Clay visits the site of the world’s first atomic chain reaction on the campus of the University of Chicago.
USA map showing Route 66
Clay visits the eastern takeoff point for historic Route 66 in downtown Chicago. Now largely superseded by the Interstate Highway system, Route 66 still looms large in American history and mythology.
Wild horses
There’s horse trouble in Theodore Roosevelt National Park which is home to a feral herd of about 200 equines.
Clay takes us to Fort Dilts, North Dakota, a hastily-made sod fort built in 1864 by a party of would-be gold miners to fend off attacks by the Lakota. However more perspectives to the story should be considered.
Looking for America: A Writer's Odyssey, by Richard Rhodes. Originally published in 1979.
Clay reads from an essay about Robert Oppenheimer by the author Richard Rhodes.
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Clay reports from Bear Butte in South Dakota, a site sacred to the Lakota, Cheyenne and other Native American tribes. It’s near Sturgis, S.D., home of the famous annual motorcycle rally.

Wounded Knee Creek — Video Dispatch

Clay visits the site of the tragic Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota where nearly 300 Lakota were slaughtered by soldiers of the U.S. Army on December 29, 1890.
On a visit to the Black Hills and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Clay happened upon the youth center dedicated to the memory of SuAnne Big Crow, the Oglala basketball star. Clay shares a little of her heroic story in this short video.
Clay hikes to the top of Black Elk Peak in South Dakota and shares a bit of its history. At 7,242 feet the summit is the highest point between the Rocky Mountains in the western U.S. and the Pyrenees Mountains in France.
Next spring Clay will begin a two-year journey following John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley trek across America.