This overgrown Illinois water park offers a whole new type of adventure.

Former hotel turned into haunted playground.

The legacy of an unsolved, gruesome murder rests beneath the spans of this historic bridge.

This Mediterranean castle was built for a millionaire and his giant dog.

Built in 1869, this now-retired structure looks more like a medieval fortress than a county lock-up.

The park that the Chicago Stockyards built.

While he no longer has an eatery to give him context, this off-brand Paul Bunyan still holds his giant hot dog with pride.

Once known as the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane.

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

This museum collects over a century of automobile history including the iconic car from The Muppet Movie.

Statue dedicated to the star of an old television show.

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

The birthplace of a titan of American cinema.

This softly rounded mansion was built without corners not to avoid evil spirits, but to make them more comfortable.

The site of a 19th century "dream city" that almost rivaled Chicago before being swallowed by the Indiana sand dunes.

Cemetery featuring rare glass-fronted columbarium.

A monument to the art of slicing people open.

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

A gothic church spire sits atop this skyscraper, the tallest church in the world.

This tiny historic jail along Route 66 is the perfect fit for exactly one criminal and their partner-in-crime.

Moving, mind-blowing metal sculpture work of an outsider artist.

First planned industrial community in the United States.

This stunning gothic ruin was a casualty of the Indiana steel industry crash.

A small abandoned and abused cemetery that has become a magnet for ghost hunters.