As a child, did you have a special place that inspired your curiosity? Was it a school or a museum? An empty lot or a well-designed playground? For George Washington Carver, the meadows and creeks of southwest Missouri both entertained and educated him — nurturing his creativity and opening to his mind to the ideas that made him a groundbreaking scientist. Want to know more? Go to George Washington Birthplace National Monument.

The Waterpocket Fold from Panorama Point, Capitol Reef National Park (NPS/Nathan Gross)

In all likelihood, you have been to one of his parks, or at least one that was influenced by his design firms. He was a strict abolitionist, served the cause of the Union in the Civil War as head of the Sanitary Commission (responsible for treating wounded Union Soldiers), and believed deeply in public parks as the way to bring people of different social, ethnic, racial, and economic classes together. He also had a brief career as crewman on a Chinese merchant ship! Frederick Law Olmsted’s fascinating life and his stamp on public spaces is on full display at Massachusetts' Frederick Law Olmstead National Historic Site.

Harpers Ferry cemented its place in American history with John Brown’s raid, which aimed to instigate a rebellion by enslaved people but ended in Brown’s capture and execution. But Harpers Ferry was also the site of Storer College, one of America’s first colleges that was inclusive across lines of race and gender. From Brown’s violent approach to the college’s visionary mission, West Virginia's Harpers Ferry National Historical Park celebrates resistance in all its forms.

Moran Point, Grand Canyon National Park (NPS photo)

More than 140 years later, it’s still hard to fathom what happened that July day in the ravine preserved today as Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. George Armstrong Custer made so many mistakes. Did he let emotion overpower reason? We have only oral tradition and shaky historical information to help us deduce what happened that fateful day on the Montana prairies. Maybe reason will help us make the right choices in our own lives.