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Everyone always asks about the most historical place in the USA or the city with the most history. But in a country like the United States, with roots dating back to early Native Americans interwoven with the cultures of countless immigrants, answering those questions is next to impossible. Our history is a complex one.
If you’re a U.S. history buff, you already know about Colonial Williamsburg, Philadelphia, and Gettysburg. But what about Pea Ridge, Mesa Verde, and The Panama Hotel?
The 15 lesser-known historical sites on this list help to make U.S. history. Not all of them show the country at its finest, but these destinations are vital to learning and memorializing the often-forgotten people and events that have formed the United States.
A trip to Boston should absolutely include the Freedom Trail, a stop at Paul Revere’s house, and Boston Common. Keep going until you reach Charlestown and the USS Constitution. Also known as “Old Ironsides,” she’s the oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat.
Start your visit at the USS Constitution Museum to learn about the frigate, how she was built, and what it was like on board when it was still used in naval battles. There are loads of interactive exhibits, making it one of the most kid-friendly history museums. Then head across the Navy Yard to the ship itself for a tour on deck and down below to see the cannons and close quarters where sailors lived at sea.
The museum also hosts a hearty calendar of events. If you happen upon its Family Firepower demonstration, sign up ASAP. As well as touring parts of the ship that aren’t on the usual tour, you’ll get a hands-on how-to for firing a cannon. I don’t regret for a minute being the only person in that program who wasn’t a parent of small children; it really is fun for all ages.
I made my first trip to Independence Hall when I lived in central PA. As much as I love it — seeing where it quite literally all began — there are so many other places in Philadelphia if you want a different experience. Start with the Betsy Ross House.
Betsy Ross is credited with sewing the first American flag. A visit to her house where she lived and sewed that historic banner will teach you all about her life as a patriot, a businesswoman, and a widow and mother.
There’s also the Upholstery Shop where you can see them making furniture and household items using 18th-century methods. This helps the house stay true to history, as Ross worked as an upholsterer to support her family. The current drapes, pillows, and other household items were hand-stitched on site for authenticity.
The Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls in 1848. It was at this historic meeting that pioneers in the fight for women’s equality delivered the Declaration of Sentiments, calling for equal opportunity, representation, and protection.
The museum and historic sites that make up the Women's Rights National Historical Park highlight the individuals lobbying that reform and what it was like to live in their time, as well as modern-day themes and women making inroads in the quest for gender equality today. See the contributions women have made in industry, science, politics, and more throughout the 175+ years since the Convention.
During my last visit, the museum even had a display where visitors could share their own dreams for the future. It’s well worth the time to read what kids want to be when they grow up and see what other visitors hoped for, big and small.
Maryland’s Eastern Shore and Delaware are home to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Byway. The visitor center at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park is one gateway to that byway and a good place to start exploring Tubman's life and history.
Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave who then risked her own life to lead other slaves out of the South. During the Civil War, she served as a nurse to African Americans in South Carolina, then worked as a spy for the U.S. Army in Confederate territory. Later in life, Tubman joined the suffrage movement but unfortunately died before seeing women get the right to vote.
There are many sites in the eastern U.S. dedicated to the abolitionist, including the Harriet Tubman Memorial Garden and Brodess Farm (where Tubman was enslaved as a child) in Maryland, and the Center for African American Heritage at the Delaware History Museum. The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park is in Auburn, New York, where she died in 1913. You can also learn more about her at the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park in Beaufort, South Carolina.
U.S. presidents’ wives have a long history of getting things done; their less-official position often allows them to have a more immediate impact than if they had to operate purely within the bureaucracy of the American government. Thankfully, they’ve tackled important social, education, health, and environmental issues in ways that benefit us all.
The National First Ladies Library & Museum is dedicated to celebrating that impact. The museum is part of the First Ladies National Historic Site, which also includes the historic Saxton-McKinley House. In addition to the regular exhibits on display, you’ll want to drop in on one of the many events, ranging from discussions of First Lady fashion to kids’ story time.
About a year into the Civil War, Union and Confederate armies met at Pea Ridge. The result of the battle was that the Union maintained control of Missouri, including St. Louis, which was vitally important as a crossroads of transportation.
If you visit Pea Ridge National Military Park today, you can take a guided interpretive walk around the site. This is probably the best way to fully understand the site as little remains to help you visualize the battle on your own.
The site's history pre-dates the Civil War, though. Telegraph Road passes through the park and formed part of the Trail of Tears in the early 1800s. Various tribes from the area traveled along this route as they were forced to relocate to the West.
Selma, Alabama, was at the center of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s most often recognized today as the site "Bloody Sunday,” where in 1965, civil rights activists marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge seeking voting rights protections were attacked by local law enforcement. Near the bridge is the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute.
This museum captures the important struggle for equal voting rights in the U.S. with exhibits focusing on themes such as the Selma-Montgomery March, women’s suffrage, and important people who dedicated their lives to the fight. It keeps the movement’s mission alive, hosting presentations on present-day voting rights.
At more than 450 years old, St. Augustine in Florida is the oldest European-settled city in what is now known as the United States. The Spanish built Castillo de San Marcos in 1672 to protect the city and the Atlantic trade route.
