https://www.google.com/maps/@/data=!3m1!4b1!4m3!11m2!2sRH2KoMcK33Gaa5I6wvdgLg!3e3?entry=tts&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQxNS4wKgBIAVAD&skid=6d7dea29-184a-4507-92e5-a822d1327c9d
Showing posts with label roadside attractions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roadside attractions. Show all posts
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Wednesday, March 04, 2026
this is the first time I've heard of the Rotosphere, since I didn't grow up in big cities, and they are rare to find after the 80s
Approximately 234 were built from 1960-1971. Only about 20 Roto-Spheres are left with maybe 4 being fully operational
They were created and produced by Warren Milks who made approximately 234 of them at his sign shop in Bossier City, LA.
Monday, March 02, 2026
the first roadside rest stop, might be in the county next to the one I grew up in, the county border line is actually walking distance, from where I grew up. In 1918, Iron County had the 1st roadside rest stop in Michigan
In 1919 (sometimes cited as 1918), Iron County, Michigan, established the nation's first roadside park and rest stop along Highway US-2, between Iron River and Crystal Falls. Created by engineer Herbert Larson, it featured picnic tables in a forested area, serving as a model for future highway infrastructure.
Built to provide a resting place for travelers.
It is recognized as the first official roadside park in the United States.
In another county in Michigan, they made the 1st picnic table for roadside parks
Monday, February 23, 2026
Ever heard of Sign Post Forest near Yukon?
The Sign Post Forest is Watson Lake’s most famous attraction. Travelers from around the world have been bringing signposts from their hometowns to the Sign Post Forest since 1942 and continue to do so today.
The tradition began during the Alaska Highway Project in 1942, when U.S. soldier Carl K. Lindley spent time in Watson Lake recovering from an injury. A commanding officer asked him to repair and erect the directional signposts, and while completing the job, he added a sign that indicated the direction and mileage to his hometown of Danville, Illinois. Others followed suit, and the trend caught on.
The tradition began during the Alaska Highway Project in 1942, when U.S. soldier Carl K. Lindley spent time in Watson Lake recovering from an injury. A commanding officer asked him to repair and erect the directional signposts, and while completing the job, he added a sign that indicated the direction and mileage to his hometown of Danville, Illinois. Others followed suit, and the trend caught on.
Wednesday, January 07, 2026
Monday, January 05, 2026
Saturday, December 20, 2025
the top 9 finalists for 2025 America’s Best Public Restroom, celebrating innovative and hygienic public restrooms across the country, and one of them is in a roadside stop public park in San Diego bay off interstate 5
the new restroom at Tecolote Shores South Playground in San Diego is designed for functionality and coastal charm.
It features eight all-gender restrooms, including two spacious, ADA-accessible family restrooms. Inside, slip-resistant epoxy flooring handles wet, sandy feet.
Amenities include an exterior shower, three drinking fountains, a bottle filler, and four sinks. A modern butterfly roof and Pacific blue accents complement the natural CMU block, blending seamlessly with the park’s architecture and capturing that classic San Diego beach vibe.
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
the Halfway House Cafe roadside diner in the Santa Clarita Valley began as a trading post in 1906, then became a cafe in 1931, but has been a location for Hollywood movies and commercials for decades
it's the location for the memorable Cindy Crawford commercial where the supermodel pulled up to a roadside cafe and hopping out of her Lambo to enjoy a can of Pepsi from a vending machine,
plus it's the diner that Tom Cruise stumbled into after his fighter jet crash in Top Gun: Maverick
and Heartbreak Ridge, Space Cowboys, The A-Team, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Knight Rider, Pick of Destiny, Monk, and more.
They even have a wall of celeb photos, including Dolly Parton, Ron Perlman, Carmen Electra, David Boreanaz, Toby Keith, and Eddie Murphy are easy to pick out
Sunday, November 02, 2025
Edward Chavez (1917–2004) was a recognized master of scratch building within the model-making community. Fascinated by aviation from an early age in San Antonio, his model commissions expanded from private aircraft owners to professional work for the Piper Aircraft Company.
