Indiana Dunes National Park – Indiana
On our cross-country family road trip in 1995, we stopped at the Indiana Dunes National Park.
The massive sand dunes stretch along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and they are interwoven with wetlands and beaches. The dunes were formed over thousands of years as glaciers retreated in the wind and water shaped the sand into ridges and peaks.
Within this relatively small area, hundreds of plant species and multiple ecosystems exist. For a long time, researchers have understood that this landscape was both rare and fragile. It was in 1966, after much advocacy, the dunes were designated a National Lakeshore. This legislature was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson.
In 2019, the site was redesignated as Indiana Dunes National Park to further protect and preserve this landscape.
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Pea Ridge National Military Park – Arkansas
Many of our National Historic Sites preserve the landscapes of America’s military past, especially Civil War battlefields. So many of these places are found in Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas, but Pea Ridge stands as one of the important Civil War sites in the West. Here a pivotal chapter of the conflict is found in the […]
Springfield Armory National Historic Site – Massachusetts
I have visited the Springfield Armory National Historic Site a few times over the years. I have left with a deep appreciation of how this place shaped American history. Founded in 1794, at the direction of George Washington, the Springfield Armory became the center of American military manufacturing for nearly two hundred years. During its […]
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument – Arizona
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