Images of America Sale

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is a jewel of America’s National Park Service.

Established by legislation and signed into law by President Roosevelt in 1944, today the park encompasses thousands of acres spanning three states as well as the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers.While the town was ravaged by repeated floods and war, it rose like a phoenix from the ashes.As a Civil War soldier presciently wrote, “In future years travelers and tourists will eagerly resort [here] ...and history will point out [this] spot where many acts of the great tragedy, not yet closed, took place.” This book chronicles the creation and development of the national park in Harpers Ferry, a park that now affords hundreds of thousands of visitors each year the opportunity to marvel at the same scenery Thomas Jefferson said was worth a voyage across the Atlantic to see and to be able to walk the old streets where so many major acts of American history took place.

For centuries, the Los Angeles River was unpredictable-- prone to flooding, a raging torrent during rare Southern California rains, and just a trickle and marshlands the rest of the year. To tame it, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers walled in the river just before World War II. Decades later, roadside signs that proclaimed "Los Angeles River" prodded the question: How can this cement drain, strewn with trash and abandoned refrigerators, be considered a river? Abused through the 20th century, the L.A. River is amid a comeback thanks to the Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR) and local governments. The realization that this arroyo has been as crucial to the development and growth of the city as the climate is again alive in the community. The vintage photographs for this historic and redemptive look at one of the great natural features of Los Angeles County were collected from private and public archives.

The American River Canyon below Auburn is seen as a natural and scenic area but still contains signs of an extensive historical past. This includes historic bridges and bridge sites dating back to the 1850s. The 1849 Gold Rush brought 75 years of mining that ended after massive dredges worked the river for its gold in the 1910s. Unique to the canyon is the Mountain Quarries Railroad, which traveled its way across 17 trestles and an elegant, still-standing concrete bridge to reach the main line in Auburn. The long-stalled Auburn Dam is the latest incarnation of earlier dams, like the 1890s Birdsall Dam that diverted water for 50 years through the North Fork Ditch to communities downstream.

The Miami River has proudly served its inhabitants since hunter gatherer days and continues today.

Although the Miami River was originally just 4.5 miles in length, it has been a robust working river since the incorporation of Miami in 1896. With a volume of trade exceeding $4 billion annually, the Miami River has been central to the story of Miami for thousands of years. Native Miamians lived along the river for millennia and used it as their ""expressway,"" as well as their source for food and water. The riverbanks have been home to exotic animals, Jesuit missions, slave plantations, Army forts, Julia Tuttle (the ""Mother of Miami""), and a grand Gilded Age hotel. Even with the post-World War II rise of suburbia and the flight of residents away from the center of the city, the river has remained busy. Today, with a renaissance in central Miami, there has been a significant increase in appreciation for the role of the river in this revival and in the rich history of the city.

Over 200 images document the fascinating history of the towns along the banks of Maine's Union River, chronicling their evolutions.

Along the Union River weaves together more than two hundred images with intriguing and informative text to create an immensely enjoyable journey through the history of the towns along the banks of Maine's majestic Union River and its tributaries. The region comprising Hancock and Penobscot Counties was originally settled by soldiers who came to work in the woods and tanneries. Soon, supporting industries, stores, copper shops, lumber camps, and ladies millinery shops were established, but it was the shipbuilding industry that flourished most prominently. Here, we explore Bingham Millions, Mariaville's ""Greenhouse Settlement,"" and Lucerne's ""Little Switzerland,"" and experience the wild beauty of this world-famous countryside.

The Potomac River Basin, stretching from Pennsylvania through West Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia, is home to a variety of wildlife and culture. The Potomac flows through the landscape, offering its shores to bathers and fishermen, its rapids to adventurous kayakers, and its natural beauty to all who live nearby. But, over the centuries and specifically since the coming of European settlers to the area 400 years ago, the region and the river have been transformed. Many of the changes that have affected the Potomac were the result of human actions—the introduction of maize about 1,900 years ago, the accidental importation of the Chestnut blight in 1904, and the increased industrialization of the region. In this pictorial history, readers will have the opportunity to learn about the long-lasting effects of deforestation, mining, and pollution,
the plant and animal life that call the region home, and the river's restorative power and enduring grace in striking views from the past 200 years.

The Kanawha River is a prominent natural feature running through West Virginia's Putnam County. Beginning in the 19th century, small, permanent towns began to appear along the river's banks. The waterway served as a vital mode of transportation for these burgeoning communities. Buffalo has a rich agricultural history and a historic town center with several buildings in the National Register of Historic Places. Eleanor was one of three New Deal settlements established by Eleanor Roosevelt. Winfield, the county seat, was named after Gen. Winfield Scott. Nitro was seemingly built overnight as a US ammunition facility during World War I. While each town has its own identity, it shares a common link--the Kanawha River. Along the Kanawha River chronicles Civil War-era residents, floods in the early 1900s, and economic hard times in the 1930s. This pictorial history captures the diversity of these communities and the ways in which they flourished along the Kanawha River.

Long before English speakers set eyes upon it, the volcanic plug on the south bank of the Huerfano River was tagged with a moniker that means the orphan. Spanish conquistadors saw it as a rock pile that God dumped in the middle of nowhere, an odd little cone far removed from the regular foothills edging the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range. In the 18th century, this outcropping and the river that bears the same name were famous landmarks for Native American tribes, Hispanic explorers, and French adventurers. Then in the 19th century, along came US mountain men, gold-seekers, cowboys, sheep ranchers, railroad workers, town developers, and coal miners from 31 different countries, speaking 27 different languages. Counterculture revolutionaries discovered the area in the 1960s and established five separate communes west of Walsenburg. Each wave of immigrants brought new perspectives and lifestyles.

Founded in 1858, Tell City is located in the rolling hills of southern Indiana, along the Ohio River between Evansville, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky. Carefully planned by the Swiss Colonization Society of Cincinnati, Ohio, Tell City was originally named Helvetia. To proclaim their Swiss origin and honor their hero, William Tell, the founders chose to rename the area Tell City. Tell City is known for its famous Tell City Pretzels, a tradition that dates back to 1858, and the Tell City Chair Company, a well-known manufacturer of Early American–style furniture. After the closing of the Tell City Chair Company, the city changed from a furniture-manufacturing community to a more automotive-manufacturing community, with Waupaca and ATTC Manufacturing both employing a total of 1,500 people.

Meandering through Orange, Lake, and Seminole Counties, this "purest form of Central Florida nature," as described by one of its champions, is also bordered by some of the region's most densely populated suburban sprawl. The Wekiva River makes up some of the best protected waters in the state with laws designed for its preservation, as it is recognized as a regional "jewel" and a resource worth saving in public trust as parks, preserves, and forests. Today visitors who paddle, boat, and hike here discover a sanctuary that seems unchanged since its earliest history, when ancient tribes piled fresh water shells, sand, bone, and pot shards to create midden mounds, and when Clay Springs and other early settlements helped draw river traffic and railroads hauled out its forest products. Its cooling springs have provided recreation for generation after generation.

The Tuolumne River begins up in the Sierra Nevada and flows through Mariposa County, Tuolumne County, and, finally, Stanislaus County. From its origins to the endpoint flowing into the San Joaquin River, it provides life and an economic source for this entire region. Once a major shipping route, it now provides irrigation water to one of the most agriculturally industrious regions in the world. The history of the Tuolumne River is the story of Stanislaus County and the surrounding areas.