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.
1. Charlestown, Massachusetts — USS Constitution
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.
What’s nearby
- The USS Cassin Young is a World War II-era ship just down the pier if you’re making a naval-themed day of it.
- Bunker Hill Monument is free to visit and commemorates the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first battle of the Revolutionary War in 1775.
- Warren Tavern, said to have been built in 1780, has served food and drinks to revolutionaries and tourists alike, and is a good spot for a quick bite to eat before your next tour.
2. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — Betsy Ross House
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.
What’s nearby
- The Arch Street Meeting House has been used continuously since 1682 as a Quaker site of worship and activism, and is now a National Historic Landmark.
- The Benjamin Franklin Museum houses artifacts and interactive exhibits highlighting Franklin’s legacy of innovation.
- The Museum of the American Revolution is packed with stories of the many people who fought for the United States’ freedom.
3. Seneca Falls, New York — Women’s Rights National Historical Park
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.
What’s nearby
- The National Women’s Hall of Fame is dedicated to honoring the women throughout U.S. history who have changed our world as scientists, activists, scholars, athletes, and more.
- The It’s a Wonderful Life Museum houses artifacts and more from the classic Christmas movie. Locals believe that the fictional Bedford Falls was inspired by the real-life Seneca Falls.
- The Seward House Museum offers tours of the home and gardens of William Henry Seward who, at the peak of his political career, was Secretary of State during the Lincoln administration.
4. Church Creek, Maryland — Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park
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.
What’s nearby
- The Choptank River Lighthouse in Cambridge is a replica lighthouse that guided boats along the river during the area’s long maritime history. There’s also a small museum.
- The Richardson Maritime Museum features an outdoor collection of artifacts that showcase not only the history but also the craftsmanship common in the area. Visit on a Wednesday for boat building demonstrations and classes.
- Nassawango Iron Furnace was a company town built by the Maryland Iron Company in the mid-1800s. Today the historic site is dedicated to preserving artisans’ studios, art, and history while teaching what life would have been like during the town’s heyday.
5. Canton, Ohio — National First Ladies Library & Museum
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.
What’s nearby
- The McKinley Presidential Library & Museum is more than just another memorial to a former president. There’s also a planetarium and science center, history museum, and research center.
- The Pro Football Hall of Fame is a must-see for history and sports fans, honoring the best of the best in American football.
- The Canton Classic Car Museum is home to dozens of classic and unique cars as well as other vehicular memorabilia.
6. Benton County, Arkansas — Pea Ridge National Military Park
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.
What’s nearby
- The Museum of Native American History is a free museum with more than 10,000 artifacts from pre-historic times through early Native American history and into today.
- The Blue Spring Heritage Center is dedicated to the long history of people in the area, including American Indian tribes that considered the Blue Spring lagoon sacred ground. Visit the gardens and explore the history.
- The Walmart Museum shows how the retail giant got started, along with The Spark Café, featuring Walmart-themed treats.
7. Selma, Alabama — National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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.
What’s nearby
- The Edmund Pettus Bridge is now part of the 54-mile Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail, commemorating the1965 Voting Rights March.
- The Vaughn-Smitherman Museum was built as a school for orphans and children of Free Masons in 1847. It was also the city’s first African American hospital, the county courthouse, and a military school before transitioning into a museum, with one floor restored to depict its early days as a hospital.
- The Old Depot Museum is (as the name suggests) housed in a former railroad depot and features the area’s history from pre-historic Native Americans through the Civil War and slavery, to the Civil Rights Movement.
8. St. Augustine, Florida — Castillo de San Marcos
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.
What’s nearby
- The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche was named the “Most Peaceful Tourist Spot” in the U.S. by Casago Vacation Rentals. Although it is sacred ground, you don’t have to be a member of the Catholic Church to relax and enjoy the grounds.
- Colonial Quarter in Historic St. Augustine is a replica Spanish colony. Take a living history tour, watch blacksmithing and weapons demonstrations, and chow down on “historic dining.”
