Drive-Thru Towns

Presque Isle & Caribou: The Potato Empire with a Heartbeat In Presque Isle and Caribou, the soil isn’t just dirt—it is destiny with frost on it. For a generation, Aroostook County, Maine , was the potato capital of the world. These two northern strongholds sat at the dead center of that agrarian empire—railroad hubs, harvest havens, and military outposts where the rhythm of the school calendar...

Millinocket: The Paper Town That Burned Without Fire It was called "The Magic City"—a massive industrial marvel carved entirely out of the deep Maine woods in just 18 months. Millinocket and its sister town, East Millinocket, rose to become one of the most powerful paper-making centers on the planet, turning out the physical sheets that carried the nation's news, catalogs, and daily...

Drive Thru Towns — Season 3 Trailer Hosted by  Andrew Wilcox This season, we’re heading back into the places that made me, the roads that raised me, and the Maine that started as a few weeks old in the back seat and never really let go. From roadside rest stops and ham-and-cheese lunches with orange soda to Katahdin on the horizon, these towns are part of the map and part of the memory. We’ll expl...

The ALCAN: The Road That Connected a Country and Erased the People Who Built It One thousand, three hundred, and eighty-seven miles. Built in just eight months during the height of World War II, the Alaska Highway (ALCAN) is more than an engineering marvel—it is a landscape of compressed history, wartime urgency, and human endurance. In this special extended episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host Andr...

Utqiagvik: The Top of the World, Where America Ends and the Dark Begins There is no road to Utqiagvik. There never has been, and likely never will be. To reach the northernmost city in the United States, you must fly over hundreds of miles of roadless tundra or arrive by barge during the brief summer window when the Arctic Ocean isn't frozen solid. In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host An...

Portlock: The Village Everyone Fled From Deep on the Gulf of Alaska coast, on the rugged southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula, lies a ghost town that didn't die because the fish ran out or the economy collapsed. It died because of fear . In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host Andrew Wilcox takes us to Portlock (also known as Port Chatham), a place so unsettling that an entire community aban...

Eagle: The Last American Town Before Everything Became Canada Situated on the banks of the Yukon River, just 12 miles from the Canadian border, sits a town that was once the "Gateway to the Interior." Today, it is a quiet sentinel of history at the end of the Taylor Highway. In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host Andrew Wilcox explores Eagle, Alaska —the first incorporated city in th...

Chicken: Too Remote to Spell Ptarmigan Deep in the Interior of Alaska, at the end of the Taylor Highway, sits a town that owes its name to a spelling bee that never happened. In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host Andrew Wilcox takes us to Chicken, Alaska —a community founded by gold miners a full decade before the Klondike became a household name. When it came time to name the post office in...

Seldovia: The Boardwalk Town the Highway Killed Before the Earthquake Could This is the only episode of Drive-Thru Towns where you actually cannot drive through the town. There is no road to Seldovia. To get here, you have to cross Kachemak Bay by boat or drop out of the sky by floatplane, arriving in a community that has been defined by its isolation since 1787. In this episode, host Andrew Wilco...

Hope: Named After a 17-Year-Old Boy, Forgotten Like One Too At Mile 56.3 of the Seward Highway, a 17-mile spur road dead-ends into a town that time—and the gold rush—nearly left behind. While the rest of the world remembers the Klondike, the real story of Alaska’s first major gold strike began here, on the shores of Turnagain Arm. In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host Andrew Wilcox takes us d...

Eklutna: The Oldest Living Place No One Drives To Twenty-six miles from the glass towers of Anchorage sits a village that has been continuously inhabited for over 800 years . While thousands of commuters blast past the Eklutna exit at 65 miles per hour every morning, they are passing a site that was already ancient when Marco Polo left Venice. In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host Andrew Wilc...

Ninilchik: Where Russia Never Really Left High on a bluff overlooking Cook Inlet, five gold onion domes catch the Alaskan sun, looking like a piece of the Old World that drifted across the Pacific and simply took root. This is Ninilchik , a town that the Russian Empire retired from—and then forgot to take with it. In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host Andrew Wilcox explores the "pensioner set...

