The National Park Service cares for America's more than 400 national parks…and works in almost every one of her 3,141 counties. We are proud that tribes, local governments, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individual citizens ask for our help in revitalizing their communities, preserving local history, celebrating local heritage, and creating close to home opportunities for kids and families to get outside, be active, and have fun. Find a few selected important places outside the parks here and explore the links for more. Then explore what you can do to share your own stories and the places that matter to you.
Engineering: Ancient Architects of the Mississippi: Wonders of geometric precision, the earthworks of the lower Mississippi were centers of life long before the Europeans arrived in America. As was the river itself. The alluvial soil of its banks yielded a bounty of beans, squash, and corn to foster burgeoning communities. Over the Mississippi's waters, from near and far, came prized pearls, copper, and mica. Today, most of the moundbuilders' legacy is gone. Many of their earthworks have been plowed, pilfered, eroded, and built over. Yet evidence of the culture remains.
National Aviation Heritage Area: Each summer they manage the SOAR program at the Dayton Air Show.This hands-on program offers low-income children of the area the chance to experience the air show. Nearly 20 unique STEM-related activities are provided by companies, universities, and programs.
Bald Mountain Gold Mill, Nevada Gulch at head of False Bottom Creek, Lead, Lawrence County, SD documented by the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). The technology used at Bald Mountain Gold Mill provides an excellent illustration of the development of the cyanide process of gold milling in the first half of the twentieth century. Historically this site was of great economic and social importance to the Black Hills region of South Dakota.
Grand Coulee Dam: On the Columbia River west of Spokane, Washington, is one of the largest structures ever built by mankind--a mass of concrete standing 550 feet high and 5,223 feet long, or just shy of a mile. Grand Coulee contains 12 million cubic yards of concrete, or enough to build a highway from Seattle to Miami.