Author: Ms. R.

The park contains the ruins of a former sugar plantation owned by David Levy Yulee. Yulee was a member of the Florida Territorial Legislative Council, as well as a slave owner in Homosassa, Florida. Over 1,000 enslaved laborers worked the 5,000 acres of farmland yielding cotton, citrus fruit, and sugar cane. The steam-driven mill operated from 1851 to 1864 and served as a supplier for Confederate troops during the Civil War. The mill was largely destroyed during the Civil War, but a……

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Everybody knows the famous walk of fame in Hollywood, California where accomplished celebrities immortalize their handprints on the boulevard. Similar places can be found all over the world, but the second-largest is located in the Netherlands. The walk of fame opened in May 1990 in the aptly named Sterrenboulevard (or Avenue of Stars), inaugurated by Johnny Grant, who was the mayor of Hollywood at the time.  The first person to immortalize themselves was Bep van Klaveren, an Olympic champion……

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This piece was originally published in Canada’s National Observer and appears here as part of our Climate Desk collaboration. This morning, my 79-year-old dad was out in the winter dark shoveling a path through a half-foot of fresh snow to ensure his hummingbird feeders were full of fresh, sugary liquid by dawn’s first light. And it wasn’t the first time. He’s one of a legion of residents across southwestern British Columbia and Vancouver Island on a crusade to ensure……

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The Carson Range, the shoulder of the Sierra Nevada just west of Reno, Nevada, has peaks over 10,000 feet and is mostly contained in the Mt. Rose Wilderness Area. It provides unexpected opportunities for outdoor recreation near the urban area, and one such is the Hunter Creek Trail to Hunter Creek Falls.   From the trailhead at the edge of a residential area, the trail initially follows an old Jeep road, entering the Mt. Rose Wilderness about a quarter-mile……

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Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit the everlasting lightning storm in northwestern Venezuela that appears in the night sky nearly every night. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear their stories. Join us daily,……

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In the summer, the surface of Lake Morey is dotted with boats carrying fishing equipment or water sports gear. In the fall, the forested hills surrounding the lake turn to brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red. In the winter, when the leaves have fallen off the trees and the surface of the lake has frozen, Lake Morey becomes the longest outdoor skate trail in the United States. Located in the town of Fairlee in central Vermont, Lake Morey……

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In the town of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, a richly-appointed gallery has a window to the Yosemite Valley—specifically, a spot near the mid-point of Yosemite Falls with a panoramic view of the surrounding landscape. Though you might feel like you could step straight through to the Sierra Nevadas, the landscape is actually a massive painting created by the German-American artist Albert Bierstadt. “The Domes of Yosemite” is the heart of a collection full of wondrous pieces at the St. Johnsbury……

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Across 85 acres, visitors to this prehistoric wonderland are treated to 480 million years of history. The park is home to the Chazy Fossil Reef and its residents are immortalized in stone. Open year-round and free to all, the Goodsell Ridge Fossil Preserve guides intrepid explorers along various trails and paths that detail the history of the Chazy Fossil Reef.  The reef itself underlines most of the bedrock throughout this region of Vermont. The fossilized remains of creatures such as gastropods……

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For Wilson Bentley’s 15th birthday, he received a gift that would change his perspective on the world: a microscope. Bentley grew up on his family farm in Jericho, Vermont, where snowfall can reach dozens of feet throughout the year. This is where Bentley fell in love with the art and science behind snowflakes. A self-taught meteorologist, Bentley later became the first person to create a successful picture of a snowflake in 1885, better known as a photomicrograph. He was……

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It’s pretty standard to find a dining room setup in a furniture store, but it’s not every day that you can actually sit down and have a meal there. And it’s even less often that the meal is something other than IKEA’s famous meatballs. But at Depot 62 in Manchester Center, Vermont, you can enjoy Turkish and Mediterranean food while sitting among handwoven rugs and designer couches. Alp Basdogan, the owner of Depot 62, is a designer and importer originally……

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On the afternoon of July 23, 2018, in the heart of Northern California’s Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, a vehicle towing a dual-axle trailer blew a tire. As the steel rim scraped the highway’s pavement, sparks flew into the dry grass lining the road and ignited what became the Carr Fire, the most destructive fire in National Park Service history. Over the next five weeks, the conflagration would tear through 97 percent of Whiskeytown’s 250,000 acres, incinerating almost everything in……

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