New & Coming Soon

As automobile transportation exploded in the first half of the 20th century, the service station became a part of everyday life for a growing number of Americans in Central Pennsylvania.

In Lost Service Stations of Central Pennsylvania Jimmy Rosen and Emily McCoy showcase these stations, the people who owned them, and offer tribute to the beauty of a bygone era.

Denver is the Mile High City, the Queen City of the Plains, and the Gateway to the West. Today, the city attracts thousands of new residents each year, including the LGBTQ people from the rural West and digit nomads from around the nations seeking a welcoming community where they can thrive.

In LGBTQ Denver Phil Nash showcases how the city evolved from its pre-1970s history of rebuking gay people to a magnet for LGBTQ residents and the capital of the first state to elect and reelect the nation's first openly gay governor.

Forgotten Gems of Gatlinburg

When the Great Smoky Mountains was dedicated a national park in 1934, tourists flocked to the area. Ray Bohanan, who owned Bohanan’s Craft Shop and Cabins, stood by the road shouting, “Cabins for rent!” The Frost Lodge reminded tourists of the days when a room cost five dollars. Residents at the LeConte Creek Cottages and Motel were treated to a “woodland wonderland.” Parkway Motor Inn was a haven for weary drivers for decades. The Mountain View Hotel boasted a list of famous residents like Eleanor Roosevelt. Guests at the Terrace Motel remembered waters from the Roaring Fork Creek lulling them to sleep. Brian McKnight relives the simpler times and the city’s finest, long-forgotten lodging.

The Tombstone of Early Ohio

Southeast Ohio's Little Cities of Black Diamonds was a rugged region in the 1800s. Nowhere was this truer than in Corning and Rendville, mining towns reminiscent of the Wild West era. Gun duels, scandals, lynchings, and murders plagued these places, as intrepid European immigrants and tenacious Black miners relied on raw grit to survive rowdy saloons and perilous coal mines. These impoverished workers also took bold stands against affluent mine operators, leading to intense clashes with the Ohio National Guard.

Author and former Green Beret Jobie Siemer reveals stories of formidable union conflicts and the unyielding resilience of miners whose faith was a beacon in a chaotic struggle to restore order to Sunday Creek.

In the history of Cleveland television, there is no more formidable pioneer than Betty Cope.

From her entry-level position as a receptionist at WEWS in 1947, Cope rose up the ranks to become the producer of some of the area's most memorable early local programs. Together with a group of concerned citizens, she founded Cleveland's educational television station, WVIZ, in 1965.

Under her management, Channel 25 became one of the nation's largest producers of instructional classroom programming. Throughout Cope's twenty-seven-year tenure, WVIZ maintained high-quality programming standards, and she kept her station financially sound largely through the funds raised from the popular annual televised Auction. After TV, she embarked on a new career as an advocate of land conservation and park preservation.

Compiling original interviews and never-before-seen photos, author Christine Martuch tells story of one of Northeast Ohio's most remarkable women.

Summer at the Cottage

By the 1890s, a newly rising middle class found itself having time, money, and access to begin taking vacations. Church denominations began creating summer cottage communities that combined natural settings and intellectual and spiritual pursuits. The first communities were the Chautauquas, where lectures on philosophy, science or politics were offered. For the devout, there were Camp Meetings where one attended purely for religious instruction. Spiritualist camps were among the rarest and incorporated séances to talk to your dead ancestors.

While attending programs, families could engage in outdoor recreation and craft classes. Tents were first used for accommodations but were quickly replaced by wooden frame cottages in Victorian, Arts and Crafts and Adirondack styles. By 1900, more than 300 cottage communities existed and were found throughout the United States with the majority in the Mid-Atlantic.

Join author Peter Seibert as he reveals the beauty, history and influence of summer cottage communities of the Mid-Atlantic.

Timber mills, coal mines and a carnival.

