Places joyzbst Wants to Go

The owners of this Victorian-era estate say it’s still visited by the spirits of long-gone residents.

A section in the cemetery mostly for circus performers, including victims of the famous 1918 Hammond Circus train wreck.

One of the finest examples of a black soil prairie that was barely saved by the Great Depression.

This monument owes its name to a quote by the famous civil rights activist and journalist.

Twice a year, this road is closed off to allow for the migration of thousands of snakes, reptiles and amphibians between cliffs and a swamp.

Walk along the intricate path of this stone labyrinth and gardens.

A 30-foot-tall goat tower in central Illinois is home to a herd of Swiss ungulates.

A wondrously macabre treasury of obscure antiques and unusual oddities.

A taxidermy “mermaid,” vampire-killing kits, and hundreds of other bizarre objects are housed at this quirky museum.

People escaping slavery passed through the oldest house in Lombard, Illinois on their northbound journey to freedom.

Though it's thrived abroad, this forgotten Dunkin' rival has just one store left in the States.

This softly rounded mansion was built without corners not to avoid evil spirits, but to make them more comfortable.

This cheerfully-named branch of the Chicago River is the fetid result of years of blood, entrails, and meatpacking waste.

This architectural stunner is one of the few surviving Egyptian Revival theaters in the U.S.

Tour the luxe "glass cage" that inspired and unnerved the architecture world upon its debut.

A journey begins with a single step, and for many, the road-trip of a lifetime started at this Chicago intersection.

This historic house museum that celebrates one of the world's most influential social reformers is also one of the most haunted locations in Chicago.

A sprawling outdoor museum filled with larger-than-life works of art.

A river with some unusual, and occasionally dangerous, habits.

The mysterious white squirrels of this Illinois city are treated like sacred cows.

This art gallery and oddities boutique bewitches visitors with a trove of occult trinkets and eccentric antiques, work by an ever-changing roster of underground artists, and classes in tarot and other mystic arts.

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

In the Shawnee National Forest, amazing rock formations peer through the treeline.

The city of Rockford, Illinois is symbolically protected by a quartet of fittingly stony sentinels.