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A Florida historian uncovers strange but true tales of The Sunshine State from the 16th century arrival of Spanish ships to the antics of modern politics.
From Key West to the Redneck Riviera, Florida has a history as colorful as its landscape and as diverse as its residents. But beneath the famous legends of Florida's storied past are intriguing tales that don't appear in the popular guides or history books. In Hidden History of Florida, author...
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Local historian Ron Melugin has roamed this frontier Texas cemetery for over a decade, collecting fascinating stories about the "residents" laid to rest here. Spanning the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these tales of extraordinary people with ordinary causes of death and ordinary people who died in extraordinary ways illustrate the uncertainties of life on the edge of the Confederacy and next door to Oklahoma Indian Territory. From the...
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Settling Routt County was never easy or safe. Fugitives used the undeveloped landscape as an "outlaw trail" to evade authorities. The inexorable Harry Tracy managed three jailbreaks before being killed by a posse. Conversely, many of the first families left entrepreneurial legacies. Widowed Alice Bartz sold the family homestead to start the Bartz Hotel in her Steamboat Springs' bakery and house, serving three meals a day to locals and guests. Others...
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The history of New Orleans is one of contrasts-heroes and villains, catastrophe and celebration, sinners and saints. In this New Orleans, a serial-killing axeman threatens to murder anyone not playing jazz. A fearless band of missionary nuns pushes to civilize the frontier. During World War II, Nazi U-boats lurk off the coast, while Denton Crocker's battle with local mosquitoes contributes to victory in the Pacific. From the streetcar strikers who...
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Many know about Terre Haute's long-gone reputation as a "sin city," but that hardly tells the whole story. Unknown to all but a few, the city was home to a POW camp for Confederate prisoners and divers once plucked valuable freshwater pearls from the Wabash River. Druggist Jacob Baur discovered a way to liquefy carbon dioxide, earning him the title "King of Soda Fountains." Before the advent of Hollywood, motion pictures were made here. And one of...
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Sarasota, Florida, a one-horse farming town turned thriving winter residence of the Ringling Bros. Circus and flocks of snowbirds, has experienced more than its share of quirky characters and peculiar events. Learn about the illustrious John Ringling, from the details of his daily breakfast to the fifty-five year saga that determined his final resting place. Find out the real identity of A NO. 1, the King of Hobos, who spent a night in Sarasota's...
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Though today South Carolina's Grand Strand is known primarily for tourism, Hidden History of the Grand Strand examines the area's often-overlooked stories spanning more than five hundred years, from the lost Spanish flagship Capitana in 1526 to the German U-boats that reportedly roamed the Intracoastal Waterway with the help of local collaborators during World War II. Along the way, learn about the hidden history of the now-vanished villages of La...
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Sail into the Mississippi Sound with Bienville, the Frenchman covered in serpentine tattoos. Meet the heroes of the Sound: fearless Father LeDuc, who faced down Yankee pillagers; the wild woman of Horn Island, who could shoot as well as any man; Joseph T. Jones, the baron who willed Gulfport into existence; and Ray Nosaka, who fed his body to the dogs of war, all in service of his country. Glimpse a school of the Sound's own patron fish, the striped...
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"United We Stand, Divided We Fall" is Kentucky's motto. Yet the Civil War sharply split the Bluegrass State. Kentuckians fought Kentuckians in some of the bloodiest battles of America's bloodiest war. The names and faces of the winning and losing generals of those battles are in most history books. But this book is not like most history books; it is about hidden history. Most of the stories are not found in other books. Some are proof that the Civil...
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It was an unlikely place for a city, scourged by disease-ridden mosquitos and pummeled by hurricanes. But for more than three hundred years, Mobile has thrived on the unlikely and endured the unimaginable. Mobilians love their gumbo but are likely unaware that it was first served up here by women sent from France to foster population growth. Times were once so dire for free blacks that a shocking number petitioned the courts to become slaves. The...
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Tragedy and destruction abound in this region and in these pages, but heroism, glory and Cajun flair come in equal measure. From the improbable Thoroughbred Twenty-Twoinit, which defied odds and burned Vegas odds makers at Evangeline Downs, to the destitute Reconstruction-era Cajuns who sought recompense from the federal government after the war, history comes to life in these retellings by historian and yarn spinner William Thibodeaux. Before "serial...
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Behind Herndon's past as a sleepy farming community hide forgotten tales of growth and progress. A mysterious stranger who passed through the village one night suggested the name Herndon, after the captain of a sunken ship. The Civil War split loyalties among the townspeople and brought an unexpected Confederate raid on the town. Prohibition brought bootleggers with it, but its repeal caused an uproar from temperance-minded residents. Lively community...
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Perched on the banks of the Cumberland River, Nashville is best known for its role in the civil rights movement, world-class education and, of course, country music. In this unique collection of columns, longtime journalist and Tennessee native George Zepp illuminates a less familiar side of the city. Learn the secrets of Timothy Demonbreun, one of the city's first residents who lived with his family in a cliff-top cave; Cortelia Clark, the blind...
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The history of the Wisconsin Dells area is as unique as its glacier-sculpted landscape. It has been a gathering place for tribal councils, a vacation spot for enthralled tourists and a stopping point for the raftsmen who might have had a little too much of the "Devil's Eyewater" brewed by pioneer Robert Allen. Local expert Ross M. Curry has been chronicling the region, from Baraboo to Lyndon, for almost sixty years. Join him for those chapters of...
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When prospectors set up camp on Cherry Creek in 1858, Denver emerged as a lightning rod for the extraordinary. Time has washed away so many unusual stories--from the dark days of nineteenth century Law and Order League lynchings and the KKK's later rise and fall to the heroism of suffragettes and the touching plight of the gypsies. Elizabeth Wallace knocks the dust off these details and introduces readers to characters like world heavyweight boxing...
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Picturesque Ashtabula County harbors a rich and sometimes strange history. Ohio's Western Reserve settlers were astonished by the ancient graveyards they found that yielded bones belonging to a gigantic race. Mr. Buck of Conneaut lived a secluded life married to himself, assuming the character and dress of the fictional Mrs. Buck. A legend persists to this day that the ship of a Spanish princess lies at the bottom of Pymatuning Lake. Author Carl E....
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From the Lowcountry's first recorded duel to old-fashioned summers at the 'hottest spot in town,' these pages will captivate you with stories of people, events and places that have all but vanished from memory. Find out the real history behind some of Charleston's beloved mansions and learn about the early plantations and their owners. Join the authors as they relate the riots and romance, the preservation and politics- and even a ghost story -from...
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Henderson County boasts a colorful history complete with its own cast of characters and historic landmarks. Who composed a blockbuster opera a few miles from downtown Hendersonville? Who were the record-setting McCrary twins, and why were they famous? These questions and many more are answered in this exciting volume of obscured history. From James Brown's 1950s performance on Hendersonville's Main Street to the rumors of illegal distilling in Cathead,...
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Had General George Washington lived anywhere other than Mount Vernon, Virginia, Washington, D.C., might not exist. In this exciting collection of hidden tales from Northern Virginia, author Charles Mills highlights the important role that this region played in our nation's history from colonial to modern times. Read about the Rebel blockade of the Potomac River, the imprisonment of German POWs at super-secret Fort Hunt during World War II and the...
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Situated between the mountains and the coast, Aiken County attracted ailing members of the southern planter class once the railroad from Charleston to Hamburg was completed in 1833. After the Civil War, grand hotels and sporting activities drew wealthy northern capitalists south for the winter here. A third era of prosperity came in the 1950s, when the Cold War prompted the construction of a nuclear reservation. Local author Tom Mack uncovers the...
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