Episodes

Aaron French moved in from Cincinnati. He had only been here approximately 6 Months. So he himself was a transient character, he had attempted to be a businessman in Cincinnati, involved in the meat packing industry and went ...

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 the winter, one day before the mini-blizzard that closed county schools and buried every …

The sky to the west of the small town of Peshtigo (PESH-ti-go [not pesh-TEE-go]), Wisconsin glowed red before the sunrise, on the morning of October 8th, 1871. It was Sunday, and when the local priest stepped out of his churc...

The day after leaving Copper County, I took the obligatory cruise of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It might be the one thing up here that people from outside the UP are likely to have heard of. And these open …

That sound you hear in the background is the hoist control of the Quincy Mine just outside Hancock, Michigan, where we’re heading today. Quincy is sort of the Madison Square Garden of the northern Michigan ghost mining world....

So, the motel that I stayed at in Eagle Harbor, Fletchy's Otter Belly Lodge, formerly the Shoreline Motel, was apparently the location of well-known feud between a local doctor and the president of the most powerful mine in M...

One of the things I’d heard about my next stop, Phoenix, Michigan, was that it was home to a well-known bridge troll – but instead of a bridge, it was a 148-year-old general store, and instead of a troll, it …

The following morning, my first real stop across the canal, apart from gawking at random pieces of rotting machinery, was the ghost town of Gregoryville – which is of a very different sort than the one at Fayette. As far …

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 …

The distinctive sound of the Mackinaw 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 …

No, there’s nothing wrong with your audio. That sound is the gateway to the best place to live in the year 2100, at least in North America. And, depending on what you like, it may be the best place right …

This episode is focused less on the history of a hometown, 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 cultur...

I don’t know a better way to introduce this episode than by just saying the Biltmore estate is one of my favorite places in the world. It’s the largest private home in the United States and it’s simply unrivaled on …

The Cherokee don’t believe in signatures. Who can blame them? In 1763, the British signed a proclamation preventing white colonization west of the Appalachian divide. It happened anyway. In 1785, the United States government ...

The Cherokee don’t believe in signatures. Who can blame them? In 1763, the British signed a proclamation preventing white colonization west of the Appalachian divide. It happened anyway. In 1785, the United States government ...

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 …

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 …

17-year-old Lepa Radić was a Yugoslavian partisan, having joined the communist party at age 15. Two years later, while tending to the wounded at the battle of Neretva, Lepa was captured and tortured for more than a week for i...

In 1930, a local architect moved a 11,000 tons building in downtown Indianapolis, using hand-powered jacks and an ingenious engineering solution. Visit us online at: Itshometownhistory.com Support our podcast by becoming a pa...

She was known by many names - the Siren of the 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 seventeen-year-old Belle …

We’ve named this episode after The Hunt for the Red October because it’s kind of like that, but instead of a Soviet submarine, the search is on for a powerful sleeper agent, known to the US government only as Dorothy. …

The year is 1861 and America is in the grips of a bloody Civil War that will change it forever. In Richmond, the capital of the new Confederate States, Southern Belles and Ladies are sewing uniforms, throwing fundraising gala...

On July 17, 1904, 500 residents of Hammond, Indiana gathered together one unseasonably hot summer afternoon, wearing their Sunday best, to watch an innocent man get buried alive. Visit us online at itshometownhistory.com Supp...

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, in...