In 1941, two men dug into Arizona’s past and found a gold mine of history. Emil Haury, with his Harvard degree, teamed up with Julian Hayden, who learned archaeology in the field. They cut through 12 ...

Count John Polereczky went from Hungarian nobility to Maine lighthouse keeper in one lifetime. Born in France, he fought for America as a Hussar during the Revolution, then settled in Dresden, Maine.

On March 2, 1900, a piano star named Ignacy Jan Paderewski played at Galveston’s Grand Opera House. Just six months later, a huge storm would kill 8,000 people and wreck the city. Back then, ...

A candy store chess set changed America in 1949. Six-year-old Bobby Fischer learned the game in Brooklyn and soon played against himself when no one else would. Two years later, he lost to a chess ...

Burt Munro bought a basic Indian Scout in 1920 that topped out at 55 mph. Then, he got to work. For two decades, the New Zealand mechanic built parts by hand in his shed, turning the bike into a speed ...

Utah is stunningly beautiful, deeply unique, and just a little bit mysterious to outsiders. Locals go about their lives thinking everything is perfectly normal — while visitors quietly wonder if ...

Vermont might look calm and quaint from the outside, but beneath all that flannel and maple syrup lies a set of habits that outsiders find downright baffling. To Vermonters, it’s all perfectly normal ...

Texas isn’t just a state — it’s a full-blown personality. To Texans, their habits are perfectly reasonable; to outsiders, they look like a high-octane mix of pride, heatstroke, and barbecue obsession.

Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the country, but it packs an impressive amount of weird into its tiny borders. To locals, these quirks are completely normal. To outsiders, they’re proof that ...

Tennessee is where Southern charm meets country grit, and the result is a collection of habits outsiders just can’t quite understand. To locals, it’s all perfectly normal. To everyone else, it looks ...

South Carolina is where sweet tea flows stronger than water, humidity counts as a personality trait, and traditions run deep. To locals, these habits make perfect sense. To outsiders, they sometimes ...

Oklahoma is a state of wide-open skies, fierce pride, and a few habits that leave outsiders flat-out puzzled. What looks like pure chaos to visitors is just another Tuesday for Oklahomans. From ...