11 Quirkiest Towns In The Southern United States You Didn't Know Existed
The southern United States, comprising the area between western Louisiana and eastern North Carolina, has numerous small towns that have peculiar or unexpected traits and/or venues. From Rayne, Louisiana and the Rayne Frog Festival, to Homosassa, Florida and Monkey Island, to Sylva, North Carolina and the House Cat Museum, these attractions and attributes encourage people to visit these small towns over and over again. Whether it is odd, eccentric, or even slightly bizarre, these places add a bit of the unusual to everyday living. Here are a dozen of the quirkiest southern United States towns that you may not even know exist.
Rayne, Louisiana - Acadia Parish
Nicknamed the “Frog Capital of the World,” the small town of Rayne, Louisiana is home to an awesome festival that attracts people from all over the country. Aptly named the Rayne Frog Festival, this event has been occurring for over fifty years. Each May, visitors to Rayne enjoy a fun-filled weekend celebrating frogs with live music, arts & crafts vendors, and lots of exciting, frog-related activities.
Another strange oddity in the town of Rayne may perhaps be St. Joseph Cemetery, situated downtown on E. Betty Street. This cemetery, which was established in 1882 when the old church was physically moved to a new site, has all of its graves facing north to south, rather than east to west like every other Christian cemetery in America.
Montevallo, Alabama - Shelby County
Approximately thirty miles south of Birmingham, the town of Montevallo is now the home of the Pettus Randall Miniature Museum of American History. Beginning as a traveling museum in 1964, this museum of miniatures has 35 dioramas, including “Hail to the Chief” and “Automobiles for the Masses.” “Hail to the Chief” includes every single president and first lady from George and Martha to Barack and Michelle.
The small town of Montevallo is also well known for the tree carvings located in Orr Park. These playful carvings, also known as the Tinglewood Carvings, as they were created by Tim Tingle, are in the visage of gnomes, people, and even animals, and are situated throughout the park. The Tinglewood Festival, which occurs every September, helps to commemorate these fanciful carvings.
Bishopville, South Carolina - Lee County
A bizarre, and perhaps eccentric, venue within the tiny town of Bishopville, South Carolina, the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden is well worth experiencing. Created by Mr. Fryar in the 1980s, this fabulous find is three acres in size and holds over four hundred different plants, along with several sculptures made from a variety of odds & ends.
The town of Bishopville is home to another eccentric location. It is known only as the Button Museum and started when a known insomniac, Dalton Stevens, began to attach various buttons to an article of clothing. The Button Museum now consists of numerous items covered from end to end with buttons, including a toilet, a car, and a bathtub.
Monticello, Florida - Jefferson County
The town of Monticello, 25 miles east of Tallahassee, is best known for its historic buildings. One building, the Daffodale House, currently ranked as the best B&B inn in town, is quite possibly one of the most haunted as well. It is rumoured that people see the ghost of the original owner, Thomas Clarke, who died in 1988, quite regularly.
Monticello is also home to the “old hanging tree,” situated only six miles away from the local correctional facility. It was known to be the site of many hangings in the distant past. And, just down the road, though it is now closed to the public, the Palmer House has been reported as another of the most haunted buildings in town, even utilized in the past by semi-professional ghost hunters.
Blue Ridge, Georgia - Fannin County
Picturesque Blue Ridge, within the Blue Ridge Mountains, is home to the Sasquatch Museum. This museum, situated six miles southwest of downtown Blue Ridge, in the community of Cherry Log, is the largest museum of this kind in the world. From documented sightings of Bigfoot to exhibits of a variety of memorabilia, this museum has everything.
Another awesome find in the small town of Blue Ridge, especially if you like to fish with dynamite, is the gravestone of the arm of Buel Stanley. While the rest of Buel Stanley was interred at the Macedonia Church of Christ, his arm can be found a few miles away at the Stanley Settlement Cemetery. The arm was amputated after a dynamite-related fishing trip in 1915.
Sylva, North Carolina - Jackson County
Fifty miles west of Asheville, the tiny town of Sylva is home to the American Museum of the House Cat. This odd museum honors, as you may guess, the domestic house cat. From a cat mummy from Egypt that dates back to before Christ all the way to modern examples of house cats, this original, one-of-a-kind venue is great for families.
