Joplin was founded in the 1870s in the heart of the Tri-State Mining District, spanning Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The area gained fame for its rich lead and zinc deposits, attracting miners, immigrants, and businesses, which fueled rapid growth.
Lori Jordan
As the historic county seat of northwestern Oklahoma, Woodward has a story woven deeply through the threads of railroad expansion, cattle drives, the Cherokee Outlet, and a resilient spirit forged by severe weather and booms.
Lori Jordan
1610 — Spanish capital: Spanish colonists under Pedro de Peralta established Santa Fe as the capital of Nuevo México. It became the governmental center of the Spanish colony. Santa Fe is commonly described as the oldest continuously inhabited state capital in the United States.
Lori Jordan
In 1706, Spanish colonial leaders founded La Villa de Alburquerque in the Rio Grande Valley, named after the Duke of Alburquerque.
Lori Jordan
Ancestral Puebloans lived in this area between 300 BCE and 1250 CE. Today it remains ancestral homeland of the Navajo (Diné), Zuni, and Hopi.
Lori Jordan
The Grand Canyon is a record of Earth's history: rocks nearly 2 billion years old, in layers that preserve ancient oceans, deserts, and forests.
Lori Jordan
President Woodrow Wilson made Walnut Canyon a national monument on November 30, 1915, protecting its archaeological sites for future generations.
Lori Jordan
Before the town, the area was known as Antelope Spring. The commonly accepted story dates the name Flagstaff to Boston emigrants on July 4, 1876.
Lori Jordan
Stop six on our road trip: Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, where the Ancestral Pueblo people built more than 600 cliff dwellings.
Lori Jordan
Stop five, La Junta, Colorado: the cabin we booked turned out to be a one-room trailer all but in a Walmart parking lot. It was actually pretty nice.
Lori Jordan
Stop four on our road trip: Oakley, Kansas, a town founded in 1884 along the old Smoky Hill Trail, the settlers' route across the Great Plains.
Lori Jordan
Stop three on our road trip: Abilene, Kansas, the first major cowtown, where Joseph McCoy's stockyards shipped Texas longhorns east from 1867.
Lori Jordan