Lewis and Clark’s Traveling Magic Show
Tuesday, May 27 2025
Attending a magic show by my friend Joshua Jay in Pittsburgh got me pondering the “magic” of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
- Published in Features
Reflections on America and the Open Road
Tuesday, April 15 2025
In a few weeks, Clay will embark on an 11,000-mile trek following the Lewis and Clark trail across the continent and back. As he loads his pickup and prepares to hit the road, Clay ponders what he has learned so far in his multi-year project to Listen to America.
- Published in Features
LTA Exclusive: Historic Portraits of Native American Activist Leonard Peltier
Saturday, March 29 2025
Earlier this year, President Biden commuted the prison sentence of Leonard Peltier. This week, noted “wet plate” photographer Shane Balkowitsch visited Peltier at Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota, where he took a series of historical portraits of the 80-year-old Native American activist. Balkowitsch’s portraits of Peliter are published here for the first time.
- Published in Features
The Enduring Appeal of Louis L’Amour and American Western Fiction
Tuesday, March 25 2025
Louis L’Amour is widely considered the best-selling author of Western fiction of all time. Still highly popular with readers around the globe, L’Amour has sold over 320 million books, with numerous film and TV adaptations of his work.
- Published in Features
Thomas Jefferson, the U.S. Annexation of Cuba (And More)
Tuesday, February 25 2025
The United States has a long, tortured relationship with Cuba, including Thomas Jefferson’s imperial designs on the island. As Clay travels to Cuba this week to lead a cultural tour, he reflects on a bit of forgotten history between the U.S. and the island nation 90 miles from Key West, Florida.
- Published in Features
Sneak Peek: The 2026 Winter Retreats — Video Dispatch
Tuesday, January 21 2025
Clay with a look at what's coming for the 2026 Winter Retreats at beautiful Lochsa Lodge.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Story of Red Lake Nation — Video Dispatch
Monday, October 28 2024
Clay shares some of the unique history of the Red Lake Indian Reservation, which covers 1,260 square miles in Northern Minnesota.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Reflections at the Little Bighorn Battlefield — Video Dispatch
Tuesday, October 15 2024
Listening to America’s “Chief Scout,” Frank Lister and Clay visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, where George Custer’s 7th Cavalry met its fate against Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors in June 1876.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument — Video Dispatch
Tuesday, July 09 2024
Clay reflects on the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. He's been here many times and made this visit because Steinbeck did, on October 13, 1960.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Grasslands Renaissance on the Great Plains
Tuesday, July 02 2024
A visit with author, falconer and pioneering regenerative rancher Dan O’Brien on his remarkable Cheyenne River Buffalo Ranch.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road