

20:35

of those. That's a brilliant plan. I

20:37

haven't done it yet. Plus you told them where you're gonna

20:39

go. Yeah, I was a genius

20:41

at that time. That was my whole m O was the comic

20:43

book way of explaining your crime. Nice

20:47

work. That ox and that Lumberjack

20:49

looks suspiciously familiar. Ah, yeah, do

20:51

you know where they I've got I've got a photo of a

20:53

huge Paul Bunyan and Babe the

20:55

Blue Ox. You know where they are?

20:58

Where are the Crescent City, California,

21:00

just off of Highway one on one. Uh, there

21:03

is an attraction called Trees

21:05

of Mystery on Highway one on one. I

21:07

see that's something that would your attentions. So it's

21:09

not necessarily you're there to see

21:11

Paul and Babe. You're not just regular

21:13

trees exactly. You're there for the

21:16

Trees of Mystery, but um, you also get

21:18

this kind of treat along the way. Um, and

21:20

these are big. These are Paul's forty nine ft tall,

21:22

and there's a twenty four ft long acts that he holds,

21:25

and a his booths

21:28

or even ten feet high. I don't know how big Babe is, but the

21:30

Babe the Blueox is huge. Yeah.

21:33

So that's another example of you know, you're again,

21:36

you're you're drawn in by something else and you get

21:38

this bonus. And you know, for some

21:40

smaller towns, especially before

21:42

a lot of highway exchanges

21:44

and stuff were laid in, this

21:47

was an excellent way to attract

21:49

visitors, you know, and pump up the local economy

21:52

exactly. And and some of them, I some

21:55

of them are I'll just they're

21:57

scams, summer scams, that's true.

22:00

And tourist traps in in that not

22:02

like we talked about before. But pay

22:05

twenty dollars to see the Oh man, I wish

22:07

I could remember where this was. Someone could write in and tell

22:09

me see the world's largest groundhog

22:12

or gopher. I think it was a prairie dog. Maybe

22:14

you see the world's largest prairie dog. And

22:17

you go, you go to this place, you drive miles off

22:19

the road. You go to some little place that has you

22:21

know, uh um, I don't know, a lunch

22:23

stand and a souvenir shop and everything, you

22:25

know, and a lot of stuff you can buy. You pay,

22:28

you pay something like twenty dollars to go see

22:30

the world's largest prairie dog. And

22:33

you have to walk, you know, down this pathway

22:35

and it's covered up and everything. You get to it, it's

22:37

like this big paper machee prairie dog.

22:39

That's this, you know, one two story tall prairie

22:42

dog. You think you're gonna see a live

22:44

prairie dog. You see this

22:46

this cartoonish looking thing, and you know you're

22:48

upset about it, of course. But I saw a few stories

22:50

about things like that that happened, and

22:52

I'm kind of guessing that some of this alligator stuff in

22:54

Florida might be the same way. And I bet, I

22:57

bet the northeast there's some lobster tracks

23:00

that are you know, lobster fem attractions

23:02

that are the same way. I know that there's a lot

23:04

of that going on. Some of these are legit. They've

23:06

got the world's largest ever caught, you know, and it's

23:08

it's mounted here on this wall or whatever. But

23:11

I think some of them are a little bit, uh, you

23:13

know, a little shady. Do you want to call shenanigans?

23:17

You heard it here first. Shenanigans have been

23:19

called on some on some on.

23:21

Some shenanigans have been uh

23:25

noticed, right exactly, They've

23:28

been found along the way. Yes, I've

23:30

got I've got one. We can close out on a mystery.

23:33

Great, do you want to yes? I would, okay,

23:36

So first, obviously we know that we're missing

23:38

a lot of roadside attractions. If you feel

23:40

like writing an intel us your favorite, then they'll

23:42

be fine, and we would we'd like to hear about

23:44

it. There are millions of them. There are millions, so

23:47

please be patient with us, um. So,

23:49

as someone who lives in the South, I

23:51

do want to give a quick a quick

23:53

shout out and hello, it's rock City and the

23:55

Lost c which we pointed out earlier.

23:57

Love those, um. But there

24:00

is in our very own state of Georgia's got

24:02

a very mysterious roadside attraction

24:05

called the Georgia Guidestones. Have

24:07

you heard of this? I've heard of them, but I don't know much

24:10

about them. Real quick. Once

24:12

upon a time a guy calling himself R. C.

