This informative book describes how the Muslim religion started, including the life of the Prophet Muhammad; the Hegira and Kaaba; caliphs; the split of the Sunni and Shi'a and the beliefs of both; Sufism; the Muslim calendar; key events that are remembered in Islam today; and the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Makkah.
Why do people migrate to and settle in the places they do? Fascinating examples from history help explain the determining factors of migration. Readers will fascinated to read about the settling the Nile in ancient Egypt; the Industrial Revolution in Britain; the opening up of the American West; the Gold Rush; and the colonization of Australia.
Young or old, playful or terrifying, clad in the brocades of the 16th century or the jeans of today, the phantoms of these tales vary as much as the places they haunt. Whatever their demeanor, wherever they are, however their actions are explained or dismissed, these ghosts have a common power: anyone reading this anthology will see that they still haunt us today.
Born on January 1, 1900, on a family farm in the mountains of North Carolina, Medford McGee grows up awestruck by the rapid changes that blazon the New American Century and the promise of new opportunities that come along with these changes .
This fifth volume in W.C. Jameson's Buried Treasure series contains 38 tales and legends about Native American Indian hoards, Civil War caches, lost mines, and robbery stashes. Jameson includes classic treasure stories like The Lost Treasure of Pirate William Kirk (Virginia), Chief Sontechee's Silver Hoard (North Carolina), Natchez Trace: Treasure Trail (Mississippi) that are part myth and part history.
The Mid-Atlantic States are rich in history, legends of lost fortunes, and buried treasure stories. This twelfth book in W.C. Jameson's Buried Treasure collection offers thirty tales of this region that have remained largely untold for generations. Lost mines, buried loot, caches of gold and silver ingots, gangsters, Native American Indians, pirates, chests of precious stones -- such are the ingredients of a rich stew of folklore gathered from the melting pot of the Mid-Atlantic region.
Do Native Americans know the location of the cursed Lost Gold of Devil's Sink? Did Sir Francis Drake bury millions of dollars' worth of ancient Incan treasures? Has anyone found the box of gold coins buried by a reputed giant in the Washington rain forest? Is there a noble family's fortune buried near an old log cabin in the Cascades? The Pacific Northwest provides a picturesque backdrop for these stories as it stretches from the rugged coastline east over the snowy mountains and into the vast plateau that leads to Idaho. For over a century, outlaws, prospectors, Russians, Indians, loners, soldiers, and immigrants have thrown themselves into all of the adventure and intrigue money can buy.
These 32 tales from the Backbone of America include The Gold Behind the Waterfall (Arizona), The Treasure of Deadman Cave (Colorado), Lava Cave Cache (Idaho), Henry Plummer's Lost Gold (Montana), The Curse of the Lost Sheepherder's Mine (Nevada), Lost Train Robbery Loot in Cibola County (New Mexico), Eighty Ingots in Spanish Gold (Utah), and Lost Ledge of Gold (Wyoming). As Jameson points out in his introduction, the Rocky Mountains still have many remote areas that even today can only be reached on horseback or on foot. Centuries ago Native American Indians, Spaniards, explorers, prospectors, miners, the occasional wandering cowboy and even outlaws fleeing the law roamed these rugged mountains. Today this land remains laced with hidden treasures just waiting to be found.
The dusty trails heading west of the Mississippi provided intrigue, adventure, and danger for the men and women who set out in search of a new life and fortune. Outlaws along with pioneers and forty-niners traveled this frontier often, finding and losing riches along the way. The Great Plains region - loaded with history from Native Americans, Spanish explorers, and Mexican, German, and Scots-Irish settlers, holds some of the country's most promising opportunities for finding buried treasure. Scattered from North Dakota to Texas, these stories provide a glimpse into the lives of fleeing outlaws, hard-working ranchers, priests, prospectors, and immigrantsall entwined in their search for treasure.
This book is a collection of more than thirty stories about long lost buried treasures and forgotten stashes that are said to be hidden along the Atlantic Coast.
A cedar chest that had been packed with gold coins robbed from a bank just south of Lexington, Kentucky in 1860 was recovered 50 years later by a fishing guide at King's Mill Pond. Only a handful of coins were left in the chest, which had mostly rotted away. Is the rest settled beneath the silt of the pond today? The Appalachian Mountains have witnessed untold fortunes gained and lost. The confluence and clashes of a number of cultures Native American Indian, French, Spanish, pioneer, and Union and Confederate forces - often resulted in struggles over mineral resources or fights about stashes of gold and silver that were hidden for later retrieval. W.C. Jameson gathered his material from journals, maps, on-site research in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and from interviews with people whose lives have been entwined with the search for long lost treasures. This book contains 40 legends with accounts of caves stacked from floor to ceiling with gold ingots; of caches guarded by skeletons and curses; and of Union payrolls scattered to the four winds.
Modern-day counterparts of the Spanish conquistadors and the early nineteenth-century settlers still cling to the image of El Dorado and the promise of riches. The folklore of the land still exerts its magical pull as the pickup truck has replaced the horse and mule, but treasure hunters still travel with little more than their dreams and hopes. They can be found even now in the mountains and the valleys of the American Southwest, still searching for the elusive riches that have been lost or remain buried in the rugged terrain.
