Travel

The largest freshwater system on Earth, like you’ve never seen it before. 

The Great Lakes region is home to one-tenth of the United States’ population, and one-quarter of Canada’s. Even if we remember the mnemonic HOMES, we might forget what a natural wonder they are. Cartographer Alex B. Hill, author of Detroit in 50 Maps, shifts our perspectives and offers a fresh look at the five lakes and the vibrant region surrounding them. Split into four categories—history & culture, ecology, infrastructure, and physical—these fifty-plus maps show the lakes’ influence and confluences, from the Underground Railroad to monarch butterfly migration. See how many NFL teams play on a Great Lake, where mysterious shipwrecks and Bigfoot sightings cluster, the lakes' effect on snowfall, and even how “not so Great” lakes have vied for (and in one case, temporarily won) a coveted Great designation. Shrinking wetlands, oil spills, and rising temperatures due to climate change reflect both the fragility of the lakes and the vital role they play. 

Great Lakes in 50 Maps is perfect for anyone who appreciates the history, nature, and future of the world’s greatest group of lakes.

There are as many versions of Greater Cincinnati as there are residents of the region. That’s roughly two million different perceptions of the city.

In Cincinnati in 50 Maps, editor Nick Swartsell and cartographer Andy Woodruff present over fifty ways of looking at the Queen City, from its early roadways and Indigenous earthworks to its shifting neighborhood borders. A visualization of relative population density can tell one story, and one showing where jobs are clustered tells another. New maps with up-to-date data sit beside historical maps that show things like exactly how communities were razed to make room for highways. Broken up into five sections—Mapping the Past, the Shape of Cincinnati, Communities and Culture, Getting Around, and Health and Environment—these visual representations show both the commonalities and the contradictions of an ever-changing American city.

These maps present reported statistics in new ways, and they represent the things that make Cincinnati the unique place that residents know and love: Find every place you can get Cincinnati chili, the location of every public stairway, and where the infamous Cincy traffic is worst.

Anyone who calls or ever called Cincinnati home will find something familiar, something surprising, and something revealing in this glossy, full-color volume.

Pittsburgh in 50 Maps offers unique new views of a city at a crossroads—culturally, economically, and demographically.

There are countless ways to map a city. Roads, bridges, and waterways help you navigate the twists and turns; topography gives you the lay of the land; population trends show you a region’s changing fortunes. But the best maps let you feel what a city’s really like. Whether you call it the Steel City, the City of Bridges, City of Champions, Hell with the Lid Off, or even the Paris of Appalachia, Pittsburgh’s distinctive character is undeniable. Pittsburgh in 50 Maps considers the boundaries of the city’s 90 distinct neighborhoods (plus Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood), the legacy of the steel industry, and how immigration continues to shape the city. You’ll also find the areas with the highest concentrations of bike lanes, supermarkets, tree cover, and fiberglass dinosaurs. Each colorful map offers a new perspective on one of America’s most consistently surprising cities and the people who live here.

Sure to be a conversation starter for Pittsburgh locals, transplants, and expats, Pittsburgh in 50 Maps is for anyone keen to understand the city in new and unexpected ways.

Detroit in 50 Maps shows you the Motor City from entirely new perspectives, from neighborhood coffee shops to the legacy of redlining.

There are thousands of ways to map a city. Roads, bridges, and railways help you navigate the twists and turns; topography gives you the lay of the land; population growth shows you its changing fortunes. But the best maps let you feel what that city's really like. Detroit in 50 Maps deconstructs the Motor City in surprising new ways. Track where new coffee shops and coworking spaces have opened and closed in the last five years. Find the areas with the highest concentrations of pizzerias, Coney Island hot dog shops, or ring-necked pheasants. In each colorful map, you'll find a new perspective on one of America's most misunderstood cities and the people who live here.

A conversation starter for Detroiters past, present, and future, Detroit in 50 Maps is for anyone keen to understand the city in new and surprising ways.

This full-color book of maps, one of Belt Publishing’s 50 Maps Series, presents the capital and biggest city in Ohio like you’ve never seen it before. 

Columbus is a place perpetually in search of an identity. Once called a “cow town,” it is now a sprawling metropolitan area and home to the behemoth Ohio State University. How can one best represent the city, in all its complications and contradictions? 

