Originally built by the Works Progress Administration, this park was recently saved from demolition.

This historic estate on the east shore of Lake Tahoe was home to an eccentric millionaire (and his pet elephant, Mingo).

Eastern zen meets Western grit in these four little trees growing out of a rock on Lake Tahoe’s Nevada shore.

Decor at “Nevada’s Oldest Thirst Parlor” includes Raquel Welch's brassiere hanging from a stuffed moose head.

A deep toxic lake fills this abandoned open-pit copper mine, now a Superfund site.

The farm where one of America's most famous folk artists created her paintings.

Home to the abandoned Tioronda Hat Works Factory, this park is a combination of woodlands and marshlands.

A picturesque example of brute-force engineering conquering nature.

Once the largest town in eastern Yuba County now sits abandoned.

Despite being a perfectly pleasant place to be, Loyalton can't seem to attract any visitors.

A 13,000-year-old mastodon skeleton was found during the construction of a 19th-century New York mill.

The final resting place of President Chester A. Arthur and hundreds of others from Revolutionary War soldiers to poets, politicians, and painters.

This groundbreaking 16th-century map is known as "America's birth certificate."

A relic of the region's once booming timber industry.

The tallest bridge in California was constructed for a project that was eventually cancelled.

The graffiti-covered remnants of a former triangulation station are balanced precariously on this California peak.

A vast city of the dead, where the deceased outnumber the living by more than a million.

A massive volcanic plug is now a protected area that hosts a number of bird species.

Here, visitors can swing with the waves of the Pacific Ocean.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

The most beautiful Taco Bell in the world even has surfboard parking.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

This Nevada lake holds its titular natural pyramid and, if the legends are true, a number of dangerous spirits.