History/Culture

On July 23, 1931, Pennsylvania Gov. Gifford Pinchot swung a pick to break ground for Route 177 in Warrington Township. It would be the first of 20,000 miles of rural roads across the state, many in York County, to be paved under Pinchot's plan to "get the farmer out of the mud."He was 66, serving his second term as governor.He had already ghost-written much of the progressive agenda Theodore Roosevelt championed to weaken the robber barons of the Gilded Age. Before the decade was out, he would reach across the aisle to advise Franklin Roosevelt.

Author George Ellison been researching and writing about Horace Kephart’s life and work for just under 40 years. He wrote the biographical introduction for the book “Smoky Mountain Magic,” published exactly 80 years after the author’s final typescript had apparently been completed.

Map out your next autumn road trip or get a jump-start on your summer vacation planning using the newly-launched Go Camping America website.  

Just in time for Halloween, learn about creepy, crawly creatures in Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-feeding Creatures by zoologist Bll Schutt. Recently released in paperback, the book is fascinating, but is not for the faint of heart! 

Spend a spooky weekend in Salem, Massachusetts at the month-long Haunted Happenings, an annual Halloween festival in the bewitching seaport of Salem, Massachusetts! The month is chock-full of events, museums, attractions, shops, haunted houses and fantastic dining. 

They didn't move far, these children of the mountains.The government took their families' land to make the Great Smoky Mountains National Park 75 years ago. But their love for the place kept them close, even if their new homes had no mountain views.Those who slid barefoot down Sugarlands' hills, climbed apple trees and jumped across river rocks are elderly now.

Haywood County was never home to either Horace Kephart or George Masa. Their names are not written in the annals of our county, but both men left large footprints as they journeyed through our past.Horace Kephart was a writer and George Masa a photographer. Each had come to the Western North Carolina mountains seeking a different kind of life. Their goals and needs were apparently satisfied as each chose to remain in this environment, Kephart in Bryson City and Masa in Asheville.

Yosemite National Park sits on the edge of California's rural San Joaquin Valley, a farming region that's nearly 50 percent Latino. Yet few of the region's Latino residents ever visit the park.That's where Yosemite ranger Mauricio Escobar comes in, with an unusual job and a unique life story.You might think a park ranger's life is one of quiet contemplation in the woods. But Escobar spends a lot of his time outside of the forest.

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP) — The National Park Service says work is underway to restore fine mats and tapa cloths damaged when tsunamis ripped through its American Samoa visitor's center last week. Akenese Zec, the president of the Samoan weaver organization Inailau A Tina, is leading the restoration efforts. Traditional treatments for the fine mats, which are made and repaired with stripped bandana leaves, start with applying a Samoan oil to the front and back of each mat.

In 1945, Carl Sandburg and his wife, Lilian, were in search of a new setting: She needed more space and a milder climate for her prize-winning Chikaming goat herd, and he needed a peaceful place to write. When Sandburg saw the splendid view from the porch of the house called Connemara in Flat Rock, N.C., he declared: "This is the place. We will look no further."