Over 50 exquisite hand-painted Renaissance maps decorate a Medici storage room.

The mummified relic of St. Antoninus.

A medieval weapon rumored to have been used by the brilliant poet himself.

The wreckage of a tragic plane crash is on display at this museum devoted to a famous Italian conspiracy.

A grave dedicated to the pioneers who settled California.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

The first U.S. town to secede from the Union, only to vote themselves right back in.

The only thing stranger than stumbling onto these philosophical musings is the story of the homesteader who created them.

The decaying adobe remains of an old homestead are just off the beaten path in Joshua Tree National Park.

The now-abandoned tunnels were built for the transcontinental railroad on the route where the first wagon train entered California.

A well-preserved sheepherding camp now lies in the heart of the Granite Chief Wilderness, in the high Sierra Nevada.

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

A crumbling wizard is one of the final reminders of a roadside Middle Earth.

In the bowels of a 19th-century brewery lurks a fine-dining restaurant offering an array of themed feasts.

Settled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1859, this abandoned frontier town has appeared in several films.

Odd outsider art installations surround a Gold Rush-era ghost town.

This sign designates the road that leads to the infamous Area 51.

The drama of nature in full effect in this Nevada State Park.

Preserving the remains of Native American cultures which otherwise would have been submerged behind Hoover Dam.

Dyed by iron oxide over centuries, these sandstone rocks rise thousands of feet into the sky.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

A mining town once rife with murderous disputes over its copious treasures now creates income as a popular spot for photo shoots.

This former open-pit manganese mine is now a massive graffiti canvas.