Interested in aviation since his childhood in Texas, Chavez served as a B-24 gunner in World War II.
After the war, he joined the U.S. Postal Service and, while in the military reserve, was commissioned to construct aircraft recognition models in 1947.
He later served as a captain in the Korean War and was awarded both the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star.
In 1961, the Nut Tree Restaurant in Vacaville, California, contracted Chavez to build display models of famous aircraft after seeing models he had made at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum
So, my immediate curiosity was " What the hell was the Nut Tree?"
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It all began in 1855 when pioneer Josiah Allison came from Iowa to California in search of gold but instead discovered his knack for farming.
Allison staked out 225 acres of land in Vacaville, and was doing so well in the farming business he convinced his brother-in-law, Alpha Brown, to move his family there too.
During the Brown family’s move out to California via covered wagon, Sallie Fox, Brown’s step-daughter, picked up some black walnuts that had dropped from a tree along the trail and carried them in the pocket of her gingham pinafore (sleeveless apron).
Their covered wagon caravan was attacked at some point, Sallie was wounded by an arrow and Alpha was killed. Once the remaining family arrived in Vacaville, Sallie planted the nuts throughout Allison’s property in 1859 and over time one particular tree grew very tall and strong
The seed eventually grew into the tree that provided shade for the first iteration of the Nut Tree, a roadside fruit stand that opened on July 3, 1921, a bad crop year due to a harsh frost, under the walnut tree the farmer's ancestor had planted in Vacaville Ca (location, location, location) on the family’s 135-acre plot along what was then US Highway 40 (now Interstate 80).
In it's 2nd year, it served 900 cars a day, they then set up a diner, and by 1949 were serving 1000 meals a day
They began expanding their offerings, adding oft-requested items like ice cream and chewing gum. Thirsty drivers started stopping for water, so they also kept a bucket of ice cold water on hand. “Whenever a thirsty-looking person approached the stand, he was offered a well-filled cup even before he asked for it,” Power said. “We beat him to it.”
To get drivers to slow down (in a 35 mph zone?) they put up signs in both directions farther down the road, alerting drivers to the upcoming Nut Tree stand. A few years after its grand opening, the Los Angeles Times called it “one of the most unique and profitable fruit marketing stands in the country.”
Due to its free pineapple appetizer, the Nut Tree grew to be the 2nd or 3rd largest importer of pineapples from Hawaii in 1950.
“For many years, the Nut Tree was the second-largest [buyer] of pineapple from Hawaii,” says Kassis. (Pike’s Place Market in Seattle was the largest pineapple purchaser.) “And eventually, the Nut Tree became the quality standard for Dole. Their fruit was [internally graded] green, green-ripe, ripe and the Nut Tree.”
They had pineapples for their famous appetizer, and it was always free because the fruit symbolized hospitality, and they supported the idea that you always exceed expectations (Ever heard of Zig Ziglar and the phrase "give them the pickle"?)
Nut Tree invented Marshmallow sauce, and put it on fruit dishes, most famously, the free pineapple slices
Poisoned by decades of car exhaust, Sallie Fox’s walnut tree was regrettably felled in 1951.
In 1953, they hired graphic artist Don Birrell (age 28), as the museum’s rookie director, shortly after he graduated from the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles (which eventually became CalArts, the Disney-backed school that has long produced many of its Imagineers)
Chouinard, Dean Batchelor went there, as well as Bruce Meyers (Meyers Manx) and I've posted a couple artists as well, for their INCREDIBLE art https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=Chouinard
The aviary keeper Bill Toone—who earned a master’s degree in avian biology from UC Davis and went on to become the youngest-ever curator of birds at the San Diego Zoo
The Nut Tree gift shop, which was the first Herman Miller furniture dealer in Northern California, sold everything from Eames chairs to Dansk plates
Charles Moore, a founding architect of the iconic modernist Sea Ranch enclave on the Sonoma Coast famously admired the lighthearted vernacular of Disneyland’s exaggerated edifices, and wrote of the Nut Tree with equal fondness in a 1965 essay published in Yale’s architecture journal Perspecta.
