Museum Gives Props To A Big Prop

September 5, 2008

What moves an ocean liner from point A to point B? It’s not the fuel; it’s the propeller, screwing itself through Neptune’s domain, shoving the boat ahead of it.

Titanic-sized propellers rarely get appreciated because they’re usually under water. And, also, they’re tremendously large and heavy. They’re the giant buckets of the maritime world. An attraction has really got to want a propeller to haul one away as a photo op. A big one stands outside of a seafood restaurant in Delaware, and now an even bigger one — 34 tons — has gone up at the entrance to the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia. Start of a trend?

According to an article in the Hampton Roads Daily Press, the Virginia propeller comes from the SS United States, which is currently rusting at an off-limits pier in Philadelphia. The colossal five-bladed screw is suspended on an original propeller shaft more than 14 feet off of the ground, and hangs over the edge of a manufactured waterfall.

This spot had once been occupied by another big propeller, according to the news story, but this new one is far bigger and “nearly 80 percent heavier than the more conventional four-bladed screw it replaces.” That’s the kind of statistic that floats our boat. The museum should continue to supersize its hardware, and export its castoffs further inland. Eventually, even people in Kansas should be able to enjoy a spectacular screw.

Sections: Attraction News
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Lovers Of Hash Browns Rejoice: Waffle House Museum Opens

September 4, 2008

Preserving the food served in America’s fast food restaurants has been easier than preserving the historic landmarks of the chains themselves. Some original restaurants have been turned into museums — sometimes even competing museums — while others have become museums that have gone out of business, and still others continue serving food to oblivious customers.

Now add one more item to that delicious menu: Waffle House Unit 1, which has been rescued from obscurity and reopened on September 3 as the Waffle House Museum.

Waffle House is a familiar yellow-and-black beacon of goodness along southern highways. Unit 1 is in Decatur, Georgia, and a lengthy article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tells of its long journey: how it was sold in 1973 and has spent the last 20 years as a Chinese take-out restaurant — a crime of sorts, as the whole point of serving waffles was to make customers sit and eat at a counter.

The tiny eatery has now been restored to the way it looked when it opened on Labor Day 1955, or at least a good guess as to what it looked like, since no photos were taken at the time. “The two founders,” the article notes, “figured they’d open a few restaurants and then go fishing.” They figured wrong. The chain has expanded to almost 1,600 restaurants, and Unit 1000 is only a third of a mile up the road, which is where visitors should go if they get hungry since the food in the museum is inedible plastic.

Sections: Attraction News
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Mount Cristo Rey: Danger Lurks

September 2, 2008

There are a handful of attractions in this country that are too remote to be casual destinations, or that frankly you’d have to be nuts to visit. But no attraction in America seems to be as much of a magnet for human assault as Mount Cristo Rey, a Catholic shrine on the U.S./Mexican border.

We’ve received conflicting tips over the years about the relative safety of this place. Now several local TV stations have reported that the shrine has been attacked again. KDBC blames “gangs from Juarez” and says that the damaged icons, once repaired, will be surrounded by bulletproof glass. KVIA says that concrete barriers will be installed as well, and adds that, “Bandits from Mexico are notorious for robbing, and in some cases assaulting, people who climb the mountain by themselves or in small groups.”

Sounds like an exciting place to take the family.

There’s no easy solution to the problem, as the shrine is part of the mountain on which it’s built. Since it can’t be moved, perhaps an answer for tourists would be to build a miniature version somewhere safer? If miniature gangs and bandits followed, they could be captured and banished to Midgetville, where — what? Oh. Never mind.

Sections: Attraction News, Statues
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For Those Who Labor

September 1, 2008

On a day when most of us are on vacation, it might be nice to reflect on — or, even better, to visit — places that remind us of people who aren’t.

