Places rainablackcat Wants to Go

A wonderland of caves in eastern Iowa.

A small burial plot formerly stranded in the middle of a road.

The oldest university museum west of the Mississippi retains its 19th century feel.

Chilly air billows out from the entrance of an abandoned mine on a steep hillside, providing a refuge for Ice Age fauna and flora.

The world's only three-story rotary jail is now a museum to a bizarre trend in prison design.

This seemingly charming home memorializes and honors the victims of a century-old unsolved murder.

Sip whey-based vodka at the first Native-owned distillery opened on a reservation in centuries.

A trailblazing sovereign nation tucked in the American state of Wisconsin.

The arboretum whose marshy soil sucked up the dreams of housing developers.

The rodent-shaped sidewalk imprint that earned worldwide media attention.

Urban explorers embraced America's now demolished first suburban mall, south of Chicago.

The history of funerals and funerary customs.

A European-style bath house in Chicago.

This horror movie and monster shop is like if a haunted house was a retail store.

A natural sandstone bridge nestled within a mature forest in southern Illinois.

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

A wondrously macabre treasury of obscure antiques and unusual oddities.

The faint remains of a Polish news empire still linger.

This former nursery supplied plants for the creation of Chicago's largest park.

A massive bur oak tree believed to be some 500 years old is the centerpiece of this quiet urban greenspace.

This Mediterranean castle was built for a millionaire and his giant dog.

This titanic Catholic church in Chicago is also a refuge of the fictional cult-favorite wizard detective Harry Dresden.

A small Chicago museum filled with thousands of preserved butterflies, beetles, and more.

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