Greenbrier
Unique to West Virginia
After being kept classified for more than thirty years, the doors to the bunker hidden beneath The Greenbrier Resort are open for all to see. Built in the late 1950s by the US government, this facility served as the emergency relocation center for the Congress in the event of national crisis.
Complete with House and Senate chambers, offices, meeting centers and sleeping quarters for the entire Congress, the bunker was maintained at a constant state of readiness until its discovery in 1992. This is the only Cold War Bunker, built by the Eisenhower administration, available for public touring in the United States.
Unique to Kentucky
Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is the largest restored Shaker community in America. The attraction offers gracious dining with locally grown produce; accommodations in original Shaker buildings; 3,000 acres of preserved farmland; self-guided walking tours; hiking and horseback trails; gift shops with fine Shaker reproductions, heirloom seeds, and arts and crafts and costumed interpreters that chronicle Shaker life.
www.shakervillageky.org
Unique to Arkansas
Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro is the only diamond-producing site in the world open to the public. Visitors can dig for diamonds and keep what they find. Previous miners have found the 40.23-carat “Uncle Sam,” the largest diamond ever unearthed in the United States; 15.33-carat “Star of Arkansas”; and 4.25-carat “Kahn Canary” worn by Hillary Clinton for two presidential inaugurals. Other facilities include Diamond Discovery Center, which offers an intro to diamond hunting, an exhibit gallery and Diamond Springs, a mining-themed water park.
www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com
Unique to Virginia
Several states have natural rock bridges in various forms, but Natural Bridge of Virginia is more than 20 stories tall and carries a major U.S. highway atop it. The bridge was once owned by Thomas Jefferson (he called it “the most Sublime of nature’s works”) and surveyed by a young George Washington. Today it is a favorite traditional tourism attraction just off Interstate 81.
