Hometown History

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.

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 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
1900: in the southern Appalachian Mountains.
1929: A flatbed truck kicks up Red Carolina dust on a back road outside Bessemer City.
1935: and ran as a non-union shop until it closed in 1993.
1986: North Carolina proposed a historical marker near the Loray Mill.

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: stayed all white for 75 years, and then drowned the evidence under a lake.
1913: a grand jury drops all charges against Tony Howell.
1920: census recorded 30 black residents, where there had been more than a thousand.

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: and named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland.
1876: Gray-white brick, tall windows, a cupola on top.
1886: Carrollton, Mississippi, a Saturday afternoon.

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
1683: The old state house, built in 1791, still opens its doors to visitors.
1787: making Delaware the first state in the Union.
1887: to 1891, and a former attorney general of Delaware, Pennington was one of the most respected men in Kent County.
1898: the package arrived at the Pennington home.

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 air smells like wood smoke and coming snow.
1900: it houses 400 patients.
1925: Every third person you pass works at the asylum.
1947: electroconvulsive therapy.

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
1880: census records show just 10 people living there.
1883: money, that's an almost incomprehensible sum.
1890: Riceville had exploded to 136 residents.
1898: James Rice and his brothers Francis X and John took full control, forming the Hancock Leather Company.

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
1823: on Goat Island in Newport Harbor, it was dismantled and moved stone by stone to Prudence Island in 1851.
1933: 28 years he'd spent here.
1937: George Gustavus has finally arrived at his new posting.
1938: it's become a summer colony, though the year-round folks remain tight-knit.

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: Miss John McKisson Camp is hosting a luncheon on the rocks at Weakapog, just east of Watch Hill, Rhode Island.
1945: in the small, quiet town of Fayetteville, West Virginia.

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
1854: and the gale-force winds that rattled windows all night have driven the few families of Deal Beach from their beds.

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: along the Scantic River in northern Connecticut.
1837: wiped out his savings.
1913: Hazardville, Connecticut.
1968: 784 acres where hikers now walk past ruins of dam structures, race walls, and pressing mills.

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.

TIMELINE
1889: The Judith River runs cold through central Montana Territory.

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
1820: the well-known British writer Sidney Smith mocked the United States for its lack of culture and sophistication.
1900: to somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 by 1906.
1906: a little over a year before Veclund's death.
1907: Approaching midnight in Globe, Arizona's red-light district, two Globe police officers found him lying in the dirt.

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: the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised to protect existing Spanish land grants.
1894: he discovered a scheme that would define the next 30 years of his life.
1897: Manby claimed ownership of virtually the entire Martinez Grant.
1929: found itself at the center of a mystery that remains unsolved 95 years later.

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: was upstairs, and he was drunk.
1884: and his wife Fanny in 1888, their only daughter Laura inherited everything.
1889: 11 o'clock in the morning.

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: a farmhouse three miles north of Turtle Lake, North Dakota.

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.

TIMELINE
1890: Nobody really wanted it.
1943: right in the middle of World War II, United States military forces accidentally bombed Boise City, Oklahoma.

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: was a prosperous town of about 5,000 folks sitting in the heart of Cajun country.
1913: Julia Anderson walked into the sheriff's office, holding a photograph of her son Bruce.
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
1839: designed by Charles Beck, associate of South Carolina's famous architect, Robert Mills.
1849: Workers searching the woods between Edgefield and Abbeville County, South Carolina, stumbled across a shallow grave.
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: became America's first blind engineer and invented technology that's now in millions of cars.
1908: Philadelphia train station.
1995: essentially they lived their lives as if Ralph could see normally.
2000: The main employer, Railway Cycle Manufacturing Company.

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.

TIMELINE
1878: at Chester, Pennsylvania, she was 275 feet long, with an iron hull and a 1500 horsepower steam engine.
1884: the lookout aboard the passenger steamer City of Columbus screams a warning into the darkness.
1981: and her network of associates has infiltrated the U.

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
1930: just six months after the stock market crash.

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
1919: The general steel strike begins.
1920: And for 15 years after that defeat, there's almost no union organizing in the steel industry.
1930: Then, in 1933, the National Industry Recovery Act sparks renewed organizing.
1933: But there's another shadow over Wheeling Steel.

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
1915: downtown Erie, Pennsylvania, 8.
1934: when Cleveland was at the center of a series of brutal killings.

