More National Parks / Sites / Monuments

Near the state park is Effigy Mounds National Monument. It is full of mounds. Most are conical (circles) but many are longer. There are also several bear mounds and even groupings of bear mounds.

We stopped at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. This is where he was born. 

Given that I knew almost nothing about Herbert Hoover, it was an interesting stop. His dad was a blacksmith and died when he was 6 years old. (Interesting discussion with the blacksmith!)

His mom was a Quaker minister died when he was 9 years old. So he traveled to Oregon to live with relatives. A tough start of life for him. Yet he was able to graduate from Stanford, managed some major projects as a mining engineer before working as the head of U.S. Food Administration and as the Secretary of Commerce before becoming President.