An historical look at the earliest beginnings of a tiny Northwest Washington community, starting with the first land claims in the 1880s through the growth years, and the subsequent Depression. Interviews, extensive research, and over 400 photographs document those early pioneers, their challenges, and those who followed after.

Here it is! The first comprehensive guide to trails of the South Fork. For more than ten years the Group for the South Fork has been working with the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society and the Southampton Trails Preservation Society to preserve and define the trails, ancient and new, of the South Fork of Long Island. Mike Bottini not only helped to blaze these trails, for more than four years he has been describing them in his column in The Southampton Press. "South Fork Outdoors," which served as the basis for this book, won the award for best outdoors column from the New York Press Association in 2002. An accomplished naturalist, Mike offers a vivid picture of the local ecologies of the trails. From seashore to oak/pine woods, from salt-water wetlands to freshwater ponds and kettleholes, Mike describes the unique natural history of the remarkably diverse South Fork environments. Even if you are only an armchair nature-lover, you'll find this book enormously informative. If you like to hike, whether for a hundred yards or a hundred miles, this guide is essential. Each trail is meticulously mapped and described, with extensive comments on what to look for and why.

At 3 a.m. on February 21, 1865, a band of 65 Confederate horsemen slowly made its way down Greene Street in Cumberland, Maryland. Thinking the riders were disguised Union scouts, the few Union soldiers out that bitterly cold morning paid little attention to them. In the meantime, over 3,500 Yankee soldiers peacefully slept. Within thirty minutes McNeill's Rangers had kidnapped Union generals George Crook and Benjamin Kelley from their hotels and spirited them out of town. Despite a determined effort by Union pursuers to intercept the kidnappers, the Rangers reached safety deep in the South Fork River Valley, over fifty miles away. Not long afterward, the generals were shipped to Richmond's Libby Prison. Southern general John B. Gordon later called the mission "one of the most thrilling incidents of the war." In September 1862, John Hanson McNeill recruited a company of troopers for Col. John D. Imboden's 1st Virginia Partisan Rangers. In early 1863, Imboden took most of his men into the regular army, but McNeill and his son Jesse offered their men an opportunity to continue in independent service; seventeen soldiers joined them. In the coming months, other young hotspurs enlisted in McNeill's Rangers. Operating mostly in the Potomac Highlands of what is now eastern West Virginia, the Rangers bedeviled the Union troops guarding the B&O Railroad line. Favoring American Indian battle tactics, they ambushed patrols, attacked wagon trains, and heavily damaged railroad property and rolling stock. Phantoms of the South Fork is the thrilling result of Steve French's carefully researched study of primary source material, including diaries, memoirs, letters, and period newspaper articles. Additionally, he traveled throughout West Virginia, western Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and the Shenandoah Valley following the trail of Captain McNeill and his "Phantoms of the South Fork."

Outdoor recreation abounds in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Tennessee and Kentucky. This book describes opportunities for paddling, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, and more.

All the trails of the Big South Fork plus adjacent national forests and parks. Great for hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders.

Pocket guide (5x9") to the sandstone formations of the Northern Cumberland Plateau, which straddles Tennessee and Kentucky. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

An eloquent portrayal of a disappearing way of life of the Long Island fishermen whose voices--humorous, bitter and bewildered--are as clear as the threatened beauty of their once quiet shore.