Travel With Annita and Friends

The True Story Of Black Cowboys in America Do you want to know the true story of Black Cowboys in America? Well, let’s start with a single star. That’s what you’ll find on the Texas state quarter, one lone star, standing over the shape of a state so vast it became its own legend. Simple. Solitary. Unyielding. But here’s what that coin doesn’t show you,  and what most of American history has chosen not to show you either. Behind that lone star were thousands of men who rode before dawn and slept under open sky. Men who crossed rivers that didn’t want to be crossed, drove cattle through storms that didn’t care who they were, and built an entire industry with their hands, their horsemanship, and a courage that asked for nothing in return, and got very little. One in four of them were Black. They were formerly enslaved men who carried skills learned under bondage into freedom, and rode that freedom straight into the American West. They were the first cowboys in Texas. They were the backbone of the great cattle drives. And for more than a century, their names were left off the poster, cut out of the film, and written out of the story. Not today. Welcome to Quarter Miles,  where every coin opens a door, and behind this one is a story that is long overdue. Today we are riding with the Black cowboys,  the men who built the trail that everyone else got the credit for. We are sharing the true story of Black Cowboys in America. Stay with us. You are going to want to hear every mile of this. Dr. Ronald W. Davis, II a historian, scholar, professor and curator takes us on a ride along with Black Cowboys – from their time enslaved until today. Are you interested in reading Nat Love’s book?  The Life and Adventures of Nat Love  (Affiliate link)

Declaration of Independence – The Promise and the Price There is a document. Fifty-six men signed it. Some did so knowing it was an act of treason. Some signed it knowing they might hang for it. Some signed it in the trembling hope that the words they were putting their names to — words about equality, about liberty, about the God-given rights of every human being — might actually become true someday. It is 1,320 words long. It took Thomas Jefferson seventeen days to write the first draft. It took the Continental Congress three days to argue over it, cut it, revise it, and finally accept it. It took the British Crown no time at all to declare it an act of rebellion. And it took America nearly a hundred years — and a Civil War — to begin to reckon with the distance between what it promised and what it delivered. The Declaration of Independence is not a law. It has no enforcement mechanism. It cannot send anyone to jail, levy a tax, or raise an army. And yet it may be the most consequential piece of writing in the history of the modern world — because it did something no government document had ever quite done before. It told a story about what human beings deserve simply by virtue of being human. We hold these truths to be self-evident. Self-evident. Not argued. Not proved. Simply true, in the way that the sky is blue and the earth turns. The men who wrote those words knew they were not describing the world as it was. They were describing the world as it ought to be — and daring anyone to argue otherwise. Now picture the room where those words were born. Philadelphia. July 1776. The city is sweltering. The streets smell of horses and printer’s ink and unwashed men who have been arguing for weeks inside a building with the windows nailed shut — nailed shut because they are afraid the wrong ears will hear what they are saying inside. What they are saying inside is treason. Fifty-six delegates from thirteen colonies are gathered in that room. Outside, a British fleet is massing off the coast of New York. The Continental Army is outgunned, outmanned, and underfunded. The revolution, if you want to be honest about it, is not going particularly well. And yet inside that room, a 33-year-old Virginia lawyer named Thomas Jefferson — red-haired, almost pathologically shy in person, but electric on paper — has written something that is about to change the course of human history. Not because it commands an army. Not because it raises a navy. But because it says something that once it is said out loud, in public, in ink, cannot be unsaid. These are the fifty-six men who said it anyway. Who picked up a pen in that sweltering room, in that sweltering summer, and signed their names to an idea so dangerous, so radical, so stubbornly human — that a king across an ocean called it rebellion, and a nation two and a half centuries later still calls it home. This is their story. This is Quarter Miles Travel. And today, we’re going back to 1776. I’ve had listeners ask me, more than once, and I mean that with real warmth and no judgment at all, whether the Revolutionary War and the Civil War were the same event. One listener asked if the Declaration of Independence was signed to end slavery. Another asked if George Washington fought against the Confederacy. There is absolutely nothing embarrassing about these questions. First: the Declaration of Independence. Adopted July 4, 1776. This is the moment the American colonies formally declared they were no longer subjects of the British Crown, a political and philosophical announcement, made in writing, asserting that they intended to become a free and independent nation. Second: the Revolutionary War. Now here’s the first surprise for a lot of folks, the war actually started before the Declaration, back in April 1775, at Lexington and Concord. The fighting had already been going on for over a year by the time Congress formally declared independence. The war then continued for eight more years, finally ending with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Third: the Civil War, and this one happened a full 78 years after the Declaration, and 80 years after the Revolution began. It started in 1861 and ended in 1865. This was Americans fighting Americans, over whether the union would survive and whether slavery would continue to exist in this country. Now, why does the order and the spacing here matter so much? Because each of these events answers a completely different question. The Declaration answers the question: can a people declare themselves free, and define what they believe a government owes its citizens? The Revolutionary War answers the question: will that declared freedom actually be won and defended? And the Civil War answers a question the founding generation left unresolved, does “all men are created equal” actually mean what it says, for everyone, or just for some? That’s the heart of it. The Declaration made a promise. The Revolution fought to secure the right to make good on that promise. And the Civil War, eight decades later, was the price the nation paid for not having kept that promise the first time around. Why July 4, 1776 and Why That Date Is More Layered Than It Looks Not the start of the war. Not the end of the war. The moment America declared, in writing, what it intended to become. But here’s something worth knowing, because it surprises almost everyone the first time they hear it: July 4th isn’t actually the date the colonies voted for independence, and it isn’t the date most signers actually signed the document either. Congress voted to approve independence on July 2, 1776. Two days later, on July 4th, Congress formally adopted the final edited text of the Declaration, that’s the date that’s printed on the document, and that’s the date we celebrate. But the actual signing of the parchment copy by most delegates didn’t happen until August 2, 1776, nearly a full month later,  and a few signatures weren’t added until early the following year. Celebrating the moment the *idea itself* became official, independent of the political vote that came before it, and independent of the individual men who later put their names to it one by one over the following months. And here’s one more date worth knowing: John Adams himself believed history would remember July 2nd, the day of the actual vote, as America’s true day of independence, not July 4th. He even refused for years to attend July 4th celebrations on principle. There’s a strange and rather wonderful postscript to that stubbornness: Adams died on July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after the Declaration’s adoption, and so, in a twist of fate, did Thomas Jefferson, on the very same day. Two of the document’s most important architects, gone on the fiftieth anniversary of the day their words became official. Why This Matters for All of Us? Here’s why I think this anniversary matters. Both of those things are true at the same time. And I think honoring this means holding both of them, the pride and the honest reckoning, together, without flinching from either one. Let’s dig into the document itself, the Declaration of Independence. Where it came from, why the colonists felt they needed it, and some details about the people and the room where it happened that I think you’ll find genuinely fascinating. To understand why colonists wanted independence, you have to understand what it actually felt like to live as an American colonist in the years leading up to 1776, because this wasn’t abstract politics for ordinary people. It touched daily life directly. After Britain’s expensive victory in the French and Indian War, Parliament looked to the colonies to help pay down the war debt. Starting with the Stamp Act of 1765, Britain began directly taxing colonists for the first time, and I mean directly touching everyday transactions. Newspapers needed a stamp. Legal documents needed a stamp. Even playing cards needed a stamp. Imagine every receipt, every deed, every contract suddenly costing more because of a tax imposed by a government three thousand miles away, in which colonists had no elected representation whatsoever. That’s where “no taxation without representation” comes from, and it wasn’t an abstract slogan, it was colonists experiencing, in their pocketbooks, day after day, a government making decisions about their lives without their consent. Then came the Townshend Acts, taxing glass, paper, paint, and tea. British troops were sent to enforce order in cities like Boston, and having armed soldiers stationed in your town, watching your streets, created constant friction. That friction exploded into violence in March 1770, when British soldiers killed five colonists in what became known as the Boston Massacre, including a man named Crispus Attucks, who was of African and Native American descent, and who became the first person to die for the cause of American independence. Then in December 1773, colonists boarded British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water, the Boston Tea Party, protesting a tea monopoly that was undercutting local merchants. Britain’s response was the turning point: rather than treating this as an isolated incident, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, closing Boston Harbor entirely and stripping Massachusetts of its self-governance. And here’s the key thing, this terrified colonists everywhere, not just in Massachusetts, because it proved that Parliament could punish an entire colony’s self-government over a single act of protest. If it could happen to Massachusetts, it could happen to anyone. That fear is what finally pulled the colonies together. Drafting the Document – By 1776, the Second Continental Congress had been meeting in Philadelphia for over a year, managing a war that had already begun at Lexington and Concord. In June 1776, Congress appointed a Committee of Five to draft a formal declaration of independence: Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York. Here’s a detail a lot of people don’t know, Jefferson was actually the junior member of that committee in terms of reputation at the time. Adams and Franklin were both far more famous. But the committee asked Jefferson to write the first draft, partly because of his elegant writing style, and partly, by Adams’s own later account, because Adams thought Jefferson should get the credit, and because, frankly, Adams knew he himself was disliked by enough people in Congress that his authorship might hurt the document’s reception. Jefferson wrote the draft largely alone, in a rented room in Philadelphia, over about seventeen days in June 1776. Franklin and Adams reviewed and made small edits before it went to the full Congress. Once Jefferson’s draft reached the full Congress on June 28, they spent several days editing it extensively, cutting roughly a quarter of his original text. Jefferson, by his own account, found this process genuinely painful, he sat through it mostly in silence while his words were debated and cut. The most significant deletion, and this is something I think deserves much wider attention, was a long passage where Jefferson condemned King George III for perpetuating the slave trade. It was removed specifically at the insistence of delegates from Georgia and South Carolina, whose economies depended on slavery, along with some Northern delegates whose merchants profited from the slave trade as well. So even in the drafting of America’s founding document of liberty, the question of slavery was already present, already contested, and already being set aside rather than confronted. The Building and the City – The Declaration was debated and adopted in the Pennsylvania State House, the building we now call Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. Philadelphia was the largest city in the colonies at the time, with around 30,000 to 40,000 people, and its central location and established institutions made it the natural meeting place for delegates traveling from as far as New Hampshire and Georgia. A little-known detail: the famous chair John Hancock sat in while presiding over Congress is still in that room today, carved with a sun on its crest rail. Benjamin Franklin reportedly remarked, after the Constitutional Convention met in that same room eleven years later, that he’d spent the whole summer wondering whether that carved sun was rising or setting, and had finally decided it was rising. When It Was Finalized, and When It Was Actually Signed – This is where the calendar gets interesting, and where most people’s assumptions are slightly off. July 2, 1776 — Congress actually voted to approve independence. July 4, 1776 — Congress formally adopted the final, edited text of the Declaration. This is the date on the document, and it’s the date we celebrate — but it marks the adoption of the text, not a dramatic mass signing ceremony with everybody in the room at once. August 2, 1776 — Most delegates actually signed the formal parchment copy, nearly a full month later. A few signed even later than that, as new delegates arrived in Philadelphia. The very last signature is believed to have been added in early 1777. So that single date, July 4th, that we treat as the day everything happened — it’s really the date Congress agreed on the wording. The actual signing was a much longer, messier process spread out over almost a year. July 8, 1776 — the Declaration was read publicly outside Independence Hall for the first time. July 9, 1776 — Washington had it read aloud to his troops in New York City, and that same evening, crowds pulled down a statue of King George III, reportedly melting the lead down into musket balls for the army. And one fun, related myth to clear up: the famous Liberty Bell did not ring out to announce the Declaration’s signing on July 4th, despite the popular story. There’s no contemporary evidence for that. The bell hung in that very building’s tower and was likely used to call people together generally, but the dramatic image of it tolling at that specific moment is a later embellishment. The bell’s strong association with liberty actually came later, championed by abolitionists who pointed to its inscription — “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof” — as a pointed reminder of America’s unfinished promise. Moving over to talk about the 56 men who signed the document.  I want to say this clearly: looking honestly at the signers’ relationship to slavery isn’t about tearing down history or judging people centuries removed from us by today’s standards alone. It’s about telling the whole truth of this moment, because the most quoted line in the entire Declaration is “all men are created equal,” and a remarkable number of the men who signed those words held other human beings in bondage while they did it. That contradiction isn’t a footnote to the story. It is part of the story, and it’s part of why, eighty-some years later, this country tore itself apart in a civil war to finally begin reckoning with it. Of the 56 signers, the historical record shows that the overwhelming majority, somewhere in the range of 40 or more, owned enslaved people at some point in their lives, either at the time of signing or before. A handful are documented as never having been slaveholders. And for several, especially among lesser-known signers, the record is simply uncertain, historians haven’t been able to confirm one way or the other. But the real story isn’t just the raw number. It’s the pattern, and that pattern breaks down very clearly along regional lines. New England – The Most Likely Region to Have No Slaveholders Massachusetts gives us our clearest cluster of non-slaveholders: John Adams, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, and Robert Treat Paine all signed without ever owning another human being. But even Massachusetts isn’t perfectly clean, John Hancock, the most famous signer of all, the man whose giant signature gave us the phrase “John Hancock”, he himself was a documented slaveholder. New Hampshire shows the same complexity in miniature. William Whipple, a merchant and ship captain from Portsmouth, enslaved a man named Prince Whipple — the same Prince Whipple believed to be the Black figure in that famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. William Whipple did eventually free him. But Prince crossed that icy river, by every reasonable account, as an enslaved man serving the master who would one day sign a document proclaiming all men created equal. Connecticut leans non-slaveholding too, Samuel Huntington and Roger Sherman, who helped draft the Declaration itself alongside Jefferson, are both listed as not slaveholders. The Middle Colonies – A Mixed and Surprising Picture This is where it gets genuinely interesting, because people often assume the North was simply “anti-slavery” and the South was simply “pro-slavery.” New York tells a different story entirely. Every single one of New York’s four signers, William Floyd, Francis Lewis, Philip Livingston, and Lewis Morris,  was a slaveholder. New York City and the surrounding region had a significant enslaved population well into the founding era, a fact that often surprises people. New Jersey is similarly mixed, including John Witherspoon, a clergyman and college president, the man who led what’s now Princeton University, who was a slaveholder. And Pennsylvania, home to the strongest Quaker abolitionist tradition in the colonies, still produced slaveholding signers: Robert Morris, the financier who personally helped fund the Continental Army, owned enslaved people. So did Benjamin Rush, a physician, though Rush’s story has a redemptive turn, because he later freed the man he enslaved and became one of the era’s most prominent abolitionists. And Benjamin Franklin himself enslaved people earlier in his life before becoming, in his later years, a genuine abolitionist voice. These are stories of people whose views actually changed over time, which matters, because it shows the moral question wasn’t settled or static even within individual lives. The South,  Near-Universal, and at an Entirely Different Scale When we move into Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, the picture shifts from “mixed” to “nearly universal”, and the scale of slaveholding becomes dramatically larger. Virginia’s delegation is almost entirely slaveholders: Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, and of course, Thomas Jefferson himself, the man who wrote “all men are created equal,” who enslaved roughly 600 people over the course of his life and freed fewer than a dozen. I think that number is worth letting sit in the air for a moment. Six hundred people. Fewer than a dozen freed. The author of the line that has inspired liberation movements across the entire world. Maryland gives us Charles Carroll, one of the wealthiest men in all of America, who enslaved hundreds of people on his estates. South Carolina’s entire four-man delegation, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., and Arthur Middleton, were all slaveholders, all wealthy planters from the Charleston area. Georgia’s Signers – Since We’re Broadcasting Right Here at Home Let’s bring this close to home, because Georgia’s three signers tell a particularly Georgia story. Button Gwinnett was a merchant and planter on St. Catherines Island, and he enslaved people on his plantation there. He’s also got one of the more dramatic personal stories of any signer, he died in a duel just a year after signing, in 1777, following a wartime political dispute, making him one of the first signers to die after putting his name on the document. Lyman Hall was a physician and planter from Sunbury, Georgia, also a documented slaveholder, and interestingly, Hall wasn’t originally from Georgia at all. He’d relocated from Connecticut, which tells you something about how fluid and new Georgia’s colonial population still was at the time of the Revolution. George Walton was a Savannah lawyer, and his record is listed as uncertain, historians haven’t been able to confirm definitively whether he held enslaved people, which is actually true for a fair number of the lesser-documented signers across all the colonies. Georgia’s economy at the time, like the rest of the Deep South, was already deeply structured around enslaved labor, particularly in the rice and indigo plantations along the coast, near where Gwinnett and Hall both lived. The Northern colonies’ economies were increasingly built around trade, shipping, and small-scale manufacturing,  slavery existed there. So when this document declared “all men are created equal” and was signed by 56 men, more than 40 of whom enslaved other human beings, that wasn’t an accident, and it wasn’t really even a contradiction the founders failed to notice. Many of them noticed it explicitly, debated it explicitly, and chose, for reasons of money, power, and political survival, to leave it unresolved. That unresolved question is the one this country would spend the next 89 years not addressing, until the Civil War finally forced the reckoning. We began today with a document. Not a law. Not a treaty. Not a command. Just words. Ink on parchment. The quiet, audacious insistence of fifty-six men who believed that what they were writing was true — even when the world around them said otherwise. But here is what those words unleashed. The Declaration was the promise. Made in a sweltering room in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776, when the outcome was uncertain, the enemy was powerful, and the cost was very much unknown. It was a promise made not just to a king across an ocean, but to every human being who would ever live under the flag that didn’t yet exist. A promise that you are born with rights. That no government gave them to you. That no government can take them away. The Revolution was the action. It was farmers and fishermen and free Black sailors and enslaved men who fought for the freedom of a nation that had not yet decided what to do with their own. It was Washington crossing an icy river in the dark. It was the shot heard round the world on a bridge in Concord. It was fifty-six signatures that turned a promise into a war — and a war into a nation. And the Civil War was the price. Because the promise had a crack running through it from the very beginning. The same men who wrote that all men are created equal went home to plantations. The same document that declared liberty self-evident protected the machinery of slavery in its silences. And so eighty-five years after Philadelphia, the nation tore itself apart along that crack — 620,000 lives lost, cities burned, families destroyed — paying in blood the debt that the Declaration had deferred. Promise. Action. Price. Three chapters of the same story. And here is the thing about that story — it is not finished. The Declaration of Independence is the most remarkable founding document in human history not because it described a perfect nation. It didn’t. It described a worthy one. It set a standard so high, so stubbornly idealistic, so radically human, that every generation since has had to decide what it means to live up to it — and what it costs when we don’t. That is the gift and the burden of being American. You inherit a promise you didn’t make. You are bound by a standard you didn’t set. And you are handed, along with that promise and that standard, something extraordinary — the right to fight for it. Not just the right. The responsibility. Because the Declaration doesn’t just tell you what you deserve. It tells you that you are the one who has to make it true. Two hundred and fifty years later, the argument is still going. The work is still unfinished. The promise is still being kept and broken and kept again in the way that promises made by imperfect people in imperfect times always are — imperfectly, stubbornly, generation after generation, refusing to let go of what those fifty-six men dared to write down. We hold these truths to be self-evident. They weren’t self-evident then. They aren’t always self-evident now. But we keep holding them. That is the whole of it. That is the American experiment, still running, still argued over, still worth every word. Thank you for taking this journey with me today. And wherever your travels take you next, go find the places where history happened. Stand in the rooms. Walk the battlefields. Read the documents. Touch the past. Because the only way to understand where we are going is to know, truly know, where we have been. Until next time — keep moving, keep questioning, and keep traveling. Listen to – America 250 – What Are We Celebrating  U.S. Mint Semiquincentennial Quarter – The Declaration of Independence Photos courtesy of U.S. Mint “The 2026 Declaration of Independence quarter obverse features Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States. The reverse depicts the Liberty Bell ringing. While it is unclear whether it rang out in July 1776, the Liberty Bell often rang to draw people near and share an announcement, or a declaration. The Bell’s crack is visible; the fragility of the Bell echoing the fragility of a young nation at its founding.” – U.S. Mint

