Just tell us, what was the inspiration for doing this?

Yeah, so The Heritage Guide to Historic Site is a product that pinpoints and evaluates historic sites all around the country, places like battlefields and forts, but also places like Mark Twain's house.

Those are part of the American story as well.

And it pinpoints these places, and each site page provides information about what are the main tours and exhibits on offer, some recommended readings, why is this place significant, you know, what happened here, and then tips for families, which could be things like, you know, this tour may be accurate but may not be age appropriate.

So the goal of that is to encourage people, American citizens, to go to historic sites to celebrate America 250 this summer.

This is how we re-educate ourselves about our heritage.

So that's one goal, and the second piece is the third-party accountability piece, of each site receives a grade of A, B, or C, with A being good, B being a mixed bag, and C being actively distorted based on accuracy and comprehension, proportionality, and ideological bias.

Did you find a lot of distortion in a lot of these sites?

Do you hope to see families actually sort of take this site and then use it to plan out a summer trip and be able to go around from historic site to historic site?

Yes, that's the goal.

So right now we have about 45 sites available on the website in those 13 original colonies.

We're aiming to release the full map around February of next year.

So the timing is good.

So families will be able to plan those summer vacations and figure out where they're going to go to celebrate America 250.

And there'll be about 135 sites at that time.

Let me ask you one last thing, which is, if you look back, say, 10 years from now, how will you know if the Heritage Guide to Historic Sites has been a worthwhile and effective project?

What is going through your head? Why, why do you think it's so important for us to make a big deal out of 250 years?

I think it's important, especially in this particular time, I think we've forgotten who we are.

There's a sense of that, and this is an opportunity to remind ourselves who we are and what this nation stands for.

And it stands for actually something pretty remarkable, in my opinion.

So Hamilton writes that, "It seems to be reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important questions, whether societies of men are capable or not of, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend on their political constitutions on accident and force." So it's this idea that America was deliberately founded.

It was established as a nation based on a common set of principles that we as a people believe in and aspire towards.

And so America 250, the Fourth of July, of course, marks the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the principle all men are created equal.

Can you tell us about this project, how'd it get started? What are your goals?

What is going through your head? Why do you think it's so important for us to make a big deal out of 250 years?

I think it's important, especially in this particular time, I think we've forgotten who we are.

There's a sense of that.

And this is an opportunity to remind ourselves who we are and what this nation stands for.

And it stands for actually something pretty remarkable, in my opinion.

So Hamilton writes that it seems to be reserved to the people of this country by their conduct and example to decide the important questions.

Whether societies of men are capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend on their political constitutions on accident and force.

Can you tell us about this project, how to get started, what are your goals?

Do you hope to see families actually sort of take this site and then use it to plan out a summer trip and be able to go around from historic site to historic site?

Yes, that's the goal.

So right now we have about 45 sites available on the website in those 13 original colonies.

We're aiming to release the full map around February of next year.

So the timing is good, so families will be able to plan those summer vacations and figure out where they're gonna go to celebrate America 250.

And there'll be about 135 sites at that time.

So this is a state-driven project and that's particularly because, you know, we believe in federalism here at The Heritage Foundation.

Let me ask you one last thing which is, if you look back, say, 10 years from now, how will you know if the Heritage Guide to Historic Sites has been a worthwhile and effective project?