'Mystery hikes' were a popular attraction in the 1930s

The 1950s saw the rise of the modern American road trip

Guaranteed time off and the ability to travel more affordably offered Americans the opportunity to hit the road for their vacations. The country's expanding interstate network of highways made those trips more convenient, especially for those looking to visit a site in the country's nascent National Parks System.

William HH Murray spurred American interest in rustic retreats

Murray's 1869 self-help book, "Adventures in the Wilderness; or, Camp-Life in the Adirondacks," encouraged urban residents to embrace outdoor activities, depicting upstate New York as an unsullied paradise free from the chaos of city life.

Some vacationers flock to the sites of tragedies

Auschwitz, Chernobyl, Gettysburg, and more have all become tourist destinations, despite the horrible events that have occurred at the sites. The phenomenon is sometimes called "dark tourism," a trend that seems to be spurred by interest in history, morbid curiosity, and popular culture (like HBO's series "Chernobyl").

Simone de Beauvoir was a serious hiker

The existentialist icon began hiking as a young school teacher in Marseilles. Eventually, she would plan out long trips that covered up to 18 miles and took her around 12 hours to complete. She would later write that the hikes saved her “from boredom, regret, and several sorts of depression.”

Horse diving was a popular attraction for 50 years

The event, which took place in Atlantic City, is exactly as it sounds: horses, directed by (sometimes scantily clad) riders, would jump from diving boards into pools. Although it was a popular spectacle for decades, it fell out of favor by the late 1970s.

One roadside attraction invented modern mini-golf

Garnet Carter and his wife Frieda owned and operated Fairyland, a roadside attraction on Lookout Mountain in Georgia. While other mini-golf courses tried to mimic the regal courses of its parent game, the Carters built obstacles and decorations from items they had around Fairyland, effectively inventing the leisure-minded version of the game.

America’s first roller coaster initially transported coal instead of people

The Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway in the hills of Pennsylvania wasn’t initially intended to be a ride, but over time passengers and businessmen alike took advantage of the lovely tour through nature. The railway eventually reached over 100,000 riders in some years.

Japan's mysterious disappearance industry

Tens of thousands of Japanese people reportedly choose to leave their lives behind and vanish, according to a 2016 book by Lena Mauger. This long read dives into some of the book's claims via interviews with some of the individuals opting to vanish,...

'Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators' featured 'Hitch' as a character

The young adult detective novels, which ran from 1964 to 1987, prominently featured Hitchcock's name on their covers and included introductions supposedly written by the author. Hitchcock was also a character in the books, working with the young detectives. His name was removed after the 30th book was released.

In 1957, a vice president at JPMorgan became an outspoken evangelist for psychedelic mushrooms

R. Gordon Wasson wrote "Seeking the Magic Mushroom" for Life magazine in 1957. It was a groundbreaking piece of journalism that introduced mainstream society to psychedelic mushrooms. He retired from JPMorgan in 1963 and continued researching and writing about psychedelic experiences for the rest of his life.

The unsolved mysteries of Machu Picchu

Who lived there? How did they get all that granite up there? Who were the 100 bodies found buried here, and why did some of them have elongated heads? Explore eight of Machu Picchu’s unanswered questions while scrolling through panoramic, clickable street-view images of the site, in this guide from Google Arts and Culture.

Read about 'skiplagging,' a money-saving travel hack

A consumer loophole known as "skiplagging" is a travel hack where travelers purchase a cheaper flight with a layover in their destination city. The hack works when flights to other cities with layovers at your destination are cheaper than direct flights to your destination. Airlines don't like the practice, but there's no specific law forbidding it.

Hikers can walk through Maya routes on Mexico’s first long-distance trail

The Camino del Mayab is a 68-mile trail west of Cancún that follows ancient Maya paths and modern railways. Built in collaboration with local Maya communities, it promotes Indigenous culture, preserves heritage, and supports community-based tourism along the route.

The 1904 Olympic marathon was a bizarre spectacle

When the Olympics first came to the US, the race was still a fringe event with few established rules. That led to an absurd comedy, with competitors ingesting poison, hitchhiking 11 miles of the course, and occasionally sipping brandy.

Disney World was originally known as the 'Florida Project'

Between 1964 and 1965, Disney quietly bought over 27,000 acres under fake names to keep prices low. But when the Orlando Sentinel exposed the scheme, Disney had to go public—forever changing Florida’s tourism industry.

Ghost hunting in the 19th century

This 40-minute podcast explores what it meant to hunt ghosts during the 19th century, when studying the paranormal was considered a mainstream scientific field. In 1847, a pair of sisters reportedly communicated with the spirit of a dead man...

Seventeen strange historical heists

High-dollar chocolate and cheese robberies to art thefts and audacious train robberies. Explore history's most peculiar stories of stealing with this list of seventeen tales of burglaries.

Bob Hope's radio shows brought stand-up to the masses

Bob Hope’s 1930s variety shows featured comedic monologues. Unlike the tightly scripted and evergreen sets of vaudeville, Hope’s monologues leaned into topical and political humor, sometimes to the disapproval of his network.

Renaissance Faire's provide an escape into the late medieval world

These cultural events (roughly 300 distinct fairs in the US) stem from the original festival in Los Angeles in 1963. Long viewed as a hippie festival, the fests attract eclectic fans—historians, craftworkers, dramatists and drinkers. Listen to a quick survey of the festival's surprising origins.

'Rocky Road' was designed to help people cope with the stock market crash

In 1929, ice cream maker William Dreyer marketed Rocky Road as a sweet treat intended to distract consumers from the poor state of the economy. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

'Migrant Mother' (1936) captured the tragic reality of the Great Depression

Taken by Dorothea Lange, the image shows a mother in tattered clothes looking distressed while her children cling to her. At the time, the family was surviving on frozen vegetables from nearby fields and birds killed by the children.

In the 1960s, eateries started using discounted drinks (and sometimes food) as a marketing tactic to make money during off-peak hours

Today, we know happy hours as a time where bars and restaurants offer discounted alcoholic beverages (and sometimes even food or non-alcoholic drinks) in order to attract customers during off-peak hours. But originally, the term “happy hour” didn’t involve alcohol at all.

How ‘vulture’ hedge funds make money

Some hedge funds specialize in snapping up distressed assets, like failing newspaper chains, and further stripping down their operational expenses in a bid to make a profit from the initial capital outlay. Delve into how one secretive firm known for the practice operates—and what’s at stake for the broader economy.

The jump scare, a horror genre trope, was invented to keep costs low

RKO Pictures hired Val Lewton to produce horror films in the Universal model: small budgets, big spectacles. His first movie was 1942's "Cat People" and he used tension and offscreen terror to save money. A perfect example is the movie's jump scare, a misdirection technique that catches viewers off guard.

The 'Where's George?' project tracked a trail of $1 bills across the US

Over a decade ago, a group dedicated its time to tracking $1 bills in the US. They would stamp single bills with the phrases “currency tracking project” and “Track me at WheresGeorge.com” in a practice they dubbed “Georging.”

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.