So in celebration, we’re posting Woodstock, Illinois, the location where most of the scenes from the excellent Bill Murray comedy of the same name were filmed (although it was actually set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania). And yes, in our thumbnail of the town square you can actually see “Gobbler’s Knob”…

For fans of the movie, the official Woodstock website has a PDF map which identifies all the locations used.

Previously on Google Sightseeing: Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day.

Locations: Illinois, Pennsylvania / Categories: Movie Locations

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Camera facing north

The ever increasing resolution of Google’s imagery has continued to reveal greater detail people’s lives – particularly through the Street View imagery – but this is the first time an aerial photgraph of such a graphic nature has been published on the site.

Camera facing west

We can’t be sure about the details of the scene – there’s no sign of injury from this distance – but the number of police officers and vehicles (both marked and unmarked) suggests that this is unlikely to have been a case of accidental death.

Camera facing south

The location however gives us more indication of what might have happened here. This track forms the apex of an area that is known locally as the “Iron Triangle“². It’s a high crime area in the middle of a city that was in 2007 rated as the 9th most dangerous city in the United States.

There’s nothing to see in the aerial image facing east, but we can have a look from this direction on Street View – of course the imagery was captured on a different day, so nothing is revealed about the crime itself.

Can anyone locate a news report or press release about the incident so we can try and work out what actually happened here? The time stamp on Google Maps claims this image was taken in 2012, but it’s unclear how accurate this is, so a specific date could be hard to pinpoint.

Thanks to @KeirClarke.

Locations: California / Categories: 45˚ Imagery, Crowds, Street Views

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So what made this duck-like pattern? Perhaps it was formed by toilet waste falling from a passing aircraft? Perhaps there’s a nearby duck-cave and this marks the entrance? Caves are the perfect place for ducks to hide before launching attacks on the local populace – you know, seeing as how their quacks don’t echo in caves.

As you can see, there’s also a bit of water here (clearly showing the blue colour of the reflected sky)¹, so this is very likely the kind of place you’d find viking helmets, especially those badass ones with the horns on.

When Columbus discovered America in 1392, it was named after his daughter, Amerigo – a fitting name for the country that had already given birth to Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, and Henry Ford, inventor of the first automobile.

In other news, did you know that glass is a high-viscosity liquid at room temperature?

What we’re sure you’re wondering of course, is how we managed to find all these facts on the day that Wikipedia is blacked out in protest against the SOPA and PIPA bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate – and the answer, in the words of Sherlock Holmes is “Elementary, my dear Watson”!

Locations: Not Really Sure /

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Operated by the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX – a part of Texas A&M University), these facilities host tens of thousands of emergency responders every year for cutting-edge training programs. At Brayton Fire Training Field there are eleven large-scale training setups which house a total of over 130 different props for different scenarios.

Unfortunately the satellite view doesn’t capture anything actually on fire, though the grainy first-generation Street View images do show a training session in action – we can see a column of smoke rising from one of props, with water or foam being sprayed on it.

However, the satellite images do give us a very clear view of the different props, including the aircraft rescue and firefighting section and oil processing unit.

Here we see additional oil and gas processing mock-ups, including the aerial cooler which is claimed to be the world’s largest burn prop.

There are also props for fires in various transportation modes, such as rail cars, tankers and even a ‘ship’!

In addition to the outdoor props, Brayton has several buildings for training against fires located in indoor and confined space scenarios.

To the south-east of the fire training field, Disaster City has multiple customisable scenarios in each of five different aspects of emergency-response training.

In this area we can see three different partially-collapsed buildings – industrial, strip mall and multipurpose. Each can be easily modified to portray natural or man-made disasters such as bombs, earthquakes and hurricanes. There are also two large rubble piles for training in search-and-rescue techniques in structures that have fully collapsed.

It’s unfortunate that the street view car wasn’t able to drive around this facility. I’m also disappointed that the main street is called Stillwater Road – “Disaster Drive” or “Calamity Crescent” would have been more appropriate!

