This is actually two sites, but they are on the same property. The Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, and The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum are located just off of I-80 in West Branch, Iowa. They are located in the town where he grew up, and consists of an outdoor museum, visitor center, as well as the Presidential Library, which has another quite extensive museum. The outdoor museum has no charge, but the Presidential Library and Museum does.

The outdoor museum is set up with homes from the town at the time that Hoover was there. His home is the smallest home I have ever been in. It consisted of two rooms, each about the size of a closet. They cooked outside, and there was an outhouse outside. It was amazing to me that a President of the United States would come from such humble beginnings. The other homes in the area were castles compared to the Hoover home.

The Presidential Library had multi-media displays for every part of Hoover's life, from growing up in rural Iowa. HIs father was a blacksmith, and died when Hoover was 6. His mother died 4 years later. For the rest of his childhood, Hoover was raised by an Uncle in Oregon, who was a Doctor. Hoover did not go to high school, but learned at home. He was in the first class of students at Stanford University after being tutored in order to pass the entrance exams.

This site is not part of the National Park Service, but a part of the National Archives. More information can be found at: http://hoover.archives.gov/

#Iowa