Oddball Indiana ─ A Guide to 350 Really Strange Places

Indiana often calls itself the Crossroads of the Nation, which sounds wholesome and middle-American, but that doesn’t mean it’s not also weird—perhaps the very nexus of US weirdness. Armed with Oddball Indiana, you’ll soon discover the strange underbelly of the Hoosier State, from brain sandwiches to square donuts. Indiana has monuments to Michael Jackson, the comic strip character Joe Palooka, and the World’s Largest Egg, as well as festivals honoring popcorn, James Dean, hot dogs, and a mysterious monster turtle named Oscar. It’s where you’ll find a collection of historic outhouses, a rosary made from bowling balls, a century-old tree growing out of a courthouse roof, Peggy the Flying Red Horse, the International Monster Truck Museum & Hall of Fame, and the World’s Largest Ball of Paint—25,000 layers and counting. The state also has its share of weird history—it’s where Johnny Appleseed died and was buried, where Alka-Seltzer and Wonder Bread were invented, where Alfred Kinsey conducted his famous sexuality research, where A Christmas Story actually took place, and where the good but angry citizens of Plainfield conspired to dump President Martin Van Buren in a mud puddle . . . and today memorialize the event with a bronze plaque. Along with humorous histories and offbeat observations, Oddball Indiana provides addresses, websites, hours, fees, and driving directions for each of its 350+ entries, as well as a themed tour following John Dillinger’s trail of crime and mayhem.