This overgrown Illinois water park offers a whole new type of adventure.

This $3 million model train takes you through Chicago, Seattle, and the thousands of miles in between.

An avant garde art museum at the University of Chicago.

A 19th-century horse lover's bequest led to the construction of this unique fountain in Chicago.

This abstract sculpture is rumored to cast a hammer-and-sickle shadow once a year.

A hollow cement depiction of time's inexorable effect on the human body.

Julia Buccola Petta's body was peculiarly well-preserved when it was exhumed six years after her death.

One of the largest pieces of scientific equipment ever carried on a NASA space shuttle sits in a Chicago alley.

An actual 1957 Cadillac De Ville, encased in 15 cubic yards of concrete.

The site of the first couple's first kiss is commemorated by the most adorable presidential monument ever.

The original Garfield station is the oldest station facility on the "L", with the station house dating from 1892.

This historic-shipwreck-cum-diving-spot can still be seen poking its boiler out of the Lake Michigan waters that claimed it.

The murals have transformed a residential alley into a vibrant drive-through gallery.

The sign to a demolished amusement park now stands in front of a local library.

The young Black revolutionary was killed before getting to see a non-segregated pool in his hometown.

A plaque marks a former safe house on the secret route, now hidden next to a McDonald's.

Chicago’s incendiary role in the labor movement.

The first and only museum dedicated to stained glass and horology opened outside of Chicago in 2017.

This unauthorized stone mermaid was secretly carved out of public stone before being permanently preserved.

Pumpkin-like gargoyles and grotesques peer down from the rooftop of this unassuming apartment building in Illinois.

Former meatpacking facility turned vertical farm and sustainable business complex.

The famous author's birthplace is preserved in a town that he once described as narrow-minded.

One of the few remaining relics of the meatpacking hub that made Chicago the "hog butcher to the world."

More than 8,000 drinking jugs say “Cheers!” to a guy named Toby.