American Countryside

Today I’ll introduce you to an American war hero – a man who had a great hand in this country’s independence.  However, you’ll probably be surprised by his name, for we all know him for something else…

It’s a story fitting of Halloween.  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the headless horseman.  Today we go to the location where the tale was set…

Mention the name Sleepy Hollow and our minds quickly jump to tales of a headless horseman.  It’s quite a tale but some of the pieces of that story have roots in truth in this town…

You don’t think of a graveyard as a place where children would play.  But here that was the case, and because of who was playing around those stones gave us some of the classic stories we still know today…

When European nations sailed to America, each began to lay claim to new lands.  Many built forts to protect their new empire.  Today many of those sites are ruins at best…but here on the coast of Georgia…you can still see where one superpower changed the course of history when it defeated its rival…

Their names are often not known to the world, however the people they represent are some of the biggest stars on screen.  Today we go behind the scenes for a dangerous yet thrilling line of work…

She is a gold medal winner – and that’s quite an accomplishment no matter the sport.  However, while you may not know her name, there’s a chance you’ve seen her and just didn’t know it…

Powhatan, Ark., is a once-thriving city, now mostly a ghost town. But its buildings have been restored and the stories of its glory days still abound. We head to the place where the Delta meets the Ozarks on this edition of The American Countryside.

The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive here. Then the French rules the island, followed by the Danes. Finally the Americans purchased it in 1916. Its remarkable history is not a thing of the past, for here the vibrantly colored buildings are an important part of today. It’s next on The American Countryside.

Today a high school or college student might take an internship to learn the basics they need for a certain career. That was what Alexander Hamilton was doing, in a sense. No one realized that what he had learned would be the basis for appointing him Secretary of the Treasury. His story is today’s edition of The American Countryside.

Historians don’t agree whether this U.S. founding father was born in 1755 or 1757. He never arrived in what is today the United States mainland until he was 18 years old and that was the result of the writing that he did. His unique journey to found a nation is today’s edition of The American Countryside.

It’s the easternmost point in U.S. territory...an island purchased by the United States in 1916. If you come here to visit, you’ll be amazed by the rich history that is still intact from centuries ago. We’ll go there on this edition of the American Countryside.

We may not think of ag equipment manufacturers having much to do with the U.S. military. However, during World War II, most of those companies began building a wide range of hardware to aid the allies. Today we visit an interesting display that shows the breadth of what the ag industry produced during those years…and it’s next on the American Countryside.

If you think those high-tech gizmos on modern tractors are cool, you should check out a John Deere model from the 1940s. It's equipped with two 30-caliber machine guns. Find out why on the latest episode of the American Countryside.

Deere, Case, Oliver, Ford and Allis-Chalmers…they are but a few of the many companies that have built tractors. The largest tractor ever built belongs to a company that made a relative few, but those few were huge for their day...and one still reigns supreme today. We hop aboard the largest tractor in the world on this edition of the American Countryside.