4.4: Roadside Attractions (Monuments)

In this collaboration with The Story Behind podcast, we explore the story behind Roadside Attractions. We take a look at how three Roadside Attractions have impacted and been impacted by community: including the world's largest beagle, the world's (former) largest cherry pie pan, and the Unclaimed Baggage Center (a museum of lost luggage).

This is a Studio BOTH/AND production:
www.ouramericanapodcast.com / www.bothand.fyi
For an ad-free experience or to support the show: www.patreon.com/studiobothand

Written, edited, and produced by Josh Hallmark & Emily Prokop

Music by Utidur, Mike Durek, and Ryan Andersen / Courtesy of Free Music Archive

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is an Our Americana podcast networkproduction sponsored by Podbeam. Today I'm doing
a collaborative episode with Emily procop fromThe Story Behind. The Story Behind is
a podcast that explores the extraordinary historybehind the ordinary. As per usual,
I'll be sharing the stories of peopleand she'll be sharing the history behind which

(00:23):
ties those people together. Before webegin, I wanted to tell you about
a show that I love, HongKong Confidential, where Jules Hanifford interviews people
from Hong Kong about their lives,personal journeys and secrets. Guests share their
wisdom, experiences and insights of theaudience. Here's a quick preview of what

(00:43):
to expect from Hong Kong Confidential.Give it a listen and subscribe after the
show. Hong Kong Confidential, apodcast with Jules Hannaford, is designed to
educate and entertain my audience. It'san interview style show where many we call
social issues are discussed and personal storiesare shared. The podcast can be inspiring,

(01:06):
confronting, harrowing, and at timeshilarious. All of the stories have
uplifting messages. We all need tobe heard to heal and listening to the
experiences of others can often help therest of us deal with whatever life has
to throw at us. Find HongKong Confidential on Oscast Network at www dot

(01:26):
oscast network dot com. Hong KongConfidential is also available on Spotify, iTunes,
Stitcher, and YouTube, and anywherethat you can find your podcasts.
Check out Hong Kong Confidential. TodayAmerica can feel oppressive. Every day.

(01:49):
It feels more and more like piecesof it are disappearing, that it's losing
its value. But there are monumentsand mementos of the past that can be
found beyond the minutia of our busydays, strange reminders of small victories,
new life, love stories, andthe strength of community. These stories are

(02:12):
all around us, relics of stationwagon days, on the highways and gravel
roads that connect us all. It'seasy to dismiss them as icons of capitalism.
If you build it, they willcome and buy. But there's always
something more, there, something deeper. I'm Josh Hallmark from Our Americana,

(02:36):
and I'm Emily Prokop and this isthe story behind roadside attractions. When we
talk about roadside attractions, the world'slargest ball of twine may seem insignificant on
paper, but humans natural curiosity aboutthe unknown is what drives us pun intended
to seek out these wonders. Whenthe US Numbered Highways system was conceived in

(03:00):
nineteen twenty five, the most usedinterstate roads were given route numbers, and
these roads quickly became traveled by thoseseeking to see the country. Diners,
gas stations, hotels, and storesfor travelers needs began to spring up along
these major routes. But small townshoping to help their economy realize they could
use road tripper's curiosity to their advantage, and roadside attractions began popping up along

(03:23):
major routes. In Cottonwood, Idaho, such travelers will find both the world's
largest and second largest beagles. Francisfrom dog Bark Park and I chatted about
the lovely inspiration for her husband's woodcarved beagles, how the Internet is helping
to revitalize roadside attractions, and howthese attractions have become a conduit of sharing

(03:46):
not just memories, but of cultureand ideas. Actually, the origins of
the world's biggest people were in allhonestly, it began with love. It's
a love story. It's a lovestory of my husband and I finding each

(04:16):
other in the midlife and instantly realizingwe had found long searched for soulmates in
each other. And so with ourmeeting then came a combined desire and actually

(04:42):
necessity to grow Dennis's dog art carvingbusiness to an endeavor that would support and
feed our intentions to carve out alife together where we would work on a
day to day basis with each other. Having lived life as long as we
had already we knew or hoped tohave significant room for just having meaningful experiences

(05:09):
on the creative side, and thenlater we realized on the human life by
leading so many other people in turningthose dreams into a real endeavor. We
decided to find a piece of landalong a highway with not a whole lot

(05:30):
of other construction around it where wecould build our carving studio and visitors center
that would be open to the public. Prior to having on the ground place,
Dennis did his chainsaw work in aratty old warehouse building and then traveled
to arts and craft show, andwe didn't want to do that travel anymore.

(05:54):
Hence the need to have a placeon the land that we hoped would
attract people to our visitors center andstudio. So what better thing to do
than to build a big beagle.Yeah, and hopefully that would catch people's

(06:15):
eye and entice them in to seewhat was going on here. Well,
that first big beagle was a twelvefoot tall dog that we named Toby and
declared him to be the world's biggestbeagle. Which he held that distinction for

(06:36):
only a few years until world's BiggestBeagle number two, affectionately called Sweet Willie,
came along. And by saying camealong, that was that. Dennis
then, with his construction background,was able to design and build this thirty
foot tall beagle. So now forabout the last sixteen years, both world's

(07:12):
biggest bugles are standing side by sideat our place of business that we call
dog Bark Park, located on theedge of town in Cottonwood, Idaho.
It's a quiet small town in themiddle of a huge prairie comprised of agricultural
lands of mostly wheat and canola fields, cattle ranches, and hay fields,

(07:39):
all surrounded by mountains. So we'rein a pretty rural area of the state,
with the only north south running highwaypassing very near under the noses of
the two big dogs. And asI said, sweet Willie functions not only

(08:00):
as a roadside attraction, but he'salso a one unit guesthouse, attracting guests
from around the country and the worldcoming here to experience the only place that
we know of on a plant whereone can actually sleep inside a dog.
So I guess the obvious question iswhy a beagle? For really two reasons.

