Know Before You Go
Southeast of the exit 25 on I-40, easily visible from the interstate.
Yucca, Arizona
Area 66
Private former home in the desert shaped like a huge golf ball.
Known around town as the giant ping pong ball or the golf ball house, this unusual structure was built in the 1970s as the Dinosphere restaurant and night club. The 40-foot-diameter geodesic dome structure, now known as Area 66, is impossible to miss from the highway and, as such, often draws in tourists and passersby who want to take a picture with the home and shop in the little corner store.
You can’t actually go inside the structure, but it is fun to look at from the outside nonetheless—or at least it seems to be since many tourists do just that.
The structure was first built as part of an aggressive real estate project. The developers went so far as to send out promotional materials for the homes they hoped to construct showing happy would-be residents waterskiing and enjoying other amenities that were never to be built. The project went belly-up quickly and the giant dome, meant to generate press for the development, was the only thing that had been built at that point.
After sitting empty for years, new owners eventually purchased the structure, built a store on the property, renamed it Area 66, and decorated with small aliens and other curious objects. The giant golf ball housed 3,400 square feet of living space, including a kitchen, living room, bedrooms and several bathrooms. However it has not been used as a home for several years. It has been remodeled and will soon open as a museum.
Contributed by
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Sources
- Wesley Treat's Roadside Resorts: The Arizona Death Star: http://www.roadsideresort.com/stories/the-arizona-death-star
- Roadside America: Yucca, Arizona - Golf Ball House: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/10371
