Showing Archived Posts

Hugging the Left Coast

Posted March 30th, 2010 at 2:38 pm (UTC-4)
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Let’s get back to our California expedition, starting at the beach. A quick factoid: 54 percent of the people in the United States live within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of our shorelines. That makes historical sense, since settlement naturally began on the east, west, and Gulf coasts and moved inland. So you’d think that packing […]

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Good as Gold

Posted March 24th, 2010 at 6:29 pm (UTC-4)
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We already stuck a toe into California — and quickly pulled it back out when it landed in the searing Mojave Desert. But let’s tough it out and take another look at the Golden State. Golden, as in sunny, and golden because of the fortunes made by the lucky few who found gold high in […]

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Hot and Hotter

Posted March 19th, 2010 at 4:59 pm (UTC-4)
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You name it. If it’s beautiful, California probably has it. Too bad the first view lots of people get of the state is bleak and monotonous. I’m talking about the Mojave Desert, which people driving into Southern California run smack into. Every time I’m there, I think about Tom Joad as well as the waves […]

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California, There They Go

Posted March 16th, 2010 at 5:29 pm (UTC-4)
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On our journey through the American West, it’s about time to mosey into California, America’s most populous state by far. To give you an idea of just how popular this “land of milk and honey” became, California is only 1½ times bigger than another western state — Wyoming — but it has 74 times more […]

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Enchantment

Posted March 12th, 2010 at 1:47 pm (UTC-4)
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You get your history first in this posting. The oft-told stories of America’s development often paint an incomplete picture. Schoolkids learn how the British, French, and Dutch colonized the East Coast of North America; about the slow but steady subjugation of native tribes there and beyond the Appalachian Mountains; of Spanish missionaries’ seeding the faith […]

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Foreverland

Posted March 9th, 2010 at 2:20 pm (UTC-4)
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Is a grain of sand just a tiny rock? If so, we’re about to leave red-rock Utah, about which I’ve been writing, for the rockiest state in the Union. Nevada, largely an uninhabited, alkali wasteland pocked with gambling and golf resorts but mostly ramshackle towns built around a few gas stations, taverns, and cafés, is […]

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Land of the Utes — and Mormons

Posted March 5th, 2010 at 12:12 pm (UTC-4)
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Writing, as I did last posting, about Utah — an American state named after the Ute Indians, the “People of the Mountains” who once controlled that territory west of the main spine of the Rockies —brings back a vivid memory. Carol and I were interviewing and photographing at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the state […]

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Color Country

Posted March 1st, 2010 at 2:06 pm (UTC-4)
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The Rocky Mountain states that I’ve been describing in this blog over the past several weeks project a breathtaking majesty when their massive, snow-covered mountains are beheld from the arid flatlands below. But while its Wasatch Range is formidable enough to have hosted the Winter Olympics eight years ago, one of those states displays an […]

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Ted Landphair

About

This is a far-ranging exploration of American life by a veteran Voice of America “Americana” reporter and essayist.

Ted writes about the thousands of places he has visited and written about as a broadcaster and book author. Ted Landphair’s America often showcases the work of his wife and traveling companion, renowned American photographer Carol M. Highsmith.

Ted welcomes feedback, questions, and ideas. View Ted’s profile. Watch a video about Ted and Carol by VOA’s Nico Colombant.

Photos by Carol M. Highsmith

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