Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History (58 page)

Sadly, two of my closest friends lost their moms while I was working on this book. Brook Miller’s mother, Helen, and Adrian Talbott’s mother, Brooke Shearer, were extremely kind in sharing with me suggestions of little-known places I should seek out. Helen was the one who told me about Charles Lindbergh’s grave in Hawaii, and Brooke pointed me to several spots around our hometown of D.C. They were both extraordinary women and are deeply missed.

I want to extend a special thanks to John Elko, not only for being such an influential teacher but also for connecting me with several of his students who proved to be outstanding assistants: Antonia Hitchens, Dimitry Kislovskiy, and Massimo Young. Similarly, I want to thank my good friend Joel Swerdlow for enlisting Ben Oreskes—a terrific researcher—in this endeavor. I’m indebted as well to Elizabeth Velez, both for her support and for putting me in touch with her son, Nick, who’s been a lifesaver on a variety of projects.

At Keener Management, I’m indebted to David Beasley, Okey Mbarah, Alison Sowers, and Gabrielle Weiss. And at the Weider History Group, I want to thank Aleta Burchyski, David Grogan, and Karen Jensen.

I’d also like to thank Dear Abby, who, in 1998, helped me launch the Legacy Project (a national effort to preserve American war letters),
and, ultimately, further deepened my love for history. The Legacy Project’s letters are being donated to Chapman University and will become the foundation of the newly created Center for American War Letters. At Chapman I am grateful to Dennis Arp, Charlene Baldwin, Richard Bausch, John Benitz (a phenomenal director and now dear friend who first introduced me to the Chapman community), Larry and Sheryl Bourgeois, William Cumiford, Erika Curiel, Doug Dechow, Jim Doti, Patrick Fuery, Ryan Gattis, Marilyn Harran, Jennifer Keene, Anna Leahy, Nina Lenoir, Jan Osborn, Ronald and Kyndra Rotunda, Bob Slayton, Daniele Struppa, Yolanda Uzzell, Char Williams, and the casts of
If All the Sky Were Paper
. (You all were sensational.) And I owe special thanks to Tom Zoellner, who read through an early draft of the book and had wise counsel to offer.

Along these lines, I cannot express enough how grateful I am to Jenny Moore, who put up with my frequent bouts of hermitic isolation throughout this process and, most important, read through the first version of the manuscript and gave invaluable feedback. Jenny is an exceptional writer herself, and she is simply one of the most remarkable persons I’ve ever known.

I’m also grateful to several individuals at the National Geographic Society, who were supportive of the larger Here Is Where initiative from the start, particularly Keith Bellows at
National Geographic Traveler
and Beth Lizardo, Janelle Nanos, Gio Palatucci, and Dan Westergren.

Finally, I want to thank Jim Basker, Lesley Herrmann, Sandra Trenholm, Susan Saidenberg, Richard Gilder, and Lewis Lehrman at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, one of the best organizations in the United States promoting history and supporting teachers.

The people and published sources I relied on are listed below, and, in the interest of space, I’ve refrained from repeating book titles, newspaper articles, and other publications already cited within the chapters. Also, some sources conflict with others, and when there were discrepancies I tried to the best of my abilities to determine which were the most reliable. Mistakes sneak into even the most trusted historical records,
and I will make every effort to correct information that turns out to be demonstrably wrong. Indeed, one of the points I wanted to make in this book is that far from offering us concrete rules and intellectual certainty, the study of history often fosters healthy skepticism and teaches us to think critically about what we had once believed to be absolutely true. But again, I think the search is half the fun.

Special thanks to:
James Cornelius and Jennifer Ericson, who sent me a copy of Robert Todd Lincoln’s February 6, 1909, letter to Richard Gilder, from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library; Archivist Ryan McPherson at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum’s Hays T. Watkins Research Library; Jane Singer, who wrote a great article about Luke Pryor Blackburn, “The Fiend in Gray,”
Washington Post
(June 1, 2003); and Mariani Tooba at the New-York Historical Society for helping me locate sites associated with the November 1864 plot to burn down Manhattan.
Publications:
John S. Goff,
Robert Todd Lincoln: A Man in His Own Right
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969); Clint Johnson,
A Vast and Fiendish Plot: The Confederate Attack on New York City
(New York: Citadel Press, 2010); Phil Scott, “1864 Attack on New York,”
American History
(January 2002); and Ronald C. White Jr.,
A. Lincoln: A Biography
(New York: Random House, 2009).

