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Cape Hatteras National Seashore was authorized by Congress on August 17, 1937, and established on January 12, 1953. As the nation's first national seashore, it encompasses 30,000 acres and crosses three islands, Bodie, Hatteras, and Ocracoke, for approximately 70 miles. Nearby Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, located within the authorized seashore boundary, is 5,880 acres. Over the centuries, the seashore has witnessed major historic events, including the landing of the first English explorers, the death of Blackbeard the pirate, Civil War battles, German U-boat attacks, hundreds of shipwrecks, and devastating hurricanes. Descended from horses brought over by Spanish explorers, the Ocracoke ponies still roam the landscape. This National Park Service unit also includes the majestic Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, and Ocracoke Lighthouses. The seashore is a haven for wildlife and recreational beachgoers. Cape Hatteras National Seashore showcases the rich natural and cultural heritage of America's first national seashore.

People have called the land near the Ocmulgee River in present-day central Georgia home for a long time, perhaps as many as 17,000 years, and each successive group has left its mark on the landscape. Mississippian-era people erected the towering Great Temple Mound and other large earthworks around 1,000 years ago. In the late 17th century, Ocmulgee flourished as a center of trade between the Creek Indians and their English neighbors. In the 19th century, railroads did irreparable damage to the site in the name of progress and profit, slicing through it twice. Preservation efforts bore fruit in the 1930s, when Ocmulgee National Monument was created. Since then, people from all over the world have visited Ocmulgee. They come for many reasons, but they invariably leave with a reverence for the place and the people who built it hundreds of years ago and those who have maintained it in recent decades.

Abe Lincoln did not split rails in Tampa, and George Washington's cherry tree might not have been cut in Miami-Dade, but in Key West, the famous Harry S. Truman sign--"The Buck Stops Here"--still resides on the former president's Florida White House desk. A few hours north is the Kennedy bunker, complete with the presidential seal painted on the concrete floor just in case the Soviets started a nuclear war while Kennedy was vacationing in Palm Beach. Florida may not have a presidential homestead, but it contains the Disney resort where an embattled Richard Nixon exclaimed "I am not a crook" and the fishing hole where Chester A. Arthur discovered that he would not live to see a second term. It is the place where presidents have come to escape and let down their guards. For generations, the Sunshine State has turned commanders in chief into relaxed tourists, allowing them to juggle the formal functions of the office while reconnecting with their private lives. Illustrated with rare and candid photographs, Presidential Vacations in Florida is a book for any lover of the American presidency.

The beautiful mountains of south-central West Virginia can be simultaneously challenging and rewarding to travelers. Pre-Columbian First Nations people traversed the Allegheny Mountain Range for thousands of years before European settlers arrived. The natural mountain barrier stood as a formidable challenge to the newcomers. Union and Confederate forces traversed West Virginia, but artillery trails and oxen paths were ill-suited for trucks and automobiles. During World War II, Allied forces witnessed the significance of Germany's autobahn in terms of troop movement. Still, planning for a US interstate highway system evolved slowly. In 1947, leaders in the West Virginia State Legislature approved funds to build a turnpike from Wheeling to Princeton. Cost concerns prompted legislative leaders to modify the plan and select a route from Charleston to Princeton. The southern part of the two-lane version of the turnpike opened to nationwide acclaim in 1955. The unrivaled beauty of the 88-mile superhighway; the incredible travel time savings and attractions, including Tamarack--a marketplace for West Virginia artists and artisans; and a conference center have transformed the West Virginia Turnpike into an attractive destination excellent for visiting travelers as well as West Virginians.