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
1776: Now, before we go further, you may have heard this story before.
1936: when Paul Cantrell rode Franklin Roosevelt's coattails to become sheriff.
1946: The McMinn County Jail in Athens, Tennessee is surrounded.

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: and 1839, the Osage ceded 96.
1870: under relentless pressure from white settlers in Kansas, they negotiated one final move.
1897: the Phoenix Oil Company drilled their first successful well along Butler Creek.
1912: lease auctions were held under the famous million-dollar elm tree in Pawhuska.

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.

TIMELINE
1786: to 1892, At least 80 known cases of exhumations were documented in New England.
1859: of a family in Vermont who dug up their loved one to end a streak of deaths.
1883: his wife Mary Eliza died of consumption.
1892: she was placed in the family crypt.

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
1922: For a small town hit hard by the coming Depression, the factory was a godsend.
1925: Radium Dial had hired medical experts to examine its employees.
1938: the commission ruled decisively, in favor of the women.
1939: when the Supreme Court declined to hear her case.

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: epidemic killed thousands.
1943: a major outbreak hit places like Chicago.
1944: when polio came to Hickory.

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
1854: and I realized, they must have felt some of what I had.
1880: burst a flood of lights that made world history.

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
1854: Turned away by Britain's war office, she did what entrepreneurs do, built the British hotel near the front lines.
1861: Abraham and Mary kept this as a rental, with plans of returning after serving in Washington.
1865: she refused to come back, and the house was later donated to the state of Illinois.
1896: became America's first blind engineer and invented technology that's now in millions of cars.

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
1647: laborers toiling away at the Tower of London uncovered two small skeletons while clearing away rubble from a staircase.
1820: in the Italian city of Firenze.
1851: she trained at Kaiserwerth Institute in Germany, one of the few places that would accept a lady of her class.
1854: in a makeshift army hospital perched above the Bosphorus Strait.

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.

TIMELINE
1647: laborers toiling away at the Tower of London uncovered two small skeletons while clearing away rubble from a staircase.
1820: in the Italian city of Firenze.
1851: she trained at Kaiserwerth Institute in Germany, one of the few places that would accept a lady of her class.
1854: Turned away by Britain's war office, she did what entrepreneurs do, built the British hotel near the front lines.

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
1945: in the small, quiet town of Fayetteville, West Virginia.
1949: uncovered several bone fragments.
1968: Jeannie received a strange letter in the mail.
1969: still believing that his children were alive.

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
1877: railway workers William Reed and Carlin discovered fossils near Como Bluff, Wyoming, they contacted Marsh.

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: one of Hollywood's most iconic romance films, Rebel Without a Cause, was released.
2018: 34,372 claims have been approved for a total of $2,243,205,380.

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
1926: New York City was adorned with a sparkle of snow and a festive glow.
1969: a date the Met Museum won't soon forget.

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
1926: New York City was adorned with a sparkle of snow and a festive glow.
1969: a date the Met Museum won't soon forget.

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.

TIMELINE
1913: Ambrose Bierce is thought to have traveled south, aiming to meet up with Pancho Villa in Chihuahua, Mexico.
1914: that the news made it to the Indianapolis papers.
1975: the patient population drops below 600 for the first time in 50 years.
1985: fewer than 300 patients.

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.

TIMELINE
1850: in the United States.
1865: it sank right off the coast here.
1872: a whispered hint about diamonds, hidden somewhere in the American wilderness, started small.
1898: in Bloomington, Illinois.

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.

TIMELINE
1920: they'd been building farms in North Dakota for 40 years.
1938: still soaking wet, still grieving, having just been pulled from the water after his wife and youngest son drowned.
1951: He left behind zero explanation of how he built Coral Castle.

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: in Boston, Massachusetts, which was part of the British Massachusetts Bay Colony at the time.
1754: when his father died, Paul was devastated and left handling the home by himself.
1756: two years after his father's death, Paul decided to join the military.
1757: Paul retired from the army in 1757.

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
1872: a whispered hint about diamonds, hidden somewhere in the American wilderness, started small.
1934: when Cleveland was at the center of a series of brutal killings.
1935: Near Kingsbury Run, at the base of a place named Jackass Hill, lay the body of a 28-year-old male.

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.

