Why Should I Visit Here? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jolly Green Giant Park and Giant Museum

Belying its name, the museum is actually quite small, but there is nothing small about the Jolly Green Giant statue behind it. It is 55 feet tall and would wear a size 78 shoe, if he were alive. Ho Ho Ho, y'all.

Answer: The Field of Dreams

You can roam the actual baseball field that was used in the movie "Field of Dreams", but if you want to visit the house, that will cost you extra. If you like, you can even stay overnight in the house. I would advise you coming in the late summer when the corn is as high as an elephant's eye. In the spring with no corn, it's not nearly as impressive.

Answer: Circus World Museum

So why would little Baraboo (population 12,173 in 2016) be home to a major museum like Circus World? Easy answer - it was the home of the Ringling Brothers and was where the circus and circus animals spent their winters before their overwinter quarters moved to Florida.

It has an outstanding collection of circus wagons, including the one that sold tickets at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. If you're in the area, take a look.

Answer: Mall of America

The Mall of America has four floors and covers an area of nearly five million square feet. With well over 500 stores, if they don't sell it, you probably don't need it.

Answer: Woolly Worm Festival

The woolly worm is the caterpillar of the tiger moth. It is black on the ends and reddish-brown in the middle. The tradition is that the wider the reddish-brown band is, the milder the winter will be. A study by the curator of insects at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, back in the 1950s, found an 80% accuracy for the woolly worm's predictions, but no one has ever been able to replicate his results.

The incorrect answers are all actual North Carolina Festivals, but they're not in Banner Elk.

Answer: Spam Museum

The Spam Museum is not to be missed - and it has free admission. They talk about the history and development of the Spam meat product that we're all familiar with. In the gift shop you can buy the usual t-shirts and several varieties of Spam that you've probably never heard of.

Answer: The original Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and museum

This is the restored original KFC restaurant. It features the original kitchen where the Colonel perfected his original recipe and you can eat in the original dining room. It really puts the "Kentucky" in KFC.

Answer: Carolina Balloon Fest

The hint refers to the 1983 song "99 Luftballoons". The Carolina Balloon Fest is the second longest (consecutively) held hot air balloon festival in the United States. For a weekend in the fall they offer live entertainment, local wine and craft beers, artisan crafts, kids events, exhibits, activities and good food.

The incorrect answers are all actual North Carolina Festivals, but they're not held in Statesville. Just like Superman - up, up and away.

Answer: National Hollerin' Contest

Since 1969 Spivey's Corner (population 448) has hosted a hollerin' contest. The lost art of hollerin' is a means of long-distance communication between individuals in the large agricultural fields. With cell phones, it is no longer needed. But once a year the craft is revived.

Incidentally, the incorrect answers are all actual North Carolina Festivals, but they're not held in Spivey's Corners.

Answer: Frozen Dead Guy Days

In 2002 a man named Bredo Morstoel died and after his death, his grandson had his body sent to a cryonics lab to be preserved (frozen). He then built his own cryonics chamber inside a shed near his home in Nederland, and went back to his home in Norway.

But the story became a local legend and festival grew up around it with polar plunges, coffin races and the usual food and fun that such festivals provide.