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 Minnesota 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
Minnesota gems, most-loved first
- 1Niagara CaveA guided walk through a deep limestone cave near Harmony in the far southeast corner, complete with fossils, a wedding-chapel chamber, and a 60-foot underground waterfall.
- 2Soudan Underground MineRide a clattering cage half a mile straight down into Minnesota's oldest, deepest iron mine, then a train nearly a mile out to the rock face, inside Lake Vermilion-Soudan State Park.
- 3Pipestone National MonumentOut on the southwest prairie, Native carvers still quarry the soft red pipestone here by hand as they have for centuries — walk the short trail past Winnewissa Falls.
- 4Schell's BreweryThe second-oldest family-owned brewery in the country, tucked into a wooded estate in New Ulm where peacocks roam the gardens, with tours and a summer biergarten.
- 5Glensheen MansionA 39-room lakefront mansion on Lake Superior in Duluth, beautifully preserved with 12 acres of gardens and a famously dark family backstory the guides now tell in full.
- 6Jeffers PetroglyphsOut on a windswept red-quartzite ridge in far southwestern Minnesota, thousands of carvings stretch back as far as 7,000 years, with evening hours timed so low light makes the figures jump out.
- 7World's Largest Ball of TwineOne man wrapped twine for nearly 30 years, and the 17,000-pound result now sits under a glass-walled gazebo in tiny Darwin, with a little museum and gift shop — a gloriously absurd stop off Highway 12.
- 8Palisade HeadA short paved spur off Highway 61 climbs to a 300-foot cliff of billion-year-old volcanic rock dropping straight into Lake Superior, with views all the way to Split Rock Lighthouse on a clear day.
- 9Forestville and Mystery CaveIn the bluff country of the southeast you can tour Minnesota's longest cave with its turquoise pools, then walk into a frozen-in-time 1890s village run by costumed interpreters near Preston.
- 10Mississippi Headwaters at ItascaIn the old-growth pines of north-central Minnesota you can walk across the stepping stones where the Mississippi begins as a creek you can step over — the state's oldest park.
Not your state’s turn yet?
Want Roamward to map Minnesota 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