The city of Kokomo keeps a couple of mother nature's giant roadside attractions tucked away in the middle of a sprawling city park.

It beats a dusty tourist trap any day.

>> The sycamore stump was raised in western Howard County, along the Wildcat Creek.

And this one thrived.

Grew to be about 57 feet in circumference, about 100 feet tall, estimated maybe about 800 years old.

>> But, of course, it's a stump, not a tree.

So what happened?

>> The tree was damaged, lightning strike.

So it was dying.

And so some people thought it would be a good idea to bring it all the way into Kokomo to Highland Park, here.

It is the biggest sycamore stump in the world.

When you go out here to our park, there are dozens of giant sycamore trees, and the biggest one -- if you take the circumference of the big sycamore stump here, you could put four or five of those sycamore trees in that circumference.

>> And to keep the big theme going, right next door, they've put a bovine behemoth.

>> Old Ben is a giant steer.

He was 125 pounds at birth.

The people who owned him took him around to county fairs, state fairs throughout the Midwest, the Indiana State Fair.

>> Weighing in around 4,000 pounds -- that's three times heavier than your average steer -- Ben was a serious hunk of beef.

>> Then about 1910, he fell, broke a leg.

He was put down, and the owners considered having frankfurters made of him.

Well, the locals were outraged, and that didn't happen.

The owners did have the hide taxidermy and brought back here.

And then about 19 -- I think it was 1910, the same year, the city acquired Old Ben and brought him here next to the sycamore stump.

>> And just like any good roadside attraction, everyone around here knows all about the steer and the stump.

>> That's what we refer to it as, the steer and the stump, locals anyway.

You bring your kids here.

You grow up here.

It's in Highland Park, our most popular park.

I think it's unique.

I think it's quirky.

Roadside attractions are, by their very nature, quirky, unusual, they're large, they're exaggerated.

I think people like that.