36 Best Sights in USA

Formerly the home of the Sprague Electrical Company, the nation's largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts is one of the finest such facilities in the world, a major draw for its art shows, large music festivals, dance presentations, and film screenings. Expansion in 2017 nearly doubled the amount of gallery space, bringing the total to a quarter million square feet, which includes the wall drawings of Sol LeWitt, an immersive light-based exhibit by James Turrell, and a large room in the main gallery that allows for massive exhibits that wouldn't fit anywhere else. A Kidspace, studios, cafés, shops, and festivals and other special events round out the offerings.

Its lead artisan's star turn on the cable-TV series The Craftsman has brought welcome attention to this woodshop specializing in Victorian-era architecture. The craftspeople here use antique tools—printing presses and lathes among them—to create gingerbread trim, fence pickets, and other Victorian embellishments. Visitors on guided and self-guided tours can watch the workers in action.

Sugaring for eight generations, the Morses may be the oldest maple family in existence, so you're sure to find an authentic experience at their farm. More than 5,000 trees produce the sap used for syrup (you can sample all the grades), candy, cream, and sugar—all sold in the gift shop. Grab a maple creemee, take a seat on a swing, and stay awhile. Surrounding trails offer pleasant strolls in summer and prime cross-country skiing in winter.

Pendleton's most significant source of name recognition in the country comes from this mill, home of the trademark wool plaid shirts and colorful woolen Indian blankets. This location is the company's blanket mill; there's also a weaving mill in the Columbia Gorge town of Washougal, Washington, near Portland and about three hours west of Pendleton. If you want to know more about the production process, the company gives 20-minute tours on weekdays at 11 am and 3 pm; reservations are suggested. The mill's retail store stocks blankets, towels, and clothing with good bargains on factory seconds in the back room.

A restored woolen mill by a waterfall holds Quechee's main attraction: this marvelous glassblowing factory, store, and restaurant. Water power still drives the factory's furnace. Take a free self-guided tour of the downstairs factory floor, and see the amazing glassblowers at work. The store sells beautifully crafted contemporary glass and ceramic tableware, which is also used in the excellent, sophisticated restaurant with outstanding views of the falls.

Cheese and ice cream lovers of all ages have long made a stop by the largest cheese-making plant on the West Coast, as much to enjoy free samples and snack on delicious ice cream (try the marionberry pie flavor). At the striking, contemporary visitor center, learn about cheese making through informative signs and by watching the process from a glassed-in mezzanine. The impressive gourmet market stocks Tillamook's many varieties of cheddar, produced in part with milk from thousands of local Holstein and brown Swiss cows, as well as chocolates, charcuterie, and other mostly Oregon-made snacks and beverages, including wine and craft beer. Additionally, a huge food hall with soaring windows and ample seating dispenses Tillamook cheeseburgers, pizzas, mac and cheese, and sweets.

Part of Liberty Orchards, Aplets and Cotlets was founded by two Armenian brothers in Cashmere, the apple, apricot, and pear capital of the Wenatchee Valley. When area orchards hit a rough patch in the 1920s, the brothers began producing the dried-fruit confections of their homeland, naming them aplets (made from apples) and cotlets (made from apricots). Free samples are offered during the 15-minute tour of this little factory and candy store set amid the shops and cafés of charming downtown Cashmere. The shop also has displays about the company's history and sells many other specialty sweets, including Turkish Delight, fruit-and-nut Orchard Bars, and a great variety of chocolates. 

Housed in a 1905 barn, the visitor center sits above the Blenheim-Gilboa pumped-storage project, which generates power by recycling water between two reservoirs. Hands-on exhibits explain the science of energy production; an enclosed porch overlooking the lower reservoir has exhibits of local fauna. Picnic tables are scattered between the historic outbuildings. Hiking trails lead to Mine Kill State Park.

