With 85 percent of its buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, Galena truly is a place drenched in history. From the ancient burial mounds crowding the high banks of the Mississippi to the home of President Ulysses S. Grant, the Illinois town's rich past is everywhere on display. Follow Diann Marsh in her dogged pursuit of that fascinating heritage and catch glimpses of unforgettable incidents like the courageous defense put up by a handful of Galena settlers during the Blac...

Meet the pioneer residents, stroll the historic business district and discover the unique architecture of Galena, Illinois! Galena, IL, nestled in the bluffs of the Mississippi River in northwest Illinois, is one of the most historic communities in the region. The townspeople take pride in the rich history of their town, dedicating their time to restoration projects and the booming industry of heritage tourism. Many of the images (c. 1826-1940s) in the book come from the Galena/Jo Daviess ...

On February 11, 2011, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced he would strip collective bargaining rights from public employees and teachers. In response, people rose up in mass protest, and Wisconsin became a reference point for a renewal of labor militancy and radical politics. These protests elicited extensive national media coverage, and drew more attention from the general public than any American labor struggle in decades.John Nichols's Uprising traces the roots of...

An acclaimed historian's "compellingly told" year-by-year account of the pioneering efforts to conquer the American West in the mid-nineteenth century ( The Guardian).In all the sagas of human migration, few can top the drama of the journey by Midwestern farmers to Oregon and California from 1840 to 1849—between the era of the fur trappers and the beginning of the gold rush. Even with mountain men as guides, these pioneers literally plunged into the unknow...

From the Straits of Mackinac to the Detroit River, Images of America: Lighthouses of Eastern Michigan reveals intriguing stories of lighthouses and the people who depended on them. Readers will enjoy discovering what happened when a large ship fell 20 feet over one of the Soo Locks and the captain commented, �Good-bye Old World,� as well as of a persistent ghost that caused havoc with the Coast Guard. Which lighthouse was a construction miracle in 1874? And whatever happened to the lost li...

No ethnic group is so identified with a single state as the Swedes are with Minnesota. From before statehood, Swedish immigrants flooded into the small frontier towns of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Encouraged by agents who promised inexpensive and fertile farmland, they came by the thousands. By the turn of the twentieth century, over 126,000 Swedes lived in Minnesota—and their impact on everything in the state continues to today. In this concise history of Swedes in Minnesota, the newest ad...

In the late nineteenth century, the North Woods offered people little in the way of a pleasant escape. Rather, it was a hub of production supplying industrial America with vast quantities of lumber and mineral ore. This book tells the story of how northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula became a tourist paradise, turning a scarred countryside into the playground we know today.Stripped of much of its timber and ore by the early 1900s, the North Woods e...

Arkansas City has often been called �the gateway to the West.� The name lends a lot to describing the town�a town that was founded as a border town to Indian Territory, a major trade hub to the Indian agencies in Indian Territory, and a major transportation center for those wishing to travel through the territory and farther west. Arkansas City started off as a small town with false-fronted stores but became a bustling community where the people were forward thinkers and pushed for quality...

Frugal but generous, stubborn but innovative, trusting but cautious, Nebraskans are a people who chose to live in a harsh, semiarid land, from which they coaxed abundance. They may be, writes author Dorothy Weyer Creigh, the last of their kind.Nebraskans have been tied to the land, and their history, as much as that of any state, is a story of interdependence between people and place. As the "Great Highway" to somewhere else--California and Oregon--Nebraska was mar...

After the arrival of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad in 1852, Whitewater became a regional shipping center that blossomed into a powerful industrial town. The Esterly Harvesting Machine Company and the Winchester and Partridge Wagon Works established their first factories in Whitewater after the coming of the Milwaukee and Mississippi. Their manufactured goods were known around the country for exceptional quality. A myriad of new inventions and patents came from Whitewater�s busines...

Long before Jacob Leinenkugel, Edward Rutledge, andWilliam Irvine were associated with Chippewa Falls,Native American people hunted, fished, and gatheredthe abundant food supplies of the Chippewa area. Throughthe medium of historic photographs, this book captures thecultural, economic, political, and social history of ChippewaFalls, Wisconsin, from the mid-1800s to the present day.These pages bring to life the people, events, andindustries which helped to shape and transform ChippewaFalls....

Established in 1910 by the State of Ohio as a teachers� training college, Kent State Normal School rapidly evolved into a major research university during the first half of the 20th century. Kent State University Athletics chronicles the highlights of sports history during the institution�s first 100 years. As athletics evolved from its close relation to physical education training and intramural play to varsity intercollegiate programs competing at the Division I level, a number of outsta...