This section has two more partial-collapses – a house and an office building – and a third rubble pile. In addition there is a passenger train, three cars of which have ‘derailed’ – note the red car near the locomotive which apparently caused the accident!

Finally there are many freight train tank cars in various states of disarray in the hazardous materials training section.

The TEEX website has sections for both Brayton and Disaster City. You can learn more by reading this article about Disaster City, and YouTube has videos about Brayton Fire Field and a tour of Disaster City (part one, part two).

In a similar vein, earlier this year we looked at airport emergency training locations, while in the past we have visited fake villages used by armies for training purposes, the Felix Centre bomb disposal training facility and even the Secret Service’s training centre.

Locations: Texas / Categories: Buildings, Other Vehicles, Street Views, Structures

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The first land on Earth that welcomed in the new year was this secluded tropical beach on uninhabited Caroline Island – sorry, Millennium Island, the easternmost outpost of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Since Kiribati spans both sides of the 180° meridian, it has decided to push the international Date Line two time zones east to the eastern boundary of the country so that all of its residents operate on the same day. Millennium Island got its new name over a decade ago to commemorate it being the first land on Earth to experience the year 2000.

The first people to celebrate 2012 were the residents of Kiritmati¹ (Christmas Island), and the first people that saw sun rise on 1 January 2012 were the 1,200 residents of Kiritimati’s easternmost village, Banana. The first actual sunrise, however, occurred around this remote headland in East Antarctica (not that anyone saw it).

The country of Samoa used to be the last inhabited place on Earth to ring in the new year, but not any more. In an effort to coordinate itself better with regional powers New Zealand and Australia, on 31 December Samoa moved to the other side of the Date Line and jumped ahead a day, meaning the city of Apia was the first national capital to see the new year, an hour after Kiritmati.

Also making the move across the Date Line this year is the tiny New Zealander territory of Tokelau, an hour ahead of Samoa. Tokelau’s seat of government rotates between its three atolls, meaning that easternmost Fakaofo atoll was the first territorial capital to celebrate 2012.

With Samoa moving across the Date Line, the honour of being the last national capital to celebrate the new year is now shared by seven North American cities. Mexico City, Guatemala City, Belmopan (Belize), Tegucigalpa (Honduras), San Salvador (El Salvador), Managua (Nicaragua), and San Jose (Costa Rica) all celebrated 19 hours after Apia. We’ll show you Tegucigalpa as a cheap way to finally cross Honduras off our list of countries visited here at Google Sightseeing!

Six hours later, Alofi (Niue) and Pago Pago (American Samoa) were the last territorial capitals to say goodbye to 2011. Despite being just 50 km (30 mi) from the other half of Samoa, American Samoa is now 25 hours behind it!

Although part of the Tokelau archipelago to the northwest, Swains Island is governed by American Samoa. This open clearing is Taulaga, the only village on Swains and home of the last people on Earth who saw the sun come down on 2011.

As for the last places on Earth to leave 2011 behind, those were the remote, uninhabited United States outposts of Howland and Baker islands, some 26 hours after the people in Tokelau and eastern Kiribati did so. Considering they’re only visited every couple of years by researchers and Coast Guard vessels, it seems unlikely there was any sort of celebration taking place there at the time.

We hope 2012 is a good year for all of you, even if you don’t have as much left of it to enjoy as the American Samoans.²

Locations: Antarctica, North America, Polynesia, Samoa, U.S. Insular Areas, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, Unincorporated territory of the U.S. / Categories: Islands, Weirdness

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We first visited this Santa three years ago but updated Street View imagery gives us a much better look at the bright red 12m tall Saint Nick who is in the process of making his list, and checking it twice. This blog post gives a fascinating glimpse at its origins in Seattle.

