Giant Red Wing Boot, Bay Point Park, Red Wing, Minnesota,
August 2005, photo © 2005-2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights
reserved.
We didn’t travel much when I was growing up. Maybe a weekend trip to the beach in Charleston or Savannah. Or taking a drive through the Great Smoky Mountains along winding roads of the Tennessee hills to visit my grandparents over Easter. But for the most part, we stayed close to home.
It wasn’t until my early twenties that I started to criss-cross the country by Ford Econoline van, vintage Karmann Ghia, yellow Mercury Capri, and powder blue VW Squareback. Those were the years I discovered my wanderlust and the uniquely American, Roadside Attraction. Though their heyday may have been the 1950’s and 60’s, if you keep your eyes peeled, Roadside Attractions still pepper America’s highways and byways.
In Minnesota, they might take the form of an 18 foot tall, 2 1/2 ton Paul Bunyan, and 5 ton Babe the Blue Ox. South Dakota has the Corn Palace (thanks to Bo’s comments for the great postcard link). And Texas has Cadillac Ranch creating by eccentric millionaire Stanley Marsh, 3 who in 1973 invited a San Francisco artists’ collective called the Ant Farm to help him turn 10 used Cadillacs into a landscape work of art.
Are car and seed art not your cup of tea? Head East and check out the Giant Koontz Coffee Pot in Bedford, Pennsylvania (built by Bert Koontz in 1927). In 2003, rather than have the coffee pot meet an untimely demise, Bert’s great nephew Dick Koontz, and a group of Lincoln Highway supporters, relocated the Pot to the Bedford County Fairgrounds across the street. Or perhaps your direction is West; you might explore the haunted Garnet Ghost Town at the head of First Chance Creek, 6,000 feet up in the mountain forests east of Missoula, Montana.
Ping-pong back to the Midwest for a gaggle of giant boots dotting the Minnesota landscape near the southern river town of Red Wing (named after a distinguished Indian Chief named Hupahuduta, meaning a swan’s wing dyed in red). Red Wing shoes were the 1905 vision of Charles H. Beckman. The Red Wing No. 16 boot was issued to World War I soldiers; during the Great Depression, the factory workers burned scrap leather to stay warm.
For their 100th Anniversary, Red Wing spent $100,000 and 1 year building a supersized “638-D” replica of their classic work boot No. 877. The world’s largest shoe, it’s 16 feet tall, 20 feet long, and required 80 cowhides, 1,200 feet of rope and 300 pounds of adhesives. The shoelace is 104 feet long (here’s a shot of Norm Coleman next to the boot).
Do you have childhood memories of a favorite Roadside Attraction? Big Critters, 2-Story Outhouses, the Jolly Green Giant? Where was it located? What age were you when you visited there. Who was with you? Have you passed a giant Mauston Mouse and just had to stop and take a photograph?
Or maybe you seek out Roadside Attractions wherever you travel like the creator of one of the best sites I’ve found on the subject, Debra J. Seltzer’s Roadside Architecture. Debra travels around the country documenting disappearing Roadside Attractions (she’s heading to South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida in March).
Flip-Flop Travel Bug, Red Wing Palms, Bay Point Park, Red Wing, Minnesota, August 2005, photo © 2005-2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Get out your pens and do a timed Writing Practice on Roadside Attractions. Using all the senses, write down as many details as you can. Choose a specific amount of time — 10, 15, 20 minutes — set a timer, and Go!
Stop when the buzzer, bell, or alarm goes off; read what you’ve just written out loud to yourself. You might be surprised at what you discover. And if all else fails, there’s always the Tom Robbins version of life on the road — Captain Kendrick’s Memorial Hot Dog Wildlife Preserve in Another Roadside Attraction.
Resources & Inspiration:
- Roadside Architecture — Debra J. Seltzer’s wonderful roadside site, created in 2000. No ads or pop-ups. Check out her Flickr sets from across America. She’s got passion for this subject!
- World’s Largest Roadside Attractions — Roadside Attractions from around the world. Based in Minnesota. No ads or pop-ups.
- Roadside Photos — Great photographs and postcards. Site of Doug Pappas with no advertising. Another person with passion for the road.
- Roadside America — Lots of ads but some good info there.
- Legends of America — Again, lots of ads. But good detail in the descriptions.
