Not Sale Prices

Delve into San Antonio’s wicked past, from the lawless lore of the Spanish settlement through the criminal misdeeds of the modern metropolis.

Residents of the Alamo City tolerated scores of cockfighting pits, gambling joints, opium dens, around-the-clock saloons and other places of ill-repute. Some disturbers of San Antonio’s peace, like Judge Roy Bean, left town to achieve greater notoriety elsewhere. Others, like the thief who stole the McFarlin diamond, seemed to vanish into thin air. But all of them left a page-turning story behind. Mike Cox catalogues San Antonio’s most infamous incidents and miscreants.

Join author and historian Terry Ruscin as he reveals Henderson County's forgotten yet colorful history complete with its own cast of characters and historic landmarks.

Who composed a blockbuster opera a few miles from downtown Hendersonville? Who were the record-setting McCrary twins, and why were they famous? These questions and many more are answered in this exciting volume of obscured history. From James Brown's 1950s performance on Hendersonville's Main Street to the rumors of illegal distilling in Cathead, these are the tales of surreptitious cascades, log homes and unattended cemeteries. Delve into the communities of Black Bottom, Delmont and Peacock Town. Discover what lurks within the derelict buildings of the county's backcountry roads.

The civil rights movement in South Carolina has an epic and tumultuous history, beginning with the very first statewide meeting of the NAACP in 1939.

With stories of sit-ins, movements and the integration of state universities, this is the first comprehensive history of South Carolina's civil rights struggles. And behind every achievement are the major legal rulings that protected them, interspersed with the familiar names of Thurgood Marshall, Matthew Perry, Ernest A. Finney and Judge Waties Waring. Join former South Carolina NAACP president and activist James L. Felder as he recounts the epic struggle African Americans have faced, from fighting for the right to vote to the desegregation of public spaces and all the efforts in between.

Anything but Boring

The town of Boring has seen more than its fair share of interesting events since its founding in 1903. From secretly hiring an up-and-coming boxer to fight the town bully to the time firecrackers were blamed for burning down half the town, memorable moments abound. Discover the story of the wild man who lived in the woods and the attempts of Prohibition-era moonshiners to evade the law. Uncover the true identity of the Wild West Gang, and the real story of a runaway train loaded with potatoes.

Join author Bruce Haney as he explores the peculiar side of this exciting town.

Settled in the 1640s and originally a part of Charlestown, Malden grew over two centuries into a thriving residential and manufacturing city.

Meet fiery revolutionary Peter Thacher and Malden industrialist and philanthropist Elisha Converse. Explore the details of the first bank robbery homicide in the United States. Learn about Malden's instructions for independence, which predated the Declaration of Independence. Delve into the suspicion and intrigue surrounding the infamous murder of Frank Converse. Author Frank Russell brings to life the first 250 years of Malden history.

Martha Cole Whaley recounts her 100 years of witnessing the evolution of Gatlinburg, TN.

Today, Gatlinburg is an idyllic mountain resort. But the Sugarlands Valley in the 1910s couldn't have been more different. Martha Cole Whaley began her life on the outskirts of the city and has witnessed firsthand the joy and struggle of more than one hundred years in the area. Her rich experiences include what it was like to eat onion tops for an after-school snack, bathe in a washtub behind the stove and see a zipper for the first time on the boots of the mailman. Join author Marie Maddox as she captures an amazing century of Martha's life in Gatlinburg through stories, interviews and even a few of her favorite recipes from now and then.

Join author David Healey as he keeps an eye to the red horizon and chronicles the most remarkable storms to churn the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

Even before John Smith's crew weathered its first squall, the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries had been ravaged by every type of storm imaginable. A 1769 hurricane altered the course of history, demolishing the shipping channels of Charlestown and making Baltimore the dominant port. A once-in-five-hundred-years storm, Tropical Storm Agnes, left more than seventy people dead and devastated the ecology of the bay. Before the blizzards of 2009 and 2010, the snowfall record was held by the combination of the Great Eastern Blizzard of 1899, which blew the water out of the bay, and the Great White Hurricane, which stranded the oyster fleet of Baltimore in feet of ice.

Roanoke, VIrginia is a town with a hidden haunted history and many unique and chilling tales are revealed here.

