The first artificial white water river course in North America cuts right through an Indiana city.

A chilling disappearance (and rescue) of a child uncovers a geological mystery.

This bridge was constructed from the remains of the first Ferris wheel.

The site of a 19th century "dream city" that almost rivaled Chicago before being swallowed by the Indiana sand dunes.

This stunning gothic ruin was a casualty of the Indiana steel industry crash.

One of the largest pieces of scientific equipment ever carried on a NASA space shuttle sits in a Chicago alley.

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

The face of a woman pushes its way through the earth.

The city of Rockford, Illinois is symbolically protected by a quartet of fittingly stony sentinels.

The final resting place of up to 6,000 Confederate soldiers, the largest mass grave in the Western Hemisphere.

An avant garde art museum at the University of Chicago.

This abstract sculpture is rumored to cast a hammer-and-sickle shadow once a year.

This surprising gem is a world-class archeological museum hidden at the University of Chicago.

The unluckiest U-boat in the entire German fleet is now on display in a Chicago museum.

This $3 million model train takes you through Chicago, Seattle, and the thousands of miles in between.

A 19th-century horse lover's bequest led to the construction of this unique fountain in Chicago.

The original Garfield station is the oldest station facility on the "L", with the station house dating from 1892.

A strange rock in Chicago marks the spot where a tree once stood in honor of the 18th President.

This historic-shipwreck-cum-diving-spot can still be seen poking its boiler out of the Lake Michigan waters that claimed it.

One of the few remaining relics of the meatpacking hub that made Chicago the "hog butcher to the world."

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

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.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

These pretty kitties killed and ate as many as 135 railway workers.