Curated category
Former state capitals in the United States
- Huntsville, AlabamaJohn Hunt arrived on the land that would become Huntsville in 1805. He established a settlement near the Big Spring, a natural water source that became the…
- DétroitOn the 24th of July 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and his lieutenant Alphonse de Tonty began constructing a small fort on the north bank of the Detroit…
- San Jose, CaliforniaOn the 29th of November 1777, a group of settlers established the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe on the eastern bank of the Guadalupe River.
- Princeton, New JerseyThe Lenape Native Americans were the earliest identifiable inhabitants of the Princeton area. Europeans settled into the region in the late part of the 17th…
- New OrleansIn the spring of 1718, French colonists under Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville established a settlement on land traditionally inhabited by the Chitimacha…
- Wheeling, West VirginiaIn 1769, Ebenezer Zane girdled trees to claim land at the confluence of Wheeling Creek and the Ohio River. The name Wheeling likely comes from a Lenni-Lenape…
- HoustonOn the 30th of August 1836, land investors Allen Chapman and John Kirby stood at the confluence of Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou.
- Savannah, GeorgiaOn the 12th of February 1733, General James Oglethorpe and settlers from the ship Anne landed at Yamacraw Bluff. They were greeted by Tomochichi, the leader…
- Macon, GeorgiaIn 1809, President Thomas Jefferson directed the construction of Fort Benjamin Hawkins on Creek lands along the Ocmulgee River.
- PhiladelphiaWilliam Penn arrived in the Delaware Valley in 1682 to establish a colony where religious freedom could flourish. He purchased land from the Lenape people…
- Natchez, MississippiFrench colonists established Natchez in 1716 on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. This settlement became one of the oldest European communities in…
- New York CityIn 1624, thirty families arrived on Governors Island to establish a Dutch fur trading settlement. This small group founded what would become New Amsterdam in…