November 2010

A powerful and inspiring landscape, the Grand Canyon overwhelms our senses through its immense size; 277 river miles (446km) long, up to 18 miles (29km) wide, and a mile (1.6km) deep.

This center brings together the vast art and culture of the Abbeville area.

The Abbeville Cultural and Historical Alliance (L'Alliance Culturelle et Historique d'Abbeville) is a joint effort of four community service organizations in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, namely, the Vermilion Arts Council, the Acadian Center, the Vermilion Historical Society, and the Giant Omelette Celebration (Confrérie d'Abbeville de l'Omelette Géante). These organizations have banded together to share expenses to maintain a Museum and Art Gallery for displaying works of art, genealogy of the Acadians, historical documents, photographs, and artifacts, and exhibits from international omelette celebrations.

The Vermilion Arts Council is responsible for the Art Gallery portion of the Alliance Center. It sponsors continually changing displays of original artworks, mostly by local artists. The Council also sponsors art lessons and workshops for children, and hosts the Carousel of Arts each year, featuring live displays and performances celebrating the music, art, food, history, and culture of Vermilion Parish. The painting at left is by noted local artist, John Bergeron.

The museum features permanent exhibits on archaeology, local history, & Native American cultures, two 12th-century archaeological sites, special exhibits & events, traveling exhibits available for loan, educational resources for teachers, a research library of archaeology & anthropology resources, a research collection of over 3 million artifacts and records from archaeological projects in Southwest Colorado, a picnic area & half-mile nature trail, and a museum shop operated by our nonprofit partner, the Canyonlands Natural History Association. The Anasazi Heritage Center is Southwest Colorado's premier archaeological museum, operated by the Bureau of Land Management since 1988.

Named by Lonely Planet Travel as the "Best History Tour in the U.S.," the one-hour guided visit, entitled: The Creole Family Saga, is based upon 5,000 pages of documents found in the French National Archives and upon Laura's Memories of the Old Plantation Home, dramatically detailing 250 years of true-life stories of Creole women, slaves and children. The Laura farmstead is surrounded by fields of sugarcane and boasts 11 historic buildings on the National Register, including slave cabins in which the West-African folktales of Compair Lapin (later known as Br'er Rabbit) were recorded over 140 years ago.

This area memorializes one of the last armed efforts of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their way of life. Here in 1876, 263 soldiers and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer, met death at the hands of several thousand Indian warriors.

The Battle of Little Bighorn—known alternatively as Custer’s Last Stand and, to the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass—was a battle between the combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples against the 7th Cavalry of the United States Army on the 25th and 26th of June, 1876 near what is now Crow Agency, Montana. The battle was the most famous action of the Great Sioux War of 1876, and was an overwhelming victory for the Indians, resulting in both the death of George Custer and the annihilation of five of the 7th’s companies.

Visit the museum and partially excavated prehistoric Indian village at Anasazi State Park. The park is located in the town of Boulder on Scenic Byway 12.

This ancient Indian village in the heart of Utah's canyon country was one of the largest Anasazi communities west of the Colorado River. The site is believed to have been occupied from A.D. 1050 to 1200. The village remains largely unexcavated, but many artifacts have been uncovered and are on display in the newly remodeled museum.

Through the discovery of money, America’s largest museum dedicated to numismatics brings culture to life. The museum explores art, history, science and much more to promote the diverse nature of money and related items. The museum includes exhibits in three main galleries, where visitors can find spectacular rarities and learn about the history of our nation and the world as seen through money. These include paper money, coins, tokens, medals, exonumia, and traditional money from all over the world.

This is the site of an 1835 fur-trading fort, following the paths of founders Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette. The traders employed many of their mountain-man friends, including Baptiste Charbonneau and Jim Beckwourth, at this adobe outpost on the South Platte River.

Multi-storied towers perched on canyon rims and balanced on boulders lead visitors to marvel at the skill and motivation of their builders. Hovenweep is noted for its solitude and undeveloped, natural character.

Human habitation at the site dates to over 10,000 years ago when nomadic Paleoindians visited the Cajon Mesa to gather food and hunt game. These people used the area for centuries, following the seasonal weather patterns. By about A.D. 900, people started to settle at Hovenweep year-round, planting and harvesting crops in the rich soil of the mesa top. By the late 1200s, the Hovenweep area was home to over 2,500 people.

Begin your visit to the site of the nation’s first (& last) armory by finding the great iron gate on Federal Street through which generations have passed. The Museum, in the Main Arsenal building, may be found by driving through the Springfield Technical Community College campus on the Historic Landmark grounds. Started as a technical reference collection for Armory workers in 1862, the museum highlights many of the best examples of US military shoulder arms plus pistols, machine guns, edged weapons, and production machinery.