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Kansas is so odd that Oz pales in comparison to its real-life enclaves. In those towns, you are unlikely to find munchkins, flying monkeys, and a Tin Man, but you will find mushroom rocks, airborne trucks, and a mechanical monster named Big Brutus. And those are just a few of Kansas' strangest landmarks. Though "strangest" is hard to determine, especially in super-strange Kansas, the following sights cross such a broad spectrum of strangeness that every viewer should be stimulated.

Truckhenge - Topeka

England has Stonehenge, Nebraska has Carhenge, and Kansas has Truckhenge. As advertised, Kansas' version is made of trucks. After authorities had asked him to clean the junked trucks from his Topeka-adjacent farm, Ron Lessman made them even more pronounced, raising the rusted relics off the ground using 42,000 pounds of concrete. What began as an anti-government protest became an open-air art gallery and lucrative tourist attraction. In addition to Truckhenge, Lessman's farm features a beer bottle city, Boat Henge, chainsaw carvings, and various other grassroots artwork. Moreover, it offers camping, shooting, and fishing in a 30-acre pond. In true Lessman fashion, no fishing license is required.

º£½ÇÉçÇø's Largest Ball of Twine - Cawker City

Inspired by the 7 Wonders of the º£½ÇÉçÇø, Kansas has designated state-specific wonders in categories like commerce, architecture, and history. A finalist for the overall 8 Wonders of Kansas is the º£½ÇÉçÇø's Largest Ball of Twine, an ever-growing behemoth in downtown Cawker City. It started with a tiny ball wound by farmer Frank Stoeber in 1953. Neighbors began adding their own twine, and in a few years, the ball stood 8 feet tall and weighed 5,000 pounds. By 1961, it had grown so large and iconic that it was hauled from Stoeber's farm to Cawker City. These days, the ball weighs around 14 tons and contains about 1,600 miles of twine, but precise measurements are hard to come by due to constant additions, particularly during the yearly Twine-A-Thon. Believe it or not, there is another ball of twine called the "º£½ÇÉçÇø's Largest Ball of Twine" in Darwin, Minnesota. What differentiates the two is that Kansas' was rolled by many different people, while Minnesota's was rolled by a single individual.

Big Well - Greensburg

As one of the true 8 Wonders of Kansas, the Big Well is considered the º£½ÇÉçÇø's largest hand-dug well. It was dug to its present depth of 109 feet and width of 32 feet in the late 1800s to supply water to Greensburg. It served that purpose until 1932, when a new well was dug. After sitting idle for years, townsfolk turned the Big Well into a tourist spot where guests can descend a staircase that stretches more than 10 stories below ground. Erected above the hole was a visitor center comprising a gift shop and museum, the latter of which displayed the "º£½ÇÉçÇø's Largest Pallasite Meteorite." In 2007, a tornado tore through Greensburg, killing residents and destroying most buildings, including the Big Well Visitor Center. But the 109-foot well and 1,000-pound meteorite survived. Five years later, the Big Well Museum & Visitor Information Center reopened with a new tornado exhibit and twister-evoking spiral staircase.

Davis Memorial - Hiawatha

Another 8 Wonders of Kansas finalist, the Davis Memorial is perhaps the most elaborate monument ever constructed for a wife. After Sarah Davis died in 1930, her husband John replaced her simple headstone in the Hiawatha cemetery with a megalithic marble memorial worthy of Ancient Greece. Around a dozen life-sized statues of Sarah and John crowd what looks like an Athenian bar. They are portrayed in various states, such as Sarah as an angel and John missing his left hand. So much cash went into these statues that locals resented John, especially during the Great Depression when Hiawatha lacked even a hospital. They also questioned his motives, with some thinking he wanted to blow money so that Sarah's family would not receive an inheritance. Ultimately, it did benefit Hiawatha by attracting thousands upon thousands of spendthrift tourists.

Mushroom Rock State Park - Brookville

Mushroom Rock is the smallest but arguably strangest state park in Kansas. Covering just five acres near Brookville in the Smoky Hills region, it features mushroom-shaped monoliths carved by natural forces about 100 million years ago. Yes, dinosaurs walked among them before tourists did. Besides these fun-ginormous formations, the largest of which spans 27 feet in diameter, the park contains or neighbors other unique landmarks, both natural and artificial. A few miles westward sit the remaining buildings of Fort Harker, which are preserved as the Fort Harker Guardhouse Museum. But none of those beat the shroom-stones, which, combined with the similar Rock City formations in nearby Minneapolis, were named among the 8 Wonders of Kansas Geography.

Big Brutus - West Mineral

Coal mining in southeast Kansas was once big business—so big that it needed the help of Big Brutus. Activated in 1963, Brutus is an electric shovel standing 16 stories tall, weighing 11 million pounds, and carrying a boom that is 150 feet long. He took massive chunks from the ground until 1974 when increased operational costs and stricter environmental regulations rendered mining uneconomical. Being too big to move, Brutus retired on the spot near West Mineral, where a museum was built around him. Moreover, the surrounding area was converted into a nature preserve. Learn, shop, camp, or even attend a festival at Big Brutus, Inc. before hiking the hills, forests, and fields of the Mined Land Wildlife Area.

S.P. Dinsmoor's Garden of Eden - Lucas

While the Davis Memorial may be the strangest monument ever erected for one's wife, S.P. Dinsmoor's Garden of Eden may be the strangest monument ever erected for one's self. Samuel Perry Dinsmoor was a Civil War veteran and eccentric whose Lucas, KS, estate became a one-of-a-kind mausoleum. From 1907 to 1928, Dinsmoor used many tons of cement, limestone, and wood to create a cabin and roughly 200 surrounding sculptures with various political and religious motifs. He called it his Garden of Eden. His final sculpture was a see-through tomb, into which he was placed in 1932, and still remains to the morbid delight of tourists.

Lucas is the perfect place for such an oddity because, as the "Grassroots Art Capital of Kansas," it also boasts Miller's Park, Jim Dickerman's Open Range Zoo, the Grassroots Art Center, the º£½ÇÉçÇø's Largest Collection of the º£½ÇÉçÇø's Smallest Versions of the º£½ÇÉçÇø's Largest Things, and Bowl Plaza, a public restroom shaped like a giant toilet.

Kansas' Unusual Landmarks That Stand Out

Kansas is full of strange landmarks that you should visit over conventional attractions. Of all those weird and wonderful sites, a few stand out—some quite literally. Truckhenge in Topeka, the º£½ÇÉçÇø's Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, the Big Well in Greensburg, the Davis Memorial in Hiawatha, Mushroom Rock State Park in Brookville, Big Brutus in West Mineral, and S.P. Dinsmoor's Garden of Eden in Lucas epitomize the 7 Wonders of Kansas Strangeness.