Cleveland Burger Week | July 11-17, 2022

19 Strange Roadside Attractions Every Ohioan Needs to Visit

By Scene Staff

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.

Scroll down to view images

Join the Cleveland Scene Press Club

At a time when local-based reporting is critical, support from our readers is essential to our future. Join the Cleveland Scene Press Club for as little as $5 a month

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/Facebook

Hartman Rock Garden

1905 Russell Ave., Springfield

Head to Springfield, just north of Dayton, to 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.

Photo via Hartman Rock Garden/Facebook

World’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/Facebook

World’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/Instagram

The 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.

Photo via Futuro House/Facebook

Giant 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/Instagram

The 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/Instagram

Hot 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/Instagram

Dave 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/Facebook

Vasehenge

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/Flickr