BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Midchuck
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 09:59 AM

Anyone mention the Little Big Horn museum in western MT.?

A uniquely American site is Cabella's sporting goods main store in Sidney, Nebraska. You're driving west on I-80, over this utterly open dry prairie, and you come over a brow and there's this utter palace with lovely landscaped grounds, in essentially the middle of nowhere. And you go in and it's filled solid with high-class camping gear, fishing gear, outdoorsy clothing... and guns. About a quarter of the place is guns, cases, holsters, reloading equipment, and such. This should make most Europeans feel that they've found the real America. Though many of them might get nervous and want to go home.

Usual disclaimers.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Pied Piper
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 06:11 AM

Visit Florida, the site of the death of US democracy.
PP

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Marion
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 02:26 AM

I was looking at some tourism literature, and I loved the pictures of the Badlands national park. I'm one of those Norte Americanas who had never heard of them before.

My friends say that they're going to rent a movie called "Highway 61" for my going-away party.

Marion

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Peter Woodruff
Date: 16 May 03 - 05:39 PM

Lest I forget, George Popham was the leader of this failed intrusion into the American wilderness.

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Peter Woodruff
Date: 16 May 03 - 05:36 PM

The site of Fort St George (1607-1608) at Popham Beach, Maine is a popular August pilgrimage for many dedicated archeaological students. The site is also known as the ill-fated Popham Colony, the sister colony to Jamestown. There is a longstanding Popham Cult which began in the 18th Century with the first governor of Maine.


Peter

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: open mike
Date: 16 May 03 - 03:17 PM

Great song Marion!!
My main pilgrimage, which is akin to a
spiritual or mystic return to a holy
place, is the twice annual return to
Camp Mather, just outside Yosemite
Nat'l Park to commune with the other
festival goers at the Strawberry Music
festival. We create a wonderful community
there filled with music, friendly campers,
and an attitude that we attempt to take
back with us the the "real world" we live
the Strawberry Way, and hope that we can
carry this utopian feeling with us all
year long. Every Memorial and labor day
we make our Mecca in the High Sierras!

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Renegade
Date: 16 May 03 - 02:44 PM

My God, what a thread. I'll have to print it out for future reference. I've got a travelling job now, and try to make it fun and educational by hitting a great site or two during my trips.

I second Spaw's idea: I was recently in New Orleans, and drove home(Cleveland OH) via Highway 61, at least til Memphis. I stood at the crossroads, 49/61, taking pictures like a mad man. Drove around Clarksdale a while. It LOOKS like a blues town.

Took pictures that night of Graceland. Graceland to me is: majestic, haunting, democratic, lonely, spiritual, tacky, trashy and drug-addled. Maybe just like America, good and bad.

No one mentioned another shrine in Memphis: Sun Studios. For $10., you can stand in the studio/room where BB, Rufus Thomas, Howlin Wolf, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich and a host of others once recorded.

I agree with comments about battlefields. Nothing like standing on the field. I toured Chickamauga and Antietam recently. I stood on the line that Geo. Thomas held, feeling humble and patriotic, but ruined the moment by answering my cell phone. Oh well.

I would also recommend Lincoln's Birthplace, near Hodgenville KY. I hit that on the way down to New Orleans.

Man, the list is infinite.

Thanks for another great thread.

Spaw, if you're reading: I'm from Cleveland OH, and quite familiar with 77 and points along the way. But what is the Warther museum?

Folks: I am travelling to Sarasota FL the first week of June. Will travel I-71 to I-75....and welcome suggestions.
Thanks
Bill

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST,ta2
Date: 16 May 03 - 08:59 AM

the "shrine" in san antonia........remember the alamony !...........or san jacquinto........when tejas was a republic

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: denise:^)
Date: 15 May 03 - 11:58 PM

Well, I love to go to historic sites--lots of them have been named here--but it took quite a bit of research and effort to drive down historic Route 66 a few years ago. We made it from Chicago to Quapaw, Oklahoma, and stopped at every recognizable 'tourist attraction' on the way!

