Oddball Colorado: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places

by Jerome Pohlen

A high-altitude alligator farm. A UFO watchtower. A monument to a headless chicken. While other travel guides tell you about tackling Pike’s Peak, skiing the back bowls, or rafting down the Arkansas River, this quirky regional resource offers unusual travel destinations and little-known historical tidbits. Imagine regaling coworkers with unique Rocky Mountain adventures, like spending an evening at a drive-in movie . . . in a queen-sized bed, or visiting a vapor cave clad only in a towel. How about seeing a two-headed dragon made of car parts, or watching cliff divers while eating Mexican food?

Genres: Travel

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Cheryl Gatling]

I recently had the opportunity to spend a few days in Denver. While visiting the History Colorado Center I saw some exhibits about the internment of Japanese during WWII. I think this is important history to know about. But it made me very sad. I was still sad while browsing in the gift shop, when this book caught my eye. I thought, "Oddball Colorado. That ought to cheer me up."

And it did. There are plenty of stories here about crimes and disasters, but always with an emphasis of the absurd and the outlandish. And most of it is about silly things: a museum of keys, a gas station built out of petrified wood, homemade sculptures, a hand-built castle. Most of the book is a guidebook, telling you the hours and the admission costs so you can actually go visit these oddities. But there is also lots of trivia stuffed in as filler, with details about celebrities who have lived in Colorado, and amusing details of history.

Even though I will never visit most of these places, it was entertaining to read. My one complaint was that there were not enough pictures. If you're going to tell me that I can see a dress made completely out of rattlesnake skins, I'm going to want to actually see that. Fortunately I figured out that almost anything in the book can be Googled, and there's your pictures.

The book does end on a sad note, of sorts. The author, after having spent the whole book celebrating the idiosyncratic, the unique, the kitschy, the weird, and the fun, laments that such things are disappearing from the landscape due to the homogenization of American culture. He says, you had better get out and see oddball America quick, while you can.

[Shawna · Rating 5 out of 5]

So great! All of my friends are getting Oddball guides to their home states for their birthdays this year. You certainly wouldn't want to use it as your sole travel guides, but the trivia is quite entertaining if you have any connection to the state.

[Aljan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a letterboxer's dream. It looks like there is a series and that many other states have their own "oddball" books.