Repost This ArticleAmerica is large, with tons of landmark sites beyond Niagara, Mt. Rushmore, and the Statue of Liberty.
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Bear Butte, SD
Overshadowed by: Nearby Mt. RushmoreCool features: The 4,400ft igneous uplift, just north of the Black Hills, is held as sacred by the Lakota, Cheyenne, and other American Indian peoples of the region, who often make pilgrimages to the butte and leave offerings on its slopes. Respectful visitors can check it out in Bear Butte State Park.
Photo: Lars Plougmann
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St. Augustine, FL
Overshadowed by: Jamestown, VACool features: Founded by the Spanish in 1565, St. Augustine is "the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United States" (Wikipedia). The picture above is taken in front of the Fountain of Youth, a tribute to what Spanish explorers were looking for when they came to Florida.
Photo: minds-eye
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Petrified Forest National Park, AZ
Overshadowed by: Nearby Grand Canyon National ParkCool features: Adjacent to northeastern Arizona's Painted Desert, Petrified Forest is pretty colorful itself. It's also home to fossilized trees that grew 225 million years ago.
Photo: Skinned Mink
Intermission
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Angel Island, CA
Overshadowed by: Alcatraz Island, Ellis IslandCool features: San Francisco Bay's Angel Island was the point of entry for many Asian immigrants to America. Its museum and research center make it a great place to celebrate Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.
Photo: Franco Folini
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Ghost Ranch, NM
Overshadowed by: The Santa Fe art sceneCool features: The Ghost Ranch complex is a 21,000-acre retreat near Abiquiu and is where American artist Georgia O'Keeffe found much of the inspiration behind her landscape and nature paintings. Dinosaur fossils are also frequently uncovered on the property.
Photo: Randy Pertiet
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Shoshone Falls, ID
Overshadowed by: NiagaraCool features: This falls in southern Idaho is 45 feet taller than its world-famous counterpart in the East and fills a spillage width of 1,000 feet during runoff season. Swimming, boating, hiking, and picnicking opportunities are available.
Photo: The Shutterbugette
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Airplane Boneyard, AZ
Overshadowed by: Real airportsCool features: The aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, near Tuscon, is one of many such storage and scrap facilities in the American Southwest, where a dry climate and hard, compacted soil make it feasible to leave huge planes to sit for decades.
Photo: PhillipC
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Indian Mounds, nationwide
Overshadowed by: An apparent educational basis in the study of Native American historyCool features: Burial mounds scattered across the country, with high concentrations along the Mississippi, belie the idea that North American Indians never created monumental structures. The mound pictured above is just outside Columbus, OH.
Photo: spisharam
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Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO
Overshadowed by: Colorado's mountainsCool features: This new national park, created in 2004, is surprisingly overlooked, given it has the tallest dunes in North America and a backdrop made up of 14'ers in the Sangre de Cristo Range. It's also a great place to get started sandboarding.
Photo: knasen
Intermission
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Seattle Underground
Overshadowed by: Ground-level SeattleCool features: In 1889, a fire burned Seattle to the ground. To rebuild, citizens raised the city, constructing the new directly on top of the old. Matador Goods coeditor Michelle Schusterman blogs about this landmark in Before the Streets Were Raised.
Photo: zaui
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Chetro Ketl, NM
Overshadowed by: Pueblo Bonita and the greater Chaco CanyonCool features: The name of the historical culture and the canyon that housed it has penetrated into public awareness much more so than one of its most intricate and well preserved pueblos, Chetro Ketl. The canyon is a national historic park, with camping open year round.
Photo: snowpeak
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Penobscot Narrows Bridge, ME
Overshadowed by: Golden Gate, Brooklyn, and other famous U.S. bridgesCool features: The engineering sophistication that went into the four-year-old bridge seems incongruous with its location in small-town Maine. But the coolest part is the observation post built into the western tower. It's the tallest such observatory in the world.
Photo: sskennel
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White Sands National Monument, NM
Overshadowed by: New Mexico's archaeological sitesCool features: New Mexico's White Sands is 275 square miles of gypsum dunes, 15 miles southwest of Alamogordo.
Photo: a4gpa
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Palo Duro Canyon, TX
Overshadowed by: Grand CanyonCool features: Though nowhere near the scope of America's "grand" master, Palo Duro is the second largest canyon system in the country. It's currently protected by a Texas state park of the same name.
