Our latest book, “America Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the Hidden Wonders of the United States,” has just been published. But it doesn’t just take you to Texas or Maine or Michigan. It takes you to a town called Hell, to a desert in one of the greenest states, to a sundial on the exact spot where America’s day begins, and to a seven-story Jesus nicknamed “Our Milk Carton with Arms.”

These are real places you can visit, and they are so dang unique. Since you’ll be driving, riding the rails or flying to reach a lot of them, we built you a soundtrack to match. Every song here is tied to a specific spot in the book. The full playlist is below, but you can also stream it on Spotify.

Song Artist The place
West Coast
“White Rabbit” Jefferson Airplane Institute of Illegal Images, San Francisco: a Victorian house holding 33,000 sheets of framed LSD blotter art.
“Stash” Phish Original Stash Tribute Plaque, Estacada, Ore.: the spot in the woods where the world’s first geocache, the “Stash,” was hidden in 2000.
“The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” Cyndi Lauper Goonie Trails, Astoria, Ore.: Goonies never say die in the town where the movie was filmed.
“4’33"
or “Silent All These Years”		 John Cage
or Tori Amos		 One Square Inch of Silence, Olympic National Park, Wash.: one of the quietest places in the country. Cage’s piece is four and a half minutes of literal silence; Tori is the version with sound.
“Falling” Julee Cruise Twede’s Cafe, North Bend, Wash.: the real Double R Diner from Twin Peaks. Order the cherry pie.
Southwest & Texas
“London Bridge Is Falling Down” Traditional London Bridge, Lake Havasu City, Ariz.: it fell all the way to Arizona, with a voodoo doll sealed inside.
“Please Mr. Postman” The Marvelettes Airmail Arrow, Reno, Nev.: before GPS, airmail pilots followed giant concrete arrows across the desert.
“Stairway to Heaven” Led Zeppelin Loretto Chapel, Santa Fe, N.M.: a “miraculous” spiral staircase built without a single nail.
“Atomic” Blondie National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albuquerque, N.M.: home of Atomic Annie, the cannon that fired the first and last nuclear artillery shell.
“Paris, Texas” Ry Cooder Jesus in Cowboy Boots, Paris, Texas: a cemetery statue that swapped sandals for boots.
“Cadillac Ranch” Bruce Springsteen Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas: ten Cadillacs buried nose-down in a field, and the inspiration for this song.
“Texas Sun” Khruangbin & Leon Bridges The Orange Show, Houston: a retired mail carrier’s folk-art maze built from salvage, set to a Houston band.
“Bat Out of Hell” Meat Loaf Congress Bridge Bats, Austin: 1.5 million bats pour out from under the bridge on summer nights.
“My Sweet Lord” George Harrison Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple, Spanish Fork, Utah: a Hare Krishna temple, and home to Utah’s giant festival of colors.
Mountain West
“Rocky Mountain High” John Denver International Church of Cannabis, Denver: a technicolor former Lutheran church where the services are, well, elevated.
“America the Beautiful” Ray Charles Pikes Peak Summit House, Colorado: the summit that inspired the poem, now home to North America’s highest donut fryer.
“Walking on the Moon” The Police Craters of the Moon, Arco, Idaho: lava fields so lunar that you can almost do the moonwalk.
“Free Fallin’” Tom Petty I.B. Perrine Bridge, Twin Falls, Idaho: the one U.S. bridge where you can BASE jump without a permit, all year.
“Tiny Bubbles” Don Ho Sip ‘n Dip Lounge, Great Falls, Mont.: a tiki bar where live mermaids swim past your barstool.
“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” B.J. Thomas Hole-in-the-Wall Outlaw Hideout, Kaycee, Wyo.: where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid out.
Great Plains
“Born to Lose” Ray Charles They Also Ran Gallery, Norton, Kan.: the only gallery devoted to people who lost the presidency.
“Dust in the Wind” Kansas The Big Well, Greensburg, Kan.: the largest hand-dug well in the country, in a town rebuilt after a tornado.
“On the Road Again” Willie Nelson Old Lincoln Highway, Omaha–Elkhorn, Neb.: three miles of century-old red brick on America’s first coast-to-coast road.
“Chalk Dust Torture” Phish Happy Jack Chalk Mine, Scotia, Neb.: an underground chalk mine you can tour.
“Video Killed the Radio Star” The Buggles KVLY-TV Mast, Blanchard, N.D.: a 1,987-foot TV tower that was once the tallest structure on Earth.
“Oklahoma!” Rodgers & Hammerstein National Weather Museum, Norman, Okla.: storm-chasing gear in the state the musical is named for.
