Amid the wild countryside that crowds around it on all sides, Anchorage has grown into a vigorous, spirited, cosmopolitan city---by far Alaska's largest and most sophisticated. The relative affluence of this white-collar city---with a sprinkling of olive drab from nearby military bases---attracts fine restaurants and pricey shops, first-rate entertainment, and world-class sporting events. Flashy modern towers stab the skyline, and colorful flowers spill from hundreds of baskets on downtown lampposts. Traffic from the city's busy international airport, served by more than 15 international and domestic airlines, lends Anchorage a more cosmopolitan air than you might expect from a city with a population of 258,000, nearly half the people in the state. You'll also discover some development you may not have come to Alaska to see---14 McDonald's, 2 Wal-Marts, a 16-plex movie theater, and dozens of espresso bars. Those who live in the Bush joke about "being able to see Alaska from Anchorage," but the city has not entirely lost touch with its frontier spirit. Sled-dog races are still among the most revered events held here, moose often roam along city bike trails, and spectacular country is just a short drive away.

First incorporated in 1920, Anchorage is still a young city. The median age of 30 years and an aggressive style make it---not the capital city of Juneau---the state's power center. Nearly everything was built in the last few decades. An Anchorage home dating from the 1950s almost merits historic status. In addition to acting as the center for oil development in the state, Anchorage hustles its living as a government, banking, transportation, and communications hub.

Anchorage residents are primarily from elsewhere in America---including oil workers from such conservative oil-patch states as Oklahoma and Texas---and the attitudes they bring have added fuel to the fire of the conservative, pro-development mentality that characterizes the city, and Alaska, as a whole. Although representing less than 8% of the population, Alaskan Native peoples add an important cultural dimension. A growing Asian population is also having an impact, with well-stocked Asian food stores and restaurants an increasingly familiar sight.

Anchorage got its start with the construction of the federally built Alaska Railroad, completed in 1917, and traces of the city's railroad heritage remain today. Once the tracks were laid, the town grew because its pioneer forerunners actively sought growth by hook and---not infrequently---by crook. City officials used to delight in telling how they tricked a visiting member of Congress into dedicating a site for a not-yet-approved federal hospital.

Boom and bust periods followed major events: an influx of military bases during World War II; a massive buildup of Arctic missile-warning stations during the Cold War; reconstruction following the devastating Good Friday earthquake of 1964; and in the late 1960s the biggest bonanza of all---the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline. Not surprisingly, Anchorage positioned itself as the perfect home for the new pipeline administrators and support industries, and it attracts a large share of the state's oil-tax dollars.

In the last decade, Anchorage has become an increasingly important focus of travelers to Alaska. The central location, relatively mild climate, and excellent transportation system make it a natural place to begin or end a trip.

Juneau, Alaska's capital and third-largest city, is on the North American mainland but can't be reached by road. The city owes its origins to two colorful sourdoughs, Joe Juneau and Dick Harris, and to a Tlingit chief named Kowee. The chief led the two men to rich reserves of gold in the outwash of the stream that now runs through the middle of town and in quartz rock formations back in the gulches and valleys. That was in 1880, and shortly after the discovery a modest stampede resulted in the formation of first a camp, then a town, then finally the Alaska district government capital in 1906.

For 60 years or so after Juneau's founding, gold was the mainstay of the economy. In its heyday the AJ (for Alaska Juneau) gold mine was the biggest low-grade ore mine in the world. It was not until World War II, when the government decided it needed Juneau's manpower for the war effort, that the AJ and other mines in the area ceased operations. After the war, mining failed to start up again, and government became the city's principal employer.

Juneau is full of contrasts. The historic downtown buildings and dramatic hillside position provide a frontier feeling, but the city's cosmopolitan nature comes through in fine museums, noteworthy restaurants, and a literate and outdoorsy populace. In addition to enjoying the city itself, you will discover a tramway to alpine trails atop Mt. Roberts, densely forested wilderness areas, quiet bays for sea kayaking, and even a famous drive-up glacier. Surrounded by beautiful wilderness and glaciers in its backyard, Juneau is the cultural center of Alaska.

Little Rock is in the center of the state of Arkansas, close to the center of the United States in the Sunbelt. Sitting on the south bank of the Arkansas River, it is the state's geographical, governmental, and financial center, as well as a major convention hub. A population of 182,274 lives within the Little Rock city limits. More than 513,000 live in the greater Little Rock metropolitan area, including North Little Rock just across the Arkansas River.

Spanish and French explorers passed the site in the 16th and 17th centuries, naming it La Petite Roche because of a small outcrop that marked the transition from the flat Mississippi Delta region to the Ouachita Mountain foothills. A simple translation turned the town into Little Rock when it replaced Arkansas Post as the territorial capital in 1821.

Within an hour of Little Rock's downtown are world-renowned duck hunting in rice-growing regions to the southeast and wild scenic vistas, streams, and trails in forested mountains to the north and west.

It's easy to understand why the setting of Phoenix, the nation's eighth-largest city, is called the Valley of the Sun. At this tip of the great Sonoran Desert, which stretches from central Arizona deep into northwestern Mexico, it rains fewer than 30 days a year on average, and summer temperatures often climb above 100 degrees F for weeks at a time. That it's "a dry heat" isn't much consolation. But in spring, the dry desert soil responds magically to the touch of rain, and wildflowers display their brilliance.

As the Hohokam, who were the first settlers here more than 2,300 years ago, discovered, this miracle of spring can be enhanced by human hands. They cultivated cotton, corn, and beans, and established more than 300 mi of canals with very limited technology. No one knows why they disappeared 600 years ago, but it's thought that drought and famine simply took their toll. Until the U.S. army established Fort McDowell in the mountains to the east in 1865, the once fertile Salt River valley was forgotten. To feed the men and horses stationed in the area, the long dormant Hohokam canals were reopened in 1867, and a town, then called Punkinsville, grew up around the newly blooming region.

But by 1870, when the town site was plotted, the 300 inhabitants had decided that their new city would rise "like a phoenix" from the ashes of a vanished civilization. The new image---and the new name---stuck. Before the end of the 19th century, Phoenix wrested the title of territorial capital from Prescott. Its rise was assured in 1911, when the Roosevelt Dam cut off the Salt River 60 mi to the east. The artificial lakes created by the dam---13,000 square mi all told, an area larger than Belgium---ensured that Phoenix would remain verdant. The initial idea was to ensure the agricultural development of the area, but a huge network of canals served not only crops but a lush urban landscape. Yet, while then having a reliable water supply, Phoenix still didn't enter its real growth spurt for another 40 years, when air-conditioning made the desperately hot summers bearable.

In the 1950s and 1960s the growth of the city's manufacturing base furthered the growth in population. Between 1945 and 1960, more than 300 new industries moved into the Phoenix Valley. And the city has experienced the ups and downs of unbridled growth ever since. With so many changes, and so quickly, even long-term residents have trouble keeping up. Yet what has been good for the city's entrepreneurial zeal hasn't always been good for the residents.

Modern Phoenix is a city that's struggling to deal with the effects of increasing population and a lack of civic foresight. Once a place recommended to sufferers of asthma and other respiratory ailments, this is now a city where allergies are rampant (because of the importation of nonnative plants from the east, as well as pollution). And only now are civic leaders beginning to deal with ways to control automobile traffic and urban sprawl, and to maintain a reliable supply of drinking water for future generations. Though in truth, many cities in the American west must come to grips with these problems, and Phoenix is hardly the worst example.

For visitors, especially from November to April, when the weather is nicest, it isn't difficult to understand the lure of the desert. Residents, seldom clad in more than a light jacket, drive convertibles with the top down, eat lunch outside, and devote their spare time to outdoor pursuits. Golfers love it here, and there are more than 100 courses, several of them world-class, throughout the valley. Other recreational opportunities include hiking in the nearby mountains and swimming (up to six months out of the year). South Mountain Park is a must-see. The world's largest city park (at 17,000 acres) offers hiking and biking trails and horseback riding, an amazingly serene experience just outside this major metropolis.

However, the city's greatest allure is a way of life that keeps its own pace. Phoenix---indeed, all of central Arizona---is a low-key place where people take things easy and dress informally. And if things get a little hot in the middle of a summer day, well, at least life also slows down to an enjoyable speed. Its rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s has also brought a revitalized downtown, a rapidly emerging culinary scene, and professional sports teams, all of which give visitors more reason to come and, perhaps, to stay. One might say that Phoenix is behaving like a city with a future.

Tucson is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States; the Hohokam settled here as early as A.D. 100. The Spanish were the first Europeans to settle here, and Tucson became part of Mexico when that colony declared its independence from Spain in 1820. It became part of the United States under the Gadsden Purchase of 1854. Its name is derived from the Pima Indian name "chuk son," which means "spring at the foot of a black mountain."

When the Butterfield stage line was extended to Tucson in the 1850s, it brought along adventurers, settlers, and more than a few outlaws. The railroad came in 1880, and the University of Arizona in 1891, though Arizona didn't become a state until 1912. The city's population really began to grow during World War II, when the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was opened and brought with it an aerospace industry. However, as in Phoenix, folks could not live comfortably here year-round until the development of modern air-conditioning in the 1950s. Nowadays, more businesses and people relocate because of the lower cost of living here, the cleaner environment, and the spectacular scenery.

Although it's Arizona's second-largest city and a fast-growing metropolitan area of over 725,000 people, Tucson still feels like a small town. Perhaps this is because, while the city is a bustling center of business, it's also a laid-back university and resort town, popular for the warm sun and 320 days of clear weather a year. The population increases every winter, when average daytime temperatures are 65 degrees F, and 38 degrees F at night.

Tucson has a tri-cultural (Hispanic, Anglo, Native American) population and plenty of visitors. It's particularly popular among golfers, but it's also known as the home of world-class museums, a copper and cattle market, and the best Sonoran Mexican food north of the border. The recent influx of residents and visitors has given the city some growing pains, including questions regarding development and pollution control, which are now being addressed by city planners.

