An unusual college football tradition involves burying pieces of sod from competitors' turf, replete with tiny coffins and headstones.

This fairytale-inspired cottage was created by a university literature professor.

One of only two pod-shaped homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

This state park was once an important Native American cermonial center.

One of the world’s largest and deepest freshwater springs, where mastodons once roamed.

This roadside installation gives travelers a chance to stretch their legs. Don't worry—it doesn’t bite!

This creative sculpture was a way to "recycle" an old tree.

A labor of love by laborers in the sign-making business.

Try an original egg cream at this museum located inside one of the last surviving old-fashioned seltzer factories in America.

Hundreds of antique bank vault locks on display in New York City.

Polish babkas, cheesecakes, and rose jelly-filled doughnuts are made fresh daily at this neighborhood stalwart.

Thriving meadows span a rooftop in one of Brooklyn's most heavily industrialized neighborhoods.

Louis Sullivan’s dark, swirling cast-iron designs envelop a popular department store in this Chicago landmark.

A famous songsmith's custom piano, dubbed "High Society," is hidden just out of sight in one of New York's finest hotels.

These chunky stone towers out in Lake Michigan are the key to Chicago’s drinking water.

Built to house a chapter of the Knights Templar, this grandiose building is a relic of Freemasonry in Chicago a century ago.

This art gallery and oddities boutique bewitches visitors with a trove of occult trinkets and eccentric antiques, work by an ever-changing roster of underground artists, and classes in tarot and other mystic arts.

Parking lot where a Chicago mayor was inaugurated under very sketchy circumstances.

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

These mansions date back to Chicago's days as a brewer's paradise.

"No writer ever gave more to a city and got back less.”

Beloved bar home to musicians of all eras and reputations.

Coney Island’s last surviving haunted ride.

After an Illinois church was struck by lightning and burned down, Frank Lloyd Wright designed this replacement.