TIMELINE
1865: a conflict that pitted the Union against the Confederacy, composed of states that had ceded from the Union.
1875: America seemed to be moving toward recovery from the trouble of the last few years.
1900: membership statistics showed a strong presence in several states, with Pennsylvania leading with over 62 members.
1949: thanks to Brother Francis Walter, who was not only a congressman, but also a proud member of the Order.

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
1735: in Boston, Massachusetts, which was part of the British Massachusetts Bay Colony at the time.
1859: in Charlestown, Massachusetts, Jesse Harding Pomeroy was the second child in a seemingly ordinary family.
1874: just after his 15th birthday, and concluded the very next day.
1876: But the story doesn't end there.

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.

TIMELINE
1910: By William Cramp and Sons in Philadelphia.
1911: To supply ships of the 2nd Division.
1917: To participate in a convoy to Saint-Nazaire, France.
1918: When she was transferred to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service.

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: John and Margaret Fox moved into a new house, along with their daughters, Margarita, Maggie Fox, and Catherine, Kate Fox.
1848: around four months after they started living there, the family began hearing sounds that were just plain weird.

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
1806: Davy introduced a more impactful form of electric lighting to the distinguished Royal Society in London.
1870: both Ralston and Harpending were already involved in a new project called the Mountains of Silver in New Mexico.
1871: eager to get in on the action.
1880: over 40 bodies were snatched from Oakwood Cemetery and shipped up north to various medical schools.

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: over 40 bodies were snatched from Oakwood Cemetery and shipped up north to various medical schools.
1912: Undoubtedly, she was the only woman in attendance.
1913: she opened another beauty school in Harlem.

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: As the Blacklist reached its peak, so did the immense suffering for many in the entertainment industry.
1954: a film often seen as justifying their decision to cooperate with authorities.
1955: one of Hollywood's most iconic romance films, Rebel Without a Cause, was released.
1959: And this struggle was reflected in movies of the time.

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
1842: hiding beneath the deck of a ship bound north.
1857: a dark period when the Supreme Court ruled that an enslaved man could not sue for his freedom.
1860: But their search for freedom hit a snag when George was recognized in Boston and arrested.
1926: New York City was adorned with a sparkle of snow and a festive glow.

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: in Smith Center, Kansas, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle had a tough start in life.
1908: Edison and his principal competitors, including Eastman Kodak, reached an agreement called the Edison Trust.
1955: one of Hollywood's most iconic romance films, Rebel Without a Cause, was released.

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
1806: Davy introduced a more impactful form of electric lighting to the distinguished Royal Society in London.
1880: and the few who are still out at a late hour only have the dying light of oil lamps to walk around the town.
1934: when Cleveland was at the center of a series of brutal killings.

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
1886: Things really turned ugly after that.
1888: in Chicago, five years before the 1893 World's Fair.
1904: in Chicago, was the product of a wealthy German-Jewish immigrant family.
1905: shared a similarly privileged background.

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
1818: Their mansion was the center of social gatherings, and they were at the heart of Richmond's upper class.
1861: and America is on the grips of a bloody civil war that will change it forever.
1910: By William Cramp and Sons in Philadelphia.
1911: To supply ships of the 2nd Division.

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.

TIMELINE
1850: in the United States.
1865: it sank right off the coast here.
1898: in Bloomington, Illinois.
1928: I noticed that I love that there are five boxes, and they're numbered.

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.

TIMELINE
1698: and 1700, she was the daughter of a servant woman, Mary Brennan, and her employer, the lawyer William Cormack.
1711: when Anne was only 12.

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
1865: a conflict that pitted the Union against the Confederacy, composed of states that had ceded from the Union.
1871: A group of Republican Party members formed the Whiskey Ring, claiming it was to fund party candidates.
1875: America seemed to be moving toward recovery from the trouble of the last few years.

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
1870: When she was about seven years old, her parents separated.
1880: when a wealthy childless family in Rowan learned of her situation.
1886: she meets this mysterious man that I mentioned earlier, Edwards, Arts, and possibly Holmes.
1910: Lauren, along with his wife Lucille, took a leap of faith and moved to Dayton, Ohio.

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
1906: And focused on Winchester's encounters.
1924: The legendary Houdini.
1931: And even more changes.
2018: Followed by an Australian release.

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.

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
1590: around three years after his departure, that White finally set out, fully equipped, for Roanoke.
1593: never learning what happened to his daughter, granddaughter, and the other colonists.
1602: But it's also possible that his motives were not out of concern, but drive to maintain his claim on Virginia.
1857: Roanoke settlement, John White, a man skilled not only in exploration, but also in the arts.

