When most people picture world-class mountain biking, they may think of the rugged Alps, the red rock of Sedona, or Utah’s slickrock trails. Few would guess that the official Mountain Bike Capital of the World lies in the heart of Middle America, in the rolling hills of the Ozarks. The town of Bentonville in the…
It’s not difficult to see fall colors in Colorado. There are more than two million acres of aspen trees in the state — one billion trees that, if placed together, would cover Rhode Island and Delaware. And what a show they put on! Rocky Mountain aspen leaves don’t just change color in the fall; they…
By David DeVoss It was the opening game of the baseball season and the atmosphere at Legends Field, home of the Kansas City Monarchs, resembles that of a carnival. Four skydivers dressed in bright primary colors started the festivities by parachuting onto center field. Action then shifts to the infield, where a handful of Little…
By Kerrick James Later this summer, Americans will begin celebrating Route 66, America’s Mother Road. It was formally established on November 11, 1926, in the heart of the Roaring Twenties, when newly affordable automobiles like Ford’s Model T and Model A offered unparalleled freedom. Its mythic aura and worldwide fame have only swelled since the…
On a beautiful late summer day, Alaskan Dee Buchanon has just hauled an eight-pound salmon from a side channel on the Susitna River. The majestic fish is a perfect example of everything salmon represents in Alaska culture. It is an Expressionist masterpiece: vermilion flanks, ivory belly, platinum fins and cheeks. Close to a billion wild salmon roam the North Pacific waters bordering Alaska. Hundreds of millions of them return to the state’s rivers, streams and lakes each summer and fall to spawn. Sustaining fisheries is part of the Alaska Constitution, and the state does a good job.
By Marlene Goldman Towering above Uptown Oakland’s Broadway corridor, an Art Deco masterpiece still holds its head high nearly a century after its grand debut. The Paramount Theatre, now a National Historic Landmark, was built as a movie house with intricate decor to rival any theater in America. The majestic lobby evokes a South American…
Ah, to be in Holland when tulips burst into flower—Holland, Michigan. That is in Holland, Michigan, and it would be the first week in May, when the entire community and thousands of visitors turn out to immerse themselves in bloemen abundance at Tulip Time. So it has been since 1929. Given such longevity, Holland has its…
Baseball draws together all generations and classes in the timeless celebration of the game known as America’s Pastime. Stadium screens may pulsate with pixels, but baseball remains proudly analog, played by rules largely codified in the 1800s. Americans learn them at an early age, as players and spectators. That familiarity and sense of continuity fuel the game’s widespread popularity. Major League Baseball, with its grand, big-city stadiums and lucrative TV deals, gets most of the attention. But most fans agree that minor league teams are more fun to watch. They play in smaller, more intimate ballparks with less distance between players and fans, who pay much, much less for a summer evening’s entertainment.
Hill Country settlements between Austin and San Antonio, 80 miles apart in south-central Texas, now form one of the most attractive and historic regions in the entire state. Young families yearn to move there for the good schools and a breezy lifestyle. Chocolate shops, cast-iron-pan factories, and gourmet-salsa-makers thrive. Nouveau-Italian restaurants, hat-and-boot boutiques, and yuppified “saloons” do a land-office business. And tourists are thicker than fleas on a lazy possum. You’ll find scads of them (tourists, not fleas) in Fredericksburg, which bills itself as the most German city in Texas. “On the town’s city limits signs, the population is given as 11,257,” says David Schafer, an author, historian, and driver of the Fredericksburg Trolley tour bus. “We get about 1.5 million visitors annually. Around 25,000 of them show up each year to the town’s Oktoberfest celebration. Fredericksburg has a Texas heart and a German soul.”
By Rich Grant America is going through a period of uncertainty in 2025, but one thing is clear. Exactly 250 years ago, in March and April 1775, two individuals uttered sentences that changed world history. They were not presidents or generals. One was a preacher, the other a silversmith. But as we approach the 250th…