NPS Photo
Start your visit to the National Historic Site at the Visitor Center.
Visitor Center
Start your visit at the Visitor Center, where you can pick up a map and guide, and get oriented to the site. Park rangers and volunteers are available to assist you and answer questions. Federal Recreational Lands Passes are on sale at the Visitor Center, which is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily.
Allow yourself at least 30 minutes in the Visitor Center. Exhibits tell about Herbert Hoover's childhood and the tallgrass prairie. The 12-minute film "Adventure and Great Undertakings: Herbert Hoover's Childhood in West Branch" is played on request.
Also on display is "Cedar County, Iowa: A Door to Freedom", an exhibit about the Underground Railroad, and works by recent Artists-in-Residence. An interpretive prairie garden in front of the building has seasonal examples of tallgrass prairie plants.
Books are available for purchase from the Eastern National Bookstore inside the Visitor Center.