Expansive and colorful studio of Minneapolis art-star, Doug Padilla.

A 100-year-old chair with joints "cemented by nature."

The titular fictional logger only inhabits this otherwise historically focussed museum via a piece of fiberglass kitsch.

An oddly poignant roadside attraction celebrating American folklore.

The remains of a enormous earthen figure of unknown origins cuts across a rural Wisconsin road.

A onetime gangsters' hideaway where you can dine on steaks, fine wines, and cigars just like they once did.

A European-style bath house in Chicago.

One of two identical monuments marking the sites of military training encampments in Peoria, Illinois.

Pumpkin-like gargoyles and grotesques peer down from the rooftop of this unassuming apartment building in Illinois.

Abraham Lincoln's likeness rests at the top of this giant totem pole.

A 19th-century horse lover's bequest led to the construction of this unique fountain in Chicago.

Julia Buccola Petta's body was peculiarly well-preserved when it was exhumed six years after her death.

The original Garfield station is the oldest station facility on the "L", with the station house dating from 1892.

The world's third-largest scale model of the planets.

This cheerfully-named branch of the Chicago River is the fetid result of years of blood, entrails, and meatpacking waste.

Illegal drag racing two stories beneath Chicago’s streets.

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

This small, but long-running hobby club has built one of the largest model rail lines in the US.

You can take a class, browse the library, or visit the lavish lair of an international men's humor society.

The 30,000-volume library is one of the world's most impressive poetry collections.

You have to love a museum with a truly dedicated focus. A focus on Superman, for example.

Even with only two residents and one building, this tiny Illinois town is famous for its burgers.

Home to a protest movement, a bombing, and a dramatic change in labor history.

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