Alberta's roadside attractions
A giant pysanka, a perogy on a fork, a landing pad built for visitors from anywhere in the universe, and a museum of taxidermied gophers in waistcoats. Alberta builds big strange things beside its highways, and here is where to find them.
16 attractions in 16 towns.
Andrew
World's Largest Mallard Duck
Erected in 1992, the drake weighs about a tonne and spans seven metres wingtip to wingtip, posed in flight over the flyway toward Whitford Lake.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗53.8782, -112.3323
Beaverlodge
Giant Beaver
Eighteen feet of beaver on a twenty-foot log, built in Calgary and installed in 2004 for the town's seventy-fifth anniversary.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗55.2041, -119.4232
Calgary
World's Tallest Mural
Painted in 2022 by the German artist DAIM on the First on Tenth tower, for a festival that bills the 95-metre work as the world's tallest mural.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗51.0431, -114.0634
Canmore
Big Head
Alan Henderson's half-buried head, titled Ceannmõre after the Gaelic root of Canmore's own name: great head, or chief.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗51.0894, -115.3555
Devon
Leduc No. 1 Oil Derrick
Marks the 1947 strike that started Alberta's oil industry.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗53.3297, -113.7286
Drumheller
World's Largest Dinosaur
A 25-metre fibreglass T. rex you can climb. The viewing platform is in its mouth.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗51.4672, -112.7088
Edmonton
Giant Aluminum Baseball Bat
A 14.9-metre aluminum bat at 97 Street and 118 Avenue. It turns on its base, and the city put up a sign asking people not to treat it as a ride.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗53.5706, -113.4927
Falher
World's Largest Bee
Built in 1990 by local welder Richard Ethier, in a town whose own website calls it the honey capital of Canada.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗55.7342, -117.2014
Fort Assiniboine
World's Largest Wagon Wheel and Pick Axe
A seven-metre wagon wheel and a six-metre pick axe outside the Fort Assiniboine Museum, billed by Woodlands County as the world's largest, marking the hamlet's fur-trade beginnings.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗54.3336, -114.7743
Glendon
The Pyrogy
A giant perogy on a fork. Glendon renamed its main street Pyrogy Drive to match.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗54.2527, -111.1540
Lacombe
World's Largest Lure
A replica of Len Thompson's 5 of Diamonds, just over 12 metres long, unveiled in 2019 beside Len Thompson Pond and certified by Guinness World Records in 2020 as the largest fishing lure.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗52.4760, -113.7130
Mundare
World's Largest Ukrainian Sausage
A 12.8-metre kubasa at Sawchuk Street and 50 Avenue, raised in tribute to Stawnichy's, the family meat plant that has been smoking sausage in Mundare since 1959.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗53.5953, -112.3369
St. Paul
UFO Landing Pad
Built in 1967 as a Centennial project and dedicated to visitors from anywhere in the universe. Still waiting.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗53.9910, -111.3054
Torrington
Gopher Hole Museum
Dioramas of taxidermied gophers dressed as townspeople. Exactly as advertised.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗51.7917, -113.6039
Vegreville
World's Largest Pysanka
Nine metres of anodized aluminium, completed in 1975 with funds from the RCMP-centennial celebrations. It turns in the wind like a weather vane.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗53.4917, -112.0365
Vilna
World's Largest Mushrooms
About six metres tall, raised in 1993 in Mushroom Park for the mushroom-picking the district's Ukrainian settlers brought with them.
Map ↗Details on OpenStreetMap ↗54.1171, -111.9181
Locations from © OpenStreetMap contributors, used under the Open Database Licence. Which attractions belong on this list is our own editorial choice, not something a map tag decides — several of the best-known ones are filed under different categories and would be missed by any automatic search. Spotted something we've left out, or a thing that has since come down? Tell us on the contact page. Check opening hours before making the detour — some of these stand in towns of a few hundred people.