Palm Springs (pop.42,900) lies at the heart of a fast-growing desert community that now includes six distinct cities. Situated in the Coachella Valley and surrounded by 8,000-ft-high mountains, this oasis is home to 95 golf courses,600 tennis courts and 30,000 swimming pools. There are museums, world-class spas, shopping, art galleries, botanical parks, wildlife viewing, casinos, and hot air ballooning. Until recently the Palm Springs area has been a winter/spring resort luring visitors from cold climates to spend a few days or weeks in the sun, golfing, swimming, playing tennis or simply enjoying beautiful desert scenery. Within the last decade, however, the desert has become a year-round playground drawing many summer visitors who want to experience first-hand the 100-degree plus scorching heat.

Celebrities have vacationed in the desert since the 1920s, when the first resort opened in La Quinta. Although the names and faces have changed in the intervening years, the glamour remains. Today you can cruise along Bob Hope or Frank Sinatra drive, or you might run into former President Gerald Ford strolling along Palm Canyon Drive. Tiger Woods might even be staying at your hotel.

While it wasn't always so, shopping here is first rate, particularly along El Paseo in Palm Desert and at the many consignment and antiques shops scattered throughout the Coachella Valley. The same could be said for dining. You can now enjoy a delicious meal and first-class service at fine restaurants, some of which star celebrity chefs.

Expect your visit to be casual and relaxed. But heed the advice to newcomers. The desert can be dangerous. Wear sunscreen, cover up, wear a broad brimmed hat, and drink lots of water. Don't venture out alone; and avoid dirt roads unless you have four-wheel-drive.

Bounded by the Sacramento and American rivers and shaded by thousands of trees, California's capital is peaceful and seems almost rural. But it's a center of art, music, and theater, and has several fine museums. Take your pick: you can observe politicians at work or admire pickled peaches at the state fair.

Historic Old Sacramento, a string of 19th-century buildings bordering the Sacramento River, has been turned into a pleasant collection of shops and restaurants. Downtown boasts a pretty mall stretching to the ornate, domed capitol building. Sutter's Fort, in the heart of downtown, is a reminder of the city's founder, John Augustus Sutter. It was at his sawmill, about 30 mi east of the this fort, that gold was discovered in the state in 1848---sparking the infamous California Gold Rush.

Many stately Victorians of various styles and ornateness dot the town, reminders of the city's past as a wealthy center of commerce during the state's early years.

Be sure to spend some time in Old Sacramento. Once the western terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad and the short-lived Pony Express, this national landmark and state historic park encompasses 28 acres along the Sacramento River waterfront and more than 100 restored Gold Rush-era buildings. You'll find a marketplace, new public docks, excursion cruises, museums, and some of Sacramento's best restaurants. The historic Delta King, a paddlewheeler that once traveled between San Francisco and Sacramento, is permanently moored here and has a hotel and restaurant.

An interesting up-and-coming neighborhood is Del Paso, just across the American River from Sacramento proper. Until recently a decaying street of auto-repair shops, it's become a haven for small, edgy art galleries, artists' studios, and antique and rummage shops. A few good restaurants have opened too. Several times a month, the businesses here stay open late for a neighborhood walk and sometimes an impromptu street festival.

On Sacramento's outskirts, ranch homes and shopping malls reflect the growth during the 1960s from sleepy cow town to a city complete with suburban sprawl. If the place seems quiet on weekends, it's because residents have fled to the great outdoors. Sacramento is nearly equidistant to the Sierras, the San Francisco Bay area, and the Napa Valley.

Aspen became one of Colorado's early boomtowns when silver was discovered nearby in the early 1890s. Soon boasting a population of nearly 12,000, the village supported hundreds of prospectors and their families. Later, when the price of silver bottomed out, fewer than 700 residents remained in the ghost town. Aspen received a new lease on life in the 1940s when it was developed into a recreational destination with emphasis on skiing, and its year-round population is now back up to over 5,500. Its location on the western slope of the Continental Divide in central Colorado makes its ski facilities some of the best that the state has to offer. A magnet for cultural and countercultural types, the atmosphere is freewheeling and tolerant, but it is also a magnet for glittering celebrities, so a sense of wealth, style, and privilege runs almost as deep as the snow cover.

Snowmass is a development within the greater Aspen community. It consists of four ski areas, as well as an abundance of eateries, shops, and boutiques. It is a little more affordable and family oriented than some of the other glittery ski resorts nearby.

With a population of 85,000, Boulder, the home of the University of Colorado, sits nestled in the midst of the Rocky Mountains just a few miles northwest of Denver. Since 1998 it has been more widely known as the home of JonBenet Ramsey than for the many scientific and technological concerns---both governmental and private---that have their headquarters here. Indeed, much of the city's present-day economy is linked to these industries. Yet, Boulder still has the feel of a college town with an arty, liberal tradition. Locals are outdoor oriented (the city has 25,000 acres of parks and other green spaces) and are almost as likely to ride a mountain bike as drive an SUV.

First settled by Swedes in 1655, Wilmington was taken over by Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch and later by the British. It was William Penn and the Quakers who brought prosperity, making Wilmington a major shipping and commerce hub.

In modern times the city's claim to fame has been its location, halfway between New York City and Washington, D.C. Many corporations like the equal access to both commerce and government so much that they have set up shop in the city, which is sometimes called the world's corporate capital. While the DuPont Co. has long called Wilmington home, the area's biggest businesses now are credit card banks, attracted by the state's laissez faire attitude to interest rate charges. Banks have gobbled up downtown real estate, but little has been done to improve the inner city blight of rundown neighborhoods and empty stores in the city center. After 5 pm it's quiet downtown, as all movie theaters and most restaurants and housing developments are in the suburbs. Current efforts to establish a commercial waterfront center, much like Baltimore's to the south, have been slowed by city government squabbling and power plays. Wilmington's minor league baseball park is one of the waterfront project's keystones, and the club complex Kahunaville draws visitors into town after dark.

Up until a few years ago, if you were looking for a raucous time in Florida, this Broward County city of 150,000, about an hour north of Miami, was the place to go. During Spring Break, Fort Lauderdale was ground zero for the collegiate set, who came to party along the gorgeous 7-mi stretch of beach. It's a completely different story today. Upscale shops and restaurants now line the beachfront, where there were once T-shirt shops and fast food stands. Downtown Fort Lauderdale has been developed as more than a place for office-workers to trudge in and dash out. The tourists are now much more likely to be affluent families with children than partying students. If you ask the folks in Fort Lauderdale, no one seems to mind the change.

The first known white settler in the area, Charles Lewis, established a plantation along the New River in 1793, but it was the fort built by Major William Lauderdale at the river's mouth in 1838 that gave the town its name. Even after the Seminole wars, Fort Lauderdale was a sleepy place. Things began looking up in 1896 when the Florida East Coast Railroad reached the New River, and Fort Lauderdale was finally incorporated in 1911, with only 175 residents. But growth was still sluggish between the World Wars as a result of devastating hurricanes and the Great Depression.

The city's economic base has been largely rooted in tourism during the second half of the 20th century. Its fastest growth spurt came between the 1960s and 1980s, when Fort Lauderdale was popular as a spring break spot for vacationing college students. Although vacationers are still important to the economy, it has also become more diverse since the late 1980s due to the establishment of more manufacturing and international businesses in or near Las Olas Boulevard and the downtown area.

The town has been nicknamed the Venice of America for its 260-mi honeycomb of navigable waterways. It's almost as easy to get around here by boat as by car, and water taxis are popular with sightseers and bar-hoppers alike. A sizeable percentage of locals are boat owners. The Riverwalk, a pedestrian walkway bordering the New River, is charmed with restaurants, shops, and movie theaters. Tennis courts and golf courses abound, and jogging paths ribbon the many city parks. Stylish Las Olas Boulevard, the Galleria Mall, and the Coral Ridge Mall draw shoppers.

At the very tip of the Keys, Key West is the southernmost city in the continental United States. Originally called Cayo Hueso, Island of Bones, it is thought that the island was once a burial ground for the Caloosa Indians. The famous, including writers Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Robert Frost, as well as presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, found the same beauty and allure here that its hordes of residents and visitors find today.

It wasn't always so. From the time the U.S. acquired Florida from Spain in 1821, the big business in Key West was wrecking---rescuing people and salvaging cargo from ships that foundered on nearby reefs---until the government began building lighthouses in 1849, at least. Fishing, shrimping, sponge-gathering, and pineapple canning where important in the latter half of the 19th century, along with the military, which constructed Fort Taylor in 1845. But by 1929 the local government had begun to unravel, and when the Depression hit, the military moved out, leaving Key West hard hit. That's when it started promoting itself as a tourist destination, but a 1935 hurricane that wiped out the railroad also wiped out the tourist trade.

The resurgence of Key West started in the 1960s, when hippies flocked to the island for its lazy lifestyle and laissez-faire attitudes. Many of the restored Victorian "gingerbread" houses that now serve as accommodations for tourists were originally turned into gay guest houses during the mid-1970s, and about a fifth of locals are gay. But Key West has quite a diverse population, with large percentages of black Bahamians, Hispanics (primarily Cubans), recent refugees from the urban sprawl of mainland Florida, and long-time Key Westers, who can trace their ancestry back several decades. Overall, the island is very tolerant, and even somewhat flamboyant.

All kinds of people can be found down at Mallory Square for the evening revelry kicked off by the sunset over the Gulf. Musicians, jugglers, lovers, and vendors gather for the illustrious sunset and spend the next several hours strolling, shopping, dining, and carousing. Good restaurants are numerous, particularly along Duval Street, which is sadly losing a bit of charm with flashy new stores and T-shirt shops. Key West clubs are legendary, and the action goes on until sun-up.

St. Petersburg was founded in 1875, when John C. Williams, an early pioneer snowbird from Detroit, came down and decided to buy some land to call home. Working in conjunction with exiled Russian nobleman Pietr Dementieff, who helped build a railroad into the area and named the town after his own home in Russia, the two slowly turned this peaceful coastal area into a mecca for ailing Northerners.