The Fugitive Train Wreck, the one used in the 1993 movie, “The Fugitive,” can also be found just three minutes away from Sylva, in the community of Dillsboro. This constructed “train wreck” consists of a couple of train engines and a prison bus. Visitors to this wreck can still see Illinois Southern on the side of both trains, as well as Illinois House of Corrections printed on the bus.
Leland, Mississippi - Washington County
Have you ever wondered where Kermit the Frog was born, or perhaps hatched? The answer to that is the small town of Leland, Mississippi. He was born, according to multiple sources, in the year 1955, along with well over two thousand brothers and sisters. Kermit’s life can be experienced at the Jim Henson Exhibit, a specialty museum inside the Washington County Tourist Center within downtown Leland.
The Highway 61 Blues Museum is another eccentric attraction in Leland. This small museum, situated in the Montgomery Hotel building, showcases exhibits honoring the Mississippi Delta Bluesmen. For those visiting in the fall, there is even a festival attached to this specialty museum. It supports the local food pantry with food and drink vendors.
Ville Platte, Louisiana - Evangeline Parish
Just under an hour’s drive north of Lafayette, the quaint town of Ville Platte is known as the “smoked meat capital of the World.” Yet this town of barely six thousand residents is also known for an odd attraction named the Swamp Pop Museum. This bizarre genre of music, created in the fifties, combines country & western with rhythm & blues.
“Squirrel Day” is another eccentric attribute to this quaint southern town, though it has been happening for as long as anyone can remember. This is probably because it began in the middle of the 18th century. This event happens every October, on the day before squirrel season starts, and it includes most of Ville Platte, as well as the greater portion of Evangeline Parish.
Cleveland, Georgia - White County
The town of Cleveland, an hour and a half northeast of Atlanta, is home to one of the strangest hospitals in the country. It is named BabyLand General Hospital and is the only place where visitors can watch a Cabbage Patch Kid being born. While the first Cabbage Patch Kid was created in 1976, this interesting hospital has been in existence since 2009. Today, it offers free admission.
Along with stopping with the family at the Cabbage Patch Kid Hospital and watching a Cabbage Patch Kid born, visitors can check out Cleveland’s version of a Safari Park. To the west of downtown Cleveland, the North Georgia Wildlife & Safari Park has a variety of exotic animals, including otters, capybaras, and kangaroos.
Homosassa, Florida - Citrus County
Located to the east of downtown Homosassa, at the eastern end of the Homosassa River, the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park provides visitors to western Florida with encounters with manatees, bobcat, cranes, alligators, black bear, and Florida panthers. They even have an underwater observatory that is perfect for watching the manatees swimming around.
Homosassa is also well-known for being the home to Monkey Island. Situated along the Homosassa River, Monkey Island currently has several spider monkeys and has recently been renamed Monkey Island Riverside Resort. The five spider monkeys living on Monkey Island today consist of two of the original monkeys, Ralph & Sassy, their daughter, Ebony, and two other monkeys, Eve & Emily.
Tuscumbia, Alabama - Colbert County
The quaint town of Tuscumbia, situated just below the Tennessee River, is perhaps best known for Seven Springs Lodge and Rattlesnake Saloon. Seven Springs Lodge was built by Owen Foster, aka ‘Plain’ Owen, years after he bought the land in 1916. The Rattlesnake Saloon, named after a mother Rattlesnake and twelve babies that were nearby during its construction, was built into a cave, giving it a unique sense of style.
The residence of noted author, Helen Keller, is another attraction to check out while in the town of Tuscumbia. Born in 1880, Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing due to an illness when she was just under two years old. Visitors to this house in western Tuscumbia can see the actual water pump that Annie Sullivan taught Helen Keller her first words under.
Many weird, bizarre, and even eccentric attractions can be seen in the southern part of the United States to this very day. Whether you are in Louisiana, North or South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, or Georgia, the south has some quirky attractions that are well worth checking out. And this was only eleven of the towns you may not have heard about that are in this part of the United States. There are numerous others that were not mentioned here as well.