Whittier: The Town That Was a Secret, Then a Bunker, Then Itself Most towns have a "welcome" sign. Whittier has a schedule . To enter this town, you must drive through a single-lane, two-and-a-half-mile mountain tunnel that only opens for cars once an hour. If you miss your window, the mountain simply says "no." In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host Andrew Wilcox takes us...

Portage: The Town the Earth Swallowed At Mile Marker 79 on the Seward Highway, a skeletal "ghost forest" stands frozen in the tidal mudflats. These white, salt-drowned trees are the only remaining headstones for Portage, Alaska —a town that quite literally sank into the earth. In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host Andrew Wilcox uncovers the story of a roadside junction where travele...

Dyea, Alaska: The Town That Lost a Race and Died of It There is a cemetery in Southeast Alaska where almost every headstone shares the same date: April 3, 1898. In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns , host Andrew Wilcox takes us to a flat river delta near Skagway that was once home to 8,000 people. During the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, Dyea was the gateway to the brutal Chilkoot Pass—the &quo...

Drive Thru Towns — Season 2 Trailer: Alaska Welcome to Drive Thru Towns. Season 2 is here — and we're heading somewhere bigger, wilder, and colder than anywhere we've been before. Alaska. This season, we leave the moss-draped back roads of Florida behind and drive north — all the way to the edge of the continent, and sometimes beyond it. We're talking about a town the earth swallowed w...

Havana & Quincy: The Millionaires of Shade Tobacco Welcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we travel the rolling hills of Gadsden County to explore Havana and Quincy, Florida —two towns built on the "green gold" of shade tobacco and a single, legendary investment that changed the face of the American South. This isn't just a story about farming; it’s a masterclass in risk,...

Micanopy: The Town That Time Forgot Welcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we pull off US-441 and move under a canopy of ancient live oaks to visit Micanopy, Florida —a place where the humidity feels like history and the light moves as slow as the traffic. Micanopy isn't just an antique capital; it is the oldest inland town in Florida and a landscape that has inspired Pulitzer Prize win...

Cedar Key & Rosewood: Pencils, Clams, and a Buried Town Welcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we travel to the end of State Road 24 to visit two towns forever linked by a railroad, a swamp, and a silence that took decades to break: Cedar Key and Rosewood, Florida. This isn't just a trip to a quiet fishing village; it’s a journey through the tools that wrote American history and the...

Fernandina Beach: The Isle of Eight Flags Welcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we steer toward the northeastern tip of Florida to Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island—a place that has seen more flags, more pirates, and more reinventions than perhaps any other spot in America. Fernandina Beach isn't just a charming Victorian escape; it is a survivor of centuries of global tug-of-war. We e...

Mount Dora: Where the Map Lies Welcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we climb to one of the highest points in Florida to discover Mount Dora —a town that defies every geological and cultural expectation of the Sunshine State. Mount Dora isn't just a quaint village of antique shops and bed-and-breakfasts; it is a place of inland lighthouses, cinematic history, and Cold War secrets. We e...

Port St. Joe: The Town That Wrote Florida’s Soul—Then Vanished Welcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we explore the "Forgotten Coast" to uncover the story of a city that was once the largest and most ambitious in Florida—only to be wiped off the map in less than a decade. Port St. Joe (formerly St. Joseph) isn't just a quiet waterfront town; it is the birthplace of Florida’s legal identity...

Welcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we journey to the edge of the map to Everglades City, Florida —a town where the line between the wilderness and the law has always been as thin as a mangrove leaf. Everglades City isn't just a gateway to a National Park; it’s a monument to stubbornness, isolated ambition, and a local history that reads like a thriller. We dive into: The Vision of Barro...

Apalachicola: The Town That Froze the World Welcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we travel to the "Forgotten Coast" to visit Apalachicola, Florida —a place that proves you don't need a theme park to have a world-changing story. Apalachicola isn't just a picturesque fishing village; it’s a town built on ice, cotton, and a fierce sense of survival. We explore the layers of history hidden be...

Cassadaga: Where Mayberry Meets the Twilight Zone Welcome back to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we venture off the fluorescent path of Florida’s theme parks and into a 57-acre historic community that has spent over 130 years talking to the other side. Cassadaga, Florida , isn't your typical roadside attraction. It is a National Register of Historic Places site and the oldest continuously...