Random Thoughts

[Flint1979]

The Mystery Spot is an absolutely stupid tourist attraction of nothing. I see it all the time when I'm on US-2 coming out of St Ignace and have always wondered what the hell that place is.

[JayhawkCO]

How Arizona's isn't The Thing is beyond me.

[hotdogPi]

How Arizona's isn't The Thing is beyond me.

It's probably based on number of complaints, not like:dislike ratio.

[JayhawkCO]

How Arizona's isn't The Thing is beyond me.

It's probably based on number of complaints, not like:dislike ratio.

But what is to complain about the Grand Canyon? The South Rim is a little overrated, but the North Rim is very underrated.

[GaryV]

The Mystery Spot is an absolutely stupid tourist attraction of nothing. I see it all the time when I'm on US-2 coming out of St Ignace and have always wondered what the hell that place is.

I agree, I went there once as a kid. It's one of those optical illusion things with structures on the side of a hill that make you look bigger or smaller as you move from one side of the room to the other, or that water flows uphill.

If you've passed Mystery Spot, you've passed Sea Shell City. Why in the world would people stop to by sea shells in northern Michigan? Plus the hokey signs about "man eating clam" and such. (Just like "See Rock City", many of them have gone away over the past couple decades.) Although my mother loved it, but that probably says something more about her than about the store.

[Flint1979]

The Mystery Spot is an absolutely stupid tourist attraction of nothing. I see it all the time when I'm on US-2 coming out of St Ignace and have always wondered what the hell that place is.

I agree, I went there once as a kid. It's one of those optical illusion things with structures on the side of a hill that make you look bigger or smaller as you move from one side of the room to the other, or that water flows uphill.

If you've passed Mystery Spot, you've passed Sea Shell City. Why in the world would people stop to by sea shells in northern Michigan? Plus the hokey signs about "man eating clam" and such. (Just like "See Rock City", many of them have gone away over the past couple decades.) Although my mother loved it, but that probably says something more about her than about the store.

I never even stopped. I tried to go past it but all the road does is dead ends about a half mile past the Mystery Spot. On Google Maps it looks as if Martin Lake Road loops back to US-2, it doesn't. And like a lot of places that have dead ends in Michigan it lacks a No Outlet or Dead End sign at both places north of US-2. Speaking of that area, I've often wanted to go north and ended up going back east to St. Ignace instead not even remembering that US-2 goes in more of a NW-SE direction instead of straight E-W.

As far as Sea Shell City, yeah I know where that place is too and that is a rather dumb place as well.

[mgk920]

Mystery Spot? How about Sea Shell City?

Not Da Yoopers' Tourist Trap???

Sheesh!

Mike

[Flint1979]

Mystery Spot? How about Sea Shell City?

Not Da Yoopers' Tourist Trap???

Sheesh!

Mike

Top one in every state. It's the mystery spot.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Surprised South Dakota's isn't Wall Drug.

[mgk920]

Surprised South Dakota's isn't Wall Drug.

The Corn Palace is worse.

Mike

[formulanone]

Dollar-per-hour spent, I think Coral Castle is slightly more "why did I do this" than Disney World but obviously less well-known. But I guess you're not roped into spending a thousand bucks per head after a few days.

It's probably more irritating when they remind you constantly that the love-sick owner once charged ten cents to get in on his private property....it was about 100 times more than that when I visited.

[J N Winkler]

I'm not going to knock the Corn Palace--it was a pretty decent tourist information center when I visited in the mid-1990's, with official state maps from multiple states.

[Rothman]

Yeah, I like the Corn Palace.

[1995hoo]

Mildly surprised South of the Border isn't listed for South Carolina.

[kkt]

Just saw this posted on Facebook and immediately thought "but Route 66 didn't go through Nevada..."

That's why it's the worst attraction.

I see.  Kind of like Washington State's worst attraction is the Washington Monument.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I've been to 8 of those, with plans for a ninth abandoned.

MOA
Times Square
Wisconsin Dells
Disney (FL)
Rock and Roll HOF
The bean in Chicago
Ocean City
Bourbon St

The Alamo was the one I dropped plans to visit. I've also driven through Dyersville but didn't see the Field of Dreams.

Is there actually some physical Mothman site to visit in WV? Or does it just draw a bunch of kooks to check out the history?

[JayhawkCO]

Gum Wall
Voodoo Doughnuts
Hollywood
North Pole (assuming they mean the town)
Route 66
Grand Canyon
Mormon Temple
Casa Bonita
Corn Palace
Biggest Ball of Twine
Alamo
Mall of America
Branson
Bourbon Street
Wisconsin Dells
The Bean
Disney
Williamsburg
Times Square
Old Man of the Mountain (RIP)

20 of 50

[Rothman]

Old Man in the Mountain
Plymouth Rock
Rocky Statue
Jersey Shore
Ocean City
Williamsburg
Mothman (Silver Bridge )
Myrtle Beach
Disney World
Helen Keller's Birthplace
Elvis' Birthplace
The Bean
Wisconsin Dells
Mall of America
Bourbon Street
Alamo
Carhenge
Corn Palace
Grand Canyon
"Mormon Temple"? Pfft.  There are a whole lot of them in Utah.  I have been to Temple Square, but not inside the Salt Lake Temple.  Got married in another temple in Utah, though.
Voodoo Donuts
Gum Wall

So...22?  Not sure how to be on Route 66 in NV.  Sort of a lousy list, anyway.

Had near misses -- drove right by:

Dover Downs
Holiday World
Waikiki
Hollywood

[CoreySamson]

Oklahoma's entry is absolutely correct. Such a dumb attraction.

[jeffandnicole]

How does most states get a single place or attraction, and NJ gets 100 miles of coastline as their worst?

[formulanone]

If one is complaining of the "free attractions", then a need to reevaluate whether you're terminally online or not is the answer.

[TheCatalyst31]

While Wisconsin Dells probably deserves the collective listing, I kinda wish they had picked a specific attraction, because some of its attractions are definitely worse than others. My pick would be Top Secret, aka the upside-down White House, which apparently has almost nothing to see once you've paid to get inside. It's just an efficient way to separate tourists from their money.

The Dells actually used to have their own version of the Mystery Spot, called the Wonder Spot. I convinced my parents to take me there as a kid, and thought it was kinda fun, but in hindsight it was pretty hokey.

[Big John]

^^ They keep everything a secret there.

[drebbin37]

Quassy holds a special place in my heart.  Yes, it's a sad little amusement park on a leech-infested lake, but its arcade was fantastic to a kid growing up there in the 80s.  I have fond memories of those machines where you drop a quarter onto a shelf and it gets pushed toward the piles of quarters on the edge, and you win any that fall off.  At some point, they switched from paying real quarters to useless tokens, but those early days surely laid the foundation for my lifelong gambling hobby.  I probably made close to a dollar an hour on those things as a 10-year-old.

By the way, if you ever build a mini golf course, don't put it underneath a bunch of maple trees (like Quassy did).  Those little helicopter things cover the course, wreaking havoc on the path of a rolling golf ball.

[vdeane]

Anyone ever notice that pretty much every thread relating to New Jersey devolves into control city arguments again and again?  I wonder why that is.