Expert Cruise Excursions Tips Photos from the many excursions Nichole and I enjoyed during our Alaska cruise. We choose great experiences that are wonderful memories for years to come.

The Little Known Stories of The Alamo The Little Known Stories of The Alamo are filled with fascinating people who did more than fought, they lived in the details. Deep in the heart of Texas stands a mission that became a symbol far greater than stone walls and cannon fire. The Alamo is a story of sacrifice, courage, and a fight that helped shape the spirit of Texas and the American West. We step inside one of America’s most legendary battlegrounds. History often remembers the heroes whose names were carved into legend. But at the Alamo, there were also cooks, mothers, children, laborers, soldiers, Tejano families, and everyday people caught inside a moment that would change history forever. Today on Travel With Annita, we go beyond the battle itself to uncover the human stories of the people who lived, worked, sacrificed, and endured at the Alamo. Here is a link to The Complete Guide to San Antonio’s Five Missions filled with information and tips to plan a trip to San Antonio visit The Alamo and the five UNESO World Heritage Site missions. Plus, there is so much more to see and do. Read the story of The Woman Who Saved the Alamo – The Life and Legacy of Adina De Zavala Photos

The Liberty Tree America’s Beginning Story “Reach into your pocket… pull out a coin… and let it take you back… to a time when freedom wasn’t guaranteed… it was imagined.” Before there were monuments… before there were battlefields marked in history books… there was a tree.Not grand. Not famous—at least not at first. Just a 120-year-old elm… standing at the corner of Essex and Washington Streets in Boston. But in 1765… that tree became something more. It became the Liberty Tree. This was a time when tensions between the American colonies and Great Britain were reaching a boiling point. The Stamp Act had just been passed… taxing everything from newspapers to playing cards. And for many colonists… it wasn’t just about money. It was about control. About voice. About freedom. So a small group of patriots—known as the Loyal Nine, the forerunners to the Sons of Liberty—decided to make a statement. On August 14, 1765… they hung an effigy of British tax collector Andrew Oliver from the branches of that elm tree. As crowds gathered… anger grew. The effigy was cut down, beheaded, burned—and the protest moved through the streets of Boston. But it always came back… to the tree. Soon after, a copper sign appeared on its trunk. It read simply: “Tree of Liberty.” And from that moment on… the tree became a gathering place. A meeting ground. A symbol. The Sons of Liberty met beneath its branches. Plans were made. Protests were organized. Ideas of resistance… turned into action. They called the area “Liberty Hall.” And what happened there helped spark a revolution. The idea didn’t stay in Boston. It spread. Across the colonies—Rhode Island… Maryland… New York… Communities named their own Liberty Trees. And when there was no tree? They built Liberty Poles—tall wooden masts used to post messages, rally crowds, and declare defiance. Because this wasn’t just about a place. It was about what that place represented. A living symbol of resistance. Of unity. Of people standing together and saying— We will decide our future. And the British knew it. In 1775… they cut the original Liberty Tree down. Not because it was just a tree…But because it had become too powerful. But even then…the movement didn’t end. Colonists renamed the site the Liberty Stump…raised a pole in its place…and kept gathering. Because once an idea takes root…you can’t cut it down. Now here’s the part of the story that doesn’t always get told. When we talk about the Sons of Liberty… we often picture a narrow group. But the truth? The crowds gathered around the Liberty Tree were far more diverse. Black… white… and Native American laborers, sailors, and free men stood together beneath those branches. Listening. Watching. Participating. One of the most powerful figures connected to this movement is Crispus Attucks. A dockworker of African and Native American descent… Attucks became the first person killed in the Boston Massacre in 1770. He stood at the front of a protest—fueled by the same spirit that lived beneath the Liberty Tree. His death would become a turning point. A spark. And a reminder that the fight for liberty came at a cost… paid by many. And then there’s …..Phillis Wheatley. A young Black poet living in Boston at the time…She used her voice—her words—to support the movement. When a young boy named Christopher Seider was killed during the unrest, thousands gathered… and marched past the Liberty Tree. Wheatley wrote a poem honoring him. Her work gave voice to the emotion of the moment…and helped shape the narrative of liberty itself. We also see figures like Prince Hall, who wasn’t a member of the Sons of Liberty… but understood the power of the word liberty. He took that language—and pushed it further. Asking a deeper question: If liberty is worth fighting for…who gets to have it? And in New York…Joseph Allicocke—a merchant believed by some historians to be of African ancestry—was part of the leadership shaping resistance there. For Black Americans—enslaved and free—the Liberty Tree represented something profound. Not just political freedom…but the hope of personal freedom. A promise… not yet fulfilled. Even after the Revolution… the symbol lived on. When the Marquis de Lafayette returned to America in 1824…he made a special stop in Boston. Not for a building. Not for a monument. But for the place where the Liberty Tree once stood. By then… the tree was gone. Only a stump remained. But it didn’t matter. Because the meaning was still there. Liberty Trees even spread beyond America—to France, Italy, and Germany—as symbols of revolution and the power of the people. “So the next time you think about the American Revolution… don’t just think about battles… or documents… or famous names. Think about a tree.   Photos of Liberty Trees as they seek to remind us of what our country was built on. First up is the first U.S. Mint medal, sculpted by Ralph Menconi, depicted George Washington on the obverse in 1972. The reverse displayed the Liberty Tree with a two-shilling six-pence British Royal colonial stamp and a colonial “JOIN OR DIE” flag along with the words “SONS OF LIBERTY” across the top.   1972 medal coin made by the U.S. Mint representing the Liberty Tree along with on the reverse or tails side stating J”OIN OR DIE” (stamped on a depiction of Benjamin Franklin’s iconic colonial flag)”II SHILLING VI PENCE” (written on a reproduction of a British colonial Stamp Act stamp.   On the obverse (heads) side of the metal is the image of George Washington   A young Liberty Tree was planted outside of George Washington’s Headquarters in downtown Cumberland, Maryland, and is among the 15 trees that comprise Allegany County’s Liberty Tree Trail. Photo courtesy of Champ Zumbrun   Davey Tree Expert Company brings in a bucket truck to help Champ Zumbrun harvest seedlings at St. John’s College each fall. Photo courtesy of Champ Zumbrun     The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown Liberty Tree Exhibit Above two photos are courtesy of The American Revolution Museum in Yorktown. The perfect place to learn more about all aspects of the American Revolution, America’s 250th history and those who help create a nation. The Liberty Tree at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown is an interactive 17-foot sculptural elm tree rooted in the museum’s main galleries. Visitors can use a touchscreen station to type what liberty means to them, and their message will appear on an electronic lantern hanging from the branches. The museum’s tree represent both history and symbolism The Original “Liberty Tree”: During the 1760s, colonists in Boston used a stately elm tree on the Boston Common as a gathering place to protest British rule and the Stamp Act. It quickly became a powerful symbol of objection to British policies across the colonies. The Lanterns: The tradition of hanging lanterns in the branches dates back to March 1766, when Bostonians lit up their Liberty Tree to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act. Global Messages: The interactive tree in Yorktown bridges the historic tradition with the present day, featuring 20 illuminated lanterns that share liberty messages from both historical figures and modern visitors from all over the world. Plan a trip to visit the museum. Location: The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown is located at 200 Water Street, Yorktown, VA 23690. Admission: Access to the Liberty Tree and indoor immersive exhibits is included with regular museum admission. Hours & Tickets: For up-to-date hours, ticket pricing, and special event schedules, visit the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation website.  History of The Liberty Tree Articles St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland The Liberty Tree Trail For a visit to learn more, experience more and reflect on the symbols of the Libert Tree, take a walk on the Liberty Tree Trail. [“The Liberty Tree Trail links 15 living Liberty Tree descendants that were planted on public lands across Allegany County. Each tree was grown from seeds collected from a scion of the old Liberty Tree in Annapolis, Maryland, which was the last surviving Liberty Tree of the original 13 colonies. That towering tulip poplar, which stood on the campus of St. John’s College in Annapolis, fell in 1999, but its legacy lives on through descendant trees that have been intentionally planted elsewhere. It’s believed that Allegany County has the largest known concentration of living Liberty Tree descendants in the United States, and all are accessible to the public. Visitors can follow this living story at public sites along the C&O Canal Towpath, in Green Ridge State Forest, in community parks, outside libraries and historic sites, and nestled within historic landscapes. All 15 trees are located in places where heritage and outdoor recreation naturally intersect, which is the hallmark of Allegany County’s travel experience. The Liberty Tree Trail offers a flexible, self-guided experience that invites visitors to explore at their own pace while discovering stories tied to America’s founding. Interactive maps, interpretive content and trip-planning resources are available online. Visitors can plan their trip here. The Liberty Tree Trail exists today thanks to the vision, dedication and long-term stewardship of Champ Zumbrun, a forester and Allegany County resident whose leadership helped guide the Liberty Tree Project and ensure this important piece of American history could be preserved and shared with the public.”]-  Courtesy of – Mindy Blanca PR. Special thanks- Champ Zumbrun Mindy Blanca American Revolution Museum Yorktown The Liberty Trail – Maryland Mountain Side History Channel American Battlefield Museum  

Episode 44: Yellowstone National Park Bison and Wolves 2010 America The Beautiful Quarters Coin Yellowstone Wyoming Uncirculated Reverse “Reach into your pocket… pull out a quarter… and let it take you somewhere unexpected.” Today… that quarter takes us to a place where the earth still breathes. Where steam rises from the ground…as if the land itself is telling a story. Where rivers carve through valleys unchanged by time…and where wildlife moves not for us…but as it always has. This is Yellowstone. A place that doesn’t ask to be understood—only respected. A place where you don’t just visit…You feel. Stand still for a moment in Yellowstone…and you begin to notice things differently. The quiet isn’t empty. It’s full. The ground beneath you isn’t still. It’s alive. And the distance between you and the horizon…feels just a little bit wider than anywhere else. And somehow… all of that is captured on something small enough to hold in your hand. The Yellowstone National Park Quarter. A single moment—Old Faithful rising into the sky…and a bison standing steady in the foreground. Geothermal wonder…and iconic wildlife… Existing side by side in one image. But Yellowstone is more than a beautiful place. It’s an idea. In 1872, under President Ulysses S. Grant,Yellowstone became the first national park in the United States— And the first in the world. At a time when land was something to be claimed, used, and developed…this was something entirely different. A decision to protect. To preserve. To say that this land—with all of its power, beauty, and life— Would belong to everyone. And more importantly…would be protected for those who had not yet seen it. And that decision…is why we can still stand here today. Still watch the geysers rise.Still see the bison move across the land.Still experience a place where nature leads. In this episode of Quarter Miles Travel,we’re going deeper into Yellowstone— Exploring the land…the wildlife…and the stories that continue to shape one of America’s most enduring places.

