10457 Best Sights in USA

The center houses more than 90,000 cubic feet (or nearly 17 miles) of rare books, collections of papers, and memorabilia related to such subjects as American and Western history, the petroleum industry, conservation movements, transportation, and the performing arts. Permanent and temporary art displays also fill the museum space.

Guided tours of this museum that celebrates the nation's birth focus on the family who lived here during the Revolutionary War. Among 3,000 artifacts, see drafts of the U.S. Constitution and the first Purple Heart, as well as letters and documents written by George Washington and the household furnishings of John Taylor Gilman, one of New Hampshire's early governors. In July, the museum hosts the two-week American Independence Festival, and occasional architectural tours are offered, too.

Included in the largest collection of different species of living rattlers in the world are such rare and unusual specimens as an albino western diamondback and a melanistic (solid black) diamondback. From the outside the museum looks like just a plain old shop—aside from the friendly crew of tortoises who are usually there to greet you—but inside, the museum's exhibits, its engaging staff, and explanatory videos supply visitors with the lowdown on these venomous creatures. Did you know that they can't hear their own rattles and that the human death rate from rattlesnake bites is less than 1%? The mission here is to educate the public on the many positive benefits of rattlesnakes, and to contribute to their conservation.

The American Jazz Museum honors Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, and other jazz greats. You can listen to hundreds of jazz CDs in the interactive studio and sound library. Numerous shops and restaurants line the streets of this historic area.

The museum, a country mile from the Warren Street hub, contains 43 examples of hand-pulled engines and hose carts, including a Newsham engine built in London, imported to Manhattan in 1731, and in active service for more than 150 years. A pair of horse-drawn trucks, five steam-powered vehicles, and 15 internal-combustion engines round out the hardware, which along with other artifacts purport to tell the history of firefighting.

This museum houses the world's largest collection of angling art and angling-related objects—more than 1,400 rods, 1,200 reels, 22,000 flies, including the tackle of Winslow Homer, Babe Ruth, Jimmy Carter, and other notables. Every August, vendors sell antique equipment at the museum's fly-fishing festival. You can also practice your casting out back.

This intriguing attraction honors police officers. In addition to movie memorabilia like the Robocop costume and Blade Runner car, informative displays offer insight into the dangers officers face every day: drug dealers, homicides, and criminals who can create knives from dental putty and guns from a bicycle spoke. Other exhibits spotlight the gory history of capital punishment (from hangings to the guillotine to the electric chair) and crime scene investigation, terrorism, and a poignant memorial rotunda where more than 10,000 names are etched in marble to honor police officers who have died in the line of duty. A 24-stall shooting range provides rental guns.

Whether you like signature architecture, appreciate Western art, or just love horses, you'll enjoy this museum, which showcases stars of the American quarter-horse world. Inside, you'll see enormous bronze sculptures and halls of fame honoring horses and humans who have significantly contributed to the history and legends of the breed. See quarter-horse paintings by midcentury Western artist Orren Mixer, or spend some time learning about the bloodlines and special features of the breed in the interactive educational gallery. Temporary exhibits and special events throughout the year make each visit to the museum unique.

The national headquarters for the American Red Cross, a National Historic Landmark since 1965, is composed of three buildings. Guided tours show off the oldest, a Beaux Arts structure of blinding-white marble built in 1917 to commemorate women who cared for the wounded on both sides during the Civil War. Three stained glass windows designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany illustrate the values of the Red Cross: faith, hope, love, and charity. Other holdings you'll see on the 60-minute tour include an original N.C. Wyeth painting, sculptures, and artifacts that belonged to Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross. Weather permitting, the tour includes a visit to the memorial garden. The management recommends booking your tour 2–3 weeks in advance. Reservations are required for the free tour, offered at 10 am and 2 pm on Wednesday and Friday; schedule via email at  [email protected].

This neoclassical building in FDR Park celebrates Swedish contributions to American history. The Swedes settled the Delaware Valley in the mid-1600s, and it was a pair of Swedish brothers who sold William Penn the land that became Philadelphia. Modeled after a 17th-century Swedish manor house, the museum features galleries and rooms that concentrate on specific eras and industrious characters. The John Ericsson Room honors the designer of the Civil War ship the USS Monitor; the Jenny Lind Room contains memorabilia from the P. T. Barnum–led American tour the soprano known as the “Swedish Nightingale” embarked upon in 1850. Other rooms display handmade dolls, crafts, paintings, and drawings, all in addition to rotating cultural exhibitions. It's not the most riveting place on paper, but the unconventional location, combined with its examination of overlooked history, make for an interesting visit.

