Someone really, really wanted to save this fast-food icon from demolition.

In 1952, this restaurant began selling the Colonel's “secret” recipe.

A plaque and memorabilia collection mark where A&W got its start.

This unlicensed collection of fast-food memorabilia sits on the site of the first ever McDonald's restaurant.

If you want to take a peek at Area 51, this is legally as close as you're going to get.

This sign designates the road that leads to the infamous Area 51.

The final resting place of the world's first nuclear reactor.

A facility built in 1992 for an underground nuclear test remains in place today.

The largest man-made crater in the U.S. marks the spot where we once tested mining with nukes.

A picture-perfect town, perfect for blowing up.

America's oldest Italian restaurant is a San Francisco institution.

Formerly the world's largest, this Willy Wonka-esque contraption runs 24/7.

These markers are used to determine the ground stability of the Strip.

Odd outsider art installations surround a Gold Rush-era ghost town.

This replica small town lets visitors take a stroll through the story of progress in the U.S. via thousands of Americana artifacts.

The location along the shores of the Great Salt Lake of what was once called, "The Coney Island of the West", now sits barren due to arson and time.

Largest man-made excavation on earth!

Inside this striking glass building, visitors can see thousands of dinosaur fossils in the positions that nature deposited them more than 150 million years ago.

One of many reminders of Tesla's scientific contributions overlooks the falls which inspired him.

The New York hotel where tragic visionary Nikola Tesla spent his final hours, destitute and alone but for the pigeons.

3/4-scale model of the White House in Atlanta, Georgia.

This intricate Hindu temple is the largest of its kind outside of India itself and was constructed like a giant puzzle.

A fitting attraction for the corn capital of the world.

The granddaddy of all tourist traps, built on ice water, jackalopes, and a giant dinosaur.