Roanoke, in the heart of southwestern Virginia, is one of the most haunted cities in the commonwealth. The Star City is brimming with eerie and unexplainable stories, such as the legendary Woman in Black, who appeared several times in 1902 but only to married men on their way home at night. There are also macabre stories in many of Roanoke's famous landmarks, such as the majestic Grandin Theatre, where a homeless family is said to have lived and the cries of their deceased children can still be heard. Travel beyond the realm of reality with author L.B. Taylor Jr. as he traces the history of Roanoke's most unique and chilling tales.

Chronicling Indians and aviators, stock cars and sand traps, Florida's First Coast is a delightful collection of vintage images and local lore, sure to enchant newcomers and residents alike.

p>A well-loved local, retired U. S. Navy Captain Jack Pate decided to tell others the story of the First Coast Beaches after falling in love with the area himself. Using the extensive collections of the Beaches Area Historical Society, Captain Jack introduces the history of the people who settled the Beaches area and their love-hate relationship with the two bodies of water that define it: the St. Johns River and the Atlantic Ocean.

This book sheds new light on John Sevier, founding father of the state of Tennessee.

A celebrated soldier, admired politician and founding father of the state of Tennessee, John Sevier led an adventurous life. He commanded a frontier militia into battle against British Loyalists at Kings Mountain. He waged a relentless war against the Cherokees in his effort to claim America's first frontier. He forged the state of Franklin from the western lands of North Carolina and later became Tennessee's first governor. Following his death, Sevier's accomplishments faded from public memory, but years later, writers resurrected his image through romanticized accounts of his exploits, relying heavily on folk tales and recollections from aging pioneers. Thus, life and legend intertwined. Join authors Gordon T. Belt and Traci Nichols-Belt as they examine John Sevier's extraordinary life through the lens of history and memory, shedding new light on this remarkable Tennessee figure.

This first comprehensive history of the Jews of Florida from colonial times to the present is a sweeping tapestry of voices.

Despite not being officially allowed to live in Florida until 1763, Jewish immigrants escaping expulsions and exclusions were among the earliest settlers. They have been integral to every facet of Florida's growth, from tilling the land and developing early communities to boosting tourism and ultimately pushing mankind into space. The Sunshine State's Jews, working for the common good, have been Olympians, Nobel Prize winners, computer pioneers, educators, politicians, leaders in business and the arts and more, while maintaining their heritage to help ensure Jewish continuity for future generations. This rich narrative - accompanied by 700 images, most rarely seen - is the result of three-plus decades of grassroots research by author Marcia Jo Zerivitz, giving readers an incomparable look at the long and crucial history of Jews in Florida.

Intentionally built on the fall line where the Piedmont uplands meet the Tidewater region, Richmond has always been a city defined by the land.

From the time settlers built a city on rugged terrain overlooking the James River, the people have changed the land and been changed by it. Few know this better than T. Tyler Potterfield, a planner with the City of Richmond Department of Community Development. Whether considering the many roles of the romantic, wild and beautiful James River through the centuries, describing the rationale for the location of the Virginia State Capitol on Shockoe Hill or relating the struggle to reclaim green space as industrialization and urban growth threatened to remove nature from the city, Potterfield weaves a tale as ordered as the gridded streets of Richmond and just as rich in history.

Join author Richard Gazarik as he reveals the wicked history of the Steel City.

Muckraking journalist Walter Liggett dubbed Pittsburgh the Metropolis of Corruption in 1930 when he reported the city had more vice per square foot than New York, Detroit, Cleveland or Boston. Decades earlier, the Magee-Flinn political machine ruled public officials, and crooked police helped racketeers protect brothels and gambling dens. Mayor (later Governor) David Lawrence was indicted several times for graft but acquitted each time. Even Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr. colluded with gangsters, according to FBI reports.

See the Conch Republic through Hemingway’s eyes.

For a dozen years, perhaps the prime of his writing life, Ernest Hemingway resided in Key West, producing a consistent stream of important work that elevated his literary fame and cleared a path for the arrival and refinement of the Hemingway Myth. Travel in his footsteps and bask in the island magnetism that fueled the author while he wrote classics such as Death in the Afternoon and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Tour through more than seventy island locations that paint the perfect portrait of Papa’s consequential time on the island with author Mark Allen Baker as your guide. Step back in time to Hemingway’s Key West and stroll the town like an honorary member of the famed Hemingway Mob.