(08:26):
The strongest and first reason is thatis the breed of dog that Dennis
started carving over thirty years ago.For some reason or other, he picked
the beagle as the first dog thathe would teach himself how to design and
carve it. Other breeds followed shortlyafter that, but the beagle very quickly

(08:46):
became our trademark piece, our bestselling piece. It still is after all
of these years. Hence, whenit came time to build Toby, that
had to be a beagle. Secondreason for a beagle is artistically they're a
great piece to do. They're colorfulwith the three colors black, brown,

(09:07):
and white, the big doleful eyes, poky flag like tail, and then
of course the floppy ears that beaglesare well known for. And do we
own a beagle absolutely not. Welove them, they're irresistible when they visit,

(09:28):
but the wrong breed of dog forus to have as an ambassador here
at dog Bark Park. So ourlive dog is a fuzzy face of mellow
golden retreatment named Sprocket. So,I guess what's so interesting about this is,
you know, out of love foryour husband's woodcarving, you built this

(09:48):
roadside attraction, which a is justa lovely manifestation of your relationship, which
I think is fantastic, But it'salso a brilliant market plan for a company
that's kind of in quote unquote themiddle of nowhere. And I have to
ask how well the beagle has donein building and growing your business. Beagle,

(10:11):
especially sweet Willie, the thirty footthe flagship roadside attraction was the best
business decision we ever made regarding benefitfor our business. Are there any textbooks
that tell you that if you builda big something or other people will come

(10:33):
and visit it, or then whenyou turn it into a guesthouse, will
they actually come and stay in it? No, there is no such guidance.
So primarily it was built for thelove of doing it and the hope
that it would attract attention. AndI'm here to say that he's only functioned

(10:58):
as a bed and breakfast guest housefor sixteen years, but he stood pretty
much looking as a beagle for nowalmost twenty years, and immediately all kinds
of attention came to him, whichwe thought would not be sustained. But
it seems like there's somebody somewhere inthe world sharing information about this dog.

(11:20):
So his bark is being heard aroundthe world, and it's so true because
you know, I have to sayI lived on the road for six months
traveling the country. This is nowmy second episode on roadside attractions, so
I like to consider myself a bitof a connoisseur of roadside attractions, and
for one that's not on a majorinterstate, and that's in a fairly small

(11:41):
town and as pretty quirky. Yougoogle roadside attractions and you guys pop up,
usually within the first page. ButI wonder what you think it is
about your world's largest beagle that hascaptured so many people's hearts and so many
people's attention. I think a lotof it. And this might not be
quite a proposed and I don't knowhow else to state it. The vegal

(12:05):
is like the pretty blonde on thecover of a magazine. It turns the
eye, catches your attention, andgets you to investigate further. Some roadside
attractions require a little bit of studybefore you're able to assentertain what they're all
about. But the vegal is obviouslyat virtually any direction that you look at,

(12:31):
it is a dog, and thenit creates this kind of pum moment
in people. What's that all apples? The vehicle often is representative in an
easily identifiable way of what roadside attractionsare about, and that is to attract
and to the muse or open asense of curiosity. Other than that,

(12:56):
all I can say is it's justplane magic definition. What was it about
roadside attractions that you held so dear, you thought were so great that it
even became an idea for you tocreate one of your own. It was
that we were creating a roadside attractionwas certainly not top of mind. It

(13:16):
might have been something that organically livedin US. For instance, I grew
up in New Jersey in the fiftiesand sixties and remember seeing Lucy the Elephant
down near Atlantic City as a child. It was not a state park.
At that time, it was anold relic along the ocean, but I

(13:39):
remember being struck by that a littlebit. And then after I left New
Jersey to turn into say Lucy andnow as a state park, and I
have visited it since then. Bothof us grew up in an era pre
interstate, when travel was all onthe smaller roads, and there was the

(14:01):
White Castle Hamburger joint or gas stationthat also sold ice cream. So it
was the station was building was inthe shape of an ice cream cone.
We sort of have that in ourgrowing up dna, so to speak.
But in all honestly, it wasnot top of mind that it would be

(14:22):
a roadside attraction of other than aninexpensive way for us to advertise our physical
business here. And then shortly thereafterthe explosion of the Internet came on.
We were very late to join thattechnology, but it coincided beautifully with our
need for broader exposure than just thelocal market since it is so rural here.

(14:48):
You know, I'm about certain thirtyseven, and I think I caught
the tail end of the era ofthe roadside attraction, and I do think
it's ingrained in all of us,and I think particularly people of your generation
who were really were living in theheight of it, you know, during
the station wagon days, and itmakes me really sad that seems to be

(15:09):
a dying piece of Americana. SoI love that you know it clearly was
deeply ingrained in you, and whetherit was on the top of your mind
when you were doing this, Iimagine there was some level, whether subconscious
or not, of inspiration. AndI just think it speaks volume to that
generation of Americans. Sure, Andto add a note of brightness to your

(15:31):
statement about regret that that kind ofAmerican experience might be behind us, I
think the development of the interstate highwaysystem, which was absolutely the thing that
America needed to do to be ableto transport people and goods quickly from one

(15:52):
place to the other. But theinterstate highway system has been with us enough
decades now that we're discovering by throughour visitors that there's a huge segment of
traveling people that are turning away fromthe interstate bland saying this kind of travel

(16:15):
and seeking out the back roads andthe byways, not only to find the
roadside as attractions perhaps of their memoryor the vestiges of ones that they've heard
about, but to discover new onesthat are cropping up all over. And
technology has made that easier for travelersto venture off the major routes and not

(16:41):
be afraid of getting lost or findingthe services that they would need. And
so when we first were building SweetWilling, and this is digressing into a
story, but I think it's quiteemblematic that this whole movement, unbeknownst to
us, travel journalists from New YorkCity would phone us up once in a

