Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

The Junior Ranger program helps kids get involved and learn more about Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. Anyone can become a Junior Ranger by completing activities during a visit to the park or at home.

Use the NPS App on your visit to West Branch, Iowa, and discover the places and people that shaped the early life of the 31st President.

Start your visit at the Visitor Center, where park rangers are available to answer questions and help you get oriented. Allow yourself up to 30 minutes in the Visitor Center, which is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily.

Picnic where the President picnicked! Herbert Hoover celebrated his 80th birthday in 1954 at a picnic shelter built by Boy Scouts in his honor. Herbert Hoover National Historic Site has two picnic shelters.

The grounds of the historic site are open 24 hours a day. Pick up a map at the Visitor Center or download the NPS App to your phone. Then visit the Birthplace Cottage, Blacksmith Shop, Schoolhouse, Friends Meetinghouse, Statue of Isis, Gravesite, and other historic features of the park.

The Presidential Library and Museum is independently operated and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), a federal agency. Permanent galleries exhibiting artifacts of President Hoover's life take you from his boyhood in Iowa, through his public service career, and final years in New York.

The West Branch Commercial Historic District is just outside the historic site along Downey and Main streets. It is a national historic district which preserves fifteen downtown buildings built from 1875 through 1929. The buildings house shops and restaurants.

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site offers over two miles of trails through the tallgrass prairie and along Hoover Creek for hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and nature study. Trail maps are available from the visitor center. In the winter the snow-covered trails are not groomed for skis.