Springtime Doesn’t Last Forever: The Rise and Fall of the Indoor Shopping Mall in Minneapolis, MN

April 3, 2021 / by Malcolm Logan

There are innovations that, when we first experience them, are so striking, so clearly a terrific idea, that we cannot conceive of their ever fading away. For anyone born before the year 2000, the indoor shopping mall was one of those things. Repositories of consumer culture and social engagement in…

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Minnesota, The Midwest

Deadly Charm: The Murders at the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, Minnesota

March 27, 2021 / by Malcolm Logan

Eighty-nine-year-old Marjorie Congdon has been called both a sociopath and a psychopath. The terms are not interchangeable. Sociopaths have a conscience, but their moral compass is weak. Psychopaths are without a conscience. They are cold-hearted, deceitful, manipulative, and cruel. In addition, they are charming, charismatic and engaging. People are drawn…

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Montana, The Mountain States

Billings, Montana: America’s Real Gateway to the West

March 13, 2021 / by Malcolm Logan

Traveling west from the plains of North Dakota something interesting happens as you approach Billings. The land begins to break up. The rolling prairie gives way to a fantastic landscape of buttes, plateaus and palisades. Looking around, you find yourself in a different environment. The first city you come to…

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Idaho, The Mountain States

Meltdown: How Two Hotheads May Have Caused America’s First Nuclear Disaster

March 6, 2021 / by Malcolm Logan

The story goes like this. Two young enlisted men in their early twenties were tasked with operating a nuclear reactor in the Lost River Desert of Idaho. They were not scientists or engineers. They lacked college degrees. They were graduates of a crash course in how to operate a nuclear…

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Idaho, The Mountain States

A Visit to Sun Valley, America’s First Destination Ski Resort

February 27, 2021 / by Malcolm Logan

Skiing came to Sun Valley—as it came to all of us—by a roundabout manner. Having existed in Norway for centuries as a form of transportation, it was little regarded as a test of courage and agility until the mid-19th century when those nutty Norwegians embraced the death defying thrills of…

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The West Coast, Washington

Leavenworth, WA and the Making of a Bavarian Dream

February 20, 2021 / by Malcolm Logan

In 1945 at the end of World War II a soldier named Bob Rodgers found himself stationed in the German province of Bavaria. While there, he fell in love with the people, the food, and the charming Bavarian architecture. After returning home to Seattle, he took a job as an…

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California, The West Coast

Burned: The Fire that Destroyed Paradise and the Company That Caused It

February 13, 2021 / by Malcolm Logan

Sometime during the night of November 7th, 2018 the winds shifted over the Sierra Nevada. Winds blowing east from the Pacific were supplanted by winds blowing west out of the Great Basin of Nevada. They gathered strength as they swept down the slopes of the mountains and entered the canyons….

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California, The West Coast

Confinement: Enduring a Lockdown on Alcatraz Island

January 30, 2021 / by Malcolm Logan

On December 6th, 2020 San Francisco locked down for the second time in nine months. You could almost hear the collective groan from residents long accustomed to enjoying the lively social life the city has to offer. For at least the next eight weeks San Franciscans were to remain in…

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California

A Self-Guided Tour of the Manson Murder Sites in Los Angeles

January 16, 2021 / by Malcolm Logan

This self-guided tour of the Charles Manson murder sites in and around Los Angeles is designed to take three hours. By following the map below, you can see the principal sites described in the following narrative and form a deeper appreciation of the events that took place between July and…

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The Mountain States, Utah

Good Medicine: A Spiritual Journey Through Monument Valley

March 2, 2020 / by Malcolm Logan

As a child he witnessed magic. Among the spires of orange and russet rock, in the shadows of parapets ribboned with plum colored bands left by long receded seas, he watched as the Hopi medicine man placed the tip of an eagle feather against his mother’s neck and sang. His…

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US history

Springtime Doesn’t Last Forever: The Rise and Fall of the Indoor Shopping Mall in Minneapolis, MN

Deadly Charm: The Murders at the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, Minnesota

Billings, Montana: America’s Real Gateway to the West

Meltdown: How Two Hotheads May Have Caused America’s First Nuclear Disaster

A Visit to Sun Valley, America’s First Destination Ski Resort

Leavenworth, WA and the Making of a Bavarian Dream

Burned: The Fire that Destroyed Paradise and the Company That Caused It

Confinement: Enduring a Lockdown on Alcatraz Island

A Self-Guided Tour of the Manson Murder Sites in Los Angeles

Good Medicine: A Spiritual Journey Through Monument Valley

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