The worst attraction in every state (according to my IG followers) pic.twitter.com/qQFrztEyTs
— Matt Shirley (@mattsurely) August 20, 2020
We could have been Rhode Island...
August 22, 2020
Speaking for Wisconsin, I'm glad it doesn't get any worse than Wisconsin Dells.
We could have been Rhode Island...
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The big blue bug is not an attraction but a well placed promotion. LOVE it! He gets gussied up at holidays and sporting events just like the ducklings in the public garden
The Dells has glass in their windows.
The Grand Canyon?
The Old Man of the Mountain (NH) is a beautiful spot, but the face itself collapsed in 2003, not sure it really still counts as an attraction. Also, how is the Grand Canyon on this list?
I’ve been to Carhenge. It’s great.
My kids loved going to the Dells. Some great family memories from there.
A ridiculous list. Disney is a great attraction as are Williamsburg, Grand Canyon, Times Square and (Remains of) Old Man in NH. Typical IG users to be so daft.
In MA Plymouth Rock us second to the Ted Kennedy museum.
Now a Ted Kennedy amusement park- that would be something. Consider the thrill rides...
Evidently the scorekeepers didn't visit the House on the Rock.
I drive through RI all the time--the Big Blue Bug on I-95 is a hoot. (Brief pause for a comment on definitions: I wouldn't call it "an attraction." It's not a destination in itself, just a thing you are often stuck in traffic near along the S curves south of Providence). In the summer it wears giant sunglasses; in the winter it sports reindeer antlers and a red nose.
Yeah, Ed Geen's place would be a better choice.
We did a little mini covid get away in SW Wisconsin, two weeks ago. We found the famous Hydes Mill, again. We first came across it ~38 years ago. Pretty sweet mill. It has stood up well for the last almost 4 decades.
San Jacinto on a warm day in August beats the Alamo in Texas, but that is more an historic site than an attraction, and unknown to most out-of-state visitors.
Agree rehajm. To me, Plymouth Rock is the worst, totally made up 'artifact'. How about the Hood Milk Bottle, Hilltop Cactus, or Orange Dinosaur? Way better.
I don't believe the person or persons that made that list has ever been to the places on the list. I think it was driven by bias. Multiple biases. It probably takes a different kind of person to hate the Grand Canyon and Stone Mountain.
Their next list will be worst places to visit in the Galaxy with the moon as the worst place in the solar system
I like the Alamo, especially when they have reenactors there. Plus you can hop down to Riverwalk and have a great meal (or a really touristy one, if you choose - it's just that my husband dearly loves to eat next to water, even if it's just a few feet of water you wouldn't want to fall into) afterwards.
Well, if the Grand Canyon is the worst we have to offer here in AZ, what can I say?
I've also been to Field of Dreams in Iowa and it is fab. I've gone out of my way to see it. People come from all over the world to see it.
Who made this list?
Stone Mountain is a beautiful park. I guess underground Atlanta doesn’t even rate as a tourist attraction anymore. Cause that was some nasty shit.
Rouse DevelopMent on this one big guy.
Say what you want to about the Rocky statue, but thousands of people a day get their picture taken next to it. Say that about any other feature of Pennsylvania.
To argue with the selections, just say what is worse in that state. I took it as a positive thing that there's no attraction in the state worse than the Dells.
By the way, the House on the Rock rules.
The Mall of America? My God, there's a large ball of twine less than an hour west of the Twin Cities and they chose the Mall of America?
The MOA isn't really special as far as malls go, but it's not particularly bad either.
The Grand Canyon? That's nuts for this list.
The Fonzie statue in downtown Milwaukee is pretty cringe-worthy. However, I doubt anybody besides Henry Winkler travels to Wisconsin to see it.
Having just seen your rule about naming what is worse in the state: worse than the Grand Canyon in AZ- I will start with any golf course.
AZ must be pretty cool.
Although a statue of Fonzie jumping the shark would have been appropriate outside of the Dem convention.
The Old Man of the Mountain fell off in 2003. It isn't missed.
Althouse 7:48 - similarly with Graceland in TN. It’s pretty cheesy but if that’s the worst one, that’s a good ad for TN.
And cheesy or not, everyone should see it just because it’s a piece of our history and culture.
I never heard of Matt Shirley, but he cancelled himself and his followers in one post.
I happened to see that before I came to Althouse this morning. I wanted to see the worst attraction in Michigan.
Mystery Spot?
Aptly named, I guess. No idea.