(17:03):
while because we were not yet onthe internet, and ask about I hear
you're building a big Beagle. Whenis it going to be done? And
we go in a year or twobecause Dennis thought this would be his last
big building project and wanted to blowdown the construction of it and enjoy the
process, and also fitted in betweenwinter weather and our business activity that we

(17:25):
had to do. And so ifwe never realized that this was the same
fellow calling us once in a while, And so finally in early I believe
it was two thousand and three,he called identified himself and said why he
wanted to know when the big dogwas going to be done because he wanted
to be the very first guest tostay in it and report about it,

(17:48):
at which case he called in Januaryor February. So we said off the
cup, oh by August first,and he said, all right, I'll
be there on August first. Thepay was still drawing, and thank goodness,
he was very late arriving that dayand he stayed for a couple of
days, and one of his partingphrases was just you winked and we didn't

(18:14):
want to be country bumpkins from Idaho, and asking what do you mean about
that? And we wondered about thatfor a long time, and what he
meant was just you wait, theword will get out and people will come.
So you've had the guesthouse open forabout sixteen years now. Is there
a specific type of person who comesto stay at the Beagle Only as far

(18:38):
as demographics and that type of thing, there is no trend. We do
feel that pretty much everyone that comeshere has a willingness to do and experience
something a little out of the ordinary, and therefore they haven't adventuresome spirit.

(18:59):
A large component of the value thatDennis and I hold with our endeavor at
dog Bark Park is interaction with people. Certainly the income is important, but
that's not the primary part for us. The real pay is engaging with our
visitors and guests, and engaging ifwe can, with them in conversations that

(19:23):
go beyond the details of where they'refrom. And that ties into our belief
that one of the most important reasonsfor travel is not only to see the
sites, but to learn about thepeople and the industry in any given area
that's visited. And how better toaccomplish that for travelers is to then have

(19:48):
conversational time with the locals, andwe like to be connectors in helping that
happen. And likewise, for us, what not a better way, since
we are not huge travelers because ofthe time and focus that we have here,
for us to learn about how Americanslive elsewhere and what they might be

(20:10):
thinking, then to engage in significantconversation with them, so in that like
one memorable guest that came a fewyears ago was a couple from Tokyo who
we learned after they arrived that theyflew directly from Japan to the nearest airport

(20:32):
to us to then spend a fewdays with us, and then they turned
around and flew straight home. Usuallywe're connected with broader visitation. But this
couple had traveled the world significantly,heard about the big people somehow or another,
and just determined that they would comehere and immerse themselves as best they

(20:52):
could with the language barriers that existedbetween this. But somehow we felt we
were successfully able to help them absorbeverything they wanted to know about dog Bark
Park, our creativity and hard workassociated with it. We learn later that

(21:15):
some of our visitors seem to bemotivated to stop or to stay because they
have interest but need a little directionperhaps and how to shed dogdrom careers to
them by solo with their long shelveddreams centered on a passion they thought or

(21:37):
maybe had been told would never beviable, And upon hearing the story of
our business, then we've later learnedthat some of these people then do find
the bravery to just fly solo andstep out on their own and dare to
be a different dog in following theirpassions. Wow of that, because you

(22:00):
know, one of the reasons Ido this podcast is just to really encourage
conversations with people unlike ourselves, becauseI think America is very divided and has
been for a while, and Idon't like to talk about it in a
political sense, but I think thatAmericans don't talk to each other is as
much as they used to. AndI think by creating dialogue like that,

(22:21):
you really are helping people see thatthey can live outside the norm happily and
successfully. Or you're changing people's views, and I think making everyone a little
better than they were beforehand. SoI think that's so fantastic and empowering and
inspiring. Thank you. We alsohave come to learn that to your point,
to a certain extent, we notonly need to talk to each other

(22:45):
across our communities, across our country, even within our own families, we
sometimes need to be reminded that weneed to smile. And if the face
of that big dog and the quizzicalnessof people wondering about it makes them smile,

(23:07):
then we feel like we've been ofservice to our fellow human beings across
the planet. And we all cancontribute, most of us, in our
small ways, to reminding us thatwe as we grow up, we certainly
need to act in adult ways andbecome adult, but that child playfulness and

(23:33):
inquisitiveness and curiosity needs to exist,and part of all of those endeavors can't
be answered without conversations. I think, I know, I know, come

(23:55):
back home, I know, Iknow. Roadside attractions were used to entice
people to small towns in hopes oftaking a codochrome photograph to bore house guests
with vacation slides. Remember this wasa time before viral videos in Netflix.
Many times, though, these roadsideattractions also acted as giant advertisements, like

(24:21):
the Benewa milk bottle in Spokane,Washington, built by Paul E. Newport,
who owned the Beniwa Dairy Company.Another roadside attraction that was used for
advertising were the original Shell service stationsin North Carolina, which were literally built
to look like a shell. Today, many of these former roadside attractions have
been declared historic landmarks by the NationalPark Service, like Lucy one hundred and

(24:44):
four year old elephant Statue in NewJersey. However, a good number of
ones haven't survived quite as well,and those that have survived have encountered some
of their own challenges with staying relevantor as is the case in char LaVoi,
Michigan. Competitive. Okay, sobefore we start talking about your roadside
attraction, I feel like I needto clear the air. My very first

(25:07):
episode of this podcast was about aneighboring town of yours called Potoski, okay,
And I believe that in that episodeI said that Charlavoy felt a little
hoity toity and I much preferred Potoski. And now I found myself in this
position where I'm now having a chatwith you. So I would like to

(25:30):
fall on my sword and apologize forthat. And I'm sure that you will
prove me terribly wrong in the nexttwenty five minutes. Oh my gosh,
yes, I forgive you. It'sokay, thank you. And to be
fair, I spent five days inPotoski in about thirty minutes in Charlot Boy,
So oh gosh, Well we gotto get you here in char LaVoi

