United States National Monuments

The United States National Monuments are a group of national monuments spread across the United States, part of the United States National Park System. Unlike United States National Parks, they can be created by presidential proclamation without an act of Congress. Accordingly, they may be a step down from the national parks in general, but they are still spectacular and fascinating pieces of natural scenery and national history; many of these places could be the highlight of a major trip or could be worth a whole trip on their own.

The map markers in this article are roughly color-coded by each monument's main draw: gray for historic sites, maroon for Native American prehistoric sites, and green for nature. Of course, many of the monuments have some combination of these features: natural formations of historic importance, prehistoric sites surrounded by natural scenery, and so on.

Mid-Atlantic

Maryland

Fort McHenry National Monument

• 🌍 Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, Federal Hill, Baltimore — Site of a famous battle in the War of 1812 where Francis Scott Key saw the American flag still flying over the fort and composed the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner, which later became the country's national anthem.

New York

Statue of Liberty National Monument

• 🌍 African Burial Ground National Monument, Financial District, New York City — A site in Lower Manhattan containing the remains of hundreds of Africans buried in what was a colonial-era cemetery.
• 🌍 Castle Clinton National Monument, Financial District, New York City — A former fort at the southern tip of Manhattan that also served as an immigration station.
• 🌍 Fort Stanwix National Monument, Rome — A fort in upstate New York that was the site of a battle in the American Revolution.
• 🌍 Governors Island National Monument, New York Harbor, New York City — An island park just off the southern tip of Manhattan that was once the site of military fortifications and an army base.
• 🌍 Statue Of Liberty National Monument, New York Harbor, New York City — Home to Lady Liberty, still greeting visitors to New York Harbor. Tours of the inside of the statue are available if you reserve far in advance. Nearby on a separate island is Ellis Island, the famous former immigration station where the ancestors of a significant portion of America's population arrived in the United States.

South

Alabama

• 🌍 Russell Cave National Monument — A cave system noted for its significant prehistoric archaeological finds; site of the earliest known human settlement in the southeastern United States.

Georgia

• 🌍 Fort Frederica National Monument, St. Simons Island — Preserves the ruins of a British fort and town from the 18th century.
• 🌍 Fort Pulaski National Monument, Tybee Island — A masonry fort that was the site of a crucial naval battle during the Civil War.
• 🌍 Ocmulgee National Monument, Macon — Preserves a set of prehistoric earthworks dating over a thousand years old, including burial and ceremonial mounds.

Louisiana

• 🌍 Poverty Point National Monument, Epps — Prehistoric earthworks and mounds dating to nearly three thousand years ago.

South Carolina

Fort Sumter National Monument

• 🌍 Fort Sumter National Monument, Charleston — An island fort at the mouth of Charleston Harbor that is famous as the site of the opening battle of the Civil War.
  • 🌍 Fort Moultrie, Sullivan's Island — Where South Carolina colonists fended off British attack during the American Revolution.

Virginia

• 🌍 Booker T Washington National Monument, Hardy — Preserves portions of a former tobacco plantation where Booker T. Washington, noted African-American political leader, was born into slavery.
• 🌍 Fort Monroe National Monument, Hampton — A former military base that was a strategic site for forts from the first colonists in the area to the Civil War, when it served as a safe haven for freed slaves.
• 🌍 George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Westmoreland County — Site of George Washington's birth and burial place of many of Washington's family members. Period buildings and furnishings are on display.

Florida

• 🌍 Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, St. Augustine — Built as a Spanish fort in the 17th century before changing to British and American hands.
• 🌍 Fort Matanzas National Monument, St. Augustine — A small Spanish fort dating to the 1740s.

Midwest

Illinois

• 🌍 Pullman National Monument, Pullman, Chicago — A historic district that was once a company town built for the Pullman sleeping car company and the site of the violent 1894 Pullman labor strike, which played a significant role in U.S. labor and civil rights history.

Iowa

• 🌍 Effigy Mounds National Monument — Preserves a set of prehistoric mounds, including some shaped like animals.

Minnesota

• 🌍 Grand Portage National Monument — A footpath that bypasses a set of waterfalls and rapids, once used by fur trappers in the area.
• 🌍 Pipestone National Monument, Pipestone — Preserves a set of quarries for stone used in traditional Plains Indians culture to create peace pipes.

Missouri

• 🌍 George Washington Carver National Monument, Diamond — Boyhood home of botanist and inventor George Washington Carver.

Ohio

• 🌍 Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, Wilberforce — Commemorates the life of Charles Young, the first African American National Park Service Superintendent and the highest ranking black army officer of his time.

Texas

• 🌍 Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Fritch — A quarry site for flint that was distributed throughout the Great Plains in prehistoric times.

