Hometown History

Pascagoula, Mississippi: The Phantom Barber's Midnight Crime Spree

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 09:00:29 +0000

In the summer of 1942, Pascagoula, Mississippi, was a quiet Gulf Coast town that the Ingalls Shipbuilding

yard had turned into a wartime boomtown almost overnight. That summer someone began cutting through window

screens at night, slipping into bedrooms, and snipping locks of hair from sleeping residents. Local

newspapers called him the Phantom Barber. He first struck on June 5, 1942, taking hair from two girls at

the Our Lady of Victories convent, eleven-year-old Mary Evelyn Briggs and twelve-year-old Edna Marie Hydel.

The attacks kept coming. Six-year-old Carol Peattie lost her blonde curls, and investigators found a sandy

footprint on the empty bed by her window. Mrs. R.E. Taylor woke to a sickening smell in the room, and

investigators suspected chloroform, while her family slept around her. Then the crimes turned violent, and

Terrell Heidelberg and his wife were beaten with an iron bar. Police arrested a 57-year-old chemist with

a German background named William A. Dolan, convicted him of attempted murder, and sentenced him to ten

years. He was never charged with a single hair-cutting incident. Dolan received a limited suspension of

his sentence after the polygraph, later made indefinite, with some accounts reporting a later pardon, and

the identity of the Phantom Barber was never established.

Timeline of Events

1938: Ingalls Shipbuilding is established along the Pascagoula River.

December 1941: Pearl Harbor brings a flood of federal wartime contracts to Ingalls.

Summer 1942: Pascagoula's population swells from roughly 4,900 to roughly 14,000.

June 5, 1942: The first attack. Mary Evelyn Briggs and Edna Marie Hydel have their hair cut at the convent.

June 8, 1942: The second attack. Carol Peattie's hair is taken and a sandy footprint is found on the empty

bed by the window.

June 13, 1942: Terrell Heidelberg and his wife are beaten with an iron bar.

Late June 1942: Mrs. R.E. Taylor wakes to a sickening smell in the room; investigators suspect chloroform.

August 14, 1942: Newspapers report William A. Dolan's arrest as the Phantom Barber.

1942: Dolan is convicted and sentenced to ten years.

About 1948: Governor Fielding Wright arranges a polygraph and Dolan is released.

About 1951: Wright's suspension is made indefinite; some accounts report Dolan was later pardoned by Governor

Hugh White.

Historical Significance

The Phantom Barber case sits where wartime paranoia, rapid social upheaval, and criminal justice failure

meet. Pascagoula's overnight transformation into a boomtown two or three times its size built the perfect

conditions for fear. Neighbors no longer recognized each other, night-shift workers left their families

alone in unfamiliar houses, and wartime anxiety was already running high. The panic reached ship production

itself, because workers refused to leave home for night shifts at Ingalls. Dolan's eventual pardon suggests

Mississippi came to acknowledge the conviction was wrong. No hair-cutting incident was ever reported again

after Dolan's imprisonment, and the case remains one of the strangest unsolved mysteries in American crime.

Sources

Mississippi Encyclopedia

Newspapers.com archives of 1942 Pascagoula and Jackson County coverage

National Park Service records on Gulf Coast wartime industry

Contemporary Ingalls Shipbuilding employment records

If you liked this: Episode 198, Carrollton, Mississippi. Another Mississippi story the official record

tried to file away quietly.

Hometown History explores forgotten stories from small-town America. The overlooked events, hidden triumphs,

and buried tragedies that shaped the country we live in. New episodes every Tuesday. Find every episode at

mythsandmalice.com/hometown-history

Episode 210 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Peshtigo, Wisconsin: America's Deadliest Fire You've Never Heard Of

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:00:43 +0000

On October 8, 1871, a wall of flame moving faster than a galloping horse descended on Peshtigo, Wisconsin,

a lumber town built entirely of wood. Wooden sidewalks, wooden bridges, sawdust-packed roads, and heaps of

bark and mill waste surrounded a population of two thousand people, nearly all of them employed by William

Butler Ogden's woodenware factory, the largest in the country. That night a firestorm driven by gale-force

winds consumed the town in about an hour. Superheated gases ignited buildings before the flames arrived.

Sand fused into glass. People's clothing caught fire as they ran.

The river offered the best chance of survival, though people died there too, and a few survived elsewhere.

Father Peter Pernin, a French-born Catholic priest, pushed a wagon carrying the church's sacred vessels

into the river and stood chest-deep in the water for hours while the town burned around him. His 1874

account, The Finger of God Is There, remains the most detailed firsthand narrative of the disaster.

Timeline of Events

Summer 1871: A severe drought grips the upper Midwest and small brush fires burn unchecked for weeks across

northeastern Wisconsin.

October 8, 1871, morning: The wind shifts to the southwest and accelerates. Scattered fires begin merging

across the region.

October 8, 1871, 10:00 PM: The firestorm strikes Peshtigo and destroys the entire town within minutes.

October 9, 1871, dawn: Peshtigo has ceased to exist. Every building is gone. Surrounding settlements

including Sugar Bush are devastated as well.

1874: Father Peter Pernin publishes his eyewitness account, preserving the most complete record of the

fire.

Historical Significance

The Peshtigo fire killed between 1,200 and 2,500 people in a single night, making it the deadliest fire

in American history. The exact toll will never be known, because entire families were erased with nobody

left to report them missing. A mass grave in the Peshtigo Fire Cemetery holds 350 unidentified men, women,

and children. The disaster still received almost no national attention. The telegraph lines through the

region had burned, and by the time word reached the outside world the Great Chicago Fire, which started

the same night and killed roughly 300 people, had taken the country's headlines and national attention.

Frances Fairchild of Wisconsin had already traveled to Chicago with aid and had to redirect some of it

north once the scale of the Peshtigo catastrophe became clear. In Peshtigo itself, the fire is remembered

as the disaster the rest of the country forgot., though real fire prevention policy took decades to arrive.

Today the Peshtigo Fire Museum preserves artifacts from that night, and the memory has been kept alive less

by national recognition than by the families who rebuilt on burned ground and refused to let their dead be

forgotten.

Sources

Father Peter Pernin, The Finger of God Is There, 1874

Peshtigo Fire Museum and Peshtigo Fire Cemetery records

Wisconsin Historical Society accounts of the October 1871 firestorm

If you liked this: Episode 202, Gainesville, Georgia. Another town erased in minutes by something nobody

saw coming.

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Escalante, Utah: The Mysterious Disappearance of Everett Ruess

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:00:32 +0000

In mid-November 1934, a twenty-year-old artist named Everett Ruess led two burros into the canyon country south of Escalante, Utah. He carried journals, watercolors, and enough provisions for two months. He had spent four years wandering the desert Southwest alone, painting, writing letters that read like poetry, and meeting artists like Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange along the way. He shared a last camp with two sheepherders, who offered him mutton; he said he had plenty. He never came back.

In March 1935, a search party found his two burros penned behind a brush fence, healthy in Davis Gulch, a side canyon off the Escalante River. His camp was strangely incomplete: bedroll, cookware, paintings, and journals all missing. Carved into the rock wall above it was a single word and a year: NEMO 1934. Nemo is Latin for nobody. No body was ever found, and no conclusive evidence of what happened has ever surfaced. The desert simply closed behind him. In the ninety years since, Everett Ruess has become the patron saint of wanderers, of people who felt the pull of wild country so strongly they followed it past the point of return. His fate remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the American West.

Timeline of Events

March 28, 1914: Everett Ruess is born in Oakland, California, to Christopher and Stella Ruess.

Summer 1930: At sixteen he takes his first solo wilderness trip in the Sierra Nevada and comes home changed.

1931 to 1934: He makes four extended solo journeys through the desert Southwest and meets Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and Maynard Dixon.

Mid-November 1934: He writes his last letter to his brother Waldo from Escalante, Utah, telling him he has not tired of the wilderness.

Mid-November 1934: A sheepherder is the last person to see him, heading into canyon country east of Escalante.

March 1935: A search party finds the burros, the camping gear, and NEMO 1934 carved in Davis Gulch. Everett is declared lost and presumed dead.

2009: DNA testing of remains found at Comb Ridge proves they are not Everett Ruess.

Historical Significance

Everett Ruess occupies a singular place in the literature and mythology of the American West. His letters and journals, published after his disappearance in On Desert Trails in 1940, influenced a generation of wilderness writers including Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and Jon Krakauer. The NEMO inscription in Davis Gulch became an icon of the vanishing impulse, the idea that a person could walk into wild country and become part of it. The 2009 DNA investigation, which proved the bones found at Comb Ridge were not his, brought national attention back to the case and confirmed the mystery is still open. Davis Gulch itself was flooded by Lake Powell after Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1963. The ground where Everett was last seen no longer exists above water.

Sources

Ruess family letters, published in On Desert Trails, 1940

David Roberts, Finding Everett Ruess, 2011

Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory findings, 2009

If you liked this: Episode 185, Taos, New Mexico. Another Southwest mystery where the desert kept the answer.

Hometown History explores forgotten stories from small-town America. The overlooked events, hidden triumphs, and buried tragedies that shaped the country we live in. New episodes every Tuesday. Find every episode at mythsandmalice.com/hometown-history

Episode 208 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Thaxton, Virginia: The Forgotten Train Disaster of 1889

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:00:37 +0000

On the evening of July 1, 1889, Passenger Train Number Two pulled out of Roanoke, Virginia, bound east through the Blue Ridge. It was a through train, New Orleans to New York, already running late, with Engine Number Thirty at the head and 74 people aboard, 56 passengers and a crew of 18. Among them were three young men from Cleveland, Tennessee, in the first-class coach: William Steed, a thirty-year-old druggist, William Marshall, the twenty-two-year-old city recorder, and John Hardwick, thirty-three, whose father founded the Cleveland Woolen Mills. They were bound for New York to board a ship for Paris and the 1889 World's Fair. Their whole town had turned out on the platform to see them off.

That night a storm turned Wolf Creek into a churning brown river. At Blue Ridge station Conductor R. P. Johnson took a message off the wire: the track is flooded to Liberty, run with great care, there is great danger. The crew talked it over at Buford and went on east, because there was no easy way to turn a through train around. At about 1:25 in the morning on July 2, Train Number Two reached Newman's Fill, where the line crossed Wolf Creek on packed dirt over a culvert. One survivor called the dark Egyptian blackness. Engineer Patrick Donovan could not have seen the gap where solid ground had been a few hours earlier.

Timeline of Events

July 1, 1889, evening: Train Number Two leaves Roanoke running late, bound east through the mountains.

July 2, 1889, about 12:30 AM: Past Ironville, water is running over the rails. The train stops at Buford, then continues east, twenty-seven minutes behind schedule.

July 2, 1889, about 1:25 AM: Engine Number Thirty hits the washout at Newman's Fill. The locomotive drops into the creek bed and the wooden cars fold in behind it.

July 2, 1889, minutes later: Coal from the firebox and oil from the lamps set the split-open wooden coaches burning. Donovan, scalded by escaping steam, dies in the cab. He never left his post.

July 2, 1889, dawn: Nearly five hours pass before relief reaches the site. The telegraph lines are down and nobody is coming.

Afterward: Commissioner James C. Hill puts the cause on the track, not the crew. The culvert could not carry what the creek was pushing, and Donovan is cleared.

Historical Significance

At least eighteen people died and twenty-one more were hurt. The burning was so complete that most of the dead could never be named; recovery crews counted spinal columns out of the ash, and at least one passenger was never accounted for at all. Section master Tandy Jones, who knew every tie and culvert on his stretch, said afterward that he had been greatly surprised to hear an accident had happened at that culvert, because he regarded it as one of the safest on the line. That is the one the creek took. Major Henry N. Martin, a Civil War veteran who got out alive, said he had stood on the battlefield and watched his comrades fall like leaves in autumn and had never seen anything that curdled his blood the way that night did. W. J. Barksdale escaped and then stayed, working to free trapped passengers, telling the women who begged him to go that he would not leave until they were all safe. Steed, Marshall, and Hardwick never got past the Blue Ridge.

Sources

Lost at Thaxton survivor statements and recovery records

Commissioner James C. Hill's investigation report, 1889

Norfolk and Western Railway records

George C. Davis photograph of the wreck, Virginia Room digital collection

If you liked this: Episode 191, Deal Beach, New Jersey. Another mass-casualty disaster that vanished from public memory almost as fast as it happened.

Episode 207 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Bath, Michigan: The School Treasurer Who Spent Eight Months Planting Dynamite

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 09:00:02 +0000

In May 1927, the small farming community of Bath Township, Michigan, suffered the deadliest school attack in American history, and nearly a century later most Americans have never heard of it. Andrew Kehoe, a 55-year-old trained electrician and school board treasurer, spent eight months secretly wiring Bath Consolidated School with more than a thousand pounds of dynamite and military-surplus pyrotol. On May 18, 1927, he detonated the north wing at 8:45 AM, killing 38 children and 6 adults. The south wing charges never went off because of a faulty alarm clock mechanism, which spared 106 students sitting directly above 500 pounds of live explosives.

Kehoe also murdered his wife Nellie, destroyed his own farm with incendiary devices, and set off a truck bomb near the rescuers, killing Superintendent Emory Huyck, postmaster Cleo Clayton, and resident Glenn Smith. The community of Bath chose to rebuild the school on the same site. Among the families who returned was that of eight-year-old survivor Bernice Sterling, who had lost three siblings that morning.

Timeline of Events

July 1926: Andrew Kehoe is elected school board treasurer.

January 1927: Kehoe begins secretly wiring the school basement with explosives.

January to April 1927: He buys more than 1,000 pounds of dynamite and pyrotol from stores across three counties.

May 17, 1927: Kehoe sets all of the timing devices for the following morning.

May 18, 1927, 8:00 AM: Kehoe kills his wife Nellie.

May 18, 1927, 8:45 AM: The north wing of Bath Consolidated School detonates. The south wing charges fail.

May 18, 1927, 9:00 AM: The Kehoe farm is destroyed by incendiary devices.

May 18, 1927, 9:30 AM: Kehoe detonates a truck bomb near the rescuers, killing himself and three others.

May 19, 1927: More than 500 pounds of unexploded dynamite is found in the south wing.

September 1928: The new Bath School opens with enhanced safety protocols.

Historical Significance

The Bath School disaster remains the deadliest school attack in American history, worse than every incident that has followed it. Michigan wrote the first school building safety codes in direct response, covering basement security, access restrictions, and background checks for staff with building access. In 1994, at age 75, survivor Bernice Sterling testified before Congress about school safety. The Bath School Memorial Museum, established in 1975, preserves evidence including the original clock stopped at 8:45 AM. The community's cup and saucer tree, built with dishes salvaged from victims' homes, still stands as a place people travel to see. The last survivor died in 2018 at age 99.

Sources

Michigan State Police investigation records Bath school board minutes, 1926 to 1927 Store purchase receipts from Lansing, St. Johns, and Owosso Survivor testimony of Bernice Sterling, Congressional record, 1994 Bath School Memorial Museum archives

If you liked this: Episode 189, Ord, Nebraska. Another story of a schoolhouse at the center of a catastrophe, and the person who had to decide what to do next.

Episode 206 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Tucker, Arkansas: Secrets of Tucker Prison Farm - The Torture Machine

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 09:00:53 +0000

In the 1960s, Tucker State Prison Farm in Arkansas sat on 4,500 acres of Delta bottomland in Jefferson County. Three hundred inmates worked the cotton and soybean fields under the supervision of armed fellow prisoners, a practice the state called the trusty system. Only eight free-world employees ran the entire facility. Behind the walls of the so-called hospital building, a prison physician named A.E. Rollins had rigged a hand-crank telephone to deliver electrical shocks to inmates strapped to an examination table. The prisoners called a short burst "a phone call." A sustained crank was "a long-distance call."

The device became known as the Tucker Telephone, and it operated for years without any outside investigation. Men died of unexplained cardiac arrest. Others carried nerve damage for life. It took an idealist superintendent named Tom Murton, a federal lawsuit called Holt v. Sarver, and a conservative judge willing to use the word "evil" to finally bring the system down, in a ruling that declared an entire state prison system unconstitutional for the first time in American history.

Timeline of Events

1916: Arkansas purchases Tucker Prison Farm, 4,500 acres of Delta bottomland intended for agricultural production using inmate labor.

1960s: The Tucker Telephone is in routine use under prison physician A.E. Rollins. At least nine inmates die of cardiac failure between 1964 and 1967.

January 1968: Governor Winthrop Rockefeller appoints reformer Tom Murton as prison superintendent. Murton discovers unmarked graves at Cummins Prison Farm and unearths skeletal remains showing evidence of violence.

October 1968: Inmates file Holt v. Sarver in federal court.

February 18, 1970: Judge J. Smith Henley rules the entire Arkansas prison system unconstitutional, a first in U.S. legal history.

Historical Significance

Holt v. Sarver transformed American corrections law. Before that ruling, federal courts largely treated prison conditions as a state matter and kept their hands off. Judge Henley's decision established that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment applied not just to individual acts but to entire systems of incarceration. The case set the legal foundation for decades of prison reform litigation across the country. The Tucker Telephone itself became a symbol of what happens when an institution operates without oversight, and it is still referenced in law school textbooks, criminal justice scholarship, and the 1980 film "Brubaker," starring Robert Redford, which drew directly from Tom Murton's experience.

Sources

Holt v. Sarver, 309 F. Supp. 362 (E.D. Ark. 1970), court transcripts Tom Murton, Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal (Grove Press, 1969) Arkansas State Archives photographic collection

If you liked this: Episode 204, Little Rock, Arkansas. Another Arkansas institution that hid what it did to the people in its custody.

Episode 205 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Little Rock, Arkansas: The Asylum That Buried Thousands in Unmarked Graves

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:00:22 +0000

In 1975, a construction crew breaking ground for a government complex on West Markham Street in Little Rock, Arkansas, unearthed an estimated three thousand to four thousand bodies buried in shallow, unmarked graves. They were patients of the Arkansas Lunatic Asylum — committed not only for mental illness but for alcoholism, epilepsy, poverty, old age, and conditions as vague as "emotional difficulty due to menopause." Most had no family to claim them. Most had no headstone. Most had no name left in any record the state still kept.

Shane Waters traces the full arc of this institution, from its hopeful founding in 1883 under the progressive Kirkbride Plan — which demanded sunlight, fresh air, and a maximum of 250 patients — to its collapse into a warehouse for the forgotten, where the patient census swelled past 5,000 in buildings designed for 1,750. Along the way, the asylum survived a devastating tornado in 1894, cycled through name changes meant to mask its failures, and forced patients into unpaid labor on a segregated farm. The story of the Arkansas Lunatic Asylum is a story about what happens when a society decides some people are not worth treating — and eventually decides they are not worth remembering.

Timeline of Events

The history of institutional mental health care in Arkansas stretches across more than a century of ambition, neglect, and rediscovery.

1873: Arkansas legislators H.M. McVeigh and D.P. Baldwin introduce Act 66, appropriating $50,000 for a state asylum. Governor Elisha Baxter signs it into law on April 19.

1883: The Arkansas Lunatic Asylum opens on March 1 under Superintendent Dr. Chastaine Caldwell Forbes, with the first patient admitted days earlier by legislative order.

1894: A tornado destroys multiple wards of the South Wing on October 2, killing asylum physician J.T. Ingate and causing over $1 million in damage.

1934-1935: Patient census reaches 4,996 to 5,046 — nearly three patients for every bed in a facility designed for 1,750.

1963: The original Kirkbride asylum buildings are demolished. All traces of the structure vanish.

1975: Construction crews discover an estimated 3,000-4,000 bodies in unmarked graves. Roughly half are relocated to the Benton Services Center cemetery; an estimated 1,500-2,000 remain beneath government buildings and parking lots.

Historical Significance

The Arkansas Lunatic Asylum represents one of the most stark examples of institutional failure in American mental health history. What began as a progressive experiment in architectural healing — rooted in the Moral Management movement of Philippe Pinel and William Tuke — devolved into systematic overcrowding, forced labor, and mass anonymous burial. The 1975 discovery of thousands of unmarked graves beneath state-owned land forced a reckoning with how Arkansas treated its most vulnerable citizens for nearly a century. Today, researchers through the Arkansas Lunatic Asylum WordPress project and the Privett Family Photo Album are working to recover the names and stories of forgotten patients. The site along West Markham Street remains in use as state government offices, with a modest memorial standing over the one-acre plot where an estimated 1,500-2,000 souls still rest beneath the soil.

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Jackson, Kentucky: The Lawyer Who Carried His Baby as a Bulletproof Shield

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 09:00:35 +0000

In the spring of 1903, attorney James Buchanan Marcum faced a terrible daily calculation in Jackson, Kentucky. For seventy-two days, the most prominent lawyer in Breathitt County refused to leave his own home without his infant son pressed against his chest. The reasoning was as simple as it was horrifying: the men who wanted him dead would not risk shooting a man holding a baby. Marcum had made enemies of the most powerful political machine in eastern Kentucky, Judge James Hargis and Sheriff Ed Callahan, by challenging their stolen elections in open court. In a county where at least thirty political murders had already gone unpunished, Marcum was the last reformer standing.

Timeline of Events

The violence in Breathitt County, known as "Bloody Breathitt," stretched across decades of political warfare rooted in post-Civil War factionalism. Key dates in the Hargis-Marcum conflict include:

1901: legal challenge Hargis wins county judge and Callahan wins sheriff in a disputed election; Marcum takes the Fusionist

April 13, 1902: Hargis property Dr. B.D. Cox, an anti-Hargis physician, is killed by more than twenty buckshot wounds near the

July 1902: Town Marshal James Cockrell is shot from a courthouse window; Curtis Jett suspected

May 4, 1903: behind by Curtis Jett J.B. Marcum is assassinated in the Breathitt County Courthouse doorway, two shots from

August 1903: Frankfort Jett and accomplice Tom White convicted; life sentences at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in

February 6, 1908: Department Store Judge Hargis is shot and killed by his own son, Beach Hargis, inside the Hargis Brothers

May 4, 1912: to the day after Marcum's murder Ed Callahan is shot from ambush through the window of his store at Crockettsville, nine years

Historical Significance

The assassination of J.B. Marcum became a turning point for Breathitt County and for Kentucky's approach to political violence. The case drew national press coverage and forced Governor J.C.W. Beckham to deploy state militia troops, the third such deployment in the county's history. The subsequent trials, moved far from Jackson due to the impossibility of seating an impartial local jury, demonstrated both the depth of the region's corruption and the limits of legal reform in Appalachian Kentucky at the turn of the twentieth century. The Ballad of J.B. Marcum, recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax in 1937 and preserved at the Library of Congress, transformed a courthouse murder into enduring folk memory. Today, the Breathitt County Museum at 329 Broadway Street in Jackson preserves the county's violent history alongside its Appalachian heritage, and the county that once could not insure a single building is known for its Honey Festival and for filling its entire World War I service quota with volunteers, no man drafted.

Episode 203 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Gainesville Tornado: 203 Dead in 3 Minutes

Tue, 26 May 2026 09:00:40 +0000

On April 6, 1936, two tornadoes merged over Gainesville, Georgia, and in just three minutes, killed 203 people, the deadliest tornado in a single building in American history. This is the haunting story of the Cooper Pants Factory disaster and how one catastrophic afternoon changed building codes forever.

Gainesville, nestled in the Blue Ridge foothills, was thriving during the Great Depression. Known as the "Queen City of North Georgia's Mountains, " this manufacturing hub of nine thousand residents had managed to weather the economic crisis better than most American towns. Cotton mills, poultry plants, and garment factories provided steady work for families desperate for income. At the corner of West Broad and Maple Streets stood the Cooper Pants Factory, a brick structure built in 1893 where approximately 125 workers, mostly young women and girls, stitched trousers for meager wages that nonetheless kept families fed.

But the building had a fatal flaw: one staircase. One entrance. One exit. For 125 people.

The morning of Monday, April 6th began like any other. Sewing machines hummed to life. Thread was loaded. Workers settled into their shifts with no knowledge that a meteorological catastrophe was forming in the mountains to the west. Just the day before, an F5 tornado had devastated Tupelo, Mississippi, killing over 216 people, the fourth deadliest tornado in American history. The same storm system that spawned that destruction was now pushing eastward, producing a dozen tornadoes across the Southeast in less than twenty-four hours.

Gainesville had no warning system. No sirens. No weather radar. Two separate storm cells were forming in the hills west of town, moving inexorably toward each other on a collision course with fate.

Among those who would experience the disaster firsthand was C.F. "Stubby" Fiammett, a tobacco salesman attempting to drive to town when the unthinkable happened. As the two tornadoes merged directly over the city, the Cooper Pants Factory, that building with one staircase for 125 people, became a death trap. The structure collapsed in on itself, trapping workers under tons of brick and twisted steel. Fiammett found himself pinned under the wreckage, conscious and listening as the screams of trapped factory workers echoed through the ruins around him. For nearly three hours, he lay there, trapped, as the sounds of human suffering grew fainter. Not because rescue was arriving, but because the women were dying.

This episode explores the meteorological perfect storm, the architectural failures that amplified the tragedy, and the survivors' harrowing accounts of those three minutes of hell. We'll examine how this single disaster forced America to completely rethink building safety codes, fire exits, and structural standards. The Gainesville tornado became a watershed moment in American disaster history, proof that sometimes it takes unimaginable tragedy to force systemic change.

Join us as we walk the streets of this Georgia town and uncover the human stories buried in the rubble of industrial America. This is Hometown History: where local stories changed the world.

Episode 202 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Jacksonville, Florida: The 1888 Yellow Fever Epidemic That Built Public Health

Tue, 19 May 2026 09:00:10 +0000

In the sweltering summer of 1888, a Tampa saloon keeper named R.D. McCormick stepped off a train in Jacksonville, Florida, carrying something far deadlier than luggage. Within weeks, the disease known as Yellow Jack would transform America's booming winter playground into a quarantined city of the dead, sending refugees fleeing north only to be met with armed guards, locked gates, and threats of gunfire. Of the roughly fourteen thousand people who stayed, one in three would contract yellow fever. Four hundred and twenty-seven would never recover.

Jacksonville in 1888 was no ordinary Southern city. A progressive coalition of working-class whites and African Americans had swept the previous year's election, seating five Black council members, a Black municipal judge, and twenty-three Black police officers. The epidemic shattered that experiment in biracial governance. As elected officials fled, civilian leaders stepped forward. Colonel J.J. Daniel organized the Jacksonville Auxiliary Sanitary Association, hiring hundreds of doctors and nurses before the fever claimed his own life. Dr. Alexander Darnes, Jacksonville's first African American physician, stayed to treat patients from both communities. A woman known as Mrs. A.B. Anthony went house to house delivering milk to the sick at her own expense.

Timeline of Key Events

The 1888 Jacksonville yellow fever epidemic unfolded with terrifying speed across five months, from a single diagnosisto a city-wide catastrophe.

July 28, 1888: R.D. McCormick diagnosed as first confirmed yellow fever case

August 10, 1888: Board of Health officially declares epidemic; Jacksonville Auxiliary Sanitary Association formed

September 3, 1888: Acting Mayor J.W. Archibald evacuates the city

Late September 1888: Peak week, 944 new cases and 70 deaths in seven days

November 25, 1888: First hard frost kills mosquitoes and effectively ends the epidemic

December 15, 1888: National and state quarantines officially lifted

Episode 201 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Bessemer City, North Carolina: The Ballad Singer the Mill Bosses Couldn't Silence

Tue, 12 May 2026 09:00:07 +0000

Bessemer City, North Carolina. September 14th, 1929. A flatbed truck kicks up Red Carolina dust on a back road outside Bessemer City. The boards rattle beneath 22 pairs of feet. No one in the truck bed carries a weapon. They are textile workers heading home from a roadblock that turned them around. They did what they were told. They turned back, and the cars behind them kept coming. In that truck bed, gripping the wooden side rails, a 29-year-old woman feels the September heat press against her skin.

TIMELINE
1927: By 1927, the Loray mill had introduced the stretch-out system, slashing its workforce from $3,500 to $2,200 while demanding the same output.
1929: On March 25, 1929, five workers at the Loray mill were fired for attending a union meeting.
1979: On September 14, 1979, the 50th anniversary of her death, a group of North Carolina women placed a permanent AFL-CIO marker on Ella May Wiggins' grave.
1986: In 1986, North Carolina proposed a historical marker near the Loray Mill.
2013: In 2013, after 27 years of resistance, a revised historical marker was approved.
2017: Wiley Cash, in his 2017 Southern Book Prize winning novel, The Last Ballad, brought Ella Mae's story to a generation that had never heard it.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Bessemer City is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 200 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 168 (Hickory, North Carolina)

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Forsyth County, Georgia: The Town Georgia Tried to Bury Twice

Tue, 05 May 2026 09:00:24 +0000

September, 1912, Forsyth County, Georgia, 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, farming country, red clay roads, pine forests thick enough to block out the afternoon sun. The air sits heavy. It smells like turned earth and wood smoke. More than a thousand black Americans live here. They own land. They go to church. William and Ida Bagley own 60 acres. Grant Smith preaches on Sunday. Children walk to school along dirt paths worn smooth by generations of feet.

TIMELINE
1912: September, 1912, Forsyth County, Georgia, 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, farming country, red clay roads, pine forests thick enough to block out the afternoon sun.
1913: In February 1913, a grand jury drops all charges against Tony Howell.
1920: The 1920 census recorded 30 black residents, where there had been more than a thousand.
1956: In 1956, the sluice gates close.
1987: By 1987, Forsyth County's population reached 40,000.
1994: In 1994, the invisible empire of the KKK is forced to dissolve.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Forsyth County is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 199 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Carrollton, Mississippi: The 1886 Courthouse Massacre That History Forgot

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 09:00:04 +0000

January 1886, Carrollton, Mississippi, a Saturday afternoon. Two brothers are hauling jugs of molasses from a wagon into a saloon. Heavy earthenware vessels, maybe 20 pounds each, slick with condensation. Ed and Charlie Brown, part African American, part Native American, working men making a delivery. The doorways narrow, someone's coming out as they're going in. Bodies shift, a jug tilts, and thick brown molasses drips down a white man's sleeve. The brothers stop, apologize.