Heading to Oxnard, California, we find only the top-half of a Santa who has apparently got a bad headache, judging by the hand position and big frown on his face. Maybe all the cookies, milk and glasses of whisky were too much for him? As vigilant as ever, Google has blurred the faces of the accompanying nutcrackers to protect their identities.

This 6m tall Kris Kringle is actually quite a venerable specimen, having spent 50 years on the top of a candy store before being moved to his current location eight years ago. Read the full story in this blog post or this LA Times article, which includes a slideshow.

The state of Indiana seems to have a particularly fondness for Santa Claus. We first visited the town that bears his name back in 2008, but neglected to show the large statue that sits outside the town hall, surrounded by festive red benches.

Two separate can be spotted (one standing, one sitting) outside a hotel, while on the outskirts of town is a much older statue; in fact it is claimed to be the oldest Santa statue in the world.

It dates to 1935, shortly after the town’s residents realised they lived in a locale with a name that could be exploited for commercial gain. Originally thought to be 7 metres of solid granite, time and weathering have revealed that it is in fact made of concrete! Unfortunately it is too far from the road for early Street Views to give a good view.

Not quite so blurry is the 11m tall Father Christmas found an hour’s drive to the west in Haubstadt.

Roadside America reports that the surrounding derelict buildings have been demolished, leading to fears that this Santa may disappear before too long.

Many businesses adorn their premises with statues of Santa, though generally they’re not quite as disturbing as this one in Fresno, California.

Finally, just to prove that it’s not just the US that has giant Santa statues, in Lyngen, Norway, a large Julenissen² overlooks the harbour.

If you know of any other giant Santa statues please post them in the comments.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Google Sightseeing!

Locations: Alaska, California, Indiana, Norway /

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While it may look as though 8 large trailers have plummeted nose-first from the sky, they were in fact carefully placed by Frank Bates, who happens to own a nearby RV dealership. Google’s 45-degree imagery gives us a great look at the installation from the air.

This blog post has good images and information about the trailers, and the official website has a bunch of links and a documentary video. The neighbours are less than impressed with this apparent advertising ploy, but Bates is insistent that it is a true piece of art¹ inspired by his visit to Cadillac Ranch in Texas

We visited Cadillac Ranch back in the early days of this site. The satellite imagery hasn’t improved, and while there is now a Street View, it’s sadly from the very early low-resolution systems.

We visited Carhenge – another well-known car sculpture – in our Monumental Wannabes post last year. If you have a few hundred thousand dollars to spare apparently it’s now for sale.

We switch modes of transport briefly for a visit to a monument in Santa Rosa, California, that at first glance appears to be a fuzzy obelisk.

Closer observation reveals that it’s actually constructed of bicycle frames – three hundred and forty of them (and one tricycle) according this Wired article. Created by Mark Grieve and Ilana Spector the sculpture is named Cyclisk and stands almost 20m tall.

Google’s newly-released Street View imagery of Belgium allows us to see another bicycle sculpture in the town of Brakel, which is on the route of the Tour of Flanders spring classic race.

Returning to car art, we move to Sydney, Australia, where a large rock appears to have played a key role in a terrible accident involving a red Ford Festiva.

This is actually a sculpture named Still Life With Stone and Car, by artist Jimmie Durham, and it was created through the relatively simple process of, um… dropping a large rock on a car.

Originally placed near the Opera House, the sculpture was later moved to its current location where a pair of signs help dissuade any unknowing passers-by from calling the police to report the accident.

Sadly, this kind of cruel vehicular torture isn’t isolated – in 2009 we visited two places where cars have been impaled in the name of art.

In Toronto this car appears to have been abandoned for so long that it has been reclaimed by nature.

Commonly known as The Garden Car, it is more officially called the Community Vehicular Reclamation Project. More details can be found in this blog post.

Perhaps the most bizarre vehicular artwork can be found in rural Vermont, in the form of a large concrete gorilla holding aloft a Volkswagen Beetle.

The story behind its creation can be found at Roadside America.

