The slow disappearance of America's roadside attractions

Roadside attractions, as defined by Jane Stern, are quirky, oddball landmarks. Instead of corporate entertainment, charms like a giant twine ball, a shabby dinosaur sculpture exhibit, or hand-painted oddities beckon travelers off the interstate. These roadside attractions have declined in recent years, but Stern commemorates their value and reflects on the joy of discovering unusual and homemade wonders in this piece.

How a lawn gnome became the hottest item at the Masters

The kitschy piece of memorabilia debuted in 2016 and has since become a highly sought-after collectible for Master attendees. This ESPN deep dive explores how it happened and what makes the strange little item so attractive for golf fans.

The inventor of fantasy football first experimented with two other sports

In the mid-1950s, Wilfred “Bill” Winkenbach, a part-owner of the Oakland Raiders, concocted two fantasy sports games: one for Major League Baseball and one for the Professional Golfers’ Association. In 1962, he invented fantasy football alongside two writers from the Oakland Tribune.

The story behind the formation of the original PGA

The early 1900s saw a surge in golf courses across America, and there was a need for a national organization of golf professionals to help promote and grow the sport. This history explores how department store heir Rodman Wanamaker organized a luncheon that led to the formation of the PGA of America.

See a collection of mind-bending architecture around the world, including a teapot gas station, a duck home, and a picnic basket building.

The board game Candy Land was invented for children quarantined in polio wards.

Pickleball was originally intended for children

Bell and Pritchard only created the game to occupy their children's attention on vacation. As they continued playing the game, they began developing rules as-needed.

Check out the 50 weirdest roadside attractions in the US, from Alabama's Unclaimed Baggae Center to Wyoming's Elkhorn Arch.

A 1930s card game birthed modern fantasy sports

"National Pastime" used the statistics of real Major League Baseball players to determine a winner, creating the template for the modern fantasy sports model.

How Charles Blair Macdonald changed the design behind golf

Macdonald's contributions to golf course design, including 21 principles still used today, are just as legendary as the game's players. This deep dive into the mostly forgotten figure explores his legacy, including why he never charged for his services.

Fantasy sports' roots go back to an 1860s parlor game that simulated real-world baseball.

Monopoly was based on the satirical Landlord's Game, which criticized the abilities Monopoly rewarded.

Mark Twain invented an unsuccessful board game

“Memory Builder” was based on pinning historical events in their correct chronological order. It was test-marketed in 1891, but never took off. One critic said, “The game looked like a cross between an income tax form and a table of logarithms.”

Watch a video about Greenfield Village, Henry Ford's recreation of an ideal American town

Henry Ford designed Greenfield Village, an open-air museum with restorations of historic buildings, that represented Ford's idealization of what a simple American life should look like. Among the most notable buildings in the village are Ford's childhood home and a recreation of the one-room country schoolhouse Ford attended through the sixth grade.

'Mystery hikes' were a popular attraction in the 1930s

Still reeling from the Great Depression, many Americans were looking for low-cost (or free) activities. Some travel agencies curated "mystery hikes," which offered intrepid amblers the opportunity to be set on a blind adventure.

Magic: the Gathering was inspired by baseball cards

Richard Garfield originally pitched a game publisher on a more complex game about programming robots, but he was told that they were looking for something less expensive and more portable. Inspired by the way baseball cards were collected and traded, he came up with the idea for Magic: the Gathering, which gave players packets of random cards, effectively pieces of the whole game, rather than the entire deck.

Check out a compilation of golf's greatest shots, from Jack Nicklaus hitting the flag in 1972 to Tiger Woods' iconic chip at the 2005 Masters.

How golf equipment is made

With just clubs, a ball, and a tee, the game of golf doesn't have the amount of equipment seen in other sports. But each piece of equipment has a very intricate process for its creation. Watch this Science Channel video to see the specialized equipment used to create golf balls, golf clubs, golf carts, and golf tees.

Revisiting the short-lived 1960s space race theme park in Alabama

In 1964, a Huntsville, Alabama, entrepreneur announced a $5M space-themed park amid the burgeoning space race—just as Walt Disney was quietly planning a similar futuristic park outside Orlando. Space City USA collapsed by 1966, leaving only concrete ruins in a housing development.

William HH Murray spurred American interest in rustic retreats, characterizing them as necessary respites from the country's oppressive urban centers.

The front lawn became an American ideal in the 20th century.

Tuscany is home to a Pinocchio-themed park

Pinocchio Park, originally conceived as a sculpture park, was built around Emilio Greco's "Pinocchio and the Fairy" monument. It now includes an interactive museum, themed rides, and a puppet show.

