American Oddities
American Oddities
Department of Curiosities · Official Survey
Every pin is a true story too strange for the textbooks. Hover a pin to read the file. Open a case to investigate.
The Docket
First in War, First in Whiskey
Mount Vernon, Va., 1791–1799. George Washington crushed the Whiskey Rebellion at the head of 13,000 troops, then built a distillery making 11,000 gallons of rye a year. It still pours today.
Washington, D.C., 1861–65. Lincoln under enemy fire at Fort Stevens, his walk through fallen Richmond holding Tad's hand, and the Confederate five-dollar note and nine kind clippings found in his pockets. The Civil War as an American Odyssey.
Atlanta, Ga., 1886–1985. New Coke: the most beloved formula in America, "improved" into oblivion, and restored by popular demand in 79 days. The unfinished horse, with an American happy ending.
The President's Impossible Beast
Greenbrier County, Va., 1796. Giant fossil claws reach Thomas Jefferson, who names a colossal American lion. Anatomy, and a giant ground sloth, have other plans. Featuring Megalonyx jeffersonii and the birth of American paleontology.
Black Hills, S.D., 1923–1941. Mount Rushmore: named for a passing lawyer, redesigned nine times, one Jefferson dynamited off the cliff, and never finished. The design adventure of America's strangest monument.
Kitty Hawk, N.C. → Sea of Tranquility, 1903–1969. Twelve seconds over a beach to a bootprint on the Moon in one lifetime, with a swatch of the 1903 Wright Flyer aboard for the trip (and later, for Mars).
Lake Ontario, 1632 to the present. Lac de St. Louis, Lacus Ontarius, Lac Frontenac, Cataraqui: the O in HOMES has been renamed at least five times over. Wendat Ontarí’io already means “great lake,” so the revision was filed and closed by the map itself.
A Mile-Deep Ledger
Grand Canyon, Ariz. The file is being assembled.
The City Below the River
New Orleans, La. The file is being assembled.