- The Lightner Museum’s art collection is eclectic — there's really no other word for a museum with a full exhibit of 19th-century salt and pepper shakers. The building is impressive in its own right. It was a Gilded Age resort hotel built in the late 1800s and maintains much of that historic charm.
9. Seattle, Washington — The Panama Hotel
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.
What’s nearby
- The Wing Luke Museum, named after the first publicly elected Asian American in the Pacific Northwest, features art, history, and culture of Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander communities.
- Beneath the Streets provides a variety of underground Seattle tours, giving you a deep dive into the city’s history that often goes overlooked.
- The Seattle Pinball Museum has more than 50 games from the 60s to the present day. You can even play them for free as part of your paid admission.
10. San Francisco, California — GLBT Historical Society Museum
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.
What’s nearby
- Castro Camera is Harvey Milk’s 1970s photography shop, his home, and where he based his campaign headquarters while running for San Francisco political office. It remains a key historical landmark in the city.
- The San Francisco Botanical Garden has more than 8,000 plants, coming from around the world. It’s one of three gardens in Golden Gate Park, along with the Conservatory of Flowers and Japanese Tea Garden.
- The National AIDS Memorial is 10 acres dedicated to remembering those who died of AIDS and fighting the stigma attached to the disease.
11. Independence, California — Manzanar Historic Site
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.
What’s nearby
- The Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine, California, looks at the history of Western movies and the landscape that inspired them.
- The Maturango Museum preserves the natural history and archaeology of the Northern Mojave Desert through a variety of art, photography, and artifacts.
- The Laws Railroad Museum and Historical Site collects artifacts from the region’s pioneer days, including ranching, mining, and of course, the railroad.
12. Keene, California — César E. Chávez National Monument
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.
What’s nearby
- The National Chavez Center further shares Cesar Chavez’s legacy. In addition to the National Monument, it also includes the United Farm Workers of America’s former headquarters.
- The Buena Vista Museum of Natural History & Science spans the timeline of the area, from dinosaurs and oldest geology to early Native American culture and modern animals.
- The Kern County Museum is perfect for people who love to explore local history with a focus on all the daily life events that make a community unique.
13. Colorado — Mesa Verde National Park
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.
What’s nearby
- Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center & Museum is an archeology lover’s dream with artifacts, hands-on exhibits, and replicas of American Indian structures that teach the ancient history of Southwest Colorado.
- Aztec Ruins National Monument, across the border in New Mexico, has “some of the best-preserved Chacoan structures of its kind.” Take full advantage of the self-guided tour, museum, Heritage Garden and Native Plants Walk, and the Old Spanish National Historic Trail for the full experience.
- The Four Corners Monument Navajo Tribal Park is the only place in the U.S. where four states — Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah — intersect at one spot.
14. New Mexico — Chaco Culture National Historical Park
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.
What’s nearby
- Salmon Ruins lets you walk through excavated archaeological sites and see Native American artifacts dating back to the Ice Age.
- The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science has loads of collections to check out. Don’t miss the Alamosaurus exhibit with fossils, bones, and teeth of the largest animal ever to roam New Mexico.
- Bandelier National Monument features more than 33,000 acres of canyon and mesas. For the human touch, be sure to see the petroglyphs and cliff dwellings, too.
15. Cheyenne, Wyoming — Frontier Days Old West Museum
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.
What’s nearby
- The Cheyenne Botanic Gardens is several gardens in one. The Grand Conservatory is at the center of it all, but there’s also a children’s village, herb garden, rose garden, labyrinth, and much more.
- The Historic Governors’ Mansion was built in 1904 and remains a premier site for learning about the state’s history, architecture, and the families who have lived in the mansion.
- The Cowgirls of the West Museum & Emporium shines a spotlight on trailblazing women like Annie Oakley and Sacagawea.
Make Your Travel History One to Remember
History is made up of stories; some aspects we love while others are a tougher pill to swallow.
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