Obscura Day: A Solid Gold Pyramid in Wadsworth

Our friend Chloris, a bohemian, hippie freak of long-standing, sent us an e-mail about “Obscura Day an international celebration of wondrous, curious, and esoteric places.” We clicked on the link.

Jim Onan and Pyramid

And saw a list of about 70 locales in the United States and 20 other countries that offered tours and events on March 20. Naturally, we clicked on Chicago. Behold, Jim Onan’s Gold Pyramid House.

Home builder Jim Onan built his 24-karat-gold-plated, 17,000-square-foot house in 1977. He sort of was into Egyptology. Onan lived in the pyramid house with his family for a time, eventually added enormous statues to the pyramid’s lot (including a 50-foot likeness of King Tut) and lined his driveway with 80 stone sphinxes.

The Pyramid house was opened to paying visitors from 1978 to 1981. And then reopened for a tour in 2009 as a fundraiser to help complete the Heroes of Freedom Memorial in Gurnee. (Click here for some controversial back story about the Memorial.)

The Chicago Obscura event is sold out, but never fear. Ageless will be there and will act as your guide to what is certainly the strangest house in Wadwsorth. Or almost anywhere.

Who are these Atlas Obscura People?

Atlas Obscura is an online community with the “goal of cataloging all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist.”

Obscura Day is their way of opening the curiosities to the off-line and off-beat world.

Here are some other Obscura Day Destinations:

Havana, Cuba: John Lennon Park and the Old Havana Perfume Museu

He's just "sitting and watching the wheels go round and round" on 50's era American cars

Obscura-niks will sit next to a bronze status of John Lennon and celebrate the Beatles controversial legacy in Communist Cuba. That is to say, the Beatles were banned in Cuba in the 60s and 70s. Lennon never visited Cuba.  However, Fidel himself unveiled the statue in December 2000. There is an inscription which reads, “Dirás que soy un soñador pero no soy el único.” You say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

Alnwick Poison Gardens, UK
Part of a proper British garden, the Poison Gardens sit behind a locked gate. Don’t pick, touch or even smell some of these nasty flora. Potential trouble spots include belladonna, mandrake and ricin (the castor oil plant). Ricin is best known as the substance which killed Russian dissident Georgi Markov. Well, probably Russian agents killed Markov…

But only if you touch, taste, or smell them.

The Alnwick Garden also Home Office licence to grow some very special plants;  cannabis, coca  and poppies which are found behind bars in giant cages. But they also do “drug awareness” programs to balance out the sexy plants.

The Cathedral of Junk, Austin, Texas

"The Throne" of junk

Do you aspire to be the bane of your neighborhood? How about adding 60 tons of junk to your backyard. That’s what Vince Hannemann did. “The Cathedral is a hollow framework of improvised trusses, around and within which Vince has wired and packed all manner of mass-production cast-offs: lawnmower wheels, car bumpers, kitchen utensils, ladders, cables, bottles, circuit boards, bicycle parts, brick-a-brack, and a lot of stuff that is frankly unidentifiable.”

“People ask me all the time, ‘What made you want to do this?’ Like it had some sort of profound meaning. I just did it because I liked it. And when I stop liking it I’ll take it down.”

Arborsmith Studios, Williams, Oregon
Have you been looking for Joni Mitchell’s, “Tree Museum?” Well, Obscura-ites can enjoy the wonders of Arborsculpture at the studios of Richard Reames. Reames coined the word Arborsculpture and it refers to creating gazebos, tables, chairs, spiral staircases, benches, entrance arches, bridges and fences from live trees by approach grafting parts of the tree together.

Ok, I don’t have a clue how he does this but look:

Iceland Phallological Museum

They may be short of cash but Iceland is long on…penises. Like  204 specimens from 45 different species of animals. But wait there’s more. For the plallologists lucky enough to be on the tour there are three hundred artistic oddments and other practical utensils related to the museum´s chosen theme.  And yes, they have the whale appendages… fifty five specimens belonging to sixteen different kinds of whale.

There were no photos that could adequately describe this attraction. Well, there is one. But you have click on it yourself.