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The world as we know it today was made by the individuals who rest in our burial grounds. On Long Island, the cultural landscape is marked by resting places that reflect the history of the land, and the groups of people who called it home. Like every other region of America, Long Island has an indigenous history, a colonial history, and a legacy of social stratification and inequality that is showcased in historical burial grounds all over the island. Every surviving burial ground is a physical representation of families who lived, worked, and existed on the same ground that we now call home. Epitaphs of devotion and sorrow represent love felt just as strongly as we feel it today, and loss just as biting as our losses. This photographic collection showcases the full scope of historical Long Island funeral practices during the colonial and early American period, from elaborately carved headstones imported and installed before the United States gained independence, to the modest fieldstone markers of individuals whose names are lost. If you know where to look, Long Island is home to endless examples of burial artifacts that really bring the famous colonial epitaph to life. Come and see, as you pass by. As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you must be. Prepare for Death, and follow me. This book is a celebration of the ways in which the past inhabitants of Long Island have honored their dead, and a recognition of how our history rests in our graveyards.

The Gambler 500 began as little more than a way to kill a weekend. Over beers in a local tavern, founder Tate Morgan and a couple of friends laid out the guidelines for an off-road navigational challenge. The catch? Each challenger's car had to have a purchase price of no more than $500. Soon enough, word started to spread, and the guys began to receive inquiries about participation from people all over the country. By 2022, the "OG Gambler" held every summer in Central Oregon was attracting thousands of participants from all over North America. Regional events sprang up in every corner of the U.S. Along the way, Gamblers have removed over one million pounds of garbage from America's public lands. More than anything, however, the aggressively tolerant alternative to traditional car culture has become a sort of surrogate family to all manner of people. Builders, rugged explorers, and more than a few lunatics all have carved out a place for themselves in the Gambler community. Collected within these pages are just a few of their stories.

Before Las Vegas became the entertainment capital of the world, there was Reno. Known as the Biggest Little City in the World, Reno was the legalized gambling, prostitution, and divorce center of the universe. Naturally, there was crime--in the city and in the surrounding Northern Nevada areas as well. Reno is now Nevada's third largest city and continues to grow. Murders Mysteries and Misdemeanors of Reno and Northern Nevada covers some of the city's, and indeed the area's, most unusual crimes--from the shocking murder of skier Sonja McCaskie, to the ingenious cattle rustler who created his own special cattle rustling shoes, to the humorous last words of convicted killer Robert White, and more.

"Abandoned Washington State presents a fascinating glimpse into history, through captivating photographs of places now abandoned. Each photograph has a story behind it, and it is through these thought-provoking stories and first-hand accounts that one can find a human connection to the people that once lived, worked, and in some cases died at the places revealed in this book. The diversity of what has been abandoned in Washington State is truly amazing, from old trucks and steam locomotives consumed by rust to multi-billion-dollar government and military projects. Within these pages, an adventure awaits, for many of the locations explored in Abandoned Washington State are unknown even to life-long residents"--

Reclaiming the Merrimack is a call-to-action book that outlines the history of the beloved river and reveals that the time is now to make it cleaner. The Merrimack is the site of the start of the Industrial Revolution, but commercial garbage and municipal effluent have gone into the river for decades. Yet more than 600,000 residents still get their drinking water from this waterway, so it is imperative to reduce the pollution. Author-journalist Dyke Hendrickson provides a path to improvement. Billions of federal dollars are now available through the infrastructure plan by the Biden Administration to improve sewage-treatment plants and drinking-water facilities. "This is the best time to clean rivers and lakes since the passage of the Clean Water Act of 1972," says Hendrickson, an award-winning writer who is the author of seven other books. Readers will learn how local governments can access clean-up money--and how much better the river will be when it is fully clean.

