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Located 50 miles southwest of Chicago, the Illinois Midland Railway connected Newark and Millington, two small towns surrounded by farmland barely two miles apart.

The Illinois Midland Railway began in 1914. Originally, plans called for a 120-mile railroad to be built across northern Illinois, connecting the cities of Rockford and Kankakee and bypassing congested Chicagoland rail traffic. A turbulent financial start resulted in just 1.962 miles of rickety track that meandered through forests, pastures, and across a creek. Townspeople there rescued the struggling railroad then ran it successfully under the tutelage of the Newark Farmers Grain Elevator Company, getting into record books along the way as “The World’s Shortest Railroad.” The end came in 1967, when vandals burned a couple of the railroad’s bridges. The Midland ceased operations, and the rails were removed, but again townspeople in Newark and Millington came to the rescue, each establishing museums to keep the memory of their Midland alive today.

Jeff Kehoe is a retired history teacher and active member in several railroad historical societies. Growing up in a Chicagoland railroad family, he has written stories for numerous publications. As a lifetime member of the Milwaukee Road Historical Association, he has written four books for that organization. This is his first book for Arcadia Publishing. The photographs and maps are courtesy of various sources, including the Fern Dell Museum in Newark, Millington Illinois Historical Museum, and the author’s own collection.

Professional historian Mark Beach tells the story of Manzanita, Nehalem, and Wheeler through well-research narrative alongside crystal-clear historic snapshots of shipwrecks, railroads, breathtaking coastal landscapes, and scenes from the everyday lives of the people who called these communities located on Oregon's Pacific Coast "home.'?

Little known tales and lore from Michigan's Upper Peninsula uncover mysteries, curses, and strange beasts in this collection of offbeat and fascinating stories.

That's the best I've ever seen you look," the barber said to the corpse. What kind of filthy decedent could inspire such derision? Learn the answer and read myriad other little-known tales from Michigan's northernmost region in Forgotten Tales of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Find out what happened after an aggrieved husband aimed a gun at his wife's lover and then asked the crowd, "Shall I shoot him?" Meet the sleeping man who rode the rails without a train. Discover the truth behind the rumors that one mining town was cursed with the ten plagues of Egypt, and learn why hugs terrified an entire city. And what were those hairy, bipedal beasts haunting the woods? Join Yooper Lisa A. Shiel as she brings to the fore these wonderfully offbeat and all-but-forgotten tales from the UP's history.

Discover the origins of "second breakfast" in New Orleans.

Originally published in 1900 from the handwritten notes of Mme. Bégué herself, this collection of dishes from a quintessential New Orleans restaurant are now available in a reprint of the 1937 edition.

See how Cleveland's growth, strength and wealth of diversity made it the most populous, prosperous and influential city in the history of Ohio.

Located on the southern shores of Lake Erie, Cleveland was founded in 1796 by General Moses Cleaveland, an agent of the Connecticut Land Company surveying the Western Reserve. The modest frontier settlement became a village in 1815 and an incorporated city in 1836. By 1896, Cleveland boasted the Cuyahoga Building, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, the Arcade, and the stately mansions of Euclid Avenue. Also known as "Millionaire's Row," it was home to Cleveland's industrial, commercial, cultural, and political elite, including Tom L. Johnson, a streetcar magnate and arguably Cleveland's finest mayor, and John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Company and the nation's first billionaire. Native Clevelander Thea Gallo Becker takes you inside her city's rise to prominence.

An insightful take on the Tarot through the lens of the industrial Midwest, and a beautiful piece of nature writing in its own right.

What can the Tarot tell us about the flora and fauna of the industrial Midwest? In what ways might this ancient practice connect us to the Rust Belt today? Rust Belt Arcana uses the Tarot's time-tested structure to answer these questions, juxtaposing the characteristics of the cards with the creatures and plants that surround us every day. The 22 idiosyncratic essays here--one for every card in the Major Arcana--bridge biology, natural history, and the human condition. They tell stories of abundance and loss, and they remind us of the Rust Belt's persistent remnant wilderness, a landscape often dismissed as unremarkable.

A magical book both for Tarot enthusiasts and for those who are seeking to see beauty in a beleaguered landscape and define their remarkable place within it.

Jonathan Foiles weaves together psychology and public policy, exploring the trauma underlying urbanization in a book Kirkus Reviews calls an urgent call for reform.

When Jonathan Foiles was a graduate student in social work, he had to choose between specializing in either mental health or public policy. But once he began working, he found it impossible to tell the two apart. As he counseled poor patients from Chicago's South and West Sides, he realized individual therapy couldn't account for all the ways unemployment, poverty, lack of affordable housing, and other policy decisions impacted the well-being of both individuals and communities.

Through a series of beautifully written and accessible case studies, Foiles lets us in on the stories of individual poor Chicagoans. He teaches us how he makes diagnoses, explains how therapists before him would analyze his patients, and teaches us about the profound ways that policy decisions contribute to individual suffering.

A remarkable, unique work of medical writing that serves as a call to action, this report by an experienced mental health professional is a must-read for anyone interested in the overlaps between mental health, public policy, and urbanization.

Ed Simon tells the story of Pittsburgh through this exploration of its hidden histories--the LA Review of Books calls it an epic, atomic history of the Steel City.

The land surrounding the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers has supported communities of humans for millennia. Over the past four centuries, however, it has been transformed countless times by the many people who call it home. In this brief, lyrical, and idiosyncratic collection, Ed Simon, a staff writer at The Millions, follows the story of America's furnace through a series of interconnected segments, covering all manner of Pittsburgh-beloved people, places, and things, including:

- Paleolithic Pittsburgh

- The Whiskey Rebellion

- The attempted assassination of Henry Frick

- The Harmonists

- The Mystery, Pittsburgh's radical, Black nationalist newspaper

- The myth of Joe Magarac

- Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Andy Warhol, and much, much more.

