Of all the Joplin icons—Langston Hughes, Bonnie and Clyde, Route 66—I never put mining on the list. But that’s how Joplin got its start back in 1873. I sought to uncover the boomtown you won’t see from the interstate, the … Read More
Boonslick
Drove into Howard County, which originally covered the entire northeast quadrant of the state. Missouri lawmakers eventually carved 29 Missouri counties from its sprawling flanks. But even the slimmed-down Howard County packs a history: The ubiquitous Boone Family. Trail enthusiast … Read More
Two Tom Cats, the Westminster Poets
They grew up a half block from each other. Two of the world’s greatest purveyors of felinity—one associated with New Orleans cats, the other with London cats—spent their wonder years on Westminster Street. Both left this street more than a … Read More
Van Gogh Dakota
Always wanted to drive through a Van Gogh painting. South Dakota may be as close as we get. Endless acres of sunflowers, blooms big as your head. Along a roadside papered with Wall Drug signs, two museum billboards stood close … Read More
Somewhere in the Ozarks
On my first birthday I received a gift from a couple I did not know. The couple had asked, “Dear Mr. Wright: Would you design a house for us?” I found the gift 71 years later, a thousand miles from … Read More
Custerfluck
It was a butt-clenching rollercoaster ride on the Black Hills backroad to a park named for a man best-known for getting slaughtered. Halfway up the twisting mountain road to the park, our journey resembled a Custerfluck. Swollen rain clouds shrouded … Read More
Carny Road
Two icons along Route 66 point to a third. Sticking up like a wart on the flat windy Texas Panhandle, where dust is a commodity spread liberally along the armpit of Oklahoma, a leaning tower teeters, posing for shutterbugs intent … Read More
A Secret D-Day Rehearsal Became The Tigers’ Most Devastating Loss
On the road between Kingdom City and Auxvasse, thousands of travelers pass a sign designating a stretch of Highway 54 as Exercise Tiger Memorial Highway. Most of them don’t know what Exercise Tiger means. It’s the story about the ambush … Read More
He was older than me
Morning rush hour murders your nerves. Worse for turtles. I saw one the other day, stranded on the center line of a busy expressway. He was upside down, legs fully extended, grasping at the sky. His chances for survival were … Read More
Sunrise with Coast Guard Cutter
Our sloop sailed all night across the Bermuda Triangle. At dawn we crossed the Gulf Stream. We had maneuvered into position to enter the Lake Worth cut into West Palm when a voice crackled over our ship-to-shore radio: “Westbound sloop … Read More