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Beginning as a school for Civil War orphans, the Scotland School for Veterans' Children became a unique center for education in the heart of Pennsylvania. The school aimed to develop disciplined, patriotic and productive citizens. As the nation became engulfed in the wars of the twentieth century, the Scotland School became even more vital, with a focus on educating the children and orphans of military veterans. Though it was closed by the sta...

Founded in the Mahoning Valley during 1837, a tiny settlement of secular German immigrants grew into one of the most influential centers of Jewish life in the Midwest. Home to nationally renowned rabbis and Zionist firebrands alike, the community produced an astonishing array of leaders in an impressive range of fields throughout the twentieth century. This notable legacy ranges from the entertainment juggernaut of Warner Brothers to the Arby'...

Not much drives passionate debate in Utah more than public land use. And sport climbing is securely tethered to that controversy as more thrill-seekers gear up each year to ascend the state s geological wonders. From the bolt wars in Moab to the frenzied route development in American Fork Canyon, Utah remains central in the evolution of the sport. With over sixty interviews and a healthy dose of humor, climber and author Darren M. Edwards trac...

In 1914, Poland, New York, was a picturesque slice of small-town America. But that innocence was shattered with the shocking murder of beloved schoolteacher Lida Beecher at the hands of her former student Jean Gianini. At twenty-one years old, Lida wasn t much older than her students. The son of a successful furniture dealer, Jean had all the advantages in life, but he had been labeled as different by all who encountered him. The shocking murd...

In 1829, eleven years after Illinois became the twenty-first state, New Salem was founded on a bluff above the Sangamon River. The village provided an essential sanctuary for a friendless, penniless boy named Abraham Lincoln, whose six years there shaped his education and nurtured his ambition. Eclipsed by the neighboring settlement of Petersburg, New Salem had dwindled into a ghost town by 1840. However, it reemerged in the early part of the ...

Pittsburgh s drinking culture is a story of its people: vibrant, hardworking and innovative. During Prohibition, the Hill District became a center of jazz, speakeasies and creative cocktails. In the following decades, a group of Cuban bartenders brought the nightlife of Havana to a robust cafe culture along Diamond Street. Disco clubs gripped the city in the 1970s, and a music-centered nightlife began to grow in Oakland with such clubs as the ...

Before the start of the Civil War, Georgia had ten railroads, five of which figured significantly in General William T. Sherman s Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea. The number of rail lines in the state ballooned after the war. Many were founded by individual entrepreneurs like Henry Plant and Thomas Clyde, while the biggest railroad of them all (Southern Railway) was created out of whole cloth by New York financier J.P. Morgan. At the clo...

Originating high in New Mexico s mysterious Black Range and flowing to the Rio Grande amid contorted, ghost-like sycamores, Las Animas Creek remains one of the least accessible landscapes in the nation. The watershed is best known as the site of Apache chief Victorio s last major battle with the U.S. Cavalry before his retreat and ultimate defeat by the Mexican army. Despite its geographic isolation, the watershed remains closely linked with t...

In old Omaha, the scent of opium wafted through saloon doors, while prostitutes openly solicited customers. When the St. Elmo theater ran short of the usual entertainment, the residents could always fall back on robbing strangers. Tenants of the Burnt District squirmed under the extorting thumb of a furniture dealer dubbed the Man-Landlady. The games of chance and confidence and outright municipal graft all played a part in a wicked city where...

Long known as the Queen City of New York s Southern Tier, Elmira has a colorful history to live up to that name. Strange events and offbeat characters populate the city s past. Eldridge Park once had a violent bear pit. The mysterious extinction of the Labrador Duck still baffles researchers today. Inventor Henry Clum, forgotten in time, was a pioneer of meteorology. From the bright lights of the city s lost vaudeville stages to the dark corne...

Claiming the lives of seven adults and seventeen children, the Belvidere tornado struck the most vulnerable at the worst possible time: just as school let out. More than five hundred people suffered injuries. New interviews and fascinating archival history underscore the horrific drama, as well as the split-second decisions of victims and survivors that saved their families and neighbors. Since the tragedy, three more devastating tornadoes hav...

After six failed attempts to reach Vicksburg, General Ulysses S. Grant developed a plan. The Yazoo Pass Expedition was a Union army/navy operation meant to bypass Vicksburg by using the backwaters of the Mississippi Delta. Operations began on February 3, 1863, with a levee breach on the Mississippi River. The expedition was delayed as a result of natural obstacles and Confederate resistance, which allowed the Confederate army under Lieutenant ...

Defined by a tangled web of deception for more than a century, Northwest Indiana s political culture involved secret handshakes, tapped phone calls, backroom deals and murder. Found submerged in his car with a rock on the gas pedal, city official Babe Lopez s execution-style murder rocked East Chicago. Shot and killed at a political fundraiser, power broker Jay Given s murder occurred while four hundred guests mingled in a neighboring room. Fo...

In 1764, a small town in the British colony of Massachusetts ignited a bold rebellion. When Great Britain levied the Sugar Act on its American colonies, Parliament was not prepared for Boston s backlash. For the next decade, Loyalists and rebels harried one another as both sides revolted and betrayed, punished and murdered. But the rebel leaders were not quite the heroes we consider them today. Samuel Adams and John Hancock were reluctant alli...

On March 10, 1941, at 12:38 a.m., the Brockton Fire Department responded to Fire Alarm Box 1311, which was pulled for a fire at the Strand Theatre. Fire Alarm dispatched the deputy chief, three engine companies, a ladder company and Squad A. Within six minutes, a second alarm was struck. Less than one hour after the first alarm, the roof of the Strand collapsed, and what appeared to be a routine fire turned into a disaster that killed thirteen...

Newburyport was once the most dangerous harbor on the East Coast and one of its most prosperous. Local captains and sailors led the nation to battle during the American Revolution and founded the U.S. Coast Guard. They sent vessels to Bombay, the gold rush and the farthest reaches of the world. Author Dyke Hendrickson explores the perfection of the clipper ship, the city s famous Federalist mansions and the bold adventures from the Age of Sail...

Originally a small town called Washington Courthouse, Fayetteville bloomed into one of Arkansas s largest cities. The town prospered during its first two decades, until it suffered decimation during the Civil War as troops moved throughout the region. In 1871, Fayetteville successfully bid to be home to the University of Arkansas, the state s first public university. Today, the city represents a cultural convergence, with remnants of historic ...

Michigan established St. Joseph County in 1829. It was a fertile land with an abundance of fresh water supplied by the St. Joseph River. The county s colorful past is the result of forgotten locals and visitors. Hezekiah Thomas fished for diamonds in Corey Lake. Saloon smasher Carrie Nation sold miniature hatchets at the county fairgrounds. The United States Congress recognizes the village of Colon as the Magic Capital of the World, and Lakesi...

Cape May is America s first seaside resort, and with that comes a mouthwatering food history. The New York Times even proclaimed the city Restaurant Capital of New Jersey. The first settlers, the Kechemeche of the Lenape tribe, feasted on the fish and wild game in the area. The whaling industry briefly brought attention to the island, but Ellis Hughes s 1801 advertisement offering seashore entertainment with fish, oysters, crabs, and good liqu...

From the humble Ingalls family cabin in the woods to Ayad Akhtar s multicultural conflicts, the Badger State s stories and imagery have long inspired. Explore how Aldo Leopold and Lorine Niedecker drew on their close observations of the natural world. Contrast the distinct novels that Jane Hamilton and Larry Watson set on Wisconsin apple orchards. Delve into Thornton Wilder s enduringly popular Our Town and the wild fiction of Ellen Raskin and...