“An in-depth look at the 1971 trial of a serial killer who’s been mostly forgotten — except to those who were forever impacted.”-The Seattle Times

In 1969, the body of a young woman was discovered in the woods of Renton, rocking the communities along Puget Sound.Three more brutal murders followed, drawing the attention of multiple police agencies as they tried to piece together the meager clues left behind.The seemingly unrelated cases challenged detectives, who struggled to realize they were all connected to one man: Gary Gene Grant.Before the term “serial killer” was even coined, Grant stalked his prey, destroying lives and families while walking unseen among the masses.Decades later, his crimes have all but been forgotten.

Join author and homicide investigator Cloyd Steiger as he uncovers the story of the murderer who slipped through the cracks of history.

The Old Pueblo's history is full of colorful characters and fascinating folktales!.

Tucson was originally settled in 1775, and the Gadsden Purchase brought the tiny settlement on the Santa Cruz River into the United States in 1854. In the decades leading up to Arizona's statehood in 1912, the territory's largest city was rife with excitement. A seven-headed, four-hundred-foot-long sea serpent prophesied to the townsfolk. Lady bicyclists caused an uproar with their "divided skirts.'? The new railroad brought three presidents to town. From the city's brief time in the Confederacy to its crusades against drinking and gambling, from bullfighting rings to sanitariums, author Dave Devine relates stories of the little-known, sometimes lighthearted and often unusual events and personalities of Tucson.

Nestled in the heart of North Carolina's share of the Smoky Mountains, Asheville is one of the South's most haunted cities.

The picturesque landscape of this charming mountain destination belies what is in truth a violent, ghoulish past. Asheville has seen its share of horror, ranging from the suicide of the city's financial manager during the throws of the Depression, to hosting a tuberculosis sanitarium, to a night of murderous rampage in 1902. With wit and style, authors Ken Traylor and Delas House use their years of experience as the owners and lead guides for the ‘Haunted Ghost Tour of Asheville to steer readers on a journey through the city's eeriest sites, from Riverside Cemetery to the Battery Park Hotel. Drawing on an unmatched repertoire of spectral lore, Traylor and House present a variety of ghastly accounts that are both thrilling and chilling. Traylor's personal experience as a guide and interpreter of local ghostlore adds a unique twist to this collection of macabre stories. Through years of research, he has amassed an intriguing collection of the area's haunted tales, and with Asheville Ghosts and Legends he seeks to share the gruesome details of Asheville's wicked past.

The first orange groves, planted in St. Augustine in the 1500s by Ponce de León, were the precursor to what would become an integral part of Florida’s identity.

Orange groves slowly spread across the state, inspiring horticultural and manufacturing ingenuity. Discover the story behind Deland’s eccentric “citrus wizard” Lue Gim Gong, the rise and fall of smuggler Jesse Fish and the silver-tongued politician William J. Howey, who made his fortune selling plots of groveland through the 1920s. Celebrate the heyday of orange tourism and the farmers who weathered freezes, floods and citrus greening. Join author Erin Thursby as she explores the history of the Sunshine State’s most famous crop.

Miami's architecture is world renowned, but many historic treasures have been forgotten to time.

A Cold War missile base lies covered in graffiti. The Richmond Naval Air Station: a former blimp base, destroyed by hurricane in 1945. Homestead's old Aerojet complex: originally used in the testing and construction of experimental rockets, slowly demolished as part of a project to revitalize the Everglades. The Miami Marine Stadium: declared unsafe after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and stands abandoned today. Author David Bulit, creator of the blog Abandoned Florida, revives the history and secrets of the Magic City's vanishing gems.

Dust for Blood

During World War II, a group of potato farmers opened the first migrant labor camp in Suffolk County to house farmworkers from Jamaica. Over the next twenty years, more than one hundred camps of various sizes would be built throughout the region. Thousands of migrant workers lured by promises of good wages and decent housing flocked to Eastern Long Island, where they were often cheated out of pay and housed in deadly slum-like conditions. Preyed on by corrupt camp operators and entrapped in a feudal system that left them mired in debt, laborers struggled and, in some cases, perished in the shadow of New York’s affluence. Author Mark A. Torres reveals the dreadful history of Long Island’s migrant labor camps from their inception to their peak in 1960 and their steady decline in the following decades.

