America's Strangest Roadside Attractions

Largest Ball of Paint, Alexandria, IN

When Mike Carmichael accidentally dropped a baseball into a bucket of paint, he had a thought: why not paint it 10, 20, 100 times and watch it grow? That was in 1977, and his multicolored blob has been gaining weight ever since. Carmichael keeps a guest book detailing the color of each new layer, and even issues certificates to visitors eager to add a few microns of acrylic to his strange obsession. Currently the paint ball weighs in at more than 1,300 pounds and has accumulated some 20,000 coats of paint. —Adam McCulloch