by M.C. Warford
From boots to lobsters to sausages, oversized roadside attractions are weird, fun and oh so Canadian. A road trip to see the best of these giant edifices will get you in touch with some of the odd and wonderful features that make Canada’s countryside unique. [Image credit: iStock.com/ronniechua]
Many ‘world’s largest’ attractions commemorate a local industry, and such is the case for the giant Ukrainian sausage in Mundare, Alberta. This 12.8 m tall kobasa sausage was built to commemorate the town’s Stawnichy’s Meat Processing plant, a family-owned enterprise that has become famous for (you guessed it!) kobasa sausages.
Portage la Prairie’s roadside attraction, a giant Coca-Cola can, on the other hand, seems to have little to do with the town itself. This former water tower was already conveniently shaped like an oversized aluminum can and when the idea was first floated to turn it into a giant Coca-Cola can, the drink maker reportedly offered to pay for the paint.
The world’s biggest cowboy boot was built to promote the boot factory it once stood in front of. While the factory is long gone, the boot remains as a proud and quirky symbol of Alberta’s cowboy heritage.
Shediac is known as ‘The Lobster Capital of the World’ and just to make sure you know it they’ve built the world’s largest lobster sculpture. Stretching 11m in length and weighing 90 tonnes, this giant lobster is a popular spot for tourists to get their pictures taken.
Not surprisingly, Canada is home to the world’s largest inukshuk. Standing 11m tall, this inukshuk is made out of 11 granite slabs, the longest of which is 8 m long. The granite slabs come from the Canadian Shield and this attraction’s durability makes it a unique entry on this list.
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The town of Leader, Saskatchewan outdoes itself when it comes to roadside attractions. To commemorate the local wildlife, a series of giant wildlife sculptures dot the town, including a mule deer, bobcat, kangaroo rat, and rattlesnake. Many of the sculptures depict endangered species, giving these roadside attractions a worthy message about conserving wild habitats.
Unlike many roadside attractions, The Big Nickel in Sudbury, Ontario has become famous the world over. Built to commemorate the local mining industry, The Big Nickel is the world’s largest coin and a reproduction of a 1951 Canadian nickel. It is 64,607,747 times larger than a real nickel.
Not surprisingly, Drumheller, the ‘Dinosaur Capital of the World’, is also home to the world’s biggest dinosaur. This 25 metre tall Tyrannosaurus Rex is actually 4.5 times bigger than a real T-Rex. Visitors can even climb the 106 stairs to the dinosaur’s mouth where there is an observation deck.
Built for the Canadian Pavilion of the 1986 Expo in Vancouver, the world’s largest hockey stick measures 62.48 m and also features a giant hockey puck. After Expo 86 the stick and puck were moved to the Cowichan Community Centre in Duncan, a move that took one barge and three flatbed trucks to complete.
Finally, there is probably no more Canadian roadside attraction than the world’s biggest beaver in the appropriately named Beaverlodge, Alberta. Built to commemorate the town’s 75th anniversary, this giant beaver sits atop a giant log and includes information about local history and the beaver’s natural habitat.
Roadside attractions are as diverse and unique as the towns they are located in are. Whether they are silly or informative, they’re a part of what makes Canada’s small towns great.
