In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

The only visible piece of San Francisco's most famous shipwreck.

This massive redwood tree has stood in Northern California for nearly 2,000 years.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

An enchanting tunnel of cypress trees leads to an old morse code station still used today.

George Lucas donated this park to honor the birthplace of his two biggest movie franchises.

The lighthouse central to the 1980s horror classic "The Fog" is, in fact, located in one of the foggiest areas of the Pacific Coast.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

Thousands of crosses and markers for soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan blanket a California hillside.

A pier that used to act as a busy ferry dock is now a decaying favorite of local fisherman and urban artists.

A 90-acre park on former landfill that hosts an annual kite festival.

A porcelain company's former dumping ground, completely covered in pieces of collectible ceramics.

Where a staggering 747 ships were constructed during World War II.

The remains of a deserted steamboat sit rusting beside an old ferry pier and an abandoned train platform.

A sparse, solitary sequoia still stands as a living tribute to the famous conservationist who planted it—but it's dying.

The Laureates here get something even more coveted than a Nobel Prize: free parking for life.

The century-old bell and clock tower at UC Berkeley is the third-tallest in the world, and has fossils.

One of America's largest retail chains got its start in one of its most remote rural destinations.

Allegedly haunted by Walt Disney himself, this inconspicuous lamp is always kept lit in his honor.

This rustic old building is said to be the most photographed barn in America.

A church now sits over the site of one of the worst urban disasters of early 19th-century America.

An impressive waterfall nestled in the cliffs of Idaho's Snake River Canyon.

These falls, sometimes called the "Niagara of the West," still put on a good show at the right time of year.