Picking The Old Man of the Mountain for New Hampshire Is just mean. The worst is Hampton Beach.
The Big Blue Bug is the only think in Rhode Island worth seeing as you drive the Interstate through Providence.
I would think the Chamberlin Rock on the Madison campus would be #1. It's so horrible racist that people what it removed!
If you want the worst in AZ, I would suggest any day in August that is not raining.
The "bean" in downtown Chicago is a neat thing to visit. The Collinsville catsup bottle should replace it.
What is worse?
The crookedest street in the US at Burlington
Bridges of Madison County.
The Matchstick display in Gladbrook
Billy the Kids house over by Comanche
Boyhood home of Johnny Carson
Salt and Pepper Shaker collection in Traer
The Swinging Bridge in Columbus Jct/Columbus City
The Grotto of West Bend
The Home town of Captian James Kirk, in Riverside
There are a variety of museums that are worse than Field of Dreams
list is getting long, depressing, so I'll stop
While I've never seen Carhenge in person, the concept is pretty cool.
Pretty obviously this list tends towards snark. I guess it's encouraging that there's obviously not enough wrong with this country to make people be serious, starting with the host of the Instagram.
I have great fondness for The Dells. I was born there. My mother grew up there and I have relatives who still live there.
A few decades ago, my ex-wife and I were visiting and entered one of the ubiquitous souvenir shops on Broadway. We found a framed holographic painting of Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns. When you turned the painting, blood flowed from the crown.
On a positive note, the area has become more of a year round destination with some nice offerings. However, I will always remember it as the tackiest town in America.
The person who wrote this is your typical LA liberal/leftist. Probably Gay. Lots of hate toward anything American:
The Grand Canyon
Williamsburg
The Alamo
And the weird dislike of Elvis! Guess he's too white lower class.
The worst attractions are places that people get roped into visiting, that get sustained by school groups and nursing homes. That describes a lot of local theater. It might be that a good rule of thumb that a bad attraction is one that is eager to send someone to visit YOU.
Visiting Hollywood was the biggest downer of any tourist spot. Went there in early 80s with my parents. Stupidly thought it was a glamorous place due to TV/Movies. Good God, what a dump. It looked like skid row. We drove through Beverly Hills too, to see the "Homes of the Stars". this was very dull. The only interesting thing was the number of Beverly Hills police cars and private security cars. There was one every other block. Those people in Beverly Hills may want *you* to have defund police, but they want plenty of protection for themselves.
Someone tell Nevadans Rte 66 doesn't go through their state.
The Grand Canyon can be a bore, if all you do is go to the South Rim, look at it for five minutes and go back. You need to either hike down to the river and stay at the campsite/hostel OR go on a helicopter/Plane ride OR raft the colorado. I think the INdian reservation has a glass plate that allows you walk out over the rim and look down into the Canyon. Too scary for me, but others have enjoyed it.
For a truly tacky attraction in AZ, I offer Rawhide, a very fake Old West “town”, but I’m not sure it still exists. It’s the kind of place you go once with the kids when they are very young and then never go back. Tombstone might also be a better candidate, but I couldn’t say since I’ve never been there.
Including the Grand Canyon on this map is like naming the Pacific Ocean the worst attraction in California.
I don’t get AZ. The Grand Canyon is spectacular. I could see the meteor crater being on the “oh is that all it is?” list but not the Grand Canyon. How fucked up do you have to be to look upon that feature, especially from the glass overlook the indians built, and go “meh, is that it?
I have seen many of the attractions on the list. Plymouth Rock is in a class by itself. The potato museum was actually fun along with the very inexpensive loaded baked potato which was our lunch that day. The Alamo is a great attraction, just that people do not expect it to be in the downtown of a city. Lastly, viewing the post itself, anyone with a worthless bandana mask which does not cover his nose does not have a reliable group of followers.
To be fair they got CA right. There’s no there there in Hollywood. And it fits the (assumed) theme of drawing people dramatically but then disappointing them. San Fran is catching up.
Grand Canyon - by far the worst offender of the tacky.
/
The geology of the Dells of the Wisconsin River is spectacular.
I LOVED Casa Bonita as a kid. Loved it.
There for an early lunch with pals, then an afternoon at the old Elitch Gardens. Pure heaven as a kid.
Until someone barfs whilst riding the Ferris wheel.
Almost everything in NJ is worse than the shore.
