Author: Ms. R.

Many Hoosiers today might be surprised to learn that their state has been home to a clothing optional/nudist resort since the 1930s. Located about about an hour southeast of Chicago, the Sun Aura Resort boasts one of the largest and most unique sundial in the country: the Giant Lady’s Leg Sundial.  The resort, formerly known as Club Zoro, was opened in 1933 and by Chicago attorney Alois Knapp, sometimes known as “the father of nudism in America.” By 1968, the resort……

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This abandoned cable car station stands like a haunted ghost house high above the Danube River near Esztergom. It stands on two pillars in the water just a few meters from the shore.  The cable car station was utilized as the unloading station for the cable car system. The skip carts carried coal powder from the sorting station of the nearby Dorog coal mines. The coal powder was then loaded into barges on the river and carried to a……

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From 1850 to 1921, the seaside town of Seaham in northern England was home to Londonderry Bottleworks, reportedly the biggest bottle-making factory in Great Britain. For those 70 years, waste from the bottleworks, which produced everything from fizzy drink bottles to delicate hand-blown perfume flasks, was regularly dumped over the cliff into the sea. As a result, Seaham Hall Beach (also known as the North Beach or Glass Beach) is the richest source of sea glass in England. The……

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As Tom Brown leads a pair of young, aspiring homesteaders through his home apple orchard in Clemmons, North Carolina, he gestures at clusters of maturing trees. A retired chemical engineer, the 79 year old lists varieties and pauses to tell occasional stories. Unfamiliar names such as Black Winesap, Candy Stripe, Royal Lemon, Rabun Bald, Yellow Bellflower, and Night Dropper pair with tales that seem plucked from pomological lore. Take the Junaluska apple. Legend has it the variety was standardized……

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Interested in radio, television, recording, or maybe rock and roll production? The Texas Broadcast Museum in Kilgore has you covered. From the a mixing board built for James Taylor to one of ESPN’s first mobile studio units, you can find it here. Visitors interested in the macabre can see a camera that was present when Jack Ruby assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald. Also a camera used in in the production of American Bandstand in Los Angeles. Something a little older?……

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Designed in the Beaux-Arts style, the North Toronto Station has serviced passengers and served alcoholic beverages within its walls for over 100 years. Constructed in 1916, the building primarily served as a Canadian Pacific Railway station for over 20 years, closing its doors in 1930. A decade later, the site was renovated and reopened as the largest liquor store in Canada. In May 1939, the station briefly re-opened for one day to accommodate a visit from King George VI and……

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Constructed in the early 18th-century, this industrial complex was designed to serve travelers between Philadelphia and Baltimore, as well as provide the many mills along the Little Elk Creek with a store, tavern, workers, and a commercial cooper. The site currently contains the remains of at least four stone and wooden structures including the independent cooper shop. The cooper shop features a walk-in fireplace and the surrounding area is riddled with 18th and 19th-century buildings and ruins. Exploring this……

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The De Salis Cemetery is a rare example of a 19th-century pastoral station cemetery. Such private cemeteries were necessary due to the long distances needed to travel to public burial locations. This was particularly difficult for pastoral families and their workers on stations in Australia’s interior. Residents and workers were carefully segregated within the burial ground, reflecting the social order of the time.  The cemetery is situated high up in the junction of the Murrumbidgee and Gudgenby Rivers. It……

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