Fake rail crossings mark the site of an influential doctor's demise.

This eagle-topped spire remembers the military commander who snatched up California for the United States.

The first safe in this California town had to hold all the gold.

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

The site of a tragic massacre that spawned a multimedia franchise.

A gift from Abbot Kinney and a little bit of piece of Black history in Venice Beach.

The newsstand that never closes its doors—well, almost never.

Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.

An abandoned convention space that has been left to the homeless and the radical.

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

Forgotten and then destroyed by fire, this was once one of the largest saltwater swimming pools in the world.

Odd stone and concrete monuments in the "Poet of the Sierras" eclectic folly garden.

This mountaintop beacon is only lit three times a year but shines like some kind of all-seeing eye.

Lovingly nick-named the "Brick Dick" this municipal tower was winner of the World's Most Phallic Building Contest.

This shifting North Carolina sand dune is an odd little desert surrounded by oceanic forest life.

Built to bless whalers before their voyages, this Massachusetts church now features a ship-shaped pulpit.

This subtle Berkeley paving stone actually marks off a lawless tube of air that extends into space.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

A sealed test tube said to hold Thomas Edison's dying breath was given to the inventor's friend and mentee, Henry Ford.

California's own majestic geyser is powered by a subterranean volcano.

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

A rough granite monument marks the spot where Europeans first caught sight of the San Francisco Bay.

The last holdout of a pre-Civil War rebel who took the matter of slavery into his own hands.

This abandoned boat was left in place thanks to its rotting beauty.