Shoshone County Mining and Smelting Museum [ID]

Description

The Shoshone County Mining and Smelting Museum presents the local history of the Silver Valley, Idaho, with a particular emphasis on mining and smelting history. Exhibits cover mining, environmental history, smelting equipment, minerals, metallurgy, medicine, and electricity. Collection highlights include an 1899 Nordberg Air Compressor and scale models of the Bunker Hill and Sunshine Mines. Dating to 1906, the museum structure was built as the residence of Stanley A. Easton (died 1961), manager of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company.

The museum offers exhibits and a period sitting room.

Idaho State Historical Society

Description

The Idaho State Historical Society is primarily a state-wide preservation advocacy organization. However, the society does operate the Idaho Historical Museum and an exhibit on military history located in the Old Idaho Penitentiary. The museum covers topics inclusive of prehistoric life, the fur trade, the gold rush, pioneer life, Native American life, and area Chinese and Basque populations. It also offers 18th- and 19th-century period rooms. The military exhibit offers artifacts from as early as the Middle Ages.

The museum offers tours, exhibits, period rooms, collections access for researchers, a monthly brown bag series, traveling exhibits, traveling trunks, student worksheets, educational marionette shows, hands-on activities, outreach programs, slide shows for rent, and other educational programming. The society also offers a public archives and research center. The website offers lesson plans, a club for fourth graders with activity downloads, and reading materials for young children.

Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation [CA]

Description

The Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation operates the Tor House and Hawk Tower. The Tor House was built in 1918 through 1919 as the residence of poet Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) and his family. The property was modeled after English Tudor barns. Jeffers later built the 1924 Hawk Tower for his wife and children. Guests who visited the Jeffers on their land include Sinclair Lewis, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Langston Hughes, Charles Lindbergh, George Gershwin, and Charlie Chaplin. The site also includes an English-style garden. Jeffers's poetry often focused on the Californian coast, and today his work is highly lauded for its environmental consciousness.

The foundation offers tours.

USS Potomac - The Presidential Yacht Potomac [CA]

Description

The USS Potomac was built in 1934, and is best known as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential yacht. It served this purpose between 1936 and 1945, the year of Roosevelt's death (1882-1945). Today, the vessel serves as an interpretive center focusing on the years of Roosevelt's presidency (1933-1945).

The vessel offers exhibits, a 15-minute film, student educational cruises, two-hour history cruises, guided tours, self-guided tours, and a library with circulating materials. The website offers a gallery of historic photographs. Reservations are required for student cruises.

El Pueblo History Museum [CO]

Description

The "Cultural Crossroads on the Arkansas," El Pueblo History Museum has always been a gathering place for diverse people and cultures. The site includes an 1840s-style adobe trading post and plaza, as well as the archaeological excavation for the original 1842 El Pueblo trading post. The museum building showcases the city's history and the various cultural and ethnic groups in Pueblo and the region. The site also features the Frontier Pathways Scenic and Historic Byways Information Center.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, and educational programs.

Lincoln State Monument [NM]

Description

Lincoln State Monument manages most of the historical buildings in the community of Lincoln. This most widely visited state monument in New Mexico is part of a community frozen in time—the 1870s and 1880s. The monument includes 17 structures and outbuildings, 4 of which are open year-round and 2 more seasonally as museums. Most of the buildings in the community are representative of the Territorial Style of adobe architecture in the American Southwest. Lincoln is a town made famous by one of the most violent periods in New Mexico history. Today's visitors can see the Old Lincoln County Courthouse with museum exhibits that recount the details of the Lincoln County War and the historic use of the "House" as store, residence, Masonic Lodge, courthouse, and jail. Visitors walk in the footsteps of Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and other famous and infamous characters of the Wild West, and trace the events of 1878 through the Courthouse and the Tunstall Store, which contains displays of the original 19th-century merchandise in the original shelving and cases. They can then continue through history by visiting the Dr. Woods House, defensive torreón (tower) for the village; the San Juan Mission Church; and the Montaño store. The Anderson-Freeman Museum features historical exhibits in a timeline starting with American Indian prehistory and ending with the Lincoln County War. A 12-minute video about the Lincoln County War and the community is shown throughout the day.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, and tours.

Fort Buenaventura [UT]

Description

Located on 88 acres of land, Fort Buenaventura, established in the 1840s, is the first permanent European settlement in the Great Basin. The site includes reproduction stockades and cabins.

Fort Buenaventura offers exhibits, seasonal mountain man activities, and picnic areas.

Safety Learning Center and Fire Museum [OR]

Description

The Safety Learning Center and Fire Museum presents fire safety information and the history of firefighting in the U.S. via a variety of relevant artifacts. Collection highlights include historic pumpers, hose carts, ladders, firefighting garb, and a circa 1865 roster board.

The center offers tours, hands-on activities, and home fire safety consultations. Reservations are required for tours.

Oregon Maritime Museum

Description

The Oregon Maritime Museum presents the history of river usage in Oregon and the Great Basin. The collection includes the 1947 stern-wheel tugboat Portland and the 1930 square-rigged fishing vessel Mom's Boat.

The museum offers guided tours and outreach speakers.