American Trails Revisited follows in the proverbial footsteps of the many explorers and pioneers who traveled across the American West. Based on the works of the Federal Writers Project in the 1940's, this book organizes, updates, and enhances the original material to provide an easy-to-follow historical travel guide to the Western United States. Along with the history of the people and places you will find along the way, this book also includes information for local, state, and national parks. A portion of the proceeds from this book will be used to support local historical organizations, so that the history that you rediscover in your travels will remain for those who follow in your footsteps.
In Footprints Across the South: Bartram's Trail Revisited, author James Kautz travels the path of William Bartram, a botanist from Philadelphia who explored the American Southeast in the 1770s. Beginning in Charleston, SC, and ending in Baton Rouge, LA, Kautz compares the conditions at the time of the nation's founding with the current social and natural environment of today. Interested in learning more?
In 1978, William Least Heat-Moon made a 14,000-mile journey on the back roads of America, visiting 38 states along the way. In 1982, the popular Blue Highways, which chronicled his adventures, was published. Three decades later, Edgar Ailor III and his son, Edgar IV, retraced and photographed Heat-Moon’s route, culminating in Blue Highways Revisited, released for publication on the thirtieth anniversary of Blue Highways. A foreword by Heat-Moon notes, "The photographs, often with amazing accuracy, capture my verbal images and the spirit of the book. Taking the journey again through these pictures, I have been intrigued and even somewhat reassured that America is changing not quite so fast as we often believe. The photographs, happily, reveal a recognizable continuity – but for how much longer who can say – and I'm glad the Ailors have recorded so many places and people from Blue Highways while they are yet with us." Through illustrative photography and text, Ailor and his son capture once more the local color and beauty of the back roads, cafes, taverns, and people of Heat-Moon’s original trek. Almost every photograph in Blue Highways Revisited is referenced to a page in the original work. With side-by-side photographic comparisons of eleven of Heat-Moon’s characters, this new volume reflects upon and develops the memoir of Heat-Moon’s cross-country study of American culture and spirit. Photographs of Heat-Moon’s logbook entries, original manuscript pages, Olympia typewriter, Ford van, and other artifacts also give readers insight into Heat-Moon’s approach to his trip. Discussions with Heat-Moon about these archival images provide the reader insight into the travels and the writing of Blue Highways that only the perspective of the author could provide. Blue Highways Revisited reaffirms that the "blue highway" serves as a romantic symbol of the free and restless American spirit, as the Ailors lose themselves to the open road as Heat-Moon did thirty years previously. This book reminds readers of the insatiable attraction of the “blue highway”—“But in those brevities just before dawn and a little after dusk—times neither day or night—the old roads return to the sky some of its color. Then, in truth, they carry a mysterious cast of blue, and it's that time when the pull of the blue highway is strongest, when the open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself” (Introduction to Blue Highways).
Don't miss your chance to own this stunning limited edition volume of poetry by Seattle poet Kerry Cox. Makes a great gift for the poetry lover in your life!
During the mid-nineteenth century, a quarter of a million travelers—men, women, and children—followed the “road across the plains” to gold rush California. This magnificent chronicle—the second installment of Will Bagley’s sweeping Overland West series—captures the danger, excitement, and heartbreak of America’s first great rush for riches and its enduring consequences. With narrative scope and detail unmatched by earlier histories, With Golden Visions Bright Before Them retells this classic American saga through the voices of the people whose eyewitness testimonies vividly evoke the most dramatic era of westward migration. Traditional histories of the overland roads paint the gold rush migration as a heroic epic of progress that opened new lands and a continental treasure house for the advancement of civilization. Yet, according to Bagley, the transformation of the American West during this period is more complex and contentious than legend pretends. The gold rush epoch witnessed untold suffering and sacrifice, and the trails and their trials were enough to make many people turn back. For America’s Native peoples, the effect of the massive migration was no less than ruinous. The impact that tens of thousands of intruders had on Native peoples and their homelands is at the center of this story, not on its margins. Beautifully written and richly illustrated with photographs and maps, With Golden Visions Bright Before Them continues the saga that began with Bagley’s highly acclaimed, award-winning So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812–1848, hailed by critics as a classic of western history.
B.J. Hollars and his young son strike out on a 2,500-mile road trip to retrace the Oregon Trail. Their mission: to rediscover America—and Americans—along the way.
This edition in the Slow Travels series is an update of our California guide, now combined with Nevada into one. Much of the text is edited from the American Guide Series of the 1930’s and 40’s, with updated historical information, improved directions, and material from additional sources. All locations have been verified using GPS coordinates, as well as from satellite imagery and first hand knowledge. The California section explores current U.S. 50 and 395, as well as the former routes of U.S. 40, 60, and 99 which are no longer designated as such. The cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, and San Diego are explored along these routes. The Nevada section follows U.S. Highways 6 and 50 east to west across the state, and U.S. 93 and 95 north to south. In addition, the former route of U.S. 40 is retraced along the Humboldt River, the route of emigrants along the California Trail from Utah and Idaho.All routes include reference maps and GPS coordinates for all listed sites.