Abandoned Arizona: Relics of the Past is a nocturnal look at vintage and iconic signs in Arizona. Follow photographer Sandra Jungling as she travels Arizona's historic roadways in search of the signs that encapsulated an era where signs were bigger, bolder, and brighter to attract attention. This book provides a unique view of Arizona as car culture rose during the mid-twentieth century. Many of the signs have succumbed to neglect and are on the verge of vanishing forever. Whether fans of American history, neon signs, mid-century modern architecture, or creative photography, readers will be taken on a journey of what it was like to travel through Arizona.

Pennsylvania's history is intrinsic to our understanding of America's expansion. As the second state in the nation, much of America's early industrial history can be traced back to Pennsylvania and its two largest cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Not only was the Declaration of Independence signed in Philadelphia in 1776, it was also the capital city of the United States from 1790-1800. More than two centuries later, evidence of much of this history is slowly being erased from our present-day landscape. For the armchair urban explorer and history buff alike, Abandoned Pennsylvania: Industry and Endings takes a journey through Pennsylvania's, industrial, recreational, correctional, and educational past. The irreplaceable Inn at Buck Hill Falls, and the anchor of a small industrial town, Scranton Lace Factory, were once bustling cogs in a growing state's fortunes; a fireplace and a clock tower are all that remains to remind us of their existence. For others, such as the Transfiguration of Our Lord Church and Thomas Edison High School, nothing remains. In their place is an athletic field and Save-A-Lot store and parking lot. Industry and Endings illuminates the regrettable fact that our hunger for progress is outstripping our respect for the past.

Maine has its share of industry, some current and some obsolete. Over the last century, many industrial practices have grown and flourished while others have vanished entirely. Likewise, state institutions have seen vast changes in their structures and methods of operation. Changes to our industry and institutions have left behind artifacts of a bygone era. Many of these artifacts are demolished, replaced, or vanish further into obscurity. This book offers a visual tour of our forgotten past and practices in hopes of preserving history to prevent it from vanishing entirely. Readers will explore an abandoned jail built in 1873 (in which its first prisoner was convicted of killing two people with an axe), the North Maine Woods in search of ghost trains abandoned in the wilderness close to a century ago, and more. Forgotten Industry and Institutions of Maine contains images, interesting facts, personal anecdotes, and the stories that make these places unique and give them their distinctive character.

California is one of several states that make up the Wild West in the United States. It was first established as a U.S. a territory in 1848. The state that would become California was, like so much of the West, originally inhabited by Native Americans and, in the sixteenth century, colonized by Spain as part of Mexico. After the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the United States acquired the land that eventually became Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California. As with other Southwest states, precious metals were found in the late nineteenth century, and pioneers, miners, cowboys, and outlaws converged on "The Golden State." California attained statehood in 1850. Of course, with an influx of residents comes a new need for graveyards. The cemeteries of the pioneer and mining towns carry on even as the towns have fallen to ruins. Many California graveyards linger in obscurity in out-of-the-way places (Garlock-Goler, Keeler), while others are popular tourist attractions (Bodie). Regardless of their conditions, the cemeteries offer powerful and precious reminders of California's wild history.

Although not yet fifty years old, Norfolk Southern boasts a rich heritage which includes many historic and famous names in railroading. The heritage of Norfolk Southern's predecessor lines can still be viewed trackside today, but time is running out. Unique signal designs, interlocking towers, whistle posts, mile markers, and lineside structures from the individual railroads that make up the modern-day NS system are disappearing rapidly as they have reached the end of their useful service lives and the railroad modernizes its infrastructure. Join photographer, Christopher Esposito, as he explores some of the railroad heritage that makes up the current Norfolk Southern Corp. From the coal fields of West Virginia, the open vistas of the scenic Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia, and the quaint farmlands and feed mills of Eastern Pennsylvania, the photographs shown in this book offer a look at the unique character and rich railroad history each state has to offer.

