Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for U.S. travel
A Fort’s Family Heritage
By Linda Tancs
John Butterfield chose Fort Chadbourne as a major stop for his Overland Mail Company, a stagecoach mail service connecting the east and west coasts of the United States. The fort saw other action as part of the Old West, too, like the Fence Cutting Wars (disputes between farmers and cattlemen staking their claims in the area) and mustering on its grounds at the outbreak of the Civil War. Unlike other military posts, however, this fort has always been privately owned, becoming a ranching haven for eight generations of the Odom’s, Wylie’s and Richards’ families. Located in the vicinity of Bronte, Texas, its military, ranching, and Indian historical roots have been lovingly restored. The old frontier fort now has six restored buildings, stabilized ruins, and a new visitor center featuring over 300 antique guns, thousands of military and Native American artifacts, cannons and a research library.
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Indiana’s Other Grand Prix
By Linda Tancs
Indiana has, you might say, a need for speed. Just as the engines are cooling down in Speedway, they’re revving up again in LaPorte. Only this time, the action is on the water. The Maple City Grand Prix is taking place from June 3 to June 5, a tunnel boat racing event on Stone Lake on Saturday and Sunday that attracts daredevils from across the country and Canada. The boat parade downtown on Friday promises lots of excitement for autograph seekers and boat enthusiasts. There’s also a fireworks display on Saturday. Best of all, the event is free, including parking and shuttle services.
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The Castle on Peachtree
By Linda Tancs
An Atlanta landmark for decades, Georgia’s Rhodes Hall is affectionately known as “the castle on Peachtree.” The Romanesque Revival-style mansion was designed for one of the city’s wealthiest men, Rhodes Furniture founder Amos Rhodes. Thought to be inspired by his travels through the castles of the German Rhineland, it’s one of the few remaining mansions on Peachtree Street, the city’s most celebrated thoroughfare. Now a house museum and event venue, its massive exterior masonry is equally matched with superb interior appointments like its hallmark mahogany staircase and painted glass windows.
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Where California Began
By Linda Tancs
One of the most familiar landmarks in San Diego, California, the Junípero Serra Museum stands atop the hill recognized as the site where California began. Indeed, at that site in 1769 a Spanish Franciscan missionary, Father Junípero Serra, with a group of soldiers led by Gaspar de Portolá, established Alta California’s first mission and presidio (fort). Alta (Upper) California was a region comprising California and other states that was ceded to the United States at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. The missions of Alta California were founded for the purpose of Christianizing the American Indian population in those vicinities. Using Spanish Revival architecture, the museum was built to resemble the early missions that once dominated the landscape of Southern California.
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The Singing Tower
By Linda Tancs
The Singing Tower at Bok Tower Gardens delights visitors with a 60-bell carillon sitting atop 298-foot Iron Mountain, the highest point along the Florida peninsula. Developed as a bird sanctuary, the peaceful respite in Lake Wales, Florida, is awash in moss-draped oaks and a garden designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. that give way to the 205-foot pink tower of marble and coquina stone. A National Historic Landmark, it’s particularly ablaze with springtime blooms of azaleas, camellias and magnolias.
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Countless Canyons
By Linda Tancs
It’s four times the size of Arches National Park, yet Canyonlands attracts half the visitors. It’s easy to think of them as arch rivals (pardon the pun), considering that they’re located on opposite sides of U.S. 191 outside Moab, Utah, and just 10 miles away from each other. But these two national parks are hardly duking it out, each boasting its own distinct advantages. Canyonlands is less developed, a haven for hikers with a yen for accessibility (like Arches) coupled with a mix of backcountry and hardcore hiking. It offers a wilderness of countless canyons and buttes carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries. Rivers divide the park into districts, the most accessible being Island in the Sky and the most remote, the Maze. The Maze district offers guided hikes in Horseshoe Canyon most weekends during spring and fall.
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Down on the Ranch
By Linda Tancs
Less than a half hour from the bright lights of downtown Las Vegas is Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, a peaceful haven sporting a historic ranch house that was once home to luminaries of a different kind. Through the corridors once roamed millionaire Howard Hughes, German actress Vera Krupp and Chester Lauck of the comedy team Lum & Abner. Open for tours, the house features Hughes’ bar as well as personal belongings of Krupp.
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A Shot in Dubuque
By Linda Tancs
Standing sentinel over Dubuque, Iowa, is the city’s icon—a 120-foot-tall shot tower. One of few remaining in the United States, it’s the only one west of the Mississippi River. Shot towers were designed for the production of lead shot balls (ammunition), which assumed their spherical shape as the molten lead fell from the top of the tower to a water basin below. Used both prior to and during the Civil War for lead shot production, Iowa’s tower was subsequently used as a watchtower. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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A Celebration of Indigenous Cultures
By Linda Tancs
The National Museum of the American Indian has one of the most extensive collections of Native American arts and artifacts in the world. Numbering over 825,000 items, its inventory represents over 12,000 years of history and more than 1,200 indigenous cultures throughout the Americas. Located on the National Mall between the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum and the U.S. Capitol, the museum’s innovative curvilinear architecture, its indigenous landscaping and exhibitions were all designed in collaboration with tribes and communities from across the hemisphere. A satellite location is within the historic Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City.
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Newark’s Jubilee
By Linda Tancs
Newark, New Jersey, the state’s largest city, is celebrating the big 3-5-0 this year. Founded in 1666 by Puritan colonists, the city promises a jubilee celebration worthy of its history and contemplative of its future. Part of a yearlong commemoration of Newark’s 350th anniversary is Founders Weekend Festival this weekend. Appropriately enough, the event will be held in Military Park. Originally laid out in 1667 when the city was planned, the park’s six acres first functioned as a training ground for soldiers, serving as a camp for George Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War retreat of 1776. Thomas Paine also began writing the first lines of his essay “These are the Times that Try Men’s Souls” while encamped there. Headliners for the festival include Newark’s local hometown heroes and international recording artists Faith Evans, Naughty by Nature, Cissy Houston and India. Kids will be sure to love the new carousel in the park, comprising 16 beautifully painted horses representing actual steeds depicting aspects of the city’s history.
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