Places mattduesing Wants to Go

This historic Illinois "Muffler Man" has been converted from axe-touting lumberjack to rocket-wielding space ace.

The history of funerals and funerary customs.

Taxidermy, Cigar Store Indians, A Model of a New York Tenement and Delicious Draft Root Beer.

The site where Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, was killed by a mob.

One of the last remaining French Colonial style churches, this centuries-old building was constructed using upright logs and no nails.

A section in the cemetery mostly for circus performers, including victims of the famous 1918 Hammond Circus train wreck.

Thousands of hats, pens, and pencils, hanging inside the walls of a former church.

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

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 church doubles a museum dedicated to Norwegian heritage.

In the middle of Calvary Cemetery stands this singular memorial to a small boy who died too young.

Just outside Chicago, one of the few traditional Mongolian restaurants in the U.S. serves a misunderstood cuisine.

Dozens of large steel sculptures fill this two-acre park outside a former blacksmith's studio.

A small cemetery chapel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1906.

A small museum celebrating the fiberglass giants that are icons of America's highways.

From banquet hall to Masonic Lodge and now concert venue, Ganz Hall is a breathtaking glimpse of into the golden age of American architecture.

The remnants of Peoria's proud baseball past stand slightly abandoned, but not forgotten.

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

Lined with plaques and tributes to veterans, this patriotic street was founded by Mexican immigrants.

One of the finest examples of a black soil prairie that was barely saved by the Great Depression.

This graveyard is home to the so-called "Witch's Circle."

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

In a historic steel foundry east of the Mississippi River, thousands of wooden crates hold the architectural remnants of buildings long gone but not forgotten.

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