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33 Strange, Tragic and Downright Creepy Treasures and Landmarks Hiding Right Here in the Good Ol’ U.S. of A.

Making out under the Black Angel of Iowa City could have deadly consequences

33 Strange, Tragic and Downright Creepy Treasures and Landmarks Hiding Right Here in the Good Ol’ U.S. of A.

October 23, 2023

Sometimes, amid the chaos and the discord, we have to remind ourselves that America has a lot to offer. We as a country are more than the sum of our countless political and ideological battles, tragically canceled celebrities and Florida Men.

America also happens to be a vast and wondrous jigsaw puzzle of unique geography, peppered with untold numbers of creeps and weirdos. Here's a collection of some of the more bizarre oddities and creatures that make this house a home…

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33

The Arkansas Dog Boy is, it's said, six feet tall and 300 pounds. Half human, half canine, he might be what's left of Gerald Bettis, a local boy who spent the 1970s torturing and killing dogs, eventually becoming a monster. CRACKED — Source

32

When an insane asylum was built in Clifton, residents successfully petitioned for the inmates to be moved elsewhere. The bus moving them crashed, and while most were captured, one escaped - the Bunnyman, living on rabbit flesh in between human kills. CRACKED — Source

31

Construction of the Hoosac Tunnel took 24 years, and 200 miners died. Thirteen perished particularly horribly - trapped underground by an explosion and presumed dead, in reality slowly dying from gas inhalation. They still haunt the tunnel, moaning from the beyond. CRACKED — Source

30

In the 1950s, a boy was lowered into Sabattus' haunted well on a dare. Eventually, his friends pulled him up, to find him white-haired and catatonic, eyes wide with terror and unable to speak, only to scream. CRACKED — Source

29

Legend has it that monstrous inbred forest albinos known as the Grunch will lure you out of your car with an injured goat. Then, when you get out to tend to it, they'll eat your flesh and drink you dry. CRACKED — Source

28

CRACKED.COM Coney Island is the site of a gruesome fire. SHOWING DIVERS AT WORK UNDER WATER 12 TONE HISTORICAL FASTESPAR EDUCATIONAL & AMUSING CONEY ISLAND'S BIGGEST FIRE DISASTER FIGHTING THE FLAMES AT DREAMLAND In 1911, flames engulfed Coney Island's grandest amusement park. Dozens of animals that were housed in the park were roaring loud enough that owners started shooting them to keep them from burning to death. One of the lions got out and ran through the streets with his mane on fire, and was shot 60 times before a fireman axed him down. — Source

27

Under the Lincoln Memorial, there's a cavern with dirty graffiti. The Memorial is kept up by support beams, which are in a Moria-esque underground hall. And the construction workers must have been really bored, because they left it full of graffiti that's a mix of porn doodles and dirty words. One just says boobies. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

CRACKED YOU BREAK IT, YOU BUY IT. CHESHIRE AMERICAN EED ELECTRIC KED CORPORATION LIMIT POWER AR In 2002, American Electric Power bought out the entire town of Cheshire, Ohio due to air pollution problems caused by its smokestacks and blue plume clouds containing sulphuric acid that blanketed the area. — Source

25

CRACKED CORPUS CHRISTI: WATERING THE CITY WITH OIL MONEY? Corpus Christi, Texas has signed over a large portion of its water supply to ExxonMobil and Steel Dynamics for industrial use. The city is now in desperate need of fresh water as it races against the clock to complete desalination plans. — Source

24

CRACKED CLARK, TEXAS CHANGED ITS NAME FOR FREE INTERNET. DISH T E HOME OF FREE DISH NETWORK SATELLITE TV Residents agreed to rename their town DISH in exchange for free satellite equipment and basic service for a decade. This follows similar stunts, like Hot Springs becoming Truth or Consequences back in 1950. — Source

23

CRACKED HALFWAY, OREGON BECAME HALF.COM. They did it for a year in 2000, in exchange for equipment donations (and money) from Half.com. The citizens were initially wary, but most eventually came around. WELCOME TO HALFWAY half.com HELLS CANYON COUNTRY — Source

22

Centralia, Pennsylvania. The town sits on an underground coal mine fire that has been burning since 1962, so the ground is always warm. Poisonous smoke kills plants, and sinkholes have swallowed up pets, deer, and a young boy. The U.S. government ordered a total evacuation in 1984, but a handful of residents refused to leave. CRACKED — Source

21

The New Orleans Voodoo Museum. Many Voodoo tours offer walks through cemeteries, ghost stories, potions, Tarot cards, and authentic Voodoo dolls. The museum itself has objects from Voodoo's most famous practitioner Marie Laveau, and is called one of the creepiest places on Earth. CRACKED — Source

20

CRACKED VILLISCA AXE MURDER HOUSE This house, in Villisca, lowa, was the site of a gruesome, unsolved murder case from the early 1900s. People can take a tour of the house and even spend the night for $400. The graves of the victims are located at the nearby Villisca Cemetery. THE Villycca Ax Murder House JUNE 192 — Source

19

CRACKED COCAINE BEAR The body of a 200-pound black bear that overdosed on cocaine in 1985, nicknamed Pablo Eskobear or Cocaine Bear, is now a tourist attraction at the Kentucky for Kentucky souvenir shop in Lexington. A — Source

