Here is a marker that describes history pictorially. Julie Szabo, our correspondent from Oldsmar Florida found it commemorating the celebration in 1852 of the acquisition by the U.S. of more land from Mexico, this time by payment rather than by war. The artwork is by A. J. Fountain Jr. Go to the marker page and click on the photo to see it in detail.

Here’s a baseball marker just in time for baseball season. This one commemorates the first officially recorded baseball match at Elysian Fields in 1846. New Jersey also boasts the first professional basketball game on a marker in Trenton. Sports markers are rare. There are just a few of them in this database’s Sports category, and you can count the ones about baseball in one hand. Our correspondent R.C. from Shrewsbury in New Jersey submitted this one last week.

Did you ever eat Nuto, the “strictly vegetarian” meat substitute sold in health food stores through the 1970’s? I never had the pleasure. It was canned in this building, a health food factory opened in 1921 by Jethro Kloss, author of the 1939 herbal therapy guide Back to Eden. Persons unknown erected this marker and Kevin W, our editor in Stafford Virginia found it. I didn’t know about Nuto until correspondent Michael Miller of Washington DC came across the marker’s web page and sent in a scan of the label. —J. J. Prats

Historical markers are everywhere. Here’s an easy-to-miss 6 by 10 inch brass plaque commemorating the location of what is reputed to be the first umbrella factory in the United States. Can you spot it to the right of the metal door of this nondescript shuttered storefront on a side street in Baltimore? Christopher Busta-Peck, our editor from Baltimore, spotted it and added it to the database.

It’s not just the gorgeous snow-and-blue-sky photos, it is also the way our correspondent Howard Ohlhous from Duanesburg New York fleshes out the story hinted at by the marker. Official New York State historical markers are very concise and our correspondent from Duanesburg New York always takes the time to explain why the person, building, or site commemorated by a marker is historic and deserving of commemoration.

This is Craig Swain’s 1000th marker, added last week. It is one of the hundreds of markers around the Antietam Civil War battlefield that he’s been meticulously cataloguing this winter. Squint at this photo and you’ll see five. Craig has added more markers to the database than anyone else, and every one of them is profusely annotated. He is our Category Editor for Civil War markers and every Civil War marker that is submitted to the database crosses his virtual desk. He hails from Leesburg, Virginia.

Arlington County has a series of numbered markers marking the locations of forts and batteries in Arlington that protected Washington during the Civil War. An anonymous contributor recently added them to the database and this is stop 13. Our Civil War Category Editor, Craig Swain of Leesburg VA, rounded up these and other markers in Virginia, Maryland and DC into the Defenses of Washington marker series. This series illustrates the power of this database to automatically map a collection of markers. Go to the series, click on the Click to Map link, and take a look. Be sure to switch to Satellite mode and zoom in. This week’s Marker of the Week is all 40 markers in this series. Next time you are visiting our Nation’s Capital, print out this map and take the tour.

In 1935 the contest was held 4 blocks west and Lawrence Pitzer didn’t win. That’s about all this tablet says. But Al Wolf, our correspondent from nearby Veedersburg, Indiana, added a short essay about corn husking—it was the only way to harvest corn until the mechanical corn picker—and about the contest, which was broadcast live on national radio. I suspect the “bang board” that deflected the cobs of corn into the wagon made a great sound, perfect for radio. Finally, Kevin W. of Stafford, Virginia, turns the page into a multimedia presentation by adding a link to a color movie of the 1941 contest, the last one ever held. This page will keep you engrossed for a while.

From the marker text itself, there is no way to know that this boarding school for wards of the state was beloved by many of its students. The marker’s web page makes the link. Our correspondent R.E. Smith from Chattanooga Tennessee submitted this marker on February 2nd. Associate Editor Kevin W. published it and added a link to the school’s alumni website and a want list for photos of the school. Two days later Christine Haven of Houston Texas, a former student and today webmaster of a website dedicated to the boys and girls of the former Bonny Oaks School, filled in the blanks.

This tiny image does not do justice to the handsome photos that illustrate this page, which tells the story of horticulture advancements in Texas in the 1880’s. The accompanying comments by our correspondent Samuel Collins III of Hitchcock tell two more stories. One is the story of how Mr. Stringfellow paid his workers—many of which were African Americans—a fair wage. The other is the present day story of how the community came together to restore, preserve, and reuse this significant landmark.

At the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers is Harpers Ferry. Rich in commercial and military history, it also offers breathtaking views from the surrounding hillsides. Craig Swain from Leesburg, VA, hiked to the top of Maryland Heights to contribute a magnificent series of markers in the area. Use the Related Markers link on this page to see what there is to explore at Harpers Ferry.

