11 unique attractions in the Midwest and South

1. Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

Branson, Missouri

Robert Ripley started drawing Believe It or Not! cartoons for a small daily newspaper in 1918. Who could’ve predicted how popular the concept would become? Today the brand reaches a worldwide audience through radio, television, books, movies, and museums. Enter a realm where truth is stranger than fiction at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum location in Branson.

2. City Museum

St. Louis

City Museum just might be the coolest fun house on the planet. This giant playground for kids (and adults) features tunnels, slides, wavy walkways, and rope swings that lead to a kaleidoscope of imaginative delights. Sculptor and visionary Bob Cassilly built this mind-boggling kingdom in a century-old shoe warehouse, filling 4 stories plus the rooftop and outdoor surroundings with salvaged, recycled wonders.

3. Vintage Fire Museum

Jeffersonville, Indiana

Firefighters fascinate us, and countless TV shows and movies have put a spotlight on the profession. They’re the heroes of every community. But firefighters don’t work alone. They need an array of gear to rush into a burning home to battle a blaze. You can find a collection of firefighting equipment dating from 1756 in the Vintage Fire Museum.

4. Big Things in a Small Town

Casey, Illinois

With a population under 2,500, less than the average cruise ship’s capacity, Casey is tiny. But its appeal is oversized. You’ll find a host of gigantic items in this town, including a 32-foot-long pencil, a supersized birdcage that you can climb into, a 56-foot-tall rocking chair, and a massive mailbox that overlooks downtown. Casey native Jim Bolin and his team used mostly recycled or salvaged materials to create nearly all of the 30-plus monstrous items, starting with a 54-foot wind chime in 2011.

5. Evel Knievel Museum

Topeka, Kansas

Born as Robert Craig Knievel Jr., Evel Knievel jumped to fame in the 1960s and ’70s with daring motorcycle stunts that sometimes ended catastrophically. Clad in his iconic star-spangled white jumpsuit, Knievel became a television star and a household name.

At this museum, photos, videos, and memorabilia tell the story of Knievel’s daredevil escapades, including jumping over a shark-filled tank in Chicago and leaping over 13 buses at London’s Wembley Stadium.

6. Big Brutus

West Mineral, Kansas

If the word big is in your name, you’d better live up to the billing. Big Brutus does just that and more. The 16-story-tall electric shovel, once the world’s largest, casts a colossal shadow at the 14,500-acre Mined Land Wildlife Area, most of which was surface mined for coal. When the Pittsburg and Midway coal mine shut down in 1974, the owners abandoned Big Brutus in a field because it would have cost too much to dismantle it.

7. Music Box Village

New Orleans

Built on a 1-acre lot next to a canal leading to the Mississippi River, Music Box Village is a whimsical collection of “musical houses,” which have been described as musical architecture and interactive public sculpture. New Orleans Airlift, an artist-driven nonprofit organization, built this hodgepodge of wacky installations using found objects, building rubble, and repurposed materials that were then fine-tuned by artists and musicians to be unconventional musical instruments.

8. Chauvin Sculpture Garden

Chauvin, Louisiana

In 1984, Kenny Allen Hill, a part-time bricklayer born in 1948, started constructing life-size sculptures on a small plot of vacant land on the banks of Bayou Petit Caillou. He built a rustic cottage there and paid rent to the landowners but didn’t have permission to erect his artwork. Yet within 15 years, Hill had packed what’s now the Chauvin Sculpture Garden with more than 100 pieces, mostly made of brightly painted concrete.

Sculptures of angels, men, women, children, flowers, Jesus Christ carrying a cross, and many self-portraits populate the garden. Hill left town in January 2000, leaving his strange and spiritual treasures behind. 

9. TrainTastic

Gulfport, Mississippi

With 52,000 square feet of exhibition space, TrainTastic claims to be the country’s largest model train museum. It’d be difficult to disagree as you watch model trains run along multiple tracks through tiny cities, over mountains and bridges, into tunnels, and through layouts that resemble Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.

10. The Galaxy Connection

Hot Springs, Arkansas

The world needs heroes, and you can find plenty of them at  The Galaxy Connection, a museum that will fascinate Star Wars and Marvel fans. The collection features toys and fun memorabilia dating from the 1970s through the ’90s. Catch up with G.I. Joe, He-Man, Wonder Woman, Superman, and other comic book and movie champions.

11. Esse Purse Museum

Little Rock, Arkansas

A museum devoted to purses? Not as frivolous as it sounds. This small and informative museum tells the story of 20th-century women through their handbags and the items that they carry. Owned by Anita Davis and based on her handbag collection, the museum displays purses, photographs, memorabilia, ephemera, and assorted accessories decade by decade to illustrate not only fashion history, but also changes in our culture.