The hook
The poor man's Hearst Castle: a hillside palace one man built by hand over fifty years out of beer cans, abalone shells, and whatever the town threw away.
01Why it's worth it
While William Randolph Hearst was building his marble castle up the road, Cambria's own garbage collector was building the opposite version down the hill. Art Beal, who called himself Der Tinkerpaw and Captain Nitt Witt, spent fifty years carving the slope with a pick and shovel and stacking it into a ramshackle castle of dump scraps, abalone shells, broken plates, beer cans, and cement, the only material he ever paid for. Locals swear he reused Hearst Castle's own castoffs, since he'd hauled materials up there too. It's a California Historical Landmark and a real piece of outsider art, in the same family as Watts Towers and Salvation Mountain. It's a private home now, so you see it by appointment, on a donation, from owners who actually tell the stories.
02How to experience it
Call ahead for a tour instead of just turning up; it's someone's house and it runs on donations. Pair it with Hearst Castle six miles north and do them the same day. The rich-man, poor-man contrast is the whole point, and Nitt Witt is the one you'll remember.