The I-90 Airplane Windsock! ~ Sundance, Wyoming

There are some interesting sights to see when cruising down the highway in Wyoming and just like in any other state, there are some strange roadside oddities to keep an eye out for. One of the major Wyoming tourism corridors is Interstate Highway 90, which runs along the northern border of this state. Visitors coming from the east through South Dakota will pass by the north edge of the Bighorn on the way to Yellowstone, so this tourism corridor can be quite busy in the summertime. Where there is a busy tourism corridor, there will be a few roadside oddities for tourists to gawk at and the Airplane Windsock in Sundance certainly takes the cake!

Airplanes or cars perched high on a pole next to a busy road used to be a common sight during the golden age of automobile touring. Most of the roadside oddities were low budget advertising gimmicks that were designed to draw attention and they sure did cause plenty of passengers to get a kink in the neck while passing by! Very few of these old school roadside oddities remain and even fewer actually serve a functional purpose. This is where the Sundance Airplane Windsock stands apart from the rest! The twin engine Beechcraft that sits sky high atop a steel poll actually is a fully functional windsock and the nose of the airplane always points into the wind, no matter which direction the wind blows. Many people that drive by do not know about the functionality, that is until one of the passengers does a search on the internet and exclaims that they know what the airplane on a big stick is really for! 

The airplane on a poll in Sundance, Wyoming is actually called the Quaal Windsock, in honor of the creators of this roadside oddity masterpiece. Just calling this scenic marvel the Sundance Windsock will do too. When heading west from Deadwood, South Dakota or heading east from the Bighorn on I-90, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the big airplane in the sky, just for the sake of knowing which way the wind blows!