Standing Tall recalls a period in the early 1960s that is part of the social justice continuum in the U.S. This is the story of how Willie Long led a protest for economic and social justice at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. In some ways, the story connects the WWII Port Chicago mutiny to today's "Black Lives Matter" movement. The "Original 21ers" were a courageous group of African American workers willing to risk everything to create change. The inequities experienced at work and the churning energy of the Civil Rights Movement inspired them. This small group of men did the unthinkable by direct action against the U.S. Government. They challenged the largest West Coast United States naval base to provide equal opportunities and wages and WON! Through their actions, the "Original 21ers" influenced the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which, in part, prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In so doing, their protest and action built part of the cornerstone upon which our twenty-first century economic justice movements are built.

For fifty years, Blytheville was home to a fleet of one of the most versatile pieces of machinery in history. From the Cuban Missile Crisis, through the Vietnam War and Korean Conflict, to the fall of the Iron Curtain in the early nineties, B-52 Stratofortresses cruised the sky, and stayed on alert to be America's first line of defense. Now that America no longer has a need for its "Global Shield," many United States Air Force bases lay dormant and decaying, sinking into the earth from which they came. From its early beginnings as farmland to a highly secure, fiercely patrolled Strategic Air Command base, to overgrown lawns and decrepit buildings filled with asbestos, to becoming the site of the National Cold War Center, follow along as author Gage Fears digs up history on a crucial part of Arkansas and military history to tell the story of the long abandoned Eaker Air Force Base. Abandoned Arkansas: Eaker Air Force Base is a unique collection containing new information, interviews of veterans that served on the base, and rare photographs.

"Washington may be known as the Evergreen State but hidden amongst the evergreen trees are true crime stories spanning the past century. Come and explore the Ghoul of Gray's Harbor and discover the Floater's Fleet. Read about the Fly-In-Killer and the Longview Mystery. Learn about the 'architect of crime' and the 'phantom of Palouse.' Find out how a chemist was able to lift a fingerprint from a shred of paper wrapped around a pipe bomb that killed a judge. Discover why foreign dignitaries traveled half way around the globe to assist with a murder trial in 1950. Join author Margaret LaPlante and explore many long-forgotten murders, mysteries, and misdemeanors that shook the otherwise idyllic state of Washington"--

Photographer Joseph Bowman engages readers with a visual tour of the railroads of Western North Carolina. Enjoy scenes of busy mainline action on Norfolk Southern and CSX mainlines including unit coal and manifest freight action on the once busy Old Fort Loops. Joseph also documents several short line railroads which play a vital role in the local economies. Steam enthusiasts will not be disappointed, as multiple tourist railroads and mainline steam excursions are covered. Joseph has been photographing trains since 2005 and has photographed many unique events including the last train to Lenoir, NC, along with the last excursions that Norfolk Southern allowed to be operated to Asheville, NC. The most featured section of railroad covered in the book has also experienced quite a few changes in recent years, and Joseph shares with us many scenes that haven't taken place in years, and as of being published, are not likely to happen any time in the near future, if ever again.

Series statement from publisher's Web site.

Abandoned Route 66: Under a Western Moon is an unforgettable nocturnal journey on the most famous roadway in the United States, focusing on the Southwest. One of the earliest cross-country highways, Route 66 beckoned many in the United States to migrate west. As businesses and communities grew along the road, it became a beacon of liberation, opportunity, and eventually, loss. With the building of the faster Interstate Highway System, motorists bypassed Route 66. Prosperity evaporated, with many leaving their homes, markets, diners, gas stations, and kitschy roadside attractions to the elements. Wander with the author along the "Main Street of America" as he illuminates these forgotten locales with light, creating haunting dreamlike exposures of several minutes or more. If you are a fan of creative photography or the Mother Road, or have an insatiable curiosity for travel, Abandoned Route 66: Under a Western Moon invites you to climb in back, sit tight, and take hold for a surrealistic night escape with the top down.

