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The Great Kewaunee Fire

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Wisconsin, Kewaunee County, Kewaunee

     Shortly before midnight May 19, 1898, a fire broke out in a barn on Milwaukee Street near the northeast corner of Milwaukee and Ellis. Fanned by strong, cold northeast winds, the fire soon engulfed many of the buildings on the north side of Ellis Street between Milwaukee and Main.

     The new steam pumper, the hand pumper, and the valient efforts of volunteers were no match for the strong winds and intense heat, which soon caused the fire to spread to the buildings on the south side of Ellis Street.

     By early morning, the fire was contained, but the downtown business district was virtually destroyed. A fire engine sent by special train from Green Bay arrived too late to be of aid. In all about 30 buildings valued at about $85,000 were lost, about 60-70% of the loss covered by insurance.

     By later the next day, many merchants had set up temporary quarters. Plans were soon made for rebuilding. New building codes were passed and other measures taken in an effort to prevent such a disaster from ever occurring again. A new modern business district soon rose from the ashes.

(Disasters) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Twine Park

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Florida, Saint Johns County, St Augustine
Henry L. Twine (1923-1994) and his wife Katherine “Kat” Twine (1925-2002) were longtime Lincolnville residents and prominent community leaders for who this neighborhood park was named. They were both active in the civil rights movement at a time when demonstrations in St. Augustine led directly to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history.

Henry Twine was for many years president of the NAACP and served for a decade as City Commissioner.

He was the first black Vice Mayor of St. Augustine.

He worked diligently to have the state acquire the site of Fort Mose, the pioneer free black settlement from the 1700s. An official state marker on his home at 163 Twine Street named him a “Great Floridian.”

Katherine Twine was honored with the City of St. Augustine's prestigious “de Aviles Award” for her civil rights activities, and the flags at City Hall were lowered to half staff at the time of her funeral in December 2002.

An evergreen was planted in this park to honor Henry Twine after he passed away. An oak tree in memory of Katherine Twine was planted on the first anniversary of her death by 40th ACCORD, a group organized after her funeral to celebrate the accomplishments of the civil rights movement in St. Augustine and to honor its many heroic participants who truly made history.

(African Americans • Civil Rights • Politics) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

St. Mary's Missionary Baptist

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Florida, Saint Johns County, St. Augustine
This church was founded on May 25, 1875, and led by the inspiring Reverend Ivory Barnes, its first minister. The present edifice, occupied beginning in 1937, has held high the banner of Christ. Inspired in its earliest days by the spirit of The Emancipation Proclamation and The Reconstruction following The Civil War. St. Mary's occupies a unique position at the foot of Lincolnville, and stands tall as a beacon of freedom and hope.

During the era of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in St. Augustine, this church, through the stout-heartedness of its minister and N.A.A.C.P. leader, Rev. Thomas A. Wright, and other local leaders was the site of mass-meetings and a respite for the foot soldiers on the road in the quest for civil and human freedoms. These crusading examples, sustained through St. Mary's Missionary Baptist Church ordains it the Birthplace of The Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine.

Presented by The Civil Rights Memorial Projects Committee of St. Augustine, Executive Committee: Gerald Eubanks, Chairman: Bernice Harper, Vice-Chairman: and At-Large Members-(FL) Senator Anthony Hill, Sr., Rev. Willie M. Bolden, Brigadier General Ronald L. Bailey, Michael McQueen.
Erected January 2006


(African Americans • Churches, Etc. • Civil Rights) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Tovar House

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Florida, Saint Johns County, St. Augustine
The infantryman Jose Tovar lived on this corner in 1763. The original site and size of his house remained unchanged during the British period, when John Johnson, a Scottish merchant, lived here. After the Spanish returned in 1784, Jose Coruna, a Canary Islander with his family, and Tomas Caraballo, an assistant surgeon, occupied the house. Geronimo Alvarez, who lived next door in the Gonzalez-Alvarez House, purchased the property in 1791. It remained in his family until 1871. A later occupant was Civil War General Martin D. Hardin, USA.

The Tovar House has been owned by the St. Augustine Historical Society since 1918.

Sponsored by the Board of Commissioners of St. Johns County in cooperation with the Florida Department of State

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Gonzalez-Alvarez House

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Florida, Saint Johns County, St. Augustine
For more than three centuries this site has been occupied by St. Augustinians. Beginning about 1650, a succession of thatched wooden structures were their homes. This coquina stone house was built soon after the English burned St. Augustine in 1702, and originally was a one-story rectangle with two rooms. As times changed during the Spanish, British and American occupations, a wooden second story, an off-street porch, and other features were added. Preserved by St. Augustine Historical Society since 1918, the house became a registered national landmark in 1970.

