1

Edinburgh Manor, Iowa

Image: Yener Ozturk

Thanks, in no small part, to horror movies and documentaries, asylums make great abandoned places. So, we might as well start our list with Edinburgh Manor , a once-bustling institution located in Iowa. Built in the early 1900s, this huge building served as a home for the mentally ill, the elderly, and the indigent, until 2010.

Today, Edinburgh Manor continues to harbor visitors but in the form of thrill chasers who seek to experience the paranormal within the mysterious walls of the immense asylum, even daring to stay the night on its premises. Would you dare to be one of them?

2

Dinosaur Mini Golf Ruins, California

Image: Dan Meyers

Dinosaurs and golf are two entirely different things. But in the cultural melting pot that is California, it seemed like a good idea to build a dinosaur-themed mini golf course in the town of Apple Valley, complete with 15-foot-tall creatures rendered in concrete.

Alas, the economics of the whole endeavor proved too much for its creator, who was forced to abandon his dream to the desert. Today, the deteriorating remains of these dinosaurs can still be visited, as an attraction that lures travelers off the highway.

3

Space Shuttle Fuel Tank, Green Cove Springs, Florida

Image: SpaceX

Picture a humongous 154-foot-long space fuel tank sitting alone in the middle of nowhere. For many years, this tank stood on display at the Kennedy Space Center. But after the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, NASA announced that they would remove the test fuel tank to make room for the retired space shuttle Atlantis, along with a new exhibition facility. The tank was auctioned off and sold to the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum in Keystone Heights, Florida.

It took a 200-foot barge, two tugboats, and cranes to transport the massive tank to Green Cove Springs, where it would be temporarily held before moving to its final destination. But the logistics of moving such a massive structure proved difficult, and that temporary staging site seems to have become the fuel tank’s final home.

4

Meigs Field Tower and Terminal, Illinois

Image: Mads Eneqvist

An abandoned airport ranks high amongst the personal goals of any urban explorer worth its salt. And, to anyone close to Chicago, Meigs Field certainly delivers. Built on an artificial peninsula, the airport functioned as such from 1948 to 2003.

Today it no longer works as an airport but the stubby control tower is still very much recognizable as such, standing watch over the breezy park and its native grasses and birds.

While the tower is closed to the public, the old terminal building is not; it houses a Parks Department Visitor’s Center.

5

Old Zoo Nature Trails, Texas

Image: Matthew Cabret

A long-abandoned zoo repurposed as a hiking trail? Sign me up! The Cisco Zoo in rural Texas functioned as such for only a few years starting in the 1920s until it closed its doors due to a poisoned bear, a mysterious deer death, and other factors.

Visitors can walk through the rusted enclosures and concrete shelters where the animals were once kept, and even find the remains of what were once offices used by zoo staff. The ruins form an eerie backdrop to an otherwise tranquil 1.5-mile track still in the shadow of the dam.

6

Redstone Coke Ovens, Colorado

Image: Nadia Jamnik

Picture a mysterious "town" made up of several lines of man-made caves of equal dimensions, with open entrances like dark mouths. Now place it in a mountainous terrain, in the middle of nowhere. Welcome to Colorado Fuel and Iron coke ovens , in Coal Basin.

Built in 1899, the 249 ovens worked only for a few years, until 1908. In recent decades, the site was recognized as a historic one, and nowadays, many ovens remain intact and open to the public.

7

Black River Ghost Ship, Ohio

Image: zhao chen

Another high-ranking site in the books of any urban explorer is a ghost ship . Located on the banks of the Black River outside of Cleveland, lies a bit of a nautical mystery for the residents of Lorain, Ohio. Sinking into the muddy water along the shore and listing to one side, rusting away a little more each season, is a 90-foot-long Canadian automobile ferry that mysteriously appeared docked under the bridge sometime around 2003.

For the last 20 years, the ship has remained where it dropped anchor all those years ago. No one knows what will happen to the ship. But, for now, it serves as a decaying piece of maritime history that is well worth the walk to the top of the bridge in Lorain to view.

8

Lando School, South Carolina

Image: Evgeny Matveev

Going back to your former school as an adult is a recurring dream for many. Going back to your former school and walking through its ruins is a slightly less common dream, but it is also known to happen. And, if you went to school before the year 1955 in the Lando Schoolhouse in South Carolina, you can live the dream.

The school ruins feature classrooms, an auditorium, and balcony seatings above, all on three floors full of eerie corners, dusty blackboards, and forgotten tables. Quite creepy, right?

9

Abandoned Castle Video Games, South Carolina

Image: Chris Anderson

A defunct casino building fashioned as a castle, complete with a stone exterior, an arched wooden door, a looming knight statue, turrets, and other cliché castle features. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Castle Video Games was a video gambling center in the late 80s and early 90s until the Carolina Supreme Court ruled video gambling illegal, thus shutting the casino castle doors forever.

