There is history all around us, places where all sorts of things happened to change the country (or the world) in both large and small ways. I know that many history buffs and the history-curious plan entire trips around visiting our major historical landmarks and national monuments. Often, these places are widely known; we are taught about them in school, and they draw millions of visitors. There are, however, many other places where important things happened that fly quietly under the radar – places where tides were turned, precedents were set, cultures collided, innovations were made, and in some way, the flow of history was altered. These 12 places may be lesser known, but we think they are absolutely worth discovering.
Huffman Prairie Flying Field, Dayton, Ohio
Nearly everyone knows Kitty Hawk in North Carolina’s Outer Banks as the site of the Wright brothers’ first successful flight in 1903. But far fewer people know the site where they perfected their craft and laid the path for the world of aviation as we know it. After that famous flight, the Wright brothers returned to their hometown and began testing their Wright Flyer II here at Huffman Prairie Flying Field. Over the next few years, they made around 150 flights, developed what they deemed the first practical airplane, the Wright Flyer III, and trained over 100 pilots on this site. Visitors to Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park can visit the historic flying field and a reproduction of the Wright brothers’ 1905 hangar and catapult.
Brown Building, New York, New York
What looks like any other building in the city was the site of a shocking tragedy – one that many people are completely unaware of, but the legacy of which affects the entire country’s workers and employees to this day. Formerly known as the Asch Building, this ten-story building housed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. In 1911, a fire blazed through the factory, which occupied the top three floors and killed 146 workers, many of whom were young immigrant women. Reportedly, doors to the exits and stairwells were locked, preventing workers from escaping the fire safely.
What is regarded as the city’s deadliest industrial disaster was a wake-up call when it came to workplace safety and standards. As a result, the American Society of Safety Engineers (now the American Society of Safety Professionals) was founded just a few months later and continues to develop and implement Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) standards across every industry.
Laws Spring, Williams, Arizona
In 1857, Edward Beale was commissioned by the government to construct a road from Arkansas to the Colorado River. Use of the 1,240-mile road waned with the construction of a railroad parallel to it, and it naturally fell into disrepair, but parts of the road (totaling about 23 miles) are preserved along the Beale Wagon Road Historic Trail. The landscape is much the same as it was when Beale first arrived here, giving visitors a chance to truly walk through history. One access point to the trail – Laws Spring – is a significant historic site in itself.
Here in Arizona’s high desert, hidden deep within the Kaibab National Forest, is a rare freshwater spring with a rich – and little-known – history. The rocks and cliffs around the springs are marked by petroglyphs that may date back to the year 700 and the native Cohonina people who lived in the area. In the 1800s, this dependable water source in the desert became a valuable stop for Westbound travelers. It was also a spot where Beale and his crew camped while constructing the new road. Beale decided to name the spring after a crew member, Major W. L. Laws and another member inscribed the name on this rock above the water. Hikers will find an original road segment near the spring and can still see both the “Laws Spring” inscription and the prehistoric petroglyphs.
Salinas Pueblo Missions, Mountainair, New Mexico
The Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, located in the heart of New Mexico, offers a fascinating glimpse into America’s past and tells the story of some of the earliest contact between Europeans and Native Americans. The monument is made up of three distinct sets of ruins — Gran Quivira, Abó, and Quarai — and their stories are as complex as the structures themselves.
The missions were established by Spanish missionaries at the sites of existing Pueblo villages. For hundreds of years, Puebloan people lived here, and you can still see the ruins of these ancient communities, the Spanish churches, artifacts, and later homesteads. At the largest mission, Gran Quivira, the partially excavated pueblo mound and its ceremonial kivas provide insight into the culture and lives of these early residents. The villages here were major centers for trade with Native Americans from the Great Basin, the Plains, and the Pacific Coast until the Spanish came to colonize the region around the year 1600, beginning an era of cultural interchanges, revolts, conflict, and resilience.
Guignard Brick Works, Cayce, South Carolina
Hiding in plain sight near the Congaree River are four 35-foot-wide brick domes known as beehive kilns, the heart of what was one of the country’s oldest and longest-operating brick companies, Guignard Brick Works. It all began in 1801 when James Sanders Guignard started making bricks for his own purposes, using clay from the banks of the Congaree River. A few decades later, the family started selling bricks commercially.
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By 1900, the business was thriving and contributed much to the state’s urban development. Guignard Brick Works produced bricks that were used to build several cotton mills (including Capital City Mill), Columbia’s first high-rise building, the National Loan and Exchange Bank building, Hotel Jefferson, and part of the South Carolina State House. The large kilns were built between around 1920 (with one being rebuilt in 1932 following a fire). Operations ended in 1956, but the kilns remain as a historic site.
Tam O’Shanter, Los Angeles, California
This may not be an ancient burial ground, the site of a historic battle, or the epicenter of industrial development, but there is no denying Walt Disney’s impact on the world. From a single animated mouse, a legacy began that would spread around the world and into the homes and lives of millions, if not billions, of people.
