Photo Gallery Friday: Lakenenland Junkyard Art Sculpture Park – An M-28 Roadside Attraction Near Marquette

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is full of roadside attractions, ranging from tributes and memorials to large and sometimes bizarre sculptures and statues. One of the most amazing collections of scrap-iron sculptures in the state can be found on M-28 east of Marquette, at Lakenenland Junkyard Art Sculpture Park, an awesome collection of oddball items that is open to the public 7 days a week and FREE! It has been featured in books like Weird Michigan: Your Travel Guide To Michigan’s Local Legends and Best-Kept Secrets and Oddball Michigan: A Guide To 450 Really Strange Places.

We had driven by this roadside attraction for years before we finally stopped to check it out. Since then we have returned at least once a year, bringing friends and family along. I have yet to bring someone here for the first time and have them leave disappointed. One great draw for this park is that it is open year-round and it is adjacent to a snowmobile/ATV trail. It’s also incredibly easy to visit Lakenenland if you are traveling between Marquette and Munising on M-28. After seeing a lot of waterfalls and lighthouses on vacation, sometimes stopping at a fun attraction like this is a perfect addition.

You can drive through or walk through this collection of sculptures, or it can be reached from snowmobile trail #417 in the winter. Tom Lakenen is the artist behind the more than 80 pieces on display here, and moved his art to this location after he was forced to move them from his lawn. There’s something here for everyone in the family to enjoy – kids will love checking out the sculptures or playing on the playground, and adults will be able to notice the detail in each piece as well as the occasional political statement.