With 145 color photographs and maps, Northbound Lights: Tracks Across Michigan and Wisconsin presents a visual history of contemporary changes to the railroad networks across these two states in the Great Lakes region. Michigan-born photojournalist, D. C. Jesse Burkhardt, carries readers on a journey that chronicles rail operations in Wisconsin and Michigan. The primary focus extends from the 1970s to 2022. Northbound Lights explores the demise of several historic railroads and spotlights shortline and regional railroads that have moved in to handle operations on routes in danger of being lost. In recent decades, dramatic alterations in the region's transportation maps have taken place as companies including Soo Line, Milwaukee Road, Chicago & NorthWestern, Green Bay & Western, Detroit & Mackinac, Penn Central, and others struggled to survive. Numerous rail lines were abandoned or taken over by expanding shortlines such as Huron & Eastern and Escanaba & Lake Superior, or by regional railroads exemplified by Great Lakes Central and Wisconsin Central. Other railroads and key routes were swallowed up by large carriers including Union Pacific, Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, CSX, and Norfolk Southern.

When the body of a young female jogger was found at the bottom of a stairwell near Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square in the early morning hours of November 2, 1995, the brutality of the crime shocked the city and led to an outpouring of grief that caused the mayor to weep publicly. The victim, who came from a prominent Illinois family, had been attacked by two petty car thieves with a history of terrorizing local residents. Yet nothing in this case was what it seemed to be. The suspects claimed that their signed confessions were forced by police officers in a hurry to prosecute. DNA evidence not compatible with the killers' profiles led the sequestered jury (in a rush to go home) to declare a not guilty verdict. When a rogue attorney eager for publicity entered the picture and presented "evidence" that the killer of the jogger was really the son of a prominent city lawyer, the new charges led to a complex web of criminal types from the city's drug and prostitution underworld. The Center City jogger's death still cries out for justice.

To Newark with Loveis a celebration of New Jersey's largest city, seen through the eyes of a proud third-generation Newarker. In a series of essays, Helen Lippman tells revealing stories, some as lighthearted as a trip to the planetarium, others as fraught as the racist practices that led to the city's famed 1967 rebellion. The book spans 120 years, beginning and ending with stories about both the city and Lippman's family. It starts when her paternal grandparents joined tens of thousands of Eastern European Jews who settled in Newark and ends in the present, with a nod to the city's burgeoning revitalization. Throughout the work, Lippman boldly addresses societal upheavals she experienced in Newark: the anti-Semitic taunts from children down the street, the fear associated with her family's ties to the Communist Party in the midst of the Red Scare, and the growing taint of racism as Newark's population rapidly flipped from primarily white to majority black. In this exploration of the city's effect on her life and its evolution in a changing world, Lippman's affection for her hometown shines through on every page.

Nevada politics, history, and fabulous recipes combine for an entertaining, informative memoir by renowned Chef Charlie Abowd. This "James Beard Award" winning chef has spent his life immersed in his three passions--cuisine, music and politics. Growing up in the tumult of the 1960s San Francisco music scene mixed with Vietnam War protests and activism, while learning the art of cooking at his parents' Bay Area restaurants, informed Charlie's future. He promoted concerts and provided stage lighting for the biggest bands of the time, while living in the Santa Cruz mountains. This passion continued throughout his life. During its iconic forty-year run, Adele's Restaurant, and later, Café at Adele's in Carson City, became legendary for fine dining, musicians, and celebrities that visited, and where Nevada's movers and shakers gathered. Around its tables and over delicious cuisine, business people and elected representatives made deals and negotiated legislation. Adele's played a pivotal role in bringing people together to benefit the greater Nevada good. Charlie has seen it all and now shares his stories interspersed with his patrons' favorite recipes.

Yorktown's position of first rank in the annals of American history, earned with the British defeat there in the fall of 1781 that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War in favor of the American colonies, also effectively ended the war. Though Yorktown no longer appears as it did when it was an important eighteenth-century port city or when the British were trapped within its boundaries during that fateful siege, it is still a place of national importance--a place where independence for the United States of America was won. In the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "I like to dwell not on the surrender of an army under a brave leader but rather on the genesis, as a result of this conflict, of a new concept of liberty for the human race--an ideal," he continued, "which quickly made itself felt among our allies of France and our mother peoples of the British Isles, and spread at last throughout the greater part of the civilized world." The changing fortunes of time and place, to include a world often turned upside down, has not diminished these words, offered by the nation's future thirty-second president during the sesquicentennial celebration of the British surrender.

