558 Best Sights in USA

The center takes you on a journey back in time to discover how Florida's Indigenous peoples hunted and fished the land, what the Sunshine State was like when the Spaniards arrived, and how life in Florida was different when citrus was king. Exhibitions also include displays on the history of citrus growing in Central Florida and the advancement of theme parks, samples of work by the famed Highwaymen painters, a diorama showing how an infamous sinkhole ate a city block, and documentation on the Pulse nightclub tragedy. Traveling exhibits bring modern technology and art to the museum. Free audio tours are available. Ticket holders get two hours of free parking.

Surrounded by Eastsound's lively shops and cafés, this museum comprises six reassembled and relocated late-19th-century pioneer cabins. An impressive collection of more than 6,000 photographs, documents, and artifacts tells the story of the island's Native American and Anglo history, and in an oral-history exhibit longtime residents of the island talk about how the community has evolved over the decades. An exhibit about electricity and green energy includes some hands-on activities. The museum also operates the 1888 Crow Valley Schoolhouse, which is available for private tours from Memorial Day to Labor Day ($10 per person; minimum two people).

Impressive eight-story-high trompe l'oeil murals of Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail invite history lovers into this Downtown museum, which goes beyond the dominant narratives of white colonists and explorers to tell the story of the state through myriad perspectives, from prehistoric times through the racist era of “black-exclusion” laws to the challenges of the present day. The state-of-the-art permanent exhibit Experience Oregon, comprises 7,000 square feet of interactive galleries displaying a pair of 9,000-year-old sagebrush sandals, an actual covered wagon, and hands-on games.

Local model makers created most of this museum's models of ships that once plied the Columbia River. Contained within the stern-wheeler steamship Portland, this small museum provides an excellent overview of Oregon's maritime history with artifacts and memorabilia. The Children's Corner has nautical items that can be touched and operated. The Portland is the last steam-powered stern-wheel tugboat operating in the United States, and volunteer-guided tours include the pilot house and engine room.  Occasional four-hour cruises on the ship are also offered, about once a month, in summer; the cost is $88.

This small but surprisingly stocked museum housed in an 1887 hospital highlights the history of mining, ranching, and railroading in the San Juan Mountains. The basement features a life-size model mine tunnel, as well as an impressive collection of locally found gems and minerals. Other exhibits include Native American artifacts and depictions of domestic and commercial life in the late 1800s.

The museum, a good source for the latest information about monarch butterflies, has permanent exhibitions about the butterflies, birds of Monterey County, biodiversity, and plants. There's a native plant garden, and a display documents life in Pacific Grove's 19th-century Chinese fishing village.

A must-see for history buffs, this museum is housed in the former library, city hall, and whistle tower on Main Street. With a two-story scale model of the 19th-century Ontario Mine, a 20th-century gondola hanging overhead, and the old jail below, this is an authentic tribute to Park City's mining and skiing past. Climb aboard a re-created Union Pacific train car, hold on to a quivering and noisy jack drill for a feel of the mining experience, and, if you dare, step inside a jail cell. Tours of historic Main Street also depart from here.

Two reproduction 1800s logging camps are among the 10 buildings filled with exhibits depicting the history of logging in Maine. They include sawmill and towboat models, dioramas of logging scenes, horse-drawn sleds, and a steam-powered log hauler. Exhibits highlight local artists and history as well as logging-related topics. The fundraising annual Bean Hole Bean Dinner on the second Saturday of August is a traditional Maine feast. Beans are baked in the ground overnight, just like they were in lumbering camps—you can stop by the day before to watch the cooks in action. The event also has activities like wagon rides, music, and crafters.

With one of the world's outstanding anthropological collections, the Peabody Museum is among the oldest anthropology museums in the world. Its collections focus on Native American and Central and South American cultures and are comprised of more than 1.2 million objects. The Hall of the North American Indian is particularly outstanding, with art, textiles, and models of traditional dwellings from across the continent. Check out the Wiyohpiyata exhibit's drawn images from a Lakota Sioux ledger book from the battlefield, and Encounters in America's exploration of the pre-1492 civilizations through Classic Maya and Postclassic Aztec. Of special note is the museum's only surviving collection of objects acquired from Native American people during the Lewis and Clark expedition.

