After serving in Vietnam, Korea, and even a stint in the Turkish navy, the unique ship is now open as a museum.

This ancient settlement contains some of the largest earthen mounds in North America.

World's largest precision optical instrument used to detect Einstein's elusive gravity waves.

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

A miscalculation turns a very shallow freshwater lake into a very deep saltwater lake.

This sinkhole was created by a tragic industrial accident and continues to ravage the surrounding landscape.

Roadside attraction with more than 1,000 stuffed and mounted animal skins displayed in simulated natural habitats with hand-painted backdrops.

This 19th-century sugarcane plantation is one of the most well-preserved estates of its kind, including its original quarters for enslaved laborers.

The tallest monument in a historic New Orleans cemetery was prompted by romance and dash of pettiness.

The above-ground crypts at this Catholic cemetery face north-south instead of the usual east-west.

The South's nickname was supposedly born at a former bank in New Orleans' French Quarter.

Pirates had to be ousted from the land where this now ruined Louisiana fortress was built.

A Rodeo for Prisoners.

This museum chronicles the history of a leprosy quarantine hospital that then became a refuge.

An abandoned underground bunker not far from downtown New Orleans.

The only place to see live frogs don pigtails and top hats, then eat their scrumptious legs.

A Cajun-style Christmas on the river also involves sky-high pyres and explosives.

This strange example of the Egyptian Revival architecture trend now holds Mardi Gras floats.

Once the site of a Native American harvest festival, this humble clearing later played an invaluable role in the birth of jazz.

A 19th-century Gothic, castle-like statehouse by the Mississippi River.

The first patented shaved-ice machine heralded a snowy wonderland of iced treats at a favorite New Orleans summer shack.

All that remains of this small town is its mass grave and a myth of a voodoo priestess who predicted its demise.

Before becoming a public park, this spot was a shell midden, a fort, and an amusement park.

The crumbling ruins of this southern American fort have survived storms, war, and cults.