TIMELINE
1834: Founded in 1834 and named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland.
1860: By 1860, just before the Civil War, the county's population was about 22,000 people.
1865: Between 1865 and 1950, historians suggest there were dozens of mass racial terror events in the American South.
1880: By 1880, Carroll County was still roughly 56% black.
2019: In 2019, Mississippi Freedom Trail installed a historical marker on the courthouse square.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Carrollton is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 198 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Dover, Delaware: The Poisoned Chocolates That Changed American Law

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:00:14 +0000

August 1898, Dover, Delaware. The heat of the day has broken, and the air smells of cut grass and warm earth. On the porch of the Pennington family home, Mary Elizabeth Dunning opens a package from the afternoon mail, a box of chocolate bonbons, a Cambric handkerchief, and a note. With love to yourself and baby, Miss C. She passes the candy around. Her sister Ida takes one. Her daughter takes one. Friends gathered on the porch reach in. The evening is warm. The chocolate is sweet.

TIMELINE
1887: From 1887 to 1891, and a former attorney general of Delaware, Pennington was one of the most respected men in Kent County.
1895: Around 1895, Dunning met Cordelia near Golden Gate Park.
1896: In 1896, Mary, devastated by the infidelity and financial ruin, packed up and returned to Dover with their young daughter to live with her father.
1898: Early 1898, the Spanish-American War was coming, and the Associated Press needed war correspondence.
1906: After the 1906 earthquake destroyed the county jail, Cordelia was transferred to San Quentin.
1907: John Preston Dunning, his career destroyed by the trial revelations, died in 1907 in Philadelphia, penniless, and at 43.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Dover is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 197 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Brattleboro, Vermont: The Asylum Tower Holding a Century of Secrets

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:00:32 +0000

In the woods above Brattleboro, Vermont, a 65-foot stone tower has stood since the 1890s. It was not built by architects or hired masons. It was built by the patients of an insane asylum, stone by stone, under the direction of their doctors who believed that breaking rocks could fix broken minds. But some patients found another use for the tower they had built with their own hands. They climbed it one last time. In 1938, officials sealed the door shut. At the base of that tower sits a cemetery holding more than 650 burials, many marked only with numbers.

This is the story of Anna Hunt Marsh, the daughter of Vermont's Lieutenant Governor, who watched her husband's patient die from ice water submersion and forced opium comas in 1806. She spent twenty-eight years turning that grief into action. When she died in 1834, her will contained a single sentence that would change Brattleboro forever: ten thousand dollars left for the purpose of building a hospital for the insane in Windham County. She became the first woman in American history to found a mental health institution.

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Waterbury, Vermont: The Asylum That Turned a Towns Name Into a Warning

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:00:34 +0000

You're standing on Route 100 in Waterbury, Vermont, in November 1891. The air smells like wood smoke and coming snow. Behind you, the last maples hold on to their copper leaves. Ahead on a hill that commands the entire valley, workers are laying the final stones on a building that will change everything. The Vermont State Asylum for the Insane. Four stories of red brick, 200 windows catching the afternoon light, italianate towers that look, from certain angles, almost welcoming.

TIMELINE
1891: The phrase sounds enlightened for 1891.
1925: From 1925 to 1936, the hospital participated in Vermont's eugenics program, sterilizing patients deemed unfit to reproduce.
1975: In 1975, the patient population drops below 600 for the first time in 50 years.
2013: In 2013, the University of Vermont's Eugenics Survey Project publishes new research on the Vermont State Hospital.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Waterbury is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 195 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 184 (East Montpelier, Vermont)

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Riceville, Maine: The Ghost Town Whose Plague Never Happened

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:00:46 +0000

Riceville, Maine. Somewhere in the forest of eastern Maine, there's a town that no longer exists. It's a summer morning, sometime in the early 1900s. A traveler makes his way down a rutted logging road through dense strands of hemlock and spruce. He's headed for Riceville, a company town built around a tannery on Buffalo Stream. He knows the place. Maybe a hundred people live there. Workers, families, children who attend the schoolhouse at the north end of town. But when he arrives, something is wrong.

TIMELINE
1879: In 1879, a company called F. Shaw & Brothers established what they called a Bark Extract Works.
1880: By 1880, census records show just 10 people living there.
1883: In 1883 money, that's an almost incomprehensible sum.
1890: By 1890, Riceville had exploded to 136 residents.
1898: Two years later, in 1898, James Rice and his brothers Francis X and John took full control, forming the Hancock Leather Company.
1900: By 1900, census records painted a detailed picture.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Riceville is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 194 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Prudence Island: The Keeper Who Relit the Light After Losing Everything

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:00:22 +0000

In a lighthouse keeper's cottage on Prudence Island, Rhode Island, six people huddle on the floor. It's September 21st, 1938. Outside, a wall of gray-green water is racing across Narragansett Bay, 16 feet of churning ocean pushed by winds exceeding 100 miles per hour. George Gustavus, the lighthouse keeper, stands with his wife Mabel, his 12-year-old son Edward, and three neighbors who came seeking shelter. They'd climbed upstairs when the water started rising.

TIMELINE
1869: New England had experienced no major hurricanes since 1869, 69 years earlier.
1905: Among them is Martin Thompson, the former keeper, a 70-year-old Norwegian immigrant who'd served at this ferry station from 1905 to 1933.
1961: The lighthouse was automated in 1961.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Prudence Island is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 193 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 192 (Watch Hill, Rhode Island)

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Watch Hill, Rhode Island: The Fort Road Massacre That Killed 15

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:00:47 +0000

Watch Hill, Rhode Island. It's one o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon in September 1938. Miss John McKisson Camp is hosting a luncheon on the rocks at Weakapog, just east of Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Her guests gather in their summer finest. Linen dresses, straw hats, the quiet elegance you'd expect from old money families who've summered here for generations. Someone mentions that the sea looks restless today. Another guest points to a strange yellow light hanging over the water.

TIMELINE
1938: By 1938, this exclusive summer retreat had catered to wealthy New York families for nearly half a century.
1945: In 1945, seven years after the hurricane, the Watch Hill Fire District purchased Napotree Point for $10,000.
1966: In 1966, Providence completed the Fox Point hurricane barrier.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Watch Hill is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 192 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 171 (Exeter, Rhode Island)

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Deal Beach, New Jersey: 240 Immigrants Drowned 150 Yards From Shore

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 09:00:09 +0000

Deal Beach, New Jersey. It's 6.10 on the morning of November 13th, 1854, and the gale-force winds that rattled windows all night have driven the few families of Deal Beach from their beds. Through the fog and driving rain, they see her. A massive three-masted clipper ship, full sails still set, stuck hard on the outer sandbar, just 500 yards from shore. The ship's bell. That's what woke them. The incessant staccato clatter cutting through the storm. Someone aboard is ringing that bell, desperate, rhythmic, unceasing.

TIMELINE
1878: 24 years pass before the United States Life-Saving Service is formally established in 1878.
1934: Eighty years later, in 1934, the cruise ship Moro Castle caught fire.
1999: The ship's anchor was recovered in 1999.
2020: According to a 2020 report, the grave is massively overgrown, the monument quite difficult to find.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Deal Beach is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 191 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Hazardville, Connecticut: When Gunpowder Made—and Destroyed—a Town

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 10:00:05 +0000

January 14, 1913. Hazardville, Connecticut. A winter morning at the old powder mills, now operating under the Hercules Powder name for exactly 30 days. Workers Charles Blunden and Jacob Stocker went about their routines, same as they had for years. The machinery hummed. The river flowed past stone walls built to contain disasters. Then four blasts ripped through the mill in rapid succession. The sound reached Hartford, over 20 miles away.

TIMELINE
1835: The story begins in 1835, along the Scantic River in northern Connecticut.
1843: By 1843, Augustus Hazard was the principal owner.
1854: In 1854, the residents of the village held a town meeting and voted to rename their community.
1855: On April 4th, 1855, 23-year-old Horace Hazard was working at his father's powder mill when an explosion killed him instantly.
1868: Augustus Hazard was 66 years old when he died in 1868, 13 years after Horace's death.
1913: On January 14, 1913, an errant spark ignited a chain reaction.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Hazardville is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 190 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Ord, Nebraska: The Teenage Teacher Who Saved 13 Children in the 1888 Blizzard

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 10:00:56 +0000

Ord, Nebraska. January 12th, 1888. Morning. A one-room schoolhouse six miles south of Ord, Nebraska. 40 degrees in January. Unseasonably warm. The morning where farm kids arrive without their heavy coats because it feels like spring decided to show up three months early. Minnie Freeman, 19 years old, is teaching her first real class. 13 students, ages 6 to 14. And there's Frankie Gibbon in the back row, not paying attention to arithmetic because he's playing with something else, a ball of twine.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Ord is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 189 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Lewistown, Montana: When the Guide Became the Killer (1889)

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:00:53 +0000

Lewistown, Montana, 1889. Mid-June, 1889. The Judith River runs cold through central Montana Territory. The water flows down from the Little Belt Mountains, snaking through grassland where cattle ranches have only just begun to replace the buffalo herds. A rancher riding his property spots something caught against the rocks near samples crossing. At first, he thinks it's driftwood. Then, he gets closer. A body. A woman, face down. Well-dressed. Too well-dressed for drowning. Before the weekends, four more will surface.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Lewistown is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 188 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Globe, Arizona: The Curse of Room 18—Two Miners, One Deadly Room

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 10:00:48 +0000

Globe, Arizona. Saturday night, November 16th, 1907. Approaching midnight in Globe, Arizona's red-light district, two Globe police officers found him lying in the dirt. A 25-year-old Finnish miner named Richard Veklund. He'd been drugged and robbed. His pockets were empty. Over a hundred dollars, gone. The officers tried to rouse him, asked where he lived. Veklund managed to open his eyes. In a voice so weak they could barely hear him, he whispered, Room 18, International. The officers froze.

TIMELINE
1900: Globe's population exploded from around 1,200 people in 1900 to somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 by 1906.
1906: The first murder began in late October, 1906, a little over a year before Veclund's death.
1907: On November 20, 1907, officers made three arrests.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Globe is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 187 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 80 (Grand Canyon, Arizona)

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Taos, New Mexico: The Headless Body in the Fortress Mansion

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 10:00:30 +0000

Taos, New Mexico. On the morning of July 3rd, 1929, U.S. Deputy Marshal Jim Martinez stood outside Arthur Rothford Manphy's fortress-like mansion in the heart of Taos, New Mexico. He'd come to serve legal papers to the 70-year-old Englishman, but the moment he approached the back door, he knew something was quite wrong. Flies. Hundreds of them. Blackening the screen door, their buzzing audible from 20 feet away. Martinez scaled the high adobe wall.

TIMELINE
1848: After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised to protect existing Spanish land grants.
1883: Arthur Rotsford Manby arrived in New Mexico territory in 1883 at 24 years old.
1884: In 1884, while Manby was still establishing himself in New Mexico, a man named Ross Edmondson was found dead outside Taos.
1897: By 1897, Manby claimed ownership of virtually the entire Martinez Grant.
1920: By 1920, Manby's reputation was so dark that he'd effectively become a pariah.
1929: On the morning of July 3rd, 1929, U.S. Deputy Marshal Jim Martinez stood outside Arthur Rothford Manphy's fortress-like mansion in the heart of Taos, New Mexico.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Taos is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 185 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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East Montpelier, Vermont: The 14-Hour Marriage That Ended in Murder

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:00:55 +0000

East Montpelier, Vermont. September 5th, 1889, 11 o'clock in the morning. Laura Cutler Gold walked up the path to her family's farm in East Montpelier, Vermont, wearing yesterday's wedding dress. She'd been married for 14 hours. Her new husband, George, stopped at the woodshed to gather kindling for the stove. Inside the farmhouse, the elderly woman Laura had hired as a chaperone was waiting with a warning. Sherman Caswell, the hired hand who'd worked the farm since 1867, was upstairs, and he was drunk.

TIMELINE
1867: Sherman Caswell, the hired hand who'd worked the farm since 1867, was upstairs, and he was drunk.
1884: When William Cutler died in 1884 and his wife Fanny in 1888, their only daughter Laura inherited everything.
1889: September 5th, 1889, 11 o'clock in the morning.
1890: In late March 1890, six months after the murder, the state of Vermont tried James Sherman Caswell for first-degree murder.
1902: In 1902, serving 12 years, Sherman Caswell was pardoned.
1911: Laura continued living with Lucius Gold until her death on April 2, 1911.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of East Montpelier is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 184 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 195 (Waterbury, Vermont)

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Turtle Lake, North Dakota: The Wolf Family Murders of 1920

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 10:00:54 +0000

Turtle Lake, North Dakota. April 24th, 1920, a farmhouse three miles north of Turtle Lake, North Dakota. In a small bedroom, an eight-month-old baby girl has been crying for two days straight. She's soaked through her diaper, soiled, weakening from hunger and cold, but no one comes to feed her. In the kitchen, by all accounts, five bodies are piled in the root cellar beneath a trapdoor. The mother, the oldest daughter, three younger children, a hired boy, shotgun wounds, hatchet wounds, blood everywhere.

TIMELINE
1920: April 24th, 1920, a farmhouse three miles north of Turtle Lake, North Dakota.
1925: In June 1925, Layer developed appendicitis.
2003: Emma Wolf Hanson lived until 2003.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Turtle Lake is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 183 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 169 (Wahpeton, North Dakota)

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Boise City, Oklahoma: The Night America Bombed Its Own Town

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 10:00:49 +0000

It's just past midnight on July 5th, 1943, in Boise City, Oklahoma, and Forrest Bork is sound asleep above his post office on the courthouse square when the explosion hits. The whole building shakes. Bork jolts awake, thinking one thing. Someone's cracking the safe downstairs. He creeps to his window in the dark, and there's already a group of men in the alley, staring at his garage across the way. The doors have been blown clean open. There's a crater in the dirt three and a half feet deep.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Boise City is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 182 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 174 (Osage County, Oklahoma)

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Opelousas, Louisiana: The Boy Two Mothers Claimed—A 92-Year DNA Mystery

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 10:00:58 +0000

Opelousas, Louisiana. Columbia, Mississippi, April 1913. Julia Anderson walked into the sheriff's office, holding a photograph of her son Bruce. She'd been told the boy they'd found matched his description. Five years old, light hair, distinctive scars. But when they brought the child out, he looked at Julia with blank eyes. No recognition. No mama. Just fear. The sheriff asked, is this your boy? Julia Anderson studied his face. The moles didn't match her memory. The scars weren't quite right.

TIMELINE
1912: Opelousas in 1912 was a prosperous town of about 5,000 folks sitting in the heart of Cajun country.
1913: On April 12, 1913, authorities arrested Wolters in Columbia, Mississippi.
1966: Bobby Dunbar had died in 1966, but Bobby Dunbar Jr. approached his cousin, Margaret Dunbar Cutright, about DNA testing.
2004: In 2004, DNA testing proved they'd all been wrong.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Opelousas is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 186 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Opelousas, Louisiana: The Boy Two Mothers Claimed—A 92-Year DNA Mystery

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 10:00:18 +0000

186: Opelousas, Louisiana: The Boy Two Mothers Claimed, A 92-Year DNA Mystery

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Edgefield, South Carolina: The Devil's Bargain Murder Trial of 1850

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 10:00:15 +0000

March 1849. Workers searching the woods between Edgefield and Abbeville County, South Carolina, stumbled across a shallow grave. Inside, the decomposing body of a man. The coroner arrived, examined the remains, recorded his findings in careful detail, the clinical precision that shows up in death records of the era. Cause of death, a leaden ball shot from a gun or pistol by the hands of some person or persons unknown.

TIMELINE
1740: South Carolina's Negro Act of 1740 prohibited enslaved people from giving sworn testimony in court, especially against white defendants.
1839: The courthouse still stands today, a handsome brick building completed in 1839, designed by Charles Beck, associate of South Carolina's famous architect, Robert Mills.
1847: When Matilda's father died in 1847, his estate was divided among his children, and South Carolina's coverture laws created quite the deadly incentive structure.
1849: By October 1849, the case had generated intense public interest.
1850: On February 10, 1850, roughly four months after his conviction, Martin Posey was executed by hanging in Edgefield.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Edgefield is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 181 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 99 (West Columbia, South Carolina)

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Hagerstown, Indiana: The Blind Engineer Who Invented Cruise Control

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 10:00:53 +0000

Hagerstown, Indiana. September 1908, Philadelphia train station. 18-year-old Ralph Teeter stands on the platform, one suitcase in hand. It contains a year's worth of clothes. He's traveled alone from Hagerstown, Indiana, a town of 2,000 people. Everyone knows him there. The streets are memorized. Every building corner echoes back his location through the click of his metal-tipped shoes. Philadelphia is chaos, unfamiliar, uncharted. Ralph is here because the University of Michigan rejected him.

TIMELINE
1896: Hagerstown, Indiana in 1896 was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone.
1902: The New York Herald ran a story about him in December 1902.
1936: President of the Society of Automotive Engineers in 1936.
1995: According to Ralph's daughter, Marjorie, who wrote her father's biography in 1995, essentially they lived their lives as if Ralph could see normally.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Hagerstown is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 180 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 104 (Brown County, Indiana)

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Gay Head, Massachusetts: 103 Souls Lost Half a Mile from Shore

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 10:00:52 +0000

Gay Head, Massachusetts. At 3.45 in the morning, on January 18, 1884, the lookout aboard the passenger steamer City of Columbus screams a warning into the darkness. Devil's Bridge buoy is off the port bow. It should be starboard. Second mate Edward Harding yells, heart a port, but it's too late. The ship strikes jagged underwater rocks at full speed. The grinding crack tears through the iron hull. The sound echoes across black water like the scream of tearing metal.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Gay Head is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 179 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Gauley Bridge, West Virginia: America's Deadliest Industrial Cover-Up

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 10:00:09 +0000

Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. It's 1931. Dewey Flack is 17 years old when he steps off the train in Gawley Bridge, West Virginia. He came from North Carolina. One-way ticket in hand. A promise. Send home money. His parents and five younger siblings are counting on him. It's the worst year. Of the Great Depression. There are no jobs back home. The tunnel project in West Virginia. It's paying work. It's hope. Two weeks later, Dewey is dead. His lungs filled with white silica dust. So pure it turned them to stone.

TIMELINE
1910: Medical journals documented silicosis by 1910.
1927: Population in 1927, fewer than a thousand people.
1930: Official groundbreaking happens March 31, 1930, just six months after the stock market crash.
1931: By early 1931, just months after work begins, dozens of men are dying.
2012: September 7th, 2012, a historical marker is finally dedicated at Hawk's Nest.
2015: In 2015, the West Virginia Division of Culture and History begins formally documenting the mass burial sites.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Gauley Bridge is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 178 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 177 (Wheeling, West Virginia)

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Wheeling, West Virginia: When Steel Workers Became Radio Stars

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 10:00:26 +0000

Wheeling, West Virginia. It's a Sunday afternoon in late 1939. 3,000 people pack into Wheeling's Capitol Theater, West Virginia's largest venue between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. But they're not here for a movie. They're not here for vaudeville. They're here to watch their neighbors perform on a national radio broadcast. The orchestra tunes up on stage. 42 musicians, machinists, crane operators, stenographers, dressed in matching uniforms. The Steel Sisters rehearse in their harmonies backstage.

TIMELINE
1930: In 1930, historian Ann O'Hare McCormick writes, The radio has been a bigger factor than the press.
1934: Membership in the Amalgamated Association jumps to more than 150,000 by February 1934.
1936: The first broadcast is scheduled for November 8th, 1936.
1937: Wheeling Steel signs a union contract with steel workers in spring 1937.
1938: By 1938, there are more than 600 licensed stations.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Wheeling is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 177 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 178 (Gauley Bridge, West Virginia)

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Erie, Pennsylvania: The Wall of Water That Killed 36

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:00:38 +0000

August 3rd, 1915, downtown Erie, Pennsylvania, 8.45 at night. For the past five hours, an artificial lake has been growing in the middle of the city. Four city blocks flooded, water 30 feet deep in places, held back by a clogged culvert at 26th and State Streets. Fire Chief John McMahon stands at the edge, watching the reservoir rise. All day, police and firefighters have tried to clear the debris, blocking the culvert. They've used dynamite. It didn't work.

TIMELINE
1795: The downtown district was laid out back in 1795 in a Manhattan-style grid.
1835: By 1835, the creek powered four grist mills and thirteen sawmills.
1915: August 3rd, 1915, downtown Erie, Pennsylvania, 8.45 at night.
1917: Construction began in 1917 and finished in 1923.
1923: Since the Mill Creek tube was completed in 1923, Erie has not experienced another major flood from Mill Creek.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Erie is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 176 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Athens, Tennessee: The 1946 GI Rebellion and the Limits of Armed Reform

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 10:00:53 +0000

Athens, Tennessee. It's around 2.30 in the morning on August 2, 1946. The McMinn County Jail in Athens, Tennessee is surrounded. Armed veterans, some estimates say as many as 500, crouch behind storefronts, police cruisers, and the brick walls of the First National Bank across White Street. They've been firing rifles at the jail for six hours. Inside, 50 deputies and county officials huddle away from windows as bullets chip the brick walls. One of the men outside, a Marine named Bill White, nods to the others.

TIMELINE
1945: Approximately 3,000 McMinn County veterans returned from World War II between 1945 and early 1946.
1948: By 1948, Cantrell's political machine was essentially gone, which was a genuine victim.
1969: Bill White, the Marine who'd been there from the beginning, said in a 1969 oral history, shooting it out was not the most desirable solution to political problems.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Athens is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 175 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 73 (Nashville, Tennessee)

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Osage County, Oklahoma: The Oil Murders That Created the FBI

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:00:31 +0000

Osage County, Oklahoma. It's around 3 in the morning on March 10, 1923. In Fairfax, Oklahoma, Rita Smith sleeps in her bedroom. Her husband, Bill, is in the adjacent room. Their teenage white servant, Nettie Brookshire, sleeps upstairs. Five gallons of nitroglycerin sits beneath the house. The explosion obliterates the structure. Neighbors three blocks away feel their windows rattle. The Smith house simply disappears. Rita and Nettie die instantly. Bill survives, barely, with massive injuries.

TIMELINE
1808: Between 1808 and 1839, the Osage ceded 96.8 million acres for approximately $166,000, less than two-tenths of a penny per acre.
1897: In October 1897, the Phoenix Oil Company drilled their first successful well along Butler Creek.
1901: Between 1901 and 1930, 319 million barrels of Oklahoma crude were pumped from Osage County ground.
1908: The Act of May 27, 1908 transferred jurisdiction over Osage minors and incompetents to local Oklahoma County probate courts.
1912: By 1912, lease auctions were held under the famous million-dollar elm tree in Pawhuska.
1923: In 1923, the Osage collectively received over $30 million annually in oil royalties.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Osage County is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 174 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 182 (Boise City, Oklahoma)

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Kalaupapa, Hawai'i: The Saint of Exiles and Hansen's Disease Colony

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 10:00:42 +0000

Kalaupapa, Hawai'i. Imagine a place of breathtaking beauty that is also a prison. Picture what are among the tallest sea cliffs on earth, a sheer wall of green and black stone plunging nearly 4,000 feet into the churning Pacific. This fortress of rock seals off a flat, leaf-shaped peninsula from the world behind it. For centuries, this was a vibrant, sacred part of Hawaii. But in 1866, its profound isolation was weaponized. The Kingdom of Hawaii chose this stunning landscape as a place of permanent exile.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Kalaupapa is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 173 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Africatown, Alabama: The Last Slave Ship and the Town Built by Survivors

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 09:00:28 +0000

In July 1860, under cover of darkness, 110 West Africans were smuggled into Mobile Bay aboard the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to reach American shores. Arriving fifty years after Congress banned the transatlantic slave trade and made it punishable by death, these captives were quickly hidden and distributed to local plantations before the ship was burned and sunk to destroy the evidence. But this story doesn't end with enslavement. After emancipation in 1865, a group of thirty-two survivors did something extraordinary: they pooled their resources, purchased land north of Mobile, and founded their own community. They called it Africa Town, a settlement where they could preserve their language, customs, and dignity on American soil. This episode explores how these remarkable men and women, torn from kingdoms in present-day Benin and Nigeria, built a thriving community that still exists today, more than 160 years later.

Timeline of Events

July 1860: The schooner Clotilda arrives in Mobile Bay with 110 enslaved West Africans, the last known illegal slave shipment to America
July 1860: Captain William Foster burns and scuttles the Clotilda in the Mobile River to hide evidence of the crime
1865: Civil War ends; Clotilda survivors gain freedom after five years of slavery in Alabama
1866-1870: Approximately 32 survivors purchase land and establish Africa Town (later Africatown) north of Mobile
1872: Community builds Union Baptist Church, their first institution
1910: Mobile County Training School founded, becoming educational center for Africatown
1927-1931: Author Zora Neale Hurston interviews Cudjo Lewis (Oluale Kossola), documenting his firsthand account
1935: Cudjo Lewis dies at age 94, the last known survivor of the transatlantic slave trade in America
May 2019: Archaeologists discover and verify the wreck of the Clotilda in the Mobile River
July 2023: Africatown Heritage House opens, featuring "Clotilda: The Exhibition" and artifacts from the ship

This remarkable settlement emerged during Reconstruction, when most formerly enslaved people had no resources and faced violent opposition. The Africatown founders defied these odds, creating schools, churches, and self-governing institutions while maintaining cultural connections to West Africa.

Historical Significance

Africatown represents the only known American community founded and led entirely by African-born survivors of the slave trade. Unlike other Black settlements of the era, residents spoke Yoruba, Ewe, and Fon languages into the 1950s and maintained West African naming traditions, burial practices, and storytelling customs. The community's existence challenges common narratives about slavery's erasure of African identity, these founders consciously rebuilt pieces of home from memory. Zora Neale Hurston's 1927 interviews with Cudjo Lewis, published as "Barracoon" in 2018, provide one of the only firsthand accounts of the Middle Passage and the experience of direct capture from Africa. The 2019 discovery of the Clotilda's wreckage, verified by the Alabama Historical Commission, has sparked renewed interest in Africatown's history and the ongoing work of descendant communities to preserve their ancestors' legacy. Today, Africatown faces environmental challenges from industrial development but continues as a living memorial to resilience, self-determination, and cultural survival against extraordinary odds.

Sources & Further Reading

National Museum of African American History and Culture: Slave Wrecks Project and Clotilda research initiative
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/initiatives/slave-wrecks-project/africatown-alabama-usa
Africatown Heritage House & History Museum of Mobile: "Clotilda: The Exhibition" featuring artifacts from the ship and stories of the 110 survivors
https://clotilda.com
Alabama Historical Commission: Official archaeological discovery and verification of the Clotilda shipwreck (2019)
https://www.mobilecountyal.gov/africatown-heritage-house-2
Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation: Descendant community organization preserving Africatown history and culture
https://africatownhpf.org
"Barracoon: The Story of the Last 'Black Cargo'" by Zora Neale Hurston: Published 2018, based on 1927-1931 interviews with Cudjo Lewis
https://www.zoranealehurston.com/books/barracoon
Smithsonian Magazine: "The 'Clotilda,' the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found" (May 2019)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/zora-neale-hurston-barracoon-last-survivor-slave-trade-180968944

Subscribe to Hometown History every Tuesday for forgotten American stories.

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Exeter, Rhode Island: America's Last Vampire Exhumation

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 18:31:37 +0000

Exeter, Rhode Island. It's just before dawn, March 17th, 1892. In the graveyard beside Chestnut Hill Baptist Church, five men gather around a crypt, sealed since winter began. Their breath fogs the air. A lantern flickers in the cold. The coffin opens. Inside lies the body of Mercy Lena Brown. She died two months ago, yet her skin is strangely intact. Her nails have lengthened. And when a spade presses to her chest, blood rises to the surface. Someone whispers, she's the one.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Exeter is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 171 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 192 (Watch Hill, Rhode Island)

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Ottawa, Illinois: The Radium Girls' Fight for Justice

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 14:27:39 +0000

Ottawa, Illinois. A young woman, barely out of her teens, dips a fine-tipped brush into a bowl of glowing paint. It's 1922, inside the old Ottawa High School, and sunlight streams through the tall windows, illuminating motes of dust that dance in their golden shafts of light. But these are no ordinary dust motes. They glitter with a faint, otherworldly luminescence. Before her is a tray of small black clock dials. She brings the brush to her mouth.

TIMELINE
1925: As early as 1925, Radium Dial had hired medical experts to examine its employees.
1938: In the spring of 1938, the commission ruled decisively, in favor of the women.
2011: In 2011, a bronze statue was erected in Ottawa.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Ottawa is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 170 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Wahpeton, North Dakota: When Lightning Struck the Circus in 1897

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 04:00:47 +0000

Wahpeton, North Dakota. The Twelve-year-old Edward Williams grips a rope with all his might, feet slipping in the muck. A grizzled circus worker rushes over to help. Edward stumbles back, wide-eyed. Suddenly, a blinding flash of lightning engulfs the big top. The main tent pole shatters under the bolt. Men are thrown to the ground. For an instant, everything and everyone is stunned into silence. Rain drips through a gaping hole in the canvas as smoke and steam rise from the splintered pole.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Wahpeton is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 169 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 183 (Turtle Lake, North Dakota)

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Hickory, North Carolina: The 54-Hour Polio Hospital Miracle of 1944

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 04:00:12 +0000

Hickory, North Carolina. It's just before sunrise, on Saturday, June 24th, 1944. In the woods by Lake Hickory, North Carolina, floodlights cast long shadows over a bustling campfire turned construction zone. Dozens of volunteers, men too old for the war, women in handkerchiefs, even off-duty soldiers, work throughout the night. Hammers cling against nails. Hand saws whirr through pine boards. A line of cars, ambulances, and even a borrowed hearse winds down a dirt road toward a freshly painted stone building.

