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Mesa's Falcon Field began during World War II when a small group of Hollywood celebrities financed pilot training facilities (Southwest Airways) in the United States for American Allied forces. Thousands of British Royal Air Force pilots, joined by pilots from Russia, China, and 24 other nations at neighboring airfields, earned their wings in the Arizona desert. In 1945, the City of Mesa purchased the facility for $1, and then for the next 20 years leased it to Rocket Power, Inc., which manufactured a solid fuel rocket propellant. Today Falcon Field is a bustling municipal airport and a growing business center, with companies like Boeing, Nammo Talley, and MD Helicopters. The airpark also features the Commemorative Air Force Museum, home of one of the last flying B-17 bombers.

On the corner of Central Avenue and Monroe Street, in the center of downtown Phoenix, is the historic Hotel San Carlos. Local Native Americans once worshipped a god of learning in this same area, and so early white settlers chose the site for the city's first school, the Little Adobe School, in 1873. After the Little Adobe School, the location served as a ballpark, a brick schoolhouse, the Central School, and finally the Hotel San Carlos, which opened in March 1928. The first hotel in Phoenix to boast steam heat, elevators, and air-conditioning, Hotel San Carlos has a remarkable story and has even seen its share of movie stars, including Mae West, Gene Autry, and Marilyn Monroe. Clark Gable always stayed in the same corner room on the fourth floor so he could people-watch. Even the friendly ghost of Leone Jensen, who appears regularly at the foot of the guest beds, has added to the unique legacy and continuing popularity of Hotel San Carlos.

KAKC AM 970 dominated radio listening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, like no other station before or since. During its heyday, half of all radios in northeast Oklahoma were tuned to this Top 40 station. The "new" KAKC emerged in 1956 with a baby-boom generation raised on rock and roll, the twist, and transistor radios. But it was more than music that kept KAKC on top throughout the turbulent 1960s, Vietnam, and into the 1970s--it was fun! The station was always out doing something entertaining in the community, usually to benefit a charity, and the Big 7 deejays--including Scooter Segraves, Dick Schmitz, and Lee Bayley--became household names. The images in Tulsa's KAKC Radio chronicle the station's entire history, from its beginnings in the Coliseum to its long ride as the dominant force in Tulsa radio.

Fort Worth exudes a vivacious Western spirit founded upon a rich history. In 1849, four years after the Republic of Texas became the 28th state, the Army built a fort to keep native tribes west of the Trinity. That fort grew into a focal stop on the Chisholm Trail and later became the western terminus of the railroad. In World War I, Fort Worth housed one Army and three aircraft training bases, while Fort Worth Stockyards, which became one of the largest in the nation, provided multitudes of horses and mules. From pianos on dirt floors to the Van Cliburn Competition, from the earliest portraits by itinerant French artists to world-class art museums, Fort Worth has always been home to high culture. Groups such as the Woman’s Wednesday Club made sure art and libraries stood in the old fort town once more famous for its saloons. No matter the era, and no matter the many reasons, Fort Worth will always be “where the West begins.”