What’s wrong with Casa Bonita? My youngest brothers went there for their birthdays, I think in elementary and junior high. And I took my kid there a couple times in middle school. My grandmother had her duplex a couple miles west of there. My youngest brother has it now. Good friend had his offices in the same shopping center. Dumped a bunch of TVs and monitors there about a decade ago (when you otherwise were having to pay). A lot of memories.
Ann - House on the Rock outside of Spring Green is the freaky deal..
Need lots of stamina for the 3-4 hours walking thru - and if claustrophobia is an issue, don't go.
I think House on the Rock is a Russian agent.
I always joked that the Dells were Wisconsin's version of Gatlinberg.
That said, it's a lame list.
Geographical attractions, some historic attractions perhaps made tacky by hunger for tourist dollars.
Instead of "worst," compare "tackiest" and you'd get a better idea of the actual "worst" between states.
I think this should be an index based on a hype-to-humble disappointment ratio.
Let's face it, a Potato Museum isn't promising you much.
I like the Big Blue Bug. You really don't notice it, however, unless you're passing through Providence on the way to somewhere else, so I don't think it rates as an "attraction".
I love the Gum Wall! It’s the perfect metaphor for the intelligence, ambition, and vision of the electorate of King County.
The Grand Canyon? Seriously? Makes me wonder what indescribably incredible things I’ve been missing on my travels through Arizona.
Should you find yourself in ABQ, The Breaking Bad RV tour is worth every penny.
It is very odd that D.C. is not in the list, given that at its core it is basically a series of tourist sites.
the Big Blue Bug is more than an attraction
...it is a beacon of hope-- soon 95 will have you outta there!
North Pole is a little burgh just south of Fairbanks. Not "The North Pole". Santa Claus House is the attraction.
Okay then- the worst attraction in Rhode Island is 'guido Sunday' at Ballards on Block Island, when all the folks from Pawtucket ride over on the Providence ferry for the day
Carhenge, The Corn Palace and Graceland are awesome. I guess it's possible to be both awesome and the worst attraction in the state, however.
They did get it right with Hollywood. I took my inlaws there because they wanted to see it. I told them in advance that it's a shithole and the only reason we were going was because they wanted to. After a few hours there, they agreed with me.
I, for one, am glad the "Jersey Shore" got the nod. If only the 100,000 people or so that invade my little beach community every summer could be similarly persuaded.
Also, anyone who says "Jersey Shore" doesn't know very much about the coast of NJ beyond what they saw on MTV in the 2010's.
We went to Alabama once just to visit Helen Keller's birthplace.
Didn't see it.
@iowan2
As someone who has been to the Grotto in South Bend (at Notre Dame) hundreds of times, it is quite beautiful. Especially at night when you are there to light a candle and pray for someone...maybe even yourself.
Have never been to, nor heard of, the Grotto of West Bend...
Holiday World is one of the best parks in the US. Kids can be kids. Not on their phones or computers but running around, riding rides, drinking non-stop free soda. Wonder how many people who voted on that list can engineer those coasters or develop that land or create a wonderful and profitable company that gives families a wonderful place to go for a relatively cheap price (compared to something like Disney).
This is a ‘mean girls’ list for a lot of people who lack appreciation for things they could never, ever create in life.
1. Route 66 isn't even in Nevada.
2. Route 66 rocks!
A lot of what makes a tourist site "good" involves what the tourist is interested in, how much time they have, and how much money they are willing to spend. A blue collar family that wants to make day trips is going to have different expectations than a bunch of hipsters to which travel is their primary activity, and a history nerd is going to enjoy particular sites significantly more than a thrill seeker and vice-versa. What I suspect we are seeing here is simply the biases of whomever follows Matt Shirley, whoever he happens to be. (For the record, I can sense the general views of his followers just by looking at the list.)
Not being a big traveler, comparing tourist sites in these states is going to be difficult for me. However, I will share my experiences where applicable:
- Stone Mountain: I'll be honest: the sculpture is underwhelming. From the designated viewing area, the thing seems tiny compared to the mountain it is embedded in. It is possible to get closer than I did, but I didn't have time for that. That said, the site is a general entertainment center now with many, many things to do, all of which I did not have any time, so providing an overall rating is impossible.
- Field of Dreams: If you do not like baseball and you are not a fan of the movie, there's not much here for you. Then again, I'm not sure why you would go there if you were not a baseball fan who liked the movie. There's the ballfield in the corn field and the house and that's about it. I happen to be a fan of both so I had a great team pretending I could play third base. Also, we found a local place to eat off the highway and it's not everyday that you get a legitimate turkey dinner at a buffet. Time well spent.
