A Japanese temple, old German townhouses, and public chess tables offer a peaceful escape from the bustle of the North Side.

The site of Stockholm's last public execution.

Outside a small brewery, a Gothic fountain that once provided water to thirsty horses.

Eighteen miniature death-scene dioramas.

First a horse rendering plant, then a 19th century landfill, this beach is full of glass from thousands upon thousands of broken bottles.

Tiny horses tethered to antique rings are scattered around the city.

A six-ton, 12-foot-tall concrete prairie dog is touted as the largest in the world.

A small chapel celebrating the spiritual bond between dogs and humans.

A beautiful oddities shop crammed with strange and morbid curiosities.

A museum devoted to bringing to light forgotten or neglected histories through exhibitions, education and public programming.

People escaping slavery passed through the oldest house in Lombard, Illinois on their northbound journey to freedom.

Grand opera on a miniature scale.

This botanical garden outside Chicago boasts an array of more than 300 varieties of lilacs.

Cold War missile launch site which has been converted to a public park.

With 8,000 pipes this giant instrument is the most versatile theatre pipe organ ever built.

The face of a woman pushes its way through the earth.

Tucked away amongst townhomes lies a restored, early 20th-century tea house and garden, the only remains of a historic estate.

Burial mounds of prehistoric Native Americans who lived along the DuPage River.

This elaborate Hindu temple is located in a Chicago suburb, but looks like it was transported directly from India.

The final resting place of two unknown soldiers.

A onetime gangsters' hideaway where you can dine on steaks, fine wines, and cigars just like they once did.

There's nothing creepier than a cemetery next to a clown motel.

An errant donkey ushered in a new era of mining in Nevada.

The precious-metals strikes dating back to the 1860s are now mostly inactive, but this area has become the United States' only domestic source of lithium.