Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

"Readers should fasten their seatbelts ...Carroll's explorations are strangely compelling—I started wondering what history had disappeared from my own neighborhood. Here Is Where could be the basis for a cool Google Glass app —mash it up with GPS coordinates and let it populate the spaces around us with ghosts, both good and evil. We may lose a bit of ourselves by outsourcing our imagination. But we may lose even more by letting time erode the history of our land."--Wall Street Journal “Carroll takes readers on an eye-opening and entertaining grand tour of America in this lively exploration of lesser-known or overlooked historical sites. From birthplaces to gravesites and high points to low, from those that inspired inventions to those that sparked change, he leaves no stone unturned or landmark unvisited… Part travelogue, part history, this book should be required reading for anyone interested in America’s past.” --Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Andrew Carroll has always been a top-notch editor. I had no idea he was as fine a storyteller.xa0 Great storytelling can be wonderfully addictive. Here Is Where captured me completely -- I couldn't put it down." --Jeff Shaara, New York Times bestselling author of Gods and Generals, Last Full Measure and Blaze of Glory “ Here is Where is remarkable for the painstaking research on display and its yield of rescued-from-obscurity stories. Many of the true incidents Andrew Carroll has uncovered aren’t just surprising but powerful.xa0 Others are simply laugh-out-loud funny, but all arexa0described with considerable skill. America has always had among its citizenry a number of individuals whose legacy is immense but unappreciated, and Carroll has truly done them justice.” --Steven Pressfield, bestselling author of Gates of Fire, Tides of War and Killing Rommel "Impressive...Carroll has discovered a way of doing history that, once you see it, seems so obvious, indeed right under your nose or feet.xa0 But to the best of my knowledge, no one has done this before." --Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Revolutionary Summer and Founding Brothers “Both a fascinating excavation of under-appreciatedxa0events and agents and a compelling analysis of what binds us together, Here Is Where makes for rich and vivid reading . It seems to me that Andrew Carroll has become the Charles Kuralt of American history.” --Les Standiford, author of Desperate Sons and Last Train to Paradise “Writing with a historian’s insight and the skill of a master storyteller, Andy Carroll reminds us to look for the fascinating bits of history that lie just behind the curtains of our modern surroundings. Here is Where is a captivating, thoroughly enjoyable journey across the country with a friend who knows all the cool places to stop and have a look.” --Gregory A. Freeman, The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys and The Forgotten 500 "In Here Is Where , one of our best historian-sleuths, Andrew Carroll,xa0has given us a fresh and irresistible approach to experiencing history. Until someone invents a time machine, it's the next best thing to being there--and he's such a vivid, engaging writer that it's probably more fun."--James Donovan, author of A Terrible Glory and The Blood of Heroes "Andrew Carrollxa0takes the reader on a fascinating journey of discovery toxa0uncover the forgotten history that lies hiddenxa0around us. This is a terrific book: refreshingly original, fast-paced, entertaining, and always insightful . It’s full of fun and interesting stories thatxa0bring the past to life and remind us that we are surrounded by the artifacts of history." xa0--Steven M. Gillon, Scholar-in-Residence at The History Channel and author of Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America --This text refers to the paperback edition. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. NiihauThe whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.—G. K. ChestertonLocated about twenty-five hundred miles from the continental United States and nicknamed “the Forbidden Island,” Niihau is the westernmost inhabited isle on the Hawaiian chain. The seal-shaped speck of land is also the world’s largest privately owned island, stretching approximately twenty miles long and six miles across at its widest point. In 1864 a clan of Scottish ranchers, the Robinsons, purchased Niihau for $10,000 in gold from King Kamehameha V, and it’s theirs to this day. (The king also offered them Pearl Harbor, but they passed.)No tourists are allowed on Niihau except those who are personally invited by the Robinson family or who fly in from neighboring Kauai (“the Garden Isle”) on Niihau Helicopters Inc., a Robinson-operated business that offers six-hour tours and daylong safaris. Other companies run sightseeing and snorkeling boat trips that skirt the coast from a mile out. But I need to go ashore; the story I’m pursuing involves a small plane that made an emergency landing near the main village more than seventy years ago, and the ensuing manhunt for the pilot sparked a panic on America’s mainland that had major social and political repercussions. Getting to the island is no easy feat, and its remoteness, I suspect, accounts for why “the Niihau incident” isn’t better known.Hawaii was slotted for the end of my travels, when I planned to be in the neighborhood anyway (that is, around Washington State), but while piecing together my itinerary, I called Niihau Helicopters and immediately hit a snag.A very pleasant woman named Shandra told me that the pilot couldn’t