Interview with Brian D'Ambrosio

Ours is a story mad with the impossible. It is by chaos out of dream, it began as dream and it has continued as dream down to the last headline you read in a newspaper. Of our dreams, there are two things above all others to be said, that only madmen could have dreamed them or would have dared to - and that we have shown a considerable faculty for making them come true.

The simplest truth you can ever write about our history will be charged and surcharged with romanticism, and if you are afraid of the word, you had better not road trip the American landscape. Destination America: 50 Must-See Sites and Their Stories is a road trip travelogue a great storytelling and good, clean, American romanticization.

It may take plenty of anti-faddist, anti-pop culturist patience and effort but you can eventually pierce through the homogenous, sprawl-ridden landscape of big-box megaretailers and artificially generated landscapes that bear no connection to place or community, to find representative gems of American ingenuity, resolve and character.

Indeed, the sites presented here, from Carl Sandburg's cottage to John Wayne's birthplace, to Ronald Reagan roots, will open up a whole new world of literary, artistic and cultural knowledge, a new social wisdom, and engender a deeper respect for the breadth and depth of our brief history, as well as for the characters and situations it has spawned.

Here is where writer Brian D'Ambrosio's traveling spirit took him over the course of fifty days and 20,000 miles in 2009.

From the Carthage, Illinois, jail where Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was killed, to an underground city along the Hi-Line of central Montana, to the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, studio where Grant Wood painted American Gothic, to Smokey Bear's resting place in Capitan, New Mexico, get ready for a fun, enjoyable, informative ride.

Here is the table of contents:

Carl Sandburg Birthplace, Galesburg, Illinois........................... 11

2) John Wayne Birthplace: Winterset, Iowa....................................... 16

3) Benjamin Harrison Home: Indianapolis, Indiana.............................. 19

4) General Pershing Boyhood Home, Laclede, Missouri.................. 22

5) Eugene Debs Home: Terre Haute, Indiana.................................... 27

6) Ernie Pyle Boyhood Home: Dana, Indiana................................. 31

7) John Deere Home: Grand Detour, Illinois................................. 35

8) Joseph Glidden Homestead and Historical Center: DeKalb, Illinois...... 38

9) Boyhood Home of Charles Lindbergh: Little Falls, Minnesota............ 42

10) Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum: Atchison, Kansas.................. 45

11) Cicely, Alaska aka Roslyn, Washington: Northern Exposure............. 51

12) Scott Joplin Flat, St. Louis, Missouri.................................... 54

13) Glenn Miller Birthplace: Clarinda, Iowa................................. 59

14) Bob Dylan's First Stage, Hibbing High School, Hibbing, Minnesota... 63

15) Singing Brakeman Jimmy Rodgers Museum, Laurel, Mississippi......... 68

16) Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion: Milwaukee, Wisconsin............... 71

17) Marcus Daly Mansion: Hamilton, Montana.............................. 74

18) James J. Hill House: St. Paul, Minnesota.............................. 77

19) P.B. Moss Mansion: Billings, Montana....................................... 82

20) Chateau De Morès: Medora, North Dakota......... 84

21) Buffalo Bill Cody Scout's Rest Ranch, North Platte, Nebraska 87

22) Philo Farnsworth Television Museum: Rigby, Idaho............ 91

23) Herbert Hoover Home and Presidential Library: West Branch, Iowa 95

24) Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm: Sauk County, Wisconsin......... 98

25) Joseph Smith Martyrdom Site, Carthage Jail: Carthage, Illinois............ 101

26) Joseph Smith Homestead: Nauvoo, Illinois.............................. 105

27) Forevertron, The Mythic Obsession of Tom Every: Sauk County, Wisconsin 112

28) Grant Wood Studio: Cedar Rapids, Iowa.............................. 116

29) Gilbert Stuart Home and Studio: Saunderstown, Rhode Island......... 120

30) Ulysses S. Grant Home, Galena, Illinois.............................. 121

31) Ronald Reagan Birthplace, Tampico, Illinois.................................... 125

32) Willa Cather Childhood Home: Red Cloud, Nebraska.............. 128

33) Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park: Cross Creek, Florida 132

34) Sinclair Lewis Home, Sauk Centre, Minnesota........................ 135

35) Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio: Spring Green, Wisconsin 138

36) Alex Jordan's Vision: House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wisconsin 141

37) Tom Paine Cottage: New Rochelle, New York................................. 144

38) Jesse James Home Museum: St. Joseph, Missouri........................... 147

39) Oklahoma City Memorial: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma............ 151

40) C.M. Russell Log Cabin Studio, Great Falls, Montana............ 154

41) Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio: Kansas City, Missouri............... 158

42) Mark Twain Boyhood Home, Hannibal, Missouri.............................. 161

43) Dr. W.W. Mayo Home, Le Sueur, Minnesota.................................... 164

44) Smokey Bear's Birthplace and Museum, Capitan, New Mexico............... 168

45) The Redneck Shop and KKK Museum, Laurens, South Carolina...... 170

46) Ty Cobb Museum: Royston, Georgia........................... 173

47) Babe Ruth's Boyhood Home, Baltimore, Maryland........................ 176

48) The Berkeley Pit: Butte, Montana....................................... 178

49) Havre Beneath the Streets: Havre, Montana.................................... 184

50) H.H. Bennett Studio, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.................................188