Destination: Yellowstone National Park Magnificent Bisons Yellowstone National Park – recorded discussion with Corey Anco Willis McDonald, IV Curator of Natural Science Draper National History Museum Transcript: As America approaches its 250th anniversary… we find ourselves doing something we don’t always make time for— Looking back. Not just at the headlines of history… but at the places that helped shape who we are. Because long before travel was about bucket lists and Instagram photos… it was about something much deeper. It was about discovery. Connection. And a sense of wonder about the land beneath our feet. And if there is one place in America that captures all of that— one place that reminds us who we are at our core— It is Yellowstone. This week on Travel With Annita, as part of our journey toward America’s 250th, we’re exploring the places that define this country…Not just as destinations— but as enduring symbols of who we’ve always been. And Yellowstone National Park…is where that story truly begins. Now, here’s something to think about. There was a time— when the idea of setting aside land… not for profit… not for development… but simply to protect it— Was unheard of. In the mid-1800s, America was expanding fast. Railroads were pushing west. Industry was growing. Land was something to be used. But then came the stories. Explorers returned from the Yellowstone region with accounts that sounded… almost unbelievable. They spoke of towering geysers that erupted like clockwork. Boiling hot springs in colors you couldn’t imagine. Vast valleys filled with roaming wildlife. Many people didn’t believe them. Until they saw the photographs. Photographer William Henry Jackson and artist Thomas Moran brought Yellowstone to life in a way words never could. Their images made it real. And those images made their way to Washington. In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant did something extraordinary. He signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act, making Yellowstone the first national park in the United States And the first in the world. Think about that. At a time when the country was still rebuilding after the Civil War… America made a decision not just about land. But about legacy. This land would be preserved. Protected. Left untouched for future generations. Not owned by individuals… but shared by everyone. And that decision? It changed everything. Because Yellowstone wasn’t just about scenery. It was about a new way of thinking. That nature had value beyond resources. That wilderness had meaning beyond expansion. That beauty… was worth protecting. And then there’s the wildlife. And, here’s where the story really comes alive for me…. I love visiting wildlife in their natural habitat.  Yellowstone is one of the last places in America where ecosystems still function…much like they did centuries ago. Bison roam freely, a living link to the past. Wolves, once removed from the park, have been reintroduced— restoring balance to the land. Elk, bears, eagles ….All part of a delicate system that depends on protection. Because when we protect wildlife…we’re not just saving animals. We’re preserving the story of the land itself. And that’s something we don’t always think about as travelers. When we visit places like Yellowstone… we’re not just seeing something beautiful— We’re stepping into something preserved. Something protected on purpose. And here’s where it connects to something you may have right in your pocket. As part of the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program— Yellowstone was selected to be featured on a U.S. quarter. The Yellowstone National Park Quarter, released in 2010, captures two of the park’s most powerful symbols in a single design. In the background – Old Faithful… rising into the sky. And in the foreground……an American bison. Strong. Grounded. Enduring. Together, they tell a deeper story….. one of geothermal wonder and iconic wildlife… existing side by side in one image. And that’s what Yellowstone represents. A place where the earth is still shaping itself… and where life continues to move across it, just as it has for generations. As we approach America’s 250th anniversary… Yellowstone reminds us of something important. That progress and preservation can exist together. That growth doesn’t have to come at the cost of everything. And that sometimes… the most forward-thinking thing a nation can do— Is protect what matters most. Yellowstone isn’t just America’s first national park. It’s a promise. A promise that some places… some stories…and some pieces of history…..Are meant to endure. Coming up next… we’ll continue our journey through America’s story— exploring how yellowstone is home to two of America’s most fascinating, interesting an intriguing animals – the bison and grey wolf.  Yes there are other animals which define yellowstone, but, I’ve pull out these two – they’re my favorites  And they are wildlife that helped shape the very idea of conservation in America. And later in the show… we’re going to step deeper into that story. Conversation with Cody Anco – Willis McDonald IV Curator of Natural Science at the Draper Natural History Museum Now it’s time to plan your trip to Yellowstone with a stay in Cody Wyoming. Here’s your guide to planning and preparing for a stay in Cody Tourism website for Cody codyyellowstone.org To hear my full interview with Corey and much, much more about bison and wolves, visit my website travel with annita dot com to hear my podcast – quarter. Miles travel and U.S. Mint’s Yellowstone quarter . More info. .  Photos courtesy of Julia Cook  – Wildlife photographer Photographs courtesy of Corey Anco

Episode 43:  Florida State Quarter Three Woman Change Space Exploration Photo courtesy U.S. Mint – Florida State Quarters Coin Florida State Quarter US Mint release in 2004 features stories and history. Let’s start with- “Space… the last frontier.” A place that has always called to us—quietly, persistently—asking us to look up and wonder what lies beyond. It is the great unknown… vast, silent, and infinite. And yet, it feels deeply personal. Because space isn’t just about distance or discovery— it’s about possibility. It’s about curiosity. It’s about the human desire to go further than we’ve ever gone before… and to understand our place in something far greater than ourselves.” Three women have reach beyond the bound of earth and traveled among the stars and today we say their names and we share their stories.  Today… a quarter helps us tell that story – a quarter takes us to Florida. To the Space Coast. To Kennedy Space Center. To a place where history doesn’t sit still—it launches. But this isn’t just a story about rockets. It’s about people. It’s about possibility. And it’s about three women who helped redefine who gets to go to space. We’ll start with the coin. The Florida State Quarter, released in 2004, tells its own story. On the reverse side, you’ll find: A space shuttle launching into the sky A Spanish galleon, representing early exploration And the words: “Gateway to Discovery” And that phrase, Gateway to Discovery, isn’t just poetic. It’s literal. Because right here… in Cape Canaveral… Florida became the launch point for America’s journey into space. That shuttle on the coin? It represents decades of innovation, ambition, and risk. But what the coin doesn’t show— is who was onboard. To understand the full story, you have to stand on the ground where it happened. Kennedy Space Center is where America’s boldest dreams took flight. It began in 1958, when NASA was created. On the 29th of July 1958 President Dwight Eisenhower signed the bill that established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. On the 1st of  October 1958 NASA began operations to perform civilian research related to space flight and aeronautics. On the 25th  May 1961 President John F. Kennedy announced his ambitious goal of sending an American to the moon before the end of the decade. Just three years later, after NASA was created President Kenney made a promise that would define a generation: To land a man on the moon, and bring him home safely, before the decade was out. To make that promise real, NASA needed a launch site that could support something never done before. So they built it. More than 80,000 acres. Massive launch pads. The towering Vehicle Assembly Building—still one of the largest structures in the world. From here: Apollo 8 became the first mission to leave Earth’s orbit Apollo 11 launched toward the moon And the space shuttle era redefined space travel This place is more than history—it’s momentum. But for a long time…the people who made that history all looked the same. Well…. That is …Until they didn’t. Enter Sally Ride. Born in California in 1951, she wasn’t just brilliant, she was driven. A physicist. A scholar. A top-ranked tennis player. And in 1977, she saw something that changed her life—a small newspaper ad from NASA. They were recruiting astronauts. She applied that day. Out of more than 8,000 applicants, she was selected. June 18, 1983. Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle Challenger lifts off. And with it, Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. At just 32 years old. She wasn’t a passenger. She was a mission specialist. She: Operated the shuttle’s robotic arm Deployed satellites Conducted scientific experiments But the media? They asked about makeup. About emotions. About motherhood. And Sally handled it with quiet strength. She once said: “Everybody wanted to know about what kind of makeup I was taking up,” Ride said. “They didn’t care about how well-prepared I was to operate the arm or deploy communications satellites.” Sally Ride didn’t just go to space, she made it possible for others to follow. She flew again. She investigated the Challenger disaster. She became a professor. She created programs encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers. In 1984, Ride went to space again for NASA mission STS-41G. This time, another female astronaut, Kathryn Sullivan, was on board the shuttle with her. This was the first time two women were in space together, and Sullivan became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk. We say Kathryn’s name too.  Sally was there  making history again.  You may have heard this before – sounding bold and proud – Americans saying – Ride, Sally, ride and that she did. ……She changed the narrative. Fast forward nearly four decades. In 2022, another barrier falls. Nicole Mann, a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, becomes the first Native American woman in space. She launches aboard a SpaceX Crew mission, a sign of a new era in space travel. But her journey started long before that. She was: A U.S. Marine Corps colonel A combat pilot An engineer She flew over 2,500 hours in an aircraft before ever going to space. And when she finally did,,,,,she carried more than her own achievement. She carried representation. She once said her mission was about showing Native children that they belong in every space, even one beyond Earth. And before Nicole Mann…there was Dr. Mae Jemison. In 1992, she became the first Black woman in space aboard the shuttle Endeavour. Mae Jemison wasn’t just an astronaut. She was: A medical doctor An engineer A Peace Corps physician A trained dancer She refused to be defined by one path. Jemison didn’t just break barriers— she expanded what was possible. She brought culture, creativity, and intellect into a space that had often been rigid. She famously said: “Never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination.” And she lived that truth. When you visit Kennedy Space Center today…You’ll see rockets. You’ll see spacecraft. You’ll see history. But if you look deeper— you’ll see something else. You’ll see change. You’ll see how access expanded. How voices grew louder. How representation shifted. So the next time you hold that Florida quarter… and you see that shuttle lifting into the sky…Remember—It carried more than astronauts. It carried history. It carried change. It carried possibility. So when we say or hear –  Space—the last frontier. What we are really saying is …. It’s where curiosity meets courage…where questions become journeys… and where the limits of Earth give way to the possibilities of the universe. For as long as we’ve been here, we’ve looked up—wondering what lies beyond. And in that moment of wonder… we begin to understand something powerful: that exploration isn’t just about reaching space… it’s about expanding who we are.”** From the founding of a nation to the launching of a spacecraft, the American story has always been one of exploration. And as we celebrate America’s history and accomplishments, we begin to see that the journey forward isn’t just measured in miles or missions… It’s measured in inclusion. In opportunity. And in the courage to make space—for everyone. As we reflect on these journeys—Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, Nicole Mann—we begin to see something larger taking shape. Not just individual accomplishments…but a broader story of progress. And as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the space program stands as one of the clearest reflections of who we are as a nation, and who we are becoming. From the earliest days of independence, America has defined itself by exploration—first across land, then across oceans, and eventually beyond the boundaries of Earth itself. The space program is a natural continuation of that spirit. It represents innovation, courage, and the willingness to pursue what has never been done before. But like the nation itself, the space program has evolved. In its early years, not everyone had a seat at the table. Over time, that changed—and that change made the program stronger. Women have been central to that transformation. From Sally Ride breaking barriers as the first American woman in space… to Mae Jemison expanding what representation looks like… to Nicole Mann carrying her heritage into orbit— Women have helped reshape not just who goes to space… but what space exploration means. And as we look toward America’s 250th anniversary, the space program offers more than a history lesson—it offers a roadmap. A reminder that progress requires inclusion. That innovation thrives on diversity. And that the future is built when more voices are part of the journey. Because in many ways… the next frontier isn’t just space— It’s who we invite to explore it. And when you stand at Kennedy Space Center today…looking out across those launch pads… You begin to understand—this story….. our story…..is still being written. Sally Ride, Nicole Mann, Mae Jemison – we say their names and we tell their stories.   Astronaut Sally Ride passed away on July 23rd 2012 – Following her death, it was revealed she was the first known LGBTQ astronaut. Her legacy lives on. She will always be remembered for her advocacy of STEM education ……inspiring young women to study and seek careers in Science.   Today Astronauts Mae Jemison and Nicole Mann continue their work to inspire and engage in who has a place in space – both on earth and beyond.   Mae Jemicson, she founded the Jemison Group, after her space flight.  …..focusing on developing technologies for the developing world.. truly a way for inclusion… Jemison also appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation and founded a science camp for students. She has taught at Dartmouth and Cornell. Nicole Mann continues her career in space travel –  actively training for future lunar missions…… well here’s my personal wish…….that she will be among the first women to land on the Moon. She continues supporting space operations following her 2023 return from commanding the six-month SpaceX Crew-5 mission. Sally Ride, Mae Jemison and Nicole Mann. ….. we say their names and we share their stories.   Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook – Quarter Miles Travel Subscribe to our podcast to be first to hear the flip of a quarter, where we say their names and we share their stories.

