Favorite Obscure NPS Sites?

I would love to hear about people's favorite more obscure NPS sites, especially remote ones. One of my favorite things about trying to visit NPS sites is that it's gotten me to visit so many interesting places I wouldn't have gone to otherwise! I'll go somewhere not expecting to like it but wanting to check it off the list, and learn so much! My favorite more obscure sites have been:

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve- The hiking trails are amazing. When you get far out, it feels like you're the only person in the world in some sort of post apocalyptic landscape, but in a good way. The animals and plants are really cool, especially the bison

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument- This one has a lot of mammal fossils and weirdly fossils of prehistoric beaver burrows that look like corkscrews! They also have a collection of Indigenous art (I can't remmeber which tribes/nations), including a calendar painted on buffalo hide which goes from the beginning of time to the present day with event represented by pictures. Super cool

Camp Nelson National Monument- This was a refugee camp for formerly enslaved people during the Civil War. Really cool exhibits on their lives in the camp and before and after the war. It's also really emotionally impactful to walk through the area and see where the camp was set up

I feel like these smaller sites deserve more appreciation! Does anyone else have similar favorites?

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u/Awkward_Hedgehog_483 — 2 days ago

How Widespread is Museum Disfunction?

Hello! I have worked at three different living history museums of varying sizes. The smallest one was reasonably well run and managed, but had no advertising and got very few visitors. The other two have had pretty substantial issues around management, employee safety, turnover, etc. I was very curious to hear about other people's experiences. Is this a super common problem for living history? what about other museums with fewer public facing staff? I'd really appreciate any perspectives!

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u/Awkward_Hedgehog_483 — 3 days ago

Addy goes to the American Girl Spa!

So I recently got back into American Girl as an adult, mostly out of how nostalgic they are for me, and purchased an Addy off Ebay. I've been slowly restoring her and gathering all her original accessories and such. This weekend I was going to be in DC and realized that there's an American Girl store there, so I took Addy to get cleaned up and to get her hair put back in the original style! Because she's so old her hair isn't perfect, but I think she looks great, and it was a fun experience

u/Awkward_Hedgehog_483 — 1 month ago

My neighbor claims that he saw ICE raid the apartment building next to ours, close to Colonial Williamsburg, last night or early this morning. He said that people were running and ICE got people. I didnt talk to him for too long because I was horrified and he was in favor of the alleged raid, which really upset me. However, I'm not sure how reliable he is, he doesn't seem like an incredibly stable person. Does anyone know if this happened? If so, can we do anything to help/support the people detained or their families? I'm new to the area, are there groups to oppose ICE?

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u/Awkward_Hedgehog_483 — 2 months ago