Name: California Dreamin' Along Route 66
Brand: Joe Sonderman
SKU: 9781467103169
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

California Dreamin' Along Route 66

9781467103169

$24.99

The California Dream made Route 66 the most famous road in the world. Flappers dreamed of stardom under the bright lights of Hollywood. A wave of families fleeing the Dust Bowl transformed the state during the Great Depression. During World War II, another wave followed Route 66 seeking opportunity in the massive wartime industrial plants. Thousands of soldiers trained in the Mojave Desert and then returned amid the postwar prosperity to blossoming housing developments that replaced the vast orange groves. While Nat King Cole sang "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66," the newly prosperous middle class hit the road headed for the dream land constructed by Walt Disney. Inspired by the Beat poets, the hippies, and the adventures of Buz and Tod on the CBS television show Route 66, a new generation took to the open road. Those who savor the journey as much as the destination still seek it out on Route 66 today.

Oregon Coast Highway

9781467103374

$24.99

By the time the final links in the Oregon Coast Highway were made in 1936, the highway stretched 394 miles from Astoria to the border of California. It had taken 12 years to complete the construction over stretches of rugged headlands and thick forests. Early travel along the coast was difficult; what roads existed were generally unimproved and often completely impassable during the rainy winter months. In many cases, the beaches themselves served as the only means of transporting freight and passengers. When Maj. Henry Bowlby, the first Oregon State Highway engineer, outlined a proposed system of state highways in 1914, he presented the vision of a coastal highway to the Oregon State Highway Commission. The eventual construction of this highway opened access to the Willamette Valley and beyond for many formerly isolated coastal communities. It also signaled an economic shift that included the promotion of tourism and the accommodation of the flood of visitors anxious to take advantage of the spectacular vistas along the Oregon coast.

Abandoned Texas

9781634993685

$23.99

Texas has held a special allure for settlers since the earliest days of the nineteenth century. "You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas," said famed mountain man Davy Crockett after he lost an 1835 congressional election and joined the growing tide of pioneers heading west towards the Lone Star State. Millions have followed in his footsteps in the nearly 200 years since.

In Abandoned Texas: Under a Lone Star Moon, join photographer Mike Cooper as he travels thousands of miles on his late-night treks across Texas. From the ruins of a school in Terlingua to the burned-out remains of a hotel in Caterina to the crumbling, deserted hangars of Rattlesnake Bomber Base, Cooper illuminates a side of Texas you've likely never seen. These otherworldly images, shot on quiet back roads and in near-deserted oil fields under a simple full moon, take you back in time to the glorious Texas imagined by Crockett and the early settlers. These long-exposure photos of churches built by European immigrants, courthouses and schools constructed in boom towns, 1950s-era drive-ins created to entertain families, and roadside monuments meant to attract the curious will cause you to see Texas in a whole new light.

Road to Rainier Scenic Byway

9781467129282

$23.99

The Road to Rainier Scenic Byway has grown from a Native American forest trail, hundreds of years old, to a modern forest highway carrying 1.5 million travelers a year. In 1833, a European tourist first reached a glacier, and soon others followed, seeking the wonders of Mount Rainier. In 1903, the railroad reached Eatonville; and national park visitors, who started as a few thousand, became tens of thousands. With a market for timber, hundreds rushed to claim the lands. Forestry and tourism both thrived off the rich natural resources, and as the region developed, purely commercial ventures were supplemented with educational outreach. Charles L. Pack Experimental Forest, established in 1926, conducts scientific research into forest management and sustainability. Historical interpretation has become a function of the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad and Logging Museum. The Road to Rainier Scenic Byway continues to serve all as it heads to scenic Mount Rainier.

US Route 1

9781467127523

$24.99

America's Main Street, US Highway 1, Baltimore Avenue, Washington Boulevard--there are many names for the link between Baltimore City and Washington, DC. Connecting residential communities and commercial crossroads clustered along both sides of this historically important artery of transportation, this road has spanned three centuries of transportation, communication, and community development. From the earliest ships in Elkridge and Bladensburg to modern communities supporting the Washington/Baltimore region, Route 1 has been a vital part of this history.

Blue Ridge Parkway Through Time

9781635000672

$28.99

The story of the Blue Ridge Parkway--America's Favorite Drive--has been called awe-inspiring. Beginning with the inception of design work done during the early 1930s through its construction and final completion, the parkway--the longest road planned as a single unit in the United States and also an elongated park, protecting significant mountain landscapes far beyond the shoulders of the road itself--was completed with the contributions of many talented individuals. The National Park Service, which oversees it, informs that a Blue Ridge Parkway experience is unlike any other: a slow-paced and relaxing drive revealing stunning long-range vistas and close-up views of the rugged mountains and pastoral landscapes of the Appalachian Highlands. The parkway meanders for 469 miles, protecting a diversity of plants and animals, and providing opportunities for enjoying all that makes this region of the country so special.

White Sands National Monument

9781467130646

$24.99

The world's largest gypsum dune field, the 275-square-mile dunes of White Sands National Monument are a geologic oddity more than 250 million years in the making. Located in Southern New Mexico, the popularity of the monument draws nearly half a million visitors each year to the National Park Service's southwestern region. The area is protected from encroachment by the boundaries of the US Army's White Sands Missile Range and houses no less than 144 species of birds, 20 unique mammals, and 371 types of insects. The gypsum's beauty has been captured by photographers and filmmakers for more than a century. Both Hollywood and scientists alike have sought after the monument's stunning otherworldly visuals to mimic other countries and worlds. The deserts of Qatar were recreated for Transformers (2007), and the monument has been identified as a potential analog site for Mars.