Destination: History of Augusta National Golf Club The History of Augusta National Golf Club From Indigo Fields to Magnolia Lane and the Untold Story of the Men Who Knew Every Blade of Grass “I shall never forget my first visit to the property which is now Augusta National. It seemed that this land had been lying here for years just waiting for someone to lay a golf course upon it.” — Bobby Jones Before the Green Jackets – The Land’s First Stories The history of Augusta National Golf Club has many twists and turns. Every April, the eyes of the golf world turn to a gentle, flower-draped stretch of Augusta, Georgia, where azaleas bloom in shades of pink and coral and the world’s best golfers walk beneath ancient oaks toward a destination that has become the most famous address in the sport. Augusta National Golf Club. Amen Corner. The Masters. Green jackets and birdie roars and Magnolia Lane. But the 365 acres that hold these legends carry stories far older and far more layered than the game of golf — stories of indigo, of peaches, of a Belgian family’s botanical ambitions, and of the Black men who, before anyone chased a trophy here, helped transform this land into what it became. To understand Augusta National fully, you have to begin not in 1934 with the first Masters Tournament, and not even in 1932 when Bobby Jones first walked the property. You have to begin in 1854, when an Irish-born indigo farmer named Dennis Redmond purchased the land and gave it a name that would echo through American horticultural history. Dennis Redmond and the Birth of Fruitland Dennis Redmond was not, by most accounts, a man of great historical fame. He was a practical farmer with an eye for what land could produce, and the 365-acre parcel he purchased from Augusta Judge Benjamin Warren was, in his vision, an opportunity. Redmond grew indigo on the land — the deep blue dye crop that had been essential to the colonial economy of the South for a century before the Civil War made its economic foundations untenable — but he also had grander ambitions. He named the property “Fruitland” and began filling it with life. Peaches, apples, grapes, strawberries, fruit trees of every variety he could obtain. He began construction of a large manor house on the property he called Fruitland Manor — a structure that would eventually become one of the most recognizable buildings in American sports. Believed to be the first concrete house built in the American South, its walls were 18 inches thick, its construction of lime, gravel, and sand. The house had seven rooms downstairs and seven up, and from its grounds one looked out over what Redmond had planted with such care. The property under Redmond was already beginning its transformation from plantation to nursery, from commodity agriculture toward something that would prove far more lasting — a legacy of botanical cultivation that would shape the appearance of an entire region and, eventually, one of the world’s most beautiful golf courses. The Berckmans: Horticulturists, Visionaries, and the Georgia Peach In 1857, a father and son arrived in Augusta from Belgium with dreams of building a world-class nursery. Louis Mathieu Eduard Berckmans and his son Prosper Julius Alphonse had traveled through Europe and America in search of the ideal climate and location for their botanical ambitions. Augusta, with its rich soil, mild winters, strong rail and water transportation links, and proximity to the markets of the Atlantic seaboard, was exactly what they were looking for. The Berckmans initially acquired a fifty percent ownership stake in Redmond’s Fruitland, and within a year, Prosper had assumed full ownership. He completed the construction of the manor house that Redmond had begun, transforming it into the Berckmans family mansion, and he planted along the long approach from Washington Road a double avenue of magnolia trees grown from seed — sixty-one trees that would one day become Magnolia Lane, the most famous driveway in golf. Those magnolia trees, planted in the 1850s, still stand today. Under Prosper Berckmans, Fruitland Nurseries became the most significant horticultural enterprise in the American South. The nursery imported plants from around the world — more than forty varieties of azalea were brought in, popularizing their use throughout the South and creating the flowering landscape that would one day become Augusta’s visual signature. Prosper also developed and improved hundreds of varieties of trees, shrubs, and fruits, and in 1858 he shipped the first commercial consignment of Georgia peaches to the New York market, an act that would launch one of the most important agricultural industries in the state’s history. Prosper Berckmans became known throughout the South as the “Father of Peach Culture.” Under his guidance, Fruitland developed and improved the Chinese Cling variety of peach, which eventually produced the primary commercial varieties that would make Georgia synonymous with the fruit — the Elberta, the Belle, and the Thurber. By 1861, Fruitland was producing over 300 kinds of peaches and countless other fruits and trees. When the first commercial Georgia peaches made their way north to New York City, they were being sold by a man whose family name would one day grace a hole at Augusta National: the fourth hole, named Flowering Peach. HORTICULTURAL LEGACY: The hole names at Augusta National are a direct homage to the Berckmans’ nursery. Each of the 18 holes is named after the flowering plant or shrub associated with it — Tea Olive, Pink Dogwood, Flowering Peach, Magnolia, Azalea, and more. Hole 13, Azalea, is home to over 1,600 azaleas of more than 30 different varieties. The plants that make Augusta National bloom every April in such extraordinary beauty are the living descendants of Prosper Berckmans’ botanical vision. Prosper Berckmans died in 1910, and the family business that bore his vision began to unravel. His will, which divided interests among his children from multiple marriages, created complications that the business could not survive. By 1918, less than a decade after his death, the Fruitland trade name was sold and the nursery formally closed. The land, with its magnolias and azaleas and flowering peaches, fell idle — a beautiful ruin waiting for its next chapter. In 1925, a Miami hotel developer named J. Perry Commodore Stoltz arrived with visions of a fifteen-story winter resort hotel. He poured some concrete foundations and then the Florida hurricane of that autumn swept away both his finances and his ambitions. The property sat idle again through the rest of the 1920s, its magnolias growing taller, its azaleas spreading wild, its manor house standing empty and magnificent — until a retired golfer came looking for a dream. Bobby Jones and the Creation of Augusta National Robert Tyre Jones Jr. was, by any measure, the greatest amateur golfer who ever lived. By the time he retired from competitive golf in 1930 at the age of twenty-eight, he had won thirteen major championships in just eight years, including in 1930 the Grand Slam — the British Amateur, the British Open, the U.S. Amateur, and the U.S. Open in a single calendar year — a feat that had never been accomplished before and has never been equaled since. He had nothing left to prove on the golf course. What he wanted, now, was to build one. Jones had always dreamed of a golf course of his own — a winter club in his native Georgia where friends and fellow golfers could gather in the mild months and play on a course of genuine championship quality. His vision was specific: rolling natural terrain that would challenge the best players in the world while remaining pleasurable for the average golfer. No excessive artificial hazards. Beauty and intelligence in every hole. A course that played the way great courses should — using the land rather than fighting it. His friend Clifford Roberts, a New York investment banker who would become the club’s inaugural chairman and the most powerful figure in its history, suggested Augusta as the location. A mutual friend introduced Jones to the abandoned Fruitland property. When Jones first walked through the magnolia avenue and out onto the rolling grounds, his response was immediate and famous. “I shall never forget my first visit to the property,” he wrote years later in Golf Is My Game. “The long lane of magnolias through which we approached was beautiful. The old manor house with its cupola and walls of masonry two feet thick was charming. The rare trees and shrubs of the old nursery were enchanting. But when I walked out on the grass terrace under the big trees behind the house and looked down over the property, the experience was unforgettable. It seemed that this land had been lying here for years just waiting for someone to lay a golf course upon it.” For $70,000, the property was his. The Fruitland Manor Corporation — whose officers were not initially identified — completed the purchase in June 1931. Weeks later, the Augusta Chronicle announced that Bobby Jones would build his ideal golf course on the Berckmans’ place. Designing the Course — Jones and MacKenzie Jones enlisted Dr. Alister MacKenzie, a Scottish-born golf course architect whose work at Cypress Point in California had already demonstrated a genius for creating courses of extraordinary natural beauty. The two men shared a philosophy: a great golf course should use the land as it finds it, enhancing rather than overriding the natural contours and vegetation. At Augusta, with its rolling hills, ancient trees, and botanical richness, they had the perfect canvas. The course was designed with a particular vision of the ideal golf hole — wide fairways that encouraged aggressive play, undulating greens that rewarded precision and punished carelessness, and a routing that created a sequence of escalating drama culminating in what would become the most famous stretch of holes in golf: the 11th, 12th, and 13th, named White Dogwood, Golden Bell, and Azalea, and known collectively as Amen Corner. Prosper Berckmans’ son Louis served as the new club’s horticultural advisor, working with Jones and Roberts to name each hole after its predominant flowering plant and ensuring that each hole would have its namesake plant growing along its length. It was a final act of continuity between the nursery that had been and the golf course that was becoming. Augusta National opened for play in January 1933 with eighty members, each contributing $100 toward the opening party. The Masters Tournament — From Invitation to Institution The inaugural Masters Tournament — then called the Augusta National Invitational — was held in March 1934. Horton Smith won that first tournament with a score of 284, defeating Craig Wood by one stroke. The gallery was small, the purse modest, the infrastructure rudimentary. But the tournament had something that no other golf event possessed: Bobby Jones was playing, and wherever Bobby Jones played, the world paid attention. Jones himself had not planned to compete in his own tournament. It was his friend and golfing mentor O.B. Keeler who persuaded him that the gallery deserved to see him play. Jones finished thirteenth that first year. By the time he retired from competition entirely, the tournament he had founded had taken on a life of its own — developing in the years following into the most prestigious event in American golf, renamed the Masters in 1939. Since 1934, the Masters has been held at Augusta National every April — the only major championship played at the same course every year. That consistency, combined with the course’s extraordinary beauty and dramatic scoring, has made it the most watched and most anticipated golf tournament in the world. Men on the Bag — The Black Caddies of Augusta National There is a story told at Augusta National that is every bit as important as the one about Bobby Jones and the magnolias. It is the story of the men who knew the course better than anyone — who read its greens by watching how rainwater flowed in the darkness, who could feel by the weight of a divot which way the grain was running, who guided the world’s greatest golfers to their most celebrated victories and then walked home to modest houses in nearby Sand Hills while the trophies and green jackets went to other men. For the first forty-eight years of Masters history — from the inaugural tournament in 1934 through 1982 — every golfer competing in the tournament was required to use one of Augusta National’s club caddies. Every one of those caddies was a Black man. This was not an accident of circumstance. It was a policy — rooted in the racial hierarchy of Jim Crow Georgia — decreed by Augusta National co-founder Clifford Roberts, who reportedly stated that as long as he was alive, all the golfers would be white and all the caddies would be Black. What those men made of that policy — the knowledge they built, the expertise they developed, the culture they created, and the victories they helped secure — is one of the most remarkable chapters in American sports history. Sand Hills — Where It All Began About ninety percent of Augusta National’s original caddie corps grew up in Sand Hills, a historically Black neighborhood located just three miles from the club, adjacent to Augusta Country Club. The majority of Sand Hills residents worked in the city’s cotton mills — steady but hard and poorly paid work. For the young men of Sand Hills, caddying offered a compelling alternative: outdoor work, fresh air, proximity to wealth and power, and wages that could dramatically outpace what the mills offered. Boys as young as ten or eleven would begin their careers at Augusta Country Club, learning the craft of caddying before working their way to the more prestigious assignments at Augusta National and, ultimately, to the most coveted bag of all: a slot in the Masters Tournament. Many other caddies came from the Turpin Hill neighborhood and from Gwinnett Street — now Laney Walker Boulevard, named for the great educator whose museum today preserves their stories. The path was not simply a matter of showing up and asking for work. There was a hierarchy, a culture of mentorship and learning, and above all the towering influence of one man who set the standard for what an Augusta caddie could and should be. Willie “Pappy” Stokes — The Godfather Willie Lee Stokes was born in 1920 on a parcel of the very land that would become Augusta National Golf Club. His family tended cotton and corn on the Fruitland property before Bobby Jones purchased it. As a child, Stokes watched the golf course being built around him, watched the trees being felled and the fairways being shaped and the greens being laid. He helped build Augusta National. When the course opened in 1932, a twelve-year-old Stokes was hired to carry water to the construction workers. When the rains came — as they frequently did in Augusta — he had nowhere to go but the course itself, and so he sat on the fairways and watched. He watched how water moved. He watched where it pooled, where it streamed, which way it ran toward Rae’s Creek. He learned, in the most intimate way possible, how the land breathed and moved and thought. That knowledge became his competitive advantage. Legend holds that Stokes could read any green on the Augusta National course with near-perfect accuracy, translating the flow of rainwater into predictions about how a putt would break. Clifford Roberts recognized his gift early and made Stokes his personal caddie. When the first Masters began in 1934, Roberts chose which player Stokes would work with each year. Stokes went on to win five Masters as a caddie — with Henry Picard (1938), Claude Harmon (1948), Ben Hogan (1951 and 1953), and Jack Burke Jr. (1956). He tied a record that would only be matched by one other caddie. He also ran Saturday morning “caddie school” for the boys of Sand Hills, passing on his knowledge of the course and the craft to the next generation of Augusta caddies. He was their teacher, their standard, and their inspiration. “I remember cutting down trees on No. 10 and No. 11,” Stokes once told the Augusta Chronicle. He watched those holes become two of the most famous in golf. He helped make them that way. Willie Lee “Pappy” Stokes died in 2006. His knowledge of Augusta National went with him — but his school had produced a generation of caddies who carried it forward. Willie “Pappy” Stokes “The Godfather of Caddies” Golfer(s) Clifford Roberts (personal), Henry Picard, Claude Harmon, Ben Hogan, Jack Burke Jr. Masters Wins 5 Masters wins (tied record) — 1938, 1948, 1951, 1953, 1956 Notable Story Born on the Fruitland property itself. Helped build Augusta National. Read greens by watching rainwater flow. Ran Saturday caddie school for Sand Hills boys. Personal caddie to Clifford Roberts. Nathaniel “Iron Man” Avery — The Man Behind Arnie’s Army Nathaniel Avery earned the nickname “Iron Man” from stories told about his extraordinary physical toughness — one version holding that he inadvertently severed a finger while playing golf with a hatchet, another that he injured a hand with powerful firecrackers. Whatever the origin, the name fit a man of legendary endurance and psychological fortitude. Avery was Arnold Palmer’s caddie for all four of Palmer’s Masters victories — in 1958, 1960, 1962, and 1964. The relationship between Palmer and Avery was one of the great caddie-golfer partnerships in the sport’s history, defined by Avery’s combination of encyclopedic course knowledge and an extraordinary boldness that even the most celebrated golfers of the era had to respect. The most famous moment of their partnership came during the final round of the 1960 Masters. Palmer, nursing a lead, hit a poor chip shot and, frustrated, threw his club in anger. Avery looked at his man with characteristic directness and said simply: “Are we chokin’, Mr. Palmer?” Palmer, who described the moment as feeling like his father scolding him, responded by birdieing the final two holes to secure the victory. That one sentence, delivered with perfect timing, may have been worth more than any club selection Avery ever made. When Nathaniel Avery died in 1985, he was buried in Augusta’s Southview Cemetery in an unmarked grave. It took more than three decades — and the advocacy of author Ward Clayton, along with the involvement of Arnold Palmer himself — before a proper headstone was installed in 2017. That a man whose counsel helped produce four Masters victories lay in an unmarked grave for thirty-two years tells you everything you need to know about the recognition these men received in their time. Nathaniel “Iron Man” Avery “Iron Man” Golfer(s) Arnold Palmer Masters Wins 4 Masters wins — 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964 Notable Story Famous for telling Palmer during the 1960 Masters “Are we chokin’, Mr. Palmer?” — sparking a birdie-birdie finish and a victory. Died in 1985 and was buried in an unmarked grave until 2017. Willie “Pete” Peterson — The Showman Where Stokes was the scholar and Avery the straight-talker, Willie Peterson was the performer. Known as “Pete,” Peterson was the most flamboyant figure in the Augusta caddie corps — a showman who danced on the fairways, pumped his fist, and played the crowd as brilliantly as Jack Nicklaus played the course. The partnership between Peterson and Nicklaus became one of the defining images of Augusta National’s golden era. Peterson caddied for Nicklaus in five Masters victories — 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, and 1975 — tying Stokes’ record of five wins as a caddie. The 1972 Sports Illustrated cover told you everything about Peterson’s personality: he stood with his arm raised triumphantly, one foot kicked up behind him, a cigarette hanging from his lip, while Jack Nicklaus lurked in the background. The caddie was the star of that photograph. Peterson’s relationship with Nicklaus was warm, enduring, and genuinely mutual. When Nicklaus decided to have his son Jackie Jr. carry his bag for his historic sixth Masters victory in 1986, Peterson’s absence was notable. For his final loop with Peterson, the 1983 Masters, Nicklaus withdrew with a bad back after insisting on using his longtime caddie one last time. Like Avery, Peterson was buried in an unmarked grave. Through the advocacy of Ward Clayton and with the involvement of Jack Nicklaus, a proper headstone was eventually installed — another belated act of recognition for men whose contributions had been celebrated in victory and forgotten in death. Willie “Pete” Peterson “The Showman” Golfer(s) Jack Nicklaus Masters Wins 5 Masters wins (tied record) — 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975 Notable Story Famously flamboyant — danced, pumped fists, played to the crowd. Featured on the 1972 Sports Illustrated cover. Buried in an unmarked grave; headstone later installed with Jack Nicklaus’s involvement. Carl Jackson — The Faithful Companion If Stokes was the godfather and Peterson the showman, Carl Jackson was the most beloved. Quiet, meticulous, and deeply knowledgeable, Jackson began caddying at Augusta Country Club and graduated to Augusta National in 1958, where he learned his trade under Stokes. He arrived with a nickname — “Skillet” — because, as the story went, he supposedly couldn’t throw a baseball hard enough to break an egg. The nickname eventually faded. The reputation never did. Jackson’s first pairing with Ben Crenshaw came in 1976. For the soft-spoken Texan golfer known as “Gentle Ben” — one of the great putters in golf history — and the meticulous, green-reading Jackson, the partnership was, as Crenshaw himself said, “a match made in heaven.” They finished runner-up on their first outing together. In 1984, Crenshaw clinched his first Masters victory by two shots over Tom Watson. The 1995 Masters remains one of the most emotional moments in the tournament’s history. Harvey Penick, Crenshaw’s beloved mentor and coach, had died just days before the tournament began. Crenshaw arrived in Augusta, in his own words, “in shambles.” Jackson recognized the weight his man was carrying and made it his mission to carry some of it too. Crenshaw won that Masters. On the 18th green, he fell to his knees and wept. Jackson put his arm around him. The image of that moment — the golfer and his caddie, grief and joy inseparable — is one of the most enduring in Masters history. “When I met Carl Jackson, I said, what a gift this is,” Crenshaw later recalled. “I can’t tell you how many times he helped me in so many instances. It was pretty simple for me. I had the best, and I never saw any reason to change whatsoever.” Jackson caddied at Augusta for fifty-four Masters Tournaments — a record. He remained Crenshaw’s caddie for thirty-nine years until the golfer retired. Carl Jackson “Skillet” Golfer(s) Ben Crenshaw Masters Wins 2 Masters wins — 1984, 1995 Notable Story Caddied 54 Masters Tournaments — a record. Partnered with Crenshaw for 39 years. The iconic 1995 image of Jackson comforting a weeping Crenshaw on the 18th green is one of Augusta’s most enduring moments. Jariah “Bubba” Beard — The Oral Historian Jariah Beard began caddying at age eleven in 1952, sneaking over to Augusta Country Club to earn a few dollars carrying bags while hiding the money in a Maxwell coffee can under his family’s house — his parents considered both caddying and gambling off-limits, and they weren’t entirely sure caddying wasn’t gambling. His first loop paid $3. That was, he recalled, more than his parents earned in a day at the John P. King cotton mill. Beard caddied at the Masters from 1957 through 1982 — twenty-five years — and his greatest moment came in 1979 when he guided an unknown Fuzzy Zoeller to a Masters victory in Zoeller’s first appearance at the tournament. Zoeller later recalled the experience in the documentary Loopers: The Caddie’s Long Walk with characteristic candor. “As far as having a plan when I got to Augusta, I had no plan,” Zoeller said. “He told me where to hit it, where not to hit it. It was like a blind man with a Seeing Eye dog. He led me around that golf course.” Thanks in large part to Beard’s guidance, Zoeller became the last player to win the Masters on his first attempt — a feat no one has since repeated. In his later years, Beard became the unofficial oral historian of the caddie corps, sharing his memories and those of his colleagues with anyone who would listen. “We were so proud to be part of it,” he said quietly in a 1993 Golf Digest interview. “We knew that golf course, and we loved what we were doing. I could call you every shot my man ever had in the Masters. Those were the best moments of our lives.” Jariah “Bubba” Beard died in March 2023 at the age of eighty-two. Jariah “Bubba” Beard “Bubba” Golfer(s) Fuzzy Zoeller Masters Wins 1 Masters win — 1979 Notable Story Zoeller credited Beard entirely for navigating Augusta on his first visit: “like a blind man with a Seeing Eye dog.” Zoeller was the last Masters champion to win on his debut. Beard became the caddie corps’ oral historian in his later years. More Legends of the Bag The caddie corps was rich with remarkable men, each with a name and a story that deserved to be remembered. Their nicknames alone told you something about the culture they had built — a culture of humor, brotherhood, and fierce professional pride. John Henry “Stovepipe” Gordon: Caddie for Gene Sarazen during the 1935 Masters — the year Sarazen holed a 4-wood second shot on the 15th hole for a double eagle, the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” Stovepipe is photographed in a famous image holding up the club that Sarazen used to make the most famous shot in Masters history. Willie Frank “Cemetery” Perteet: President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s personal caddie at Augusta National during the 1950s. Earned his nickname by surviving a knife attack one night after playing a jazz gig downtown — and waking up in the morgue. He caddied by day and played drums in downtown Augusta by night. Ernest “Snipes” Nipper: Caddied for Gary Player during Player’s first Masters victory in 1961. Helped the South African navigate a course he was still learning. Edwin “E.B.” McCoy: Gary Player’s caddie for two of his three Masters victories. One of the caddie corps’ most decorated members. Marion Herrington: On the bag for Seve Ballesteros during his 1980 Masters victory. Ben Bussey: Caddied for Craig Stadler in his 1982 Masters win — the last Masters victory for an Augusta National club caddie before the rules changed in 1983. Tommy “Burnt Biscuits” Bennett: Caddied for Tiger Woods during Woods’ first Masters appearance as an amateur in 1995. Continues to appear at Laney Museum events. Jim “Big Boy” Dent: Transitioned from caddying to professional golf, competing on the PGA Tour and the Senior Tour where he became known for his prodigious length off the tee. Matthew “Shorty Mac” Palmer: A respected longtime caddie whose knowledge of the Augusta National course made him a sought-after bag for the tournament’s final years of the all-Black corps. Walter “Cricket” Pritchett: Caddie for Charlie Coody in 1971. On Saturday of that Masters, with Coody leading Nicklaus and Johnny Miller, Pritchett reportedly asked what time television coverage began — causing Coody to lose his focus entirely. He told Coody he’d informed his bus-driving boss in Atlanta he was visiting a sick grandmother in Houston. Life Behind the Bag — Money, Family, and Daily Reality The economic reality of caddie life was one of remarkable potential in the context of segregated Augusta. A good bag at Augusta National paid around five dollars for a regular round, with twenty dollars or more on a particularly lucrative day — more than the caddies’ parents could earn in a week at the cotton mills. Masters Tournament week was the financial cornerstone of the year, with a winning caddie’s share potentially amounting to what a mill worker might earn in months. “From talking with Jeriah Beard,” recalled Leon Maben, vice president of the board of the Lucy Craft Laney Museum, “he would make, on one day of caddying, more than what his parents brought home in a week.” The weekly wage during the regular season averaged around $25 — equivalent to more than $470 in today’s dollars — and the seasonal structure of the club (Augusta National closed every summer) meant the caddies had to plan their finances carefully, stretching Masters earnings through the summer months. The caddies were the providers and pillars of their Sand Hills households. Their children remember fathers who were known and respected in the neighborhood, who carried themselves with the particular dignity of men who had walked with presidents and champions. Lawrence Bennett, who began working at Augusta National at age eleven and retired at sixty, remembers loading into his father’s station wagon as a child, driving to the corner to pick up the caddies and bring them to work. “Cemetery, Pappy, Peterson,” he recalled at a 2026 Laney Museum event. “I knew all of them. I was little, but I remember them. They were characters.” The racial framework within which these men worked was unambiguous. They served at the pleasure of a club whose chairman had declared that as long as he lived, no Black man would play as a competitor in the Masters. They worked in an era when the Augusta National Golf Club’s grounds were one of the only places in Jim Crow Georgia where a Black man could stand beside a white one and be treated with something approaching equality — because on Augusta National’s fairways and greens, the caddies were indispensable. Not as symbols. As experts. “These African-American caddies became experts at reading the greens,” said Corey Rogers, Executive Director of the Lucy Craft Laney Museum. “They became experts at knowing which club to use at Augusta National. The caddies did not let a lot of their surroundings define who they were or allow that to be a ceiling on what they wanted to accomplish.” The End of an Era — 1983 and What Was Lost The all-Black caddie corps ended, effectively, in 1983. A miscommunication during the 1982 Masters had caused some caddies to miss a morning tee time, and several golfers used the incident as leverage in a campaign they had been waging for years: the right to use the same caddies they employed on the PGA Tour throughout the season rather than being assigned unfamiliar local caddies for the most important week of the year. Augusta National relented. Beginning with the 1983 Masters, golfers could bring their own Tour caddies. Of the 82 players in the field that year, only 18 chose to use Augusta National’s club caddies. Jack Nicklaus used Willie Peterson one final time before withdrawing with a bad back. Gary Player used E.B. McCoy. Craig Stadler, the defending champion, stayed with Ben Bussey. Then the numbers fell off sharply. By 1984, the era was effectively over. In 1996, Augusta handed all caddie operations to Caddiemaster Inc., and what had been a tight-knit, brotherly culture built over five decades became a corporate service operation. The consequences for the caddies themselves were severe. Many had built their entire adult lives around the seasonal rhythm of the club. They had no formal retirement provisions, no benefits, no severance from the institution they had served for decades. Some found other caddying work. Some tried to adapt. Some, like Jim Dent, found new careers. Many simply aged out of the workforce without recognition, support, or the financial security that their decades of labor at one of the world’s most profitable golf clubs might reasonably have been expected to provide. “A lot of guys want to get out of it, but they don’t know anything else,” Beard said in a 1993 interview. “It seems to make guys old fast. Ironman, he caddied for Palmer all those years. He died before he hit 50.” Nathaniel Avery, who had helped Arnold Palmer win four green jackets, died at an age younger than most of his players were when they won their first. Men on the Bag — The Lucy Craft Laney Museum Tells Their Story The story of Augusta’s Black caddies came perilously close to being lost entirely. For decades after 1983, the men who had helped build Masters legends were absent from the Augusta Museum of History, unmentioned in official golf literature, and all but invisible in the public record. Some lay in unmarked graves. Their families knew who they had been. The broader world did not. The institution that stepped up to change that was the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History in Augusta — named for the great educator who had dedicated her life to ensuring that Black children in Augusta received the education the system denied them. It was a fitting home for a story about Black excellence being preserved against the indifference of the dominant culture. “Men on the Bag” — The Experience Under the leadership of Executive Director Corey Rogers and with the pivotal work of Leon Maben, who began collecting oral histories from surviving caddies in 2019, the Laney Museum developed one of the most compelling living history experiences in Augusta. “Augusta’s Black Caddies: The Men on the Bag” has been presented at the museum multiple times each year, produced in conjunction with the Augusta Mini Theatre. The format is theatrical, participatory, and deeply personal. Experienced actors from the Augusta Mini Theatre portray the most iconic caddies — Willie “Pappy” Stokes, Willie “Cemetery” Perteet, and Willie “Pete” Peterson among them — bringing their stories to life in dramatic scenes. An actress portraying Peterson describes his role as caddie for Jack Nicklaus, capturing his famous showmanship and the intimacy of their partnership. An actor playing Perteet recounts his extraordinary life — jazz musician, stabbing survivor, presidential caddie. The role of Stokes, the godfather himself, anchors every performance. But the most powerful moments come when the curtain comes down on the theatrical portion and the living legends take the stage. Living caddies — those still well enough to attend — emerge from the audience to share their own stories in their own words. At the end of each performance, attendees can meet the caddies, hear their stories directly, and collect signed caddy trading cards — stylized with each caddie’s photograph, story, and career statistics — that serve as mementos of a history worth holding onto. The famous Masters pimento cheese sandwich and drinks are served, grounding the experience in the specific sensory culture of Augusta National and the Masters Tournament. Even the food is part of the story. The Exhibit and Its Mission The “Men on the Bag” experience is housed within the museum’s broader Black history collections and runs alongside the museum’s other signature programs, including the Golden Blocks Tour — a walking tour of 33 historic sites in the Laney-Walker District, once Augusta’s thriving hub of Black-owned businesses during segregation — and the Augusta Wilson Series featuring theatrical performances by Broadway performers. “This is Black history,” said Maben, who had grown up in downtown Augusta where golf was considered “for the guys up on the hill.” “Nowhere else could you say, ‘Black people dominated this facet of the sport for fifty years.’ That’s what makes the story so interesting.” His years of oral history collection have become the foundation of the museum’s caddie archive, preserving voices and memories that were in danger of being lost to time. Rogers articulates the stakes of the work with characteristic precision: “We want to expand the discussion. We want to tell the individual story that has led to the collective. The collective story of the Masters in the collective story of golf writ large cannot be told without these individuals.” In April 2025, a monument was unveiled in Sand Hills neighborhood — shaped like a golf tee, inscribed with the names of the caddie champions — as a permanent physical tribute to the men who had built their careers three miles from where they grew up. The Lucy Craft Laney Museum’s “Men on the Bag” experience complements the monument by doing what no stone marker can: it brings the men to life. TO VISIT: The Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History is located in Augusta, Georgia, in the former home of Miss Lucy Craft Laney. The “Men on the Bag: Augusta’s Black Caddies” experience is presented multiple times throughout the year, with special performances during Masters Week each April. The museum is open Monday through Saturday, 9 AM to 5 PM. Call 706-724-3576 to book. Website: lucycraftlaneymuseum.com The Ground Beneath the Green Jackets When you walk Magnolia Lane — sixty-one trees grown from seeds planted in the 1850s by a Belgian horticulturist and his son — you are walking through a history that belongs to more people than the membership list of Augusta National has ever acknowledged. The indigo farmer who named this place Fruitland. The father and son from Lier, Belgium who planted those magnolias and shipped Georgia’s first commercial peaches to New York. The Irish-born farmer who built the house that became a clubhouse. The retired golfer from Atlanta who saw a dream in the rolling hills and the abandoned nursery. And the men from Sand Hills — from Turpin Hill, from Gwinnett Street — who knew this land better than anyone, whose hands and eyes and minds helped guide the world’s greatest golfers to their greatest victories, and who deserve to be spoken of in the same breath as every green jacket ever awarded. The Augusta National Golf Club is one of the most beautiful and most storied places in American sport. Its history runs deeper than the Masters Trophy, deeper than the azaleas and the scoring records and the famous moments that live in golf’s collective memory. It runs through the families of Sand Hills. It runs through the roots of the magnolias Prosper Berckmans planted before the Civil War. It runs through the stories that Corey Rogers and Leon Maben and the actors of the Augusta Mini Theatre are working to keep alive at a museum named for a woman who believed, with everything she had, that every person’s story deserves to be told and preserved and honored. The ground beneath the green jackets has a name for every story it holds. It is time to call them all. Berckman family – father and sons Pimento Cheese and Chicken Salad Sandwiches. A Masters’ favorite. Ice tea and lemonade another Masters’ favorite Tray of yummy sandwiches. Corey Rogers, Director – Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History