Accessible and funny, An Alternative History of Pittsburgh is a must-read for anyone curious about this storied city, and for Pittsburghers who think they know it all too well already.

The third entry in Belt's urban cartography series, Buffalo in 50 Maps offers a truly unique view of the City of Good Neighbors, from the East Side to Millionaires' Row to Cazenovia Park.

The best maps give you a feeling for what a place is really like, and Buffalo in 50 Maps offers a brand-new look at both the past and present of the Queen City of the Great Lakes. Through its colorful maps and insightful commentary, you'll discover the history of the city's changing boundaries, its numerous breweries, and its most popular bus routes. Learn how long it takes to get to a Bills game on Sunday, why the city smells like Cheerios, or where the city's immigrants have recently opened businesses. You'll also discover the city's food deserts, how the layout of its streets led to intense segregation, and how its vacant lots reveal where reinvestment and development have actually taken place.

It's a beautiful and nuanced look that's perfect for Buffalo natives but also for those who just want to get to know the city a little bit better.

A guided tour of one of the Midwest’s most vibrant subcultures, one DIY ramp at a time.

The American Midwest may not have a reputation as the nation’s skating mecca, but maybe it should. In Midwest Shreds, Mandy Shunnarah travels around the region for a deep dive into its skating culture, detailing the activity’s long, storied history there and the large and diverse skating community that calls the Midwest home today. Here, you’ll learn how skating has become a form of mutual aid in Iowa, follow hard-core street skaters as they vie to become King of Cleveland, experience the transcendence of skating in a converted St. Louis cathedral, meet the anarchists who’ve built their own skate paradise, cinder block by cinder block, in southern Ohio, and encounter skaters from Des Moines, Madison, Chicago, West Lafayette, Detroit, and other corners of the Midwest.

With writing that revels in the crunching scrape of hard wheels, the joy of nailing a trick for the first time, and the grit required to fall and get back up again, Midwest Shreds illuminates a small corner of Midwest life and offers a portrait of the rich cultural history and diversity that makes the region what it is today.

Tales of fairies and bewitching Little People have amazed and horrified New Englanders for over four hundred years. 

In the nineteenth century, residents of Marblehead, Massachusetts, reported malicious pixies leading them in circles at dusk. In Aroostook County, Maine, elves called lutins exasperated farmers with their mischievous tricks and games. In Uncasville, Connecticut, beguiling creatures emerged for centuries at twilight to collect corn-filled baskets from members of the Mohegan Tribe. And in Harrisville, Rhode Island, a vision of fearful banshees augured death to an Irish seer.

From the ancient tales of Algonquian elders to the fireside stories of European immigrants, Andrew Warburton scours New England folklore to uncover the secrets of the region's Fair Folk and the storytellers who've encountered them through the years.

Exploring Pittsburgh's Ups and Downs

In Pittsburgh, the elevation varies wildly, fluctuating 660 feet from highest to lowest points throughout the area and making it one of the hilliest cities in the United States. Throughout this unruly and physically challenging landscape, the city's first mass transportation system was built – a steadily expanding network of public stairways, locally referred to as city steps, these flights of stairs are a throwback to a very different time in history and a very different Pittsburgh. Authors Laura Zurowski, Charles Succop and Matthew Jacob present the history of the Steel City steps and a walking guide to their scenic locations today.

In 1853, Alameda County was formed on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. On the land route to the California goldfields, the primarily agricultural county had problems with cattle rustling and thievery. It had the reputation of being one of the most lawless areas around. From famous lawmen like Harry Morse to infamous outlaws like Joaquin Murietta, the sheriff and deputies of Alameda County had their hands full. As the county changed, so did the law enforcement challenges. By the 20th century, the sheriff’s office was dealing with antiwar demonstrations, riots, kidnappings, suburban and rural crime, earthquakes, and other disasters that found the men and women of

county law enforcement always ready to respond. Often the challenges became newsworthy. During the 1960s and 1970s, the sheriff’s office riot squad became internationally known as the “Blue Meanies.”

Steven Minniear, a local historian, collected and assembled photographs and information from throughout Alameda County to bring to light the forgotten stories of the sheriff’s office. Many of these previously unseen photographs come from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Archive. In that process, he uncovered the lost stories and forgotten incidents that shaped the office and the communities it serves.

Images of America: Centralia chronicles many of the images and stories from this fascinating and colorful Pennsylvania community.

Centralia is the saga of a Pennsylvania community consumed by an underground mine fire. The town, founded in 1866, has often been embroiled in tragedy and controversy. Beginning with the infamous Molly Maguires, Centralia was confronted with the murder of its founder and an assault upon its Catholic priest, who cursed the town, saying, "One day this town will be erased from the face of the earth." Almost one hundred years later, a vein of coal that ran underneath the town caught fire and has burned since 1962. In the 1990s, the state of Pennsylvania declared eminent domain and forced most of the town's sixteen hundred residents to leave. Ten people remain in Centralia today.

Kaufmann's Department Store was a force in Pittsburgh retail from its humble beginnings in 1871 until its merger with Federated Department Stores in 2006.

The "Big Store" downtown was a landmark shopping emporium with 12 floors of everything from cosmetics and groceries to wedding gowns and lawn mowers. Under the leadership of Edgar J. Kaufmann and his wife, Liliane, the store became a forum for exhibitions of art, cutting-edge technology, and Parisian haute couture. Generations of Pittsburghers hold fond memories of meeting friends and family under the famous Kaufmann's clock to lunch at the Tic Toc Restaurant, pick up cookies at the Arcade Bakery, or peer into the store's enchanting Christmas window displays each December.