- Mall of America: It's a mall. It's a really fancy mall with an amusement park and an aquarium and a LEGO Store with gigantic constructions about it and it is so large that it can call part of the place the "Upper East Side" (or was it "West") with the faintest of irony, but it's main purpose is a place to go spend money. That is does very well. I enjoyed my time there. You can spend hours just walking around the place without entering any of the stores, if you want. I also suspect that once winter comes around, an indoor mall with a ton of stuff to do is a wonderful thing. I quite enjoyed the spectacle and I bought some stuff. Works for me.
- Wisconsin Dells: I could only stay there for a few hours and ended up taking a DUCKS Tour, which I thought was fun and a good use of a few hours. Again, it is a large entertainment complex with many things to do. I suspect the locals find it a lot of fun. It seemed more interesting than the Riverwalk in Milwaukee, which was not bad either for burning a couple of hours.
- Hollywood: I got to spend half a day here. It did very much feel like a tourist trap with more souvenir stores than anything else. That said, the Chinese Theatre is very nice - saw a movie there - and Hollywood is more of a central point of a large series of entertainment complexes (Disneyland, Universal Studios, etc.) so rating it by itself seems a bit odd.
- Jersey Shore: Which part, exactly? The Jersey Shore is over a hundred miles from Sandy Hook to Cape May. There's pretty much some part of the shore that works for most people: beaches, swimming, fishing, boating, water sports, boardwalks, arcades, casinos, amusement parks, shopping, lighthouses, and more. Find the spot you like and enjoy it. Saying you do not like the Jersey Shore as a tourist site is like saying you did not like Delaware, in general, as a tourist site, because the gas station you stopped at had stale chips. It's not a serious judgment.
Turns out I've been to several of these.
Some were busts, but.... GRAND CANYON?
GTFOH
AS an Alabama resident I call foul.
Helen Keller's home is interesting, was to me at least.
But Alabama also has a heralded place called the Unclaimed Baggage center. Basically crap that was not picked up at airports. Pathetic.
Plymouth Rock was a letdown. Thinking back on it, I don't know what we expected. It was a rock and it was in Plymouth.
The Cracker observes: I love the Gum Wall! It’s the perfect metaphor for the intelligence, ambition, and vision of the electorate of King County.
You nailed it. [I'm a former Seattle resident] But trust me, Seattle was once a beautiful city with great people. Me, for instance! ;-)
The State Street boarded up mural walk should have been on this list.
The entire New Jersey shore is listed as the worse attraction in the state? The state is surrounded by water, except for its 50-mile northeast boundary with New York. There's a lot of diversity in the 40 or so New Jersey shore towns and probably one to suit anyone who enjoys ocean and beach activities.
What's worse? How about spending some time in Newark, the state's largest city, at the Branch Brook Park roller skating rink, one of the last urban rinks in the U.S.A.? Or a trip into another of New Jersey's blighted cites, Camden, to see the Adventure Aquarium?
I've lived in Oregon for a decade and have never even heard of Voodoo Doughnuts. Myself, I would've picked Exploding Whale Memorial Park.
The Alamo? Fuck all of y'all. Stay in California.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rustic_Road_(Wisconsin)
The Rustic Roads are great, but the damn drunk drivers aren't worth the risk; In fact they're the wurst (brats).
Is it a felony yet to get your 5th or 6th DUI in WI?
You nailed it. [I'm a former Seattle resident] But trust me, Seattle was once a beautiful city with great people. Me, for instance! ;-)
Some interesting data on those leaving blue states.
The flow is mostly from blue states to red states.
And
The transplants from CA voted from Cruz, not Beto.
A CNN exit poll showed that O'Rourke beat Cruz among native Texans, 51 percent to 48 percent. In contrast, 57 percent of people who had moved to Texas said they voted for Cruz, compared to 42 percent who voted for O'Rourke.
Reassuring. The same seems to be the case in spite of leftist propaganda.
I live in North Hollywood. Hollywood is a filthy dump.
The Mystery Spot in Michigan is actually very cool. I visited by chance a long time ago on a trip to Macinaw Island. There must be something in Detroit that is much worse. Like the Detroit Airport. Spooky, because it is so obviously much bigger than they need.
Universal Studios in Florida is worse than Disney, IMHO. Disney was fantastic.
The list is just stupid.
BTW, the Mystery Spot is a fun house where gravity has gone wrong.