"Abandoned Vermont and New Hampshire: Forgotten in the Mountains brings readers on a trip through the winding roads of mountainous areas where understated abandonment is crumbling in the small, rural areas that often get overlooked. Along these roads, tucked away in the woods, you'll often find cottages and camps where families once gathered for vacations, or hunters sat in front of a woodstove after a long day, but all that remains now are layers of dust and perhaps a few field mice scurrying around to break up the silence. If you pay close enough attention on your trip through the mountains, you'll catch glimpses of cars and trucks that haven't moved in years, hidden behind tall, overgrown grass and weeds. Through the photographs in this book, you'll see once bustling family vacation areas, now still and forgotten, quietly holding all the memories that were made there. As to be expected in rural, mountain farm towns, you'll also see remnants of farmhouses, in various states of decay. History and lore, passed down for generations, can be found on these roads, and shared through these photographs and stories, that will hopefully live on for generations to come"--Back cover.

History often focuses on people of prominence--political, social, and economic leaders. However, the role of "ordinary people" often gets neglected. Sacramento has had many "hidden figures" in its past. These were the people who did the work, paid the expenses, and performed works of charity--and have often gone unheralded. Their story needs to be unearthed and told in order to provide a richer and more accurate account of the past. This book uses the Catholic Church as a case study of this dynamic. Catholicism is a hierarchical religion and much of its written history focuses heavily on the leadership of bishops, priests, and sisters. This book examines the role of lay people as important actors in the development and expansion of this religious body. This is Sacramento history "from the bottom up." These are the "hidden figures" behind the public face of a community which represents a significant demographic in the city, as well as an important contributor to the use of urban space, education, social service, and health care.

"Pioneering Women of Glacier National Park examines the role of early pioneering women in the pre-park period up through the first three decades of Glacier Park (1910-1940). The concept of 'pioneering women' includes a wide range of activities that were atypical for women during this time period. These activities range from Blackfeet and other Native American women carrying out extraordinary feats, to women homesteaders, wives of early Park rangers, writers visiting and writing about the park, artists engaged in outdoor painting, influential artists' wives who furthered their husbands' careers, and pioneering outdoorswomen. All helped advance the cause of putting female faces and names, largely ignored and anonymous up to this point, into the history of the park. The book also has several modern photographs taken by the author and others, illustrating landscape changes in Glacier Park since the early period of the park."--Back cover.

The Norfolk Southern Christiansburg District: A Modern Mountain Railroad takes a close up look of Norfolk Southern's Christiansburg district mainline operation. We will begin the journey just outside of Roanoke, Virginia's North yard and work our way west toward the end of the district at the yard in Bluefield, West Virginia. In this 100-mile span we will see many different types of trains tackle the famed Christiansburg grade and the Charleston grade as they head to their final destinations. We will see coal trains rolling back and forth out of the coal fields of West Virginia as they head toward Norfolk, Virginia, for export. There will be intermodal trains speeding east and west moving goods that keep America going. There will also be many other types of trains including freight, grain, and ethanol. These trains will be seen passing through tunnels, soaring over trestles, and meandering around mountains while moving America's goods back and forth. There will also be some history mixed in of the towns the trains pass through and even how the current railroad came to be.