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.

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
1908: Edison and his principal competitors, including Eastman Kodak, reached an agreement called the Edison Trust.
1914: to 1918 and it changed a lot of things around the world.
1917: the very first feature-length movie made in Technicolor, called The Golf Between, was filmed in Jacksonville.
1918: brought with it the Spanish flu, which was a worldwide problem.

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
1625: K Street in Washington, D.
1922: rumors began surfacing that a shady deal relating to these oil sites had gone down.

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
1861: Abraham and Mary kept this as a rental, with plans of returning after serving in Washington.
1865: she refused to come back, and the house was later donated to the state of Illinois.
1908: Philadelphia train station.
1919: diminished his once powerful grasp over leadership, rendering him less capable of steering Senate negotiations.

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
1926: New York City was adorned with a sparkle of snow and a festive glow.
1969: a date the Met Museum won't soon forget.

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
1926: New York City was adorned with a sparkle of snow and a festive glow.
1969: a date the Met Museum won't soon forget.

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
1898: which, if you didn't know, Betsy Ross stitched the first American flag.
1910: By William Cramp and Sons in Philadelphia.
1911: To supply ships of the 2nd Division.
1949: thanks to Brother Francis Walter, who was not only a congressman, but also a proud member of the Order.

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: and Russia had boldly declared legal equality for women.
1941: the Russian front was about to witness a historic change.
1942: Following the death of Marina Reskova, the commander of the 587th, a male officer took her place.
1945: Their regiment was no more, but the legacy of the Night Witches continued to soar, unbound by time.

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.

TIMELINE
1799: in the rolling countryside of North Carolina.
1835: Jackson signed a law that would reshape America's destiny.
1925: Radium Dial had hired medical experts to examine its employees.
1944: Within 24 hours, six cases were identified in the county and 68 across the region.

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
1861: Abraham and Mary kept this as a rental, with plans of returning after serving in Washington.
1865: she refused to come back, and the house was later donated to the state of Illinois.
1896: became America's first blind engineer and invented technology that's now in millions of cars.
1908: Philadelphia train station.

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.

TIMELINE
1876: and that's where the centennial was happening at that time.
1894: he went to the Columbian Exposition, which was the World's Fair that took place in Chicago.

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.

TIMELINE
1967: movie with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

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.

TIMELINE
1967: movie with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

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
1901: and are still thriving today.
1902: And so, less than one year, this building was standing.
1998: a research scientist from Procter & Gamble who collects Rookwood pottery took our tour.
2023: the travel site TripAdvisor named it one of the top five hotels in America.

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.

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.

TIMELINE
1926: And he had four siblings.

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.

TIMELINE
2001: a couple of years prior to the firebombing here at the museum.
2003: they didn't have any video surveillance like we have in the world today, but even here at the museum.

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.

TIMELINE
2001: a couple of years prior to the firebombing here at the museum.
2003: they didn't have any video surveillance like we have in the world today, but even here at the museum.

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.

TIMELINE
2001: a couple of years prior to the firebombing here at the museum.
2003: they didn't have any video surveillance like we have in the world today, but even here at the museum.

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.

TIMELINE
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.

TIMELINE
1851: birdcage-style cast iron lantern, one of very few such lanterns still in use in America.
1922: 1923, there was a lot of things that happened that made Bristol really have a particular impact.
1925: 26, that started to transform the way those records would sound to people.
1926: they had been primarily reliant on the acoustic horn technology for recording.

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.

TIMELINE
1847: He's a child of the Victorian period.
1907: is considered the ends of the earth.
1911: and he is considered the father of bluegrass.
1945: through deed of gift to the people in the state of Indiana.

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.

TIMELINE
1853: And they set about turning San Juan Island into a massive corporate sheep farm.
1858: gold was discovered in the Fraser River Valley of British Columbia.
1859: there were over 4,000 sheep living on San Juan Island.
1890: had quite strict requirements.

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: and he is considered the father of bluegrass.
1990: But that's why you got Dolly Parton's dress.

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.

TIMELINE
1912: Undoubtedly, she was the only woman in attendance.
1913: she opened another beauty school in Harlem.
1963: South Carolina state champions.
2004: DNA testing proved they'd all been wrong.

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.