One way is through maps, as editor Brent Warren and cartographer Vicky Johnson-Dahl explore here. These fifty-plus maps show things that are inherently Columbus, from ComFest to the present and former locations of the city’s iconic arches. But you will also find maps that offer surprising ways of looking at the city, whether charting immigrant populations, LGBTQ+ landmarks, or mass transit that was never actually built. Divided into four sections—Situating the City, Getting to Know the City, Getting Around, and People and Places—Columbus in 50 Maps will excite current, former, and future Columbusites as well as people with an interest in the region or creative urban cartography.

An urban atlas that is about so much more than directions, Cleveland in 50 Maps offers new perspectives on one of America's most misunderstood cities.

The best maps let you feel what a place is really like, and Cleveland in 50 Maps deconstructs the Forest City in a way that's never been done before. With colorful maps and insightful commentary, follow the changing locations of breweries, music venues, and commuter rail lines. Track the Cleveland Clinic's growing east side footprint, year-by-year attendance at the Jake, and the addition of communities to the Cultural Gardens. Find out which local high schools produce the most NFL players and which locations major presidential candidates visited in 2016. Discover the massive salt mine under Lake Erie and the barricades on the border of Shaker Heights. In each one of these artful gems, you'll gain a deeper understanding of how people actually experience the city of Cleveland and how its diverse communities actually take shape there.

A beautiful insider's look that's perfect for native Clevelanders or urban explorers who are looking to get to know their city even better.

The third entry in Belt's urban cartography series, Buffalo in 50 Maps offers a truly unique view of the City of Good Neighbors, from the East Side to Millionaires' Row to Cazenovia Park.

The best maps give you a feeling for what a place is really like, and Buffalo in 50 Maps offers a brand-new look at both the past and present of the Queen City of the Great Lakes. Through its colorful maps and insightful commentary, you'll discover the history of the city's changing boundaries, its numerous breweries, and its most popular bus routes. Learn how long it takes to get to a Bills game on Sunday, why the city smells like Cheerios, or where the city's immigrants have recently opened businesses. You'll also discover the city's food deserts, how the layout of its streets led to intense segregation, and how its vacant lots reveal where reinvestment and development have actually taken place.

It's a beautiful and nuanced look that's perfect for Buffalo natives but also for those who just want to get to know the city a little bit better.

See Boston from a new point of view in over fifty crisp, full-color maps.

Covering four distinct categories (“The Making of Boston,” “The Lay of the Land,” “Getting Around,” and “People and Culture” ), Andy Woodruff’s newly created, original maps investigate all facets of Boston’s past and present. In unraveling the many complex layers that comprise the “real” Boston, some explorations are expected: sports championships, universities, and pothole complaints. Others, such as the former cow paths that predated downtown streets, are decidedly more hidden.

Dig into the city’s history with a guided tour through Revolutionary War sites, landmarks of nineteenth-century Black Boston, and notable “first in the nation” events (like the first recorded UFO sighting). Uncover the structural forces that shaped the social and lived experience of Boston, with maps showing the impact of redlining, urban renewal practices, and the busing crisis of the 1970s. Discover how the city’s boundaries evolved through annexation and landfill and how they’ll continue to change due to coastal flooding risks. Explore some of Boston’s most unique quirks through surprising revelations about the density of Dunkin’ locations, the distinctive architecture of three-deckers, and the spread of the infamous Great Molasses Flood.

Entertaining and informative in equal parts, Boston in 50 Maps brings The Hub’s history, urban plans, and lore to life. A perfect welcome gift for a new Bostonian, or a fresh perspective on the city for a lifelong resident.

Come along for a haunted treck through New Orleans, where evil ghosts horrify, and good ghosts inspire. New Orleans thrums with ghosts, some so strong they terrify holy Voodoo priests. This guide, for the truly intrepid, leads you to ancient ghosts who patrol the French Quarter. Reveals the spirits who dine at Antoine’s and Commander’s Palace. Introduces you to the eternal residents of the Hotel Monteleone. Lures you under the shade of giant oaks to the undead duelling nearby. Teases you with mirages of vampires climbing from flooded caskets in Lafayette Cemetery. Fuels you with the power of Voodoo to call on your departed ancestors. Warns you to sneak past ruptured tombs and wicked mansions like Madame LaLaurie’s, where tortured spirits wail. 

Your Guide to American Revolutionary History in Today's Vibrant Boston

From its founding in 1630, "The City on the Hill" has been home to those who seek freedom. Without the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, there would have been no American Revolution.

