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 Woody Guthrie Center, opened in 2013, is dedicated to spreading Woody Guthrie’s message of diversity, equality and justice to a new generation who can create their own ripples of change. The center honors Guthrie’s life and legacy by educating visitors, teachers, students and scholars about his relevance today and his important role in American history through on-site programming, classroom materials, youth music programs, artist-in-residence programs, school outreach, internships, fellowship opportunities and the Woody Guthrie Archives.
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The Brooks Catsup Bottle Water Tower, best known as The World’s Largest Catsup Bottle, is the quintessential roadside attraction. Located south of Collinsville, Illinois, the roughly 70-foot-tall former water tower was built in 1949 by the W.E. Caldwell Co. Over the years, there have apparently been numerous offers to donate the landmark, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, to the city. They didn’t pan out, and in 2015, the owner of an O’Fallon, Ill., purchased the large bottle.
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The World’s Largest Chair was first built in the early 1920s when the city was know known as “The Chair Town.” That was in large part to the Thomasville Chair Co. The original chair, a 30-foot-tall replica of a Duncan Phyfe armchair, was erected in 1922. The chair — made of lumber and Swiss steer hide — was scrapped in 1936, less than two decades after it originally appeared. However, circa 1950, local organizations built a new chair out of concrete. The city apparently covered the cost of the base while contributions covered the cost to construct the chair. The chair was refurbished in 1993 and re-dedicated in 2001. Over the years, the chair has been considered the world’s largest, a title that could be disputed.
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The World’s Largest Chest of Drawers, also know as the Bureau of Information, was built in 1926 as a way to bring some attention to High Point, the Furniture Capital of the World. The building, modeled after a 19th-century dresser, stands 32 feet tall. It was renovated in 1996. The building features a pair of six-foot-tall socks dangling from one of the drawers.
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The 23-foot-tall, 24-foot-wide World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock was built in 1972. The clock sits in the heart of the Swiss-themed village of Sugarcreek, Ohio. The town is sometimes called “The Little Switzerland of Ohio.” A cuckoo bird pops out of the clock every 30 minutes, and a small automated band performs Swiss polka music as a couple dances. The Guinness Book of World Records featured the clock on its cover in 1977. It moved to its current location in 2012.
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Anyone who says the judiciary does not loom large over society has never been to downtown Columbus. Artist Andrew Scott designed the 30-foot-long stainless steel gavel that today sits outside the Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center, which is home to the Ohio Supreme Court. The gavel was installed in 2008.
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World’s Fair Park in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, opened in 1982 on a former railroad yard site. The park was the site of the 1982 World’s Fair, officially known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition (KIEE), which opened on May 1, 1982, and closed on October 31, 1982, and welcomed more than 11 million visitors. The Sunsphere and the Tennessee Amphitheater, the two remaining structures from the exposition, are located in the park.
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Pharmacist John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886. The original World of Coca-Cola opened in Atlanta in 1991, but was upgraded in its current location near Centennial Olympic Park in May 2007. The 35,000-square-foot exhibition features the largest collection of Coke memorabilia, a 4-D theater and a bottling operation that produces eight ounce commemorative bottles for guests.
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President George W. Bush, using the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906, created the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument on Dec. 5, 2008. The centerpiece of the monument is Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. The monument is also home to the Battleship Missouri, the last battleship commissioned by the United States and was the site of the Japanese surrender on Sept 2, 1945, marking the end of World War II.
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Wrigley Field is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of two Major League Baseball franchises in the Windy City. The stadium opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman’s Chicago Whales of the Federal League. The team folded after the 1915 season.
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