Fort Payne

9781467113908

$24.99

Fort Payne was named for the US Army stockade at the Native American village of Willstown, where Cherokee scholar Sequoyah developed his famous alphabet in the 1820s. Following the Cherokee Removal of 1838, known as the Trail of Tears, a farming settlement developed around the stockade site, and the arrival of the Wills Valley Railroad in the 1850s helped shape its early growth. The small town became the county seat in 1878 and quickly boomed into a coal and iron industrial powerhouse filled with the municipal infrastructure, stately structures, and elegant residences that define the city today. By mid-century, Fort Payne was experiencing its second boom and was ultimately recognized as the "Sock Capital of the World."

Gadsby's Tavern

9781467123204

$24.99

Gadsby's Tavern was at the center of daily life in late-18th and early-19th-century Alexandria. Operated by John Gadsby from 1796 to 1808, the tavern served both local citizens and travelers on their way to the nation's new capital. Gadsby's was a venue for dancing assemblies, performances, and celebratory dinners. Among its most famous patrons were George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. By the early 20th century, the tavern buildings were in danger of being demolished. Saved from the wrecking ball in 1929 by American Legion Post 24, Gadsby's became the cornerstone of Alexandria's historic preservation movement. In 1972, the American Legion donated the site to the City of Alexandria. Following a full restoration, Gadsby's reopened as part of America's bicentennial celebration. Today, Gadsby's Tavern Museum is a dynamic historic house museum, interpreting history to more than 25,000 visitors a year.

Rock City

9781467126106

$24.99

Since May 21, 1932, tourists have been making the trip to the top of Lookout Mountain to stroll through what pioneers as far back as the 1820s called "the rock city." This collection of huge boulders in a wild array of shapes and sizes was developed as an attraction by Garnet Carter, the inventor of modern miniature golf, and his wife, Frieda, a devotee of European fairy tales. Rock City Gardens quickly became one of the most famous tourist attractions in the Southeast, especially after Carter started a program of painting advertisements on barn roofs. During the post-World War II baby-boom era, Rock City became even more of a destination with the additions of Fairyland Caverns and Mother Goose Village.

Abandoned Southern Virginia

9781634993678

$23.99

Have a glimpse of the ruined and the doomed. Visiting abandonments is seductive and boosts the adrenaline for the urban explorer. A new form of art emerges from the forces of nature once structures shutter. Mother Nature claims its prey and wraps an abandoned site with vines and commands the acceleration of rust. From the once-mighty regional industrial giant, Dan River Mills, to a haven secreting the amusement park cast-offs of twenty-foot-tall concrete busts of presidents, to St. Alban's Sanatorium perched on its mountaintop like a looming sentry, see the forgotten--often hiding in plain sight. Other forsaken Southern Virginia chapters include schools, churches, an isle merging Southern Virginia's earliest history with natural beauty, industrial cast-offs, vintage trucks, opulent manors, quaint general stores, old-time diners, and several homes. Even though these sites are shuttered, they are not forgotten with this photographic record for posterity. Embrace the essences of once loved and revered places before nature mandates its final claim or the wrecking ball forwards the last kiss.

Abandoned Eastern Kansas

9781634993661

$23.99

Beyond the wheat fields and off the beaten path, these abandoned and forgotten places lay in wait to tell their stories of a more productive and useful time. From small towns to ghost towns and all the places in between, the vastness of Eastern Kansas can be seen as a curse that will slowly drain a place dry or an untapped resource. Even though these locations are far from the ever-growing city's reach, they face the same fate when expansion is needed for improvements, or there isn't enough demand to continue daily operations. However these stories play out, all that is left is a reminder of what used to be: abandoned relics of lives, dreams, and businesses scattered across the open heartland of Eastern Kansas.

Along Illinois's Historic Highway 20

9781467129671

$23.99

Congress designated Highway 20 as a federal highway in 1926. The result of this was the evolution of Highway 20 as the most important road traversing northern Illinois. From Chicago to the Mississippi River, the road served both as farm-to-market route for local farmers and a vital link for interstate travelers. This book celebrates a journey across Illinois on historic Highway 20 as illustrated by more than 200 postcards showing the personality of the road, small towns, scenic vistas, and historic sites, as well as the tourist courts, hotels, diners, and roadside businesses that helped make automobile travel possible.

Ghosts of Leavenworth and the Cascade Foothills

9781625858542

$21.99

The spirits of the early pioneers still roam the streets of Leavenworth and lurk in the lengthening shadows of the surrounding hills. Chas Gordon's murder sits unsolved after a century of mystery, as does the location of the lost Ingalls gold. Muffled sobs mark out the Thorp Cemetery, while a ghostly hand coaxes a soft tune from the piano in the lobby of the Tumwater Inn. Saloon shootings and railroad tragedies left their own legacy of restless souls. Author Deborah Cuyle reveals the fascinating history behind the ghost stories from this corner of the Cascade Mountains.