The National Park Service visitor center, housed in the old Township Hall, is the right place to start. Rangers give a thorough orientation and an excellent film covers the founding of the town, the Exoduster migration, and the community's arc from boom to quiet survival. From here you can pick up a walking tour map and move between the five preserved historic structures at your own pace across the 161-acre site.
The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and established as a full National Historic Site by Act of Congress in 1996 — a recognition of Nicodemus's singular place in American history as the only remaining western town built by African Americans during Reconstruction. story: > The town takes its name from a figure in American folk tradition — said to be an enslaved African prince who purchased his own freedom. The promoters who recruited the first settlers used that name deliberately, as a symbol of self-determination, and it stuck.