Many are surprised to discover that picturesque Cape Coral's history dates back further than the boom of the 1960s. Indeed, homesteader families were living a rough-and-tumble life in the Cape's wilderness for much of the 20th century. Still, there is no denying that the city took a turn with the arrival of Jack and Leonard Rosen in 1957. These visionaries brought their Gulf American Land Corporation to Southwest Florida and built a modern city from scratch. Model homes, roads galore, an a...

A look at the history of the commercial capturing of orcas in Washington's Puget Sound, the whales taken, and the efforts to save them.In November, 2005, Washington's iconic killer whales, known as Southern Resident orcas, were placed on the endangered species list. It was a victory long overdue for a fragile population of fewer than one hundred whales. Author and certified marine naturalist Sandra Pollard traces the story and destinies of the many Southern Resident...

Peter Rowe has filmed on all seven continents, capturing the extremes of nature from Antarctica to the Arabian Desert, crossed Baffin Island by dogsled and climbed many of the world's most active volcanoes, camera in hand.. His crazy stories of his adventures in filmmaking range from the wild to the ribald. Starting with his underground initiation into filmmaking in the 1960s, working in the rock scene filming people like the Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and The Doors, fil...

A near perfect killing machine and one of the most feared animals on earth, the crocodile has honed its hunting techniques for 200 million years.And although its jaws are its weapon, the crocodile's success depends on patience and its ability to ambush prey."A crocodile will stalk a target for hours or even days if necessary, and an 18-foot, 2,000-pound crocodile can hide in two feet of water and never give itself away," says Rob Carmichael, a reptile expert and founder of ...

See the world through the eyes of some of the most celebrated and admired people of our time in this engaging new travel book. Award-winning author and National Geographic Traveler writer Jerry Camarillo Dunn takes you on a remarkable journey with such amazing and diverse figures as Sandra Day O'Connor and the Dalai Lama, actors Robin Williams and Morgan Freeman, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Sally Ride, explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau, real estate mogul Donald Trump, entertainer Jerry Seinfeld...

An irreverent testament to the millions of anglers who ever hooked something they oughta notta, lost a really big one, or told a whopperFishing is the No. 1 sport for fun—and spectacular snafus. Whether it’s a pro like Ray Scott or a presidential angler like George Bush, the deck is stacked to make buffoons of the best. So cast off on an ocean of hooks, lines, and stinkers as fishing guides, charter boat captains, game wardens, and weekend fishermen spill the wacky...

The daredevil who leaped from a helicopter onto the back of a marlin and rode it rodeo-style. A staggering 3,001 bass caught in a single short summer season on Long Island. A grueling 37-hour fight with Pacific salmon. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction!From crazy billfish quests to the scientist who hooked a grizzly, from "fish catches man" horror stories to those nutty catfish noodlers who grope into the murkiest holes bare-handed, her are fishing's most un...

Whether you call it the Gateway to the Americas, the Capital of Latin America, or even the Magic City, Miami is a city that has enchanted millions for many years. The city we know as Miami only came into existence in 1896, but evidence suggests people lived in the area for over 2000 years before Europeans ever set foot on the continent. The land was conquered by the Spanish in 1566, but Florida didn't become part of the United States until 1821. Miami holds the distinction of being the onl...

From the peak of a mountain or the barrel of a wave, Patagonia has collected some of the most spectacular sports imagery in history. Relive the achievements captured in Patagonia’s history, as well as the joie de vivre fostered by nurturing a relationship with the great outdoors.Unique for a business enterprise, Patagonia’s catalog devotes fully half its space to nonselling editorial content to environmental and sport essays and above all to extraordinary photographs of wild plac...

Named after the famous European explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro is a recreational complex established in 1927 and located at the foot of one of the world�s largest breakwaters protecting the Port of Los Angeles. A regional destination for beachgoers, the wave-swept Cabrillo attracts beachcombers to the tide pools in the adjacent rocky shores of the rugged Palos Verdes Peninsula. During spring and summer, onlookers watch the grunion mate and lay their eggs in t...

Throughout its history, the 76-square-mile island of Catalina has played host to Native Americans, smugglers, otter hunters, ranchers, miners, entrepreneurs, vacationers, movie stars, and nature enthusiasts. William Wrigley Jr. (of chewing-gum fame) bought the island in 1919 and later constructed the recognizable casino building, which was never used for gambling but did become one of the best-known ballrooms in America. In the 1970s, the Wrigley family deeded 88 percent of the island to t...

Of the more than 5,200 bridges in the state of Florida, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, spanning scenic Tampa Bay, is by far the most famous. But the award-winning bridge that residents and tourists cross on a daily basis isn't the first to hold the Skyway name. Numerous versions of the current bridge have stretched across lower Tampa Bay, and each has its own remarkable history. Nevin and Ric Sitler detail the suspension cables, concrete, nuts and bolts and political battles that combined to ...