18

CRACKED FLOYD COLLINS' BODY Collins was a cave explorer who tragically passed away and was buried four times. His body was put in a glass-topped coffin in Crystal Cave as a tourist attraction, and his tombstone was inscribed with the words: Greatest Cave Explorer Ever Known. WILLIAM PLO COLLINE BORN JULY 20.1888 WILLIAM COLLINS BORN FLOYD SURIED APRIL 28,1925. JULY 20,1007 SURIES APRIL 26,1925 - TRAPPED IN SAND CAVE. POLICE JAN. 30.1925. DISCOVERED CRYSTAL CAVE. JAN.18.1917. GREATEST CAVE EXPLORER EVER KNOWN — Source

17

Huge and abandoned A Disney World island Disney World's Discovery Island used to be a zoological park. Unfortunately, it closed in 1999 due to the opening of Animal Kingdom. Now, it's been abandoned for years and is a popular spot for urban explorers. CRACKED — Source

16

Huge and abandoned An entire Western mining town Molson, Washington was once a mining town, and still has lots of reminders of the Old West. There's a big stone school house, the Molson State Bank, and around ten other wooden buildings in different states of repair. CRACKED — Source

15

Huge and abandoned America's most toxic town Picher, Oklahoma used to be a thriving mining town of over 20,000 people, but now it's practically deserted. In 1983, it was declared an ЕРА Superfund site and in 2009, the ЕРА said it was too dangerous to live in. CRACKED — Source

14

Huge and abandoned A Civil War-era fort complex Fort Taber Park in Massachusetts has old military buildings, like a big granite fort and four smaller artillery hills. Those are 19th-century structures, but you can see an outline of the original, 18th-century wooden structure too. CRACKED — Source

13

CRACKED ROUGHLY 229 PLACES IN TEXAS In Texas, it's estimated that there's around $340 million worth of lost treasure that hasn't been claimed yet. That makes it the state with the most unclaimed treasure in the whole country. — Source

12

CRACKED THE FENN TREASURE A millionaire from Santa Fe hid a treasure chest full of gold and gems in the Rocky Mountains six years ago. Lots of people have gone looking for it, and he wrote a poem with clues to the location in his book, The Thrill of the Chase. — Source

11

Clarinets are an irritating instrument, but one Nebraska musician who died in the 1940s after someone poisoned her reed has managed to annoy beyond death - visitors to Centennial Hall hear eerie music with no obvious source and feel cold spots. CRACKED — Source

10

According to various legends, either kissing someone under the Black Angel of lowa City - a 13-foot terrifying-looking statue marking a grave - or kissing the statue itself for some unhinged reason will condemn you to death. CRACKED — Source

9

GRACKED COM Never seen a ladybug orgy? Head to Redwood Regional Park in Oakland, CA, where thousands of Hippodamia convergens ladybugs meet to mate and hibernate every late October to February. — Source

8

Greetings From The BX Secret B G TENNA City During WWII, Oak Ridge TN was commissioned to develop and build the first atomic bomb. The vast majority of the city's workers had absolutely no idea what they were working on and only found out after the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

CRACKED.COM Fumarase deficiency is an extraordinarily rare recessive genetic disorder of the nervous system. Over 60% of the known cases in the world are in Colorado City (and adjacent Hildale), on the Utah-Arizona border. Colorado City is dominated by the FLDS, a polygamist Mormon sect, whose generations of intra-family marriage have made them a million times more susceptible to the disease. — Source

6

Salt Lake City has the widest streets of any major U.S. city. At 130 feet, they're twice as wide as Manhattan's. CRACKED.COM Brigham Young, the Mormon president who planned the city, chose the wide streets so settlers could turn their cattle around without resorting to profanity. — Source

5

Portland, Oregon has a dormant volcano within its city limits. PEARL DISTRICT LA MONTAVILLA van SUNNYSIDE Mt Tabor Park Oregon Zoo Portland 24 401 DOE RICHMOND 213 Council Crest Park 26 20 POWELLHUR! 205 GILBERT SOUTHEAST 5 PORTLAND 10 SOUTHWEST PORTLAND WOODSTOCK Hills TO Willamette River 213 Oaks Amusement Park LENTS BRENTWOOD-DARLINGTO MULTNOMAH GRAGKED.COM rder — Source

4

Mt. Rushmore was designed by a white supremacist. Gutzon Borglum, the man that sculpted Mount Rushmore, was a racist who had ties to the Ku Klux Klan and was deeply involved in their politics. Не said things like, I would not trust an Indian, and referred to African Americans as a mongrel horde. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

CRACKED.COM James Smithson is entombed in the Smithsonian. Secres la the shampry James Sellow who died at Sense of Society the N yeon In a crypt just inside the north entrance of the Smithsonian Castle lies the relocated remains of the institute's founding father, James Smithson. Не was a chemist who enjoyed studying things like human tears and snake venom. — Source

2

CRACKED.COM The Blue Mustang statue has tasted blood. Locals call him Blucifer. The red-eyed fierce-faced 9,000-pound sculpture at Denver International Airport actually killed its maker, Luis Jiménez, by falling on him and severing an artery in his leg. — Source

1

Lake Erie lies above a massive salt mine. The mine is a three-mile-long complex that's so deep underground, fresh air has to be pumped in and miners have to carry an hour's worth of backup oxygen. Many of its sprawling tunnels are unexplored (and might be home to horrors that should not be awakened). CRACKED.COM — Source

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