Say WOW

Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
Hardanger Fartøyvernsenter (Hardanger Maritime Museum) in Norheimsund,...
The Hardanger Fartøyvernsenter (Hardanger Maritime Center) is a living museum. They build and repair wooden boats that range from smaller row boats up to larger wooden fishing boats. In addition, they have a blacksmith and one of the few rope-making facilities in Northern Europe. The center, which is located in a former furniture factory in Norheimsund, was established in 1984. Visitors can see ropes being made, blacksmiths at work in the forge, and boats being built and repaired. There are around...

Read More

Dowden's Ordinary Park in Clarksburg, Maryland
The term “ordinary” once applied to a tavern meal offered at a fixed price, but eventually referred to taverns in general. One such place was opened by Michael Dowden in 1750 in Clarksburg, between Rockville and Frederick Towne.  The land on which the tavern once stood is rich with history that is shared through a number of interpretive signs, historical markers, and a “ghost tavern” that stands on the spot where Dowden’s Ordinary once stood. Flanked on either side...

Read More

Podcast: Nepali Folk Musical Instrument Museum
Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, tune in to learn more about a secluded museum that beats the drum for the preservation of Nepal’s musical heritage. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear their stories. Join...

Read More

 
An Ancient 'Tiger God' Helps Communities and...
When he was about six years old, Venkat Raman Singh Shyam’s father took him by the hand and led him into a dense forest, where tigers, hyenas, sloth bears, nilgai antelope, and wild boars roamed freely. Shyam’s family, which belongs to the Gond tribe, lived in a hamlet at the periphery of the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Central India. Kanha, home to thick groves of bamboo and slender-trunked trees, including sal and East Indian ebony, is the forest that...

Read More

Nine Mens Misery in Cumberland, Rhode Island
Constructed in 1676, Nine Mens Misery is a stone pile that marks the spot where nine colonists were killed during King Phillip’s War. It’s thought to be the oldest veterans memorial in the United States. The war was a last-ditch effort by Native Americans in the region to prevent English settlements on their native lands. The colonists were members of a force of 60 Plymouth colony troops and 20 Wampanoag who were led by Captain Michael Pierce. They were...

Read More

Noojee Trestle Bridge in Noojee, Australia
At 102 meters long and 21 meters high, the Noojee Trestle Bridge is the tallest surviving wooden trestle rail bridge in Victoria. The No.7 bridge at Noojee is the last remaining of an 11-kilometer stretch of a railway line that once boasted seven timber trestle bridges of various sizes.  The bridge is a legacy of the old railway that ran from Noojee to Warragul. It was originally constructed in 1919, all seven bridges were damaged or destroyed by bushfires...

Read More

 
Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica in Santos, Brazil
Rising from between skyscrapers and lush forests in southern Brazil is the tallest vertical cemetery in the world—a distinction celebrated in the Guinness Book of World Records since 1991. Founded in 1983 by Pepe Altstut, the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica is a 14-floor cemetery that looks more like a 1980s apartment building than a home of the dead.  Before turning his focus to buildings for the dead, Altstut worked in construction buildings for the living. “But,” he said in the...

Read More

How to Buy Pink Pineapples and Fruitcake...
This article is adapted from the September 12, 2021, edition of Gastro Obscura’s Favorite Things newsletter. You can sign up here. Last week, I pulled up Facebook Marketplace to order dinner. I picked out a sushi bake, a rice-and-seafood casserole that exploded in popularity during the pandemic. Within minutes, I reached the seller and paid over Venmo. A few hours later, I opened my door and found the sushi bake on my front porch, emblazoned with a sticker with...

Read More

Prairie Futures in Joes, Colorado
The Prairie Sea Projects is an art initiative that builds across disciplines and imagines new space for rural communities to thrive. They have just opened a new art installation called Prairie Futures. Located on the Benton Family Homestead, west of Grassroots Community Center, between the liquor store and the old church, Prairie Futures is a public artwork and agriculture landscape installation which aims to cultivate cross-disciplinary approaches to climate compassion through art practices and social connections in the Colorado...

Read More

 
Decker's Chapel in St Marys, Pennsylvania
Located off of a busy street, tiny Decker’s Chapel was built through divine intervention. Michael Decker, a German immigrant to a town heavily settled by German immigrants in the 19th century and originally called Marienstadt, injured his back when he fell from an apple tree in his orchard. The historical record says that Decker, a deeply religious man, promised God that, should he be healed, he would build a chapel. Decker did recover from his injuries, and he kept...

Read More

The Tripoli Monument in Annapolis, Maryland
Sitting quietly off to the side at the busy Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland, one of the oldest military monuments in the United States stands strong. Honoring the heroes that fell during the First Barbary War. The monument reflects an early but very important period of American and naval history. Carved in 1806 in Italy, the statue was brought to the United States as ballast on the USS Constitution. Originally erected at the Washington Navy Yard in 1808, it was...

Read More

El Viejo Hobbit in Villa Gesell, Argentina
El Viejo Hobbit (The Old Hobbit) opened the round doors to its round room in 1997, a mere year after Geraldine and Juan Pablo started selling their homemade cheese and sausages out of their garage. The couple built the first iteration of the restaurant next to their home, and quickly had to expand into the two-story building with an adjacent garden that it is today. It also serves at the family’s home, embodying the legendary hospitality of hobbits. In...

Read More

 
Clarksburg School in Clarksburg, Maryland
This turn-of-the-century schoolhouse was in continuous operation between 1909-1972. The earliest record of activities at the school are from a 1938 meeting at which parents, teachers, and the principal, Mary Morningstar, were present. The schoolhouse still lacked indoor plumbing and central heat at the time, but a bathroom was eventually installed near the front door. Morningstar organized drives for critical supplies during World War II, and in 1945, a third classroom was added onto the back of the schoolhouse....

Read More

Ekranoplan Lun in Derbent, Russia
Ekranoplan is a Russian word describing so-called “ground-effect-vehicles.” They look like planes but are able to move over the surface by gaining support from the reactions of the air against the surface of the earth or water. “Lun” is a huge ekranoplan built in the USSR in 1987. It measures approximately 73 meters (240 feet) in length, almost 20 meters (65 feet) in height, and has a wingspan of 44 meters (144 feet). Only one vehicle of this class...

Read More

Podcast: The Mirror Lab
Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit a spinning furnace tucked under the football stadium at the University of Arizona, designed to help build giant telescope mirrors. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear their...

Read More