United States National Monuments
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The United States National Monuments are a group of national monuments spread across the United States, part of the United States National Park System. Unlike United States National Parks, they can be created by presidential proclamation without an act of Congress. Accordingly, they may be a step down from the national parks in general, but they are still spectacular and fascinating pieces of natural scenery and national history; many of these places could be the highlight of a major trip or could be worth a whole trip on their own.
The map markers in this article are roughly color-coded by each monument's main draw: gray for historic sites, maroon for Native American prehistoric sites, and green for nature. Of course, many of the monuments have some combination of these features: natural formations of historic importance, prehistoric sites surrounded by natural scenery, and so on.
Mid-Atlantic
Maryland
- , Federal Hill, Baltimore — Site of a famous battle in the War of 1812 where Francis Scott Key saw the American flag still flying over the fort and composed the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner, which later became the country's national anthem.
New York
- , Financial District, New York City — A site in Lower Manhattan containing the remains of hundreds of Africans buried in what was a colonial-era cemetery.
- , Financial District, New York City — A former fort at the southern tip of Manhattan that also served as an immigration station.
- , Rome — A fort in upstate New York that was the site of a battle in the American Revolution.
- , New York Harbor, New York City — An island park just off the southern tip of Manhattan that was once the site of military fortifications and an army base.
- , New York Harbor, New York City — Home to Lady Liberty, still greeting visitors to New York Harbor. Tours of the inside of the statue are available if you reserve far in advance. Nearby on a separate island is Ellis Island, the famous former immigration station where the ancestors of a significant portion of America's population arrived in the United States.
South
Alabama
- — A cave system noted for its significant prehistoric archaeological finds; site of the earliest known human settlement in the southeastern United States.
Georgia
- , St. Simons Island — Preserves the ruins of a British fort and town from the 18th century.
- , Tybee Island — A masonry fort that was the site of a crucial naval battle during the Civil War.
- , Macon — Preserves a set of prehistoric earthworks dating over a thousand years old, including burial and ceremonial mounds.
Louisiana
- , Epps — Prehistoric earthworks and mounds dating to nearly three thousand years ago.
South Carolina
- , Charleston — An island fort at the mouth of Charleston Harbor that is famous as the site of the opening battle of the Civil War.
- , Sullivan's Island — Where South Carolina colonists fended off British attack during the American Revolution.
Virginia
- , Hardy — Preserves portions of a former tobacco plantation where Booker T. Washington, noted African-American political leader, was born into slavery.
- , Hampton — A former military base that was a strategic site for forts from the first colonists in the area to the Civil War, when it served as a safe haven for freed slaves.
- , Westmoreland County — Site of George Washington's birth and burial place of many of Washington's family members. Period buildings and furnishings are on display.
Florida
- , St. Augustine — Built as a Spanish fort in the 17th century before changing to British and American hands.
- , St. Augustine — A small Spanish fort dating to the 1740s.
Midwest
Illinois
- , Pullman, Chicago — A historic district that was once a company town built for the Pullman sleeping car company and the site of the violent 1894 Pullman labor strike, which played a significant role in U.S. labor and civil rights history.
Iowa
- — Preserves a set of prehistoric mounds, including some shaped like animals.
Minnesota
- — A footpath that bypasses a set of waterfalls and rapids, once used by fur trappers in the area.
- , Pipestone — Preserves a set of quarries for stone used in traditional Plains Indians culture to create peace pipes.
Missouri
- , Diamond — Boyhood home of botanist and inventor George Washington Carver.
Ohio
- , Wilberforce — Commemorates the life of Charles Young, the first African American National Park Service Superintendent and the highest ranking black army officer of his time.
Texas
- , Fritch — A quarry site for flint that was distributed throughout the Great Plains in prehistoric times.
Great Plains
Nebraska
- , Harrison — Site of many well-preserved mammal fossils dating from nearly 20 million years ago.
- , Beatrice — The first homestead obtained through the Homestead Act of 1862; contains displays about prairie homestead life.
- — A set of steep hills that served as a landmark for pioneers along the Oregon and Mormon Trails.
South Dakota
- — The second longest cave in the world, named for its calcite crystals.
Rocky Mountains
Colorado
- (BLM & USFS), between Salida and Buena Vista — A section of the Arkansas River popular for whitewater rafting.
- (BLM), near Cortez
- (USFS), near Pagosa Springs
- — Contains Monument Canyon, with spectacular rock formations and desert wildlife.
- — Preserves Jurassic fossil beds; a museum in the park displays dinosaur fossils.
- — Petrified redwoods and detailed fossils of plants and insects from nearly 35 million years ago.
- , Towaoc — A mostly unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan archaeological site dating to around a thousand years ago.
Idaho
- — A large basalt flow with numerous volcanic rock features.
- , Hagerman — Contains rich fossil beds from prior to the last ice age.
Montana
- (BLM), near Billings
- (BLM), east of Great Falls
Wyoming
- — A towering stone monolith that rises dramatically above the surrounding landscape, perhaps most famous today as the setting of the climax of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- — Contains 50 million year old fossil beds.
