Technology & Engineering

American Know How in the Heart of It All

Ohio was and remains tailor made for commerce, transportation, invention, and manufacturing. Located between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, it was perfect for canals, railways, and, ultimately, highways, which allowed coal, iron ore, and oil into industrial centers such as Cleveland, Dayton, Akron, Youngstown, and Cincinnati. These powerhouses fostered the ingenuity and practical inventiveness that made Ohio a mecca for manufacturing. Beyond heavy industry, the state also nurtured the growth of All-American goods and brands like Quaker Oats and Smucker’s jellies and jams, Diamond matches and Sherwin Williams paints, the Etch-A-Sketch and Play-Doh, and many, many more.

Author Conrade C. Hinds places a spotlight on dreamers and builders in the Buckeye State.

When asked about the greatest accomplishment of his 34-year congressional career, Mike Mansfield, one of America’s revered political figures, offered a simple reply— “Saving Flathead Lake.”

The largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River has centuries of oral and written history. Much like the towns dotting the shore, even the islands of Flathead Lake, such as Wild Horse Island and Melita Island, harbor rich histories. Expectedly, contentious battles over projects arose, including the construction of the Kerr Dam and “The Flathead Lake Fight of 1943.” From the sinking of the Big Fork to the still visible remains of the Helena, the lake has been site to numerous nautical disasters. And unexplained plane crashes, creatures and occurrences have confounded locals throughout the years. Author Butch Larcombe presents factual, well-researched stories that paint a picture of the lake’s colorful people, historic events and lingering mysteries. 

An amazing piece of Brainerd’s proud past

For over eighty years, the Northern Pacific Railroad Shops was the largest employer in the Brainerd area. After the Depression, the NP provided steady jobs for Brainerd railroad workers, whose paychecks contributed to the growth of Brainerd. The NP Shops built freight cars and conducted maintenance and disassembly of the NP’s rolling stock. The workforce of several trades called themselves “shop dogs.” Shop dogs built a workplace culture with its own jokes, stories, ethics, and nicknames – an unintended circumstance could result in a nickname, such as Scoop Swanson or the Soo Line Bull, that stuck to a shop dog for the rest of his life. After shop dogs retired and the NP shops closed, their nicknames and stories live on. Author Bob Roscoe gathers the stories from this vital piece of Brainerd history.

New York's unique and majestic canals stretch over 524 miles from Albany to Buffalo and between the southern tier counties of Tompkins  and Schuyler to the Quebec border.  

While much has been written on the nation building Erie Canal of the nineteenth century, much less has covered the third iteration of the waterway, the New York State Barge Canal. Deemed a historic corridor by the Federal Parks system in 2000, the Empire State's canal system has been in continuous operation since 1825, longer than any other man made transportation system in North America.  

Author Susan P. Gateley reveals the history, beauty and present day state of New York State's grand canal system.

Facing the fury and danger of Lake Michigan

Ever since French explorers first cast their eyes on Lake Michigan, this huge inland sea has been the scene of thousands of shipwreck rescues and tragedies. As mishaps and disasters proliferated, a dedicated service of lifesavers arose. Braving perilous conditions, these servicemen pulled those aboard the merchant schooner Havanna from certain death. The intrepid St Joseph Lifesavers saved the crew and passengers of the City of Duluth. Sadly, not all rescues ended in heroism, as was the case with the doomed Arab that went down along with two other ships.

Author Michael Passwater captures the stories of shipwrecks and the brave men and women that risked their lives against an angry Lake Michigan.

Stories of the people, the land and the water.

More than 160 years ago, the early settlers of La Cebolla Valley arrived and put down roots that would flourish into a lasting legacy. Freight wagons and travelers passed through the land, an integral piece of the Mora–Las Vegas Trail, bringing with them cultures and traditions that lived on in the people who stayed. Through perseverance and dedication, they built the Acequia de San José and the Acequia de La Isla, which have known nearly two centuries of use, and transformed a small natural pond into Morphy Lake.

