Hometown History

St. George, Utah. Some would say the 1956 movie, The Conqueror, was cursed from the beginning. It had a terrible script, an unhappy crew, and a producer in Howard Hughes, who would soon lose his mind to an obsessive-compulsive disorder and any number of other unknown mental challenges. Within two years, he quit wearing clothes or cutting his nails and would eat only three different foods, chicken,...

Virginia City, Nevada. This episode will be a little different in that I'll be taking you on a mine tour deep underground in Virginia City. This is the city where Mark Twain worked at a local paper in his younger years and became the writer we know and love today. It's also the location of one of the biggest silver strikes in history. TIMELINE 1797: it was not Washington, D. 1906: in the c...

Crescent City, California. I love the atmosphere here. It reminds me of backroom storage rooms for investigation libraries. Oh, -huh. Yeah. That's what this is. This is our research room. We're sitting in the back room of the Del Norte County Historical Museum in Crescent City, California. Across from me at the table is Karen Beteljewski, and she's walking me through the ins and outs o...

San Juan Islands, Washington. When things go as well as they did during the Pig War, it can be easy to forget just how wrong they could have gone. I asked former Chief of Interpretation and historian for the San Juan Island National Historic Park, Mike Voorhees, how the Pig War might have ended otherwise. Any an incident, any a hot-headed incident, an American soldier shooting a British naval offi...

San Juan Islands, Washington. Have you ever had a fight with a family member over something stupid? Better yet, have you ever had that fight only to realize it wasn't so stupid after all? That behind that excuse for a fight was a real fight just waiting to be had? That's basically the story of the Pig War. Yes, the Pig War, which happened between the Pork and Beans War and the Fenian War,...

Desolation Peak, Washington. Great image of God with four finger pointed straight at me. Through halos and rolls and gold folds that were like the existence of the gleaming spear in his right hand would say it. Come on, boy, go thou across the ground. Go moan for man. Go moan. Go groan. Go groan alone. Go roll your bones alone. Go thou and be little beneath my sight. Go thou and be my new to seed...

In the volcanic highlands of southern Oregon lies Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States and one of the most pristine bodies of water on Earth. Formed approximately 7,700 years ago by the catastrophic eruption and collapse of Mount Mazama, Crater Lake's impossibly blue waters descend 1,949 feet into the caldera of an ancient volcano. For the Klamath people, who witnessed the mounta...

Washington, DC. I know you could be anywhere else right now, so I'm glad you're here. Let's get started. The unsung heroes of America's park systems are the men of the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps, established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the height of the Great Depression. In 1932, American unemployment hit a record high of nearly 25 percent. That same year, FDR made th...

Lake Mead, Nevada. Off in the background of every National Park success story is another story of catastrophic failure. One giant, towering, cascading, cautionary tale. Our government was so willing to protect areas like Death Valley because we had already blown our one chance to protect the first great natural attraction America ever had, Niagara Falls. TIMELINE 1920: strike, Union Pacific strike...

…1 campfire… …1 dark forest… …31 bone-chilling stories… …Will YOU survive the night? This Halloween season, enter the woods for a unique and truly epic podcast experience! Around the campfire Shane Waters will introduce 31 crime podcast hosts. Each host brings a new, nerve-wracking true story to the circle. It’s an extra special, two part, five-hour, Halloween event, but before hitting play you mi...

Death Valley, California. In 1820, the well-known British writer Sidney Smith mocked the United States for its lack of culture and sophistication. In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or goes to an American play, or looks at an American picture or statue? This was a common sentiment at the time. America was a young country, barely 40 years old, and most Europeans viewed i...

Grand Canyon, Arizona. There's a scene in the show Mad Men that shook me up the first time I saw it. It's probably not the one you think. In the very first episode, the Draper family picnics along the interstate. The grass is green, the birds are out, and a small portable radio placed softly on a red and white checkered blanket. It's a deeply nostalgic picture of 1960s America. Is Bobb...