TIMELINE
1916: A 1916 epidemic killed thousands.
1944: In the summer of 1944, as a deadly polio outbreak threatened North Carolina, the small city of Hickory built a full-scale polio hospital in just 54 hours.
1945: In February 1945, Coronet magazine ran a feature on the town's polio battle, in which the author proclaimed, at this moment the town of Hickory became great for all time.
1955: A decade after Hickory, in 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was introduced to the public.
1957: In April 1957, the cluster of wooden buildings that Hickory's volunteers had thrown up so quickly were finally torn down to make way for a new National Guard armory on that spot.
1994: On the 50th anniversary in 1994, a reunion was held for patients and staff of the Hickory Polio Hospital.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Hickory is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 168 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 200 (Bessemer City, North Carolina)

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How Wabash, Indiana Saved Its Main Street

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 04:00:58 +0000

Wabash, Indiana. It's the night of March 31st, 1880. A sleepy town in Indiana explodes into the future with the flick of a switch, becoming the first city in the world to light its street with electricity. People gasped in wonder. Some called it magic. Others, a miracle. But like all American towns, Wabash would face darkness too. Empty storefronts. Lost jobs. A Main Street on life support.

TIMELINE
1981: In 1981, Wabash joined the fight.
2002: In 2002 a handful of shopkeepers dragged bright red chairs onto the sidewalk, kept their doors open late and dared the darkness to swallow them.
2014: The story of Wabash took a sharp turn in 2014 with a major grant.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Wabash is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 167 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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American Nursing: How a Profession Was Born from War and Reform

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 21:41:25 +0000

Washington, DC. It's 4 a.m. on the Western Front. A freight car converted into a makeshift ward jolts to a halt. Inside, nurses in ankle-length khaki skirts move like clockwork, checking pulses, setting splints, whispering words of positivity to boys who haven't seen home in two years. What you're hearing is a profession reborn, modern nursing. , the podcast that traces the world's biggest moments back to the people who lived just down the street.

TIMELINE
1805: Mary Seacolt, born in 1805 in Kingston, Jamaica, had already doctored cholera in Panama and yellow fever in the Caribbean when she sailed at her own expense to the Crimean War in 1854.
1860: Nightingale's example sparked the St. Thomas' Hospital School of Nursing in London in 1860.
1873: Three American programs followed in 1873, Bellevue in New York, Massachusetts General in Boston, and the Connecticut Training School in New Haven.
1893: In 1893, Lillian Wald climbed the cramped stairs of a New York tenement to treat a boy bleeding on a kitchen table.
1900: By 1900, the U.S. boasted nearly 800 training schools.
1903: State Registration Acts, beginning with North Carolina in 1903, formally protected the title Registered Nurse.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Washington is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 166 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Lady with the Lamp: Florence Nightingale's War on Death

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 04:00:00 +0000

London, England. It's 2.30 in the morning, November 1854, in a makeshift army hospital perched above the Bosphorus Strait. Rats scurry between cots stacked like bunk beds. Every few minutes, another stretcher swings through the door. Another young man, shivering from cholera, or minus a limb, he marched in with yesterday. Footsteps. Then, light. A single oil lamp slices the darkness. Behind it, a tall woman in a gray dress. Florence Nightingale. But in this moment, the soldiers call her something else.

TIMELINE
1820: Florence was born in 1820 in the Italian city of Firenze.
1855: Back at Scutery, engineers Robert Rawlinson and Dr. John Sutherland arrived with the British Sanitary Commission in March 1855.
1910: By 1910, the year Nightingale died, nearly every major U.S. city boasted a nursing school.
1913: Even Wabash County's own general hospital, built in 1913, required its student nurses to study her notes on nursing.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of London is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 165 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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London: The Dark Origins of Nursing

Fri, 30 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000

London, England. The year is 1910. Florence Nightingale has just passed away, leaving behind a legacy that forever changed healthcare. It's hard to believe there was a time when nursing wasn't the noble and respectable profession it is today. In fact, there was a time when people didn't want to be associated with nursing at all. It was considered a low-status occupation that you could learn without needing a formal education.

Episode 164 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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West Virginia: The Vanishing of the Sodder Children

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Fayetteville, West Virginia. It was Christmas Eve, 1945, in the small, quiet town of Fayetteville, West Virginia. The Sauter family home, nestled in the Appalachian Hills, was bustling with excitement. Ten children were eagerly anticipating Christmas morning, while their parents, George and Jenny, watched the holiday unfold. The tree was decorated, and the younger children hung stockings by the fireplace before heading to bed.

TIMELINE
1949: Adding to the bizarre nature of the case, a later excavation of the site in 1949 uncovered several bone fragments.
1969: George died in 1969, still believing that his children were alive.
1989: Jeannie continued to wear black in mourning until her death in 1989.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Fayetteville is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 163 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 178 (Gauley Bridge, West Virginia)

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The American West: The Bone Wars of the 1870s

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Como Bluff, Wyoming. There is nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition. It encourages people to do better, and it can lead to innovation. Just like the one between Apple and Microsoft, that has resulted in countless technological advancements for us. Or the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, which has led to major developments in space exploration. But competition can sometimes take a dark turn, evolving into a rivalry.

TIMELINE
1863: Cope met Marsh in 1863 at Berlin University.
1866: Finally, in 1866, Marsh became the first professor of paleontology in North America, which was the starting point of a rather successful career.
1868: In 1868, Cope gave Marsh a guided tour of a fossil excavation site located in Haddon Field, New Jersey, just as they usually worked.
1872: The first confrontation happened in 1872.
1877: Later, in 1877, a mining teacher named Arthur Lakes discovered fossil bones near Morrison, Colorado.
1892: Eventually, in 1892, Powell sent Marsh a telegram, emphasizing that he must send in his resignation.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Como Bluff is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 162 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Hollywood's Cursed Film: The Rebel Without a Cause Tragedy

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 02:15:42 +0000

Hollywood, California. explore one of the most fascinating chapters of American film history, the curse of rebel without a cause. Generally, you would believe a horror film set would leave actors feeling like they've been cursed. But a romantic drama? Well, hold on. In 1955, one of Hollywood's most iconic romance films, Rebel Without a Cause, was released. But it was more than a romance film.

TIMELINE
1955: In 1955, one of Hollywood's most iconic romance films, Rebel Without a Cause, was released.
1970: In 1970, Hopper suffered a stroke and was hospitalized.
1974: In 1974, Platt died suddenly, at the age of 58.
1976: On the night of February 12, 1976, Sal Mineo returned home after a rehearsal.
2010: In 2010, Hopper's lawyer revealed that the actor was gravely ill from prostate cancer.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Hollywood is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 161 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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Moscow, Idaho: Psychiana and America's Mail-Order Religion Movement

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:48:18 +0000

In 1929, a recovering alcoholic and twice-discharged military veteran named Frank Bruce Robinson made a $2,500 investment that would transform a small Idaho college town into an unlikely center of American religious innovation. From his home in Moscow, Idaho, Robinson launched Psychiana, a mail-order religion that promised followers they could "literally and actually speak to God" through the power of positive affirmation. What began as a bold advertising gambit during the depths of the Great Depression grew into a phenomenon that reached 67 countries, employed over 100 people, and made Moscow's post office relocate to handle up to 60,000 pieces of mail per day. Robinson's "Now God" philosophy rejected traditional concepts of heaven, hell, and salvation, instead teaching that divine power existed in the present moment and could be channeled through mental affirmation to solve immediate problems, from financial struggles to health issues. His 20-lesson correspondence course, costing between $20 and $40, attracted desperate followers seeking hope during America's darkest economic crisis, including high-profile adherents like convicted kidnapper Bruno Hauptmann and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. But Robinson's success came with fierce opposition from local religious groups who vandalized his property, challenged his immigration status, and labeled him a "mail-order prophet." Despite legal battles, threats, and controversy, Psychiana thrived through World War II before finally declining after Robinson's death in 1948, leaving behind a fascinating chapter in American religious history that reveals both the power of hope and the dangers of exploitation during times of crisis.

Timeline of Events

1886-1889: Frank Bruce Robinson born (claimed New York; brother said England), creating later immigration controversy
1925: Robinson begins formulating ideas for new religion while living in Portland, Oregon
1928: Robinson relocates to Moscow, Idaho, to develop his religious philosophy with more writing time
1929: Psychiana officially founded from Robinson's Idaho home with $2,500 investment ($46,000 today)
1929 (First Year): Movement reaches 67 countries with 36,000 followers; first ad generates $23,000 profit
1933: Robinson purchases printing press to cut costs at $2,000/month, angering local printer George Lampfer
1930s: Movement employs 100+ people, becoming largest private employer in Latah County, Idaho
1944: Follower testimonials claim miraculous recoveries, including restored hearing
1948: Frank Robinson dies; son Alfred attempts to continue movement
Post-1948: Movement declines due to increased postage rates and reduced public interest

During this period, America experienced the Great Depression (1929-1939) and World War II (1939-1945), creating desperate conditions that fueled demand for Robinson's messages of hope and empowerment.

Historical Significance

The Psychiana movement represents a uniquely American phenomenon where entrepreneurial innovation, spiritual seeking, and economic desperation converged during one of the nation's most challenging eras. Robinson's mail-order religion pioneered what would later be recognized as the positive thinking movement and prosperity gospel, ideas that continue to influence American spirituality today. The movement's success reveals how economic crisis creates vulnerability to charismatic leaders offering simple solutions to complex problems, a pattern that has repeated throughout American history. Psychiana's ability to thrive during both the Great Depression and World War II demonstrates the enduring human need for hope during times of uncertainty, regardless of the source. The movement's international reach, spanning 67 countries from a small Idaho college town, showcases how modern communication technology (in this case, the postal system) could democratize religious movements and create new forms of spiritual community that transcended traditional geographic boundaries. Robinson's legacy remains contested: some view him as an opportunistic exploiter who preyed on desperate people, while others see him as a genuine religious innovator who provided comfort and meaning during difficult times. The story raises enduring questions about the relationship between faith and reason, the ethics of religious entrepreneurship, and the responsibility of spiritual leaders to their followers.

Sources & Further Reading

University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives (Psychiana Collection)
Idaho State Historical Society records on Frank Robinson and Psychiana movement
Contemporary newspaper accounts from The Moscow Post and regional publications (1929-1948)
Academic research on American new religious movements and Great Depression-era spirituality
Historical documentation of mail-order religious movements in early 20th century America

Looking for more forgotten stories from America's past? Subscribe to Hometown History for weekly explorations of the surprising events that shaped small-town America.v

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New York's Greatest Mystery: Judge Crater's Vanishing

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000

New York City, New York. You have probably heard the phrase, to pull a crater, but do where it comes from? It basically means to disappear, and it originated from one of the most infamous disappearances in American history. explore the disappearance of Judge Crater, a case of how a man simply vanished from the face of the earth, leaving behind a mystery that has puzzled everyone for decades.

TIMELINE
1889: Joseph Forrest Crater was born on January 5, 1889, in Easton, Pennsylvania.
1930: In April of 1930, Franklin Roosevelt, who was the governor of New York at the time, appointed Crater as Justice of the New York Supreme Court for New York County.
2005: Another theory emerged in 2005, when Stella Ferrucci-Good, a New Yorker, died and left behind notes claiming her husband knew what happened to Crater.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of New York City is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 159 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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How a Telegraph Cable Launched Tiffany & Co. to Fame

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 02:35:18 +0000

New York City, New York. There are times when global change can impact you in ways you did not expect. Think about how the internet completely revolutionized the way we communicate, shop, and even find love. Or how the smartphone put the world at our fingertips, changing our daily lives in ways we couldn't have imagined. Or recently, how the COVID-19 pandemic changed how we work. These are things you have experienced firsthand, so what it feels like.

TIMELINE
1812: For context, Charles was born into a Connecticut cotton mill family on February 15, 1812, which meant he had zero formal business education.
1837: When Charles Louis Tiffany founded his store in 1837, it was considered a haven for affluent New Yorkers.
1854: Field became intrigued by telegraphy after meeting electrical engineer Frederick Newton Gisborne in 1854.
1858: The last decipherable message was sent on September 1, 1858.
1971: Tiffany's market insight was actually spot on, as recounted in Joseph Perlette's 1971 book, The Tiffany Touch.
1974: Later, in 1974, George McGowan of Lake George, New York, found nearly 40 crates of souvenirs, each containing a hundred pieces.

Episode 158 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Indiana's Ambrose Bierce: The Writer Who Vanished in Mexico, 1913

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Portland, Indiana. It's one of the great literary mysteries in America. My view is that it will remain a tantalizing mystery. These were the words of Don Swain, author of The Assassination of Ambrose Beers, A Love Story. And it is the perfect way to start today's episode. Today, we will be exploring the case of Ambrose Beers, a renowned writer who just vanished without a trace. His last letter hinted he was off to somewhere unknown.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Portland is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 157 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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White Sulphur Springs: Project Greek Island's Secret Congressional Bunker

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 04:00:00 +0000

White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Here on Hometown History, we've covered our fair share of government projects and cover-ups. Governments are known for their secrets. From covert operations to hidden facilities, they usually keep their most important plans out of public sight. Think about Area 51, long rumored to be the site of UFO research, or the secretive Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. It's almost like an open secret. We know they exist, but we don't know everything.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of White Sulphur Springs is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 156 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 178 (Gauley Bridge, West Virginia)

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San Francisco's Great Diamond Hoax of 1872

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 04:00:00 +0000

San Francisco, California. When someone shares a secret, it rarely stays quiet. Just like a game of telephone, each person adds their own little extra detail, and the story grows bigger and more exciting with each new version. That is pretty much how rumors work, and it's exactly what happened in this case, too. Back in 1872, a whispered hint about diamonds, hidden somewhere in the American wilderness, started small.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of San Francisco is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 155 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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Homestead, Florida: The Coral Castle Mystery

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Homestead, Florida. Hidden away in the sunny shores of Florida lies a structure that is both an architectural wander and a mysterious legend. And as you would expect from my episodes, the story behind it is as curious as the structure itself. In today's episode, we are exploring the mystery of the Coral Castle, a castle that was built single-handedly by a man using nothing but homemade tools.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Homestead is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 154 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Paul Revere: Boston's Revolutionary Propagandist

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Boston, Massachusetts. The British are coming. A cold spring night, a lone rider, and a warning. The rider pushed through the darkness of the night, alerting people of the imminent danger that was about to hit them, and stirring them to action just as the colonies were about to fight for independence. This rider was Paul Revere, a folk hero of the American Revolution, but also the founding father of propaganda.

TIMELINE
1735: Paul Revere was born on January 1, 1735, in Boston, Massachusetts, which was part of the British Massachusetts Bay Colony at the time.
1763: By 1763, the French and Indian War had ended, leading to major changes and British policies toward the American colonies.
1770: In 1770, tensions between the British and the colonists turned violent.
1773: After this, from 1773 to 1775, Paul made several trips between Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, spreading news and gathering support for the cause.
1775: In April 1775, British troops planned to seize colonial gunpowder stored in Concord, Massachusetts.
1801: In 1801, Revere opened North America's first copper rolling mill, producing rolled copper sheets essential for standardized products like shipbuilding bolts and naval ship sheathing.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Boston is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 153 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 179 (Gay Head, Massachusetts)

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Cleveland's Mad Butcher: The Unsolved Torso Murders

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Cleveland, Ohio. A fog-laden Kingsbury run, in the air thick with mystery as the city of Cleveland sleeps unknowingly. It's here, in this shadowy gully, that a gruesome discovery was made, one that would start a series of horrifying finds. Today's episode takes us to the year 1934, when Cleveland was at the center of a series of brutal killings.

TIMELINE
1934: The first discovery was made on September 5th, 1934, on the shores of Lake Erie.
1935: Even though there was a long cooling off period after this, another discovery was made a year later on September 23rd, 1935.
1936: Later, on June 5th, 1936, the severed head of an unidentified male was found wrapped in trousers in Kingsbury Run.
1938: By May 1938, the official count reached 11, when parts of an unidentified woman were pulled from the Cuyahoga River.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Cleveland is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 152 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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America's Secret Societies: The Benevolent Brotherhood

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 13:07:00 +0000

New Haven, Connecticut. Secrets. Secret societies get a bad rap, and with good reason. We don't know much about them, but what we do know isn't good. Stealing bodies, manipulating the government, worshipping Satan, the creepiest and most unconventional things you can think of. Just the words, secret society, makes your imagination run wild, with the worst possible outcomes. And while it may be true in some cases, not all secret societies work like that.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of New Haven is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 151 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 190 (Hazardville, Connecticut)

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America's Japanese Internment After Pearl Harbor

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 14:40:00 +0000

San Francisco, California. Some chapters in history really expose the ugly impacts of war on individuals and communities. Of course, soldiers and their families suffer. But besides that, there are long-lasting impacts that carry through generations. These stories show us how a single incident or a single action can change the lives of countless people. Overnight. And one such chapter takes us back to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Episode 150 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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America's Youngest Serial Killer: Jesse Pomeroy

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Boston, Massachusetts. Childhood. It's often painted as a time of joy, simplicity, and innocence. A sacred period that should be free from the world's darker realities. Yet there are times when this very innocence becomes the mask for something deeply sinister. Today's episode is about one such case. A series of chilling events that would not only shock the community, but also capture the attention of an entire nation.

TIMELINE
1859: Born in 1859 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, Jesse Harding Pomeroy was the second child in a seemingly ordinary family.
1872: In 1872, in the neighborhood of Charlestown in Chelsea, Massachusetts, local children started to report terrifying encounters with someone who to their disbelief was just a child himself.
1876: Eventually, after two years and three votes, Jesse's sentence was changed to life in solitary confinement, and he was imprisoned in Massachusetts state prison on September 7, 1876.
1929: Later in 1929, Jesse was moved to the state prison farm in Bridgewater, Massachusetts to live out his final years.

Episode 149 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 179 (Gay Head, Massachusetts)

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When Paradise Becomes Prison: The Rat Utopia Experiment

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Bethesda, Maryland. Utopia. It's a world we dream of. Everything's peaceful and harmonious. Every single need is met. It is perfect until it isn't. Sometimes paradise isn't quite what it seems. And beneath its surface lies the darkness. A storm that's brewing. see what happens when paradise turns into chaos. When perfection gives way to disorder and harmony crumbles.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Bethesda is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 148 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The USS Cyclops: America's Greatest Naval Mystery

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Norfolk, Virginia. Weather fair, all well. This was the last message ever received from the largest vessel of the U.S. Navy at the time. And then, with all her crew and cargo, it disappeared without sending a single distress signal. This is the story of the USS Cyclops. A mystery that has puzzled sailors, historians, and explorers for a century now. Let's see if we can figure it out. The USS Cyclops had an elaborate career. With all the missions she participated in.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Norfolk is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 147 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Hydesville, New York. It is the mid-19th century, and the world is buzzing with the Industrial Revolution. Factories are being built all around us. Railway networks are expanding, and innovations like the steam engine are forever changing how goods are made and moved. And during all this growth in a small, seemingly unremarkable cabin in Hydesville, New York, something insane and extraordinary is about to happen.

TIMELINE
1847: On December 11, 1847, John and Margaret Fox moved into a new house, along with their daughters, Margarita, Maggie Fox, and Catherine, Kate Fox.
1848: By the end of March 1848, around four months after they started living there, the family began hearing sounds that were just plain weird.
1888: In 1888 at the New York Academy of Music Maggie exposed the mechanics of their raps denouncing spiritualism and implicating Leah and the deceit and with that came a rather complex fallout.
1904: One such debate started in 1904 and some bones were found in the cellar of the Fox family home in Hydesville, New York just as Kate and Maggie had claimed during their very first acts.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Hydesville is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 146 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Three Forgotten Wholesome Stories from America

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 01:14:00 +0000

Various, USA. We've discussed many stories on this show, some of them gory, some horrifying, some scandalous and some sad. But I want to remind you that our past is not all bad. We've got some wholesome moments too. And today I want to tell you some stories that really reflect that. , where today we're doing something a little different.

TIMELINE
1774: Born in Massachusetts in 1774, Johnny didn't stay put for long.
1865: The concept of the statue emerged in 1865 when French historian and abolitionist Edward de Labulee suggested creating a monument.
1885: On June 17, 1885, a French ship, the Isère, arrived in New York Harbor.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Various is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 145 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Night Doctors: American Medical Terror

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Tuskegee, Alabama. As history enthusiasts, we've all explored folklore at some point or another, and among these stories are some that seem so bizarre, they couldn't possibly be true. But as we've seen on this podcast, the wildest stories have an uncomfortable amount of truth in them. In today's episode, we're going to learn about what sounds like a scary bedtime story, but was a real and true horror in American history. This is the legend of the Night Doctors.

TIMELINE
1880: Back in 1880, over 40 bodies were snatched from Oakwood Cemetery and shipped up north to various medical schools.
1910: Around 6 million African-Americans migrated from the rural southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West between 1910 and 1970.
1932: One significant event that contributed to the contribution of this fear was the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, which ran from 1932 to 1972.
1989: For example, in 1989, workers were excavating the old Medical College of Georgia, and they found over 9,000 bones, 80% of which belonged to African-Americans.
2017: In 2017, protests started over a statue honoring Dr. J. Marion Sims, who is a controversial figure in American medical history.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Tuskegee is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 144 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Hollywood Blacklist: When Fear Silenced the Stars

Mon, 27 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Hollywood, California. Paranoia. That's the theme of today's episode. It's just like wildfire, spreading instantly and consuming everything in its path. You might have experienced how even the smallest doubt in your mind can make you question everyone and everything. And it never stays to just one person. It spreads, and suddenly everyone has that doubt, that nagging thought. Like I said, it's just like wildfire. And speaking of flames, let's see the one that turned Hollywood upside down. Welcome back, friend.

TIMELINE
1952: The peak of this mess would now come with the start of 1952.
1954: After that, Elia Kazan and Bug Schulberg collaborated with On the Waterfront in 1954, a film often seen as justifying their decision to cooperate with authorities.
1966: Lillian Hellman, a playwright who worked on many movies, was on their list, and she couldn't find work in Hollywood until 1966.
2011: For example, in 2011, Trumbo finally received full credit for his screenplay for Roman Holiday, nearly 60 years after it was made.

Episode 143 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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Lewis Howard Latimer: The Genius Behind Edison's Bulb

Mon, 20 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

New York City, New York. We often see some names linger in the shadows of history, hardly making it into the limelight, but quietly crafting the world we live in today. And one such name is Lewis Howard Latimer, a name you might not have heard much, but there is no doubt about the mark his contributions have left. Latimer worked with some of the greatest inventors in history, but never actually properly credited for his work.

TIMELINE
1857: George Latimer vanished after the Dred Scott decision in 1857, a dark period when the Supreme Court ruled that an enslaved man could not sue for his freedom.
1874: The first patent he received was on February 10, 1874, when the U.S. Patent Office granted Latimer and fellow inventor, Charles M. Brown, patent number 147,363, for the design of a toilet.
1876: Latimer took the responsibility seriously, dedicating long hours into the night on February 14th, on February 14th, 1876.
1890: By 1890, Latimer's skills caught the eye of none other than Thomas Edison himself.
1903: Later, in 1903, the Latimer family purchased a house in the mostly white neighborhood of Flushing, Queens.
1922: Latimer then served as Hammer's patent consultant until 1922, when declining health forced his retirement at the age of 74.

Episode 142 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Hollywood's Scandal That Created Movie Censorship

Mon, 13 May 2024 19:02:00 +0000

Hollywood, California. The Roaring Twenties was a time of glamour, gossip, and a scandal that rocked Hollywood. A scandal marked by its tragic and sensational nature. It not only revealed the shady side of Hollywood, but also made people think about the necessity of movie censorship. be exploring one of the most scandalous events in Hollywood history, the Fatty Arbuckle scandal of the 1920s.

TIMELINE
1887: Born on March 24, 1887, in Smith Center, Kansas, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle had a tough start in life.
1921: On Labor Day, September 5th, 1921, Arbuckle decided to take a break from his busy film schedule and headed to San Francisco with his friends Lowell Sherman and Fred Fishback.
1922: The second trial started on January 11th, 1922 with the new jury with the same legal teams and judge.
1932: In 1932 Warner Brothers offered him a chance to star in comedy shorts marking his return to the screen under his own name.
1933: In 1933 a decade after the scandal Arbuckle suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 46 ending a chaotic chapter in Hollywood history.

Episode 141 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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How Charles Brush Illuminated a City and Changed America Forever

Mon, 06 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Cleveland, Ohio. From the flickering flames of ancient torches, to the gas lamps of the 1800s, humanity has always sought ways to banish the darkness that covers our nights. The 1800s was a time when electricity was a new and mysterious force, and people were still trying to figure out a way to use its power. And this is where an idea was born, one that led to the dream of a future in the glow of electric light. And this was even before Thomas Edison's invention of the lightbulb.

TIMELINE
1802: Now, in 1802, the esteemed Humphrey Davy conducted some experiments at the Royal Institution, creating the most potent electrical battery known at the time.
1867: With his uncle's encouragement, Brush chose the University of Michigan for his higher education, enrolling in the fall of 1867 to study mining engineering.
1876: In 1876, Brush started a new project and ended up securing support from the Wedding Supply Company in Cleveland to design his dynamo.
1879: In 1879, Brush's experiment to light a Cleveland park with arc lighting was a success.
1880: In 1880, Brush traveled to Wabash, Indiana, and was contracted to install a free two-week experiment to light the entire town.
1889: In 1889, Brush Electric Company, a company he started in the year he earned his PhD, was acquired by Thompson-Houston Electric Company.

Episode 140 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Chicago's Haymarket Affair: The Bloody Birth of May Day

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Chicago, Illinois. May Day is a pretty big deal in Europe. And you may have seen the colorful parades and the banners. May Day is all about workers' rights, equality, and social justice. Most of us know that the day exists. But do we really know the truth about May Day? The reason it is celebrated each year. To uncover the truth, we need to step back in time. Our journey begins in the late 19th century, a time period marked by significant social and industrial changes.

TIMELINE
1882: Eventually, between 1882 and 1886, when things had slowed down economically, socialist and anarchist groups became quite active.
1884: The Knights of Labor, a group that didn't support socialism, but did back the idea of an eight-hour workday, grew from 70,000 members in 1884 to over 700,000 by 1886.
1886: As May 1st, 1886 approached, when the demand for an eight-hour workday was just about to become standard, labor unions in the U.S. geared up for a massive general strike.
1889: Now in 1889, AFL President Samuel Gompers informed the World Socialists about their plans and proposed an international fight for a universal eight-hour workday.
1890: By May 1st, 1890, workers agreed to strike for an eight-hour workday.
1893: On June 26th, 1893, the governor, who was himself an immigrant of Germany, decided to pardon Fielden, Neeb, and Schwab, the remaining of the accused.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Chicago is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 139 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 170 (Ottawa, Illinois)

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The Philadelphia Experiment: WWII's Invisibility Hoax

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A stormy night, a top-secret experiment, and a naval destroyer with the power to become invisible. Some mysteries were perhaps never meant to be solved. The disappearance of D.B. Cooper, the Bermuda Triangle, and the Malaysian Flight 370, to name a few. The longer we go without answers to these questions, the more time the public has to come up with conspiracy theories. And there are some truly incredible ones out there.

TIMELINE
1943: The year was 1943, a period overshadowed by the growing intensity of World War II.
1957: The story took an unexpected turn when in 1957, the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research received a package.
1965: In 1965, Vincent Gaddis explored the world of Fortiana with his book Invisible Horizons, True Mysteries of the Sea.
1978: Fast forward to 1978, George E. Simpson and Neil R. Berger, released the novel Thin Air.
1999: Later in April 1999, a reunion of Navy veterans who had served aboard USS Eldridge revealed to a Philadelphia newspaper that their ship had never made port in Philadelphia.
2012: Even as recently as 2012, a film based on the events of the Philadelphia Experiment was released.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Philadelphia is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 138 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 176 (Erie, Pennsylvania)

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The Battle of Alcatraz: Two Days of Violence

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

San Francisco, California. Alcatraz. We have always seen it portrayed as this mysterious, impenetrable fortress, like in The Rock with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, and even in video games like Call of Duty. But there is a lot more to this isolated island prison than meets the eye, or that you can even imagine for that matter.

Episode 137 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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Anne Bonny and Mary Read: Caribbean's Female Pirates

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Nassau, Bahamas. Now, when you hear the word pirate, you might imagine one of two things. Either Jack Sparrow, a swashbuckling hero who loves rum, but arguably not more than he loves the open sea. Or something more dangerous, like Somalian pirates who raid crews and cargo ships. The stories we hear and the movies we watch all paint a very specific picture of pirates. But there's much more to piracy, as evidenced by Anne Bonny and Mary Reed. Unlikely names for the real pirates of the Caribbean.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Nassau is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 136 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Grant's Whiskey Ring: The $3 Million Tax Fraud

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Washington, DC. After the Civil War in 1875, America seemed to be moving toward recovery from the trouble of the last few years. Still, hidden in the shadows, there was a plot brewing. A plot involving a secret society, a scandal, and barrels of whiskey. In today's episode, we are exploring an important chapter of U.S. history in the late 18th century, the Whiskey Ring of 1875. This takes us to the city of St.

TIMELINE
1869: In St. Louis, the ring's leader was Missouri revenue collector John McDonald, who was appointed by Ulysses Grant in 1869.
1875: In February 1875, George Fishback, owner of the St. Louis Democrat, proposed a solution.
1876: In June 1876 due to a political fallout.
1877: The Compromise of 1877, which is also known as the Wormley Agreement or the Bargain of 1877, was like an unspoken political arrangement in the United States.

Episode 135 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Dayton's Project Blue Book: The UFO Investigation

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 16:23:00 +0000

Dayton, Ohio. It's no secret, or at least I hope it isn't, that the government sometimes hides things from the general public. Whether it's a scandal or a dangerous secret that might jeopardize humanity, there's no end to the events we simply don't get told about in real time. And a shining example of this is Project Blue Book.

TIMELINE
1954: In March 1954, Captain Charles Hardin took the reins, but the 4,602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron was the main force behind most UFO investigations.
1955: In 1955, the Air Force forcefully shifted Blue Book's focus from investigating UFO reports to minimizing the number of unidentified UFO reports.
1958: Later, in 1958, Lt. Col. Robert Friend took command.
1966: In 1966, a series of UFO sightings triggered a congressional hearing by the House Committee on Armed Services.
2003: In April 2003, the U.S. Air Force stated that there were no immediate plans for official government UFO study programs.
2019: Fast forward to 2019, and Project Blue Book became the inspiration for a drama series airing on the History Channel, aptly titled Project Blue Book.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Dayton is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 134 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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San Jose's Mansion Built to Confuse Ghosts

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000

San Jose, California. , and today I have a bizarre one for you. Settle in, and by the time we're done, you will either book your tickets to tour this mansion, or never want to go within 100 feet of it. Lights flicker in the dead of night, casting eerie shadows on a mansion frozen in time. The air hangs heavy with an overworldly stillness, as if the very walls are holding their breath, concealing the mysteries within.

