Abram's Delight Museum [VA]

Description

The Abram's Delight Museum presents an example of life in the lower Shenandoah Valley prior to U.S. independence. The limestone residence known as Abram's Delight was built in 1754, the year in which the French and Indian War was instigated; and the current furnishings reflect the 18th century. The home also served as Winchester, Virginia's first Quaker meeting house. On-site, one can also find mill stones and a log cabin, which is more typical of early settlers' dwellings.

The museum offers period rooms.

Arkansas Post Museum

Description

Early travelers used the Arkansas River as a highway. Just north of the waterway lay a land of tall grasses filled with elk, buffalo, and deer. Explorers such as Audubon, Schoolcraft, and Washington Irving were startled at the expanse of land in this region. Visitors can stroll through this museum's complex of five buildings and explore life on the Arkansas Grand Prairie.

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

Fort Buford State Historic Site [ND]

Description

Fort Buford State Historic Site preserves remnants of a vital frontier plains military post. Fort Buford was built in 1866 near the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, and became a major supply depot for military field operations. Original features still existing on the site include a stone powder magazine, the post cemetery site, and a large officers' quarters building which now houses a museum. Fort Buford, located near present-day Williston, was one of a number of military posts established to protect overland and river routes used by immigrants settling the West. While it served an essential role as the sentinel on the northern plains for 19 years, it is probably best remembered as the place where the famous Hunkpapa Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, surrendered in 1881.

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

Chimney Rock National Historic Site [NE]

Description

Chimney Rock has become one of the most famous landmarks in the American West. This unique formation—the most noted on the Oregon Trail—has come to symbolize the greatest voluntary migration in the history of mankind. The Visitor Center features museum exhibits explaining the westward migration of the 19th century and the significant role Chimney Rock had in the memories of those who traveled the trails west.

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

Paynes Creek Historic State Park [FL]

Description

During the 1840s, tensions between the settlers and Seminole Indians prompted authorities to establish a trading post in Florida's interior, away from settlements. Built in early 1849, the post was attacked and destroyed by renegade Indians that summer. In late 1849 Fort Chokonikla was built nearby as the first outpost in a chain of forts established to control the Seminoles. The Seminoles never attacked the fort, but the Army was nearly defeated by mosquitoes. A museum at the visitor center depicts the lives of Florida's Seminole Indians and pioneers during the 19th century.

The park offers exhibits, tours, short film screenings, and educational programs.

Woolly Hollow State Park and Woolly Cabin [AR]

Description

The park features the "Woolly Cabin," a one-room log structure erected on the Woolly family homestead in 1882 by Martin Alfred Woolly, son of William Riley Woolly, the head of a family clan of early pioneers who came to Arkansas in 1851. Martin Woolly took up land in the "Hollow" in 1859. This started the chain of events that led to his namesake being used here over a century later.

The site offers occasional recreational and educational events.

Fort Bedford Museum [PA]

Description

Old Fort Bedford was a British stockade built in 1758 as part of the French and Indian War campaign against the French at Fort Duquesne. After several failed attempts in the early 1750s, the British launched a major offensive against Fort Duquesne in 1758. Facing the formidable task of crossing the Allegheny Mountains and the treat of attack, numerous stockades were built along the way west. Fort Bedford was constructed as a key fortification along the military path Forbes Road and served as the staging area for the successful campaign. After the war Fort Bedford stood until the 1770s, used as a British outpost on the frontier and as a refuge from Indian attack as westward migration increased in the 18th century. Today, a reconstructed blockhouse structure houses a large-scale model of the original fort. The Museum displays Native American artifacts collected from the region. Thousands of household items dating back 100 to more than 200 years ago from flintlock rifles to early clothing to antique hand tools help to recreate the atmosphere of pioneer days on the frontier of western Pennsylvania.

The museum offers exhibits.

Plimoth Plantation

Description

Plimoth Plantation, a bicultural museum, offers powerful personal encounters with history built on thorough research about the Wampanoag People and the Colonial English community in the 1600s. The Plantation's exhibits, programs, live interpreters, and historic settings encourage a new level of understanding about present-day issues affecting communities around the world. The Plantation is made up of several organized areas, including the Wampanoag Homesite, the Mayflower II, the 1627 English Village, the Crafts Center, and the Nye Barn.

The plantation offers exhibits, tours, living history demonstrations, workshops, lectures, and educational and recreational programs.

Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center [OK]

Description

At noon on September 16, 1983, over 100,000 people raced into the Cherokee Outlet to claim a 160-acre homestead or town lot. The largest of the Oklahoma land runs, the Cherokee Outlet Land Run opened six million acres to settlement. By nightfall settlers’ camps dotted the prairie, and buildings were springing up in the newly settled towns. The new 24,000 sq. ft. Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, opening in the spring of 2011, will feature all new exhibits, a Temporary Exhibit Gallery to host traveling exhibits, a research center, a theater and a gift shop. Gracing the landscape of the building are replicas of the Phillips University columns and “The Homesteader” statute by the renowned western artist, H. Holden. The Heritage Center’s living history area, Humphrey Heritage Village, features a collection of four historically significant buildings including the only remaining 1893 U.S. Land Office, an 1896 school, a 1902 church and a 1905 home. The Center’s most prominent educational program is Turkey Creek School, providing 4th grade students from throughout the state the opportunity to experience a school day from 1910.