Roadside attraction

A roadside attraction is a feature along the side of a road, that is frequently advertised with billboards to attract tourists. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere else, rather than being a final or primary destination in and of themselves. The modern tourist-oriented highway attraction originated as a U.S. and Western Canadian phenomenon in the 1940s to 1960s, and subsequently caught on in Australia.

History

When long-distance road travel became practical and popular in the late 1930s, entrepreneurs began building restaurants, motels, coffee shops, and more unusual businesses to attract travelers. Many of the buildings took the form of common objects of enormous size (see Novelty architecture), often advertising the items sold there, and became attractions in themselves. Some other types of Roadside Attractions include monuments and pseudo-scientific amusements such as the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot.

With the building of the U.S. interstate highway system in the mid-1950s, most roadside attractions were by-passed and quickly went out of business. But the most famous remained attractive enough to travelers to make them leave the comfort of the interstate highway for a brief time and thus keep the attraction in business.

See also

• List of World's Largest Roadside Attractions
• Tourist trap
• Another Roadside Attraction
• Novelty architecture
• Australia's big things
• Giants of the Prairies

External links

• World's Largest Roadside Attractions
• Roadside America
• Large Canadian Roadside Attractions
• Photos Of Roadside Attractions
• Wacky Roadside Attractions - slideshow by Life magazine
• Roadside America: The Decline Of Kitsch? by NPR
• The American Roadside: Photos, news and updates on America's fading roadside attractions
• “Roadside Attractions”, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
• Tacky Tourist Photos