TIMELINE
1840: Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Wirt Winchester, was born around 1840 and lived a life of privilege.
1857: The venture initially struggled and went through reorganization, leading to the establishment of the New Haven Arms Company in 1857, with Oliver Winchester becoming a major investor.
1866: The Winchester Repeating Arms Company started in 1866 in New Haven, Connecticut, and was founded by Oliver Winchester, Sarah's father-in-law.
1881: Now, after her husband William's death in 1881, Sarah inherited a massive fortune of roughly $20 million and half of his weapons manufacturing company.
1896: After 1896, when there was no room left to expand, Sarah started adding floors.
1906: In 1906, part of the mansion suffered some damage after an earthquake.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of San Jose is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 133 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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The First Electric City Tour: Wabash, Indiana (1880)

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 19:14:00 +0000

On March 31, 1880, thousands of people gathered in Wabash, Indiana, holding their breath in complete darkness. At exactly 8 PM, four arc lights blazed to life on top of the courthouse, flooding the streets with brilliance equal to 3,000 candles. The crowd erupted in awe, some fell to their knees, others groaned in shock. Wabash had just become the world's first electrically-lighted city, and nothing would ever be the same.

But the arc lights were just the beginning. This small Indiana town on the Wabash & Erie Canal would go on to produce an extraordinary number of American innovations: Mark Honeywell's first home heating system, Loren Berry's Yellow Pages, the Costas Loop that made modern telecommunications possible, and even critical breakthroughs in the polio vaccine. Country music legend Crystal Gale grew up here, WWII poster girl Margie Stewart called it home, and one infamous elephant named Modoc terrorized downtown in 1942 searching for peanuts.

This is the story of how one Midwestern community's culture of curiosity lit up the world, literally and figuratively. From the canal era through World War II, discover why Wabash, Indiana earned its place as America's small-town innovation capital, and how the people who walked these streets changed your life in ways you never knew.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American history stories every week. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes:

The breathtaking moment Wabash became the world's first electrically-lighted city on March 31, 1880
Charles Brush's revolutionary arc lighting system that changed city life forever
Mark Honeywell's creation of America's first hot water home heating system
Crystal Gale's rise from Wabash to country music superstardom with "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue"
The day Modox the elephant escaped the circus and ransacked downtown for peanuts (1942)
Lorne Embarry's invention of the Yellow Pages and the democratization of information
How the Wabash & Erie Canal, North America's longest, transformed this frontier town
John P. Costas and the telecommunications breakthrough that makes your phone calls possible
Margie Stewart's role as the official WWII Army poster girl (94 million copies distributed)
The Treaty of Missinewa (1826) and a brief moment of peace at Paradise Spring
Howard A. Howe's crucial polio vaccine research that protected countless children

Key Figures:

Charles Brush - Inventor who revolutionized city lighting with arc light systems
Mark Honeywell - Pioneer of home heating and founder of Honeywell Corporation
Crystal Gale - Country music legend with 22 #1 hits and first to achieve platinum status
Modoc - 1,900-pound elephant who escaped and terrorized downtown
Loren Berry - "Mr. Yellow Pages," creator of the telephone directory empire
John P. Costas - Inventor of the Costas Loop for telecommunications
Margie Stewart - Official US Army poster girl during WWII
Howard A. Howe - Pioneering polio researcher at Johns Hopkins

Tags: Wabash Indiana, first electric city, 1880 history, Charles Brush, arc light, American innovation, local history, Midwest history, forgotten history, true story, Indiana history, Crystal Gale, Mark Honeywell, Yellow Pages, Loren Berry, polio vaccine, WWII poster girl, Margie Stewart, small town history, American inventors, canal era, telecommunications history

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: Welcome to the First Electric City 1:45 - March 31, 1880: The Night the Lights Came On 5:30 - Charles Brush and the Arc Light Revolution 8:45 - Mark Honeywell: Heating America's Homes 12:00 - Crystal Gale: From Wabash to Country Music Legend 16:15 - November 11, 1942: Modox the Elephant's Downtown Rampage 19:30 - Loren Berry and the Birth of the Yellow Pages 23:45 - The Wabash & Erie Canal: North America's Longest 26:00 - John P. Costas and the Phone Call That Changed Everything 28:45 - Margie Stewart: America's WWII Sweetheart 31:30 - Paradise Spring and the Treaty of Missinewa (1826) 34:15 - Howard A. Howe's Battle Against Polio 37:00 - Conclusion: A Legacy of Innovation

Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Baltimore's Underground Railroad Network

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Baltimore, Maryland. Before we begin, a quick disclaimer. This episode discusses historical events involving people who were enslaved and contains terms that reflect the period's language, including the names of institutions. These terms are not used derogatorily, but are presented for historical accuracy and context. A time when freedom was a distant dream, when heavy chains clinked louder than prayers, and people labored under the scorching sun, yearning for a glimpse of light in their fate.

TIMELINE
1526: The system began during the early years of European colonization, the Americas, dating back to 1526.
1776: From its beginning in 1776 until the year 1865, the practice of chattel slavery, which is the legal ownership of slaves, was rampant in the United States.
1793: Adding to the troubles, the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 tightened the reins, allowing slave owners to track down escapees, even in free states.
1847: In 1847, responding to the call of friends in the anti-slavery movement, Coffin moved southward to Cincinnati, where he operated a warehouse exclusively selling free labor goods.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Baltimore is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 132 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Roanoke Island: America's First Vanished Colony

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Roanoke Island, North Carolina. In the late 16th century, a group of English settlers landed on Roanoke Island, ready to start a new life in the New World. But soon they all vanished without a trace. Poof, gone. So, where did they go? And in today's episode, we're going to try to solve a mystery. The mystery of the lost colony of Roanoke. Let's rewind. The Roanoke colony was an attempt by Sir Walter Raleigh to establish the first ever permanent English settlement in America.

TIMELINE
1587: On October 16, 1587, the crew finally reached Smurwick on the west coast of Ireland, so White could make his journey down to Southampton.
1605: In the 1605 comedy play Eastward Ho, the lost colonists were humorously imagined to have intermarried with Native Americans, creating a whole country of English people.
1609: By 1609, rumors reached England that the Roanoke colonists had been massacred.
1937: During the years 1937 and 1941, a series of inscribed stones were discovered, apparently written by Eleanor Dare, the daughter of John White.
1998: In 1998, climatologist David W. Stahl and archaeologist Dennis B. Blanton conducted a significant study using bald cypress tree rings.
2019: Later in 2019, plans for further research in the Salmon Creek State Natural Area were announced, showing the continued interest in the matter.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Roanoke Island is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 131 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 200 (Bessemer City, North Carolina)

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The Scopes Monkey Trial: Evolution on Trial

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Dayton, Tennessee. We have heard some bizarre topics here on Hometown History, but this case grew into a national debate. The debate began back in the 1920s, and we still don't have an answer that everybody agrees on. In today's episode, we're looking at the Scopes Monkey Trial, which turns out to be a riveting case orchestrated by just three people in Dayton. The name is as intriguing as the case.

Episode 130 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Chicago's Crime of the Century: Leopold and Loeb

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Chicago, Illinois. Privilege, arrogance, notoriety. These words describe the essence of today's episode. In today's episode, we are looking at a dark and chilling chapter from America's history, involving incredibly intelligent young men who decided to use their intelligence for evil rather than good. This story takes us back to the year 1924.

TIMELINE
1904: Nathan Frudenthal Leopold Jr., born in the lap of privilege on November 19, 1904, in Chicago, was the product of a wealthy German-Jewish immigrant family.
1936: On January 28, 1936, Loeb was attacked by fellow inmate James Day, and he died soon after spending some time in the prison hospital.
1958: Later in 1958, Leopold's autobiography, titled Life Plus 99 Years, came out as a part of his campaign to win parole.

Episode 129 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 170 (Ottawa, Illinois)

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When Jacksonville, Florida Was Hollywood

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Jacksonville, Florida. Today I've got something quite unusual, something a majority of the world have no idea about. The movie-making capital of the world, as we know, is Hollywood, located in California, and it's become a reference point for the American film industry. And the people associated with it.

TIMELINE
1914: In 1914, Oliver Babe Hardy, a character who later became a part of the comedic film duo Laurel and Hardy, started his motion picture career in Jacksonville.
1917: Later, in 1917, the very first feature-length movie made in Technicolor, called The Golf Between, was filmed in Jacksonville.
1926: The most iconic movie to come out of Norman Studios was probably The Flying Ace, made in 1926.
1979: Later, in 1979, the governor of Florida, Bob Graham, created a politically favorable environment for the development of film and TV production.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Jacksonville is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 128 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 154 (Homestead, Florida)

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The Teapot Dome Scandal: When Oil Money Bought Washington

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Washington, DC. Welcome back to Hometown History. It's no surprise to anyone that sometimes government officials are corrupt, but this scandal will still manage to shock you. This story involves national security, oil companies, and, of course, corruption at the highest levels of the U.S. government. This is the Teapot Dome Scandal. The Teapot Dome Scandal was a major event in American history, unfolding during the 1920s.

TIMELINE
1909: The thing here was that the Navy had been converting coal-powered ships to oil-powered ones since 1909.
1920: In 1920, Senator Warren G. Harding won a long-shot bid for the White House with the financial support of some powerful friends, who were promised oil-friendly cabinet picks for their oil money.
1922: By April 1922, rumors began surfacing that a shady deal relating to these oil sites had gone down.
1923: In January of 1923, Albert Fall resigned as interior secretary, apparently to spend time on his recently purchased ranch in New Mexico.
1929: Albert Fall was eventually convicted of accepting a bribe from Doheny in the fall of 1929.

Episode 127 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Kentucky Meat Shower Mystery

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0000

On March 3, 1876, Mary Crouch was making soap outside her Bath County, Kentucky home when something impossible happened: chunks of meat began falling from a clear sky. This wasn't rain or hail, witnesses described it as pieces of flesh, roughly two inches square, covering an acre of land and clinging to fences like grotesque decorations. Locals tasted it. Scientists analyzed it. Newspapers from Scientific American to the New York Times investigated. Some samples resembled lung tissue from horses or human infants. Others suggested muscle, cartilage, or bear meat.

The leading theory? Vultures flying at 20,000 feet regurgitated their meals, creating a meat shower that defied explanation. But this bizarre phenomenon wasn't isolated to Kentucky. Throughout history, from ancient Rome's blood rain in 183 BC to India's red rain in 2001 containing cells of possible cosmic origin, the skies have rained impossible things, milk, honey, wine, frogs, and yes, meat.

Join us as we examine one of history's strangest unsolved mysteries, explore the scientific theories that attempted to explain it, and discover why similar events continue to baffle investigators worldwide. From Victorian-era Bath County to modern-day Japan, the mystery of what falls from our skies remains as perplexing today as it was nearly 150 years ago.

Key Locations:

Bath County, Kentucky (primary event location, March 3, 1876)
Olympia Springs, Kentucky (nearby community response)
Newark Scientific Association (sample analysis)

Key Figures:

Mary and Allen Crouch (primary witnesses)
Leopold Brandus (scientist who examined samples)
Dr. Allen McLean Hamilton (tissue analysis)
Various locals who tasted the meat samples

Scientific Theories Explored:

- Vulture regurgitation (leading theory)

- Nostoc bacteria transformation

- Dried frog eggs theory

- Cosmic/meteor origins (Kerala parallel)

- Waterspout displacement (similar events)

Timeline:

- March 3, 1876: Meat shower occurs in Bath County, Kentucky

- March 1876: Scientific American and New York Times investigate

- March 12, 1876: London experiences red rain (9 days after Kentucky)

- Multiple historical parallels examined from 984 BC to 2022

Similar Historical Events Referenced:

- 461 BC: Italy meat shower (stayed fresh indefinitely)

- 183 BC: Rome's two-day blood rain

- 2001: Kerala, India red rain with potential cosmic cells

- 2009: Japan fish and frog rain

- 2022: Mexico bird rain

Sources & Further Reading:

- Scientific American (March 1876 coverage)

- The New York Times (March 1876 investigation)

- Medical Record journal (Dr. Hamilton's tissue analysis)

- Newark Scientific Association reports

- Kentucky Herald newspaper accounts

- Contemporary meteorological studies of similar phenomena

About Hometown History:

Hometown History uncovers forgotten stories from small-town America. Every week, we explore the mysteries, tragedies, and hidden histories that shaped American communities before the year 2000. Meticulously researched, compellingly told, and delivered with respect for the people and places that made these stories possible.

New episodes every Tuesday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

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Edith Wilson: America's Secret President

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 19:35:00 +0000

Washington, DC. In the pages of world history, all nations have seen the rise and fall of dynasties, the evolution of ideas, and the breaking of barriers. From Margaret Thatcher in Britain, to Angela Merkel in Germany, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, to Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, women have ascended to the highest seats of leadership. Proving that capability isn't confined to gender. But there remains one exception to the world stage, the United States of America.

TIMELINE
1872: Born in 1872, in Withville, Virginia, Edith Bolling Galt was destined to live a life intertwined with power and politics.
1908: Norman's untimely death in 1908 forced Edith to take over the jewelry business herself.
1919: The stroke he suffered in 1919 diminished his once powerful grasp over leadership, rendering him less capable of steering Senate negotiations.
1920: In March of 1920, Wilson returns to the ceremonial corridors of power.
1923: By 1923, time seems to be running out.

Episode 125 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Hannah Duston: Colonial America's Dark Heroine

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0000

In 1697, after Abenaki raiders killed her newborn infant before her eyes, Hannah Duston of Haverhill, Massachusetts became a captive, forced to march toward Canada. Days later, she killed ten of her captors, including six children, and escaped with their scalps. Colonial minister Cotton Mather transformed her story into a parable of Puritan righteousness, portraying her as a biblical hero striking down savages. But Hannah's tale didn't end there.

By the 1820s, as America expanded westward, her story resurfaced with new purpose. Literary figures like Nathaniel Hawthorne revisited her narrative just as the nation debated Native removal. Hannah became a symbol, the innocent white woman defending herself against monstrous attackers, justifying centuries of violence against indigenous peoples. In 1861, she became the first American woman honored with a public statue, her image wielding tomahawks and scalps like Columbia, the nation's Liberty Goddess.

This hidden page of American history reveals how one mother's trauma in colonial Massachusetts became the foundation for expansionist narratives that persisted through the Cold War, Vietnam, and beyond. Who decides the line between hero and villain? Join us as we examine the two faces of Hannah Duston and the dark legacy of America's founding mythology.

New episodes every Tuesday.

Episode Summary

Hannah Duston's story is one of the most morally complex tales in American history. In March 1697, during King William's War, a 40-year-old mother from Haverhill, Massachusetts witnessed her newborn child murdered by Abenaki raiders. Taken captive alongside her neighbor Mary Neff and an English boy named Samuel Lennorzen, Hannah was forced to march toward Canada. Days later, in a brutal act of revenge, she killed ten members of the Native family holding her, six of them children, and returned home with their scalps to claim a £50 bounty.

But this episode isn't just about one woman's violence. It's about how her story was weaponized across centuries to justify American expansion, Native removal, and international interventions. From Cotton Mather's 17th-century sermons to 19th-century statues to modern foreign policy, Hannah Duston's legacy reveals how selective storytelling shapes national identity.

Key Figures

Hannah Duston (1657-1736) - Haverhill, Massachusetts mother whose captivity and revenge killing became an American founding myth
Cotton Mather (1663-1728) - Puritan minister who wrote three versions of Hannah's story between 1697-1702, framing her as biblical heroine
Mary Neff - Hannah's neighbor, fellow captive, and accomplice in the killings
Samuel Lennorzen - English boy previously captured, taught Hannah and Mary how to wield tomahawks
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) - Literary figure who revisited Hannah's story during the 1820s-1830s era of westward expansion
Charles Goodrich - 1823 historian who depicted Native Americans as monsters in his retelling of captivity narratives

Timeline of Events

1657 - Hannah Emerson (later Duston) born in Haverhill, Massachusetts
March 15, 1697 - Abenaki raid on Haverhill; Hannah's newborn killed, she and Mary Neff taken captive
March 30, 1697 (approx.) - Hannah, Mary, and Samuel kill ten of their captors and escape by canoe
1697-1702 - Cotton Mather writes three versions of Hannah's story, establishing the heroic narrative
1820s-1830s - Story resurfaces during debates over Native removal and westward expansion
1823 - Charles Goodrich publishes sensationalized version depicting Native Americans as supernatural monsters
1850s - Increased westward expansion drives renewed commemoration
1861 - First statue erected in Haverhill, the first American woman honored with a public monument
1874 - Second statue built on island north of Concord, New Hampshire, depicting Hannah as Columbia-like figure with tomahawk and scalps
1890s - As Native American population reaches near-extinction, Hannah's story fades from prominence
20th-21st centuries - Legacy continues in American self-perception as righteous global guardian

Historical Context

This episode takes place during King William's War (1688-1697), part of a larger conflict between English colonists, French forces, and various Native American nations. Following the devastation of King Philip's War (1675-1678), which killed up to 80% of southern New England indigenous populations through violence, starvation, and slavery, surviving tribes allied with northern nations like the Abenaki. These alliances, supported by the French, raided English frontier settlements throughout the 1690s.

The broader context includes:

Colonial expansion into Native territories creating constant frontier violence
Captivity narratives as a popular literary genre used to demonize Native Americans
Puritan theology framing conflicts as spiritual battles between good (colonists) and evil (natives)
19th-century Manifest Destiny using historical narratives to justify westward expansion
Women's symbolism in American identity, Columbia as virtuous maiden, women as moral voice of the nation
Removal era (1830s-1850s) when Hannah's story was strategically revived to support forced Native relocation

Geographic Focus

Haverhill, Massachusetts - Colonial frontier town on the Merrimack River, approximately 30 miles north of Boston. In 1697, Haverhill was a vulnerable settlement on the edge of English territory, subject to frequent raids during King William's War. The town's strategic location made it a target for Abenaki forces allied with the French.

Route of Captivity: Hannah and fellow captives were marched northward toward Canada, likely following traditional Native routes along the Merrimack River valley. Her escape occurred somewhere in present-day New Hampshire before reaching the Canadian border.

Monument Locations:

Haverhill, Massachusetts (1861 statue, later repurposed for Civil War memorial)
Island north of Concord, New Hampshire (1874 statue still standing)

Sources & Further Reading

Cotton Mather Primary Sources

Decennium Luctuosum (1699) - First published account of Hannah Duston's captivity
Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) - Expanded version within larger New England history
These texts established the heroic narrative that shaped centuries of interpretation

Academic Analysis

The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity by Jill Lepore (1998)
Examines how colonial conflicts shaped American identity formation, including captivity narratives

Captivity Narratives & Women's Studies

The Unredeemed Captive by John Demos (1994)
Explores colonial captivity experiences and their lasting cultural impact

Native American Perspectives

Facing East from Indian Country by Daniel K. Richter (2001)
Provides indigenous perspectives on colonial encounters often missing from traditional narratives

Monument & Memory Studies

Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves by Kirk Savage (1997)
Analyzes American monument culture including Hannah Duston statues as first woman commemorated

19th Century Expansion Era

Historical society archives from Haverhill and Concord document the revival of Hannah's story during westward expansion
Contemporary newspaper accounts from 1820s-1860s show how her narrative was deployed politically

Modern Scholarship

Multiple academic articles examining how Hannah Duston's story functioned as propaganda across American history
Studies of how gender, violence, and national mythology intersect in her legacy

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The Met Museum's Dark History of Art Theft

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0000

It's the 19th century. New York City is blossoming. And amidst this growth, there's a buzz around a new institution that's popping up that will change the cultural landscape forever. Today, this institution sits on Fifth Avenue, hosting events like the Met Gala. Nestled on the edge of New York City's Central Park, this institution has become synonymous with art, culture, and history.

TIMELINE
1872: Since its inauguration in 1872, the Met's treasures had multiplied exponentially, and the Douglas Mansion, though regal in its own right, had grown weary and cramped under the weight of history.
1874: With the blueprint in hand, and the land awaiting its transformation, 1874 marked the commencement of a construction endeavor that would span six long years.
1880: On the crisp morning of March 30th, 1880, a monumental dream was realized.

Episode 123 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Secrets of the Met Museum: The Humble Beginnings

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 05:00:00 +0000

New York City, New York. December 11th, 1969, a date the Met Museum won't soon forget. The night was chillingly cold, with a thick fog rolling through the streets of New York City, obscuring the facade of the famous museum. Inside, the gallery stood silent and majestic, every piece of art exuding the aura of centuries gone by. Unknown to the guards and the visitors who had left for the day, a sinister plot was about to unravel, and one that would shake the very foundation of the institution.

TIMELINE
1870: Founded in 1870 and inaugurated at its present location in 1880, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art was a relatively late entrant compared to its European counterparts.
1948: The Met Museum has long displayed a 4,000-year-old Sumerian statue from Iraq, and it has been one of the centerpieces of the museum since 1948.
1969: December 11th, 1969, a date the Met Museum won't soon forget.
2011: In Italy, after a relentless investigation spanning a decade, a trove of 6,300 Greco-Roman artifacts were wrestled from his possession in 2011.
2012: While Hecht, who passed away in 2012 at age 92, was never convicted due to the expiration of the Statue of Limitations, he consistently refuted any role in illegal art transactions.
2023: In 2023, a total of 27 ancient relics, hailing from ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt, and valued at a staggering $13 million, were seized for the way they were acquired by the museum staff.

Episode 122 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Virginia Hall: America's Most Dangerous Spy

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 19:44:00 +0000

Baltimore, Maryland. In the darkest days of World War II, when entire nations were trapped in the clutches of brutal regimes, and the winds of despair howled through occupied streets, there was a light, a beacon of determination, courage, and hope. Her name was Virginia Hall, known only to a select few, but her exploits were the stuff of legends. Working tirelessly behind enemy lines, she became a symbol of resilience in the face of unimaginable adversity. This is the woman who won World War II.

TIMELINE
1906: Virginia Hall was born on April 6, 1906, in the city of Baltimore, Maryland.
1941: For example, Virginia's first stint in the SOE was when, in the dead of night in 1941, she was parachuted into Lyon, a region in France, and assigned the code name Marie.
1945: Just one year after her capture, in 1945, World War II ended with the surrender of Germany.
1966: In 1966, Virginia Hall retired from the CIA, closing a chapter on a life of service, bravery, and unyielding determination.

Episode 121 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Project Sunshine: America's Dark Secret

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 05:00:00 +0000

In the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a more sinister American program was brewing. Project Sunshine had an innocuous nameâ€"but between 1955 and 1970, the US government orchestrated a horrifying operation that would remain classified for decades. When rumors began to surface about "baby body snatching," most dismissed them as conspiracy theories. They were wrong.

Behind laboratory doors, American scientists were studying strontium-90, a radioactive isotope from atomic blasts that mimicked calcium and infiltrated bones. To understand its effects, they needed samplesâ€"untainted by environmental radioactivity. The solution was unthinkable: secretly obtaining the remains of deceased infants and children. From the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to bodies shipped from British hospitals, approximately 6,000 children became unwitting subjects in classified nuclear experiments.

The scale of deception was staggering. Documents stamped "top secret" revealed collaboration between US nuclear labs and Britain's Atomic Energy Authority. Nobel laureates instructed colleagues to "do a good job of body-snatching" for their country. Families like Jean Pritchard's discovered their infant daughter's body parts had been taken without permission. When President Clinton commissioned an investigation, the brutal truth emerged: corruption was the method, and children's bones were the currency of a Cold War-era betrayal.

Discover the truth behind Project Sunshineâ€"a conspiracy theory that proved all too real. New episodes every Tuesday. This is Episode 120 of Hometown History's "Secrets from WW2" series.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Between 1955 and 1970, the United States government conducted a classified program called Project Sunshine that secretly obtained the bodies of approximately 6,000 deceased infants and children for radiation experiments. Initially dismissed as conspiracy theory, declassified documents revealed a shocking collaboration between American nuclear scientists and British hospitals to study strontium-90's effects on human bones. This episode explores how government betrayal, institutional secrecy, and the pursuit of Cold War-era scientific advancement led to one of the most ethically disturbing programs in American history.

KEY EVENTS & TIMELINE

1945

August 6 & 9: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Concerns emerge about strontium-90 radioactive fallout effects

Early 1950s

Project Sunshine secretly initiated to study strontium-90 in human bones
Initial focus on obtaining remains from Hiroshima/Nagasaki victims

1955-1970

Peak operational period: ~6,000 bodies collected
British scientists at Harwell and Medical Research Council participate
Bodies obtained from UK hospitals including Central Middlesex Hospital
Samples also collected from Hong Kong, Cambridge, London, San Francisco
Nobel laureate Willard Libby instructs colleagues on "body-snatching" methods
Remains coded with impersonal designations (e.g., "Baby B-1102," "Baby B-595")

1970s

Project Sunshine officially ends as ethical standards shift
Most documentation sealed or destroyed
British government continues to deny involvement

1990s

President Bill Clinton commissions investigation
Declassified documents expose US-UK collaboration
Jean Pritchard and other families discover unauthorized body part removal
American Department of Energy releases partial documentation

KEY LOCATIONS

United States

Federal nuclear research laboratories (specific locations remain classified)
San Francisco collection sites

United Kingdom

Harwell nuclear research facility (primary UK coordination center)
Medical Research Council facilities
Central Middlesex Hospital, London
Royal Marston Hospital
Cambridge medical facilities

International

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan (initial victim remains)
Hong Kong (additional body part collection site)

KEY FIGURES & ORGANIZATIONS

Scientists & Officials

Willard Libby: Nobel Prize-winning chemist who coordinated body-snatching efforts, instructed colleagues that "human samples are of prime importance"

Organizations

UK Atomic Energy Authority (coordinated British participation)
Medical Research Council (facilitated hospital access)
US Department of Energy (released partial documentation in 1990s)
British nuclear industry (provided infrastructure and secrecy)

Families

Jean Pritchard: Mother whose infant daughter's legs were taken without permission; became advocate for victims after declassification

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The Night Witches: Soviet Women Who Terrorized the Nazis

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Moscow, Russia. It takes a special something to strike mortal fear into the hearts of Nazi German soldiers. To be deemed a witch by these forces is nothing short of an honor. An honor afforded to female pilots in the Soviet Air Force. They were hated and feared so much that any German pilot who managed to down their plane was automatically awarded the Iron Cross Medal, typically awarded for bravery in battle.

TIMELINE
1917: The year was 1917, and Russia had boldly declared legal equality for women.
1941: On October 8, 1941, Order Number 0099 heralded the creation of three new women's regiments.
1944: From August 1944 through May 1945, the women continued their operations over Poland, participated in the East Prussian Offensive, and assisted in the Vestula Odor Offensive.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Moscow is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 119 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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North Carolina's Forgotten Gold Rush of 1799

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 19:12:00 +0000

Charlotte, North Carolina. In the pages of American history, stories of gold, greed, and glory often cast their glimmering shadow. But before the famous California gold rush, a lesser-known, yet equally compelling chapter unfolded. A chapter ignited by a child's curiosity in a shiny rock found in the heart of North Carolina. So, the year is 1799 in the rolling countryside of North Carolina. There's a breeze. The birds are chirping. It's a storybook morning.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Charlotte is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 118 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 200 (Bessemer City, North Carolina)

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When Washington Poisoned Prohibition Alcoholv

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 13:02:00 +0000

Washington, DC. It's Christmas Eve, 1926. New York City was adorned with a sparkle of snow and a festive glow. Families gathered in their homes, and the streets were bright with carols and holiday cheer. But in the corridors of Bellevue Hospital, a nightmare was unfolding. A man stumbled through the doors. His face flushed, his eyes wide, with an unexplainable terror. He claimed that Santa Claus, not jolly and kind, but a sinister version wielding a baseball bat, was chasing him through the streets of New York.

TIMELINE
1893: Founded in 1893, the League masterfully played upon post-war prejudices, painting alcohol as an unpatriotic indulgence.
1921: Congress, sensing the growing crisis, acted with the Emergency Beer Bill of 1921, limiting the types of alcohol and alcohol content a physician could prescribe.
1926: In the darkened alleys of 1926 New York City, 585 people met their end.
1928: In 1928, Bix raised a glass in New York, unaware that he was toasting to his doom.
1933: In 1933, with a heavy heart and the weight of countless lives lost, the government repealed the 18th Amendment, ending prohibition.
2012: In the Czech Republic, methanol poisoning struck once again in 2012, leading the government to a desperate and fruitless attempt to ban alcoholic drinks.

Episode 117 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Sweet Success: Milton Hershey's Legacy of Generosity

Tue, 12 Sep 2023 20:14:00 +0000

Hershey, Pennsylvania. We all know the classic American story about the evil capitalist like Citizen Kane. He bullies his way to the top, crushes his rivals, and loses all human decency along the way. This story is the opposite of that story. This is the story of the good capitalist Milton S. Hershey of Hershey Candy Bar fame, who looked out for his employees and founded two thriving company towns, one in Pennsylvania and the other on the island of Cuba.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Hershey is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 116 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 176 (Erie, Pennsylvania)

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When Las Vegas Marketed Atomic Bomb Tests

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 15:20:00 +0000

Las Vegas, Nevada. How would you feel about pulling up a lawn chair to watch a nearby explosion of an atomic bomb? Believe it or not, this used to be common. When the U.S. government chose a nuclear testing site about 60 miles outside of Las Vegas, the city did what it did with just about everything else. It turned it into a marketing campaign. It used the proximity of these massive radioactive disasters to get more people to come to Vegas.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Las Vegas is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 115 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 91 (Reno, Nevada)

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Las Vegas: From Railroad Stop to Sin City

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 14:25:00 +0000

Today, you go anywhere and you say, ah, I'm from Las Vegas. Whoa, really? And yet, to this day, people will say, what hotel do you live in? Are you kidding me? You've got 3 million people living here. Are you kidding me? No. And yet, I've had that. I've had people say, you run a museum there? What is it? About poker chips or something? No, it's a museum. I run three museums, or I did. I was like, really? Yes. Three museums in five locations with a sixth outreach. Okay.