This book contains more than thirty stories from New England and the Northeast about hidden riches, forgotten war loot, and sunken ship treasures. Marie Antoinette's $1 million necklace lies in the cold waters of the Pennichuck Brook just a few miles from downtown Nashua, New Hampshire. A steamboat, possibly the country's first one, still remains deep in Lake Morey near Fairlee, Vermont. A young woman discovers her great-grandfather's lost money in the chimney of his mysterious Massachusetts mansion. But was there more hidden in the bricks? From Revolutionary War and Civil War tales to a legend about a missing silver church bell, this lore, grown out of true accounts and actual histories, has propelled New England into one of the most fascinating regions for lost treasure.
After reading these 30 revived tales of wealth and splendor, you will be tempted to throw some supplies into a backpack like the '49-ers of old and head west. Although stories of lost gold and silver veins are abundant (Mysterious Blue Ledge of Gold, The Curse of the Mormon Silver Ledge), they in no way represent all of the wealth hidden in California's geography and folklore. Does Death Valley hold more than just sand and arid desert; is it also the Canyon of Lost Gold and site of the Golden Gravels of Goler Wash? Is the long California coastline covering secrets (Gold in the Sand) and hidden riches (Lost North Beach Million, Five Hundred Pound Silver Ingot)? Are the sprawling metropolises now covering the priceless artifacts of an emperor (The Hollywood Bowl Treasure)? Outlaws, prospectors, Indians, loners and Mexicans throw themselves into all the adventure and intrigue. California's mountains, deserts, beaches, and citiesas well as sunken treasureare all encompassed in this collection.
Part of the colorful history of Texas includes legends of outlaw loot, pirate hoards, buried mines, and Santa Anna's lost pack-train carrying gold. This book contains 31 legends ranging from lost fortunes of Native Americans, French pirates, Spanish explorers, and Mexican soldiers to the early exploits of German and Scotch-Irish settlers. These unique tales from the people of the Lone Star State highlight their adventures and struggles in search of lost mines and forgotten treasures.
Maybe it's because his mother was a teacher. Or maybe it's because he has spent most of his life in classrooms - as a wide-eyed first grader, a naive college student, a seminarian, and now as a visiting writer in residencies across the country. There's something about school that infuses the work of Donald Davis and he has collected his all-time favorite school stories in the book. Whether we're traveling around the world with Miss Daisy, the fourth grade teacher who was integrating arithmetic, geography and English before the term whole language ever surfaced; or watching in awe as a classmate conjugates malaprops in Miss Vergilius Darwin's Latin class; or driving a school bus and learning about segregation - we experience flashes of recognition in moments that transcend Donald Davis's childhood stories.
Tales of outlaws and desperadoes are one of the few types of folklore that are peculiarly American. The myths and legends surrounding such people as Belle Starr, Frank and Jesse James, and Wild Bill Hickock grip the national imagination just as tightly today as they did a century ago.
The fourteen personal stories in this delightful coming of age book apply universal elements with characters and situations that everyone will recognize so that only the names, places and times change from our own childhood stories.
Jim May writes the stories of his youth, growing up in the rural Midwest between the Truman and the JFK eras, where trading stories was as common as trading horses, and frequently required the same skills. Neighboring, as his mother called it, was part of the social fabric. These 18 poignant and humorous stories of life's joys and trials told with the freshness of youth, yet tempered with the wisdom of age evoke a simpler time in our nation's history without romanticizing the inherent hardships.
Highly acclaimed, award winning author Donald Davis wants us all to remember and share our family stories. Among other tall tales, he writes about how his uncle hung onto the multitudinous Democratic votes of the Ratherton clan while at the very same time keeping them from shooting Davis' squirrels in a lean year; how he got Phyleete, wife Jolly, their eleven sub-natural sons and one forgettably natural daughter to move their log house from the unlikely place they'd built it; and how he tried to solve the problem of the chatty Misses Lena and Lucy Leatherwood, who clogged up the eight-party telephone line so badly that Uncle Frank paid for his new phone four months before he ever got the chance to talk on it. Davis offers seventeen vintage family stories, including Rainy Weather, The Southern Bells, and Old Man Hawkins' Lucky Day.
This two-part book program offers activities to supplement standard U.S. history classroom textbooks. Lessons can stand-alone or coordinate with any text. Activity pages include basic concepts, graphs, maps, vocabulary comprehension, and nonfiction informational excerpts that help make meaningful connections with historical concepts, facts, and ideas.
An eye-opening exploration of the history of the 1909-founded SIS and other British espionage agencies, investigating their typical training and tools as well as the escapades of famous spies.
An eye-opening exploration of the history of the 1942-founded CIA and other American espionage agencies, investigating their typical training and tools as well as the escapades of famous spies.
An eye-opening exploration of the history of the 1951-founded Mossad and other Israeli espionage agencies, investigating their typical training and tools as well as the escapades of famous spies.
An eye-opening exploration of the history of the 1954-founded KGB and other Russian espionage agencies, investigating their typical training and tools as well as the escapades of famous spies.
