Category: The Americas

Intriguing true stories and myths from North and South America’s history — including tales from ancient and pre-Columbian eras, European colonization, and much more.

farallon-egg-wars
The Americas

Eggflation, Pt. 1: The Egg War of Early San Francisco

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Crude tent neighborhoods full of sweaty, tired miners multiplied, as did brothels and casinos, as the initial population boom included a staggering majority of men. Once an economy of hungry, tired, lonely men emerged, scores of people realized what — or who — the real goldmine was.

Case in point: One miner purportedly made a solid income when he came into possession of a women’s slipper, which he charged a lofty one dollar to his fellows for the simple privilege of touching it. That’s around $35 in today’s money.

Frederic Edwin Church
Europe The Americas To The East

The Carrington Event: When the Sun Exploded

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“It was a sight never to be forgotten, and was considered at the time to be the greatest aurora recorded. The rationalist and pantheist saw nature in her most exquisite robes, recognising, the divine immanence, immutable law, cause, and effect. The superstitious and the fanatical had dire forebodings, and thought it a foreshadowing of Armageddon and final dissolution.”

Colonial Brewing
The Americas

Mistresses of Malt: When Brewing Belonged to Alewives Pt. 2

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Apache women also brewed up tulpi, another corn creation similar to Mexican pulque, used for girls’ puberty rites. Head further south and you might enjoy a cup of algoroba, a South American beer crafted from leguminous plants or asua, a crushed maize beer made by Quichua-speaking groups, or the Mayan balché. And to this day, women in Huacho Sin Pescado Peru make a mean chichi. 

Snowflakes: a Chapter from the Book of Nature Public Domain Review
Europe The Americas To The East

The Long Night: Ancient Winter Solstice Celebrations

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No matter who you were in the ancient world, the seasons were of vital importance. You marked the ebb and flow of time by your harvests, which ensured your survival or demise. While the typical ancient person went through life believing gladiator blood cured epilepsy or that tiny demons lived in cabbage, they were at least on top of seasonal changes. And it didn’t escape their attention that after the longest night, daylight began to creep back into their lives.

breakfast
Europe Origin Stories The Americas

Breakfast: A Brief History of the Most Controversial Meal of the Day

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Pancakes stuck around, spreading through cultures across the world. People in the burgeoning United States ate thin, European-style pancakes at any time of day, but that changed around the 1780s. Cooks began to thicken them up with pearl ash, resulting in hearty rounds. Unlike bread, they were quick and easy to make first thing in the morning before a hard day of manual labor.