The ruins of this Thomas-Jefferson-designed mansion have been left to crumble since the Christmas Day they burnt down.

The highest point in Virginia can only be reached by passing through ponies and flowers.

This once-palatial plantation may have been the site where a draft of the Declaration of Independence was written.

Heron, whitewater rapids, and urban industrialism all add to the beauty of this concrete nature walk.

Outsider art meets paleontology at this roadside reptile repository.

This maze-like slot canyon is a unique gem within an already fascinating geological area.

Giant busts of 42 U.S. presidents are sitting in a field in Virginia.

This former fire tower found new life as a communications hub complete with a scenic overlook.

This abandoned mine and power plant was built atop land once given to Revolutionary War soldiers.

This general store is more than a century old and home to various oddities and antiques.

This abandoned train tunnel has been the subject of countless ghost stories for years.

Two insane asylum bodies embalmed by an amateur.

Beyond the usual stories that attend old prisons, this one has deep bloody undercurrents.

The "mysteries" of this quintessential roadside oddity were almost destroyed by neglect but were saved by fans of kitschy wonder.

An abandoned coal mine reached by a steep hike.

Two gems of Beaux Arts architecture that have been sitting vacant for years.

A curious collection of miniatures in a quiet corner of the Chicago Children's Museum.

You can take a class, browse the library, or visit the lavish lair of an international men's humor society.

In a quiet north Chicago neighborhood rests a stunning relic of the golden age of earthenware design.

Built to house a chapter of the Knights Templar, this grandiose building is a relic of Freemasonry in Chicago a century ago.

This alley in downtown Chicago held the bodies of over 600 people after the fateful Iroquois Theatre fire.

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

Chicago's North Park Village was once the largest municipal sanatorium in the country.

A century-old hotspot for jazz, frequented by everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Al Capone.