After hundreds of billboards on I-95, a towering neon sombrero comes into view, announcing you have finally arrived at South of the Border, a spectacularly kitschy roadside attraction just past the South Carolina border. You know you are getting a rare chance to visit another era in American road travel.
As the summer driving season gears up – and in spite of stubbornly high gasoline prices – Americans continue to return to favorite old-time tourist attractions, of which South of the Border is just one of dozens around the country. Ever visited Florida’s Gatorland? It started as a backyard alligator pit and now competes with Disney World for central Florida visitors. Or how about South Dakota’s Corn Palace? It is a shrine to agriculture off that state’s I-90, redecorated each year with a fresh crop of corn, grain and grasses.
Yesterday’s hucksterism -- neon and a bombardment of billboards -- seems honest and quaint compared to today’s monotony of slick corporate fare. Americans originally took to the road on vacation to see something different. Today, society’s mobility has made nearly everyplace seem alike.
But it seems there is nothing quite like South of the Border. The tourist Mecca got its start when the neighboring North Carolina county went dry in 1949 and beer vendor Alan Schafer set up shop just over the state line. His beer stand was an instant hit, so Schafer kept expanding. He added a diner, a fireworks shop and innovations that continued through the decades. Today South of the Border employs 400 people to care for 304 motel rooms, 14 shops, six restaurants, an amusement park, fireworks emporium and, of course, the giant neon sombrero.
Built mostly along big highways in the thirties and forties, today’s roadside wonders harken back to an era when driving was a pastime and interstates were a novelty. Typically, they are built around a central attraction that has enduring appeal, such as a natural wonder or neon castle. They also include a restaurant, tourist shops and often games and rides.
“People know it’s kitsch and they know it’s hokum and that’s kind of the pleasure of it,” says Andy Wood, a communications professor at San Jose State University and an authority on the genre. “That’s part of the joke.”
A Good Deal
Since roadside attractions usually don’t charge admission, these unique destinations may prove especially popular among families economizing because of rising fuel prices. According to AAA, the 12-month national average price for a gallon of unleaded is just shy of $3 a gallon (gas hit an all-time high of $3.05 last September). Rising gas prices haven’t hurt the attractions yet, these businesses claim. They still see families traveling, just not as far; they expect more local or regional customers this year.
The kernel of all the attractions is some unique lure. Pennsylvania’s Roadside America features a hangar-sized miniature town where small town American life is celebrated, down to ice cream trucks and farm animals. The Natural Bridge in Virginia has a towering 215-foot tall natural bridge that has attracted visitors since the days Thomas Jefferson owned it as a retreat.
At the simplest, you might simply see an enticing neon emblem on a busy secondary road that was once the area’s main thoroughfare. One example is the Red Rooster Drive-In of Brewster, New York. With its towering ice cream cone and array of coin-operated kiddy rides, the Route 22 favorite claims to be one of the first fast food restaurants and gets high ratings for its burgers.
Billboards lining the highway leading up to the establishment are a hallmark of the old-time attractions. South of the Border boasts 275 and Wall Drug has 185 in South Dakota alone. No new business could try that strategy today.
South of the Border’s founder Alan Schafer wrote and designed all the billboards, including gems like "Keep yelling kids! They'll stop," says Susanne Pelt, South of the Border spokesman. “He’s dead now but he left lots of ad copy,” Pelt says. Wall Drug’s Ted Hustead says his small, hand-painted plywood boards wouldn’t pass muster with zoning boards today, but are grandfathered in.
Affection for Yesteryear
The destinations all demand a respect and affection for the past, but are built out with an ever-changing array of up-to-date games, museums, restaurants, motels and souvenir stores.
Wall Drug, a simple South Dakota drugstore before the gimmick of free ice water lured in crowds of drivers from I-90, walks a fine line between preserving what guests love and updating, says Hustead, grandson and namesake of Wall Drug’s founder. His family still offers the free ice water, but the operation has grown into a western-themed traveler’s outpost on the barren Black Hills. Two million visitors stop each year and spend $15 million at the myriad shops and restaurants, then enjoy respite at the traveler’s chapel or fun at a giant dinosaur.
Hustead says he is sometimes mystified by the appeal of some items. When he replaced a raggedy gorilla, a girl complained that each time she visited she would run to the gorilla to see what part had fallen off since her last visit.
The best of today’s surviving roadside attractions started as modest family businesses and grew to become engines of the local economy, employing hundreds in the busy summer months to sell T-shirts and taffy around a flashy attraction. While clearly some of them limp along financially, others are highly profitable—and sophisticated.
Hustead, a Harvard business school grad, keeps a profit and loss statement on each of his 32 stores and constantly tests new merchandise. Like many attractions, Wall Drug makes its money on retail.
Hustead tries to reach a broad audience. He stocks 5,000 pairs of cowboy boots, an esoteric collection of books and Western art. While other family attractions lose business during the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD, Wall Drug sales go up 25% for the week.
“It’s not junk at all to these people who are traveling,” he says. He doesn’t think they’re buying souvenirs of his store, but rather of “this very happy time of their life.”
Natural WondersSome attractions have natural draws. People have been flocking to Natural Bridge for centuries; in the 1800s it competed with Niagara Falls as a natural wonder to visit. Originally lowered over the bridge in a steel cage, visitors now can walk a graded path. They can also stay at the hotel (built in 1963), visit the cavern and wax museum (added in the 1970s), or tour the haunted monster museum (2003).
Santa Cruz Mystery Spot is one of the most famous of a number of sites around the world that showcase mysterious happenings like balls rolling uphill, changes in personal height, haywire compasses and slanted shacks. Believers think these spots or “gravity hills” are the result of paranormal or extraterrestrial forces—or at least magnetic ones. Skeptics call them optical illusions.
Those looking for roadside wonders can find a consumer-updated database at RoadsideAmerica.com. Jane and Michael Stern, authors of Roadfood, exchange tips on regional delicacies at Roadfood.com.
In an age when it seems most road restaurants are graced with identical golden arches, these quirky attractions answer a need for less rush and more spontaneity. The best of them conjure up an image of a more colorful past, one that was more original and fun.
As Wood of San Jose State University explains, they appeal to people who “want to slow down, take risk and meet people who are genuinely strange and odd.” On your next roadtrip, watch for those amusing billboards enticing you to drop by a roadside attraction and experience the past. It will be worth the stop.
Carol Vinzant is a freelance writer in New York
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