First Peoples Buffalo Jump and Red Rocks Park: New National Designation

If you've been to Red Rocks Park outside of Denver, you'll know that along with being an amphitheater surrounded by Garden-of-the-Gods-style red sandstone towers, the site includes one of the few surviving Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps, now housing Denver Mountain Parks operations.

Hailed for illustrating the principles and practices of New Deal-era naturalistic park design and for employing the CCC in building it, Red Rocks was recently one of four locations nationwide to be named a national historic landmark (NHL), according to a release.

NHLs are recognized as places "that possess exceptional value and quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States." The other new NHL locations are, as the release said:

First Peoples Buffalo Jump, Cascade County, Mont.--one of the oldest and best-preserved bison cliff jump locations in North America. It held a strong position in Northern Plains culture for about 5,700 years.

George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Alexandria, Va.--a memorial to the first president built by the Grand Lodges of the states and territories. It is part neoclassical and part modern skyscraper in design.

Lafayette Park, Detroit, Mich.--one of the earliest planned urban renewal projects of the mid-twentieth century. It created an ethnically diverse community that continues to thrive today, and was the result of collaboration that included architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and landscape architect Alfred Caldwell.

Follow Catherine on Twitter at @TreesWhales