Autumn and Joy on the Open Road
Monday, October 28 2024
There is nothing quite like the magic of traveling America in the fall.
- Published in Features
Where the American West Begins — Video Dispatch
Tuesday, October 08 2024
Clay stops on the banks of the mighty Missouri River, the boundary of America’s east and west. It is here that John Steinbeck noted, “The two sides of the river might well be one thousand miles apart.”
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Looking for America in London
Tuesday, October 01 2024
Clay shares impressions from a recent visit to England, where he led a cultural tour.
- Published in Features
Steinbeck Meets an Itinerant Actor Along North Dakota’s Maple River — Video Dispatch
Saturday, September 28 2024
In October 1960, traveling through eastern North Dakota, John Steinbeck stopped along the lonely Maple River. Here, the author had a remarkable encounter with an itinerant Shakespearean actor.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Theodore Roosevelt’s Unmatched Conservation Footprint and Eight Reasons He Got Away With It
Sunday, September 15 2024
Imagine America if Theodore Roosevelt had never been president. During his tenure, the “Cowboy President” set aside an astounding 230 million acres of U.S. public land as National Parks, National Monuments, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, and National Game Preserves.
- Published in Features
Falling In Love With Montana All Over Again
Saturday, July 27 2024
John Steinbeck loved Montana — actually, he fell in love with it. So far as we know, he had never been there before 1960. His travels across the country had all been at lower latitudes.
- Published in Features
John Steinbeck and Me in Beach, North Dakota
Tuesday, July 09 2024
John Steinbeck spent the night of October 12, 1960, in Beach, North Dakota, just a few miles from the Montana border. He was about to fall in love with Montana.
- Published in Features
From the Eastern Heart of Montana — Video Dispatch
Saturday, July 06 2024
This morning I crossed the great Yellowstone River 27 miles west of Glendive on old Highway 10. There are not many places on the John Steinbeck Travels with Charley tour where you know you are PRECISELY where Steinbeck was, because so much has changed.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Encounters in Yellowstone National Park
Tuesday, June 25 2024
On my way back to North Dakota I visited my modest cabin 2 miles from Yellowstone National Park I wanted to make a pilgrimage to Old Faithful.
- Published in Features
My Romance With the Little Missouri River
Monday, June 17 2024
I have a special claim on the Little Missouri — or rather it has had a special claim on me. If I had to spend eternity in a single landscape, it would be about 10 miles north of Marmarth, North Dakota, where the Little Missouri just begins to carve up the viewshed.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road