Seeing America

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Seeing America

Sherman slept here: Spending time in Uncle Billy’s boyhood home

March 14, 2010 Todd DeFeo
LANCASTER, Ohio — It’s hard to imagine a young William Tecumseh Sherman spending time in this room 180 years ago. The room — and the entire house for that matter — is simple and relatively unassuming, but it was here that the famous Civil War general, his brother — John Sherman, a Republican senator remembered for the Sherman Anti-Trust Act — and their nine brothers and sisters spent their formative years. Sherman’s father, Charles, built the four-room, wood-frame house in
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Seeing America

Tennessee’s Dunbar Cave

March 1, 2010 Todd DeFeo
By Todd DeFeo CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – By the 1930s and 1940s, Dunbar Cave was a popular destination. Not so much because of its natural splendor, but because of the musical acts that performed at the cave entrance. Roy Acuff, who eventually purchased the cave, was among the acts to bring his show to the area. The 8-mile-long Dunbar Cave was formed millions of years ago and has always attracted people. During digs at the site,
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News

Survey shows increased use of Twitter, Facebook by state DOTs

February 25, 2010 The Travel Trolley
Results of a new survey show that a growing number of state transportation departments (DOTs) are communicating critical news and information with travelers using Twitter, Facebook and other social media. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) survey of 32 state DOTs finds that 26 states (or 81 percent) are now using Twitter to communicate with travelers when major traffic incidents or severe weather such as snow storms, hurricanes and tornadoes force
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Seeing America

The ‘Niagara of the South’

February 20, 2010 Todd DeFeo
TALLULAH FALLS, Ga. — Starting in the 1880s, Tallulah Gorge and the surrounding waterfalls gained notoriety as a tourist attraction. Hotels and related businesses soon sprang up in the area around the gorge, and the Tallulah Falls Railway shuttled tourists to see the two-mile-long, 1,000-foot tall gorge and the “Niagara of the South,” as the falls were known. In the 1880s, a tightrope walker named Professor Leon crossed the gorge — a publicity stunt for a nearby
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Seeing America

Remembering Gen. James B. McPherson

February 16, 2010 Todd DeFeo
ATLANTA — Interstate 20 roars in the background, but McPherson Avenue is otherwise a quiet road. It’s hard to imagine what this land was like 145 years ago — completely undeveloped and ravaged by war. Commercial and residential development has replaced trenches and battlefields over time, but at the intersection of McPherson and Monument avenues stands a reminder of the war that once raged here. On July 22, 1864, during the battle of Atlanta, Union Gen. James
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Roadside Oddities

What’s with the rocket on the side of the road?

February 16, 2010 Todd DeFeo
CORDELE, Ga. — A Cold War-era rocket on the side of the interstate isn’t an everyday occurrence. But, that’s what makes it worth the visit. “That was the very point. It’s a unique and unusual landmark for Cordele and Crisp County,” The Cordele Dispatch in 2008 quoted John Pate as saying. As president of the Cordele Rotary Club, Pate pushed to acquire the Titan I missile that stands along Interstate 75. The missile was acquired from