Dundurn Castle, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

One of Hamilton's most-recognized landmarks, Dundurn Castle is a National Historic Site that illustrates the life and times of Sir Allan Napier MacNab (1798 - 1862).

Dundurn Castle was constructed over a three-year period, and completed by 1835. Designed by a young English Architect, Robert Wetherall, Dundurn was built around the brick shell of Colonel Richard Beasley's colonial home. Designed as a fashionable Regency style villa, Dundurn (Gaelic for "strong fort") was nicknamed "Castle" by the citizens of Hamilton. The Castle, with its gardens, grounds and many unusual outbuildings, was one of the finest estates in the province.

Today, Dundurn Castle has been restored to the year 1855 when MacNab was at the height of his career as a lawyer, landowner, railway magnate and Premier of the United Canadas (1854-56). Over forty rooms, above and below stairs, have been furnished to compare the life of a prominent Victorian family with that of their servants. Costumed staff guide visitors through the home, illustrating daily life from the 1850s.

North Dakota - International Peace Gardens

International Peace Gardens

Devoted to World Peace, along the world’s longest unfortified border, lies a 2,339 acre Botanical Garden.

Dedication of the International Peace Garden took place on July 14, 1932, with some 50,000 persons present.  A cairn, build of stones gathered from North Dakota and Manitoba was the only boundary maker inscribed on the cairn are these words

TO GOD IN HIS GLORY,
we two nations
dedicate this garden
and pledge ourselves
that as long as men
shall live, we will
not take up arms
against one another.

On either side of the cairn two flag poles, flutter with the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack. In 1945, the Union Jack was replaced by the Red Ensign. Twenty years later, on February 15, 1965, the present Maple Leaf flag was adopted, and has flown from the flagstaff since that date.