-posted on red Ravine, Friday, February 20th, 2009
This is fun!! I’m always amused with seeing things on the road(sides), although I think it’s much more enjoyable and safer if you’re the passenger!! 😀
I’m going to think about writing this. 🙂
Neat giant boots! Very colorful.
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A~Lotus, thank you! It’s so great that you feel inspired by these landscape giants. I just loved Debra’s Roadside Architecture site (link’s in the piece). There are many pages where she breaks her Roadside Attractions down by State so you can see what’s going on in your own backyard.
Her page on the history of the Koontz Coffee Pot in Pennsylvania is full of a progression of great photographs — from the beginning of the Coffee Pot, to its deterioration, all the way to the new paint of the restoration. I find all this fascinating. Pure Americana. And many of these attractions were originally designed beside gas stations or stores or restaurants to lure people in for business. Pretty cool.
ybonesy and I will be digging into our archived memories to try to remember some of the things we’ve seen on our local roads. I do think it’s going to be a fun practice.
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QM, ha! I know well the Koontz Coffee Pot in PA! In addition there is the house made to look like a shoe. I think it is about to become a small museum, though it escapes me at this time. I have seen both, but it has been years. D
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QM, like you, my family did not take to the road much when I was a child. We probably didn’t have enough money to stay overnight anyplace. In 1967 we drove to the World’s Fair in Montreal, Canada…the only real vacation we ever took as a family. I remember a giant rubber somewhere in Ohio, I think, but I couldn’t find it when I googled.
Missouri didn’t have any roadside attractions listed in the site I looked at. Hmmmm. I may need to do a road trip here.
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Please forgive me. My mind is much faster than my fingers. I remember a giant rubber TIRE. In 1967 I would not have know what a rubber was, other than a pair of British galoshes. Sorry for the slip of the fingers.
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LOL. Bob, first let me pick Liz up off the floor. I had to call her in from the other room to read that one. 8) We both got a good late night chuckle. Especially since she’s met you before. Oh, goodness. That’s a good one. I wonder if anyone from Ohio is reading this? lol
What? No Roadside Attractions in Missouri? Hmmm. We will have to do a little road trip. Same with our family, I think. Not a lot of extra income to travel or to stay overnight. It seemed we were quite happy close to home, too. I honestly didn’t know the joys of travel until I was an adult. Now, once again, I am content to not wander far from home. Though I still do like to travel a bit once in a while. Hey, I think the World’s Fair in Montreal would have been incredible. Do you have many memories from that trip?
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That trip to Montreal holds so many memories for me. I could write a post about it. What we saw. Where we stayed in the city. What the world’s fair was like. How it changed me as a person. A fabulous trips despite my whining. I was not a good traveler in a car then. Not a whole lot better now unless I drive and then I could drive forever. Maybe that’s one of the good things about not having a car.
Glad Liz enjoyed the mis-type. How embarrassing!
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Bob, please do write a post about the Montreal World’s Fair. And send it in to ybonesy and me if you wish. We’d love it. You know, what I do remember about traveling back then (more my teenage years) were our family trips between Pennsylvania and Georgia/South Carolina to visit with family. It’s a fairly long drive for kids and we sometimes packed, a whole family of 8, six kids, two parents, into the car and hit the road. I take that drive with my mother now when we go South in the summers. Though I think the highways are a little different. There are a couple of more routes available now between PA and GA.
I am prone to car sickness so often had to make sure I sat by the window so I could see the landscape and the road. I am still that way. When I’m driving though, it doesn’t bother me as much. Being on the road holds a lot of memories as a kid. It’s so different than life at home. And when you’re a young kid, everything is so BIG. Roadside Attactions like the ones in this post become even more giant. BTW, the mis-type did give Liz quite a chuckle. I’m sure we’ll be chuckling again when we read it again in the morning. But there will be no comparing to the first time! 8)
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diddy, I seem to recall hearing about the house that looks like a shoe. I’ll have to see if I can find a photo on one of these Roadside Attraction sites. I don’t think I’ve seen the Koontz Coffee Pot but now I think I’ll have to one day on one of my trips home to Pennsylvania. Ah, so much to see, so little time. 8)
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QM, perhaps a trip to Gettysburg or Lancaster? I would so enjoy either one!
