Roswell is perhaps most famous for its alleged intergalactic visitors that may or may not have crashed here via flying saucer in 1947. However, some very real famous people have traversed and lived in Roswell, including singer John Denver and actress Demi Moore. During the turbulent Wild West days, Roswell was the stomping grounds of cattle baron John Chisum, sheriff Pat Garrett, and even his arch-nemesis, Billy the Kid. Among others to call Roswell home were Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocketry; baseball player Joe Bauman, who hit 72 home runs in one season; pro-golfer Nancy Lopez; Western superstar Roy Rogers; rodeo champion Bob Crosby; and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach.
In the 1870s, railroads transformed Montclair from a rural retreat to a haven for influential businessmen and artists. They came for the orderly government, excellent schools, flourishing churches, able physicians, and attractive families. Actress Laura Keene sought the area's healthy atmosphere after contracting tuberculosis. Civil War hero Dr. J.J.H. Love was influential in organizing the first hospital. Other Civil War notables include Medal of Honor recipient Abram Haring and Gen. John C. Tidball. After famed painter George Inness made Montclair his home, dozens of artists came to be near him and share his influences. Today's roster of artists continues to be amazing: Oliver Lake, Frankie Faison, Horace Ott, George Walker, Olympia Dukakis, and Louis Zorich. Legendary Locals of Montclair shares the inspiring tales of songwriter Herman Hupfeld; Lucy Stone, founder of the American Suffrage Association; medical pioneers Emily and Elizabeth Blackwell; pastor Harry Emerson Fosdick; violin maker Carleen Hutchins; astronaut Buzz Aldrin; inventor Carleton Ellis; and baseball greats Yogi Berra and Larry Doby.
The story of Bristol is the story of America, played out on the small stage of a lobster clawshaped peninsula at the heart of Narragansett Bay. From the massacre and displacement of the first Americans to the rise of the merchant class; exploration; slavery; war and peace; the Industrial Revolution; waves of immigrationall these wildly disparate facets of the American experience have been represented and reflected within these 20 square miles. Bristol has been home to patriots and pirates; ministers and murderers; captains who dominated at the helms of whalers, battleships, and 12-meter sailboats; larger-than-life industrialists; Hollywood and Broadway royalty; artists, writers, musicians, and culinary visionaries. But the bulk of the threads in Bristols remarkable tapestry are not bold-colored silk, bright metallic, or rich cashmeremost are simple and natural, unremarkably structured and hued, but each one quietly doing its part to form the strong, tightly-woven foundation of this very special place.
There is a place in the Nevada desert the size of Belgium that doesn't officially exist. It is the airbase where test flights of our top-secret experimental military aircraft are conducted and --not coincidentally--where the conspiracy theorists insist the Pentagon is hiding UFOs and aliens. This is Dreamland--or Area 51. For Phil Patton, the idea of writing a travel account of a place he couldn't actually visit was irresistible. What he found was a world where Chick Yeager and the secret planes of the Cold War converged with the Nevada Test Site and alien landings at Roswell. A think tank for aviation engineering, Dreamland can be seen from a summit outside the base's perimeter, a hundred miles north of Las Vegas. On Freedom Ridge, groups of airplane buffs gather with their camouflage outfits and binoculars. These are the Stealth chasers, the Skunkers, guys with code names like Agent X and Zero, hoping for a glimpse of the rumored raylike shapes of planes like Black Manta and "the mother ship." The most mysterious craft is Aurora, the successor to the legendary U-2, said to run on methane and fly as fast as Mach 6. Scanning the same horizon, the UFO buffs are looking for the hovering lights and doughnut-shaped contrails of alien aircraft. Are they looking at something sinister and mysterious? Imagined? Or more terrestrial than they think? Dreamland shows how much we need mystery in the information age, and how the cultures of nuclear power and airpower merge with the folklores of extraterrestrials and earthly conspiracies. Patton found people who found themselves in the mysteries of the place. John Lear, the son of aviation pioneer Bill Lear--who gave his name to the jet--served as a pilot for the CIA's Air America, but back home, he became fascinated by UFOs and eventually believed in it all: the underground bases, the alien-human hybrids, the secret treaties. But was he a true believer, or part of a disinformation campaign? Bob Lazar seems to know when the saucers will come, and has made three clear sightings at night along Dreamland's perimeter, but is his story real, or a vision of what's possible? Dreamland is an exploration of America's most secret place: the base for our experimental airplanes, the fount of UFO rumors, an offshoot of the Nevada Test Site. How this "blackspot" came to exist--its history, its creators, its spies and counterspies--is Phil Patton's tale. He tunnels into the subcultures of the conspiracy buffs, the true believers, and the aeronautic geniuses, creating a novelistic tour de force destined to make us all rethink our convictions about American know-how--and alien inventiveness.