Special thanks to:
Keith Robinson, whose family owns Niihau; Dana Rosendal and Shandra at Niihau Helicopters; Floyd Mori and Crystal Xu at the Japanese American Citizens League; Albert Nason at the Jimmy Carter Library; Glen Reason and Bob Timmermann at the Los Angeles Public Library; and Linda Sueyoshi at the Hawaii State Library.
Publications:
Allan Beekman,
The Niihau Incident: The True Story of the Japanese Fighter Pilot Who, After the Pearl Harbor Attack, Crash-Landed on the Hawaiian Island of Niihau and Terrorized the Residents
(Honolulu: Heritage Press of Pacific, 1982); Richard B. Frank, “Zero Hour on Niihau,”
World War II
(July 2009); Anne Gearen, “US Prepares for Possible Missile Launch,” Associated Press (June 18, 2009); Michelle Malkin,
In Defense of Internment: The Case for “Racial Profiling” in World War II and the War on Terror
(Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing Inc., 2004); “Hawaiian, with Three Bullet Wounds, Beats Japanese Airman to Death Against a Wall,”
New York Times
(December 17, 1941); and Clarice B. Taylor, “Hawaiian Woman Slays Jap Pilot,”
Washington Post
(December 17, 1941).

Special thanks to:
Vicky Avery, my wonderful guide in New Hampshire; Valerie Cunningham, executive director of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail, who put me in touch with Vicky Avery; Evelyn Gerson, who wrote a sensational online article about Judge titled “Ona Judge Staines: A Thirst for Complete Freedom and Her Escape from President Washington,” which is posted at
www.seacostnh.com/blackhistory/ona.html
; Carl Westmoreland at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; Lish Thompson and Dot Glover at
the Charleston County Public Library’s South Carolina History Room; and Kitt Alexander, who provided me with information about Robert Smalls.
Publications:
Battle of Bennington Committee letter to John Stark from the Papers of John Stark, New Hampshire Historical Society; David W. Blight,
Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory
(New York: Collins, 2004); Charles L. Blockson,
Hippocrene Guide to the Underground Railroad
(New York: Hippocrene Books, 1994); Betty DeRamus,
Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad
(New York: Atria Books, 2005); Robert B. Dishman, “Ona Maria Judge Takes French Leave of Her Mistress to Live Free in New Hampshire,”
Historical New Hampshire
(vol. 62, no. 1, spring 2008); Dennis Brindell Fradin,
Bound for the North Star: True Stories of Fugitive Slaves
(New York: Clarion Books, 2000); George and Willene Hendrick,
Fleeing for Freedom: Stories of the Underground Railroad as Told by Levi Coffin and William Still
(Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004); Dennis J. Pogue, “George Washington: Slave Master,”
American History
(February 2004); and Henry Wiencek,
An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003).

Special thanks to:
Jerry O. Potter, who guided me around Arkansas and Tennessee and is the author of
The Sultana Tragedy: America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster
(Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican, 1992).
Publications:
Mary Koik, Civil War Trust, “Deadly Duty in the Arsenals,”
Hallowed Ground Magazine
(winter 2009); Denise Gess and William Lutz,
Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History
(New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002); and Leslie Miller, “Pilot Error Blamed for Flight 587 Crash,” Associated Press (October 26, 2004).

Special thanks to:
Enrique and Lucille Castillo for help with information on César Chávez’s birthplace; Harry Hart for his hospitality; Kelly King, who owns Richard Hart’s house in Homer, Nebraska; and Jane Shadle, who put me in touch with Marjorie Teetor Meyer (and I’m especially grateful to Marjorie for sharing her father’s story with me).
Publications:
William H. Armstrong,
Warrior in Two Camps: Ely S. Parker, Union General and Seneca Chief
(Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1978); Laurence Bergreen,
Capone: The Man and Era
(New York: Touchstone, 1994); Richard Griswold Del Castillo and Richard A. Garcia,
César Chávez: A Triumph of Spirit
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995); Harry H. Hart, Jeff G. Hart, Angela S. Beekman, and Corey R. Hart,
Capone-Hart: Two Italian Brothers: Two-Gun Hart, Lawman—Al Capone, Gangster
(Lincoln, Nebr.: The “Two-Gun Project” and JC & H Productions, 2000); John Kobler,
Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone
(New York: Da Capo Press, 1971); Jacques E. Levy,
César Chávez: Autobiography of La Causa
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1975); and Robert J. Schoenberg,
Mr. Capone: The Real—and Complete—Story of Al Capone
(New York: Quill, 1992).