Sponsored by the St. Johns County Historical Commission in cooperation with the Department of State

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Memorial Forest Planting

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Indiana, LaPorte County, La Porte

A tribute to
Harry August Backus • John William Burns • Chester L. Coplin • Hamon Gray • John E. Hawn • William L. Hubner • John E. Hunt • Chester Stewart Kiff • George Luebker • John C. Naill • Louis Edward New • Roy E. Newell • Norman Lay Roberts • Albert Emanuel Swanson • Hugh S. Woodard

The LaPorte Men
Who Died for Their Country
During the World War
1917 – 1919

(War, World I) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

La Porte World War II Memorial

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Indiana, LaPorte County, La Porte

In Honor Of
Wilbur A. Higlendorf
Arthur C. Woodcox
Robert J. Hartman
Clarence G. Niendorf
Who in the time of our country’s need, willingly laid aside their duties, to enter the military service, offering their lives, fortunes and sacred honor on the altars of our country, that a government of the people, for the people, and by the people shall not perish.
World War II
1941 - 1946

(War, World II) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Lumber Industry in Algoma

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Wisconsin, Kewaunee County, Algoma
Just south of this site, brothers Abraham and Simon Hall built the area's first saw mill in 1852. From that time to the present, Algoma has been a significant source of wood products. Ahnapee Seating and Veneer Company was founded on this site in 1892. The company produced plywood, chair seats and backs, and settee-like benches used in railroad stations, stores, and churches. U.S. Plywood Corp., later a division of Champion Papers International, purchased the Algoma Plywood and Veneer Company in 1940. A group of employees and private investors bought the plant in 1977 and renamed it Algoma Hardwoods. The company remains a major employer specializing in doors and custom wood products.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Club Ebony

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Mississippi, Sunflower County, Indianola

Front
Club Ebony, one of the South’s most important African American nightclubs, was built just after the end of World War II by Indianola entrepreneur Johnny Jones (1907-1950). Under Jones and successive owners, the club showcased Ray Charles, Count Basie, B. B. King, Bobby Bland, Little Milton, Albert King, Willie Clayton, and many other legendary acts. When owner Mary Shepard retired in 2008 after 34 years here, B. B. King purchased the venue to keep the vaunted Club Ebony tradition alive.

Rear
Club Ebony, which opened for business around 1948, was built over a period of years by John Jones, who purchased this property in November of 1945 with his wife Josephine. In a 1948 memoir, Jones wrote: “It is said to be the South’s largest and finest night club.” The name Ebony was already a fashionable one for African American nightclubs; the first Club Ebony opened in Harlem in 1927. Jones had operated other clubs in Indianola, notably Jones Nite Spot on Church Street, where a young B. B. King peered through the slats to witness performances by Louis Jordan, Jay McShann, Pete Johnson, and Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2 (Rice Miller). Jones wrote that when he opened his first business, “there were no other clubs for Negroes in Indianola at that time.” In a 1967 interview King recalled that Jones “was really the guy that kept the Negro neighborhood alive, by bringing people in, like Louis Jordan . . . Johnny Jones was a very nice fellow, and he knew the guys on the plantations didn’t have any money during the week, but he would often let us in and we would pay him off when we came in Saturday.”

Perhaps as a result of his generosity and the hefty fees he paid to present some of the biggest names in blues and jazz, Jones ran into financial difficulties with Club Ebony. After he died in May 1950, Jones’s widow, his son, John E. Jones, Jr., and others operated the club under the ownership of James B. “Jimmy” Lee, a white bootlegger from Leland who had loaned money to Jones. Ruby Edwards, who also ran the popular Ruby’s Nite Spot in Leland, took over the business in the mid-1950s, and purchased it in 1958. By then B. B. King had moved to Memphis and become a big name in the blues world; on a return to his home town to play at Club Ebony in 1955, he met Ruby’s daughter Sue Carol Hall. They were married in 1958.

Club Ebony was rented in 1974 and then purchased in 1975 by Willie and Mary Shepard. The club’s policy of booking top acts from the “chitlin circuit” continued throughout the decades: its talent roster included James Brown, Ike Turner, Syl Johnson, Clarence Carter, Denise LaSalle, Bobby Rush, Howlin’ Wolf, Tyrone Davis, and many more. Mary Shepard also presented local blues by David Lee Durham, the Ladies Choice Band, and others. After B. B. King began returning for an annual homecoming festival in his honor in 1980, it became a tradition for him to climax the festivities with a nighttime performance at Club Ebony. When Shepard retired in 2008, King stepped in to buy Club Ebony, preserving not only a major cultural landmark but also the special place where, fifty years earlier, as he wrote in his autobiography, "I found love back down in the Delta."