Destination: US Virgin Islands Tourism, Leadership and Legacy There are places that feel far away… and then there are places that feel like an escape—but are closer than you think. Today, we’re heading to the Caribbean—but no passport required. It’s where the U.S. Virgin Islands Tourism, Leadership and Legacy come together. We’re talking about the United States Virgin Islands – a collection of sun-soaked islands where turquoise waters meet rich history, vibrant culture, and a rhythm that invites you to slow down and stay awhile. Now here’s the beauty of it. if you’re a U.S. citizen, traveling to the U.S. Virgin Islands is as easy as flying to another state. No passport. No customs line coming home. Just pack your bags, grab your ID, and you’re on your way to the Caribbean.mThat’s one of those old-school travel perks that still feels like a well-kept secret. The U.S. Virgin Islands are made up of three main islands: St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix, each with its own personality. St. Thomas is lively, known for its harbor views and shopping. St. John is quieter, with much of the island protected as national park land. And St. Croix… well, that’s where history and culture run deep, with a laid-back pace that feels grounded and real. Together, they offer a little something for every kind of traveler. These islands weren’t always American. They were originally inhabited by Indigenous peoples, including the Taino and Carib. Then came European colonization. For over 200 years, these islands were known as the Danish West Indies. In 1917, during World War I, the United States purchased the islands from Denmark for $25 million in gold. That’s when they officially became the U.S. Virgin Islands. And while the flags have changed over time, the culture has remained beautifully layered – African, European, and Caribbean influences all woven together. What truly defines the islands… are the people. The culture of the Virgin Islands is deeply rooted in the heritage of the Gullah-Geechee and Afro-Caribbean traditions – expressed through music, storytelling, food, and festivals. You’ll hear it in the rhythms of calypso and reggae…taste it in dishes like Callaloo, Johnnycakes, and fresh seafood…and feel it in the warmth of the people who call these islands home. There’s a pride that flows through the islands – a connection to land and legacy that you can’t miss. No passport. No stress. Just island time. Coming up next… we’ll dive deeper into what makes each island unique—and where you’ll want to spend your time once you arrive. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, women’s leadership isn’t new… it’s rooted in history. It reaches back to 1878 to the island of St. Croix, and the courage of the legendary Three Queens: Mary, Agnes, and Mathilda. Women who stood up, spoke out, and led the Fireburn uprising, forever shaping a legacy of strength, advocacy, and progress across the islands. And today… that same spirit is alive and well. Leading one of the Caribbean’s most dynamic tourism destinations is an all-women executive team guided by Commissioner Jennifer Matarangas-King, a proud St. Croix native whose leadership continues to elevate the U.S. Virgin Islands on the global stage. Alongside her, Assistant Commissioners Alani Henneman of St. Thomas and Elizabeth Hansen Watley of St. Croix bring deep experience in marketing, communications, and public service. And at the heart of this leadership team, bringing a unique regional perspective is Deputy Commissioner RoseAnne Farrington, originally from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and a woman who has called the Virgin Islands home for more than 25 years. Together, these women are shaping a tourism vision grounded in authenticity, sustainability, and opportunity while honoring the culture and community that make these islands so special. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rosie Farrington to talk about leadership, legacy, and what it means to carry that spirit forward in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Take a listen.  

