71 Best Sights in USA

Step into the past (quite literally) at this modest museum, a 30-acre site that features a small exhibit hall with a time-line exhibit about southern Nevada from prehistoric to modern times. The facility also offers a collection of restored historic buildings that depict daily life from different decades in Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson, and Goldfield. Other attractions include a replica of a 19th-century frontier print shop and a 1960s wedding chapel that once stood on the Las Vegas Strip. There are also buildings and machinery dating from the turn of the 20th century, a nature trail, and a small ghost town. The museum also hosts a memorial to the 58 people killed in the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting. If you can't get to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, west of the Strip, this is a worthwhile substitute.

This 2-acre living-history museum with costumed re-enactors provides a vivid sense of life in St. Augustine from the 16th through the 18th centuries. The De Mesa–Sanchez House dates from the 1740s; though built on original foundations, other buildings—including a soldier's home, print shop, blacksmith's shop, and gunsmith—are replicas. Climb the 35-foot watchtower for a panoramic city view, dig for replica artifacts, create a leather medallion, take part in a musket drill, or watch a 16th-century ship being built. Tours start daily at 10:30, noon, 1:30, and 3. The complex also includes three restaurants: the Taberna del Caballo, St. Augustine Seafood Company, and Bull & Crown.

Delaware's rich agrarian past is brought to life at this imaginative museum, which includes a re-created 1890s village and farmstead where you can step inside a range of buildings, including fully furnished homes, a store, schoolhouse, a corn house, and even a privy. There is also an exhibition hall detailing the development of farming in the state and related technology. Antique exhibits include a horse-drawn wagon, a crop duster, and threshers. The museum also hosts occasional special events.

Displays here focus on Wind River tie hacks (workers who cut ties for railroads), local geology, and the archaeology of the Mountain Shoshone. Outbuildings include the town's first schoolhouse, a saddle shop, a homestead house, and a bunkhouse. For $85 per person, the museum will take you on a private guided tour to nearby petroglyphs (call ahead to reserve). 

Washington Duke, patriarch of the now famous Duke family, moved into this house in 1852. It wasn't until he heard how the Union soldiers were enjoying smoking his tobacco that he decided to market his "golden weed." Explore the family's humble beginnings at this State Historic Site, which includes the first ramshackle "factory" as well as the world's largest spittoon collection. Guided tours demonstrate early manufacturing processes; the visitor center exhibits early tobacco advertising.

Sometimes dubbed the "Colonial Williamsburg of the Southwest," El Rancho de las Golondrinas ("Ranch of the Swallows") is a reconstruction of a small agricultural village with buildings from the 17th to 19th centuries. Travelers on El Camino Real would stop at the ranch before making the final leg of the journey north, a half-day ride from Santa Fe in horse-and-wagon time. By car, the ranch is only a 25-minute drive from the Plaza. It's also a 10-minute drive from where the Turquoise Trail (NM 14) intersects with Interstate 25, making it a fun stop—especially for kids—on your way to or from Albuquerque. Self-guided tours interpret the lives of locals in those bygone eras while farm animals roam through the barnyards on the 200-acre complex. During the ranch's many festivals—Spring & Fiber Fest, the Herb & Lavender Festival, Viva México, La Panza Llena New Mexico Food Fest, Santa Fe Wine Festival, the Renaissance Faire, and others—music, dance, food, and crafts are offered. In April, May, and October, the museum is open weekdays, by advance reservation only.

In 1782, two Shaker brothers from Mt. Lebanon, New York, arrived on the still-beautiful shores of Lake Mascoma. Eventually, they formed Enfield, the ninth of 18 Shaker communities in the United States, and relocated to the lake's southern shore, where they erected more than 200 buildings. The Enfield Shaker Museum preserves the legacy of these Shakers, who numbered 330 members at the village's peak. By 1923, interest in the society had waned, and the last 10 members joined the Canterbury community, south of Laconia. A self-guided walking tour takes you through 13 of the remaining buildings, among them an 1849 stone mill. Demonstrations of Shaker crafts techniques also take place, and overnight accommodations are available in the community's stately six-story Great Stone Dwelling.

The Fort Caspar Historic Site re-creates the post at Platte Bridge, which became Fort Caspar after the July 1865 battle that claimed the lives of several soldiers, including Lieutenant Caspar Collins. A post depicts life at a frontier station in the 1860s, and sometimes soldier reenactors go about their tasks. Museum exhibits show the migration trails.