Photo: r w h
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Natchez Trace Parkway
Overshadowed by: Blue Ridge ParkwayCool features: Not nearly as mountainous as its Blue Ridge counterpart, the Natchez Trace Parkway makes for a smooth 444-mile cruise from southwestern Mississippi up to the outskirts of Nashville. It follows the path of the old Natchez Trace, which once served as a hunting and trade route for native peoples and later Europeans/Americans.
Photo: brandongreer
Intermission
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Fort Ticonderoga, NY
Overshadowed by: GettysburgCool features: This strategic fort was captured by the Green Mountain Boys at the start of the American Revolution. Also overlooked is the fact that infamous traitor Benedict Arnold was instrumental in the Revolutionary forces' 1775 victory here.
Photo: Slabcity Gang
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Shiprock, NM
Overshadowed by: Monument ValleyCool features: Like Bear Butte, Shiprock is considered sacred by the indigenous peoples of the region. To me, it looks like that sweet mobile fortress in Krull.
Photo: bowiesnodgrass
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African Burial Ground, NYC
Overshadowed by: New York's many other historical and cultural offeringsCool features: In 1991, the remains of 400 Africans (both free and enslaved) were uncovered in Lower Manhattan. You can read more about the site at Collazo Projects, the blog of Matador's managing editor, Julie Schwietert.
Photo: A. Strakey
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Great Basin National Park, NV
Overshadowed by: Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Yellowstone, and other Western parksCool features: Established in 1986, Great Basin is an infant in Western national park terms. Highlights include the Lehman Caves, plenty of backcountry camping opportunities, and the oldest known trees in the world. Find it off Highway 50, just across the Utah border.
Photo: Alaskan Dude
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McDonald Observatory, TX
Overshadowed by: Mauna Kea Observatory, HICool features: The height and aridity of the Davis Mountains, located in West Texas, make for good stargazing at McDonald, one of the most powerful observatories in the country.
Photo: Chuck 55
Hal Amen
Hal Amen is managing editor at Matador. His personal travel blog is WayWorded.
Great choices here! I’ve been to several of these places and agree that they are very much overlooked. The Indian mounds are fascinating — there are some in Wisconsin that are impressive, too. Also, I loved the Petrified Forest in Arizona when I went there many years ago — would love to go again. Glad to see an article about these landmarks.
Please change your reference from “American Indians” to Native Americans, as they do NOT mean the same thing.
From Wikipedia: “The terms used to refer to Native Americans are controversial; according to a 1995 US Census Bureau set of home interviews, most of the respondents with an expressed preference refer to themselves as American Indians or Indians.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States
I love Fort Ticonderoga. The King’s Garden is beautiful, too. Fuck, Lake George is amazing.
At first glance I thought the St. Augustine scene was the entrance at Oak Alley Plantation (1837-1839) in Vacherie, Louisiana, especially notable because the live oaks were planted to a canopy effect the original owner would have never lived to see complete.
I thought the same thing too!
This is such a stellar collection… thanks for the ideas! (love the Krull reference, btw!)
I always thought the Big Bend area of Texas was a national park. If it’s not, then it should be – same goes for the Gila Wilderness and City of Rocks in New Mexico.
Don’t know if there’s any other place quite like this. The Shelbourne Museum, Shelbourne VT.
Shelburne Museum is an museum of art and Americana located in Shelburne, Vermont, United States. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the Museum grounds. It is located on 45 acres (18 ha) near Lake Champlain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelburne_Museum – A Museum of everything Americana.
Ah, St Augustine, such a fantastic place, wonderful people, and home to the excellent Flagler College. I try and visit as much as possible, the place just puts you in a beautiful mood.
I love. love. LOVE the underground tour in Seattle! Highly recommend it to anyone who visits!
The Ozark National Scenic Riverways encompasses the Current and Jack’s Fork Rivers in rural Missouri. This park features some of the most pristine waterways in the country. Check http://www.nps.gov/ozar/index.htm. Big Spring, on the Current River, discharges 276 million gallons of water a day, making it one of the largest springs in the world. The area really is one of the most beautiful places in the country, and is often overlooked by people who aren’t from the area.
Sweet, thanks. I’ll be driving through next month. Will try to check it out.