Category: Roadside Attractions

Expedition Team:   Dave Miller, Holly Miller, Justin Eller
Expedition Date:     August  2017

Col. Harland Sanders, founder and TV commercial spokesperson for Kentucky Fried Chicken is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery, a 300 acre Victorian era cemetery (on the National Registry of Historic Places).   The man who brought “11 famous herbs and spices” to his delicious chicken has a modest gravestone and, with the flowers blooming, a beautiful gravesite.  The gravesite is a popular Roadside Attraction.

Expedition Team:   Holly Miller, Justin Eller, Dave Miller
Expedition Team:    August 2017

Harry Leon Collins, this famous beloved “corporate” magician of Frito Lay is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery, a 300 acre Victorian era cemetery (on the National Registry of Historic Places).  A life size statue of the magician stands over his grave.  Collins was a 20 year employee of Frito Lay during the day. At night he was Louisville’s most popular magician, “Mr. Magic“.  In 1970 Frito Lay named him their official corporate magician as he toured the country and world performing magic tricks and paying homage to corn chips.  He appeared on hundreds of television commercials and magazine ads.  I remember him on TV.

Expedition Team: Holly Miller, Justin Eller, Dave Miller
Expedition Date:    August 2018                                                                                                                

A one wall Roadside Attraction.  This 19th century mansion named the Heigold House was built in 1853.  Christian Heigold was a successful stonecutter and a handful of his carvings adorn the building…from patriotic scenes to busts of President Buchanan and George Washington.  Over the years flooding and development destroyed all of the house except the front façade which sits in the middle of the road.  The road parts and goes around the façade.  Yes, all that is left is one complete wall.

 

EXPEDITION TEAM:  Holly Miller, Justin Eller, Dave Miller   

EXPEDITION DATE:  August 2017

Kentucky Mt. Rushmore is a mural painting originally planned to be a sculpture on the side of a mountain but ended up as a mural on the side of a souvenir store on Bonnycastle and Bardstown Roads.  The 20’ x 30’ mural depicts four famous Kentuckians: Mohammed Ali, Colonel Harlen Saunders, Abe Lincoln and Secretariat. Lincoln was born and lived his first 7 years in Kentucky although I associate Abe more with Illinois where he made his most impact prior to becoming President. And, a horse? Makes me laugh, Kentucky was founded in 1792 – the artist had to have found an important fourth human being from Kentucky’s long history. My Facebook Friends, who would you replace the horse with? My vote – Daniel Boone or perhaps Ernie Brown, better known as TV’s “Turtle Man“. 

Expedition Date:  January 12, 2017
Expedition Team:  Dave Miller

Before reading the title, look at the photo’s first and I bet YOU CAN”T GUESS where all of the artifacts were found?
I traveled to the Allen County Historical Museum in Lima where I observed a very weird, unusual collection. The exhibit collection was made up of keys, buttons, coins, pencils, pins, screws, rocks, bones and dozens of other items. So where were they found? Give up? They are objects were removed from the lungs, esophagus or larynxes of Lima patients throughout the careers of Doctors Walter and Estey Yingling. In the display cases, under each item swallowed was the name, date and age of the person from which the item was removed. The objects I couldn’t believe in this “Swallowed Object Exhibit” were a long rubber hose, a long metal chain and a metal jack (from the kid’s game, Jacks). As a kid, all I remember eating was dirt.

Expedition Team:  Dave Miller, Holly Miller

Date: 2016

As we pulled up, I saw what looked like two oblong silver saucers joined by a big metal duct (walkway). This sort of alien duplex, is an iconic piece of architecture and a Carlisle landmark. Investigator Holly said of the UFO looking house “I thought Fox Mulder was going to walk out any minute.”

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:  Designed in 1968 at the height of the space craze by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, his intent was to create a prefabricated portable ski chalet/cabin.  It was called a Futuro House.  Each house was made of only 16 pieces and consisted of 16 to 20 windows, one bedroom, one bathroom and a 25 foot padded bench that curved around one room.  You had to climb retractable stairs to enter.  Only 96 Futuro Houses were made.

FINDINGS:  What makes this unique is it is the only Twin Futuro House on record. Originally, one of the Carlisle Futuro houses was installed at the Wright Brothers Airport in Springboro in the 1970’s and was there for several years. The second house was rumored to have been a donut shop, original location unknown. Both were eventually moved to the Carlisle location and were used as a residence. Today, the outer curved shell appears to have some deterioration but overall, the twin UFO’s look quite eerie at night.