Episode 114 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 91 (Reno, Nevada)

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West Baden's Impossible Dome and Hidden Stories

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:00:00 +0000

West Baden Springs, Indiana. After my conversation with Jeff Lane at the West Baden Hotel, I went over to the French Lake Hotel to meet Dan Fracher for a tour of both campuses. Because I've already covered the general history of the West Baden Hotel in our interview with Jeff, I'll be focusing on some of the quirkier or more detailed parts of the West Baden story during that part of the tour.

TIMELINE
1893: Built in 1893, a two-story wooden oval track, one-third of a mile around.
1901: June 14, 1901, one o'clock in the morning, fire strikes, and the four-story wooden hotel is destroyed by fire.
1902: Hotel Literature 1902 boasts and brags about a mammoth brick fireplace that can hold a 14-foot log.
1929: October 1929, stock market crash, the death blow.
1971: 1971, the federal government banned the sale of Pluto water because it contains lithium carbonate.
1991: Winter of 1991, a few months shy of the property's 89th birthday, a 108-foot section of the hotel collapsed.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of West Baden Springs is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 113 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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West Baden's Forgotten Palace: The Eighth Wonder of the World

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 16:45:00 +0000

West Baden Springs, Indiana. When it was built in 1902, with the biggest free-span dome in the world, the West Baden Springs Hotel in southern Indiana was known as the eighth wonder of the world. About a month ago, in February of 2023, the travel site TripAdvisor named it one of the top five hotels in America.

TIMELINE
1901: To house all of this traffic and to meet the expectations of so many wealthy guests, both resorts were built around 1901 and are still thriving today.
1902: When it was built in 1902, with the biggest free-span dome in the world, the West Baden Springs Hotel in southern Indiana was known as the eighth wonder of the world.
1971: Actually, 1971 was the last year Pluto water was bottled because the chemists in the laboratories at the Pluto bottling plant were traces of lithium in the water.
1983: From 1983 to 1996, this property was basically vacant.
2023: About a month ago, in February of 2023, the travel site TripAdvisor named it one of the top five hotels in America.

Episode 112 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Gus Grissom and the Dawn of American Spaceflight

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 17:30:00 +0000

Mitchell, Indiana. The first man to walk on the moon died two years before he ever got there. Or at least, the man who was supposed to be the first. His name was Gus Grissom, and he is remembered today as one of the most skilled and yet unluckiest astronauts in the history of space travel. As a member of the Mercury Seven, also known as Astronaut Group One, Gus was among the elite of the elite.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Mitchell is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 111 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Baltimore's Clown Who Became a Historian

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 18:17:00 +0000

Baltimore, Maryland. I always tell people that I graduated from the hardest school to get into that was in existence in the United States at that time. They had statistically more people who would apply for clown college and certainly a much smaller pool of class than Harvard or Yale or any of the big Ivy League schools. So it was the hardest to get into. And I graduated from it. And then there I was, what? The Riemann Brothers Clown College.

Episode 110 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Terre Haute's Eva Kor: A Holocaust Survivor's Legacy

Sun, 18 Jun 2023 23:00:00 +0000

Terre Haute, Indiana. After leaving the Candles Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, Indiana, I mentioned our trip to a photographer friend of mine named Rodney Markison from nearby Bloomington. I was telling Rodney about a book I had purchased at the museum that was unlike anything I'd ever read. It was a biography of Eva Kaur, the founder of the Candles Museum, but it was illustrated in a way that reminded me of a black-and-white comic book.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Terre Haute is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 109 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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From Ashes: The CANDLES Museum's Story of Resilience

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Terre Haute, Indiana. I'm back with Troy Fears, Executive Director at Candles Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, Indiana. Twenty years ago, this museum was firebombed by a domestic terrorist. Today, it's stronger than ever, hosting thousands of visitors every year, including school groups and educational workshops. Candles educates people on the Holocaust, but more specifically, it educates people about Holocaust survivors. It takes this massive, horrific global story and makes it personal.

Episode 108 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Terre Haute's Holocaust Museum: Survival and Arson

Mon, 22 May 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Terre Haute, Indiana. I'm not sure what's going on. I'm not sure what's going on. I'm not sure what's going on. The fire was in the middle of the building. It took us about 35 to 40 minutes to bring the fire under control. On the north side of the building, the door had been knocked out prior to our arrival. At this time, the fire is under investigation. This museum was the life work of Eva Kaur, former victim of Auschwitz concentration camp, and of the so-called angel of death, Dr. Joseph Mengele.

Episode 107 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Florida's Unconquered: The Miccosukee Stand in the Everglades

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Everglades, Florida. To my knowledge, only one Native American tribe in history has never surrendered or capitulated to the U.S. government. The Seminole tribe of Florida, most specifically one Seminole tribe, the Mickezuki Indians, settled in the Everglades and held out until 1962, until they were legally acknowledged as a sovereign domestic dependent nation by the United States government.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Everglades is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 106 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 154 (Homestead, Florida)

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Bristol: The Twin Towns That Birthed Country Music

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Bristol, Tennessee. Last month I was driving through a small downtown in northeastern Tennessee and realized that my two left tires were directly on top of the state line. On my right side was still Tennessee, but on my left side was the state of Virginia. The yellow line was the borderline. It occurred to me that these shop owners on opposite side of the street were not only in two different states, but subject to different laws and taxation.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Bristol is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 105 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Brown County, Indiana: How T.C. Steele Created an American Art Colony

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Brown County, Indiana. The turning point in history of most hometowns is economic. A factory moves in, or an industry moves in, and then thousands or millions of people follow. This episode is the story of a county in southern Indiana that was changed not through industry, but through art. It's the story of one well-known painter named T.C. Steele and his wife Selma, and how they almost single-handedly changed the future of Brown County and nearly every town within it.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Brown County is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 104 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Washington State Gold Panning: Chasing the 1880s Rush in Modern Rivers

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Leavenworth, Washington. but as you guys get out i start to hear gunfire like of a shotgun yeah and i was just like guys do you guys hear that but by that point in time you guys had already been in this gold fever and you guys are so determined you're like yeah i'm sure it's fine i think it was some people up on the hill target shooting they were shooting handguns or something like that i don't think it was rifles i think it was handguns probably nine millimeter nine nine millimeter 45 one of the two i'm here today with.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Leavenworth is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 103 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 87 (San Juan Islands, Washington)

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Bean Blossom, Indiana: Inside Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Hall of Fame

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 15:35:00 +0000

Bean Blossom, Indiana. I'll never forget the morning you left me, a big mistake you called on. If you come back, sunshine will fall, if you stay away, you'll get my phone. Sweet heart of mine, can't you hear me call? A million times above you been mistreated you, Lord, and I'm sorry. Come back to me is my request. Standing in the center of a music museum in southern Indiana, I'd like to start this episode with a little bit of music trivia. I'll give you just a moment to think about each of these.

TIMELINE
1911: Bill Monroe was born in 1911, and he is considered the father of bluegrass.
1939: The Brown County Jamboree started in 1939.
1951: Now, Mr. Monroe bought this place in 1951.
1996: After Bill Monroe passed away in 1996, his personal collection of artifacts, along with his personal theater and camping venue, have been preserved by the local community.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Bean Blossom is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 102 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Spencer County, Indiana: How Lincoln's Boyhood Shaped a President

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Abraham Lincoln spent fourteen formative years in Spencer County, Indiana, from age seven to twenty-one, in a period that would profoundly shape the character of America's sixteenth president. Between 1816 and 1830, Lincoln transformed from a frontier boy into a self-educated young man on the banks of Little Pigeon Creek, learning the values of hard work, compassion, and justice that would define his presidency. This episode explores Lincoln's Indiana years through an exclusive interview with Ronda Shear, Superintendent of the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, revealing how life in a small log cabin, the devastating loss of his mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and exposure to the harsh realities of slavery during a trip to New Orleans forged the moral foundation of the Great Emancipator.

Unlike most presidents who came from established Eastern families, Lincoln was the first president born outside the original thirteen colonies, raised in what he described as an "unbroken wilderness." His father Thomas, a skilled carpenter and farmer, moved the family to Indiana seeking better land titles and freedom from slavery's economic competition. Young Abraham assisted with the brutal work of clearing forest and planting crops, yet his true passion lay in reading. He absorbed every book he could borrow, from George Washington's biography to Aesop's Fables, often reading by firelight in the family's cramped cabin. This self-education, combined with exposure to local lawyers during trips to the county seat of Rockport, planted the seeds of his legal ambitions. The episode reveals Lincoln's often-overlooked humanity: his compassion for animals that made him reluctant to hunt, his devastation at his sister Sarah's death during childbirth, and his lifelong humility about his "deficient" education. These experiences prepared him to empathize with others' suffering, a quality that would prove invaluable when writing letters of condolence to Civil War families.

Timeline of Events

December 1816: Lincoln family arrives in Spencer County, Indiana; Abraham is seven years old
October 1818: Nancy Hanks Lincoln dies of milk sickness at age thirty-four; Abraham is nine
December 1819: Thomas Lincoln remarries Sarah Bush Johnston, bringing her three children to share the cabin
1825-1826: Abraham operates a ferry boat on the Anderson and Ohio rivers near Troy, Indiana
1828: Lincoln travels to New Orleans by flatboat, witnesses his first slave auction
January 1828: Sister Sarah Lincoln Grigsby dies during childbirth at age twenty-one
March 1830: Lincoln family moves to Illinois; Abraham is twenty-one years old

The fourteen years in Indiana represented a quarter of Lincoln's entire life, during which the nation's future president developed the reading habit, legal curiosity, and moral convictions that would carry him to the White House and through the Civil War.

Historical Significance

Lincoln himself acknowledged the profound influence of his Indiana years, stating that "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother" Nancy, whose death shaped his capacity for empathy. The frontier experience taught him self-reliance and humility, qualities that made him approachable and effective as president. His exposure to diverse viewpoints in the Little Pigeon Creek community, combined with witnessing slavery's brutality firsthand in New Orleans, crystallized his moral opposition to the institution decades before the Civil War. Today, the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial preserves this critical chapter of presidential history on the original homestead site, including Nancy Hanks Lincoln's grave and a living historical farm that demonstrates 1820s frontier life. The memorial serves as a powerful reminder that America's greatest leader came not from privilege but from humble origins in rural Indiana, where character and curiosity mattered more than formal education.

Sources & Further Reading

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial (NPS): Visit the official National Park Service site at nps.gov/libo for visitor information, historical resources, and educational programs
"Abraham Lincoln's Wilderness Years" by Joshua Claybourn: Definitive scholarship on Lincoln's Indiana boyhood compiled from primary sources and neighbor interviews
Indiana Historical Bureau - Lincoln Collection: Comprehensive archives of Lincoln's Indiana years including original documents and period accounts at in.gov/history
"Abe's Youth" edited by Joshua Claybourn: Original essays and correspondence about Lincoln's formative years in Spencer County
Library of Congress - Lincoln Papers: Digital collection including Lincoln's autobiographical writings about his Indiana childhood at loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers

Explore more forgotten American history at Hometown History Podcast. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and discover the remarkable stories hidden in small towns across America.Abraham Lincoln spent fourteen formative years in Spencer County, Indiana, from age seven to twenty-one, in a period that would profoundly shape the character of America's sixteenth president. Between 1816 and 1830, Lincoln transformed from a frontier boy into a self-educated young man on the banks of Little Pigeon Creek, learning the values of hard work, compassion, and justice that would define his presidency. This episode explores Lincoln's Indiana years through an exclusive interview with Ronda Shear, Superintendent of the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, revealing how life in a small log cabin, the devastating loss of his mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and exposure to the harsh realities of slavery during a trip to New Orleans forged the moral foundation of the Great Emancipator.

Timeline of Events

December 1816: Lincoln family arrives in Spencer County, Indiana; Abraham is seven years old
October 1818: Nancy Hanks Lincoln dies of milk sickness at age thirty-four; Abraham is nine
December 1819: Thomas Lincoln remarries Sarah Bush Johnston, bringing her three children to share the cabin
1825-1826: Abraham operates a ferry boat on the Anderson and Ohio rivers near Troy, Indiana
1828: Lincoln travels to New Orleans by flatboat, witnesses his first slave auction
January 1828: Sister Sarah Lincoln Grigsby dies during childbirth at age twenty-one
March 1830: Lincoln family moves to Illinois; Abraham is twenty-one years old

Historical Significance

Sources & Further Reading

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial (NPS): Visit the official National Park Service site at nps.gov/libo for visitor information, historical resources, and educational programs
"Abraham Lincoln's Wilderness Years" by Joshua Claybourn: Definitive scholarship on Lincoln's Indiana boyhood compiled from primary sources and neighbor interviews
Indiana Historical Bureau - Lincoln Collection: Comprehensive archives of Lincoln's Indiana years including original documents and period accounts at in.gov/history
"Abe's Youth" edited by Joshua Claybourn: Original essays and correspondence about Lincoln's formative years in Spencer County
Library of Congress - Lincoln Papers: Digital collection including Lincoln's autobiographical writings about his Indiana childhood at loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers

Explore more forgotten American history at Hometown History Podcast. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and discover the remarkable stories hidden in small towns across America.

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Lincoln City, Indiana: Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood Years, 1816-1830

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0000

In December 1816, seven-year-old Abraham Lincoln stood at the edge of the Indiana wilderness, watching his father Thomas swing an axe into frozen timber. The family had left Kentucky behind, fleeing land disputes and the shadow of slavery, to carve out a new life along Little Pigeon Creek in what would become Spencer County, Indiana. For the next fourteen years, this remote frontier homestead would shape the boy who would become America's sixteenth president. But the path from boyhood to greatness was paved with profound loss, grinding poverty, and the kind of hardship that either breaks a person or forges them into something extraordinary.

This is Part 1 of our exploration of Lincoln's boyhood home, preserved today as the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. We trace the Lincoln family's migration from Kentucky to southern Indiana, their struggle to establish a farm in the wilderness, and the devastating milk sickness epidemic that would claim Abraham's mother Nancy in 1818. Through the landscape, the reconstructed cabin site, and Nancy's gravesite in the pioneer cemetery, we discover how these formative years in Indiana, years of loss, resilience, and quiet determination, shaped the character of the man who would one day preserve the Union.

Timeline of Events:

December 1816: Thomas Lincoln moves his family, wife Nancy, 9-year-old Sarah, and 7-year-old Abraham, from Kentucky to Little Pigeon Creek in southern Indiana (then Perry County, later Spencer County). Thomas builds a log cabin before winter, utilizing his exceptional carpentry skills.
1817: The Lincoln family clears land, plants crops, and establishes their homestead. Thomas's carpentry skills are in high demand as the frontier community grows. Abraham begins the grueling work of frontier farming that would shape his physical strength and character.
September-October 1818: Milk sickness epidemic devastates the Little Pigeon Creek settlement. The illness, caused by cattle consuming the poisonous white snakeroot plant, kills approximately half the community. Nancy's aunt and uncle, Elizabeth and Thomas Sparrow, die in September.
October 5, 1818: Nancy Hanks Lincoln dies of milk sickness at age 34. Nine-year-old Abraham helps his father construct her wooden coffin, whittling the pegs that hold the planks together. Eleven-year-old Sarah takes on household responsibilities, caring for Abraham and managing the cabin.
December 2, 1819: Thomas returns from Kentucky with his new wife, Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with three children. Sarah Bush Lincoln brings furniture, household goods, and, crucially, books to the Lincoln home, encouraging Abraham's education.
1820-1830: Abraham's education consists of sporadic attendance at subscription schools, totaling about one year of formal instruction. However, his voracious reading, fueled by his stepmother's encouragement, shapes his intellectual development. Books including Weems' Life of Washington, the Bible, Robinson Crusoe, and Aesop's Fables become his teachers.

Historical Significance:

The fourteen years Lincoln spent in Indiana, from age seven to twenty-one, represent perhaps the most formative period of his life. Here, he experienced profound loss with his mother's death, learned the value of hard work through frontier farming, developed his legendary physical strength by splitting rails and clearing land, and, most importantly, cultivated his intellectual curiosity through books. His stepmother Sarah Bush Johnston recognized something special in young Abraham, later saying, "I never gave him a cross word in all my life... His mind and mine seemed to run together."

The milk sickness that claimed Nancy Lincoln and decimated the Little Pigeon Creek community exposed young Abraham to the fragility of frontier life and the importance of medical knowledge, experiences that would later inform his presidency during a national crisis. The poverty and isolation of southern Indiana taught him empathy for common people, while the absence of slavery in Indiana (having entered the Union as a free state in 1816) reinforced his family's anti-slavery convictions that he'd first witnessed in Kentucky.

Today, the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial preserves 200 acres of the original Lincoln farm, including the pioneer cemetery where Nancy Hanks Lincoln rests. The site offers visitors a tangible connection to Lincoln's most formative years, a place where loss and learning, hardship and hope, combined to shape an American icon. In Part 2 of this series, we'll explore Lincoln's transition to manhood in Indiana, his sister Sarah's tragic death, and the family's eventual departure for Illinois in 1830.

Sources & Further Reading:

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial (National Park Service): https://www.nps.gov/libo
"Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood in Indiana 1816 to 1830" (NPS article)
Lincoln State Park, Spencer County, Indiana (includes Pigeon Creek Baptist Church and Sarah Lincoln Grigsby's gravesite)
Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln (Simon & Schuster, 1995) - Pulitzer Prize-winning biography
Warren, Louis A. Lincoln's Youth: Indiana Years, Seven to Twenty-One (Indiana Historical Society, 1991)

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West Columbia, South Carolina: The 1963 Champions' Field Reborn

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0000

West Columbia, South Carolina. I'm back with Benny Sultan, Reverend Charles Jackson, and Keller Kisham to discuss the legacy of the 1963 South Carolina State Championship football team. In the last episode, we looked at the amazing on-field success of this team, which outscored its opponents 526-27 over the course of the season. This episode, we're going to focus more on the legacy of that team and the way these three men have partnered to preserve it, while serving their community in new ways.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of West Columbia is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 99 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 181 (Edgefield, South Carolina)

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West Columbia, South Carolina: The Dust Bowl Champions of 1963

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 19:28:00 +0000

West Columbia, South Carolina. It looked like sand. It looked like dirt. Absolutely. , they referred to it as the dust bowl, even when they played football back then. At the other end, you saw some rusted, dilapidated fencing. I look at it like this. It was a big part of the community, but it was a yard that was in disrepair, and it needed people coming together. And I'm putting their hearts together, putting their souls together, and letting their sweat flow together.

Episode 98 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 181 (Edgefield, South Carolina)

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America's Utopian Communes: The Rise and Fall of Radical Communities

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0000

New Harmony, Indiana. Have you ever wanted to join a commune? Better yet, have you ever wanted to start a commune? Have you ever wondered how communes work, or how they feel, which they seem to inevitably do? If your answer is yes to any of those questions, this episode is for you. The founder of the Communal Studies Association, Dr. Donald Pitzer, is with me today. Dr. Pitzer also founded the Center for Communal Studies at the University of Southern Indiana, and wrote the book on America's communal utopias.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of New Harmony is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 97 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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New Harmony, Indiana: Robert Owen's Utopian Community Experiment (1825-1827)

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0000

In January 1825, Welsh industrialist Robert Owen arrived in the small Indiana town that would become the epicenter of American utopian experimentation. Having purchased the entire community from George Rapp's Harmonie Society for $150,000, Owen envisioned transforming New Harmony into a model society based on cooperation, education, and equality. This ambitious social experiment attracted some of the brightest minds in early America and left a legacy that still influences Indiana today.

Owen brought unprecedented intellectual capital to the Indiana frontier. The famous "Boatload of Knowledge", a term Owen himself coined, delivered approximately 40 prominent scientists, educators, and reformers via the keelboat Philanthropist in January 1826. Among them was William Maclure, the "Father of American Geology," who implemented revolutionary Pestalozzian educational methods emphasizing hands-on learning over rote memorization. Naturalist Thomas Say, who captained the vessel, remained in New Harmony after the community dissolved, continuing his groundbreaking work in entomology. The intellectual atmosphere also attracted reformer Frances Wright, who visited the community multiple times and later co-edited the New Harmony Gazette with Owen's son Robert Dale Owen. Wright simultaneously operated her own experimental community, Nashoba, in Tennessee.

The daily reality of communal living proved far more challenging than Owen's theories suggested. On February 5, 1826, residents adopted the "Community of Equality" constitution, establishing shared property and collective decision-making. However, disagreements erupted over work distribution, resource allocation, and social organization. Some residents contributed minimal labor while expecting equal benefits. Others clashed over educational philosophy, religious practice, and governance structure. The idealism that drew nearly 1,000 residents to New Harmony couldn't overcome practical challenges of communal life.

By early 1827, Owen recognized the experiment's failure. He departed permanently in June 1827, returning to England where he became a leader in the British labor movement. The community dissolved over 1827-1829, with residents gradually departing or reorganizing into smaller groups. Yet Owen's brief experiment left an outsized impact on American education and culture.

Timeline of Events:

January 3, 1825 - Owen purchases New Harmony from Harmonie Society for $150,000
January 1826 - "Boatload of Knowledge" arrives with prominent intellectuals
February 5, 1826 - Community of Equality constitution adopted
1826 - Establishment of infant school, public schools open to boys and girls
March-June 1827 - Community recognized as failed; Owen departs for England
1827-1829 - Gradual dissolution of communal experiment
1838 - William Maclure establishes Working Men's Institute

Historical Significance:

New Harmony's educational innovations proved more enduring than its utopian governance. The community established the first public schools in the United States open to both boys and girls, predating Indiana's statewide public school system by decades. Maclure's infant school for children under five pioneered early childhood education in America. The community also created one of the country's first trade schools, the first civic drama club with written constitution and bylaws, and Indiana's first public library. The Working Men's Institute, established in 1838, remains operational today as Indiana's oldest continuously functioning public library, the only survivor of 144 Working Men's Institutes once scattered across Indiana and Illinois.

Owen's New Harmony experiment demonstrated both the promise and peril of utopian communities. While communal governance failed within two years, the educational and cultural institutions launched during those brief years influenced American society for generations. New Harmony proved that radical social experiments, even when they fail, can leave lasting legacies.

Sources & Further Reading:

New Harmony Working Men's Institute: workingmensinstitute.org
University of Southern Indiana Historic New Harmony Collections
Indiana Historical Society Archives
Pitzer, Donald E. "The Original Boatload of Knowledge Down the Ohio River"

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New Harmony, Indiana: The German Commune That Built and Sold a Town

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0000

New Harmony, Indiana. We're talking with Jennifer Green today, history professor at the University of Southern Indiana, and one of my all-time favorite guests. Jennifer also serves as the school's reference and archives librarian. I met Jennifer following a trip to a small town called New Harmony on the Indiana-Illinois border. New Harmony is without a doubt one of the strangest places I've ever been. Founded by a commune, constructed by that commune, and then sold to another commune, both of which ultimately failed.

Episode 95 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Wabash, Indiana: The 1826 Treaty That Prevented a Frontier War

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Wabash, Indiana. Long time listeners will know that I've been all over the country finding stories. From Florida to Washington State, from Texas to Minneapolis. All this time, there's been one at the end of my street. Literally, at the end of my street that I haven't covered. Two blocks from my office, a small circle of about a dozen log cabins marks the spot of an 1826 treaty between the Potawatomi and the Miami Indian Nations in the U.S. government.

Episode 94 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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San Francisco's North Beach: The Beat Generation's Bohemian Heart

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0000

San Francisco, California. last episode we sat down with Brandon at the Beat Museum in San Francisco to learn more about the Beat Movement and the way it forever changed the way Americans have thought about not only literature but life itself. we're going to be looking specifically at the relationship between this movement and the city of San Francisco which has been home to so many interesting people and scenes over the years.

Episode 93 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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San Francisco's Beat Museum: The 1950s Literary Rebellion

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0000

San Francisco, California. In high school, I read Jack Kerouac's novel, On the Road, like everybody else. Living in a small town outside Muncie, Indiana, Kerouac's sense of freedom and adventure appealed to me, as it has so many since its publication in 1957. So when we were in San Francisco this past spring, we stopped at the Beat Museum downtown to learn more about the movement Kerouac helped found a half-century ago.

Episode 92 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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Reno, Nevada: The Six-Week Divorce Capital of America

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Reno, Nevada. After our episode on The Conqueror's Curse, I invited Richard Marino back to the studio to talk more about the history of the city of Reno. In that earlier episode, we discussed the ill-fated Howard Hughes film, The Conqueror, that resulted in the eventual deaths of more than 30% of its cast and crew. Before visiting Reno this spring, my only exposure to this city had been the TV show Reno 911, so I was basically expecting a giant trailer park.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Reno is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 91 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 89 (Virginia City, Nevada)

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St. George, Utah: Hollywood's Deadliest Film Set

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0000

St. George, Utah. Some would say the 1956 movie, The Conqueror, was cursed from the beginning. It had a terrible script, an unhappy crew, and a producer in Howard Hughes, who would soon lose his mind to an obsessive-compulsive disorder and any number of other unknown mental challenges. Within two years, he quit wearing clothes or cutting his nails and would eat only three different foods, chicken, chocolate, and milk.

TIMELINE
1953: According to Marino, in April and May of 1953, ranchers noticed burns on the skins, faces, and lips of sheep that had been eating grass, and later proved to be radioactive.
1956: Some would say the 1956 movie, The Conqueror, was cursed from the beginning.
1963: Director Dick Powell died in 1963 at age 59.
1979: The following year, John Wayne himself developed the lung cancer that would recur to the end of his life, before killing him in 1979.
1990: In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act into law, offering compensation for people affected by nuclear testing.
2018: As of April 20, 2018, 34,372 claims have been approved for a total of $2,243,205,380.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of St. George is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 90 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Virginia City, Nevada: The Underground Tunnels Beneath the Silver Boom

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0000

Virginia City, Nevada. This episode will be a little different in that I'll be taking you on a mine tour deep underground in Virginia City. This is the city where Mark Twain worked at a local paper in his younger years and became the writer we know and love today. It's also the location of one of the biggest silver strikes in history.

TIMELINE
1853: Between the years 1853 and 1880, 295 mining deaths have been reported.
1860: In 1860, Philip Deichenheimer, a German engineer, came over to Virginia City and he solved the cave-in problem by inventing square set timbering.
1872: Black powder blowing up people's minds about 1872.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Virginia City is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 89 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 91 (Reno, Nevada)

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Crescent City, California: Surviving Three Devastating Tsunamis

Sun, 11 Dec 2022 15:10:00 +0000

Crescent City, California. I love the atmosphere here. It reminds me of backroom storage rooms for investigation libraries. Oh, -huh. Yeah. That's what this is. This is our research room. We're sitting in the back room of the Del Norte County Historical Museum in Crescent City, California. Across from me at the table is Karen Beteljewski, and she's walking me through the ins and outs of the local archives. So is this where you keep, like, everything for the museum? Yeah, not everything.

TIMELINE
1700: The big tsunami was in 1700, January 26th.
1856: Battery Point was built in 1856.
1949: There was an incident in 1949, 1950, where they built their own harbor here.
1964: However, the 1964 tsunami was not the big tsunami.
2011: In the 2011 tsunami, there were a few things that floated ashore here on the West Coast.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Crescent City is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 88 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 81 (Death Valley, California)

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San Juan Islands, Washington: The Pig War's Diplomatic Resolution

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 22:05:00 +0000

San Juan Islands, Washington. When things go as well as they did during the Pig War, it can be easy to forget just how wrong they could have gone. I asked former Chief of Interpretation and historian for the San Juan Island National Historic Park, Mike Voorhees, how the Pig War might have ended otherwise. Any an incident, any a hot-headed incident, an American soldier shooting a British naval officer or one of the Royal Marines that was on the ship. But Silas Casey was the American commander on site.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of San Juan Islands is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 87 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 85 (Desolation Peak, Washington)

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San Juan Islands: The Pig War That Nearly Started a US-British Conflict

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 05:00:00 +0000

San Juan Islands, Washington. Have you ever had a fight with a family member over something stupid? Better yet, have you ever had that fight only to realize it wasn't so stupid after all? That behind that excuse for a fight was a real fight just waiting to be had? That's basically the story of the Pig War. Yes, the Pig War, which happened between the Pork and Beans War and the Fenian War, of course. And yes, those are all real wars. They all took place around the American border of modern-day Canada.

TIMELINE
1776: The United States had declared independence from Britain in 1776 and then fought an eight-year war against its former king.
1812: After the War of 1812, the border was set between the United States and the British possessions.
1839: The Pork and Beans War was a border dispute in the state of Maine involving Canadian and American lumberjacks feuding over jurisdiction in 1839.
1858: In 1858, gold was discovered in the Fraser River Valley of British Columbia.

Episode 86 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 87 (San Juan Islands, Washington)

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Desolation Peak, Washington: Jack Kerouac's 63 Days of Solitude

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 05:00:00 +0000

Desolation Peak, Washington. Great image of God with four finger pointed straight at me. Through halos and rolls and gold folds that were like the existence of the gleaming spear in his right hand would say it. Come on, boy, go thou across the ground. Go moan for man. Go moan. Go groan. Go groan alone. Go roll your bones alone. Go thou and be little beneath my sight. Go thou and be my new to seed in the pod. Go thou, go thou, die hence. And this world reports you well and truly.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Desolation Peak is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 85 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 87 (San Juan Islands, Washington)

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Crater Lake National Park: Oregon's Volcanic Wonder and America's Deepest Lake

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:33:00 +0000

In the volcanic highlands of southern Oregon lies Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States and one of the most pristine bodies of water on Earth. Formed approximately 7,700 years ago by the catastrophic eruption and collapse of Mount Mazama, Crater Lake's impossibly blue waters descend 1,949 feet into the caldera of an ancient volcano. For the Klamath people, who witnessed the mountain's violent transformation, the lake called Giiwas remains a sacred place where mythology and geology converge in a landscape shaped by fire, water, and time.

