What makes a site historical?

Most Tuesdays I post about a historical site. What, then, is my criteria for determining what qualifies as a historical site? After all, there are a variety of measures. Today (since I’m off busily visiting more sites to post about in the future) here are the types of sites I have and/or will post about as historical.

Land/buildings managed by governments as historical sites or parks, etc. This category includes sites managed by the US National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management, or the state & local equivalents. Ditto for other countries, such as Parks Canada (I visited a few of their sites recently).

Historical museums, whether located in original historical buildings or elsewhere. This includes museums operated by governments at sites, or local museums such as those run by historical societies.

Places whose owners/controllers/operators incorporate historical elements and celebrate history as part of their operations. This is a fuzzier category and likely to be highly subjective. An example of this is the Mount Washington Cog Railway. The base camp building hosts a small museum celebrating nearly 150 years of operations and showcasing what has and hasn’t changed. And depending on the brakeman/person’s preferences as the train goes up and down, passengers might hear about elements of the railway’s history.

So stay tuned, because examples of these and others will be forthcoming over the remainder of 2019, at least.