With the help of the documents in the Agapito Abeyta Sr. Collection, a windfall discovered in a barn, historian Virginia Sánchez brings to light the cultural heritage of La Cebolla Valley’s inhabitants.

The Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner 2024

Corey Geiger, international agricultural journalist and author of On a Wisconsin Family Farm, pairs his rural roots and lively storytelling talents to capture six generations of life in America’s Dairyland.

After his mother Anna was killed by a train, Elmer Pritzl was thrown into adulthood at the tender age of sixteen. A clever and crafty fellow, Elmer quickly found work at the local foundry. Promoted to foreman by age eighteen, he began supervising men double and even triple his age during the depths of the Great Depression. However, that professional career track ended abruptly five years later when Elmer fell in love with a farmer’s daughter, Julia Burich. Six months after their wedding, Julia’s father passed away, and with no living male relatives left in her life, Julia’s mother, Anna Burich, asked, “Elmer, will you run my farm?” So, Elmer, born a city boy, transformed his life and began a love affair with a Wisconsin family farm.

Through original journal and newspaper accounts, J. Stuart Richards's Death in the Mines revisits Pennsylvania's most notorious mining accidents and rescue attempts from 1869 to 1943.

Since 1870, mining disasters have claimed the lives of over 30,000 men and boys who toiled underground in the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania. Sometimes they survived; many times they did not. The constant threat of fire, explosion, collapsed rock and deadly gas brought miners face to face with death on a daily basis. Through original journal and newspaper accounts, J. Stuart Richards's Death in the Mines revisits Pennsylvania's most notorious mining accidents and rescue attempts from 1869 to 1943. From the fire at Avondale Colliery that resulted in the first law for regulation and inspection of mines, to the gas explosion at Lytle Mine in Primrose that killed fourteen men, Richards reveals multiple facets of Pennsylvania's most perilous profession. Richards, whose family has worked in the mines since 1870, offers a startling yet sensitive tribute to an industry and occupation that is often overlooked and underappreciated

Decorated with a breathtaking landscape and a treasured collection of diversely styled bridges, the Merritt Parkway runs thirty-seven and a half miles through Fairfield County.

From its complicated beginnings to the present, authors Laurie Heiss and Jill Smyth navigate the hard-fought yet picturesque path of this beloved road. Meet the bridge artist, the landscapers, the politicians and the activists whose involvement in the Merritt transformed Fairfield County from farms and country estates to one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. With the dedication of preservationists and conservationists, the Merritt Parkway today remains both functional and beautiful, holding a unique place in the heart of Connecticut's drivers.

The Tombstone of Early Ohio  

Southeast Ohio’s Little Cities of Black Diamonds was a rugged region in the 1800s. Nowhere was this truer than in Corning and Rendville, mining towns reminiscent of the Wild West era. Gun duels, scandals, lynchings, and murders plagued these places, as intrepid European immigrants and tenacious Black miners relied on raw grit to survive rowdy saloons and perilous coal mines. These impoverished workers also took bold stands against affluent mine operators, leading to intense clashes with the Ohio National Guard./

Author and former Green Beret Jobie Siemer reveals stories of formidable union conflicts and the unyielding resilience of miners whose faith was a beacon in a chaotic struggle to restore order to Sunday Creek./

The Queen of New Jersey Lakes

Only 40 miles from Manhattan, Lake Hopatcong is the largest lake in the Garden State. An early colonial pioneer in damming, the lake was formed by the flooding of Great Pond, Little Pond and the Musconetcong River. It became a luxury destination for wealthy New Yorkers looking for a cool retreat as a cadre of celebrities frequented its glamorous hotels. Though the Golden Age of the lake's history has passed, it remains a vibrant source of revitalization, community and environmental enjoyment for the region today. Join author Peter Astras as he recounts the history of New Jersey's Lake Hopatcong.

With the opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1964, Staten Island was changed forever.

Sewers, schools, roadways, and even the politicians of New York City were not prepared for the onslaught of relocating Brooklyn residents who sought a rural lifestyle. Houses were bought as quickly as they were built. Schools were scrambling to find seats for thousands of newly arriving students. The antiquated sewer system of Staten Island could not handle the overload and there simply wasn't enough room for all of the septic tanks needed.