Everyone knows who Robert E. Lee was: he was the most celebrated general of the Confederate forces during the American Civil War. But did you know he was an engineer first? This marker, submitted by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina, commemorates his 1837 to 1841 work with the Mississippi River at St. Louis harbor.

Excluding war memorials, World War II historical markers on continental U.S.A. are relatively rare because the war itself, with few exceptions, did not reach the continent. Here is an exception. This marker commemorates the Filipino mess boy and others who died in the 1942 sinking of a U.S. Merchant Marine tanker off Cape Fear by a German U-boat.

Does a historical marker have to be stuck on a pole or made out of metal? No. All it has to do is tell facts or a story (and, to be included in this database, be outdoors and be permanent). Here is a mural as a historical marker. And what a story it tells! William Pfingsten—our correspondent from Bel Air, Maryland—found it on the side of a building.

Next time you find yourself in Trenton, follow in George Washington’s footsteps by following this series of twelve 93 year old markers that mark his soldiers’ 1777 midnight march to Princeton and victory against the British. Our Trenton correspondent Gary Nigh found them all and you can too. Use the Virtual Tour link on its page to bring up the HMDB map available on the link on that page. They did it on foot, but you’ll need a car.

Here is a winter scene to ring out the holiday season, taken—in June!—by Michael Stroud, our correspondent from Bluffton, South Carolina. Can you guess the name of the mountain? This marker is currently the northernmost in our database, marking the spot where in 1923 President Harding drove the golden spike on the completion of the Alaska Railroad.

This is one the banks that the Dalton Gang attempted to rob that famous day 1892 when the U.S. Marshal and residents of Coffeyville stopped them in a tremendous firefight. The Marshal and three citizens were killed. Michael Stroud, our correspondent from Bluffton, South Carolina, does a great job of fleshing out the story only hinted at by a fourteen word marker.

It was hard to single out one marker to illustrate the collection of historic building and house markers that Keith Peterson, our correspondent from Cedar Park Texas has been methodically adding to the database. Use this one to take virtual walking tour of Georgetown, just north of Austin, by browsing through the markers Keith Peterson has documented.

Did you know that windmills were once used to grind grain? Where falling water was not available for the more typical waterwheel mills, they did the job. In the 19th century, steam power made them obsolete. Our correspondent F. Robby found this one on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Our Pasadena Maryland contributor F. Robby documented the death of a marker by submitting this photograph showing the marker lying on the ground, felled by the tree it was commemorating. Maryland’s venerable Wye Oak came down in 2002 and took the marker with it. The stump remains on display, the marker is history.

Sports markers are rare. There are only a handful in this database. Gary Nigh, contributing correspondent from Trenton New Jersey, just submitted this one commemorating Fred Cooper, captain of the Trenton Trentons in 1896, along with a photo of the original venue.

The inscription is short, but the story that Al Wolf—our contributing correspondent in Veedersburg Indiana—tells is fascinating. He writes, “not one word of this is made up. Even this morning at the Cafe people still remembered the details.” Check it out.

Contributor Tom Fuchs from Greenbelt Maryland has assembled an very interesting and very well illustrated series of markers about the Glen Echo Amusement Park just outside of Washington D.C., one of the oldest in the country. This former trolley park is now a National Park Service park. Use the Related Markers link on any of the pages for a handy list of all eleven markers.

Beverly Pfingsten can go into the postcard business with this picture-perfect photograph from Maryland’s Eastern Shore submitted by our correspondent from Bel Air Maryland, William Pfingsten.

George Washington’s doctor lived here and boated over to Mount Vernon in Virginia 200 years ago faster than we can drive between the two points today. During the Civil War, the house belonged to a Confederate secret agent. Two markers mark the spot. Check out both marker pages, one of which has the larger version of the photo you see here, and marvel at the delicate spring colors that our Alexandria Virginia correspondent Roger Dean Meyer managed to capture with his camera.

A man-made hole in the ground more than five square miles wide and 600 feet deep is maked by a Minnesota Historical Society marker submitted by our correspondent from Wisconsin Rapids Wisconsin. Read all about it and check out Keith L.’s spendid photographs.

Here’s a marker with no text save title and date. The picture visually describes what is happening. Who won’t immediately recognize Abraham Lincoln from his stove-pipe hat. Notice the action depicted around him. Our correspondent Steve Fernie from Arlington Virginia submitted this marker.

This marker declares Roland Park’s Tudor-style shopping center dating back to the 1890s to be the oldest shopping center in America. Our correspondent from Bell Air Maryland, William Pfingsten, submitted it and reports that the center is still Tudor and still full of shops. Roland Park was a streetcar (trolley) suburb, now part of the City of Baltimore. On this page are photos of some of the fine houses there.