Winner of the Joseph F. Meany Award by the Association of Public Historians of New York State.

“San Francisco is forty-nine square miles surrounded by reality.” -Paul Kantner, founder of San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane.

Surging from hamlet to boomtown overnight, San Francisco is the most meteoric “instant city” in history. Over the decades, residents have offered unique perspectives through journals, letters, and newspapers, their words bringing another time to life. Discover San Francisco through the eyes of miners and “ladies of the night.” Relive the experiences of robber barons and beatniks who flourished in this tiny corner of the world with fewer than one million souls. From the Gold Rush to the Tech Rush, the city by the bay been the site of daring innovations, counterculture upheavals, and social rebellions that shaped generations.

With commentary, background and extraordinary images, historians Terry Hamburg and Richard Hansen guide you through these colorful quotes, showing San Francisco as it once was, and what it aspired to be.

Florida cuisine: twelve thousand years in the making, discover the the state's unusual and distinctive food influences and dishes.

From the very first prickly pears harvested by Paleo-Indians more than twelve thousand years ago to the Seminole tribe's staple dish of sofkee, Florida's culinary history is as diverse as its geography. Influences as diverse as French, Creole, Spanish, Cuban, Greek, Mexican, Caribbean, and more season Florida's eclectic flavors. Learn how Florida orange juice changed the look of the American breakfast table and discover the state's festival-worthy swamp cabbage. Through syllabubs, perloos, frog legs and Tupelo honey, author Joy Sheffield Harris serves up a delectable helping of five hundred years of Florida cuisine--all with a side of key lime pie, of course.

“Offers a glimpse into Salem’s complex, haunted history—murders, hangings, corruption—and provides a handful of ghostly tales.” —Statesman Journal

Salem’s haunted tales date back to the 1830s, when indigenous tribes, trappers and homesteaders shared the lush Willamette Valley. Murders, hangings and dark underground passageways defined the city’s early days as the Willamette River moved old stern-wheelers up to the city’s docks.

Today, the sounds of those phantom vessels can be heard plying along the river late at night. Oregon’s capital city has long been the site of mental hospitals, prisons and other notorious institutions, famously depicted in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The residual effects of decades of torture and depravity cling to the old facilities in both sight and sound.

Author Tim King examines many of these chilling encounters along with eyewitness accounts of spirits that refuse to be quiet.

Thousands of young men embarked on the adventure of a lifetime when they joined the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

Service at Wisconsin's popular state park offered notoriety absent at most camp assignments. While most of the CCC work around the country was in remote forests and farmlands, at Devil's Lake tourists could view CCC project activity each day, forging that labor into an essential part of the park experience. Historian Robert J. Moore interviews veterans and mines the archives to preserve this legacy so that the gasps of wonder at nature's marvels remain mixed with respect for the men who helped bring them forth.

Explore America's Dairyland and the American Spirit

At the dawn of World War II, Wisconsin was home to nearly 200,000 dairy farms. Today, barely 6,000 remain. The ghosts of the missing can still be seen in withering old farms along lonely highways, some restored, many abandoned or decayed, but all with a story to tell. Immigrants dreamed of owning their own farms, only to be fleeced by the promotion of "cutover'? lands in the Northwoods. Freedmen and women arrived in southwestern Wisconsin and became farmers and renowned barn-builders in one of the earliest integrated communities in the nation.

Through hundreds of hours of site visits, interviews, and research, historian and photographer, Scott Wittman extracts the forgotten truths from legend to tell the real stories of those who created The Dairy State.

Haunted Mobile is a chilling collection of ghostly tales from this Alabama city.

What unknown spirits lurk among the living in the Azalea City? Mobile native Elizabeth Parker brings together the spookiest of her Mobile Ghosts: Alabama's Haunted Port City and Mobile Ghosts II: The Waterline to create an updated version guaranteed to send shivers down the spine. How do priceless heirlooms at the Mobile Carnival Museum mysteriously disappear and then reappear just in the nick of time? Who still protects Oakleigh from intruders, years after the Yankee occupation? Who is the little girl who keeps watch over the city from her attic window? Complete with an eerie new story, Haunted Mobile: Apparitions of the Azalea City is a chilling read that no ghost enthusiast should miss.