Great Plains

Nebraska

• 🌍 Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Harrison — Site of many well-preserved mammal fossils dating from nearly 20 million years ago.
• 🌍 Homestead National Monument of America, Beatrice — The first homestead obtained through the Homestead Act of 1862; contains displays about prairie homestead life.
• 🌍 Scotts Bluff National Monument — A set of steep hills that served as a landmark for pioneers along the Oregon and Mormon Trails.

South Dakota

Jewel Cave National Monument

• 🌍 Jewel Cave National Monument — The second longest cave in the world, named for its calcite crystals.

Rocky Mountains

Colorado

• 🌍 Browns Canyon National Monument (BLM & USFS), between Salida and Buena Vista — A section of the Arkansas River popular for whitewater rafting.
• 🌍 Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (BLM), near Cortez
• 🌍 Chimney Rock National Monument (USFS), near Pagosa Springs
• 🌍 Colorado National Monument — Contains Monument Canyon, with spectacular rock formations and desert wildlife.
• 🌍 Dinosaur National Monument — Preserves Jurassic fossil beds; a museum in the park displays dinosaur fossils.
• 🌍 Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument — Petrified redwoods and detailed fossils of plants and insects from nearly 35 million years ago.
• 🌍 Yucca House National Monument, Towaoc — A mostly unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan archaeological site dating to around a thousand years ago.

Idaho

• 🌍 Craters of the Moon National Monument — A large basalt flow with numerous volcanic rock features.
• 🌍 Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, Hagerman — Contains rich fossil beds from prior to the last ice age.

Montana

• 🌍 Pompeys Pillar National Monument (BLM), near Billings
• 🌍 Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument (BLM), east of Great Falls

Wyoming

• 🌍 Devils Tower National Monument — A towering stone monolith that rises dramatically above the surrounding landscape, perhaps most famous today as the setting of the climax of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
• 🌍 Fossil Butte National Monument — Contains 50 million year old fossil beds.

Southwest

Arizona

Montezuma Castle National Monument

• 🌍 Agua Fria National Monument (BLM)
• 🌍 Canyon de Chelly National Monument — Preserves a set of canyons and mesas in the midst of the Navajo Nation, with prehistoric Native American ruins.
• 🌍 Casa Grande Ruins National Monument — Contains a group of prehistoric structures.
• 🌍 Chiricahua National Monument — Eroded volcanic rock features, including multitudes of vertical rock formations.
• 🌍 Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument (BLM), adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park
• 🌍 Hohokam Pima National Monument, Coolidge — Preserves archaeological remains including an ancient village.
• 🌍 Ironwood Forest National Monument (BLM), Casa Grande
• 🌍 Montezuma Castle National Monument, Camp Verde — Remarkably well-preserved cliff dwellings nearly six hundred years old.
• 🌍 Navajo National Monument, Tonalea — Preserves a set of very intact Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings.
• 🌍 Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument — A desert landscape which is the only place in the country where the Organ Pipe Cactus grow naturally.
• 🌍 Pipe Spring National Monument — A desert spring that was the site of Native American and Mormon settlements; contains exhibits on pioneer life.
• 🌍 Sonoran Desert National Monument (BLM), south of Phoenix
• 🌍 Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, near Flagstaff — A volcanic cinder cone made of red rocks, hence the name.
• 🌍 Tonto National Monument, Roosevelt — Preserves a set of cliff dwellings.
• 🌍 Tuzigoot National Monument, Clarkdale — A two- to three-story pueblo ruin perched on the summit of a ridge.
• 🌍 Vermilion Cliffs National Monument (BLM), Page
• 🌍 Walnut Canyon National Monument, Flagstaff — Protects a set of cliff dwellings situated in a scenic canyon.
• 🌍 Wupatki National Monument, near Flagstaff — Contains the remains of multiple ancient Native American settlements.

Nevada

• 🌍 Basin and Range National Monument
• 🌍 Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, near Las Vegas — Preserves a landscape containing Ice Age fossil beds.

