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Illinois

Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument

February 5, 2025 Raven About The Parks 4 Comments

Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument

Illinois

Managed by National Park Service

Established 2024

1.57 acres

Website: nps.gov/spra

Overview

In 1908, African Americans made up only 5.5% of Springfield’s population of 47,000. However, racial tensions ran high across the nation, and, on August 14, a mob formed outside the jail where two African-American men were accused of separate incidents of sexual assault and murder. When the crowd found out the prisoners had been secretly moved 60 miles away, a full riot broke out. They destroyed buildings, looted, and lynched two prominent members of the African-American community—a barber named Scott Burton and the wealthy William Donnegan. By the time the National Guard arrived to restore order, seven people were dead and the mob had already burned the African-American neighborhood known as the “Badlands” to the ground. Eventually, the trials of the 80 riot suspects at the Old Court House led to only one conviction for petty larceny. While the rape suspect, George Richardson, was released when his accuser admitted fabricating the story, Joe James was convicted of murder and executed on October 23, 1908 despite being legally exempt from the death penalty as a minor. These events catalyzed the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) a few months later in New York City.

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments. It is now available for sale on Amazon.com.

Highlights

Walking tour, Acts of Intolerance sculpture, mural, Old Court House, Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Mechanicsburg Cemetery

Must-Do Activity

Before the National Monument was designated in 2024, the city of Springfield had already created a walking tour highlighting the events of the 1908 race riot marked by seven silver pillars. After starting at the former site of the jail, the tour moves to where Loper’s Restaurant once stood; its white owner having assisted in moving the prisoners, his restaurant and his car were destroyed. During the frenzy, a restaurant patron named Louis Johnson was shot and killed. There are five other stops detailing the events chronologically, but they do not include the mural inside HSHS St. John’s Hospital Women & Children’s Clinic, which is next to the officially designated National Monument boundaries where the foundations of five homes burned in the “Badlands” remain fenced off. Upon our visit less than three months after its creation, the National Park Service visitor center for Lincoln Home National Historic Site did not have any information on the new National Monument, but they already had a passport stamp.

Best Trail

When followed in chronological order, the walking tour bounces back and forth across the city, so you will get your steps in that day. In the summer, guided tours are offered from the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau. Alternatively, you can drive the route and read the descriptions in the publication available online and from the visitors bureau.

Photographic Opportunity

After the burning of the “Badlands” neighborhood, two chimneys were about the only structures left standing. The sculptor Preston Jackson utilized this imagery in his work Acts of Intolerance that depicts scenes of the race riot in bas relief. Dedicated in 2009, it stands across the street from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Union Square Park.

Peak Season

Summer

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/spra/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

None

Road Conditions

There is no free parking in downtown Springfield, so you can use a parking meter or the NPS pay lot at Lincoln Home National Historic Site.

Camping

Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site is 20 miles northwest of Springfield and its campground has running water. Further north, Starved Rock State Park is a beautiful spot for camping, and it also offers a historic lodge.

Related Sites

New Philadelphia National Historic Site (Illinois)

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument (Mississippi-Illinois)

Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument (Mississippi)

Explore More – Damage from the race riot to black businesses was estimated at $100,000 in 1908, equivalent to how many millions today?

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments

Kentucky

Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument

January 15, 2025 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument

Kentucky

Managed by National Park Service

Established 2019

1,459 acres

Website: nps.gov/misp

Overview

During the Civil War, the Battle of Mill Springs started on January 19, 1862 in the Union state of Kentucky (where slavery was still legal). North of the Cumberland River, a surprise attack by the Confederate Army was repelled and celebrated as the first decisive Union victory in the western theater. The battlefield was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993 and acquired by the National Park Service (NPS) in 2020.

Know someone who loves exploring new National Monuments? Gift them our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments that is available for sale on Amazon.com.

Highlights

Museum, film, Mill Springs National Cemetery, Zollicoffer Park, Brown-Lanier House, Mill Springs Mill, Lake Cumberland

Must-Do Activity

Start your visit by watching the film at the NPS visitor center next to Mill Springs National Cemetery, opened in 1867 as one of 12 original National Cemeteries. The driving tour starts from there south down Kentucky Highway 235 to Zollicoffer Park where there are markers for Confederate General Felix K. Zollicoffer (buried beneath the “Zollie Tree”) and a Confederate mass grave. There are six more stops on the driving tour north of Lake Cumberland, but there is no bridge across the reservoir, so to reach the final two stops requires backtracking and connecting to Kentucky Highway 1275. There you will reach the Brown-Lanier House at Mill Springs that was utilized by both sides of the battle. Open seasonally to the public, the working grist mill on Lake Cumberland dates to 1877 and is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. The final tour stop is at the West-Metcalfe House that served as a Confederate headquarters and hospital, but is not currently open.

Best Trail

A 0.75-mile walking trail in Zollicoffer Park goes down into a ravine that was behind the Confederate lines, as explained by interpretive signs there. You can also walk to the edge of Lake Cumberland at Ferry Landing on the north shore and Mill Springs Mill on the south shore.