The Klamath tribes' oral traditions tell of a fierce battle between Llao, the spirit of the underworld dwelling beneath Mount Mazama, and Skell, the spirit of the sky. When Mount Mazama erupted with devastating force, the Klamath people watched as their sacred mountain collapsed into itself. Archaeological evidence confirms these oral histories, sandals and other artifacts have been found buried beneath layers of volcanic ash, proving that Indigenous peoples were present during the eruption that would reshape the landscape forever.

The lake remained largely unknown to Euro-American settlers until June 12, 1853, when prospector John Wesley Hillman stumbled upon its azure waters while searching for gold in Oregon's southern Cascades. Hillman initially called it "Deep Blue Lake," captivated by water so clear and so intensely blue it seemed almost supernatural. But it would take another thirty-two years before Crater Lake found its champion in William Gladstone Steel.

In 1885, Steel visited Crater Lake for the first time and immediately committed himself to protecting it. For seventeen years, he lobbied Congress tirelessly, organized scientific expeditions, and rallied public support for designating Crater Lake as a national park. His persistence finally paid off on May 22, 1902, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed legislation creating Crater Lake National Park, Oregon's only national park and one of America's earliest protected landscapes.

Timeline of Events:

c. 5677 BCE: Mount Mazama undergoes catastrophic eruption, witnessed by Indigenous peoples; caldera collapses creating what will become Crater Lake
June 12, 1853: John Wesley Hillman becomes first documented Euro-American to sight the lake during gold prospecting expedition
1886: U.S. Geological Survey conducts first scientific survey; geologist Clarence Dutton measures depth using piano wire and lead weight
1896: Geologist Joseph S. Diller first documents "Old Man of the Lake," a floating hemlock log that has been drifting vertically for over 120 years
May 22, 1902: President Theodore Roosevelt signs legislation establishing Crater Lake National Park after William Gladstone Steel's 17-year campaign

These events occurred during America's Progressive Era, when the national park idea was still revolutionary and when scientific understanding of volcanic processes was just beginning to develop.

Historical Significance:

Crater Lake represents a remarkable intersection of Indigenous oral tradition, geological science, and early conservation history. The Klamath tribes' detailed accounts of Mount Mazama's eruption demonstrate the extraordinary accuracy of oral traditions passed down through millennia, their stories match what geologists now understand about the volcanic event that created the caldera.

The park's creation in 1902 reflected the early 20th-century conservation movement's vision that America's natural wonders should be preserved for future generations. William Gladstone Steel's 17-year campaign exemplified the power of individual dedication in the face of governmental inertia, setting a precedent for grassroots environmental advocacy that continues today.

Scientifically, Crater Lake provides an unparalleled natural laboratory. Because no rivers flow in or out, the lake is fed entirely by rain and snowmelt, its waters are among the purest on Earth. This purity, combined with the lake's exceptional depth, creates the intense blue color that captivated John Wesley Hillman in 1853 and continues to mesmerize visitors today.

Sources & Further Reading:

U.S. Geological Survey - Crater Lake Volcanic History: Official geological research and eruption documentation https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/crater-lake
National Park Service - Crater Lake National Park: Park history, tribal connections, and visitor information https://www.nps.gov/crla
Crater Lake Institute: Research publications, historical documentation, and educational resources https://www.craterlakeinstitute.com
Oregon Encyclopedia - William Gladstone Steel: Detailed biography of Crater Lake's conservation champion https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/steel_william_1854_1934_/
Travel Oregon - The Creation of Crater Lake (Klamath Perspective): Tribal oral traditions and Indigenous history https://traveloregon.com/things-to-do/destinations/lakes-reservoirs/creation-crater-lake/

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Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps: Reviving a Green Legacy

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 05:00:00 +0000

Washington, DC. I know you could be anywhere else right now, so I'm glad you're here. Let's get started. The unsung heroes of America's park systems are the men of the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps, established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the height of the Great Depression. In 1932, American unemployment hit a record high of nearly 25 percent. That same year, FDR made the CCC a major part of his political platform.

Episode 83 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Lake Mead, Nevada: America's Largest Reservoir and Its Shrinking Future

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Lake Mead, Nevada. Off in the background of every National Park success story is another story of catastrophic failure. One giant, towering, cascading, cautionary tale. Our government was so willing to protect areas like Death Valley because we had already blown our one chance to protect the first great natural attraction America ever had, Niagara Falls.

TIMELINE
1833: In 1833, one visitor noted, The forest has everywhere yielded to the acts, museums, mills, staircases, tools, and grog shops, all the petty trickery of English resorts, greet the eye of the traveler.
1847: A few years later, in 1847, another complained, Now the neighborhood of the Great Wanderer is overrun.
1936: In 1936, the lake and the surrounding shoreline were placed under the management of the National Park Service, and the resulting public land was called Boulder Dam National Recreation Area.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Lake Mead is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 82 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 91 (Reno, Nevada)

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Holiday Crossover Special: A Nightmare Before Halloween, Part 2

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000

…1 campfire… …1 dark forest… …31 bone-chilling stories… …Will YOU survive the night? This Halloween season, enter the woods for a unique and truly epic podcast experience! Around the campfire Shane Waters will introduce 31 crime podcast hosts. Each host brings a new, nerve-wracking true story to the circle. It’s an extra special, two part, five-hour, Halloween event, but before hitting play you might want to ask yourself…can you really handle this much murder and mayhem? So, pull up to the fire and brace yourself for ‘A Nightmare Before Halloween’ …but be warned… …bad things happen in these woods…. Podcasts are listed here in order of appearance: In this Part 2 Episode: - True Crime Island [https://tinyurl.com/y6kk2npj] - Based on a True Story [https://tinyurl.com/37axzn5z] - The Asian Madness Podcast [https://tinyurl.com/yckkxbjn] - Sistas Who Kill [https://linktr.ee/Sistas.Who.Kill.Podcast] - Hometown History [https://link.chtbl.com/hometownhistory] - Coffee and Cases [https://linktr.ee/coffeeandcases] - Military Murder [https://tinyurl.com/yc5fxjyh] - Dystopian Simulation Radio [https://tinyurl.com/khpw786w] - Cults, Crimes & Cabernet [https://linktr.ee/cultscrimesandcabernet] - Morbidology [https://tinyurl.com/mshyvxyt] - Dark Pountine [https://tinyurl.com/ycydanm9] - Hillbilly Horror Stories [https://tinyurl.com/567vxrkz] - True Consequences [https://tinyurl.com/39fpfv3h] - Gone Cold [https://tinyurl.com/ytzxudt8] - Crime Stories with Nancy Grace & Crime Online [https://tinyurl.com/3dxp47wf] - True Crime IRL & True Crime Sleep Stories [https://tinyurl.com/ykzwmnxr] In the last Part 1 Episode: - Foul Play: Crime Series [https://link.chtbl.com/foulplay] - Murder She Told [https://tinyurl.com/55473exk] - Crime Salad [https://tinyurl.com/4pbtdtpc] - Crimelines [https://linktr.ee/crimelines] - Frightful [https://link.chtbl.com/frightful] - Reverie True Crime [https://linktr.ee/paigeelmore] - Rotten to the Core [https://link.chtbl.com/Rotten] - The Trail Went Cold [https://tinyurl.com/2zydj3y] - Once Upon A Crime [https://www.truecrimepodcast.com] - Criminology [https://tinyurl.com/yvuu9u8d] - The Peripheral & Generation Why [https://link.chtbl.com/ThePeripheral] - Live, Laugh, Larceny [https://linktr.ee/Live.Laugh.Larceny.Podcast] - The Hidden Staircase [https://link.chtbl.com/TheHiddenStaircase] - True Crime Cases with Lanie & It's Haunted...What Now? [https://linktr.ee/LanieHobbs] - Obscura: A True Crime Podcast & Disaster [https://link.chtbl.com/obscura] Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

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Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Death Valley, California: The Hottest Park and Scenic Nationalism

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 15:50:00 +0000

Death Valley, California. In 1820, the well-known British writer Sidney Smith mocked the United States for its lack of culture and sophistication. In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or goes to an American play, or looks at an American picture or statue? This was a common sentiment at the time. America was a young country, barely 40 years old, and most Europeans viewed it as a lowbrow hillbilly backwater.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Death Valley is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 81 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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Grand Canyon, Arizona: The Hidden History Behind an American Icon

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Grand Canyon, Arizona. There's a scene in the show Mad Men that shook me up the first time I saw it. It's probably not the one you think. In the very first episode, the Draper family picnics along the interstate. The grass is green, the birds are out, and a small portable radio placed softly on a red and white checkered blanket. It's a deeply nostalgic picture of 1960s America. Is Bobby in the car again? No, he's running around. So I don't understand. You'd rather play checkers than my Look at the Clouds game.

TIMELINE
1880: New York City scavengers removed 15,000 dead horses from the streets in 1880.
1916: As late as 1916, when motor vehicles dominated the streets, Chicago scavengers still had to remove 9,202 carcasses.
1919: The Grand Canyon today remains more or less identical to the marvel that Roosevelt visited, though it did not become an official national park until 1919, 16 years later.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Grand Canyon is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 80 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 187 (Globe, Arizona)

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Northern California: The 50-Year Fight to Save the Coastal Redwoods

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Eureka, California. One of my favorite movies as a kid was The Lorax, the original with this song. Under the trees, happy-deppy barbaloots. Under the trees, in our barbaloot suits. Under the trees, eating traculate fruits. Boldly succulent, deliciously deliciously sweetly succulent, fluous traculate fruits. When I first saw The Lorax, I had some sense that it was about protecting the environment, but it's more than a cartoon. It's a thinly-veiled environment manifesto.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Eureka is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 79 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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Yellowstone National Park: How Art and Artists Created America's First National Park

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 07:05:00 +0000

In March 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law, establishing the world's first national park. But Yellowstone's creation wasn't simply a political decision, it was the result of a deliberate artistic campaign. Long before most Americans knew about Yellowstone's geysers, hot springs, and dramatic landscapes, three artists began documenting its wonders: photographer William Henry Jackson, painter Thomas Moran, and watercolorist Henry Wood Elliott. Their photographs, paintings, and sketches captured Congress's imagination and convinced legislators to set aside 3,472 square miles, larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, as "a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." This episode explores how art literally changed reality, creating the world's first national park and inspiring a global conservation movement that now protects more than 1,200 parks in over 100 nations.

The path from wilderness to national treasure wasn't smooth. Yellowstone's first superintendent, Nathaniel P. Langford, served from 1872 to 1877 without salary or budget. He visited the park only three times during his entire tenure. His successor, Philetus W. Norris, became the first paid superintendent and built much of the park's early infrastructure, including roads that survive today as the Grand Loop Road. But by 1886, poachers, vandals, and squatters had devastated the park's resources to such an extent that the U.S. Army was called in. For 32 years, cavalry troops patrolled Yellowstone, establishing enforcement policies and ranger traditions that the National Park Service would adopt when it was created in 1916.

The evolution of park rangers themselves began at Yellowstone. In 1880, Harry Yount became the park's first gamekeeper, protecting wildlife from commercial hunters. Though he served only 14 months, his recommendations for a formal ranger force earned him recognition as the "father of the ranger service." Stephen T. Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, later described these early rangers as "a fine, earnest, intelligent, and public-spirited body of men" whose duties ranged from blazing trails to rescuing floundering animals to managing bears in hotels.

Today, Yellowstone remains a marvel of geothermal activity. The park contains more than 10,000 thermal features, including Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in the United States and third-largest in the world. At 330 feet in diameter with water temperatures reaching 160 degrees Fahrenheit, its rainbow-colored bands have made it one of the most photographed features in American parks. Old Faithful, the park's most famous geyser, continues erupting roughly every 74 minutes, maintaining a tradition of reliable wonder that has drawn visitors for over 150 years. The park's wildlife population includes the nation's largest remaining bison herd on public land, with over 5,000 animals descended from the same herds that nearly disappeared to poaching in the 1880s.

1807-08: Mountain man John Colter becomes first known European explorer to describe Yellowstone's geothermal features; area nicknamed "Colter's Hell" because people think he's lying
1871: Hayden Geological Survey expedition includes photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran, creating visual documentation that proves Yellowstone's wonders exist
March 1, 1872: President Ulysses S. Grant signs Yellowstone National Park Protection Act, creating world's first national park
1880: Harry Yount hired as first gamekeeper, recommends formation of ranger force that inspires modern park ranger profession
August 1886: U.S. Army assumes management of Yellowstone after civilian administration fails; cavalry troops patrol for next 32 years
1916: National Park Service created; Army transfers Yellowstone management to civilian ranger force following military-established policies

This transformation occurred during America's Gilded Age, when rapid industrialization threatened natural landscapes nationwide. The Yellowstone precedent inspired creation of Yosemite (1890), Sequoia (1890), and eventually a system that has become one of America's most significant contributions to global conservation.

Sources & Further Reading:

National Park Service - Yellowstone History: Comprehensive historical resources including Army administration, early superintendents, and park establishment (https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/historyculture/index.htm)
National Archives - Act Establishing Yellowstone National Park: Original legislative documents from March 1, 1872, including President Grant's signature (https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/act-establishing-yellowstone-national-park)
Yellowstone Forever - Safeguarding Yellowstone: The US Army Years: Detailed account of military administration 1886-1918 (https://www.yellowstone.org/safeguarding-yellowstone-the-us-army-1886-1918/)
Smithsonian Magazine - How the U.S. Army Saved Our National Parks: Analysis of military protection period and its lasting influence on park management
HistoryNet - The Untold Story of America's First Park Ranger: Biography of Harry Yount and his influence on the ranger profession

Subscribe to Hometown History every Tuesday for forgotten American stories.

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Yosemite National Park: America's First Protected Wilderness and Conservation Legacy

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 07:05:00 +0000

In 1864, three years into the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln signed legislation that would change America's relationship with nature forever. The Yosemite Valley Grant Act claimed California's magnificent valley for conservation, establishing a precedent that would lead to the National Park Service and inspire similar movements worldwide. While Yellowstone would become the first official "national park" eight years later, Yosemite holds the distinction of being America's first federally protected wilderness, "in fact if not in name," as the National Park Service notes.

This episode explores how America invented the modern concept of the national park, a uniquely democratic idea where natural wonders belong to all citizens, not just royalty or religious institutions. Unlike Mongolia's 18th-century Bogd Khan Mountain (protected for imperial hunting and religious ceremonies), American national parks were designed as secular, recreational spaces for everyone. From the beginning, these parks embodied the revolutionary principle that "the country belongs to the people."

To understand what visiting Yosemite is really like today, host Shane Waters spoke with Jim Burnett, a retired National Park Service ranger with over 30 years of experience. Burnett, author of "Hey Ranger: True Tales of Humor and Misadventure from America's National Parks," shares essential advice for navigating one of America's most beloved, and most crowded, destinations. His insights cover everything from the 2022 reservation system (required May 20-September 30) to the dangers of leaving food in your car overnight, where black bears have been known to literally rip doors off vehicles in pursuit of a Snickers bar.

Timeline of Key Moments:

1864 , Abraham Lincoln signs Yosemite Valley Grant Act, first federal protection of wilderness
1872 , Yellowstone becomes America's first official "national park"
1890 , Yosemite becomes third national park; El Capitan and Half Dome added to boundaries
1998 , Peak of bear-vehicle conflicts with 1,584 reported incidents annually
2018 , Aggressive food storage campaign reduces bear incidents to just 22 per year
2022 , Reservation system implemented to manage overcrowding in Yosemite Valley

Historical Significance: The establishment of Yosemite and the National Park System represents one of America's greatest contributions to world culture. Today, most developed nations have adopted the American model of public parks, creating protected spaces for future generations. The conservation movement that began at Yosemite, championed by figures like John Muir and later Theodore Roosevelt, fundamentally changed how humans interact with the natural world. As FDR observed, "There is nothing so American as our national parks." The shift from viewing nature as an adversary to be conquered to a treasure worth preserving marked a turning point in human history, one that continues to shape environmental policy worldwide.

Burnett's stories from three decades as a ranger illustrate both the majesty and the challenges of managing America's natural treasures. From tourists attempting to hike the 211-mile John Muir Trail in flip-flops to the man who reported "terrorists had blown up his car" (it was actually a bear ransacking his groceries), Yosemite's history is as much about human folly and redemption as it is about waterfalls and granite cliffs.

Sources & Further Reading:

National Park Service official Yosemite website (nps.gov/yose) for current alerts and reservation information
"Hey Ranger: True Tales of Humor and Misadventure from America's National Parks" by Jim Burnett
YARTS (Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System) for bus service avoiding reservation requirements
National Park Service mobile app for offline access to maps and visitor information

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Welcome to Hometown History

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 15:44:00 +0000

Ever wondered about the incredible stories hiding in your own hometown? The events too small for textbooks but too fascinating to forget? , the podcast that uncovers forgotten local American history from across the country.

Each week, host Shane Waters digs into overlooked events, extraordinary people, and wild stories from small towns and big cities alike. These aren't the history lessons you learned in school. These are the surprising, strange, and unforgettable tales that shaped communities, and disappeared from memory.

If you love true stories, local mysteries, and discovering the hidden history right in your backyard, this is your new favorite podcast.

Subscribe now to Hometown History and start exploring America's forgotten past, one hometown at a time.

Show Notes: About Hometown History:

Uncover forgotten local American history from across the country
New episodes exploring surprising small-town stories
True historical events you won't find in textbooks
Hosted by Shane Waters

What to Expect:

20-minute deep dives into overlooked local events
Fascinating stories from every state and region
Carefully researched, conversationally told
History that's surprising, strange, and unforgettable

Tags: hometown history, local history podcast, American history, forgotten history, true stories, small town history, local history stories, historical podcast, community history, regional history, hidden history, documentary podcast

Category: History

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America's Conservation Presidents: Roosevelt to Carter and the National Park Legacy

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 07:05:00 +0000

When most people think of America's national parks, they imagine breathtaking landscapes, the towering cliffs of Yosemite, the geysers of Yellowstone, the misty valleys of the Great Smoky Mountains. But behind every protected vista lies a political battle, and in this special episode, Shane sits down with Will and Jim Patis, founders of More Than Just Parks, to explore the untold story of the presidents who fought to preserve these landscapes for future generations, and the personal experiences that shaped their conservation legacies.

The conversation spans more than a century of environmental history, from Theodore Roosevelt's transformative years as a Dakota rancher to Jimmy Carter's politically risky stand to protect 150 million acres of Alaskan wilderness. Will and Jim reveal surprising details about these conservation champions, including both Roosevelts' shared passion for birding from childhood and Carter's willingness to sacrifice his presidency to do what he believed was right for America's wild places. The episode also tackles the Hetch Hetchy controversy, the only time in American history that a national park was dammed, and what that 1913 battle taught us about preserving nature versus exploiting it.

But this isn't just a history lesson. Will and Jim also provide practical advice for modern park visitors, from the most underrated national parks (Voyageurs in Minnesota offers the best Northern Lights displays in the continental U.S.) to strategies for avoiding crowds at popular destinations like the Great Smoky Mountains, which welcomes over 12 million visitors annually. They discuss how recent overcrowding challenges reflect Americans falling back in love with their parks and why that's ultimately better than the alternative of apathy and exploitation.

The episode highlights three key conservation presidents who shaped the national park system: Theodore Roosevelt, who created the U.S. Forest Service in 1905 and established five new national parks; Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose birding expertise from childhood informed his creation of 140 wildlife refuges and 29 national forests; and Jimmy Carter, whose Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) doubled the size of the entire National Park System in 1980. Carter's conservation legacy, often overshadowed by his single presidential term, may prove to be his most enduring achievement as climate change makes preserved wilderness increasingly precious.

Whether you're planning your first national park adventure or you're a seasoned visitor looking for hidden gems, this conversation offers both inspiration and practical guidance. Will and Jim's passion for these protected landscapes is contagious, and their website, More Than Just Parks, has been called home to "the most beautiful videos of America you'll ever watch." This episode reminds us that national parks aren't just tourist destinations, they're living monuments to leaders who had the courage to think beyond their political careers and preserve beauty for generations they'd never meet.

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Fountain City, Indiana: The Underground Railroad's Grand Central Station

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Fountain City, Indiana. Before we jump back into the story of Levi and Catherine Coffin, the so-called president and first lady of the Underground Railroad, I thought it'd be helpful to review some of the code words common to the movement. Most of these will be intuitive once you get the hang of the railroad theme. Tracks were simply the routes abolitionists used to move the slaves north. Stations or depots were hiding places or homes where runaways might stay. Conductors were guides and hosts, like the coffins.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Fountain City is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 75 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Fountain City, Indiana: The Underground Railroad's Grand Central Station

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Fountain City, Indiana. So, Levi is confused at his young age because at the age of seven, he's thinking, wait a minute, these men have been taken from their families? All these thoughts are going through his head, and he's wondering, what did these men do that were so bad? And his father's, I'm sure, explaining to him they didn't deserve anything for this. They're enslaved, and legally, they have no choice. They're never going to see their families again. And he says, from that age on, I was an abolitionist.

TIMELINE
1688: Coffin was a member of the Quaker Church, a pacifist Christian group that had been protesting slavery in North America since 1688.
1826: Over a 20-year span, from 1826 to 1847, more than 2,000 slaves stopped here on their way north to Canada in freedom.
1854: In 1854, after doing this work for the better part of four decades, the coffins decided to make a trip to Canada.

Episode 74 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Nashville, Tennessee: Enslaved Lives at Jackson's Hermitage

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 02:54:00 +0000

Nashville, Tennessee. The tomb was vandalized in 2018. It was the only time in 130 some years that had ever happened. Fortunately, there was no structural damage to it, but it was spray paint. Tennessee limestone just drinks up spray paint. So we had to bring out a laser crew from Sweden. They had to build like a whole wooden structure covering the tomb so that they could use the lasers because they're the kind that will burn your retinas at half a mile. So that was big.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Nashville is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 73 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Nashville's Hermitage: How Andrew Jackson Built Power Through Slavery

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Nashville, Tennessee. What's the first step in becoming the most powerful man in America? For our seventh president, Andrew Jackson, the first step in his journey to prominence began with the purchase of his first slave. I sat down with Erin Adams, director of education at Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, a museum on the premises of the president's former home, to learn more.

TIMELINE
1788: Jackson was 21 years old in 1788 when he bought his first person, a black woman roughly his own age.
1812: In some ways, Andrew Jackson became for the War of 1812 what George Washington had been for the Revolutionary War, at least in popular imagination.
1815: Almost immediately after the success of the Battle of New Orleans, that's January of 1815, the conversation starts almost immediately.
1819: Four years later, in 1819, President James Monroe offered Jackson governorship of the newly acquired territory of Florida.
1824: The 1824 election is really a fascinating one.
1828: 1828 rolls around, and it is a showdown between Jackson and Adams.

Episode 72 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee: Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escape

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee. I'd like to introduce one of my favorite voices among anyone I've ever interviewed. Well, my name is Steve McDaniel, and I grew up, I'm seven generations in this community here at what we call Parker's Crossroads. Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee, is a small town of 284 people, but it has a big history.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Parker's Crossroads is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 71 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Nashville, Tennessee: The Full-Scale Parthenon Replica of Music City

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Nashville, Tennessee. When you think of ancient Greece, what images pop into your head? You probably think of the Olympics and philosophers like Plato and Socrates. You might think of stories like the Odyssey and the Iliad that you were forced to read in high school. And if you close your eyes and picture one ancient Greek building, I bet you are picturing the Parthenon, the iconic temple complex located on the high rocky hilltop overlooking the city of Athens.

Episode 70 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Memphis, Tennessee: Dewey Phillips and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll Radio

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Memphis, Tennessee. Oh That's the voice of Dewey Phillips, hosting his radio show called Red Hot and Blue on WHBQ, a Memphis station. In the 1950s, more than 100,000 people listened to his primetime slot every day. If you couldn't make out what Dewey was saying, don't feel bad. I had to listen to it a few times myself. But for Memphians of that era, Dewey's frantic and crazed cadence was just part of the experience. Dewey was a very popular radio DJ here in Memphis.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Memphis is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 69 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Memphis, Tennessee: Sun Studio's Million Dollar Quartet and Rock's Golden Age

Mon, 18 Jul 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Memphis, Tennessee. In 2015, musical artist Jack White paid $300,000 for a 78 RPM record at auction. The record was of Elvis Presley singing the songs My Happiness and That's When Your Heartache Begins. It was the first record Elvis ever made. That $300,000 price tag is a far cry from the $4 that Elvis originally paid to make the record at Sun Studio, a place I recently visited. Elvis wanted to hear what his voice sounded like on vinyl, so he sang those popular songs and gave the 78 to his mother as a gift.

Episode 68 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Sun Studio: Where Rock 'n' Roll Was Born

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Memphis, Tennessee. Well, currently we are sitting in the center of Sun Studio, where rock and roll was born, here in Memphis, Tennessee. You're hearing the song, Rocket 88, widely considered to be the first rock and roll song ever recorded. It was recorded here, at Sun Studio, by Jackie Brinston and his Delta Cats. The Delta Cats included Ike Turner, one of the many legendary musicians, to record here. Artists from many genres, such as B.B. King, Roy Orbison, and Rufus Thomas, all used Sun Studio.

TIMELINE
1950: The studio is full of rock and roll memorabilia, dating back to when it first opened in 1950.
1953: Sun is the record label that Sam starts in 1953.
1959: In 1959, Sam Phillips opened a bigger, more updated facility.

Episode 67 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Nashville's Fort Negley: The Fortress That Never Fired a Shot

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Nashville, Tennessee. In December 1864, Confederate troops were moving toward Nashville with the plan. Union troops had occupied the southern city for the last two years, and Lieutenant General John Bell Hood wanted to take it back. Luckily, the Union Army had prepared for this very moment by building a 180,000 square foot fortress near downtown Nashville called Fort Negley. The Union garrison armed and braced itself for a full frontal assault.

TIMELINE
1861: When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Nashville, like the rest of Tennessee, sided with the Confederacy, but the Confederate Army made a costly assumption.
1862: In 1862, as forts are being constructed across occupied areas in the south, that number jumped to 1,000 successful escapes every month.
1864: In December 1864, Confederate troops were moving toward Nashville with the plan.

Episode 66 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Memphis: The City That Blues Built

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Memphis, Tennessee. You'll see pretty browns in beautiful gowns. You'll see tailor-made and hand-me-downs. You'll meet honest men and pickpocket skill. You'll find that business never closes till somebody gets killed. If Beale Street could talk, if Beale Street could talk, married men would have to take their beds in war. Except one or two who never drink booze and the blind man on the corner who sings the Beale Street blues. Those are a few lines from a song called Beale Street Blues.

TIMELINE
1819: Memphis was founded in 1819 on the banks of the Mississippi River.
1866: In an 1866 incident known as the Memphis Massacre, white Memphians went into black parts of town, killing and robbing anyone they saw.
1878: The first was the 1878 yellow fever epidemic.
1905: Mary Morrison in 1905 was a domestic worker.
1968: In 1968, a strike by black sanitation workers attracted the attention of Martin Luther King Jr., who came to the city to offer his help and was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel six days later.

Episode 65 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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The Wabash Hanging: 6,000 Witnesses (Part 4)

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Wabash, Indiana. It was raining on the day of the execution, as Fletcher described it. The rain during the forenoon had the effect of making the streets and almost every other place exceedingly sloppy and muddy. The ground having recently been frozen, the mud was not very deep, but every place was very slippery. While the crowd were assembled around the jail waiting, a rather green young man attempted to show his agility and fleetness by starting off in a fast run.

Episode 64 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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The Trial of John Hubbard: Wabash, Indiana (Part 3)

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Wabash, Indiana. Before it was called Ridge Valley, the community the French family was living in was known as Keller Station. Isaac Keller and his brother own large tracts of land in this area, as well as a popular inn and tavern that was the social hub of the neighborhood. Isaac Keller actually owned the land that the French's, and now the Hubbards, have been living on. On their way to the cabin, the posse locates Keller. They also find a doctor, and they bring both men with them.

Episode 63 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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The Canal Killer of Rich Valley (Part 2)

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Wabash, Indiana. Aaron French moved in from Cincinnati. He had only been here approximately six months, so he himself was a transient character. He had attempted to be a businessman in Cincinnati, involved in the meatpacking industry, and went broke. And so he decided to maybe try his hand at farming. So he moves up here, gets a place as a tenant farmer, and does what he can with that, and apparently was very prosperous the first year that he did it, and then he became ill.

Episode 62 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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The French Family Murders of Wabash (Part 1)

Mon, 30 May 2022 07:05:00 +0000

Wabash, Indiana. I remember the first time I tried to visit the French family grave, just outside of Wabash, Indiana. It was a Sunday, in the middle of winter, one day before the mini blizzard that closed county schools and buried every car on Market Street up to its door handles. I had just moved to town, and I was feeling the things you feel when you move someplace new. I was wondering if the people were nice, and I thought of the friends I hoped to make, and I hoped that Wabash was a good place to call home.

Episode 61 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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The Peshtigo Fire: America's Deadliest Wildfire

Mon, 23 May 2022 07:05:00 +0000

The sky to the west of the small town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, glowed red before the sunrise, on the morning of October 8, 1871. It was Sunday, and when the local priest stepped out of his church to greet local parishioners, the air was smoky and white ash fell like snow. The priest, whose name was Peter Pernan, turned and went back into the church and ran to the front of the sanctuary. He grabbed the holy tabernacle, the small cabinet that holds the Catholic Eucharist.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Peshtigo is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 60 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Pictured Rocks: Michigan's Climate Refuge (Part 8)

Mon, 16 May 2022 07:05:00 +0000

The mineral-stained cliffs of Pictured Rocks rise 200 feet above Lake Superior in colors you wouldn't believe, iron oxide reds, copper greens, manganese browns, and limonite whites. But here's the twist: this remote corner of Michigan might be more than just beautiful. According to Science Digest, Sault Ste Marie in the Upper Peninsula is projected to be the best place to live in America by 2100.

