"You don't need a rocket scientist to build a steam engine, but we've got one." -Museum docent on the credentials of a restoration volunteer.

A watering hole where the options for seating include a bar, patio, or subterranean cave.

A fine mixture of the old and the new topped with an art deco neon spire.

The oldest continuously operating Catholic school west of the Mississippi.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

Pillars made of 700 pieces of luggage climb to the ceiling of Sacramento Airport's baggage claim.

Dentist's hated concrete colossi are now beloved icons of the community.

Residents of Fremont in Seattle have considered it the center of the universe since the 1970s.

A massive sea stack famous for its appearance in The Goonies.

Only known mainland rookery of the threatened Stellar sea lion.

No one knows how this Pacific Northwest spruce tree came to have so many trunks.

A heavenly experience, right here on Terra Firma.

These old stone ruins in the Oregon wilderness were once bathrooms and are steeped in legends of murder.

Tens of thousands of tiny birds swarm into one school chimney every fall.

This sandstone mansion was the home of two of Oregon's most important pioneers.

The magic's in the hole!

A sculpture of a salmon swimming through a brick building.

The world's smallest park was dedicated in 1948 as the only colony for leprechauns west of Ireland.

Portlandia is the second-largest copper repoussé statue in the United States.

This extravagant Art Nouveau rest stop features a million-dollar view of the Columbia River.

A roaring, awe-inspiring double cascade of icy water flows through woodland Oregon like something out of a Tolkien novel.

This charmingly homemade amusement park has been growing for 40 years.

Holy Hindu shrine in an enormous, monkey-filled limestone cavern.

The oldest museum in Borneo is a cornucopia of rare taxidermy and human skulls.