Places grindingthecore Wants to Go

An abandoned coal mine reached by a steep hike.

Near-constant high winds deform the trees on Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia.

The "mysteries" of this quintessential roadside oddity were almost destroyed by neglect but were saved by fans of kitschy wonder.

This abandoned train tunnel has been the subject of countless ghost stories for years.

Two insane asylum bodies embalmed by an amateur.

A 1,000-foot-long railroad tunnel under Shavers Fork connected the towns during West Virginia's logging boom until its closure in 1985.

The world's largest fully steerable radio telescope.

This historic fort spans more the 300 years.

Sip a beer under the gaze of every U.S. president.

Once connected to the outside world by a single train track, this ghost town is looked after by the National Park Service.

An abandoned 1920s school with a mysterious history.

This North Carolina grave is the final resting place of the world's most famous conjoined twins.

This museum explores the lives of Chang and Eng, the "Original Siamese Twins."

This prison-turned-museum is a remnant of the Old West's grizzly, violent past.

Spend the night in this former asylum for the incurably insane, which claims to be one of the most haunted places in the United States.

The sole remaining outpost of a once-thriving South Carolina chain still sells “pic-a-nic” baskets.

Bizarre Cavern.

This striking Victorian Home with its 113-foot turret is best known as the site where abolitionist John Brown was executed in 1859.

This is the cabin from which John Brown and his men launched their fateful war to end slavery on October 16, 1859.

Time travel with sweets across history at this research-based candy store.

This advertisement for talcum powder was painted on the rock face and has since defied removal.

Built in the 1850s, this church was of the first five churches constructed in Harper's Ferry.

The last holdout of a pre-Civil War rebel who took the matter of slavery into his own hands.

Massachusetts memorial to murder victim Elizabeth Short near the spot where she was born.