“A Calf Born in Winter” Khruangbin Wichita Mountains Buffalo Herd, Okla.: 650 bison descended from a Bronx Zoo breeding program.
“Time in a Bottle” Jim Croce Hall of Records, Mount Rushmore, S.D.: America’s backup drive, sealed in a vault behind Lincoln’s head.
Midwest
“Superman (It’s Not Easy)” Five for Fighting The Super Museum, Metropolis, Ill.: 70,000 items devoted to the Man of Steel, in a town actually named Metropolis.
“Gary, Indiana” from The Music Man City Methodist Church, Gary, Ind.: a nine-story Gothic ruin left behind by the steel industry’s crash.
“Convoy” C.W. McCall Iowa 80 Truck Stop, Walcott, Iowa: the world’s largest truck stop, complete with barber, dentist and trucking museum.
“Across the Universe” The Beatles Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa: a whole town built around Transcendental Meditation.
“Highway to Hell” AC/DC Hell, Michigan: for $100 you can be mayor for a day, and the job comes with horns.
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” Gordon Lightfoot Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Paradise, Mich.: where the Fitzgerald’s bell is remembered.
“Two Fish and an Elephant” Khruangbin The Big Fish Supper Club, Bena, Minn.: dinner beside a 65-foot muskie with very sharp teeth.
“Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” Traditional (1904) City Museum, St. Louis: a ten-story playground of slides, tunnels and salvage, in the city of the 1904 World’s Fair.
“Castles Made of Sand” The Jimi Hendrix Experience Harry Andrews’ Chateau Laroche, Loveland, Ohio: a full-scale medieval castle one man built by hand.
“Evan Finds the Third Room” Khruangbin House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wis.: “an infinite-seeming collection of collections,” with always another room.
“Satellite of Love” Lou Reed Sputnik IV Crash Site, Manitowoc, Wis.: where a chunk of Soviet satellite landed in the street in 1962.
“Cleveland Rocks” Ian Hunter “Welcome to Cleveland” Sign, Milwaukee: a rooftop prank confusing airline passengers since 1978.
Mid-Atlantic
“Yankee Doodle” Traditional Sussex Tavern at Rabbit’s Ferry House, Lewes, Del.: colonial cocktails in a re-created 1740 tavern in the first town of the first state.
“So We Won’t Forget” Khruangbin Iron Hill School No. 112C, Newark, Del.: a one-room schoolhouse preserving Delaware’s segregated past.
“Secret Agent Man” Johnny Rivers National Cryptologic Museum, Fort Meade, Md.: the codebreaking gadgets that decided history.
“4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” Bruce Springsteen Madam Marie’s Psychic Booth, Asbury Park, N.J.: the boardwalk fortune-teller Springsteen wrote into this song.
“Main Title (Theme from Jaws)” John Williams Site of the 1916 Shark Attacks, Matawan, N.J.: the attacks a mile up a creek that helped inspire Jaws.
“Whiskey in the Jar” Thin Lizzy George Washington’s Distillery, Alexandria, Va.: the first president’s whiskey side hustle.
“Money (That’s What I Want)” Barrett Strong The Mutilated Currency Division, Washington, D.C.: the federal office that refunds burned, chewed and laundered cash, even from inside a cow.
“Preamble” Schoolhouse Rock! The Preamble in License Plates, Washington, D.C.: “We the People,” spelled out in vanity plates.
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” John Denver New River Gorge Bridge, Fayetteville, W.Va.: once a year on Bridge Day, people jump off it on purpose.
Northeast
“traitor” Olivia Rodrigo Annual Burning of Benedict Arnold, New London, Conn.: the town still burns its hometown traitor in effigy.
“A Horse with No Name” America The Desert of Maine, Freeport: 40 acres of sand in one of the greenest states.
“Cloudbusting” Kate Bush The Wilhelm Reich Museum, Rangeley, Maine: the home of the man this song is literally about, rain-making machine included.
“Blueberry Hill” Fats Domino Wild Blueberry Land, Columbia Falls, Maine: a theme park for the state fruit.
“Wild Horses” The Rolling Stones Ponyhenge, Lincoln, Mass.: a mysterious, ever-growing herd of rocking horses in a field.
“Stonehenge” Spinal Tap Mystery Hill: America’s Stonehenge, Salem, N.H.: ancient site or wishful thinking? You decide.
“Wolfman’s Brother” Phish Clark’s Trading Post, Lincoln, N.H.: trained bears, a steam train, and the Wolfman, who chases it.
