Hancock County-Bar Harbor

The only national park in the northeastern US — 47,000 acres of coastal Maine wilderness centered on Mount Desert Island. Created in 1916 from land donated piece by piece by summer residents (Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Pulitzers) who feared overdevelopment of their seasonal paradise. Cadillac Mountain at the center is 1,530ft of bare pink granite, and from October 7 through March 6 it's the first place in the United States to see the sunrise. The park's 45 miles of carriage roads were built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. between 1913 and 1940, with 17 hand-cut stone bridges. Frenchman Bay and the Cranberry Isles spread out below the summit.

The highest peak in the northeastern United States at 6,288 feet — and home to what the observatory itself markets as "the world's worst weather." Hurricane-force winds (74+ mph) occur more than 100 days per year. On April 12, 1934, observatory staff recorded a 231-mph wind gust at the summit — the world record for surface wind speed for 62 years, until Tropical Cyclone Olivia hit Barrow Island, Australia in 1996. The 1934 record is still the U.S. surface wind record. The mountain's weather is so extreme because it sits at the convergence of three major storm tracks, has prevailing westerly winds traveling unobstructed for hundreds of miles, and creates an upslope-acceleration "venturi effect" through its peaked summit. The Mount Washington Cog Railway, opened July 3, 1869, was the first mountain-climbing cog railway in the world — still operating today with a mix of steam and biodiesel engines, climbing 3.1 miles at grades up to 37 percent. The summit hosts a year-round nonprofit weather observatory founded in 1932, whose climate dataset informs National Weather Service forecasting models for the entire Northeast.

On Seavey's Island in the Piscataqua River between Kittery, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire — the oldest continuously operating shipyard in the U.S. Navy, established by President John Adams on June 12, 1800. The 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth ending the Russo-Japanese War was negotiated and signed here, earning Theodore Roosevelt the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. The shipyard built submarines from World War I onward — over 130 boats including USS Albacore (AGSS-569, 1953), the first all-welded teardrop-hull submarine that revolutionized post-war submarine design (now preserved as a museum at the foot of Goosebay Boulevard in Portsmouth). The yard built USS Thresher (1961), tragically lost with all hands during a 1963 deep-dive test 220 miles off Boston. Today the shipyard overhauls and refuels nuclear-powered fast-attack subs (Los Angeles and Virginia class) — the only naval shipyard certified for the work in the northeast. The base is closed to public access except by invitation, but Albacore Park in Portsmouth is open to visitors.

A small public memorial in downtown Salem, Massachusetts, dedicated August 5, 1992 by Elie Wiesel — 300 years after the 1692 witch trials. Twenty granite benches cantilever from a stone wall surrounding a small plot adjacent to the Old Burying Point, one for each of the 20 people executed (19 hanged at Proctor's Ledge, 1 — Giles Corey — pressed to death under stones for refusing to enter a plea). The Salem witch hysteria began in February 1692 when several young girls in the Reverend Samuel Parris's house began having fits attributed to witchcraft; over the next ten months, more than 200 people were accused and 30 found guilty. The trials ended when Governor William Phips dissolved the special court after his own wife was accused. Salem today balances genuine memorial (the Witch Trials Memorial, the Salem Witch Museum's educational mission, the Proctor's Ledge Memorial added in 2017) with Halloween commercialization that runs October through November. The Peabody Essex Museum nearby holds the largest Asian art collection of any U.S. museum — built on Salem's 18th-19th century trading wealth.