They are the dirty little secrets of Cleveland's past, mob guys so good--or so bad--that you rarely hear their stories. Men such as Micky McBride turned newsboys into sluggers, gave bookies a run for suckers' losing bets and created the Cleveland Browns when football was still a sport the players knew how to win. There was the Jewish Navy, taking laundry trucks to Canada and bringing back barges filled with booze. Then there were the rug joints--the Harvard Club, the Beverly Hills Club, th...

Eliot Ness might come busting in and take all of you crooks to jail--or more likely he won't, even if you've been robbing banks all over Cleveland and bragging about it to the media, like self-proclaimed "last of the big-time bank robbers" Eddie Watkins. This isn't your Kevin Costner version of Eliot Ness, and this isn't your standard collection of Cleveland eccentrics. Join author Ted Schwarz on this romp celebrating bizarre misdeeds and noteworthy accomplishments of Clevelanders large an...

History and Hauntings of the Halloween Capital takes a look into why the small village of Anoka, MN, has been declared (by Congress and everything!) to be The Halloween Capital of the World. This fun look at the elements that make up this unique town, from the rivers along its borders and limestone underfoot to the historical locations and rich characters that helped put Anoka on the world map—to those characters who have seemed to stick around long after their time—History and Hauntings o...

In 1861, as President Lincoln called for volunteers to defend the Union, Thomas Christie wrote to his father, voicing desires shared by many an enlistee: "I do want to 'see the world,' to get out of the narrow circle in which I have always lived, to 'make a man of myself,' and to have it to say in days to come that I, too, had a part in this great struggle."As it turned out, Thomas had an excellent partner in his quest: his brother William. Both signed on with the First Minnesota L...

Imagine a Minneapolis so small that, on calm days, the roar of St. Anthony Falls could be heard in town, a time when passenger pigeons roosted in neighborhood oak trees. Now picture a dapper professor conducting his ornithology class (the university’s first) by streetcar to Lake Harriet for a morning of bird-watching. The students were mostly young women—in sunhats, sailor tops, and long skirts, with binoculars strung around their necks. The professor was Thomas Sadler Roberts (1858–1946),...

This is the story of the USS Wolverine and the USS Sable, two Great Lakes excursion ships converted for aircraft carrier training during WWII. Through the duration of the war, the United States Navy qualified 17,800 pilots for aircraft carrier operation. Training the pilots on either the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean would have exposed the training ships to the danger of submarine attack, while requiring the escort of fighting ships that were needed elsewhere. It would also have involved a...

In 1895, Fort Wayne officially celebrated the centennial of the construction of a Fort at the Three Rivers by General Anthony Wayne in 1794. For the belated birthday, Fort Wayne�s streets were festooned with flags and bunting. Centennial archeswere erected throughout the city, and many events filled the week-long celebration. This photographic essay examines the century since the centennial. It outlines Fort Wayne�s development in the twentieth century and conveys a picture of the city at ...

In the study of American government, analysis of state governments is often neglected in favor of concentration on the national system. Certainly in-depth knowledge of our country’s constitutional structure is critical to an understanding of American government, but this continuing inattention to the complexities of state governments has left a hole in the literature available to help us understand the role state governments play in the federal system. State constitutions served as guides ...

During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers’ Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country’s shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors-many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures-were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ral...

It winds from Chicago to L.A.��so says Nat �King� Cole�s classic hit �(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.� Beginning in 1926, Route 66 was the only U.S. highwayproviding a direct connection between the Windy City and the City of Angels; thus, it is no wonder that Route 66 would become the metaphor of the Americanjourney. The crescent-shaped route from the shore of Lake Michigan to the southern Pacific Coast followed a corridor blazed by Native American footpaths,pioneer waterways, and transconti...

Professor Mike Donovan, Battling Nelson�"The Durable Dane," and "Stockyards" Harold Smith� their stories are as colorful as their names. Chicago�s boxing history is as exciting and unpredictable as any prize fight within the ring. Some of the most memorable bouts�great, infamous or otherwise�took place in the city�s clubs, parks and arenas, and Chicago has seen its share of champions and top contenders over the years. The Gans-McGovern fight in 1900�the "Big Fix"�set the sport back 25 year...

In 1977, while studying journalism at the University of Iowa, Chris Baker gave his grandmother a notebook and asked her to write about her childhood. Years later, long after her death in 1990, he found the tattered yellow notebook. In twenty-nine handwritten pages, the woman he knew as Grandma Covert had recorded her younger life in rural Iowa between 1920 and 1929. Writing about herself from the ages of four to thirteen, Vetra Covert sent a simple message back to her grandson: “That’s jus...