The oldest house in Galena, Illinois, now is a reminder of when this city was the world's lead mining capital.

A mapping error in the 19th century made loggers think this section of the forest was underwater.

An abandoned fish-shaped drive-in gets a second life as a restaurant.

This rare female version of the Muffler Man has its clothes removed each summer to signal the start of pool season.

This 19th-century building inadvertently preserved the handprints of its builders within its walls.

This memorial plaque remembers a strangely shallow maritime disaster known as "Chicago's Titanic."

A spectacular remnant of an Adler and Sullivan masterpiece that was destroyed in 1972.

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

A 400-foot-tall tall map of Chicago makes this once-ignored building stand out.

Meant for a railway that was never built because of the Great Chicago Fire, these piers still stand nearly 150 years after they were installed.

This national park dedicated to the tallgrass prairie ecosystem still displays its military past.

This rare basilica nestled right in downtown Asheville is an architectural marvel, inside and out.

This huge clock made of flowers and simple machinery was once used a political weapon.

The first KFC is on the National Register of Historic Places.

This monolithic statue was erected in honor of Chief Black Hawk (even if it wasn't made to look like him).

This baseball diamond was home to the Rockford Peaches, a team featured in the hit film "A League of Their Own."

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

The world’s largest truck stop includes a barber shop, chiropractor, and a huge museum with antique trucks.

This simple home was the beginning of a long journey for the iconic Western film star.

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

This house renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright was the centerpiece of a lavish 20th-century estate.

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

A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.

An off-the-beaten-path place to literally hang beneath Milwaukee's Holton Street Bridge.