“To argue with the selections, just say what is worse in that state. I took it as a positive thing that there's no attraction in the state worse than the Dells.”
—————————-
Ok. The National Mustard Museum in Middleton. Fight me.
“So, why all the fuss? Well, with more than 6,090 mustards from all 50 states and more than 70 countries (and counting), our collection of Mustard History is a sight to behold. From the exquisite Gibbons Collection of mustard pots to antique tins & jars and vintage advertisements, the National Mustard Museum is truly a shining temple to the “King of Condiments”.”
And now for a brief musical interlude:
“Times have changed
And we've often rewound the clock
Since the Puritans got a shock
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.
If today
Any shock they should try to stem
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them. ”
"We went to Alabama once just to visit Helen Keller's birthplace.
Didn't see it."
I hear you.
The Alamo is a great visit right in the middle of downtown San Antonio. People are always surprised by how small it is, but it has quiet dignity.
The worst in Texas has to be the original Six Flags Over Texas amusement park in Arlington, though. Always hot, crowded and dirty. By the way, I won’t be surprised when the cancel culture pressures the amusement park to change its name to “Five Flags” to erase the Confederacy.
Just realized I misread the chart. Plymouth Rock is, in fact, the worst attraction in Massachusetts.
I love the Alamo! But I'm a history nerd.
Alas, I have not been to any of the 50 worst places other than Williamsburg (IIRC the list). Not even Graceland, just 15 minutes drive away. His first nice house, right before G-land, is a ten minute walk from here.
But if it's the WORST attraction in the state, I may have to visit.
Narr
I would have gone with Rock City
Stupid memory. Times Square; Stone Mt.; Bourbon St; EP birthplace, Diamond Crater.
Not a long list.
Narr
But quality!
Voodoo Doughnuts are decent doughnuts qua doughnuts. The fact that their makers insist on shaping them into phalluses etc and giving their creations lewd names lessens the attraction so far as I'm concerned. I used to patronize the store fairly regularly (its downtown location was very convenient to the workplace), and the look on the faces of unsuspecting parents with small children became familiar: suppressed suprise together with consternation ('how do I distract little Jane or Dick from noticing that?'). Run, Sally, run, but nobody pays attention to me.
I'll nominate Kesey nonsense (e.g. Kesey Square and statue in downtown Eugene) as a 'worst attraction' in place of Voodoo. For every one person who is enamored of Kesey's writing there are another twenty or fifty for whom 'Ken Kesey' means illegal drug use and/or 'hippies', both execrable symptoms of the progressive decadence.
I detect that he and his followers despise and feel oh-so superior to most people.
Just noticed. South Carolina gets off with Myrtle Beach? When "South of the Border" is easily the trashiest, most not-so-innocently racist "attraction" on the entire East Coast? The actual place is nothing, but the billboards that start in at least a hundred miles north of the thing are just ... ew.
My family used to commute every Christmas from NY to Sanibel Island, FL, and the way it worked out was that we left at 6 a.m. or so, reached SOTB around midnight, and got to Sanibel late the next afternoon. So it was a major get-out-and-stretch point for us, and we'd watch the road signs into the dark, counting down the miles.
The mascot of the whole deal was, of course, "Pedro," and giant neon sombreros were everywhere. Bleh.
Looks like a list put together by hipsters.
Sea Lion Caves in Oregon should have received an honorable mention because you take a smelly elevator to a smelly cave to look at some smelly seals while a worker puts a bumper sticker on your car to draw in the next sucker.
This is a snooty list. Florida is littered with magestic tacky sites. The mermaids still perform at Weeki Watchee. The actor pretending to be a Greek deep sea diver still pretends to dive into 4' water in an antique wetsuit and emerge with sea sponge at Tarpon Springs. The Giant's boot in Carnyville (Gibtown). Amateur Professional wrestling. Estero, where the cultists built a giant compass-y thing on the beach to prove we live inside the earth's surface, not on it. I could go on.
Georgia has the Polio museum with vintage photos of little children waving from inside iron lungs.
I guess I'm writing about tributes to the human spirit.
I do think Biltmore Mansion in Asheville was a gigantic, expensive ripoff.
Obviously, the author hasn't been to the https://www.thehouseontherock.com/
The Idaho Potato Museum has to come off the list if only for the accompanying slogan (On a large billboard on the highway) which reads "Free taters for out-of-staters". If you visit the museum, they'll deliver on that promise.
Looks like Elvis is the only individual with two WORSTs to his credit!
Narr
He wasn't The King for nothing
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