lauragiff91's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Palo Alto, California

The Frenchman's Tower

This odd California folly seems like it was almost designed to accumulate urban legends.
Thousand Palms, California

Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve

Hike amid the palm trees that thrive among Southern California's Indio Hills.
Monterey, California

Point Sur Lightstation

Life in this isolated, hilltop lighthouse was lonely, but it sure was lovely.
Los Angeles, California

Capitol Records Building Morse Code

The blinking light atop the iconic landmark has been sending secret messages for decades.
Los Angeles, California

LAX Theme Building

This quirky UFO-shaped curiosity is often mistaken for the airport’s control tower.
Los Angeles, California

Muscle Beach

An historic and oft-filmed spot for musclebound iron pumpers on the Pacific coast.
Los Angeles, California

Mel Brooks Handprint

There are lots of hands and feet stamped in the cement in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, but Mel left behind something extra.
Los Angeles, California

Great Wall of Los Angeles

One of the world's longest murals depicts the history of diversity in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles Zoo Botanical Gardens

The L.A. Zoo has a secret garden of rare bootleg cycads, a palm specimen dating back 280 million years.
Los Angeles, California

Hollywood Sign

Hollywood's most famous landmark, the "temporary" sign that has stood for decades longer than intended.
Calistoga, California

California's Old Faithful

California's own majestic geyser is powered by a subterranean volcano.
Calistoga, California

Calistoga Petrified Forest

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.
Del Monte Forest, California

Ghost Trees of Pescadero Point

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.
Washington, D.C.

Riggs Bank

The bank that helped fund the Mexican-American War and the purchase of Alaska met its downfall after helping Augusto Pinochet launder money.
Washington, D.C.

Yenching Palace

The iconic D.C. restaurant where the Cuban Missile Crisis was negotiated, now a Walgreens.
Washington, D.C.

Fireworks Safety Zone on the National Mall

On the Fourth of July this area will transform into a Pompeii-like storm of falling embers and ash.
Washington, D.C.

Spirit of Justice Park

A secret greenspace hides atop a Capitol parking garage.
Washington, D.C.

Mummified Bison

The 28,000-year-old specimen is remarkably intact.
Washington, D.C.

Capitol Bollards

The 5.5-mile ring of steel posts around the Capitol Building is one of the largest (and most uniform) of its kind in the world.
Washington, D.C.

African-American Civil War Memorial

The first memorial dedicated solely to the Black troops who fought for the Union.
Washington, D.C.

Walter Johnson Statue

This statue of one of baseball’s greatest pitchers looks like something out of a sci-fi horror movie.
Washington, D.C.

Organization of American States Building

The grand marble structure next to the White House is Andrew Carnegie's temple to Pan-American diplomacy.
Washington, D.C.

Rayburn House Office Building

One critic described it as "middle Mussolini, early Ramses, and late Neiman-Marcus." Another called it an architectural "natural disaster."
Washington, D.C.

USS Missouri Model Ship

The U.S. Navy’s preposterously detailed mini battleship took 77,000 hours to complete.