This tribute to aviation in the Pacific battlefield of World War II is on Ford Island in Hangars 37 and 79, actual seaplane hangars that survived the Pearl Harbor attack. The museum consists of a theater where a short film on Pearl Harbor is shown, an education center, a restoration shop, a gift store, and a restaurant. Exhibits—many of which are interactive and feature sound effects—include an authentic Japanese Zero and various other vintage aircraft that help narrate such great battles as the Doolittle Raid on Japan, Midway, and Guadalcanal. The actual Stearman N2S-3 that President George H. W. Bush flew is housed in Hangar 79.

Ride in Fighter Ace 360 Flight Simulators, take a docent-led tour, and visit the Ford Island Control Tower for additional fees. Purchase tickets online, at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, or at the museum itself after you get off the shuttle bus that departs for the museum and the USS Missouri from the visitor center.

The museum's collection spans the rodeo's history since 1910, with photographs—including glamorous glossies of prior Rodeo Queens and the Happy Canyon Princesses (all Native American)—as well as saddles, guns, and costumes. A taxidermied championship bronco named War Paint is the museum's cool, if slightly creepy, prize artifact.

Even if you're not a fan of museums, this one is worth a look. Housed in the elaborate, Renaissance Revival–style former city hall, it has an interesting mix of exhibits illustrating life in the Florida Panhandle over the centuries. One of these, The City of Five Flags, provides a good introduction to Pensacola's history. Displays include an exhibit that showcases the infamous Trader Jon's bar, where young flight students mingled with celebrities and local politicians, and a child-size interactive area with a ship and fort where kids can play and pretend to be colonial Pensacolians.

This museum, and the Dinosaur Field Station next door, is an official repository for fossils found in the Judith River basin. The highlight of the dinosaur display is a reconstructed albertosaur skeleton, which towers above the rest of the collection. There are also exhibits on outlaws who spent time here: Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Kid Curry, the Tall Texan, and other members of the Wild Bunch gang. Ask about tours of the H.G. Robinson House and gardens next door. The house, ordered from a Sears & Roebuck catalog and erected in 1900, is an example of frontier simplicity.

From the waterfront sights, it's a short walk to one of the country's oldest public museums. Established in 1824, Pilgrim Hall Museum transports you back to the time of the Pilgrims' landing with objects carried by those weary travelers to the New World. Historic items on display include a carved chest, a remarkably well-preserved wicker cradle, Myles Standish's sword, and John Alden's Bible. In addition, the museum presents the story of the Wampanoag, the native people who lived here 10,000 years before the arrival of the Pilgrims, and who still live here today.

The culturally rich community surrounding this museum lived in relative isolation for nearly 100 years before modern development reached Skidaway Island. Residents of Pin Point are Gullah/Geechee descendants of first-generation freed slaves from Ossabaw Island. Founded in 1890 on the banks of Moon River, this fishing community has a deep connection to the water. Many residents once worked at the A. S. Varn & Son oyster and crab factory, which has been transformed into this interactive museum to honor the life, work, and history of the community.

Covering the pioneer era from the departure of the Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the hammering of the Golden Spike, this massive collection traces the history of pioneer settlers in 38 rooms—plus a carriage house—on four floors. Administered by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, its displays include clothing, furniture, tools, wagons, and carriages. Be careful with kids—this museum is as cluttered as a westbound covered wagon loaded with all of a family's possessions.

In Tillamook's 1905 county courthouse, this extensive, three-floor museum is an intriguing, old-fashioned hodgepodge of Native American, pioneer, logging, and natural history exhibits, along with antique vehicles and military artifacts.

The Pioneer Store Museum is an amazing time-capsule-like building in Chloride. The owners have painstakingly restored the building using the complete stock of original goods and records—the store had been boarded up in its entirety in 1923. It's a treasure trove of Western boomtown history. The proprietors are great, and the Web site is a resource for general information on the area.

The old Hot Sulphur Schoolhouse—built in 1924—houses the Pioneer Village Museum. Artifacts depict Grand County history dating back 8,500 years, including tools, clothing, a railroad snowplow, and the old Winter Park Ski Train caboose.

Once the Old El Paso County Courthouse, this repository has artifacts relating to the entire Pikes Peak area, including a Native American collection, bound newspapers and city directories dating from the 1870s, the personal papers of city founder and railroad builder General William Jackson Palmer, and early images of the Colorado Springs. The historic courtroom is absolutely elegant, and so perfectly appointed that it looks as if a judge will walk in any minute to start a trial.