This 750-acre living-history museum has 68 buildings that were moved from throughout the region to re-create 19th-century life in the Genesee Valley. The complex includes the John L. Wehle Gallery of Wildlife & Sporting Art. The 175-acre Genesee Country Nature Center, which has exhibits and 5 mi of interpreted hiking trails, is open all year. You may cross-country ski and snowshoe here. Mumford is 20 mi southwest of Rochester.

Two properties—the Golden History Center and the Clear Creek Golden History Park (formerly Clear Creek History Park)—have combined under the name of Golden History Museum and Park. The park interprets the Golden area circa 1843–1900 via restored structures and reproductions, including a teepee, prospector's camp, one-room schoolhouse, and cabins. It is also populated with live chickens and bees. On select days, guides in period clothing lead 45-minute tours, but you can stroll the park and peek into the buildings anytime, and picnic lunches on the grounds are welcome. There's also a research center and an interactive area for kids.

The Gov. Bill and Vara Daniel Historic Village, a 15-building complex adjacent to the Mayborn, gives visitors a view of Texas life from the early 20th century.

Guided or self-guided tours of the 1,600-acre Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, a working cattle ranch run by the National Park Service, provide insight into ranching life in the 1860s. You can learn about roping steers, watch blacksmithing demonstrations, and bounce along in a covered wagon.

America's third Shaker community, Hancock was founded in the 1790s. At its peak in the 1840s, the village had almost 300 inhabitants who made their living farming, selling seeds and herbs, making medicines, and producing crafts. The religious community officially closed in 1960, but visitors today can still see demonstrations of blacksmithing, woodworking, and more. Many examples of Shaker ingenuity are on display: the Round Stone Barn and the Laundry and Machine Shop are two of the most interesting buildings. The Shaker focus on sustainability has been maintained in the form of water turbines, sustainable gardens, and a solar array. There's also a farm (with a wonderful barn), some period gardens, a museum shop with reproduction Shaker furniture, a picnic area, and a café. Visit in April to catch the baby animals at the farm, or in September for the country fair. Reserve early if you want a spot at the Shaker-inspired suppers in October.

Visit the home of Pocahontas and the second successful English settlement in the New World. Costumed interpreters reenact the lives of Virginia's Native Americans and English settlers who helped create the nation we know today.

Craftspeople in date-appropriate costumes demonstrate their trades using traditional tools, methods, and materials at this nonprofit, living-history site on 22 shady acres north of Cape May. The farming village is made up of more than 20 restored buildings originally built between 1691 and 1905, including a blacksmith shop, a bookbindery, and a schoolhouse.

This sprawling museum re-creates Frisco's boom days. Stroll through 11 buildings dating from the 1880s, including a fully outfitted one-room schoolhouse, a trapper's cabin with snowshoes and pelts, the town's original log chapel, and a jail with an exhibit on mining.

New York City's only living-history museum is like a small-scale version of Virginia's Colonial Williamsburg. This 100-acre village, constructed from the 1670s to the early 19th century, was the site of Staten Island's original county seat. Thirteen of the site's 30 historic buildings (28 landmarked) are open to the public. During Open Village season (May–August), you can wander town to encounter historical interpreters in period dress demonstrating Early American crafts and trades such as tinsmithing, broom making, and basket making, or talking politics in the village tavern. During the cold months when most reenactors are on hiatus, guided tours are still available for a few buildings, along with the Historical Museum, built in 1848, housing thousands of Staten Island artifacts within the nine galleries.

This solemn smattering of structures, accessed by a short loop trail behind the Yosemite Museum, offers a look at what Native American life might have been like in the 1870s. One interpretive sign points out that the Miwok people referred to the 19th-century newcomers as "Yohemite" or "Yohometuk," which have been translated as meaning "some of them are killers." 

Ranch paraphernalia, handmade quilts, a doll collection, and the original 1870s-era cabin of mountain man Jim Baker are exhibited at the Little Snake River Museum in Savery. There are more than a dozen historic buildings at the site, including one that houses an exhibit completely dedicated to the history of sheep raising in Carbon County. At certain times in the past, it had more sheep than any other county in the country. The museum also has a nice gift shop, with a good selection of books. In nearby Baggs, the museum owns and operates The Outlaw Stop. Both museums are open from Memorial Day to "some cold day in October," which heralds the coming of winter.

