These 19 extraordinary errors will make you feel better about your next slip-up.
Everybody makes mistakes. Some go relatively unnoticed—fleeting blips soon forgiven and forgotten. But others last, adding a quirky kind of charm to the attractions they grace. From a befuddling beast that became a Siberian town’s mascot to a Nebraska jail that was accidentally sold to a teenager, here are 19 mistakes worth marveling at.
1
Irkutsk, Russia
The Irkutsk Babr
Thanks to a spelling mistake this bizarre beaver-tiger hybrid became the symbol of a Siberian town.
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2
Gerlach, Nevada
Fly Geyser
A collision of human error and natural geothermal pressure created this rainbow-colored geologic wonder.
3
London, England
Coade Stone Caryatids
A measuring mishap led to these artificial stone ladies losing their stomachs.
Staufen im Breisgau, Germany
The Cracking Buildings of Staufen
A geothermal energy project gone wrong is fracturing the city’s picturesque architecture.
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5
Somerset, Ohio
Old Perry County Courthouse
The nearly 200-year-old building displays a perplexing grammatical error.
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6
Laadla, Estonia
Kingdom of Torgu
A clerical error gave rise to this imaginary micronation in the southwestern corner of Estonia.
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7
West Hartford, Connecticut
Noah Webster Statue
This tribute to the founding father of the American dictionary originally contained a spelling error.
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8
Washington, D.C.
Old Stone House
The oldest building in the District of Columbia was preserved because of a mistaken connection to George Washington.
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9
Newmarket, England
Potoooooooo
A misunderstanding gave this 18th-century racehorse a most amusing name.
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10
Harvard, Nebraska
Harvard Jail House
The two-cell building in Nebraska was briefly owned by a teenage boy and then a Hollywood dummy.
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11
Guatemala
Mixco Viejo (Jilotepeque Viejo)
A ruined Maya city that suffered a years-long case of mistaken identity.
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12
Castalla, Spain
La Foia de Castalla
This site is both a remarkable reminder of the town’s mining history and a fantastic government blooper.
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13
Lake Placid, Florida
Lake Placid Murals
Many of the murals covering this sleepy Florida town hide some sort of intentional error.
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14
England
Park Tunnel
An engineering error ensured this cavernous 350-foot-long subterranean thoroughfare was never used as intended.
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15
Two Harbors, Minnesota
3M Birthplace Museum
This institution celebrates the happy accidents of uncommon sticktoitiveness.
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16
Los Angeles, California
The Many Plaques of Buster Keaton Studios
The silent film master’s legacy commemorated in all the right and wrong places.
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17
Rayne, Louisiana
Wrong Way Cemetery
The above-ground crypts at this Catholic cemetery face north-south instead of the usual east-west.
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18
Edinburgh, Scotland
Library of Mistakes
A library where thousands of books explain how to avoid another Great Recession.
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19
Durham, North Carolina
The Can Opener
This too-low North Carolina railroad trestle is still a notorious big rig executioner.
Did we miss any major slip-ups?
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