This family driveway also serves as the highest point in Illinois.

These pretty kitties killed and ate as many as 135 railway workers.

A hot dog stand where the heads are just as hot as the dogs.

River pirates, murderous bandits, and serial killers used this Illinois cave as their debauched hideout.

A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.

A monument to the art of slicing people open.

Most historians agree that the so-called "Gentleman Pirate" wasn't much of either of those things.

This small memorial is almost as well concealed as Smalls himself was on the night he sailed to freedom.

Thirteen pastel palaces in downtown Charleston add a gorgeous splash of color to the city.

Once the most flame resistant building in the country, the South Carolina Historical Society building was almost burnt down in a fire.

Charleston's historic city jail once held everyone from pirates to Civil War POWs.

South Carolina's last remaining slavery auction house is now a museum devoted to its own tragic history.

Most comprehensive museum in America devoted to one ethnic group.

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

For just a few bucks, this Iowa funicular will let you feel like an 1800s fat cat.

This landmark honoring a local beer brand is an iconic part of the Minneapolis skyline.

Nicknamed the "Grand Canyon of the North," this open-pit mine in Minnesota has a much shorter history.

Where one of America's greatest songwriters lived before he was Bob Dylan.

This tiny Minnesota city tried to secede from the Union as a last-ditch effort to fix its crumbling water system.

Home of St. Urho, the fictional patron saint of Finland.

The world's largest floating loon bobs in the lake to kick off an annual festival.

An abandoned bus station transformed into a museum dedicated to the history of Greyhound Lines, in the place where it all began.

This posh mansion began as a family's estate and ended as the site of a murder ripped from the pages of a pulp novel.

The dishes at this restaurant by The Sioux Chef celebrate indigenous heritage.