Photographic Opportunity

Built in 1860, the Brown-Lanier House offers guided tours inside the house that was twice hit by artillery during the Battle of Mill Springs.

Peak Season

Summer

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/misp/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

Tours of the Brown-Lanier House now seem to be free and offered by NPS rangers every other Saturday in the summer.

Road Conditions

All roads are paved, but be careful while driving onto small pullouts along the highways.

Camping

There are campgrounds along Lake Cumberland and further north at Mammoth Cave National Park.

Shiloh National Military Park (Tennessee-Mississippi)

Fort Donelson National Battlefield (Tennessee-Kentucky)

Explore More – What other two names has the Battle of Mill Springs been called?

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments

Arizona

Pipe Spring National Monument

December 18, 2024 Raven About The Parks 2 Comments

Pipe Spring National Monument

Arizona

Managed by National Park Service

Established 1923

40 acres

Website: nps.gov/pisp

Overview

Near the Utah border, Pipe Spring National Monument is located near the turn off from Highway 389 for Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument and the remote Toroweap Overlook in western Grand Canyon National Park. Likewise, it is only 60 miles from Utah’s famous Zion National Park, so it makes a good stopping point if you are also visiting Kaibab National Forest or the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The oasis surrounding the three natural springs here demonstrate what this soil can produce when given a little bit of extra water. Ancestral Puebloans and Kaibab Paiute Indians have been coming here for over 1,000 years and it was an important stop on the Old Spanish Trail. In 1858, Pipe Spring was named by Mormon/Latter-day Saint missionary Jacob Hamblin on his way to the Hopi mesas. Following the 1866 Black Hawk War, Mormon settlers built a sandstone fort called Winsor Castle around the source of the main spring where polygamists used to hide their plural wives before selling the ranch in 1895. Today this park on the secluded Arizona Strip is recognized by the International Dark Sky Association.

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments. It is now available for sale on Amazon.com.

Highlights

Museum, film, garden, ponds, Winsor Castle

Must-Do Activity

Retention ponds keep Pipe Spring National Monument green in the hot summer months where ducks paddle and dragonflies buzz through the humid air. The National Park Service manages a garden with living history demonstrations given occasionally, plus there is livestock including chickens and two longhorns. When a ranger is present, you can walk around inside Winsor Castle, a Mormon fort that dates back to 1870. If you visit during the summer, we recommend you cool off after some time outside by watching the short film and exploring the museum and gift shop. The museum is co-managed with the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians whose reservation surrounds the site. On December 7, 2024, the park was open late for the Holiday Traditions event with caroling, Victorian-era crafts, and free food.

Best Trail

The half-mile Ridge Trail leads uphill to an overlook of the Kaibab Plateau and distant Mt. Trumbull in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.

Photographic Opportunity

The modest dimensions of Winsor Castle make it unlikely to be confused with Windsor Castle in England.

Peak Season

Summer

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/pisp/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

$10 per person or America the Beautiful pass

Road Conditions

There is a paved parking lot located off Highway 389.

Camping

The Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians runs a small campground adjoining Pipe Spring National Monument. Dispersed camping is allowed in Kaibab National Forest and the millions of acres run by the Bureau of Land Management on the Arizona Strip.

Related Sites

Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona)

Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument (Arizona)

Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument (Arizona)

The natural spring is captured here inside Winsor Castle

Explore More – Which indigenous tribes banded together during the 1866 Black Hawk War?

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments

Missouri

Gateway Arch National Park

October 9, 2024 Raven About The Parks 4 Comments

Gateway Arch National Park

Missouri

Managed by National Park Service

Established 1935 National Expansion Memorial, 2018 National Park

91 acres

Website: nps.gov/jeff

Overview

On February 22, 2018, the 60th National Park in the U.S. was created from what was formerly Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri. Gateway Arch National Park encompasses 91 acres on the Mississippi River, including the historic 1828 courthouse and the iconic 630-foot-tall arch that was finished in 1965. We first visited on our cross-country road trip in 2007 and returned in 2016 while the underground museum was under construction and the greenway was extended over Interstate 44. When we came back in 2022, the courthouse was closed for renovation, but the museum had reopened with exhibits explaining the importance of this city as a starting point for the settlement of the west after President Thomas Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the country in 1803. It is by far the smallest of the 63 National Parks (5,457 acres less than Hot Springs), which begs the question: Why wasn’t this designated a National Historical Park instead?

Learn more about how to visit this National Park in the expanded second edition of our guidebook A Park to Yourself: Finding Solitude in America’s 63 National Parks.

Highlights

Gateway Arch, tram, film, museum, Old Courthouse, Old Cathedral

Must-Do Activity

Unlike other National Parks, this one does not preserve a natural landmark, but it does have claustrophobia-inducing tram cars (fee) that take you four-minutes to the top of the Gateway Arch for excellent views across Illinois and Missouri. It is worth the hassle to go through a security screening to see the new museum. The 35-minute film Monument to the Dream is also available for a fee.

