In 1953, Emma Gatewood tried hiking the Appalachian Trail, got lost and was rescued When park rangers found 65-year-old Emma Gatewood lost and confused in Maine in 1953 after she broke her glasses on the Appalachian Trail, they advised her to give up and return home. Two years later, at age 67, Gatewood returned to…
North Carolina cleaning business owner faces scrutiny after saying his team did not count Indian callers as potential leads/Image: Getty Images A North Carolina cleaning business owner has come under scrutiny after saying he instructed his team not to count Indian callers as potential customers, raising concerns about possible discrimination based on ethnicity.Robert Nolen wrote…
The Fish and Wildlife Service restored peat wetlands at Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge North Carolina’s coastal peatlands are being restored to protect wetlands, reduce wildfire risks and keep carbon stored in the soil. The work is focused on bringing water back to areas that were once drained and altered for farming, timber harvesting…
For Mississippi homeowners, a sudden cloud of winged insects can be more than a seasonal annoyance. It can be the first visible sign of a termite colony that has been developing quietly for years. Mississippi State University Extension Service says eastern subterranean termites normally swarm during spring, but along the Gulf Coast their activity can…
Hawaii imports much of the lumber used to build its homes, schools and infrastructure, but a new University of Hawaii at Mānoa research project is asking whether some of that material could instead come from trees already growing on the islands. More than 34,000 acres of managed eucalyptus plantations exist across Hawaii, yet much of…
In 1905, a 13-year-old boy exploring Tennessee’s Craighead Caverns squeezed through a narrow, muddy passage and stumbled upon something far larger than he could have imagined: a vast chamber containing an underground lake. His name was Ben Sands, and his discovery would eventually become known as the Lost Sea, today recognised as the largest underground…
Nothing fazes New Yorkers, or at least that’s what they thought, until they stepped out onto Manhattan streets and encountered a 10-foot sphere of real human hair rolling towards them! A giant 10-foot hairball called Tumblehair rolled through the streets of NYC, leaving pedestrians both repulsed and unable to ignore it. What was the giant…
Maggie Walz Photo credit: National Park Service Born Margareeta Johanna Konttra Niiranen in Tornio, Finland, in 1861, Maggie Walz came to the United States at the age of 20 with almost nothing, just $7 in her pocket and a determination to build a new life. According to the National Park Service (NPS), Walz arrived in…
Dickerson had built a career that included several notable firsts. (Anchorage museum photo) American lawyer and civil rights advocate Mahala Ashley Dickerson’s life took her from Montgomery, Alabama, to Alaska, where she broke barriers in both the legal profession and homesteading. Her journey has been featured by the National Park Service among important figures in…
Deep in the heart of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where mist clings to the ridges and the forest hums with life, stands a quiet log cabin. It is the home of the Walker sisters, six unmarried women who refused to leave their mountain home, even as the world changed around them. Their story is…