Today St. Petersburg is a bustling city of 266,000 with a lively feel and an up-tempo development scheme. There are two distinct parts of St. Petersburg: its downtown area with six major museums and popular sports arenas; and the beaches ringing it, including separate communities such as Treasure Island and Madeira Beach.

Residents appreciate the outdoors, and the town boasts 102 parks and 7 mi of waterfront. The 47-mi Pinellas hiking/biking trail and five public beaches provide plenty of opportunities to get outdoors.

Walt Disney didn't have enough money to buy up a lot of extra land in Anaheim when he was planning Disneyland, but he learned from his mistakes. Not wanting cheap, tacky tourist attractions and hotels sprouting up in the immediate vicinity of his new park in Florida, he started buying up land in central Florida during the mid-1960s. When the story behind the purchases finally leaked out in 1965, Walt was ready to make the formal announcement of his plans. Although he died the next year, in 1966, his brother Roy carried on and opened up the Magic Kingdom, two resort hotels, and a campground in 1971. Although the park was popular, growth in attendance stagnated. When Epcot opened in 1982 the park's future was still not very bright.

That changed beginning in 1984, when Michael Eisner took charge of the Disney Company. And the growth in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s has made Orlando one of the vacation capitals of the entire world. The third theme park, Disney--MGM Studios, opened in 1989, and the fourth, Disney's Animal Kingdom, opened in 1998. Today hotels and villa complexes cover more than 2,500 acres alone. After that, the 98-acre Magic Kingdom seems a drop in the bucket.

A bewildering array of options awaits you in Walt Disney World. There are several ticketing options---from single-day tickets to multi-park, multi-day passes. Some allow you to hop between parks on the same day; others don't, so keep that in mind when making your plans. And prices change several times a year.

Atlanta was first named Terminus, for its location was the end of a railroad line. Founded in 1837, it was incorporated as Marthasville in 1843 and became Atlanta in 1845. Even before the Civil War it was a railroad and marketing hub. Then came the city's siege and destruction by the Union army in 1864, after which practically 90 percent of the city had to be rebuilt. Very little of the old town remains. After the Civil War, Atlanta recovered quickly, primarily because of the completion of several rail lines that put the struggling town in the center of a rapidly expanding transportation network. Because of its rapid rise, Atlanta was named the capital of Georgia in 1868. Today, with a metropolitan population of nearly 3 million, Atlanta and its environs constitute by far the largest city in the Southeast, home to many leading American corporations---among them Coca-Cola and CNN---as well as 29 colleges and universities.

Atlanta's character has evolved from a mix of peoples: Transplanted Northerners and people from elsewhere account for 50 percent of the population and have undeniably affected the mood and character of the city. Irish immigrants had a major role in the city's early history, along with Germans and Austrians; the Hungarian-born Rich brothers founded Atlanta's principal department store. In the past two decades, Atlanta has seen spirited growth in its Asian and Latin-American communities. Atlanta's Asian-American and Latino citizens can point with pride to their economic and civic accomplishments. Their restaurants, shops, and institutions have become part of the city's texture.

For more than four decades, Atlanta has been linked to the civil rights movement. Among the many accomplishments of Atlanta's African-American community is the Nobel Peace Prize that Martin Luther King, Jr., won in 1964. Dr. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, continues to operate the King Center, which she founded after her husband's assassination in 1968. In 1972 Andrew Young was elected the first black congressman from the South since Reconstruction.

The traditional and romantic image of the South, with lacy moss dangling from tree limbs, thick, sugary Southern drawls, a leisurely pace, and luxurious antebellum mansions, is rarely seen here. Even before the Civil War, the columned house was a rarity. The frenetic pace of building that characterized the period after the Civil War has continued unabated. Still viewed by die-hard Southerners as the heart of the Old Confederacy, Atlanta has become the best example of the New South, a fast-paced modern city proud of its heritage.

Savannah is Georgia's oldest city and also its third largest, following Atlanta and Columbus. Founded in 1733 when James Oglethorpe arrived with 120 settlers, the town began growing immediately. By the early days of the Revolutionary War Savannah was a thriving port city, a fact not overlooked by the British, who occupied it in December 1778. Despite a valiant American effort to regain the strategic port in 1779, Savannah remained in British hands until its liberation by General Anthony Wayne's troops in 1782. Savannah was Georgia's first state capital, a role it held from 1782 to 1785.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Confederate troops seized Union-held Fort Pulaski. One year later, the superior firepower of Union artillery was more than Confederate defenders could resist, and the fort was retaken by the U.S. Army and was used as a Union hospital. In December 1864, General William T. Sherman marched on Savannah and, following intense fighting, took the city. A jubilant Sherman wired President Abraham Lincoln, advising the chief executive that Savannah was being given to him as a Christmas present.

Today, Savannah is one of the "crown jewel" cities of America's eastern seaboard. A vigorous and well-organized historic zoning effort has preserved the inner town much as it was in the days before and immediately following the Civil War. The city boasts 1,400 restored or reconstructed buildings dating from the time of its founding. Warehouses still line the banks of the Savannah River upon which oceangoing vessels haul cargo upstream for unloading.

Iowa's capital city is at the fork of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers. The Native Americans called the Des Moines river "Moingonia," meaning "river of the mounds." French explorers who traveled through the area translated the name to "La Riviere des Moines." A great source of irritation for Iowans is the mispronunciation of Des Moines (you don't pronounce either "s"). In 1857, with Iowa's population moving west, centrally located Des Moines succeeded Iowa City as the state's capital. Today the city is home to 200,000, nearly 60 insurance companies (making it the third-largest insurance center in the world), the highly respected Des Moines Register, an unusual 3 1/2 - mi downtown skywalk system, and several fine museums and galleries. Outside Iowa, Des Moines may be best known for the attention it receives during the presidential caucuses every four years.

From a distance, Boise looks like a dreamy desert oasis rising above the seemingly endless sagebrush flats of the Boise Basin. The welcoming patch of green attracted Captain B.L.E. Bonneville and his party of French trappers as they trudged across the barren Snake River Plain in 1833, causing them to exclaim, "Les bois! Les bois!" ("Trees!"). The French name stuck, though it is now pronounced boy-see.

Today the city still looks more like a tuft of dense forest than a bustling metropolitan center. The largest of Idaho's cities, Boise still numbers only a modest 125,000 souls. Although it's the state capital, Boise is an easygoing city where few high-rises manage to tower above the dense canopy. The shimmering blue Boise River rushes through the heart of downtown and gives the city an unspoiled and almost wild feel. Boise nestles at the eastern edge of a broad valley beneath 8,000-ft peaks. Across the valley, roughly 30 mi from downtown, rise still more mountains at the Oregon state line.

A year after Bonneville's group discovered the riverside oasis, the Hudson Bay Company, a British fur-trading enterprise, constructed a fort near the mouth of the Boise River. By the 1840s, pioneers were steering Conestogas along the Oregon Trail across southern Idaho and through what is now downtown Boise. The longest of the pioneer roads, the 2,020-mi Oregon Trail, joined the state of Missouri with Oregon. The trail's deep ruts can still be seen in spots along its route through Idaho.

Gold-rush trails leading to the Boise Basin and Owyhee mines also brought settlement to the Boise area. But it was not until 1863 that Boise actually became a town. With an endless stream of pioneers passing through the Oregon Trail and swarms of miners, the U.S. military decided to build a fort to protect the new settlers in the region. Construction on Fort Boise was begun, and within a year, when the regional legislature held its second session in Lewiston, Montana, Boise was incorporated and named the capital of the Idaho Territory. Although gold fever gripped Boise and the town had grown to 1,658 by 1864, five years later it had shrunk back to just under 1,000. It resumed its growth in the 1870s, and by 1887, three years before Idaho became a state, it had a functioning streetcar system.

Like that of most Western frontier towns, Boise's growth was spurred by a succession of transportation links, including the railroad. A branch of the Oregon Short Line reached Boise in 1887. While the Boise Basin was becoming a booming rail center, irrigation was turning stretches of the once barren valley into lush farmland. By 1910, after construction of a dam and a canal, Ada County had 1,500 irrigated farms. When the Arrowrock Dam on the Middle Fork of the Boise River was completed in 1930, it was the tallest dam in the world. Today, it is included in a major recreation area south of Boise surrounding Lucky Peak and Arrowrock reservoirs.

Beginning in the late 1800s, another wave of immigrants hit Boise, this time Basques from the western Pyrenees. Basques are primarily sheepherders, and in southwestern Idaho they found a terrain and climate similar to those of their homeland. Their immigration peaked in the 1930s, but still today the Snake River Plain has the largest concentration of Basques in the United States, many of them carrying on the sheepherding traditions of their forefathers. Colorful Basque traditions are displayed at a cultural center in Boise and in annual Basque festivals held in several towns in south-central and southwestern Idaho.

Boise's governmental center is anchored by the stunning State Capitol, which was modeled after the U.S. Capitol and built of native sandstone between 1905 and 1912. A soaring 208-ft dome and polished marble columns inside grace the structure. For all the presence of state government and the high-tech giants Micron Electronics, Micron Technology, and Hewlett-Packard, Boise is still a major agricultural center, and as such is the home of the supermarket giant Albertson's and J.R. Simplot Co., one of the world's foremost processors of food, most notably potatoes. With a robust economy based on such diverse industries, Boise has the polish of a modern city but still manages to be a modest and unassuming town with an easygoing manner.

With the Boise River surging through the center of town and thousands of acres of national forest, lakes, and rugged mountain wilderness within an hour's drive, Boise is known for its outdoor sports and recreation opportunities. Just outside the city limits there are dozens of state and federal recreation properties and nature preserves, ranging from Bruneau Dunes State Park to the vast Boise National Forest. Roughly 40 mi southwest, the Snake River and its tributaries offer all manner of water sports.

With all of this going for it, it is no wonder that Boise is one of the Northwest's upstart cities. The media have not failed to recognize its virtues. Money magazine touted the City of Trees as "the fourth-best place to live in America." USA Today ranked Boise among the six "cities of the '90s." Yet there are those who think enough is enough. Reporter Marianne Flagg of the Idaho Statesman appealed to her media colleagues in 1992 to "please stop writing about us," complaining that "it's tough to be the object of so much swooning, so much rosy wooing."

