Category: American Countryside
Returning Civil War Prisoners to Home
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/25Jun25-Sultana-Museum-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)As the Civil War drew to a close in April of 1865, there was a massive job to return prisoners…
The World’s Greatest Athlete
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/24Jun25-Jim-Thorpe-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)In 1912 he was proclaimed the world’s greatest athlete and some of his Olympic records from that year still stood…
The Rise of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School Football Team
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/23Jun25-Jim-Thorpe-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)When you think of historically great collegiate football programs, names like Notre Dame, Penn State and Alabama might come to…
The Story of the Spencer Rifle at the Illinois Military Museum
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/06/20Jun25-Illinois-Military-Museum-Spencer-Rifle.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Imagine you had invented a new type of rifle that could be helpful to the U.S. military. How would you…
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…