Visitors can roam the grounds and tour log cabins representative of life on the North Texas plains in the 19th century. Staff members and volunteers wear period dress and crush corn, cook on an open fire, help visitors dip candles, and demonstrate the techniques of blacksmiths. Children particularly enjoy ringing the bell outside the schoolhouse and exploring the one-room school's interior. The Seela Cabin allows little ones to try on bonnets, aprons, and workshirts and get to work—sweeping, cooking, and spinning yarn.

You'll leave this small museum feeling like you just found your own gold nugget. Detailed exhibits, both indoors and out, tell the history of Mariposa County. Visit a replica of a typical miner's cabin; see a working stamp mill; tour the blacksmith shop. Artifacts, photographs, and maps, along with the knowledgeable staff, will capture your imagination and transport you back to 1849.

A well-preserved example of 19th-century domestic architecture, this homestead (including the main house and several outbuildings) sits in a cove along a peaceful creek. As Quakers, the Mendenhalls opposed slavery, and here you can find one of the few surviving false-bottom wagons used to help those enslaved escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

Come in July, when kids can learn how to make a corn-husk doll or design a quilt square during the Village Fair.

A short drive west of downtown near the Stampede Park rodeo grounds, you can tour this living history museum that comprises about two-dozen historic buildings from Wyoming's frontier days—including a saloon and a blacksmith's shop—many of them housing photos and pioneer and Native American artifacts. The complex is situated on Cody's original townsite, and a small original cemetery serves as resting place for some of the region's famous mountain men, including Liver Eatin' Johnson, and about 100 horse-drawn vehicles are on display.

This open-air museum features original and reconstructed buildings from throughout territorial Arizona. Costumed guides filter through the bank, schoolhouse, jail, and print shop, as well as the Pioneer Opera House, where classic melodramas are performed daily. It's popular with the grade-school field-trip set, and it's your lucky day if you can tag along for their tour of the site.

The town site was originally the headquarters of a cattle spread, the Bar-I Ranch. Pioneer Town, a cluster of 23 authentic buildings that re-create turn-of-the-20th-century life, includes a country chapel, the Lizard Head Saloon, original silos from the Bar-I Ranch, and a working blacksmith shop.

Re-created individual villages showcase the lifestyles and traditions of Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, the Marquesas Islands, New Zealand, and Tonga. In addition, the 42-acre center, which is 35 miles from Waikiki and which was founded in 1963 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has restaurants, hosts luau, and demonstrates cultural traditions, such as hula, fire dancing, and ancient ceremonies. The Hukilau Marketplace carries Polynesian handicrafts.

There are multiple packages available, including luau and Ha: Breath of Life show options. Every May, the center hosts the World Fireknife Championships, an event that draws the top fireknife dance performers from around the world. Get tickets for that event in advance. If you're staying in Honolulu, see the center as part of a van tour so you won't have to drive home late at night after the two-hour evening show.

This museum re-creates what life was like for the first settlers in the mid-19th century. Original cabins and shops furnished with period antiques are staffed by volunteer history buffs.

This multifunctional attraction sits on the waterfront in Manteo. Costumed interpreters conduct tours of the 69-foot ship Elizabeth II, a representation of a 16th-century vessel, but you can also help them set the sails, plot a course, and swab the decks. The 25-acre park is home to the interactive Adventure Museum, representing 400 years of local history. There's also a re-created 16th-century settlement site, a Native American exhibit, a fossil pit, arts-and-crafts exhibitions, boardwalk trails along the marsh, and seasonal plays and concerts at the impressive outdoor stage fronting Shallowbag Bay.

Run by Louisiana State University, the Rural Life Museum is an outdoor teaching and research facility that aims to represent the rural life of early Louisianans. Three major areas—the Barn, the Working Plantation, and Folk Architecture—contain more than 32 rustic 19th-century structures spread over 25 acres. A visitor center adjoins the Barn, which holds a collection that includes old farm tools, quilts, 19th-century horse-drawn carriages, items once belonging to enslaved people, and much more. The plantation section's buildings include a gristmill, a smithy, and several outbuildings. The tranquil Windrush Gardens were created by the late landscape designer Steele Burden, and sometimes hosts special events with food and music.