(25:51):
to spend five days then that Iagree, definitely need it. Yeah,
you would love it. This isAmanda Wilkin, an executive director at the
charlat Boy Visitors Bureau. Charlot Boyis home to a rather curious roadside attraction
with a somewhat ever changing claim tofame. So tell me a little bit
about Charlott Boy. Charlavoy is onthe coast of Lake Michigan in northwest Michigan,

(26:17):
the Lower Peninsula, often known asGod's Country. Charlevoy is nicknamed Charlevoy
the Beautiful since the late eighteen hundreds. It is absolutely gorgeous. If you
spend a few minutes, or afew days or a few weeks, you
really get to know the beauty ofthe area, the rolling hills, the

(26:37):
lakes. It's just breathtakingly beautiful hereyear round, but summer is definitely the
most popular time to be here.It's funny because you know, I never
thought that a town that I wentto, in an area that I absolutely
fell in love with, would popup on this episode because I don't recall
seeing any roadside attractions. My onlymemory of the upper part of the Lower

(26:57):
Peninsula is just a beautiful, cosmopolitanlike hamlet of small towns. So tell
me a little bit about the originof your roadside attraction. Yes, we
have a couple of roadside attractions inCharlevoi, but the world famous cherry Pie
is one of our most favorite inCharlevoi. So the Cherry Pie is about

(27:19):
a mile a mile and a halfsouth of downtown Charlevoi. So when you
think of Charlevoi, most people justthink of the downtown area because it is,
you know, definitely the most popularthing to do. But you know,
a very quick drive south of townand you find the world's largest cherry
pie, which I think you'll findout through this episode is no longer the

(27:41):
case that we are the world's largestcherry pie, but it was at one
time. So why the cherry piepan? It was very interesting back in
the seventies. There were a fewgentlemen in Charlevoi that cooked up no pun
intended, or I guess pun intended. They cooked up some fun ideas and
one of those ideas was five milesof petunias lining the road in Charlavoy.

(28:03):
That was cooked up in the seventiesas well as this world's largest cherry pie.
So the owner of the Gray GablesInn restaurant, which still exists today,
Dave Phillips, he decided that itwould be a great way to celebrate
the United States by centennial in nineteenseventy six. So he thought, what
better way to celebrate the country thancooking a gigantic cherry pie. Right,

(28:27):
So that was kind of his nodto patriotism in nineteen seventy six. Okay,
what was the reception like the wholetown of Charlavoy banded together behind this
idea. Dave Phillips was one ofthose guys who you know, once he
got an idea, and he wasvery persuasive and could talk anyone into doing

(28:48):
anything with him. So the wholetown banded together. And the ingredients for
the pie, everything from the piepan to where it was cooked, to
the struments used to make the pie, we're all donated. So the whole
town got together and celebrated this together, which was so great. And I've

(29:08):
got some great statistics about the piethat were provided by the Charlevo Historical Society,
which is very interesting. The piecrust, the ingredients of the pie
crust were seven hundred and fifty poundsof flour, three hundred and twenty five
pounds of shortening, three hundred andtwenty five pounds of water, one hundred
and ten pounds of milk, fiftyfive pounds of baking powder, and fifteen

(29:30):
pounds of salt. And that it'sjust for the pie crust. The pie
crust weade fifteen hundred and ninety pounds. Oh my god, So it's a
big pie. The filling itself.The statistics are five thousand, eight hundred
and fifty pounds of red tart cherries. Those were from our friends in Traverse
City. Actually, thirty eight hundredpounds of cherry juice, forty seven hundred

(29:53):
pounds of sugar, seven hundred andforty pounds of cornstarch, three hundred and
sixty pounds of tapioca, one hundredand eighty pounds of butter, ninety pounds
of lemon juice, and twenty poundsof salt. So that made the filling
fifteen thousand, eight hundred and fortypounds. The ingredients were blended actually in
a cement mixer and a dump truck, so you can picture how much of

(30:15):
these ingredients, you know, were. It was so big that they needed
a dump truck to mix it in. The crust was laid out get this
using a push roller, those thingsthat you know, you see those big
rollers links concrete and cement, andthe health department had to make sure that
it was brand, spank and new, so that people were allowed to eat
this pie instead of being a usedone. The tin was fabricated here in

(30:38):
Charlevoi, and the tin itself weighedthree thousand pounds. The entire pie had
to be hoisted by a crane intoa truck and then it was taken to
the Medusa Cement plant, which isthe south point of Charlevoi, which still
stands today and now it's called SaintMary's. But the company built a special
oven and you can see the collaborationbetween the comunity here. The weight of

(31:00):
the final pie was seventeen thousand,four hundred and eighty five pounds. Including
the ten it was twenty one,one hundred and eighty five pounds all together.
That is ten and a half tonsof pie. So it was enormous
at the time. And that waseaten by seven thousand people and it was
ten thousand slices of pie. Howlong did it take to eat this pie?

(31:25):
I think it was about ten minutes. Actually, wait, seriously,
yeah, all said and done withall seven thousand people. I think it
went very very quick. So nowis the roadside attraction just the pie pan
or do you have a fabricated cherrypie in the pie pan? Oh?
Oh yeah, and that is whatwe'll We'll tell you now that Charlavoie has

(31:49):
the original world's largest cherry pie andalso the most beautiful tribute to the world's
largest cherry pie. It is sokitchy, and you know, there's lots
of pictures of it, and it'sjust a nod to the past. It's
great. Included in the roadside attractionis the pie pan itself and then it

(32:09):
has a concrete piece of pie whichhas painted up like cherry pie obviously,
and then the actual oven that itwas baked in is sitting there as well,
so you can get up close andpersonal with it and have your picture
taken. It's just super fun andyou know, a great community asset for

(32:30):
us. You've alluded to it nowbeing the world's former biggest cherry pie pan,
and you talked about your friends downin Traverse City. So what did
they do about ten years after theCharlevoi world's largest cherry pie? Traverse City
thought that since they have National CherryFestival and they have a lot of cherry

