(jaunty music) - [Will] This week on "Wild Travels," we'll frolic with gators and crocs at one of Florida's oldest roadside attractions, tour one of America's largest privately owned Muhammad Ali collections at a used car dealership, get that major award at the "Christmas Story" house in Cleveland, ogle the outdoor art at Randyland in Pittsburgh, and then play convict for a day at the West Virginia State Penitentiary, which also happens to be haunted.

(jaunty music) - [Announcer] "Wild Travels" was made possible in part by Alaska Railroad, providing year-round transportation to many Alaska destinations, traversing nearly 500 miles of wild landscapes between Anchorage, Fairbanks, Denali National Park, and more.

AlaskaRailroad.com.

By "American Road Magazine."

Get your kicks on Route 66 and everywhere else a two-lane highway can take you.

"American Road Magazine" fuels your road trip dreams.

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Take care out there.

Wear a life jacket paddling or boating.

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(upbeat country music) - If you look hard enough, go off the beaten track far enough, you'll find an America teaming with the unusual, the odd, the downright strange.

I'm Will Clinger, and I'm your guide on a package tour we like to call "Wild Travels."

(upbeat country music) (dragon sprays) (upbeat country music) (engine revs) (upbeat country music) (bright country music) The Florida state reptile must surely be the alligator, and the biggest concentration of the species can be found at Gatorland in Orlando.

We got up close and personal with the star attractions, and are pleased to say that we came away with all of our extremities and a newfound respect for these grinning gargantuans.

(bright country music) Hey, Mark McHugh?

- Hey, Will, how you doing?

- [Will] So how long has Gatorland been around?

- Hey, we were opened in 1949.

Owen and Pearl Godwin started it.

We're the alligator capital of the world.

- And proud of it.

- Proud of it!

- These alligators, they move pretty fast, so we're lucky to have these things here 'cause they could outrun us.

Am I right?

- [Mark] Oh yeah, they could certainly outrun us.

- Because they don't seem that fast here.

- They're conserving their energy, hoping the skinny guy will come out there and get close enough.

- I'm all gristle.

(Mark laughs) You don't want me.

- This is our alligator breeding marsh here.

This was built in 1991.

And the interesting, real interesting thing about it, to me anyway, we have about 13 different species of wading birds.

- Aren't they a little nervous to be in the same pond with these gators?

- You know what is interesting about it, they like building their nests above alligators 'cause as long as their babies stay on the limbs, nothing happens to them.

No other predators, no raccoons, no possums, no snakes get in here to 'em.

- Nobody's gonna screw with them to that alligator sitting there.

(bright country music) Do you have any crocodiles around here?

- We do have some crocodiles, not in this particular facility, but we've got about 1,500 alligators and crocodiles throughout the park.

- Now, why isn't it called Crocland?

- [Mark] Because it's all mainly gators.

- [Will] What's the difference between the two of 'em?

Can you tell me that?

- Attitude.

Crocodiles are just nasty.

- [Will] And crocodiles have the eyes in the front, right?

- Nah, they're about like alligators.

The eyes are on the head.

They got good vision to the sides.

They can't see forward.

You know, if one chases you, you hear that old wives' tale, run zigzag?

That was actually an old wife trying to get rid of her husband.

If you really wanna be safe, just trip the buddy that you're with, and you can walk away.

(Will laughs) - [Will] Is this safe, Mark?

We're a little close.

- Define safe.

Are you gonna get eaten?

Probably not, probably not.

- [Will] He seems to be moving towards us.

- Yeah, he's coming a little closer.

We'll teach 'em not to come past these lines that you see in the sand.

- What if we went across that line?

- You would get eaten.

- Okay.

- Yeah, that's the line of safety, line of death if you're on that side, line of safety if you're on this side.

- [Will] We're gonna feed these sons of guns.

- We're gonna feed these guys.

Yeah, we're gonna throw some meat to 'em.

- [Will] He's moving.

He's moving.

You know, he heard me say "feed."

I'm gonna move away and... - [Mark] Lemme show you what we do.

- [Will] This is why I've got the glove.

Isn't it true that the alligator is part of the dinosaur family?

Am I right about that?

- [Mark] Oh, gosh, yeah, these guys have survived millions of years.