In the late 1800s, Lake Whatcom emerged as both the key to the growth of Bellingham, Washington, and a thriving weekend playground. From steamboats plying the lake, transporting both goods and passengers, anglers seeking what was touted as the "finest trout fishing in the world," the lake became central in the daily lives of local residents. Rail and trolley lines constructed along the shoreline supported the timber and coal mining industries and a popular amusement park drew crowds of adventure seekers.

Join author H. Leon Greene as he explores the development of Lake Whatcom and how it shaped life in the region today.

Authors Rory O'Neill Schmitt and Rosary O'Neill share the NOLA life of Kate Chopin, the first great American woman novelist.

In this epic story, Chopin becomes a Phoenix rising amidst the disgrace, death, and abandonment in the romantic desperate setting of post-Civil War Louisiana. This book, a follow up to Edgar Degas in New Orleans, presents Chopin, who lived in the same neighborhood as the Degas family during that time. Chopin celebrated in New Orleans' great homes and mansions up River Road with their wonderland of oaks, columns, balconies. She had lived in the Garden District, watched New Orleans trolleys with their big windows roll past the Gothic mansions and Greco-Roman houses on St. Charles Avenue, strolled languidly through Audubon Park with its oak tree wonderland full of swa mps and lush Louisiana foliage.

Author Keri Watson guides readers on a tour through New Deal era Sunshine State parks and post office murals.

Much of Western Maine reads like a Stephen King novel.

The dense dark woods and backcountry ponds. The century-old houses with gravel driveways and immense flower gardens, acres of farmland miles from a highway. Serpentine country roads dotted with farmstands, and picturesque main streets lined with battered pickups. Places where-especially during the dark and rainy days of October and November—things can get downright spooky.

Author Sharon Kitchens identifies the locations that serve as the basis for King’s fictional towns of Castle Rock, Jerusalem’s Lot, Derry, and Haven. Drawing on historical materials and conversations with locals and people who know King, the author sheds light on daily life in places that would become the settings for Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Dead Zone, Cujo, IT, and 11/22/63.

A tiny hamlet on the Hudson River, Garrison has deep roots in our nation's history.

Author George Carroll Whipple III has compiled beautiful images of this tiny hamlet and made efforts toward restoring to its former grandeur the iconic 1881 Castle Rock, the estate of William Henry Osborn, a visibly prominent and renowned landmark for all who reside in or visit Garrison. Many wealthy New Yorkers such as William Henry Osborn, Edwards Pierrepont, and Hamilton Fish built their impressive summer estates here and many of those manors still stand today.

Before the Flood

The lost town of Sopris lies silently beneath the depths of Trinidad Lake. Once a thriving mining community in the late 1800s, it was renowned for abundant coal deposits and a bustling population. Three generations called Sopris home. They fought in the Civil War, homesteaded and immigrated to work in the mines. Unfortunately, the town's fate took a drastic turn with the construction of the Trinidad Dam, which flooded the area and submerged the town. Authors Genevieve Faoro-Johannsen and Robert Daniel Vigil, Jr. preserve an enduring legacy of community and resilience through first-hand accounts, historic photos and never-before-seen maps.

Over 50 years have passed since the Black Hills flood swept through western South Dakota in 1972, leaving tragedy in its wake.

This book explores the extent of the damage through images that highlight Rapid City, Keystone, and the surrounding Black Hills. Dignitaries, including Sen. George McGovern, visited the Black Hills in the aftermath; these visitors, along with the actions taken for recovery, make an appearance in the story. Today, the Black Hills are a tourist destination, with Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial, and Custer State Park being the most well-known attractions.

Corey Christianson has spent years researching the 1972 Black Hills flood. She was a part of the 50th commemoration of the flood, for which she, along with a team of talented individuals, created an award-winning exhibit about the flood and the recovery of the Black Hills. The images in this book are from the Rapid City Public Library, US Air Force, Keystone Area Historical Society, and other organizations that strive to remember, honor, and commemorate the flood.