The Anytown, USA Podcast

We virtually travel to Onida, South Dakota, learn about the life of African American homesteader Norvel Blair, the "science" of water witchery and the intriguing varieties of Hutterites, an anabaptist sect similar to the Amish.

We check out Richland Springs, Texas (go Coyotes!) and learn about San Saba County, where football games are played over an unmarked graveyard. For our history segment, we go back to the 1890s, when  honest townsfolk lived in fear of the San Saba Murder Society. Until, that is, Captain Bill McDonald arrived with the Texas Rangers and saw that law and order was restored.

On a cold night in January, 1891, local gambler and influential citizen John Sheedy was felled by a blow to his head. Although doctors determined it wasn't life-threatening, he was dead by 10pm the next day. What happened? Was it a convoluted plot by his wife's lover, or were there even more sinister forces at work? This episode, we discuss the Great Sheedy Murder Case, learn the peculiar reason Lancaster NE was renamed "Lincoln," and check out the National Museum of Roller Skating.

We learn about a tiny town in Kentucky with a surprisingly rich past, which includes one of the last arson attacks of the Black Patch Tobacco War, and the birthplace of the first African American National Parks superintendent (and the 3rd  to graduate from West Point). Not to mention a healthy dose of Daniel Boone-era frontier life.

Each episode, we choose a random county from an atlas of the continental USA and try to find the most interesting history, folklore and stories about it. On our very first episode, the pen falls on Anderson, Indiana and leads us to delve into the Great Indiana Gas Boom of the late 19th century. When a massive reservoir of natural gas was found below eastern Indiana, a bonanza of industry and profit followed. Unfortunately, so did waste and wild excess. Join us as we tell the story of Indiana's brief tenure as natural gas capital of the world