Pickleball was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington

Bill Bell and then-Washington State congressman Joel Pritchard created the game as a way to entertain their bored children. They grabbed items they had on hand, using ping pong paddles to hit a wiffle ball over a hip-height badminton net.

Walt Disney's visit to a Ford factory helped inspire the layout for Disneyland

Walt Disney visited Henry Ford's Greenfield Village and the Ford Motor Company's River Rouge manufacturing plant on a trip to the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair. The layout of Greenfield Village inspired the different, distinctly themed sections of Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.

Leonard Knight built a folk art landmark in the California badlands

Slab City is an unofficial off-the-grid community on the site of a decommissioned Marine Corps base in the Southern California desert. Knight began constructing his enormous and colorful "Salvation Mountain" in 1984. In 2000, it was designated "a folk art site worthy of preservation and protection."

Abandoned racetracks can be found via Google Earth

With auto racing a favorite American pastime in the 1900s, tracks both small and large were built across the country. Some were local tracks used for small races, while others were super-speedways used by NASCAR.

The concept of the American front lawn was popularized by a 19th-century book that argued its maintenance was a neighborly obligation.

Take a virtual tour of St. Andrews

The Old Course at St. Andrews is one of the oldest in the world and became the gold standard for modern golf course design. Using drone footage, this Golf Digest video gives an aerial view and detailed description of every hole. Learn how the links course features common fairways and greens for some holes. And learn the bunker names at the courses' most notorious holes.

The strange story behind President Jimmy Carter's brother's 'Billy Beer'

During Carter's 1976 presidential campaign, his brother, Billy Carter, became a sideshow attraction as a country bumpkin. The Louisville-based Falls City Brewing Company decided to capitalize on the attention and hired Carter has a brand ambassador to promote his own "Billy Beer." What followed was a strange, suspicious bit of guerilla marketing and hucksterism, all of it documented in this Mental Floss retrospective.

Modern tennis was formalized in 1874

In the late 1800s England, a growing middle class could afford homes with lawns. With more lawns in England, Major Walter C. Wingfield saw an opportunity to bring lawn tennis to the masses. Modern tennis was formalized in 1874, when Queen Victoria granted a patent for Major Walter C. Wingfield's lawn tennis box set. The game was an instant hit, and by 1877, the new All England Club in Wimbledon began hosting a tournament.

Searching for 'The Great Gatsby' in Kentucky

F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel "The Great Gatsby" is usually associated with New York and its extremely wealthy enclaves, but this Atlas Obscura podcast tracks down another location Fitzgerald portrayed in the book: Louisville, Kentucky, the setting for Daisy and Tom Buchanan's wedding, as well as the place where Fitzgerald spent two miserable months during World War I.

Why Nevada is home to a real-life 'Simpsons' house

The home, a strikingly accurate recreation of the cartoon family's home on Evergreen Terrace, was built for a 1997 promotional contest. Back then, it was painted to look exactly like it did on TV, but the contest winner declined to move in, choosing a $75,000 cash prize instead.

Golfer hits ball into golf cart ball holder

Professional golfer Cameron Young’s ball settled in the built-in ball holder in an NBC reporter’s cart while playing at the US Open. He did not have to play it where it landed, and he managed to reach par on the shot despite the location of his...

Basketball was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith

When Dr. James Naismith hung two peach baskets at either end of a Springfield College gymnasium, he was just looking to keep the school’s athletes occupied and safe during harsh New England winters, but the game he created would quickly turn out to be a national sensation.

The first motel appeared in 1925

The Milestone Mo-Tel was designed by Arthur and Alfred Heneman. The two architect brothers in San Luis Obispo noticed Americans choosing road trip vacations—which grew in popularity in the 1920s—but had limited sleeping options outside of campgrounds. The Milestone Mo-Tel was later renamed the Motel Inn.

The 'Sign Post Forest' in Canada's Yukon collects roadsigns from across the globe

The unique roadside attraction is a common stop for those traveling along the Alaska Highway, allowing visitors to browse over 100,000 signs. The collection is believed to have been started in 1942 by a homesick American soldier.

The origins of volleyball in a game called mintonette

Volleyball was invented in 1895 in Massachusetts, USA, by William G. Morgan of the YMCA. He aimed to create a less strenuous alternative to basketball, using elements from basketball, tennis, handball, and baseball. Originally called "mintonette," it was introduced at a YMCA conference and took off. Dive into the history from then until today here.

The 52-mile marvel of engineering inside Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park is home to over one million acres of natural beauty, but it also includes 52 miles of a manmade miracle in Going-to-the-Sun Road, which takes drivers on a majestic tour through some of the park's most breathtaking views. This brief history and photo gallery allows you to gain an appreciation for the incredible engineering behind the road’s construction.