Step Outside

Cultural landscapes surround you. These areas reveal our relationship with place and strengthen our understanding of historic events, significant people, and patterns in American history. This is your guide to cultural landscapes in the National Park System.

A view through two rows of fruit trees in a sunny orchard toward a white house.

Cultural Landscape Basics

Looking for a Cultural Landscapes 101? Start here.

A.G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham in 2010, a low building with flat facade, stone planters, and sign

New Cultural Landscape Articles

Connecting the past, present, and future through cultural landscapes. Discover a new place or a new way of seeing a familiar place.

The Cultural Landscape Research Group considers a condition assessment at Death Valley

Climate Change and Cultural Landscapes

See what the NPS is doing to protect natural and cultural resources, including cultural landscapes, impacted by a changing climate.

Cars move around a traffic circle and bridge over a river, toward a city with trees and monuments

Find Your Cultural Landscape

Cultural landscapes help preserve complex stories of conflict, commerce, civil rights, construction, conservation, and more.

A team of NPS staff stands along a wooden fence on a winter farm landscape.

Reference Library

In search of cultural landscape documentation or preservation guidance? Start here.

Historic image shows workers in uniform using tools to dig a row of fence posts.

A Preservation Timeline

Explore 165 years of cultural landscape preservation in the United States.

Last updated: February 28, 2020

Tools