Americas

Almost a whole page of the Dictionary of American Regional English is dedicated to "wampus," a Southern term for a variety of real creatures, such as a wild horse, and imagined ones, such as swamp wampuses and whistling wampuses.

Words from the Dictionary of American Regional English

After half a century of studying jib-jabbing, linguists have just finished the nation's most ambitious dictionary of regional dialects

Raul Ortega makes his shrimp tacos, shown here, the same way he did when he lived in San Juan de los Lagos.

How America Became a Food Truck Nation

Our new food columnist traces the food truck revolution back to its Los Angeles roots

Washington, D.C.

The 20 Best Food Trucks in the United States

The food truck revolution is in full force as mobile restaurants around the country dish out tacos, BBQ and other great eats

Anna Matuschek, who works in Stuttgart for the German magazine Motor Klassik, rides on Route 66 outside Oatman, Arizona.

The Mystique of Route 66

Foreign tourists and local preservationists are bringing stretches of the storied roadway back to life

To find flecks of gold, workers devour the rainforest floor with water cannons. "There are a lot of accidents," says one. "The sides of the hole can fall away, can crush you."

The Devastating Costs of the Amazon Gold Rush

Spurred by rising global demand for the metal, miners are destroying invaluable rainforest in Peru's Amazon basin

Inside the church of San Pedro Apóstol is an ornate gold-leaf altar—earning it the moniker of "The Sistine Chapel of the Andes."

The Sistine Chapel of the Andes

Just miles from Peru’s Incan ruins lie artifacts from another era—beautiful Baroque churches that married Spanish design with indigenous culture

John Kress, a Smithsonian botanist, suggests Dominica's Morne Trois Pitons National Park for an evolution vacation.

A Smithsonian Botanist Suggests an Evotourism Site

We turned to John Kress, an expert on how plants and birds co-evolved over time, for his pick for an evolution vacation

The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles is the only active urban paleontological excavation site in the United States.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: La Brea Tar Pits, California

Just a short drive from the mansions of Beverly Hills lies a site where paleontologists have found over three million fossils

The Burgess Shale, a crumbling slope in Canada's Rocky Mountains, has provided our first good look at the rich variety of organisms that once flourished in the region.

Evolution World Tour: Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Canada

Located in the Canadian Rockies, the fossil-rich dig site provides clues to scientists investigating how animal life began

Three-toed horses such as Cormohipparion occidentale were adapted to forests prior to 12 million years ago. As the climate dried, one-toed horses became prevalent.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska

Prehistoric rhinoceroses and horses died of volcanic ash inhalation 12 million years ago – their fossils are studied now as an example of natural selection

Cristián Samper, evolutionary biologist and the director of Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, discusses his favorite evotourism sites.

Cristián Samper on Appreciating Evolution

The director of the Natural History Museum discusses why understanding evolution is so critical

Heavily forested slopes near Spirit Lake were devastated by the eruption as shown in this photo in 1982.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Mount St. Helens, Washington

Over thirty years after the volcanic eruption, plant and animal life has returned to the disaster site, a veritable living laboratory

Far from the mainland and one another, the Galapágos Islands host animals with distinctive traits, such as the notched shell of Pinzón Island’s saddleback giant tortoise.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

The exotic locale, home to tortoises, cacti, iguanas and finches, was a source of inspiration for Darwin's theory of evolution

Wolves hunting moose on Isle Royale are a dramatic example of what scientists call co-evolution: two species, such as a predator and its prey, adapting to each other’s adaptations.

Evotourism ®

Evolution World Tour: Isle Royale, Michigan

Moose and wolves face off in the world’s longest-running study of predators and prey

The rusted three-story hubcap- and bicycle-based Cathedral of Junk was created by Vince Hannemann, a South Austin guy who decided his backyard was as good a place as any to build a cathedral.

Keeping it Weird in Austin, Texas

Aren't the residents of the proudly hip city of Austin, Texas, just traditionalists at heart?

Lutefisk is both a delicacy and a tradition among Scandinavian-Americans.

Scandinavians’ Strange Holiday Lutefisk Tradition

People in the Old Country won’t touch the stuff, but immigrants to the American Midwest have celebrated it for generations

“We want them to think, ‘maybe science is something I could do,’” coastal geoscientist Rob Young said of tribal youths, who took part in a camp focusing on the area’s spiritual heritage.

Preparing for a New River

Klallam tribal members make plans for holy ancestral sites to resurface after the unparalleled removal of nearby dams

Maui's Haleakala volcano and the rest of the Hawaiian Islands formed out of molten lava as the Pacific plate drifted over the hotspot as three to four inches a year.

What We're Still Learning About Hawaii

The fiery forces beneath the island chain still mystify geologists

From cinder desert to tropical forest, the 19-square-mile Haleakala Crater boasts varied landscape. In the center is a hiker at "Pele's Paint Pot," likely named for the goddess of fire and volcanoes.

Descending Into Hawaii's Haleakala Crater

A trip to the floor of the Maui volcano still promises an encounter with the "raw beginnings of world-making"

On the western coast of Hawaii there is a large, raised platform of stacked lava rock. The terrace, a sacred temple called Hikiau Heiau, dates to the 18th century, if not earlier.

Six Sacred Sites of Hawaii

Take a tour of the idyllic sites across the many islands where native Hawaiians have longstanding spiritual connections

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