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Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
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Copyright 2016 by Brent D. Glass
Foreword copyright 2016 by David McCullough
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Paperback Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Simon & Schuster trade paperback edition March 2016
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Interior design by Ruth Lee-Mui
Cover design and illustrations by Thomas Colligan
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Glass, Brent D., author.
50 great American places : essential historic sites across the U.S. / Brent D. Glass ; foreword by David McCullough.
pagescm
1. Historic sitesUnited StatesGuidebooks. I. Title. II. Title: Fifty great American places.
E159.G539 2016
973dc23 2015031714
ISBN 978-1-4516-8203-8
ISBN 978-1-4516-8204-5 (ebook)
Healing Gila, for The People is reprinted by permission from Drawing the Line (Coffee House Press, 1997). Copyright 1997 by Lawson Fusao Inada.
To the memory of my parents,
JOSEPH AND CORINNE GLASS,
who inspired my love of history and learning
CONTENTS
PLACES BY STATE
Authors note: Some essays in this book describe more than one place; therefore, the total number of sites is greater than fifty. But most readers will agree that the United States has many more than fifty great places. I hope you will add to the list.
The list of places by state includes the town or city in which the site is located or, in some cases, the nearest town to that site. The site mentioned on this list is the major subject of each essay.
ALABAMA
Huntsville/Saturn V Rocket
ARIZONA
Tucson/Mission San Xavier del Bac
ARKANSAS
Little Rock/Little Rock Central High School
CALIFORNIA
Burbank/Warner Bros. Studio
La Jolla/Salk Institute
Palo Alto/Silicon Valley
San Francisco/The Presidio at the Golden Gate
COLORADO
Cortez/Mesa Verde
CONNECTICUT
Hartford/Nook Farm
DELAWARE
New Castle/New Castle Court House
FLORIDA
Orlando/EPCOT
Celebration
Maitland/Research Studio
GEORGIA
Atlanta/Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site
HAWAII
Honolulu/Pearl Harbor
IDAHO
Jerome/Minidoka
ILLINOIS
Collinsville/Cahokia Mounds
Chicago/Worlds Columbian Exposition
INDIANA
New Harmony
KANSAS
Lawrence/Allen Fieldhouse
Manhattan/Kansas State University
LOUISIANA
New Orleans/Jazz National Historical Park
MARYLAND
Baltimore/B&O Railroad Museum
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston/Freedom Trail
Salem/Witch Trials Memorial
MICHIGAN
Dearborn/Ford Rouge Complex
MINNESOTA
Edina/Southdale Center
Bloomington/Mall of America
MISSOURI
St. Louis/Gateway Arch
MONTANA
Crow Agency/Little Bighorn Battlefield
NEBRASKA
Red Cloud/Willa Cather Memorial Prairie
NEVADA
Boulder City/Hoover Dam
NEW JERSEY
West Orange/Edisons Laboratory
NEW MEXICO
Santa Fe/Palace of the Governors
NEW YORK
New York/Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty
New York/Grand Central Terminal
Seneca Falls/Womens Rights National Historical Park
NORTH CAROLINA
Asheville/Biltmore House
Kill Devil Hills/Wright Brothers National Memorial
OHIO
Hudson/Village Green
OKLAHOMA
Claremore/Will Rogers Highway
PENNSYLVANIA
Gettysburg/Gettysburg National Military Park
Philadelphia/Liberty Bell
Pittsburgh/Forks of the Ohio
RHODE ISLAND
Pawtucket/Slater Mill
SOUTH CAROLINA
Charleston/Fort Sumter National Monument
SOUTH DAKOTA
Pine Ridge/Wounded Knee Monument
TENNESSEE
Nashville/Ryman Auditorium
TEXAS
San Antonio/The Alamo
UTAH
Salt Lake City/Temple Square
VIRGINIA
Charlottesville/Monticello
Yorktown/Virginia Peninsula
WASHINGTON
Richland/Hanford B Reactor
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The National Mall
WISCONSIN
Spring Green/Taliesin
WYOMING
Yellowstone National Park
FOREWORD
BY DAVID MCCULLOUGH
W hen Brent Glass, a friend of many years, first told me about the book he planned to write, I said immediately I thought it a marvelous idea and that it would fill a real need. I also wondered to myself why in the world I hadnt thought of it. Journeys to great historic sites had been high points for me since boyhood and have remained a mainstay of my work from the time I embarked on my first book. But no, I thought. With all his scholarship and professional experience as a public historian, Brent was just the one for the task. Indeed, I know of no one who knows more about American historic sites. Public historians believe that history should be accessible to all, that it is much too important to leave to academics alone or solely to the classroom, and as a public historian Brent is a national leader.
We first met in 1989, at the Centennial of the Johnstown Flood, and were happy to discover how many interests we had in common. He was then head of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Later, during the years he served as director of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, our paths crossed more and more, and our ensuing friendship became one of the prime rewards of our shared interest in how much of the story of our country is to be found all around us, as part of the immense American landscape.
As it was for Brent, my first journey into history began at about age ten with a visit with my parents to a historical landmark, Fort Necessity in western Pennsylvania, some sixty miles southeast of our home in Pittsburgh. The site of the first skirmish of the French and Indian War, it is where young Lieutenant Colonel George Washington and his troops suffered a humiliating defeat. There was not a whole lot to be seena replica of a small wooden fort set in an open fieldbut it certainly made a lasting impression.
In grade school we learned more of what had happened right in Pittsburgh during the eighteenth century and that Brent gives appropriate attention to in his chapter on the Forks of the Ohio. Later, while in high school, I had the good fortune to travel further into history during a spring vacation road trip with a friend and his parents through much of Virginia, with stops at Monticello and Mount Vernon, and the experience opened my mind and imagination to history as nothing yet had.
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