The young Black revolutionary was killed before getting to see a non-segregated pool in his hometown.

Chicago’s incendiary role in the labor movement.

A plaque marks a former safe house on the secret route, now hidden next to a McDonald's.

The sign to a demolished amusement park now stands in front of a local library.

People escaping slavery passed through the oldest house in Lombard, Illinois on their northbound journey to freedom.

Julia Buccola Petta's body was peculiarly well-preserved when it was exhumed six years after her death.

This overgrown Illinois water park offers a whole new type of adventure.

Museum dedicated to the art of cutting and polishing stones.

What may be America's largest classic video game arcade lurks inconspicuously in a Chicago suburb.

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.

These abandoned grain silos and tunnels are an urban exploration dream.

World's second largest particle accelerator, where nature reveals its secrets.

An exhibit of items from the mental institution where Mary Todd Lincoln lived after her son conspired to have her committed.

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

A historic and oft-filmed prison stands in a Chicago suburb.

A source of civic pride, though the reason for its construction is unknown.

This former nursery supplied plants for the creation of Chicago's largest park.

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

This botanical garden outside Chicago boasts an array of more than 300 varieties of lilacs.

Arguably the best example of an authentic Dutch windmill in the United States, rivaling its counterparts in the Netherlands.

Cold War missile launch site which has been converted to a public park.

What was once the second largest steel mill in the US is now a sprawling complex of modern ruins.