24:14

Christian showed up in

24:16

I believe Alberton, Georgia in nineteen

24:19

seventy nine, and it was pretty obvious

24:21

that this was not his real name, and

24:23

he had been paid by some people to

24:26

commission this set of uh

24:29

three really big granite blocks

24:32

with the same message written

24:34

on them in several languages, English,

24:37

Spanish, Latin, Hebrew,

24:40

uh, Swahili, I think, and a couple others.

24:43

And it was built so

24:45

that, like some of the ancient structures such

24:47

stonehengine stuff, it lined up with

24:50

as excuse me, with solar

24:53

movements, uh, you know, equinox and

24:55

solstice and stuff. And this

24:58

had these very strang change um

25:01

things that were sort of kind of a

25:03

new Age Ten Commandments, which

25:06

is very controversial. But

25:08

they said they you know, I'm not going to list

25:10

all of that. That's for a different kind of show. But

25:13

the thing is this is still up.

25:16

Nobody knows who built it still and

25:19

uh it's free to see. Um

25:22

it is on a private field. Let me see

25:24

if wait, you're saying this is built in nineteen it

25:28

was that recent, relatively recently,

25:30

thirty years ago, thirty one years ago, and

25:33

everybody's just kind of tight lipped about it. No one's talking

25:35

about it. Well, people are talking about but what

25:37

can you say. It's uh, let's see,

25:40

it's the nice the mysteries who built it

25:42

and and who built it? And why? Who wanted

25:44

it built? Yeah? Why Well Albertson

25:47

is also the granite

25:49

capital of Georgia

25:51

and in some ways of the world, so that's why the

25:53

site was selected. Well they had really

25:55

good granted, yeah, and uh yeah.

25:57

And so these things are altogether

26:00

at weighs a d nineteen tons.

26:03

It's nineteen feet and

26:05

three inches high. Um. Yeah.

26:08

And then what it rests on a

26:10

support stone that weighs like twenty two

26:13

thousand pounds. So this is a huge structure.

26:15

This is really big. This is a huge

26:18

I have gone once and at this point I need to

26:20

give a due deference to

26:23

one of my best friends, uh, a guy

26:25

named Tim who pretty

26:28

much compulsively explores roadside

26:30

attractions. So Tim, finally

26:32

this this one's for you, and Uh, I just wanted

26:34

to close out on that mystery. If anybody

26:36

has been to that side or knows anything about

26:38

it, we'd like to hear about it. That's cool. Yeah, I mean, like

26:40

we said, there's a million of these. You could you can pick

26:43

anything that you've stopped at along the way. Um,

26:45

just any attraction could be a roadside attraction

26:47

that would have interest to somebody, So um yeah,

26:50

just send along a list of your favorites. There's

26:52

a lot of mystery spots out there, a lot of haunted

26:54

spots. Yeah yeah,

26:56

yeah, that's different podcasts as well. Um,

26:59

car related attraction and you can see the

27:01

Bodying Clyde death car at some museums.

27:03

You can see, um, you know, just a

27:05

lot of just a million different things that possibilities

27:08

here. And when you're on a road trip. Part of it

27:10

is really enjoying it. So yes,

27:13

Scott and I both admitted that there are

27:15

a couple of bad apples there, but don't let

27:17

them spoil the bunch. I mean, if you see some

27:19

signs that seems kind of interesting, it

27:21

might just be worth it. I think this summer, I'm gonna

27:23

hit a couple of these, some locals, you

27:25

know, some of the ones that are in our region.

27:28

You know, maybe the day road trips

27:30

like that. That would be fun just to to seek these out

27:32

and see what they are. It may cost you a few dollars

27:35

um, but it'll be yeah,

27:37

so the adventure to get in there. Yes,

27:39

speaking of adventures, I think we have to go have on

27:42

ourselves. So we're gonna let you guys go. Uh.

27:44

I hope you enjoyed the podcast, Chris, thanks

27:46

so much for writing in. If you guys have any

27:49

suggestions, topics, or recommendations

27:51

for roadside attraction, please send us

27:53

an email at high Speed Stuff at how stuff

27:55

work dot com.

27:58

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