EIGHT SIGHTS SO AMERICAN THEY RIVAL MOUNT RUSHMORE

 

 

4.  The Flatiron Building – When opened in 1902, this 20-story building was the tallest structure in New York.  It’s still my favorite.

6.  World’s Largest Buffalo – Giant cement animals are a Midwestern specialty.  This one is near Jamestown, North Dakota.

7.  Cadillac Ranch – Created in 1974 by the art collective known as Ant Farm, Cadillac Ranch still stands just outside Amarillo, Texas, off Interstate 40.  I don’t think the graffiti adds much.

1.  Sandy Koufax Firing a Fastball – Dodger GM Al Campanis liked to talk about the two times in his life when “the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.”  The first was when he saw the Sistine Chapel.  The second was the first time he saw Sandy Koufax throw a fastball.

2.  Monument Valley – Immortalized in Westerns such as “Stagecoach” and “The Searchers,” this majestic landscape is neither replicated or imitated anywhere on earth.

3.  Galata Motel -- Ran into this gem in Galata, a central Montana town with a post office, a general store and, in all its glory, a motel.

 

 

5.  Giant Sequoia – The largest living things on earth, they grow only in California.  They must be seen to be believed.  In fact, when loggers first sent a full slice of a sequoia back east, many Easterners thought it was a hoax.  BTW, sequoia is one of the few English word containing all five vowels.  I’m just sayin’.

 

8.  Carnegie Library, Honea Path, SC – Steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie believed that the man who dies rich “dies disgraced.”  He gave away his billions, funding universities, the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, and 1,689 libraries all over America.  Honea Path, South Carolina (pop. 3,508) is the smallest town to have such a library. “The America I love still exists,” Kurt Vonnegut said, “at the front desk of our public libraries.” 

That’s my list.  Post yours below.