The National Archives and Records Administration: Rocky Mountain Region offers access to federal photographs, paper documents, architectural drawings, and maps created in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana between 1847 and the 1990s, as well as to archival materials from North and South Dakota created after 1972. Topics represented include homesteading, Indian agencies, reclamation projects, mining, naturalizations, the World War II homefront, territorial court records, railroads, bankruptcy, genealogy, and national parks, among others.

With so many topics, how can you find what you need? Luckily, the region offers a list of online finding guides, specific to their holdings.

In addition, the region offers tours of the facilities, presentations of their holdings and services to students, and internship opportunities. Tours and presentations require appointments, and presentations can be made at the Lakewood, Colorado, facility or elsewhere. Availability of presentations made anywhere other than the main facility is subject to travel budget considerations.

NARA's Rocky Mountain Region branch is dedicated to providing professional development opportunities for educators. With advance notice, the archives provides three workshops—"Using Online Resources of the National Archives," "Hands-On History: Incorporating Primary Sources in the Classroom," and "Finding Primary Source Documents at the Rocky Mountain Regional Archives." All workshops are free. However, off-site workshops outside of the Denver metro area may require payment of travel and expense fees.

Archivists are also available to assist in student research for National History Day projects and other undertakings.

The archives is currently creating primary source document lessons for each of its constituent states. Each lesson includes one or more primary sources, background information on the source, suggested teaching activities, and a description of the document's relationship to national and state standards. Lessons are available in CD and .PDF formats.

The National Archives and Records Administration is divided into numerous regional subdivisions—one of which is the Pacific Region. This region has three locations, all within the state of California—San Bruno, Laguna Niguel, and Perris. The San Bruno and Perris locations are open for public research.

The San Francisco/San Bruno location holds federal records from California, with the exception of the Southern portion of the state; Nevada, with the exception of Clark County; Hawaii; American Samoa; and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Topics with strong representative materials include environmental issues, Naval history, Native American history, and Asian-Pacific Immigration. Available records include photos, architectural drawings, and maps dating from the 1850s through the 1980s. The location offers occasional public programs.

The Perris/Riverside location holds federal and court records from Arizona; Clark County, Nevada; and southern California. Topics with strong representative materials include Naval history, Native American history, westward migration, civil rights, and Asian immigration. Materials date from approximately 1850 through the 1980s. This location also offers public programs.

Visitors are asked to call ahead, have an ID ready, and be willing to leave personal belongings in a locker.

Students are encouraged to visit to apply for internships, learn to find and use primary sources, and/or discover National History Day contests.

Educators may visit to learn of FREE educational resources, curriculum-specific primary sources, and/or National History Day.

Finally, if you teach grade four, five, seven, eight, eleven, or twelve in California, there's a fantastic resource available to you online. Teaching History in California selects state standards from each of these years, and provides related background information; primary sources; transcriptions; worksheets; PowerPoint presentations; additional documents, such as maps, timelines, and vocabulary lists; and/or teaching activities. Also, consider taking a moment to engage your students in an introductory activity on primary sources.

The Amon Carter Museum houses paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, artists who focused on the American West. It also presents exhibits of artwork by other American artists, on subjects ranging far from the original collection's American West focus.

The museum offers exhibits, self-guided and guided tours for student groups (including custom tours and tours for AP students), professional development opportunities for educators, videoconference outreach programs, teaching materials borrowable by Texas educators, research library access, and other recreational and educational events.

The Hubbard Museum of the American West presents and interprets the history of the West, from pre-contact to the present day, in its four rotating galleries and children's area.

The museum offers exhibits, lectures, programs and self-guided and guided tours for school groups, and other recreational and educational events.

The Museum of Nuclear Science and History, according to its website, is "the nation's only congressionally chartered museum in its field," tracing the history of nuclear research, development, and application.

The museum offers exhibits, programs and guided and self-guided tours for school groups, outreach presentations, and professional development for educators.

The Atomic Testing Museum traces and interprets the history of nuclear testing in the U.S. and of the Nevada Test Site.

The museum offers exhibits.

Housed in Omaha's Union Station, the Durham Museum preserve and interprets local and Nebraska history.

The museum offers exhibits, a working soda fountain, tours and programs for school groups, summer camps, programs for homeschoolers, lectures, research library access, and other recreational and educational events.

The Museum of the Rockies, according to its website, "houses one of the world’s largest collections of dinosaurs, permanent exhibits on Western history and American Indians, several changing exhibits each year, and a planetarium." During the summer months, it also operates the Living History Farm, which recreates life in the 1890s.

The museum offers exhibits, planetarium shows, classes, tours for school groups, traveling trunks for rent, professional development opportunities for educators, and other recreational and educational events.

The Riverside Metropolitan Museum houses artifacts from local natural and cultural history. Exhibits include displays on the history of museums, and collections emphasize local Native American artifacts. It also maintains the Heritage House, an 1891 Victorian mansion.

The museum offers exhibits, lectures, tours for school groups, and other recreational and educational events; the Heritage House offers guided tours for school groups and occasional living history demonstrations and other recreational and educational events.

The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum preserves the history and culture of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and other Native cultures.

The museum offers exhibits, lectures, traditional crafts classes for all ages, guided museum tours and canyon hikes for school groups, in-class outreach presentations, research library access by appointment, and other recreational and educational events.