Paperback

Local historian Seth Bate tells the story of the Walnut Valley Festival with reflections from staff, emcees, performers, campers, and characters from throughout its history. The Festival was launched in 1972 when a guitar maker, a farmer, and a businessman built their own music festival from the ground up. It has made the small town…

Florida’s contribution to aviation history cannot be underestimated. Wings over Florida chronicles the story of flying in the “Sunshine State,” from the early pioneers in gliders and balloons, to the recent developments in the space program. The story of Florida in flight is even older than its statehood, with Colonel John Sherburne planning to use…

The uniqueness of Winn Parish is its vast history not only of deep-rooted politics, but also of scattered communities that once prospered on its timber, railroads, salt mine, and rock quarry. The arrival of railroads more than a century ago opened virgin pine forests to commercial logging, and timber mills sprang up, flourished, and then…

Winnebago County has long been a bellwether of Wisconsin beer making. In the mid-1800s, German immigrants launched small breweries in Butte des Morts, Menasha, Neenah, Oshkosh and Winneconne. By the 1950s, breweries such as Walter Brothers, Peoples and the Oshkosh Brewing Company had a combined output of more than 100,000 barrels of beer annually, and…

From its meager beginnings as “The Crossroads,” Winnsboro has become a bustling small town situated in the heart of the beautiful Piney Woods of East Texas. Settled in 1854, when the railroad came in 1876, Winnsboro became a major shipping center for goods going west to the frontier. At one time, the area was one…

Located on an island in the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota, Winona has been home to the transportation industry from its earliest days. Before Winona was a city, Native Americans and European explorers sailed past “Wapasha’s Prairie” in birch bark canoes, keel boats, or small sailboats. As early as the 1820s, steamboats plied up and…

Winona Lake was once home to the world’s largest Bible conference. Before 1834, it was the home of the Pottwatomi Tribe, and later it became Spring Fountain Park on Eagle Lake. In 1895, Sol Dickeys’s vision of “a kind of Christian Chautauqua” quickly grew in popularity and scope. The many attractions of Winona drew an…

Named by the Abenaki Indians, Winooski, which means “land of the wild onion,” has enjoyed a long history. Ira and Ethan Allen and their uncle Remember Baker first settled in the area in 1772. Since that settlement, Winooski has hosted various mills and factories, several churches, many stores, and an active community. The Vermont Legislature…