“Simple Gifts” Shaker hymn The First Shaker Village, Albany, N.Y.: the Shakers’ first settlement, and the people who wrote this song.
“It’s the End of the World as We Know It” R.E.M. Cobb’s Hill, Rochester, N.Y.: where believers waited for the world to end in 1844. It didn’t.
“Theme from Star Trek” Alexander Courage Star Trek Original Series Set Tour, Ticonderoga, N.Y.: the Enterprise bridge, rebuilt in an old supermarket by an Elvis impersonator.
“Umbrella” Rihanna feat. Jay-Z The Fantastic Umbrella Factory, Charlestown, R.I.: a 250-year-old farm turned hippie bazaar.
“Allentown” Billy Joel Carrie Furnaces, Pittsburgh: towering blast furnaces from Pennsylvania’s steel age.
“Skating” Vince Guaraldi Trio Lake Morey Skate Trail, Fairlee, Vt.: the longest outdoor skate trail in the U.S.
Southeast & Florida
“Rocket Man” Elton John The Grave of Miss Baker, Huntsville, Ala.: America’s first monkey to return alive from space. Bring a banana.
“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” Bobby McFerrin Billy Bass Adoption Center, Little Rock, Ark.: where singing animatronic fish go to retire.
“Jesusland” Ben Folds Christ of the Ozarks, Eureka Springs, Ark.: a seven-story Jesus nicknamed “Our Milk Carton with Arms.”
“About the Money” T.I. feat. Young Thug Trap Music Museum, Atlanta: T.I.’s museum, and the song the book says to play on the way there.
“My Old Kentucky Home” Stephen Foster Gallop to Glory, Louisville, Ky.: a hidden walk of fame of Derby-winning jockeys’ handprints.
“Good Vibrations” The Beach Boys LIGO Livingston Observatory, La.: the instrument that first caught gravitational waves.
“Iko Iko” The Dixie Cups Mardi Gras World, New Orleans: the factory where the floats are built.
“Cross Road Blues” Robert Johnson Robert Johnson’s Grave, Greenwood, Miss.: fans leave guitar picks for the man who made a deal at the crossroads.
“The Death of Emmett Till” Bob Dylan Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center, Glendora, Miss.: a museum keeping his story in the place it happened.
“A Change Is Gonna Come” Sam Cooke Woolworth Lunch Counter Sit-in, Greensboro, N.C.: where four students sat down on Feb. 1, 1960, and changed history.
“I Heard It Through the Grapevine” Marvin Gaye The Mother Vine, Manteo, N.C.: perhaps the oldest grapevine in North America.
“Carolina Girls (Best in the World)” General Johnson & the Chairmen of the Board Fat Harold’s Beach Club, North Myrtle Beach, S.C.: the beating heart of the shag, South Carolina’s state dance.
“Nutbush City Limits” Ike & Tina Turner Tina Turner Museum, Brownsville, Tenn.: the one-room schoolhouse Tina attended as a kid in Nutbush.
“Coat of Many Colors” Dolly Parton Dolly Parton’s Dream Box, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.: her last song, sealed until her 100th birthday in 2046.
“Forever Young” Alphaville The Fountain of Youth, St. Augustine, Fla.: take a sip. Results not guaranteed.
“Part of Your World” Jodi Benson, The Little Mermaid Weeki Wachee: City of Live Mermaids, Fla.: Florida had mermaids before Disney did.
“Margaritaville” Jimmy Buffett Dry Tortugas, Fla.: a remote island fort 70 miles past Key West.
Alaska, Hawaii & Territories
“Surfin’ U.S.A.” The Beach Boys Turnagain Arm Bore Tide, Anchorage, Alaska: surfing a 10-foot tidal wave in a drysuit.
“Shelter from the Storm” Bob Dylan Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau, Hawaii: an ancient place of refuge for anyone who broke a sacred law and made it here.
“Stray Cat Strut” Stray Cats Lanai Cat Sanctuary, Hawaii: an island of 3,000 people and more than 500 cats.
“I Won’t Back Down” Tom Petty Yokoi’s Cave, Guam: the hideout of a Japanese soldier who didn’t surrender until 1972.
“Despacito” Luis Fonsi feat. Daddy Yankee El Batey, San Juan, P.R.: a graffiti-covered dive bar in Old San Juan.
“Time (You and I)” Khruangbin Point Udall, St. Croix, U.S.V.I.: a giant sundial at the easternmost point of the U.S.
“Here Comes the Sun” The Beatles Point Udall, St. Croix, U.S.V.I.: where each day in the United States begins.