The skyline of Jacksonville seems to change almost every day. With a population of over 1 million and an increasing role as a center for business, culture, technology, and medicine---not to mention its role as a major port city and site of military bases---all roads seem to lead here. Since its name often appears on various lists of the best places to live in the U.S., more and more people are following those roads.

Jacksonville's history dates back to 1562, when the area was first settled by a small group of French Huguenots. Their settlement, named Fort Caroline, was on the banks of the St. Johns River. In 1821, the area was renamed for General Andrew Jackson, the first military governor of Florida and the seventh President of the United States.

The St. Johns River winds through the downtown area, and strolling along the Riverwalk is a favorite local pastime and also a great way for visitors to get a feel for the city. Jacksonville Landing has many good restaurants and entertainment venues, as well as a great selection of shops. Jacksonville Beach, 20 miles to the east, is a nice place to catch a sunrise.

Humorist Will Rogers quipped that Indianapolis was "the only farm I've ever seen with a monument in the center." The capital city and its most recognizable landmark, the 284-ft Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, sit in the very center of the state surrounded by a pancake-flat checkerboard of fields. Only 4 years after attaining statehood, Indiana's General Assembly decided that the first capital, Corydon, was inconvenient. They chose instead a spot roughly at the geographical center of the state, where Fall Creek empties into the wide and lazy west fork of the White River. The move was quickly approved, and the capital city traces its beginnings to the arrival of four horse-drawn wagons piled high with the state archives and a time-worn set of leather-bound law books. While the legislators were quick to approve the placement of the capital, they wrangled for days over a proper name. Despite complaints that the name was too hard to pronounce, they finally agreed on affixing "polis," the Greek word for city, to the state's name. Natives refer to the city casually as "Indy."

Alexander Ralston, a surveyor for Washington, D.C., designer Pierre Charles L'Enfant, was hired to design and plan the city. He envisioned an orderly layout that contained the city within a square mile. Ralston overlaid a grid of roadways and parcels of land with a circle at the center and diagonal streets radiating in four directions. Since then, the Circle City has seen a steady influx of settlers, business, and industry. Ever since the early days, transportation arteries have figured prominently in the city's lifeblood. In the 1820s the National Road (now U.S. 40), and a decade later the Central Canal, carried a steady stream of people and goods. Later, the railroads laid track through the city and with the advent of the interstate highway system, Indianapolis was crisscrossed with super slabs, more than in any other city in the nation. Over the years, Ralston's orderly plan served the city well, and it has been busy filling in the triangles and squares with sleek yet unimposing high-rises and shady neighborhoods of gracious older homes. The metropolitan area now extends well beyond the original square mile, incorporating the six adjacent counties.

Since its beginning, the city's small-town character has brought mixed blessings. For years, the modest city wore the unbecoming labels "India-no-place" and "Naptown." Although Indianapolis has pursued a steady course of growth over the years, becoming the nation's 13th-largest city, until roughly 30 years ago it was truly little more than an oversized small town.

The catalyst for the city's makeover was the decision in 1970 to combine the governments of Indianapolis and Marion County. The move doubled the population to 710,000 and increased the municipality's eligibility for federal money. They then forged a public--private partnership with local business and industry leaders that called for investing $3 billion dollars in downtown Indianapolis by the mid-1990s.

The city was soon able to claim the title "Amateur Sports Capital of the World," having built world-class sports venues such as the track and field stadium and the natatorium on the combined campuses of Indiana and Purdue Universities. The headquarters of national amateur sports federations governing rowing, track and field, and gymnastics were relocated to the city.

The 1970s and the 1980s brought investments in bricks and mortar downtown with construction of a domed stadium for the newly acquired National Football League team the Colts, along with entertainment and recreation facilities. Also in the 1980s, Indianapolis was crowned "Cinderella City" by Newsweek and Travel Holiday, and began the next phase, filling in the downtown grid with museums, performance halls, and stretches of spruced-up green. Today, a zoo, several major museums and other cultural organizations, a symphony hall, and a repertory theater are all downtown, along with ample greenery. The White River State Park corridor along the White River strings together several sports and cultural attractions, including the Canal Walk, a linear park along a 10 1/2 - block remnant of the old Central Canal. By the early 1990s, the pace of development slowed and many people wondered whether the massive craters that dotted downtown would ever be filled in. Then, in fall 1995, Indianapolis unveiled Circle Centre, a mall full of shops and restaurants hidden cleverly behind the facades of staid, old, onetime office buildings and abandoned department stores. Today, the emphasis is on maintaining the city's sturdy grid framework while strategically adding new cultural and recreational facilities.

Louisville is the state's largest city, founded at the Falls of the Ohio in 1778 by Gen. George Rogers Clark. The city was named in honor of Louis XVI of France and that country's aid to the American Colonies during the Revolutionary War. Long a commercial center due to its location on the Ohio River, the city today is a center of health care and medical research (headquartered at the University of Louisville), an international air hub for United Parcel Service, and home of the largest truck-manufacturing plant in the western hemisphere, run by the Ford Motor Company. Historic residential districts include the Victorian Old Louisville, just south of downtown, and the Edwardian Cherokee Triangle to the east. Louisville's Main Street has the largest collection of cast-iron fronted buildings in the United States outside of New York City.

Attractions include historic Churchill Downs race course, home of the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Derby Museum; the Belle of Louisville paddle-wheel steamboat, which takes passengers on river excursions; the Louisville Slugger Museum attached to Hillerich and Bradsby Company, where the famous baseball bats are made; a waterfront walk stretching along 16 mi of the Ohio River; a network of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted; and historic homes, including Farmington (designed by Thomas Jefferson) and Locust Grove (last home of Gen. George Rogers Clark). Money is currently being raised for a museum dedicated to the life of Louisville's celebrity native, boxer Muhammad Ali. Cave Hill Cemetery, just east of downtown, is a national arboretum. A portion of its 300 acres contains the only federally-funded military cemetery in the country with both Union and Confederate graves, a reflection of Kentucky's position as a border state during the war. Reached from the Indiana shore, but in the river (so still in Kentucky), is the largest exposed Devonian fossil bed in the world, at the Falls of the Ohio.

A rich arts scene is led by the Louisville Orchestra, which gained international prominence in the 1950s for commissioning, performing, and recording works by 20th-century composers. Actors Theatre of Louisville, home of the Humana Festival of New American Plays, which has spawned several Broadway and Pulitzer Prize-winning productions is also at home in Louisville. The city also has resident professional opera, ballet, and children's theater companies. The International Bluegrass Festival is now held in the city each year.

Modern Boston today has a population of approximately 500,000 and sprawls around the tiny peninsula upon which it was founded in 1630. Its English Puritan founders were attracted to the land because it was originally surrounded on nearly all sides by water, making it easy to defend. A deepwater harbor at its front door and a river at its back also made the town a natural choice for the Colonial capital, since 17th-century transportation and communication were largely dependent on boats. For its first 150 years, Boston was the leading Colonial port in North America, its wharves crowded with sailing vessels bound to and from every continent on the globe. Although other neighbors along the Eastern Seaboard outgrew Boston by the end of the 18th century, the city continued to amass great wealth with maritime trade throughout the 1800s, and some of the world's finest shipbuilders continued to ply their craft in Boston until well after World War II. Now that the city's economy has shifted from manufacturing to high-tech, high finance, and higher education, the revitalized piers bustle with private yachts and harbor cruise boats, while seaport warehouses find new life as apartments and offices.

Though it's the 13th largest city in the country---and one that traces its history back to the early 1700s---Baltimore is often overshadowed by Washington, DC and Philadelphia. In fact, it has experienced an incredible rebirth over the past 20 years, redeveloped its waterfront and sports facilities, and become an underrated yet intriguing destination with a down-to-earth personality.

America's Oldest Game box - goes near BaltimoreBeacons over the Bay box - goes near BaltimoreBounty of the Bay box - goes near BaltimoreThe Inner Harbor is an ideal starting point to explore Baltimore, often called "Charm City." Nowhere else is the city's success more evident than around the Inner Harbor, where new museums, restaurants, stores, and hotels are under construction almost all the time. The newer structures complement already well-known establishments such as the wonderful National Aquarium, the Maryland Science Center, and the Gallery at Harborplace. From the harbor, water taxis give great skyline views and access to historic landmarks and neighborhoods, including the lively, sometimes boisterous waterfront neighborhood of Fells Point.

Away from the waterfront, Baltimore is an amalgam of distinct neighborhoods that better tell the city's history than the sparkling Inner Harbor. There are neighborhoods of white marble steps, row houses, tree-shaded streets, and impressive history and architecture. Mount Vernon, for example, is often called one of the nation's most beautiful neighborhoods because of its distinctive 19th-century architecture and the impressive 178-ft Washington Monument. The city's elite once lived here; today, Mount Vernon is a cultural mecca with formidable museums, churches, and the Peabody Conservatory of Music.

Baltimore has its roots in Maryland's farming past. With its natural harbor on the Chesapeake Bay, the town evolved to become a convenient port for farmers to ship their produce overseas. Baltimore quickly became a seafaring and trading community. Its proximity to the nation's capital, too, assured Baltimore a colorful role in American history. During the War of 1812, the British, having burned Washington, DC, attacked Baltimore by land and sea. On the water, they were held off by the guns of Fort McHenry. The 25-hour bombardment of the city inspired Francis Scott Key, a Maryland lawyer who was detained aboard a ship after obtaining the release of a friend, to write a poem that eventually became the national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner." The first bloodshed of the Civil War occurred on the streets of Baltimore. When the 700-member 6th Massachusetts Regiment arrived at President Street Station and began marching along Pratt Street to catch a train at another station, a mob of Southern sympathizers began throwing stones. Nine civilians and three soldiers died in the ensuing fight.

