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America's National Monuments: Land of Geologic Wonders - The Pacific Northwest

Designated by U.S. Presidents, America's National Monuments preserve significant pieces of the country's history, ecology, geology and beauty for all Americans.
  • Title ID 58-NM3
  • History, American History, Science, Biology, Core Science, Social Studies
  • 11 Programs
  • 20 Supplemental Files
  • 10th Grade through Post Secondary
  • Published by Ambrose Video Publishing Inc./Centre Communications
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Included Programs
Supplemental Files

Included Programs

Hagerman Fossil Beds National MonumentRunning time is 10 minutes

Geology, history, paleontology and horse fossils are discussed.

Chapter List
Virtual Tour
Hagerman Fossil Beds National monuments are home to fossils of equus simplicidens, the ancestor of the modern horse, and the area is known for its sage brush steppes and Oregon Trail history.
Nature and Science
Hagerman Fossil Beds contains fossils from the Pliocene Epic, especially the Hagerman horse, known as equus simplicidens.
History and Culture
The Snake River area and the Magic Valley are known for their agriculture.

John Day Fossil Beds National MonumentRunning time is 12 minutes

Geology, history, paleontology and fossils are looked at.

Chapter List
Virtual Tour
The John Day Fossil Beds National Monument shows mammalian fossils in the fossil beds found in its three units, Clarno, Painted Hills and Sheep Rock.
Nature and Science
The John Day Fossil Beds, located in a high desert ecosystem, were formed by volcanic action and contain fossil plants and animals.
History and Culture
The John Day Fossil Beds were originally home to the Paiute Indian tribe, but gold brought in miners to help the north during the Civil War, and later the 1862 Homestead Act brought in pioneers who raised sheep.

Fossil Butte National MonumentRunning time is 12 minutes

Geology, history, paleontology and fossils are examined.

Chapter List
Virtual Tour
Fossil Butte National Monument contains Fossil Lake, part of the Green River formation, and it has many fish fossils as well as a sagebrush ecosystem, which is home to black tailed jack rabbits and pronghorn.
History and Culture
The history of Fossil Butte is the history of the Wild West, cattle country, cowboys, Shoshone Indian Tribe, whose most famous name Sacagawea, helped Lewis and Clark, and Mountain men like Jim Bridger, John Colter and finally, the coming of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Nature and Science
Fossil Butte contains Fossil Lake from the Eocene Epic, and it is, one of three lakes in the area with extensive fossils; the other two are Lake Gosiute and Lake Uinta.

Pinnacles National MonumentRunning time is 14 minutes

Geology, tectonic plates and American history are discussed.

Chapter List
Virtual Tour
Pinnacles National Monument, located in the Gabilan Coastal Mountains, is part of an ancient volcano and contains Talus Caves, and varied birdlife, including the California Condor.
History and Culture
Pinnacles, found in the Gabilan Mountains, has been home to Spanish settlers, Mexican Californios, American homesteaders, and was written about by the Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck, in his classic novel, East of Eden.
Nature and Science
Pinnacles, which has a chaparral ecosystem, has part of the San Andreas fault, which caused the famous San Francisco earthquake in 1906, volcano, and it was formed by the collision of the North American Plate, Pacific Plate and Farallon Plate.

Craters of the Moon National MonumentRunning time is 11 minutes

Geology, volcanic action and lava as well as American history are discussed.

Chapter List
Virtual Tour
Craters of the Moon National Monument discusses volcanism, with attention to cinder cones, spatter cones, and the different kinds of lava, known as pahoi hoi, ah ah.
History and Culture
Shoshone Indians, Oregon Trail and Goodales cut off are part of the history of Craters of the Moon.
Nature and Science
The other worldly landscape of Craters of the Moon, was caused by volcanic eruptions, located in what is known as the Great Rift, and by a hotspot, now located under Yellowstone National Park.

Devils Postpile National MonumentRunning time is 10 minutes

Geology and the history of the California gold rush are discussed.

