Magellan's Log: Sites Alive! Introduction

An odd little book around appeared in Texas not long ago with the title, Why Stop? It's a travel guide containing the full texts of Texas State Historical Markers, of which, Texas being the big place that it is, there are several thousand.

One can imagine the author’s original brainstorm. Driving for hours from here to there somewhere in this large state, he was always victim to his curiosity. A sign would flash by: "Historical Marker 1 Mile Ahead." And he would stop and read while his small backseated children would complain more and more loudly about these ridiculous delays in getting to grandmother’s house.

There must have come an aha-moment when he shouted or thought, "Eureka!" and realized what the world needed was a book of historical markers from which one’s spouse could read as one zipped on unimpeded toward one’s distant destination. Why, after all, stop?

It’s tempting to say there’s something peculiarly American about this kind of goal-oriented travel. It’s easy to imagine that laggards on the Oregon Trail who paused to admire the scenery or feel the vibes were more often than not left behind. But with all the historical evidence for a certain nomadic compulsion in homo sapiens, it seems more likely that the desire, once you set out, to GET THERE is simply a human trait.

Still, with the alleged leisure that advanced civilization supposedly gives us, a subversive little work like Why Stop? does give one pause, reason in fact to, well, STOP.

Tourists in America, Americans as well as those who come from elsewhere, do in fact often stop. Sort of. If you can call lurking about in the madding crowds at various Disney sites, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the Lincoln Memorial, or Times Square, "stopping" in any meaningful sense.

The big tourist sites of course often become big for either of two reasons: they are fun, or they are uniquely recognizable. And there’s a lot to be said for travel whose purpose is either diversion or to put your eyes in front of something unusual.

Travel as a learning experience is something else altogether. And a big part of that something else is the sense of place.

Not to get too New Agey about this, but places are important. The sense of place, the knowing that you are precisely where something important happened, is itself significant.

Motley crew that we are, the staff of Magellan’s Log decided what the world needed now was a concise, insightful, highly idiosyncratic tour of America which would be exactly the opposite of Why Stop? A collection of sites which, we feel, are critical to understanding what America is and how it came to be what it is. Places, in other words, where the primary admonition is: By all means STOP HERE! Stop, pause, look, read, talk, think, feel.

Thus: Sites Alive! The Magellan’s Log Hands-on Tour of America.

No after-the-fact tourist attractions, no museums (though a few of the sites have nearby museums). What we were looking for was places where significant things happened which shaped America or which reflected the way America shaped itself. We came up with 21.

Go.

Enjoy.

And by all means, stop when you get there.

As you'll see in the map above (note the different colors of the cars), we've divided the country into four areas. Happy stopping!

Go East >>
Go South >>
Go Midwest >>
Go West >>

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