Midwest Region
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Iowa
- Visited: Effigy Mounds National Monument
- Visited: Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
Illinois
- Visited: Lincoln Home National Historic Site
- Visited: Pullman National Monument
Indiana
- Visited: George Rogers Clark National Historical Park
- Visited: Indiana Dunes National Park
- Visited: Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
Kansas
- Visited: Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park
- Visited: Fort Larned National Historic Site
- Visited: Fort Scott National Historic Site
- Visited: Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
- Visited: Nicodemus National Historic Site
Michigan
- Not yet: Isle Royale National Park
- Visited: Keweenaw National Historical Park
- Visited: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
- Not yet: River Raisin National Battlefield Park
- Visited: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Minnesota
- Visited: Grand Portage National Historical Site
- Visited: Mississippi National River & Recreation Area
- Visited: Pipestone National Monument
- Visited: Voyageurs National Park
Missouri
- Visited: George Washington Carver National Monument
- Visited: Harry S Truman National Historic Site
- Visited: Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
- Visited: Ozark National Scenic Riverways
- Visited: Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
- Visited: Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield
Nebraska
- Visited: Agate Fossil Beds National Monument
- Visited: Homestead National Historical Park
- Not yet: Missouri National Recreational River
- Visited: Niobrara National Scenic River
- Visited: Scotts Bluff National Monument
- Visited: Pony Express National Historic Trail
Ohio
- Not yet: Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument
- Not yet: Cuyahoga Valley National Park
- Visited: Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park
- Visited: First Ladies National Historic Site
- Visited: Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
- Visited: James A. Garfield National Historic Site
- Visited: Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial
- Visited: William Howard Taft National Historic Site
Wisconsin
- Visited: Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
- Not yet: St. Croix National Scenic Riverway
Recent Posts
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument protects one of the world’s richest windows into life nearly 20 million years ago. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument was established on June 5, 1965, to preserve one of the finest Miocene fossil sites in the world. The monument protects an extraordinary collection of ancient mammals whose remarkably preserved remains […]
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Some of America’s most remarkable landscapes were not shaped by rivers or mountains, but by ice. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore preserves one of the finest examples of how glaciers transformed the Great Lakes region, creating a landscape where towering dunes, forests, inland lakes, islands, and miles of Lake Michigan shoreline exist side by side. […]
William Howard Taft National Historic Site
On a visit to Cincinnati, we stopped at the William Howard Taft National Historic Site, the home where William Howard Taft was born in 1857 and spent much of his childhood. The substantial Greek Revival house on Mount Auburn had been purchased by Taft’s father, Alphonso Taft, in 1851. The family expanded and remodeled it […]
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Minneapolis
While we were in Minneapolis teaching, we took some time to explore the Mississippi River. I had always associated the Mississippi with places much farther south, so it was particularly interesting to see the river here in Minnesota, relatively near the beginning of its long journey across the country. The Mississippi begins at Lake Itasca […]
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, Missouri, preserves White Haven, the home of Julia Dent Grant and the place where Ulysses S. Grant lived from 1854 to 1859. Established as a National Historic Site in 1989, it tells the story of Grant before he became the Civil War general who saved the Union […]
Effigy Mounds National Monument
Effigy Mounds National Monument in Harpers Ferry, Iowa, preserves one of the largest collections of prehistoric Native American mounds in the United States. Established as a National Monument in 1949, the park protects more than 2,500 acres containing over 200 mound sites, including 31 rare effigy mounds shaped like bears and birds. Built between approximately 500 […]
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Chillicothe, Ohio, preserves one of the most fascinating archaeological landscapes in North America. Established as a National Historical Park in 1992, the site protects the enormous earthworks and burial mounds built by the Hopewell people, who lived throughout the Ohio River Valley from about 200 BC to AD 500. […]
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Munising, Michigan, was the first National Lakeshore established in the United States when it was created in 1966. Stretching for more than 40 miles along the southern shore of Lake Superior, it preserves a remarkable landscape of colorful sandstone cliffs, secluded beaches, waterfalls, forests, sand dunes, and crystal-clear water. Erin […]
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana, preserves the farm where Abraham Lincoln spent fourteen of the most formative years of his life. Established as a National Memorial in 1962, the site commemorates the years from 1816 to 1830, when the Lincoln family settled on the Indiana frontier and young Abraham grew from a […]
Harry S. Truman National Historic Site
Harry S. Truman National Historic Site in Independence, Missouri, preserves the home where America’s thirty-third president lived for most of his adult life. Established as a National Historic Site in 1983, the house tells the story of a man who, despite becoming one of the most powerful leaders in the world, never lost his connection […]
Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park
While teaching in Kansas, I made a point of visiting the Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park. Housed in the former Monroe Elementary School, this site commemorates the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional and helped launch the modern Civil Rights Movement. There was so much I […]
James A. Garfield National Historic Site
When my love for National Parks combines with my fascination with the lives of our presidents, I am always willing to travel out of my way to explore. During a family cross-country trip, we made a stop at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio, to learn more about one of America’s […]
