Año Nuevo State Park [CA]

Description

The purpose of Año Nuevo State Park is to preserve and protect a substantial area on the western slope of the central Coast Range inland from Año Nuevo Point. Cultural resources include the remnants of a prehistoric Native American village site and a number of structures from the 19th-century Cascade Ranch.

The park offers exhibits and tours.

Angel Island State Park [CA]

Description

In the middle of San Francisco Bay sits Angel Island State Park. Three thousand years ago, the island was a fishing and hunting site for Coastal Miwok Indians. It was later a haven for Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala, a cattle ranch, and a U.S. Army post. From 1910 to 1940, the island processed hundreds of thousands of immigrants, the majority from China. During World War II, Japanese and German POWs were held on the island, which was also used as a jumping-off point for American soldiers returning from the Pacific. In the '50s and '60s, the island was home to a Nike missile base.

The site offers tours, exhibits, and educational and recreational programs and events, and works in coordination with the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, listed above, for educational programs focusing on the immigration history of the island.

Anderson Marsh State Historic Park [CA]

Description

Anderson Marsh State Historic Park contains oak woodlands, grass-covered hills, and tule marsh. One of the largest groups of people in prehistoric California, the Southeastern Pomo, knew this land as home. Today, descendants of those people still live nearby. Anderson Marsh's archaeological sites hold clues to the lives of the Pomo. Some sites are over 10,000 years old, making them among the oldest in California. Visitors can also explore the past at the historic Anderson Ranch, with its 19th-century structures.

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

Sacramento Mountains Historical Museum

Description

"Before the turn of the twentieth century, settlers began to flock to the beautiful Sacramento Mountains, encroaching on the Mescalero Apaches who already made their homes in the cool timbers. Some came looking for a better country for permanent settlement. Others were interested in harvesting timber to build a railroad from El Paso to points north. Still others came on holiday, finding respite in the cool breezes and mild temperatures of what the Apaches once termed as Pisacah, 'a place of plenty.'

Come visit the Sacramento Mountains Museum & Pioneer Village and learn the fascinating story of these resilient peoples as they struggled against the elements and against one another to tame the environs and claim a portion of it as their own."

Abbie Gardner Sharp Cabin [IA]

Description

The Cabin stands as the site where 13-year-old Abbie Gardner was an eyewitness to one of the few violent conflicts between European-American settlers and American Indians in Iowa (what became known as the 1857 Spirit Lake Massacre). The cabin has been restored to resemble its approximate 1856 appearance. Nearby are a monument to those killed, a one-acre park, and a visitors center full of artifacts.

The site offers exhibits and tours.

Culberson County Historical Museum

Description

"The museum building is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Van Horn. When Culberson County was first created (it broke off from El Paso County), the Museum site served as the first courthouse while one was being constructed. It subsequently served as a hotel for more than four decades. It was purchased in 1979 by the Museum Association and has been in the process of restoration since that time.

The Museum contains a large quantity of artifacts reflecting the history of Van Horn and the surrounding area. It features an old western style saloon with bar and mirrored back bar which have been in the same room since the early 1900’s. There are displays showing the history of mining, ranching, the railroad, and other early activities, as well as personal items which belonged to members of early pioneer families who first settled here."

Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park and Chaw'se Regional Indian Museum [CA]

Description

Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park nestles in a little valley 2,400 feet above sea level with open meadows and large valley oaks that once provided the native Americans of this area with an ample supply of acorns. The park was created in 1968 and preserves a great outcropping of marbleized limestone with some 1,185 mortar holes—the largest collection of bedrock mortars in North America. The Museum has been designed to reflect the architecture of the traditional roundhouse. Exhibited in this two-story museum are outstanding examples of the technology and crafts of the Miwok and other Sierra Nevada native American groups.

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

Kansas State Historical Society, Archives, and Museum, Potawatomi Mission, and Stach School

Description

The Society manages and operates the state's Museum of History, which preserves and presents the history of the state. Exhibits include a Cheyenne tipi; a fully-stocked covered wagon ready for a trip on the Oregon Trail; a 1950s diner made by the Valentine Industries; and a locomotive made in 1880 for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. In the same complex, the society maintains the 1847 Potawatomi Mission, once operated as a boarding school for children of the Potawatomi Indians, and the one-room Stach School, interpreted as it was in the 1910s and 1920s.

The society offers research library access and school tours to orient middle- and high-school students to the library; the museum offers exhibits, tours (including standards-based school tours), and occasional recreational and educational events. The mission offers tours, a small exhibit on Kansas missions, and a period classroom for school groups; the Stach School offers school tours and "Rural School Days"—four-hour programs for fourth- and fifth-grade students that introduce them to student life in 1920.

Black Hawk State Historic Site and Hauberg Indian Museum

Description

Black Hawk State Historic Site commemorates Native Americans of the area, particularly the Sauk and Mesquakie (Fox) Indians, who lived here from about 1750 to 1831. The Watch Tower Lodge, built between 1934 and 1942 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the State of Illinois, houses Works Progress Administration murals and basement "nature rooms" are available for science activities with school groups. Exhibits in the John Hauberg Museum of Native American Life depict the daily life of the Sauk and Mesquakie Indian nations. Dioramas show the four seasons with a full-sized winter house, a replica of a summer long house, an authentic dugout canoe, and other objects relating to the Sauk and Mesquakie. Another exhibit describes the importance of the fur trade to the Native Americans. Also located in the Lodge is an exhibit outlining the 1934–1942 activities of the Civilian Conservation Corps in developing Black Hawk Park. Outside the lodge is a large statue of Black Hawk executed in 1892 by sculptor David Richards. The Lodge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

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

Petit Jean State Park [AR]

Description

Petit Jean features CCC/Rustic Style architecture that endures as a legacy to the craftsmanship and conservation achievements of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The park includes three National Historic Districts and contains more than 80 buildings, trails, and bridges. The most prominent architectural structure, Mather Lodge, stretches along the bluff of scenic Cedar Creek Canyon. The bluffs, waterfalls, and vistas of Petit Jean Mountain inspired the creation of Arkansas's first state park, and along with it Arkansas's state park system.

The site offers occasional recreational and educational events.