If you need a dose of the strange, outlandish, and downright peculiar, consider adding one or more of these destinations to your itinerary.
Ax-Man Surplus
Looking for a wide assortment of vials, flasks, beakers, and Bunsen burners for the mad science lab you’re setting up in the basement? Or perhaps you need a megaphone to yell at those noisy neighbors who crank ear-splitting death metal way past 3 am. Whatever strange thing you’re into, chances are Ax-Man Surplus has just the thing you’re looking for, from brain-splat balls and flying monkeys to electronic bread boards, barrier strips, and contact relays. A Twin Cities fixture for over 50 years, Ax-Man proudly caters to “artists, tinkerers, engineers, makers, and freaks and geeks of all styles.”
Lost 40 SNA
Back in the 19th century, lumberjacks clear-cut nearly every ancient forest in Minnesota to feed the young nation’s insatiable appetite for planks, boards, and beams. Oddly, they missed a pristine swatch of old growth pine forest because surveyors had mistakenly designated it as a lake. Today, you can visit this unspoiled corner of the Chippewa National Forest where rare white pine and red pines tower as high 120 feet, with some specimens that are over 240 years old. Visitors can hike along trails offering views of lowland alder swamps and black spruce bogs fed by Moose Brook, a tributary of the Big Fork River. Wildflowers and ferns are abundant in the spring, and more than 90 varieties of birds make their home in the forest, including Warblers, Thrushes, Sparrows and Wrens.
Devil’s Kettle
Not far off the Superior Hiking Trail in Judge C.R. Magney State Park near Grand Marais, the Brule River splits in two and cascades into two separate waterfalls. The eastern branch rejoins the river’s meandering course. The western branch plunges fifty feet into a deep hole in the volcanic rock and disappears. Where does the water go? Scientists recently settled years of passionate debate when they discovered that the water rejoins the Brule a short way downstream. Even though the answer to the mystery is not as intriguing as the speculation, there’s no doubt it’s a pristine spot and well worth the hike. Just don’t plan on swimming there. The hole’s dark waters are swirling with powerful, ripping currents.
Runestone Museum
Over 700 years ago, so, the story goes, a band of hardy Vikings took the wrong exit off the St. Lawrence seaway and ended up in the western reaches of what is now Minnesota. While there, they allegedly chiseled a rune stone recounting their adventure. Fast forward to 1898 when Swedish immigrant Olof Ohman “discovered” it while clearing stumps from his recently acquired land. Named for the nearby town of Kensington, the runestone was widely hailed as a major archaeological find until it was discredited as a hoax in 1910. Naturally, a museum was created to honor it.
Franconia Sculpture Park
Need a peaceful yet enriching break from the metropolitan bustle? Just a short drive northeast of Minneapolis you’ll find the Franconia Sculpture Park, an artistic gem featuring more than 100 sculptures spread over 43 acres. Home to a rotating cast of resident artists, the park’s creations include a mysterious floating house, a solar tree that comes alive at night with glowing neon colors, mammoth steel rings, ornate nautilus spirals, and many other large-scale sculptures. In December, the park will host The Franconia Frost Fest & Holiday Market, an annual bazaar featuring gifts made by local artisans.
Extreme Sandbox
Didn’t get enough sandbox time as a kid? Longing to skip your claustrophobic desk job, roll up your sleeves, and inhale the sooty musk of diesel? Then slip on your steel-toe boots, get in your pickup truck (or Prius or Volvo—no one’s judging) and head out to the hardest working big-kid playground around, the Extreme Sandbox in Hastings. Once you’re loose in this strictly hard-hat environment, you’ll be schooled in how to operate a bulldozer, excavator, wheel loader, or even a genuine firetruck. Move earth. Dig sand. Unleash your inner eight-year-old. Vroom! Vroom!
Northwest Angle
Looking for a Canadian getaway right here in the United States? Then dust off your passport for a visit to the Northwest Angle, a small region sandwiched between the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario. Located on the northwestern tip of the Lake of the Woods, the area includes Angle Township, a tiny community with a population of 151. Visitors to “the Angle” can choose from numerous resorts and enjoy great fishing on the lake’s reefs. Whether you drive in via Canadian highways or come by boat from launch points on the U.S. south shore of the lake, you’ll need a current U.S. passport. The Angle is accessible by snowmobile in the winter, and is also serviced by small air carriers.
Wabasha Caves
What do disco dancers, mushrooms, and notorious gangsters like John Dillinger and Ma Barker all have in common? The Wabasha Caves, of course! Carved out of sandstone in the 1840s along the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Paul, the caves have been home to fungi farms, a 1920s speakeasy that attracted high society and criminals alike, and later, a 1970s discotheque. Today, it serves as an event center that hosts weddings, receptions, banquets, and conventions.
SPAM Museum
SPAM, Minnesota’s very own tin-sealed cubes of meat, conquered the world and kept on coming. Standard issue in every WWII GI’s ration kit (they ate 100 million pounds of it), the humble pork classic has inspired myriad recipes, a Monty Python song and Broadway musical, and of course, a ubiquitous term for unwanted bot-spawned emails. You can immerse yourself in all-things SPAM at Hormel’s SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota.
Learn more about Minnesota weirdness by checking out this page: The 11 Oddest Places You Can Possibly Go in Minnesota