Explore the grizzly tale of Charleston's most infamous serial killers from the beginning of their reign of horror till their eventual incarceration and execution.

In 1819, a young man outwitted death at the hands of John and Lavinia Fisher and sparked the hunt for Charleston's most notorious serial killers. Former homicide investigator Bruce Orr follows the story of the Fishers, from the initial police raid on their Six Mile Inn with its reportedly grisly cellar to the murderous couple's incarceration and execution at the squalid Old City Jail. Yet there still may be more sinister deeds left unpunished, an overzealous sheriff, corrupt officials and documents only recently discovered all suggest that there is more to the tale. Orr uncovers the mysteries and debunks the myths behind the infamous legend of the nation's first convicted female serial killer.

Trace the rustic roots and regal rafters of Preston Hollow’s past for a fascinating profile of this distinctive Dallas neighborhood.

It takes only a brief drive past the stately homes that line Preston Hollow’s winding tree-lined streets to understand the neighborhood’s appeal. Glimpse the rich farmland that stunned Ira DeLoache on his fortuitous 1922 flight over the countryside. Revisit the early days of the pre-annexation town, when citizens relied on septic tanks and a volunteer fire department. Stop by institutions like Lobello’s Bar-B-Que or the Northwest Hi-Way Drive-In Theatre and attend Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church’s first service. From the architectural legacy of Charles Dilbeck to the destructive path left by the 2019 tornado, author Jack Walker Drake relates the heritage of a premier Dallas neighborhood.

Even in a city as conscious of history as Charleston, not everything has survived. Natural disasters, wars and other calamities claimed many treasures.

Only a few preserved bits of one of the city’s grandest mansions survive at Dock Street Theatre. An old Quaker graveyard still rests in peace but does so under a downtown parking garage. The famous corner of Meeting and Broad Streets was once the area’s busiest marketplace. The Grace Memorial Bridge spanned the Cooper River for more than seventy years. Author J. Grahame Long details the history of these and more lost locations in the Holy City.

Lovers of theater in Cleveland and beyond are sure to enjoy this story of grand ambition and determined perseverance

Cleveland was one of the largest cities in America when Playhouse Square opened as a testament to the city's splendor. In 1921, Loew's State, Loew's Ohio, the Hanna Theatre and the Allen opened their doors, and Keith's Palace Theater, then the world's finest theater, greeted patrons in 1922. For fifty years these theaters prospered before falling on hard times. Three even faced demolition. But through visionary planning, hard work and civic pride these magnificent show palaces survived and thrive today, and Playhouse Square Center is once again the largest theater center outside of New York's Lincoln Center.

Playhouse Square volunteer Redcoat and tour guide Michael R. Routa celebrates the people who made and saved theater in Cleveland.

Reminisce with author Bruce Allen Kopytek about a time when these three great department stores dominated Toledo's retail scene and offered their customers anything they could want.

Remember the days when shopping meant white gloves, suits for men and leisurely lunches in tearooms? Toledo, an industrial powerhouse and Ohio's third-largest city, once had it all, and Lamson's, the Lion Store and Lasalle's were where it all happened.  Revisit their downtown competitors like Tiedtke's, B.R. Baker, Milner's and Stein's, which also added their own touch to Toledo's life. Through written history, photographs and personal recollections a lost era comes to light--an era when business was personal and local and shopping was more of a cherished event rather than a chore.

Eerie Erie explores the dark and bizarre corners of this county's creepy history, from vampire crypts to phantom ships.

A tall creature that howls on the devil's backbone near Harbor Creek Township, phantom ships that erupt into flames and melt into darkness, UFOs on Presque Isle—these are some of the strange tales from the lakeshores and shadowy woods of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Local paranormal expert and author Reverend Robin S. Swope explores the dark and bizarre corners of the county's history, from the forgotten 1812 dead of the brig Niagara and the mysterious earthen mounds that dot the landscape to the legend of the ravenous Storm Hag and the rumored vampire's crypt in Erie Cemetery. Join Swope as he searches for answers in the lost pages of Erie County history and lore.