Ralph Waldo Emerson spent two years living here decades before it became a Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park.

The often-overlooked ruins of one of the first buildings designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Olmsted.

One of the now-less-hidden floral gems of the "Emerald Necklace."

A beautiful Victorian-era cemetery, complete with a miniature village.

Two thousand artifacts from around the world collected by one woman who loved to travel.

This upscale streetwear store is hidden behind a fake Snapple machine in the back of a deli.

An enormous, inside-out glass globe built in 1935.

An abandoned meat mecca now serves as an excellent locale for urban exploration.

Its eclectic exhibits range from the world’s first motorcycle to Luke Skywalker’s Land Speeder.

Grand opera on a miniature scale.

An outdoor urban gallery of large-scale artworks by the world's most influential street artists.

The carved remains of a 200-year-old oak tree memorialize the namesake of the iconic "Wizard of Oz" character.

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

Now nearly abandoned, Kaskaskia was once the capital of Illinois and one of the most important towns on the upper Mississippi.

A mythical bird etched into the face of a rock doubles as the mascot for a nearby school.

In a grove of fast growing walnut trees outside Paris, Illinois, a marker shares the story of a fictional road building culture.

Fresh wooden posts have been added to ancient holes to recreate a primitive henge clock.

This cemetery is all that remains of a school for "wayward" girls.

This surprising gem is a world-class archeological museum hidden at the University of Chicago.

Planes, trains, and automobiles have all been sunk as attractions at this Illinois diving spot.

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

The oldest house in Chicago certainly doesn't look the part and there are some who say it doesn't deserve its title either.

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

Oversized statues are just the tip of this nostalgic Americana roadside attraction.