shuttle just one passenger out to the island, so I’d have to join an already scheduled party of three or more. Shandra could find only one day on their calendar when they had a group short by a single person, and I confirmed on the spot. Liftoff would be in three months, which cut my preparation time for the entire journey in half.There was another problem.If a storm blew in or the other passengers canceled at the last minute, the flight to Niihau would be postponed indefinitely. I wouldn’t be charged, but I’d have gone all the way to Hawaii for nothing. My only option was to make a reservation and hope for the best.Over the next three months, I frantically began coordinating the remainder of my itinerary. The original plan, and certainly the most logical and economical strategy, was to zigzag across the country in one clean, continuous line, either from side to side or top to bottom. But, as with Niihau, I had to schedule my visits according to what worked best for the various guides and historians who’d be touring me around in their respective towns. My final route looked as if it had been mapped out more by Jackson Pollock than by Rand McNally.Every few weeks I called Shandra to make sure the other parties hadn’t pulled out, and every time she assured me that they were still committed.On my way to Kauai, I hopscotched the Hawaiian Islands, hitting Maui first to check out Charles Lindbergh’s grave near a small abandoned church in Kipahulu. There’s room for two but he’s buried alone; his wife, Anne, instructed that her ashes be scattered in Maine, thousands of miles away. The legendary pilot’s nearest neighbors are a row of gibbon apes named Kippy, Keiki, Lani, and George—the beloved pets of Lindbergh’s close friend Sam Pryor.Later that afternoon I flew to Oahu and photographed a statue of Abraham Lincoln outside the Ewa Elementary School. A memorial to Lincoln here seems odd, considering that Hawaii wasn’t a state in Lincoln’s day and was officially neutral in the Civil War. As it turns out, a handful of Hawaiians volunteered to fight for the Union, and Lincoln, as president, endeared himself to the territory by writing a heartfelt letter of condolence to King Kamehameha V in February 1864 after his younger brother, King Kamehameha IV, passed away.From Oahu, it was on to Kauai.With twenty-four hours to go, I phoned Shandra one last time. “Sorry to keep bugging you,” I said, well aware that I must have been testing her patience. Hawaii’s relaxed, aloha spirit hadn’t yet permeated my East Coast, type A disposition. “I’m a bit of a control freak,” I explained apologetically.“As long as you’re the one who said it,” Shandra replied, laughing, and then confirmed that, yes, everything was looking good. “Just be here no later than eight thirty a.m.”I told her I was setting not one but two alarms and arranging for a wake-up call.“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” she said.With alarms and phones ringing at 7:00 a.m., I’m up.So is the sun, which is a welcome sight, although a slow-rolling avalanche of dark clouds is encroaching on the horizon.At the office for Niihau Helicopters I wait nervously in the parking lot. One car pulls up, then a second. I finally meet my fellow passengers— a couple in their fifties from New Jersey and a former Marine from San Diego, who’s with his wife and their young daughter. They’re an affable group, but frankly I’m just thrilled they all showed up.During a brief orientation, we’re told that we’ll be flying on an Agusta A-109 (its predecessor, also owned by the Robinsons, was used in the opening scene of Jurassic Park); once we’re on the island we may pick up shells as souvenirs; the black rocks along the beach are very slick, so be careful; sandwiches will be served for lunch; and we’ll have several hours to rove around, snorkel, take pictures, and so on. We learn a little about the island’s history, but there’s no mention of the Niihau incident.From the heliport it’s a fifteen-minute ride out to the island, and once Niihau comes into view, our pilot, Dana Rosendal, who flew Cobras and Hueys in the Army, dips and swoops the copter above points of interest and offers additional tidbits of information. The number fluctuates, but approximately 136 people live there now, Dana tells us. An eco-Luddite’s dream, Niihau has no cell phones, televisions, or personal computers, and what minimal power the villagers do require is solar-generated. They drink and wash with fresh rainwater. None of the roads are paved, and most islanders rely on bikes and horses for transportation. It’s also the only island where Hawaiian is the primary language. There is one modern structure, a U.S. Navy installation far from the central village, that conducts missile defense operations. (Three weeks before I arrived in Kauai, North Korea threatened to shoot a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile “toward” Hawaii to test its range. I almost called Shandra to see if this might scuttle our flight but, in a rare instance of self-restraint, decided against it.)We pass high over three villagers, and they wave at us. “Everyone here is real friendly,” Dana says. Niihau doesn’t even have a jail.The copter sets down on a dirt landing pad near a tin-covered shed, and immediately we all go our separate ways. With no commercial buildup (not even restaurants or supermarkets; everything is boated or flown in), there’s a timeless quality to the landscape, which makes it easier to envision what happened here some seven decades ago.I hike inland a bit and try to imagine what Hawila Kaleohano, a native villager who was walking through these same