Category: Travel & Discovery

Contractors Find Pioneer-Era 1800s Log Homestead Under Exterior of Modern Utah Home

An original hand-hewn homestead from the pioneer era was uncovered when demolition contractors pealed back the exterior of what was thought to be a modern bungalow in Orem, Utah. The antique log house—featuring updates from the early- to mid-1900s—was last owned by the Shamadas, of Japanese decent, who once ran a fruit stand on the…


Total Solar Eclipse to Grace the Skies on December 4—Here’s What You Need to Know:

The extraordinary cosmic event of a total eclipse of the sun will present itself to an exclusive audience on Dec. 4, 2021. Stargazers hoping to witness the moon’s umbra shadow obliterate the solar sphere from view will have to sojourn to the Antarctic—where the eclipse will first appear in the Southern Ocean. It will then…


Michigan Family Find WWI-Era Artillery Shell Filled With Antique Coins While Cleaning House

A family in Michigan was cleaning house when they came across an explosive-seeming find last month, discovering a World War I ammunition shell filled with an unexpected treasure. Inside their abode, they somehow dredged up an antiquated artillery round from a bygone era. Worried that the shell was still live, they contacted the police in…


Archaeologists Pull 1,200-Year-Old Dugout Fishing Canoe From Bottom of Wisconsin Lake

State Archaeologists on Nov. 2 dredged up the oldest water vessel in Wisconsin history from the bottom of Lake Mendota. A dugout canoe carved from a single tree was found remarkably well preserved under 30 feet of water. The boat was first located in June 2021, and this month, archaeologists from the Wisconsin Historical Society…


Gold Hunters Unearth 100-Year-Old Dredge Ship From North Carolina Gold Rush in Creek Bed

In Nash County, North Carolina, a father-son treasure-hunting duo bought a piece of land in 2016 on the exact spot where the Portis Gold Mine once operated from 1835 during the North Carolina Gold Rush—America’s first real gold rush. Adventure was in store there, Tim Fisher, 60, and his son Ross, 31, knew. They started…


Tens of Millions of Red Crabs Form Scarlet Sea as They Migrate Across Christmas Island to Spawn in Ocean

Nature lovers each year flock to Christmas Island, Australia, around late November to witness a scarlet sea of tens of millions of red crabs migrating down from the forest to mate and spawn on the shoreline. Male red crabs set out on the journey first, triggered by the first rainfall of the wet season; they…


National Geographic Photographer Captures Sublime Shots of Two Worlds Above and Below the Sea

National Geographic photographer David Doubilet’s journey of creating his signature “above and below the sea” shots began three decades ago in Grand Cayman. It was there that two worlds converged on either side of a razor-thin molecular border between sky and sea. Above were the “impossibly blue skies and billowing clouds;” below, the surreal, “sun-dappled…


Largest Gold Nugget Found in Alaska Weighs 20 Pounds—to Fetch $700,000 to 1.2 Million at Auction

The largest gold nugget ever found in Alaska is set to be auctioned in Texas in December and is expected to fetch over $700,000. In the summer of 1896, over 100,000 prospectors descended upon northwestern Canada after gold was found near the Klondike River. About 100 years later, in 1998, a prospector named Barry Clay—so the…


Woman Leaves Corporate Life to Snap Breathtaking Shots of Humpback Whales Breaching in Alaska

One Pennsylvania woman decided to leave behind her corporate job in marketing to fulfill her dream of taking breathtaking photographs as a profession to inspire the world. That life choice is what led photographer Mary Parkhill, based in Pittsburgh, to travel to Alaska where, while out on the water fishing for halibut and salmon, she…


Australian Photographer Snaps Robins Sporting Every Color of the Rainbow Down Under

A robin is a treat to behold with its rust-colored breast and just as lovely to listen to with its sweet song—a robin is a bird that accentuates anyone’s day. To people living in places like America or Europe, where robins are typically red-breasted, one might be flabbergasted by the spectrum of colors displayed by…