As you may have already guessed, Ohio is full of the strange and the incredible. And these 20 odd and unique attractions around Ohio are certainly worth the visit, even if it’s just for a cool picture.
As you may have already guessed, Ohio is full of the strange and the incredible. And these 20 odd and unique attractions around Ohio are certainly worth the visit, even if it’s just for a cool picture.
The World’s Largest Basket
1500 East Main St., Newark
This giant basket housed the Longaberger Company until 2014, when the company moved out and eventually shut down after 100 years in business. Fear not, the basket is still there, about 150 miles southwest of Cleveland, halfway between Zanesville and Columbus. The basket building was sold for $1.2 million to a developer at the end of 2017 and will be used for something soon.
Photo via Longaberger/FacebookHartman Rock Garden
1905 Russell Ave., Springfield
Head to Springfield, just north of Dayton, and visit this really awesome rock garden. Built in 1932 during the Great Depression, this outdoor folk art installation contains mini-replicas of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, the White House, and Mount Vernon and a large castle built with 20,000 stones! Credit:Hartman Rock Garden/FacebookWorld’s Tallest Our Lady of Guadalupe Statue
6601 Ireland Rd., Windsor
Located in Windsor, around 50 miles east of downtown, just before you get to Pennsylvania, stands this religious statue, measuring 33-feet tall.
Photo via Windsor,Ohio/FacebookWorld’s Largest Washboard
14 Gallagher Ave., Logan
Logan, Ohio, halfway between Columbus and Athens, is home to the Columbus Washboard Company, which has the world’s largest washboard on its building. In addition, the town hosts the annual Washboard Music, Arts and Crafts Festival for three days every Father’s Day weekend.
Photo via @RockBottomStringBand/InstagramThe Futuro House
9961 Central Ave., Carlisle
Finnish architect Matti Suuronen designed around 100 houses shaped like spaceships during the 1960s and 70s. The houses can be found all over the world, but this one is in Carlisle, Ohio, where I-75 meets I-71, just north of Cincinnati. Credit:Futuro House/FacebookGiant Ronald McDonald
7806 East State Rte., 37, Sunbury
One of the creepier attractions on our list, and frankly, in the country, no one is quite sure why this Ronald McDonald statue exists. But, it’s there, it’s weird, and so, go see it if you like oddities like this. Otherwise, when else would you visit Sunbury, just off I-71 before you reach Columbus?
Photo via @RonTron2000/InstagramThe Temple of Tolerance
203 South Wood St., Wapakoneta
This small town south of Lima, known as the birthplace for Neil Armstrong, is an unlikely place to find a hippie/artistic enclave reminiscent of Taos, New Mexico or Sedona, Arizona. But that’s exactly what you’ll find at this rock sculpture temple that took 18 years to build.
Photo via @365Sara/InstagramHot Dog Bun Museum
1902 Front St., Toledo
Toledo’s Tony Packo’s is known for their delicious Hungarian food, hot dogs, chili and paprikash. Lesser known is their Hot Dog Bun Hall of Fame. The restaurant has been around since 1930, and since then celebrities have stopped through over time sign a plastic hot dog bun that goes up on the wall. Burt Reynolds signed a real bun.
Photo via Todd Van Hoeser/InstagramDave Grohl Alley, World’s Largest Drumsticks
Warren
Dave Grohl, drummer of Nirvana and frontman of the Foo Fighters was born in Warren before moving to Virginia at a young age. In 2007, Warren resident Joe O’Grady convinced city council to dedicate a dilapidated alley to the rocker, which now features murals of Grohl, along with the world’s largest drumsticks, carved by Warren-based artist Joel Eggert.
Photo via Lisa Ann Remick/FacebookVasehenge
768 West Main St., Zanesville
Zanesville is home to an annual pottery festival, so it makes sense that in 2008, a community art project began to decorate large vases all over town. There is one spot that has most of them, but they’re seen all over the southern Ohio town.
Photo via Trisha J/FlickrThe Great Serpent Mound
3850 State Rte. 73, Peebles
The Great Serpent Mound is a National Historic Landmark and is located at the end of I-71, just north of the Kentucky border. It is an effigy mound in the shape of a snake and was built by Native Americans, somewhere between 500 and 1,000 years ago.
Photo via WikipediaLarge Rocking Chair
1933 Highway 45, Austinburg
A battle has waged for years over which large rocking chair is actually the biggest in the world. Many claim it, but only one holds the actual record. We’re just not sure which one it is. But this one, 50 miles east on I-90, is definitely large, standing 20-feet tall.
Photo via @2000America/InstagramWorld’s Largest Cuckoo Clock
100 North Broadway St., Sugarcreek
In 2010, this 24-foot cuckoo clock was moved from its old home, Wilmot, to Sugarcreek, a Swiss-themed tourist town. Sugarcreek is only about 80 miles south of Cleveland, so what are you waiting for, the clock is ticking (get it?).
Photo via @XXJuguXX/InstagramPumpkin Water Tower
Logan St., Circleville
Circleville, about 30 miles south of Columbus, is known for its annual Pumpkin Festival, which they bill as the “best free festival on Earth.” What better way to promote the biggest thing in town than painting the town water tower to look like a pumpkin?
Photo via Justin Masterson/FlickrField Of Giant Corn Cobs
4995 Rings Rd., Dublin
Dublin, a suburb of Columbus, is home to this giant field of corn, also known as ‘cornhenge’. The project was a publicly-funded art installation featuring 109 ears of corn weighing approximately 1,500 pounds each and is set up in rows reminiscent of Arlington National Cemetery. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsFaux Ghost Town
10630 Hancock County Rd. 40, Findlay
This replica town was created to resemble a ghost town of the old west. At least this place helps Findlay be known for something besides Ben Roethlisberger. Credit:Ghost Town, Findlay, Ohio/FacebookFactory Ruins and Sculpture Park
501 South Main St., Mount Vernon
This place is really cool. It’s an old glass factory that was repurposed as an art park with a smokestack, ruins and a labyrinth and is definitely worth the trip out to Mount Vernon, located just off of I-71, 25 miles south of Mansfield.
Photo via @ArielFoundationPark/InstagramWorld’s Largest Basket of Apples
5563 Raiders Rd., Frazeysburg
Close to the World’s Largest Basket but much lesser known standss the World’s Largest Basket of Apples. Also once owned by the basket company Longaberger, the basket stands close to 20 feet tall.
Photo via @SneakyPanda/InstagramTower of VW Bugs
1938 East Second St., Defiance
Head west on 80 for about two and a half hours to see this stack of 1960’s Volkswagen Beetles. Five bugs are stacked on top of each other in the parking lot of Pack Rat’s Pawn Shop.
Photo via Bob McGilvray/Flickr
