Author: Ms. R.

The late 18th century was an era of rapid expansion in the American West, especially the areas known now as Ohio and Indiana. In this land, John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, took it upon himself to travel the countryside, spreading the Gospel and planting orchard after orchard of apple trees. The apple crops were vital to pioneers and settlers, who made cider to drink, and vinegar for medicinal use. Chapman was a colorful, memorable character. He was……

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This “modern megalithic garden” has three stone circles, a seven-circuit classic labyrinth, dolmen, dry-stacked stone sculpture,  many boulders and standing stones as well as natural buildings and restored prairie.  Visitors can walk in a self-guided manner along mown grass paths and there are signs at many of the features explaining a bit about each one. Kinstone is spread across 30 acres filled with stone sculptures, natural buildings, native prairie, and views of the Mississippi River. The largest stone brought……

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The small village of Onogur, Bulgaria stands on land that, some 14 centuries ago, was home to a large and well-fortified city. Though there seems to be nothing left of it to this day, the strategic nature of the location makes it clear how convenient it would have been for a fortress. The site is located on a rocky peninsula, a flat piece of land spanning about 220 acres and protected from three sides with steep slope that run……

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From its original construction in 1226, all the way up through the 20th century, Burg Lahneck has experienced many notable events that have led to it’s intriguing tale including several wars, political unrest, the tragic death of a young noble. The castle even inspired the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The castle was built at the confluence of the Lahn and Rhine rivers by Siegfried III of Eppstein in order to protect the town of Oberlahnstein and a nearby……

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In the classic American play Our Town, Emily Webb and George Gibbs stop at Mr. Morgan’s drug store. There, at the soda fountain that serves as the center of the social life in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, young love blossoms over strawberry ice-cream sodas: Emily and George realize they are “fond of” each other and always will be. The play is set in 1901 and debuted in 1938, when soda fountains had become wildly popular. They were in drug……

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The City of Frankfurt Oder is often overlooked and forgotten, especially in light of sharing its namesake with the much larger and internationally well-known Frankfurt to the west. However, this abstract fountain, which also serves as a working clock, does a good job of making sure visitors leave the city with a memory. Known as the “Comic Fountain” or “Comic Brunnen,” the main feature of this fountain is the gigantic figure of a vaguely humanoid shape, painted in bright,……

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At Crow Wing State Park, visitors can enjoy hiking, snowshoeing, and skiing on the peaceful forested trails at the confluence of the Crow Wing River and Mississippi River. This intersection once provided more than natural beauty, the region was once home to French and Ojibwe residents who constructed a thriving trading town in 1823.  At its peak, the town contained around 700 residents, half of whom were Ojibwe and half of whom were European settlers. In 1867, ten Ojibwe……

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This story was originally published in The Conversation and appears here under a Creative Commons license. More than 17,000 earthquakes have been recorded in the southwest of Iceland, in the Reykjanes Peninsula, in a little over a week. People living in the area have been advised to be extra careful due to dangers of landslides and rockfall. Many of the larger earthquakes have even been felt in Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavík—where over half of the population lives—which lies only……

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When Jen Jack Gieseking started researching his book on queer nightlife in New York, he learned that one of the city’s hottest lesbian watering holes was not a bar at all. Sure, participants had fond memories of dancing and flirting at historically lesbian bars. But if the queer women and transgender and nonbinary people in Gieseking’s focus groups really wanted to catch up on the latest gossip, there was only one place to go: the Park Slope Food Co-op,……

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The monument to Chief Maqoma, at the summit of the Ntaba ka Ndoda mountain, is a commemoration of one of South Africa’s greatest heroes, and a celebration of a life devoted to the struggle of his Xhosa nation against colonialism. The mountain is revered as one of the country’s most historically significant and sacred sites, but the monument itself has been shrouded in controversy since its inception, and is today mostly neglected and deserted. Nkosi (or Chief) Jongumsobomvu Maqoma……

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