It’s hard to envision bucolic Bedford, N.Y. as a war zone, but it was one during the Revolutionary War. British forces traveled up Guard Hill Road and then burned all but one of the houses in the village 235 years…
7/11/1779: Feeling Bedford Burn
Tag: history
Note from the Brawny Sherpa: A Visit to the Bedford Oak
I grew up in a place called Bedford, N.Y. It’s a small town with old schoolhouses, old churches, old historical halls, old courthouses, even a grazing field for swine and cows. But the best thing about this town is the…
Don’t Miss in Salem, Mass.: One Over-the-Top Bookstore
I was in town to learn about the witches, and maybe just a little bit about author Nathaniel Hawthorne (with whom I spent so much time in freshman English class in high school), when I discovered a marvelous place: Derby…
The First Thanksgiving Was in Florida
Sitting on the patio of the golf clubhouse at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando and watching the pastel-clad golfers, their carts, and the sand traps, Florida’s dark history seems remote, a dream. Brutal Spanish explorers, Protestants killing Catholics,…
Are Historical Sites Honest about Slavery?
The global tumult of the last week—the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and global unrest stemming, allegedly, from disgust with a video about Muslims made by a film maker in the United States—makes the celebration of the U.S.…
Standing in the Tracks of Chariots and on the Paths of Heroes
For me, there’s no greater experiential learning than walking back through time via travel. The chariot tracks in the streets of Pompeii made life in the first century that much more real to me. Seeing row after row of crosses…