girst LIGHT ONLY IN NEW ENGLAND

Landmarks We Love New England abounds with historic sites and manmade masterpieces, from the beautiful to the baffling. Here are a few of our favorites. Don't ask why-there's no accounting for taste. I BY KEN SHELDO N

CONNECTICUT 8 The 20-foot-tall "Big Indian" CD The Desert of Maine is a

o Boothe Memorial Park & statue on the Mohawk Trail 40-acre stretch of sand created

Museum in Stratford is home to stands nextto the "Gift Shop by overgrazing, erosion,

a strange collection of buildings, Formerly Known as the Big and poor planning. It was

including a lighthouse, a wind- Indian Shop," which has a new, originally owned by perhaps

mill, a trolley station, and an politically correct name and now the worstfarmers in history.

actual tollbooth from the Merritt sells genuine Native American 4D Each year, thousands of Parkway. Who says Connecticut items, such as fudge.

tourists have their picture taken folks are stuffy? o According to its Web site, the next to the 16-foot-tall rubber-

8 Fairwarning:The Lizzie Borden B&B in Fall River sole boot at L.L. Bean's flagship

"Submarine Capital ofthe is "where everyone is treated store in Freeport because, as

World" in Groton has nothing like family." Given the family Mallory responded when asked

to do with sandwiches. history, we'd rather be treated why he wanted to climb Mount like strangers, thank you. Everest, "It is there."

RHODE ISLAND ~ Speaking of big boots, NEW HAMPSHIRE ., Downton Shmownton. o The Kancamagus Highway-

Bangor has the world's largest The Breakers, in Newport, statue of Paul Bunyan, who they boasts bathrooms with hot and which no one has pronounced say was born there. Don't ask cold running fresh and salt water. correctly in 200 years-comes where-Yankees are protective You know, because the ocean from an Algonquian word oftheir celebrities. is so far away. meaning "No Services."

o No one knows who builtthe Cl!> Canterbury Shaker Village VERMONT

Mysterious Viking Tower in honors the good folks who ~ Burlington is home to the

Newport, but speculation invented the clothespin, the first Ben & Jerry's, the world's

includes Vikings, Chinese circular saw, and the flat broom, tallest filing cabinet (no kidding),

explorers, Knights Templar, among other things. The one and Champ, the Lake Champlain

and a bunch of guys who'd had thing they didn't make was monster. Champ is related to the

too much Narragansett. babies, which isn't a great loch Ness monster, but is even policy if you're planning for shyer, which you'd probably

o When it comes to giant the long term. expect from a Vermont sea fiberglass sculptures of disgust-

4D The Old Man ofthe Mountain monster.

ing household pests, the two-ton termite known as "Nibbles continues to be a popular photo 4& DisneyWorld has Splash

Woodaway" in Providence stop, with helpful signs telling Mountain and Pirates of the

takes the cake. Or the oak, visitors where to look if they'd Caribbean. But does it have an

as the case may be. been there 1 0 years ago. exhibit on the uses of calcium carbonate like the Vermont

MASSACHUSETTS MAINE Marble Museum in Proctor?

o Plymouth's Mayflower II, @) More photos have been We think not.

a replica of the ship that brought taken of the Nubble Lighthouse tIl) The Bennington Battle the Pilgrims to the NewWorld, at Cape Neddick than any Monument is 85 feettaller than is roughly the size of a bathtub, other New England icon, its little brother, the Bunker Hill but it held-if you believe all the except possibly Steven Tyler. Monument, which apparently people claiming descent from had a better press agent. the original colonists-about as many people as Gillette Stadium.

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ILLUSTRATION BY

MARK BREWER

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