For some reason, after reading a book about it, I just *had* to go drive it! (Grass and weeds growing up through the road in some places--many parts of it are abandoned--but you can still patch your way through with a good co-pilot, a map, and a sense of adventure...)

I think more of it is labeled now, and better maps are available, too.

Denise:^)

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 May 03 - 02:22 AM

well, there are the Kootenai Falls and the swinging bridge outside of Libby Montana...and there is therberkely pit in Butte, MT....its a mining pit...

then there is the lake pend o'reille....there is a fabulous historical cruise (that operates out of Hope, ID)that talks about the creation of the valleys...from Missoula to the pacific ocean....there was a lake where missoula is (and a very large portion of montana as well)...that was held off by an ice dam over 2,000 feet high...now when that ice dam was breached....a 2000 foot wall of water came crashing down running it's way to the ocean, carving out landmarks like the Columbia River Gorge....it had a backflow of 100 miles....but then it did not happen once....but they say at least fifteen times....

but anywas...nice song..

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 14 May 03 - 11:41 PM

The only real pilgrimage site in the entire USA is Plymouth Rock. But remember, the pilgrims were there before you !!!!!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 14 May 03 - 08:59 AM

Reads nicely. How does it sound?

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Marion
Date: 14 May 03 - 05:36 AM

OK, here's what I've come up - though I might just axe the last verse.

AMERICAN PILGRIM

I hiked into the Canyon; I worshipped with the whales;
Read Steinbeck with the redwoods and Walden on the trails.
I tasted two great oceans and I sifted desert sand;
In cavern chill, on wooded hill, I vowed to love this land.
But all the forest said was, "Hug your own damn tree.
You think that we don't care, and you're as right as you can be.
You've brought no spark to lift the dark that's just before the dawn,
So keep moving on, moving on, moving on."

I searched for inspiration from the brave, the dead, the free.
I murmured in Manhattan and I knelt at Wounded Knee.
I traced the secret railway and the names upon the wall
And I yearned for Reverend King to come back and lead us all.
But all the preacher said was, "Have your own damn dream.
You think the ocean notices each earnest little stream?
Pride and shame are just a game that's over when you're gone,
So keep moving on, moving on, moving on."

From Carnegie to Graceland, paid my reverence to the muse;
I drifted round the Delta sound, still pregnant with the blues.
I went down to the crossroads on a Mississippi night
I baited my old six-string and I waited for a bite.
But all the devil said was, "Tune your own damn axe.
You think that I'm so short of souls I need more two-bit hacks?
I can tell you're dying to sell your queen out for a pawn,
So keep moving on, moving on, moving on."

I was bitter from my travels, too lost and tired to roam
When I found a tent revival and I prayed to make it home.
This futile road and aching load would soon come to the end
And gentle rest with pilgrims blessed the Lord to me would send.
But all St. Peter said was, "Save your own damn soul.
Get off the property, and don't come back until you're told.
It's not for you to pick your time, or say your journey's done,
So keep moving on, moving on, moving on."

PS See this article about Robert Johnson if you don't understand the third verse.

Marion

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 12 May 03 - 08:25 AM

Couldn't read all through the thread, gotta run...Hope this isn't redundent...
But Uncle Dave Macon's old house is just as he left it in Readyville, Tennessee. If you listen to his song "From Earth to Heaven" he gives the address. It is about halfway between Murphreesboro (on Interstate 24 and home of the Saturn plant) and Woodbury, Tennessee. Up on a hillside outside Woodbury there is a modest granite monument to "the Dixie Dewdrop" as he was called. Has an etched image of a five string banjo on it. Real purty.

The road from Woodbury to Murphreesboro is called the "Old Woodbury Pike" by locals. It is Highway 70. Crosses Criple Creek just West of Readyville. They have a big festival down there in July.

