Hometown History

Dayton, Tennessee. We have heard some bizarre topics here on Hometown History, but this case grew into a national debate. The debate began back in the 1920s, and we still don't have an answer that everybody agrees on. In today's episode, we're looking at the Scopes Monkey Trial, which turns out to be a riveting case orchestrated by just three people in Dayton. The name is as intriguing...

Chicago, Illinois. Privilege, arrogance, notoriety. These words describe the essence of today's episode. In today's episode, we are looking at a dark and chilling chapter from America's history, involving incredibly intelligent young men who decided to use their intelligence for evil rather than good. This story takes us back to the year 1924. TIMELINE 1886: Things really turned ugly a...

Jacksonville, Florida. Today I've got something quite unusual, something a majority of the world have no idea about. The movie-making capital of the world, as we know, is Hollywood, located in California, and it's become a reference point for the American film industry. And the people associated with it. TIMELINE 1908: Edison and his principal competitors, including Eastman Kodak, reached...

Washington, DC. Welcome back to Hometown History. It's no surprise to anyone that sometimes government officials are corrupt, but this scandal will still manage to shock you. This story involves national security, oil companies, and, of course, corruption at the highest levels of the U.S. government. This is the Teapot Dome Scandal. The Teapot Dome Scandal was a major event in American history...

On March 3, 1876, Mary Crouch was making soap outside her Bath County, Kentucky home when something impossible happened: chunks of meat began falling from a clear sky. This wasn't rain or hail, witnesses described it as pieces of flesh, roughly two inches square, covering an acre of land and clinging to fences like grotesque decorations. Locals tasted it. Scientists analyzed it. Newspapers fro...

Washington, DC. In the pages of world history, all nations have seen the rise and fall of dynasties, the evolution of ideas, and the breaking of barriers. From Margaret Thatcher in Britain, to Angela Merkel in Germany, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, to Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, women have ascended to the highest seats of leadership. Proving that capability isn't confined to gender. But there...

In 1697, after Abenaki raiders killed her newborn infant before her eyes, Hannah Duston of Haverhill, Massachusetts became a captive, forced to march toward Canada. Days later, she killed ten of her captors, including six children, and escaped with their scalps. Colonial minister Cotton Mather transformed her story into a parable of Puritan righteousness, portraying her as a biblical hero striking...

It's the 19th century. New York City is blossoming. And amidst this growth, there's a buzz around a new institution that's popping up that will change the cultural landscape forever. Today, this institution sits on Fifth Avenue, hosting events like the Met Gala. Nestled on the edge of New York City's Central Park, this institution has become synonymous with art, culture, and histor...

New York City, New York. December 11th, 1969, a date the Met Museum won't soon forget. The night was chillingly cold, with a thick fog rolling through the streets of New York City, obscuring the facade of the famous museum. Inside, the gallery stood silent and majestic, every piece of art exuding the aura of centuries gone by. Unknown to the guards and the visitors who had left for the day, a...

Baltimore, Maryland. In the darkest days of World War II, when entire nations were trapped in the clutches of brutal regimes, and the winds of despair howled through occupied streets, there was a light, a beacon of determination, courage, and hope. Her name was Virginia Hall, known only to a select few, but her exploits were the stuff of legends. Working tirelessly behind enemy lines, she became a...

In the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a more sinister American program was brewing. Project Sunshine had an innocuous nameâ€"but between 1955 and 1970, the US government orchestrated a horrifying operation that would remain classified for decades. When rumors began to surface about "baby body snatching," most dismissed them as conspiracy theories. They were wrong. Behind laboratory...

Moscow, Russia. It takes a special something to strike mortal fear into the hearts of Nazi German soldiers. To be deemed a witch by these forces is nothing short of an honor. An honor afforded to female pilots in the Soviet Air Force. They were hated and feared so much that any German pilot who managed to down their plane was automatically awarded the Iron Cross Medal, typically awarded for braver...

Charlotte, North Carolina. In the pages of American history, stories of gold, greed, and glory often cast their glimmering shadow. But before the famous California gold rush, a lesser-known, yet equally compelling chapter unfolded. A chapter ignited by a child's curiosity in a shiny rock found in the heart of North Carolina. So, the year is 1799 in the rolling countryside of North Carolina. Th...