“This is a beautiful place,” wrote Corporal Newton T. Hartshorn of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1863. This photo by Kevin W. of Stafford Virginia proves that Occoquan still is a beautiful place 144 years later. Dropping into Occoquan from the suburbia that surrounds it is like escaping into an earlier time. Don’t forget to stop next time you’re in the area. It’s infested with markers.

While the beautiful day didn’t hurt, you can tell that a good photographer is at work here based on the sharp, bright photos that Tom Fuchs of Greenbelt Maryland took to illustrate this page and those of other nearby markers about the B&O Railroad in Martinsburg. Railroad history is hard to find on markers, but the Baltimore & Ohio is an exception since it is tied to early railroad innovation, western settlement, and the Civil War. It has its own marker series in this database.

Northridge California correspondent Thomas O’Connor’s first submission includes photos of this rusty metal wheel. In 1868 Samuel Knight came up with the first device that captured close to 100% of rushing water’s kinetic energy: the Impulse Turbine. A jet of water precisely directed at closely-spaced small metal buckets around the wheel—they look like gear teeth at first glance—turns the wheel in the most efficient way possible. The Knight Wheel principle continues in use today for hydroelectric power generation.

It’s easy to miss the gorgeous photographs of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir behind the dam because of the very boring photos of the brass plaques that precede them. Unfortunately this is a marker database so the boring sometimes has to come first. Please scroll down to see all of the photos by Karen Key, our Sacramento California correspondent. Well worth the wait as they arrive one by one from the server. This one is of Wapama Falls.

This well-researched and profusely illustrated and commented page by Craig Swain of Leesburg Virginia features a marker commemorating a Cold War missile site that protected Washington DC from the possibility of an attack by Soviet aircraft. In the “duck and cover” 1950s and ’60s it was a secret, well-guarded location 19 miles from the Capitol. Today it is a suburban neighborhood park with baseball and soccer fields in sight of this abandoned observation tower.

Dawn Bowen of Fredericksburg Virginia discovers another fascinating marker, this one written in verse. The poem, by Gertrude Claytor, tells the story of Colonial Governor Alexander Spotswood’s 1716 exploration of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley. Right next to it is the database’s first marker titled in a foreign language—Latin. That marker’s title is the inscription Governor Spotswood had engraved on horseshoe-shaped golden pins given to some of his fellow explorers, dubbed “Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.”

This marker page is a great example of of the potential of this website to bring together dispersed historical records. Donald Daniel of Forsyth Georgia first submitted this page July 2006. In May 2007 Mark and Maryann Pifer of Columbus Ohio, stumbled across the page while browsing the Internet. Maryann Pifer is a descendant of B. F. Morris, pictured here, who was mentioned on the marker. They submitted photographs and a chapter from a book that has been passed down from generation to generation.

“A Summer Morning on the Potomac.” I'm a sucker for landscapes reflected in still waters, but you have to admit this is a great photo. Craig Swain of Leesburg Virginia provides in-depth commentary and insight for most any marker he submits, and this entry is no exception. Follow the Civil War in Northern Virginia and Maryland through his marker pages and you will always learn something new.

In addition to telling the story of the Pony Express, this marker—submitted by Dawn Bowen of Fredericksburg Virginia—discusses the life-size Avard Fairbanks sculpture that is directly in front of it. The page includes first-person quotes from Pony Express riders.

Photos of a Soo Line steam locomotive illustrate this marker submitted by our correspondent from Wisconsin Rapids, Keith L. This page is has 10 bright and detailed photographs of the marker, depot, Locomotive 2713 and Caboose 158.

This thumbnail does not do justice to the beautiful photograph that Karen Key of Sacramento California submitted for this marker’s page. Go to the page to see it in its full glory. Karen captured the lake in October. On the same page is Nina Sunseri’s photo of Convict Lake in January, with skaters enjoying its glass-like frozen surface.

Ugly marker, handsome house. Tom Fuchs of Greenbelt Maryland submitted this excellent photo of “Edgewood,” the Berkeley County house mentioned on this marker. The marker itself is a monument located roadside at the driveway to Edgewood, consisting of a 15 foot column with its capital topped by a pyramid of cannon balls.

Dawn Bowen of Fredericksburg Virginia submitted this marker—a large bronze tablet with intricate bas-relief artwork. This image is a close-up of one of the muses on the marker; go to the marker page to view this work of art in its entirety. It is signed “Mahonri 1940” indicating that this marker may have been created by the notable 20th century Salt Lake City painter and sculptor Mahonri Young. Follow Link 2 on the marker page to see photos of other works by the artist and I think you’ll agree that the connection is plausible.

William Pfingsten of Bell Air Maryland recently submitted this facinating photo of a topiary fox hunt. Take a look at the full size photo on the marker page to better see the hunter in a bowler hat astride a horse jumping over a fence just behind the pack of dogs.