For many years, a man known as Brushy Bill Roberts proclaimed to all who would listen that he was the historical and legendary Billy the Kid, alive and well. And there were various books written that claimed this to be true. As a result, many became convinced of the validity of Brushy’s claim and Brushy's elaborate fable has continued to capture the imagination. In this book, the author has attempted to dispel the elaborate hoax once and for all. Brushy Bill Roberts was not Billy the Kid. He was, in fact, just an interesting elderly man, known by his family and acquaintances as a colorful Old West storyteller.
New Mexico's rich and varied history is easily accessible via detours down obscure backroads and overlooked off-ramps. By taking the road less traveled in any direction, visitors can experience ancient landmarks, cultural heritage sites and striking vistas. Stop at places along the old Route 66, sample the world's best chiles by the Rio Grande or soak in geothermal water flowing under Truth or Consequences. Ancient dwellings in remote canyons, the town where the first atomic bomb was secretly assembled and the grave of Billy the Kid all lie off the beaten path in the Land of Enchantment. Authors Arthur and David Pike map out these and many more worthwhile points of interest for the curious traveler.
By the time Alamogordo's founders platted the town in the late 1800s, bestowing it with the Spanish name for Fat Cottonwood, the region's lush grasses were luring cowboys such as Oliver Lee. Then, in 1941, an event more than 3,000 miles away changed the quiet community. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, chamber president Mose Cauthen quickly spearheaded bringing the Army's mission to train bomber pilots to the Tularosa Basin. During the Space Race, Dr. John Stapp oversaw the programs at Holloman Air Force Base that sent Joe Kittinger, Dave Simons, and "Demi" McClure floating heavenward underneath balloons. Soon after, Ed Dittmer was training chimpanzees to rocket out of Earth's atmosphere and prove man could survive in that hostile environment. Alamogordo is where the Old West melds with ever-evolving technology, along with a rich artistic and literary legacy championed by such women as Linnie Townsend, Maude Rathgeber, and Margaret Flickinger.
Born from opportunity and a promotional scheme hatched by founding father Charles B. Eddy, Carlsbad started life as a tent city on a desolate landscape. As the investment money started to flow, the Pecos River was harnessed through the creation of irrigation, which turned the region into a rich, fertile valley. As tuberculosis swept the nation, hundreds of new settlers arrived in Carlsbad for the arid climate. Legendary Locals of Carlsbad celebrates their descendants who forged the community of today. Learn about socialite Cesarine Graves, daredevil and "Mr. Welcome" Frank Kindel, actors Dan Blocker and Bruce Cabot, drag racer Dick Harrell, newscaster Linda Wertheimer, astronaut F. Drew Gaffney, and baseball star Cody Ross, to name but a few. Included also are the tales of the trials and heroism shown and faced by all the veterans of wars that Carlsbad provided, especially the World War II veterans of the Bataan Death March, the Vietnam War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Saginaw's river system was important to settlement in the area. The Shiawassee, Tittabawassee, and Saginaw Rivers converge at a place called Green Point. It was here that Native Americans lived long before the first white man came. Louis Campau was the first permanent white settler. Later, Gen. Louis Cass arrived and was commissioned to negotiate a treaty with the Indians for the purpose of acquiring a large portion of their lands. Settlers began to arrive, along with trappers and fur traders, but the city did not begin to grow until men from the East found that a fortune could be made in lumbering white pine trees. Men such as Curtis Emerson, Norman Little, Jesse Hoyt, Wellington R. Burt, and Little Jake Seligman prospered because of the lumber boom. When lumbering waned, many of the lumber barons remained in Saginaw and established new businesses. Saginaw has legendary leaders and heroes in the areas of medicine, education, agriculture, business, and industry. Many are highlighted throughout the chapters of this book.
Through its history, Oceanside has been a community packed with personalities, including the first Eagle Scout, first female Jewish cantor, two Freedom Riders, noteworthy scientists, and caring citizens. It is where War of 1812 general Daniel Bedell shot his musket, Ziegfeld's Gilda Gray practiced her shimmy, basketball great Art Heyman dribbled, and NFL quarterback Jay Fiedler threw his first football. Academy Award nominee David Paymer studied acting, Disney chief executive officer Robert Iger watched the Mouseketeers, and New York Yankees president Randy Levine played Little League baseball. This is the neighborhood where Jeanne Marion Doane orated for women's suffrage, Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter navigated canals, and Goldman-Sachs chief executive officer Stephen Friedman filled his piggy bank. Its foundation is the people in its religious institutions, fire department, and school district. The area's business people are unified, hard working, and charitable.
