Did You Know? Richmond was burned in the Revolutionary War (by the British, 1781) and the Civil War (by residents, 1865). British reinforcements departed for Virginia on the very day Gen. Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown (1781). Robert E. Lee cast his lot with the Confederacy after being offered command
Did You Know? America’s first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 when two lines met near Brigham City. Lake Powell has more shoreline (1,800+ miles) than the western U.S. Great Salt Lake is four to eight times saltier than the oceans. More than 350 million tons of fossils have been
Did You Know? The Soo Locks comprise the world’s busiest lock system, averaging 10,000 vessels yearly. Sault Ste. Marie is Michigan’s oldest city, dating from 1668. Native people were mining copper on Keweenaw Peninsula 7,000 years ago, long before Europeans. The Upper Peninsula accounts for about 30% of Michigan’s land
Did You Know? The Texas oil industry started with the 1901 strike at the Spindletop oilfield at Beaumont. Galveston’s first known European settler was a pirate, Jean Laffite, who started a colony in 1817. Padre Island boasts the world’s longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island (70 miles). After its deadly
Did You Know? Erle Stanley Gardner wrote many of his Perry Mason books in Temecula where he lived for 33 years. The slot machine count at Pechanga Resort and Casino beats the largest Vegas casino by more than 1,000. The Mission San Juan Capistrano padres were the first to plant
Did You Know? The Lincolns bought their home and an empty lot for $1,500 (1844) and remodeled or enlarged the house six times. Detective Allan Pinkerton thwarted the first plot to kill Lincoln, before the first inauguration in 1861. Lincoln did not grow a beard until he was elected president
Did You Know ... ? Ansel Adams’ first published photographs appeared in the Sierra Club's 1922 Bulletin. Mono Lake is saltier than the oceans and as alkaline as household ammonia. The Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks protect nearly half the world’s sequoias. More people have climbed Mount Everest than have
Did You Know? Walt Disney named his Thunder Mountain ride after the tallest butte in West Sedona. At least eight Sedona streets are named for movies made there, such as “Johnny Guitar” and “Pony Soldier.” Sedona’s founder first tried these names, Schnebly Station or Oak Creek Crossing, rejected by the
Did You Know? In Lewes, the Ryves Holt House (c. 1665) is Delaware’s oldest documented house. Rehoboth Beach hosted America’s first beauty pageant (1880) with Thomas Edison one of three judges. Lewes has had several previous names including Whorekill. Horseshoe crabs aren’t true crabs but more closely related to scorpions
Did You Know? Mount Whitney, at 14,497 feet, is America’s tallest mountain outside of Alaska. Ribbon Falls, in Yosemite, is the highest waterfall (1,612 feet) on the continent. The world’s largest living thing is a sequoia, and it is big enough to build 120 average-sized houses. Evidence of redwoods on
