Places Ancientproof Wants to Go

Check out a shovel along with your Shakespeare.

Where the first "expert riders, willing to risk death daily" for the Pony Express were recruited.

This controversial depiction of the "Founder of California" looks as though it was sculpted from mashed potatoes.

A Los Angeles cemetery that was once at the center of a Supreme Court dispute.

Hidden in a hotel parking lot is a strange historical plaque erected by an obscure fraternal society.

An old whaling station now serves to give the public a look at the commercial whaling industry, no longer a part of Monterey's economy.

A quiet marker in memory of local men and women lost in WWI.

The oldest U.S. Government building in California, and it's State Historic Landmark #1.

California's most comprehensive horticultural library.

This former boomtown "island" is now submerged below Folsom Lake.

This residential door allows San Francisco muggles a glimpse at the wizarding world.

This remarkably simple jail went over a century without an escape.

This California tree is the single source of the state's entire orange industry.

A beautiful memorial tells the story of a formerly enslaved woman whose kindness shaped a burgeoning city.

The only parking meter in the entire town, it is surrounded by 100 free spaces.

Raised illegally, Reggie now lives at the Los Angeles Zoo after authorities spent years tracking him down.

Its dark depths conceal millions of rare, delicate crystal formations.

This mountaintop beacon is only lit three times a year but shines like some kind of all-seeing eye.

A tiny survivor of the Donner Party disaster.

Massive prehistoric mammals used these stones as oversized scratching posts.

An expansive and intricately restored mansion remains from over a century ago--and so do its ghosts.

A rough granite monument marks the spot where Europeans first caught sight of the San Francisco Bay.

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

The first AIDS memorial chapel in San Francisco and one of only a few in the U.S.