(Rendering Courtesy of Brookgreen Gardens, Craig Gaulden Davis)

Rivers Art, a premium fine‑art printing provider, surveyed 3,002 art lovers to weigh in on which lesser-known landmarks they most want to experience in person. The final list reflects a kaleidoscope of oddball, awe-inspiring, and deeply local art destinations - each one telling a story of place, purpose, and the strange joy of stumbling upon something unforgettable. 

The top 10 nationally were as follows:

#1. Kakaʻako Street Art, Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaii
The industrial neighborhood of Kakaʻako has become an open-air gallery, with massive murals and sculptural street art appearing on warehouses, stairwells, and sidewalks. Thanks to POW! WOW! Hawaii, a local branch of the international POW! WOW! Worldwide collective, artists from around the world have added bold, modern layers to the area. Added features include sculpted birds in flight, mosaic walls, and abstract installations tucked between food trucks and storefronts—urban art that pulses with island energy.

#2. Coral Castle, Homestead, Florida
Built single-handedly over decades by Edward Leedskalnin, a Latvian immigrant, using hand tools and sheer determination, Coral Castle remains one of Florida’s most mysterious and poetic landmarks. The massive limestone blocks form a whimsical fortress: rocking chairs carved from stone, a sundial, a heart-shaped table. Some say it was built for lost love. Others think it’s just eccentric genius. Either way, it stands quietly defying explanation.

#3. Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, Washington 
Stretching from downtown to the water’s edge, Olympic Sculpture Park is a rare piece of public space where art, skyline, and Puget Sound converge. Massive works like Alexander Calder’s Eagle stand boldly against views of the Olympic Mountains, while subtler pieces - rusted steel waves, minimalist benches, native plant installations—draw viewers into quiet contemplation. The park’s layout feels like a slow unfolding: each turn reveals something unexpected. It’s not fenced in or ticketed. It simply exists as part of the city’s breath.

#4. Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau Wooden Carvings, Big Island, Hawaii
At this sacred site on the Kona coast, traditional Hawaiian ki‘i (wooden guardian figures) stand watch over lava rock and tide pools. They’re not art in the Western sense—they’re spiritual protectors, deeply rooted in culture and place. But their forms—weathered, stylized, expressive—are strikingly sculptural. Seen against the black rock and blue sea, they’re haunting reminders that art can be protective, powerful, and alive with meaning.

#5. Beale Street Brass Notes Walk of Fame, Memphis, Tennessee
Embedded along the sidewalks of historic Beale Street are hundreds of brass music notes, each engraved with the name of a Memphis music legend—everyone from B.B. King to lesser-known blues pioneers. While not sculptures in the traditional sense, these shining inlays form a walking installation that pays tribute to the city’s rhythm and roots. Lit by neon and accompanied by street musicians, the brass notes become more than a monument—they become part of the music still being made.

#6. Music Box Village, New Orleans, Louisiana
Tucked along the levee in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood, the Music Box Village is a sculptural playground of playable shacks and sound sculptures. Created by artist collective New Orleans Airlift, it’s part architectural experiment, part interactive music venue. Visitors can walk through and touch the walls to trigger sounds, or attend performances where musicians turn buildings into instruments. It’s inventive, kinetic, and totally rooted in the city’s creative spirit.

#7. Wild Blueberry Land, Columbia Falls, Maine
Yes, it’s real. This bright blue geodesic dome off Route 1 doubles as a bakery, shop, and interactive sculpture celebrating the state's blueberry obsession. Surrounded by fruit-themed sculptures, from giant pies to oversized berries, it leans fully into roadside Americana with a wink. The whole thing is homemade, hyper-specific, and full of color—a folk-art fantasia born of fruit and imagination.

#8. Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky, Raleigh, North Carolina
Tucked within a quiet grove in Raleigh’s Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park, Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky invites visitors into a contemplative space where art and nature converge. Designed by British artist Chris Drury, this earthen, dome-shaped structure functions as a camera obscura. Upon entering, a small aperture in the roof projects the sky, clouds, and surrounding treetops onto the interior walls, creating a live, inverted panorama. This fusion of ancient optical technology and natural elements offers a meditative experience, connecting viewers to the environment in an intimate and ever-changing display.

#9. The Whale Bone Arch, Barrow (Utqiaġvik), Alaska
Standing at the edge of the Arctic Ocean, the massive whale jawbones forming this arch aren’t part of a traditional sculpture garden, but they hold deep meaning. Raised by Iñupiat whalers, it marks the community’s connection to the land, sea, and subsistence traditions. There’s no sign, no explanation—just the arch, some driftwood benches, and endless ice-blue horizon. It’s stark, poetic, and profoundly tied to the rhythms of life in the far north.

#10. Sun Tunnels, Great Basin Desert, Utah
Out on the salt flats, where the horizon stretches forever, Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels rest in quiet alignment. These four massive concrete cylinders are more than sculptures—they’re instruments of time and light. Aligned with the solstices, they frame the rising and setting sun on specific days each year, connecting human design to celestial rhythm. Even on ordinary days, the experience is profound: crawling inside the tunnels, watching the light shift through their circular openings, the line between land art and sacred geometry begins to blur.

Two of the most coveted "off-the-radar" artistic landmarks in America are in South Carolina:

#34. Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture Collection - Murrells Inlet
Set within a former rice plantation, Brookgreen Gardens hosts one of the largest and most stunning outdoor sculpture collections in the American South. Rather than crowding the space, the sculptures here breathe with the landscape-bronze nudes framed by magnolias, marble figures reflecting in lily ponds, and animal forms tucked into the palmettos. There’s an ease to how the art lives in the environment. Some works are contemporary, others neoclassical, but all feel chosen with care and placement in mind. It’s not an art park-it’s a living gallery, sculpted over decades.

#89. Ra Obelisk -  Columbia
In the Mill District of downtown Columbia stands an homage to ancient Egypt: a weathered sandstone obelisk painted with Egyptian symbols and hieroglyphs. Created by local artist Richard Lane in 1993 and refreshed in 2018, it transforms a simple pillar into a sun god's tribute-Ra immortalized through urban murals. Encircled by benches in a pocket park, this odd yet symbolic monument quietly asserts the city's creative pulse, bridging mill town history with global mythology right in the civic core.

Infographic showing the most coveted off-the-radar artistic landmarks in the country

“What we found is that people are drawn to art that feels personal - sometimes strange, sometimes sacred, but always rooted in place,” says Tony Gilbert of Rivers Art. “These aren’t just photo ops. They’re markers of memory, community, and imagination. And in many cases, they say more about who we are than the famous landmarks ever could.”