Atlas Obscura CEO’s Journey: Uncovering America’s Hidden Wonders & Filling My Map

The CEO of Atlas Obscura embarks on a personal quest to visit all 50 US states, focusing on uncovering unusual, offbeat destinations. Inspired by a new map feature, this journey aims to deeply understand American culture and geography, challenging conventional travel.

A CEO’s Personal State Exploration Challenge

The response came courtesy of Atlas Obscura, the traveling and society company I lead as CEO. We introduced a new attribute– a 50-state map where users can log the states they’ve gone to. I sat down one evening, started clicking, and really felt something unforeseen: real suspense. The number staring back at me was 39 when I ended up.

For some, it’s a minute of satisfaction; for others, a punctual to ask more challenging concerns regarding what precisely we’re celebrating. I’m taking a 3rd path that reduces via this kind of false binary we find ourselves in: I am choosing to see more of the country, so that I can recognize our nation and our individuals much better.

I have been traveling my whole life. As a journalist, I have actually reported from locations the majority of people never see, like small towns in Malaysia and manufacturing facility facilities in Tijuana.

Beyond the Obvious: The Atlas Obscura Travel Ethos

And here is where Atlas Obscura shapes the goal entirely. I am not mosting likely to close out my eleven states by striking the most apparent sites. That’s not how I travel, and it’s not what Atlas Obscura is about. Our study with YouGov found that 34% of Americans who take a trip to brand-new states are most drawn to views and nature, and, while they exist, 68% claim exploring neighborhood food is a leading concern. The AO traveler takes off, eats the food, and goes better– past the acquainted, toward the terrific and really unusual.

Oh and I am certainly going to get myself to Carhenge, in Partnership, Nebraska– a full-blown reproduction of Stonehenge constructed from vintage American cars, painted gray, standing in the high levels. It is unreasonable. It is magnificent. It is exactly the kind of thing that makes me happy to work at Atlas Obscura.

Connecting Travel to American Identity

Right here is where the intellectual stakes come from for me. I majored in American Studies in university– especially the counter-cultural stress of American Background, the variation that asks difficult inquiries regarding who gets valued and who gets eliminated, whose tales obtain informed and whose do not. I became a journalist due to the fact that I think, at a cellular degree, that there is no substitute for going somewhere in person. You can not understand an area from a dateline. You can not comprehend Americans– their humor, their sorrow, their contradictions, their durability– without standing in their actual geography.

Thirty-nine states. Also: eleven gaps. Eleven areas I had in some way– via years of movement and inquisitiveness– never ever established foot in.

The Call to Domestic Exploration and Unusual Sights

The more I work at a travel business whose entire purpose is to show individuals the wonders hiding in plain sight, the extra it seems to me that we need to all lean much more into exploration afar however also exploration in your home.

So when I reach Bentonville, Arkansas, I’m certainly mosting likely to Crystal Bridges (though that gallery– a first-rate art establishment went down improbably into the Ozarks– is itself a type of wonder), however I’m also going to The Bachman-Wilson Residence– a Frank Lloyd Wright home that was literally gotten and moved from New Jersey to the Crystal Bridges campus to wait from flooding. In Kansas, I’m mosting likely to Wamego, and, not only will I see the Wizard of Oz Gallery, I will additionally go to see the decommissioned nuclear missile silo that was the nexus of a medication procedure that, by DEA estimates, accounted for 90% of America’s LSD supply in the late 1990s. As someone who researched the American counter-culture in college, I feel virtually obligated.

Mapping America: Insights from Atlas Obscura & YouGov

I had not been alone in this feeling. Atlas Obscura just recently partnered with YouGov to survey approximately 1,285 American adults about their traveling practices and relationship to the fifty states. About 29 percent of Americans say checking out all fifty states is a life time goal. Just 4% have made it to 40 or even more. I am mosting likely to remain in uncommon business– and yet, paradoxically, that made the staying eleven feel more urgent, not less. The survey likewise located that 53% of Americans have visited 10 or even more states, which means virtually half the nation hasn’t even crossed that threshold. We are, it turns out, a country of individuals that haven’t completely seen our very own nation.

Atlas Obscura lately partnered with YouGov to check about 1,285 American grownups about their traveling behaviors and relationship to the fifty states. I lead an American material business, a travel web content firm, one whose content objective is built on the idea that every area holds something impressive. Our research with YouGov located that 34% of Americans that take a trip to new states are most attracted to surroundings and nature, and, while they’re there, 68% claim exploring local food is a leading concern. When I get to Bentonville, Arkansas, I’m most definitely going to Crystal Bridges (though that museum– a first-rate art establishment dropped improbably into the Ozarks– is itself a kind of miracle), yet I’m additionally going to The Bachman-Wilson Residence– a Frank Lloyd Wright home that was literally chosen up and moved from New Jacket to the Crystal Bridges school to save it from flooding. In Kansas, I’m going to Wamego, and, not just will I visit the Wizard of Oz Museum, I will additionally go to see the decommissioned nuclear missile silo that was the nexus of a drug procedure that, by DEA price quotes, accounted for 90% of America’s LSD supply in the late 1990s.

Alexis de Tocqueville concerned America in 1831 and invested nine months traversing it before creating one of the most observant evaluations of American democracy ever created. He recognized that you had to relocate via a location to understand it. I have 4 months left and eleven states. The due date is July 4th. The quest gets on.

And in Bloomington, Indiana, I wish to see the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, established by the Dalai Lama’s sibling, sitting silently in the middle of the Indiana sedimentary rock belt– the sort of association that makes you love this country’s capacity for shock.

John Steinbeck composed in Journeys with Charley that he had actually uncovered he did not know his own nation. He was in his late fifties when he made that admission and set out to fix it. I locate myself in a comparable reckoning. I lead an American material business, a travel material business, one whose editorial goal is built on the idea that every place holds something astonishing. It would certainly be an unusual point to have voids in my own map.