Weird history41.8629° N, 87.9064° W
Hillside, IL
The grave of Chicago crime boss Al Capone sits in Mount Carmel Cemetery among other figures connected to the city's organized-crime history.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
Weird history in Illinois
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Weird history44
Suggest a stopReal events too strange to have made the textbook.
- Weird history42.3185° N, 90.2127° W
Elizabeth, IL
A reconstruction of the small fort attacked during the Black Hawk War, with self-guided grounds and periodic living-history programming.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history39.5012° N, 89.7667° W
Virden, IL
A public memorial recalls the deadly 1898 confrontation between striking union miners and armed guards brought in by a coal company.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history42.4096° N, 90.4286° W
Galena, IL
A lavish 1857 mansion filled with period furnishings and film memorabilia, including pieces associated with Gone with the Wind.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history41.9265° N, 87.6498° W
Chicago, IL
Outside this historic theater, federal agents shot bank robber John Dillinger in 1934 after he left a movie screening.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Weird history41.2003° N, 90.1189° W
Bishop Hill, IL
A surviving 1848 building from the Swedish religious commune that founded Bishop Hill, preserving the town's unusual communal-colony history.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history41.4670° N, 90.5724° W
Rock Island, IL
Wooded trails and museum exhibits interpret Sauk and Meskwaki history at the former location of the village associated with Black Hawk.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history38.5706° N, 90.1922° W
Cahokia Heights, IL
Illinois' oldest surviving courthouse began as a French colonial house around 1740 and was later moved twice before returning to its original site.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history38.6549° N, 90.0593° W
Collinsville, IL
The remains of the largest pre-Columbian city north of Mexico include massive Monks Mound and dozens of surviving earthen structures.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history42.3620° N, 90.4300° W
Galena, IL
A Mississippi River bluff preserve containing Native American burial mounds, including a rare thunderbird-shaped effigy mound.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history41.8049° N, 87.8054° W
Lyons, IL
This quiet forest-preserve site marks the ancient portage that ultimately helped determine why Chicago grew where it did.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history41.9129° N, 87.6314° W
Chicago, IL
An above-ground 1838 tomb left conspicuously standing inside Lincoln Park, a remnant of the cemetery that once occupied the grounds.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history38.8902° N, 90.1659° W
Alton, IL
A tall cemetery monument honors abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy, murdered by a pro-slavery mob in Alton in 1837.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history41.9588° N, 87.6615° W
Chicago, IL
A hooded bronze figure looms over the Graves family plot in Graceland Cemetery, producing one of Chicago's most unnerving funerary monuments.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history38.0844° N, 90.1578° W
Prairie du Rocher, IL
Reconstructed stone walls and surviving powder magazine mark one of the most important French colonial military sites in the Illinois Country.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history37.9706° N, 89.9093° W
Ellis Grove, IL
Earthwork remains of an 18th-century fort overlook the Mississippi and the vanished original townsite of Kaskaskia below.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history41.1882° N, 88.3048° W
Gardner, IL
A restored streetcar once used as a roadside diner sits next to Gardner's old jail and historic Route 66 alignment.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history41.1884° N, 88.3047° W
Gardner, IL
A tiny 1906 two-cell jail stands beside Route 66 as a remarkably intact piece of small-town law-enforcement history.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history41.9611° N, 87.6611° W
Chicago, IL
Designed by Louis Sullivan, this striking mausoleum uses intricate geometric ornament unlike almost anything else in Chicago's cemetery landscape.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history41.9692° N, 87.6599° W
Chicago, IL
A Prohibition-era jazz club strongly associated with Al Capone's Chicago, complete with old booths, tunnels lore, and a remarkably preserved atmosphere.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history41.8698° N, 87.8198° W
Forest Park, IL
A National Historic Landmark monument over the graves of men executed after the Haymarket affair, central to international labor history.
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- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history41.8772° N, 90.1646° W
Fulton, IL
An abandoned quarry transformed into a wooded village of reconstructed historic buildings, machinery, and small-town scenes.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history37.4995° N, 88.3279° W
Rosiclare area, IL
A reconstructed 19th-century stone blast furnace recalls the brief iron industry that once operated deep in what is now Shawnee National Forest.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history41.8849° N, 87.6289° W
Chicago, IL
The area behind today's Nederlander Theatre marks the 1903 Iroquois Theatre disaster, where more than 600 people died and ghost stories still linger.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry