9 Playfully Peculiar Towns In Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania gets peculiar fast. One town has a groundhog with a media schedule and dozens of painted statues in his honor. Another spends months building a 20-foot phoenix just to set it on fire. There is a town named Mars, a museum devoted to the Big Mac, and a village called Intercourse that has learned to live with the jokes. Add Bigfoot festivals, vampire artifacts, and chocolate-shaped streetlights, and Pennsylvania starts to feel wonderfully unpredictable. These nine towns show just how peculiar the Keystone State can get.
Marienville
Marienville is the western gateway to the Allegheny National Forest, and it leans into the odd side of forest life. Its strangest weekend comes in June, during the annual Forest County Bigfoot Festival. Organizers pack the schedule with Bigfoot-themed events, including a calling contest and an organized hunt for the legendary Sasquatch himself. Any amateur cryptozoologist should put it on the calendar.
The other main draw is the Allegheny National Forest itself, home to some of the best outdoor recreation in Pennsylvania. You can camp in a tent or rent one of the many cabins, run ATVs along miles of trails, or hike the roughly 200 miles of hiking trails inside the forest. Anglers and hunters work the forest in season with a valid license.
Punxsutawney
Punxsutawney is Pennsylvania's most famous peculiar town, thanks to the annual Groundhog Day celebration that the Bill Murray movie made a household name. Every February 2nd, tens of thousands of visitors crowd Gobbler's Knob before dawn to watch Punxsutawney Phil emerge and deliver his prognostication. It is a family-friendly spectacle, equal parts civic ritual and pure silliness.
There is plenty of groundhog business to do the rest of the year, too. Scattered around town are dozens of Phantastic Phil statues, each one commemorating a local business or landmark. Local artists paint them to a theme that fits whatever storefront they stand in front of. Do not leave without a photo at Phil's Burrow, the climate-controlled den attached to the Punxsutawney Library, open for visits when Phil and his family are not out on one of their many media engagements.
Mars
Just north of Pittsburgh is a town with one of the strangest names in Pennsylvania: Mars. Nobody is quite sure where the name came from, whether the Red Planet inspired it or it is just a shortening of someone's surname. Either way, locals have embraced the name with two notable attractions. The Mars Flying Saucer sculpture sits right in the middle of town and makes for a great picture to prove you were somewhere out of this world. A small park surrounds the saucer. At the annual Mars New Year Festival, residents ring in the new year on Mars, the planet, with space-themed programming and turnout from NASA and other space organizations.
Do not leave Mars without a stop at Stick City Brewing Company. The owners keep an interesting rotating selection of beer on tap, along with wines and hard ciders, and bring in live music and food trucks on a regular basis.
Irwin
Irwin is home to the peculiar Big Mac Museum. Calling it a full-blown museum is a stretch, but it does hold the world's largest Big Mac statue, a 14-foot record-setter. Inside, you can read how a Pittsburgh-area franchisee, Jim Delligatti, invented the Big Mac in 1967 and changed McDonald's forever. The quirky structure is worth the trip.
After the Big Mac, catch a live show at the Lamp Theatre, where the calendar runs to concerts and musicals featuring many talented Pittsburgh-area performers. For a quieter afternoon, head to Indian Lake Park for hiking and fishing at its five-acre lake.
Hershey
Heading east brings you to Hershey, a town that needs no introduction. Right beside Harrisburg, Hershey started as a company town for the Hershey Company and grew into a popular tourist destination. The peculiar streak shows the minute you arrive, with Hershey Kisses shaped into the streetlights and chocolate-themed decorations all over town.
The star attraction is Hersheypark, built for all ages, with rides that run the range of gentle to roller coasters that are not for the faint of heart. Nearby ZooAmerica, one of the better zoos in eastern Pennsylvania, is home to wild animals that include bats, snakes, and wolves. Finish a Hershey visit with the Hershey Gardens, a botanical garden where the grounds crew keeps countless flowers in perfect condition and a butterfly atrium ranks as a highlight.
Lititz
Lititz may be the only town in Pennsylvania where you can twist your own pretzels. The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery opened in 1861 as the first commercial pretzel bakery in the country, and the Sturgis family still runs it on the same methods Julius established. Visitors tour the bakery and then learn to roll and twist handmade soft pretzels, a good stop for a date or a day out with the kids.
Lititz has other playful attractions too. Anyone with a sweet tooth will want the Wilbur Chocolate Retail Store, less famous than Hershey but stocked with chocolate treats in a rustic old storefront. The Wolf Sanctuary of PA is one of the few places in the state for a close look at wolves, and its tours cover the gray wolves on-site and the sanctuary's conservation work.
Intercourse
Not far from Lititz is Intercourse, the town with the strangest name in all of Pennsylvania. The origin is disputed, but one theory ties it to the crossroads the village occupies and the travelers who once passed through. Whatever the source, that name is why Intercourse draws so many visitors who enjoy the weirder side of life.
There is far more here than a name, since the village sits in the heart of Lancaster County's Amish country. Kitchen Kettle Village is a small open-air shopping mall stocked with Pennsylvania Dutch handmade goods and fresh artisanal food. AAA Buggy Rides carry you through the surrounding countryside for a slower look at Lancaster County the way the Amish see it. Close out the day at the Old Country Store, where handmade quilts and fabric make for a souvenir or the start of your next sewing project.
Phoenixville
Phoenixville stands out for two things: an uncommon name and a link to the film industry. The name traces to the Phoenix Iron Works, itself named for the legendary bird. Residents honor that name each December at the Firebird Festival, building a 20-foot phoenix together and then setting it on fire to echo the myth of a bird reborn from ashes. Local vendors and food round out the celebration.
The other claim to fame is the town's connection to the 1958 movie The Blob. The Colonial Theatre, a fixture on Bridge Street since 1903, is the center of Blobfest every July, three days built around a costume contest and the famous run-out reenactment of the theater's scene in the movie. The rest of the year, staff program films and live performances in one of the best-looking venues in eastern Pennsylvania.
Doylestown
Doylestown, just north of Philadelphia, holds some of the state's most peculiar architecture. The eccentric Henry Mercer poured Fonthill Castle to push the limits of reinforced concrete design. Today the castle is open for tours through all 44 rooms of strange architecture and the artifacts Mercer packed inside. Beside it stands another oddity, the Mercer Museum, which carries more of Mercer's spirit and an extensive collection of pre-industrial tools. As a Smithsonian affiliate, it is well worth the visit.
For one more offbeat stop, the VAMPA Vampire & Paranormal Museum gathers artifacts and antiques tied to vampires and other spooky creatures.
These Quirky Towns Make Pennsylvania Great
Pennsylvania is a big state with strange, offbeat towns waiting for anyone who knows where to look. Whether your idea of quirky runs to an odd name, an unusual festival, or an eclectic museum, one of these nine playfully peculiar towns in Pennsylvania will fit your style.
