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The Belt Cookie Table Cookbook celebrates the Rust Belt tradition of the cookie table with forty-one classic recipes from authentic Mahoning Valley cooks.

What's a cookie table? Funny you should ask! The cookie table is a tradition beloved by residents of Youngstown, Pittsburgh, and parts in between. It has its roots in a time when wedding cakes were far too dear for newly arrived immigrants to purchase. Instead, family and friends showed their love for a bride and groom by baking from scratch hundreds (sometimes thousands) of cookies and other small sweet treats to be shared at the reception.

The Belt Cookie Table Cookbook includes cookies from different cultures, cookies with different textures, spices, shapes, and a trove of interesting backstories. Simple cookies, ridiculously indulgent cookies, experimental cookies―they're all here. And most of all, this cookbook shares the tradition of the cookie table, a heartfelt way of building community that has endured through generations. In the tradition of the community cookbook. Author Bonnie Tawse, a former Atlas Obscura Field Agent, collects 41 recipes that include everything from pizzelles to potato chip cookies. Buy it with Belt's Car Bombs to Cookie Tables: The Youngstown Anthology for the full experience!

A wonderful testament to a local baking tradition of the Midwest and a must for any kitchen large or small.

Dive into Cleveland’s deep past and return with a new vision for how we should think about the region today.

The land we call “northeast Ohio” was originally forged through eons of glacial pressure, geologic shifts, and the relentless movement of the Cuyahoga River. Since the last Ice Age, however, it has also been transformed countless times by the many people who have called it home.

In An Alternative History of Cleveland, Jon Wlasiuk uncovers the mysteries, devastations, and human incursions that have shaped the region. Here, you’ll encounter the giant megafauna that roamed the area until their mysterious extinction, Indigenous civilizations who first shaped the land and harnessed its natural resources, industrial pioneers like John D. Rockefeller and Charles Brush who corralled electricity and crude oil in the service of capitalist progress, the environmental devastation that polluted the Cuyahoga and caused toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie, and the numerous Clevelanders today who want to reshape the city’s relationship with the natural environment. Though separated by thousands of years, these stories contain a common theme: the city of Cleveland remains bound to nature, despite our best efforts to liberate ourselves from its limits.

Part natural history, part archeological essay, and part a contemporary call to arms to reclaim and rewild Cleveland’s future, this unforgettable trek into the heart of “the Land” will change the way you see the city forever.

Meet one of Richland County's most colorful citizens.

There are those who thought Phebe Wise was a witch. More thought that the cranky old lady was "tetched," meaning crazy. And she was crazy--like a fox. An eccentric who outwitted violent robbers, a mad stalker, and a society that expected her to marry and raise children, Phebe alternated between dressing up in men's clothes and strutting to town in an antique ball gown, the trail dragging behind her in the dirt. If anyone had the gall to stare, she'd cuss them out. She was in touch with a different world, and she used it to help launch the career of a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Louis Bromfield.

Local author and historian Mark Sebastian Jordan unravels the myth and history of Phebe Wise.

Steubenville Ohio, a mecca of murder was nicknamed "Little Chicago" with gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging running rampant for over one hundred years.

Steubenville's Water Street red-light district drew men from hundreds of miles away, as well as underage runaways. The white slave trade was rampant, and along with all the vice crimes, murders became a weekly occurrence. Law enforcement seemed to turn a blind eye, and cries of political corruption were heard in the state capital. This scenario replayed itself over and over again during the past century as mobsters and madams ruled and murders plagued the city and county at an alarming rate.

An urban atlas that is about so much more than directions, Cleveland in 50 Maps offers new perspectives on one of America's most misunderstood cities.

The best maps let you feel what a place is really like, and Cleveland in 50 Maps deconstructs the Forest City in a way that's never been done before. With colorful maps and insightful commentary, follow the changing locations of breweries, music venues, and commuter rail lines. Track the Cleveland Clinic's growing east side footprint, year-by-year attendance at the Jake, and the addition of communities to the Cultural Gardens. Find out which local high schools produce the most NFL players and which locations major presidential candidates visited in 2016. Discover the massive salt mine under Lake Erie and the barricades on the border of Shaker Heights. In each one of these artful gems, you'll gain a deeper understanding of how people actually experience the city of Cleveland and how its diverse communities actually take shape there.

