Georgia

National

  • Andersonville National Historic Site
  • Appalachian National Scenic Trail (GA to ME)
  • Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
  • Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (GA, TN)
  • Cumberland Island National Seashore
  • Fort Frederica National Monument
  • Fort Pulaski National Monument
  • Jimmy Carter National Historic Site
  • Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park
  • Martin Luther King Jr National Historical Park
  • Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park

Obscura

  • Atlanta
    • Doll’s Head Trail, Atlanta – Just a few miles from downtown Atlanta is a trail covered in a crazy collection of outsider art.
    • CDC Museum, Atlanta – Tour the sci-fi-esque reality of governmental disease management.
    • Junkman’s Daughter, Atlanta – This massive store is home to an eccentric collection of vintage, retro, and peculiar goods.
    • Krog Street Tunnel, Atlanta – An underground magnet for ever-changing street art.
    • Westview Cemetery, Atlanta – The largest cemetery in the American Southeast is a hidden gem near the heart of Atlanta.
    • BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Atlanta, Lilburn – This intricate Hindu temple is the largest of its kind outside of India itself and was constructed like a giant puzzle.
    • The Dwarf Castle, Alpharetta – A man’s home is his castle.
    • Cascade Springs Nature Preserve, Atlanta – Healing Springs that once ran red with soldiers’ blood.
    • 54 Columns, Atlanta – Atlanta’s strange assortment of concrete pillars inspires reflection in some, confusion in others.
    • Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta – The largest puppetry museum in the USA houses the world’s most complete collection of Jim Henson artifacts.
    • Hindu Temple of Atlanta, Riverdale – A vision of beautiful Hindu architecture in the middle of the American South.
    • Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta – Civil War soldiers, captains of industry, and paupers all interred on historic grounds.
    • Mount Olive Cemetery, Atlanta – This small cemetery is all that remains of Atlanta’s first Black communities.
    • Gravity Research Foundation Monument, Atlanta – This stone is a marker of one millionaire’s personal vendetta against gravity.
    • Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama, Atlanta History Center, Atlanta – The Battle of Atlanta in 360 degrees, featuring a corpse that bears a striking resemblance to Clark Gable.
    • Arabia Mountain, Lithonia – the Stone Mountain twin
    • Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, Atlanta – One of the world’s largest collections of paper memorabilia chronicles 4,000 years of papermaking.
    • The 747 Experience, Atlanta – One-of-a-kind museum inside the first Boeing 747-400 ever made.
    • The Elvis Shrine Vault, Atlanta – An old bank vault in Atlanta, is now the eternal shrine of Elvis Presley.
    • Folk Art Park, Atlanta – A psychedelic tribute to one of Georgia’s most unique artistic visionaries, out of place and time in the heart of Atlanta.
    • Wat Lao Buddha Phothisaram, Conley – An ornate Buddhist temple located in an Atlanta suburb, built by and for the Laotian community.
    • ‘Autoeater’, Atlanta
  • Georgia Guidestones, Elberton – A mysterious monument meant to be a guide into “an Age of Reason.”
  • Savannah
    • The Paris Market, Savannah – This quirky curiosity shop takes its cues from the world’s bazaars.
    • Colonial Park Cemetery, Savannah – One of Savannah’s oldest and most haunted cemeteries, featuring graves desecrated by Sherman’s Union Army.
    • Rousakis Plaza Echo Square, Savannah – “X” marks the spot of an echo chamber in the middle of a plaza.
    • A Century of Hats, Savannah – Tucked away inside a historic Savannah hotel is a hundred-year history presented in ladies’ lids.
    • American Prohibition Museum, Savannah – Performers, intricate sets, and a real speakeasy tell the story of the 18th Amendment.
    • Pin Point Heritage Museum, Savannah – A unique museum dedicated to the Gullah-Geechee people, housed within an old oyster cannery.