Who were the allies or adversaries of development? Who sought to make a meaningful plan for Staten Island's future?

Author Patricia Salmon examines the preparation, design, and opening of "The Bridge," as well as how it impacted the citizens of Staten Island during the next decade. 

Explore the history of our nation's capital through this history of its bridges.

In the late 1700s, the first bridges, now completely gone, connected the new Federal City to the outside world. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, more and bigger crossings arose to support industry, allow the expansion of suburbs, commemorate cultural and civic leaders, and enhance the aesthetics of the District’s waterfronts and parks. Although the city abandoned civic-minded, commemorative, and monumental constructions for utilitarian highway monoliths in the mid-twentieth century, a recent renaissance has seen a welcome shift to walkability and beauty instead of brute utility.

Using the city’s bridges as an index of the times, author and D.C. native Bob Dover tracks the growth, decay, and rebirth of the District from the 1750s to today.

Minnesota is often called the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but it could also be called the Land of 20,000 Bridges. /

During the early days of the state, the Mississippi River and its many tributaries barred and disrupted transportation and commerce. To span these obstacles, communities battled to build and maintain bridges. Their efforts created a variety of bridge designs and purposes—from small hiking and biking bridges to concrete beams across rural rivers. Across the area, one can behold wonders like the beautiful Stone Arch Bridge, the La Crescent Swing Bridge, the Point Douglas Drawbridge, the elegant Winona Main Channel Bridge as well as other massive structures crossing the Mississippi.

Studying and photographing these amazing structures, local author Steve Gardiner celebrates the innovation and determination of Southeast Minnesota./      

With fewer than a thousand remaining in the United States, the covered bridges of Alabama are an important relic of the paths our ancestors took.

Alabama's covered bridges are reminiscent of a more romantic time, when people rode in horse-drawn buggies and couples stole kisses beneath their roofs. But they are also keepers of history - structures built by former slaves and Civil War soldiers. Such places are steeped in legend, including tales of ghostly children and the hanging of a sheriff turned outlaw. Just eleven historic covered bridges survive in Alabama - the oldest dating to the 1850s - but dozens of more recently constructed spans dot the landscape. Wil Elrick and Kelly Kazek provide photos and detailed information on more than fifty Alabama bridges, reveal the fate of the state's lost bridges and delve into the haunting legends surrounding these nostalgic structures.

On Wednesday, November 5, 1930, Sunday Creek Coal Company Mine #6 at Millfield became the unenviable site of Ohio's worst coal mining disaster. Negligence caused an electrical spark to ignite accumulated methane and detonated untreated explosive dust. Within minutes 82 men were dead, 56 women became widows and 137 dependents found themselves fatherless. Approximately 120 men not in the direct line of blast and flame escaped. Miraculously, 19 others were found barely alive many hours after all were presumed dead. The tragedy could have been prevented if proper procedures had been followed and profit not put before worker safety. Author Ron Luce brings all of the facts together for the first time to tell the story of the Millfield Mine Disaster in full detail.

“You get off this property.”   - Capt. Ellen Jack, 1887

Ellen E. Jack backed up her orders with a shotgun as she stood at the entrance to her Black Queen Mine. To profit from the mine, located near Aspen, Colorado, she engaged in many other battles with lawyers and capitalists who tried to wrest her ore away. Mrs. Captain Jack contributed to the myth of the West by crowning herself as the “Mining Queen of the Rockies” as she entertained tourists at her roadhouse near Colorado Springs. Author Jane Bardal offers a captivating biography of a pioneering woman who fashioned a legacy through true tenacity and maybe even a few tall tales.

Navigate the treacherous waters of Lake Erie, Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay to discover the fates of  Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and his fleet.

Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's defeat of the British at the Battle of Lake Erie was a defining moment both in the War of 1812 and American naval history. Yet the story of Perry's fleet did not end there. Come aboard as author David Frew chronicles the years and decades after Perry's victory. Heroic acts and bitter defeats unfold as Frew details the lives of fleet surgeon Usher Parsons, shipwright Daniel Dobbins and fleet commander Oliver Hazard Perry and his successors. The adventure moves from the tribulations of Misery Bay and a crafty British victory in the Lake Huron Campaign to the closing of the naval base in Erie and the raising of the Niagara in the twentieth century. Navigate the treacherous waters of Lake Erie, Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay to discover the fates of Perry and his fleet.

Casting a legacy

Long before automobiles made Detroit the Motor City, the city boasted a flourishing and diverse industrial economy, albeit on a more modest scale. Among the myriad industries that defined the nineteenth-century city, none held greater significance or broader influence than stove fabrication. Three manufacturers—Detroit Stove Works, Michigan Stove Company and the Peninsular Stove Company—dominated this sector, collectively contributing more than 10 percent of all cast-iron stoves produced and distributed throughout North America. At the forefront of this triumph were Jeremiah and James Dwyer, whose vision and ingenuity played pivotal roles in shaping the industry’s success.

Historian Gerald Van Dusen explores the key role that this early industry played in laying the groundwork and facilitating the production of automobiles.

Throughout its history, Connecticut frequently led all states in the average number of   U. S. patents awarded per person.

Join local author Peter Hubbard as he reveals Connecticut’s role in the invention of the Hubble Space Telescope, vaccines, the Internet, and much more.

Before the Flood

The lost town of Sopris lies silently beneath the depths of Trinidad Lake. Once a thriving mining community in the late 1800s, it was renowned for abundant coal deposits and a bustling population. Three generations called Sopris home. They fought in the Civil War, homesteaded and immigrated to work in the mines. Unfortunately, the town's fate took a drastic turn with the construction of the Trinidad Dam, which flooded the area and submerged the town. Authors Genevieve Faoro-Johannsen and Robert Daniel Vigil, Jr. preserve an enduring legacy of community and resilience through first-hand accounts, historic photos and never-before-seen maps.

“Prince of the American Turf and Mining King of the World”—P.A. O’Farrell

With business savvy honed in the West’s rowdy mining camps, Marcus Daly rose from poor Irish immigrant to Gilded Age magnate. From the mines of Butte, Montana, to America’s largest smelter in a town he also named Anaconda, Daly’s Anaconda Copper Company made a fortune. He used it to build his dream—a Bitterroot Valley ranch and a horse racing empire that stretched from California to New York. Meanwhile, his gregarious and generous façade hid a sly manipulator, one locked in a battle for political dominance with rival copper king W.A. Clark.

With detailed research and more than one hundred photographs, historian Brenda Wahler peels back the layers of a complex industrialist, revealing his historic influence and legacy.

Told through the eyes of three Irish immigrant families who helped build it, discover the groundbreaking story of the  construction of the Blue Ridge Tunnel.

In one of the greatest engineering feats of his time, Claudius Crozet led the completion of Virginia's Blue Ridge Tunnel in 1858. Two centuries later, the National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark still proudly stands, but the stories and lives of those who built it are the true lasting triumph. Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Hunger poured into America resolute for something to call their own. They would persevere through life in overcrowded shanties and years of blasting through rock to see the tunnel to completion. Prolific author Mary E. Lyons follows three Irish families in their struggle to build Crozet's famed tunnel and their American dream.

Many Americans are familiar with Thomas Edison's invention factory in Menlo Park, where he patented the phonograph, the light bulb and more than one thousand other items. Yet many other ideas have grown in the Garden State, too.

New Jerseyans brought sound and music to movies and built the very first drive-in theater. In addition to the first cultivated blueberry, tasty treats like ice cream cones and M&Ms are also Jersey natives. Iconic aspects of American life, like the batting cage, catcher's mask and even professional baseball itself, started in New Jersey. Life would be a lot harder without the vacuum cleaner, plastic and Band-Aids, and many important advances in medicine and surgery were also developed here. Join author Linda Barth as she explores groundbreaking, useful, fun and even silly inventions and their New Jersey roots.

