Mary Collins Barile: 5 books

The art of rug hooking, which consists of pulling dyed and cut wool fabric pieces through a backing, has typically been associated with New England, the South and Canada. Yet rugs from the American Midwest have contributed just as much to the development of the craft and its continuing popularity. The...

Truth, after all, still remains stranger and more engaging than most legends. And Missouri, of course, leads every other place in truth. Hop aboard Long's dragon boat or take advantage of 1846 wind wagon technology to plunge into the forgotten tales of this fascinating place. Hobnob cautiously with Stagger...

The author of The Haunted Boonslick proves the Show Me State isn’t shy about its ghostly heritage—especially in the beautiful college town at its center. According to Columbia ghost lore, the city’s dead only dabble with departure. The specter of Broadway legend Maude Adams checks in...

For nineteenth-century travelers, the Santa Fe Trail was an indispensable route stretching from Missouri to New Mexico and beyond, and the section called “The Missouri Trail”—from St. Louis to Westport—offered migrating Americans their first sense of the West with its promise of adventure....

“A slim, riveting tome dedicated to the haunts of the Mid-Missouri region . . . [This] book is chock-full of history” (Columbia Daily Tribune). There is some uncertainty about the exact borders of the region that surrounds the Boonslick Trail but little doubt about the palpable and unsettling...