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Monument of States
Kissimmee, Osceola County
BUILT BY ONE PERSON
9STRANGENESS
OUT OF TEN
OUT OF TEN
WHAT IT IS
A 50-foot obelisk of 1,500 stones donated from every US state and 21 countries, cemented together in 1943.
After Pearl Harbor, a retired doctor named Charles Bressler-Pettis decided Kissimmee needed a monument to national unity, wrote to governors and strangers asking for a rock, and stacked what arrived. There is meteorite in there, and petrified wood, and a piece of a Nazi-era building, and a lot of concrete. It leans slightly. It has been restored twice and remains one of the strangest patriotic objects in the country.
HOW IT SCORES
Rarity8/10
Is there anywhere else like it?
Backstory10/10
How did this come to be?
Disrepair7/10
What is holding it together?
Commitment9/10
How far do they take the bit?
NEARBY
BEFORE YOU DRIVE
- ENTRY FEE
- Free
- HOURS
- Always
- BEST TIME
- Morning light, so you can read the stones.
- HOW LONG
- 20 minutes
- PARKING
- Free lot beside it
- PAYMENT
- n/a
- ACCESS
- Flat
COORDINATES
28.2919° N, 81.4067° W
Monument Avenue at Johnston Street, downtown Kissimmee.
OPEN IN MAPS →DETAILS COMPILED FROM PUBLISHED SOURCES. FEES CHANGE. CALL AHEAD.