Guardian Dams. Today, most people remember Johnstown for a cataclysmic flood, but the city was also once known for steel.

From the early 1900s through much of the 1970s, millions of gallons of water per day were necessary to keep the city’s main industry alive. This is the story of the dams that didn’t fail, safely keeping the people of Johnstown and its steel industry prosperous for decades. It is also the story of transformation, for the dams built by an extinct steel company still stand and now safeguard areas of great natural resources and ecological importance in the highlands of Northern Appalachia. Surveying more than a century of wars, labor strife and economic catastrophe, author Joshua Penrod interweaves the story of these dams with the history of Johnstown itself.

Named for the famous Spanish explorer who was said to have discovered the Fountain of Youth, Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Avenue began as a simple country road that conveyed visitors to the famous healing springs.

Now, few motorists realize that the avenue, one of Atlanta's major commuter thoroughfares, was a prestigious residential street in Victorian Atlanta, home to mayors and millionaires. An economic turn in the twentieth century transformed the avenue into a crime-ridden commercial corridor, but in recent years, Atlantans have rediscovered the street's venerable architecture and storied history. Join local historian Sharon Foster Jones on a vivid tour of the avenue - from picnics by the springs in hoopskirts and Atlanta Crackers baseball to the Fox Theatre and the days when Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable and Al Capone lodged in the esteemed hotels lining this magnificent avenue.

Featured in films and on television and used as a backdrop to countless photos, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade offers the public a view that is usually reserved for the rich at the top of a tower.

From this one-third-mile stretch, locals and tourists take in the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and New York Harbor. But its history is less harmonious. Plans by the powerful Robert Moses to run the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway through a resistant neighborhood led to contention and an unforeseen eventual compromise. In this volume, Brooklyn Heights Press editor Henrik Krogius presents this history, along with his articles that document the fate of the Promenade over the years.

Inside the historic Cold War landmark at Vandenberg Space Force base—its technology, its people, and its military importance. Includes photos.

Situated in the sand dunes of California’s Central Coast, Space Launch Complex Ten, often called SLC-10 or “Slick Ten,” is a National Historic Landmark that commemorates a powerful Cold War legacy. Home to Vandenberg’s Space and Missile Technology Center, or SAMTEC, the facility contains the rich technological heritage of the U.S. Air Force’s space and missile launch systems.

As the only remaining Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile launch site in the world, SLC-10’s noteworthy achievements span the globe. The complex trained British Royal Air Force missileers for Project EMILY, assisted during nuclear atmospheric tests in the Pacific, and launched military weather satellites in support of the covert National Reconnaissance Program.

Former air force space and missile officer Joseph T. Page II recounts amazing stories of dedicated men and women who led the American military effort to explore space.

With this powerful, evocative new book, St. Petersburg residents Jon Wilson and Rosalie Peck present an informative narrative that explores the history of St. Petersburg, Florida's most vibrant African American neighborhood: 22nd Street South or the deuces.

Throughout the city's history, no other area has personified strength for the African American community like this segregation-era thoroughfare. A haven during the brutal Jim Crow years, 22nd Street South was a place where prominent businessmen and community leaders were the role models and residents and neighbors looked out for one another. The close-knit community encouraged strong, positive values even as its members were treated as second-class citizens in the wider world. Authors Wilson and Peck tell the story of this unique district and how its people and events contributed to and helped to shape the history of St. Petersburg in the context of the greater South and the Civil Rights Movement.

A detailed look at the state’s most terrifying and destructive disasters.

Home to hundreds of faults, California leads the nation in frequency of earthquakes every year. And despite enduring their share of the natural disasters, residents still speculate over the inevitable “big one.”

More than three thousand people lost their lives during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Long Beach’s 1933 earthquake caused nearly $50 million in damages. And the Northridge earthquake injured thousands and left a $550 million economic hit.

Historian Abraham Hoffman explores the personal accounts and aftermath of California’s most destructive tremors.

Newport is a premier destination, but getting to the city has not always been easy.

