Guidebooks are annoying. Just because some editor who doesn’t know me tells me which restaurant is the best or what attraction is a must-see doesn’t make it a must-see attraction. Sightseers’ Delight is dedicated to the weird, the quirky and the fun. After all, traveling is fun.
If it’s not, you’re doing it wrong.
All of the places highlighted in this ever-growing database are great. Sightseers’ Delight has visited them all. We think you should make a point to see every one of them. But, this is not a guidebook. Just a webpage to help you plan your next adventure.
The Interurban Railway Museum in Plano, Texas, was completed in 1908 by the Texas Electric Railway as its Plano station. The railway used the building until 1948, when it ceased operations, and it stood vacant until 1990, when the city of Plano renovated the building for use as the Interurban Railway Museum. The museum is home to Texas Electric Railway No. 360, a restored car. The Plano Conservancy for Historic Preservation has operated the museum since 2001.
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The Ruth Paine House Museum opened on November 6, 2013. The city of Irving purchased Ruth Paine’s small suburban home in 2009 to preserve the home’s history surrounding the tragedy. Half a century later, the historic home was restored to its 1963 look and transformed into a multimedia museum to interpret what happened in November 1963. On November 21, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald went to the house for an overnight visit with his wife and kids, who had been living with Paine. This was unusual as Oswald usually visited on the weekends. Video images projected onto glass panes depict actors re-creating certain moments, such as when Paine was shocked to hear Marina tell a police officer that her husband owned a gun. Paine lived in the house until 1966 and now resides in California.
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Mustangs of Las Colinas is a bronze sculpture in the Las Colinas area of Irving, Texas. The Robert Glen sculpture, commissioned in 1976 and installed in 1984, portrays a group of nine wild mustangs at one-and-a-half times life-size. The mustangs are running through a watercourse, and fountains make it appear that the animals’ hooves are splashing water.
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Founded in 1962, the Museum of the American Railroad is a not-for-profit Texas corporation dedicated to celebrating the heritage and exploring the future of railroads through historic preservation, research and educational programming. The Museum moved to its current location in Frisco in 2012. The Museum collects artifacts and archival material from the railroad industry to exhibit and interpret their significance in American life and culture.
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Baccus Cemetery in Plano, Texas, dates to 1847 when Henry Cook established the cemetery to bury his son, Daniel. The cemetery was initially known as Cook Cemetery. After Cook died in 1862, his daughter, Rachel, acquired the land, and in 1878, she deeded it to Cook’s heirs for use as a cemetery and a church, Baccus Christian Church. While the church was later abandoned, the cemetery, named Baccus Cemetery in about 1915, is still in use.
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Highland Cemetery was established in 1908 and is the final resting place of many early Okemah, Oklahoma, leaders. It also contains the family burial plot of the family of legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie. Although he is not buried here, a cenotaph is located in Highland Cemetery in his honor. Guthrie’s mother, Nora Belle Sherman Guthrie, and father, Charley Guthrie, are buried here, as is his sister, Clara Edna Guthrie, brother, Lee Roy Guthrie, and one of his sons, Bill Roger Guthrie.
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Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza is named in honor of the “Father of Route 66.” Avery, a Pennsylvania native, created the route while serving on a federal board tasked with creating the Federal Highway System. He pushed for establishing the U.S. Highway 66 Association to pave and promote the highway. n late 2012, artist Robert Summers unveiled a sculpture titled “East Meets West.” The detailed 135 percent-scale bronze depicts Avery stopping his Ford on the 11th Street Bridge as the vehicle startled a pair of horses pulling a wagon loaded with oil barrels.
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Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios is a souvenir shop celebrating Route 66. Visitors often visit the shop, housed in a renovated 1950s PEMCO gas station, for a chance to see Buck Atom, a 21-foot-tall space cowboy-themed “muffler man.” Buck Atom debuted in Tulsa in 2019.
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