10

Camp Hayden, Washington

Image: Greg Panagiotoglou

Bunkers are gloomy places by design, with very little room for windows, if any, and an oppressive atmosphere. Now, imagine being in a World War II abandoned bunker at the end of a thickly forested road inside the Salt Creek Recreation Area west of Port Angeles, Washington.

One of seven locations in Washington’s system, this bunker featured a fire control radar and harbor entrance radar. Constructed of steel-shielded concrete, the structure was designed to withstand a direct hit. All of the bunkers still stand, and portions of the interiors are accessible to explorers.

1

Alabama: The first 911 call

Today, the number 911 is synonymous with emergency assistance. Yet, before 1968, there was no universal number to call for help. In fact, citizens had to remember specific ten-digit numbers for their local police, fire department, or ambulance service.

Contrary to what you may think, the first 911 call didn’t take place in a metropolis like New York or Los Angeles. The Alabama Telephone Company developed the system to prove that a universal emergency number was a good idea. So, on February 16, 1968, Alabama Speaker of the House, Rankin Fite, made the inaugural call from the mayor’s office in the small town of Haleyville.

2

Florida: The first sunscreen

Florida is famously known as the Sunshine State, so it’s no wonder that it’s the birthplace of the world’s first effective sunscreen. That said, the invention wasn’t driven by beachgoers looking for a tan, but by the war.

In 1944, during World War II, a Florida pharmacist named Benjamin Green was concerned about the severe sunburns suffered by soldiers stationed in the Pacific. So, he developed a substance known as "red vet pet", a thick, red, petroleum product. While it was sticky and messy, it worked by physically blocking UV rays. After the war, Green refined the formula, added coconut oil and cocoa butter, and eventually founded the world-famous Coppertone brand.

3

Iowa: The first electronic digital computer

If you think of the birth of computers, the first thing that comes to mind is probably Silicon Valley or the ENIAC machine in Pennsylvania. However, the world’s first electronic digital computer was built in the basement of the physics building at Iowa State University.

Between 1937 and 1942, Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry developed the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). Unlike previous mechanical calculators, the ABC used vacuum tubes and binary math, and it was the first to separate the memory from the processor.

4

New York: The first commercial brewery

New York City may be the mecca of finance, but in the 1600s, its primary concern was refreshment. Long before the craft beer craze, the first commercial brewery in the New World was established in New Amsterdam (now Manhattan) in 1632.

The brewery was built by the Dutch West India Company on what is now named Stone Street, near Wall Street. At a time when water was often unsafe to drink, beer was a dietary staple for both adults and children. This early industry laid the foundation for New York’s long relationship with brewing, which would eventually make the state a global powerhouse for beer production in the 19th century.

5

South Carolina: The first opera performance

While the high arts are typically associated with the Northeast, the first opera performed in the American colonies took place in Charleston, South Carolina.

In the colonial era, Charleston was a wealthy, culturally vibrant port city, and its citizens loved European entertainment. So, on February 18, 1735, the British ballad opera Flora premiered at a makeshift theater built in a courtroom. Needless to say, this performance predated the formal theaters of Philadelphia and New York.

6

Maryland: The first dental school

For centuries, dentistry was a trade practiced by blacksmiths and barbers who had no formal medical training. This changed in 1840 in Baltimore, Maryland, with the founding of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery.

Established by dentist Horace Henry Hayden and doctor Chapin A. Harris, it was the first school in the world to offer a formal degree in dental surgery. The founders had initially approached the University of Maryland’s medical school to include dental instruction, but they were dismissed by physicians who claimed dentistry wasn’t that important. They didn’t give up and eventually started their own college, which still exists today as the University of Maryland School of Dentistry.

7

Maine: The first city

There are many really old cities in America. However, the first place to be officially chartered as a city in the English colonies was located in what is now York, Maine. In 1642, English military commander and proprietor of the Province of Maine, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, granted a charter to a settlement then known as Gorgeana. He even envisioned it as a grand capital for his new territory. While the city’s status was eventually revoked when the Massachusetts Bay Colony took control of the area, the charter remains the first of its kind in American history.

8

Michigan: The first paved road

As the home of the American automotive industry, it is only fitting that Michigan would be the birthplace of the modern road. Before the beginning of the 20th century, most American roads were made of dirt, gravel, or bricks, which were ill-suited for the weight and speed of the newly invented automobile.

In 1909, the Wayne County Road Commission paved a one-mile stretch of Woodward Avenue in Detroit with concrete. It was the first time cement had been used to create a long-distance road surface. The experiment was so successful—costing less to maintain and providing a smoother ride—that it became the global standard for road construction.

9

Minnesota: The first shopping mall

The American shopping mall is a cultural icon, but did you know it was born of a desire to escape the brutal winters of the Midwest? In 1956, the Southdale Center opened in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, Minnesota, becoming the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the U.S.

The mall was intended to be a town square that would foster community interaction regardless of the weather outside. It featured two levels of shops and a central atrium. The design was so revolutionary that it served as the blueprint for thousands of malls across the globe. Fun fact: Minnesota is also home to the largest shopping mall in the world, the Mall of America, which opened in 1992 in Bloomington.