This complex, adjacent to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, houses apartments, offices, bars, and restaurants in a series of beautifully refurbished warehouses left over from the city's cigarette-rolling past. Free summer concerts are staged on a central lawn, in the shadow of a Lucky Strike water tower, and the place comes alive with lights and decorations during the holidays. The growing slate of restaurants include Ekhaya's South African fusion, the Louisiana-inspired Seraphine, and Puerto Rican soul at Boricua Soul. Burt's Bees is also headquartered here, and you can spot Burt's intact original cabin outside, brought here from Maine. Don't miss the bee mural tucked away behind the offices.

One person's wide-ranging, entertaining collections of pop culture Americana from as far back as 1870 fill 100,000 square feet of a former tire factory, stuffed with delights such as a Chuck E. Cheese animatronic band, a hundred-foot-long Slinky surrounded by stuffed animals and circus posters, a giant Walkman, a Christmas village from Philly's long-closed Lit Brothers department store. A guided 45-minute tram ride through the Toy Box area provides endless visual stimulation (and auditory; you hear a few of the museum's many Wurlitzers in action). The arrangement is eccentric but amusing: a Hooters sign rises above a vintage Corvette. Visitors can see the classic cars section and the Music Room on their own. Even these are quirky: why are dolls propped on the radios and automatic pianos? All but the most anti-nostalgia types will find something that sparks memories—or amazed laughter from those too young to remember much of this stuff—in this cultural jumble.

Located on a 2.4-acre tract adjacent to the National Mall and within full view of the U.S. Capitol, this memorial illustrates the journey of veterans with disabilities, from injury and healing to rediscovery of purpose. The plaza, with a star-shaped fountain and low triangular reflecting pool, features bronze sculptures, glass panels, and granite walls engraved with quotations from 18 veterans describing their experiences. With its single ceremonial flame, the fountain is the focal point, a powerful icon expressing water's healing, cleansing properties and the enlightenment, power, and eternal nature of fire. The needs of those with disabilities are front and center in the memorial's design. The low fountain can easily be surveyed by someone in a wheelchair, numerous benches in front of text panels, and hidden metal bars placed strategically to help visitors who need assistance to sit or stand. Designed by Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, of Alexandria, Virginia, the memorial is a fitting reminder of the cost of human conflict.

On U.S. 89/91 en route to Logan from points south, this 160-acre living history museum interprets the Cache Valley's development from 1820 to 1920. At the farm, antique implements are on display, draft horses still pull their weight, pony and train rides entertain the kids, and docents dressed in period clothing demonstrate sheepshearing and carding and offer bison tours. Baby Animal Days is popular in the spring, and the fall corn maze is actually quite challenging. Late July's Pioneer Festival features additional displays and reenactments, along with food booths, cowboy poetry readings, ice-cream making, and concerts.

Texas Canyon is the home of the Amerind Foundation (a contraction of "American" and "Indian"), founded by amateur archaeologist William Fulton in 1937 to foster understanding about Native American cultures. The research facility and museum are housed in a Spanish colonial–style structure designed by noted Tucson architect H. M. Starkweather. The museum's rotating displays of archaeological materials, crafts, and photographs give an overview of Native American cultures of the Southwest and Mexico.

The adjacent Fulton–Hayden Memorial Art Gallery displays an assortment of art collected by William Fulton. Permanent exhibits include the work of Tohono O'odham women potters, an exquisite collection of Hopi kachina dolls, prized paintings by acclaimed Hopi artists, Pueblo pottery ranging from prehistoric pieces to modern ceramics, and archaeological exhibits on the Indigenous cultures of the prehistoric Southwest. The museum's gift shop has a superlative selection of Native American art, crafts, and jewelry. Beautiful picnic areas among the boulders can accommodate large and small groups.

This is claimed to be the highest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi, with waters plunging an eye-popping 729 feet through a cluster of seven cascades. The surrounding 829-acre state park contains a visitor center, lodge, and restaurant and is dotted with scenic campsites and cottages strategically situated near a network of nature trails, picnic sites, and fishing streams. The park also offers activities like ziplining, trout fishing, guided hikes, GPS scavenger hunts, and 3D archery. The southern starting point of the more than 2,193-mile Appalachian Trail begins near Amicalola Falls.

At this designated Lancaster County heritage site, take a guided tour of a replica nine-room Old Order Amish house and attached one-room schoolhouse. Along the way, you'll learn about Amish culture, clothing, and day-to-day life. The Super-Saver Tour Package ($47.95) includes a 90-minute mini-shuttle tour; a guided tour of the homestead; and a ticket to see the film Jacob's Choice.

The Amish Experience Theater presents Jacob's Choice, a multimedia production about the history and culture of the Amish people. Multiple screens, three-dimensional sets, and special effects make the show quite engaging. Small children might find some of the effects frightening.

The 40-minute tour of this family-owned farm museum takes you through a 10-room circa-1805 house furnished in the Old Order Amish style, and another tour takes you through a one-room schoolhouse. You can explore the grounds on your own to see a waterwheel, lime kiln, and working artisans such as blacksmiths and farriers. Farm animals and Amish scooters entertain the kids, and van tours are on offer; some include a farm visit. 

