Giant Roadside Landmarks Across the U.S. and How They Got There

You know a desert town takes temperature seriously when the thermometer needs aircraft-style proportions. Baker sits on Interstate 15 between Southern California and Las Vegas, where summer heat is not an abstraction but something travelers feel the instant a car door opens. Businessman Willis Herron understood the marketing possibilities. In 1991, he erected a 134-foot thermometer beside his Bun Boy restaurant, matching its height to the 134-degree temperature famously recorded at Furnace Creek in Death Valley in 1913.