10

Arizona: The first McDonald’s drive-thru

The drive-thru is a staple of fast food culture. Yet, contrary to what you may think, the first one wasn’t created for convenience but for military compliance. In 1975, a McDonald’s in Sierra Vista, Arizona, installed a service window to feed soldiers from the nearby Fort Huachuca.

At the time, soldiers were forbidden from wearing their military uniforms in public establishments. However, they were allowed to remain in their vehicles while in uniform. To capture the business of the hungry soldiers who couldn’t legally walk inside the restaurant, the owner installed a sliding window in the wall. The concept was an immediate success, quickly adopted by the rest of the venues.

1

Swim fins

Image: NEOM

If you don’t know who invented swim fins, this one might startle you! Before he was flying kites in thunderstorms, Benjamin Franklin was just an 11-year-old boy who loved to swim.

He invented early swim fins, but not the kind we wear on our feet. He designed wooden paddles with thumb holes that could be held in the hands to help propel a swimmer through the water faster. He also tried strapping fins to his feet, but found them less effective and even painful.

2

Popsicles

Image: Jill Wellington

The brand Popsicle tells the legendary story: eleven-year-old Frank Epperson left his soda drink with a stirring stick on the porch overnight. When he returned the next morning, he discovered a brilliant idea— frozen juice on a stick !

Originally named the "Epsicle" (after himself), the invention was patented in the 1920s. His children called them "Pop’s ’sicles," and the name Popsicle stuck.

3

Earmuffs

Image: Ellen Kerbey

Chester Greenwood couldn’t endure Maine winters. At 15 years old, his ears got cold, and he didn’t like the feeling of wool hats on his skin. So he devised a creative solution: his grandmother sewed beaver fur onto a wire headband that he shaped into circular ear loops.

That invention was later patented in the 1870s, becoming the world’s first earmuffs, according to historical records.

4

Toy trucks

Image: Allison Astorga

Using bottle caps, cardboard, and ingenuity, Robert W. Patch created a toy truck that could transform into multiple styles: a dump truck, flatbed, or box truck. And he was only 5 years old.

The modular vehicle concept was so compelling that his father, who happened to be a patent attorney, filed for official recognition. By the time Patch turned six, he had been granted a U.S. patent, making him one of the youngest inventors in history.

5

Superman

Image: Esteban López

Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster were both high school students when they came up with the idea for the Man of Steel in 1933.

They created Superman as the ultimate underdog: an alien orphan who fights for justice. The character was sold to Action Comics in 1938, launching the entire superhero genre.

6

Hot seat

Image: Erik Mclean

A heartbreaking story of a baby dying after being left inside a hot car reached Bishop Curry V when he was 10 years old.

This inspired him to design a device he called Oasis (often referred to in the media as the "Hot Seat"). His invention detects rising temperatures in a car, blows cool air, and alerts parents and emergency services.

7

Water skis

Image: Wyatt Harrom

Ralph Samuelson was a teenager when he had an idea: if people could ski on snow, why not on water? In the early 1920s, he took two pine staves , curved the tips using boiling water , and hit the lake with his brother, towing him behind a motorboat.

After many belly flops, he figured out the proper posture and became the first water skier in history. Although he never patented his creation, he spent years performing and became known as the "Father of Water Skiing."

8

Trampolines

Image: Jasper Garratt

Who knew? George Nissen was just 16 when he devised the bouncy fun. In the early 1930s, he watched circus trapeze artists drop and land into safety nets and realized: what if you could bounce back ?

Working out of his parents’ garage, he stretched canvas across a frame and added springs. Initially, trampolines were used for gymnastics training, but even NASA later adopted them to train astronauts.

9

Makin’ Bacon

Image: Polina Tankilevitch

Michigan native Abbey Fleck did not invent bacon itself, but at 8 years old, she had grown tired of soggy bacon and paper towels. She brainstormed a simpler solution: hang the bacon while it cooked, allowing grease to drip away cleanly.

Together with her dad, she built a prototype in the 1990s and earned a U.S. patent for the microwavable "Makin’ Bacon" tray. It became a retail hit .

10

Wristies

Image: Valeriy Borzov

Cold, wet sleeves are a winter misery. 10-year-old Kathryn Gregory grew frustrated with snow slipping between her mittens and coat sleeves, so she sewed together a pair of warm fleece tubes to cover the gap between glove and sleeve .

She called them Wristies. Her invention was such a hit with friends and family that her Girl Scout troop encouraged her to patent it—and she did! Kathryn became one of the youngest inventors to receive a U.S. patent.

11

Crayon holders

Image: AlexanderStein

Ever struggled to hold a crayon that’s worn down to a stub? So did 11-year-old Cassidy Goldstein. She noticed how frustrating tiny crayons could be, especially for kids just learning to grip.

She came up with a simple solution: a plastic cylinder that could hold broken or short crayons , making them easier to use. Patenting the design earned Cassidy the Youth Inventor of the Year Award.