Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Cottonwood, Arizona

The story of the park's name begins with the Ireys family, who came to Arizona from Minnesota looking for a ranch to buy in the late 1940s. At one of the ranches they discovered a large dead horse lying by the road. After two days of viewing ranches, Dad Ireys asked the kids which ranch they liked the best. The kids said, “the one with the dead horse, Dad!” The Ireys family chose the name Dead Horse Ranch and later, in 1973, when Arizona State Parks acquired the park, the Ireys made retaining the name a condition of sale.


For more information, visit: http://azstateparks.com/parks/DEHO/index.html

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Carlsbad, New Mexico

The fact about this World Heritage Site must be unfurled

It is one of the largest caves in the world

For more information, visit: http://www.nps.gov/CAVE/index.htm

Photos courtesy of: “NPS Photo by Peter Jones” 

Dinosaur National Monument, Jensen, Utah

Come here and see the largest quarry of Jurassic Period dinosaur bones ever discovered

Paleontologist, Earl Douglass is the one who made them uncovered

For more information, visit: http://www.nps.gov/dino/index.htm

Homestead National Monument of America, Beatrice, Nebraska

In America, the fact about this place is what people did scream

For "free land!" was the cry for many people reaching for their piece of the American Dream

Welcome to Homestead National Monument of America.  The park is here because of the Homestead Act of 1862.  It’s the time when our government gave 160 acres of land to the head of a household.  You had to make improvements and after 5 years the land was yours.  The park sits on one of the first claims under the law.  That’s why it’s located here.  We represent the nearly 4 million people who filed claims in 30 states over 123 years.  It wasn’t repealed until 1986. 

Park’s 5 themes.  It changed the immigration/migration patterns for the whole world, hastened the Industrial Revolution, began a farming evolution, changed the tallgrass prairie into the break basket of the world, and changed the lives of the Native Americans forever.

 Park’s 5 themes expanded.  

·        It changed the immigration/migration patterns for the whole world.  Ellis Island was opened during the height of homesteading (1913) and closed when homesteading subsided.

·        It hastened the Industrial Revolution.  The farms sprouting up needed equipment.  Interchangeable parts and assembly lines were created as well as building plants out west (Chicago & Ohio)

·        It began a farming evolution.  As soon as one process or piece of equipment was created, the farmers figured an even better way to doing things.  Very similar to today’s computer industry.

·        It changed the tallgrass prairie into the break basket of the world.  Less than one percent of the tallgrass prairie still survives.

·        It changed the lives of the Native Americans forever.

For more information, visit: http://www.nps.gov/home

Arizona Cowboy College, Scottsdale, Arizona

Learning to be a cowboy can certainly take using all five of your senses

So come to this college where you will learn everything from roping cattle to mending fences

For more information, visit: http://www.cowboycollege.com/