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The still-operating Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado is part of one of America's longest-lived narrow gauge networks.
railroads

The Historians Saving America’s Pint-Sized Railroads

From Maine to Alaska, narrow gauge is all the rage, including one of the most historic, Pennsylvania’s East Broad Top.
Justin Franz June 21, 2022
Pittsburgh has more public staircases than any other American city, a throwback to the Rust Belt town's industrial heyday.
infrastructure

Meet the Woman Who Climbed Every One of Pittsburgh's 739 Public Staircases

To explore her adopted hometown, Laura Zurowski took things step by step on the hilly city's historic routes.
Rossilynne Skena Culgan June 21, 2022
Three women and one baby enjoy lunch at the Lord and Taylor tea room.
food

The Lost Glamour of the Department-Store Restaurant

Pot pies and fanciful desserts made shopping delicious.
Anne Ewbank June 20, 2022
The town of Selsey, on a peninsula called Manhood in England, was an island or peninsula at various times in history, and has often contended with flooding. In the far distance, behind the town, lies Medmerry Nature Reserve.
floods

This English Town Is Letting the Sea Have Its Way

The coastal community of Selsey welcomes the return of salt marshes where farms once stood.
Erica Gies June 20, 2022
history

Podcast: Leimert Park

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.
The Podcast Team June 20, 2022
The street names in Columbia, Maryland, were drawn from art and literature. "Satan Wood Drive," however, was the result of a typo. It was supposed to be named "satin wood" for a line from an Amy Lowell poem.
art

What’s Up With Columbia, Maryland’s Quirky Street Names?

From Nodding Night Court to Dove Sail Lane, the town’s address choices are both practical and poetic.
Amy Crawford June 16, 2022
The Cataract House Hotel, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in the 1890s.
women

Podcast: The Divorce Colony

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.
The Podcast Team June 15, 2022
In the early 1890s, the Minnehaha County courthouse played host to some of the country's most sensational public divorce trials.
churches

Seeking the Last Remnants of South Dakota’s ‘Divorce Colony’

How Sioux Falls became a controversial Gilded Age “Mecca for the mismated.”
April White June 14, 2022
The original courtroom
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Minnehaha County Courthouse Original Courtroom

At the turn of the 20th century, the Minnehaha County courthouse played host to sensational public divorce trials.
Calvary Cathedral
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Calvary Cathedral's Stained-Glass Windows

This 19th-century religious artwork was once highly controversial—because it was donated to the church by a divorcee.
Guayacán Centenario
Guánica, Puerto Rico

Guayacán Centenario

A resilient tree that has survived for more than 700 years in Guánica Dry Forest.
This jukebox has been known to play on its own, playing music throughout the space.
San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan Sound

At this studio, musicians, engineers, and quite possibly a music-loving ghost carry on Puerto Rico's musical traditions.
Kaisariani Shooting Range
Kesariani, Greece

Kaisariani Shooting Range

A memorial dedicated to a tragic event during the Axis occupation of Greece.
Some recipes seem tasty, others somewhat frightening.
libraries

The Oldest Cookbooks From Libraries Around the World

Vintage recipes include flaming peacocks and kangaroo brains.
Anne Ewbank and Miranda Brown June 8, 2022
Pape Diop, shown here working in Dakar in 2018, was one of the most prolific street artists of Bamba images.
art

The Reluctant Saint Who Watches Over Senegal as Street Art

Amadou Bamba stood for freedom from imperialism, and now means much more.
David A. Taylor June 8, 2022
English archeologist Howard Carter is well-known for his discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. "We really wanted to showcase the Egyptian team, whose hard work has been overlooked for 100 years," says Oxford University Egyptologist Daniela Rosenow, co-curator of the exhibition.
libraries

What We Overlooked in King Tut's Tomb

A new exhibit focuses on the Egyptians left out of the story of the most famous archeological find of the 20th century.
Amy Crawford June 8, 2022
A settlement recreation.
Hallstatt, Austria

Hallstatt Museum

Dedicated to this region's early settlements and rich history of salt mining.
London, England

Dirty Dick's

This pub boasts a curious history and may have inspired a Dickens character.