Off the Beaten Track … 15 Weird but Fun Places to Visit

Chances are you’ve heard of this one before, but in case you’re not sure where to find this famous attraction, what is often called the world’s largest twine ball is located in Darwin, Minnesota.

If you’ve ever felt bored, imagine how Francis A. Johnson must have felt. Johnson is the Minnesotan who started wrapping twine in 1950. According to The Huffington Post, which doesn’t speculate on why Johnson developed the odd hobby of wrapping twine, Johnson started practicing his new hobby for four hours a day. After about five months, the ball Johnson had wrapped was so heavy that he needed a crane to lift it.

Johnson reportedly continued wrapping twine until his death in 1989. The ball grew to 40 feet in circumference, and weighed in at a hefty 17,400 pounds. Today it is displayed indoors in downtown Darwin.

Lonely Planet addresses the controversy over whether the Darwin twine ball is actually the world’s largest before asking, “But why not pay your respects to the original that started all the fuss? … Gawk at it in the town gazebo. Better yet, visit the museum beside it and buy your own twine ball starter kit in the gift shop.”

Forever Marilyn is a giant statue of Marilyn Monroe formerly located in Chicago and now at home in Palm Springs, California.

As KABC reports, sculptor Seward Johnston’s statue “is modeled after a scene from the 1955 film, The Seven Year Itch.” The famous scene in question is “when a draft from a New York subway grate blows her skirt above her knees.”

Although some observers in Palm Springs and particularly in Chicago have objected to the revealing nature of the 26-foot, 17-ton statue, for the most part it has been well-received, especially by loyal fans of Monroe, who passed away 51 years ago this August.

Here’s another American alternative to a famous international attraction. If Egypt or Mexico seems a little too far to go for the pleasure of pyramid-viewing, why not stay in the US and do your pyramid-viewing in Buford, Wyoming?

Located just off Interstate 80, the Buford pyramid, described by RoadsideAmerica.com as “rough-hewn and rune-cryptic,” and “accessible only by a dirt track,” stands on a “treeless, windswept plateau of Wyoming sagebrush.”

Rather than a monument to pharaohs, the pyramid was built in the 1880s to recognize Oliver and Oakes Ames, who had controlled the Union Pacific Railroad and were widely thought to have benefited financially from that control through illegal means.

According to RoadsideAmerica.com, “the pyramid was the Union Pacific’s way to polish the tarnished reputations of its ex-officials,” who were never buried in the pyramid. Despite questions relating to their financial practices or character, the Ames brothers were given credit for much Union Pacific’s success during early Reconstruction. RoadsideAmerica.com goes on to explain that news of the 60-foot pyramid resonated to such a degree that ex-President Hayes came to attend the dedication ceremony.

The Union Pacific did not survive into the 20^th century, and the highway the pyramid stands beside was rerouted over 90 years ago, so there is normally not a lot of traffic approaching the Ames Brothers Pyramid. Even so, it’s a one-of-a-kind attraction you may not want to miss.