“It offers the traveler a gift of great importance. It is an offering of urbanity, of sophistication and chic, a kind of foretaste, for those bound west, of the urban joys of San Francisco.”
In 1978, the San Francisco Chronicle called the roadside attraction an “oasis of taste”—a metaphorical achievement earned by coming a long way from its literal seed of origin.
When Gov. George Deukmejian hosted an extravagant lunch at the State Capitol for Queen Elizabeth II in 1983, he requested catering by the Nut Tree restaurant, one of his personal favorites.
In 1961, the Nut Tree Restaurant commissioned Chavez to build display models of renowned aircraft. Beginning in 1962, Chavez produced numerous models for the restaurant over twenty-seven years
In 1974 the family relinquished control to a management organization, and the writing was on the wall, the restaurant closed in 1996 because of lawsuits stemming from millions in losses of the 2nd gen or management, and the 3rd generation (17 siblings and cousins all working the family business), and after 2 years of court nonsense, the settlement resulted in a sale of the property 2 weeks later, and poof, it's nothing but history now.
In WWII, Ed Jr. learned to fly and service aircraft, and when he returned from his tour of duty, he bought a private plane.
“The idea for a Nut Tree airport simply grew from there,” says Kassis.
When the airport was built in 1955, the landing strip was just dirt. But once pilots began to enjoy the experience of flying into the Nut Tree, lights were installed, the runway was paved and a taxiway was added. It had 25000 travelers a year
The Nut Tree landing strip, described as one of the most innovative private airports in the nation, became a model in the industry and was featured in international magazines including a two-page spread in the October 1960 issue of Saturday Evening Post.
Events began to transpire—the first Cessna air show took place in 1960, for example, and in 1982, astronaut Neil Armstrong was the guest speaker at the final (25th annual) Rotary Fly-In.
Chuck Yeager was also a keynote speaker at one of the Fly-Ins—he was a buddy of Ed Jr.’s and would stop by the Nut Tree on his way to San Francisco from his home in Grass Valley.
(Other celebs that stopped in, included Bing Crosby, Shirley Temple, Richard Nixon, the Reagans, and Walt Disney)
https://www.sactownmag.com/nut-tree-forever/
https://www.publicnow.com/view/0B971E49D748E8FA8D8D0781A3AF06DCBE912A3C
This post took 4 hours
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Boise’s latest historic landmark, Betty the Washerwoman, an iconic animatronic
Built as a roadside sign/attraction after the Korean War to get people to stop by the laundromat built sometime between 1959 and 1960, by the owners of the Econo Wash
Friday, September 12, 2025
loving this SO MUCH. If this existed, it would be on my bucket list of places to see
Nehi Cola & Gas Station nickname '' the bottle'' Auburn, Alabama
From 1924 to 1933, the lot at the corner of Alabama Highway 147 and U.S. Highway 280 held an impressive roadside attraction: The world’s largest Nehi bottle.
The 64-foot-high, bottle-shaped building was constructed as a promotion for the Nehi Cola brand, but it served the community as a grocery, gas station and housing for the store’s owners for nearly a decade.
Visitors were allowed to tour the bottle, climbing to the top of the bottle neck to see a 360-degree view of the countryside. Williams built in a gas station and store on the first floor and an apartment for the store’s managers on the second floor. It had no electricity.
John F. Williams, the owner of the Nehi Bottling Company in Opelika stopped by the farm of the family farm of W.W. Bradley in Farmville, Alabama, to ask if he could use an outer parcel of his land for a building project.