The riches of the Chesapeake Bay helped the city to flourish in the late 1800s, with canning industries that preserved and shipped goods to other parts of the country. Shipbuilding and transportation were viable industries at this time, and the city was an active port of entry for European immigrants and rural residents of the upper South.

Like other cities, Baltimore suffered "suburban flight" in the 1960s, but a renaissance began in the 1970s with building efforts downtown and at the Inner Harbor. The rejuvenation continues today with the opening of newer museums, like Port Discovery, the Baltimore children's museum, which opened in December 1998; the restoration of the city's old Power Plant into a sports and entertainment complex; the expansion of the Baltimore Convention Center; and the opening of a stadium for Baltimore's pro football team, the aptly named Ravens. Away from the Inner Harbor, neighborhoods like Fells Point, Federal Hill, Canton, Mount Vernon, Mount Royal, Little Italy, and Roland Park continue to flourish.

Ever since rusticators have been rusticating, this heavily trafficked tourist town has been a hot spot. Works by painters from the Hudson River School are credited with first attracting visitors in the mid-19th century. As the area's popularity grew, hotels and resorts began to pop up, and soon the nation's elite were building summer "cottages" here. Among those was John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who was responsible for the 57-mi of carriage roads constructed in Acadia National Park in the early 1900s. In 1947 a great fire devastated much of the island, but the region quickly bounced back, as evidenced by the numerous shops, inns, restaurants, excursions, amusements---and guests---in today's Bar Harbor. The area offers so many attractions and activities, you could stay here all summer and never run out of things to do. Fall is a lovely, less-peopled season for a visit.

Maine's largest city, on Casco Bay, offers up the best of many worlds. More large small town than city, Portland has been enjoying a revitalization over the past years. Home to a well-respected art museum, a symphony, a first-rate concert hall, numerous theater groups, a beautifully designed 28-store public market, and a ballpark---along with myriad nearby outdoor spaces---Portland distinguishes itself as the most happening town north of Boston.

The first European settlers arrived in the area in 1628, and the first home built on Machigonne (the Native American name for the neck that juts out into Casco Bay) went up in 1632. In 1658, Massachusetts commissioners renamed the greater Portland area Falmouth. Mills went up and families settled, living peaceably with the natives, until 1675, when King Philip, sachem of the Wampanoag tribe, declared war on the colonists. Nearly a century of bloody battles followed. A brief peace followed, bringing back settlers, creating a more compact village. When the second Indian War broke out, there were between 600 and 700 people living in Falmouth. Not long after, Falmouth was completely wiped out. In 1727, peace returned, and the colony got back to the business of colonizing. Fishing and lumbering were the prime occupations, and shortly thereafter shipbuilding followed. Falmouth began to prosper. Then troubles with England brewed up. After the War for Independence, the Neck separated from the rest of Falmouth in 1786 and took on the name Portland. In 1820, Maine was admitted into the Union, and Portland served as its first capital.

As the nation grew, so did demand for lumber and ships, and Portland rode the wave, becoming an important railway terminus. Then, shortly after the Civil War, devastation struck once again. The Great Fire of 1866 (started by a firecracker) leveled most of the city, but residents quickly rebuilt, earning once and for all Portland's motto, resurgam (I shall rise again). Evidence of this building boom can be seen in the proliferation of Victorian buildings that line the city streets.

Portland continued to flourish until after World War II, when it experienced a downswing. But in the early 1970s some enterprising individuals---largely artists and craftsmen---began taking up space and opening shops in the derelict Old Port, thus breathing new life into the city.

Today the Old Port is a booming commercial area, with tony shops, restaurants, and boutiques attracting year-round visitors. Congress Street, Portland's main artery and pre--Old Port heart of in-town Portland, has experienced its own recent resurgence. Not long ago, the street was lined with vacant storefronts. The relocation of Maine College of Art into a vacant department store in the center of town, the formation of an arts district, and the influx of businesses has revitalized this section of town.

The city can basically be broken into two sections: the peninsula and the 'burbs. While there are attractive residential areas on the other side of Interstate 295, which cuts the city in half, most of the action takes place on the peninsula. Peninsulites admit Portland extends beyond the highway---but only grudgingly. The highlights of the peninsula are:

Few realize that Detroit is one of the Midwest's oldest cities. Founded in 1701 as "la Ville d'Etroit"---the city at the straits---it was once a strategic Native American and French trading post. In the mid-19th century the city was likened to Paris because of its scenic parks and beautiful architecture, but soon evolved into the modern Motor City, the city that put the world on wheels.

With the growth of the auto industry, Detroit and its suburbs spread out across an ever-larger geographical area, eventually becoming one of the country's largest cities. While Motown and Motor City are the nicknames that stick in people's minds, Detroit is also among the world's busiest inland ports, a major steel producer, and a leader in the production of office equipment, paint, salt, garden seeds, and pharmaceuticals. The Detroit River is linked by 25 steamship companies to more than 40 countries; vessels ranging from ocean-going freighters to private yachts dock in the city's protected harbor.

A multicultural city known for high hopes and hard work, Detroit has world-class museums, theaters, and galleries, a well-run park system, extensive recreational and sports facilities, and lively ethnic neighborhoods full of friendly people and good restaurants. Those who visit the city for the first time are pleasantly surprised, and tend to echo the Convention and Visitors Bureau's slogan: "It's a Good Time in Detroit."

The name Minneapolis combines the Dakota word for water (minne) with the Greek word for city (polis). Put them together and you get a very accurate description of this Midwestern metropolis. Eighteen lakes lie within the city, and the Mississippi River runs through it.

The Dakota people lived in this area for centuries before the arrival of white explorers. In 1680, a Catholic missionary named Father Louis Hennepin passed a waterfall during an expedition up the Mississippi River and named it St. Anthony Falls. White settlement did not begin in earnest for another 140 years, when Fort Snelling was constructed near the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. Soon soldiers from the fort built a sawmill and flour mill at Father Hennepin's waterfall. The village of St. Anthony grew up on the river's east bank. Minneapolis emerged on the west side. In 1872, the two towns united to form one city.

St. Anthony Falls proved to be the perfect place to process Minnesota grain. Large mills were built along the river, spawning several companies that still exist, including Pillsbury, General Mills, and Cargill. Today, Minneapolis remains an agricultural powerhouse, but its economy is well diversified. Manufacturing, transportation, computer technology, and banking are among the major industries here.

The revitalized downtown area is home to many fine stores, more than 30 theaters, two world-class art museums, and three professional sports teams. Much of downtown is connected by a second-story skyway system that helps keep the city running even on the coldest days. With an average temperature of 18 degrees F in December, 12 degrees F in January, and 18 degrees F again in February, the opportunity to stay indoors can be a definite plus.

You wouldn't guess it, looking at St. Paul today, but Minnesota's capital city began as a squatter's camp. Its first resident was a one-eyed moonshiner named Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, who had twice run afoul of the authorities at nearby Fort Snelling. In the late 1830s, Parrant set up a saloon and shack in a muddy swamp down-river from the fort, and within no time his little settlement had become a popular stopping point for rivermen and settlers. People called the area Pig's Eye Landing until some civic-minded settlers decided to name their town after a little log church that a missionary had built. They called it St. Paul.

In 1847, St. Paul became the capital of the new Minnesota territory. The effect on the village was profound: within three weeks, it doubled in size. Settlers began streaming in, carried to the new capital on steamboats.

At first, fur trading was the big local business. Then it was lumber. Eventually, the railroads arrived and Minnesota's capital became a center of rail commerce. St. Paul prospered and grew. Grand mansions, a majestic Roman Catholic cathedral, river-spanning bridges, and other architectural marvels arose within a short distance of the place where Pig's Eye Parrant had once set up shop. Today you'll find that many of those architectural landmarks have survived in remarkably good condition. They and other attractions such as the Native American burial grounds overlooking the Mississippi River make St. Paul a fascinating place to visit.

New Orleans fur trader Pierre Laclede selected an ideal location for the new settlement of St. Louis in 1764 in what had just become Spanish Colonial territory. Positioned as it was where the Missouri River met the Mississippi, the young St. Louis quickly surpassed the growth of its downstream neighbor, Ste. Genevieve.

St. Louis is known as the Gateway to the West and certainly that was true for Lewis and Clark. It was here that they provisioned their famous expedition. And in the years that followed St. Louis became a manufacturing center for wagons, guns, blankets, saddles, and everything the pioneer would need on a journey west. By 1860, the population was more than 160,000. Because of its size and location, St. Louis became a center for government offices and financial trade. The 1904 World's Fair brought increasing growth and global diversification to the St. Louis marketplace.

The Roman Catholic Church dominated the religious life of early St. Louis, and remains a powerful voice in the city's and state's religious, social, and political debates. The city is now also home to such corporations as Anheuser-Busch and McDonnell Douglas. The city's educational institutions, including Washington University and St. Louis University, are global leaders in scientific and social research. Forest Park's Muni Opera is the largest open-air theater in the nation, and the St. Louis Art Museum is world renowned.

St. Louis has many faces, but the city is indisputably a baseball town. Since the St. Louis Browns placed first in the major leagues in 1885, and the Cardinals won their first World Series title in 1926, fanatic love of their team has not diminished in the people of this city. Other sports come and go in this town, but St. Louisans remain loyal to their baseball.

Mississippians once joked that the state's three largest cities were Memphis, Mobile, and New Orleans, but since the 1940s Jackson has grown from a small government town to a metropolis with a population of 400,000. The Jackson metro area represents the state's greatest concentration of wealth, and construction is booming in surrounding suburbs.

There are a surprisingly large number of cultural attractions for a city this size, ranging from Civil War reenactments to the International Ballet Competition (Jackson is the only U.S. city to host this event). In addition to the expected Confederate shrines, there are African-American and Jewish historic sites and a wide array of high-quality museums and stores, restaurants and bars. The city also has one of the state's most beautiful parks, LeFleur's Bluff. Although Jackson is a friendly town, you should be aware that Jackson ranks high nationally in crime statistics.

