The wooden house where the jazz great learned to play the piano.

This granite rock face is named for the magnificent reflection that occurs when the sun hits it just right.

Beautiful Gothic-inspired lighthouse stands out among the run-of-the-mill striped fare on Bodies Island.

This stunning home looks like it belongs in medieval Europe, not North Carolina.

A folk art mecca famous among outsider art fans.

A wonderful display of arts and crafts handmade by local artisans in the Southern Appalachians.

Andy Griffith's hometown has made itself up to look like the fictional town of Mayberry.

The 15-foot-wide, 2-ton pan fries hundreds of chickens once a year.

Some North Carolina Cherokee have been keeping their history alive for decades with a single play.

An eerily abandoned stone tower is all that remains of a demolished dam on Cape Fear River.

The antique barns in Cameron are not painted with your grandfather's Mail Pouch Tobacco murals.

This Transylvania County city is home to a rare white squirrel population that is descended from an escaped carnival animal.

The scant remains of this flooded historic village can be explored in one of the most remote areas of the Great Smokies.

A six-foot pair of socks hangs from a drawer of the world's largest bureau.

Ruins of an American Civil War iron forge still survive today.

Trace the history of writing at this unusual North Carolina destination.

The U.S. Supreme Court's secret Cold War relocation facility in the mountains of North Carolina.

A mailbox that saved a nature reserve.

Art museum based around the collections accumulated over 58 years by one eccentric thrift store owner.

This North Carolina store preserves a historic moment in America's movement for racial equality.

This research center for rare prosimians is studying how they sleep to help prolong human life.

A retired tobacco farmer's pet project turned into a sturdy miniature city.

This vast kitty-themed collection illustrates the history of human-cat interaction.

This North Carolina museum is keeping the pinball craze alive, with a little Space Invaders on the side.