Author: Ms. R.

Every Wednesday for nearly 30 years, Jill Koch and her husband Jim go to Hell and back. By jet boat. The couple have weathered storms, swirling currents, and other perils to bring mail, year-round, to the residents of Hells Canyon National Recreation Area—a desolate expanse of the Snake River that traverses Eastern Oregon and Northern Idaho. It’s one of the most remote mail routes in the Lower 48, and has been in operation since 1919. Stretching for 125 miles……

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Around 1230, Duncan MacDougall, Lord of Argyll, established the Ardchattan Priory, the second of three Valliscaulian monasteries ever founded in Scotland. MacDougall established his priory shortly after King Alexander II established another near Elgin. Thus, MacDougall’s priory was likely a means to show loyalty to the king, as well as a way to ease his own path to heaven. The life of the monks who lived at Ardchattan Priory would have been an austere one of silence, focused solely on……

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IN June 1967, the future Queen Margrethe II of Denmark raised many eyebrows when she refused to accept a classic wedding cake from a local baker’s guild. The young princess and her fiancé instead ordered two overflødighedshorn, the cakes that she proclaimed to be “truly Danish.” Cornucopia-shaped cakes are baked the world over, usually around harvest-time. But the Danish cornucopia cake is more than an expensive celebratory cake; for many Danes, a major life event is incomplete without a……

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Over 5,000 years of human history have been preserved in the monuments surrounding Kilmartin village. The landscape around Kilmartin Glen is generously dotted with cairns, standing stones, carved rocks, stone circles, forts, castles, and a henge. This plethora of monuments means that Kilmartin Glen is considered to have one of the most important concentrations of Neolithic and Bronze Age remains in Scotland.  There are more than 800 ancient monuments within a six-mile radius of the current Kilmartin village, with……

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About two hours of driving away from General Santos is Isulan, a medium-sized town with a little downtown area equipped with a shopping mall and a few business establishments. It’s also home to a huge building you would expect to fit just right perhaps in Putrajaya, Malaysia, but it’s a surprising sight in this sleepy provincial town. This is the capitol building of the Province of Sultan Kudarat, located in the southwest of the island of Mindanao. The design for……

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Cradling his marble, Kenzie Adams knelt in the dirt yard and sized up the distance he needed to cover. For over sixteen hours in mid-September 2021, sixteen teams had battled in the 38th National Rolley Hole Marbles Championship in Overton County, Tennessee. The championship title now rested solely on the play at this last hole. It was past midnight; the day’s festival goers were long gone leaving a few devoted fans to watch under Standing Stone State Park’s wooden……

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Originally constructed in 1850 and rebuilt in 1889, the Contoocook Railroad covered bridge is the oldest surviving covered railroad bridge in the United States. The bridge, a double-web town lattice design, originally served the Concord and Claremont Railroad and later served the Boston and Maine when it was acquired in 1887. The bridge was washed off its abutments twice in its lifetime, first due to a flood in the Contoocook River in 1936 and then again by a hurricane……

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Construction on this castle began in 1389 and it is now one of the residences of the Thurn und Taxis noble family. It overlooks the Gulf of Trieste, and the tower maintains a 360-degree sweeping view of its surroundings. The plan is articulated and labyrinth-like. Visitors can enter from the main entrance, passing a terrace which, unless you look carefully, covers a narrow passage that runs down to the lower side facing the sea. The main building, the tower, the……

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The Louisiana Purchase was completed under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803, nearly doubling the size of the country. It wasn’t until 1815 however, that President James Monroe ordered that the territory be surveyed Two teams led by Prospect K. Robbins and Joseph C. Brown began surveying the north/south and the east/west lines. At the place where the lines intersected, they established the Fifth Principal Meridian, which served as a base for surveying the rest of the territory. The spot……

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On November 26, 1911, children ran rampant through Manhattan. Some wore garish masks modeled after George Washington, Uncle Sam, or various political figures; others smudged their cheeks and donned ragged clothes to look like hobos. “New York children have something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day,” wrote journalist Wilton Markham in The Free Lance. “On that day at least the children literally take possession of the streets.” Dressed in their shabbiest finery, these faux-beggars would go door to……

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Pune is host to a number of fascinating historical structures. On Jangli Maharaj Road which happens to be one of the busiest thoroughfares of the city, lies an oasis of tranquility and peace in the middle of the hustle and bustle. Pataleshwar Caves date back to the eighth century and are quite possibly one of the oldest structures in the city. They are also referred to as the Panchaleshwar Temple or the Bhamburde Pandav Cave Temple. The temple consists……

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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 collaborate with our friends at Science Diction, where we explore the Indian temple complex that gave rise to the word “juggernaut,” meaning an unstoppable force. But the real story behind it is far more complicated. 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……

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