Originally named LeFleur's Bluff after a French trading post on the Pearl River, Jackson was incorporated as the capital in 1821; it was burned several times during the Civil War (local residents called it "Chimneyville" because of the many chimneys left standing), and most of the surviving antebellum homes were torn down in the 1960s. Noteworthy architectural survivors include the Governor's Mansion, City Hall, the Old Capitol and two pre--Civil War tour homes. There are also several fine examples of 20th-century architecture and some exceptionally pretty residential areas. Among the historic sites are several from the Civil Rights era, when Jackson was at the vanguard of divisive social change.

Jackson has its requisite commercial strips, the most popular being County Line Road on the northern rim. Downtown is pretty much given over to banking, law offices, and government, and they roll the sidewalks up at night. Entertainment venues are scattered throughout the city, from basement blues clubs to country-and-western bars and everything in between. The Ross Barnett Reservoir, northeast of Jackson, is the city's playground, with fishing, sailing, and water-skiing the most popular activities. There are also a higher-than-average number of golf courses in the surrounding area. The city's economy is driven by government, health care, retail sales, technology development, distribution services, and a scattering of manufacturing industries.

Jackson has long had a reputation as a racially polarized town; the image is somewhat dated now, since the city's restaurants, schools, businesses, and many of its neighborhoods are thoroughly integrated.

Ethnically and racially diverse Durham long ago shed its tobacco-town image and is now known as the "City of Medicine" for the medical and research center at Duke University, one of the top schools in the nation. With tens of thousands of employees, Duke is not only the largest employer in Durham but also one of the largest in the state. Additionally, the majority of the 6,800-acre Research Triangle Park, one of the largest research parks in the United States, lies in Durham County.

Mills and tobacco warehouses around the city have been converted to chic shops, offices, and condos. This city of 212,000 is home to three art centers and hosts 18 cultural festivals a year, and the Durham Bulls, a AAA baseball team immortalized in the hit movie Bull Durham, set national attendance records at their 9,000-seat stadium downtown.

Omaha was originally the homeland of the Omaha and Otoe Native Americans. The first fur traders established posts on the western bank of the Missouri River in the early 1800s, but a government decree in 1834 made the land "Indian territory," where whites could not settle, but only "pass through." In 1846, Mormons fleeing from Illinois received permission from Big Elk, the chief of the Omahas, to cross the river. They stopped at a couple of temporary camps, then built a city for 4,000 at what they called "Winter Quarters." About 700 people died that winter---from disease, malnutrition, and exposure---and their graves remain in a hillside cemetery in outlying Florence, although Brigham Young and his followers moved on toward Utah.

Omaha grew fairly quickly after the Nebraska Territory was created in 1854. It expanded further in 1863, when it became the terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad linking the east and the west. The city quickly became a blue-collar railroad town. Later, agriculture flourished, as ranchers shipped cattle, sheep, and hogs to the Omaha Livestock Market. Meat packers and producers, including industry giants Swift, Armour, and Cudahy, soon set up businesses here. Today, the meat-packing industry is dominated by ConAgra, which has its headquarters not far from the historic stockyards.

Other industries now help diversify Omaha's economic base. The city is an insurance center---with more than 30 companies, including Mutual of Omaha in its distinctive gilded, domed building. Throughout much of its history, the military has also had a presence. From 1868, when the Omaha Barracks was placed there to protect railroad workers, what became Fort Omaha was closed down and re-opened several times to serve as a support center, a school for balloonists in World War I, and an Italian prisoner-of-war work camp during World War II.

Omaha is made up of residents of many ethnic backgrounds, and it is an extremely friendly Midwestern city. The Lied Jungle at the Henry Doorly Zoo is the world's largest indoor rain forest, Union Pacific's historic Union Station has been given a new life as the Durham Western Heritage Museum, and the site of the old fort now contains the Douglas County Historical Society's archives.

Many people know of Omaha through Boys Town. An incorporated community in its own right, Boys Town was founded when Father Edward J. Flanagan raised $90 just before Christmas in 1917 and used it to rent a house in Omaha for boys who had nowhere else to go. Father Flanagan's work, emphasizing moral, religious, and vocational education, revolutionized juvenile care. Boys Town expanded several times, eventually settling at its present location just west of Omaha---where you yet can see the statue of a boy carrying his younger brother that was made so famous by the old Spencer Tracy movie.

Atlantic City has long held the moniker of "America's Favorite Playground," and---like Las Vegas---is in the midst of reinventing itself yet again. In the late 1800s Atlantic City was a fashionable seaside resort, where the innovation of the boardwalk was born: in 1870, it was a series of boards laid across the beach to the hotels and to the train, to keep visitors from tracking in the sand. The boards were taken up each winter, until finally a permanent structure was built in 1880, and a more permanent one put in place after a storm in 1889.

Also born in Atlantic City was saltwater taffy, "amusement piers" with their oft-bizarre attractions including the Diving Horse, Dr. Couney's Premature Infant Exhibit, and marathon dance contests. In 1940, the Convention Center became home to the Miss America Pageant, a legacy that the city dearly holds onto today (the Sheraton Convention Center has a bar featuring the footwear of various Miss America contestants).

After experiencing a lull in the middle of the 20th century, Atlantic City began to make a comeback with gambling in the 1980s, but there was little more than casinos in the town, and most visitors were day-trippers. Today the city is going for a much broader client base. You'll see high profile spots like Planet Hollywood, the Hard Rock Cafe, and a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum on the boardwalk, as well as rides, shopping, and a convention center and hotel complex nearby. There are currently 13 major casinos, and Steve Wynn, who left town many years ago to establish his empire in Vegas, is planning a new Mirage resort for the city in the near future. Service has also increased at the Atlantic City Airport just outside town.

Stop by the $4 million Visitor Welcome Center, about a mile east of the toll plaza on the Atlantic City Expressway. You'll find information about not only the attractions along the boardwalk but also on Historic Gardner's Basin, the Historic Village of Smithville, Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, and other things to do within a short drive of the one-armed bandits.

Cape May, the nation's oldest seashore resort, was a bustling town in the 19th century, but then it slowly faded from favor. In the 1970s, many of the dilapidated, yet beautiful old Victorians ("painted ladies" as they were called) were bought for next to nothing, renovated, and opened as bed-and-breakfasts. Now an official National Historic Landmark City, Cape May boasts more than 600 of these restored structures. Well-orchestrated tours and other events are scheduled throughout the year by the Chamber of Commerce and the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts. And Cape May is definitely not just for summer, so you may also have a hard time getting a room during Victorian Week or the Christmas season if you don't plan well ahead.

Smaller, slower, prettier, and more historic than its southern Nevada counterpart, Reno is one of the great lesser-known vacation destinations in the West. Its famous arch proclaims it "The Biggest Little City in the World" in its own right, but Reno is also the gateway to the northern Sierra Nevada, with its crown jewel Lake Tahoe, as well as to the vast and hauntingly beautiful Great Basin Desert.

Reno, like Lovelock, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, and Elko, began life as a depot on the transcontinental Central Pacific Railroad in the late 1860s. It was the closest main-line station to Virginia City and the Comstock Lode. When the Virginia and Truckee short line was extended to Reno, connecting it to the mines at Virginia City and the mills at Carson City, it gave the small town a prominence that it's never lost.

Reno gained a measure of notoriety in the early 1900s when a New York lawyer discovered Nevada's liberal divorce laws and publicized Reno as a divorce haven. Gambling arrived in 1931, furthering Reno's reputation as a sin city, long before Las Vegas was much more than a dot on the map. By the early 1950s, however, Las Vegas was expanding at a phenomenal pace, much faster than Reno wanted to grow. So the city fathers installed a "red line" to contain gambling in a tight core downtown, which controlled the proliferation of casinos through the 1970s. A building boom ensued that gave Reno nearly a dozen new casinos within a couple of years. Meanwhile, Reno was busy diversifying; the university, light industry, warehousing, and outdoor recreation ensure that gambling doesn't monopolize the economy.

Still, a dozen major resorts deliver all the cheap rooms, meal deals, and bargain entertainment that can be subsidized by immensely profitable casinos. The 120-year-old campus of the University of Nevada--Reno sits on a scenic bluff just north of downtown and offers a planetarium, historical and mining museums, a stadium, an arena, and the largest library in the state.

The compact metropolitan area has an auto museum, an art museum, even a slot-machine museum, a number of large parks, an arboretum, zoos, a water park, and an amusement park with rides. Bowling and golf are big here, and a dozen world-class ski resorts are all within an hour's drive. Lake sports are split between Tahoe and Pyramid, both a mere 45 minutes away. Historic Virginia City and Carson City are also only a short drive away. And a nonstop series of events keeps the excitement up nearly year-round.

Over the past 200 years, Cincinnati has captured the fancy of many renown individuals. Winston Churchill dubbed it "The most beautiful inland city in the union." Charles Dickens called it "thriving and animated," and Longfellow labeled it the "Queen City."

The first settlers came to Cincinnati in 1798. Pioneer life was uneventful until the advent of the steam-powered riverboat. At the height of the steamboat craze, Cincinnati's location on the Ohio River lured ship-building companies. The city's economy grew even more when the Miami-Erie Canal was finally connected to the Ohio River in 1829. By 1835, the city added another source of economic development to its cache as it became the nation's largest pork producer, a title that would later pass to Chicago and St. Louis.

During the 1840s, thousands of Irish and German immigrants flocked to Cincinnati, and people of those ethnic backgrounds make up a sizable portion of the population to this day. Cincinnati hit a growth spurt in the late 1870s when businesses like the 5/3 Bank, The Cincinnati Reds, and The Kroger Co. came to town. For the next 40 years, Cincinnati continued to grow. But in 1937, disaster struck. The Ohio River rose to 80 ft---some 25 ft above flood stage---and left most of the downtown area under water. When the flood waters subsided, Cincinnatians gritted their teeth and rebuilt. During that time, some of the city's most notable buildings were constructed, including Dixie Terminal, the Carew Tower, and Union Terminal.

