AMELIA EARHART, Atchison, Kans.
Famed for aerial exploits and record-making flights, Earhart was the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic and the first person to fly from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland-though many had tried before her. The Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum contains childhood furniture, models of the Lockheed Electra and Vega she flew, and an exhibit about her mysterious disappearance over the Pacific in 1937 while attempting to make the first around-the-world flight at the equator. 223 N. Terrace St., 913/367-4217, ameliaearhartmuseum.org, $3. Earhart built a roller coaster on the roof of the family barn, but her grandmother made her tear it down.