Best Trail

There are sidewalks that follow the Mississippi River and loop around the arch. Be sure to cross the street to the Old Courthouse where the first of two trials in the infamous Dred Scott case was held in 1854. Continue west behind to the courthouse to the Kiener Memorial Fountain for a photo that frames the building beneath the Gateway Arch.

Photographic Opportunity

The 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch is the defining landmark of St. Louis, but the historic 1834 Old Cathedral still serves as an active Catholic Church inside the park boundaries.

Peak Season

Summer

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/jeff/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

There is no fee to walk the grounds or pass through security for the museum and gift shop, but you do have to pay to view the film or ride the tram to the top of Gateway Arch. When open, the Old Courthouse is also free to enter.

Road Conditions

All roads are paved, but parking can be tricky. We suggest paying for a parking garage or paying to park on the river levee near the paddlewheel boats, since car break-ins are common in downtown St. Louis.

Camping

This is the only National Park without the option to camp, so consider heading southwest to the wonderful Ozark National Scenic Riverways or Mark Twain National Forest. In southeast Missouri, Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park is rated as one of the best RV campgrounds in the country.

Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park (Missouri)

Harry S Truman National Historic Site (Missouri)

Entering the museum after security screening

Explore More – In 1947, how many city blocks were razed to make way for the memorial, including several historic buildings dating back to 1818?

We designed this Gateway Arch logo for the park available on Amazon.com

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Mississippi

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument

May 22, 2024 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument

Mississippi, Illinois

Managed by National Park Service

Established 2023

5.7 acres

Website: nps.gov/till

Overview

In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett “Bo” Till left Chicago to visit family in Mississippi, where he whistled at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman who ran the Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market in the town of Money. A few nights later on August 28, Carolyn’s husband (Roy Bryant) and his half-brother (John William “J.W.” Milam) abducted Emmett Till from his relatives’ house. They took Emmett to Milam’s farm where he was tortured and killed according to their admission in Look magazine a year later. After Till’s body was recovered at Graball Landing and sent back to Chicago for a funeral, a five-day trial took place in Sumner’s Tallahatchie County Courthouse where Bryant and Milam were acquitted of the crime. It is probably not a coincidence that the National Monument was proclaimed by President Joe Biden following the release of the 2022 film Till. Not open to the public but also part of the National Monument in Illinois, the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in the Chicago neighborhood of Bronzeville is where Mamie Till-Mobley insisted on an open-casket funeral service so the public could see the terrible results of the murder. Historians believe the outcry over this lynching of a 14-year-old boy helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Highlights

Emmett Till Interpretive Center, Tallahatchie County Courthouse, Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC), Black Bayou Bridge, Graball Landing, Greenwood statue, Bryant’s Grocery site

Must-Do Activity

Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC) is located in a former cotton gin near the site of Emmett Till’s torture and murder on the farm of “J.W.” Milam in Glendora, Mississippi. Established in 2005, there is an atmosphere to the museum that bears the full weight of history, heightened by the short introductory video showing Emmett Till’s family members’ recollections of the events of 1955. Inside, there is a recreation of the Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market storefront, as well as a coffin with the prop used in the film Till depicting Emmett’s shockingly disfigured head. The museum also has artifacts highlighting the Mississippi Delta’s history with slavery, indigenous people, and blues music (specifically Sonny Boy Williamson II). Although not part of the National Monument, we recommend a half-hour drive south to Money to see the ruins of Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market with a restored gas station next door, part of the Mississippi Freedom Trail.

Best Trail

From ETHIC, drive or walk to the Black Bayou Bridge where Emmett “Bo” Till’s body was dumped into the Black Bayou tied to a heavy fan from the cotton gin. We were grateful to get a personal tour from Tamita Davis who helps run ETHIC. It is also a short drive down a dirt road to Graball Landing on the Tallahatchie River where there is a small interpretive sign explaining it as the site Till’s body was recovered.

Instagram-worthy Photo

The National Park Service operates out of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, located in a strip mall opposite the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi. It has limited hours, but the courtroom where the September 1955 trial was held was unlocked when we visited on a Tuesday morning.

Peak Season

Spring and fall

Hours

In Sumner, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday 12-5, while the Tallahatchie County Courthouse is open to the public on Mondays when the center is closed. In Glendora, Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC) is open Monday through Saturday 10-5.

Fees

$12 per adult at ETHIC, $5 donation recommended at Emmett Till Interpretive Center

Road Conditions

Paved roads lead to the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner and Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC) in Glendora, where a gravel road in good shape leads to Graball Landing.

Camping

To the south, Delta National Forest offers online reservations for campsites (September through March when the forest is not seasonally flooded).

Related Sites

Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument (Mississippi)

Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument (Alabama)

Freedom Riders National Monument (Alabama)

Pullman National Historical Park (Illinois)

Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center (ETHIC) in Glendora, MS

Explore More – A statue of Emmett Till was added in 2022 to Greenwood, Mississippi’s Rail Spike Park, but what city in Colorado has his statue alongside one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument

Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument

Pipe Spring National Monument

Gateway Arch National Park

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument

Start your U.S. National Parks, National Forests, and National Monuments adventure here!