Oddball Indiana: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places

by Jerome Pohlen

Book Overview

Square Donuts. The World's Largest Stump. Oscar the Monster Turtle. Johnny Appleseed's grave. The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. While other travel guides tell you... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556524382
• ISBN13: 9781556524387
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Length: 227 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An enjoyable and informative read.

I have seen about half of the entries, now I MUST go see the rest. A very good guide for touring.

Delivers as promised but too much fascination with...

...Dan Quayle and Jim Jones. Th book does a great job of showing some of the odd things that make the Hoosier state unique, including Santa Claus, IN and the world's largest steer (he's stuffed). It also turns out that Indiana is the birthplace of Wonder Bread, Alka Seltzer, Corn Flakes, Pork and Beans and the unique shape of the Coca-Cola bottle. He includes driving directions that look to be accurate (I am familiar with some of these places) although a good map of Indiana would also be required to even find some of the towns that he mentions. He includes several pictures, which generally are helpful. This really could have been a charming little book - one that I would have been 100% enthused about except for the author's fascination with Dan Quayle (not in a positive way, either) and Jim Jones (the cult leader who led his 900+ followers in a mass suicide in Guyana in the 1978). Do we really need to see Dan Quayle's frat house? Do we really need to see a picture of the bridge that his Jones' uncle jumped off of in order to commit suicide? But, on the whole, the guide is useful and entertaining. It includes addresses, phone numbers, web addresses, visiting hours, costs (if any) and directions to every location he describes. I do recommend it for anyone who likes to travel off of the beaten path.