The spot where the Big and Little Arkansas rivers meet is a special place. Since time immemorial, Indigenous people have gathered at this confluence. In the 1800s, Scotch-Cherokee fur trader Jesse Chisholm set up a post in the area where Native Americans, trappers, and cowboys...
In the 1960s, tiny Wallace, Idaho, was threatened when the federal government proposed cutting through the historic downtown to lay the last link of Highway I-90. The town’s appearance and charm would have been marred forever without the courage and persistence of two residents: businessman...
Marfa, Texas, is a long way from anywhere, and therein lies its attraction. When minimalist artist Donald Judd first visited in the 1970s, he was struck by the remoteness, the pace of life, the desert air, and, of course, the quality of light. It was...
San Francisco has a mood. While certain urban locales have their landmark sites and the right geography and weather, a city’s mood is something less definable, more atmospheric, enigmatic, mysterious, a sensation that hovers. When I travel to San Francisco, I pause atop any of...
There’s nothing so full of promise as a road trip, especially when visiting both well-known and little-known locales. For many, Montana’s beauty is visible from the window, but there’s plenty of creativity to discover around the state. Different Western art styles are thriving, and non-profit...
Travelers expect to see Art Deco in Miami, L.A., and Chicago. Not in Oklahoma. But the sky-high pylons of marble, vertical chevrons, and abstract mosaics of downtown Tulsa are all the more delightful because of their unexpected setting. In 1905, oil gushed from Glenn Pool Oil...
It’s the first week of October in Oaxaca de Juárez. Día de los Muertos is three weeks off, but the city is already in its grip. Fireworks punctuate the night. A mural has just been completed in Xochimilco, and it must be acknowledged with a...
Wander down Park City’s Main Street on an evening in the height of the winter tourist season, and the small-town charm is palpable. A trolley makes its way on the snow-covered streets of historic Old Town. Breweries, distilleries, fine dining establishments, art galleries, and boutiques...
Many people never forget the first time they laid eyes on the Tetons. As one of the most iconic mountain ranges in the U.S., they tower over Jackson Hole, Wyoming, just south of Yellowstone National Park, with the Grand Teton standing tallest at 13,766 feet. So,...
In 1960 Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, hired acclaimed architect Louis Kahn to design a research center “worthy of a visit by Picasso.” The Salk Institute for Biological Studies was born three years later, winning accolades as one of the nation’s most magnificent...