This week, my friend at Journeys With Johnbo challenges us to show photos of historical sites and sights! We like to visit places with historical significance, and my trusty phone camera helps there, since it’s always with me.

In 2022, on our road trip to Colorado, Hubby wanted to stop in Idaho, and visit the Minidoka site of one of the most shameful US acts of the FDR administration in World War II. He interned Japanese-Americans, who had fully integrated into America, in multiple “camps” around the country. Most of those camps were on or near the West Coast, since that’s where most Japanese-Americans lived. Thousands of US Citizens of Japanese extraction lost everything they had worked so hard for, and were essentially imprisoned for the duration of the War, with no recourse.

This is where the jailers kept watch over the camp to make sure no one escaped. Well, the camp is pretty far from civilization, so there would be nowhere to escape to. The surrounding countryside is barren and dry, with wind whistling across the landscape most of the time-not very inviting.

This is what is left of the waiting area for newly-arrived prisoners. Pretty grim.

When we went to New York in 2006, we made a point to visit the turning-point battlefield of the Revolutionary War, at Saratoga. The area around Saratoga is very picturesque, and the battlefield is well-preserved and documented.

The scenery from the battlefield was spectacular too.

We caught a performance at Fort Ticonderoga.

Before we left for Upstate New York, we visited the South Street Seaport, along the East River, and saw a historic Clipper Ship. These fast ships were the primary mode of transit for imported and exported goods, before the advent of steamships.

When we were in Hawaii in 2018, we spent some time at Pearl Harbor, another place of World War II historical significance. We went aboard the USS Missouri, where the Japanese signed surrender papers.

On board the Missouri, the photo from the surrender signing, and plaque on the deck.

Elsewhere at Pearl Harbor, we visited one of the older submarines, the USS Bowfin.

I also noticed some serious tech history, still in use!

It was closed that week, but we took a boat tour of the harbor and saw the USS Arizona Memorial.

To end with, in Colorado we saw some “pre-history” at a park. Petrified wood tree stumps, showed us what Earth contained before humans appeared on the scene.

Humans make written history, but history existed before we did, and Nature preserves the signs, all around us.