Photo: U.S. Mint Episode 42: Cumberland Island Salt Marshes and African American History Cumberland Island, located about 15 miles southeast of Kingsland, is the largest public barrier island off the coast of Georgia. And, Cumberland Island Salt Marshes and African American History is where located throughout the island.  Accessible only by ferry, the Cumberland Island National Seashore (the name given to the area after being acquired by the National Parks Service in 1972). Many groups have occupied the island over its 4000-year history, from the Timucoan tribe that first inhabited the island to the Spanish who built missions there and the British occupied it Spanish Florida By 1860, over 500 enslaved people lived on the island, outnumbering white inhabitants by a ratio of seven to one.  At its peak, the largest plantation, Stafford Plantation  held 348 subjugated Africans and African Americans working over 4,200 acres of land, spanning one-third of the island. The island had fifteen plantations and small farms involved in its chattel slavery system. Many enslaved Africans were imported from present-day Senegal, Gambia, and Sierra Leone, including people from the Fula, Igbo, Gola, Malinke, Bambara, and Serer tribes who resided on the continent’s Western Coast. They were not randomly chosen as the demand for enslaved African labor with rice-growing expertise increased, over 13,000 Africans arrived from the “Rice Coast” and “Grain Coast” regions, bringing their sophisticated knowledge of rice and grain harvesting in both lowland and upland regions. This matters enormously: these were not people stripped entirely of knowledge and culture. They arrived as experts and the marshes of Cumberland Island looked, ecologically, very much like home. Cumberland Island’s enslaved people worked largely on a task system, which meant that they were responsible to complete a certain task rather than work certain hours. This is crucial to understanding daily life on the island’s marshes and fields. When the assigned task was complete typically around 2 o’clock in the afternoon the enslaved populations had what their enslavers called “free time” to manage their private vegetable and herb gardens behind their cabins, hunt, trap and fish, tend to the sick or infirm, practice private forms of worship, or assist extended family members. The salt marshes were central to this survival economy. The enslaved Africans typically ate corn and sometimes pork rations provided by the plantation owner but often supplemented their meals with fish, wild animals, oysters, and clams for survival.  The marsh was not just a workplace, it was a pantry, a pharmacy (marsh plants had medicinal uses rooted in West African herbal knowledge), and a space of relative autonomy. These difficult working conditions sometimes resulted in spinal injuries from rice cultivation, pulmonary illness, rheumatism, foot rot caused by standing in high water levels, and even death. An archaeological dig near the Dungeness slave quarters has yielded a glimpse into daily life. Along with pieces of iron skillets, glass, clay pipe segments and pottery, bones from small mammals, birds, turtles, frogs and fish were uncovered.  This tells us that people were fishing, hunting, and cooking their own supplemental food, building a domestic life in the margins the system allowed them. The enslaved Africans on Stafford Plantation lived in eighteen cabin sites, with several chimney ruins still intact today. They routinely used tabby, a durable construction material made from sand, lime, and oyster shells common to the Lowcountry, to construct their chimneys and fireplaces.  Even their building materials came from the marsh. The isolation of Cumberland Island, the very thing that made it so brutally efficient as a plantation system, paradoxically preserved something extraordinary. The Gullah-Geechee culture that resulted in enslaved communities on Georgia’s coast was a result of the retention of many aspects of African culture and language. The isolated nature of Georgia’s barrier islands also resulted in distinctive slave management practices. Many traditions of the Gullah and Geechee culture were passed from one generation to the next through language, agriculture, and spirituality. The sweetgrass baskets, the ring shout spiritual songs, the creole Gullah language itself, all of it survived because the islands were isolated enough that the people could hold onto it. Since speaking in their native African tongue was typically forbidden, Gullah Geechee allowed enslaved people at least one small act of freedom, communicating with each other, in words and song, in a way which was accepted yet not understood by their masters. One of the most powerful stories connected to Cumberland Island happened during the War of 1812. In 1815, British troops took over Cumberland Island and all its plantations, offering freedom to the enslaved by joining British forces or boarding British ships as free persons headed for British colonies. Over 1,500 formerly enslaved people who made it to Cumberland Island from across the coastal region sought freedom by boarding British ships to Bermuda, Trinidad, and Halifax in Nova Scotia. In the 1890s, “The Settlement” was established at the north end of the island as a residential area for Black workers as Georgia passed laws requiring racial segregation of housing and public facilities. The First African Baptist Church, established in The Settlement in 1893, is one of the few remaining structures of this community, and is famously the church where John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette married in 1996. Settlement residents made a living in a variety of capacities: as employees for Hotel Cumberland, servants for wealthy island residents, and working for various timber operations. What happened in those marshes was not just labor, it was the creation of an entire civilization under conditions of profound cruelty. The enslaved people of Cumberland Island built the island’s wealth, fed themselves from its waters, preserved their language and spiritual traditions in the spaces the task system accidentally created, and ultimately chose freedom the moment it was offered. Their descendants built a church that still stands. Their culture, Gullah-Geechee is one of the most distinctive and living African American cultural traditions in the United States. The marshes of Cumberland Island are not empty. They are full of that history, for anyone who knows how to listen. Cumberland is nearly uninhabited, with the exception of around 40 islanders, generational landowners with a small number of private residences on the island. These are primarily Carnegie family descendants who retained lifetime estate rights when the island became a National Seashore in 1972. The most visible permanent resident community is centered around Greyfield Inn,  the only hotel on the island, still owned and operated by Carnegie descendants, where a small staff also lives year-round. Their Gullah-speaking descendants lie buried in a small cemetery at Cumberland’s North End, and a Baptist church built by descendants still stands. So the spiritual presence of the formerly enslaved community endures on the island, even if their living community no longer does. The National Park Service also maintains a small year-round staff on the island, and the NPS restricts access to 300 people on the island at a time, and campers are allowed to stay no more than seven nights. This is one of the most haunting and historically significant things on the entire island and most visitors never find it. Today all that remains of the Stafford Plantation is a complex of 26 hearth-and-chimney ruins, which are the most visible remnants of the slave quarters. The chimneys are constructed of tabby and fired red clay bricks, with conditions ranging from complete ruin and rubble to fair, standing structures that are deteriorating and unstable. All that remains of Stafford’s house is a ruin known as “The Chimneys”  a series of 24 hearth-and-chimney structures representing Stafford’s enslaved people’s housing, about one kilometer east of the main house. The structures, arranged in two parallel rows in the “Slave Quarter,” were where the enslaved cooked, lived, slept, and ate.  The wood of the actual cabin walls is long gone, rotted or burned, but the tabby and brick chimneys the enslaved people built with their own hands from oyster shells and sand still stand in three parallel rows in the forest, like a row of silent witnesses. There is also a striking detail in the NPS historical records: two chimneys with their fireplaces facing each other indicate the probable location of the hospital, a common structure found among slave quarters. Even the medical care of enslaved people is readable in the landscape. The near-destruction of The Chimneys is its own story. At one point, the lessee of the plantation threatened to remove the chimney ruins. The NPS stopped him. There have been no further issues. They were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and stabilization work began in 2004. Three ways to learn more about Cumberland’s history: 1. The Chimneys at Stafford Plantation, the slave quarter ruins, standing in the forest. Accessible by hiking or biking from the Sea Camp dock, though remote. Not on the standard day-visitor route — you need to seek it out. 2. First African Baptist Church at The Settlement,  this humble one-room church was established in 1893 by African American residents of the island and their families. Some of the founders were born into slavery and emancipated following the Civil War. The church served as a free place of worship and community center for the North end community. It is 14 miles north of the Sea Camp dock, so the NPS recommends visiting only as part of the Lands & Legacies Tour. 3. The Settlement Cemetery where Gullah-speaking descendants of the enslaved are buried, at the island’s north end. A profoundly moving place. Website –  Cumberland Island National Seashore (U.S. National Park Service) www.nps.gov Cumberland Tours & ferry information

Harriet Tubman Woman of Courage Harriet Tubman: Conductor, Soldier, Humanitarian A Life of Freedom, Courage, and Purpose Photo: U.S. Mint Harriet Tubman Woman of Courage – Today, we journey through one of the most powerful stories in American history, a story of courage, determination, and an unshakable belief in freedom. It’s the story of Harriet Tubman. A woman born into slavery… who would go on to lead others to freedom, serve her country in war, and spend her life caring for those in need. Her story so often is centered around her work on the Underground Railroad. While this courageous commitment to freedom is one that is truly her legacy – there so much more to the women once called “Moses” or “the Moses of her people”. This nickname was given to her because, the remarkable journeys she made leading enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad, never losing a “passenger” during her rescue missions. But there is more and – Today….we say her name and we tell her story.   Her extraordinary life is honored through the Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Commemorative Coin Program, issued by the United States Mint—a collection of coins that tells her story through three defining chapters of her life. Chapter One: The Conductor Harriet Tubman was born around 1822 on a plantation in Maryland. Her birth name was Araminta “Minty” Ross. From the very beginning, her life was marked by hardship, danger, and resilience. But even in those early years, there was something within her, something strong and unyielding. A determination. A belief in freedom. In 1849, Harriet Tubman made a decision that would change not only her life, but the lives of countless others. She escaped slavery. Traveling under the cover of darkness, guided by the North Star and the hidden network known as the Underground Railroad, she made her way to freedom in Pennsylvania. For many, that would have been enough. But not for Harriet Tubman. She went back. Not once. Not twice. But 13 times. Over the next decade, she returned to Maryland again and again, risking her life each time, to guide others to freedom. She personally led about 70 people to safety. And provided instructions that helped another 70 people escape on their own. She later said something that still echoes through history: “I never lost a passenger.” The silver dollar in the commemorative coin series honors this chapter of her life—her work as a conductor, guiding people out of bondage and into freedom. Chapter Two: The Soldier When the American Civil War began, Harriet Tubman stepped forward. In 1862, she joined the Union Army. She began as a nurse, caring for wounded soldiers. But Harriet Tubman was never meant to stay in just one role. She became a scout. A spy. A leader. She used her knowledge of the land, her courage, and her ability to move quietly and strategically to gather intelligence for the Union Army. And then came one of the most remarkable moments of her life. The Combahee River Raid. Harriet Tubman became the first woman in American history to lead an armed military expedition. Under her leadership, Union forces traveled along the Combahee River in South Carolina. That mission resulted in the freedom of more than 700 enslaved people. Seven hundred lives changed in one night. The half dollar coin in the commemorative series represents this chapter, her service during the Civil War. Her courage. Her leadership. Her unwavering commitment to freedom. Chapter Three: A Life of Service After the war, Harriet Tubman could have chosen to rest. She had done more than most could ever imagine. But once again, she chose service. She settled in Auburn, where she would spend the remaining 54 years of her life. And there, she continued her work. She supported newly freed men and women trying to build new lives. She cared for the elderly. She opened her home to those who had nowhere else to go. Later in life, she established what would become the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, a place where people could live with dignity and care. But she didn’t stop there. Harriet Tubman also became a powerful voice for women. She traveled and spoke at gatherings supporting women’s suffrage, advocating for the right of women to vote. She spoke about civil rights. She spoke about equality. She spoke about access to healthcare. Her work was never limited to one group of people. She believed in freedom for everyone. The $5 gold coin in the commemorative series represents this final chapter of her life. A life dedicated not just to freedom—but to humanity. The Meaning Behind the Coins Each coin tells part of her story: The silver dollar reflects her work on the Underground Railroad The half dollar represents her Civil War service The $5 gold coin honors her later years in Auburn, caring for others and advocating for justice Together, they form a portrait of a life lived with purpose. A life that never turned away from the fight for freedom. Harriet Tubman’s story is not just about the past. It’s about courage. It’s about purpose. It’s about what one person can do, when they refuse to accept the world as it is and instead work to change it. She walked into danger so others could walk into freedom. She stood in spaces where she was not expected, and led anyway. She gave her life to something greater than herself. And even today, her story asks us a quiet question. What will we do with the freedom we have? Because history is not just something we remember. It’s something we continue. And sometimes… it’s carried forward in the smallest of ways. Even in something as simple as a coin. And that’s today’s journey. Photos: Commemorative Coins Each photo:  U.S. Mint Photos from Auburn and Cayuga County Harriet Tubman’s Home for Aged Harriet Tubman’s New York Home – Auburn, NY Quilt with Harriet’s image in the Cayuga Tourism Center Cayuga Tourism Center Mural in downtown Auburn Tourism Office Statue in downtown Auburn U.S. Mint video – Harriet Tubman Commemorative Coins Act Our commitment to storytelling –  Our goal is to journey through history in search of the untold and little-known stories — the ones overshadowed by larger narratives, pushed to the margins, or too often silenced and forgotten. We believe history is richest when all voices, experiences, and perspectives are explored with honesty and care. We strive for accuracy, fairness, and thoughtful storytelling in every piece we create. Our work is grounded in research, historical records, oral histories, and cultural context. But we also recognize that history is not always fully preserved in written documents or official accounts. Sometimes it must also be understood through interpretation, lived experience, and the voices that history nearly lost. Our commitment is to share these stories with integrity, insight, curiosity, and respect — bringing the past to life in ways that are meaningful, engaging, and thought-provoking. And because history is always evolving through continued discovery and scholarship, we welcome thoughtful feedback. If you see something that may need correction, additional context, or if you have information that could deepen the story, we invite you to contact us at [email protected] We value continued learning and will regularly review and update our content to ensure it remains as complete, accurate, and compelling as possible.

