Author: Tom
The Tombstone Courthouse
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/19Jun25-Tombstone-Courthouse-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)In the 1880s, stagecoaches brought dozens of people each day to a boom town called Tombstone. But it was a…
Dig a Grave When You Get There
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/18Jun25-Tombstone-Courthouse-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)When this man set out to find his fortune he was told he’d need to dig his grave when he…
The Lake of the Ozarks
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/17Jun25-Lake-of-the-Ozarks.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)In the 1930s, it became the largest lake in the world. Interestingly, that record-setter was nestled in the undeveloped forest…
The Memphis City Park – Shelby Farm
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/16Jun25-Memphis-City-Park-Shelby-Farms.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)This city park is over five times the size of Central Park in New York City. People not only come…
Sawdust City, Arkansas
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/13Jun25-Sawdust-City-Arkansas.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)This town was founded on sawdust – in some cases quite literally. While the mill and the homes are gone,…
The Parkin Archeological Park
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/12Jun25-Parkin-Archeological-State-Park-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)At the Parkin Archeological Park in Arkansas you can see a piece of wood that is believed to be a…
A Preserved Community Near Memphis
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/11Jun25-Parkin-Archeological-State-Park-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Long before European explorers first arrived in North America, Native American villages dotted the landscape of present day Arkansas. One…
The Calavaras County Frog Jumpin’ Contest
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/10Jun25-Calavaras-County-Jumpin-Frog-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Each May in Angels Camp, California, thousands of people will come to witness a contest that could pay a winner…
A Trip to Angels Camp That Launched a Career
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/09Jun25-Calavaras-County-Jumpin-Frog-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)In 1865 Mark Twain came to Angels Camp, California. A tale he heard, or perhaps one he made up, became…
The Old Stone Fort
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/06Jun25-Old-Stone-Fort.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)It’s known as the Old Stone Fort, but using the tern “fort” is perhaps a bit liberal. While the structure…
The Yo-Yo Museum
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/05Jun25-YoYo-Museum-3.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)When a small store in Chico, California decided to have some fun and create a local yo yo contest, they…
A Crane for a Yo-Yo
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/04Jun25-YoYo-Museum-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Imagine a yo you so large you needed a crane to lift it. That’s exactly what this man created and…
A Museum for a Toy
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/03Jun25-YoYo-Museum-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)We’ve all seen them. Many of us played with them as a toy. Perhaps you didn’t know it’s origin and…
The Smell Coming From the Place
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/02Jun25-Cedar-Rapids-General-Mills.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)There’s a smell coming from the place Pete works. It’s an odor that actually attracts rather than repels people, for…
When Cattle Ranchers and Sheep Herders Clashed
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/30May25-Meeker-Colorado-3.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)There was a time when cattle ranchers and sheep herders clashed, sometimes violently, in the western U.S. This town saw…
When a Way of Life Was Changed Forever
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/29May25-Meeker-Colorado-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)In the fall of 1879, an unfortunate set of events led to a clash between Native Americans and white settlers…
The Town of Meeker, Colorado
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/28May25-Meeker-Colorado-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)In western Colorado you’ll find the town of Meeker. It’s the surname of a family sent here in the 1870s…
Harper’s Ferry
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/27May25-Harpers-Ferry-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)He is a man of legend…a man whose story may be larger than life…a renegade who history now looks upon…
The Site of Events That Would Change the World
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/26May25-Harpers-Ferry-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)It was the site of events that would change the history of this nation and in turn influence the world. …
The Wendover Airfield Museum
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/05/23May25-Wendover-Airfield-Museum-3.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Wendover, Utah is home to a closed air base that still has many features of the days when it was…