A beautiful insider's look that's perfect for native Clevelanders or urban explorers who are looking to get to know their city even better.

The last Public Enemy No. 1 of the Depression era, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis reportedly compiled a record of fifty-four aliases, fifteen bank robberies, fourteen murders, three jailbreaks and two kidnappings.

His criminal career came to an end when J. Edgar Hoover and his famed G-Men apprehended the man they wanted more than any other in New Orleans. From there, Karpis found himself confined on Alcatraz Island, where he spent nearly twenty-six years - more than any inmate in the prison's history. Historian Julie Thompson tells the true story of Karpis's life and career, a riveting tale taking readers from rural Kansas and Ohio to the bustling streets of the Big Easy and into the bleak innards of "the Rock."

Haunting cold cases from the Heart of It All

Northern Ohio is best known for its stunning lake views and bustling cities, but even a region as gorgeous and prosperous as this has seen its measure of tragedy. Judy Martins was a beautiful Kent State University coed who disappeared after a dorm party. Frank Noch was a mathematical genius and valuable employee at the General Motors plant in Cleveland. Someone broke into his home and killed him. Hinckley Police Chief Mel Wiley had a secret. Maybe that is why he disappeared. DNA helped Sandusky Police identify a Jane Doe forty-three years to the day she washed up on the shores of Lake Erie. Now, detectives are hoping to find out who put Patricia Greenwood in the water and why.

Award-winning author Jane Ann Turzillo unfolds these unsolved cases and eight more from the north of the Buckey State.

Though removed from the frontlines, Cleveland played an active role in national events before, during, and after the Civil War.

President Lincoln visited this abolitionist hotbed after his 1860 election. Following his assassination five years later, his funeral train made a stop there. Cleveland and Cuyahoga County sent over 9,000 troops to war. More than 1,700 never returned. Born just outside Cleveland, James Garfield emerged from the war to become President of the United States. Most vitally, the economic prosperity of the war years began the transformation of this small but thriving village into a future manufacturing powerhouse.

Author W. Dennis Keating, member and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable, creates a panoramic view of the city through one of the nation's most troubled times.

See how Cleveland's growth, strength and wealth of diversity made it the most populous, prosperous and influential city in the history of Ohio.

Located on the southern shores of Lake Erie, Cleveland was founded in 1796 by General Moses Cleaveland, an agent of the Connecticut Land Company surveying the Western Reserve. The modest frontier settlement became a village in 1815 and an incorporated city in 1836. By 1896, Cleveland boasted the Cuyahoga Building, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, the Arcade, and the stately mansions of Euclid Avenue. Also known as "Millionaire's Row," it was home to Cleveland's industrial, commercial, cultural, and political elite, including Tom L. Johnson, a streetcar magnate and arguably Cleveland's finest mayor, and John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Company and the nation's first billionaire. Native Clevelander Thea Gallo Becker takes you inside her city's rise to prominence.

Images of America: Geauga Lake: The Funtime Years 1969-1995 captures the park's transformation and some of the countless memories that resulted from Funtime's 26-year ownership.

In 1968, three businessmen left their jobs at Cedar Point in Sandusky to purchase Geauga Lake Amusement Park. Geauga Lake had been a summertime escape since the 1870s, but by the 1960s it had fallen on hard times. The businessmen's company, Funtime, Inc., transformed the aging facility into a modern amusement park and established a reputation as an innovative operator in one of the nation's most competitive amusement park markets. Geauga Lake became the first park with two looping roller coasters and the first to integrate a full-scale water park, Boardwalk Shores. The company broke even more new ground in 1988 when it resurrected a classic roller coaster design to construct Raging Wolf Bobs.

Uncover the full extent of mayhem and madness locked away in one of history's most notorious maximum-security prisons.