To wrap up, a few artworks about which I haven’t been able to find much information. First, another Airstream trailer which has been converted into a spaceship in a park in Sacramento, California.

In Albuquerque an old Chevrolet has been tiled for some reason, and mounted on top of an arch.

And finally, in Geldrop, the Netherlands, a tiny old Fiat 500 has been bronzed and topped with a statue of a girl – the work of artist Carla Rump.

If you know of any other vehicular art, please post it in the comments. I’d particularly be interested to know if anyone from Stockholm knows if this bus-made-of-cars is visible on satellite or Street View. I really wanted to include it in this post but couldn’t find a precise location for it.

Locations: Australia, Belgium, California, Florida, Netherlands, New Mexico, Ontario, Texas, Vermont / Categories: Other Vehicles, Street Views, Structures, Weirdness

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Unlike the rest of the world, most auto racing in the United States takes place not on road circuits, but on oval speedways contained inside a seated stadium. Almost everyone has heard of legendary oval circuits such as Indianapolis and Daytona, but across the country literally thousands of local speedways dot the landscape.

Take Longhorn Speedway on the outskirts of Austin, Texas. Opened in 1960 as Austin Speed-O-Rama, the quarter-mile track has been dilapidating for over a decade; though not quite long enough to obscure the Budweiser advert on the start-finish line. A few years ago rumours suggested the overgrown facility was purchased by Sandra Bullock and her motorhead ex-husband, but if true, nothing ever came of it.

Lakeside Speedway in Denver, Colorado hosted hundreds of thousands of race fans from 1938 until 1988 – when economic factors and an unfortunate spectator death combined to cause the facility to be shut down. Today, the cracked pavement and ruined grandstands remain, along with a number of cars left on the track.

Middle Georgia Raceway was open for just five years (1966-1971) before it met its demise. Not only was the track home to four top-level NASCAR races during its short life, but it also played host to the 1970 Atlanta International Pop Festival where legends such as Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and Jethro Tull played to an estimated 500,000 people, which to this day ranks as one of the largest concerts in rock history.

While stock car racing has long been popular in the south, the ‘national pastime’ of the United States is usually considered to be baseball¹. One of the most difficult ballparks to play in was Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, home to the Pirates from 1909 to 1970. In the old confines, hitting a home run was a very hard thing to accomplish. Today it’d be pretty easy, as only the outside wall (including the distance markers) remains; most of the structure having been damaged in a 1971 fire. The ball diamond that exists today actually lies beyond the old Forbes outfield, which was on the other side of the wall.

Tiger Stadium was the legendary home of the Detroit Tigers from 1912 to 1999. Despite public outcry and nearly a decade of petition from the general public to preserve the old ballpark, the stadium was finally demolished in 2009, leaving just the field of play and the iconic flagpole behind centre field. Street View shows the pile of rubble left behind by the wrecking crews.

In St. Louis, there have been three separate venues named Busch Stadium. The second Busch closed in 2005, with the third Busch built next door in the old car park. The superstructure of Busch II was removed, and the field was redeveloped as a softball field as in Forbes Field; the rest serves as – you guessed it – the new Busch car park.

Not to be confused with St. Louis’ Busch Stadium is Indianapolis’ Bush Stadium. Built in 1931 for baseball, Bush was converted into a dirt track speedway in 1997 before being abandoned completely in 1999. Like the other Busch, we see that Bush is now also apparently a parking lot, though in a much more depressing sense. Bing Maps’ bird’s-eye view has an even less-flattering view of the derelict structure.

We end our abandoned stadium tour with a stadium that never even made it to completion. In 1986, the city of Sacramento wanted a baseball stadium to complement the ARCO Arena (now Power Balance Pavilion), the home of the NBA’s Kings. While the playing field was dug out, only the foundation of the stadium was ever built.

Today, the unfinished ballpark, rimmed by trees, forms an oasis in the middle of the Pavilion car park. Literally – when it rains, it fills with water!

