Mysteries of the Abandoned: Hidden America

A beloved hospital in the Big Easy was once the site of heroic efforts by medical staff and volunteers to evacuate patients after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Left in ruin, the historic Charity Hospital is being revitalized by another major New Orleans institution, Tulane University.

An upstart mining town fuels the American war effort in both World Wars with its bountiful deposits of lead and zinc. The dusty pollution from the mining efforts that put Picher, Oklahoma, on the map, plus sinkholes from collapsing tunnels, would condemn the city to abandonment years later.

The Pullman Palace Car Company, a railroad enterprise, once built the company town of Pullman in Chicago, Illinois, for its workers to live in. But when thousands of employees went on strike in Spring 1894, the U.S. military intervened. The history of the complex remains as relevant as ever.

At the All-Star Bowling Lane, a nondescript bowling alley in Orangeburg, South Carolina, evidence comes to light of a peaceful student protest for desegregation during the Civil Rights Movement in 1968 that turned deadly - the Orangeburg Massacre. A series of tunnels beneath the King Eddy Saloon in Los Angeles, California, becomes a shady place for resourceful people in this sunny city that involves bootlegging during 1920s Prohibition.

The notorious owner of this Georgia plantation once held a sale of nearly 450 enslaved people. Appalled at her husband's cruelty, the man's wife wrote and published a journal about the atrocities she witnessed.

An unassuming factory marks a revolutionary leap forward - and upward - in how humans travel. The Wright brothers (Orville and Wilbur) established this aircraft factory in 1909 in Dayton, Ohio. Due to ongoing legal battles and innovative designs from their many competitors, these historic upstarts would soon be grounded.