- [Will] I'm gonna give the big one one here.

Okay, here we go.

- [Mark] That's Raul.

- [Will] Raul, eat.

Eat, Raul!

- [Mark] That's Raul.

You know, we've been around for 66 years, Gatorland has.

- [Will] And back then, I bet you just had one gator and it was stuffed.

- Well, they were little guys.

They were little guys.

We're growing 'em up in different age classes throughout the park.

You put little alligators with big alligators, the big alligators eat the little alligators, and nothing freaks the tourists out than seeing an alligator tail sticking out of an alligator's mouth.

Oh.

Come on, Will, come on here, see Chester.

Chester's a huge alligator.

He's actually a dog-eater.

He's eating some big dogs down in Tampa.

I think he ate like a Labrador and a boxer.

One of 'em was on the end of the leash, and that's kinda a hairy situation.

- [Will] How long can he stay underwater without coming up for a breath anyway?

- This guy, if he wanted to, he could stay under there for about two hours at a time.

- [Will] Mark, be honest with me, have you ever had one of these things escape?

- Not that we admit.

(laughs) - Here, let's go.

Come on, get her up.

- [Will] What's going on here, Mark?

- This is actually a leucistic alligator.

It's different from an albino, and they have blue eyes instead of the pink eyes.

Cajun folklore says, "Good fortune comes those lucky enough to stare into the blue eyes of the white alligator."

That's cool, isn't it?

We made that up, but hey, man, it works.

(whip cracks) (whip cracks) - [Trainer] You guys want season gator wrestling, right?

(upbeat rockabilly music) - [Will] Mark, in all the years you've been doing this wrestling thing, has the gator ever won?

- (chuckles) A couple of times, believe it or not, the gator has won.

We have, over the years, had trainers slip and get bit in there.

(upbeat rockabilly music) (audience applauds) - We're gonna put him in the water.

His name's Chuck Norris, for the record.

And you're gonna attempt to pull him up over the wall.

- This is a huge mistake, Mark, huge mistake.

- You need me to hold the microphone?

- I need you to get me outta here.

Grab this.

- Kinda like a golf club, you know, that bites, and walk back, and pull him up.

- Okay.

- Just like we do.

- I think I'm getting a hernia, Mark.

- [Trainer] Whenever you're ready.

- [Mark] No, I, here.

- I've lost feeling in my legs.

- I can't help ya.

I can't.

You got it.

Come on, pull him up, Will.

- It's away.

- Let's go buddy!

- Come on!

- You got it!

- Oh, come on, oh.

(laughs) Stay low, Will, and go for it.

- I'm jumping!

It's mine!

- [Trainer] Stay on him.

Stay on him.

- He's walking.

- Stay on him.

- Stop walking away.

- Stay on him!

(Mark laughs) - In all seriousness, Mark, What do you say to people that say, "Alligators should roam free, they shouldn't be, you know, trapped with tape on their mouths"?

What do you say?

- You know, our alligators live great lives here.

We take awesome care of them.

These alligators- - [Will] When you're not pulling 'em by a tail.

- Well, no, we're having some fun here with you, but mostly what we do is we perform educational shows.

We want people to learn about them, but we have a strong conservation message that we teach our public with the alligators.

- Have you ever seen those pictures where they open the crocodile's mouth and they put their head in there?

Is that a good idea?

- Yeah, we tried that once.

The headless wonder, he's still running around here somewhere.

I don't know what exactly happened to him.

(upbeat country music) - Mark, if somebody wants to come and enjoy Gatorland, where should they go?

- Will, we're just on the south side of Orlando, less than 20 minutes from all the major attractions.

Can't miss us.

- Go, gators!

- Go, gators!

(upbeat country music) (cheerful holiday music) (upbeat jazz music) - Muhammad Ali never made it to Hooksett, New Hampshire, but if he had, he probably would've made a beeline for the Merchants Auto used car dealership.

There, he would've found one of the most extensive collections of his memorabilia in existence.

(upbeat jazz music) Hey, is Steve here?

- I think he is.

- [Will] Steve, I'm thinking.

- Yes.

- [Will] Do you have a moment?

- [Steve] Yes, I do.