TIMELINE
1824: in southwestern Indiana.
1939: 3,000 people pack into Wheeling's Capitol Theater, West Virginia's largest venue between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

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.

TIMELINE
1814: when we're still just part of the territory because Western Pennsylvania had just become too populated.
1824: in southwestern Indiana.
1939: 3,000 people pack into Wheeling's Capitol Theater, West Virginia's largest venue between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

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.

TIMELINE
1824: the Fall Creek Massacre had put the entire region on alert, and both sides were eager to avoid more violence.
1826: treaty between the Potawatomi and the Miami Indian Nations in the U.
2010: and have seen a lot of changes, but a lot of exciting things, and really glad to be here.

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.

TIMELINE
1931: there were two things that occurred that were really key to the future of the state of Nevada.

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: alone, the equivalent of 20 Hiroshima's had dropped in this testing area, and most of the fallout headed to St.
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
1797: it was not Washington, D.
1906: in the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

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
1865: it sank right off the coast here.
1928: I noticed that I love that there are five boxes, and they're numbered.
1964: tsunami was not the big tsunami.
1975: and replaced by a floating lighthouse buoy.

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.

TIMELINE
1812: and a prior treaty in 1818.
1814: during the War of 1812.
1848: they thought that they had pretty much settled the boundary with the Treaty of Oregon.
1853: And they set about turning San Juan Island into a massive corporate sheep farm.

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
1814: during the War of 1812.
1839: The Fenian War was basically a five-year raid in which the U.
1846: That was Mike Voorhees, former Chief of Interpretation and historian for the San Juan Islands National Historic Park.
1848: they thought that they had pretty much settled the boundary with the Treaty of Oregon.

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.

TIMELINE
1956: Among other things, Kerouac was known for his moody, angsty prowse.

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.

TIMELINE
1861: Abraham and Mary kept this as a rental, with plans of returning after serving in Washington.
1865: she refused to come back, and the house was later donated to the state of Illinois.
1908: Philadelphia train station.
1932: American unemployment hit a record high of nearly 25 percent.

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
1920: strike, Union Pacific strike.
1947: So, while at Niagara Falls, There were some states where you had to wait a year to be a resident, at least a year.

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.

TIMELINE
1820: the well-known British writer Sidney Smith mocked the United States for its lack of culture and sophistication.
1880: his son William Wirt Winchester took over, but succumbed to tuberculosis just one year later.
1884: Sarah moved to California and purchased what would become the Winchester Mystery House.
1900: the village idiot of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, laid on his back in the middle of the woods and heard the voice of God.

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: As late as 1916, when motor vehicles dominated the streets, Chicago scavengers still had to remove 9,202 carcasses.
1903: The Grand Canyon fills me with awe.
1913: Ambrose Bierce is thought to have traveled south, aiming to meet up with Pancho Villa in Chihuahua, Mexico.
1914: that the news made it to the Indianapolis papers.

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.

TIMELINE
1826: is not how it existed in 1847 when he leaves.
1839: and predating those of cities like Boston and New York by roughly 30 years.
1908: in the Renaissance Revival style.

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
1826: is not how it existed in 1847 when he leaves.
1839: and predating those of cities like Boston and New York by roughly 30 years.
1908: in the Renaissance Revival style.

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.

TIMELINE
1788: when he bought his first person, a black woman roughly his own age.
1861: Nashville, like the rest of Tennessee, sided with the Confederacy, but the Confederate Army made a costly assumption.
1864: Confederate troops were moving toward Nashville with the plan.
1897: also known as the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition, and has since been converted into a public museum.

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.

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.

TIMELINE
1861: It became clear that this would not be the short, uneventful war most of the North had expected.

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.

TIMELINE
1819: on the banks of the Mississippi River.
1878: yellow fever epidemic.
1950: by Sam Phillips, who is not related to Dewey, by the way, and Marion Kiesker.
1968: a strike by black sanitation workers attracted the attention of Martin Luther King Jr.

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.

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: Nashville, like the rest of Tennessee, sided with the Confederacy, but the Confederate Army made a costly assumption.
1862: when the fort was still under construction.
1864: Confederate troops were moving toward Nashville with the plan.
1897: also known as the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition, and has since been converted into a public museum.

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.

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.

TIMELINE
1820: in the Italian city of Firenze.
1854: and I realized, they must have felt some of what I had.
1880: and the few who are still out at a late hour only have the dying light of oil lamps to walk around the town.