The best way to see the fort is with a self-guided tour using the park’s app. Be sure to chat with rangers and volunteers. They’re dressed as colonists and are thrilled to answer all your questions. You can also catch a historic weapons demonstration on weekends.
The Panama Hotel is a key landmark, particularly for Japanese-America history. It was built in 1910 by Sabro Ozasa, a Japanese-American architect, to provide housing for single Japanese men looking for work. It included a sento, or Japanese-style public bathhouse. You can still see Hashidate-yu, and it's said that it’s the last remaining sento in the U.S.
The hotel continued to play a vital role for the community when, in 1942, Executive Order 9066 was issued, forcing people of Japanese ancestry into internment camps. The Panama Hotel’s basement became a place for people to store their belongings as they were rushed out of their homes. Sadly, thousands of those items were never claimed despite efforts to reunite owners with their valuables. You can view the unclaimed items as a testament to the uprooted lives.
Located in Seattle’s International District, the Panama Hotel features a tea and coffee house, tours of the bathhouse, and the option to book a room if you’d like to stay overnight in this historic place.
Fans of historical fiction will want to read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. One of my favorite novels, it’s set at the Panama Hotel.
The GLBT Historical Society Museum is the country’s first museum dedicated solely to LGBTQ history and culture. Among its permanent exhibitions are photos and artifacts detailing everyday life of the San Francisco queer community, as well as one of the original 1978 rainbow flags.
The museum is also home to vast archives and special collections of all kinds of materials related to the LGBTQ community, which you can visit by appointment. The GLBT Historical Society Museum is dedicated to promoting social justice through diversity.
Admission is free on the first Wednesday of every month thanks to sponsorship from the Bob Ross Foundation.
When Japanese-American citizens and others of Japanese descent were sent to internment camps during World War II for no reason other than their ancestry, more than 10,000 of them ended up at Manzanar. Visiting the Manzanar Historic Site gives you a glimpse of what the families forced into incarceration at this desert site experienced.
Start your tour at the Visitor Center, and don’t skip the moving film that runs almost continuously throughout the day. Between the short documentary and the exhibits, there’s no better way to get an idea of what daily life was like at the Manzanar War Relocation Center.
From there, head to Block 14. This is a reconstruction of the barracks, mess hall, and communal latrines that filled the camp, sometimes with as many as 400 people living in a single block.
This is admittedly not the proudest moment of U.S. history, but that doesn’t make it any less important. It's a lot of heavy material to absorb. My parents have been to Manzanar twice because, as my mom said, “It was overwhelming. I needed time to really take it in, and I couldn’t have done that in just one visit.”
For a firsthand account that might make it easier for younger readers (10 and older) to process what they see, try George Takei’s graphic novel, They Called Us Enemy. It tells the story of the actor/activist’s own time in an Arkansas internment camp as a child.
It’s hard to think of anyone who has had a bigger impact on U.S. farm workers’ rights than César Chávez. His legacy means that agricultural workers have better living conditions, safer working conditions, and higher wages than before the farm workers’ movement in the 1970s.
The César E. Chávez National Monument honors Chávez as one of the country’s most important labor leaders. The Visitor Center features a documentary and exhibits about farm workers’ struggle for equality. You can also see Chavez’s actual office.
The Memorial Garden includes the gravesites for both César and his wife, Helen, a labor activist in her own right.
Mesa Verde National Park is many things: the home of Ancestral Puebloans, a World Heritage Site, and an International Dark Sky Park. Few places in the world are better for exploring history and natural beauty all in one spot.
Your first order of duty is to book reservations for a cliff dwelling tour, which run May through October. There are a few to choose from, and they can require different levels of physical ability. The Balcony House tour, for example, has you climbing ladders and crawling through tunnels.
In addition to the cliff dwellings, there are also miles of trails and natural monuments worth the hike.
Chaco Canyon is a sacred spot for Ancestral Puebloan and other indigenous tribes. The Chaco Culture National Historical Park allows you to learn about their heritage while simultaneously exploring the region’s natural beauty.
Taking a ranger-led tour is one way to get the full experience. You’ll have an expert on hand, helping you interpret the cultural and natural significance of what you see. The nine-mile Canyon Loop Drive is another great option. The six major sites along the drive — Una Vida, Hungo Pavi, Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo del Arroyo, and Casa Rinconada — are short walks from the car, which is especially good news in the hot summer months.
If you love stargazing, be sure to check out the Chaco Night Sky Program, available as staffing permits. With little light pollution in the area, you’ll be able to see stars that aren’t visible in many other areas of the U.S. The Chaco Observatory and telescope are worth the visit.
If you're going to talk about westward expansion through the U.S., you have to talk about rodeos. That's what the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum does, celebrating the history of the Wild West and many cultures that have lived in the area.
Exhibits include a record of the Cheyenne Frontier Days (CFD), a century-old rodeo, as well as items from local Native American tribes, and even a display on CFD Rodeo Queens.
History is made up of stories; some aspects we love while others are a tougher pill to swallow.
You can help make your own travel history positive. Protect your trip, whether it’s a cross-country expedition or a road trip closer to home, with the right travel insurance for your adventure. Get a quick quote at SevenCorners.com or talk to a licensed agent about the best options for you.
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