Visible from the highway, Auburn's standout structure is the Placer County Courthouse. The classic bronze-domed building houses the Placer County Museum, which documents the area's history—Native American, railroad, agricultural, and mining—from the early 1700s to 1900. Look for the gold nuggets valued at more than $338,000 today, and don't miss the women's cell under the Maple Street staircase.  Ask about other nearby county-run history museums.

The Chicago metro area has the largest Polish population of any city outside Warsaw, and this museum celebrates that fact. Take a trip to the old country by strolling through exhibits of folk costumes, memorabilia from Pope John Paul II, and the reconstructed rooms of famed pianist and statesman Ignacy Paderewski. There's also Hussar armor and an 8-foot-long sleigh in the shape of a dolphin. Chat up the knowledgeable docents and you might be treated to tales of Paderewski's romances or the exploits of the progressive 13th-century queen Jadwiga. 

Begun as a temporary exhibit on the city's Chinatown—more than 10% of Portland's population identified as Chinese American in the 1900s, making it the second-largest such community in the country—at the Oregon Historical Society Museum, this museum now occupies a 2,500-square-foot permanent space in the heart of Chinatown. Exhibits document the community's continuously important contribution to the city, including the vibrant Chinese American–owned businesses that have prospered here since Portland's founding, as well as art, music, food, and important aspects of the community. The museum also presents rotating art and history exhibits as well as occasional concerts, lectures, and oral-history presentations.

The first museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to posters, this spot was opened in 2019 by a group of poster enthusiasts who saw a gaping hole in the city's museum scene and decided to, ahem, poster over it. The museum hosts a series of moving exhibitions, Past shows have included the work of Czech art nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha and 1970s Blaxploitation movie posters, among other themes. There's free admission every Friday.

The Powell County Museum focuses on local history; it includes a hand-carved wood folk-art collection, photographs, mining memorabilia, and vintage furniture and household items.

This spot has been significant for centuries. Its first incarnation was as a Native American village for the Rumsien tribe. The Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno landed here in 1602, and Father Junípero Serra arrived in 1770. Notable battles fought here include the 1818 skirmish in which the corsair Hipólito Bruchard conquered the Spanish garrison that stood on this site and claimed part of California for Argentina. The indoor museum tells the stories; plaques mark the outdoor sites.

An excellent place to begin a historical tour of the Presidio, the Officers' Club offers a walk through time from the Presidio's earliest days as the first nonnative outpost in present-day San Francisco to more than a century as a U.S. Army post. Start with the excellent short film about life here from the time of the Ohlone people to the present, then peruse the displays of artifacts, including uniforms and weaponry. In the Mesa Room, you can literally see layers of history: parts of the original adobe wall from the 1790s, the brick fireplace in the 1880s commander's office, and the Mission revival–style fireplace in the 1930s billiard room. The Heritage Gallery is open Friday through Sunday.

Excavation of the Presidio continues: outside, a canopy covers the Presidio Archaeology Field Station, where you can sometimes see archaeologists at work. There is a docent on hand each Friday and Saturday from 11 am to 2 pm to answer questions about the dig.

A favorite among Bremerton's interesting maritime-related attractions, this museum on the waterfront near the ferry terminal is set inside a stately 1890s shipyard building. It brings American naval history to life through war photos, ship models, historic displays, and American and Japanese war artifacts.

A short waterfront walk from the ferry landing, this free museum in Shoreline Park is a well-preserved time capsule of the city's industrial history, complete with working trains. The Landmark building has a detailed scale model of Tiburon and its 43-acre rail yard at the turn of the 20th century, when the city served as a major railroad and ferry hub for San Francisco Bay. The Depot House Museum on the second floor showcases a restoration of the stationmaster's living quarters.

 This history museum, named after the late Dr. Ralph Mark Gilbert, the father of Savannah's modern-day civil rights movement and leader of the NAACP, has a series of engaging exhibits on segregation, from emancipation through the civil rights movement. The role of Black and white Savannahians in ending segregation in their city is well detailed and includes archival photographs and videos housed in this former Black-owned bank in what was once the heart of Savannah's Black business community. There's also a replica of a lunch counter where Black patrons were denied service.