Williams went by the nickname “Chero-Cola” Williams after the name of the company that owned Nehi products at that time.
Williams wanted to use the giant bottle as a roadside advertisement. The Nehi line of fruit-flavored soft drinks was introduced the same year in orange, grape, root beer, peach, and other flavors.
It became an instant hit, and the company changed its name to Nehi Corp. in 1928. When Nehi sales softened during the Great Depression, Nehi makes reformulated their failed Chero-Cola and named it Royal Crown Cola. The company again changed its name, this time to Royal Crown Cola Co.
FDR and Minnie Pearl had stopped by after visiting Auburn
Tuesday, April 08, 2025
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
a gas station on Route 66 in Albuquerque, Sept 1948 was made to look like an iceberg, as a way to get people to stop and come in and buy snacks. The Iceberg began life on May 27, 1931 as a frozen custard stand, and was photographed by the legend, Russell Lee
Note the change from the visible pumps, to the Eire / Wayne type
Mac's Iceberg Cafe and Gas Station, found on East Central Avenue in Albuquerque, was a classic only-in-America, only-on-Route-66 roadside attraction designed to make a spectacle—and a must-stop destination—for tourists. Of course, ice cream and gas were major attractions of their own for weary travelers.
and it was painted by Dennis Ziemienski
Sunday, January 19, 2025
an unusual roadside attraction near the west side of Torch Lake, the Hugh J, Gray Cairn which is located near Kewadin, Michigan, 1/2 way between the North Pole and the equator. Very rare is the man who has seen a monument dedicated to his accomplishments in his lifetime
The exception was Wexford County’s “stone,” which was actually a two-foot-square piece of rubber manufactured at a tire plant with the county’s name engraved on an attached steel plate, because of Cadillac Michigan's fundamental connection with the rubber and automobile industry
The stones were transported free of charge to the site by the Père Marquette and Pennsylvania railroads. Masons from Antrim County and workers from the Michigan Highway Department constructed the cairn.
The monument is 12 feet square at the base and 16 feet high.
On the cairn is a bronze plaque bearing the likeness of Mr. Gray with the inscription “Hugh J. Gray – Dean of Michigan’s Tourist Activity.” Inside the monument is a sealed crypt holding resort booklets and brochures from every section of the state and various Michigan newspapers carrying stories of the dedication and articles of Mr. Gray’s promotional efforts.
Gray recognized the need for a skilled workforce to support the growing tourism industry. He developed hotel management courses at Michigan State College (now Michigan State University)
Classes gave “scientific sales instruction” to persons interested in answering inquiries of tourists, motorists or other travelers. Class attendees included people from hotels, restaurants, gas stations, taxicab companies, railroad companies and bus lines.
Under Hugh Gray’s guidance and thanks to his untiring enthusiasm, the West Michigan tourist industry grew bit by bit, then by leaps and bounds, becoming the second largest industry in the state, bringing in $315 million in 1937, outranking even California in the tourism industry.
the West Michigan Tourist Association. secured the services of Hugh Gray, who was given the title of secretary/manager and paid a salary of $300 per month plus expenses. Responsible for recruiting new members, creating advertisements and promotions, and the day-to-day running of the organization, the secretary/manager was the person who really ran the show.
With an established career and a quarter-century of experience in railroading behind him, Hugh Gray was the right man for the job. He energetically coordinated the efforts of business leaders, transportation companies, hotels and resorts, in order not only to attract visitors to Michigan, but also to make their stays enjoyable.
Born in 1868 in Lakeville, Michigan, Gray was obliged to become a breadwinner at the age of 13 when his father died. At 17 he came to Grand Rapids to take a job as a car sealer for the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railway. Steady advancement carried him five years later to a position as a rate clerk in the passenger department of the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad.
Gray often commented that this job placing him in charge of promotional booklets and advertising, many of which were designed to lure travelers to western Michigan, actually started him on his career in the tourist business.
