Where Nor'easters go to die.

A lighthouse built to save lives that took quite a few with its treacherous location.

As a show of peace, a Japanese naval pilot gifted his 400-year-old Samurai sword to the Oregon town he bombed.

Portland had a unique approach to Cold War-era protections.

The park preserves a single, rare species of carnivorous plant that spells doom for unsuspecting insects.

The wreckage still sits at the exact spot the plane crash-landed in 1945, carrying 1,000 pounds of explosives.

Abortion, prohibition, religion, war, and fear all play a part in the history of this idiosyncratic Pacifica castle.

NASA's leading space science lab started by a co-founder with deep ties to the occult.

The longest burning light bulb in the world.

This odd California folly seems like it was almost designed to accumulate urban legends.

Semi-recognized center of the world, with many oddities.

Russian history in San Francisco.

Gold Rush ship-turned-hotel buried underneath San Francisco's financial district.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

The remains of a 12th-century chapter house in Golden Gate Park.

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

Celebrating the transformation of trash into objects of beauty.

Ancient human, animal, and geometric figures drawn in the earth.

The highest dunes in California are the most likely place in the area to hear the Singing Sands.

Commonly referred to as the most photographed Victorian home in the United States.

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.

Secret Manor, a house full of legends, the least of which is the haunting of long-deceased ladies of pleasure.

An extraordinarily ornate museum in San Diego holds wondrous anthropological treasures.