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

A wacky two-story folk-art assemblage of carved and found objects, with lights, motion, and sound now in need of financial support.

Enormous small-business mecca in the Midwest, serving dozens of artists.

One man's attempt to create an artistic wonder on a run-down block in Detroit.

A sealed test tube said to hold Thomas Edison's dying breath was given to the inventor's friend and mentee, Henry Ford.

The only surviving prototype for Buckminster Fuller's house of the future.

The 80-foot tire that looms over Michigan's I-94 was once a Ferris wheel in the New York World Fair.

A chilling disappearance (and rescue) of a child uncovers a geological mystery.

See where Bill Murray kidnapped a hapless Punxsutawney Phil.

Its eclectic exhibits range from the world’s first motorcycle to Luke Skywalker’s Land Speeder.

The final resting place of the world's first nuclear reactor.

The legendary birthplace of the Japanese maneki-neko is dotted with hundreds of lucky beckoning cats.

This tiny museum hidden above a restaurant houses thousands of modern and traditional kites.

Once a black market electronics marketplace, now an otaku shopper's paradise.

This former crime corner has been turned into an eclectic community center.

A roadside spring pooling in an old bathtub where anyone can stop and sip.

This unauthorized stone mermaid was secretly carved out of public stone before being permanently preserved.

Visiting this cacophonous collection of vintage novelties is like stepping into the mind of a crazed toymaker.

Recognized the world over as the home of the McCallisters in the 1990 movie "Home Alone."

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.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

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

One of the few remaining relics of the meatpacking hub that made Chicago the "hog butcher to the world."

Former meatpacking facility turned vertical farm and sustainable business complex.