The oldest operating hotel in Illinois enjoys a historic (and some say haunted) past.

This small-town opera house has appeared much more in national culture and history than its charming setting might suggest.

The oldest experimental corn field in America is still creating better ways to grow crops.

See where Bill Murray kidnapped a hapless Punxsutawney Phil.

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

Pumpkin-like gargoyles and grotesques peer down from the rooftop of this unassuming apartment building in Illinois.

A tribute to one granddaughter's old apartment which now represents the whims of each visitor.

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

Where a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel, and a recluse met one Saturday and changed their lives forever.

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

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

A small abandoned and abused cemetery that has become a magnet for ghost hunters.

This awkward aquarium sculpture is one of the strangest statues in Chicago.

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

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

Chicago's North Park Village was once the largest municipal sanatorium in the country.

A replica viking ship from the Chicago World's Fair is still in dry dock in an Illinois park.

A display of magnificent stained glass windows is the first exhibit of its kind.

The last remaining vestige of a popular 1999 public art display.

This old-fashioned confectionary has been family owned and operated for more than a century.

A hidden oasis just north of Chicago's Chinatown.

In 2004, a Dave Matthews Band tour bus dumped 800 pounds of waste off a bridge and onto an unsuspecting tour boat below.

How did a 2,000-year-old Roman column find its way to a Chicago park?

Kwanu'sila the Thunderbird has been silently watching over Chicago for more than 100 years (kind of).