Shane explores the engineering marvel of the Soo Locks, where 10,000 ships annually find their way through a 21-foot water elevator between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. He visits Tahquamenon Falls, survives a boat tour that tested his stomach, and discovers why this rust belt region of 13,000 people could become an apocalyptic oasis when Miami and Los Angeles are facing ecological collapse.

From Ernest Hemingway's favorite fishing spot to a 350-year-old border town split between two countries, this episode reveals why geographic isolation and freshwater abundance might be the ultimate survival strategy. The very things that make the UP challenging today could make it invaluable tomorrow.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American history stories every week. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes:

Why mineral-stained cliffs create a natural masterpiece in colors most rocks don't have
The 21-foot "water elevator" that moves 10,000 ships per year between the Great Lakes
Science Digest's surprising prediction about the best American city to live in by 2100
Ernest Hemingway's favorite rainbow trout fishing spot along an international border
How a rust belt city of 13,000 could become an apocalyptic oasis when coastal cities collapse
The unexpected kindness of Jamie at a Paradise motel during a sold-out weekend

Key Figures:

Ernest Hemingway - Called St. Mary's River "the best place in the world to fish for rainbow trout"
Audrey (Soo Locks Visitor Center guide) - Explained the engineering of the Great Lakes water bridge

Timeline:

1668: Sault Ste Marie founded (third-oldest continuous US settlement)
1814: British burn White House and Capitol during War of 1812
1815: Border established between US and Canada, splitting Sault Ste Marie
1995: Edmund Fitzgerald bell raised from 530 feet depth in Lake Superior
2100: Projected climate refuge status for Upper Peninsula

Location: Upper Peninsula Michigan - Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Sault Ste Marie, Paradise

Tags: Upper Peninsula Michigan, Pictured Rocks, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan history, Soo Locks, Great Lakes history, climate change history, American history, local history, true story, forgotten history, Tahquamenon Falls, Lake Superior, engineering history, War of 1812, Edmund Fitzgerald, climate refuge

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: The Pictured Rocks Boat Tour (And Why There Are No Photos) 2:30 - The Mineral Masterpiece: Understanding the Colorful Cliff Faces 5:00 - Paradise Lost (And Found): The $39.99 Motel Miracle 8:00 - Tahquamenon Falls: Where Rivers Rhyme with "Phenomenon" 11:00 - The Soo Locks: Engineering Marvel of the Great Lakes 14:30 - Sault Ste Marie: The Border Town That Science Says Will Save Us 17:30 - Why 2100 Changes Everything: Climate Refuge Analysis 19:30 - Conclusion: An Invitation to the Future Oasis

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The Quincy Mine: Michigan's Two-Mile Deep Death Trap (Part 7)

Mon, 09 May 2022 07:05:00 +0000

A tourist pays $700 for a fishing charter on Michigan's Torch Lake, catches an 8-pound beauty, and brings home dinner. There's just one problem: that fish is six pounds of meat and two pounds of tumor. The lake won't be safe to eat from for another 800 years. Welcome to Michigan's copper country, where the industry that supplied 90% of the Union's copper during the Civil War left behind one of America's first EPA Superfund sites.

The Quincy Mine outside Hancock, Michigan wasn't just deep, it was 92 levels deep, stretching two full miles into the earth. Workers from Cornwall, Finland, Italy, and across Europe descended into darkness every day, communicating with the surface through a bell system where nine rings meant ambulance. At least 253 men died at Quincy, though the real number is far higher, the company only counted deaths if your body was pulled out while you were still on the clock.

This is the story of America's copper boom: the immigrant workers who never got rich despite making millionaires in Boston, the women who held mining communities together above ground, and the environmental devastation that's still killing fish today. Because some kinds of wealth come at a cost that compounds for centuries.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American history stories every week. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes: :

A $700 fishing trip to one of America's most toxic lakes ends with a cooler full of tumors
The Quincy Mine stretched 92 levels deep, two full miles straight into the Michigan earth
How a bell signal system used nine rings to mean "ambulance" and became a sad daily song
Cornwall miners, Finnish immigrants, and workers from across Europe built America's copper industry
Why at least 253 recorded deaths is a massive undercount of the Quincy's real human cost
The Boston investors who got rich while workers pushed one-ton ore carts twelve times daily
How switched electrical transformers were dumped directly into Torch Lake, poisoning it for 800 years
Shane's humiliating attempt to push a mining tram (spoiler: miners were superhumanly strong)

KEY FIGURES:

Dylan - Quincy Mine tour guide with encyclopedic knowledge of Michigan copper country
The unnamed fisherman who paid for a charter to a Superfund site
Cornish miners - generational hard rock experts whose skills dated to pre-Roman times
The women of mining families - held communities together while men worked underground

Tags: Quincy Mine Michigan, Michigan copper mining history, Hancock Michigan history, Torch Lake pollution, EPA Superfund site Michigan, Upper Peninsula history, American mining disasters, immigrant mining labor, industrial history podcast, forgotten Michigan history, Keweenaw Peninsula, 19th century mining, Cornish miners, Finnish immigrants Michigan

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: The Hoist House and Quincy Mine 2:30 - Breakfast at Kingus Cafe and Finnish Upper Peninsula Culture 5:00 - Meeting Dylan: The Quincy's Civil War Copper Empire 7:30 - The Torch Lake Fishing Disaster: Six Pounds of Meat, Two Pounds of Tumor 11:00 - Life Underground: Hand Drills, Deafening Steam Engines, and Deadly Darkness 14:00 - The Bell Signal System and the Nine-Ring Ambulance Call 16:00 - 253 Deaths and the Workers Who Never Got Rich 18:00 - Conclusion: Michigan's Toxic Legacy

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The Ghost Town of Gay, Michigan (Part 6)

Mon, 02 May 2022 04:05:00 +0000

The town of Gay, Michigan sits on Lake Superior with a 265-foot smokestack rising from apocalyptic black sand beaches that can't grow grass. This isn't a warzone, it's what's left after the Mohawk Mining Company extracted half a billion dollars in copper, then sold every house in town for three to seven dollars and vanished. The stamp sands here are so loaded with arsenic they've been called a hellscape, covering what used to be prime whitefish spawning grounds with toxic waste that looks like the surface of the moon.

From 1906 to 1932, Gay was a company town built on copper wealth. Miners discovered Mohawkite here, a rock found nowhere else on Earth, and built a fortress of industry on Superior's shore. When the company liquidated in 1933, they sold 5,000 acres for $25,000 and homes for a dollar per room. What remains is one of the most haunting ghost towns in Michigan: concrete ruins jutting from clear water like derailed train cars, wooden dock remnants stretched like dinosaur bones, and an eerie silence broken only by waves washing toxic sand.

This episode also explores the origin of "what in the Sam Hill," the Gay Bar's decade under ownership by the Dicks family, and why you shouldn't make plans when traveling alone.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American history stories every week. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes:

The Mohawk mine paid out nearly half a billion dollars before going bust in 1932
Toxic arsenic-laden stamp sands created a lunar landscape that still can't grow vegetation
When the company left, they sold every house for $3-7 and the entire town for $25,000
Mohawkite, a unique copper-arsenic rock, was discovered here and exists nowhere else on Earth
The ruins feature apocalyptic concrete structures, a 265-foot smokestack, and haunting silence
Samuel Hill's legendary swearing gave us the phrase "what in the Sam Hill"
From 1973-1983, the Dicks family owned the Gay Bar (yes, really)

Key Figures:

Samuel Hill - Eagle Harbor adventurer whose profanity created an American phrase
Norm Dicks - Gay Bar owner (1973-1983) who covered the walls with 240+ weapons
Clarence Monat - Local historian who documented the stamp sand "hellscape"

Timeline:

1906: Mohawk mine begins operations at Gay, Michigan
1906-1931: Mine produces nearly $500 million in copper (adjusted for inflation)
1932: Mine operations cease after 26 years
1933: Mohawk Mining Company begins liquidation
1934: 5,000 acres sold to Copper Range Company for $25,000
1973-1983: Norm Dicks owns the Gay Bar, decorating with 240+ firearms
Present: Toxic stamp sands remain, creating a barren apocalyptic landscape

Tags: Gay Michigan, ghost town, Mohawk mine, toxic stamp sands, Upper Peninsula history, Michigan copper mining, Keweenaw Peninsula, company town history, 1900s mining, Lake Superior, American industrial history, forgotten history, true story, Mohawkite, mining ruins, copper country, Sam Hill origin, abandoned mines, industrial archaeology

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: A Town Called Gay 2:30 - Samuel Hill and the Origin of an American Phrase 5:00 - Eagle Harbor Lore: Watered Whiskey and Coffee Runs 7:00 - The Midnight Accord: When Plans Go Wrong 9:30 - Delaware Underground: A Self-Guided Mine Tour 12:00 - Arriving in Gay: Blueberries, Signs, and Sloppy Joes 15:00 - The Gay Bar and the Dicks Dynasty (1973-1983) 17:00 - The Mohawk Mine Hellscape: Toxic Stamp Sands 20:00 - Half a Billion Dollars: The Rise of Gay 22:00 - $3 Houses: The Fall and Abandonment 24:00 - Conclusion: Silence, Ruins, and Mortality

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The Guardian of Phoenix: Michigan's Last General Store (Part 5)

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 04:05:00 +0000

An 87-year-old woman sits in an easy chair by the window of a 148-year-old general store, scowling at passersby 411 hours a day. She's been called a bridge troll, a local legend, and Michigan's grumpiest shopkeeper. But when you treat her right, and maybe buy a $35 hoodie, Arbutus Peterson will surprise you with unexpected kindness in Phoenix, a dying mining town on the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Phoenix isn't just about one memorable character. It's home to a ghost church frozen in time, an outhouse that might qualify for sainthood, and the nearby ruins of Central Mine, where Cornish miners once sang in four-part harmony on their way into the copper shafts. In 1872, tragedy struck when a skip rope snapped, sending thirteen men plummeting 50 fathoms down. Ten died instantly. The company president never mentioned it to investors.

This is American history stripped of its polish, the forgotten mining towns, the human cost of copper fever, and the stubborn guardians who refuse to let these places disappear entirely. It's local history that reveals what we've chosen to remember, and what we've tried to forget.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American stories every week. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes:

Meeting Arbutus Peterson, the 87-year-old "bridge troll" of Phoenix General Store who's sat in the same window chair since 1973
Exploring the ghost church with wax communion figures frozen in time
The outhouse miracle that Shane will never forget (you've been warned)
Central Mine ghost town: Where Cornish miners sang four-part harmony descending into copper shafts
The 1872 skip rope disaster that killed 10 men, and the company report that never mentioned them
Why some Vietnam vets in the UP might explain Shane's eerie Garden Peninsula encounter
The Jam Pot vs. The Jam Lady: A holy war over preserves on the Keweenaw Peninsula
Finding unexpected hospitality at Fletcher's Otter Belly Lodge on Eagle Harbor

Key Figures:

Arbutus Peterson - Owner of Phoenix General Store since 1973, legendary for her window vigil
Tom Chabanian - UP resident who lives by fishing, cutting wood, and scavenging copper
The Cornish Miners - "Cousin Jacks" who sang hymns like "Rock of Ages" on their way down the mine shafts
10 Unnamed Miners - Men killed in the 1872 Central Mine skip car disaster

Timeline:

1854 - Central Mine opens, becomes first profitable mine in Keweenaw Peninsula
1872 - April 22: Skip rope breaks at Central Mine, 10 men killed
1873 - Phoenix General Store built
1898 - Central Mine closes after 44 years
1973 - Arbutus Peterson begins her daily window vigil
2018 - Detroit Free Press profiles Arbutus

Tags: Phoenix Michigan, Keweenaw Peninsula history, Upper Peninsula ghost towns, Central Mine Michigan, copper mining history, 1870s mining disasters, forgotten American history, local history podcast, Michigan history, true story, Cornish miners, mining accidents, company towns, ghost church, general store history

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: The Bridge Troll of Phoenix 2:15 - Arbutus Peterson: Guardian of the General Store 5:30 - The Ghost Church and the Outhouse Miracle 8:00 - The Jam Wars: Holy Preserves of the Keweenaw 10:45 - Central Mine: Where Cornish Singers Descended 14:30 - The 1872 Disaster: Ten Men and a Broken Rope 17:45 - The Company President's Silence 19:30 - Finding Fletcher's Otter Belly Lodge 21:45 - Conclusion: Moving North to Copper Harbor

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The Ghost Towns of Michigan's Copper Country (Part 4)

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 04:05:00 +0000

In the heart of Michigan's Upper Peninsula lies Calumet, once the wealthiest town in Copper Country and nearly Michigan's capital city. Today, Shane explores the ghost towns and vanished communities of the Keweenaw Peninsula, where Finnish immigrants built an industrial empire that suddenly collapsed. From White City's abandoned amusement parks to Jacobsville's bronze cemetery markers, the landscape tells stories of prosperity and tragedy.

But Calumet harbors darker memories. In 1893, ten miners fell 3,000 feet down a vertical shaft in pitch darkness, falling for over 20 seconds before impact. One man's wife was waiting outside with his lunch when the cable snapped. At the Italian Hall in 1913, 73 people, including 59 children, died when someone falsely yelled "fire" during a Christmas party. No flames, just panic and a stairwell that became a tomb.

Shane also tackles a question that's plagued ghost town enthusiasts for decades: What actually qualifies as a ghost town? He proposes the Keweenaw Test, a checklist that separates true abandoned communities from disappointingly empty fields. It's a journey through Finnish graveyards, the oldest continuously operating hockey rink in North America, and the ruins of America's first resort towns, where telephones had better service than today and bronze monuments outlast everything.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American history stories every week. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes:

The Keweenaw Test: Shane's proposed checklist for what actually qualifies as a ghost town
The 1893 Red Jacket mining disaster where 10 men fell 3,000 feet in pitch darkness
Why Calumet was almost chosen as Michigan's state capital
The mystery of the man who vanished from White City's pier in 1916
Finnish immigration to Michigan's Copper Country and bronze cemetery markers that outlast stone
The Italian Hall tragedy: 73 deaths from a false fire alarm during a 1913 Christmas party
Hockey history: Calumet Colosseum, the oldest continuously operating rink in North America
The 1966 tragedy of seven-year-old Ruth Ann Miller who fell 4,000 feet down an uncapped mine shaft
Why the Upper Peninsula could become "the next Miami" if teleportation becomes real

Key Figures:

Ruth Ann Miller - Seven-year-old girl who fell down Tamarack Mine Shaft #4 in 1966, body never recovered
Richard Mansfield - "Greatest actor of his hour" who performed at the Calumet Theatre
The ten miners of the 1893 Red Jacket disaster, including Mr. Pope whose wife was waiting with his lunch

Timeline:

1874-1912: Monumental Bronze Company manufactures rare bronze cemetery markers
1892: Finnish Church built in Jacobsville (still operating today)
1893: Red Jacket mining disaster kills 10 workers
Pre-WWI Era: White City operates as major resort destination
1913: Italian Hall disaster kills 73 people during Christmas party
1916: Mysterious disappearance from White City pier
1966: Ruth Ann Miller falls down uncapped mine shaft
2019: Detroit Red Wings play at Calumet Colosseum

Tags: Michigan Upper Peninsula, Calumet Michigan, ghost towns Michigan, Keweenaw Peninsula, Copper Country history, mining disasters, Finnish immigration, 1890s history, local history, American history, Italian Hall disaster, forgotten history, true story, documentary podcast, historical storytelling

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: Defining What Makes a Ghost Town Real 2:30 - White City: From Amusement Park Destination to Empty Beach 5:45 - The Vanishing Man on White City's Pier (1916) 8:00 - Jacobsville: Finnish Heritage and Bronze Cemetery Markers 11:30 - The Keweenaw Test: A Ghost Town Checklist 14:00 - Calumet: The Wealthiest Town in Copper Country 17:00 - The 1893 Red Jacket Mining Disaster: 20 Seconds of Falling 20:30 - The Italian Hall Tragedy and Woody Guthrie's Ballad 23:00 - Ruth Ann Miller and the Uncapped Mine Shaft 25:00 - Calumet Theatre: Where the Greatest Actors Performed 27:00 - Conclusion: Memory, Monuments, and Forgotten Communities

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The Keweenaw Copper Rush: America's First Mining Boom (Part 3)

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 14:24:00 +0000

Keweenaw, Michigan. The first mining boom in American history was not the California Gold Rush, the Klondike Gold Rush, or any other gold rush. The first mining boom in American history was the Copper Rush of the uppermost part of the Upper Peninsula, the Keweenaw Peninsula. And by the time it was over, this boom actually had a greater economic impact than either of those gold rushes. In fact, from the 1860s to the 1920s, this part of Michigan supplied over 90% of the world's Copper.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Keweenaw is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 54 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Mackinac Bridge Tragedy (Part 2)

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 04:05:00 +0000

The distinctive sound of the Mackinac Bridge is due to the grating in the two center lanes, one going each way. This grating allows air to pass through the bridge, rather than pushing against it. Part of the reason for this technology was the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge years earlier in Washington State. There's footage of this. You see the entire bridge convulsing and rolling like a wave in the wind before plunging into the ocean below.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Mackinac is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 53 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Upper Peninsula: America's Future Refuge (Part 1)

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 04:05:00 +0000

In the year 2100, Michigan's Upper Peninsula might be the best place to live in North America, if you can handle the isolation. Right now, it's the emptiest region in the eastern United States, with sprawling sugar sand beaches completely abandoned on 85-degree summer days. If it were its own state, the UP would be the least populated in America by 50%, despite being larger than Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Delaware combined.

Shane crossed the five-mile Mackinac Straits Bridge expecting to visit Isle Royale for the Michigan Islands series, but the island was on fire, covered in toxic algae blooms, and completely out of toilet paper. Instead, he discovered something better: a 350th birthday party, Victorian mining ghost towns, beaches made entirely of black stamp sand, and the only place on Earth where pure copper and pure silver form together naturally in the rock.

The Upper Peninsula is mining country, home to historic gold, silver, copper, nickel, and iron rushes that built America's industrial age. It's also profoundly weird, empty, beautiful, and culturally isolated. You don't go to the UP to go anywhere else. You go there to go there, and then you go home.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American history stories exploring the unexpected places that shaped the nation. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes:

Why the Upper Peninsula could become North America's prime climate refuge by 2100
How Shane's Isle Royale trip went hilariously wrong (fires, algae blooms, no toilet paper)
The only place on Earth where pure copper and pure silver form together naturally
Victorian mining ghost towns with black sand beaches and epic mill ruins
What 56 volumes of local history signs reveal about America's mining heritage
Why sprawling beaches sit completely empty in perfect 85-degree weather

Key Figures:

Clarence Manette - Local historian who produced 56 volumes of Upper Peninsula history
Shane Waters - Your host, collecting copper chunks and slag instead of visiting burning islands

Geographic Focus:

Mackinac Straits Bridge, St. Ignace, Marquette, Gay Michigan, Isle Royale, Lake Superior

Tags: Upper Peninsula Michigan, Michigan history, climate refuge, copper mining history, American mining history, Mackinac Bridge, forgotten history, local history, true story, Great Lakes history, Midwest history, Isle Royale, ghost towns, mining ghost towns, Victorian mining, pure copper, slag, stamp sand, Lake Superior, American history

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: The Gateway to America's Future Refuge 2:00 - The Isle Royale Disaster (That Wasn't) 4:30 - St. Ignace's 350th Birthday Party 6:00 - The Loneliest Peninsula: A Cultural Island 8:30 - Pure Copper and Pure Silver: Mining the UP 11:00 - Ghost Towns, Black Beaches, and What Shane Brought Home 12:30 - Preview: Crossing the Mackinac Bridge for Real

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Alcatraz East: Crime Museum in the Smokies

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 18:37:00 +0000

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. This episode is focused less on history than a hometown that specializes in history. Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is famous for tourist attractions and southern hospitality, but it's also a hotbed of local culture and storytelling. There are more than two dozen museums and galleries in the area, and whatever your interests happen to be, there is likely something that will appeal to you. A personal favorite of mine, for obvious reasons, is the Alcatraz East Crime Museum.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Pigeon Forge is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 51 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Biltmore Estate: America's Castle & Its WWII Secret

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 05:05:00 +0000

Asheville, North Carolina. This new year, why not let Audible expand your life by listening? Explore over 1 million audiobooks, podcasts, and exclusive Audible originals that'll inspire and motivate you. Tap into your well-being with advice and insight from leading professionals and experts on better health, relationships, career, finance, investing, and more. Maybe you want to kick a bad habit or start a good one.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Asheville is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 50 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 200 (Bessemer City, North Carolina)

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The Cherokee: Saving a Dying Language in North Carolina

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 05:05:00 +0000

Only 150 speakers remain. The Cherokee language, once spoken across a million square miles of North America, is disappearing, and COVID just killed 25% of the remaining middle dialect speakers. At the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina, cultural liaison John John shares the devastating legacy of boarding schools, the "kill the Indian, save the man" policy that nearly erased Cherokee identity, and the urgent fight to preserve what's left.

John John reveals forgotten Cherokee cities that rivaled medieval European metropolises, explains why sports mascots still wound indigenous communities, and demonstrates the beautiful complexity of a language that's straddling the line between seriously endangered and extinct. From forced cultural erasure to modern language preservation programs, this is the story of what was stolen, what's being lost, and what can still be saved if we act now.

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian is planning expansions to tell these untold stories, the trade networks, the sophisticated urban centers, the technological achievements that American history books erased. But without speakers, the language that holds this knowledge dies. John John teaches us a few precious Cherokee words, plays a traditional flute, and issues a challenge: if you love history, learn Cherokee. Time is running out.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American history stories every week. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes:

Why only 150 Cherokee middle dialect speakers remain alive today
The devastating legacy of "kill the Indian, save the man" boarding school policies
Forgotten Cherokee cities that rivaled medieval European settlements in size and sophistication
How COVID-19 killed 25% of remaining Cherokee language speakers
The symbolism of John John's walking belt and the seven clans
Why indigenous communities still fight against sports team mascots
The Kituwah Academy's struggle to teach Cherokee to new generations
Cherokee language examples and the beautiful complexity of an endangered tongue
How to learn Cherokee online through "Your Grandmother's Cherokee"

Tags: Cherokee language, endangered language, Native American history, Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Cherokee North Carolina, indigenous culture, boarding schools, language preservation, Cherokee history, cultural genocide, Kituwah Academy, seven clans Cherokee, indigenous language learning, North Carolina tribal history, American Indian boarding schools

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: Museum Expansions and Lost Cherokee Cities 3:30 - The Scale of Cherokee Territory and Forgotten Urban Centers 6:45 - Moving Forward: Voting and Policy Impact 9:20 - The Crisis: Less Than 150 Language Speakers Remain 12:00 - Cowboys and Indians: Cultural Erasure Through Play 15:30 - The Boarding School Legacy: Generational Trauma 18:00 - Hope for Language Survival: Kituwah Academy 20:15 - Learning Cherokee: Words, Phrases, and Cultural Meaning 23:00 - The Seven Clans and Linguistic Diversity 24:30 - The Traditional Cherokee Flute and Conclusion

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The Cherokee's Broken Treaties (Part 1)

Sun, 30 Jan 2022 05:05:00 +0000

The Cherokee don't believe in signatures. You'd understand why after 40 broken treaties with the U.S. government. In 1763, Britain promised no colonization west of the Appalachians, settlers came anyway. In 1785, the U.S. guaranteed Cherokee land protection, it was seized within years. By 1868, this once-mighty nation had walked the Trail of Tears and lost a million square miles of their homeland.

Today, only 1,500 fluent Cherokee speakers remain worldwide. The language that carried their history for millennia is disappearing. At the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in North Carolina, we meet John John Grant Jr., one of the last 150 fluent speakers of the Eastern Cherokee dialect. He shares the story most Americans never learned, how the Cherokee preserved their true history not in treaties, but in walking belts made of wampum beads, each one a reminder of stories that stretch back to time before memory.

This two-part series uncovers the forgotten resistance, resilience, and cultural wisdom of the Cherokee people. Because real history isn't written in broken promises, it's carried in the voices of those who refuse to forget.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American stories every week. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes:

Why the Cherokee learned to distrust signatures after 40 broken treaties
The walking belts: How Cherokee history survived without written language
John John Grant Jr. shares stories in fluent Cherokee (one of only 150 speakers left)
The ice bridge theory vs. Cherokee origin stories, what archaeology really shows
How 1,500 remaining fluent speakers are fighting to preserve an ancient language

Key Figures:

John John Grant Jr. (John A. Grant Jr.) - Cherokee elder, fluent Eastern Cherokee dialect speaker, cultural historian

Timeline:

1763: British Proclamation prevents colonization west of Appalachians (broken immediately)
1785: Treaty of Hopewell guarantees Cherokee land (ignored by settlers)
1835: Treaty promises Cherokee land will never be claimed by any state
1838-1839: Trail of Tears forcibly relocates Cherokee people
1868: Final treaty signed after decades of persecution
Present Day: Only 1,500 fluent Cherokee speakers remain globally

Tags: Cherokee history, Cherokee Nation, broken treaties, Trail of Tears, Cherokee language, North Carolina history, indigenous history, American history, walking belts, wampum, forgotten history, true story, Native American, cultural preservation, documentary, educational

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: The Cherokee Don't Believe in Signatures 2:30 - Forty Broken Promises: Treaties That Meant Nothing 5:00 - Meeting John John Grant Jr. at the Cherokee Museum 8:00 - The Walking Belts: History Carried in Beads 12:00 - Origin Stories vs. The Ice Bridge Theory 17:00 - The Cohog Shell: How Wampum Became Cherokee History 22:00 - Why the Real Walking Belts Are Hidden 25:00 - Looking Ahead: Part Two Preview 28:00 - Conclusion: Voices That Refuse to Fade

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Oak Ridge's Secret Army: The Calutron Girls (Part 2)

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 03:33:00 +0000

Oak Ridge, Tennessee. One of the most important cities in the history of civilization was founded on Oak Ridge when the world-altering Manhattan Project made this area its district headquarters. Alan and Ray take us a little deeper into the science of Oak Ridge. And I know that you said that initially they wanted a location and they wanted to keep it at least out of the press. So did the locals immediately know what they were building? No, I didn't have any idea.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Oak Ridge is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 47 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Oak Ridge: The Secret City That Built the Bomb (Part 1)

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 05:05:00 +0000

On a warm summer day in 1900, the village idiot of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, laid on his back in the middle of the woods and heard the voice of God. Returning home, he told his wife, In the woods, as I lay on the ground and looked up into the sky, there came to me a voice as loud and as sharp as thunder. The voice told me to sleep with my head on the ground for forty nights, and I will be shown visions of what the future holds for this land.

TIMELINE
1900: On a warm summer day in 1900, the village idiot of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, laid on his back in the middle of the woods and heard the voice of God.
1942: In 1942, the continent of Europe was crumbling under an onslaught of Nazi invasion and ingenuity.
1947: Everything owned by the Atomic Energy Commission starting in 1947.
1949: Until 1949, only Manhattan Project employees and their families could ever come inside.

Episode 46 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 175 (Athens, Tennessee)

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Lepa Radić: Yugoslavia's 17-Year-Old Resistance Fighter

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 23:46:00 +0000

Wabash, Indiana. We've named this episode After the Hunt for the Red October, because it's like that, but instead of a Soviet submarine, the search is on for a powerful sleeper agent known to the U.S. government only as Dorothy. The year is 1981, and her network of associates has infiltrated the U.S. military to the extent that the Department of Defense has concerns over national security, both at home and abroad.

TIMELINE
1939: Beginning with Poland in 1939, the Germans moved quickly and decisively in a series of lightning-fast invasions.
1940: When the French government capitulated in June of 1940, for example, many French soldiers and citizens refused to give up.
1941: When Germany invaded Yugoslavia in early April 1941, a familiar thing happened.
1942: In 1942, the Nazis executed a partisan commander named Stefan Filipovic by hanging.
1944: By 1944, two years later, the Yugoslavian resistance had grown to include 650,000 men and women organized into 52 separate divisions.
1945: By 1945, that number had risen to 800,000, and many refused to be captured.

Episode 45 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Indianapolis Moved a Building (With Workers Inside)

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 20:18:00 +0000

Indianapolis, Indiana. The greatest author in the history of my home state of Indiana is by most counts the incomparable Kurt Vonnegut. Before I ever knew he was a fellow Hoosier, I had chewed through a dozen of his books in high school, in place of schoolwork, the Bible, and everything else. At some point, you've probably read him too. Classics like Mother Night, Slaughterhouse-Five, Dead Eye Dick, and others helped me see the world more clearly through difficult years.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Indianapolis is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 44 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Belle Boyd: The Teenage Spy Who Changed the Civil War

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 05:05:00 +0000

Martinsburg, West Virginia. She was known by many names, the Siren of Shenandoah, the Rebel Joan of Arc, the Cleopatra of Secession. But when the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter in April 1861, she was just 17-year-old Belle Boyd of Martinsburg. By the time the Civil War was over, she would be one of the most dangerous women in America. Belle would use her beauty and charm for the cause of the Confederacy throughout the Civil War, seducing and betraying one Union man after another.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Martinsburg is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 43 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 178 (Gauley Bridge, West Virginia)

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The Friends of Dorothy Investigation

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 17:47:00 +0000

In 1981, the Naval Investigative Service launched a massive hunt for a mysterious figure known only as "Dorothy." Agents went undercover in clubs and interrogation rooms across the country, convinced they were tracking a powerful operative who controlled a vast network of infiltrators deep within the U.S. military. The more they searched, the more her name appeared. Every door opened at the mention of being her "friend." To the NIS, Dorothy was a national security threat operating sleeper cells right under their noses.

But Dorothy wasn't a person at all. She was a character from The Wizard of Oz, and "friend of Dorothy" was code language gay men used to identify each other safely during an era when being discovered could destroy your life. The investigation became one of the most embarrassing intelligence failures of the Cold War, a witch hunt that exposed nearly 2,000 service members while completely missing what they were actually hunting.

