6 wonderful and weird roadside attractions in Northern New England

As you go road-tripping around Northern New England, take time to check out the wayside wonders along the way. Our region is blessed with countless irresistible destinations—and getting there truly is half the fun, thanks to weird roadside attractions such as these. Each one is a little piece of Insta heaven.

Do you mourn a gone-but-not-forgotten Ben & Jerry’s flavor? Head to Waterbury to pay your respects at the ice-cream maker’s Flavor Graveyard. Surrounded by a white picket fence, this hallowed ground memorializes more than 30 “dearly de-pinted” concoctions, including Wavy Gravy, Vermonty Python, and Economic Crunch.

Every headstone is graced by a cheeky poem, such as, “Wild Maine Blueberry / From the land of the puffin / Now when we crave you / We turn to the muffin.”

The graveyard is located on the grounds of the company’s first and still-operating factory. Buy a cone of your current favorite at the shop, and get the scoop on how the ice cream is made on a factory tour (tours are currently suspended due to COVID; check the website for updates).

Detour into downtown Barre to see a zipper big enough for King Kong’s jacket (if he wore one). Proclaimed the largest zipper in North America, the sculpture stretches 74 feet down a narrow green space beside Studio Place Arts (SPA), a regional visual-arts center that created this pocket sculpture park and other local sculpture installations.

Carved from fine Barre gray granite, the zipper’s 60 sets of teeth part just enough to allow for a small flower garden. The sculpture is titled Unzipping the Earth, a fitting name in the city that’s home to what is said to be the world’s largest granite deposit and quarry. It’s 4 miles long, 2 miles wide, and 10 miles thick.

Before you zip out of town, take the self-guided Art Stroll down Main Street to see more sculptures crafted from Barre’s celebrated stone, including gargoyles flanking a bike rack (maps are available at SPA and on its website). It’s worth a trip to nearby Hope Cemetery to view even more sculptures—such as a race car, a biplane, and 2 people holding hands in bed.

Space-travel buffs have 2 towering reasons to visit central New Hampshire. Standing outside the entrance to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord is a full-scale, 88-foot-tall replica of the Mercury-Redstone rocket that launched the Freedom 7 capsule carrying astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. Interactive exhibits surrounding the rocket detail the historic 1961 launch of the first American into space. A full-size replica of Shepard’s capsule hangs inside this air and space museum (adults, $11.50), which honors both East Derry, New Hampshire, native Shepard and New Hampshire teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe, who perished in the 1986 Challenger disaster.

A Redstone ballistic missile formed the basis of Freedom 7’s booster rocket, and an actual, decommissioned Redstone missile rises 73 feet above the common in the tiny hamlet of Warren, about 60 miles north of Concord. Ted Asselin, a local man who was stationed at Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal, made the installation possible in 1971: Having spied the obsolete craft in a field, he sought to bring it home as an educational tool and tribute to Shepard. The Army released it to the town, leaving the transport to Asselin. As reports of the trailered missile’s approach came in, some folks prematurely heralded its arrival when a septic-tank pumper passed by. Clearly, the Redstone was destined for a much-needed educational role.

People driving along the US 1 Bypass just west of downtown Portsmouth sometimes do a double take: Is that a submarine beside the road? It is, in fact, a very special sub. The USS Albacore was the forerunner of today’s hydrodynamic, teardrop-shaped submarines. From 1953 to 1972, this 205-foot-long boat served in an experimental capacity, helping advance propulsion systems, underwater speed, maneuverability, and top-secret stealth tactics. It also broke underwater speed records, and its history continues to contribute to today’s submarine technology.

Set in a concrete cradle across the Piscataqua River from its birthplace at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, this National Historic Landmark is open daily (except mid-December through mid-February; adults, $9; active military, free) for self-guided tours that reveal how a 55-man crew lived and performed their duties in the narrow, cramped interior. The submarine is not handicap accessible; the museum, visitors center, and memorial garden are available to all.

Of course Paul Bunyan hailed from the Pine Tree State, the place where the U.S. lumber industry began. Although a few other northern states may try to claim the mythical lumberjack, only Maine has his “authentic” birth certificate, proudly displayed at Bangor City Hall. (His birthdate? February 12, 1834.) Once hailed as the logging capital of the world, Bangor also honors the mammoth North Woods hero with a colorful, 31-foot-tall, 3,700-pound statue, one of the country’s largest likenesses of him. Created from a fiberglass-covered wire frame to mark the city’s 125th anniversary in 1959, the bearded giant holds an ax and a logger’s peavey as he faces out over the Penobscot River, where ships once loaded lumber bound for worldwide ports. In his novel, It, Maine’s own Stephen King portrayed the smiling statue as being possessed—another compelling reason to go see big Paul.

Who needs those billionaires and their rocket ships? In northern Maine, you can travel throughout the solar system in your car. The world’s second-largest 3-D solar system model encompasses to-scale representations of 8 planets, Pluto and other dwarf planets, and 7 moons, all strung out along a 100-mile stretch of US 1 in Aroostook County. Laid out in a scale in which 1 mile equals 1 astronomical unit—or 93 million miles, the distance from Earth to the sun—it begins in Topsfield with Eris, the smallest dwarf planet, and ends with a 25-foot radius sun model in Folsom Hall at the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI).

While the sun and Pluto are housed inside public buildings, the rest are positioned beside the road, together with information signs (some have small parking areas). Jupiter and Saturn are the size of small cars, each weighing a half-ton; the diameter of Pluto and Eris is a mere inch. A community project involving UMPI and more than 700 volunteers, this astronomical scavenger hunt is a stellar way to have fun and learn at the same time.

Mimi Bigelow Steadman writes about New England regularly for AAA’s publications.