For just a few bucks, this Iowa funicular will let you feel like an 1800s fat cat.

The oldest operating hotel in Illinois enjoys a historic (and some say haunted) past.

Dozens of large steel sculptures fill this two-acre park outside a former blacksmith's studio.

Community bookshelf of 25-foot-tall book spines.

When beetles destroyed these trees, they found new life as fantasy sculptures.

The park is home to the United States's only still-operating Dutch windmill.

The lowest point in the state of Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

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

More than 5,000 contemporary and "historic" mustards from around the world.

Each of these gorgeous, intricately decorated rooms is painstakingly crafted to the scale of 1 inch: 1 foot.

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

This former Union fort commands a fine view of downtown Cape Girardeau and the Mississippi River.

The hometown of Popeye's creator is littered with a growing collection of granite cartoon characters.

The watery grave of an impractical idea.

A mythical bird etched into the face of a rock doubles as the mascot for a nearby school.

This life-size bronze statue remembers the tallest recorded human in his Illinois hometown.

Just off I-55 in McLean, Illinois, is a place where you can play over 100 arcade and pinball machines for 25-75 cents a pop.

The park that the Chicago Stockyards built.

Come for the heirloom-corn whiskey, stay for the wood hats.

The Magic House provides a beautiful and creative environment for curious youngsters to get their knowledge on.

What was meant to be a temporary exhibit is now a permanent fixture at the St. Louis Zoo filled with beautiful birds.

A castle built by an eccentric medieval enthusiast in suburban Ohio.

After a water tower painting was accused of being an ad, a simple fix was made that gave the city a motto.

The inventor of a number of hybrid corn species is immortalized with a field of giant corn.