The vast 98-acre campus where the Boeing Everett line (767, 777, and 787 Dreamliner) is produced holds the world's largest building—so big that it often creates its own weather system inside. At the start of the pandemic, factory tours were halted, and as of this writing, there's no timeframe regarding their return. Visitors can still visit an enormous gallery with cutaways of airplane fuselages, up-close looks at the inner workings of navigation and hydraulic systems, and interactive exhibits on satellites, submarines, and space travel. You can even walk inside a space station module that was launched on an actual space shuttle mission. There's also a café, a kid-oriented family zone, and the Sky Deck atop the building, where you're treated to views of jets taking off and landing at adjacent Paine Field and impressive views of the surrounding mountains and Puget Sound.

At this restored 1816 mill you can take a self-guided tour and watch the 12-foot-round waterwheel power the 1,400-pound millstone.

The country's oldest rice mill that's still in operation, dating from 1912, produces distinctive wild pecan rice. Tours are conducted on the hour between 10 am and 3 pm, and includes a presentation about the surrounding area and a guided walk-through of the mill. The adjacent Konriko Company Store sells Cajun crafts and foods.

Visitors are welcome to watch potters as they work, producing a variety of items that are fired in an on-site, 35-foot-long, wood-fired tube kiln. A selection of items—including seconds—are available for purchase in the workshop. A larger store, located farther north in West Cornwall ( 415 Sharon-Goshen Turnpike), offers the wood-fired pots along with items made by local glassmakers, woodworkers, and metalsmiths.

Got the need for speed? Then race right over to this new Dallara facility, just a third of a mile from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and five miles from downtown Indy. Not only can you get a peek into the factory of this racing master, but you can even get behind the wheel of a street-legal two-seater IndyCar for a firsthand spin ($20, for visitors 16 and older) or get a virtual sense of the thrill in the track simulator.

You can often watch the crafting of oak baskets by hand, done here since 1876. Skilled craftspeople and weavers use techniques passed down through the generations.

Dick Taylor specializes in small-batch dark chocolates made with beans from Africa and Central America. His factory store's on-site café serves dense European-style "drinking chocolates," along with hot chocolates, addictive fudge pops, and other delights. Book a tour (with tasting) through the company's website.

Ethel M celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2016 and renovated its Henderson factory to commemorate the occasion. Today, watching gourmet chocolates being made on one of the daily tours will make your mouth water; fortunately the self-guided tour is brief, and there are free samples at the end. You can buy more of your favorites in the store. There are also chocolate tasting experiences beginning at $25, where you will learn about how chocolate is sourced and produced and become an honorary chocolatier complete with certificate afterward. Randomly, the factory also happens to be home to the largest cactus garden in the southwestern United States, and hosts spectacular light displays at Christmas, Easter, and Halloween.

Follow your nose down Ross Alley to this tiny but fragrant cookie factory, an institution churning out treats for more than 60 years. Two workers sit at circular motorized griddles and wait for dollops of batter to drop onto a tiny metal plate, which rotates into an oven. A few moments later, out comes a cookie that's pliable and ready for folding. It's easy to peek in for a moment, and hard to leave without getting a few free samples and then buying a bagful of fortune cookies for snacks and wisdom later. You can even write your own fortunes.

On tours of this factory co-op, you can watch workers using vintage equipment spin alpaca, mohair, wool, and organic cotton into yarn. The shop sells yarn, knitting accessories, and patterns.

The first du Pont gunpowder mills still stand on this site, offering a glimpse of the du Ponts at work and an enlightening look at the development of early industrial America. You can tour the mills, a 19th-century machine shop, and the family home and gardens, all set on 240 acres. Wear comfortable shoes.

The St. Mary's River, which once powered Historic Cecil's Old Mill, is just a trickle in this area now, so the water wheel now runs on electricity. Today the building, which dates to 1900, contains an artist co-op as well as a small display of artifacts and photographs of the mill. In keeping with the setting, most of the arts and crafts on sale are quaint and rustic: rural scenes painted on circular saw blades or lighthouses on driftwood, crocheted place mats, and colorful quilts. The mill is about five miles west of Lexington Park and quite difficult to find—there are no signposts. Once a year, in the fall, the mill is powered up for sawing logs. Call for details.

