This shifting North Carolina sand dune is an odd little desert surrounded by oceanic forest life.

Divinely-inspired village houses 6,000 dolls, plus strange and lovely outsider art.

Beautiful Gothic-inspired lighthouse stands out among the run-of-the-mill striped fare on Bodies Island.

This stunning home looks like it belongs in medieval Europe, not North Carolina.

A folk art mecca famous among outsider art fans.

The 15-foot-wide, 2-ton pan fries hundreds of chickens once a year.

This ceremonial mound is one of the first officially recognized Native American historical sites in North Carolina.

Andy Griffith's hometown has made itself up to look like the fictional town of Mayberry.

The scant remains of this flooded historic village can be explored in one of the most remote areas of the Great Smokies.

A wedding chapel, vintage clothing shop, and bar all under one roof.

A six-foot pair of socks hangs from a drawer of the world's largest bureau.

The antique barns in Cameron are not painted with your grandfather's Mail Pouch Tobacco murals.

Perhaps the oldest vine in North America, this sprawling plant helps make a sweet wine.

These strange large stones served as a campsite and lookout post for generations of Native Americans.

The U.S. Supreme Court's secret Cold War relocation facility in the mountains of North Carolina.

The only known Futuro house in North Carolina sits along a stretch of desolate highway on the Outer Banks.  .

Ruins of an American Civil War iron forge still survive today.

The highest point in North Carolina and the United States east of the Mississippi River, Mount Mitchell is named after argumentative explorer Elisha Mitchell.

North Carolina's finest examples of Native American pictographs have survived for 5,000 years.

A historic covered bridge, only one of two remaining in North Carolina.

This bright yellow relic is the final survivor of a short burst of seashell-shaped petrol pumps.

A cabin completely covered in coffee mugs, where visitors are welcome to leave one of their own—if they can find an empty nail.

A curious collection of oddities including a lock of Alexander Hamilton's hair and Harry Houdini's ouija board.

Mysterious ancient boulder carved with petroglyphs in the mountains of Western North Carolina.