November 2010

Visitors to the museum can discover stories of the earliest settlers and builders of the county, the cost of the Civil War, the family of the first African American to graduate West Point, the grand Victorian Resort Era which made Thomasville famous, and the fabulous quail-hunting plantations. Guests are invited to visit in two late 1800s historic homes, a courthouse, and a bowling alley which are all located on the grounds.

The New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum provides a wide range of spiritual services. Customized Gris-Gris bags are often requested of the resident “Spiritual Mother,” who anoints every bag with oils and prayers. These bags can be made to accommodate any situation.

Honeymooners often ask for a special blessing in their new lives. Mother Margaret has a Voodoo Matrimony and Blessing to help draw many good energies into the relationship. The traditional "Jumping of the Broom" is incorporated into this ceremony. Being ordained, she can lawfully perform Marriages.

Private Consultations are available during Museum hours on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

On November 28, 1876, the excited residents of Virginia City christened their new monument to education, the Fourth Ward School. Built to honor the nation's centennial, the majestic four-story building could accommodate over 1000 students, and it boasted state-of-the-art heating, ventilation, and sanitation systems, as well as water piped to all floors. Architect C.M. Bennett may have drawn inspiration from popular 19th-century architectural pattern books for the design of the Second Empire structure with its distinctive Mansard roof. Projected to cost around $30,000, the completed project came in at $54,000 including land and furniture.

Permanent exhibits include the Fourth Ward School building, a historical overview of the Comstock, a newly renovated Comstock mining overview funded by the Commission of Mineral Resources , 1870's classroom, Virginia City Alumni photographs and memorabilia, and Mark Twain. Oral history programs are also available.

This 20 room high-rise apartment, nestled into a towering limestone cliff, tells a 1,000 year-old story of ingenuity and survival by the Sinagua people in an unforgiving desert landscape. Montezuma Well, a unit of Montezuma Castle, is located 11 miles from the park. Formed long ago by the collapse of a limestone cavern, over one million gallons of water a day flows continuously into the Well. This constant supply of warm, fresh water provides an aquatic habitat like no other in the world, and has served as an oasis for wildlife and humans for thousands of years.

A self-guided, 1/3-mile loop trail leads you past an incredible 5-story cliff dwelling, through a beautiful sycamore grove and along spring-fed Beaver Creek, one of only a few perennial streams in Arizona.

Ranger programs are offered daily (ask a park ranger for details when you arrive). Dogs, on leashes no longer than 6 feet) are welcome on the park's trails. Pet owners must clean up after their animals.

While famous for telling the story of Black cowboys, we are broader than this with interests in the stories of all those early Blacks who came west and performed as miners, soldiers, homesteaders, ranchers, blacksmiths, schoolteachers, lawmen, and every other profession needed to build up the West. In fact, the Museum itself is in the home of Dr. Justina Ford, Colorado's first Black woman doctor. The museum is broken into many diverse exhibits such as the homestead and military exhibits.

Encompassing 1,600 acres, over 80 historic structures, many historic artifacts, and walking trails, there is something for everybody to do at the ranch. Stop at the visitor center to pick up a park brochure, sign up for guided tours of the main ranch house, and find out what other programs are being offered.

On May 10, 1869, two railroad companies, Union Pacific and Central Pacific, joined 1,776 miles of rail at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. This event sparked unforetold consequences still reflected in our great nation today. Golden Spike National Historic Site commemorates this incredible accomplishment of the completion of this nation's first transcontinental railroad.

Reenactments of the Last Spike Ceremony which took place on May 10, 1869 can be seen during the summer season. Volunteers portray the dignitaries who were here on that day in 1869. Steam demonstrations are when the Jupiter and No. 119 locomotives move on the tracks. These demonstrations take place every day during the summer season (May 1 - Labor Day).

The natural beauty found within this state park inspired artist John James Audubon during his residence here.

"The rich magnolias covered with fragrant blossoms, the holly, the beech, the tall yellow poplar, the hilly ground and even the red clay, all excited my admiration. Such an entire change in the fall of nature in so short a time seems almost supernatural, and surrounded once more by numberless warblers and thrushes, I enjoyed the scene."

So reads the journal of John James Audubon as he recorded his arrival in 1821 at Oakley Plantation.

This lush natural setting, with a variety of birds singing throughout the 100-acre forest, still inspires visitors. In these peaceful environs, it is easy to imagine the artist filling his sketch pad with notes and drawings for his famous series of bird illustrations.

The 1862 fort was built to protect telegraph and railroad lines from the Indian populations that the U.S. government feared would would act destructively. However, federal authorities likewise sought to effect a measure of surveillance over the Mormons making their way west to Utah, and they used the fort for this purpose as well. The museum on site chronicles the military history of the fort and the surrounding area, and features a new exhibit on the uniforms of cavalry soldiers between 1840 and 1940.

This was but one of the many Japanese-American internment camps established after President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066.

Today there is a small gravel parking area, paths, and interpretative signs about the internment located at the stone guard house and waiting room beyond the Hunt Bridge. Also commemorated here are the Japanese Americans from the relocation center who died serving in the military during World War II. Nearly 1,000 from Minidoka served in the army; Minidoka had the largest casualty list of the ten relocation centers.

In 1979 Minidoka was added to National Register of Historic Places. In 2001 it became the 385^th unit of the National Park Service.

This site should not be confused with the town of Minidoka, ID, 50 miles east.