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Montana s relationship to Americana music is as wide and deep as the famed Missouri River that inspired countless musicians seated at its shores. From the fiddling of Pierre Cruzatte and George Gibson in the Corps of Discovery to the modern-day loner folk of Joey Running Crane and Cameron Boster, the Treasure State inspires the production of top-notch country music. In the 1950s, bands like the Snake River Outlaws fostered a long-standing love of hillbilly honky-tonk, and in the 1970s, the Mission Mountain Wood Band added a homegrown flavor of its own. Contemporary acts like the Lil Smokies and songwriter Martha Scanlan promise a vibrant future for the local sound. Author and musician Aaron Parrett explores this history to show what it means to boot stomp in Big Sky Country."

Shortly after Cleburne landed the largest railroad shops west of the Mississippi, it set its sights on securing a professional baseball team. Against the odds, Cleburne became a Texas League town in 1906. After the first championship, the Railroaders loaded a train and left Cleburne. The town s professional teams would amass two championships, three pennants and several legendary major league players, including Tris Speaker, before disappearing. Despite lacking a professional club, the town continued to field teams at all levels, until the Railroaders made their triumphant return in 2017. Scott Cain shares a century of Cleburne baseball, including the cowboys who gunned down fly balls to intimidate umps, the pro team that played the Chicago White Sox and the city councilman who was a scorekeeper for the Negro Leagues in the 1950s."

Gunslingers, gamblers and outlaws vastly outnumbered sheriffs and marshals in the cattle towns of the Kansas frontier. Famous lawmen, such as Charlie Bassett, Wild Bill Hickok and Tom Smith, kept the peace by sheer force of personality and the integrity of the local lockup. The story of the state s settlement can be tracked in the fascinating development of these bastions of prairie justice. Makeshift jails of earlier times were replaced by limestone, brick and concrete structures with iron cells and elaborate locking systems. From the squirrel cage of Wichita to the iron jail of Lawrence City, tour these early Kansas prisons with author Gerald Bayens."

As early as 1755, explorers found coal deposits in Ohio s Hocking Valley. The industry that followed created towns and canals and established a new way of life. The first shipment of coal rolled into Columbus in 1830 and has continued ever since. In 1890, the United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus. Lorenzo D. Poston became the first of the Hocking Valley coal barons, and by the start of the twentieth century, at least fifty thousand coal miners and their families lived and worked in Athens, Hocking and Perry Counties. Authors David Meyers, Elise Meyers Walker and Nyla Vollmer detail the hard work and struggles as they unfolded in Ohio s capital and the Little Cities of Black Diamonds."

On his twenty-sixth horrifying mission over the hostile skies of Nazi Europe, a charismatic bombardier, seated at the nose of a B-17, strapped on his parachute as his disintegrating bomber dropped uncontrollably to the ground. What got him to this point, the ensuing months behind barbed wire and his daily letters written to his family in Akron, Ohio, makes for an emotionally intense memoir. This is the true account of a single unknown individual who stands in for the unsung warriors of the greatest generation during World War II.

From Gregory s Diggings prospector to Denver mayor, Richard Sopris left an indelible mark on the Mile High City and Centennial State. During an 1860 prospecting expedition, Sopris discovered Glenwood Springs and the nearly thirteen-thousand-foot summit later named for him. Following life as a steamboat captain, he was appointed captain of Company C, First Colorado Cavalry, in 1861 and commanded volunteer troops at Glorieta Pass. After serving as a delegate to the first constitutional convention of Colorado and as Arapaho County sheriff, he helped quell the Hop Alley Chinese Riot of 1880 and enacted public works projects to rid Denver of a deadly typhoid outbreak. After his mayoral term ended in 1881, Sopris became the first commissioner of his beloved City Park. Author Linda Bjorklund celebrates the unsung life and accomplishments of a founding son of Colorado."

From the humble Ingalls family cabin in the woods to Ayad Akhtar s multicultural conflicts, the Badger State s stories and imagery have long inspired. Explore how Aldo Leopold and Lorine Niedecker drew on their close observations of the natural world. Contrast the distinct novels that Jane Hamilton and Larry Watson set on Wisconsin apple orchards. Delve into Thornton Wilder s enduringly popular Our Town and the wild fiction of Ellen Raskin and Cordwainer Smith, who wrote like no one else. Join Jim Higgins for a detailed account of ten notable Wisconsin writers that blends history, literary criticism and fact."