CB

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST,Poker Joe
Date: 11 May 03 - 02:35 PM

Don't forget the Chisolm Trail.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 May 03 - 01:58 PM

Another cool thing to do is to follow a famous route, e.g. the Oregon Trail which runs from Independence, MO, to Oregon City, OR. Use a good guidebook like The Oregon Trail Revisited by Gregory M. Franzwa. (Or click here.) I did this once. (Actually, I did different parts of it on different trips.) A wonderful experience.

There are also guidebooks for
the route of Lewis & Clark,
the Santa Fe Trail,
the Mormon Trail,
the California Trail,
the Lincoln Highway (plotted in 1913 from New York City to San Francisco),
Route 66 (Chicago to Los Angeles),
the Great River Road (follows the Mississippi from Minnesota to Louisiana, and includes some connecting roads in Ontario) (also click here)

Those are all the important routes I can think of right now, but I'm sure there are more.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 May 03 - 11:52 PM

It sounds magnificent...those Civil War sites, I mean. Has anyone seen the Mogollon Rim, much beloved in western stories?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 10 May 03 - 11:32 PM

I'll second Spaw on Civil War battlefields. For overall touring, Gettysburg. For the light show...a battlefield description on a large board...I saw them in Gettysburg, Atlanta and Chattanooga, and the one at Chattanooga was vastly superior to the others. (that was ~15 years ago) Then as Spaw said, after you see the battle strategies, drive south and observe the lay of the land...unbelievable. And the music in the presentation is haunting. Bonnie Blue Flag, Dixie, Battlehymn of the Republic, etc.

I've never been to Shakertown, but many people around here make an entire day of it, pick strawberries and everything.

If you make it to Kentucky, I hear the horse park in Lexington is fabulous. I personally make pilgrimages to Natural Bridge, ~1 hour east of Lexington.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 10 May 03 - 10:23 PM

Alas, the last words !

Art

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 May 03 - 01:51 AM

Pow! Shatner kills another thread. God, the Man is like a force of Nature! (chuckle)

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 May 03 - 04:26 PM

And if you run out of geographical pilgrimage sites, there's always WilliamShatner.com on the Net.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 09 May 03 - 04:07 PM

Left-center field in WRIGLEY FIELD baseball stadium --- Chicago, Illinois --- where the Chicago Cubs struggle year in and year out to finish anywhere but at the top of the heap (often in last place) is a site where, for some of us, solemnity and reverant silence is present even after a Sammy Sosa grand slam homer. -- There, at the base of the ivy growing on the walls, is where some of Steve Goodman's ashes were scattered. Those of us who "know" always give several moments of silent tribute to the good man who wrote the fine songs "City Of New Orleans" and "The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" before we take our seats following the singing of the national anthem. Indeed, especially in these sad times, our silent tribute to this fine fellow is the ONLY REASON WE BOTHER TO STAND UP AT ALL !!!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST,Marion
Date: 09 May 03 - 01:26 PM

Thanks for the further suggestions. I'll show you my song when it's all done.

Marion

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: X
Date: 08 May 03 - 02:22 PM

The Chetro Ketl Great Kiva in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. It is truly sacred ground.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Amos
Date: 07 May 03 - 11:30 PM

Marion:

This book will answer your question:

American Places
William Zinsser

  272 pages   Paperback   $18.95  


The author found himself troubled by the realization that he'd never been to any of America's "iconic places." Mt. Rushmore , for instance. Yellowstone Park. Kitty Hawk . The Alamo . Niagara Falls. Appomattox. And so he set out on thoughtful pilgrimages to fifteen of them (including the six I've listed). In the course of his travels, Zinsser unlearned clichéd assumptions about our history and discovered how "stone and symbol, narrative and myth," can remind us of this nation's "anchoring principles and our best ideals and intentions." Originally published in 1992, American Places could hardly be timelier reading today. Our ACR Edition adds a new chapter recounting Zinsser's visit, on the 50th anniversary of D-Day , to an especially poignant "American place" — the military cemetery, given by France to the U.S., which overlooks Omaha Beach.

