The roadside attractions in the Midwest most worth the exit are the Corn Palace and Wall Drug in South Dakota. Close behind are Carhenge in Nebraska and the ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas. Five more round out the list below, from a giant in Minnesota to a scrap-metal highway in North Dakota.
Published October 13, 2026.
I have pulled off the interstate for more of these than I can count. The ones worth the stop all have the same thing going for them. Somebody local cared enough to keep adding to it. A ball of twine that still grows every summer beats a fiberglass statue that nobody has touched in years. Plan on 20 minutes at most of them. Plan on an afternoon at the House on the Rock.
Midwest roadside attractions at a glance
| Attraction | Town | Started | What you see |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corn Palace | Mitchell, S.D. | 1892 | Murals made of corn, redone every year |
| Wall Drug | Wall, S.D. | 1931 | A sprawling store built on free ice water |
| Carhenge | Alliance, Neb. | 1987 | 39 cars set up like Stonehenge |
| Ball of twine | Cawker City, Kan. | 1953 | A twine ball past 19,000 pounds |
| Field of Dreams | Dyersville, Iowa | 1989 film | The movie’s ballfield and farmhouse |
| Iowa 80 Truckstop | Walcott, Iowa | 1964 | A truck stop with a trucking museum |
| House on the Rock | Spring Green, Wis. | 1945 | Rooms of oddities and a huge carousel |
| Enchanted Highway | Regent, N.D. | 1990 | Giant scrap-metal sculptures on a 32-mile road |
| Green Giant statue | Blue Earth, Minn. | 1979 | A 55-foot fiberglass giant |
Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota
South Dakota Public Broadcasting dates the first Corn Palace to 1892, with the current building going up in 1921. The outside murals are replaced or updated every year, and the inside ones every 15 to 20 years. Each year takes well over 275,000 ears of corn plus about 3,000 bushels of other grains and grasses. Eleven shapes and colors of corn are used, and none of it is painted.
SDPB puts the crowd at about half a million visitors a year. Walk all four sides before you go in. Up close the murals break apart into single ears, which is the part photos never show.
Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota
South Dakota Magazine tells the story. Ted and Dorothy Hustead came to Wall in 1931 looking for a drug store to buy, and Ted was a pharmacist. In the hot summer of 1936, Dorothy suggested pulling travelers off Highway 16 with roadside signs offering free ice water. It worked. On a summer day, the magazine says, visitors outnumber the town’s roughly 820 residents 15 to 1.
The signs start long before the exit, and the store itself is a maze of shops. Get the donut and the coffee. Badlands National Park is right there, too. Our list of top national parks in the U.S. covers what else is nearby.
Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska
The Alliance Times reports that Jim Reinders finished Carhenge in 1987. He built it as a family project and a memorial to his father, who died in 1982. It stands north of Alliance on Highway 87, on ground his father used to farm. The 39 vehicles follow the proportions of Stonehenge. Friends of Carhenge, the group that kept it up, gave it to the city of Alliance in October 2013.
The official Carhenge site lists it as open year-round from dawn to dusk. Reinders’ own explanation, quoted by the paper, is the best one: cars were easy to find out there and shaped like the stones in England.
World’s largest ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas
According to the Kansas Sampler Foundation, Frank Stoeber started winding twine on his farm on December 24, 1953, and neighbors soon brought him theirs. The ball moved downtown in 1961. As of September 2009 it weighed 19,198 pounds and held 7,974,454 feet of twine, or about 1,510 miles.
It sits under a canopy on the south side of U.S. 24, and it is still growing. The town adds to it at the Twine-a-thon on the third weekend of every August. Visitors can wind on a length of their own. Darwin, Minnesota, has a rival ball, which is half the fun.
Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville, Iowa
The Library of Congress added Field of Dreams (1989) to the National Film Registry in 2017. The movie site’s own page says the field is open from sunrise to sunset all year, weather permitting. On select summer days and Ghost Saturdays you can play catch with the costumed Ghost Players. The field can be unavailable during private rentals and scheduled events.