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.

TIMELINE
1871: Pestigo, Wisconsin was a major lumber town.

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.

TIMELINE
1847: had risked his life to help advert a threatened food shortage in the Copper Harbor District.
1908: is anchored in the bottom left corner.
2018: which focused on the Upper Peninsula.

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.

TIMELINE
1812: when American troops invaded the island on August 4, 1814.
1898: the primary mode of public transportation.
1903: a few hours south in Detroit.

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.

TIMELINE
1967: movie with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
2008: And we were there until, I think, 2015 is when we permanently closed in the D.
2020: It started out as one of their primary suits.

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.

TIMELINE
1930: and was still family-owned by Edith Vanderbilt at that point.

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.

TIMELINE
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: the continent of Europe was crumbling under an onslaught of Nazi invasion and ingenuity.
1943: they started three schools here.
1945: Then in August, after the war ended, the population went down from 75,000 to about 30,000.

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.

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
1854: and I realized, they must have felt some of what I had.
1939: Oz had a lukewarm reaction.
1956: it aired for the first time on television, on CBS.
1976: enlisted gay men had been identified and discharged from the military during a nationwide crackdown.

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.

TIMELINE
1908: she opened a branch office and beauty school called Alila College in Pittsburgh.
1930: but it's not a novel.
1944: overdosed on sleeping pills.
1952: Because Leola Hockett was still hanging around.

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.

TIMELINE
1861: she was just 17-year-old Belle Boyd of Martinsburg.

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: Their mansion was the center of social gatherings, and they were at the heart of Richmond's upper class.
1861: and America is on the grips of a bloody civil war that will change it forever.
1880: over 40 bodies were snatched from Oakwood Cemetery and shipped up north to various medical schools.

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.

TIMELINE
1833: but by 1904, rapid advances in medical fields were taking place again.
1921: by President Harding.
1989: so Fritz was living well ahead of his time.

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.

TIMELINE
1647: laborers toiling away at the Tower of London uncovered two small skeletons while clearing away rubble from a staircase.
1674: when workmen rebuilding the Tower of London unearthed two small skeletons at the base of a staircase.
1820: in the Italian city of Firenze.
1851: she trained at Kaiserwerth Institute in Germany, one of the few places that would accept a lady of her class.

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.

TIMELINE
1950: by Sam Phillips, who is not related to Dewey, by the way, and Marion Kiesker.
2015: musical artist Jack White paid $300,000 for a 78 RPM record at auction.

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.

TIMELINE
1922: Remember, the Times said, The street where such incidents occurred were strewn with broken straw hats.
1926: New York City was adorned with a sparkle of snow and a festive glow.
1969: a date the Met Museum won't soon forget.

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.

TIMELINE
1859: And talk of secession was in the air.
1863: That wound still made the heavy work of dairy farming difficult.
1867: when she was 15 years old.
1889: that meant she was quite old for a first marriage.

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.

TIMELINE
1898: the package arrived at the Pennington home.

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.

TIMELINE
1900: and some distant dystopian future.
1951: in Painesville, Kentucky.
1977: hit, Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, along with her iconic floor-length black hair.
1990: to 1993, the women's game was arguably more popular than the men's, which has never happened before or since.

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.

TIMELINE
1797: it was not Washington, D.

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.

TIMELINE
1797: it was not Washington, D.
1861: issue of Harper's Weekly, an American political magazine based in New York City.

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.

TIMELINE
1874: to 1912 by a single company, the Monumental Bronze Company, and its subsidiary, the Detroit Bronze Company.
1908: is anchored in the bottom left corner.
1913: to Calumet, Michigan, in the Copper Country.
2019: the Detroit Red Wings, played the St.

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
1709: Today, it has a population of roughly 250 residents.
1867: near Delta, Louisiana.
1912: Undoubtedly, she was the only woman in attendance.
1913: she opened another beauty school in Harlem.

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
1709: Today, it has a population of roughly 250 residents.
1867: near Delta, Louisiana.
1908: she opened a branch office and beauty school called Alila College in Pittsburgh.
1910: Madam Walker decided to consolidate the Denver and Pittsburgh September 1908, Philadelphia train station.

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
1862: Smalls was still a slave, fighting against his will in the Confederate Navy.
1863: When that man sued him for his former home, the government sided with which had been seized in 1863.
1895: feels symbolic of his life as a whole.
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
1880: when a wealthy childless family in Rowan learned of her situation.