Regards,

Amos

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Amos
Date: 07 May 03 - 09:52 AM

I actually once made a self-designed pilgrimage to Luchenbach, Texas because it was featured in a country song I enjoyed. But I found nothing of special interest there.

Guthrie, Kentucky, is the birthplace of Robert Penn Warren, once poet laureate of the nation, and (I believe) the only writer to win a Pulitzer prize for both fiction and poetry.

The birthplace of Mark Twain is a pilgrimage of sorts.

Jamestown is certainly a site of interest. One place that really does act as a pilgrimage for some is Valley Forge, the site of Washington's camp.

A

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 07 May 03 - 12:44 AM

Anywhere along the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Especially in the fall. Port Charles, Rock Hall. etc.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST,Claymore
Date: 06 May 03 - 05:46 PM

The Golden Gate Bridge and Highway One north of it.

Yosemite (dispite the tourists, the most beautiful spot in the US)

Hoover Dam (for it's size and complexity)

Yellowstone Park (ditto above)

Alamo (changed the history of the Southwest)

Gettysburg (best of all Civil War sites - changed history)

Washington DC (the whole city is a monument as noted above, but add Arlington Cemetery, the National Archives (Constitution, Dec. of Independance, etc) National Museum of Art (world class- rivals the Louvre) and Air and Space Museum (no other country on the planet has the equal of this) and the National Cathedral.

Harpers Ferry (beautiful - started Civil War, Lewis and Clark, and the C&O Canal)

New York and Philadelphia (as mentioned above, but add the UN and Ellis Island)

Boston (the old portion of the city is a juxiposition of architectural masterpieces and gobs of history within one days walk)

French Quarter, New Orleans

And finally the Blue Ridge Parkway in the fall or spring.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 May 03 - 07:47 PM

I agree about the Black Hills. See my message in this old thread about my visit there. And read the poem that I gave a link to.

Mesa Verde gave me similar feelings.

To really appreciate these places, you've got to get a bit off the beaten track, and find a place to sit quietly and soak up the atmosphere. At Mesa Verde, for example, my most memorable experience was sitting and watching the buzzards (turkey vultures) return to their roosting places at sunset. And watching the colors on the cliffs change as the sun sank lower in the sky.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Burke
Date: 05 May 03 - 07:38 PM

I am going to list a religious site. Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman Alabama. Folk Art & religious devotion at their best.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: maire-aine
Date: 05 May 03 - 03:46 PM

Well, for anybody that grew up listening to Motown music, you could visit the Hitsville USA .

And I understand that the Ford Rouge Plant is going to resume public tours in the spring of 2004. They were stopped back in the 1970s some time. For more info, you can check the Henry Ford Museum Greenfield Village website, and follow the link. Also the museum and village are worth a visit by themselves, esp. the R. Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion House.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Marion
Date: 05 May 03 - 01:25 PM

Fascinating folks, thanks. As Guest said, "Makes me want to get in the car, and go!"

As I mentioned, I'm mostly asking for the sake of a song I'm gestating about pilgrimage... but I hope to see a lot of these places too.

Marion

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 May 03 - 10:42 PM

The colony of Shakers in Kentucky is Shaker Hill just outside Harrodsburg, about 45 miles south of Lexington....one of our favorite places.

Backing up Sins on the island off Savannah, there is a lot of history all along the coast there from Hatteras down to St. Augustine. Forget the yuppie parts, a lot of it is still very natural and wondderful to visit.