(32:50):
orchards in Traverse City, where weactually don't have that many in Charlevoi,
ten years after our cherry pie wasbaked, they decided that they wanted to
take over the elusive cherry pie titleand they outbaked us. How do you
feel about that? You know,I think competition is good, so you

(33:12):
know, we were happy to givethe title over to them. We're all
friends here in northern Michigan, andyou know, whatever is good for Trevor
City is good for Charlotte Boy aswell. It is kind of a fun,
you know, a fun competition forus, you know, and it
probably it does belong in Trevor Citysince they are home to so many cherry
orchards. But we weren't very sadwhen they lost the title either. Oh

(33:37):
they've lost it since they have.Yes, well, it actually is in
Canada, so all of our Canada, in British Columbia, they have the
world's largest cherry pie now and Ithink that was in early two thousands that
they took that over. So weare not only not the largest cherry pie

(33:58):
in the world, we are thelargest now. Well, what's great is
whenever you search roadside attractions, yoursis the only one that comes up,
and it comes up as worlds andthen in parentheses former biggest cherry pie.
So you still have the best press, right, Yes, I think ours
is the most photogenic. Still,you mentioned that you have other roadside attractions

(34:22):
in town. What are those?We do? Charlavoy is home to some
great history. And I don't knowif you've ever heard of the Earl Young
mushroom houses and Charlavoy, but theyare. Yeah, it's it's very unique.
In the nineteen fifties era, EarlYoung built these majestic looking stone homes.
He actually quit architecture school after thefirst year because there were too many

(34:45):
rules to follow, So he builthomes off of you know, drawings that
his wife Irene dead, that hejust made up in his head. They're
called mushroom houses because they look likethey organically grew up out of the ground.
They're just fastened. There's twenty sevenstructures still standing to this day,
and they're you know, they're individuallyowned by residents and they're beloved by the

(35:07):
entire community. People come from youknow, around the country, um and
actually around the world to come seethem now because they are so they're so
cool and so unique to our area. That's really cool. See now I
need to go back to you provedme wrong. Yeah, you do need
to come back to Charlevoy to comevisit. Um. Castle Farms is actually

(35:30):
another really cool place. They're celebratingtheir centennial in twenty and eighteen this year
in June and that is where EarlYoung actually learned how to do his stone
work at Castle Farms. So thehistory of Castle Farms is very unique.
They've gone through a couple different iterations, but now they are a historic tour
destination as well as they have beautifulgardens gapes. They've got like fifteen different

(35:55):
gardens that you can go see.They have a few different museums, a
lot of different collections as well,and it's just you know, on the
side of M sixty six in Charlevoi, so it's really cool. Started out
as a model dairy farm. Thevice president of Sears started it to show
off how great farms could be ifthey were using Sears farm equipment. So

(36:19):
started off as a as a dairyfarm, and he built it to look
like a Renaissance castle in France.So it is actually just incredibly beautiful.
And then the current owner, LindaMueller, she has put millions and millions
of dollars into renovating the building andit's just definitely something if you are into

(36:40):
architecture at all, you need tosee it. I have to ask,
is I guess the resident of atown with multiple roadside attractions, why you
think they're so important to American culture, and why you think they're so beloved.
Oh gosh, I think roadside attractionsare so important to our econ.
I mean, it brings people toour area from near and far, and

(37:04):
it just celebrates, you know,the history of the area. It's such
a unique thing, and every townhas its own roadside attraction. I think
so it gives a little personality tothe city. You know, you fall
in love with the city by seeingits roadside attractions. When President Dwight D.

(37:29):
Eisenhower formed the national system of Interstateand Defense highways, travel became even
faster. Many of the former interstateroads were either turned into multi lane highways
or they were all but abandoned,which meant roadside attractions also took a hit.
In the nineteen fifties, on rampsand off ramps meant smaller towns had
to fight even harder to attract visitors, especially if they weren't easily accessible from

(37:51):
the highways. For years, roadsideattractions were sought after by tourists, but
as soon as highways came about,billboards were needed to attract people to that
If these roadside attractions weren't fading inpopularity. There was the other side of
the dilemma, in which they turnedinto tourist traps, bringing huge crowds to
them, which also turned others away. However, in some cases it was

(38:12):
the small town hotspots that became roadsideattractions simply because their services and missions were
so unique they became editorial must seize. My name is Brenda Cantrell and I
am the brand ambassador at Unclaim BaggageCenter in Scottsboro, Alabama. Unclaim Baggage

(38:39):
Center is the only store in Americathat buys and resales unclaim baggage from the
airline industry, and people walk intoour store and go, why didn't not
think of that? But mister doelOwens had that idea back in nineteen seventy
when he truly started with the GreatAmerican Dream. It was a borrowed pickup
truck and a three hundred dollars loanfrom one grandfather in the truck from the

(39:00):
other, and he drove up toWashington, DC with his wife to buy
his first load of unclaimed bags froma bus line up that way with a
friend that he had, and hebrought them back here to Scottsboro, where
he unpacked the bags in a small, two bedroom rented house and then quickly
had to quit his day job andpursue the unclaimed baggage business full time because

(39:21):
it turned out to be something else, that's for sure. And is that
how you still get most of yourbaggage? Is going out to airlines and
bus terminals or are they coming toyou? At this point, it's a
little bit of both. I mean, we have our own transportation that goes
around the country to pick these thingsup, and then some things do come
into us. But we purchased theseitems through long term exclusive contracts with all

(39:43):
the major carriers in the country.But of course plane trains and automobiles,
anything that has a traveling or unclaimednature to it, we're interested in it.
That's so fascinating. It kind ofhearkens back to salesman of the forties
and fifties traveling all over the countryto pick up, you know, select
art facts. It's like a nicepiece of Americana almost. I mean,
it really is. And it's somethingto be said that we're about to celebrate

