This humble star-gazing center touts itself as the "Birthplace of American Astronomy."

This magnificent Cincinnati graveyard is also a popular public park.

The largest earthwork effigy in the world.

A castle built by an eccentric medieval enthusiast in rural Ohio.

An abandoned relic of the city's failed experiment with below ground transit.

Furniture tries to escape an abandoned building in San Francisco.

Standing in for the first ship to navigate the Northwest Passage.

Once the largest windmill outside of Holland, with enormous 114 foot sails.

The largest whiskey stash on the West Coast survived the 1906 fires--but not without heroic effort.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

Noble beasts perhaps, but not the Emperor's dogs.

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

Site of an escape, ten murders, and some scalpings.

A recreated sign from the movie Jumanji has become a makeshift tribute to the film's late star.

Murder scene memorialized in perpetuity by grisly obelisk.

Known as one of the most climbed mountains in the world, this barren peak is permanently bald thanks to an anti-wolf fire.