Sins said Gettysburg als, and almost any of the Civil War battlefields are a good visit. My favorite, the most haunting for me, is at Chickamauga, just south of Chattanooga.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 04 May 03 - 09:03 PM

When you go to Taos, head north to Arroyo Hondo and take a soak at the Black Rock hot springs, on the Rio Grande River. This area is all Bureau of Land Managment(BLM),so you can stay for quite awhile down on the river if you want. The rocks around this area have petroglyphs.You can also find many obsidian arrowheads in the area.
From my neck of the woods I would recommend the Headwaters of the Mississippi River located in Itasca State Park. They have rocks you can cross to say you walked across the river. The park also has Indian burial mounds, huge red and white pine forests that should be seen now because they are old and saddly dieing, many lakes and trails.
Then Bemidji, where you have Paul Bunyan and Babe. One of the most photographed sites in picture postcard history, or so it seems! Ha! Now there is a pilgramage huh? Just what everybody wants to see Paul Bunyan's toe nails at the PB museum!
Happy trails, Rustic

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 04 May 03 - 08:28 PM

I'll mention Philadelphia for the obvious reasons. Valley Forge National Park. Just a little west is Brandywine Battlefield from the same war. While there, go to the Brandywine Museum to see many of the paintings of Andrew Wyeth. Further west, Gettysburg. south of that in MD. Antietam Battlefield. As a pilgramige, I'd suggest upstate central New York for the birthplace of the Women's Rights movement.

I'd also suggest many of the Shaker communities open to the public. There is a nice one in Kentucky.

I highly suggest a visit to ANY of our Native American reservations. Go to learn what we have lived with for many hundreds of years.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 May 03 - 06:13 PM

Outside Savannah is an island owned by the Gullah - freed slaves who were given the land after the Civil War. Fascinating history and culture. See it before it is gone.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 04 May 03 - 05:35 PM

Wounded Knee (Cankpe Opi). The massacre of Sioux women and children, 350 in all. 1890.

Canyon de T'sche (Canyon de Chelly), AZ. Some of the Dineh who made the long trek back to their homeland, after being displaced by the U. S. Army and the notorious Kit Carson, and settled in the Canyon, have descendants who still have land there.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 May 03 - 04:39 PM

Gettysburg

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST
Date: 04 May 03 - 02:47 PM

I've been many places in the West, but the shifting nuances of light (sunrise, sunset, cloudy, moonlight, you name it) and the storms in the Black Hills and Badlands, have simply been unparalleled. And I've travelled a lot.

The Badlands are one of the most unique landscapes in the world. Like the kopjes of the Serengeti, or the Cappadocia of the Anatolian Plains. They stretch forever through the center of North America--Kansas and Nebraska, north all the way into places like the Saskatchewan Plains, Alberta Canada. And most Norte Americanos never heard of them.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST, heric
Date: 04 May 03 - 02:30 PM

Maybe the book has lost its cachet, but I long ago went to see the classroom in which the real-life Phaedrus, of Zen and the Art of MM, taught in Bozeman, Monatana. (Just to stick with your "pilgimage" theme.)

The most spectacular sight I have ever experienced was in the Badlands, with a sunset to the west, and an electrical storm to the east.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: CarolC
Date: 04 May 03 - 01:53 PM

Up until a few days ago, you could have gone to see the face-shaped rock face in New Hampshire called Old Man of the Mountain. We used to see him a lot on family vacations when I was a kid.

But you can't any more because a few days ago, his face fell off:

The Old Man of the Mountain fell from the mountain today.

But that, in itself, might be worthy of a song...

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST,Bill
Date: 04 May 03 - 01:01 PM

It seems that with this posting you have the material for a very large song cycle. Any of the above-mentioned places would make a good song and you've got a double CD's worth of topics.
As to the Southwest input, there is a wonderful little book titled "Everett Reuss: A Vagabond for Beauty" (by W.L. Rusho, Peregrine Smith Books, Salt Lake City, Utah) which, if one has the skills, could translate to a pretty damn good ballad.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Deckman
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:53 PM