Southwest
Arizona
- (BLM)
- — Preserves a set of canyons and mesas in the midst of the Navajo Nation, with prehistoric Native American ruins.
- — Contains a group of prehistoric structures.
- — Eroded volcanic rock features, including multitudes of vertical rock formations.
- (BLM), adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park
- , Coolidge — Preserves archaeological remains including an ancient village.
- (BLM), Casa Grande
- , Camp Verde — Remarkably well-preserved cliff dwellings nearly six hundred years old.
- , Tonalea — Preserves a set of very intact Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings.
- — A desert landscape which is the only place in the country where the Organ Pipe Cactus grow naturally.
- — A desert spring that was the site of Native American and Mormon settlements; contains exhibits on pioneer life.
- (BLM), south of Phoenix
- , near Flagstaff — A volcanic cinder cone made of red rocks, hence the name.
- , Roosevelt — Preserves a set of cliff dwellings.
- , Clarkdale — A two- to three-story pueblo ruin perched on the summit of a ridge.
- (BLM), Page
- , Flagstaff — Protects a set of cliff dwellings situated in a scenic canyon.
- , near Flagstaff — Contains the remains of multiple ancient Native American settlements.
Nevada
- , near Las Vegas — Preserves a landscape containing Ice Age fossil beds.
New Mexico
- , Farmington — Ruins of a large Ancestral Puebloan village, including a restored kiva.
- — A set of ancient and scenic cliff dwellings carved out of the volcanic rock of local canyons.
- , northeast New Mexico near Capulin — An extinct volcanic cinder cone that rises out of the surrounding plains.
- — A basin covered in a large lava rock field that abruptly ends at the base of a sandstone bluff.
- , near El Malpais National Monument — A sandstone formation with ancient petroglyphs and inscriptions carved from European explorers into the walls.
- , near Las Vegas — A former frontier post and military fort once situated on the Santa Fe Trail.
- , near Silver City — A set of cliff dwellings perched on a high canyon wall.
- (BLM), central New Mexico near Santa Fe — A small monument preserving a set of tent-shaped volcanic rock formations and a short but scenic stretch of slot canyon accessible to hikers.
- (BLM), Las Cruces
- , Albuquerque — Preserves a collection of ancient petroglyphs carved on volcanic rock on a mesa overlooking Albuquerque.
- (BLM), Las Cruces
- (BLM), near Taos — A long and scenic stretch of gorge along the Rio Grande that's popular for hiking and whitewater rafting.
- , Mountainair — Preserves the ruins of several pueblo villages and striking Spanish Colonial missions.
- — A vast area of spectacular gypsum white sand dunes.
Utah
- — A natural amphitheater with spectacular red rock formations.
- (BLM)
- — Preserves Jurassic fossil beds; a museum in the park displays dinosaur fossils.
- — A set of spectacular natural bridges, including the second and third largest natural bridges in the world, carved from sandstone.
- , Glen Canyon National Recreation Area — The world's highest natural bridge, carved from red sandstone in a canyon just off Lake Powell.
- — A cave system in the Wasatch Range with numerous colorful cave features.
California
- , Point Loma, San Diego — Perched on a high coastal bluff with views over San Diego Bay, with a historic lighthouse and a monument commemorating the Spanish explorer Cabrillo, the first European to land on what became the west coast of America.
- (BLM)
- (BLM)
- , Keene — Home and burial place of Cesar Chavez, civil rights activist and founder of United Farm Workers.
- — Basalt cliffs and a 100-foot high waterfall.
- (BLM), Seaside
- — The largest concentration of lava tube caves in North America.
- , Marin County
- (USFS), Angeles National Forest, Los Angeles
- (BLM and USFS), Palm Desert
- , Tule Lake Unit, Newell — Site of a large Japanese internment camp during WWII.
Pacific Northwest
Oregon
- (BLM), Medford
- , Kimberly — Well-preserved fossils from the last 65 million years, painted in distinct colors by the many minerals in the fossil beds.
- (USFS)
- — Natural marble caves with numerous prehistoric fossils.
Washington
- (FWS)
- (BLM), San Juan Islands — Rugged islands in the Puget Sound with historic lighthouses and habitats for orcas, eagles, and seals.
- (USFS)
Alaska
- (USFS), near Juneau
- — Based around Mount Aniakchak, a volcano that erupted thousands of years ago and left a vast caldera.
- — A coastal plain with multiple lagoons and limestone bluffs.
- (USFS)
- , Atka Island, Attu Island, Kiska Island — A set of WWII battlefield remnants on the Aleutian Islands.
Hawaii
- , Waipahu — Site of a Japanese internment camp during WWII.
- (FWS)
- (FWS and NOAA) — The largest unit of the National Parks system, encompassing the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a string of reefs and small islands stretching from Nihoa Island to the Midway Islands.
- , Pearl Harbor, Honolulu — Covers a section of Pearl Harbor, site of the Japanese surprise attack that caused the U.S. to enter WWII. Several memorials are located here, most notably the USS Arizona Memorial, which straddles the sunken wreck of the USS Arizona battleship.
U.S. Virgin Islands
- , Christiansted — Preserves a small island and surrounding coral reef ecosystem.