The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion Quarter Miles Travel –  where the adventure begins when you reach into your pocket. Today, we’re not just traveling across miles… we’re traveling across time. Back to World War II. A time when the world was at war… and millions of American soldiers were stationed far from home. Letters — simple letters — became lifelines. Messages from mothers, fathers, wives, sweethearts, children. Words of love, hope, and connection.  And letters from soldiers back to their families.   But here’s the problem…Those letters weren’t getting through. Yet, called to create a solution were the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion History has not shared their journey… but today we say their names and share their story.  Warehouses in Europe were stacked floor to ceiling with undelivered mail — millions of pieces. Some estimates say over 17 million letters and packages, sitting in cold, dark buildings… waiting. And morale? It was dropping. Because when you’re fighting a war, sometimes the most powerful thing you can receive… is a reminder of home. So the military made a decision. Send in a unit to fix it. Not just any unit… But the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion:  the only all-Black, all-female unit deployed overseas during World War II. They were known as the Six Triple Eight. And their mission? Clear the backlog. Deliver the mail. Restore morale. Simple on paper. But nothing about what they faced… was simple. The women of the 6888 trained at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They were disciplined. Organized. Ready. But when they arrived in Birmingham, England, what they walked into… was overwhelming. Imagine this: Cold warehouses. Poor lighting. Rats running through piles of mail. Packages stacked higher than a person could reach. No system. No order. Just chaos. And remember — many of these letters didn’t even have full names. Just things like: “Junior” “Buster” “Red” No addresses. No unit numbers. Just hope… written on paper. The military expected it would take six months to sort through everything. Six months. But the women of the 6888 had a motto:  “No mail, low morale.” They knew what was at stake. So they got to work. They created a system from scratch. Card catalogs with over 7 million names. Cross-referencing units, nicknames, serial numbers. Working in three shifts  24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No breaks in mission. No slowing down. And they didn’t just meet expectations. They exceeded them. They cleared the entire backlog in three months. Half the expected time. Let that sink in. Three months to do what was supposed to take six. And then? They were sent to Rouen, France… where another backlog waited. And once again… they delivered Efficient. Focused. Unstoppable. Now let’s be clear. They weren’t just sorting mail. They were delivering: A mother’s voice A child’s drawing A letter from home that said, “We’re waiting for you” They were restoring morale. They were keeping connections alive. And in a war… that matters. Because soldiers fight differently when they know someone is thinking about them. The women of the 6888 understood that. They didn’t need headlines. They didn’t need recognition. They just needed to get the job done. And they did. And then the war ended. The women of the 6888 returned home. And like many Black service members at the time…They came back to a country that did not fully recognize what they had done. No parades. No widespread celebration. Their story… quietly set aside. For decades. But here’s the thing about real impact…It doesn’t disappear. It waits to be rediscovered. In recent years, their story has finally begun to receive the recognition it deserves. The 6888 was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal — one of the highest civilian honors in the United States. A long overdue acknowledgment. Their legacy now lives on in: Museums Military memorials Historical archives And most importantly…In the stories we continue to tell.The women of the Six Triple Eight didn’t ask for attention. They showed up. They worked. They delivered. And in doing so… they made history. So the next time you think about World War II… remember this: Victory wasn’t just won on the battlefield. Sometimes…It was delivered in a letter. FOLLOWING THE 6888 IN THE UNITED STATES  Now we’ve just heard the powerful story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion — the Six Triple Eight. But here’s the thing I love…This isn’t just history you hear. It’s history you can visit. So let’s talk about where you can go to connect with their story right here in the United States.  STOP ONE: FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS This is where it all began. Fort Leavenworth is where the women of the 6888 trained before heading overseas. Walking these grounds, you’re standing where they prepared for one of the most important logistical missions of World War II. Now, while parts of the base are active military, there are areas open to the public — and nearby museums that help tell the broader story of military leadership and service. This is your starting point. Where discipline met purpose.  STOP TWO: WASHINGTON, D.C. / ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA Next, head to the nation’s capital — because this is where their legacy is finally being recognized. At the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, located at Arlington National Cemetery, you’ll find exhibits honoring women who served — including the 6888. This is a powerful stop. Quiet. Reflective. The kind of place where you pause… and take it all in. Because for years, their story was overlooked — and now, it’s finally being told.  STOP THREE: NATIONAL WWII MUSEUM – NEW ORLEANS If you really want to understand the scale of what they accomplished, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans is a must. This is one of the most comprehensive World War II museums in the country — and it provides critical context about African American service members, women in uniform, and the global scope of the war. This stop gives you the big picture — and shows just how vital their mission really was. OPTIONAL EXTENSION: COMMUNITY & LEGACY EVENTS Across the country, you’ll also find: Traveling exhibits Historical markers Community commemorations Because their story is still being uncovered… and shared.   So if you’re ready to walk in the footsteps of the Six Triple Eight — from Kansas to Washington, D.C., to New Orleans — these are the places where their story comes to life. And trust me…It’s one thing to hear about history. It’s another thing to stand where it happened. Because these aren’t just destinations…They’re stories waiting for you to experience.

Photo: U.S. Mint Althea Gibson  American Women’s Quarter Series The adventure begins when you reach into your pocket. Today, we’re stepping onto the court — not just any court — but one that changed the game forever. And at the center of it all is a woman who didn’t just break barriers… she shattered them. Her name is Althea Gibson. Now, before Serena, before Venus, before the world ever imagined what dominance in tennis could look like from a Black woman — there was Althea. Tall, powerful, and determined, she stepped into a sport that, at the time, didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat. We’re talking about the 1950s. Country clubs. Grass courts. Closed doors. But Althea Gibson? She had a game that could not be ignored. She became the first African American to compete at Wimbledon… and then went on to win it. Not once — but twice. Same story at the U.S. Nationals, what we now know as the U.S. Open. And she didn’t stop there. Althea went on to break another barrier — becoming the first Black woman to compete on the LPGA golf tour. Now that’s what you call not staying in one lane. But here’s the thing I love about her story… it’s not just about trophies and titles. It’s about resilience. It’s about showing up in spaces where you weren’t expected — and leaving the door wide open for others to walk through. And today, her legacy is literally something you can hold in your hand… honored on a U.S. Mint quarter — a reminder that her story is part of the American journey. So in this segment, we’re going to travel through Althea Gibson’s world — from Harlem streets to international courts — and explore the places, the people, and the moments that shaped a true pioneer. Stay with me… because this is one story you don’t just hear — you feel.

Destination: Honoring Women’s History Month Ready to go and visit sites where you’ll learn more about each dynamic woman? Here’s your travel guide: QUARTER MILES TRAVEL GUIDE Following the Footsteps of Trailblazing Women Eleanor Roosevelt • Althea Gibson • Jovita Idar • The 6888 ELEANOR ROOSEVELT Leadership, Human Rights & Global Influence  Hyde Park, New York (Primary Hub) Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (Val-Kill) Address: 54 Valkill Park Rd, Hyde Park, NY 12538 Website: https://www.nps.gov/elro Hours: Grounds open daily (check seasonal hours) Why Go:Her personal home — not ceremonial, but where she lived and worked Walking trails + exhibits on her activism Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum Address: 4079 Albany Post Rd, Hyde Park, NY Website: https://www.fdrlibrary.org Why Go:👉 Deep look into Eleanor’s political and humanitarian role  New York City  United Nations Headquarters Address: 405 E 42nd St, New York, NY Website: https://visit.un.org Why Go:Where she helped shape the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial (Riverside Park) Location: W 72nd St & Riverside Drive Why Go: First monument to an American First LadyQuiet reflection space along the Hudson ALTHEA GIBSON Breaking Barriers in Sports New York City (Harlem Roots) Harlem Neighborhood Courts (Historic Context) Why Go: Where her talent was first discoveredCultural heartbeat of her early years  Newark, New Jersey Althea Gibson Tennis Complex Address: Branch Brook Park, Newark, NJ Why Go:Active courts named in her honor Living legacy — not just history East Orange, New Jersey Althea Gibson Statue Location: Elmwood Park Why Go:Tribute to her achievements and impact Newport, Rhode Island  International Tennis Hall of Fame Website: https://www.tennisfame.com Why Go:Honors her global legacy in tennis  Florida (Golf Legacy) LPGA tour sites (various locations) Why Go:Her second act — breaking barriers in golf JOVITA IDAR Mexican American Civil Rights Institute Address:  2123 Buena Vista St.  San Antonio, TX Website:  https://www.somosmacri.org Why Go:  Exhibits of Mexican American history – places and people Journalism, Justice & Courage Laredo, Texas Webb County Heritage Foundation Address: 810 Zaragoza St, Laredo, TX Website: https://www.webbheritage.org Why Go:Context for Mexican American history and activism Historic Downtown Laredo Experience: Self-guided walking tour Why Go: Site of her family newspaper La CrónicaWhere she stood in the doorway against injustice Texas A&M International University Archives + regional history collections This stop is about feeling her courage where it happened. San Antonio Tourism Visit San Antonio  THE 6888 (SIX TRIPLE EIGHT) Service, Sacrifice & Delivering Hope  Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Training Grounds Why Go: Where the unit prepared for deployment New Orleans, Louisiana  National WWII Museum Address: 945 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA Website: https://www.nationalww2museum.org Hours: Typically 9 AM – 5 PM Why Go: Exhibits on African American military service  Arlington, Virginia  Women in Military Service Memorial Address: Arlington National Cemetery Website: https://womensmemorial.org Why Go: Honors the legacy of women like the 6888 International Stop (Optional Extension)  Birmingham, England Why Go: Where they cleared millions of pieces of mail during WWII 🧭 TRAVEL THEMES Eleanor Roosevelt → Leadership & global impact Althea Gibson → Breaking barriers in sports Jovita Idar → Standing up for justice 6888 → Service and unseen sacrifice  Different paths… same truth:They moved history forward.  SUGGESTED TRAVEL ROUTE EAST COAST JOURNEY NYC → Hyde Park → Newark/East Orange → Newport SOUTHERN ROUTE Laredo, TX → New Orleans, LA NATIONAL LOOP Add Kansas (Fort Leavenworth) + Washington, DC Extended City Visits  ELEANOR ROOSEVELT – HYDE PARK, NY & NEW YORK CITY  Primary City: Hyde Park, New York Theme: Leadership, Reflection, Global Impact  Must-Visit Stops Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (Val-Kill)  54 Valkill Park Rd, Hyde Park, NY  https://www.nps.gov/elro  Check seasonal hours Her personal home — intimate, authentic, and powerful Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum  4079 Albany Post Rd, Hyde Park, NY  https://www.fdrlibrary.org Deep dive into her global influence Add-On: New York City (1.5–2 hrs away) United Nations Headquarters  405 E 42nd St, NYC  https://visit.un.org  Where she helped shape human rights Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial – Riverside Park W 72nd St & Riverside Drive Quiet, reflective stop Suggested 1–2 Day  Morning: Val-Kill + trails Afternoon: FDR Library Next Day: NYC → UN + Memorial  ALTHEA GIBSON – NEW YORK & NEW JERSEY  Primary City: New York City (Harlem) Theme: Grit, Talent, Breaking Barriers Must-Visit Stops Harlem Neighborhood (Historic Roots)  Where her talent was discovered Walk the neighborhood, soak in culture Add-On: Newark & East Orange, NJ Althea Gibson Tennis Complex  Branch Brook Park, Newark, NJ  Active courts — living legacy Althea Gibson Statue – Elmwood Park  East Orange, NJ Tribute to her achievements  Suggested 1–2 Day  Day 1: Harlem exploration Day 2: Newark + East Orange stops Optional Extension International Tennis Hall of Fame – Newport, RI  https://www.tennisfame.com JOVITA IDAR – LAREDO, TEXAS  Primary City: Laredo, Texas Theme: Courage, Journalism, Community Voice Must-Visit Stops Mexican American Civil Rights Institute 2123 Buena Vista St.  San Antonio, TX https://www.somosmacri.org Webb County Heritage Foundation  810 Zaragoza St, Laredo, TX https://www.webbheritage.org  Local history + cultural context Historic Downtown Laredo (Walking Experience)  Site of La Crónica newspaper  Where she stood against injustice  This is a walk-it-yourself history lesson Texas A&M International University (Archives) Regional history + research Suggested 1-Day Flow Morning: Heritage Foundation Midday: Downtown walking tour Afternoon: University archives or cultural stops THE 6888 – MULTI-CITY EXPERIENCE  Primary City: Washington, DC / Arlington, VA Theme: Service, Sacrifice, Recognition Must-Visit Stops Women in Military Service for America Memorial  Arlington National Cemetery  https://womensmemorial.org Honors women like the 6888  Add-On Cities Fort Leavenworth, Kansas  Training site National WWII Museum – New Orleans 945 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA  https://www.nationalww2museum.org ~9 AM – 5 PM  Deep WWII context Optional International Stop Birmingham, England  Where they completed their mission Suggested 2–3 Day  Day 1: DC + Arlington Day 2: Add museum (New Orleans or Kansas) Optional: International extension

