Blue Star Chronicles

I was doing a search for something totally unrelated to strange and unusual tourist attractions when I happened to run across a website about Hitler’s Tea Set being on exhibit somewhere in Alabama. I thought that was an odd place for Hitler’s Tea Set to be on exhibit - apparently a permanent exhibit. I kinda thought maybe some WWII vet brought it home (by mistake, I’m sure) and someone is cashing in on it. But that’s just an assumption on my part.

That got me to thinking of what else is out there that might be strange and unusual tourist traps attractions might be out there across this great land of ours …. so, of course, I had to start looking. There are so many. They are everywhere. I might have to do several Thursday Thirteens on these just because.

So lets see what we can see if we take a mini-tour of the United States …..

1. Whiskey Bottle Tombstone - turns out the wife of William T. Mullen of Clayton, Alabama told him if he died of drinking she was going to make sure he was humiliated for eternity by his drinking. Sure enough, he died in 1863 of his drinking and she followed through with her threat. This tombstone was featured in Ripley’s Believe it or Not at one time.
2. The Nut Lady, Elizabeth Tashjian, sadly died this past January at age 94 years. She maintained a nut museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
   

   “Nuts have a heart. Hard and pricky sometimes on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside. That’s my philosophy.”

3. The Testicle Festival. I kid you not. This is an annual festival held in Clinton, Montana. It’s generally attended by approximately 15,000 people. Over 5,000 pounds of Rocky Mountain Oysters are consumed by the attendees and apparently there is quite a bit of drunken reverie … which is understandable considering the whole festival is about eating Rocky Mountain Oysters. (I’m not including pictures of this one! HEH!)
4. London Bridge in Arizona. Did you know that the London Bridge is now in Arizona? Yes, the Arizona that is mostly desert. I didn’t, but it is. It seems London Bridge was really and truly falling down. It was built in London over the Thames River in 1831 and because of it’s massive weight was sinking. So, Robert McCulloch bought it for 2.4 million dollars in the 1960s, disassembled it and transported it, brick by brick, and reassembled it in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Who knew!!
5. UFO Capital of the World in Dundee, Wisconsin. A gathering place for the Summer UFO Days. However, visitors are welcome year long. The owner of Benson’s Hideaway keeps exhaustive records of UFO sightings and encounters and photos that visitors can view. The locals provide landing pattern lights for visitors in the evenings to encourage extra-terrestrial visitors to stop by. Interestingly, the UFO Capital of Wisconsin is located in another town.
6. The Pickled Pioneer. Dr. Willie Keil was the leader of a cult called the Bethelites. In 1855 he decided to move his group to ‘The Promised Land’ of New Canaan Washington. He promised his son, Willie, that he could lead the wagon train out to Washington. Sadly, 19-year-old Willie died of Malaria just four days before they were to leave to go west.

   Dr. Keil was not deterred. He would keep his promise to his son. He put his son in a lead-lined coffin filled with 100 proof Golden Rule whiskey. He put the coffin in the lead wagon and draped it in black. As the 250 Bethelites traveled the Oregon Trail they were saved from Indian attacks by the Indians’ curiosity of the Pickled Pioneer. When approached by raiding parties, Dr. Keil would open the coffin and allow the Indians to look at his pickled son. The raiding parties left without further harassing the travelers. The Pickled Pioneer’s grave is marked: “In the evening by lamp-light, Willie was buried here November 26, 1855.”

7. The Passenger Pigeon Memorial, Cincinnati, Ohio displays a bronze statue of Martha, the last living Passenger Pigeon. Martha was found dead at the bottom of her cage on September 1, 1914. During her life scientists tried frantically to breed her and offer rewards for anyone who could find a mate for her. They tried to breed her with other species of pigeons without success. When she died, her body was packed in ice and sent to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
8. Northernmost Totem Pole in the World, Point Barrow, Alaska
9. Knight’s Spider Web Farm, Williamstown, Vermont. The Spiderwebman and his wife harvest spiderwebs and have created a way to turn them into pieces of art that they sale. After years of work and experimenting with the delicate webs, he has devised a way to mass produce them and transplant them onto pieces of wood that can be displayed as objects d’ art.
10. Lizzie Borden’s Hatchet of Death and Stuff is on display in Fall River, Massachusetts. Apparently, you will usually have to wait in line to see artifacts from the 1892 murders of the parents of Lizzie Borden. The exhibit includes a photo of her daddy’s fractured skull.
11. Rachel, Nevada host the busiest UFO watcher site. Every Wednesday night UFO watchers gather to watch the skies for UFOs. Just follow Route 375 that has been renamed the Extraterrestrial Highway
12. Full-size Replica Ezekiel Airship, Pittsburg, Texas. A flying airship built by The Reverend Burrell Cannon, a local Baptist minister. He read in the Book of Ezekiel of “living creatures” rising from the earth and a “wheel within a wheel.” He believed that these Bible passages contained the secret to powered flight. It’s said that the airship flew in 1902, prior to the Wright brother’s flight in 1903, but since there were no newspapers there to cover the flight there is no real evidence that the airship was the first manned flight.
13. Museum of Cursed Tourists. Madame Pele, the volcano goddess, curses anyone who takes lava out of Hawaii. This special museum exhibits letters and forgiveness gifts sent by visitors who ignored the curse … and paid the price.