This mostly abandoned shopping outlet is now adorned with beautiful graffiti and murals.

The "Fun Spot of the Desert" is now a haunting ruin, and a reminder that putting a water park in a desert is a bad idea.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

A collection of anti-communist sculptures stands watch in the Mojave Desert.

These colossal desert barcodes have been fine-tuning spy satellites for decades.

Etched into a dry lake bed, this massive directional indicator is accurate without magnets.

Everything you always wanted to know about borates is here.

The "3rd largest" city in California is an empty mirage of suburbia in the middle of nowhere.

Thousands of turbines whir at the origin of North American wind power.

Where a railroad loops under or over itself to rise or drop more than 70 feet in a short distance.

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

Nevada's largest cactus collection stands outside a candy mogul's small factory.

A huge collection of rocks, gems, and crystals.

One of the three perfect vellum copies of this historic book known to exist is on display in a specially-designed case.

Disks are rolled out onto the south lawn to absorb the impact of Marine One's wheels like giant coffee coasters.

This taxidermy horse was a Civil War hero.

Daredevil repair workers can worm their way out the access hatch, loop ropes over the apex and rappel down the monument.

A bas relief commemorates the "Nuns of the Battlefield" who cared for soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

The first memorial dedicated solely to the Black troops who fought for the Union.

A much-maligned monument to teetotalism.

A heroic pigeon that, through a barrage of gunfire, delivered a message that saved over 100 lives in World War I.

The preamble to the U.S. Constitution written entirely from vanity license plates hangs in the Smithsonian museum.

The privately owned cemetery that holds room for Washington's finest when they step down from life.

A little marble compass above George Washington's (empty) tomb in the Capitol marks where D.C.'s four quadrants intersect.