On a gray North Carolina beach, 120 years ago this December, Wright Brothers completed the first powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft.

This History Along the Great American Rail-Trail® feature explores the timber industry and creation of two railroads on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula in the early 1900s. The late-1918 completion of the Spruce Railroad, which was meant to aid the war effort, led to a national scandal.

On Aug. 22, 1883, the final tracks of the Northern Pacific Railway were laid when a Chinese crew from the West met an Eastern crew of mostly Irish and Slavic workers near Inde­pendence Creek, Montana.

This is the Ozaukee Interurban Trail, a paved, 30-mile route flanking the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan through the northern suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

According to The Historical Marker Database, there are more than 176,000 historic markers, and there will be even more historic markers dedicated to elevating the stories of people and places along the Great American Rail-Trail®

The Schuylkill River Trail (SRT) is a multiuse path that will ultimately extend 120 miles between the small town of Frackville in east-central Pennsylvania and the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers in Philadelphia.

Traversing a region in northwest Washington known for its rural farmlands, lush riverbeds, forests and lakesides, as well as its historic districts with that timeless small-town feel, Snohomish County’s Centennial Trail is a popular route among the nearly 90 rail-trails in the state.

The bi-state Tahoe-Pyramid Trail (TPT) intersects some of the richest histories that have shaped the West as it follows the Truckee River on its developing 114-mile journey from the Lake Tahoe shoreline in California to Nevada’s Pyramid Lake. Here we showcase some of the diverse historical events trail users can learn about along the way

Take a step inside the Scott’s Run Museum in Osage, West Virginia, on a Saturday afternoon, and you’re in for a story time like no other.

Winding 25 miles through the northwest corner of Oregon, the Crown Zellerbach Trail (affectionately nicknamed the Crown Z Trail) serves as a rolling journey into history, introducing visitors to the home of the region’s First Peoples, the legacy of the area’s railroad and timber industries and intriguing geological events.