Like you, my family did not do much traveling when I was growing up. Most often they were day or overnight stays. But, those roadside miracles never leave my memory. Perhaps they are the best of the best.
Though both of my brothers were able to enjoy my grandparents place in Canada, alas the girls in the family were never included. And I was such a girly boy! I learned to fish when I was just a toddler, but things were so different then. Girls were girls & boys were boys.
Brant is here tonight! Fast asleep, but we have abig day planned for tomorrow. Reading, making brownies, & of course the pig shaped mac-n-cheese! If we have time, a matinee at the theater. We’ll see what we can fit in before MeMe poops out! D
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I seem to always be eating or drinking when reading your blog….Bob..the “giant rubber” caused a plethora of that stringy lettuce they put on subs to escape…and then I promptly had an asthma attack…oh please you guys…do keep them coming 😉
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Ha. I just read Bob’s comment about the giant rubber. That probably would be an avant garde kind of roadside attraction these days, something you might find in a place like, I don’t know, what state might be so bold? Maybe outside Las Vegas, NV?
QM, I am going to have to ask my dad about any official Roadside Attractions we might have visited during my youth. I always remember a bunch of tee-pees on Route 66 heading west out of Grants, I think, on the way to AZ. And those signs saying, Live Rattlesnakes, or Turquoise, or Turn Back, You Just Missed ‘Em.
And I remember Shakey’s…was that the name? The convenience store/gas station where you could also buy peanut brittle. Oops, I should be saving these memories for a writing practice. 8)
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diddy, yes, for sure. I might want to do Gettysburg as first on the list. I think I went to Lancaster with the family not too long ago. It’s beautiful, too. But it’s been so long since I’ve been to Gettysburg, I want to check it out again.
Can’t believe you didn’t get to go to Canada because you were a girl. It reminds me of something else Nikki Giovanni said on the Bill Moyers interview last night — how she is a champion of girls, with helping them build self-esteem and be treated as equals. I admire her for that. Even today, it’s still a problem.
Hope you and Brant had a good time. What are you reading with him now. And did you make the matinee? You sure had a lot planned into a short time!
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heather, your comment cracked us up yesterday. Poor, Bob. He may never live this one down! I told him to beware of such giants when he’s in New Mexico this week. To observe caution. 8)
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QM, Gettysburg sounds like a good family time! I’m all for it!
Brant & I did pack a lot into his visit. We baked brownies & made the pig shaped macaroni & cheese. Later he & Jack made M & M cookies. Brant would not stay interested in reading & I didn’t force the issue. We wanted to see the movie Coraline, but it wasn’t at a theater near us. So, instead we went onto the website & watched the trailer of the movie & also clips of how they made the movie etc.. They interviewed the woman ho knitted the clothing for the characters. They were soooo small & she used needles about the thickness of a strand of hair! Unbelievable! I see today that it begins showing at a theater about 4 miles from here, so maybe next visit. D
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well, i am a little behind on reading and responding these days. What a great post and i was fascinated by the photo. and diddy, here is more on the shoehouse.
The shoe house used to be in my back yard. as a child, we walked through the cornfield to get to the shoehouse, buy penny stick candy and icecream. in the winter we sleded down the hill that would become the underpass of the highway. all that concrete made a lovely toboggan trail!! The two links below offer the story and the photos.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2202
http://www.ohiobarns.com/othersites/buildings/pa/38-67shoehouse.html
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reccos62, Thanks for the links! Though I knew you grew up in that area, I had no idea that it was in your backyard. How cool is that? D
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Oh, reccos62, cool shoe house. Thanks for the links. I want to see it now for sure. Not too far from home either. We could go for ice cream. Can’t believe this part: Only 48′ long and 25′ tall, the structure’s five mini-levels contain three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living area and a kitchen. The Shoe House was built in 1948 (and completed in 1949) by Colonel Mahlon M. Haines, the flamboyant “Shoe Wizard,” for advertising purposes. Haines walked up to an architect, handed him an old work boot, and said “Build me a house like this.”
And in 2004 when the current owners bought the shoe — a local author signed copies of his book, “The Life and Times of Mahlon Haines.” The snack bar in the heel sold hot “Heelbasi” and “Toedogs.” Pretty cool Roadside Attraction! And has its own book!
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