Read part one of our abandoned stadium tour: Abandoned Stadiums of Europe, South America, and Africa.

Locations: California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas / Categories: Abandoned, Stadiums and Sport

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Celebration was intended to be a carefully-planned haven for the wholesome family values for which Disney likes to be known. In many ways a throwback to simpler times, it was designed to have a vibrant downtown core which encouraged walking rather than driving, and no mega-malls on the outskirts.

While Disney controlled all aspects of construction they were careful not to make the town part of their brand. This means that you won’t see Mickey Mouse ears anywhere. However a number of residential ‘villages’ surround the downtown area featuring public buildings with somewhat whimsical designs created by prominent architects.

Philip Johnson’s Town Hall is perhaps the most unusual – crowded pillars being a very postmodern take on the imposing columns often used in such buildings.

The Post Office designed by Michael Graves has a toy-like quality to it.

The Bank of America building has a tower with an exterior staircase, while the Sun Trust bank has the air of a 1950s diner.

The retro look was also used for the movie theatre, which is on the waterfront downtown rather than being in an out-of-town shopping complex as is so common in modern urban development.

Market Street can be considered the main ‘Disney Storybook’ street attracting tourists to Celebration. It’s lined with palm trees and buildings with a Caribbean flavour, note also that the lamp-posts all feature the tree-and-bicycle motif from the town sign.

During seasonal festivities the lamp-posts also double as “fake weather” machines. YouTube lets us see the crowds that gather to witness ‘autumn leaves falling‘ and ‘Christmas snow‘, neither of which would normally be seen in this tropical state.

While the town is pedestrian friendly, it was hoped that anyone who needed wheeled transport might consider a ‘neighbourhood electric vehicle’ – battery-powered buggies slightly larger than golf carts. A few can be spotted around the downtown area, and there are many special parking spots for them, but in general it appears that most residents opt for cars.

Once construction was complete, Disney followed through with its initial plan to sell the town to another property investment corporation. Today, Celebration is perceived as a very safe upper-middle-class community, but was rocked in late 2010 when the town’s first murder took place, followed a couple of days later by an unrelated police siege situation which resulted in a suicide. However, given that in general the state of Florida sees 3 murders a day, one in 15 years isn’t a bad record.

You can learn more about Celebration at Wikipedia and the town’s official website.

Locations: Florida / Categories: Buildings, Other Vehicles, Street Views, Theme Parks, Weirdness

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At its most northerly point Greenland is only 740km from the North Pole, and from there southwards it spans an enormous area – over 2 million km². Unfortunately that space is largely uninhabitable ice, with the Inuit-majority population recorded at just over 56,000. This makes Greenland the least densely populated dependency or country in the world.

In some of the stitched-together satellite photos you can see Greenland’s huge seasonal shift.

Ittoqqortoormiit, one of Greenland’s most remote towns, has a population of just 469. Coincidentally, this is also the number of people in the world who can correctly pronounce the town’s name.

Having an iceberg sitting outside your bedroom window must be an odd experience.

On the mid-west coast of the island we find Thule Air Base, which is part of the US Air Force’s global early warning system, and their northernmost air base.

In 1968 a B-52 bomber crashed near the base, and there was some debate as to whether all the nuclear warheads were accounted for in the cleanup operation.

Even further north is Siorapaluk, which is the northernmost settlement in Greenland, and the whole of the American continent. During the height of summer the sun will stay in the sky for weeks on end.

Despite the name, Greenland has just one forest at Tasermiut Fjord, north of Nanortalik. After numerous failed attempts at forestry dating back to 1892, these willow and birch trees were planted in 1960 and first successfully harvested in 2005.

Naturally there’s loads of information about Greenland on Wikipedia, but I encourage you to explore the satellite imagery of Greenland’s frozen fjords, as there are some spectacular images to be found.

Locations: Greenland / Categories: Islands, Natural Landmarks

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