Washington, DC. It's Christmas Eve, 1926. New York City was adorned with a sparkle of snow and a festive glow. Families gathered in their homes, and the streets were bright with carols and holiday cheer. But in the corridors of Bellevue Hospital, a nightmare was unfolding. A man stumbled through the doors. His face flushed, his eyes wide, with an unexplainable terror. He claimed that Santa Cla...

Hershey, Pennsylvania. We all know the classic American story about the evil capitalist like Citizen Kane. He bullies his way to the top, crushes his rivals, and loses all human decency along the way. This story is the opposite of that story. This is the story of the good capitalist Milton S. Hershey of Hershey Candy Bar fame, who looked out for his employees and founded two thriving company towns...

Las Vegas, Nevada. How would you feel about pulling up a lawn chair to watch a nearby explosion of an atomic bomb? Believe it or not, this used to be common. When the U.S. government chose a nuclear testing site about 60 miles outside of Las Vegas, the city did what it did with just about everything else. It turned it into a marketing campaign. It used the proximity of these massive radioactive di...

Today, you go anywhere and you say, ah, I'm from Las Vegas. Whoa, really? And yet, to this day, people will say, what hotel do you live in? Are you kidding me? You've got 3 million people living here. Are you kidding me? No. And yet, I've had that. I've had people say, you run a museum there? What is it? About poker chips or something? No, it's a museum. I run three museums, or...

West Baden Springs, Indiana. After my conversation with Jeff Lane at the West Baden Hotel, I went over to the French Lake Hotel to meet Dan Fracher for a tour of both campuses. Because I've already covered the general history of the West Baden Hotel in our interview with Jeff, I'll be focusing on some of the quirkier or more detailed parts of the West Baden story during that part of the to...

West Baden Springs, Indiana. When it was built in 1902, with the biggest free-span dome in the world, the West Baden Springs Hotel in southern Indiana was known as the eighth wonder of the world. About a month ago, in February of 2023, the travel site TripAdvisor named it one of the top five hotels in America. TIMELINE 1901: and are still thriving today. 1902: And so, less than one year, this buil...

Mitchell, Indiana. The first man to walk on the moon died two years before he ever got there. Or at least, the man who was supposed to be the first. His name was Gus Grissom, and he is remembered today as one of the most skilled and yet unluckiest astronauts in the history of space travel. As a member of the Mercury Seven, also known as Astronaut Group One, Gus was among the elite of the elite. TI...

Baltimore, Maryland. I always tell people that I graduated from the hardest school to get into that was in existence in the United States at that time. They had statistically more people who would apply for clown college and certainly a much smaller pool of class than Harvard or Yale or any of the big Ivy League schools. So it was the hardest to get into. And I graduated from it. And then there I...

Terre Haute, Indiana. After leaving the Candles Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, Indiana, I mentioned our trip to a photographer friend of mine named Rodney Markison from nearby Bloomington. I was telling Rodney about a book I had purchased at the museum that was unlike anything I'd ever read. It was a biography of Eva Kaur, the founder of the Candles Museum, but it was il...

Terre Haute, Indiana. I'm back with Troy Fears, Executive Director at Candles Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, Indiana. Twenty years ago, this museum was firebombed by a domestic terrorist. Today, it's stronger than ever, hosting thousands of visitors every year, including school groups and educational workshops. Candles educates people on the Holocaust, but more speci...

Terre Haute, Indiana. I'm not sure what's going on. I'm not sure what's going on. I'm not sure what's going on. The fire was in the middle of the building. It took us about 35 to 40 minutes to bring the fire under control. On the north side of the building, the door had been knocked out prior to our arrival. At this time, the fire is under investigation. This museum was the...

Everglades, Florida. To my knowledge, only one Native American tribe in history has never surrendered or capitulated to the U.S. government. The Seminole tribe of Florida, most specifically one Seminole tribe, the Mickezuki Indians, settled in the Everglades and held out until 1962, until they were legally acknowledged as a sovereign domestic dependent nation by the United States government. TIMEL...