National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Falling Water
find a parknatureworking with communitiesget involvedteacherskidsabout us
Overview Page 2      
         

National Historic Landmarks Program

After the Secretary of the Interior has designated an NHL, the NPS notifies the owner(s) (as well as the other original parties of notification) and invites the owner(s) to accept a bronze plaque, free of charge, bearing the name of the property and its year of designation. This plaque attests to a property's national significance. The plaque is presented to owners who then display it publicly and appropriately. The plaque may be presented to the owner or owners at a public ceremony by a representative of the NPS or the Department of the Interior. The NPS will contact the owner(s) regarding the bronze plaque.

The NHL Program sends the owner(s) a certificate recognizing the property's designation as a National Historic Landmark.

NHL designation implies no intention on the part of the federal government to acquire the property. Although some NHLs have later become units of the National Park System, most are not suitable for use as parks and are better cared for in the hands of other public or private owners.

To learn more about being an NHL, click here.

Forty Acres, CA: The Forty Acres holds multiple layers of extraordinary national significance for its close association with the productive career of César Chávez, the farmworker movement, and a wider range of reform movements that helped define twentieth-century American history, and in particular, the Chicano Movement. Forty Acres served as the headquarters for the first permanent agricultural labor union in the United States, the United Farmworkers of America (UFW), established for the purpose of bringing about improved working conditions for migrant workers. The union's members are responsible for the passage of the first law in the United States that recognized the collective bargaining rights of farmworkers, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. Chávez's first public fast, one of many movement tactics, took place at the service station resulting in national media attention for the farmworker movement and bolstering Chavez's public image.