Rhode Island boasts an eclectic collection of roadside attractions, from the Big Blue Bug in Providence to the Mr. Potato Heads scattered across the state. But these enchanting oddities aren’t just found in Rhode Island’s cities – the small town of Exeter has its own roadside attractions to explore.
Exeter, Rhode Island is a bucolic little town in Washington County, Rhode Island, extending east from the Connecticut border toward North Kingstown. It’s home to the state’s only ski area, Yawgoo Valley, along with one of the oldest indigenous peoples museums in the country, the Tomaquag Indigenous Museum. This rural town also happens to have two unique roadside attractions tucked away among the forest and farms.
Peter Rintels/Flickr
If you love roadside oddities, then you can’t miss the scrap metal scorpion at Exeter Scrap Metal on Route 3. This giant, green and yellow scorpion statue is made out of engine parts, propane tanks, and other scrap metal, including a jet engine.
Streets Shall Provide/YouTube
It guards the driveway of Exeter Scrap Metal, towering over the entrance to the scrap yard with its yellow claws and red eyes, as though to thwart would-be metal thieves. Weighing between 2-3 tons, this strange beast is worth stopping for.
Streets Shall Provide/YouTube
Exeter is also home to the gravesite of Mercy Brown, a teenager suspected back in 1892 of a curious crime: vampirism.
Josh McGinn/Flickr
Illness had swept through the Brown family in a short period of time, and Mercy was 19 years old when she died of what was probably tuberculosis. When her brother also became ill, the people of Exeter began to suspect that one of the deceased Browns was a vampire, leaving their grave each night to prey on the remaining family members. They exhumed Mercy’s body – and were shocked by what they found. Mercy’s body was strangely well-preserved, as though she had never truly died. Convinced she was a vampire, the citizens of Exeter cut out Mercy’s heart and burned it, then had Mercy’s brother drink the ashes. Unfortunately, he still passed away not long after that.
Josh McGinn/Flickr
Mercy’s story may have helped to inspire Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and it certainly helped to inspire Rhode Island’s reputation as “the Vampire Capital of America.” You’ll find the grave, and the crypt where Mercy Brown’s body may have been stored, in Chestnut Hill Cemetery, a nondescript graveyard behind a small Baptist church on Ten Rod Road. Visitors often leave flowers and other offerings at the gravesite where Mercy now rests.
Josh McGinn/Flickr
For a closer look at Exeter’s scrap metal scorpion, check out this video:
Peter Rintels/Flickr
Streets Shall Provide/YouTube
Josh McGinn/Flickr
Have you visited either of these roadside attractions in Exeter? What are some of your favorite roadside attractions in Rhode Island?
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Address: Chestnut Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, Exeter, RI 02822, USAAddress: Exeter Scrap Metal Inc, 405 Nooseneck Hill Rd, Exeter, RI 02822, USAAddress: Ten Rod Road, Ten Rod Rd, Exeter, RI, USA
