We've compiled a list of the nation's historical hot spots -- the most-visited monuments in 2009 -- from National Park Service data. As crowds flock to the nation's national parks, consider these often less-crowded alternatives. These trips keep you firmly grounded in the U.S. With rolling white sand dunes, coastal redwood forests, war-scarred memorials, and, let's not forget the iconic Statue of Liberty, travelers get a taste of our rich past.

-- Deborah Netburn and Kelsey Ramos

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FOR THE RECORD:
National monuments: In a May 2 Travel section article about national monuments, an item on the Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana referred to the Army's 7th Calvary. It should have said Cavalry. Also, some references to the Matanzas River and Ft. Matanzas in Florida, where the Spanish killed 250 French Huguenots in 1565, misspelled the name as Mantanzas. —

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