The distinctive sound of the Mackinaw Bridge is due to the grating in the two center lanes, one going each way. This grating allows air to pass through the bridge rather than pushing against it. Part of the reason for this t…
No, there’s nothing wrong with your audio. That sound is the gateway to the best place to live in the year 2100, at least in North America. And, depending on what you like, it may be the best place right now. Or you might ha…
This episode is focused less on the history of a hometown, than a hometown that specializes in history. Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is famous for tourist attractions and southern hospitality but it’s also a hotbed of local cultu…
I don’t know a better way to introduce this episode than by just saying the Biltmore estate is one of my favorite places in the world. It’s the largest private home in the United States and it’s simply unrivaled on this cont…
The Cherokee don’t believe in signatures. Who can blame them? In 1763, the British signed a proclamation preventing white colonization west of the Appalachian divide. It happened anyway. In 1785, the United States government…
The Cherokee don’t believe in signatures. Who can blame them? In 1763, the British signed a proclamation preventing white colonization west of the Appalachian divide. It happened anyway. In 1785, the United States government…
On a warm summer day in 1900, the village idiot of Oak Ridge, Tennessee laid on his back in the middle of the woods and heard the voice of God. Returning home, he told his wife: In the woods, as I lay on the ground and looke…
On a warm summer day in 1900, the village idiot of Oak Ridge, Tennessee laid on his back in the middle of the woods and heard the voice of God. Returning home, he told his wife: In the woods, as I lay on the ground and looke…
17-year-old Lepa Radić was a Yugoslavian partisan, having joined the communist party at age 15. Two years later, while tending to the wounded at the battle of Neretva, Lepa was captured and tortured for more than a week for …
In 1930, a local architect moved a 11,000 tons building in downtown Indianapolis, using hand-powered jacks and an ingenious engineering solution. Visit us online at: Itshometownhistory.com Support our podcast by becoming a p…
She was known by many names - the Siren of the Shenandoah, the Rebel Joan of Arc, the Cleopatra of Secession – but when the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter in April 1861, she was just seventeen-year-old Belle Boyd of M…
There are some unsolved mysteries that aren’t mysteries at all. On the afternoon of July 10, 1981, a group of 40 townspeople surrounded a brown Chevrolet pickup truck in the small town of Skidmore, Missouri. In a short burst…
We’ve named this episode after The Hunt for the Red October because it’s kind of like that, but instead of a Soviet submarine, the search is on for a powerful sleeper agent, known to the US government only as Dorothy. The ye…
The year is 1861 and America is in the grips of a bloody Civil War that will change it forever. In Richmond, the capital of the new Confederate States, Southern Belles and Ladies are sewing uniforms, throwing fundraising gal…
On July 17, 1904, 500 residents of Hammond, Indiana gathered together one unseasonably hot summer afternoon, wearing their Sunday best, to watch an innocent man get buried alive. Visit us online at itshometownhistory.com Sup…
In 1647, laborers toiling away at the Tower of London uncovered two small skeletons while clearing away rubble from a staircase. Had the discovery been made today, scientists would have used a whole host of forensic tools, i…
I just recently learned that NBA legend Bill Russell once came to my hometown of Marion, Indiana during the 1960's. The result of this brief stay was at once funny and inspiring, and one of the best stories ever told about b…
In 1922, thousands of teenagers in Manhattan went on a straw hat smashing spree that sent many of them to jail, and some of their victims to the hospital. The exact reasons for the riot are unclear, but a clue from contempor…
There are just times when you need a great speech. These times are rare, but they exist. This episode is about a time like this, when America need a speech and the President of the United States stood with his hat in his han…
On a cold morning, October 21st, 1861, an officer in the Union army named Major Henry Livermore Abbott led the 20th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment through another hopeless assault against a superior enemy force, up an isola…
Sometimes the bad guys win. Sometimes the people with the worst intentions get what they want in life and their victims lose everything, like when one unemployed German lathe operator attempted to murder the best tennis play…
One of the most important hometowns in American history is Alexandria, Virginia. Along with being the wealthiest city in Virginia, Alexandria is home to the Institute for Defense. Analyses, the United States Patent and Trade…
The first battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Fort Sumter, off the coast of South Carolina, in early April 1861. A week later, something like a battle erupted in the streets of Baltimore during the Pratt Street Riots, …
Sometimes known as the 1913 Massacre, the Italian Hall Disaster was a tragedy that occurred on December 24th, 1913 in Calumet, Michigan. 73 people were crushed to death in a stampede when someone falsely shouted "fire" at a …
