Nestled in the Loess Hills, Council Bluffs grew from a frontier settlement of wickiups and log cabins. The outpost boomed as a gateway to the West when gold was discovered in California in 1849. The Pacific House and the Ogden House became landmark hotels for the transient population. Meanwhile, residents thrived and cultivated a bustling city with the Masonic Hall, Dohany's Opera House and the Merriam block. None of these once iconic buildings remains today. Author S.M. Senden explores th...

Where the Red Oak Creek flowed into the Nishnabotna River, thick groves of walnut, oak, and cottonwood trees crowded about their banks. This gentle intersection of waterways was to become the junction of railroads, highways, and so many people�s lives. The seeds of the hopes and dreams of early pioneers where planted in the fertile soil. Nurtured by the promise of the railroad, the town began to grow and earned the honor of becoming the county seat. With the building of the railroad, Red O...

Montgomery County was one of the last areas in Iowa to be settled. For many years it was considered to be uninhabitable and of little value-until the men and women with hopes and dreams began to settle, build towns, and till the rich, fertile soil. The Forks, Binn's Grove, Hungry Hollow, Frankfort, Milford, Red Oak Junction, Stanton, Villisca, and many more settlements came into being, budding with promise, but the coming of the railroad determined the survival of them all. Some are still ...

**An explosive exposé of America’s lost prosperity by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Charlie LeDuff“One cannot read Mr. LeDuff's amalgam of memoir and reportage and not be shaken by the cold eye he casts on hard truths . . . A little gonzo, a little gumshoe, some gawker, some good-Samaritan—it is hard to ignore reporting like Mr. LeDuff's.” —The Wall Street Journal“Pultizer-Prize-winning journalist LeDuff . . . writes with honesty and compassion about a city tha...

Gold digging, adultery, and a slaying on Valentine's Day, 1923, in this "juicy . . . page-turner" of a true crime story ( Chicago Tribune).It was a Roaring Twenties fatal attraction. Nettie Herskovitz was wealthy and widowed when she met Harry Diamond. The attentive, irresistibly sexy twenty-three-year-old suitor would become Nettie's fifth husband. He was also a bootlegger, pimp, and first-class hustler who thought he'd wed a goldmine. What Harry found in...

Lake Superior's North Shore—the vast stretch between Duluth and Grand Portage—is nearly 150 miles long, with an abundance of state parks, state and national forests, streams and rivers, and more than thirty distinct communities representing a broad range of ethnic and religious groups. Many visitors have made the famous drive along scenic Highway 61, the central artery of this popular vacation destination, but few are aware of the historical significance of the villages, homes, and markers...

"A great read about some great ladies, Pat Majher's Ladies of the Lights pays long overdue homage to an overlooked part of Great Lakes maritime history in which a select group of stalwart women beat the odds to succeed in a field historically reserved for men."---Terry Pepper, Executive Director of Great Lakes Lighthouse Keeper's AssociationMichigan once led the country in the number of lighthouses, and they're still a central part of the mystique and colorful count...

To early American immigrants, nineteenth-century newcomers from the Scandinavian peninsula likely seemed all of a type. to immigrants hailing from Norway and Sweden, however, differences in language, culture, and religion sorted them into distinct groupings: not Scandinavian, but Norwegian or Swedish—and proud of their lineage.How did these differences affect relationships in the new world? In what ways did Swedes and Norwegians preserve their cultures in the city and in rural area...

The Chevrolet car and truck business traces its roots back to Michigan�s lumber industry in the middle of the 19th century. Lumber mills gave way to carriage and wagon manufacturing and the claim, before motorcars burst on the scene, that Flint was the �vehicle capital of the world.� This is the story of how those wagon makers quickly converted to producing automobiles, overtaking automotive pioneer and archrival Ford in sales, and building the Chevrolet brand into the global powerhouse en...

The history hidden in the story of Minnesota's borders. How were those borders formed, what deals were struck, and why does Minnesota looks like it does.?

West Bloomfield Township, located 30 miles northwest of Detroit, was carved from Bloomfield Township in 1833. There were settlements in nearby Pontiac as early as 1818 and in Bloomfield by 1820. The area, originally settled by Native Americans, became a farming community when it was later occupied by European settlers. Towns grew and prospered due to the large number of lakes and later with the advent of the local automotive industry. Around the start of the 20th century, Orchard Lake beca...

Drawn from scores of family albums, these intimate snapshots tell the story of the unique and universal saga of Italian immigration and life in Chicago. More than 25,000 Italian immigrants came to Chicago after 1945. The story of their exodus and reestablishment in Chicago touches on war torn Italy, the renewal of family and paesani connections, the bureaucratic challenges of the restrictive quota system, the energy and spirit of the new immigrants, and the opportunities and frustrations i...