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.

TIMELINE
1912: stayed all white for 75 years, and then drowned the evidence under a lake.
1955: and met Martin Luther King during seminary at Emory University.
1956: the sluice gates close.
1987: 75 years of silence, and then a walk.

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.

TIMELINE
1884: the lookout aboard the passenger steamer City of Columbus screams a warning into the darkness.
1903: and in 1904, she received U.
1904: Primitive versions of the game spread quickly up and down the East Coast, and it became popular on college campuses.
1930: vacationing at their summer cabin in Belgrade, Maine.

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.

TIMELINE
1076: in a move that crippled the power of the English king.
1820: in the Italian city of Firenze.
1851: she trained at Kaiserwerth Institute in Germany, one of the few places that would accept a lady of her class.
1854: in a makeshift army hospital perched above the Bosphorus Strait.

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.

TIMELINE
1839: It was a much smaller house at the time, it was only about a story and a half, and was shaped like a T.
1860: appearance, which is right before the Lincolns left Washington.
1861: Abraham and Mary kept this as a rental, with plans of returning after serving in Washington.
1865: she refused to come back, and the house was later donated to the state of Illinois.

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.

TIMELINE
1647: laborers toiling away at the Tower of London uncovered two small skeletons while clearing away rubble from a staircase.
1820: in the Italian city of Firenze.
1851: she trained at Kaiserwerth Institute in Germany, one of the few places that would accept a lady of her class.
1854: Turned away by Britain's war office, she did what entrepreneurs do, built the British hotel near the front lines.

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.

TIMELINE
1860: just before the Civil War, the county's population was about 22,000 people.
1861: Abraham and Mary kept this as a rental, with plans of returning after serving in Washington.
1865: she refused to come back, and the house was later donated to the state of Illinois.
1877: and 1950, more than 4,400 racial terror lynchings occurred in the American South.

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.

TIMELINE
1800: I think it was, or 1801, he and a friend were shooting and they ran out of ammunition.
1802: and began black powder operations there in 1802.
1876: still functioning as the county courthouse.
1886: those laws were being gutted by the Supreme Court, and the political will to enforce them had collapsed.

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.

TIMELINE
1885: when Hedy was middle-aged, she stormed down to New York and said to wrest control of that money.
1926: New York City was adorned with a sparkle of snow and a festive glow.
1969: a date the Met Museum won't soon forget.

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.

TIMELINE
1776: Now, before we go further, you may have heard this story before.
1897: also known as the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition, and has since been converted into a public museum.
1936: when Paul Cantrell rode Franklin Roosevelt's coattails to become sheriff.
1946: The McMinn County Jail in Athens, Tennessee is surrounded.

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.

TIMELINE
1798: Tarare died young because his addictions consumed him, and just about everything else he could get his hands on.
1886: black defendants accused of killing a white man almost never made it to trial.

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.

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.

TIMELINE
1898: the primary mode of public transportation.
1900: and some distant dystopian future.
1903: a few hours south in Detroit.
1908: in the Renaissance Revival style.

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
1875: Mackinac Island was named, after Yellowstone National Park, America's second national park.
1895: when the threat of war with Canada had long passed and the island transferred back to state control.
1898: the primary mode of public transportation.
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
1960: The competing buyer at the time was the state of Michigan, but Sheldon had deep pockets, and he was willing to pay more.
1976: after he was tipped off that the FBI was going to arrest him.
1996: And at the time he died, he was a free man living the life of the millionaire that he was.

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.

TIMELINE
1776: and then fought an eight-year war against its former king.
1812: and would spend the next few years trying to figure out who owned what along the new Canadian-American border.
1938: hurricane struck New England with sustained winds of 121 miles per hour.
1939: he returned to Nobska Light on Cape Cod, a station where he'd previously served.

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: in the United States.
1882: after having their four sons.
1898: her aunt Maude fell in love with her.
1899: Back to little Dorothy.

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.

TIMELINE
1870: The original Wabash County Courthouse burns down. The county builds a new one, taller and fireproof, on a hill visible for miles.
March 31, 1880: Four Brush arc lights activated on the courthouse dome. Wabash becomes the first electrically lit city in the world.
1880: The town purchases the full lighting system after the successful demonstration.
1882: Thomas Edison opens Pearl Street Station in New York City, two years after Wabash.

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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