Places katelowary Wants to Go

Eclectic collection of rare and beautiful stones in a historic home.

A sprawling historic mansion with connections to a notable industrial and publishing dynasty.

This pristinely abandoned filling station on the edge of a graveyard is populated solely by unsettling mannequins.

Another in a long tradition of legends regarding infernal seats.

A massive bur oak tree believed to be some 500 years old is the centerpiece of this quiet urban greenspace.

Once known as the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane.

A museum showcasing the life of "Buffalo Bill"

This Mediterranean castle was built for a millionaire and his giant dog.

Over 120 years ago, the original boardgame that inspired Monopoly was invented in this small Illinois town.

Tiny treasures, giant murals, and strange sculptures decorate the windows and doors of this abandoned building.

A 30-foot-tall goat tower in central Illinois is home to a herd of Swiss ungulates.

Once an ornate movie theater remade by Catholic Charities.

A wondrously macabre treasury of obscure antiques and unusual oddities.

A taxidermy “mermaid,” vampire-killing kits, and hundreds of other bizarre objects are housed at this quirky museum.

Built in 1869, this now-retired structure looks more like a medieval fortress than a county lock-up.

In a grove of fast growing walnut trees outside Paris, Illinois, a marker shares the story of a fictional road building culture.

The dream home of an iconoclastic renaissance man still stands as a monument to his domestically mundane vision.

Planes, trains, and automobiles have all been sunk as attractions at this Illinois diving spot.

Fresh wooden posts have been added to ancient holes to recreate a primitive henge clock.

A journey begins with a single step, and for many, the road-trip of a lifetime started at this Chicago intersection.

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

This art gallery and oddities boutique bewitches visitors with a trove of occult trinkets and eccentric antiques, work by an ever-changing roster of underground artists, and classes in tarot and other mystic arts.

The face of a woman pushes its way through the earth.

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