Eureka, California. One of my favorite movies as a kid was The Lorax, the original with this song. Under the trees, happy-deppy barbaloots. Under the trees, in our barbaloot suits. Under the trees, eating traculate fruits. Boldly succulent, deliciously deliciously sweetly succulent, fluous traculate fruits. When I first saw The Lorax, I had some sense that it was about protecting the environment,...

In March 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law, establishing the world's first national park. But Yellowstone's creation wasn't simply a political decision, it was the result of a deliberate artistic campaign. Long before most Americans knew about Yellowstone's geysers, hot springs, and dramatic landscapes, three artists began...

In 1864, three years into the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln signed legislation that would change America's relationship with nature forever. The Yosemite Valley Grant Act claimed California's magnificent valley for conservation, establishing a precedent that would lead to the National Park Service and inspire similar movements worldwide. While Yellowstone would become the first official "...

Ever wondered about the incredible stories hiding in your own hometown? The events too small for textbooks but too fascinating to forget? , the podcast that uncovers forgotten local American history from across the country. Each week, host Shane Waters digs into overlooked events, extraordinary people, and wild stories from small towns and big cities alike. These aren't the history lessons you...

When most people think of America's national parks, they imagine breathtaking landscapes, the towering cliffs of Yosemite, the geysers of Yellowstone, the misty valleys of the Great Smoky Mountains. But behind every protected vista lies a political battle, and in this special episode, Shane sits down with Will and Jim Patis, founders of More Than Just Parks, to explore the untold story of the...

Fountain City, Indiana. Before we jump back into the story of Levi and Catherine Coffin, the so-called president and first lady of the Underground Railroad, I thought it'd be helpful to review some of the code words common to the movement. Most of these will be intuitive once you get the hang of the railroad theme. Tracks were simply the routes abolitionists used to move the slaves north. Stat...

Fountain City, Indiana. So, Levi is confused at his young age because at the age of seven, he's thinking, wait a minute, these men have been taken from their families? All these thoughts are going through his head, and he's wondering, what did these men do that were so bad? And his father's, I'm sure, explaining to him they didn't deserve anything for this. They're enslaved...

Nashville, Tennessee. The tomb was vandalized in 2018. It was the only time in 130 some years that had ever happened. Fortunately, there was no structural damage to it, but it was spray paint. Tennessee limestone just drinks up spray paint. So we had to bring out a laser crew from Sweden. They had to build like a whole wooden structure covering the tomb so that they could use the lasers because th...

Nashville, Tennessee. What's the first step in becoming the most powerful man in America? For our seventh president, Andrew Jackson, the first step in his journey to prominence began with the purchase of his first slave. I sat down with Erin Adams, director of education at Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, a museum on the premises of the president's former home, to learn more. TIMELINE 1788:...

Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee. I'd like to introduce one of my favorite voices among anyone I've ever interviewed. Well, my name is Steve McDaniel, and I grew up, I'm seven generations in this community here at what we call Parker's Crossroads. Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee, is a small town of 284 people, but it has a big history. TIMELINE 1861: It became clear that this...

Nashville, Tennessee. When you think of ancient Greece, what images pop into your head? You probably think of the Olympics and philosophers like Plato and Socrates. You might think of stories like the Odyssey and the Iliad that you were forced to read in high school. And if you close your eyes and picture one ancient Greek building, I bet you are picturing the Parthenon, the iconic temple complex...

Memphis, Tennessee. Oh That's the voice of Dewey Phillips, hosting his radio show called Red Hot and Blue on WHBQ, a Memphis station. In the 1950s, more than 100,000 people listened to his primetime slot every day. If you couldn't make out what Dewey was saying, don't feel bad. I had to listen to it a few times myself. But for Memphians of that era, Dewey's frantic and crazed caden...

Memphis, Tennessee. In 2015, musical artist Jack White paid $300,000 for a 78 RPM record at auction. The record was of Elvis Presley singing the songs My Happiness and That's When Your Heartache Begins. It was the first record Elvis ever made. That $300,000 price tag is a far cry from the $4 that Elvis originally paid to make the record at Sun Studio, a place I recently visited. Elvis wanted t...