Western Museum of Mining and Industry [CO]

Description

The Museum highlights the technology and technological history of metal mining and metallurgy, as well as the social history of the American Mining West. With a collection of mining equipment and artifacts, visitors can experience America's rich mining history through mining equipment such as steam engines, drills, and pumps in actual operation; social history vignettes illustrating historic home life in mining communities; hands-on experiences including panning for gold and a kids' change-station; scale models of equipment and mines; and a mine recreation offering a glimpse into a working underground, as well as changing exhibits.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, research library access, educational programs, and recreational and educational events.

Museum of the Moving Image [NY]

Description

The Museum advances the public understanding and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. It does so by collecting, preserving, and providing access to moving-image related artifacts; screening significant films and other moving-image works; presenting exhibitions of artifacts, artworks, and interactive experiences; and offering educational and interpretive programs to students, teachers, and the general public.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, film screenings, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Mission Mill Museum [OR]

Description

Mission Mill Museum interprets the history of the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill which produced wool products from 1889 to 1962 and represents one of Oregon's earliest and strongest industries. Mission Mill also interprets the history of Jason Lee's Methodist Mission to Oregon which settled in the Willamette Valley in 1834 before the major Oregon Trail migrations. The missionaries brought formal education, industry, and large scale agriculture and advocated for U.S. government in the Oregon country. The Museum preserves Mission houses; an Oregon Trail settler's house; a historic church; and the structures, equipment, and original water-powered turbine of the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill with related artifacts. The museum's two histories are shared with visitors through individual and group tours, interpretation, speakers, living history, children's programs, hands-on activities, and special events.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, workshops, educational programs, and recreational and educational events.

First Division Museum [IL]

Description

The Museum preserves, interprets, and presents the history of the First Infantry Division in the context of American military history and affairs.

The museum offers exhibits, educational programs, lectures, research library access, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Crater of Diamonds State Park [AR]

Description

In 1906, John Huddleston, the local farmer who owned this property, found the first diamonds here in Murfreesboro, AR, and started the diamond mining rush. After a series of ill-fated mining ventures followed by tourist attractions, the site became an Arkansas state park in 1972. Visitors today are invited to prospect in the park's diamond search area, a 37-acre plowed field that is the eroded surface of an ancient volcanic pipe that, 95 million years ago, brought to the surface the diamonds and some of the semiprecious stones lucky visitors find here today. Within the park boundary many remnants of old mining ventures remain including the Mine Shaft Building, the Guard House, mining plant foundations, old mining equipment, and smaller artifacts. Nowhere else is North American diamond mining history as evident or as well-preserved as here.

The site offers short films, exhibits, tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

North Carolina Transportation Museum

Description

Visitors to the Museum discover the people and machines that have moved North Carolina. Located on the site of Southern Railway's former steam locomotive repair facility Spencer Shops, this is where locomotives that hauled Southern's passenger trains and freight trains filled with North Carolina furniture, textiles, tobacco, and produce were serviced from 1896 to the late 1970s. Up to 3,000 people once worked here but today visitors can see an authentic train depot, antique automobiles, and a roundhouse with 25 locomotives.

A second website for the museum, operated by the Friends of the Museum, can be found here.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, train rides, educational programs, and recreational and educational events.

Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park [FL]

Description

This site was once part of a thriving sugar plantation owned by David Levy Yulee. Yulee was a member of the Territorial Legislative Council, and served in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate after Florida statehood. The park contains the remnants of the once-thriving 5,100-acre sugar plantation: a 40-foot limestone masonry chimney, iron gears, and a cane press. The steam-driven mill operated from 1851 to 1864 and served as a supplier of sugar products for southern troops during the Civil War.

The park offers tours and educational programs.

John Gorrie Museum State Park [FL]

Description

A young physician named John Gorrie moved to Apalachicola in the early 1800s when it was a prominent port of trade, commerce, and shipping in Florida. Gorrie served as postmaster, city treasurer, town councilman, and bank director. Concern for his yellow fever patients motivated Gorrie to invent a method for cooling their rooms. He became a pioneer in the field of air conditioning and refrigeration by inventing a machine that made ice, and received the first U.S. Patent for mechanical refrigeration in 1851. A replica of his ice-making machine is on display at the museum, as well as exhibits chronicling the colorful history of Apalachicola, which played an important role in Florida's economic development.

The park offers exhibits.

Plumas-Eureka State Park [CA]

Description

Plumas-Eureka State Park provides visitors with a glimpse into a fascinating period of California history, as well as opportunities for quiet recreation in a high Sierra mountain setting. The focal point of the park is the museum building and historic area surrounding it. Originally constructed as the miner's bunkhouse, the museum now serves as a visitor center. Inside, displays depict the natural and cultural history of the park. Outside and across the street from the museum is the historic mining area, where the Mohawk Stamp Mill, Bushman five-stamp mill, stable, mine office, Moriarity House (historic miner’s residence), and the blacksmith shop depict life in gold rush-era California.

The park offers exhibits, tours, and demonstrations.

California State Mining and Mineral Museum

Description

There is still gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, at the California State Mining and Mineral Museum, in historic Mariposa. This is where explorers John C. Fremont and Kit Carson found the rich Mariposa Vein and opened the first mill to crush ore and extract gold in California. Visitors can discover for themselves California's mineral wealth, colorful history, and geologic diversity as they view the official mineral collection of the state of California. The collection, which began in 1880, contains over 13,000 objects including mining artifacts, rare specimens of crystalline gold in its many forms, as well as beautiful gem and mineral specimens from California and around the world. The museum displays the Fricot "Nugget," a rare specimen of crystallized gold discovered in the American River in 1864. This 13.8-pound specimen is the largest remaining intact mass of crystalline gold from 19th-century California, when these finds were more common but usually were simply melted down. Visitors can also take a trip back in time as they walk through a mine tunnel and see how gold was mined in the mid-1800s, when California was a wilderness, being transformed by rapid development. The museum's assay office and working scale model of a stamp mill will help visitors discover how gold was found and extracted from the rocks.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, and educational and recreational events.