A lot of people don't have mountains as handy as ours, where we can flee during the brutal heat of summer.

A new book by a local author spotlighting the history and heritage of Erwin and Unicoi County goes on sale next week.

Thirty years ago when I was traveling north on Interstate-5 in search of my Shangri-La I began to see billboards advertising the State of Jefferson. I was pretty good at geography and U.S. history, but had never heard of a U.S. state named Jefferson. It took me some time to realize it was a spoof, although it was very real to the early settlers of an area too far north in California and too far south in Oregon to get much attention from either of the two statehouses.

Glenn C. Kuebeler, local historian, collector and Huron resident, has published a new photographic history book including postcard images from the Cold Water Creek area. "Castalia, Cold Creek, and the Blue Hole" was published earlier this year and is available for purchase.

CARMEL - George Carroll Whipple III, a Wall Street lawyer and a lifelong Putnam County resident, is all about local history.

When Plainfield celebrated its tercentenary in 1999, the local historical society published a book about the town's history.

Images in America, “San Timoteo Canyon” by prolific writer and Riverside County historian Kenneth Holtzclaw and Peggy Christian reveals the sumptuous past of the canyon's wild-west days and its evolution to civilized citrus farms and ranches.

The Aeros are selling playoff tickets! Thomas Maroon, Margaret Maroon and Craig Holbert follow up Akron-Canton Football Heritage with Akron-Canton Baseball Heritage, an annotated pictorial look at ballparks like the Aeros' Canal Park; Classic Park, home of the Lake County Captains; and Eastwood Field, where the Mahoning Valley Scrappers play.

Early Snohomish is just the book that those interested in Washington history need in order understand why the city of Snohomish is so important to understanding entry points for settlers during the period when Washington was a Territory and rivers were the main routes of travel, as well as the later period of the railroad boom.

SALEM - We looked and we looked and we looked, but no Pat Boone. But, then, this isn't 1962, is it? And we're not in Texas, are we? Probably why we didn't see Ann-Margret or Bobby Darin, either, huh? No, this is no cheesy Hollywood movie, but it is the state fair. Our state fair. The Oregon State Fair - in its 142nd rendition.

This is a story not only about a new book that has been written about the Three Worlds of Santa's Village theme park -- but its author, Phillip Wenz.

The origins of Foss Maritime Company go back to the entrepreneurial spirit of a young immigrant woman in Tacoma nearly 120 years ago. It continues to play a vital role in the economy of the Puget Sound region, with its tugboats a constant fixture on local waters. A new book chronicles the history of the company and the Foss family.

Metro Parks Tacoma celebrates its 100th birthday this year, and what better time to publish a book about its history than now. Local authors and park historians Melissa McGinnis and Doreen Beard Simpkins of Tacoma’s Metropolitan Park District wrote the book and compiled the more than 200 vintage images that fill the 128 pages.

The second in a three-part series of books on Calaveras County history will be released during a book-signing in Murphys.

MILFORD — For many years now, Katherine "Katie" Krauss Murphy has been an unofficial historian of Woodmont and a professional writer, so she was a natural to pen a picture book about the community.

San Diego architect David Marshall has written a book about Balboa Park based on his collection of 5,000 historic park postcards gathered over a dozen years.

Long before the waterparks, the thrill rides, the mini-golf courses and the moccasin shops, there were only dramatic sandstone passageways, gushing waters and forests of pines.

CHICAGO — Some commuters bury their noses in newspapers on the elevated train ride into work. Others on the “L” zone out to digital music devices. Chances are, Greg Borzo will be looking out the window.

It's hard for Nizam Ali to pick his favorite celebrity sighting at his family's restaurant. There was the day he got a call that U2's Bono would be arriving in 10 minutes. And the day Russell Crowe arrived to film a scene for the upcoming movie "State of Play."

WHEN MARY SOLON retired from her medical technician job, writing a book was probably not on her list of "to-do-things."

Its title includes the word “historic” and its front cover is a back-in-time sepia tone but author Barbara Stagg says the book “Historic Rugby” is about a community’s ongoing existence.

On April 1, 1908, some homemakers in what would soon become the city of Albany armed themselves with shotguns and set up a barricade just west of the intersection of Buchanan and San Pablo avenues to halt wagons hauling garbage from Berkeley, by force if necessary.

PLAINFIELD — The Plainfield Historical Society has announced the release of a new book of old photographs of Plainfield published in cooperation with Arcadia Publishing Company.

Before it was named Wilkinsburg, the once heavily forested village seated on 266 acres was known as Africa. It was owned by Andrew Levi Levy Sr., who sold it to William Thompson, a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

You’ve seen those T-shirts: “If you’re rich, you live in Santa Barbara; if you’re famous, you live in Montecito; if you’re lucky, you live in Carpinteria.” (If you’re humorless, and not from what the Chumash long ago called Mishopshno, you may even have found them annoying.)

While writing her new book about early Highland Park, author Julia Johnas did not find many pictures of Highland Park women. One she could include, however, was amazing for the story that subsequently unfolded.

As part of its Images of Rail series, Arcadia Publishing Co. has released a book focusing on one of the Southland's "home roads," the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway.

Authors Susan Hoffer McMillan and Professor Randall Wells sold and signed their latest books at an event hosted by Crown and Country Interior Design and Fine Furnishings in Conway on Aug. 9.

It’s a tiny little book with some big views of Savannah.Simply titled Savannah, the book is the latest in a series printed by Arcadia Publishing called the Postcards of America series.

When it comes to the L, every regular rider is an expert -- from service quality to station cleanliness.

"Images of Aviation: Flight Research at NASA Langley Research Center," (Arcadia Publishing, $19.99), the first book by York County author Mark A. Chambers, has recently been released.

A new book written by retired professor Arnold G. Parks chronicles and celebrates the golden era of Lincoln University's development - fifty years of time when the institution met the challenges of great societal upheaval.

SAEGERTOWN -- Visitors came for cures from its mineral springs and for leisurely boat rides on French Creek.

MARION – When Kim Byrd and Debbie Williams finished compiling photos and writing text for their first book on Smyth County a couple of years ago, the women were exhausted.

The California Surf Museum has just announced the release of a book by John C. Elwell, Jane Schmauss, and various friends of the museum. Created in association with Arcadia Publishing, Surfing in San Diego highlights the county’s rich surfing history, colorful characters, and innovations from 1907 into the late 1960’s, featuring more than two-hundred vintage photographs.

What do Antioch, the New York Giants, and Norfolk, Va. have in common? They are all featured in the Images of America books by Arcadia Publishing.

MONTICELLO -- When W.C. Madden moved to Monticello last year, he found a community full of history that had never been recorded in any comprehensive form. He decided to change that.

In a surround-sound, Technicolor world, freelance film editor Robert Birchard hopes to turn the volume up on a muted industry with the release of his new book, "Silent-Era Filmmaking in Santa Barbara."

SAN DIEGO – Jane Schmauss has never surfed, but the Encinitas grandmother knows California beach culture from A to Z.

"Hi Neighbor, Have a Gansett!" was a slogan many Rhode Islanders still remember from the old days of Narragansett Brewing Company. Island resident and author Hazel Turley tells the story of New England's famous beer in a lively picture book, "Images of America: Narragansett Brewing Company," recently published and soon to be available on local retail shelves.

Mike Sanders is a volunteer firefighter in Loudoun County and author of the book "Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Apparatus History." This photographic history book provides representations of fire and rescue apparatus, from the oldest to the newest by department. For more information on the book visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.