The dark side of the Little House author

The dark side of the Little House author

Laura Ingalls Wilder in her 40s, when she was just starting her writing career as a columnist for the Missouri Ruralist. Courtesy of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library More news emerged this week showing the public’s fascination with the pioneer tales of...
Iowa and Wisconsin

Iowa and Wisconsin

Horseshoe Lake, way the heck north in Wisconsin, near where Bill Holtz lives William Holtz was an English professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia when he stumbled upon the papers of Rose Wilder Lane. He committed himself to writing her biography even though...
My AT thru-hike

My AT thru-hike

The Eight-Legged Thing on Katahdin, end of our thru-hike, from left: Cay, Phil, Chris, Nat. Photo by Cowboy Paul Lybarger. The thin paperback’s cover bent back. My friend Phil held it up above his head in his left hand and tipped the page toward the beam of his tiny...
80 years since the Dust Bowl’s horrible drought

80 years since the Dust Bowl’s horrible drought

Dust buries a South Dakota farm in 1936. Wikimedia Commons Eighty years ago, in 1934, over-plowed land in the interior lands of the United States began to spread. The drought was the worst in American history. As Public Broadcasting said in its meticulous notes about...
Daylight acceleration time

Daylight acceleration time

U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms Charles P. Higgins turns the Ohio Clock forward for the first Daylight Saving Time in 1918. Senators William M. Calder (NY), Willard Saulsbury, Jr. (DE), and Joseph T. Robinson (AR) stand in front. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Daylight saving time...