Pea Ridge National Military Park

Pea Ridge, Ark. Visited: August 31, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 243 of 353 NPS Website; Local Website WHAT IS IT? Site of the March 1862 Civil War battle that “saved Missouri for the Union”. BEAUTY (3/10) The concepts of “well-preserved” and “endangered” battlefields appear attached to every Civil War Site we visit. Here are the [...]

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William J. Clinton Presidential Library

Little Rock, Ark. Visited: August 30, 2005 NPS Site Visited: Not an NPS Site Presidential Library Visted: 10 of 12 Local Website WHAT IS IT? The Presidential Library and Museum of our 42nd president, William Jefferson Clinton. BEAUTY (4/10) The Clinton Library and Museum looks like a giant glass 2×4. Half of the building seems [...]

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Arkansas Post National Memorial

near Gould, Ark. Visited: August 29, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 240 of 353 NPS Website; Local Website WHAT IS IT? Site of one of France’s earliest permanent New World settlements. For almost 200 years, from 1686 to 1863, the Arkansas Post was an important city but now nothing remains. BEAUTY (5/10) The Park is a [...]

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Hot Springs National Park

Hot Springs, Ark. Visited: August 28, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 239 of 353 NPS Website; Local Website WHAT IS IT? A row of 19th-century bathhouses located above the curative waters of 47 odorless hot springs. BEAUTY (7/10) Hot Springs NP does not look like a National Park. We followed the signs pointing us to the [...]

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Oklahoma City National Memorial

Oklahoma City, Okla. Visited: August 26, 2005 NPS Site Visited: Not an Official Site NPS Affiliate Site Visited: 12 of 26 NPS Website; Local Website WHAT IS IT? Outdoor Memorial and privately-run interactive museum dedicated to the memory of those lost in the 1995 terrorist bombing of Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. BEAUTY [...]

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Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument and Lake Meredith National Recreation Area

near Fritch, Texas Visited: August 25, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 234 and 235 of 353 NPS Alibates Flint Quarries NM Website; NPS Lake Meredith NRA Website WHAT IS IT? The Alibates Flint Quarries NM, pronounced al-ee-BATES, showcases evidence of 12,000 years of human life and includes some of America’s most ornate and, historically, most prized [...]

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Washita Battlefield National Historic Site

Cheyenne, Okla. Visited: August 25, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 236 of 353 NPS Website; Local Website WHAT IS IT? Site of the November 1868 battle between the U.S. Army and the Cheyenne Plains Indians. BEAUTY (3/10) Fields of tall grass, hordes of grasshoppers and stifling heat and humidity. Welcome to Oklahoma. In pictures, the sky [...]

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Rocky Mountain National Park

Estes Park, Colo. Visited: August 22, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 233 of 353 NPS Website WHAT IS IT? A vast expanse of awe-inspiring high-country mountain wilderness highlighted by largest and most accessible tundra ecosystem in the continental United States. BEAUTY (10/10) At Rocky Mountain NP, you are on top of the world. Nothing spoils the [...]

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Colorado National Monument

Grand Junction, Colo. Visited: August 20, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 230 of 353 NPS Website WHAT IS IT? Breathtaking red sandstone rock formations, canyons and mesas standing near the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers. BEAUTY (8/10) The red-rock mesas, 2,000-foot high cliffs, eroded sandstone spires and oddly beautiful scenery of Colorado NM are [...]

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Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area

Montrose and Gunnison, Colo. Visited: August 20, 2005 NPS Site Visited: 231 and 232 of 353 NPS Black Canyon NP Website; NPS Curecanti NRA Website WHAT IS IT? The Black Canyon is deep, narrow canyon formed by the Gunnison River whose schist and gneiss walls give it its dark appearance. The nearby Curecanti NRA consists [...]

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