Eleanor Roosevelt U.S. Mint Women’s Quarter Series   Photo: U.S. Mint There are times when you’re holding more than just a quarter … you’re holding a legacy.  You’re holding a coin from Eleanor Roosevelt U.S. Mint Women’s Quarter Series – you’re holding a legacy.   A legacy carried by a phenomenal woman. Eleanor Roosevelt wasn’t just a First Lady — she redefined what that role could be. At a time when women were expected to stand quietly in the background, Eleanor stepped forward… and spoke up. She traveled across the country during the Great Depression, listening to everyday Americans, women, workers, families, and bringing their voices into rooms where decisions were being made. But she didn’t stop at the borders of the United States. Eleanor Roosevelt went on to become one of the driving forces behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights  a document that continues to shape freedoms around the world today. Her name carries a legacy…. And, today… we say her name and we tell her story.  Eleanor Roosevelt – when it came to women’s rights, that’s where her legacy stands bold – she didn’t just advocate, she insisted that women belong at every table where change is happening. Today, her image appears on a U.S. Mint quarter,  a small piece of metal that carries a powerful reminder: leadership isn’t about title… it’s about action. So in this episode, we’re traveling through the places, the moments, and the legacy of a woman who didn’t wait for permission to lead… she simply did. I talked with Jeffery Urbin – Jeffrey S. Urbin – Education Specialist Roosevelt Presendential Library & Museum and Director of the Pare Lorentz Film Center to share her story.  Stay with me.  Her story is one that inspires. Listen to the conversation where Jeff shares her story And just like that… another journey, another story, all inspired by something you can hold in your hand. Eleanor Roosevelt showed us that leadership begins with listening… and that real change starts when you’re willing to stand up and speak out. Special thank you to Jeff for sharing Mrs. Roosevelts story. Learn more about her and the exhibits at the Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum visit their website – www.fdrlibraRy.org Learn more about the U. S. Mint commemorative coins – us mint.gov So the next time you reach into your pocket and find that quarter… take a closer look. Because every coin has a story. And every story is an American story and there … is a place waiting to be explored. Until next time… keep traveling. Reach in your pocket, or your sofa cushions, pull out a quarter and flip it over.  Quarter Miles Travel will take it from there.  We’ll help you turn that quarter, into an adventure.

Jovita Idar U.S. Mint Women’s Quarter Series Photo: U.S. Mint Jovita Idar U.S. Mint Women’s Quarter Series is unique and representative of her life’s work. Some women don’t just speak up… they stand firm when it matters most. Jovita Idar was one of those women. A journalist, teacher, and activist, she used her voice to fight for the rights of Mexican Americans at a time when injustice was often ignored. When Texas Rangers tried to shut down her newspaper, Jovita didn’t step aside — she stood in the doorway and refused to let them in. Now that’s courage. She believed in education, equality, and the power of the written word to spark change. And today, her legacy reminds us that sometimes history is shaped not in grand halls… but right at the front door.  Courage, bravery and commitment – we will say her name and tell her story.   Let’s say her name Javita Idar and honor her design on the reverse side of the U.S. Mint’s Women’s series Quarters, There are words inscribed that say it all  – they are words that describe her commitment to change. Javita Idar U.S. Mint Women’s Quarter Series design shares words of her life experience.   I had a chance to visit the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute in San Antonio Texas and sit down with Sarah Gould, Executive Director. She shares Jovita’s story and how the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute honored her Quarter.  Stay with me… this is a story of strength you won’t forget. Plan a visit to San Antonio – Check out the websites: San Antonio Tourism Mexican American Civil Rights Institute 

Castilla La Mancha and Toledo Windmills, saffron, swords and more Castilla La Mancha is one of the 17 regions of Spain, an area filled with history, culture delicious cuisine and you’ll also find saffron, swords and windmills when visiting too. Castilla La Mancha Toledo is our stop for today. The city of Toledo can boast as being one of Spain’s most magnificent destinations. Filled with so much history, culture and traditions it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. The Old City captivates travelers with historic buildings, narrow cobble stone streets and the essence of times gone by. Castile La Mancha Toledo – Sitting atop a gorge, you have spectacular views of Toledo overlooking the Río Tajo from several areas around the city. Culture, religion and people come together in Toledo. Known as the ‘city of three cultures’ in the Middle Ages, it is a place where –  Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities peacefully coexisted. Today, there are museums, cuisine and architecture which continues to show the connective relationship of cultures and people.  Mosques, Sephardic synagogues and one of Spain’s finest Gothic cathedrals still stand as proof, we can make living together successful and peaceful.  History will tell you there are also Roman roots in Toledo. When talking about Toledo’s art is part of the scene and vibe of the city. Artist El Greco, has influenced and shaped the legacy of art. Visiting art museums should be top of your list while enjoying so much. more about the city. Known for swords that were once called magical, Toledo steel is known for well skilled  artisans and the expert way steel is tempered and shaped. The high temperature of the tempering process and the quality of the steel make the swords of Toledo unique and admire the world over. Purchasing a sword or cutlery from a master artist is top of the list for travelers. A visit to Toledo is easy to plan. Here are websites and photos to help you get started. Websites to help you plan a great trip: For information, maps, an pamphlets on the region of Castilla-LaMancha visit – https://en.www.turismocastillalamancha.es/ For general information about Spain visit – https://www.spain.info/en/ Parador Toledo https://paradores.es/es/parador-de-toledo. Visit Toledo Diego Esteban Tour Guide www.visitoledo.es Boutique hotel in Toledo  La Casa de Paco de Lucia – https://www.casaentredosaguas.es/ Swords Zamorano Espadas  https://www.marianozamorano.com/ Restaurants La Cave Restaurant https://www.restaurantelacave.com/ La Clandestina Restaurant https://www.clandestina.la/  Alfileritos 24 Restaurant https://alfileritos24.com/ Places to visit Saffron festival and windmills in Consuegra – https://consuegra.es/en/experiencies/celebration/saffron-rose-festival Mazapan Obrador de Santo Tomé https://mazapan.com/ El Transito Synagogue (Sefardi Museum)  https://www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/msefardi/home.html El Greco´s Home Museum  https://www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/mgreco/inicio.html More ways to experience Spain – a cruise on Holland America Photos to inspire you

31213514 – christmas gift boxes with decorations It’s the most magical time of the year!  It’s the holiday season!  And, that means gift-giving tie too. And, if you’re  like most people it’s not so easy to figure out what those gifts should be.  We have a long list of travel gear gifts and also really cool items we have found during our travels. http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/1.mp3   http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2.mp3   http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/3.mp3   http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/4.mp3

Sapelo Island.  The beautiful barrier island off the coast of Georgia.  Come along with us on a journey to this beautiful island, as Doc Bill, Professor Nick Honerkamp and Michele Nichole Johnson talk culture and we each remember the island matriarch, Cornelia Walker Bailey. Nanny Goat Beach pavilion. http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/SAPELO-10-28-17-1-Doc-Bill-1.mp3 Doc Bill Thomas http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/SAPELO-10-28-17-2-Nick-Honerkamp-10-28-17.mp3 Professor Nicholas Honerkamp http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/SAPELO-10-28-17-3-Michelle-Nicole-Johnson.mp3 Michele Nicole Johnson http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/SAPELO-10-28-17-4-Cornelia-Walker-Bailey-Interview.mp3 Cornelia Walker Bailey’s interview from 2013  

Delicious Food Finds in the U.S. Virgin Islands Delicious and enjoyable are two words that come to mind when I hear what Dawn Richards has to say about her recent visit to the U.S. Virgin Islands to learn about local cuisine and agriculture.  It is no surprise she knows how to scout out the best restaurants and the local spots for a classic island dish; she is the editor and owner of DMR Fine Foods, a culinary blog all about fabulous recipes, and amazing dishes with her special touch.  You’ll find her each month in the Atlanta Tribune Magazine, sharing a new creation of fresh ingredients made with a sprinkle of tradition and a dash of Dawn’s magic! As a self-taught cook, she knows what tourists want when looking for a great meal.  Dawn has participated in cooking courses at The Lenotre Cooking School and Le Cordon Blue in Paris, France while traveling abroad.  And, if shopping at Williams-Sonoma is your favorite passion, you may find her wearing the chef’s hat as a culinary instructor. In 2011 she won the Cooking Channel’s The Perfect 3 Recipe Contest in the taco category for her Grilled Steak Tacos with Chipotle Cream and Chimichurri recipe and had her winning recipe featured in a webisode on CookingChanneltv.com! I had a chance to sit down with her and talk about her recent trip.  She shares several tasty details which will have you booking a trip to the beautiful U.S. Virgin Islands.  Remember – no passport needed to fly away to this delicious destination! Here’s our interview – click the link to listen! http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/3-18-17-1-Dawn-Richards-Virgin-Islands.mp3 And, check out www.dmrfinefoods.blogspot.com for more information about additional service offerings from DMR Fine Foods including catering, individual and group cooking lessons, private cooking parties and more! For more information on the U.S. Virgin Islands visit their website:  www.visitusvi.com

Marjorie and I just got back – we had a fantastic time! Here are our pictures, but also check out their website:  www.nemacolin.com And if you’d like to hear the show again have your pen and paper ready to write becaue we share all the details of things to do. http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/7-2-16-1-Nemacolin.mp3 http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/7-2-16-2-Nemacolin.mp3 http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/7-2-16-3-Nemacolin.mp3 http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/7-2-16-4-Nemacolin.mp3  

Zoom, zoom!  Has the roar of powerful engines and the screeching sound of tires made your heart pump faster? And does the flash of a shiny car zooming by fill you with excitement? The Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta will bring all of your dreams and wishes to life. Porsche has been defining sports cars and race cars for over 100 years.  When you see one zipping by, it’s hard to take your eyes off or not wonder what is it like to drive such a high-performance car.  The Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta offers an opportunity to experience either riding as a passenger or driving one of their high-powered models with a hands-on, fast-paced, action-filled, exhilarating drive around the track. You can select from the Porsche Driving Experience Program with your choice of car model and spend 90 minutes behind the wheel of a Porsche with a highly trained Porsche driving coach at your side.  Some of the programs are E-performance where you drive a hybrid Cayenne or check out the GT Academy where you learn all about the GT as well as drive it.  Or the Boxster.  There are also opportunities to go off-road.  Prices are around $400 – $700 You can also take a class at the Porsche Sports Driving School where you learn all about the performance characteristics and hone your skills for driving these high-performance cars all while improving your safety awareness and techniques.  With prices around $3,000 – $8,000 depending on the length of time and car. Or, if you’d rather keep your feet on solid ground, but still feel as though you are driving; there are virtual driving simulators which put you in the driver’s seat with all the thrills of being on the road. I recently had a great experience as a passenger – zooming around the curves and smelling the burning rubber of these fast-paced cars.  Here’s how you can have a personal experience like mine: Take a Demonstration lap with an experienced, professional race car driver – either retired or active. You can give it a try Tuesday – Saturday from 12:30 – 5:30 And, it’s only $65 You will whiz around the track in a 911 Carrera S, which is the default vehicle for the demonstration lap.  But, recently Porsche has started offering the Cayman GT4 and the 911 GT3 RS – for $100 The demonstration lap lasts for four minutes and you take two exhilarating laps around the circle where drivers will perform donuts too. Are you ready to take a ride?  You can by calling to reserve your spot. (888) 204-7474 or online at www.porschedriving.com And, what a great gift too.  You can purchase gift certificates for family and friends. Click here to view my experience.  I’m in the car ahead. Porsche Driving Experience Video Click here for the segment on the Bill and Joel Morning show. http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Annita-Thomas-of-Travel-Bags-Porche-Staycation-Destination.mp3

Listen to the show – Anna Post share lots and lots of travel tips for traveling in style and with manners! Click the links below for each segment:   http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/101913-1.mp3 Anna Post -Airline Etiquette http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/101913-2.mp3 Anna Post – Train & Car Etiquette http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/101913-3.mp3 Anna Post – Hotel & Tipping Etiquette http://www.travelwithannita.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/101913-4.mp3 Anna Post – Travel Companion Manners Destination:  Travel Etiquette  October 19, 2013, on WDUN AM 550 from 2-3pm       Listen live at:  WWW. WDUN.com …….. also go to our blog page for our most recent blog on Travel Pet Peeves!     Everyone has at least one…. one thing that gets you going, gets you frustrated, gets you angry and makes you forget those nice manners you were taught.  And, travel seems to bring out those little things in others and makes us crazy trying to handle tough situations with style and grace. On Saturday, Oct. 19th we will tackle some of the most challenging pet peeves we face when traveling and our guest will have a wealth of solutions from air travel to hotel staff, to eating out and cohabitating with a difficult travel-mate.  We’ll cover everything you may encounter from the start of your trip to your return home.  No more fighting over the center armrest, less confusion about tipping and we’ll tackle the truth about the old’ question  “is being nice when you travel the road to extra perks?”  So, listen with your pen and paper because we’ll have loads of tips and great info to put a smile on your face and take the stress out of your trip. Join us on Saturday, October 19th, from 2 – 3 pm on North Georgia’s News Talk AM 550 and FM 102.9.  Also listen live at  www.travelwithannita.com and click listen live. Our guest will be:  Anna Post Anna Post – is the great-great-granddaughter of Emily Post and a spokesperson for The Emily Post Institute. She is a co-author of the 18th edition of “Emily Post’s Etiquette”  and of “Great Get-Togethers”.  She is currently writing the 6th edition of “Emily Post’s Wedding Etiquette,” to be published by William Morrow. Anna is a co-instructor of The Emily Post Institute’s Business Etiquette Train-the-Trainer program and conducts business etiquette seminars across the country, working with a diverse range of clients, including Barclays, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, BAE Systems, EMD Serono, The F.B.I., The National Institutes of Health, Caltech, and Dartmouth College. A popular media source, her media interviews include USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, TIME, Real Simple, and Forbes.com. Anna has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, MSNBC, and NPR. Anna is also closely involved in social media strategy, new business development, creative direction, and product development. Check out Anna’s website:  www.emilypost.com What’s your travel pet peeve or travel etiquette question? Tipping while on vacation Unfamiliar food Personal space Hotel check-in   Co-hosting with me on Saturday will be Doc Bill with Sapelo Island Birdhouses and Ida Creal with Global Sun and Fun Travel Send us an email to:  [email protected]