The deadly but beautiful ornamental oleander was planted all over the island of Galveston after the hurricane of 1900.

No one is sure why this mysterious tradition started.

The wood bears a hidden love note carved by a young Johnny Cash.

This memorial marks the devastating day that Texas City was destroyed in a daisy chain of exploding ships.

Colorful curls of hand-blown glass form a captivating tower in San Antonio's Central Library.

Home to an endangered salamander, a full moon celebration, and a large spring-fed outdoor swimming pool.

This simple frog painting created by musician Daniel Johnston embodies the spirit of Austin.

A decaying concrete oil tanker served as a disposal location for bootleg hootch.

An unrealized Taoist palace left abandoned in a Houston suburb.

This former Texas landfill is flush with 300 million-year-old fossils, all fit for the taking.

Housed in a century-old building, this museum's dedicated not just to soft drinks, but to the free enterprise system.

Stock up on all your horror paraphernalia at this year-round Halloween emporium.

The lobby of this hotel near the U.S.-Mexico border features a stained-glass mural that measures 42 feet long and 6 feet tall.

An open-air, roadside eatery celebrating a historic indigenous cuisine of complicated significance.

Arizona's first government hub is a rustic cabin now preserved as part of a historical museum.

A colorful, century-old cemetery of the Yaqui Indian Tribe hidden amid the suburban sprawl of Tempe, Arizona.

These elusive, isolated rodents evolved into a distinct, locally iconic subspecies.

The state's only comprehensive museum dedicated to the mineral that defined its history and economy.

A cabinet of curious mathematical models and old calculators.

The first permanent memorial to a unique secret weapon of World War II.

This old selenite mine is dotted with tiny crystals that make it shimmer like it's covered in glitter.

A former department store turned into a quirky restaurant.

Along the old Route 66 is an abandoned trading post made from old telephone poles, built by a former circus clown.

A pair of giant roadside arrows are all that remains of a former Route 66 trading post.