Special thanks to:
Bob Johnson at the Fort George G. Meade Museum and Albert Nason at the Jimmy Carter Library.
Publications:
Bill Blass,
Bare Blass
(New York: Harper Perennial, 2003); CNN, “Carter: CIA Used Psychic to Help Find Missing Plane” (transcript, September 21, 1995); Jack Kneece,
Ghost Army of World War II
(Gretna, La.: Pelican, 2001); Joseph McMoneagle,
Remote Viewing Secrets: A Handbook
(Charlottesville, Va.: Hampton Roads
Publishing Company, 2000); David Morehouse,
Psychic Warrior: The True Story of America’s Foremost Psychic Spy and the Cover-up of the CIA’s Top-Secret Stargate Program
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996); Jim Schnabel,
Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America’s Psychic Spies
(New York: Dell Publishing, 1997); and Douglas Waller, “The Vision Thing,”
Time
(December 11, 1995).

Special thanks to:
Leigh Ivey and Betsy Merritt at the National Trust for Historic Preservation; Cory D. Nelson, President of the Western Psychiatric State Hospital Association, which includes the Human Resources Center in Yankton, South Dakota; Ruth S. Taylor, Loraine Byrne, and Bert Lippincott at the Newport Historical Society; Pat Redfearn at the George Hail Free Library in Warren, Rhode Island; C. Morgan Grefe at the Rhode Island Historical Society; and Kathy MacKnight at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Newport.
Publications:
Robert S. Burgess,
To Try the Bloody Law: The Story of Mary Dyer
(Burnsville, N.C.: Celo Valley Books, 2000); Michael Farquhar,
A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans
(New York: Penguin Books, 2008); John Williams Haley,
“The Old Stone Bank” History of Rhode Island, Volume III
(Providence: Providence Institution for Savings, 1939); Ruth Talbot Plimpton,
Mary Dyer: Biography of a Rebel Quaker
(Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1994); and Horatio Rogers,
Mary Dyer of Rhode Island: The Quaker Martyr That Was Hanged on Boston Common, June 1, 1660
(Providence: Preston and Rounds, 1896).

Special thanks to:
Dennis Jenkins and his team for letting me join them on their dig; Michelle Huey, owner of the Sage Rooms motel; and K. Kris Hirst, editor of
The Archaeologist’s Book of Quotations
(Walnut Creek, Calif.: Left Coast Press, 2010).
Publications:
J. M. Adovasio, J. Donahue, and R. Stuckenrath, “The Meadowcraft Rockshelter Radiocarbon Chronology 1975–1990,”
American Antiquity
, published by the Society for American Archaeology (vol. 55, no. 2, April 1990); Paul Aron,
Unsolved Mysteries of American History: An Eye-Opening Journey Through 500 Years of Discoveries, Disappearances, and Baffling Events
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997); Jeff Benedict,
No Bone Unturned: Inside the World of a Top Forensic Scientist and His Work on America’s Most Notorious Crimes and Disasters
(New York: Perennial, 2003); Andrew Curry, “How Did People Reach the Americas? Ancient DNA Sheds Light on the Prehistoric Humans Who Colonized a Hemisphere,”
U.S. News & World Report
(August 4, 2008); Franklin Folsom,
Black Cowboy: The Life and Legend of George McJunkin
(Lanham, Md.: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1992); Evan Hadingham, “America’s First Immigrants,”
Smithsonian
(November 2004); Marc Kaufman, “Human Traces Found to Be Oldest in N. America,”
Washington Post
(April 4, 2008); Michael D. Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman, “Who Were the First Americans?,”
Time
(March 13, 2006); Julian Smith, “Proof of a Pre-Clovis People?,”
American Archaeology
(winter 2009–2010); and John Noble Whitford, “New Answers to an Old Question: Who Got Here First?,”
New York Times
(November 9, 1999).

Special thanks to:
Betsy Duncan-Clark at Great Basin National Park; my terrific guide Bryan Petrtyl; and Terry Marasco at the Silver Jack Inn.
Publications:
Peter Browning,
John Muir in His Own Words: A Book of Quotations
(Lafayette, Calif.: Great West Books, 1988); Michael P. Cohen,
A Garden of Bristlecones: Tales of Change in the Great Basin
(Reno: University
of Nevada Press, 1998); Donald R. Currey, “An Ancient Bristlecone Pine Stand in Eastern Nevada,”
Ecology
(vol. 46, no. 4); Carl T. Hall, “Staying Alive: High in California’s White Mountains Grows the Oldest Living Creature Ever Found,”
San Francisco Chronicle
(August 23, 1998); Ronald M. Lanner,
The Bristlecone Book: A Natural History of the World’s Oldest Trees
(Missoula, Mont.: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2007); National Park Service, “Ancient Trees: Great Basin Bristlecone Pines” (undated fact sheet); Michael L. Nicklas,
Great Basin: The Story Behind the Scenery
(Las Vegas: KC Publications, 1996); and Richard Preston, “Tall for Its Age: Climbing a Record-Breaking Redwood,”
The New Yorker
(October 9, 2006).