As animal factories go, the Ohio Penitentiary was one of the worst. For 150 years, it housed some of the most dangerous criminals in the United States, including murderers, madmen and mobsters. Peer in on America's first vampire, accused of sucking his victims' blood five years before Bram Stoker's fictional villain was even born; peek into the cage of the original Prison Demon; and witness the daring escape of John Hunt Morgan's band of Confederate prisoners.

Join author Tim Raab as he presents the champions, contenders, heartbreaks and heroics of this thrilling era of Ohio pigskin history.

Few things seem as important to Americans as sports, particularly football. By the middle of the twentieth century, Ohio high school football ranked among the mightiest in the nation. Dynastic programs Massillon and Canton McKinley dominated the 1950s. Not to be outdone, Barberton, Portsmouth, Cleveland Cathedral Latin and Jackson staked their claims to greatness, and championship squads from Benedictine to Marion Harding and Alliance fought their way to the top of the rankings though ever-steady Massillon continued their winning ways in the '60s. Along the way, determined newcomers like Niles McKinley, Toledo Central Catholic, Wyoming, Sandusky, Bishop Watterson and Marion Catholic snatched their share of gridiron glory. At the decade's close, the fierce Golden Bears of Upper Arlington forged their own dynasty. These are the stories of hundreds of young men who pushed themselves to their limits, and the coaches who pushed them to victory.

A look into one of America's most beloved amusement parks and the story behind the historic Cedar Point.

In 1870, Louis Zistel began ferrying passengers from Sandusky to the Cedar Point Peninsula's beer garden and sandy beaches. In 1888, the Grand Pavilion was built, housing a massive theatre, bowling alley, photographic studio, and kitchen, and shortly thereafter, the resort's first roller coaster was installed. George Boeckling transformed the resort into a self-sufficient city and amusement park, but the park suffered badly in the 1930s economic depression. However, after Cedar Point changed hands several times in the 1950s, it became one of America's leading amusement parks. Today, the park is best known as the world's largest amusement park and the "Roller Coaster Capital of the World."

Inspired by Florida's famed Mai-Kai restaurant, Bill Sapp and Lee Henry opened the Kahiki Supper Club in 1961. Patrons lined up for hours to see the celebrities who dined there--everyone from Betty White to Raymond Burr.

Sapp and Henry set out simply to build a nice Polynesian restaurant and ended up establishing the most magnificent one of them all. Outside, two giant Easter Island heads with flames spouting from their topknots stood guard while customers dined in a faux tribal village with thatched huts, palm trees and a towering fireplace moai. One wall featured aquariums of exotic fish and another had windows overlooking a tropical rainforest with periodic thunderstorms. For nearly forty years, the Kahiki was the undisputed center of tiki culture.

Strange things are afoot in the Buckeye State/

Across city and country, Ohio echoes with tales of creatures, ghosts, and other unexplained phenomena. A monster that appeared to be half man and half dog and wielding a 2-by-4 terrorized a small Northwest Ohio town during the summer of 1972. Over the years, visitors to a quiet Cincinnati suburb claim to have been accosted by a human-size, leathery frogman lurking near the riverbank. For generations, hikers and hunters have reported seeing Bigfoot throughout forests across Ohio, and some of the most notorious and well-documented UFO encounters on record have taken place here./

Authors M. Kristina Smith and Kevin Moore parse urban legends from history as they explore the unnatural side of Ohio’s heritage.

Idora Park opened on May 30, 1899, as Terminal Park, a picnic area at the final trolley stop on the south side of Youngstown, Ohio. The name was changed to Idora Park on November 25, 1899.

Initial features and attractions included a Dentzel carousel with stationary animals, a casino stage, a bandstand, swings, picnic tables, drinking fountains, and toilet facilities. People flocked to the new park, jamming streetcars to capacity. On August 27, 1899, twenty thousand people crowded into the park. The trolley tracks had to be doubled in number, and many more streetcars were added. On Independence Day, 1901, thirty thousand people came to see the fireworks display. Idora Park needed to expand in order to accommodate these huge crowds. And expand it did. By 1915, the park had doubled in size. On April 26, 1984, it all came crashing down. Fire destroyed the two premier rides and half of one midway. Idora Park did not recover, and 1984 was its final year.