(African Americans • Arts, Letters, Music • Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Church Street

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Mississippi, Sunflower County, Indianola

Front
Church Street catered to every need of the African American community during the segregation era, when most area residents worked in the cotton fields during the week and came to town on weekends. Church Street (also designated as Church Avenue) offered everything from doctors' offices to tailoring shops, from shoe shine stands to ice cream parlors, from Saturday night blues to Sunday morning church services. B. B. King often played for tips on the street as a teenager in the 1940s.

Rear
Church Street was once a crowded, bustling thoroughfare where African Americans shopped, socialized, dined, listened to music, and attended church services. In the segregated 1950s, '60s, and earlier, according to Indianola attorney Carver Randle, “Church Street was an escape valve for black folks. On Saturdays Church Street had a festive kind of Mardi Gras atmosphere. People walked in the street and ate hot tamales and hot dogs and ice cream, drank corn whiskey and ate fish sandwiches. And although that was a tough time for black folks, we were pretty much self contained, all the way from fun to health care. If you made it to Church Street, you were all right.”

When the young B.B. King played on Church Street, he found that churchgoers would give him praise and moral encouragement for performing gospel songs, but tippers were more likely to reward him with money when he played blues. Jones Night Spot on Church Street was then the area's premier blues venue, presenting bluesmen such as Robert Nighthawk and Robert Jr. Lockwood as well as the big bands of Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Jones later moved to Hanna Street and was renamed the Club Ebony. King appeared there often after turning professional.

Other spots on Church Street, including Sports Place, Stella B.'s, the Pastime Inn, the Cotton Club, the Blue Chip, the Key Hole Inn, Price Night Club, George's Lounge, and Club Chicago, have offered blues music, most often on jukeboxes, although some have featured live entertainment. Guitarist David Lee Durham (1943-2008), who played with Bobby Whalen in the Ladies Choice Band, once had his own place on Church Street. Other local blues figures have included B.B. King's cousin Jerry Fair, his wife Galean Fair, and James Earl “Blue” Franklin, a former member of the Greenville band Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes and the Playboys. A Canadian television crew filmed the Barnes group performing at the Key Hole Inn in 1990.

While other notable blues musicians have been born in Indianola, few of them played on Church Street, since most left the area when they were young. These include Albert King (1923-1992), who rivaled B.B. as a blues guitar king; Chicago harmonica players Jazz Gillum (1904-1966, famed for his 1940 recording of “Key to the Highway”) and Little Arthur Duncan (1934-2008); and brothers Louis (1932-1995) and Mac Collins (1929-1997), who were mainstays of the Detroit blues scene. Louis Collins, who performed under the name “Mr. Bo,” and David Durham both developed styles heavily influenced by B.B. King. Another Indianola native, Earl Randle (b. 1947), made his mark in Memphis as a songwriter.

(African Americans • Arts, Letters, Music • Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Freedom School Bombing

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Mississippi, Sunflower County, Indianola

A building at this site serving as a Freedom School and headquarters for Civil Rights workers was firebombed and destroyed on March 5, 1965. The building, originally a Baptist school, had been donated to the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) by the Sunflower County Baptist Association in 1964.

(African Americans • Churches, Etc. • Civil Rights) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Giles Penny Savers Store

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Mississippi, Sunflower County, Indianola

A store located at this site was owned and operated until 1988 by Oscar and Alice Giles, who were active in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the local Civil Rights movement. The store was firebombed on May 1, 1965, and heavily damaged. With the help of neighbors, however, the flames were extinguished.

(African Americans • Civil Rights • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Irene Magruder

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Mississippi, Sunflower County, Indianola

At this site was the home of Irene Magruder (1898-1973), who was the first African American in Indianola to open her home to Civil Rights workers during Freedom Summer of 1964. Her efforts greatly influenced the Civil Rights movement in Indianola. The home was firebombed and destroyed on May 1, 1965.

