One of the world’s most powerful corporations was established on a random Albuquerque street corner.

Albuquerque found the perfect use for tumbleweeds at Christmastime.

These chunky stone towers out in Lake Michigan are the key to Chicago’s drinking water.

This constitutionally sound Muffler Man harkens back to the days these attractions were a must-see.

This memorial marks the devastating day that Texas City was destroyed in a daisy chain of exploding ships.

A collection of old shoes in the middle of nowhere.

This trench, some 2,300 feet long, is only the most prominent relic of a largely forgotten episode of placer mining on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada.

Built as a schoolhouse in 1914, this Mission-style building has also served as a dancehall, a library, an Army canteen, and now a cultural museum.

A unique collection of old miners' cave homes carved in to the hillside cliffs near Death Valley.

Deep vertical fissures like miniature slot canyons cut across the cemented volcanic rock of Black Point above Mono Lake.

'Cause the fence start shaking, the earth was quaking.

Where NASA's satellites and rovers phone home.

The beauty and the beast of hydraulic mining is on full display at this California Historic State Park.

The remnants of a failed socialist commune can still be found just off a California highway.

A mountain range on an active U.S. Navy base hides thousands of mysterious prehistoric rock carvings.

The longest burning light bulb in the world.

This giant spider sculpture made from the iconic car is one giant visual pun.

This dormant volcanic crater has been converted from a roiling pit of magma to a pleasant hiking spot.

The world's largest wooden trestle stretches across this desert canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

This impressive tunnel was dug entirely by hand over the course of 36 years.

A pair of large white marble lions guard this stretch of the Mojave Desert, and it is utterly mysterious how they got there.

A master of deception, Harry Houdini's greatest trick may have been living in two places at once.

Sunset-colored dunes of volcanic ash make taking a poor photo impossible.

The unedited photograph called "Bliss" has graced the screens of over a billion computers.