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In 1738, about one hundred years after the first member of the Lee family arrived to Virginia from Britain, Thomas Lee had the Stratford Hall residence constructed in Westmoreland County, Virginia. This home would become the residence of multiple generations of the Lee family, including Francis Lightfoot Lee, former Virginia Governor Henry Lee III and General Robert Edward Lee.

Members of Lee family, including Robert Edward Lee, resided within Stratford Hall until Henry Lee III ran into significant financial debts. In 1821, the Lee family relocated from their large estate in Westmoreland to a smaller residence in Alexandria, Virginia.

In present day, Stratford Hall hosts a multitude of historical artifacts such as large portrait of William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham who called for the repeal of the 1765 Stamp Act. Residents of Westmoreland County had raised money to have that portrait done.

Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, a lessor known residence of the third United States President, is certainly a historically significant site in Virginia. This is the home where Thomas Jefferson wrote his book, “Notes On The State Of Virginia”.

In 1714, the first set of German miners were sent to the commonwealth of Virginia to establish Fort Germanna in Spotslyvania County. Since the miners did not have the money to make the oassage from Europe, Colonel Nathaniel Blakiston organized an arrangement for Alexander Spotswood to pay for their passage to Virginia. In 1717, a second band of German Lutherans arrived at Fort Germanna in a group that later was known as the “second colony”.

In 1725, Lutheran Germans from Fort Germanna established the congregation that would later form the Hebron Lutheran Church. In 1740, a petite wooden church was established, in Madison County, Virginia, as the first physical structure for the congregation.

In January 1789, 49 years after the church was first built, James Madison and James Monroe came to the church for the purpose of debating the fate of the United States Consitution in a public forum. The debate was held outside, as snow was falling, on the steps of the church.

After that historic debate, the wooden church was been expanded in size in the 1800s. The area were James Madison and James Monroe once stood is where the church’s second set of pews currently stand below their white organ.

In 1870, Leander James McCormick, the brother of Cyrus McCormick the inventor of the reaper, considered donating a telescope to an institution of higher education in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

In 1870, Leander James McCormick considering gifting the telescope to Washington College, during Robert Edward Lee’s last year as president of that institution. President Lee wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institute letting that organization know of McCormick’s plan to have a telescope given to an institute of higher education. During the aftermath of the Civil War, Washington College did not have the funds to build a new observatory on campus.

Leander James McCormick would reconsidered gifting the telescope to another college, further away from his brother’s farm in Raphine, Virginia. In 1877, the decision was made to donate the telescope to the University of Virginia that Thomas Jefferson founded.

In 1804, Meyer’s Cave, which is south of Harrisonburg, was discovered by and became the first ever “Show Cave” in the United States of America. In 1878, Andrew Campbell, Billy Campbell and Benton Stebbins discovered the grand Luray Caverns, which proved to be larger than most other caves that had been discovered previously. The three men kept the cave a secret, until a court auction was held, for the land located along “Cave Hill”.

At the auction the men purchased the land for 17 dollars per acre and set up plans for a “Grand Illumination”, which newspapers in New York and other states reported on.

On April 21st, 1881, in a unanimous decision in the Merchants Bank v. Campbell case, the judges decided that original sale of the cave property was not an “arms length” transaction. Furthermore, it was deemed that there was “superior knowledge of the existence of a cave” during the time of the auction. In a mere three years after the discovery of Luray Caverns, the three men who discovered the cave lost all property ownership of it to William T. Biedler.

In present day, the Luray Caverns continues to be the main attraction for Page County, Virginia.

In 1966, the Rappahannock Historical Society was established within a historic building, that was built in 1820, in the town of Washington, Virginia.

Within the second floor, of the exhibits, is a set of newspaper articles about the election of the first ever all female town council in the state of Virginia. Starting in 1950, a female mayor and five other female councilwomen have managed the affairs of Rappohannock County, for over two decades.

In 1910, the Montpelier Train Depot was built near the home of James Madison, the fourth President of the United States of America. After the Montpelier Train Depot was decommissioned, then building became a United States Postal Service center. The exhibit “In the Time of Segregation” is exhibited at the depot.

