Know of an archeological property that you think should be recognized for its significance? Nominate it!
The National Park Service manages two programs -- the National Historic Landmarks Program and the National Historic Landmarks Program -- which manage lists of especially important places in the nation's history.
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (National Register) was authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. It is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation, and is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources. National Register listed properties may be significant at the local, state, or national levels of significance.
National Historic Landmarks
The National Historic Landmarks (NHL) program was established by the Historic Sites Act of 1935. NHLs are designated by the Secretary of the Interior in recognition of their exceptional significance as places that contribute to an understanding of the depth and breadth of the lives and history of the American people. NHLs identified for their exceptional importance in archeology either have already yielded significant knowledge or are demonstrated likely to do so. These properties are significant at the national level of significance. NHLs must demonstrate exceptional integrity based upon a property’s professionally demonstrated intactness of deposits and features to the extent that they can address nationally significant research questions. Sites designated as NHLs are automatically listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Showing results 1-10 of 46
- Type: Place
- Locations: Piscataway Park, Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail
The Accokeek Creek site was excavated in the 1930’s by Alice and Henry Ferguson who purchased land for their home in present-day Piscataway Park in the 1920’s. After excavating tens of thousands of artifacts, the Ferguson’s came to believe that they had rediscovered the site of “Moyaone,” the principal town of the Piscataway chiefdom visited by Captain John Smith in 1608.
- Lake Clark National Park & Preserve
Kijik Archeological District National Historic Landmark
- Type: Place
- Locations: Lake Clark National Park & Preserve
- Offices: National Historic Landmarks Program
The Kijik Archeological District, on the Shore of Lake Clark, comprises an extensive former village of Dena'ina Athabascans, dating from pre-European contact to the abandonment of Kijik village ca. 1910.
- Type: Place
- Offices: National Historic Landmarks Program
The Gallagher Flint Station Site was one of the earliest dated archaeological site in Northern Alaska in 1978.
- Type: Place
- Offices: National Historic Landmarks Program
Birnirk Site is one of the oldest continuously occupied villages in Alaska. Sites liek this are along the northwestern and northern coast, where whales, seals, walrus, and caribou have made it possible for people to live in the arctic.
- Type: Place
- Offices: National Historic Landmarks Program
The south coast people living from the Aleutians to Prince William Sound, were skilled kayakers and sea hunters. Anangula Site is one of the areas associated with South Coast Sea Hunters.
- Type: Article
- Locations: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park
- Offices: National Historic Landmarks Program
While the site of Fort Astoria in Oregon has been listed as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) since the 1960s, archaeologists had never performed methodical excavations at the site. In 2020, the regional NHL program published a report from an archaeology field school that detailed three archaeological sites associated with the NHL. This work greatly expanded our understanding of the fur trade and its aftermath at the mouth of the Columbia River.
- Type: Lesson Plan
- Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject(s): Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
Investigate the Spanish Shipwrecks
- Type: Article
Esta lección se basa en La Urca de Lima y El San Pedro, dos de las miles de propiedades inscritas en el Registro Nacional de Lugares Históricos.
- Type: Lesson Plan
- Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject(s): Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
Discover why this British settlement was built and how it functioned as Great Britain and Spain each struggled to control land from Charleston to St. Augustine.
- Type: Lesson Plan
- Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject(s): Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
Learn about one of the nation's most important conservation laws--the Antiquities Act of 1906--and how its passage preserved important cultural sites such as Tonto National Monument, which preserves remnants of the Salado culture prior to European contact.
Last updated: February 10, 2025