- Steve, what an odd place for a Muhammad Ali collection, a used car dealership.

- It's become an integral part of the Merchants Automotive Group history.

- The first thing you see in this office is that big statue of Muhammad Ali.

- That's right.

That is a commissioned sculpture of Muhammad Ali.

- [Will] Life size?

- Actually, one inch bigger than Ali's actual height.

We say that Ali is bigger than life.

- And here, you got a big punching bag with Ali fighting Superman.

- This is for the mythical Heavyweight Championship of the World.

It's based on a comic book that I'll show you when we walk through the collection.

- [Will] Here's Ali versus Wilt Chamberlain.

I don't think this is historical.

- This is actually historic.

Ali wanted to fight Chamberlain in an exhibition boxing match.

Unfortunately, it didn't come off, but it was billed as "The Greatest versus the Biggest."

This is an iconic piece in our collection.

It has the signatures of 49 out of the 50 Ali opponents had as a professional.

- [Will] Where's the 50th?

- We were not able to find Jim Robinson.

We think he was a homeless person, died in the street probably about 25 years ago.

Since it's such a common name, we were never able to find any documented signature.

- And it's made this piece enticingly incomplete.

My brother loved Ali, but I was a left-handed guy, and I loved the south paw, Joe Frazier.

- Joe Frazier wasn't a south paw.

- Really?

Am I wrong about that?

- You're wrong about that.

- Are you sure?

I thought he was a lefty.

- He might have a great left jab, but he was a righty.

- He was known for his left jab.

Let's put it that way.

- That's right.

(upbeat jazz music) This is a piece that Ali drew, signed by himself.

Ali had many talents, and one of them was he was artistic.

This is an x-ray of Ali's broken jaw when he fought against Kenny Norton in 1973.

- [Will] It's signed by Norton and Ali.

Do you let customers for the car dealership come back here and look at the collection?

- Absolutely, we love sharing this collection with people.

Ali against Cleveland Williams, and if you duck, which Cleveland Williams didn't do, (chuckles) you'll see that Ali is throwing a punch and Cleveland Williams is trying to get away from the punch.

- [Will] Ali himself know about this place?

- We met with Ali about 10 or 12 years ago at a fundraiser in Chicago, and we spoke about the collection, so yeah, Ali was familiar with the collection.

- [Will] Oh, here's the cartoon you were talking about, "Ali vs.

Superman."

- So if you move very close, you'll see some very notable figures from the 1970s.

There's Cher.

What about these five guys?

- [Will] The Jackson 5.

- Bingo.

What about this guy from another comic book?

- [Will] "Mad Magazine."

- [Steve] Alfred E. Newman.

- So this is signed by Ali, again.

- Signed by Ali.

What about these guys right here, brother and sister?

- [Will] Donnie and Marie.

- Bingo.

You're on a roll.

(bell dings) - Steve, if somebody wants to enjoy your Muhammad Ali collection, where should they go?

- The booming metropolis of Hooksett, New Hampshire.

Here's a left Hooksett it for ya.

(upbeat jazz music) (energetic banjo music) - The American Banjo Museum is the home to the largest collection of banjos anywhere in the world.

We have over 400 instruments, many of them very, very historically significant.

(energetic banjo music) We cover the spectrum of the banjo's colorful evolution from its early days in slave times, right up to the present day in bluegrass, folk, and world music.

(energetic banjo music) The Jazz Age era of banjo evolution, this was the roaring '20s when the banjo was the most popular musical instrument in America.

(energetic banjo music) Banjo players during the Jazz Age could be superstars.

(energetic banjo music) The beauty of these instruments is their excessive use of carving, painting, gold plating, and engraving to get to the back of the theater audience in vaudeville days.

(energetic banjo music) The banjo was almost dead as far as popular music goes.

It was brought back to life after World War II in the form of bluegrass music and most particularly, a guy named Earl Scruggs.

He resurrected the classic finger-style playing using picks and steel strings that became the synonymous sound with bluegrass.

(energetic banjo music) American Banjo Museum is located in the Bricktown district of Oklahoma City.

(energetic banjo music) (bluesy rock music) - [Will] Randy Gilson has taken a city block on the North Side of Pittsburgh and turned it into his own outdoor art installation.