(40:05):
our fiftieth anniversary in about eighteen months. It's just the American dream is alive
and well correct me if I'm wrong. You not only operate as retail but
as a museum too, correct,Yes, we do. I actually have
been working on some projects lately toupdate some of our museum content. And
we call our found treasurers, andwe have a museum at the entrance to
our store. But then that sameconcept extends throughout the entire experience. When

(40:30):
you walk around and see kind ofabove the walls and where the product is
merchandised, we have all these interestingthings that have come in over the years.
And then we have a whole storagedream full of things ready to be
on display, which we don't keepeverything that's neat and interesting and amazing,
and we certainly like to sell thosetwo, but we do hold on to

(40:50):
a few choice pieces from time totime, you know, to kind of
help tell our story to our guest. And what are some of the more
unique items you've come across. Well, you know, we haven't just had
one suit of armor. We've hadabout three suits of armor naturally, And
it's funny. We actually had alady that came to the store this past
week. I think they're getting readyfor vacation Bible School, and because we
need to borrow a suit of armorfor church, so you know where old

(41:14):
are you going to go and getthat? But you know the suit of
armor, We get taxidermy to items. We get a lot of historical things,
you know, whether it's an oldcamera, like a really old camera,
or we get things of an internationalnature of course that could also be
of a historic reference, musical equipment, we get signed sports memorabilia, things

(41:34):
that you do expect, but youdon't expect being in this business. You
know, nothing surprises me anymore.I should put it that way up in
here. Twenty years and it's notif we're going to get something, it's
when we're going to get something.So I found out about you and I
think this might be one of theitems that really catapulted you guys into grander
level of fame. Is you haveone of the old puppets from the Labyrinth?

(41:59):
Is that correct? I knew that'swhat it would be there. Hoggle
definitely has a cult following from thatmovie Labyrinth, And yes we do have
him. And for years, thisis what's interesting. For years I was
left with the impression that there hadbeen multiple, you know, muppets made

(42:19):
of Hoggle for the movie and apparently, you know, we got it not
long after the film apparently wrapped.I think they were filming it overseas,
and it came to us in acrate with a number of the movie props
in it, some of them notnecessarily I guess, prosthetic hands, if
you will, but the ones whereyou know you can control the finger movements
through the thimbles and some of theextra pieces that kind of went on his
character. But come to find out, once the Hanson Museum opened in Atlanta

(42:45):
in the last few years, wefound out that we had the only one
that had been made, and sohe was only designed to last the duration
of filming. Then we ended uphaving to have him restored and a number
of years later, just because hewas just disintegrating almost before our very eyes.
And so he a joke that hehas his Broadway makeup on now he

(43:06):
is ready for the show. Forsure. We're I love that All these
years later, Hoggle was still beingtouched up and made pretty for his audiences.
Oh yes, I mean people comein. This was a number of
years ago and we were doing someremodeling and we had taken him out of
the showcase for two reasons. Actually, when we were remodeling, and two
we had thought about changing it tosomething different because he would startle children.

(43:27):
You know, children would see himand be frightened. But when we took
him out, we heard a lotof feedback that they missed him. So
we by all means made him ashowcase feature when we read it our museum
and brought him back in. Andthere are people that are anxious to see
him when they walk in the door. We had an individual a couple of
years ago. It was not Halloween, but they came in fully dressed head
to toe as David Bowie come tomeet. I mean, let me just

(43:52):
tell you, not only are youyou never know what you're going to find
from a product standpoint, but younever know who you're going to meet when
they walk in the door. Becausewe get we get everybody. You know,
we were a national tourist destination,so you never know who's going to
walk in the door either. Iimagine you're getting thousands of pieces of you
know, really sometimes personal artifacts everyyear. And what's it like to go
through these personal belongings and you knoweven some of the more basic and banal

(44:15):
items, well, you know,the airlines spanned over ninety days trying to
reunite bags with their owners. Andthat's for checked baggage. You know,
carry on baggage at a different storybecause as a passenger, you chose responsibility
and liability for that item, sothey have different protocol for how that's handled.
Those typic those things are considered moreof a lost and found nature rather
than an unclaimed baggage type situation.So for the for the checked unclaimed baggage,

(44:39):
over ninety nine point nine percent ofthose bags get reunited with their owners
in the course of those ninety days. And those that aren't fortunate enough to
have their items return to them,there is a claims process that they go
through and received some type of settlementfrom the airline, you know. But
we purchase these items side unsane andbring them back here to our facility and
we sort through the That's what's fascinatingto a lot of people. We sort

(45:01):
through them every single day, andwe really sort things into three or four
different categories. It's what we're goingto sell, you know, whether it
goes straight to electronics and goes throughour clearing protocol, or gets headphones get
cleaned, or calculators get priced.What have you. We have things that
go to our laundry. We're oneof the largest laundry and dry cleaning facilities
in the state of Alabama. Wedo about fifty thousand pieces a month,

(45:24):
more than most cleaners during the courseof a year. We trash things.
Obviously, there are things of apersonal nature that just now have no business
on a sales floor, whether it'sa magazine with their mailing address on it
or a journal or other personal artifactsthat just you have no place being resold.
And then there's those things that wedonate, and we donate about a

(45:45):
third of the inventory that comes in. And so it's everything from excess product
that we have in particular categories toother needs that we may feel locally as
well as nationally and internationally. Wedonate. For example, this morning,
I'm going to be working with somelocal requests that have coming in for a
wheelchair for a veteran or suitcases fora mission trip. But then we also
donate sixty seventy thousand pairs of glassesannually to lines Club International just because of

(46:09):
the sheer volume that we get inbaby strollers and neck pillows and lap blankets.
I mean, we just get uponthousands of thousands and thousands of those
annuallys So we try to work torepurpose those items as much as possible through
our Reclaimed for a Good program.It's our nonprofit foundation division of our company.
So it is fascinating to go throughthose things, and that's kind of

(46:29):
how we divide those out. Butevery day at two thirty, we have
something called the Baggage Experience, andwe invite a guest in the store to
actually go through an unprocessed suitcase.What we do is we go through just
a small protocol where we make surethere's nothing harmful, embarrassing, or dangerous
inside that bag. We don't wantyou to reach in and and cut your

