Summer Vacation

Teaching with Historic Places posted on the web the following complete lesson plans that feature a number of interesting historic vacation destinations in America. Created by National Park Service interpreters, preservation professionals, and educators, these lessons are free and ready for immediate classroom use by students in history and social studies classes.

• Bryce Canyon National Park: Hoodoos Cast Their Spell
Explore the natural wonders of this once remote area in Utah and learn how it became a popular tourist destination in the early 20th century and finally a national park.

• Chicago's Columbus Park: The Prairie Idealized
Learn about a famous landscape artist and his efforts to promote conservation and an appreciation for the native plant life in a park that included play areas, ball fields, and an old fashioned "swimming hole" to bring "out-of-doors to the city."

• Glen Echo Park: Center for Education and Recreation
Trace the evolution of this Maryland site from a chapter of the Chautauqua movement, to an amusement park, to a national park.

• Going-to-the-Sun Road: A Model of Landscape Engineering
Learn about some of the practical problems of constructing roads in difficult terrain and about the added challenge of building in such a way as to enhance, rather than damage, the fragile beauty that draws people to places such as Glacier National Park.

• “The Greatest Dam in the World”: Building Hoover Dam
Learn why the building of Hoover Dam was a triumph for the Bureau of Reclamation and how it came to symbolize what American industry and American workers could accomplish, even in the depths of the Great Depression.

• Mammoth Cave: Its Explorers, Miners, Archeologists, and Visitors
Tour the world's longest cave, a geological wonder, and assess the ways it has been used and preserved as a historic resource.

• Run for Your Lives! The Johnstown Flood of 1889
Determine how environmental management, technology, and a summer resort for wealthy 19th-century industrialists contributed to a disaster in Pennsylvania that shocked the nation.

• Roadside Attractions
Follow the highways of the 1920s and 1930s, exploring the whimsical, extravagant architecture that came with American auto culture.