Fort Assiniboine Historic Site, Northern Agricultural Research Center [MT]

Description

The Fort Assinniboine Historic Site preserves the site of what was once the largest military fort west of the Mississippi River, with 104 structures over 700,000 acres. Founded in 1879, the soldiers of Fort Assinniboine protected settlers from Sitting Bull's Lakota Sioux and other Native Americans. Other responsibilities included patrolling the U.S.-Canada border and preventing the Blackfoot Confederacy, Montana Indian Reservations, and Canadian Native Americans from acting against Euro-American settlers. The fort's location was selected as the nexus of several Native American trails. The site currently serves as an agricultural research center.

The site offers guided tours. Reservations are required for groups.

Suquamish Museum [WA]

Description

The Suquamish Museum presents the history and culture of the Puget Sound Salish Tribes—with particular emphasis granted the Suquamish Tribe. Collections include artifacts of daily life, more than 9,000 photographs and negatives, canoes, carvings, archival documents, and 150 oral histories.

The museum offers exhibits and guided tours. 48 hours notice is required for all guided tours.

Grey Towers National Historic Landmark [PA]

Description

The 100-acre Grey Towers National Historic Landmark contains Grey Towers, summer home of Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946), Pennsylvania Governor and first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service. Pinchot is attributed the concepts of conservation and sustainable use. Gifford's wife Cornelia Bryce Pinchot (1881-1960) advocated women's right to vote, child labor reform, and the formation of trade unions. The structure itself was erected in 1886.

The site offers one-hour guided tours of the gardens and the residence's first floor, historic gardens, customizable field trips, environmental outreach programs for students, a 15-minute history interpretive trail, a hands-on forestry trail running less than one mile, a bluebird nestbox trail running 1/4 of a mile, conservation education programs, a trail describing types and uses of trees, and Smokey Bear and forest fire activity backpacks for use on site.

Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium [VT]

Description

The Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium presents conservation stewardship, natural history, and the relationship between humanity and our ecosystems. The environmental focus is on the Great Northern Forest. The museum is housed in a Victorian structure, and possesses the only public planetarium in Vermont. Over 400 species of plant can be viewed on site; and the museum collections consist of more than 175,000 specimens, artifacts, and archival documents.

The museum offers 50-minute planetarium presentations, exhibits, curriculum-based walking tours and educational programs for students, a student curator summer program, and archival access. Reservations are required for groups of 10 or more wishing to view the planetarium program. Archival access is by appointment only. The website offers monthly astronomical information; curriculum resource guides on Abenaki life, the Great Northern Forest, and regional history; and scavenger hunts for use at the museum.

Portland Harbor Museum [ME]

Description

The Portland Harbor Museum presents the maritime history of New England's Portland Harbor. Available topics for educational programming include Casco Bay lighthouses, the forts of Portland Harbor, 19th-century clipper ships, 19th-century Portland Harbor, modern Portland Harbor, and the liberty ships of World War II.

The museum offers exhibits, a standards-based curriculum, and customizable educational programs for students.

Northwest Seaport [WA]

Description

The Northwest Seaport is a maritime heritage center in Washington state. The seaport maintains several historic vessels, including the 1889 tugboat Arthur Foss, which was used in 1898 to transport miners to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush.

The center offers monthly chantey sings, preschool story times, monthly tugboat engineering workshops for participants 14 years of age or older, and self-guided and 45-minute group tours of the Arthur Foss. Group tours support no more than 12 participants. Please call ahead to arrange group tours and to ensure that the tugboat is open to the public on the day you plan to visit.

Houmas House Plantation and Gardens [LA]

Description

The Houmas House Plantation and Gardens is a historic estate in the vicinity of New Orleans. The land was originally granted to the Houmas people, who then sold it to Maurice Conway and Alexander Latil in the 18th-century. From there, the site was developed into a sugar plantation, eventually becoming the nation's largest sugar producer. The Greek Revival primary residence on site today was completed in 1828. The plantation suffered economic failure during the Great Depression, and ceased to be a working agricultural site. More recently, the house has been seen in the 1964 Bette Davis film Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and the televised competition Top Chef. Today, the house contains period furnishings.

The plantation offers guided tours, period rooms, and 38-acres of gardens.

Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois, and United Tribes of South Carolina

Description

Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois, and United Tribes of South Carolina is an organization which seeks to preserve and share the history and culture of the Native American peoples of South Carolina. To this end, the organization is politically active and educational.

The society offers outreach music, dancing, and performance presentations; storytelling; demonstrations; outreach cultural, historical, and archaeological lectures; hands-on educational outreach programs; and curriculum guides. All of the aforementioned offerings are designed for or can be tailored to student needs.