The UFO House is located at 9961 Central Ave. (corner of Carlisle Pike 123 and Chamberlain Road) just southeast of Twin Creek Metropark.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller
Expedition Date: September 2016

Has anyone seen this truck in the Dayton area? After an event at Riverscape Park in Dayton I saw and took photo’s of this unique vehicle. There are over 1,000 items glued onto the pickup truck such as star wars characters, barbie dolls, disney characters, bat mobile, bumper stickers, buttons, shells, an etch-a-sketch and other figures. The truck had a sign that said “gives away free books to encourage people to become Literacy Tutors”. There was a couple dozen old paperback books on the truck.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Expedition Date:  September 2013

When traveling how many of you stop at Roadside Attractions, Guinness Book of World Records sites or other Oddities? I am guilty.   We were traveling to Vermillion, South Dakota to watch our son Matt play college football at the University of South Dakota, Dakota Dome. I stopped for gas at Ft. Dodge, in north central Iowa and noticed an old fort museum down the road. It turned out to be an old 1860’s western fort with lots of antiques, stuffed buffalos and local history. Out back was a building all by itself with a large sign saying “We Dare You to See the Cardiff Giant”. I was hooked. We went in.

What was the Cardiff Giant? It was one of the most famous hoaxes in USA history. It was a 10 foot tall purported “petrified man” uncovered on October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well (Photo #1 & #2) behind the barn of William Newell in Cardiff, New York. Newell set up a tent over the giant and charged 25 cents per person to see it (Photo #3). Two days later he increased the price to 50 cents. People came by the wagon load. Archaeologists pronounced it a fake while some preachers called it authentic. Newell made lots of money. The giant was eventually moved to Syracuse, NY for exhibition (Photo #4). The giant drew such large crowds that showman P.T. Barnum offered $50,000 for the giant.

At Fort Dodge, the giant rests peacefully on display (Photo #5) surrounded by informational boards and copies of old newspaper articles, posters (Photo #6) and vintage photos of the giant. Looked sort of like Andre the Giant. The giant was the creation of a New York atheist named George Hull who decided to create the giant after an argument at a Methodist revival meeting about Genesis 6:4 (stating there were giants who once lived on Earth). In 1868, Hull hired men to carve the 10 foot 4 inch block of gypsum in Ft. Dodge, Iowa, shipped it to a stonecutter in Chicago who carved it. Sworn to secrecy, the sculptor added stains and acids to make the giant appear old and weathered and shipped it by rail to the farm of William Newell his cousin. The giant was buried and dug up the following year. The rest is history.

Expedition Team:  Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller     Expedition Date:   June 2012

An very unique Roadside Attraction.  Called “FinnJet” after a Finnish turbine powered ferry, this 29 foot silver car is fitted with a freezer, microwave, two air conditioners and a sauna all fed by three batteries and three alternators.  It is powered by a Mercedes-Benz turbojet engine.  The owner told me he started collecting chrome parts and many accessories for over 15 years and then built it in 2000.  The exterior of FinnJet has parts from 40 cars, 36 mirrors, 86 lamps, a space shuttle and other planes on the roof.  He gets 20+ miles per gallon, weighs 9,500 pounds and has 3 axles.

FinnJet won first place in the Houston Car Art Parade three times, the USA’s largest car-art event.  And talk about chrome, I had to wear sun glasses to take the photos as the Florida sun reflecting off the car blinded me.  I asked, but he would not let me sit behind the steering wheel.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Shane Miller, Holly Miller, Matt Miller, Jacque Miller

Expedition Date:  August 4, 2009

A great roadside attraction.  P.T. Barnum once said “A sucker is born every minute”. I must have been one of those babies. For over 90 miles throughout New Mexico & Arizona I kept reading yellow billboards painted with giant letters stating “We Dare You to See The Thing”, “What is The Thing? Creature From Another World”, “The Thing – Mystery of the Desert”.

I was hooked. We had to stop and find out what The Thing was. Finally, in the middle of the desert at Exit 322 off of Interstate 10 a sign with a 30 foot arrow said “Enter Here to see The Thing”. We exited to find a large yellow building (Photo #4) containing a gift shop, gas pumps and ice cream shop. I should have known better when we were charged only $1.00 for adults and 75 cents for kids to see a possible alien from Outer Space (photo #1). I thought an extraterrestrial would have better market value.

We entered a room and the first thing I saw was one of Adolph Hitler’s staff cars with a wax museum body of Hitler in the back seat (Photo#2). The car was surrounded by wax figures of American Indians, some on horseback. I know a lot of history but I don’t think that Apache Indians fought against the Nazi’s in Europe in WWII? Well, it was too late to turn back now. I had to continue.

There were several more rooms that contained old covered wagons, a teepee ,western antiques, ancient methods of torture and a few classic cars but nothing that looked like it came from our solar system.

Following the painted monster footprints on the floor, up ahead a sign stated “Beyond this Door is The Thing!“. Finally, the moment of truth. We opened the door and went in. In a white, block, coffin-like box with a see-through plastic cover was a body. It did not look like an otherworldly creature from Mars. It was very old, dry, with wrinkled skin. It looked like a cross between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who in real life look like 150 year old walking mummies. (Photo #3) Yep, no alien from the Milky Way. Probably was an old Indian mummy from a century or two ago resting comfortably with a Japanese garden hat laying on its lower body instead of a space helmet.

So was it worth stopping at? You betcha. It is exciting to explore unknown things. Even if they are fake.