(46:49):
finger on a facial razor or somethinglike that, and so we just take
those things out of there if wecome across those, but all the original
contents go back into the bag.Only one person on site has seen the
contents of that bag, just tokeep the integrity of the experience intact as
much as possible, and so weinvite a guest every day at two thirty
to open that bag in the middleof the store, and people just eat

(47:12):
it up. It's fascinating and theylove it and they're excited and they never
know what they're going to find,and you know, everybody else besides the
one person, we don't know whatthey're going to find. So it really
is interesting. Yeah. I lovethe fact that there's some solace in knowing
that your lost baggage likely ended upwith you and that a lot of those
items are going on to people whoneed them, and the rest are really

(47:32):
just creating a wonderful experience for people. Yeah. I mean, you know,
that's always been who we are.At the core of our company is
one that gives back. It waswho our founders were and they have both
since passed away, but their sonpurchased the company from them in ninety five
and he and his wife very muchhave that heart and vision for that to
be the soul of our company,and it is. I mean, it's

(47:52):
what we train and teach and displayon a daily basis to not only our
team members, but to our guestsas well. I imagine there's a lot
of curiosity as you guys are goingthrough these items. Are there any items
that really stuck with you? Andyou know, you always wondered what the
story was behind the item or whoeverit belonged to. You know, you
see some of the jewelry that comesin. I remember this was probably ten

(48:15):
twelve years ago, and I'm sittingin my office and we had gotten this
really really high end piece of jewelry. And I say high end. It
was probably like from a music artistor from a professional athlete, something like
that, but it was about onehundred thousand dollars diamond bracelet sitting on my
desk. Wow. Well, whenwe had taken the stones out because we

(48:36):
were going to separate it out,you know, to do different pieces as
we did, and it sold well. But that particular day, I had
this diamond bracelet sitting on my deskand then I look over and I have
like a print, a needle pointprint booklet from like the eighteen fifties,
And you just sit there and takea breath and go, this is just
another date. I'm clean Baggage.You know, I've I grew up shopping

(48:58):
here and never thought I would stayin this small town. But I'm so
thankful you know that I'm here.But my fifth grade class picture was an
address from Unclaim Baggage, and nowmy platinum wedding band is from Unclaim baggage.
You know, we've been married almosttwenty years, and my engagement at
my wedding band. And this iswhat's interesting about our wedding bands here.
We get a lot of men's weddingvand and so you know, you can

(49:21):
come to your own conclusions as towhy it was packed in a suitcake.
But I it was, you know, about fifty percent cheaper than anything I
had found, and so I hadit resized. It was actually a man's
name engraved in it, and Ihave that removed and it's been my own
for twenty years now. There's somethingI almost can't even come up with a
word for it. It's it's bothhaunting and fascinating. The idea that the

(49:45):
small town of Scottsboro, many ofthe people in it, are walking around
with these personal relics that have beenlost through travel. It's just it's so
it's lovely and haunting, and it'sjust such a wonderful, strange thing.

(50:08):
I actually just found this out lastweek. We had a lady who shopped
in here. This is you know, well before the internet. Okay,
so go back thirty years on this, forty years on this. There was
a lady who would buy a lotof really high end items. I mean,
she was from a well to dofamily, so it wasn't unusual.
But we later found out that acompany out of Dallas, an auction house

(50:31):
in Dallas, had hired her tocome in and buy these items for them
to sell. And we're like,how do you even find that? I
mean, and we never knew thattill years and years and years later,
and so, you know, youjust think this lady is just dressed to
the nines, which I'm sure shewas, but he was dressing some other
folks out there that had no ideawhere it was coming from. So that

(50:53):
that was pretty interesting. And thenwe have a gentleman that contacted us yesterday
from its real and I guess theytraveled to the States from time to time
and his wife loves Unclaimed Baggage andall she wanted for her birthday was to
come to Unclaim Baggage Center. Whichwe get that all the time. We
have birthdays and reunions and wedding anniversaries. We have people that come here for

(51:15):
all kinds of occasions. It's kindof the Disney World of shopping, if
you will. So this gentleman,he's not going to be able to get
plane tickets this time to come over. So we're going to do a FaceTime
birthday shopping experience with his wife andIsrael next week. So that that's definitely,

(51:35):
um, the one in a millionthat we would do something like that.
But I mean, how could you? How could you not want to
do that? I mean, we'resuch a fun place, and it's and
like you said, it's fascinating andhaunting and curious and all those things,
all the same things. So howcould you not want to get in the
car and come check it out foryourself? I have to ask, especially
now knowing all these high price itemsmake their way through the unclean baggage center,

(52:00):
have you ever had people come downlooking for lost items there? Sure?
Yes, I mean we do.I mean, you know, if
you have something of high sentimental orfinancial value to you, you're pulling out
all the stops and so I meanwe've had people come with the intention to
try to find their items, andthen we've had people that have come in
and gone, I wonder if it'shere all poke around and look. And

(52:22):
we have a couple of documented caseswhere people actually found their own items.
One was a gentleman who had neverbeen to the store before and was just
stopping through on a business trip andbought his pair wife of ski boots,
snow ski boots, and he justsaid they looked like colors that she would
like about her size, and hebuys them, and he takes them home
and she says, these look reallyfamiliar, and she lifted up the tongue

(52:43):
of the boot and it was hermaiden name. And she had actually lost
those ski boots a couple years beforeand had been compensated by the airline that
she had traveled. And so thatwas really kind of funny. I mean,
he wasn't looking, but talk aboutneedle in a haystack. And then
a couple of summers ago, therewas a gentleman who was driving up on
a trip from Florida to Mint thisnavy and I think his friend said,