Chapter List
Virtual Tour
Devils Postpile National Monument examines the volcanic origins of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, also known as the High Sierras.
History and Culture
Devils Postpile is an area rich in history of Native Americans, the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, the Gold rush and mining towns such as Bodie, California.
Nature and Science
Devils Postpile was formed by tectonic action and glaciers of the last four ice ages, revealing its beautiful hexagon columns.

Lava Beds National MonumentRunning time is 11 minutes

Geology and American Indian History are discussed in this chapter.

Chapter List
Virtual Tour
Lava Beds National Monument is about volcanoes and volcanic action and preserves part of the Medicine Lake Volcano, a shield volcano in the Cascade Range, as well as a few pictographs and petroglyphs.
History and Culture
California's Lava Beds are part of Western history's Indian Wars, particularly the Modoc War where Modoc Indians led by Captain Jack held off the American Army for 4 months.
Nature and Science
Lava Beds is about the formation of the Cascade Mountain Range by the Farallon Oceanic Plate and the Juan de Fuca Plate, and it is about Tule Lake, high desert ecosystem and the, Cascade ecosystem.

Muir Woods National MonumentRunning time is 15 minutes

Biology and American history are discussed.

Chapter List
Virtual Tour
Muir Woods National Monument is about the coastal redwoods and the evergreen sequoia, as well as the efforts of Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, President Teddy Roosevelt to preserve these trees.
History and Culture
The old growth redwood forest in Muir Woods is the story of four men - Gifford Pinchot, William Kent, Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir, founder of the preservationism movement and Yosemite National Park and the U.S. Park Service.
Nature and Science
The redwoods located in the coastal redwoods live in a Mediterranean climate and survive in part because of the almost daily coastal fog.

Minidoka Internment National MonumentRunning time is 9 minutes

As a part of American history, Minidoka is dedicated to preserving the memory of internment camps that held Japanese Americans, who were internees during WWII, and held in camps that were set up by an executive order given by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Cabrillo National MonumentRunning time is 14 minutes

Biology, geography and American history are discussed.

Chapter List
Virtual Tour
Cabrillo National Monument is located in San Diego and preserves the history that started with the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, as well as the its biological diversity.
Nature and Science
Diverse intertidal ecosystems, tide pools, chaparral, chaparral ecosystem and scrub communities of plants are preserved at Cabrillo.
History and Culture
Father Junipero Serra came to San Diego in the Spanish Colony of California and began setting up missions along the el Camino Real; missions that were followed by presidios and haciendas founded by Spanish colonists and soldiers.

Oregon Caves National MonumentRunning time is 17 minutes

Biology and American history are discussed.

Chapter List
Virtual Tour
Located in the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon, Oregon Caves National Monument, with its beautiful stalactites, stalagmites and calcite formations preserves America's only marble cave, as well as the distinctive architecture of the Oregon Caves Chateau.
History and Culture
Above ground, Oregon caves preserves the area's long history of logging and forestry, also known as sylviculture and the conservation of the Conservation Movement.
Nature and Science
Oregon Caves' old growth forests contain a remarkable biodiversity of trees and plants, including Port Orford Cedar and Douglas Fir.

Supplemental Files

All National Monuments by Date Founded
Archaeological Resources Protection Act
Directions to National Monuments - The Geologic West
Geologic West Monuments by State
Geologic West National Monuments by Date Founded
MARC Records for NM3
MARC records for the series America's National Monuments: Land of Geologic Wonders - The Pacific Northwest
National Antiquities Act 1906
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Transcription for Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument
Transcription for John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
Transcription for Fossil Butte National Monument
Transcription for Pinnacles National Monument
Transcription for Craters of the Moon National Monument
Transcription for Devils Postpile National Monument
Transcription for Lava Beds National Monument
Transcription for Muir Woods National Monument
Transcription for Minidoka Internment National Monument
Transcription for Cabrillo National Monument
Transcription for Oregon Caves National Monument