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

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

An antiquated German apothecary on Chicago's North Side.

A monument to the art of slicing people open.

A giant bronze coil of feces is both a tribute to doggie defecation and a reminder to pick it up.

A lush green oasis in the middle of Chicago.

This whimsical Oz-themed park had a wonderful impact on the surrounding neighborhood.

The time thousands of bags of chips washed ashore in the Outer Banks is memorialized in a local museum.

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

An abandoned village that doubled as "The Hunger Games"' post-apocalyptic wasteland is up for grabs.

A sculptor's dream castle turned fantastical ruin.

This road in the Great Smoky Mountains was supposed to assuage a displaced community, but ended up a $52 million dead end.

This woodland architectural installation acts as a camera obscura for the heavens.

These eerie outliers of the lightning bug family glow a mysterious blue color.

The world's largest fully steerable radio telescope.

First a root beer ad, then a golf course clubhouse, and finally a massive teapot.

Berkeley Hot Springs presents to you "the only outdoor monument to presidential bathing."

Near-constant high winds deform the trees on Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia.

A historic coal mine that doubles as a museum and tourist attraction.

A table rock formation that has been intriguing West Virginians for years.

Hikers can still stroll beneath the long conveyer of this abandoned mining facility hidden in a West Virginia river gorge.

The "mysteries" of this quintessential roadside oddity were almost destroyed by neglect but were saved by fans of kitschy wonder.

Once connected to the outside world by a single train track, this ghost town is looked after by the National Park Service.

A small storefront museum explores the history and myth of West Virginia's famous urban legend.