A beautiful memorial tells the story of a formerly enslaved woman whose kindness shaped a burgeoning city.

Hear, smell, see, taste, and touch history at this immersive Civil War hospital.

A chessmaster's dream destination.

A commemoration of over 150 of St. Louis's favorite sons and daughters.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

A pair of mutilated bronze octopuses slump at the base of the monument honoring California's admission to the U.S.

These WWII-era murals were initially booed as a libelous portrayal of the American dream but have survived multiple attempts to have them destroyed.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

The largest whiskey stash on the West Coast survived the 1906 fires--but not without heroic effort.

The oldest alley in San Francisco is paved with a reminder of the city's original shoreline.

One of the oldest producers of hand-folded fortune cookies still uses its original secret recipe.

The oldest dim sum restaurant in the United States is a nostalgic jewel.

Prone to disastrous fires, the city of San Francisco has the Guardian, a fireboat gifted by residents, to watch over them from the bay.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

The world's first motel is now an administrative building for an apple farm.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

A New England-style lighthouse along California's beautiful Highway 1 gets a re-do.

Steinbeck's old stomping grounds, immortalized in Cannery Row.

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

An alley covered with 20 years of bubble gum.

One of the last surviving buildings of a once large and thriving Chinatown.

This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

A chain of bells connect the California Missions and honor the legend of the "King’s Highway."