Ralph Waldo Emerson spent two years living here decades before it became a Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park.

A collection of full-size movie monsters opened to the public.

Two thousand artifacts from around the world collected by one woman who loved to travel.

One of the oldest used bookstores in the U.S. has been selling antiquarian treasures since 1825.

A beautiful Victorian-era cemetery, complete with a miniature village.

The only structure left with direct ties to the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692.

The formidable fowl can be found standing near an isolated hiking path.

This tiny site in Iowa, part of a patchwork national wildlife refuge, is home to ancient flora and fauna.

Chilly air billows out from the entrance of an abandoned mine on a steep hillside, providing a refuge for Ice Age fauna and flora.

The farm toy capital of the world hosts a museum filled with toy tractors dating back to the late 1800s.

A mysteriously dark cemetery monument fuels stories and legends galore.

A four story, football field-sized, nine-grotto creation made of shells, minerals, and rare stones.

A half-mile long and three stories high, this bridge over the Des Moines River Valley mimics a descent into a mine shaft.

Urban explorers embraced America's now demolished first suburban mall, south of Chicago.

An unassuming store hides relics of its former life as the jazz club that hosted some of the best black performers of the 1920s and '30s.

A theater sits abandoned on Roosevelt Road, once majestic in splendor, now majestic in decay.

An abandoned meat mecca now serves as an excellent locale for urban exploration.

A century-old network of freight tunnels underneath the city's historic business district.

The remnants of Peoria's proud baseball past stand slightly abandoned, but not forgotten.

This former nursery supplied plants for the creation of Chicago's largest park.

An abandoned observatory in the middle of the Illinois prairie.

The house is an iconic pilgrimage site for fans of the Illinois-based emo band.

A massive bur oak tree believed to be some 500 years old is the centerpiece of this quiet urban greenspace.

An Art Deco gem that held together the artistic heart of an agricultural community for 92 years.