Short stories about historical events
What’s in a name? Would the Mississippi sound as sweet by any other name? If Colbert had carried the day, would Mark Twain have still been inspired? Big Muddy, Old Man River, Father of Waters, we sure seem to have a hard time sticking to one name for this river. In this solo episode, I
As I was scraping ice off my windshield again the other morning, my mind began to wander to things like: How much would it cost to live in New Orleans for the winter? And, frozen bird shit is easier to scrape off the car than the liquid variety. Ice at Oquawka, Illinois I
Keokuk, Iowa on the Mississippi River About 70 miles north of Hannibal, Missouri, the Mississippi floodplain is bisected by a five-mile wide valley carved by the Des Moines River. South of the river is the State of Missouri; north is Iowa. It's a scenic area but not especially remarkable. The Missouri side
About twenty miles from Angle Inlet, the only town in the Northwest Angle, the sealed road ends and you jostle and bump along a wide gravel surface the rest of the way. This is better than the way things used to be. Until 1969, there was no all-season road. The Angle may seem remote,
Minnesota If don’t remember the shape of the State of Minnesota, glance at the map I posted and look at the very top. You’ll notice a small part, roughly in the shape of a chimney or a partly smashed top hat, that extends farther north than the rest of Minnesota, which is
Cyrus Hill; Revolutionary War veteran I have an unnatural interest in graveyards, I suppose. When I was a more active genealogist a few years ago, trips to cemeteries were just part of the routine. While I always hoped that the next cemetery would be the one with critical clues to open up a new generation
