Gruene Hall! Famous for all the right reasons. The town’s meeting place, high school graduations, and Saengerfests. You don’t know what a Saengerfest is? Me neither, but I found out it’s a German singing festival. And what it’s most known for, is a concert venue for some of Country music’s biggest stars. And where some other stars got their start.
If you look around Richmond, Virginia, or Washington, D.C. you will see the influence of Thomas Jefferson. You see it in the symmetry of the buildings. You see it in the columns. And you see it in much of early US architecture. Jefferson was a passionate student of architecture from the time he purchased his first book on the subject. Over the course of his lifetime, he amassed one of the largest libraries in America. Architecturally, he is probably best remembered for his two homes. Monticello, in Albemarle County, Virginia. And Poplar Forest, in Bedford County, Virginia.
In the early morning of April 9th, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee clings to the belief the war was not over. Those under Lee’s command lined up for battle west of the village of Appomattox Court House. His hope is there’s only a thin line of Union cavalry stopping him from finding supplies and rations. Then, turning south, he plans to march to North Carolina to continue the fight. This plan, and the Southern war effort, are thwarted by Grant and his Army.
Thomas Jefferson Beale. It’s the name you likely have not heard, but the name behind a story you’ve seen a version of on the big screen. A 200-year-old mystery in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia begins with TJ Beale. He is credited as the author of the Beale Papers (also known as Beale Ciphers). They are the “treasure map” to the Beale Treasure worth an estimated $65 million. Consisting of three ciphers explaining what the treasure is, where it is and who is entitled to it the ciphers have never been fully decoded. The cipher explaining what the treasure consists of was decoded using the Declaration of Independence n the late 1800s. Does that sound familiar? The movie National Treasure is said to be loosely based on the story. Now it is time to tell the real story of Thomas Jefferson Beale.
The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know Harry S Truman A mere two blocks from bar-lined Duval Street in Key West sits a nondescript house that served numerous Presidents and other world leaders. Facilitating working vacations for our nation’s leaders, this tropical paradise is a far cry from the … Read more
In the first minutes of the D-Day invasion, a small rural Virginia town lost more boys than any other American community per capita.