fields, must have thought when he heard a distant, buzzing whine grow louder and more intense until, from out of nowhere, a small plane came in low and fast and slammed into the rough soil, kicking up clouds of dirt until finally skidding to a stop.The pilot, who appeared to be Japanese, had sustained minor injuries and was barely conscious. Kaleohano pulled him from the smoking wreckage and then searched through the cockpit, hoping to find some form of identification. Kaleohano discovered a stash of documents and learned that the pilot’s name was Shigenori Nishikaichi, and he was twenty-one years old.More villagers rushed to the scene. They only spoke Hawaiian, so someone sent for Ishimatsu Shintani, an older man who had been born in Japan and could speak the language fluently. By the time Shintani arrived, the pilot was alert, and the two had a brief conversation—and then Shintani left without explanation.Perplexed, the villagers located the Robinsons’ caretaker and assistant beekeeper Yoshio Harada, a thirty-eight-year-old Hawaiian-born man who, like his wife, Irene, was of Japanese ancestry. Nishikaichi, the pilot, confided to Harada that the Imperial Navy had just bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States and Japan were now at war. Harada shared none of this with the villagers.Although the islanders were without electricity and phone lines, they were aware that diplomatic relations between the two countries had been strained. None of them knew, however, that the U.S. naval base on the main island of Oahu was under attack and that Nishikaichi had flown in the invasion’s second wave. An American P-36A had riddled Nishikaichi’s Zero with bullets, forcing him to crash-land on Niihau.That afternoon the villagers threw a party for the young pilot. They roasted a pig and sat around the fire playing guitar and singing. With everyone at ease, Nishikaichi asked Hawila Kaleohano for his papers back. Kaleohano politely refused.Hours later, from a crackling, battery-powered radio, the villagers heard about Pearl Harbor and realized that Nishikaichi was an enemy combatant. They decided to detain him until the island’s owner, Aylmer Robinson, arrived the next morning from his main residence in Kauai. He could then take Nishikaichi back to the proper authorities.Monday came but no Aylmer.Yoshida and Irene Harada offered to house Nishikaichi, and the villagers agreed—so long as he remained under close watch.Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday passed with still no sign of Aylmer, who’d never been absent this long. The villagers climbed to the top of the highest point on Niihau and, after waving kerosene lanterns in the direction of Kauai, lit a massive bonfire. They didn’t know that the Navy had imposed an emergency ban on all travel in the area, and Aylmer—who saw the flickering lights and suspected that they signaled trouble—could only watch helplessly. Nishikaichi used the delay to his advantage, gaining the trust of Ishimatsu Shintani and the Haradas.On Friday, December 12, Shintani attempted to bribe Kaleohano for the airman’s papers. Despite the significant amount of cash offered (about $200), Kaleohano, convinced that they must contain sensitive military information, said no.Later that afternoon, Irene Harada began playing a record on the couple’s hand-cranked phonograph. The music was not for entertainment but to muffle the sounds of what was about to happen next. Her husband and Nishikaichi snuck up behind the lone villager guarding their home and wrestled him to the ground. They locked him in a warehouse and gathered up a shotgun and pistol before setting out to retrieve Nishikaichi’s papers.From his outhouse, Kaleohano spied Harada and Nishikaichi approaching his home. Knowing that eventually they’d find him unless he made a break for it, when the two men momentarily looked in the opposite direction, Kaleohano dashed toward the village. Harada pivoted, aimed his shotgun at Kaleohano, and fired but just missed him. Kaleohano shouted at the top of his lungs for everyone to run, that Harada had helped the Japanese pilot escape and they were both armed. The villagers, at first incredulous that their friend and neighbor had turned on them, scattered. --This text refers to the paperback edition. ANDREW CARROLL is best known for creating the Legacy Project, which archives wartime correspondence, and War Letters, which sold more than 300,000 copies and inspired an acclaimed PBS documentary.xa0 Other New York Times bestsellers include Letters of a Nation and Behind the Lines. Carroll’s Operation Homecoming inspired an Emmy-winning documentary.xa0 He lives in Washington, D.C. Look for Andrew's new book, My Fellow Soldiers . --This text refers to the paperback edition. Q&A with Andrew Carroll Brad Meltzer, author of eleven New York Times bestsellers (including The Inner Circle , published January 2013) and host of the critically acclaimed History Channel series Brad Meltzer’s Decoded , talks to Andrew Carroll about his new book Here Is Where: Discovering America’s Great Forgotten History . BRAD: To start, the whole premise of your book is about finding places that are historically significant yet somehow overlooked. Love that. So let me ask: If they’re forgotten and unmarked, how did you locate them? ANDREW: I’m constantly reading a ton of books and newspapers, and I subscribe to about thirty magazines— BM: Thirty? AC: Maybe more, and on a wide range of topics—travel, archaeology, current events, science, history, you name it—and I’m always on the lookout for great, little-known stories. When I stumble onto one, I trace it