As I travel for my work, I’m always on the lookout for the unique and memorable stop so here’s a few if you are traveling in The Dakotas:

Anyone would probably describe Crazy Horse Memorial in Custer, South Dakota as big. When our guests this summer, three teenagers from a town near Venice, Italy saw this memorial all they could say is “it is very big.”
In fact, even though I have been traveling to the Black Hills at least twice a year for work for the past 13 years, I still can’t get over the fact that, when finished, it will be larger than any monument in the world. The face of Crazy Horse is nine stories high. It’s a work in progress and no matter when you visit, it’s worth the stop. Not all the sights have the history or size of Crazy Horse but here's some that are big on charm. 

First, make a stop in Wall, South Dakota at the world’s largest drugstore, Wall Drug which opened in 1931 in a town of 236 people struggling in the Great Depression. A cup of coffee is only a nickel and you can get free ice water -- a traditional that began in 1936 as a way of generating business from passing motorists.

The South Dakota state bird is the pheasant and Huron claims the largest with a statue that's 40 feet  tall and weighs 22 tons.  It's been there since 1959 to commemorate a local legend and the area's hunting tradition.

Continue south to Mitchell, South Dakota. I love to watch tourists get their picture taken in front of the largest building covered with corncob murals, The World's Only Corn Palace. It has to be redone ervery year after birds eat the covering in the winter.

Okay, so you would rather get your picture taken with a cow? (See photo above.) That’s the statue I discovered in New Salem, North Dakota, a very small town just west of Bismarck off 1-90, which claims the world’s largest Holstein cow statue. By the way, her name is Salem Sue. She appeared in 1974, due in part to the popularity of world’s largest buffalo statue just east in Jamestown. They also have three white buffalo, rare and sacred animals.

But if you want to see the place where big made the record book you have to go off the beaten path to Rutland, North Dakota. This town got into the Guinness Book of World Records when in 1982 they grilled a hamburger  that weighed 3,591 pounds.

North and South Dakota are home to about 1.4 million people spread across a big landmass that averages only 10 people per square mile. But I've found the wide open spaces big on hospitality and hope through my travels to continue discovering these unique tributes.