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All the United States Virginia Roanoke

The Atlas Obscura Guide To Roanoke

5 Cool, Hidden, and Unusual Things to Do in Roanoke, Virginia

Updated May 5, 2025

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Unusual Attractions in Roanoke

Bally Space Invaders

Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke Pinball Museum

This collection of over 50 classic pinball machines awaits visitors to downtown Roanoke.
Miniature Graceland

Roanoke, Virginia

Miniature Graceland

An overgrown collection of miniature buildings still stand as evidence of one couple's obsession with The King.
Roanoke Star

Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke Star

Forget Hollywood, one of the biggest stars in the world can be found in Roanoke, Virginia.
Exterior of the O. Winston Link Museum in the former Norfolk & Western passenger depot in Roanoke, VA.

Roanoke, Virginia

O. Winston Link Museum

This museum celebrates a legendary railroad photographer whose personal life was as dramatic as his photos.
The words “Dare to dream” are engraved on the Salem Avenue entrance of Roanoke’s last steel truss bridge.

Roanoke, Virginia

Henry Street

In the 1920s, this stretch of Roanoke became home to a thriving Black community.
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Remnants.

Bedford, Virginia

Sharp Top Crash Site

A glimpse into the sacrifices of military members during World War II.
22 miles from Roanoke
Statue of a soldier running up the beach.

Bedford, Virginia

National D-Day Memorial

This monument is dedicated to those lost on June 6, 1944, in the town with that day’s highest per-capita casualty rate.
22 miles from Roanoke
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Atlas Obscura Itineraries

The Explorer’s Guide to Road Tripping Around Appalachia

The world still doesn’t quite know what to make of Appalachia. The mountainous, multi-state region has long been defined both by mystery and misconceptions. In many ways, it’s been America’s shadow since the nation’s birth. Early settlers fretted about American Indian tribes, dark hollows, and looming wilderness in the 1600s and 1700s, while modern folks tend to worry more about the environmental degradation and concentration of Trump voters. Yet, Appalachia is much like America as a whole—it sprawls from south to north across several states, spawning local cultures marked as much by their diversity and differences than what they have in common. And these mountains are old. Rocks formed during the Precambrian era have been found in some places. Parts of the Appalachian Mountains are thought to be even older than Saturn’s rings, and millennia of erosion have given rise to one of the richest temperate ecosystems in the world. This diverse bioregion has become home to a melting pot of culture. Archaeological findings indicate that American Indian tribes inhabited the region 20,000 years ago. The first Europeans arrived in the 1500s, when Spanish conquistadors ventured up from what is now Florida. English and French settlers followed, establishing a general pattern that continues into the present: Newcomers bring their cultural traditions into the region, where they are absorbed into the greater whole.

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Although much of Appalachia’s old-growth forests have been destroyed, those that survive are glorious.

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