Today's Shawnee National Forest visitors would not recognize 1930s southern Illinois. Hills and hollows were void of trees, the rivers and creeks choked with eroded topsoil. The need for a national forest was so great that a small group of men from southeastern Illinois vowed to make it happen. Much of the responsibility for promotion fell on newspaper publisher L.O. Trigg. Beginning in 1931, the annual Trails, Tours, and Detours excursion demonstrated the great potential for outdoor recre...

The Rocky Mountain and Great Basin states are the heart of ghost-town country. Once-bustling pioneer outposts, mining camps, lumber towns, and railroad villages stand today as reminders of the glory days of gold rushes, industrial progress, and that pioneering spirit of the Old West. This book guides readers to the fascinating and scenic ghost towns of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Nevada. Varney highlights popular tourist destinations as well as out-of-the-way spots unfamil...

This edition in the Historical Cities series explores the history and historic places of Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. Over 80 points of interest are presented, with reference maps to assist navigation and GPS coordinates for all listed sites. Also included are sites in Independence, Missouri and Shawnee, Kansas.

A garnd tour to a grand country. All the facts, the flags, the symbols and much more - in one book.

The story behind the construction of the Oregon scenic highway and the men who made it happen.When nine-hundred-foot ice age floods carved the Columbia River Gorge through the Cascade Mountains to the sea, little space was left for man to form a highway of his own. It took an artist-poet-engineer extraordinaire to conquer this reluctant piece of real estate and produce the nation's first scenic highway. Meet Sam Hill, the mover and shaker, and Samuel Lancaster, the ...

First published in 1941 as part of the American Guide Series, this lively book describes Minnesota's popular northern region. Special features include fifteen canoe trips; five maps; thirty-seven photographs; forty-seven city, town, and village profiles; four road tours; a chronology; a glossary; and a bibliography with updated suggestions for further reading in fiction and nonfiction about the region.

Whether you enjoy skiing, antiquing, camping, or simply taking in the fall colors, the St. Croix Valley is a popular and affordable day trip or vacation destination for thousands of visitors every year. The quaint towns that dot the Minnesota and Wisconsin sides of this scenic 130-mile stretch of river offer many modern-day attractions but also are a window into this region's storied past.?Let Deborah Morse-Kahn and her new book The Historic St. Croix Valley be your guide to:

Vibrant and captivating Nevada City began as a gold-mining camp called Deer Creek Dry Diggins. The large gravel deposits alongside this creek reportedly delivered a pound of pay dirt a day by the fall of 1849, when A. B. Caldwell�s general store opened to supply this haphazard collection of tents. By March 1850, somewhere between 6,000 and 16,000 boisterous souls called it home, and the new town was christened �Nevada,� meaning �snow covered� in Spanish. After 1861, townsfolk took to addin...

During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers’ Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country’s shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors-many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures-were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ral...

What is interesting about the USA? It is a land of freedom and independence and the idea of the American Dream. It is fifty separate states all united into one country.This book shows what is important to the different states and how it adds character to the wholecountry. Freedom's ring has over fifty distinct tones. Long live liberty.

Elk Grove's roots go back to 1850, when the community consisted of only a stage-stop hotel. In 1876, this small farm town in the shadow of Sacramento became a crossroads along the new railroad tracks. As the railroad era progressed, it brought significant changes to Elk Grove'fields were transformed into orchards, vineyards, and eventually, residential developments. But Elk Grove remained just a part of southern Sacramento County until citizens prevailed in their attempt to establish cityh...

In This Storied River, longtime journalist Dennis McCann takes us on an intimate tour of the Upper Mississippi—from Dubuque, Iowa, to the Minnesota headwaters, and dozens of places in between. Far more than a travel guide, This Storied River celebrates the Upper Mississippi’s colorful history and the unique role the river has played in shaping the Midwest.