7 Unique And Quite Unusual Attractions You Won’t Find Anywhere Else But In Michigan
Michigan is home to amazing tourist spots and beautiful destinations. Aside from the jaw-dropping wonders of nature and man-made architecture, Michigan is also rich in unique and quite unusual attractions that you won’t find in any other state.
Below are some of the unusual yet truly exciting attractions in Michigan that you probably never heard of.
Known as the world’s largest wooden dome, Superior Dome is a domed stadium on the campus of Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan. The dome is designed to support snow up to 60 pounds per square foot and withstand 80-mile-per-hour (130 km/h) winds. The 2010 edition of Guinness World Records listed it as the fifth-largest dome and largest wooden dome in the world. It has a retractable turf, three basketball courts, tennis courts, and volleyball courts.
Known as the largest man made ski slide in the U.S., Pine Mountain Ski Jump is known throughout the world as one of the best jumping hills. Every year The Kiwanis Ski Club hosts the best jumping tournament in the United States. It holds the U.S. records for the longest jump in World Cup competition at 140m (459 feet), as well as the overall distance record at 143.5m (471 feet).
The World’s Largest Working Weathervane was constructed in part by local manufacturer Whitehall Metal Studios. The functioning weathervane is 48 feet tall with an arrow 26 feet long. It is topped by the Ella Ellenwood, a lumbering Schooner that frequented White Lake transporting lumber from Montague to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Erebus Haunted Attraction is a four-story haunted attraction located in Pontiac, Michigan, and held the Guinness World Record for largest walk-through haunted attraction from 2005 until 2009. This unique attraction occupies 100,000 square feet and uses 70,000 square feet of that for storing props. The production usually hires about 70 actors as well as uses animatronics resembling animals and monsters. Erebus also uses landscape changes throughout the walk-through including inclines, stairwells, narrow passages, low ceilings and trap doors. It also mounts electronic props such as lasers, lights, and mirrors to create visual obstruction and manipulation.
Baker’s Keyboard Lounge is located on 20510 Livernois Street in Detroit, Michigan. It is known as the World’s oldest operating jazz club, operating since May 1934. It was designated as a Historic Site by the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office. The historic significance of the site is stated as follows: Baker’s Keyboard Lounge has significance as Michigan’s jazz mecca and Detroit’s oldest jazz club in continuous operation. Founded in May 1933 by Chris Baker as a restaurant and piano bar, the present jazz orientation of the club has been firmly in place since 1939. Baker’s Keyboard Lounge has hosted the greatest names in blues and jazz since that date. Some of the musicians who have played the club include: Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, George Shearing, Sarah Vaughn, Joe Williams, Maynard Ferguson, Cab Calloway, Woody Herman, Modern Jazz Quartet, and Nat “King” Cole.
The Grand Haven Musical Fountain is a synchronized display of water and lights in Grand Haven, Michigan. It is located on Dewey Hill on the north shore of the Grand River. The musical fountain shows run nightly from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Weekend shows run during the months of May and September. The fountain was based on a Przystawic musical fountain show seen in Germany and was the largest musical fountain in the world when it was built.
Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum, located in Farmington Hills, Michigan, is home to a huge collection of coin-operated animatronics dummies, mechanical games and other oddities. If you like magic posters, neon, antiques, advertisings, ceiling fans, slot machines, memorabilia, robots, airplanes, animation, then this is the place to visit. Amongst the collection is P.T. Barnum’s version of the Cardiff Giant. Another oddity is one of Sing Sing Prison’s Electric Chairs in which 30 people died. An automaton “food inspector” is set up to continuously vomit into a pile of milk bottles.
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