Press Center: Roadside America Announces the Passing of Co-founder Ken Smith [August 31, 2026]
About Roadside America
The Roadside America Project is a unique body of editorial work and collaboration that began with books in published 1986 and 1992 and later expanded to include a popular website and mobile apps. The Project currently documents and writes about over 20,000 points-of-interest in the United States and Canada.
Since the publication of the original book -- Roadside America* -- in 1985, writers and road trip know-it-alls Doug Kirby, Ken Smith, Mike Wilkins have visited, documented and photographed their backroad discoveries. Their work has appeared online since 1994 (RoadsideAmerica.com since 1996), as well as in their iPhone applications since 2010. The Roadside America experts are aided by a horde of travelers, shoving little pushpins of peculiarity into the landscape for all to enjoy. Members of the original team continue to write, edit and hand-curate every piece of content. Susan Kirby (who designed the first book) is the business and marketing lead.
The Roadside America app is consistently ranked in the top 10 U.S. Paid Travel apps (iOS). In 2026, the team launched their first Route 66 app, Roadside 66™ (available in the the App Store for iPhone and iPad).
The Roadside America Project is also on Facebook and the FB fan group, YouTube, and Instagram.
Navigating the Web Site
Every page links to major sections and has a Search tools to site content. You can browse by state, search by keywords or city, or just wander the backroads of offbeat attraction stories and tips. Theme stories and attraction round-ups tackle odd and pervasive patterns we notice across the continent.
Maps link to state and province pages, towns, and individual attractions. Each state/province is highlighted with a "best of" page, and an exhaustive "everything" index list.
Sight of the Week is an outstanding attraction the team has visited or investigated in detail, and has been updated every week with a new hero since 1996.
Videos contains rare clips shot during our over 40 years of travel, user videos, ephemeral films, home movies, Roadside America's "channel" and generative tech experiments.
Straight-from-the-road leads and reports are in Latest Tips and Muffler Men Sightings. Tip Submission Guidelines | Submit a Tip
Our Press Center provides information for journalists and media and the curious about Roadside America projects, the team, history, images, logos, and more.
* (In collaboration with Doug, Ken, and Mike, Jack Barth was a co-author of the first Roadside America book, published by Fireside/Simon & Schuster)