with Dr. Nancy Watson
Back to All National Parks

Midwest Region

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Midwest Region

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

  • Visited: 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
  • Visited: 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
  • Visited: St. Croix National Scenic Riverway

Recent Posts

Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial

Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial

As we continued driving west on our family road trip in 1995, we boarded a boat on Lake Erie and crossed the water to the Perry’s Victory and International Peak Memorial. Reaching this site by water made visiting it more intentional and part of the story. Rising from South Bass Island is this 352-foot granite column that […]

Put-in-Bay, Ohio
Pipestone National Monument

Pipestone National Monument

During our 1995 cross-country road trip, our route carried us through a part of Minnesota, where we stopped at one of the most remarkable sites: Pipestone National Monument.   Here, the soft red stone, pipestone, has been quarried for centuries by Native people and carved into ceremonial pipes used in prayer and spiritual life. This is […]

Pipestone, Minnesota
Indiana Dunes National Park

Indiana Dunes National Park

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 […]

Porter, Indiana
Pullman National Monument

Pullman National Monument

While teaching in Chicago in 2018, we took a trip to Pullman National Monument, a relatively new addition to the National Park Service at the time. The Pullman community was a grand idea. It was created in the 1880s by George Pullman, founder of the Pullman Palace Car Company. His vision was to create a […]

Chicago, Illinois