Rising sharply from the plains of western Nebraska, Scotts Bluff was a critical landmark for 19th-century emigrants traveling the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. After weeks of navigating by rivers and rutted tracks, wagon parties would spot this towering formation and know they were on the right path.

Today, from overlooks reached by steep trails or a winding summit road, that same…

There are word nerds, and then there’s the woman who set up a folding chair on sidewalks throughout the country, cheerfully dispensing tips about grammar. She recounts her adventures in a new book. And the story of the brilliant pioneer of computing language whose name lives on in a familiar term. Plus, when you get […]

There is already an excellent report on the Madonna of the Trail site in Bethesda, Maryland, posted on Atlas Obscura. This new entry reports on the Madonna in Richmond, Indiana, which is the second Atlas Obscura site submitted, the fifth of the twelve geographically from east to west, and the ninth of the twelve by dedication date.

The Madonna of the Trail is a series of twelve identical statues…