Bring a glove. Walking into the corn past the outfield is corny, and you will do it anyway.
Iowa 80 truck stop in Walcott, Iowa
A 2019 profile in The Municipal says Iowa 80 opened in 1964 in a small white enamel building. It sits at Exit 284 on Interstate 80. The site covers 225 acres and parks 900 tractor-trailers, 250 cars and 20 buses. About 5,000 visitors stop each day. The complex has eight restaurants. Its trucking museum holds more than 100 antique trucks, and admission to the museum is free.
It is the only stop here that also solves lunch, fuel and a restroom. Budget an hour for the museum.
House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin
Experience Wisconsin says Alex Jordan Jr. began building a personal hideaway on Deer Shelter Rock in 1945, and the work took about 15 years. Around 1960 he started charging 50 cents a tour. The glass-walled Infinity Room is 218 feet long. Its carousel measures 80 by 35 feet and holds 269 animals.
The magazine says to budget three to four hours to see every exhibit, and that is right. This is the one stop on the list that is a destination, not a leg stretch.
Enchanted Highway in North Dakota
The SPACES archive of folk art environments credits Gary Greff, a retired teacher who grew up in Regent, with the project, begun in 1990. His scrap-metal sculptures line a 32-mile stretch beside Highway 21, from Interstate 94 at exit 72 down to Regent. Seven of a planned ten are up. Guinness lists Geese in Flight as the largest scrap metal sculpture in the world. It is 154 feet long and 110 feet tall.
The others include giant grasshoppers, pheasants, a fisherman and a tin family. Drive the whole road once; it is the most rewarding detour on this list for the miles it costs.
Jolly Green Giant statue in Blue Earth, Minnesota
MinnPost reports that the 55-foot fiberglass giant went up in 1979 on an 8-foot base. The town paid $43,000 for it in 1978, and local fundraising covered the cost within a week. The idea came from Paul Hedberg, owner of radio station KBEW. Travelers he interviewed kept saying they wanted to see the Green Giant, whose vegetables were canned at a local plant.
There is not much else to do here. Take the picture, then compare notes with the other drivers doing the same thing. For bigger landmarks on the same kind of trip, see our list of America’s most important landmarks.
Planning a Midwest road trip around these stops
Three of these sit near one interstate. Mitchell, Wall and Blue Earth are all along Interstate 90. One east-west run can take in the Corn Palace, Wall Drug and the Green Giant. Iowa 80 is on Interstate 80. Carhenge, the Enchanted Highway and Cawker City need a two-lane detour, and they are the better stories for it.
Weird roadside attractions
What is the most famous roadside attraction in the Midwest?
Wall Drug and the Corn Palace, both in South Dakota, have the strongest claim. South Dakota Public Broadcasting puts Corn Palace traffic at about half a million visitors a year. South Dakota Magazine says Wall Drug visitors outnumber the town’s roughly 820 residents 15 to 1 on a summer day.
When is Carhenge open?
The official Carhenge site says it is open year-round, from dawn to dusk. It stands north of Alliance, Nebraska, on Highway 87. Jim Reinders finished it in 1987 as a memorial to his father. The Friends of Carhenge group gave it to the city of Alliance in 2013, according to the Alliance Times.
Can you add to the world’s largest ball of twine?
Yes. The Kansas Sampler Foundation says visitors to Cawker City can wind their own twine onto the ball. The town adds more at its Twine-a-thon on the third weekend of every August. As of September 2009 the ball weighed 19,198 pounds and held about 1,510 miles of twine.
Can you play on the Field of Dreams?
Yes. The Field of Dreams Movie Site says the field is open from sunrise to sunset year-round, weather permitting. On select summer days you can play catch with the Ghost Players. The site warns the field can be unavailable during private rentals and scheduled events, so check its calendar first.