There’s not a whole lot of anything in DeKalb County IL, except maybe for Northern Illinois University, so you’re probably right.
There were a lot of really interesting town names in that book, and they’re all real. Including Humansville, Missouri.
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I know… that’s what I loved about the book, the sort of mini-travelogue it set up into the heart of America. He really found these places that no body really know and it will be interesting to see how that translates in the show. I fully expect that places like the house on the rock and Rock city are going to get a new influx of tourists if they show is as successful as I suspect it’s going to be. Fortunately, it seems there is plenty of time before they get to rock city in the show, so I have time to go before it gets crowded by out of state tourists!
I do sort of wish that paradise gardens were in the book. I’d love to see Howard Finster’s work get a boost.
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You’re right near Rock City so you can go. Me, not so much.
The See Rock City signs were a big part of my childhood, but I never actually saw Rock City.
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Oh, you should go see it at some point. It’s actually pretty kitchy and silly, but it’s fun to go to. Chattanooga is a nice place to visit in general.
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There’s a house near here on a block that is notorious for going full-out on Halloween, and their front yard graveyard added a tombstone for Finster when he died in 2001. Warms the cockles of my heart to see that memorial every year.
I own a signed print of one of his paintings. Not normally an art collector, but when I saw it in the mid-1980s, I knew I had to have it. (And that was back when I was barely paying rent and had NO expendable income, to give you a sense of how much the piece spoke to me.)
Sounds similar to the story given by someone else who put a photo of their copy up on Flickr:
It’s called “Animals World”.
Edited to add: appears it’s not very valuable…a copy just sold on eBay for $250.
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That’s awesome! I love Finster! I grew up not too far from where he’s from and had friends who knew him (and one was his grandson!). Several of them had personalized art by him, which is superneat! Recently, after years of his family fighting, someone bought paradise gardens and has been helping to preserve it. They re-opened it a couple of years ago. I haven’t been able to make it up, but want to go soon.
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Road trip!
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That name seems to be tempting fate almost as much as a new ship named Titanic would be.
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