Sam Adams, John Hancock, and John Adams put Boston in the forefront on the path to Independence and the creation of the United States. Later reformers and trailblazers include Dorothea Dix, who advocated on behalf of the mentally ill, and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted who created the city’s “Emerald Necklace” of parks.

From the Old North Church to the Freedom Trail and the Irish Famine Memorial, follow historian Alison Fortier as she reveals how the history of this city tells the story of our country.

Every history of the Appalachian Trail tells the story from the top down, focusing on who proposed the trail, who built it, who maintain it, and on a few of the most famous hikers. A Hiker’s History of Appalachian Trail tells the trail’s history from the ground up, or more accurately, from the boots up.

Several million hikers each year set foot on the trail for a few hours, a few days, or perhaps a few weeks. The trail was created for them, yet their role in its history is largely ignored. Working with trail shelter logbooks, hiker accounts submitted to trail clubs, newspaper and magazine stories about the experiences of casual hikers, Mills Kelly reveals what it was like to hike the trail from the late 1920s until the 2020s.

What did those hikers eat? What kind of gear did they carry? Why did they go hiking in the first place? What was their relationship to the natural world they found along the trail? What was it like to hike as a woman, as a person of color, as someone with a disability? And how did all those things change over the 100 years of the trail’s history?

From shrimp to shark, this guide to the savory seafood of the northern Gulf will help you enjoy the catch of the day, whatever it may be. More than just a collection of recipes, this book provides directions for selecting, preparing, cleaning, and cooking edible species of fish and shellfish found within the northern Gulf waters. Ranging from quick and easy favorites to gourmet preparations, these recipes, paired with beautiful photographs of plated dishes, are sure to please even the most seasoned fisherman or novice cook.

He Put It on the Map

Long before the Outer Banks became a premier vacation destination lined with rental palaces, boutique hotels and upscale eateries, it was something entirely different—wild, remote, windswept, and largely unknown. Picture miles of open dunes, a few hardy family-run motels, and barely a phone in sight beyond the payphones outside small stores. A few thousand visitors came each year. Most of America had barely heard of the place.

So how did the Banks transform from an isolated stretch of sand into a world-class getaway that now welcomes more than five million visitors annually? The answer begins with one remarkable, nearly forgotten man.

Aycock Brown—slight in build, enormous in heart—was the visionary who almost singlehandedly introduced the Outer Banks to the world. From his wartime work during the World War II U-boat attacks just offshore to the vivid images he captured through the 1980s, Brown shaped the national imagination of what the Banks could be. His photographs didn’t just document the region—they sold its magic.

Veteran Outer Banks authors Nancy Beach Gray and John Railey bring Brown’s story to life using intimate interviews with those who knew him, his personal papers, and—most importantly—his vast archive of thousands of photographs. Their work offers the first in-depth portrait of the man who turned a remote coastal frontier into an iconic American destination.

Explore Minneapolis and St. Paul in a brand new way through a full-color book of maps.

New, colorful, innovative maps show everything from the original Dakota place names in the region to the bedrock geology below our feet; the smellscape of the Minnesota State Fair to which buildings have claimed the most bird lives; how racial covenants shaped the cities to mapping the 2025 Operation Metro Surge, when ICE descended in force and the cities resisted. Perfect for newcomers and city experts alike. 

Jake Steinberg is a graphics reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune. He holds a BA in journalism from the University of Minnesota and an MS in cartography and GIS from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Originally from the east metro, Jake lived in and reported from Alaska, Arizona, Iowa, Wisconsin and New York before returning to Minnesota. His maps have appeared in the pages of The Wall Street Journal and have been featured in the Atlas of Design, the North American Cartographic Information Society’s premier showcase of exemplary mapmaking. Jake lives in the suburbs of Uptown Minneapolis with three bikes, a rotating cast of plants, and Juneau, an American dingo.

Join author Alison Fortier for a walk through our United States Capital and its iconic locations. 

This tour of the nation’s capital goes beyond the traditional guidebook to offer a historical journey through the federal district. Visit the White House, the only executive home in the world regularly open to the public. Travel to President Lincoln’s Cottage and see where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Look around lesser-known sites, such as the grave of Pierre L’Enfant, the city’s Botanical Gardens, the Old Post Office and a host of historical homes throughout the capital. From George Washington’s Mount Vernon to the Kennedy Center, trek through each era of Washington, D.C., for a tour of America’s most beloved sites. Join author and Washington insider Alison Fortier as she curates a revised and updated expedition to our shining city on a hill.