(53:07):
it's kind of along the way.If you can make it, you've got
to go into the store and shop. And he had been moving back from
Italy the year before, and thebag that was checked under his mother's name
had been mishandled. I don't Ithink there had been some confusion on the
way it was tagged with. Itwas under his ticket name, but it
was her travel name, and sothere was some confusion on how it went

(53:30):
awry. But he walks in havingon a whim, stopped at the store
and found his custom made lavender linenItalian suit and he shows me the picture
of him in it, and he'sholding the suit in his hands. So
of course I gave him the suitbag. That was just really really fascinating,

(53:52):
And I say fascinating. We donot make light of the fact that
people have lost their personal belongings.It is unfortunate. We do not take
joy in that. And so likeyou said, I mean there is some
solace in knowing that we donate asignificant amount of our inventory and then you
know the rest it's it's all repurposed, whether it's through recycling, donating,

(54:12):
and they change people's lives through allof those avenues. Yeah, and I
think even you know, obviously,you guys are a business and you need
to keep your doors open, butI think even in the selling of those
items, you're giving those items asecond life, and I think that's really
special. And the fact that we'rethe only one in America and continue to
be the only one in America becausethere's just not enough Unclaim Baggage to have
more on one store, you know, and people go back to, why

(54:37):
in the world is it in Scottsboro, wyren't you in a major metropolitan area.
Well, you know, this iswhere the business began, and who
knew then it would become what itis now. And now it's just part
of who we are. It's partof, you know, the Southern hospitality
and the culture that we offer.It's a road trip destination for sure.
I mean you can get in thecar or hop on a plane and go
and experience New York. But toexperience Unclaimed Baggage Center, you have to

(55:00):
get off the beaten path and cometo this quaint little town in Alabama of
fifteen thousand people and get loved onwith sweet tea and lemonade and hey,
y'all. You know, it's justa whole other experience down here, and
it's just one that we just lovedto showcase to people. Well, and
I think that's a perfect segue intothis whole conversation of this episode, which

(55:24):
is, do you consider yourself aroadside attraction? Yes, we do.
I mean we are featured in Iprobably have about five or six books on
my coffee table that we're featured ineverything from Alas America, National Geographic.
There was actually a lady who justput out a book called Unclaimed Baggage.
She had visited one of our wehad two satellite stores years ago. Both

(55:46):
of them were about an hour fromhere, and she had visited one with
her grandparents, and she took withthat experience and wrote this book called Unclaim
Baggage about her summer working here andall the unclaimed baggage in her life and
things like that. She's trying towork through some personal difficulties and so it's
about to hit the shelves. Ibelieve any day, Nail. That's so

(56:07):
cool. It's funny. I cameacross a collection of lost letters about ten
years ago between a landlord and twoof his tenants, and they were all
handwritten from the eighties. Oh wow, And it's just it's this beautiful,
very personal moment in time. It'slike a time capsule. And I just
think about all these things that peopleare getting from that store or even just

(56:30):
coming across from that store, andthey really are capturing a private moment in
someone's life. And while that maybe a bit voyeuristic, it's also really
beautiful idiots. And you know,it's something that could be as significant as
a diamond ring, and then somethingthat could be to you and I as

(56:51):
insignificant as a pair of breeding glassesthat nine had just another trip to the
store for us to pick him up. It's life changing for somebody else.
It's when they receive it. Andwhat's been your favorite guest interaction or most

(57:12):
memorable guest interaction? Gosh, Josh'scoming up in here twenty years what kind
of quick that you know? It'sit's that's I can't narrow it down to
one. There's the guests that wesee every day that we you know,
that we celebrate when they have abirthday, or they bring in their family
member or having a grandchild, orthey getting married and we celebrate with them.

(57:36):
And then there's those who were ontheir bucket list and they are ecstatic
when they walk in the door becausethey can't believe they're finally here, and
they spend the day with us,or they spend the night and come back
the next day, and it's Imean, we're not a place that you
have to shop. We're a placethat you want to shop. And so
it's it's a happy place to be. And I can pick them out from

(58:00):
the parking lot when they've never beenhere before, and I'll predict their steps
when they come in, and theyyou know, and they walk in and
they just look at its truly likea kid in a candy shop seeing it
for the first time. I mean, their eyes just widened and their smile
comes across their face and they're like, where do I even begin. It's
just fascinating, And of course we'dlove to interact in them and hear their

(58:21):
story. Then we people from everystate in the country that comes to stay
atidity You're every weekend. They're probablycandid. But there are a few glimmers
of hope for roadside attractions. Infact, the very technology that may keep
kids entertained on lung car rides mayalso have a hand at keeping roadside attractions
alive, number one being the instagramworthiness of stopping at a roadside attraction.

(58:46):
Another helper in the form of technologywas Believe It or Not Pokemon Go in
twenty sixteen. While many know thatthe locations used in the game originally came
from another augmented reality game called Ingressfrom Niantic. What you might not know
was that the locations used in bothgames were chosen based on either popular tourist
spots with historic or cultural significance,or they were based on popular photos that

(59:10):
were geotagged that people would upload toGoogle. But according to recent surveys by
Triple A and Ford, road tripsare coming back is a popular form of
recreation, especially for millennials, whoare known to love the nostalgia factor of
anything they experienced in their childhood.By the way, if you're like me,
you're probably wondering if you live nearany roadside attractions. The website roadside

(59:31):
america dot com lists oddities and touristsattractions across the country or right in your
backyard you may never have known about. Like I said, there are monuments
all around us. At the heartof that restaurant shaped like a hamburger,
or that field of dinosaur statues,or even the world's largest ball of twine

(59:52):
are the stories that shape who Americais. Stories of love, stories of
friendly rival fas and neighborhood chivalry,and the story is lost and found that
give us all the varying highways tofollow along across our own versions of America.
If you've enjoyed this episode of OurAmericana, I invite you to check

(01:00:15):
out the Story behind Roadside Detractions.The Story behind podcast can be found on
your favorite podcast app, and theepisode is available now. Thanks to Josh
Hallmark for having me on his show.