But even with all the colorful creations that populate his land, the main attraction turns out to be Randy himself.

(bluesy rock music) Hey, you would be Randy.

- Yeah, hi.

- [Will] And this is your land.

- (laughs) Yes, it is.

I'm an artist.

Well, I'm really not an artist.

I'm a dreamer.

I really don't know how to paint, but I have a heck of a good time finding adventure.

- [Will] You've painted your shorts- - Oh, every time.

- Pretty well.

- (laughs) But yeah, I'm painting beautiful flowers.

They say that this might be the most painted house in America.

I decided hey, I'm gonna make it the most painted house in America, nice!

- [Will] What inspired you to create this Randyland anyway?

- So I got a phone call.

"Hey, Randy, you wanna buy a building?"

And I thought, "Oh."

I said, "Donna, I don't have no money.

I'm busted broke.

I'm a waiter.

I only make 50 bucks a day."

But I like to look at buildings, so I came up with my flashlight, and I screamed up the steps, "Hey, is anybody in there?

Please don't kill me.

I'm just looking at the building."

- [Will] Was that this building or that building?

'Cause you got two buildings.

- Yeah, it's the big one over here on the corner.

I bought this building.

Are you ready for this?

All right, $10,000 on the credit card.

(laughs) This the story of Randyland is the story about the underdog, me, the little guy that didn't have any money, me that bought a building for 10,000 bucks, and all of a sudden, I started collecting junk.

I find that all kinda little things are now, because people know I recycle and repurpose, it teaches you to rethink, nice.

- [Will] So you take it, you paint it and put it in Randyland.

- I put it in Randyland, yeah.

I'm a scavenger kinda.

(sniffs) I can smell it.

(smacks) I can taste it.

I can see it.

I can feel it.

- I don't like the way you're looking at me.

(Randy laughs) You gonna start painting me.

- [Randy] Aren't they kinda cool?

- Yeah.

- They're beautiful, huh?

So all I did was "Jurassic Park" kinda stuff.

I went ahead and I released the auras of the stone, wow!

I let them escape, wow!

What treasures of the past, and are they gonna teach us the future?

Yes, yes, yes.

This is a cool wall.

I gotta show you this.

What I did is I went ahead and I stood way in the back, and I took a giant hose, and I sprayed it down, and then I threw paint all over it, right?

And then I let the water touch it lightly, and it became a giant, giant waterfall.

- [Will] Jackson Pollack, eat our heart out.

(Randy laughs) Your first visit to Randyland?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- Yes.

- What do you make of it?

- Oh, it's great, the way he just brought all these unique pieces that people threw out, brought together, painted 'em, and just the color is amazing.

It's like a rainbow in here.

- 30 Years ago, everybody looked at me and shook their heads and said, "That guy's a little crazy.

He's not normal.

I don't know if he's good for the community."

People would call the police on me, oh yeah.

A lotta people think I'm from somewhere else, and I do talk quite fast because it's my heart escaping.

See, my mouth is my love and my happiness escaping, and so people thinking from somewhere.

- [Will] Another planet, maybe.

(Randy laughs) - Randyland's a comic book, kinda.

Don't you think?

And this is probably the most famous picture of Randyland to have their picture taken with the Randyland ladies, nice.

- [Will] Is this your most ambitious project, this wall here of this building?

- It's very close to it.

This mural here, I don't even know how to paint.

Actually, the world is a copycat world.

We go ahead and we take something that we can relate with, and all of a sudden, then we improvise what that is.

I went ahead and I built a paradise out of just looking around to see what other people have done.

- [Will] Why not borrow?

- Well, borrow- - [Will] I don't call it stealing.

- That's right, it is borrowing.

Don't worry about what you are not because you are so much more.

Nice, huh?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- You got a gift of gab.

You got a way with a phrase.

(Randy laughs) - There is nothing, nothing, nothing that you can't be because if you love life, your heart opens up and your mind will flow and grow.

(bluesy rock music) They compare me to Howard Finster.

- Painted the post here.

- (laughs) Look at the bugs.

- [Will] You need permission for this?

- I didn't ask, but I could get in trouble, I guess.

I have a lotta energy.

I guess you figured that out.

I take no medication.

