The lowest point in the state of Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

Chicago's Navy Pier on Lake Michigan was a training hub for aircraft carrier pilots during WWII.

People escaping slavery passed through the oldest house in Lombard, Illinois on their northbound journey to freedom.

One of the most powerful computers in the world can be visited by anyone who wants to experience more computing than they can handle.

This awkward aquarium sculpture is one of the strangest statues in Chicago.

A plaque marks a former safe house on the secret route, now hidden next to a McDonald's.

In Chicago, a pizza-enthusiast has opened a museum dedicated to the history of pizza.

The multinational Burger King chain is banned from operating within 20 miles of a family restaurant filed under the same name.

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

The mysterious white squirrels of this Illinois city are treated like sacred cows.

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

When you visit his grave, be sure to rub the Great Emancipator's nose for good luck.

River pirates, murderous bandits, and serial killers used this Illinois cave as their debauched hideout.

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

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

This memorial to the Mercury Seven astronaut stands at the site of his former elementary school.

The bespectacled, cocktail-sipping pachyderm is a strange but fitting liquor store mascot.

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

The farm where one of America's greatest leaders was raised is now a well-appointed landmark.

The only freestanding table rock formation east of the Mississippi.

Lions and tigers and leopards, servals, pumas, bobcats, lynxes, and ocelots... oh my!

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

If astronomy had a ghost, it would look like this observatory.

The longest navigable underground river in the United States is home to countless blind and albino animals.