Despite being a perfectly pleasant place to be, Loyalton can't seem to attract any visitors.

Eastern zen meets Western grit in these four little trees growing out of a rock on Lake Tahoe’s Nevada shore.

Beneath a Virginia City bar is the entrance to an abandoned gold mine.

These once-beautiful historic graveyards are set against the barren Virginia City hills.

The only surviving prototype of Buckminster Fuller's revolutionary car.

Bill Murray bowled three straight strikes here at Reno's "Taj Mahal of Tenpins."

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

This turn of the century masterpiece has a mysterious goaty interloper.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

Only hotel where you can legally launder money.

A mysterious painting of the self-declared Emperor of the United States watches over a local hof-brau.

At Chicago's revered Field Museum, visitors are invited to learn about and literally explore DNA.

A goddess-topped water fountain in Chicago was created thanks to the dreams of a thirsty newsboy.

The oldest Methodist church in the United States has been spreading the good news for over two centuries.

Once the tallest building in the world and the site of "the highest dinner ever held in New York" this building now holds the most expensive penthouse in the city.

Feed it cash, get your very own gold bar.

This mysterious abandoned fort looks like something pulled right from Arabian legend.

The largest falcon hospital in the world, caring for over 6,000 feathered patients every year.

Whitewashed mosque contains the world's largest carpet.

Planned as the world’s first zero-carbon city, it had lofty ideals—but is only 5 percent completed and aiming for 50 percent carbon-neutral.