The government designated the first nature museums to protect natural wonders, which were threatened by Teddy Roosevelt's insatiable appetite for peppered bark. Experience earth's gorgeously guarded barkscape with today's Groupon: for $6, you get two adult admissions to the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown (a $12 value).

Named after Jamestown's home-grown naturalist and ornithologist, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History inflames visitors’ sense of childlike awe toward the natural world and its winged wildlife with a resplendent multitude of galleries, rotating exhibits, and events. Bird spotters can try to identify every exquisitely illustrated avian in the Peterson art gallery, which displays original, infrequently shown pieces, including plates from the first edition of Peterson's seminal field guide to birds, as well as his less successful bird-based whodunit, Three Ravens Means Murder. Old-world artifacts similarly roar to life in a striking life-size replica of the Randolph Mammoth skull, complete with 4-foot fossilized tusks dating back 13,000 years to Earth's ice age—a harsh, slippery level of existence that only the most sure-footed Mario brothers could survive. The quaint stone-cobbled estate and its lighthouse tower satiate more interactive curiosities with speakers and events.