Florida has long been viewed as a land of hope and endless possibilities. Visionaries seeking to establish new communities where they could escape the influences of society at large have turned to Florida to construct their utopias from the vast plantations of British philanthropists and entrepreneurs in the eighteenth century to the more exotic Koreshan Unity and its theory that humans live in the center of a Hollow Earth. Some came to the Sunshine State seeking religious freedom, such as the settlers in Moses Levy s Jewish colony, while others settled in Florida to establish alternative lifestyles, like the spiritualists of Cassadaga. Still others created their communities to practice new agricultural techniques or political philosophies. Historians Joe Knetsch and Nick Wynne examine a number of these distinctive utopian communities and how they have contributed to Florida s unique social fabric."

Tradition meets tragedy in the chilling local lore of the Rio Grande Valley. Hidden in the dense brush and around oxbow lakes wait sinister secrets, unnerving vestiges of the past and wraiths of those claimed by the winding river. The spirit of a murdered student in Brownsville paces the locker room where she met her end. Tortured souls of patients lost in the Harlingen Insane Asylum refuse to be forgotten. Guests at the LaBorde Hotel in Rio Grande City report visions of the Red Lady, who was spurned by the soldier she loved and driven to suicide. Author David Bowles explores these and more of the most harrowing ghost stories from Fort Brown to Fort Ringgold and all the haunted hotels, chapels and ruins in between.

North Carolina holds a special place in the history of moonshine. For more than three centuries, the illicit home-brew was a way of life. NASCAR emerged from the illegal moonshine trade as drivers such as Junior Johnson, accustomed to running from the law, moved to the racetrack. A host of colorful characters populated the state s bootlegging arena, like Marvin Popcorn Sutton, known as the Paul Bunyan of moonshine, and Alvin Sawyer, considered the moonshine king of the Great Dismal Swamp. Some law enforcement played a constant cat-and-mouse game to shut down illegal stills, while some just looked the other way. Authors Frank Stephenson and Barbara Mulder reveal the gritty history of moonshine in the Tar Heel State."

Ghosts lurk in the waters near Boston's historic seaport, haunting the secluded islands scattered throughout the harbor. Boston Harbor brims with the restless spirits of pirates, prisoners and victims of disease and injustice. Uncover the truth behind the Lady in Black on Georges Island. Learn about the former asylums on Long Island that inspired the movie Shutter Island, and dig up the skeletal secrets left behind by the Woman in Scarlet Robes. From items flying off the shelves at a North End cigar shop to the postmortem cries of tragedy at the centuries-old Boston Light on Little Brewster, author Sam Baltrusis breathes new life into the horrors that occurred in the historic waters surrounding Boston.

Swindlers, confidence men and outlaws the mountain shadows and Ponderosa pines surrounding Prescott conceal their grim histories and crooked ways. The small hamlet turned mining town became Arizona s first capital in 1864, and with wealth and power came every type of vice and crime. One block west of the famed Whiskey Row, the roaring red-light district attracted ladies of easy virtue, who often became victims of crimes of passion and coldblooded murder. Legendary crook Fleming Jim Parker escaped from Yavapai County Jail on the back of the sheriff s stolen horse. Cattle rustlers terrorized nearby ranches, while tavern brawls and liquor-fueled shootouts dominated newspaper headlines. More than ten legal hangings brought criminals to justice. Local author Parker Anderson recounts these and more wicked misdeeds from Prescott s wild early days."

In the early 1900s, Frank Lloyd Wright transformed a small midwestern prairie community into one of the world s most important architectural destinations. Mason City, Iowa, became home to his City National Bank and Park Inn the last surviving Wright hotel. In addition, his prototype Stockman House helped launch the Prairie School architectural style. Soon after, architect Walter Burley Griffin followed in Wright s footsteps, designing a cluster of Prairie School homes in the Rock Crest/Rock Glen neighborhood. Design historian Roy Behrens leads the way through Mason City s historic development from the Industrial Revolution to the modern era of Frank Lloyd Wright."

This book is a collection of informative--and sometimes quirky-- stories about Lone Star innovators, inventors, and inventions. Each story emphasizes a Texas connection and shows how Texas ingenuity, determination, or sheer dumb luck made the person or product famous and successful.

On May 4, 1886, a bomb exploded during a labor demonstration near Haymarket Square. The ensuing gunfire and chaos brought a grisly end to what began as peaceful support for an eight-hour workday and led to the trial and execution of rally organizers. The incident also drew irrevocable attention to a conversation about workers rights and the role of law enforcement that continues today. In this guide to the key moments and sites of one of Chicago s most confusing and chaotic events, author Joseph Anthony Rulli aims to establish a clearer understanding of its historical significance."