Canyon De Chelly as an example of a place in the United States where people have lived "for nearly 5,000 years" and people visit there. https://www.nps.gov/cach/index.htm

And many trees are thousands of years old, which is pretty awesome and makes them fun to visit :-)

It's possible we may learn more about these places as part of the grade school curriculum in the south western U.S.

So, in the beginning there was nothing. And then there was the USA government?