It’s alright if the place receives many tourists each year, but I’m eliminating places like Disneyworld or Grand Canyon or Hearst Castle that are world famous and completely mainstream tourist destinations. What are some places that aren’t so familiar that you’d recommend?
I can think of several, but I’ll open with the Thomas Jefferson Building of The Library of Congress. It has relatively little to do with the fact that I’m a librarian or that it’s the largest library on Earth, but a lot more to do with the fact it is, internally, one of the most breathtakingly beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen, an explosion of white marble and vibrant colors and lots and lots and lots of in-jokes. (If there’s a real Da Vinci Code/National Treasure type of hidden message it’s going to be some place on those very full and busy walls where there are lots of hidden ‘jokes’ and ‘oddities’-examples: a 2 foot tall marble cherub is holding something in it’s hand on a staircase that if you don’t look closely you won’t notice is a carved marble telephone (ca. 1890 variety), or you won’t notice that in the Greek friezes of naked athletes playing a game that appear on the ceilings the games are baseball in one and football in another, or in the portraits of the Muses you may not notice that one is Frances Folsom Cleveland and that in the painting of (the personification of) Erotica you can see nipples through the gown if you look closely, etc… Just a gorgeous place that’s free admission and should be a part of any first visit to D.C…
On a far more local and tiny scale, I love living history attractions and outside of Montgomery is a place called Fort Toulouse/Jackson that’s woefully underappreciated. It’s a reconstruction of an 18th century French trading fort later rebuilt by Andrew Jackson a century later during the Creek Wars. The buildings are extraordinarily authentic- I helped build a few as a volunteer and all materials and labor were done exactly according to the research (except that concrete was added to the dung and mud bousillage mixture so that unlike the original it won’t have to be rebuilt every 3 or 4 years) and the accompanying Creek village is small but an interesting and educational exhibit about Indians who plowed fields for a thousand years before Columbus was born and wouldn’t have recognized a teepee if you’d shown them a drawing.
What are some of your favorite lesser known but well worth seeing places? It can be natural, educational, historical, just fun, unclassifiable, or any otherable.
South of Crawford, Colorado, an unpaved road leads into the North Rim of The Black Canyon of the Gunnison. PDF. Dunno 'bout that. South and east of Crawford, Colorado 92, trailing along the north side of the Gunnison River goes through the most spectacular natural scenery I’ve ever seen. Mountains, dales, cliffs, rivers, and light combine to create a trip you will have to drive through twice. The park itself is well worth visiting - it’s gorgeous - but the area I’m describing is unparalleled.
If you are ever in the Columbus, GA, area you should take the time to visit Pasaquan. It was built around a '30 frame house by a eccentric/crazy/touched man who called himself “St. EOM” - real name Eddie Owens Martin. If you clicked the link, all of the structures shown are built from concrete and painted with Sherwin-Williams paints. The structures include a sweat lodge and a dance circle. I have visited the place several times, but my husband - who was born and raised here in Columbus - had never heard of it until I told him. It is desperately in need of work now, so the admission fee really goes to a good cause.
My husband and I were driving through Thermopolis, Wyoming while on our way to Denver, and we decided to stay for a couple of days. It’s a charming little town with lots of mineral-bath-related attractions, including a water park with a hot mineral waterslide, a natural “steam cave,” and other neat stuff. Near the town are some ancient petroglyphs. If you’re in the area, give Thermopolis a visit. It isn’t a huge tourist destination, but it is a very pleasant place to spend some time.
The Sound Garden in Seattle; not the band, but the art piece they named themselves after. It’s a really neat audio experience, but doesn’t seem to have much notoriety (these days at least), particularly since it’s on NOAA properly and the park is open limited hours.
I often pimp Longwood Gardens to those who will be near Philadelphia or northern Delaware. Huge, stunningly beautiful gardens and conservatories. Plus tons of fountains. And shows and classes. And the Christmas displaysshould not be missed.
Guy asked a carpenter to build him a frame for a summer house, and he’d take care of the rest.
The construction of the walls is shellacked newspaper, which also covers all the furniture. Been standing since the 20s, and one must remember that Rockport, being right next door to Gloucester, got the Perfect Storm right between the eyes.
I grew up 10 miles west of here in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. We’d take annual field trips here on the last day of elementary school every year.
Let’s ignore for a moment the (entirely valid) concerns about the social, cultural, political and historical implications of a monument to the first president of the CSA. This place is interesting because it’s a 351 foot high obelisk in the absolute middle of nowhere.
This is a very rural area – tobacco, soybean and corn growing country. In the past decade or so there’s been a large influx of Amish families. Halfway between two county seats (Hopkinsville, pop. ~25K and Elkton, pop. ~2K) on Highway 68/80 lies Fairview (pop ~0.075K)
If you aren’t expecting it, it can be rather jarring to be driving through fields of cattle and dark-fired tobacco only to glance to the side of the road and notice the world’s largest concrete obelisk. Tends to play tricks with one’s sense of perspective.
I haven’t been up to the top since I was a child, at least 30 years ago. I know you can see a looooong way. As I recall the view gave me distinct insight into the benefits of contour plowing.