(African Americans • Civil Rights) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Albert King

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Mississippi, Sunflower County, Indianola

Front
Albert King (1923-1992), who was billed as "King of the Blues Guitar," was famed for his powerful string-bending style as well as for his soulful, smoky vocals. King often said he was born in Indianola and was a half-brother of B. B. King, although the scant surviving official documentation suggests otherwise on both counts. King carved his own indelible niche in the blues hierarchy by creating a deep, dramatic sound that was widely imitated by both blues and rock guitarists.

Rear
Albert King’s readily identifiable style made him one of the most important artists in the history of the blues, but his own identity was a longtime source of confusion. In interviews he said he was born in Indianola on April 25, 1923 (or 1924), and whenever he appeared here at Club Ebony, the event was celebrated as a homecoming. He often claimed to be a half-brother of Indianola icon B. B. King, citing the fact that B. B.'s father was named Albert King. But when he applied for a Social Security card in 1942, he gave his birthplace as “Aboden” (most likely Aberdeen), Mississippi, and signed his name as Albert Nelson, listing his father as Will Nelson. Musicians also knew him as Albert Nelson in the 1940s and '50s. But when he made his first record in 1953–when B. B. had become a national blues star–he became Albert King, and by 1959 he was billed in newspaper ads as “B. B. King's brother.” He also sometimes used the same nickname as B. B.–“Blues Boy”–and named his guitar Lucy (B. B.'s instrument was Lucille). B. B., however, claimed Albert as just a friend, not a relative, and once retorted, “My name was King before I was famous.”

According to King, he was five when his father left the family and eight when he moved with his mother, Mary Blevins, and two sisters to the Forrest City, Arkansas, area. King said his family had also lived in Arcola, Mississippi, at one time. He made his first guitar out of a cigar box, a piece of a bush, and a strand of broom wire, and later bought a real guitar for $1.25. As a southpaw learning guitar on his own, he turned his guitar upside down. King picked cotton, drove a bulldozer, did construction, and worked other jobs until he was finally able to support himself as a musician.

King's first band was the In the Groove Boys, based in Osceola, Arkansas. In the early ’50s he also worked with a gospel group, the Harmony Kings, in South Bend, Indiana, and–as a drummer–with bluesman Jimmy Reed in the Gary/Chicago area. He recorded his debut single for Parrot Records in Chicago before returning to Osceola and then moving to Lovejoy, Illinois. Recordings in St. Louis drew new attention to his talents and a stint with Stax Records in Memphis (1966-1974) put his name in the forefront of the blues. Rock audiences and musicians created a new, devoted fan base, while King's funky, soulful approach helped him maintain a following in the African American community. Among his most notable records were Live Wire/Blues Power, an album recorded at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and the Stax singles “Born Under a Bad Sign,” “Cross Cut Saw,” “The Hunter,” and “I'll Play the Blues for You.” King remained a major name in blues and was elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1983, but he never enjoyed the commercial success that many of his followers (including Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan) did. He died after a heart attack in Memphis, his frequent base in his final years, on December 21, 1992.

(African Americans • Arts, Letters, Music • Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Riley B. King

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Mississippi, Sunflower County, Indianola

It was on this corner, when B.B. was just a young man of 17, that locals first heard the musician destined to become the "King of the Blues".

On June 6, 1980, B.B. King placed his handprints and signature in the walk.

(African Americans • Arts, Letters, Music • Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 7 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Courthouse Square

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Wisconsin, Kewaunee County, Kewaunee
The jail was designed by Oshkosh, Wisconsin architect William Waters and built in 1876. The building served a dual purpose of being both the sheriff's home and also the county lock-up. It was in use continuously until 1969. That year a county referendum saved the building from demolition. The Kewaunee County Historical Society was allowed to convert the building into a museum. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The present courthouse was built encompassing the original structure, dating to 1873. The photo shows how the jail and courthouse looked around 1910.

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Truth Behind the Legend of Stormy Kromer

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Michigan, Gogebic County, Ironwood
When they say "cold as heck," they're talking about this place, Kaukauna, Wisconsin. The birthplace of the Stormy Kromer Cap. It was here, in 1903, that George "Stormy" Kromer finally lost his cool. And his hat

He was an engineer on the steam locomotive lines that crisscrossed the frozen prairies, and to see where he was steering those steamers, he had to stick his head out the window. Now, you can darn near feel the wind just thinking about it, and it stole Mr. Kromer's baseball caps-one by one-off into the icy dark.

It didn't take long for Mr. Kromer's stormy temper to flare up, but even that wasn't enough to keep his ears warm. He asked his wife, Ida, to sew some flaps on the last of his caps-the one he wore through several successful seasons in the minor leagues. She took a few tries with the needle, and the original "Blizzard" cap was born.

