Arcadia: 7606 books

In 1803, when Charles Johnson and his brother Oliver left their family in Cayuga County to move west to the Boston Valley, they brought their pioneer spirit and strength with them to an untouched wilderness. The valley was a serene meadow, and the hills surrounding it were perfect for farming and raising...

Halfway between the bustling streets of Philadelphia and the serenity of the New Jersey Shore lies Browns Mills, New Jersey. Nestled within its rich pine trees and dark lakes is the legacy of those who sought nature�s healing properties, social status, and a summer refuge for more than two generations.Their...

Winding north through Pittsford, Otter Creek has powered the lumber, grain, and marble mills essential to this region since 1770. Chittenden lies east of Pittsford, on the west flank of the Green Mountains, where iron and manganese deposits supplied Pittsford�s iron industry. To the south, Pittsford...

Anyone wanting to understand how Giant City State Park in rural Makanda earned its name need only hike on the Giant City Nature Trail. Here they walk through the park�s namesake rock formations, carved 20,000 years ago by the melting waters of a Pleistocene glacier that stopped a mere 1.5 miles from...

The story of Dowagiac�s first 100 years may ring familiar to other small cities across the United States. After Dowagiac was established on a railroad line in 1848, new settlers arrived and had the opportunity to establish large-scale factories in the young village. This growth would last for afull...

Manistique, as with many towns in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, became a boomtown as interest in natural resources made its westward movement. The area was first populated by Native Americans and occasional fur traders. Fr. Frederic Baraga made his appearance in the early 1800s bringing Christianity,...

The Allegheny River of western Pennsylvania and New York rises in Potter County, Pennsylvania, and flows 320 miles to its confluence with the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. The Allegheny�s southern watershed district begins in East Brady, Pennsylvania, and ends in Pittsburgh, and it includes the...

Trona was once the most populous community in the Upper Mojave Desert. Originally explored by the Death Valley 49ers in 1850, Searles Valley was formed by remnants of the Owens River Lakes. The small towns of Borosolvay, Magnesium, Burnham, and Slaterange City prospered for a period before fading....

The narrow-gauge Denver & Rio Grande (D&RG) Railroad, the first rail system to challenge and successfully conquer Colorado's Rocky Mountains, arrived in the Uncompahgre (un-cum-PAH-gray) Valley on the state's western slope in 1882. Montrose was established to supply mines in the mineral-rich...

After its founding in 1836, Mexico was named county seat of the newly formed Audrain County. Growth in the primarily agricultural region was slow until the coming of the North Missouri Railroad and the Graduation Act that made land available from the federal government for 12.5� an acre. With the introduction...

Early settlers were drawn to the Evergreen area for its unsurpassed beauty and natural resources. Ranching and lumber were the initial basis for Evergreen's economy in the 1800s, and wealthy summer residents built prestigious second homes there. By 1920, Evergreen became a tourist mecca through development...

Shamong Township, incorporated in 1852, was originally a part of Evesham Township. It is one of many communities that make up the Pinelands National Reserve. Shamong is a Native American word meaning �place of the horn� or �place of many deer.� From 1758 until 1802, 3,284 acres of the township...

The Mississippi River town of Muscatine produced billions of pearl buttons. By 1905, Muscatine made 37 percent of the world�s buttons and earned the title of �Pearl Button Capital of the World.� The rise and fall of the pearl button occurred over a period of 75 years. John Frederick Boepple, a...

Southern Erie County, around North Collins, was originally inhabited by the Seneca Nation of Native Americans. Beginning in the late 1790s, English Quakers moving west from New England arrived, and as the 1800s progressed, waves of German and Italian immigrants followed, seeking political and economic...