This bronze sculpture on a former squash court marks the secret origins of the Atomic Age.

To find the "unicorns of the deep" you've got to go downstairs.

Buy a token from the liquor store and you can make this beast spew flames on command.

Spanking machines, fake goats, and more devices of humiliation are on display in this museum of fraternal initiation devices.

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

Cold War missile launch site which has been converted to a public park.

Tour the luxe "glass cage" that inspired and unnerved the architecture world upon its debut.

World's second largest particle accelerator, where nature reveals its secrets.

One of the largest pieces of scientific equipment ever carried on a NASA space shuttle sits in a Chicago alley.

The world's largest collection of the world's largest objects is in one small Illinois town.

The city of Rockford, Illinois is symbolically protected by a quartet of fittingly stony sentinels.

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

What's left of the ruins of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition, or World's Fair, also known as the White City.

This historic hotel invented the chocolate brownie.

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

A science teacher's dream.

This remote island in Iowa was abandoned after being devastated by flood.

The “American Gothic" artist's largest works hang in an Iowa State University library.

Beating out all other concrete competitors, this massive garden feature's pointy hat has earned it a world record.

A warning to the weak-kneed: This narrow bridge does its swinging eight stories high.

A half-mile long and three stories high, this bridge over the Des Moines River Valley mimics a descent into a mine shaft.

Part of a worldwide art project, this mysterious semicircle of concrete shapes holds the pieces of a larger story.

The only remaining Cold War–era Minuteman II missile control center in Missouri.

A celebration of the animation wizard's childhood home and antique railroad memorabilia collection.