Saint Meinrad Archabbey, Indiana

Saint Meinrad Archabbey
Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Spencer County, Indiana, USA, was founded by monks from Einsiedeln Abbey (Switzerland) on March 21, 1854, and is home to approximately 98 monks. It is one of only two archabbeys in the United States and one of 11 in the world.

Chapel of Monte Cassino
The history of Monte Cassino Shrine tells how a novena to the Lady of Monte Cassino is credited for saving the village of St. Meinrad from a smallpox epidemic in 1871.  Since the chapel's dedication in 1870, thousands of people have visited the sandstone chapel to offer their prayers and petitions.

Abraham Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial

This is a United States Presidential Memorial, a National Historic Landmark District in present-day Lincoln City, Indiana. It preserves the farm site where Abraham Lincoln lived with his family from 1816 to 1830. During that time, he grew from a 7-year-old boy to a 21-year-old man. 

Abraham's father Thomas Lincoln had lost two previous homes in Kentucky, one at the Sinking Springs farm where Lincoln was born, in part through problems with land titles. Because Kentucky had not had proper land surveys in its early years, many residents were forced off their farms after surveys were completed and land titles were challenged. The Lincolns were one such family: after Thomas had built some economic and social success in Kentucky, he lost everything. In 1815 he went to Indiana to locate a new homestead for his family. He wanted to live in a free state rather than compete with farmers who used slave labor.

The family took two weeks in 1816 to move to Spencer County in southern Indiana, settling at what was known as Little Pigeon Creek.

Door County, Wisconsin

The county is named after the strait between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island. The dangerous passage, which is now scattered with shipwrecks, was known to early French explorers and local Native Americans. Because of the natural hazards of the strait, where the waters of Green Bay meet the open body of Lake Michigan, they gave it the French appellation Porte des Morts Passage, which in English means the "Door to the Way to Death," or simply, "Death's Door."

Door County has 12 lighthouses. 

Door County is home to five of Wisconsin's state parks: Newport State Park, northeast of Ellison Bay; Peninsula State Park, along more than six miles (10 km) of the Green Bay shoreline; Potawatomi State Park, along Sturgeon Bay; Rock Island State Park, off the tip of the Door Peninsula; and Whitefish Dunes State Park, along Lake Michigan. These five parks are known as "five jewels in the crown." They offer visitors recreational opportunities that include sightseeing, hiking, camping, swimming, fishing, and snowmobiling. Many small businesses surrounding these parks offer moped or bicycle rentals.

[Source: Wikipedia]