Traveling With A Monumental Mindset

What historic monuments do you find interesting to visit?


“Monuments are the milestones that define a nation’s journey.”(Kashish Verma)

One of the more challenging aspects of our travels involves searching for landmarks where events in the past of major significance took place. Such historic adventures often focus on public monuments honoring the notable accomplishments  of a person etched in either metal or stone. Putting such a search in proper perspective, I might notice that hundreds of historic markers along our road trip itinerary are often heavily  concentrated in a particular area.

So in addition to obvious time allotment and daily distances to travel, what other considerations might most matter to me in deciding which monuments  to visit?

As a first requirement, I might prioritize beforehand visiting only those monuments that depict truthful  representations of a place or person in memorialized fashion. In doing so, I would look for various wordings on these markers that contain obvious signs of politicized opinion bias or blatant fact omission. Consider for example that during our travels through the U.S. Southern region, I often questioned why so many public monuments of Civil War generals  like Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Nathan Bedford Forest remained  standing. For it seemed wrongfully prejudicial to showcase each of them as revered military heroes while disregarding  any written evidence on these  memorials that they also led the Confederacy in the Civil War down the dangerous path of slavery’s wrath via white supremacist” dogma.

On a related matter, I would consider it important to visit only those monuments that offer redeeming values of optimism to our present times. So in our country so drastically afflicted by social and political disharmony now,  I cringed on those occasions of observing those monuments praising Christopher Columbus in front of  prominent public buildings in various urban settings in America.  For of what societal value with respect to lawful treatment of immigrants in our country today would it make to conspicuously showcase this Spanish conquistador where accumulated evidence indicates he enacted policies of cruel forced labor to subjugate Native American tribes he encountered many centuries ago.

Lastly, I’d use good sense and try to visit those monuments at which the surrounding environs enhances the visitor’s curiosity (with minimal distraction) to obtain an authentic “feel” of past historic understanding.Consider in this regard that I’ve been “turned off” in interest by (1) 9/11 monuments placed along busy state and interstate highways 2)  important Gettysburg Battlefield plaques standing nearby fast food “heavy districts and (3) road access to Mount Rushmore lined with “tacky” tourist shops. 

So examine below a brief photo sample of several monuments taken during our recent travels. Which of them do you find least and most worthy to visit on an upcoming vacation? Please free to explain your evaluation. 

Book Source:

What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong , By James W. Loewen