Completed in 1834, Fort Morgan was active during four wars—the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World Wars I and II. The fort is most famous for its role in the Civil War Battle of Mobile Bay. Union Admiral David Farragut damned the torpedoes and went full speed ahead to win the battle. The massive fort contains more than 40 million bricks and pays tribute to the skilled masons, many of whom were enslaved African Americans.

The site offers exhibits, tours, demonstrations, reference library access, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Known historically as "the Gateway to the Dakotas," Fort Abercrombie was the first permanent United States military fort established in what was to become North Dakota. It was also the only post in the area to be besieged by Dakota (Sioux) warriors for more than six weeks during the Dakota Conflict of 1862. During the Dakota Conflict, Minnesota Volunteer soldiers manned the fort when area settlers sought shelter there. The "regular" U.S. Army soldiers had been withdrawn during the Civil War and had been replaced by the Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. The fort was not protected by blockhouses or a palisade during the seige, but these defensive structures were constructed soon afterward. The fort guarded the oxcart trails of the later fur trade era, military supply wagon trains, stagecoach routes, and steamboat traffic on the Red River. It also was a supply base for two major gold-seeking expeditions across Dakota into Montana. Fort Abercrombie served as a hub for several major transportation routes through the northern plains.

The site offers exhibits.

This site comprises the remains of North Carolina's largest pre-Civil War plantation and one of the South's largest. It once belonged to the Bennehan-Cameron family, whose combined holdings totaled approximately 900 slaves and almost 30,000 acres by 1860. Today, Stagville consists of 71 acres, on three tracts. On this land stand the late 18th-century Bennehan House, four rare slave houses, a pre-Revolutionary War farmer's house, a huge timber framed barn built by skilled slave craftsmen, and the Bennehan Family cemetery.

The site offers tours and occasional recreational and educational events.

Situated within the Crow Reservation in south-central Montana, this park was the home of Plenty Coups, last chief of the Crow. This park preserves the log home, sacred spring, and farmstead of Chief Plenty Coups. The small visitor center that traces the story of Chief Plenty Coups's life, and of the chief's efforts to lead his people in adopting the lifestyle of the white man.

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

Founded in 1902 by Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Palmer Memorial Institute transformed the lives of more than 2,000 African-American students. Today, the campus provides the setting where visitors can explore this unique environment where boys and girls lived and learned during the greater part of the 20th century. The museum links Dr. Brown and Palmer Memorial Institute to the larger themes of African-American history, women's history, social history, and education, emphasizing the contributions African Americans made in North Carolina.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, lectures, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

In 1836, the Second Seminole War swept away the prosperous Bulow Plantation where the Bulow family grew sugar cane, cotton, rice, and indigo. Ruins of the former plantation—a sugar mill, a unique spring house, several wells, and the crumbling foundations of the plantation house and slave cabins—show how volatile the Florida frontier was in the early 19th century. Today, a scenic walking trail leads visitors to the sugar mill ruins, listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. The park has picnic facilities and an interpretive center that tells the plantation's history.

The park offers exhibits

One of the upper South's largest antebellum plantations, Somerset Place was home from 1785–1865 to 850 enslaved people, three generations of owners, and around 50 white and two black employees. It once included more than 100,000 wooded, swampy acres bordering Lake Phelps, where such crops as rice were cultivated. Today, the 31-acre site offers a realistic view of 19th-century life on a large North Carolina plantation through seven original buildings and meshes the lifestyles of all of the plantation's residents in one concise chronological social history.

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

The Museum lies on the original 8.65-acre homestead owned by Chief Ouray and his wife, Chipeta. Migrating from the mountains in the summer to river valleys in the winter, the Utes used the abundant plants and animals of the Uncompahgre River valley for food, clothing, and shelter. Built in 1956 and expanded in 1998, the museum offers one of the most complete collections of the Ute people. The grounds include the Chief Ouray Memorial Park, Chipeta's Crypt, and a native plants garden. Recently renovated and expanded, the museum now includes the Montrose Visitor Information Center, gallery space, classrooms, and a museum store. The museum complex includes shady picnic areas, walking paths, and a memorial to the Spanish conquistadors who traveled through the area in 1776.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, and educational programs.

Fort Ross was a thriving Russian-American Company settlement from 1812 to 1841. This commercial company chartered by Russia's tsarist government controlled all Russian exploration, trade, and settlement in the North Pacific, and established permanent settlements in Alaska and California. Fort Ross was the southernmost settlement in the Russian colonization of the North American continent, and was established as an agricultural base to supply Alaska. Fort Ross was a successfully functioning multicultural settlement for some 30 years. Settlers included Russians, Native Alaskans and Californians, and Creoles (individuals of mixed Russian and native ancestry.) Along with the chapel, the structure of most historical interest at Fort Ross is the Rotchev House, an existing building renovated about 1836 for Alexander Rotchev, the last manager of Ross. It is the only surviving structure. Several other buildings have been reconstructed: the first Russian Orthodox chapel south of Alaska; the stockade; and four other buildings called the Kuskov House, the Officials Barracks, and two corner blockhouses.

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

This remote military post was established in 1853 to assist in conflict resolution between Native Americans and gold-seekers and settlers who had begun flooding into the area after the discovery of gold in the northern mines. Fort Humboldt was formally abandoned in 1870 and rapidly fell into decay. Today, only the hospital building remains out of the original fourteen structures. It is now a historical museum dedicated to telling the story of the Fort and the Native American groups, including the Wiyot, Hoopa and Yurok of this region. In the 1980s the Surgeon's Quarters was reconstructed and there are plans for its establishment as a period house museum. In 2001 an historic herb and vegetable garden was recreated adjacent to the Hospital. The park also includes a Logging Museum and open air displays of historic 19th- through mid-20th-century logging equipment including the Dolbeer Steam Donkey, "Lucy"; the Bear Harbor Lumber Company's Gypsy Locomotive #1; and the Elk River Mill and Lumber Company's #1 "Falk" locomotive.

The park offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events and programs.