The name Mattapan originated with the Neponset Tribe of the Massachusett Indians, a tribe of the Massachusetts confederation of Native Americans. For well over 200 years, the area remained farms and undeveloped land until the Dorchester and Milton Branch of the Old Conly Railroad established a depot in Mattapan Square which allowed commuting to Boston. By the turn of the twentieth century, Mattapan saw the development of new streets laid out off Blue Hill Avenue and Norfolk Street which slowly become a solid, respectable suburb. Although predominantly Yankee in the late nineteenth century, within a decade or two, the area began to attract new residents with diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. However, by the twentieth century, Blue Hill Avenue had many Jewish shops "with their Kosher signs and strange wares--pumpernickel bread, rollmops, poppy-seed cakes, bagels, odd-looking fish and tripes and wrinkled sausage hanging on long skewers in the butcher shop windows." In Mattapan Through Time, Anthony Sammarco describes Mattapan as having such popular places as the Morton Theatre, the Oriental Theatre and the Mattapan Theatre as well as Teen Town at Morton Plaza, Chez Vous Rollerway, the G&G Delicatessen, Simco's by the Bridge, Ye Olde Brown Jug, Embers, Blue Hills Restaurant, Brothers Deli, Blackie's Deli-Haus and the Talbot Bowladrome. Mattapan changed in the late 1960s and 1970s, but it also began to embrace a new middle class, as in the late twentieth century, Haitians, Bahamians, Jamaicans, and others from Caribbean countries began to move to Mattapan and like the residents of a century before, agreed that the location and the ease of transportation were major reasons to invest in the neighborhood. Mattapan, said to be the largest Haitian community in Massachusetts, is today an inclusive neighborhood of people of all walks of life, all races, ethnicities, and religions, and embraces many first- generation immigrants. It is truly the melting pot of Boston with Blue Hill Avenue as its main artery.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Heritage started in 1849 with the opening of the Aurora Branch Railroad in Illinois from Aurora to Chicago's west side. This grew into the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, which in a 1970 merger with several railroads became the Burlington Northern Railroad. A 1995 merger of the Burlington Northern Railroad with the Santa Fe Railway created the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railway, the largest railroad in North America at that time. This book carefully covers the heritage of this very successful railroad.

The Rocky Mountain Railroad Club is one of the nation's premier rail fan clubs. Since its founding in Denver in 1938, the Club has hosted countless excursions, published books, and printed a monthly newsletter. The Club celebrated its golden anniversary in 1988 and is still going strong today with members across the nation and from around the world. This book commemorates excursions of the Club from 1987 to 1990, centered around the anniversary year of 1988. With photographs, maps, and historic Club brochures, the author recalls trips on rail lines that no longer exist such as the Cadillac and Lake City Railroad and the Wyoming-Colorado Railroad, as well as glorious trips on Amtrak to Glenwood Springs and the Grand Canyon. A brief history of each rail line is included with the excursions. As the Club journeys onward to its 100th birthday in 2038, rail fans can enjoy this glimpse of past excursions and dream of ones to come.

"California is known as the "Golden State." However, it is has been said that "all that glitters is not gold." Within the pages of this book are true stories including the murder of a family for a 7.5-million-dollar inheritance, and a landlady accused of murdering seven tenants and burying them in her yard. Read about the murders of twenty-five farm workers buried in peach orchards, and a child who was murdered and buried in a pet cemetery. There is the case of the man wanted in forty-three states for passing half-a-million dollars in fraudulent checks using 350 aliases. Also, within the book are the true stories of how twenty-six children and their school bus driver were buried alive, and how a simple shoplifting incident led to a bunker hidden in the woods where forty-five pounds of charred human remains were found. California mafia figures, "The Mick" and the "Capone of Los Angeles," are featured in this book, along with an espionage case that resulted in more than a million top military secrets sold to the Soviet Union."--Publisher marketing.

This book will take you through the ferocious storms and awe-inspiring skies of "Tornado Alley" through the eyes of a storm chaser and tornado researcher who travels there each year attempting to witness and better understand arguably the most extreme weather on the planet. Ominous skies, imposing thunderstorms, strong tornadoes, destructive winds, damaging hail, and breathtaking landscapes were all part of the author's storm chasing adventures traveling throughout this unforgiving, yet beautiful region of the world. Despite having no truly agreed upon geographic boundaries, the Great Plains and portions of the Midwest are often included in the colloquialism, "Tornado Alley." See the jaw dropping results as shear, lift, instability, and moisture all come together in abundance above vast and open landscapes to create stunning scenes unlike anywhere else in the world.