The Gem Hunt
America decides what makes the map.
Every state has a spot the algorithms miss — the one locals send strangers to. Name it. Vote on the finalists. The winners get built into Roamward, the scenic road-trip app that proves you actually went. No download required to play.
Nominate
What does Kansas do better than anywhere?
One hidden gem — a place a chatbot would never know. The most-named spots become finalists, and the crowd votes the winner into Roamward.
Vote
Kansas gems, most-loved first
- 1Big BrutusAn 11-million-pound electric coal shovel — the second-largest of its kind on Earth — that you can climb up inside near West Mineral in far-southeast Kansas, with a mining museum at its feet.
- 2Monument RocksSeventy-foot chalk pyramids rising straight out of the flat western Kansas plains, a fossil-filled National Natural Landmark from an ancient seaway, free to wander by daylight in Gove County.
- 3Garden of EdenA Civil War vet spent 25 years sculpting this concrete-and-limestone fever dream of biblical scenes and political jabs in the grassroots-art town of Lucas, deep in north-central Kansas.
- 4CosmosphereHutchinson hides one of the best space museums in the country, home to the actual Apollo 13 command module and the largest combined U.S.-Russian space artifact collection anywhere.
- 5Tallgrass Prairie National PreserveThe largest stretch of tallgrass prairie left on the planet, with 40-plus miles of trails and a free-roaming bison herd you can hike out to find, in the Flint Hills near Strong City.
- 6Little Jerusalem Badlands State ParkOn the western plains near Oakley, Kansas's newest state park protects towering chalk spires and canyons that glow at sunset like an ancient ruined city — easy overlook trails, a jaw-dropping detour.
- 7TruckhengeIn east Topeka, eccentric farmer Ron Lessman cemented six old trucks upright out of the ground in a graffiti-splashed homage to Stonehenge, surrounded by folk-art bottle trees and ponds — call ahead for the tour.
- 8World's Largest Ball of TwineCawker City's communal twine ball weighs over 20,000 pounds and keeps growing at an annual "Twine-a-thon," with visitors invited to add a few feet themselves — the quintessential Great Plains pilgrimage.
- 9Giant Van Gogh EaselAn 80-foot easel holding a massive reproduction of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," one of a handful worldwide, towering over the wheat fields of far-northwest Kansas in Goodland.
- 10Mid-America Air MuseumIn Liberal, one of the country's largest air museums tucks over 100 aircraft into its hangars, from military jets to rare experimental planes — an uncrowded aviation stop in the southwest corner.
Not your state’s turn yet?
Want Roamward to map Kansas next?
Add your vote — the loudest state gets mapped first.
How it works
Nominate
Drop the most underrated spot in your state — the gem an itinerary generator would never surface.
The crowd ranks it
Name a place someone already nominated and it rises. The most-loved gems become the state’s finalists.
Vote the winner in
Finalists go to a public vote. Winners get built into Roamward — credited to the people who found them.
Go verify it
Drive it, GPS-verify the stop, earn the badge, and share the map that proves you were first.
Don’t miss the winners
Be the first to find what the crowd picks.
Join early access and we’ll tell you when your state’s gem wins — and when Roamward opens for iOS testing.
Get early access