Places archampion Wants to Go

This ceremonial mound is one of the first officially recognized Native American historical sites in North Carolina.

The wooden house where the jazz great learned to play the piano.

A forgotten sea village stands silent after hurricanes deemed it obsolete.

The final resting place of the hundreds of bodies originally buried where Badin Lake sits now.

This roadside attraction has been serving out its fair share of hearty folklore and chaos since 1858.

A mountaintop space observatory that is certified dark.

This granite rock face is named for the magnificent reflection that occurs when the sun hits it just right.

Trace the history of writing at this unusual North Carolina destination.

A 17th-century bezoar, dirt from an infamous site, and other curios decorate this unusual bar.

The U.S. Supreme Court's secret Cold War relocation facility in the mountains of North Carolina.

Art museum based around the collections accumulated over 58 years by one eccentric thrift store owner.

This North Carolina store preserves a historic moment in America's movement for racial equality.

The highest point in North Carolina and the United States east of the Mississippi River, Mount Mitchell is named after argumentative explorer Elisha Mitchell.

A retired tobacco farmer's pet project turned into a sturdy miniature city.

Jule Körner's house full of bizarre architectural details.

North Carolina's finest examples of Native American pictographs have survived for 5,000 years.

Garden dedicated to native carnivorous plants and site of huge flytrap heist.

A former Oz-themed attraction that has fallen into disrepair, but still holds some of the original magic.

Gnarled canopies of pink and purple wildflowers arch over the trail to the summit.

This woodland architectural installation acts as a camera obscura for the heavens.

Bigfoot prints, Feejee mermaids, and haunted dolls on display in a tiny North Carolina town.

These tree-filled acres are also filled with history, hiking and a celebration of Appalachian crafts.

Home to the first child born to English colonists in North America, this colony mysteriously disappeared while waiting for supplies.

An elephant is carved onto the gravestone of a man who was crushed by one.