Clik here to view.
The 1800s Medical Device That Promised Cures by Repeatedly Stabbing Patients
In 1847, German inventor Carl Baunscheidt was sitting in his room in pain, his hand aching from arthritis. He was swatting at hungry mosquitos until he finally gave up and allowed one to bite his hand....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gävle Goat Copycat Goes Up In Iceland
The Gävle Goat is one of the most doomed goats of all time. Every year since 1966, the residents of Gävle, Sweden have built an enormous straw goat in the town square. And almost every year since 1966,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Watch This Strange-Looking Monkey Slug Take Over a Mailbox
Behold, the mottled brown, menacing monkey slug. During the fall months, this carpeted creature writhes, wriggles, and inches across apple trees, birches, chestnut, hickories, oaks, and… mailboxes.In...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This Guy Allegedly Tried To Steal a Venetian Blind By Stuffing It Into His Coat
Stuffing things in one's coat is a classic and time-honored method of theft, often perpetrated by children stealing gum and baseball cards. But have a look at this gentleman, who police in Great...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tomb of the Unknown London Girl in London, England
In 1992 a bomb exploded in the City of London along St. Mary Axe, destroying the Baltic Exchange, a historic trading center for the maritime markets. In 1995, as the site was being cleared for new...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Corporation Trust Center in Wilmington, Delaware
Sitting unnoticed on the streets of Wilmington, Delaware is a bland, two-story office building called the Corporation Trust Center, a name that is quite unfitting considering that what happens behind...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why UFO Conspiracists Have So Many Opinions About 'Angel Hair’
It was 1999, and the middle of the week in the sparsely populated desert state of Western Australia, when a man known only as Peter made a phone call to Australian UFO Registry. He was alarmed—after...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Myles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury, Massachusetts
Grab your Pilgrim hat and buckle your shoes—the story of the remains of Myles Standish is a saga that spans nearly three centuries. Myles Standish was a passenger on the Mayflower when it sailed to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inside the Perplexing 'Tom and Becky' Contest in Mark Twain's Hometown
Hannibal, Missouri, a town of 18,000 on the banks of the Mississippi River, has one claim to fame—it’s Mark Twain’s birthplace—and claim that fame it does. On the drive from St. Louis, billboards...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Here Are Some of the World's Most Delightful 'Pumpkins'
(Photo: Public Domain)Although Atlas Obscura is an established authority on haunted houses, spooky graveyards, and abandoned asylums, we also have a long-running fondness for Halloween’s rounder and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stolen Artifacts! Drunk Teens! And More True Tales of Florida's First State...
Vernon Lamme didn't quite seem the type to be an archaeologist. With his prominent chin and substantial waist, he was neither a swashbuckling, world-traveling Indiana Jones nor a meticulous,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Lesbian Vampire Story That Came Before Dracula
When thinking of the origins of Vampire literature in the Western world, chances are you think of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This chef-d'oeuvre has defined the genre ever since it was published more than a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peek Inside the World's Most Strange and Morbid Collections
For Daniel Erenberg, it’s gas masks. For John Kozik, it’s old Ouija boards. These are just some of specialties of the 18 collectors that are profiled in the new book Morbid Curiosities:Collections of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Woman Hollering Creek in Saint Hedwig, Texas
Between Seguin and San Antonio off Interstate 10 there is a little body of water with an unusual name, "Woman Hollering Creek." Legend has it the name came from the ghostly screeches of a forlorn woman...
View ArticleClik here to view.
World's Heaviest Ball of Twine in Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin
The United States is filled with controversies, but none quite as quirky and bizarre as the debate over who holds the world record for the largest ball of twine. Both Darwin, Minnesota and Cawker City,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Goose Who Wore Nikes, and the Mystery of Who Murdered Him
Jessica Fleming was 12 years old when she met the goose who would change her life.She was living with her parents and grandparents in a former naval ammunitions depot in the small city of Hastings,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Grafton Ghost Town in Rockville, Utah
The so-called Dixie region of Utah was settled by Mormons at the direction of Brigham Young, who thought the region would yield a profitable cotton crop. The town of Grafton was settled a few miles...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Olive Tree of Vouves in Ano Vouves, Greece
It's impossible to date this tree's exact age without falling it, but dendrologists estimate this olive tree is at least 2,000 years old. It might even be the oldest in the world, though it's in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Petoskey State Park in Harbor Springs, Michigan
In the Paleozoic Era, roughly 400 million years ago, Michigan wasn't the chilly northern state we know it as now. It was somewhere near the equator and it was covered in a shallow, tropical sea,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What It's Like to Be a Haunted House Worker Inside a Real Prison
The walls of Eastern State Penitentiary. (Photo: David/cropped/CC BY-SA 2.0)My manager, Joe, emerged from the darkness, surrounded by fog. His towering frame was draped in distressed coveralls, his...
View Article