From 1930 to 1950, the city put away its construction tools only to pick them up again in 1965, when two large riverfront arenas were built, as well as the city's trademark Fountain Square. During the 1970s, the city rallied around its hometown baseball team, the Reds. Better known as the "Big Red Machine," the team dominated the major leagues with stars like Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez. The 1980s produced major ups and downs for the city. In 1985, Cincinnati set off the nation's worst savings and loan disaster after a local bank, Home State Savings, was caught making bad investments. The tide turned in 1988 when the city celebrated its 200th birthday by dedicating a 22-acre park along the riverfront. Today, the park, known as Bicentennial Commons, is a favorite hangout of locals and visitors alike. In 1999, the city kicked off another capital campaign. Construction on a new football stadium, Paul Brown Stadium, began on the riverfront, and a major highway and downtown renovation project got underway in an attempt to better link the city to its riverfront.

Cincinnati's rapidly growing downtown area---with its museums, entertainment and restaurant districts, and sporting venues---offer plenty of diversions. In downtown Cincinnati, you can take in everything from professional football, baseball, and hockey games to the Cincinnati Symphony and ballet performances. There are also a variety of museums---the largest of which is Union Terminal, a former railroad station that's now the home of the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Science and the Cincinnati Children's Museum.

Moses Cleaveland and his Connecticut Land Company founded the city of Cleveland in 1796. (The "a" was dropped from Cleaveland's name so it could fit across a newspaper banner heading.) Located right on Lake Erie, Cleveland grew into a metropolis during the 19th century; its first major role was as a shipbuilding city. During the War of 1812 two of Commodore Oliver Perry's ships, the Porcupine and the Portage, were built here on the Cuyahoga River. Following the opening of the Ohio-Erie Canal in 1832 and the Miami-Erie Canal in 1845, Cleveland became an important shipping and trade center; the canals granted Cleveland access to almost all Eastern cities by water, which was the easiest way to travel at the time. The canals were soon replaced by railroads, and Cleveland, centrally located between New York and Chicago, became an even bigger trade center. The city later became an industrial hub, thanks to the abundance of iron ore, coal, and limestone found in the area.

A number of well-known business tycoons and inventors emerged from Cleveland in the 1800s. John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil Company here in 1870. Jeptha Wade put together 13 telegraph companies to form Western Union. And, in 1879, Charles Brush invented the arc light, which was used for street lamps. But by 1900 downtown Cleveland began to decay. Tom Johnson, the mayor at that time, brought in the famous architect Daniel Burnham to revamp the city's downtown area. Burnham recommended the construction of several new buildings, among them the Terminal Tower (now a 42-story building, the tallest in Cleveland). A building boom started in 1910, but was cut short in 1930 by the Great Depression.

The end of World War II brought servicemen back to the country, most of whom bought houses in the suburbs of major cities. This trend hit Cleveland particularly hard, drawing both businesses and residents away from the downtown area. By the 1960s downtown Cleveland was once again in need of revitalization, and the Erieview Plan was born. Like architect Daniel Burnham's plan of the early 1900s, it called for the construction of several new buildings. By 1964 a new 40-story office building, a 32-story federal building, and two large apartment buildings had been constructed. Despite these additions, however, much of the downtown area was still left unused. Cleveland slowly began to rebuild until the term of Mayor Dennis Kucinich, when the city went bankrupt over an unrealized sale of the city-owned electric company to a private utility company. As a result, the city was unable to make good on millions of dollars in bank loans and became the first major American city to default on its obligations since the Depression. It emerged from default in 1987.

Today the city is still in the process of rebuilding itself. Recent projects include renovations to the Terminal Tower and construction of Jacobs Field (for the Cleveland Indians) and Gund Arena (for the Cleveland Cavaliers). In 1995, Cleveland was chosen as the home for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Cleveland Browns Stadium opened for the 1999--2000 football season.

Anchoring the southern tip of South Carolina's coastline is Hilton Head Island. Planters settled here in the 1700s and the island flourished until the Civil War. Thereafter, the economy declined and the island languished until Charles E. Fraser, a visionary South Carolina attorney, began developing the Sea Pines resort in 1956. Other developments followed, and today Hilton Head is one of the East Coast's most popular vacation getaways.

Lined by towering pines, palmetto trees, and wind-sculpted live oaks, Hilton Head's 12 mi of beaches are the major attraction, though oak and pine woodlands and meandering lagoons also cover the semitropical barrier island. Choice stretches are occupied by various resorts, or "plantations," among them Sea Pines, Shipyard, Palmetto Dunes, Port Royal, and Hilton Head. In these areas, you can find a mix of rental villas, lavish private houses, and luxury hotels. Though the resorts are private residential communities, many have public restaurants, marinas, shopping areas, and recreational facilities. A new, 5 4/5 - mi toll bridge ($1) makes it easy to bypass traffic and reach the southern end of the island, where most of the resort areas and hotels are.

Memphis is Tennessee's largest city, and its economic influence reaches across West Tennessee, down into Mississippi, and across the river into Arkansas. The city was founded in 1819 as a Mississippi River port. However, the site was occupied as early as 3,000 years ago; when the explorer DeSoto passed through here around 1540, he described powerful and populous Native American towns on the bluffs. Memphis became a boomtown in the 19th century, shipping huge quantities of cotton from the Delta plantations. But the city is best known for its music, past and present, which draws hundreds of thousands to Elvis's Graceland and to Beale Street, the birthplace of the blues.

Memphis is also remembered as the place where civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in 1968. This was a low point for Memphis, but in the 1970s the city began a comeback. Federal Express was founded here in 1972 (the city remains Fed Ex's headquarters) and gradually the downtown was renovated. The famous Peabody Hotel reopened in 1981, and tourists streaming in to Graceland reminded Memphis of its musical heritage. The site of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death, the Lorraine Motel, was transformed into a civil rights museum, the first of its kind and one of the city's most important attractions.

In 1786, South Carolina's capital moved from Charleston to Columbia, in the center of the state along the banks of the Congaree River. One of the nation's first planned cities, Columbia has streets that are among the widest in America because it was then thought that stagnant air in narrow streets fostered the spread of malaria. The city soon grew into a center of political, commercial, cultural, and social activity, but in early 1865 General William Tecumseh Sherman invaded South Carolina and incinerated two-thirds of Columbia. A few homes and public buildings were spared, including the First Baptist Church, where secession was declared, which was saved when a janitor directed Sherman's troops to a Methodist church when asked directions. Today the city is a sprawling blend of modern office blocks, suburban neighborhoods, and the occasional antebellum home. Columbia is also home to the expansive main campus of the University of South Carolina.

Routinely named one of the top visitor destinations in America, Charleston is both sophisticated and charmingly historic. This peninsular city between the Ashley and Coopers rivers was founded in 1670 and became a leading colonial port by the early 1700s. Its prosperity continued until the Civil War and is still apparent in the city's splendid, double-galleried antebellum homes. Reconstruction was a difficult time for the city, but because of the poor economy, residents made do with what they had and, consequently, the city's historic buildings were left untouched.

Today, Charlestonians have lovingly restored old downtown homes and commercial buildings, as well as many historic churches---more than 180 churches in all, so many that natives sometimes refer to Charleston as "the holy city." Each spring the city celebrates its rich heritage with candlelight tours of historic homes, symphony galas, and the famous Spoleto Festival USA.

Each year, more people visit Myrtle Beach, on South Carolina's north end coast, than Hawaii. Between North Myrtle Beach and Georgetown on a 60-mi stretch of coast on U.S. 17 known as the Grand Strand, the area draws an estimated 12 million tourists, more than any other East Coast destination except Orlando and Walt Disney World. On summer days, the year-round population of less than 40,000 often swells to 400,000 plus. More bus tours come here than to any other destination except Branson, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. Entertainment and shopping centers are so big they have their own visitor centers. There are nearly 20 theaters, more than 80 golf courses, as well as amusement rides and lots of showy putt-putt centers---Myrtle Beach is the miniature golf capital of America. By far the largest tourist attraction in South Carolina, this is one of the most highly developed beach resorts along the Eastern seaboard. There are miles of beaches, water sports, golf, tennis, and shopping; there are also hundreds of hotels, motels, time-shares, and condos along the beachfront. This is a high-energy destination with plenty to keep your entire family occupied. But the abundance of activity comes with a price: traffic along the main north--south arteries approaches gridlock at times during the summer, and the beaches are packed in good weather.

The 1998 inauguration of an outdoor ice rink in formerly unremarkable Kennedy Plaza amounted to a debutante ball for Providence, replete with marching bands, fireworks, and speeches. Long considered an awkward stepchild of greater Boston even by its own residents, Providence is beginning to shuck its inferiority complex. In the past five years, rivers have been rerouted, and unsightly railroad tracks have been put underground; dilapidated neighborhoods are being rejuvenated; a convention center and a riverfront park have opened; an upscale shopping mall was constructed, and many travelers now prefer revamped T.F. Green Airport in nearby Warwick to Boston's Logan Airport.

Behind renascent Providence is its personable mayor, elected to his sixth term in 1998, Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, who markets his own pasta sauce and has become a sought-after authority on rejuvenating American cities. Cianci recently forged a cultural exchange program with Florence, Italy (the real Renaissance city), which promises to bring Italian art and artisans to Providence. Time spent courting Hollywood deal makers has resulted in a string of movies being filmed in the city, including There's Something About Mary and Outside Providence, and the NBC drama Providence.

The city is now recognized nationally as a gastronomic hotbed. For a city of less than 200,000 residents, its restaurant offerings at times seem dizzying; increasingly the city attracts diners from Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Roger Williams founded Providence in 1636 as a refuge for freethinkers and religious dissenters escaping the Puritanical dictates of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and it remains a community willing to embrace independent thinking. Providence is striving to have its once-abandoned downtown (euphemistically called Downcity) populated by artists and art studios. A state referendum has exempted such artists from income taxes. Such statewide support is not surprising; improvements in Providence are typically a boon to the rest of the state. Because it's so integral to the rest of Rhode Island, Providence is sometimes called the city-state of Rhode Island.