I’m beginning to be quite fond of visiting old ghost towns. My three favorites:
Bodie, California : the meanest little hellhole that ever blah blah blah something something 2 churches and 50 saloons…but it’s still pretty cool.
Rhyolite, Nevada : the Bottle House and the little quail family that lived nearby were worth the trip.
Portsmouth, North Carolina : old Outer Banks haul-over and fishing town. People can still get married in the little chapel there, if they can find a boat ride over, that is.
Watts Towers in L.A., is an unbelievable set of sculptured towers built by “Simon” Rodia in his spare time over a period of 33 years, from 1921 to 1954. It’s easily accesible by the Blue Line Metro. I went to go and check it out, and I noticed that the brochures photos were taken byBruce Gordon. The only reason I mention this, is that Bruce is my cousin-in-law, and I ain’t shilling for him, it was just a surprising coincidence. Well, thinking about it, it is a pretty famous landmark, but I’m probably the only one of my SoCal friends who have actually bothered to go and see it.
Utah is full of National Parks. Two of the less famous ones are Capitol Reef and Canyonlands. Never heard of them? Well, that’s because Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon and Arches National Park are all in Utah. Both parks are crazy beautiful, but not quite as spectacular as the other 3 I just mentioned. If you ever watch Survivorman, one of the episodes takes place in Canyonlands because it’s so damn desolate and inhospitable.
The New York Public Library is considered the most awesome example of Beaux Arts architecture ever. Here’s a photo of the Reading Room. It’s obviously an important NYC landmark, but I had no idea how fantastic it was until I wandered through it.
**Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry[/B[ in Utah. Nowhere near as well known as dinosaur National Monument in Vernal, Utah (which is pretty cool itself), CL lets you get closer to the fossils and actually touch some of them. It looks more like an actual dig than like a museum in the ground. And it’s not as overcrowded.
Mystery Hill/ America’s Stonehenge in New Hampshire – I personally think this was built by local native Americans, and probably not as an astronomical observatory, but that’s what they’re currently pushing, and they’ve gone to the trouble of cutting paths through the surrounding woods so you can watch Midsummer Sunrise and other significant astronomical events. Whether it was built by Insians, Vikings, Irish monks, Jonathan Pattee and his sons, or Aliens,* it’s a nice walk in the woods. (* I think those who claim that H.P. Lovecraft got some of the inspiration for “The Dunwich Horror” from this site are correct, S.T. Joshi to the contrary notwithstanding.)
Prince Henry Sinclair Monument in Westford, MA – The modern marker marks what is claimed to be an older carving from 1398 marking the grave of a companion of Prince Henry Sinclair of the Orkney Islands, who, it is claimed, came here a century before columbus. Google it, or read Frederick J. Pohl’s* book Prince Henry Sinclair (*Not the same as Hugo-winning science fiction author Frederick Pohl) Gilgal in Salt Lake City, Utah – This sculpture garden was the work of an LDS Ward Leader, and includes such things as an Egyptian Sphinx with the face of Josepg Smith carve out of granite, representing, I think, the way he translated the tablets of “reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics” into English. It’s not an official LDS chiurch exhibit – it’s in someone’s back yard, and you have to go to the door and ask someone to give you a tour. Truly a lobor of love, and impressive. And weird.
I’m planning a student trip to the East Coast next year, and we were looking at Philly. I used to have a wall calendar from the Mutter Museum! I had forgotten about it!
The Parthenon in Nashville is the one place I pimp like mad. I love going there. It is so utterly cool, even if the statue of Athena is kind of cheesy. Most people have no idea that we have a life-sized replica of the original Parthenon, but it is uber cool. Centennial Park is a nice little park, too. My kids love going up there, just to hang out.
I also loved the Ballard Locks when I lived across the street from them in Seattle. Great place to feed the squirrels or just hang out and read a book. Going down into the tunnel to watch the salmon is always a fun thing to do, too.
There’s also a spot just outside of Gallatin, TN where the “first documented alien abduction” ocurred. I don’t know that I have a cite, but it is referenced in one of the Communion books (Whitley Streiber). Back in the 1800’s, a farmer was plowing his field, when the local newspaper guy was coming up to see him for some reason or another. The farmer’s family was on the porch and they and the newspaper guy witnessed the farmer disappear from sight. The guy just poof, was gone. They heard his screams for quite some time later, but no sinkhole was found, no reason for his disappearance. It was written up in the local paper, and has been cited as the first documented alien abduction. Kind of an interesting story. I could take you to the spot where it happened. Always on my “friends visiting from out of town have to see this/hear the story” list. Ok, not the best cite – but at least a reference to the story.
My husband took me to Arizona to meet his brother when we were dating. We took a couple of days and did the touristy things. The Grand Canyon, The Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, we saw them all. We spent a night in a hotel in Flagstaff (I think), woke up before our wake up call and hit the road early. We happened to see one of those tiny brown state park signs along the highway for Walnut Canyon. Since we were ahead of schedule, we decided to check it out. It cost us a whole dollar to get in. It was awesome. I thought it was more breaqthtaking than anything else I saw that week.