A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.

Once known as the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane.

The legacy of an unsolved, gruesome murder rests beneath the spans of this historic bridge.

This grave in a ghost town cemetery marks the death of a witch on a day that never happened.

This historic New Orleans cemetery is the final resting place of members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

An old-timey wax exhibition campily depicting New Orleans legends and scandals.

This colorful New Orleans bookstore features rare and used titles, with a specialty in Cajun fare.

Anne Rice, one of the most influential writers in gothic literature, is buried alongside her husband in a New Orleans cemetery.

Colorful, cheeky signs spill out of legendary New Orleans folk artist Dr. Bob's Bywater studio warning you to "Be Nice—Or Leave."

Before becoming a public park, this spot was a shell midden, a fort, and an amusement park.

A haunting, yet lovingly hand-hewn potters' field full of graves that flood with each heavy rain.

The state's oldest continuously operating museum houses more than 5,000 Civil War artifacts.

This macabre shop, filled with art, oddities, and taxidermy is hidden in the heart of the French Quarter.

Storyville was New Orleans' historic red light district and hotbed of jazz music, sometimes referred to simply as "The District."

The crumbling remains of a 19th century fortess.

This ancient settlement contains some of the largest earthen mounds in North America.

This 19th-century sugarcane plantation is one of the most well-preserved estates of its kind, including its original quarters for enslaved laborers.

All that remains of this small town is its mass grave and a myth of a voodoo priestess who predicted its demise.

This historic "City of the Dead" lies prominently in the center of New Orleans' famous Garden District.

This knobby, drooping New Orleans oak is a favorite place both for climbing and for meeting giraffes.

A snapshot of the city's fascinating voodoo culture.

A typical "Old South" manor, once owned by author Anne Rice, served as the setting for several of her witchcraft sagas.

Introducing the Green Fairy to her fawning masses.

An abandoned underground bunker not far from downtown New Orleans.