America is dotted like an office bingo card with monuments to jobs that you probably don’t want, and wouldn’t be qualified to perform anyway. One of the more impressive is the Huge Iron Man in Chisholm, Minnesota. The worker holds a pickax and wears a miner’s helmet, yet his buttoned shirt appears starched and ready for an inspection by the boss. Big (and gold) as he is, the worker is dwarfed by the even larger pile of iron on which he stands. Depending on your point of view, this either signifies triumph or it means that the poor guy will be pulling a double shift tonight.

Labor can also be of love, but that doesn’t make it any less laborious. Ed Leedskalnin knew this as he hacked and hauled rock to build his Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida. Ed expected that his sweetheart would be won over by his hard work. She wasn’t, but generations of tourists have been, so perhaps in the end Ed felt that his sweat equity had been rewarded — although surviving photos of dour Ed don’t suggest it.

A third kind of labor is experienced only by half of us (freak pregnant man excepted), and it’s not normally the subject of fun travel destinations. Fertilization has interesting possibilities, however, such as the Pregnancy Minie Ball in Vicksburg, Mississippi. And the internal wonders that make labor happen are on view in the many Transparent Women across the nation. That’s human plumbing, and you can’t have plumbing without labor, and that just about exhausts this labored analogy. Has it? Oh, yes it has.

Sections: Rants
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America’s Oldest Road Sign To Get Back On A Road

August 31, 2008

In the 1750s a British General, Edward Braddock, marched 2,000 troops through the Allegheny Mountains toward what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Along the way a 2000-pound rock was set up near Frostburg, Maryland, engraved with distances and directions to places such as Captain Smyth’s Inn and Redstone Old Fort. People came to call it “The Braddock Stone.” It was eventually removed from the roadside and stuck in a storeroom.

For years the Stone was promised a home — always indoors — and denied. Frostburg State University had it, but didn’t want it, and tried to give it to a local high school — but the school was torn down. The Stone ended up at the Allegany County Board of Education, which didn’t want it either. Locations were suggested and rejected: a local church, a local theater, another local high school.

Finally, according to the Cumberland Times-News, the Stone seems ready to return to the public eye. A gazebo is being built for it next to the Frostburg Museum, which means that the Stone will at least be outdoors, near a road. And once it’s in place, travelers can plan an exciting day on the Traffic Management Byway of Discovery. America’s oldest stoplight is only 4.5 hours west in Ohio.

Sections: Attraction News
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Governor Uses Convention Cover To Ax Lincoln Cabin

August 30, 2008

Strange news from the Land of Lincoln. The Arlington Heights Daily Herald reported that Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, a democrat, flew home on the climactic day of the Democratic National Convention. And then he immediately cut hundreds of state jobs and closed nearly two dozen historic sites and parks — including the Lincoln Log Cabin in Lerna!

In the story, a fellow Illinois lawmaker accused the governor of “trying to bury the cuts and closings under all the Obama coverage,” but the governor’s spokesperson said that he returned to Illinois from the convention simply because “He wanted to watch it at home with his family.”

Another article, in the Chicago Sun Times, sets the Log Cabin closing date as October 1, and adds that this is only months before the Lincoln Bicentennial in 2009.

Granted, the “Lincoln Log Cabin” in Lerna is actually a replica, built in the 1930s, of a cabin that disappeared in the 1890s. And it’s not even an Abe Lincoln replica log cabin; it’s a replica of a cabin that belonged to Abe’s parents long after he had moved out and become a lawyer in Springfield. But, as its historical plaque notes, “Abraham Lincoln visited frequently.” Why would any politician slam the door on a Lincoln Log Cabin, no matter how flimsy its claim, when its in Lincoln Land on the eve of the biggest Lincoln hoopla in 100 years?

We were at the cabin earlier this month, and there was an air of doom among its employees and volunteers. In the gift shop we signed a petition to fight the closing — and then we bought a very reasonably-priced souvenir stovepipe hat.

Maybe the governor mumbled his words, and meant to close the Museum of Holography in Chicago. That would be a loss, too, but not as baffling a loss.

Sections: Attraction News, Closing, Souvenirs
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