Another road side attraction

The world's biggest ball of string, the museum of Pez memorabilia and the desert of Maine fill a special niche in American society. Lovingly called roadside attractions these strange and ludicrous sights give us something to gawk at. They were the only outlet for our inherent voyeurism before the age of high profile super celebrities.

On my last full day in Maine, Mom, Noah and I indulged in this old timey entertainment. We visited the Desert of Maine.

Now shrunk to only 50 acres, this expanse of sand in the middle of the Freeport, Maine woods once measured over 300 acres.

We parked in the shared parking lot between the Desert of Maine campground and the Desert of Maine gift shop. We stopped in the gift shop to pay for our tour and went out through the back door to wait for it to start.

We piled onto the trailer behind the diesel Jeep along with five or six other families from all over the country. An old woman told us the story of the desert.

Thousands of years ago a glacier traveled from Canada into Maine. Then it melted, leaving behind a thick layer of fine sand. Topsoil covered the sand. A farmer made his home there. He was a good farmer and the land flourished under him. When he died his children inherited the farm. They were not good farmers. They worked the land to exhaustion. Then they raised sheep. Sheep eat everything from flower to root.

Patches of sand appeared. As the weeks and months passed the sand spread. Eventually the family had to leave the farm. It had become a desert.

A good business man bought the land and turned it into a thriving roadside attraction. It used to have burro rides and a real camel. Now there are a couple of camel pictures to take your picture with.

The best part of the tour is a single post stuck in the ground and marked at 9 and 10 feet. The tour guide passed around pictures showing a building that used to be a pump house. As the desert spread, the house was buried by sand. The enterprising business man stuck a post on top of the pump house and marked it at intervals to show how many feet of sand were piled on top of the roof.

It was the quintessential roadside attraction - interesting, strange and supported by a large gift shop. If you're ever in Maine with a couple of hours to kill check out the Desert. How can you miss the only desert East of the Mississippi?

I leave you today with a quote from my favorite show, Futurama:

Fry: But you're right. Once you're actually here, it's just a big, dull rock. I guess I just wanted you to see it through my eyes, the way I used to.

Leela: Fry, look. It really is beautiful. I don't know why I never noticed it before