DISPATCHES FROM THE ROAD
A Visit to the Center(s) of the Nation
Tuesday, September 26 2023
Clay files a video report from the geographic center of the USA on the wind-swept plains outside of Belle Fourche, South Dakota.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
At Gate A6 on 22nd Anniversary of September 11
Monday, September 11 2023
I’m sitting at gate A6 at Jacksonville International Airport in Florida. Today is the 22nd anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The American Buffalo: Past and Future — Video Dispatch
Monday, September 11 2023
A video dispatch from my visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s North Unit, where buffalo roam the Great Plains today.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Labor Day on the Glorious Little Missouri River — Video Dispatch
Tuesday, September 05 2023
I visited the Little Missouri River in the Badlands of North Dakota over the Labor Day weekend. Of all the rivers I know, the Little Missouri is the most sacred to me.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Long Dreamed Airstream Joins the Listening to America Team
Monday, August 28 2023
A new chapter in my life begins. For the next several years, I plan to spend about half of the year on the road with my new Airstream trailer for our big humanities initiative, Listening to America. My plan is to get out on the open road, see the vastness of America and report my findings to you.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Nuking the Rocky Mountains
Tuesday, August 22 2023
Clay and two colleagues met near the town of Rifle in western Colorado to visit the spot where the federal government set off a nuclear device in 1969 to test the feasibility of using atomic bombs in oil “fracking.”
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Tragic History of Sand Creek, Colorado
Sunday, August 20 2023
Clay drives into eastern Colorado to spend time at the site of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and then to Denver to see an exhibit on the tragic event at the History Colorado Center. .
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Visiting the Cabin Where Crazy Horse Was Killed
Tuesday, August 15 2023
Leaving South Dakota, I drove south to Fort Robinson in Nebraska, the site where the great Oglala leader Crazy Horse died. He was killed unnecessarily on September 5, 1877, at about 33.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Jackalopes, Black-Footed Ferrets and Big, Big Sky
Monday, August 14 2023
On Clay’s third day from Bismarck to Vail, he travels through Wall, South Dakota and visits the U.S. National Grasslands Visitor Center and Badlands National Park.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
A Day With Three Extraordinary Missile Men
Sunday, August 06 2023
I spent the day with three extraordinary men at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site learning the “on the ground” operations of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles during the Cold War.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road