This is the real McCoy, nice.

(bluesy rock music) I got two different color eyes.

- Oh my God, you're right.

- I do, yeah.

- They're blue and brown.

- Yeah, kinda wild.

- [Will] Is that a contact lens or you?

- No, no, no, no, I was born this way.

That's why I'm so good-looking.

- [Will] Randy, this is your other house, but you don't live here.

Who lives here?

- [Randy] This is my shed.

- This is your shed, your workshop in a way, or just storage place?

- I own a 1950s Rexall drug store soda Fountain.

- That's in there.

- Yeah, I have 2,000 pieces of ice cream memorabilia and 500 antique toys.

- [Will] So if we went in there right now- - It is so much stuff in there, and nobody's allowed to see it, so I'm not gonna take you in.

That's my treasure chest.

Well, I'm up to here in debt, but look, I'm still alive, I'm still breathing, and my mind's still flowing and growing.

- [Will] Don't let it go over the nose, and then you won't breathe, right?

- (laughs) I got that much space.

(bluesy rock music) - Randy, if somebody wants to come and visit your land, where should they go?

- Oh, the North Side, Pittsburgh.

Why, you can't miss us.

- [Both] Nice.

(bluesy rock music) (jaunty music) - Coming soon on "Wild Travels, Krishna's palace of gold in the hills of West Virginia, the African American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archive, a professional golf ball diver, and a library that's half in Canada and half in the U.S. of A.

(jaunty music) (ominous music) The old West Virginia Penitentiary hasn't been occupied since 1995, but that doesn't mean you can't do some time there.

Just don't be surprised if you have to share the place with the spirits of its former inhabitants.

(ominous music) Hey.

- Good morning, Will.

- Tom, right?

- Yes.

You're at the old West Virginia State Penitentiary.

You are about to go on a historical tour that you will never forget.

Right this way, folks.

This place was established in 1866 and closed in March of 1995.

And when it closed down, it was still the home for about 650 of the state's worst inmates.

This was classified as a maximum security penitentiary.

You are going to get to see the history of the prison, but we also are going to take you to some of the hot spots for the paranormal activity that we do here.

(ominous music) - Isn't it true that Charles Manson tried to get into this prison?

- [Tom] He did.

Charles Mason had family close by here.

Back in 1983, he wrote a letter to the warden requesting transferred here.

- It's not the kinda place you'd really wanna get into if you're the normal, everyday criminal.

- Or imagine being confined to 35 square feet with another inmate and him being sick and all you can do is sit there on your bed while he's puking in that little toilet or just using it every day like he's gonna do in front of you.

Wasn't pleasant, wasn't supposed to be pleasant.

Very cold, drafty and miserable in the wintertime.

Hot, stuffy and stinky with body odor in the summer months.

And there again, it was always noisy in here!

When you got 600 inmates screaming and yelling and carrying on, crazy.

(ominous music) (bars slam) (ominous music) - Hello?

Has this fella shown any criminal tendencies thus far in his life?

- Not yet.

- No?

- I hope none.

- [Will] None?

This is gonna scare you straight, isn't it?

I mean, you're never gonna follow a life of crime now, huh?

No.

(visitor laughs) (ominous music) - I'm gonna take you down the hallway, show you the cafeteria that was built for the inmates.

(tray bangs) All of the silverware was accounted for entering and leaving at the door.

They logged it and inventoried it regularly.

- [Will] Tom, they had to turn in their silverware because they could turn those spoons and forks into shivs, right?

- Into shanks, absolutely.

- [Will] What's he difference between a shiv and a shank anyway?

- It's the same thing, just a different term for the same thing.

It's a weapon.

Over the course of the prison, there was a total of about 500 attempted escapes.

Out of the 500 attempted escapes, there were only two that were never apprehended.

- So what do you think?

You think you could handle five to 10 years in this joint?

- [Visitor In White Cap] No.

- (laughs) Two to three?

- No.

- [Will] A week?

- Possibly.

- Maybe.

- Maybe.

- Before we go into the Wagon Gate, I want you to look over here on your right at this smaller blue building.

When this place was in operation, they referred to that building as the OMC, and that was the Old Man's Colony.