    • Graveface Museum, Savannah – Hidden amid the old-world charm of Savannah is a museum dedicated to the world of oddities and criminal history.
    • The Bonaventure Jogger, Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah – An eerie smiling woman looms above the granite tombstones.
    • Grave of Gracie Watson, Savannah
  • Toccoa River Swinging Bridge, Suches – They call this long foot bridge a swinging bridge, but really it’s the bouncing you have to watch out for.
  • Providence Canyon State Outdoor Recreation Area, Lumpkin – Bad farming practices caused this unnatural natural wonder.
  • “Eye of God” rapid, Chattooga River, Clayton – A curious whirlpool formation supposedly capable of entangling or engulfing branches, tree trunks, or whole rafts full of hapless tourists.
  • The New Manchester Manufacturing Company, Lithia Springs – The ruins of a cotton mill that was burned in the Civil War are still hidden in a Georgia forest.
  • Pasaquan, Buena Vista – This folk art compound was built by a fortune teller on the advice of three people from the future.
  • Expedition Bigfoot (The Sasquatch Museum), Cherry Log – Home of an impressive collection dedicated to the mythical beast.
  • Etowah Indian Mounds, Cartersville – These ancient ritual mounds are our best window into the culture of the ancient Mississippians.
  • Lunch Box Museum, Columbus – A stockpile of childhood lunch pails turned collectibles.
  • Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens, Summerville – This “Plant Farm Museum” is home to the divinely inspired and visionary outsider artwork of Reverend Howard Finster.
  • Jimmy Carter Smiling Peanut, Plains – This 13-foot smiling peanut in Georgia helped Jimmy Carter win the 1976 presidential election.
  • Rock Garden Calhoun, Calhoun – Incredible miniature towns and buildings created and decorated with thousands of tiny rocks.
  • Monkey Massacre Memorial, Johns Creek – The statues commemorate the legendary mass killing of escaped circus monkeys.
  • Crowley Mausoleum, Decatur – Developers built a Walmart around one family’s plot and constructed a mausoleum in the parking lot.
  • St. Marys Submarine Museum, St. Marys – Interactive modern and vintage submarine equipment, World War II relics, and submarine attire.
  • Goats On The Roof, Tiger – Happiness is a goat on a roof.
  • Brasstown Bald, Blairsville – Georgia’s highest point was given its strange name thanks to a simple translation error.
  • Big Chicken, Marietta – Giant chicken
  • Fort Frederica, Saint Simons Island – The remnants of the fortress that saved Georgia from the Spanish still stand guard on their swampy island.
  • Titan I Missile, Cordele – A real (but thankfully not live) missile stands tall as a monument to the United States military in the small town of Cordele.
  • Giant Peanut Monument, Ashburn – Sometimes there’s only one way to prove how proud you are of something so small – build a monument to tell the world.
  • The Big House (Allman Brothers Museum), Macon – The house that Southern rock built now stands as a monument to one of the genre’s favorite families.
  • SamG Land, Clarkesville – A wonderland of folk art including the World’s Largest Grit.
  • Computer Museum of America, Roswell – A vast collection of rare, historical, and vintage supercomputers.
  • Vidalia Onion Museum, Vidalia – A sweet tribute to Georgia’s official state vegetable
  • Jefferson Davis Capture Site, Fitzgerald – The site where Confederate president Jefferson Davis was defeated has been marked with a bust… that leaves that part out.
  • Georgia Rural Telephone Museum, Leslie – Oldest and rarest examples of telecommunication in the world.
  • Elberton Granite Museum, Elberton – Home of Dutchy, an exhumed Confederate statue that was once torn down by an angry mob for looking stupid.
  • Cow Tower, Conyers – A herd of plastic cows hangs out under this transmission tower in rural Georgia
  • Memory Park Christ Chapel, Townsend – Dubbed the “smallest church in America,” this tiny sanctuary was a local grocer’s dream come true.
  • Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village & Discovery Center, Americus

References