This episode explores how a beloved film became a lifeline for a marginalized community, and how misunderstanding a simple cultural reference led to one of the military's most shameful purges.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American history stories every week. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes:

The 1981 Naval Investigative Service launches a nationwide hunt for "Dorothy"
How The Wizard of Oz became a cultural touchstone for the gay community
The code language that let LGBTQ Americans identify each other safely
Nearly 2,000 service members discharged in the military's post-Vietnam purges
The embarrassing moment investigators realized their mistake

Key Figures:

Judy Garland - Star of The Wizard of Oz whose performances resonated with gay audiences
L. Frank Baum - Author of the original Wizard of Oz books (died 1919)
NIS Agents - Naval investigators who misunderstood cultural code language

Timeline:

1939: The Wizard of Oz releases in theaters
1956: Film airs on television for the first time, becoming annual tradition
1960s-1970s: "Friend of Dorothy" becomes established code in gay community
1981: NIS investigation searches for "Dorothy" across military bases nationwide
1981: Record 1,976 gay service members discharged in post-Vietnam era purge

Tags: Friends of Dorothy, 1981 military investigation, Naval Investigative Service, gay military history, Wizard of Oz history, LGBTQ American history, Cold War witch hunt, military purge 1980s, forgotten history, Judy Garland, code language, American military history, LGBT rights history, military discrimination, cultural history

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: The Hunt for Dorothy 1:15 - 1981: A National Security Threat 3:30 - The Wizard of Oz Becomes a Phenomenon 6:00 - Why the Film Resonated with Gay Americans 9:00 - "You Have Some Queer Friends, Dorothy" 11:30 - Friends of Dorothy: The Code Revealed 13:45 - The Investigation's Embarrassing Conclusion 15:00 - Conclusion: Dreams of Acceptance

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Richmond's Spy Mistress: The Elizabeth Van Lew Story

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 17:41:00 +0000

Richmond, Virginia. The year is 1861, and America is on the grips of a bloody civil war that will change it forever. In Richmond, the capital of the new Confederate states, Southern bells and ladies are sewing uniforms, throwing fundraising gallows, and nursing injured soldiers, all with the support of young female slaves. They can't go into the battlefield, but they're doing the best they can to support their husbands, brothers, sweethearts, and fathers.

TIMELINE
1818: Elizabeth Van Loo was born into a wealthy, slave-owning Virginia family in 1818.
1861: The year is 1861, and America is on the grips of a bloody civil war that will change it forever.
1900: When she died in 1900, Elizabeth was alone, broke, and broken.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Richmond is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 40 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Live Burial of Hammond, Indiana

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 04:05:00 +0000

Hammond, Indiana is known for a number of things, like being the home of the former NFL team, the Hammond Pros, who were led by the first black coach in NFL history, the legendary Fritz Pollard, in 1925. It would be another 60 years before there was a second black NFL coach, when the Oakland Raiders hired Art Schell in 1989, so Fritz was living well ahead of his time. While Pollard is an icon, and I hope to tell his story one day.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Hammond is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 39 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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The Princes in the Tower: London's Darkest Royal Mystery

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 14:28:00 +0000

In 1647, laborers toiling away at the Tower of London uncovered two small skeletons while clearing away rubble from a staircase. Had the discovery been made today, scientists would have used a whole host of forensic tools, including genetic samples and family trees, to determine the identities of the remains. None of these existed back in 17th century England, however. People still knew who the skeletons were.

Episode 38 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Key That Didn't Work: Bill Russell in Marion

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Marion, Indiana. When Hall of Fame NBA coach Phil Jackson was asked which player he would choose first overall for his own personal dream team, he paused for a moment to think it over. When the players he's coached, his need to step back and reflect is easy to understand. We're talking Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, and the list goes on. These are not just good players, these are some of the best athletes in history.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Marion is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 37 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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The Straw Hat Riots of New York

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 04:05:00 +0000

New York City, New York. how you're not supposed to wear white after Labor Day? Imagine a similar rule for baseball hats, making it a crime of fashion to wear any hat with a soft cap and a stiff bill after a certain date, say September 15th, right near the end of baseball season. And imagine that the penalty for breaking this rule isn't a bit of a side-eye at the country club, but having a friend of yours gleefully rip your hat off your head and tear it to pieces in front of you.

Episode 36 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Lincoln's Gettysburg Disaster

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 04:15:00 +0000

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There are just times when you need a great speech. These times are rare, but they exist. In most cases, the last thing you need is more words. You usually need someone to get up and do something, build something, pay for something. But sometimes words are all you have. Sometimes nobody knows what to do, what to build, or who to pay. You look at the other people in the room and shrug. And before you do anything else, you need to pause and wrap your head around the moment.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Gettysburg is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 35 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 176 (Erie, Pennsylvania)

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The Harvard Soldier Who Hated War

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 14:51:00 +0000

Cambridge, Massachusetts. On a cold morning, October 21, 1861, an officer in the Union Army named Major Henry Livermore Abbott led the 20th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment through another hopeless assault against a superior enemy force up an isolated hill at the tip of northern Virginia at what would become known as the Battle of Balls Bluff. Like so many battles at the beginning of the war, the Union game plan was ill-conceived.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Cambridge is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 34 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 179 (Gay Head, Massachusetts)

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The Courtroom Tragedy: Monica Seles' Near-Fatal Match

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 15:34:00 +0000

Hamburg, Germany. Sometimes, the bad guys win. Sometimes, the people with the worst intentions get what they want in life, and their victims lose everything. Like when one unemployed German lathe operator attempted to murder the best tennis player in the world with a 9-inch boning knife in 1993 on live TV. This summer, the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic won his 19th and 20th major tournaments at the French Open in Wimbledon.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Hamburg is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 33 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Alexandria: Where Washington Changed History

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 05:00:00 +0000

Alexandria, Virginia. One of the most important hometowns in American history is Alexandria, Virginia. Along with being the wealthiest city in Virginia, Alexandria is home to the Institute for Defense Analysis, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the National Science Foundation. This city of 150,000 boasts a long list of famous residents, including Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, Doors frontman Jim Morrison, Civil War General Robert E. Lee, and NASA rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, among many others.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Alexandria is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 32 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Marshall House Tragedy: Alexandria's First Civil War Deaths

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 17:00:00 +0000

Alexandria, Virginia. The first battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Fort Sumter off the coast of South Carolina in early April 1861. A week later, something like a battle erupted in the streets of Baltimore during the Pratt Street riots, when Union soldiers faced off with a gang of Southern sympathizers during their march through the city. Four Union soldiers and twelve citizens were killed in the shooting.

Episode 31 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Italian Hall Disaster of Calumet

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 19:00:00 +0000

Calumet, Michigan. The sobering thought of this tragedy brought my mind into a similar event I'd learned of in a remote northern Michigan town while visiting a few years ago. I was leaving a local bar which just happens to boast the largest Tiffany stained glass bar canopy east of the Rocky Mountains. All the dark trim and woodwork in this bar dates to the 1890s and the legendary copper boom unrivaled in human history before or since.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Calumet is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 30 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Potsdam Giants: Prussia's Regiment of Kidnapped Tall Men

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 13:00:00 +0000

In 18th-century Prussia, King Friedrich Wilhelm I built an entire military regiment based on a single qualification: height. The Potsdam Giants were Europe's most bizarre military unit, a collection of extraordinarily tall men kidnapped from across the continent to serve as the Soldier King's personal obsession. When persuasion failed, Wilhelm's agents resorted to hostage-taking and bribes. One Bavarian carpenter was literally nailed inside a coffin-sized box and shipped to Prussia, he didn't survive the journey.

The king didn't care that giants make terrible soldiers. Slow, uncoordinated, and massive targets in combat, these seven-foot men existed purely as eye candy for a ruler who stood just five-foot-three. Wilhelm made them parade in 18-inch hats, used them as a human canopy over his head, and even woke them in the middle of the night for private viewings from his bed. When Russia's Peter the Great offered giants in trade, Wilhelm exchanged them for the priceless Amber Room. He even launched breeding experiments, pairing his giants with tall women in an early genetics program that caught Charles Darwin's attention.

This is the forgotten story of Europe's most useless regiment and the captive men who couldn't escape because they were too tall to hide.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten American and world history stories every week. New episodes release Tuesdays.

Show Notes:

Prussia's five-foot-three Soldier King obsessed over soldiers based solely on their height
How kidnapping became official royal policy when tall men refused to join his army
The Bavarian carpenter murdered by being nailed inside a shipping crate
Peter the Great traded giants for the famous Amber Room from Berlin's palace
Darwin's fascination with Prussia's early experiment in human breeding programs
Why seven-foot soldiers are actually terrible fighters in modern warfare
The tragic fate of men held captive simply for being unusually tall

Key Figures:

Friedrich Wilhelm I - Prussia's "Soldier King" who stood 5'3" and worshipped height
Peter the Great - Russian czar who traded giants as diplomatic gifts
Frederick the Great - Wilhelm's son who finally disbanded the useless regiment
Charles Darwin - Noted the Potsdam breeding experiment in "The Descent of Man"

Tags: Potsdam Giants, Prussia history, Friedrich Wilhelm I, 18th century Europe, military history, kidnapping history, forgotten history, European history, true story, historical obsession, Prussian military, Soldier King, Frederick the Great, Peter the Great, Amber Room, Charles Darwin, bizarre history

Category: History

Chapter Markers: 0:00 - Introduction: The Soldier King's Strange Confession 1:30 - Why Giants Make Terrible Soldiers 2:45 - The Kidnapping Campaign Across Europe 4:15 - Death in a Wooden Box: The Bavarian Carpenter 5:30 - The Amber Room Trade and Breeding Experiments 6:45 - Conclusion: The Giants Finally Go Free

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Madam C.J. Walker: First Self-Made Millionaire, Part 2

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Indianapolis, Indiana. In time, her local business brought in enough of a salary that she was able to quit working as a laundress. Her level of success was already admirable, and Sarah had no intention of keeping it at a local level. She knew there was a growing national market that needed to be tapped into, but she lacked the business knowledge to pursue it. Opportunity came knocking on her door. She met Charles Joseph Walker. He was a Denver newspaperman who took a liking to Sarah. They married in 1906.

TIMELINE
1910: In 1910, Madam Walker decided to consolidate the Denver and Pittsburgh offices and make Indianapolis the central headquarters of the Walker Manufacturing Company.
1916: In 1916, Madam Walker commissioned an Italian-style villa to be built in Irvington, New York.
1917: In July of 1917, the news broke that a white mob murdered more than three dozen blacks during a riot in East St. Louis, Illinois.
1918: A Republican representative from St. Louis, Leonidas C. Dyer, introduced the Dyer anti-lynching bill in 1918.
1931: Alila continued living in the mansion until 1931, when she died of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by hypertension.
2018: December of 2018 marked the centennial of Villa Loaro, as well as the date the New Voices Foundation acquired the property.

Episode 28 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Madam C.J. Walker: From Cotton Fields to Empire (Part 1)

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Indianapolis, Indiana. How do you measure success? For some of us, it's about money or material possessions that reflect our social status. For others, it's more about looking back on where you started and how far you've come. You may have not heard the name Sarah Breedlove, but odds are you've heard of Madam C.J. Walker. Sarah Breedlove was her given name for the purposes of this episode until we reach the point where Madam Walker gets her business going. We will refer to her as Sarah.

TIMELINE
1865: By the time the war ended in 1865, the south had been largely devastated by the destruction of railroads, homes, and factories.
1867: Sarah Breedlove was born on December 23, 1867, near Delta, Louisiana.
1877: A few years later, in 1877, the sisters and Lavinia's husband, Jesse Powell, moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1885: In June of 1885, the couple had a daughter, Lila, who would later go by the name Alila.

Episode 27 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Robert Smalls Stole a Confederate Ship

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Beaufort, South Carolina. How have I never heard of Robert Smalls? I'm betting you haven't either. Smalls was an antebellum slave and real-life action hero who fought without permission in the Civil War and pulled off one of the most daring heists in American military history. Smalls' courage and intelligence single-handedly changed the way Abraham Lincoln viewed the enlistment of black troops in the Union Army. And soon, after his escape to freedom, an initial wave of 5,000 black troops were allowed to enlist.

TIMELINE
1863: When the war ended in Northern Victory, Smalls went back to his former hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina, and purchased his former master's home, which had been seized in 1863.
1895: One statement in particular, from a session of the South Carolina legislature in 1895, feels symbolic of his life as a whole.
1915: In 1915, Smalls died of malaria and diabetes and was buried in Beaufort.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Beaufort is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 26 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 181 (Edgefield, South Carolina)

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Dispelling Myths: The "Dumb Blonde" Stereotype

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Hollywood, California. Does blonde hair make you dumb? Yes, actually, blonde hair does make you dumb, but not in the way that you think. As , the basic idea behind the dumb blonde stereotype is just that women with blonde hair tend to be less intelligent and more air-headed than non-blondes. They are uneducated eye candy, useless for anything more sophisticated than turning the heads of the men who desire them.

Episode 25 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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Almeda Huiet: The Forgotten Victim of Rowan, Indiana

Mon, 17 May 2021 15:00:00 +0000

Rowan, Indiana. Standing alone in a small, remote Central Indiana Cemetery is a weird feeling. You're alone, but you're not alone. These empty cornfields would feel insignificant if it weren't for these hundreds of forgotten stones. As remote as it is, you're standing in the final resting place for hundreds of lives, and all of them matter, even Almeda's. But as I stand here, there may be only a handful of people alive that knew who this 18-year-old was.

TIMELINE
1870: Almeta Eleanor Hewitt was born in 1870 near Dayton, Ohio.
1880: Mida was 10 years old in 1880 when a wealthy childless family in Rowan learned of her situation.
1884: In an effort to get away from her father, Mida moves to Chicago in 1884 at 14 years old.
1886: Suddenly, at the end of 1886, Mida leaves Chicago and returns to Roanne.
1888: By the end of 1888, Mida moves back to Chicago at 168 East Superior Street.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Rowan is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 24 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Almeda Huiet: H.H. Holmes' Forgotten Victim

Mon, 10 May 2021 17:00:00 +0000

Chicago, Illinois. It's every parent's worst nightmare. Your daughter meets a guy in a distant city and suddenly winds up dead. He's nice at first and more understanding than you. He listens and he's funny and she's happy, even giddy, with this new love in her life. And then something changes. Her mood darkens. She talks about him less. And you don't know why. She's less happy each time you see her. And soon you're not seeing her at all.

Episode 23 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 170 (Ottawa, Illinois)

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The Man Who Darkened His Skin to Fight Racism

Mon, 03 May 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Atlanta, Georgia. Has it ever been okay to wear blackface? It's obviously a terrible thing, but are there exceptions? I ask because I think I may have found one while reading the other night, and I can't stop thinking about it. For those of you who need a little background, blackface is a form of theatrical makeup that white performers have used throughout history to portray and demean black people.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Atlanta is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 22 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 199 (Forsyth County, Georgia)

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Monopoly's Secret Origin: The Woman They Erased

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Atlantic City, New Jersey. Most people see the game of Monopoly as a harmless bit of fun. Others view it as a crash course in the dark side of the American dream. You start the game with the same amount of money as everyone else, but your goals overlap, and you begin taking things from one another, exploiting one another in your times of need, and one by one you fall into bankruptcy at the hands of your rivals. There's no mercy in Monopoly, and a little bit of bad luck at the wrong time can ruin you.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Atlantic City is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 21 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 191 (Deal Beach, New Jersey)

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The Cadaver Synod: Rome's Trial of a Dead Pope

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 17:00:00 +0000

Rome, Italy. Picture this, a Pope on trial. He sits at the front of the courtroom in a tall-backed golden throne, encrusted with jewels and towering over his accusers in a silent display of power. While the prosecutor rants and paces, he sits motionless, staring straight ahead, unconcerned by the proceedings and unimpressed by the charges laid against him. One after the other. His papal crown is on his head.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Rome is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 20 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Lincoln's Springfield Home: The Man Before the Monument

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Springfield, Illinois. Whenever I'm not living under the restrictions of an apocalyptic pandemic quarantine, a week rarely goes by that I don't visit a historical museum of one kind or another. I've spent the last few years traveling the country coast to coast and off the coasts, visiting many of the best of them, at least until last February when COVID changed everything. Since that time, I've made do with virtual tours and more books than I ever thought I could read in a 12-month span.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Springfield is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 19 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 170 (Ottawa, Illinois)

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When the BBC Convinced Millions Spaghetti Grows on Trees

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:00:00 +0000

London, England. On April 1st each year, people from all over the world keep their eyes peeled for anything unusual or amiss. Everything is suddenly treated with suspicion, from social media posts published by a popular fast food chain to that questionable-looking Facebook announcement from the local police department. Why? Well, because it's April Fool's Day, a worldwide celebration where you're either pranking someone or being pranked upon. No one knows exactly how this unofficial holiday came to be.

Episode 18 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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America's First Free Speech Crisis (1798)

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 13:00:00 +0000

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The English writer G.K. Chesterton once said that America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth in the Declaration of Independence. Perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature. It enunciates that all men are equal in their claim to justice. That governments exist to give them that justice.

Episode 17 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 176 (Erie, Pennsylvania)

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Franklin's Turkey: America's Almost National Bird

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 19:00:00 +0000

Benjamin Franklin hated America's national bird. While Congress put the bald eagle on the Great Seal in 1782, Franklin saw it as a symbol of everything wrong with imperial power, a lazy bully that steals from smaller birds rather than working for its own food. His alternative? The humble, hardworking wild turkey.

Franklin's criticism wasn't just about birds. It was about what kind of country America would become: a small republic built on honest labor, or a militaristic empire modeled after Rome. His letter to his daughter comparing the "bird of bad moral character" to the "respectable" turkey reveals a tension that's existed since America's founding, are we the turkey or the eagle?

From our tiny standing armies before World War I to today's global military presence, this episode explores how America has struggled with Franklin's question for over 200 years. And in an age of financial predators and Wall Street hedge funds that behave exactly like the bald eagles Franklin described, maybe the old inventor was onto something.

Discover more forgotten American stories every week with Hometown History. Subscribe now.

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When More Democracy Means Less Freedom

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Washington, DC. There's an old saying that everyone learns by experience. It's just a lot easier when it's someone else's. In one sense, that's all that history is, being proactive about learning from other people's mistakes, rather than waiting to make those mistakes yourself. Those of you who have listened to my podcasts over the past few years will know how I feel about the discipline of history.

Episode 15 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Burning Rag: Delaware's Deadly Powder Mills

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 16:00:00 +0000

Wilmington, Delaware. This new year, why not let Audible expand your life by listening? Explore over 1 million audiobooks, podcasts, and exclusive Audible originals that'll inspire and motivate you. Tap into your well-being with advice and insight from leading professionals and experts on better health, relationships, career, finance, investing, and more. Maybe you want to kick a bad habit or start a good one.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Wilmington is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 14 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 197 (Dover, Delaware)

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The Witch of Wall Street: Hetty Green's Story

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 17:00:00 +0000

New York City, New York. Long before there was ever a Wolf of Wall Street, there was a Witch of Wall Street, though that title was hardly earned. Her name was Hedy Green, and she did her business on Wall Street in the second half of the 19th century, in the very first part of the 20th, until she died in 1916. As far as finance goes, she was a heavyweight among heavyweights, to the point where she personally bailed out the entire city of New York multiple times when it ran out of money.

Episode 13 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Philosopher Who Told Alexander the Great to Move

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 01:00:00 +0000

Athens, Greece. George Dibborn, who we profiled in our last episode, was a really nice guy, and he was easy to like, but I think you're going to love Diogenes. Okay, maybe you won't love him, love him, or even like him very much, but you're going to like him, at least a little, because he's like a funnier, smarter version of your most antisocial impulses run wild.

Episode 12 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Sailor Who Rejected Nazi Germany

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 19:40:00 +0000

Hamburg, Germany. Have you ever gotten so fed up with society that you wanted to put all of your stuff in a sailboat and leave the world behind? Have you ever become so frustrated with the policies of your government that you wanted to declare yourself a sovereign nation of one? You could name your country anything you'd like, you could make up your own flag and your own passport, and you could travel as a diplomat on behalf of yourself with no one else to represent you.

Episode 11 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Man Who Could Never Stop Eating

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 20:36:00 +0000

Strasbourg, France. Honestly, I'm not even sure what to do with this one. We're talking about Tarare, the 18th century French showman and show-eater, and one of the least lovely and most helpless people in all of human history. He was born in 1772 and died in 1798. Tarare died young because his addictions consumed him, and just about everything else he could get his hands on.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Strasbourg is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 10 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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San Francisco's Self-Proclaimed Emperor

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 19:54:00 +0000

San Francisco, California. As well as U.S. history, you probably don't know that the U.S. Congress was officially abolished in 1859. After decades of corruption, its powers were stripped and its members were effectively banned from governing the people of the United States. All former members of Congress were told to evacuate the Capitol, effective immediately. All who did not comply with this request would be forcibly removed from the premises by the commanding general of the United States Army, Winfield Scott.

TIMELINE
1849: The gold rush of 1849 had grown the population from 1,000 to 25,000 in a single year.
1850: Though he never acquired any official power, the emperor became the unofficial mascot of the young city of San Francisco, which had been incorporated only 10 years earlier, in 1850.
1867: In 1867, Norton was arrested by a private security force on charges of madness for the purposes of committing him to what was called in those days an asylum for the insane.
1880: On January 8, 1880, Norton suffered a stroke on his way to a night lecture at the Academy of Natural Sciences.

Episode 9 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 88 (Crescent City, California)

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Belle Isle: Detroit's Abandoned Paradise

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 19:56:00 +0000

Detroit, Michigan. For some time now, Belle Isle has been the most surreal part of America's most surreal city. It's the little island getaway for the 20th century American apocalypse, also known as the city of Detroit. In the middle of the Detroit River, between the ugly concrete shores of Windsor, Ontario, and the mythical but still ugly shores of urban Detroit, sits a little piece of northern Michigan called, in French, the Beautiful Isle. And sure, it's fair to say it's beautiful.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Detroit is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 8 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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Michigan's Sleeping Bear: A Nazi Ship Still Haunts These Waters

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 20:00:00 +0000

A Nazi cargo ship sits rusting in plain sight off South Manitou Island, Michigan, visible from shore, frozen in time since a 1960 snowstorm drove it into the shallows. This is the Francisco Morazan, a 235-foot former German naval vessel that survived Operation Sea Lion only to meet its end in Lake Michigan's treacherous Manitou Passage.

But the Morazan is just one ghost among many. These islands sit at the heart of one of the busiest, and deadliest, shipping lanes in 19th-century America, where an 1840 lighthouse tried desperately to save lives, and more than 50 shipwrecks still rest beneath the water. Behind it all lies a Native American legend of a mother bear who swam her cubs across 118 miles of open water, only to lose them in sight of shore.

This is the story of Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes and the islands she watches over, a landscape where mythology, maritime tragedy, and forgotten history converge at the edge of America's third coast. From ancient Ojibwa spirituality to Civil War-era lighthouse keepers to literal Nazi naval vessels, these waters hold more secrets than most people realize.

Subscribe to Hometown History for forgotten stories from America's small towns, strange places, and overlooked corners, where the past is never quite as simple as you thought.

The Ojibwa legend behind Sleeping Bear Dunes' haunting name
Why South Manitou Island became the busiest harbor between Chicago and Buffalo
The Francisco Morazan: A Nazi warship's surprising final resting place in Michigan
The 1840 lighthouse keeper who drowned trying to save his family
More than 50 shipwrecks hidden in the Manitou Passage
Frank Lloyd Wright's forgotten cottage on a Lake Michigan ghost island
Why these islands became America's abandoned frontier

Key Figures:

Mishimakwa - Mother bear of Ojibwa legend, namesake of Sleeping Bear Dunes
Aaron Sheridan - Civil War veteran lighthouse keeper who drowned in 1878
Frank Lloyd Wright - Designed 26-year-old's first cottage on South Manitou

Timeline:

Ancient Era: Ojibwa people establish islands as sacred burial grounds
1840: South Manitou Lighthouse commissioned by Congress
1878: Lighthouse keeper Aaron Sheridan drowns near the tower with his family
1945: Francisco Morazan seized by Allies in Germany after WWII
1960: Francisco Morazan runs aground in snowstorm, remains visible today
1958: Lighthouse decommissioned after 118 years of service
2019: Lighthouse relit permanently as memorial

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Mackinac Island: Where Cars Were Banned in 1898

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 19:03:00 +0000

When you arrive at Mackinac Island, the first thing you notice is the way it sounds. You realize you've never been in civilization for this long. In towns and streets, and restaurants and post offices. Without the sound of internal combustion. Without any horns, or any amped up stereo systems, or traffic jams, or the people beside you lip-syncing obnoxiously behind the rolled-up windows of their cars.

TIMELINE
1812: Just days into the War of 1812, the British had reclaimed Fort Mackinac by surrounding it with forces outnumbering its defenders, 10 to 1.
1875: About 50 years later, in 1875, Mackinac Island was named, after Yellowstone National Park, America's second national park.
1898: Horse-drawn carriages remain, much as they were in 1898, the primary mode of public transportation.
1903: Five years before Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903, a few hours south in Detroit.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Mackinac Island is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 6 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Fox Islands and the Children of the Snow

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Fox Islands, Michigan. This new year, why not let Audible expand your life by listening? Explore over 1 million audiobooks, podcasts, and exclusive Audible originals that'll inspire and motivate you. Tap into your well-being with advice and insight from leading professionals and experts on better health, relationships, career, finance, investing, and more. Maybe you want to kick a bad habit or start a good one.

TIMELINE
1867: The South Island is famous for its natural beauty and has a decommissioned light station containing two towers, the first from 1867 and the second from 1934.
1960: Back in 1960, the state's money to buy the island had topped out at $3,500.
1996: Rumor has it that Francis Sheldon died somewhere in the Netherlands, probably in Amsterdam, on or around September of 1996.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Fox Islands is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 5 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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High Island's House of Virgins: Michigan's Cult

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 04:00:00 +0000

In the early 1900s, thousands of Americans joined a religious commune that promised actual eternal life, and handed over their life savings to prove their faith. When members inevitably died, they were buried in unmarked graves as punishment for their "faithlessness." This was the House of David cult of Benton Harbor, Michigan, whose bearded baseball teams toured with Satchel Paige and whose founder turned a thriving religious community into his personal harem.

High Island, a remote outpost in Lake Michigan, served as the cult's penal colony and hideout for what they called the "House of Virgins", young women spirited away in the night whenever authorities came looking for evidence of sexual exploitation. Behind the traveling sports teams and wholesome image was a darker story of manipulation, control, and unmarked graves on a forgotten island.

This is forgotten American history that reveals how charismatic leaders weaponize spirituality for power, and why thousands believed in a promise that was literally impossible to keep.

Subscribe to Hometown History for weekly deep dives into America's most surprising local stories.

How a religious leader promised eternal life and buried believers in dishonor when they died
The House of David's bizarre success as traveling sports teams with floor-length beards
High Island's role as both penal colony and hideout for exploited young women
The "House of Virgins" and cryptic telegrams about "green lumber" and "dry lumber"
What happened when the cult's sexual exploitation scandal went to trial
The unmarked graves that remain somewhere on the island today

Key Figures:

Benjamin Purnell ("Brother Ben") - Founder and self-proclaimed seventh messenger of heaven
House of David members - The "Michigan Israelites" who believed in eternal life

Timeline:

Early 1900s: House of David cult founded in Benton Harbor, Michigan
Peak years: 250,000 annual visitors to main campus; sports teams tour nationally
Multiple occasions: Young women hidden on High Island when authorities investigated
Cult trial: Benjamin Purnell died during legal proceedings
2018: Two living members remained in Benton Harbor
Present: High Island uninhabited; buildings and graves disappeared from landscape

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America's Only King: Beaver Island's James Strang

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Beaver Island, Michigan. The rate of violent deaths for kings throughout European history has been roughly 20%. The rate of violent deaths in the history of American kings, 100%. Every king in our national history has died a violent death. The rate of murder among the kings of Europe, as opposed to battlefield deaths or bloody accidents, has been roughly 15%. North America, again 100. Every American king has been murdered. Stranger yet, every king in American history has been assassinated in the harbor of St.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Beaver Island is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 3 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

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The Real Dorothy of Oz: A Bloomington Tragedy

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Bloomington, Indiana. The year was 1850 in the United States. American Express was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo. Los Angeles, San Francisco are incorporated as cities in California. And in Bloomington, Illinois, the Bloomington Cemetery was founded. 170 years after its founding, as you travel slightly south of the city center, you enter the now Evergreen Memorial Cemetery on East Miller Street. This old sleepy cemetery has suffered from vandalism and deterioration over its many years.

TIMELINE
1850: The year was 1850 in the United States.
1856: Lyman Frank Baum, or better known as L. Frank Baum, or to his family and friends as Frank, was born on May 15, 1856, in New York.
1898: By November 1898, Frank was putting together the story that Maude had been pushing him to write.
1899: Father Goose, his book, became the best-selling children's book of 1899.
1900: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900.
1956: By the time the book enters the public domain, in 1956, three million copies would be sold.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Bloomington is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 2 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 180 (Hagerstown, Indiana)

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Wabash's Blinding Light: First Electric City

Tue, 01 May 2018 21:00:00 +0000

Wabash, Indiana, 1880. The city council was in the middle of a heated fight over gas lamps and municipal lighting costs when a Cleveland inventor named Charles Brush offered them something nobody had tried before. He would install his arc lighting system on top of the county courthouse for $1,800. The vote barely passed. On the night of March 31, 1880, four lamps capable of producing a glow equal to 3,000 candles each fired from the courthouse dome. The streets below flooded with light. Wabash, a town of 15,000 people, had just become the first city in the world to light its streets with electricity.

This episode features TJ Honeycutt, collections assistant at the Wabash County Historical Museum, who walks through the original sources, the courthouse that still stands on its hill overlooking the town, and the arc light still on display inside the museum. If you go to the Wabash Wikipedia page, someone has called this claim a farcical notion. TJ has spent years gathering the evidence to the contrary.

WHY THIS MATTERS
Wabash beat every major city in the world to electric municipal lighting, and most people have never heard of it. The courthouse where those first lights burned still stands. The clock they installed still keeps time. And one of the original arc lights is still inside the museum two blocks away. Sometimes the biggest moments in history happen in the smallest towns.

Episode 1 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 140 (Cleveland, Ohio) tells the story of Charles Brush and how he illuminated a city and changed America forever.

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