Death & Destruction in the Queen City

Cincinnati's history is rife with reprehensible crimes and great tragedies. In 1874, a brutal murder caught the attention of a strange and notorious journalist who turned the crime into a legend. In the 1930s, Cincinnati resident Anna Marie Hahn became Ohio's first female serial killer and the first woman executed in its electric chair--but she isn't the only serial killer to have darkened the dangerous streets of the city. Murderers are not the only monsters. Microbes did the dirty work in 1849 and 1919, and Mother Nature herself turned killer in 1937 when the Ohio River lethally overflowed its banks.

Explore stories of murder and catastrophe as author and history lecturer Roy Heizer leads this dark journey into the sinister side of Cincinnati.

The Church of Tiki

To aficionados of Polynesian Pop, the Kahiki Supper Club was and remains the touchstone for all things tiki. The epitome of a fad that started at the end of Prohibition, it has been rediscovered by each successive generation, with relics of the original “mothership” proudly displayed in tropical restaurants and bars throughout the country. Years after its razing in August 2000, the legacy of the Kahiki continues to inspire artists, entrepreneurs, and other visionaries, many of whom never set foot inside the fabled tiki palace.

From the authors of Kahiki Supper Club comes a new collection of more stories, more images, and more delicious recipes that explain why the Kahiki was such a historically, culturally, and sociologically important artifact of the twentieth century.

Serene one moment and destructive the next, Lake Erie’s moods mirror its tumultuous role in history .

As the site of Cleveland’s Great Lakes Exposition, the lake offered visitors a respite from the Great Depression, and Hotel Victory, once considered the world’s largest summer resort, drew thousands to Put-In-Bay. Daring postal workers dangerously crossed the ice-covered surface on hybrid “boats” and by foot. Canal Street, at the Buffalo Wharf, was once called “the Wickedest Street in America.” The Erie/ is one of thousands of ships that lie in a solemn graveyard below the surface. And rum runners turned the lake into a watery highway for illegal booze during Prohibition.

Author Jennifer Boresz Engelking reveals entertaining, heartbreaking, and nostalgic stories of the lost sites, businesses and industries of Lake Erie.

Cincinnati played a large part in creatng a refuge for escaped salaves and in the Underground Railroad movement.

Nearly a century after the American Revolution, the waters of the Ohio River provided a real and complex barrier for the United States to navigate. While this waterway was a symbol of freedom and equality for thousands of enslaved black Americans who had escaped from the horrible institution of enslavement, the Ohio River was also used to transport thousands of slaves down the river to the Deep South. Due to Cincinnati's location on the banks of the river, the city's economy was tied to the slave society in the South. However, a special cadre of individuals became very active in the quest for freedom undertaken by African American fugitives on their journeys to the North. Thanks to spearheading by this group of Cincinnatian trailblazers, the ""Queen City"" became a primary destination on the Underground Railroad, the first multiethnic, multiracial, multiclass human-rights movement in the history of the United States.

Through stories of people, music, and dreams, King Records of Cincinnati tells the history of a recording company which launched countless musical careers.

Starting with a few songs and a dream in 1943, King Records--a leading American independent--launched musical careers from a shabby brick factory on Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati's Evanston neighborhood. Founder Sydney Nathan recorded country singers Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Wayne Raney, and others and later added black acts such as James Brown and the Famous Flames, Bull Moose Jackson, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Lonnie Johnson, and Freddy King. Meanwhile, King also explored polka, jazz, bluegrass, comedy, gospel, pop, and instrumental music--anything that Nathan could sell. Although King's Cincinnati factory closed in 1971, the company's diverse catalog of roots music had already become a phenomenon. Its legacy lives on in hundreds of classic recordings that are prized by collectors and musicians.