Off the Beaten Path takes you off the highway to enjoy unusual adventures, such as Three Capes Scenic Drive in Cape Meares State Park in Tillamook, Oregon. Drive or bicycle through 35 miles of coast, dunes, and small villages
Explore Oregon’s past in Bakercity where you can tour a turn-of-the-century lumber and mining industry by riding in open-air rail cars powered by an authentic wood-burning Heisler locomotive. The once prosperous Sumpter Valley Railway operation has a restored track bed thanks to volunteers, who offer you a colorful trip back to what the Old West was like.
The International Crane Foundation near Baraboo, Wisconsin is the only place in the world where you can see all fifteen species of cranes in a natural tall-grass prairie and wetlands area. This nonprofit looks after the crane breeding facilities on a 225-acre site with guided tours on summer weekends.
I drove through Nebraska once and didn’t think there was much to see. But Off the Beaten Path showed me what I’ve been missing. Beyond the state’s many historic parks and museums lies the Willa Cather Foundation, honoring the Pulitzer prizewinning author. At the foundation office you can obtain maps of self-guided driving and walking tours of more than 190 sites that found their way into Cather’s books. The Willa Cather Thematic District is the largest historical district in the US dedicated to a single author.
American quilt lovers and crafters will enjoy the Quilt Study Center and Museum, with quilts on display from 24 nations. It’s the largest known public collection of quilts from around the world. The museum is housed at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Would you ever guess that the smallest state in America would be home to over half-a-million cooking utensils? Rhode Island’s Culinary Arts Museum of Johnson & Wales University includes items dating back to ancient Egypt, Greece and China, and thousands of cookbooks, some over four centuries old.
Southern New Jersey’s natural resources include sand, soda, ash, silica, wood. Is it any wonder it is known as “the birthplace of the nation’s glassmaking industry”? Since America’s first successful glassmaking factory was founded there in 1739, the state now boasts one of the nation’s first amphitheater-style hot-glass studios and the Museum of American Glass.
Article comments