Walter Crockett began his military career as a member of the militia for Augusta County, Virginia. After attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Walker Crockett served in the militias within Botetourt and Fincastle county. Later, after Fincastle county was dissolved, he served in Montgomery county. Walter Crockett served in the Point Pleasant expedition of 1774, during Lord Dunmore’s War and during the Revolutionary War he served in the military in Southwest Virginia. During the American Revolution, he also served in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing Montgomery County, and he was at Virginia’s convention to ratify the United States Consitution. In 2001, a historical marker was dedicated to former Virginia House of Delegates member Walter Crockett.

On Mother’s Day 2021, I had the oppurtunity to visit the vast grounds of James Madison’s Montpelier for my first time.

President James Madison is buried, along with his wife Dolly Madison, within the grounds of the home.

Author’s Note:

At the Montpelier Train Depot, there is a historical marker dedicated to General Lafayette’s visits to Montpelier in 1824 and 1825.

The carving of President Jefferson Finis Davis, General Robert Edward Lee and General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson on the face of Stone Mountain is the largest confederate monument in the United States.

The James Earl Carter, Junior Presidential Library and Museum, which is dedicated to the oldest ever United States President, is located in Atlanta, Georgia.

On November 18, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke to residents of Carisle, Pennslyvania, from his train, on his way to Gettysburg for his “Gettysburg Address”.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association hosts the site of Billy Graham’s former childhood home, his library and the gravesite of Billy Graham and his wife Ruth Graham.

The Historic Blenheim House was constructed in 1859, shortly after another home on that same property had burned down. During the United States Civil War both the Confederacy and the Union occupies the home.

The Blenheim House is one of the multiple locations where soldiers drew art on the walls and is party of the “Civil War Graffiti Trails”. A replica of the Union Solider graffiti art, in the ceiling of the Blenheim House, is in the visitors center.

Author’s Note:

On October 6, 2020 author Philip Andrew Hamilton got to meet one of the members of a citizen committee who helped convince the City of Fairfax to preserve the Blenheim House as a historical home, rather than converting it to a nursing home.

The home of former Confederate General Thomas Johnathan “Stonewall” Jackson was built in Lexington, Virginia.

The Lava Beds National Monument is the site of various Native American Petroglyhs, which were carved into rocks in Modoc County, California over 4,000 years ago.

The childhood home of actress ZaSu Pitts is in downtown Santa Cruz, City California, near the courthouse on Ocean Street that President Theodore Roosevelt once spoke at.

ZaSu Pitts started in various silent films including, “Greed”.

Author’s Note:

Philip Andrew Hamilton visited the home on June 6, 2020.

In the late 1700s, the last of the “Bear and Bull Fights” occurred in the California providence of Mexico.

The Tracy Historical Museum was established in the 1970s after the Tracy Historical Society merger with the the Western Pioneers Historical organization.

On September 8, 1878, Tracy, California was founded as a railroad town at a track crossing called a “Bow Tie”. Jim Eagan, a railroader who worked at the Ellis stop before it was moved to the Tracy Hub, is beloved the new the first resident of Tracy. The town would be named after the Ohio grain merchant Lathrop J. Tracy. In 1910, Tracy was incorporated as a city.

In 1848, the town of San Andreas, California was named after the Catholic Saint Andreas and settled by Mexicans. Gold had been discovered, but the mining venture of surface gold was only for a short period of time.

In 1866, San Andreas became the county seat of Calaveras County. The town is still the seat of the county in present day.

The Sierra County Sheriff’s Gallows was only utilized for one hanging.

A historic train maintenance yard within Jamestown, California was established as the Railtown 1897 State Historic Park.

In 1848, the first gold discovery in Tuolumne County was made at Woods Crossing. The town of Jamestown, California was soon founded near Woods Crossing.

On May 1, 1851, Sonora, California was incorporated as a town within Tuolumne County.

In 1854, Tuolumne City, California was founded by Gold Rush pioneers. Tuolumne is a Native American word for “Follow Me”.