New Mexico

White Sands National Monument

• 🌍 Aztec Ruins National Monument, Farmington — Ruins of a large Ancestral Puebloan village, including a restored kiva.
• 🌍 Bandelier National Monument — A set of ancient and scenic cliff dwellings carved out of the volcanic rock of local canyons.
• 🌍 Capulin Volcano National Monument, northeast New Mexico near Capulin — An extinct volcanic cinder cone that rises out of the surrounding plains.
• 🌍 El Malpais National Monument — A basin covered in a large lava rock field that abruptly ends at the base of a sandstone bluff.
• 🌍 El Morro National Monument, near El Malpais National Monument — A sandstone formation with ancient petroglyphs and inscriptions carved from European explorers into the walls.
• 🌍 Fort Union National Monument, near Las Vegas — A former frontier post and military fort once situated on the Santa Fe Trail.
• 🌍 Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, near Silver City — A set of cliff dwellings perched on a high canyon wall.
• 🌍 Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument (BLM), central New Mexico near Santa Fe — A small monument preserving a set of tent-shaped volcanic rock formations and a short but scenic stretch of slot canyon accessible to hikers.
• 🌍 Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument (BLM), Las Cruces
• 🌍 Petroglyph National Monument, Albuquerque — Preserves a collection of ancient petroglyphs carved on volcanic rock on a mesa overlooking Albuquerque.
• 🌍 Prehistoric Trackways National Monument (BLM), Las Cruces
• 🌍 Rio Grande del Norte National Monument (BLM), near Taos — A long and scenic stretch of gorge along the Rio Grande that's popular for hiking and whitewater rafting.
• 🌍 Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, Mountainair — Preserves the ruins of several pueblo villages and striking Spanish Colonial missions.
• 🌍 White Sands National Monument — A vast area of spectacular gypsum white sand dunes.

Utah

• 🌍 Cedar Breaks National Monument — A natural amphitheater with spectacular red rock formations.
• 🌍 Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (BLM)
• 🌍 Hovenweep National Monument — Preserves Jurassic fossil beds; a museum in the park displays dinosaur fossils.
• 🌍 Natural Bridges National Monument — A set of spectacular natural bridges, including the second and third largest natural bridges in the world, carved from sandstone.
• 🌍 Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area — The world's highest natural bridge, carved from red sandstone in a canyon just off Lake Powell.
• 🌍 Timpanogos Cave National Monument — A cave system in the Wasatch Range with numerous colorful cave features.

California

• 🌍 Cabrillo National Monument, Point Loma, San Diego — Perched on a high coastal bluff with views over San Diego Bay, with a historic lighthouse and a monument commemorating the Spanish explorer Cabrillo, the first European to land on what became the west coast of America.
• California Coastal National Monument (BLM)
• 🌍 Carrizo Plain National Monument (BLM)
• 🌍 Cesar E. Chavez National Monument, Keene — Home and burial place of Cesar Chavez, civil rights activist and founder of United Farm Workers.
• 🌍 Devils Postpile National Monument — Basalt cliffs and a 100-foot high waterfall.
• 🌍 Fort Ord National Monument (BLM), Seaside
• 🌍 Lava Beds National Monument — The largest concentration of lava tube caves in North America.
• 🌍 Muir Woods National Monument, Marin County
• 🌍 San Gabriel Mountains National Monument (USFS), Angeles National Forest, Los Angeles
• 🌍 Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument (BLM and USFS), Palm Desert
• 🌍 World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, Tule Lake Unit, Newell — Site of a large Japanese internment camp during WWII.

Pacific Northwest

Oregon

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

• 🌍 Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (BLM), Medford
• 🌍 John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Kimberly — Well-preserved fossils from the last 65 million years, painted in distinct colors by the many minerals in the fossil beds.
• 🌍 Newberry National Volcanic Monument (USFS)
• 🌍 Oregon Caves National Monument — Natural marble caves with numerous prehistoric fossils.

Washington

• 🌍 Hanford Reach National Monument (FWS)
• 🌍 San Juan Islands National Monument (BLM), San Juan Islands — Rugged islands in the Puget Sound with historic lighthouses and habitats for orcas, eagles, and seals.
• 🌍 Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument (USFS)

Alaska

• 🌍 Admiralty Island National Monument (USFS), near Juneau
• 🌍 Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve — Based around Mount Aniakchak, a volcano that erupted thousands of years ago and left a vast caldera.
• 🌍 Cape Krusenstern National Monument — A coastal plain with multiple lagoons and limestone bluffs.
• 🌍 Misty Fjords National Monument (USFS)
• 🌍 World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, Atka Island, Attu Island, Kiska Island — A set of WWII battlefield remnants on the Aleutian Islands.

Hawaii

• 🌍 Honouliuli National Monument, Waipahu — Site of a Japanese internment camp during WWII.
• Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (FWS)
• 🌍 Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (FWS and NOAA) — The largest unit of the National Parks system, encompassing the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a string of reefs and small islands stretching from Nihoa Island to the Midway Islands.
• 🌍 World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu — Covers a section of Pearl Harbor, site of the Japanese surprise attack that caused the U.S. to enter WWII. Several memorials are located here, most notably the USS Arizona Memorial, which straddles the sunken wreck of the USS Arizona battleship.

American Samoa

• 🌍 Rose Atoll Marine National Monument (FWS/NOAA)

Northern Mariana Islands

• Marianas Trench Marine National Monument (FWS)

U.S. Virgin Islands

• 🌍 Buck Island Reef National Monument, Christiansted — Preserves a small island and surrounding coral reef ecosystem.