This float factory takes the mask off of Mardi Gras and lets visitors see where the magic happens.

The first plantation museum in the United States to focus on the lives of enslaved people.

This strange, small castle on the bayou has withstood the test of time and weather.

The oldest active juke joint in the state sustains a niche school of blues guitar.

The centerpiece of the Delta Blues Museum is a wooden sharecropper’s cabin that once housed a titan of blues music.

A four-hour holy-rolling, Hallelujah-shouting, Southern gospel service, rendered as a country market where "All Is Welcome, Jews, and Gentiles."

Giant novelty guitars now mark the spot where Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the devil.

A Muppet museum in small-town Mississippi honors the roots of Jim Henson's most beloved creation.

A 1980s tour bus that traveled millions of miles to facilitate a superlatively rigorous performing career.

A preserved stretch of ancient fossilized trees with an impressive gem collection to boot.

For 150 years one family has been producing the iconic hot sauce on a bayou island made of salt.

A swamp and garden tour featuring local wildlife and exotic botanical specimens from around the world.

The LSU mascot lived on the college campus in one of the most impressive tiger habitats in the country.

The country music legend's grave is surrounded by Astroturf because fans kept plucking out the grass.

Designed by Maya Lin, the memorial honors 41 individuals who died fighting for equal rights between 1954 and 1968.

Colloquially known as "the lynching memorial," this is the United States' first memorial to the victims of racial terror at home.

Cadillac where country's first big star was found dead.

Artist James Turrell's ode to dawn and dusk on the campus of Rice University.

Beer lover's can-covered house.

The peaceful space is adorned by paintings by the famed abstract artist Mark Rothko.

At the "Garage Mahal" in Houston, car culture is about more than just driving.

One man's homage to the orange as realized through a long-term folk art labor of love.

A park filled with vibrant mosaics created by more than 300 folk artists.

"If she'd leave us alone, we would have a happy home, sent from down below."