You don't have to be a railroad enthusiast to appreciate "Railroads of Monmouth County."

Aurora was founded in 1891 by Donald Fletcher, a pioneer real estate tycoon, who originally named the town after himself. Where Aurora stands today was once open plains on Jicarilla Apache and Pawnee land - a place where antelope, deer, buffalo and elk roamed and gray wolves and coyotes prowled for prey. In 1907, the town was renamed Aurora, which means “dawn” in Latin. It was nicknamed, The Gateway to the Rockies, because it was the first town encountered by travelers heading west through Denver.

MCCLOUD - Railroad enthusiasts in Siskiyou County now have to look no further than their local bookstore to get their fix of local rail history.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Cindy Simons has one heck of a story to tell.

Ginger Bryant teaches high school students in the cool classrooms of Orlando's Lake Highland Preparatory School, but she has a pretty good idea what real heat feels like --the kind of 1,400-degree inferno firefighters can face when they pry their way into a blazing building.

Seattle's Greenwood-Phinney Neighborhood, the latest in the "Images of America" series of photo books about the city's past, made its debut at a crowded Santoro's Books yesterday.

West Point is a visual history of the U.S. Military Academy and its environs, presented as a series of vintage postcards culled from private collections. Captions accompany each postcard, explaining the scenes and their relation to West Point and its history.

Over the last few years, area residents have researched the history of Tacoma’s schools, parks, businesses and churches for a series of books on local history.

I recently received a book by Sherman E. Pyatt about the history of Burke High School. Pyatt, a 1970 graduate of the school, is an archivist at the Avery Research Center, but I know him best as one of the most proficient snare drummers ever to come out of Burke High.

“There’s a wonderful picture of the train station,” author/historian Alice C. Jung recalls. “It’s from the early 1900s and women in these huge hats, with coats over their clothes, are getting off the train.”

Carolyn Fregulia lives on a sprawling ranch outside of Jackson cradled in a nook between the high, yellow hills. For five generations her family has worked the land - farming, ranching, tending to olive groves. Their story is in many ways typical of the Italian immigrant experience which left its mark on the Mother Lode and helped form the county of Amador. On Jan. 28, Fregulia's book "Italians of the Gold Country" will be released on by the highly successful Arcadia Publishing house, offering a visual and written history of a time when Amador was thriving with diversity.

In 2004, Michael J. Kitsock and Michael R. Glore, both of Pottsville, joined forces to write “Pottsville Firefighting” and their second collaboration, “Reading Firefighting,” is set for release today.

It started out much like any other preview feature story: a local venue, an event of interest to members of the community. But it started to get a little weird. And more than a little interesting.

Arguments, protests, arrests. As the debates over immigration rage, it seems as if the relationship between Hispanics and non-Hispanics in Phoenix has always been contentious.

Dione F. Armand's house in Cutten is just a short walk from Sequoia Park, and during her many jaunts through the park she began to wonder about the history of the place and its connection to the city that cares for it.

Reading, PA - The evolution of Reading firefighting, from the era of horse-drawn steam engines to today’s powerful equipment, is chronicled in a photographic history book that will hit local bookstores this week.

A new book by Gary Griggs, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz, and local architect Deepika Shrestha Ross offers a unique look at the Santa Cruz coastline. The book juxtaposes historic photographs with photographs taken from the same locations today, showing how the coastline has evolved and changed, sometimes dramatically, over the past century.

SOUTH NASHVILLE - When Travellers Rest Plantation & Museum received a large donation of Arabian horse memorabilia in 2005, it was discovered soon thereafter that very few comprehensive resources existed on horse breeding in Middle Tennessee.

In a new pictorial history book by Arcadia Publishing, local historian William F. Hull contrasts Chattanooga in its earliest days with its most recent developments. He shows where old buildings used to stand and can only be seen now in images

Those South Pasadenans. They’re long-legged, well-dressed, and their eyelashes bat better than Barry Bonds. But unless you count the seven-foot Steiff toy in the Plexiglas case, there probably won’t be a single ostrich in attendance on Tuesday evening at the South Pasadena Library when local writer and historian Rick Thomas signs and discusses his popular books from Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series.

If you thought Mesa was just "Mormontown" in the early days, think again.

Previously named "Globe City, " Globe's known history dates back to the mid-1800's. Over the years, Globe has grown from a small mining town to a thriving Arizona community.

History, or what passes for history in this new place, has a way of vanishing without a trace.

Did you know Mesa was home to a thriving wine industry in the late 1800s? Or, that Mesa’s livestock industry once included ostriches? Mesa’s fascinating history, along with more than 200 vintage photographs, can be found in a new book “Mesa” which goes on sale Monday January 21. Arcadia Publishing is releasing the book in their “Images of America” series.

SEBRING — After countless hours of scanning photos and sorting through records at the Sebring Historical Society, Susan MacDonald was overwhelmed when the book "Sebring" was finally completed.

Arcadia Publishing’s Rails of California’s Central Coast, surveys the strange diversity of steam, diesel, and electric motive power that operated south of San Francisco through Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo Counties during most of the Twentieth Century.

Delray Beach artist Sharon Koskoff has been busy the past few weeks designing the Lake Worth Playhouse marquee, painting the new Delray Beach "Peace Bench" and the next two days she will appear at Boynton Beach and Delray Beach libraries to promote copies of her new book "Art Deco of the Palm Beaches."

Skimming the pages of black-and-white photos that fill Jose Maria Burruel’s inaugural book feels at first like looking through an old family album.

To author and historian Steven Shaw, it was a story that needed telling. So he did.

The American Cinematheque presents a slide show presentation and lecture surrounding the publication of the new book Los Angeles Theatres (Arcadia Press) which details historic theatres in Los Angeles through rare photographs and text.

Authors who'd kill for a publisher to even consider their works probably hate Doug Smith.

Eureka is known as a bustling coastal California city that is rich in natural beauty and is the home of the world’s first redwood park, but its history reveals much more.

The drive east along Highway 12 into Calaveras County past Lake Camanche and through Wallace, Burson, Valley Springs and on into the Sierra Nevada is a familiar ribbon of asphalt to many Lodi area residents.

PALM DESERT - will soon join a growing list of Inland-area cities, communities and institutions featured in a national publisher's local-history series.

Banning history author Ken Holtzclaw's seventh book gives a glimpse into the history of Moreno Valley. “Images of America” Moreno Valley is a joint effort between Holtzclaw and the Moreno Valley Historical Society.

Perhaps the most charming of all of Tacoma’s neighborhoods, Proctor District is featured in this new book by Caroline Gallacci and Bill Evans.

WILKES-BARRE -- Featuring a nostalgic black-and-white postcard of the Finch Boat House on the Susquehanna River, the cover of “Wilkes-Barre” gives a face to the city that many people who live in the area today may have never known.

This book evoked fond memories of baloney sandwiches which we shared with hungry trout during a family outing to the Blue Hole in the 1950s.

The Volkmanns highlight the Illinois capital city’s rich history through its public art.