During the Revolutionary War, Lancaster was the largest inland city in the Colonies and for one day was the nation's capital after the American Congress fled Philadelphia and convened here. Today, its rich heritage is captured in many historic districts and in the Central Market at Penn Square.

If you're looking for a chance to dress like a cowboy, do a little line dancing, or ride the mechanical bull, then Fort Worth, the "place where the West begins," is your city.

Fort Worth was founded in 1849 and was the last major stop along the Chisholm Trail. Soldiers, settlers, cattle herders, and even outlaws (such as the Sundance Kid) spent quality time here. When the railroad arrived in the late 1800s, Fort Worth became a major livestock shipping center.

Nowhere is the city's heritage more evident than at the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District. This area is still home to cowboys on horseback, as well as historic hotels and the city's top nightlife (it's where you'll find Billy Bob's Texas, the world's largest honky-tonk). South of the Stockyards lies another historic site, Sundance Square. Also a cowboy hangout, this 20-block, redbrick-paved area has been transformed into an upscale dining, shopping, and entertainment district.

Fort Worth may be proud of its western heritage, but this city of a half-million residents also has a cultural bent. Here you'll find the small Kimbell Art Museum, which showcases varied art from around the world, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, and the Amon Carter Museum, with its world-class collection of Western art.

Home of the Grand Ole Opry, Tennessee's fast-growing capital city (with a population of 542,600) prides itself on its cultural, historic, and educational heritage, which has earned it a reputation as the "Athens of the South." The sprawling city occupies 538 square miles, bisected from east to west by the Cumberland River. In addition to entertainment, other leading local industries include computer manufacturing, health care management, hospitality, and automobile technology. Much of Nashville's role as a cultural leader is derived from the presence of 16 colleges and universities, two medical schools, two law schools, and six graduate business schools. Several schools, including Vanderbilt University, have national or international reputations, and many have private art galleries.

Bolstering Nashville's reputation as a cultural hub are dozens of clubs, performance venues, and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, opened in 1985. The District, the 16-square-block area of downtown between Church St. and Broadway, has emerged as a destination for tourists and locals alike, with restaurants, specialty shopping, and numerous entertainment options. Many restored historic buildings are found downtown, arguably the most famous of which is the Ryman Auditorium, home to the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. Adjacent to downtown, Music Row is home to the Country Music Hall of Fame, as well as to major recording studios and music publishing and licensing companies. Farther afield, Greater Nashville offers a variety of cultural attractions including historic plantations and homes (such as that of President Andrew Jackson), museums, and parks.

From J.R. to the Dallas Cowboys, for many visitors this is the land of icons that are endlessly associated with Texas.

This city of almost 1,100,000 is rich with culture, offering a cornucopia of more than 160 museums, galleries, and artistic attractions. Many of these attractions are found in the Dallas Arts District, 60 acres on the north edge of downtown and the largest urban arts district in the country.

Shopping galore can be enjoyed in the north part of town, and the West End, a former warehouse district has lots of restaurants. (With more than 5,000 eateries, Dallas boasts more restaurants per capita than New York City.) Near West End, you'll find Deep Ellum, the lively center of the city's alternative arts and music scene.

Dallas is also the site of a painful episode in American history---the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. That fateful event is remembered at the Sixth Floor Museum, housed in the former Texas School Book Depository where it is alleged that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was located at the time of the shooting.

Wake up in the Alamo City with the scent of huevos rancheros in the air, the sound of mariachis, and the sight of barges winding down the San Antonio River, and you know you're someplace special.

In fact, San Antonio is the number one tourist destination in the state. The heart of the visitor area is the Paseo del Rio or the River Walk, a magical place located 20 feet below street level. Nestled behind tall buildings, away from street noise, the River Walk is the top attraction in town, with luxury hotels and plenty of specialty shops and European-style al fresco cafes.

The River Walk is just steps from Texas's most recognized landmark: the Alamo, a symbol of Texas liberty. If you'd like to learn more about the city's history, tour the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park, which winds south from downtown to several scenic missions.

San Antonio also offers the excitement of a south-of-the-border getaway: Mexican crafts, jewelry, and plenty of Tex-Mex food can be found throughout the city.

When Brigham Young led the first party of Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley, he had a mission statement of sorts: "If there's a place on this earth that nobody else wants, that's the place I am hunting for." So on July 24, 1847, when Young gazed across the vast and somewhat desolate valley of the Great Salt Lake and reportedly announced "This is the place," it would have been understandable if his followers had some mixed feelings. If they did, they must have kept them to themselves, for they continued down the mountain and began to build a home.

Salt Lake City is the heart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon faith is officially called. It is also an important western center for business, medicine, education, and culture.

Salt Lake City proper is really only a small piece of the Salt Lake Valley, which runs 25 mi north and south and 20 mi east to west. There are 250,000 people living in Salt Lake City. Another 600,000 live in widening rings of suburbia outside the city limits (see Neighborhoods, below). The Wasatch Mountains, on the east, border the entire length of the valley---and beyond---providing one of the most scenic backdrops in the country.

Modern Salt Lake City is a study in change. Salt Lakers have learned to deal with both victory and defeat while enthusiastically supporting their NBA team, the Utah Jazz. Increased commitment to the arts from the public and private sectors has created a cultural scene as prodigious as you'd expect in a city twice Salt Lake's size. Recent media attention touting Salt Lake City as an excellent environment for business has helped create an influx of new industries. Interstate 15 is under major reconstruction. A $312 million light rail system has been constructed.

The announcement that Salt Lake City is to be the site of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games focused well-deserved attention on little-known winter sports sites, but weathering Olympic-related scandals has contributed to the city's coming of age. Despite ups and downs, citizens continue to live up to their reputation as a down-to-earth, friendly, and resilient bunch. In fact, these days most Salt Lake residents would tell you "change is good."

During the Civil War, Alexandria remained under Union control, becoming a supply and hospital center. From 1863 to 1865, it was the capital of the Restored Government of Virginia, which consisted of seven Virginia counties that flew the Federal flag throughout the war. The historic district, Old Town Alexandria, is paved with cobblestones; according to tradition, the rounded stones served as ballast aboard the early sailing ships. Restored 18th- and 19th-century churches, taverns, and red brick homes line the streets; with more than 2,000 historic structures, the area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Among the scores of Georgian colonial and early Federal buildings are a few long, narrow structures that resemble halves of gabled houses. This unusual architectural style was born of the owners' attempts to evade taxation by reporting construction unfinished.

While Old Town retains the appearance of another century, modern-day attractions give Alexandria a vibrant, cosmopolitan air. It maintains an identity quite distinct from that of its neighbor across the Potomac. The city is dense with boutiques, antiques shops, galleries, and ethnic restaurants. At the revitalized waterfront, clipper ships dock and artisans at the Torpedo Arts Factory craft and display their wares. For architecture and history buffs, the city offers a host of house museums, and Mount Vernon George Washington's Georgian estate is only 8 mi away on the banks of the Potomac.

Richmond is a city built on seven hills, straddling the Tidewater and Piedmont regions of Virginia. It was named by William Byrd II, who laid out the city at the falls of the James River in 1737; he probably named it after the English borough Richmond upon Thames. In 1780, it became the capital of Virginia, largely through the efforts of Thomas Jefferson. From secession through the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Richmond was capital of the Confederacy. Reminders of this historical legacy can be glimpsed around almost every city corner.

At the start of the Civil War, Richmond was the most industrialized city in the South, and it remains home base to national industries such as Reynolds Metals and tobacco manufacturers. The nerve center of Virginia's business community, it has added high technology to traditional economic bases that include shipping and banking.

Richmond has three universities and numerous professional schools, professional and amateur sports, many public parks, and a lively arts scene. Historians and amateur genealogists will find a wealth of archival information at the Virginia State Library and Archives, the Virginia Historical Society Museum of Virginia History, the Beth Ahabah Museum and Archives, and other museums in this history-minded city.

More recent significant figures from Richmond include the first elected African-American governor, L. Douglas Wilder; the first African-American tennis player to win Wimbledon, Arthur Ashe Jr.; and the first African-American woman bank president, Maggie Walker.

Virginia Beach was first settled in 1621, but thinly populated for more than a century. In the 1880s, the resort was developed along the beach, and by the turn of the century it had become very popular. In 1906, Virginia Beach became a town. The end of World War II saw the advent of suburbs and development. In 1963, it merged with Princess Anne County to form the modern city, which stretches along the Atlantic Ocean near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The heart of this busy beach resort is a length of shoreline that reaches from Cape Henry south to Rudee Inlet. It consists of 6 mi of crowded public beach and a 2 1/2 - mi paved boardwalk; a bike trail runs roughly parallel to the walk. Hotels, restaurants, and shops are concentrated here, as are outfitters that rent sailing, surfing, and scuba equipment. Entertainers perform nightly, Memorial Day through Labor Day, at the 24th Street Stage. First Landing/Seashore State Park, a protected natural area, offers a less-commercial beach experience.

On the peninsula between the York and James rivers in eastern Virginia, Williamsburg was established as Middle Plantation in 1633. After the capitol building in Jamestown burned in 1698, the capital of the colony was moved here, and Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg in honor of King William III. It served as Virginia's cultural and political center until 1780, when the capital was moved to Richmond to escape the invading British. Its political role diminished, Williamsburg faded in significance and fell into general decay in the 19th century.

Revival came at the hands of the local rector, W.A.R. Goodman, who convinced John D. Rockefeller Jr. to bequeath part of the family fortune to fund a restoration project. Work began in 1926, and by the 1930s restored buildings were being opened to the public. In 40 years, Rockefeller spent more than $80 million on the project. Roughly 600 post-Colonial structures were demolished, more than 80 period buildings were restored, and 40 replicas were reconstructed over excavated foundations. The historic district is approximately a mile long and 1/2 mi wide and surrounded by a "greenbelt" to preserve the illusion of a Colonial city. Beyond that is a modern city with numerous restaurants, lodgings, outlet shops and amusement parks. Bordering the historic district is the leafy campus of the College of William and Mary, the second-oldest university in the country.