To Understand America’s Small Towns, Ask About Their Swimming Holes

Under a Waterfall or Inside an Old Quarry, These DIY Pools Are a Refreshing Way to Connect With Simple Pleasures of the Past

Consider the swimming hole. It lacks the majesty of an ocean or the pedigree of a lake—forget about boating or surfing. A swimming hole is by its very nature utilitarian. It’s a hole. Filled with water. To swim in. Unlike its grander cousins, a swimming hole doesn’t exist on its own and doesn’t fulfill swimming hole-ness until someone actually gets in there and swims.

Swimming holes were born of necessity at a time when fabricated pools didn’t exist in most of America. Just before the turn of the 20th century, public …

By Dave Hajdasz | July 14, 2016

Why the Winchester Rifle Heiress Built Herself a Haunted Mansion

Ghosts and Guilt Compelled the Wealthy Widow to Build San Jose’s Winchester Mystery House

By Pamela Haag | July 5, 2016

Once the United States’ largest private residence and the most expensive to build, today you could almost miss it. The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, sits between the …

My Favorite Park Is the Eccentric Heartbeat of New York

No Matter the Weather, Washington Square Is Always Warm and Full of People

By Natasha Verdon | September 25, 2015

When I was younger, growing up in Silverlake, I always wanted to move to New York City. It’s not that I didn’t love Los Angeles, but I was eager for …

I Found Home in a Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

After Moving to L.A. From a Small Town, I Craved a Familiar Place

By Dominique Resendez | August 5, 2015

When I left Watsonville (pop. 52,000) in the fall of 2012 to attend Occidental College in Los Angeles, I expected to cry at the absence of family and friends. But …

Washington-Lee High School (Arlington, Va.)

Sweating through the Guilt

by Andrés Martinez | July 7, 2011

I couldn’t resist. I tried, I really did. I stayed away for more than a year, but in the end I succumbed. I pledged in The Washington Post that I …

Miracle of Missionary Ridge

My Unlikely Passion for Civil War Battlefields

by Tamar Jacoby | June 15, 2011

I first went to a Civil War battlefield in search of my mother’s great-great-cousin, David Stelle Smith, who fought in a New Jersey regiment at Fredericksburg and died a few …

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