During his tenure as a Père Marquette Railroad agent, Gray was appointed to the executive board of the Western Michigan Development Bureau.
After Gray cast his lot with the newly formed Michigan Tourist and Resort Association, he bought his first automobile, a Velie, and started driving all over the sand trails of western Michigan, interviewing businessmen and enlisting members.
During his first year with the MTRA, he put 8,000 hard, dusty miles on his car and raised about $4,000 for advertising and promotion.
Appeals were made to resort owners, hotel operators, garage managers, wholesalers, retailers, public utilities, chambers of commerce and civic organizations throughout western Michigan to become members of the new organization.
Gray created a “scientific publicity campaign” with advertisements in 90 midwestern and southern newspapers. Concentrated on an area that encompassed Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha and Chicago, the advertisements paid off royally, attracting an estimated 80 to 90 percent of all vacationers to Michigan in the association’s early years.
The MTRA later advertised in national magazines such as Colliers, the Saturday Evening Post and Life.
Gray also arranged for the state highway commission to furnish the association with weekly bulletins regarding road conditions, detours and other travel information to be passed on to its members and inquiring travelers. He urged the state health department to have its traveling laboratories monitor sanitary conditions, clean water, good milk and food at hotels, resorts, restaurants and public bathing beaches.
Much of Gray’s successful boosterism had ripple effects. In the 1920s and 1930s many lakeshore counties saw their resort properties double thanks to the construction of family cottages and resort facilities. Almost every county in West Michigan saw an increase in its property tax revenues from vacation homes. Retail sales soared during the summer months, bringing a new prosperity to many small towns whose merchants were only too happy to supply the vacation essentials such as fishing tackle, bathing suits, cameras and compasses, which, according to a 1927 survey, many forgetful tourists were apt to leave at home.
Gray and the association played a leading part in the promotion and development of the state park system. He anticipated the motor-camping craze of the 1920s and recommended that the state parks provide camping facilities for the convenience of motorists. He encouraged the state park system to supply maps indicating available facilities for campers, including amenities such as fresh water, firewood and comfort stations.
The cairn is located at approximately the 45th parallel.
The cairn was a major roadside attraction in its first years, but its popularity faded after 1955 when US-31 was routed more directly north out of Elk Rapids. The old US-31 was renamed the Cairn Highway in honor of the monument.
In the early 1970s, a group of wealthy Michigan outdoorsmen and big game hunters plotted a route across the state to promote tourism and interest in outdoor opportunities along the 45th Parallel.
The Michigan Polar-Equator club formed sometime in 1965, with archery legend Fred Bear among the founders.
the above, is Fred Bear, who bought this 1915 Indian motorcycle when he was 17, for 35 dollars raised by selling furs. Bear is known as the "Father of Bowhunting" and is considered one of the greatest bowhunters of all time, he founded the Bear Archery company. Nugent wrote a song about him.
At the age of 29, Bear embarked on his first hunt, igniting a passion for bowhunting that would later define his legacy. In 1933, this passion led him to start his own company where he created revolutionary products - his most famous being the first fiberglass take-down bow - that pioneered the way for modern bowhunting.
At the time it was mostly a social club for world trophy hunters. As time passed, the club settled on an objective to “establish and maintain a trail across the State of Michigan as close to the 45th parallel as possible.”
Over the next decade the club erected 200 trail markers and successfully lobbied the state legislature to declare the trail a significant tourist attraction.
They placed bluebird houses on the trail also, and on many of the mile marker signs. This is a project supported by the MP-EC to help promote preservation of the "Trail signs." The MP-EC Trail mile marker signs and Bluebird houses have been installed and maintained exclusively through the financial and volunteer efforts of the members of the Michigan Polar-Equator Club.
Other members of the 45th club -- Minneapolis, Yellowstone National Park in Montana, Hokkaido, Japan
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10212457401787067&set=gm.1697360214177230&idorvanity=157059191540681
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