The Iron Door Saloon, which was established in 1852 in the town of Groveland, is California’s oldest continually operating saloon.

The saloon has a mural at the front facade of the building along with a historical marker.

The site of the town “Slab City” is located on the former Durlap Army Camp that was utilized as a training facility for soldiers during World War II. After the Army removed the buildings, concrete slabs remained and many homeless from the railroad intersection nearby moved to live there. Over the decades, the town has had art installations, such as “Salvation Mountain”, added to the residents built there.

In 1836, the Sonoma Barracks was ordered to be constructed by General H.G. Vallejo.

Ten years later, the barracks were utilized as the headquarters of the Bear Flag Revolt.

Membership to the “clothing optional” Lupin Lodge Naturalist Club began in Los Gatos, California in the 1920s.

In 1878, the first ever “Motion Pictures Experiment” was conducted at the Palo Alto Stock Farm in Stanford, California.

The Hermosa Beach Musuem consist of the local history of the Hermosa Beach area.

The musuem hosts a replica of the surfboard that “The Beach Boys” used while vacationing on the California Coast.

The punk rock group Pennywise, and other punk rock bands, have roots in Hermosa Beach.

The S.S. Lane Victory was built in 1945, in Los Angelos County, California before the surrender of Germany. The ship would later serve in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

The S.S. Lane Victory is currently stationed in San Pedro, California.

On August 26, 1998, the Pyramid Lake Museum, which is located outside of the largest desert lake in the world, first opened to the public after the construction of a new pyramid shaped building in Nixon, Nevada. The area of Nixon, Nevada was named after former Nevada state senator George Stuart Nixon, who owned the Nixon Mansion.

The Pyramid Lake Museum was established within the boundaries of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation and gives an extensive history of the Northern Paiute People.

The museum exhibits a Northern Paiute Native American story about how the natives believed that the Pyramid Lake formed.

The museum has multitude of photographs of the diverse geography of the lake itself. Interestingly, once every seven years an algae bloom causes the water in Pyramid Lake to turn into a dark turquoise.

The Pyramid Lake War, also known as the Paiute War, the Washoe Indian War and the Pah Ute War, forced the Paiute Natives into reservations, located in Pyramid Lake, the state of Oregon and the Washington Territory, after they lost the Second Battle of Pyramid Lake.

During the journey to reservations within the state of Oregon and the Washington Territory, hundreds of Northen Paiute Indians died, from the harsh winter conditions that they faced.

In addition, the museum has an exhibit on the Ranch Rock festivals that occurred on Pyramid Lake in the 1980s and Burning Man, after it moved from Baker Beach, California to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.

The Alkatraz Island is a former federal U.S. Army facility and federal prison that was occupied by Native Americans for two years in protest of the federal government violating tribal treaties.

On January 18, 1909, Eugene Ely landed a biplane on the U.S.S. Pennslyvania (BB-38) for the first time in aviation history in Vallejo, California.

In 1908, the grand Los Gatos High School was constructed after being designed by William Henry Meeks.

In 1880, Camp Felton was founded. Over time the original camp location has changed to a Felton Grove Auto Camp In 1922, to the Felton Grove Resort In 1937.

In 1914, the current Santa Cruz Wharf was constructed. The city has three wharfs in the 1880s which fell into disuse over the decades.

On July 17, 2007, the Donner-Houghton house caught fire and burnt down.

The Donner Lofts Apartments were built on the site of the former Donner-Houghton house. Currently, historical markers from History San Jose mark the history of the home that once stood there.

In 1849, the California State delegation in Monterey, where the former Mexican capital of California was, established the city of San José as the first capital of the state of California. After he capital was moved to Vallejo, Benicia and to Sacramento the former San José Capital Building was abandoned and eventually demolished.

In 1923, the Native Sons of the Golden West placed a plaque in a park where the capital building once stood.

The State Capital Building in Benicia is the only former state capital building that presently exists.

In 1846, the Zepeda Adobe of El Pueblo de San José was constructed.