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One-Minute Essays
Historic Sites & Museums in the United States
What follows is the beginning of what we hope will become a comprehensive list of historic mills, iron sites, agricultural museums and other sites in the US that you could visit with your family or classes. These vary from full-experience museums to simple restored houses. We certainly cannot claim full knowledge of even the ones we list, so please see their websites and contact them before visiting.
This is very much a work in progress, so please help us by emailing us your historic site(s) to add to the list. Please also see our list of partner historic museums
Click on your state for a listing of sites to visit with your class or family.


Alabama
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Alaska
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Arizona
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Arkansas
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California
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  • Bakersfield - Kern County Museum - hands-on museum of California history, including an 1890 blacksmith shop
  • Coloma - Suttter's Mill - home of the 1849 goldrush, but a reconstructed sawmill
Colorado
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Connecticut
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Delaware
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District of Columbia
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Florida
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Georgia
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Hawaii
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Idaho
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Illinois
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Indiana
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Iowa
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Kansas
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Kentucky
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Louisiana
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Maine
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Maryland
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Massachusetts
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Michigan
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  • Negaunee - Michigan Iron Industry Museum - history of Michigan iron industry from 1848-1855, including hands-on exhibits and outdoor interpretive paths
Minnesota
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Mississippi
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Missouri
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Montana
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Nebraska
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Nevada
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New Hampshire
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New Jersey
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New Mexico
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  • Cimarron - Aztec Mill - Housed in Aztec Mill, a grist mill built in 1864, to furnish grain to the Indians, the museum exhibits regional artifacts, memorabilia, and early photographs pertaining to the history of Northeast New Mexico
New York
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  • Cold Spring - West Point Foundry Ruins
  • East Meredith - Handford Mills Museum - 150-year-old working mill, powered by waterwheel, saws logs to lumber, grain to feed. Blacksmithing workshops offered
  • Long Island - Water Mill Museum - operating water-powered gristmill dating back to 1644 and museum
  • Philipsburg - Philipsburg Manor
North Carlina
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  • Bethabara - Historic Bethabara Park - archaeological and landscape evidence of the agricultural life of a colonial Moravian settlement, including reconstructions of an early timber-frame barn, log house and gardens
North Dakota
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Ohio
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  • Upper Sandusky - Indian Mill - The mill, built in 1861, is the nation's first educational museum of milling in its original structure
Oklahoma
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Oregon
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  • Salem - Mission Mill Museum - museum interprets the history of Jason Lee's Methodist Mission to Oregon in 1834, including an original water-powered turbine of the woolen mill
Pennsylvania
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  • Bethlehem - Historic Bethlehem
  • Cornwall - Cornwall Furnace
  • Ephrata - Ephrata Cloister
  • Hopewell - Hopewell Furnace
  • Howard (Milesburg) - Eagle Ironworks at Curtin Furnace
  • Huntingdon - Greenwood Furnace
  • Newport - Shoaff's Mill - located in Little Buffalo State Park
  • State College- Centre Furnace Mansion
  • State College - Pasto Agricultural Museum - approximately 1,000 rare and unusual farm and household items dating back to the 1840s
Puerto Rico
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Rhode Island
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South Carolina
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South Dakota
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Tennessee
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Texas
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Utah
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Vermont
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  • Shelburne - Shelburne Museum - 17th- to 20th-century artifacts and historic buildings, including a blacksmith shop
Virginia
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U.S. Virgin Islands
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Washington
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West Virginia
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Wisconsin
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  • Greenbush (Sheboygan Co.) - Herring Sawmill - reconstructed 1880s water-powered sawmill
  • Eagle (Waukesha Co.) - Old World Wisconsin - living history museum, strong on agriculture
  • Cassville - Stonefield - home of Wisconsin's first governor and Wisconsin State Agricultural Museum
Wyoming
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