here in Northamptonshire,a half hour drive will take me to the battle site of Naseby,ECW
Fotheringhay,where Mary Queen of Scots copped it,and about four, maybe more airfields used by the US bomber groups in WW2,how about you guys,and Ladybuilder,anything near
you.
Arthur

Arthur,

I live in San Jose, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It's rich in Naval tradition, but sorely lacking in Armor history. No famous battles fought here :-)

Gunnie

I work on location of the Coolie Landing Massacre. It's when in the Seminole Indians during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), massacred white settlers in 1839 at the Fort Lauderdale trading post on the New River.
A small monument stands in it's place.

Kencelot,i understand the seminoles were exellent guerilla fighters?True or false
Orra best
Arthur

Arthur, indeed they were!!! The U.S. Army learned a valuable lessen in dealing with them!
The second Seminole War was an incredible demonstration of what guerilla fighters were capable of. The U.S. Army sent 200,000 troops against 3 - 5000 seminoles and still could not defeat them. The U.S. Army lost 1500 men during that war.

Being stationed right on the spot where "The Shot Heard Round The World" happened has the entire south side of the air base as a historical park. The American Revolution started here and the running battle between the colonial militias and the retreating British forces is less than a mile away. This is known as "Patriot's Day" in Mass. and is a state holiday. Also many of the Revolutionary War events such as Bunker's Hill and the Boston Tea Party occured near here. Paul Revere was captured by Brits about a ¼ mile away. Non-military historical events include the Salem Witch Trials and Plymouth Rock. The USS Constitution is also anchored here with a replica of the Mayflower.

Hello, from the western theater of the War Between the States. I live on the edge of the site of the Second Battle of Murfreesboro, TN (Dec 30 1862 - Jan 1 1863). About six months prior to that Forrest captured Murfreesboro in teh first battle. Just south and west of Fort Campbell, on the Cumberland River, is Fort Donelson. Also within a couple of hours from home are the Civil War battlefields of Shiloh, Chattanooga and Chickamauga. Murfreesboro was also the first capitol of Tennessee. I have conducted numerous staff rides at Murfreesboro and Shiloh.

In Britain you're never really far from a historical site, be it a castle, an WWII airfield or a prehistoric site. As it happens we are surrounded by all those around here. There's Stonehenge 20 miles one way, Keevil Airfield down the road, more castles than you can shake a stick at and of course we have our own 'White Horse'. (the village that is, not we as in my family).
OO and then there is the delight of modern armour to enjoy, when the have live fire on Salisbury Plane :-) .

Cheers
Henk

Dayton, Ohio--not much happened around here. Just a couple of troublemakin' brothers, named Wright I believe, flying around in some contraption. Darn kids!

On base there is the historic Huffman Prairie where they "Really learned how to fly..."

Thought they flew that thing first in North Carolina?

Robin,
You are correct--that was where their first flight took place. After that they returned to Ohio, where they ran their bicycle shop, to continue flying. The quote from my original post is from one of the two brothers.

Here is some more info from:
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Wright_Bros/1904/WR7.htm :

Huffman Prairie - 1904

Following their successful day of flying on December 17, 1903, the Wrights returned to Dayton, Ohio, with their damaged Flyer—or what remained of it after it was caught by a gust of wind.

They decided to remain in Dayton at least through 1904. They wanted to avoid the expense of traveling to North Carolina and living away from home.

The Flyer II that they built in Dayton in 1904 was almost identical to the first Flyer, but heavier. They shifted the motor to improve the center of mass and decreased the wing camber. They exchanged their first-flight engine for a new, more powerful 16-horsepower (12-kilowatt) design. Charlie Taylor built two of these engines—one to replace the engine that had been destroyed when the gust of wind destroyed the Flyer I and another for experimental purposes. The elevators and rudders were positioned slightly higher to keep them clear of the ground, and weight was added under the elevator in an attempt to cure the pitch-instability problem.

The Wrights looked around for the best location for their flights and decided on a 100-acre meadow 7 miles east of Dayton called Huffman Prairie. They received permission from the landowner and made their headquarters there. They cut the tall grass, leveled bumpy areas with pick and shovel, and erected a wooden hangar.

Museum Info:
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/tours/vt1.htm

I live about ten minutes from Morristown NJ.... and surrounded by the War of Independance, plus the "one of the original 13 colonies" stuff. Picatinny Arsenal is right up the road, along with the Morris Canal.
I work at the first Insane Asylum in the US that offered modern treatment for the treatment of mental illness. (modern for the 1800's) Unfortunately the mental illness has stayed the same, but fortunately the treatment and understanding of it has changed. And that treatment will improve as soon as we open the new hospital.

And since Pvt Parts has lived in this area much longer than I, I'm sure he will be able to expand in the history of this area, much more than I can. I'm still discovering it.

Being a grad of the V. M. I. How coud I be remiss in not mentioning just a few. We still have cannon balls embedded in the walls (or did back when I was there). All the battles near us up and down the Shenadoah Valley, ...then on to Richmond for the Petersburg seige depending on your choice of a north or a south jog you can cover the Penninsular Campaign or all the great battles like Manassas, Fredricksburg and Chancellorsville and the Wilderness and Cold Harbor debacles. Now I live in Texas, and if I'm not mistaken there is a movie coming out on DVD tomorrow that discusses a rather engaging battle that took place south of me, but only about a 5 hour drive. We kinda like to call it "the ALAMO" I'll bypass my living in San Francisco and Germany and northeastern Alabama otherwise ya'll get mad at me

The closest Historical site of a battlefield is hardly anything for us to be proud of. The Sand Creek massacre is in south eastern Colorado. It's where a bunch of white volunteers massacred a band of Indians who thought they were on protected land. I've always thought it ironic that Sand Creek is used for several street names, along with one library and a small shopping center. That to me would be like calling a strip mall The Malmedy center.

There is Bent's Fort, maybe 150 miles from here. The site of a fort in the 1830s. For us Americans, especially us westerners, that qualifies as ancient history.

i live in Fredericksburg, VA the most historical town in America! (so they say)

Half yank makes a very good point, one man's victory is another man's massacare. History is thought by the conquerer, but there is always the other side. Modelers are not involved in politics, and neither should we. But is there a point where we should hold back? Should there be a time between a conflict and the emergange of figures and update kits? People build OIF models to support the troops in Iraq, and build the latest version of the Jagdpanther in the same breath. One is a statement, one is history? Sorry to be this blund, but sometimes I need to ask questions. After all, that's what the big war was fought for.


Henk

My grandparents own a farm where a massaqure of Union solders happend, caused by Blackhawk on his way down the Kellog Trail. there is a monument there along with i believe it was 9 graves of solders. pretty neat history walking around there.