It was odd-looking headgear for the times—six woolen panels stitched into a beanie shape; a low-angled brim to keep the wind from achieving lift; and, of course, those slide down flaps that kept the hat in place and the ears toasty. It was no fedora, that's for sure, and maybe that's why so many of Mr. Kromer's fellow engineers wanted one.

After ordering-and selling-1,200 caps out of a factory in Milwaukee, the Kromers decided to set up their own shop in Kaukauna. That "shop" consisted of a run-down brick building and three women-a few more when orders jumped in the fall.

By 1918, the ladies could no longer keep up with the desire for Kromer Caps, and Stormy Kromer Mercantile moved back to the big city. Mr. Kromer ran the business himself until the 1960s, expanding it more than a few times, and when his health began to fail, he passed the hat, if you will, to the next generation.

Well the next generation took care of things for a good long while, until roundabout 2001, when word got around that production would cease on the legendary Stormy Kromer Cap. Bob Jacquart got wind of that news by way of Mark Fitting, who, by the way, owns Hobby Wheel, mere steps from where you are now standing. Bob had a mind to give a call to the folks down in Milwaukee and see if he couldn't make Stormy Kromer part of his company, Jacquart Fabric Products. A month later Bob was the proud new owner of Stormy Kromer, and Ironwood officially became the home of the legendary cap it had always struck a certain sentimental claim to. You see, folks in Ironwood have been wearing Stormy Kromer caps for generations, and it seems this has always been their true home, where the North Wind blows cold and the snow falls harder than almost anywhere else.

Today, residents of the Gogebic-Iron Range sew Stormy Kromer Caps right here in Ironwood - as a matter of fact, they do so in a factory right behind you. Stop in for a tour, which we offer every day at 1:30.

It's true, you're standing in the presence of a legend, and you may want to tip your hat.

(Industry & Commerce • Man-Made Features • Railroads & Streetcars) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Fort Pemberton Park

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Mississippi, Leflore County, Greenwood

In the 1863 Campaign against Vicksburg, General Grant tried several approaches, one being to send troops on transports down the Tallahatchie and Yazoo Rivers. He cut the Mississippi River levee in February which flooded the several bayous between the Mississippi and Tallahatchie Rivers, making a navigable connection. Twenty-two transports (with 5000 troops), two ironclads, two rams and six light draft gunboats made up the first expedition, which was later reinforced with another brigade and additional vessels. It took several weeks to make the two hundred mile trip as the bayous were narrow and tortuous.

Apprised of the Federal plans the Confederate General John C. Pemberton ordered a fort to be constructed to block the enemy forces. The engineers selected a location where the Tallahatchie makes an abrupt turn easterly, the river flowing to this point in a straight stretch. There being room for only two gunboats abreast, thus the Confederates would be shooting down a straight alley. The fort was hastily built of cotton bales covered with earth, and named Fort Pemberton. It had but a few light guns, but one an eight inch rifle, was very accurate. The fort was manned by 1500 men under command of Brig. Gen. W.W. Loring. Cutting the levees had flooded the area and the only approach to the fort was by water. To further impede the enemy the steamship "Star of the West" was sunk in the channel.

The Federal Flotilla arrived at Fort Pemberton on March 11th, and the two ironclads attacked at 1000 yards, but both were damaged after several attempts to reduce the fort. The Federal fleet retired to the Mississippi. Grant had failed to reach Vicksburg by the Tallahatachie-Yazoo route

Part of the fort is included in the park and some of the original breastworks may be easily recognized.

(Forts, Castles • War, US Civil • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Currahee Rocks

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North Carolina, Cumberland County, Fayetteville
The rock base beneath Iron Mike has its own story. In July 1942 over 5,000 men arrived at Camp Toccoa for training as a new type of soldier, a Paratrooper. Over the next few years over 17,000 soldiers of the 501st, 506th, 511th, and the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiments trained at Camp Toccoa.

The boulders were acquired with the assistance of the landowner, the US Army and the city of Fayetteville from the storied Currahee Mountain in Toccoa, Georgia. Today “Currahee” is the motto of the 506th PIR.

“Currahee” is a Native American word that means “Stand Alone”. Paratroopers “Stand Alone” as they drop behind enemy lines

(War, World II) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Temperance Hall

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North Carolina, Scotland County, Wagram

Meeting hall of the Richmond Temperance and Literary Society, 1860 to 1890's. Sacked by Sherman's army in 1865. Stands 1½ mi. W.

(Fraternal or Sororal Organizations • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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