For me, one site was my visit to Andersonville Prison, Columbus Georgia. Bob

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:50 PM

Taos has been mentioned, but the ruins of the old church at Taos Pueblo always feel like a place of pilgrimage to me.
In 1847, a number of the former Mexican citizens fomented a rebellion against the military government set up after the war with Mexico. A few leaders at the Indian Pueblos joined with them, including two from Taos Pueblo.
The military governor, Charles Bent, on a visit to Taos, was asassinated, supposedly with the aid of Indians from the Pueblo. Troops of the occupation lay punitive siege to the pueblo, attacking the pueblo and its church with cannon fire.
Women and children of the Pueblo had taken refuge in the church and many were killed.
The Taos Puebloans keep the church ruins in a state of preservation as a memorial to the massacre.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:48 PM

The problem here is obvious. Dale took off on his ideas as did Tweed and I simply said the "whole stretch" or something....Doesn't matter because if you pick any area, any state, a few dozen of us will chime in with must see things in the area as in the South Dakota post above.

The problem....It's a big country filled with some wonderful things from notably historic to wacky and fun (Bless you all for not mentioning "The Mouse")........Where do you go and what do you do?

Give us a time figure as to how long you can be gone and how far you're up to driving. Pick a geographic region or something......gawd knows we'll give you a hundred ideas for anywhere!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:17 PM

And hiking the Continental Divide too!

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:16 PM

God, there are so many fabulous ideas in this thread! Makes me want to get in the car, and go!

I have to second Niagara Falls too. The Maids of the Mist boat ride to the bottom of the falls was one of the most peaceful experiences of my life.

Following the Niagara River is a pilgrimmage too.

How about the Appalachian Trail, has anyone mentioned that?

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: Tweed
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:05 PM

If you like blues music at all then by all means head to Memphis. If you get down there around the 23rd of May you'll find Beale Street in full swing with the Handy Awards going on and famous blues people lugging their guitars to the New Daisy Theatre. I went last year on for a long weekend and had a great time. Planning to return this year and then head further into the wilds of the Kingdom of Mississippi, in search of fife and drum people.

The Memphis Chronicles, a Delta Travelogue

Yerz,
Tweed

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:03 PM

Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

Subject: RE: BS: What are some pilgrimage sites in USA?
From: GUEST
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:03 PM

How about the US' first official national monument (not to mention the site of the film 'Close Encounters'), Devil's Tower?

http://www.nationalparklover.com/devilstower.htm

Or how about the Badlands? See the cult film classic 'Badlands' with VERY young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek for inspiration.

http://www.nps.gov/badl/exp/home.htm

Driving around anywhere in the area, you will stumble across the old Minuteman missile silo sites. Ellsworth Air Force Base was surrounded with 150 active silos. There were 1,000 of them around this area of the West at the height of the Cold War.

Dunno how 'Area 51' that is for your protagonist.

The great Paha Sapa, or Black Hills to English speakers, is full of sacred sites, and a huge draw for pilgrimmages for hundreds of thousands of people every year. But their main destination is often not, Mt. Rushmore, despite it being the most obvious to people from outside this area.

How about this for a pilgrimmage juxtaposition. There is the less visually spectacular, but still regularly used pilgrimmage site, Bear Butte State Park, in Sturgis, where Lakota sun dances still take place every year.

Bear Butte


Then, there is that other pilgrimmage to Sturgis, SD taken by nearly half a million people every year too, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. It is 63 years old this year.

Official Sturgis Rally site

Although I like the idea of Graceland, I think it has been terribly overdone, and is quite cliche.

Then, there is also the Wounded Knee pilgrimmage. The 1890 graveyard is across the highway from the burned out remains of the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation. There is a pilgrimmage every year, called the Wounded Knee Memorial. Kevin McKiernan was the only photographer inside the village during the takeover. His photos are here:

Wounded Knee takeover photos

BTW, don't think anyone has mentioned any caves. The Hills are home to one of the largest in the world. It is very mysterious:

Wind Cave

Wind Cave photos

Don't think you can learn more about the soul of America, than by making a pilgrimmage to the Black Hills.