back to a relevant physical spot to see if it’s unmarked. For example, when I read that television was essentially invented by a fourteen-year-old farm boy named Philo Farnsworth in Rigby, Idaho, I immediately began searching for the farm where he had his epiphany. Sure enough, there was no plaque or marker there, and it became one of the locations I wrote about. BM: You mention in Here Is Where that you hated history growing up. Shame, shame. And what changed your mind? AC: I know, it’s terrible. But I was very intimidated by history at first. I’m horrible at memorizing things, and I just couldn’t remember all those names and dates in my high school textbooks. Then, during my sophomore year of college, our family’s house burned down, and almost everything we had was destroyed. Losing all our memorabilia inspired my passion for preserving letters, and eventually, a general love for history. Whether it’s the war letters books I edited [ War Letters and Behind the Lines ], which featured previously unpublished correspondence, or Here Is Where , I try to write for both history buffs who want to learn something new and surprising, and for those who are a bit daunted by the subject, as I once was. It’s been especially gratifying to hear from teachers who’ve used the idea behind Here Is Where to encourage their students to seek out unmarked sites in their communities—and, sometimes, literally in their own backyards. BM: I know you also went to almost every state in the U.S. Do you consider Here Is Where more of a history book or a travel book? AC: I think both. It’s definitely about exploring this country as if for the first time, and I wanted to convey the sense of exhilaration and discovery that I experienced. Writing about the journey enabled me to reveal how I found the various sites, and I met so many fascinating people that I wanted to relate some of the more memorable encounters I had along the way. Also, because I spent so much time walking around these different towns and cities, I dropped, like, ten pounds. So I guess we could market Here Is Where as a weight-loss book, too. BM: Speaking of “memorable encounters,” you had several brushes with law enforcement. AC: I did, and I’m shocked I wasn’t arrested. But one of my run-ins did lead to a good story. I was speeding through a rural area of Missouri and got pulled over by a state trooper. I had sort of zoned out and wasn’t paying attention to how fast I was going, which is pretty much what I told the officer, and he, understandably, was furious. After giving me a ticket, he sternly instructed me to use my cruise control, and, honest to God, this prompted me to scribble on the ticket: “Cruise control inventor?” I did some research and discovered that, incredibly, the guy who invented cruise control, Ralph Teetor, was totally blind. Thanks to his daughter, I was able to locate their old house in Hagerstown, Indiana, where Teetor created the prototype in the late 1950s. BM: You write in the book’s introduction that your cross-country trip had to be more than a “grand sightseeing adventure” and that you hoped to explore “why any of this”—meaning, history—“matters.” What are some of the lessons you want readers to take away from the book? AC: That’s a hard question to answer succinctly. There’s no question that history shows us patterns of human behavior over time and can serve as both a warning, cautioning us to beware of our capacity for violence and destruction, and an inspiration, reminding us our more admirable qualities like courage, resilience, and selflessness. But most of all I wanted to express how a love for history can influence the way we live our lives on a more day-to-day basis. At its best, history shows how interconnected we are and, ideally, can nurture within us a sense of humility and gratitude. It helps us remember the sacrifices made by those who’ve come before us and how much we’ve benefited from them—whether they’re medical pioneers, inventors, veterans, or activists—in ways we often take for granted. There’s a quote I keep in my wallet by the author Lewis Thomas that reads: “Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you’d think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise.” Dr. Thomas was a scientist, not a historian, but I think his quote perfectly captures what Here Is Where , ultimately, is all about. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Booklist During the Civil War, at a railroad stop in New Jersey, Abraham Lincoln’s son was saved from a near accident by John Wilkes Boothe’s brother. Historian Carroll had traveled through that spot many times, unaware of its significance; once he learned of it, he wondered how many more such places there were across the U.S. He set out on a journey via car, train, plane, helicopter, boat, and bike to find historically significant places that have long been forgotten. Among his discoveries were a Civil War–era maritime disaster on the Mississippi River that was worse than the sinking of the Titanic but was overshadowed by the assassination of Lincoln two weeks earlier, and the crash-landing of a Japanese plane on the private island of Niihau in December 1941 that led to divided loyalties as Japanese-born residents protected the pilot from Hawaiian natives, even as they learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor. From coast to coast, Carroll presents completely fascinating and rambling history lessons, as well as the quirks that account for what goes into the history books and what is left out and later forgotten. --Vanessa Bush --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Read more