Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Moton Airfield, Alabama, was placed on the Register of Historic Landmarks in 1998 to preserve the site where the first African American pilots and maintainers of the US Armed Forces were trained during WWII. These men persevered against doubt and racism at every level to become one of the most […]
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Author: Dan Bourque
Tuskegee Institute
Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, Alabama recognizes the national importance of the Tuskegee Institute, founded in 1881 primarily to train black teachers who would raise the standard of living for southern African Americans through education and innovation. Tuskegee was quickly built from a classroom in a borrowed church into a first-rate university and center of invention by […]
El Camino Real de los Tejas
El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail, established in 2004, is an historic route through a collection of sites in Texas and Louisiana that preserves the history of the Spanish colonial experience in this area. Extending along 2,500 miles of roads and trails from Mexico to Natchitoches, Louisiana, the El Camino Real de los […]
San Antonio Missions
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park was established in 1978 to protect four remaining Spanish missions in the San Antonio area. Along with the most famous mission, the Alamo, these sites preserve some of the earliest architecture in this area and the efforts of Spain and the Catholic Church to colonize the Native Americans in […]
Santa Monica Mountains
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California, was established in 1978 after decades of attempts to protect these beautiful lands from further incursion. The park is actually a patchwork of public and private lands including several state parks. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating ILNP Park Review Our Weather. Mostly clear and upper 80s. […]
Channel Islands
Channel Islands National Park, California, encompasses five of the Channel Islands off the coast of California near Santa Barbara and the waters surrounding them. Some of these islands were overrun by non-native species and are being restored to their natural state while others stand as the last vestige of California as it used to be. […]
Gulf Islands
Gulf Islands National Seashore was established in 1971 to protect both pristine coastal habitat and historic features along the gulf coast of Florida and Mississippi including 3 of the 42 historic fortifications built to protect the U.S. coast in the 1800s. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating ILNP Park Review Our Visit. I visted the […]
Natchez Trace
Natchez Trace Parkway, along with the adjacent Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail, is a 444-mile long road maintained by the National Park Service that cuts through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. It follows the ancient Native American trail that later became an important route used by settlers, traders and armies to link the areas of the […]
Bent’s Old Fort
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, Colorado, commemorates an historic 1800s fort and trading post along the Santa Fe Trail in southeastern Colorado. The original 1833 fort was lost to time and wear, but a faithful reproduction was completed in 1976 after the site was declared a National Historic Site in 1960. Visitor Rating (write […]
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe National Historic Trail runs through five states, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and New Mexico. The route was first scouted in 1792 and opened for trade in 1821. It crossed the vast plains to connect trade between the western U.S. settlements in Missouri and Santa Fe, the northern trade hub of Mexico at […]
Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail spans 2,180 miles across 14 states from Georgia to Maine. It is a “public footpath,” and was devised and built by private citizens between 1921 and 1937. It runs through some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the eastern United States including two national parks, a couple of smaller national […]
National Park Service Centennial – a mil
This week marks the centennial of the National Park Service, the 100th anniversary of when President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the service within the Department of the Interior. Though August 25th, 1916 was the beginning of the NPS, it was far from the beginning of our National Parks. The first National Park was Yellowstone, […]