And that was for the older inmate who could no longer protect himself from being robbed or assaulted by the younger inmate.

- Tom, was there a special section for the pathetically weak, by any chance?

- Not pathetic- - Who wore glasses?

- No, no.

Over the history of the prison, there were a total of 94 executions.

(eerie music) There were 85 by hanging and nine by the electric chair.

(eerie music) - So, Tom, this would be kind of considered the maximum security section, right?

- This is actually like solitary confinement.

This is beyond maximum security.

The whole prison is maximum security, but this is- - [Will] Super max.

- Super max, there you go.

I can only describe these men up here, folks, as being mean, nasty, hateful, disrespectful individuals.

Their meals were sent over to 'em from the cafeteria, and they were fed through that hole at the bottom of that door.

Officers would come down through here to check on these men or to feed these men, and these inmates would spit at the officers, throw urine.

- If I'm a guard, I'm wearing a HAZMAT suit.

What the heck?

- Well, I'll tell you right now, in 1995 when officers came down through here just to feed these men, they put on full riot gear.

You'll see some graffiti and stuff on the walls.

What you see is what was left by inmates in 1995.

(eerie music) And RD Wall was considered to be the warden's chief snitch, and he would let the warden know what was going on inside the walls of the prison with the other inmates.

And one day, a couple inmates come down in here to pay him a visit, and RD was over here.

He was actually sitting on the toilet (chuckles) when they come down to get him, and they dragged him off the toilet, and they cut him up and stabbed him and hacked him up.

RD Wall's spirit has been seen by officers when they were here working in the later years.

- [Will] Are his pants around his ankles when they find him?

- I don't know.

(laughs) I don't know about that.

Once you're labeled a rat or a snitch, just because you haven't done it for a while, it doesn't clear the slate, and you're a rat or you're a snitch for life.

- I don't like the way you're looking at me when you say that.

(Tom laughs) What are you suggesting, something- - No, I'm not suggesting.

I'm just letting you know.

- I didn't say a thing!

I tell ya, I didn't say a thing.

(ominous music) - [Blonde Visitor] Right here, you can see the big two eyes, a mouth, and a face.

- You found a ghost?

I clearly see a face.

- Yeah, pretty amazing.

- This whole room called the Sugar Shack.

Like I said, it was an indoor recreational area, a strong hot bed for paranormal activity.

I've had many, many sightings of things down in this area, and this is the area where I was touched.

I just felt a presence on my shoulder wanting me to stop going where I was going.

- [Will] What just happened?

- I turned my phone off, and they were taking the pictures of that drawing there, and that just came on, "Can't Get Enough of Your Love."

- The phone has been haunted.

You need an exorcism.

I think you would've been a good guard.

Something tells me you would've got those guys in line.

- I don't know that.

It takes a special person to be a corrections officer and do the job the right way.

- [Will] I'm pretty sure I could handle it.

- I don't know if you could or not.

- With a large gun.

- (chuckles) Well, you need an awful large gun.

- Bazooka?

- (laughs) There you go, bazooka.

(eerie music) - Tom, If somebody wants to take the tour at the West Virginia Penitentiary, where should they go?

- [Tom] They should come to the lovely Moundsville, West Virginia.

We're just 12 miles south of Wheeling.

- [Will] Let me outta here, screw.

- Okay, go.

(chuckles) (eerie music) (upbeat country music) - Man, we got a big, old hurricane getting ready to come right up through the middle of our state.

I gotta tell ya, none of our animals are going anywhere here at Gatorland, so if you see an alligator floating down your street there at your house, it ain't ours.

Don't call us.

Call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Department.

(upbeat country music) - [Announcer] "Wild Travels" was made possible in part by Alaska Railroad, providing year-round transportation to many Alaska destinations, traversing nearly 500 miles of wild landscapes between Anchorage, Fairbanks, Denali National Park, and more.

Alaskarailroad.com.

By "American Road Magazine."

Get your kicks on Route 66 and everywhere else a two-lane highway can take you.

"American Road Magazine" fuels your road trip dreams.

And by... - [Announcer] It's a wild world.

Take care out there.

Wear a life jacket paddling or boating.

Learn more you otter do to keep you and the planet safe at mthoodterritory.com/otterdo.

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