Places Melanicholia Wants to Go

Tall columns of volcanic basalt make up this improbable-seeming rock formation.

A cave on the Maryland border where civilians took refuge during the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.

A Civil War Museum with some notable medical antiques.

This ruined quarry once produced the distinctive red sandstone used for construction projects in Washington, D.C.

Tiny observatory made big contributions to the study of the Earth's motion.

The shelves in the back of this thrift store are devoted to saving, not selling, retro tech.

A diminutive plaque recalls the treetop sniper who almost killed Abe Lincoln.

Historic home of America's sweetheart sharpshooter, Annie Oakley.

This 1830s store is believed to be the site of Harriet Tubman's first stand.

Explore the legends surrounding these mythical sea creatures inside this museum.

The remnants of a wooden-hulled fleet built and abandoned in WWI, now home to a thriving ecosystem.

Home of the physician who set the leg of John Wilkes Booth after the Lincoln assassination.

Although built to generate electricity for Marylanders, this dam has become an all-you-can-eat buffet for American bald eagles.

A pre-Industrial Age iron furnace and the site of a nearly-forgotten piece of Black history.

This lovely tree was a thank you gift from the man known as "Public Enemy No.1."

Once part of a dam servicing an early 19th century grist mill, the tucked-way falls are a tricky-to-find urban oasis.

A model home in the Medical Examiner's Office in which grisly death scenes are staged to train forensic investigators.

Fiji mermaids, mummified remains, and recreated cryptids are among the morbid oddities at this Maryland museum.

The man who first patented the Ouija board rests in peace beneath a headstone that playfully reflects that achievement.

Crammed into a Baltimore row house is an oddities shop that sells everything from skulls to dead insects.

Once a thriving business district, this former shopping area is now an urban ghost town in the heart of the city.

One artist’s scheme to expand museum viewing hours into the evening led to the illumination of an entire city.

Baltimore's classic clock tower was once topped by a rotating, 20-ton medicine bottle.

A blank headstone topped with a pile of pennies marks the final resting place of the infamous assassin.