For three centuries, ferries crossed Narragansett Bay's East Passage. That all changed on June 28, 1969, the day the Newport Bridge opened, and it closed the last remaining gap between Aquidneck and Conanicut Islands. Proponents of the bridge persevered political squabbles and delays for twenty-five years following World War II to make it a reality. The longest suspension bridge in the region incorporated several new technologies and construction techniques and changed the face of Rhode Island. Author James Ricci details the trials and tribulations that produced an iconic bridge.

Join former forest manager Champ Zumbrun as he traverses hidden trails to tell the remarkable story of Green Ridge State Forest.

Green Ridge State Forest is a haven of calm and natural beauty among the Appalachians of western Maryland. This land was once the frontier of the nation, and trailblazers such as Thomas Cresap and George Washington were among the first Europeans to discover its wonders: the swift Potomac, the flowering dogwood and pine in the mountain reaches and the nighttime calls of the bobcat and the barred owl. The vision and stewardship of people like forester Fred W. Besley preserved the forest for future generations of hikers, explorers and families. Join former forest manager Champ Zumbrun as he traverses hidden trails to tell the remarkable story of Green Ridge State Forest.

Discover the story behind the potent partnership between High Point University and the furniture industry.

High Point University was founded in 1924 as a small liberal arts college. The High Point Furniture Market was founded in 1921 and has since grown to be the largest wholesale furniture market in the world. Over the last century industry and university have developed an ongoing, mutually beneficial partnership that has resulted in industry-specific programs being offered to students at the school. Discover the history of this relationship and the impact that real-world exposure has had on both the furniture business and the students. Read the stories of several High Point University graduates who are successfully employed in various positions throughout the industry.

High Point professor and furniture industry veteran Richard Bennington unearths the history of a dynamic partnership.

Aviation captivated young men before World War II, regardless of their skin color. But few Black enthusiasts had access, means or opportunity until the Civil Pilot Training program.

Lincoln University of Missouri and the old Jefferson Airfield offered the only program west of the Mississippi River exclusively for Black pilots. Fulfilling the dream of the school’s founders, many successful Lincolnites joined the Tuskegee Airmen, the first U.S. military aviation units. Wendell Pruitt’s aerial acrobatics were legendary, and Wilbur Long was one of twenty-two to survive Nazi POW camps. Clovis Bordeaux went on to be one of the first Black rocket scientists, and Charles Anderson became a pioneer in satellite meteorology. Michelle Brooks explores Lincoln’s men and moments in their pursuit of Double Victory.

Forging America’s Fuel

Henry Cottle registered the first mining claim in what would become northern Hot Springs County in the late 1880s. Henry Monro and Frank Porter’s Cedar Mountain “Cowboy Mine” followed in 1898. In 1906, Burlington Railroad built its southbound line from Billings, Montana to Frannie and Worland, Wyoming. The route was, in no small part, because of the quality and quantity of coal near Kirby. With a rail contract for a twenty-mile extension, Mormon pioneer Jesse W. Crosby, Jr. filed his mining claim in 1910. Naturally, more entrepreneurs followed, including Samuel Gebo. The coal camps of Gebo and Crosby were born, forming a significant coal district that nurtured a true melting pot of nationalities. Author Lea Cavalli Schoenewald recounts the area’s heyday and the lives that powered its development.

For more than 200 years, Great Lakes shipyards have bolstered America's and Canada’s commercial and naval power.

Vessels like the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Niagara, and Walk-in-the-Water are now the stuff of legend, but lesser-known ships also have their stories to tell. Cargo-carrying schooners, such as Moonlight and Minnedosa, got faster and bigger over the years, helping them hold their own against the emerging steamships, while the revolutionary design of the R.J. Hackett set the standard for lake freighters for years. Of course, the Great Lakes have often exacted a heavy toll, as demonstrated by the mysterious disappearance of the Griffon and the harrowing sinking of Pere Marquette 18.

Highlighting vessels from the colonial era down to modern times, historian Glenn A. Knoblock explores the maritime heritage of America and Canada.