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Midwest Marvels Roadside Attractions across Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Wisconsin Eric Dregni REVIEWS: |
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A tour of quirky must-see sites dotting the highways and byways of the Upper Midwest. Only in the Midwest is civic pride measured by the size of a town’s roadside sculpture. Much-loved monuments and larger-than-life replicas add character to their surroundings, intriguing and amusing visitors as they pass through town. Midwest Marvels is not your typical guidebook. Regional travel expert Eric Dregni takes the reader on a slightly off-center tour of the bizarre—and the beautiful—across Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Wisconsin, and directs road-trippers to the one-of-a-kind oddities that cause drivers to turn off the interstate in awe. Intricate architecture and historical monuments often reveal the soul of a city, but in Audubon, Iowa, visitors find a thirty-foot, forty-five-ton talking bull erected as a monument to the beef industry. In Minnesota a tourist can view monuments to Paul Bunyan or visit the Spam Museum, and North Dakota boasts a forty-five-foot tower of discarded oil cans, trumped only by the world’s tallest structure: a TV tower jutting nearly a half mile into the sky. Everyone is familiar with South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore and Corn Palace, but less famous is the unique Outhouse Museum. Of course, only in Wisconsin can a couple get married in the mouth of a 145-foot muskie. Readers will appreciate the countless hours Dregni has spent searching for the biggest, the smallest, the oddest, the most mysterious, and the most outrageous tourist attractions. Complete with detailed descriptions, driving directions, and numerous photographs, Midwest Marvels is a must-have for everyone from armchair travelers to seasoned road warriors planning a trip through the heart of the country. “Midwest Marvels is a type of entertaining curiosity tour featuring a text which is illustrated with photographs and down home folk tales. It is well worth the price to the traveler unfamiliar with what the five-state Upper Midwest area has to offer the curious passerby.” —Midwest Book Review “If you like road trips, and you’ve always wondered about those odd things you see along the way, you’ll like Midwest Marvels. For anyone who has ever been exasperated by the fuzzy unctuousness of so much travel writing, this newly reissued guidebook will be a breath of fresh air.” —St. Paul Pioneer Press “Dregni takes the reader on a slightly off center tour of the bizarre and the beautiful, and directs road-trippers to the one-of-a-kind oddities that cause drivers to turn off the interstate in awe.” —La Crosse Tribune “This guide to drive-to novelties may help take the sting out of high fuel prices. Skewed toward the slightly nutty if not downright bizarre, the entries profiled here will attract travelers of all ages.” —Bloomsbury Review “With gas prices edging to $3 a gallon again, it might be an opportune time to pick a summer vacation destination close to home. I’ve got just the planning guide for you. It’s Eric Dregni’s Midwest Marvels.” —Rapid City Journal “King of Kitsch: Marvelous author Eric Dregni maps wee wonders of Midwest. Having a conversation with Eric Dregni is like stripping paint off an old window frame. Just when you think you’ve reached bare wood, you find another layer of paint.” —Villager “The world’s largest turkey in Frazee is just one of the roadside attractions highlighted in Eric Dregni’s new book.” —Frazee-Vergas Forum “A compilation of big, small, mysterious and strange tourist attractions. One of Deadwood’s most famous saloons has its own chapter.” —Lawrence County Journal (Deadwood, SD) “Midwest Marvels directs road-trippers to the one-of-a-kind oddities that cause drivers to turn off the interstate in awe.” —Harvey Herald-Press “Fascinating reading not only for the traveler willing to divert from interstate highways but also for the traveler who doesn’t have time or can’t afford to leave his living room couch.” —Custer County Chronicle “Dregni has done a good job of finding a wide variety of oddities and then tracking down their essential facts. His book is rich with photographs and details, a great book to toss into the back seat when you head out for the weekend.” —Minnesota “Eric Dregni knows the Midwest at its most peculiar. Each entry in Dregni’s book—there are more than 100 featured—has a photograph and brief description, and also some anecdotal humor and commentary.” —Minnesota Daily “Where on earth would anyone find an assembly of lederhosen-clad chipmunks hoisting their beer steins? At the Moccasin Bar in Hayward, WI, of course, which features other such marvels of taxidermy as sparring squirrels and a beaver referee. Dregni travels to states throughout the Midwest to take in their bizarre tourist attractions. Dregni pens engaging entries, each of which includes a few pages of background, travel instructions, and, in some cases, other nearby stops of interest. Public libraries in the Midwest will wish to purchase it for its in-depth coverage of the local wonders.” —Library Journal “If you’ve ever been lured by the siren song of schlock, you’ll be in tune with Eric Dregni’s adoringly quirky new compendium of heartland camp. Chockfull of tourists’ quotes and anecdotes, this fat slab of a book is a cheerful reminder of how even the most conservative parts of America revel in their queer amusements.” —Passport Magazine Born in the shadow of the World’s Largest Six-Pack in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Eric Dregni is a freelance writer for the Rake and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He is the author of several books, including Minnesota Marvels: Roadside Attractions in the Land of Lakes (2001), The Scooter Bible, Ads That Put America on Wheels, and, most recently, Let’s Go Bowling! He lives in Minneapolis. 368 pages | 204 halftones, 5 maps | 7 x 9 | 2006 . Preface Audubon • Albert the Bull World’s Largest Anatomically-Correct Bull Britt Burlington Clear Lake Council Bluffs Dubuque Eldon Elk Horn Festina Fort Dodge Le Mars Main Amana Marquette Marshalltown Okoboji Pella Pocahontas Riverside Spillville Stanton Waukon • House of Clocks West Bend Winterset Austin Belle Plaine Blue Earth Collegeville Crookston Darwin Duluth Eveleth Fergus Falls Fosston Frazee Madison Menahga Minneapolis • Cherry Spoon Mora Rothsay Saint Paul Vining
• Big Fish Tour • Paul Bunyan Tour • Voyageur Tour North Dakota Bottineau Casselton Dickinson Dunseith Fort Ransom Garrison Grand Forks Grassy Butte Harvey Jamestown Mandan Minot Napoleon New Salem New Town Parshall Regent Rugby Strasburg Wahpeton South Dakota Clark Custer • Crazy Horse Memorial Deadwood Gregory Henry Hot Springs Huron Interior Keystone Lead Lemmon Mitchell Mobridge Montrose Rapid City • Dinosaur Park • The Road to the Hills Roslyn Sioux Falls Wall Webster Wisconsin Baraboo Dickeyville Eagle River Fountain City Hayward • Moccasin Bar Hollandale La Crosse Lake Delton Marshfield Mercer Mount Horeb Neillsville Phillips Rhinelander Sparta Spring Green Taliesin • The Painted Forest Wisconsin Dells • Tommy Bartlett’s Robot World • Driving Tour of the Dells Bibliography |
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$17.95 Paper