What is Kansas known for? For some, it’s Elvis Presley’s underwear, rocks shaped like mushrooms and a sculpture of a troll hidden beneath a storm grate.
These tourist attractions and others illustrate how Kansas can be “mind-bending in its own weird way,” says the website atlasobscura.com.
“Kansas is full of treasures that are sure to make you do a double take,” said an article featured on that site.
That piece, titled “10 Places to Trip Way Out in Kansas,” highlighted the following oddities.
Park features rocks resembling mushrooms
Rocks resembling mushrooms “seem to arise out of nowhere” at Mushroom Rock State Park northwest of Marquette in Ellsworth County in central Kansas, said atlasobscura.com.
The 5-acre park features “rare Dakota sandstone concretions, up to 27 feet in diameter, deposited 100 million years ago and since exposed by the relentless forces of erosion,” said the website for the 8 Wonders of Kansas Geography, of which the park is a part.
“The park was named, somewhat obviously, for its mushroom rocks, formations that occur when hard rock sits atop softer rock that erodes away over time, leaving the harder rock perched precariously on a soft rock ‘stem,'” said atlasobscura.com.
Museum of Odd items include Elvis Presley’s underwear
The Museum of Odd, maintained by artist Randy Walker in his home at 1012 New York in Lawrence, features celebrity memorabilia that includes Elvis Presley’s underwear and DNA, Charles Manson’s signature, Bob Barker’s toothbrush, a rock Helen Keller touched, and a piece of elephant poop painted to look like Adolph Hitler — and dubbed “Adolph Shitler.”
The museum is open by appointment only.
“Step inside and you’ll find shelves and tables packed with a bizarre blend of trinkets, including hundreds of sock monkeys, bottlecap people, aluminum cans turned into blossoming flowers, toothpick cabinets, and more,” said atlasobscura.com.
A sock monkey is a stuffed toy resembling a monkey, traditionally made from socks.
Wichita Troll sculpture hides beneath storm grate
“Without a plaque or any other indicator, the hidden troll lies in wait, chained beneath an unassuming storm grate in Wichita,” said atlasobscura.com. “Known as ‘The Wichita Troll‘ for lack of a proper name, this gruesome sculpture is a well-kept local secret — most visitors walk right over it and never know it is there.”
At night, the website said, “a sickly green light illuminates the 7-foot-tall creature.”
The bronze sculpture was installed in 2007 by Wichita artist Connie Ernbatt at 720 Nims N as part of an effort to revitalize Wichita’s riverside area, the site said.
Here are the other trippiest attractions in Kansas
The other seven trippy Kansas attractions on atlasobscura.com’s list are as follows:
- Truckhenge, a Topeka folk art park featuring vehicles sticking out of the ground in homage to England’s Stonehenge.
- Wamego’s Oz Museum, which capitalizes on the Sunflower State’s enduring fame as being the home of Dorothy, the central character in the 1900 book and 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.”
- The former Atlas nuclear missile silo at Wamego, which atlasobscura.com said was “once home to the most prolific LSD manufacturer in the United States, William Leonard Pickett.”
- The World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things, at Lucas in Russell County in north-central Kansas.
- Jim Dickerman’s Open Range Zoo, where full-sized sculptures of animals are situated along the grass in the area of Lincoln in Lincoln County in north-central Kansas.
- Mount Sunflower, the highest point in Kansas, located 4,039 feet above sea level near the Kansas/Colorado border.
- The Big Well, a well that was hand-dug beginning in 1887 in Greensburg in Kiowa County in south-central Kansas. It is 109 feet deep and 32 feet wide, with a museum standing above it.
As reported in the Topeka Capital Journal