On the banks of the Queen River, this circa-1886 mill still grinds cornmeal for johnnycakes the old-fashioned way, with enormous granite millstones quarried in Westerly. You can arrange group tours lasting up to 90 minutes, or wait until the weekend and request an individual tour. Special tour weekends in the summer and fall can be combined with kayaking---there's a rental shop on-site. Products may be purchased in the mill shop during business hours.

Pivotal accomplishments in engineering history occurred at the nation's last functioning water-powered foundry and machine shop, established in 1873 and these days run by volunteers. Namesake Samuel Knight's innovations included a revolutionary system for casting iron and the one-piece Knight Water Wheel for generating power. You can tour on the second Saturday of the month or on workdays (usually Wednesday). Plaques and outdoor exhibits accessible at all hours convey some of this facility's fascinating story.

The design studios and factory of this home-furnishings empire occupy a Victorian farmhouse and other attractive buildings on a bluff overlooking Cayuga Lake. A 15-minute studio-tour video plays continuously in the visitor center, where artisan demos are given Friday and Sunday 11–4. You can tour the "farmhouse," a late-1800s Second Empire–style home that's been renovated and decorated with MacKenzie-Childs products. The extensive, 75-acre grounds include gardens, trails, and a shop devoted to MacKenzie-Childs wares.

Acres of macadamia nut trees lead to a giant roasting facility and processing plant with viewing windows and self-guided tours. You can even watch demonstrations showing how they coat nuts and shortbread cookies with milk chocolate to create their famous products. There are free samples and plenty of gift boxes with mac nuts in every conceivable form of presentation for sale in the visitor center. Children can burn off extra energy on a nature trail here after enjoying dairy-free ice cream for sale.

It's not hard to believe this newspaper press was the largest in North America when it began operations in 2003. At 400 feet long and eight stories high, the $110-million press can print up to 85,000 newspapers an hour. Watch papers zip through the press and travel by conveyer belt across the ceiling, glimpse 10-foot vats of color and black ink, and marvel at the robots that push giant reels of paper between stations. The tour is especially popular with school groups and Scout troops.

On the grounds of the Fonthill estate, the tile works still produces Arts and Crafts–style tiles from Mercer's designs. These tiles adorn such well-known structures as Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, as well as many of the homes and sidewalks of Doylestown. The late author and Bucks County resident James Michener described them as follows: "Using scenes from the Bible, mythology, and history, Henry Chapman Mercer produced wonderfully archaic tiles about 12 or 14 inches square in powerful earth colors that glowed with intensity and unforgettable imagery." You can watch a 17-minute video and take a partially guided tour (every half-hour) past artisans at work in the 1912 factory, which resembles a Spanish mission. You can also purchase tiles at the works.

During Galena's 19th century growth, the town boasted upwards of three dozen working blacksmiths who busied themselves making shoes for the region's many horses. While there are barely a handful now, you can peek back into that heyday history at this 1897 blacksmith shop, which hosts demonstrations of the authentic early 20th-century tools that are on display.

Come here to learn how growers create the perfect cup of Kona coffee through a multilayered process, with coffee cherries getting pulped, sorted, and dried in preparation for roasting, both by hand and with machinery. Take an easy, self-guided tour of this mill by following the descriptive plaques around the property. Then stop off at the coffee center to see coffee-making relics, peruse the gift shop, and watch an informational film. Visitors can also enjoy the beautiful views and stroll through a real lava tube on the grounds.

Two 400-ton blast furnaces that fired Birmingham’s longtime, lucrative steel industry are preserved along with boilers, steam-driven blowing engines, and slag granulators. Some 40 buildings, a web of pipes, and tall smokestacks vividly illustrate the 20th-century industrial age, and steel’s hold on the city’s economy. Tours pass enormous machinery and wind through the underground railroad tunnel. Visiting and resident artists exhibit their work and teach metal crafting.