Kudzu arrived in the United States as an ornamental vine more than a century ago, first displayed at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 before being promoted for shade, livestock forage and erosion control. What began as a useful garden and agricultural plant eventually spread far beyond where it was intended, covering forests, roadsides and…
Inglewood Park Cemetery. Image Credit: CBS In 1906, a 4-month-old baby named ‘Maytie Raker’ became the first person to be buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in California. Her death came at the beginning of the cemetery’s long history, yet for the next 120 years, there was no marker to identify where she lay. Generations passed…
Foundations from old movie sets at Corriganville Regional Park. Image Credit: Wikipedia In 1965, comedian and actor Bob Hope bought Corriganville, a 212-acre former Hollywood movie ranch in Simi Valley, California. The property had spent decades serving the film industry, providing locations for thousands of films, television programmes and commercials. It also operated as a…
In South Jersey’s Middle Township, a war goes on. The township has filed an eminent domain condemnation complaint that seeks to acquire 2.4 acres of land in Whitesboro for a large-scale housing development project. But the woman who owns the property, Dawn Robinson, does not want to give it up, according to a report by…
When Lance and Lisa Wheeler bought land in Colorado to build a family ranch, their ambition was to raise healthy food and create a sustainable way of farming. More than a decade later, their land is also becoming a refuge for grassland birds. According to Audubon Rockies, which published the couple’s story on August 31,…
Image credit: Greater Yellowstone Coalition The construction of a new wildlife underpass in southeast Idaho is about to be completed, after the public, nonprofit agencies, conservation groups and government agencies pushed for years to protect migrating wildlife herds and drivers, according to a report by Idaho Capital Sun. To save animal and human lives The…
Representative Image (AI-generated For nearly a century, a four-faced clock stood over a busy corner in downtown Clearwater, Florida, quietly marking the passing hours as the city around it changed. Years of Florida weather eventually left their mark on the historic timepiece, but instead of letting it disappear with age, a clockmaker took it apart…
Picture from the book ‘Granville Haller: Leader’ by Martin N. Chamberlain via Historicwhidbey.org In 2012, a crumbling 1866 farmhouse sat on a prized waterfront lot in Coupeville, Washington, listed for sale at a price that reflected the land’s value far more than the building’s. The Haller House, one of the oldest surviving structures on Whidbey…
Blair Clark and his wife Leah and details of DNA testing kit from MyHeritage. Blair Clark and his wife Leah have spent more than four years on their YouTube show, The Leah and Blair Slog, helping people reconnect with relatives they’ve never known, or lost touch with. The couple, who live in the Philippines, have…
Melinda French Gates grew up in a household where science, engineering and education were closely woven into family life. Her father, Raymond Joseph French Jr., was an aerospace engineer whose career included work connected to NASA’s Apollo programme, giving his daughter an early glimpse into the world of space exploration and advanced technology. But some…