This 12-acre historic homestead offers guided tours of an authentically furnished 1840 home and one-room schoolhouse. The property includes a barn with farm animals, blacksmith shop, simulated smokehouse, and market. There are outdoor picnic grounds when the weather permits, and shuttle-bus tours of the area are also available.

A short walk from the Kimbell, west of Downtown Fort Worth, this museum's collection of American art is centered on Remington and Russell mostly, though in recent decades the curators have incorporated works by many late-20th-century artists. The photographic collection, among the largest in the United States, spans the history of the medium, from 19th-century daguerreotypes to 21st-century digital prints.

Reprising the greatest hits of Burgundy (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir) and the Rhône (Grenache, Syrah, Viognier), Anaba hosts guests in a whitewashed board-and-batten hospitality center whose breezeway frames windswept Coast Range views. When planning the tasting room and adjacent production facility, founder John Sweazey and son John Michael ordered solar panels that supply the winery's power, supplemented by a previously installed wind turbine. Lower on the radar than many of its Carneros District peers, Anaba receives high marks from critics for its wines, particularly the Roberts Road Pinot Noir, Bismark Vineyard Syrah, and late-harvest Viognier.

Most people think of Anacapa as an island, but it's actually comprised of three narrow islets. Although the tips of these volcanic formations nearly touch, the islets are inaccessible from one another except by boat. All three have towering cliffs, isolated sea caves, and natural bridges; Arch Rock, on East Anacapa, is one of the best-known symbols of Channel Islands National Park.

Wildlife viewing is the main activity on East Anacapa, particularly in summer when seagull chicks are newly hatched and sea lions and seals lounge on the beaches. Exhibits at East Anacapa's compact museum include the original lead-crystal Fresnel lens from the 1932 lighthouse.

On West Anacapa, depending on the season and the number of desirable species lurking about here, boats travel to Frenchy's Cove. On a voyage here you might see anemones, limpets, barnacles, mussel beds, and colorful marine algae in the pristine tide pools. The rest of West Anacapa is closed to protect nesting brown pelicans.

At 585 feet tall, "the Stack" at Anaconda Smoke Stack State Park is a solid reminder of the important role the Anaconda Copper Company played in the area's development. Built in 1919, the stack, one of the tallest freestanding brick structures in the world, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Smelting operations ceased in 1980. There's a viewing and interpretive area with displays and historical information, but you cannot access the smokestack itself.

The Anaconda Visitor Center, in a replica railroad depot, displays memorabilia of the town's copper history. Here you can board a 1936 vintage bus for a tour of historic Anaconda (offered summer only, Monday to Saturday at 10 am).

Overlapping three ranger districts of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, the 159,000-acre Anaconda-Pintler wilderness area extends more than 30 miles along the Continental Divide to the southwest of Anaconda. Elevations range from 5,400 feet near the Bitterroot River to 10,793 feet at the summit of West Goat Peak. Glaciation formed many spectacular cirques, U-shape valleys, and glacial moraines in the foothills. The habitat supports mountain lions, deer, elk, moose, bears, and many smaller animals and birds. About 280 miles of Forest Service trails cross the area. If you hike or ride horseback along the Continental Divide, at times you can view the Mission Mountains to the northwest and the mountains marking the Idaho-Montana border to the southwest. If you want to explore the wilderness, you must obtain a detailed map and register your plans with a Forest Service office. Stock forage is scarce, so if you're riding a horse, bring concentrated feed pellets. Note that no motorized travel is permitted in the wilderness area. There are more than 20 access points to the area, including popular ones at Moose Lake, Georgetown Lake, and the East Fork of the Bitterroot River.

Anahola is part of the Hawaiian Home Lands on Kauai, so this beach park is definitely a locals' hangout, especially for families with small children. The shallow and calm water at the beach road's end is tucked behind a curving finger of land and is perfect for young ones. As the beach winds closer to the river mouth, there's less protection and a shore break that is favorable for bodyboarders when the trade winds are light or kona (south) winds are present. The long sandy beach is nice for a morning or evening stroll, but the campground often makes this beach busy in summer. Amenities: lifeguards; parking (no fee); showers; toilets. Best for: surfing; swimming; walking.

Anaktuvuk Pass lies on a divide between the Anaktuvuk and John Rivers in the central Brooks Range. A small Nunamuit Iñupiat village of the same name sits atop this 2,000-foot pass. The economy and traditions here center on the caribou herds that supply residents with most of their meat. Surrounded by mountains, rivers, and lakes, this is one of the North Slope's most scenic spots. Daily flights from Fairbanks travel to the village, and you can walk from there into the national park. You can also do backpacking trips that start or end at the pass. As elsewhere in Gates of the Arctic, some of the terrain here is on private or Native corporation land, so inquire at the ranger station about where it's best to hike and camp—and whether or not you need permission to do so.