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

Nonprofit art center that promotes outsider, intuitive, and self-taught art.

A gothic church spire sits atop this skyscraper, the tallest church in the world.

A science teacher's dream.

An enormous park-like oasis, full of famous Chicagoans' graves.

A Bibliophile's Dream.

A lush green oasis in the middle of Chicago.

A monument to the art of slicing people open.

This morbid, delightful curiosity shop offers everything from animal bones to human teeth.

An old whaling station now serves to give the public a look at the commercial whaling industry, no longer a part of Monterey's economy.

The oldest U.S. Government building in California, and it's State Historic Landmark #1.

The oldest continuously operating church in California.

Life in this isolated, hilltop lighthouse was lonely, but it sure was lovely.

This quirky roadside attraction dives into the many theories surrounding North America's most infamous hairy cryptid.

This concrete ship has had four careers - World War I tanker, floating amusement park, fishing pier, and artificial reef.

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

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

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

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

A hollow cement depiction of time's inexorable effect on the human body.

An avant garde art museum at the University of Chicago.

This modest post office sits on the site of H.H. Holmes' famous murder castle.

One of Chicago's last seafood smokehouses perfects a dying breed of fishcraft.

This midcentury chapel is a bold architectural statement and a symbol of Indiana's Lutheran heritage.