At the beginning of it all, in the early 1920s, he set up the small Disney Brothers Studio in Los Angeles. Together with his crew of “Imagineers,” he dined at the nearby Tam O’Shanter nearly every day, which earned the pub the nickname “the Disney Studio Commissary.” He had a favorite table, number 31, which now bears a plaque commemorating its famous guest. Local lore has it that the medieval-style decor and storybook exterior may have been at least partial inspiration for Disney’s first animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It’s hard to believe that this humble pub still flies well under the radar.
Wrangell, Alaska
Nestled in the islands of Alaska’s Inside Passage is Wrangell, the third-oldest community in the state and one with a unique history. This is the only city in Alaska to have been ruled by four different nations – Tlingit, Russia, Britain, and the U.S. As the story goes, the Tlingit people migrated from Canada via the Stikine River, long before Europeans stepped foot on the land. Their native history and culture can still be seen and experienced throughout Wrangell. In fact, it is believed that the Tlingits are the ones who carved the many ancient petroglyphs found at Wrangell’s Petroglyph Beach State Historic Park.
It was only in the 1800s that non-natives visited the island, starting with the Russians, who established a military fort in 1834. In 1840, after conflict with both the Russians and Tlingits, a ten-year lease of Alaskan land resulted in the transfer of the fort to the British. In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia after the discovery of gold on the Stikine River. The story of this remote city includes the booms and busts of three gold rushes, two major fires, developments in the fishing and timber industry, and influences from around the world.
Angel Island, San Francisco, California
Everyone knows about New York’s Ellis Island, which welcomed and processed over 12 million immigrants and is now visited by millions each year. Far fewer know about and visit its West Coast counterpart, Angel Island. Nicknamed the “Ellis Island of the West,” this immigration station in San Francisco Bay served as an entry point for immigrants from Asia. It is estimated that some one million immigrants were processed between 1910 and 1940.
During World War II, German and Japanese POWs were held here, and during the 1950s and 1960s, Angel Island was a Nike missile site. The island’s history goes back way before the immigration station, though, serving as a fishing and hunting area for Coastal Miwok peoples. Angel Island is now a California State Park that offers visitors hiking trails with incredible views and the opportunity to explore historical landmarks.
Poverty Point National Monument, Pioneer, Louisiana
In the tiny town of Pioneer, you’ll find the site of an ancient and all-but-forgotten city. One of the country’s most significant historic landmarks, Poverty Point was home to a sophisticated people who built what is now recognized as an engineering marvel. More than 3,000 years ago, without modern instruments or technology, they created massive concentric half-circles and a 72-foot-tall mound. Countless artifacts have been collected, providing clues about the site’s history as a residential, trade, and religious center, but much of this archaeological wonder remains a mystery.
Around 1100 B.C., Poverty Point was completely abandoned. Another native group occupied part of the site in about 700 A.D. for a short period and added another mound. For nearly 3,000 years afterward, it appears that humans used the site intermittently until the European-American settlement of the area in the 1800s. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Allegheny Portage Railroad, Gallitzin, Pennsylvania
The Allegheny Portage Railroad was a short – and short-lived – enterprise, yet it profoundly impacted the country’s western expansion in the 1800s. While merchants in New York were able to take advantage of new Western markets and trade due to the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, those in Philadelphia were all but cut off from such trade. The Main Line canal system could only help so much as they could not carry anyone or anything over the imposing Allegheny Mountains. Thus, the Allegheny Portage Railroad was born. As part of the Pennsylvania Main Line, this small section of railroad connected two canals, enabling passengers and goods to traverse the Mountains via railroad cars towed by steam engines over a massive staircase of inclined planes.
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It was daring, experimental, and came with hazards, but it turned a difficult weeks-long journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh into a 4-day trip. The portage was completely abandoned less than 25 years after opening. During that short time, trade between coal producers in the west and manufacturers in the east was quickened. And, far before railroads and locomotives made east-west travel convenient, settlers were more easily able to leave the cities and farms in the east and reach their new homes in the wide west. Visitors can see remains of the original engine house, several of the incline planes, and the 901-foot-long Staple Bend Tunnel, the country’s oldest railroad tunnel.
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, Manteo, North Carolina
Most people know Jamestown, Virginia, as the first British colony, and though it was the first permanent settlement, it was not the first time a group of British colonists settled in the New World. Millions of visitors make their way to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, but far fewer find themselves at the site of the mystery-clad “Lost Colony” on Roanoke Island. The disappearance of the first permanent (or at least that was the intention) British Colony has been called America’s oldest unsolved mystery. A group of 115 English settlers, including women and children, were brought to the island in 1587 to begin a new life. Fun fact: The Roanoke Colony was the birthplace of the first English-born child in America. Virginia Dare was born just a month after the settlers arrived.
The leader of the expedition went back to England for supplies but was delayed from returning because of a war with Spain. It took three years for him to once again reach the North Carolina coast, only to find the settlement abandoned. No survivors were found, and speculations have been made about disease, massacre, slavery, and more, but findings have led many to believe that the settlers befriended a Native American tribe, the Croatoans, and moved to live with them on Hatteras Island. We may never know the truth.
These historic sites may be lesser known, but surely not less important. How many of these historically significant places did you know about? Why not plan a trip to one (or more!) of these fascinating places? And be sure to share this article with a fellow history lover!
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Publish date : 2024-10-21 02:44:00
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