A girl and her father take a walk in the woods. This essay was written by Emily Lowe and edited by Tusshara Nalakumar Srilatha, and originally appeared in Off Assignment.

Plus: Off Assignment is offering a writing course, called The Practice of Imagination. It begins November 4, and you can use code ATLAS20 for 20% off: https://www.offassignment.com/practice-of-imagination

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A small town in Texas has embraced the story of the visit and demise of an otherworldly being from the 1800s… and what many say is America’s only alien gravesite.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/1800-s-alien-gravesite

If you can’t make it out to Texas, check out this documentary about the incident which is online.

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Probably when you think of submarine warfare, WWI or WWII comes to mind. Not… the American Civil War. But oh, they had them back then! Or rather, they had one back then, and it worked exactly one time. Dylan is joined by longtime friend of the show Caitlin Doughty, of Ask a Mortician, to talk about one of their shared obsessions: the candle-lit, hand-cranked, Civil War submarine which has one of the most gruesome undersea histories you can imagine.

Find more of Caitlin’s work: https://caitlindoughty.com/

Watch her doc about the HL Hunley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiDThvhadss

Visit the Hunley for yourself: https://www.hunley.org/

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“Founding Fathers” like Washington or Jefferson have gigantic monuments in Washington, statues galore and palatial house-museums. But what about…Thomas Paine? The author of “Common Sense,” the pamphlet that brought the idea of American independence to the masses, was considered a hero after the American Revolution. But then he experienced a remarkable fall from grace, which ended in his burial in a pauper’s grave and…well, some graverobbers disinterring his body and spreading his bones all over the world.

Feelin’ the Paine? Check out the biography “Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations” by Craig Nelson, this Library of Congress article on Paine’s bones, and a discussion of Paine’s philosophy on this episode of the BBC’s In Our Time. Or see his New Rochelle farmhouse (and…former grave) for yourself: https://www.thomaspainecottage.org/

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The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico has a pretty unusual spiral staircase – it winds round and round like a DNA helix, and has no visible center “bar” for support. But the story of the staircase’s origins is even stranger. It was built by an itinerant carpenter who wandered in from the desert – and 200 years later, we’re still not sure who it was.

This episode was brought to you in partnership with Visit Santa Fe. Find out more about visiting the Loretto Chapel here:

https://www.lorettochapel.com/staircase?srsltid=AfmBOorVB6TCf7cxF3k4Ctc3PSgBTy40A9Zl3lzWWvz5jc3vH-AgYuu9

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Listeners share stories about their most treasured collections.

Plus: We want to hear your stories about traveling with kids! Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Or record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com

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We go underground in London, where there is a railway built for one purpose and one purpose only: to keep the city’s mail moving on time. All this week, we’re heading underground to discover the stories beneath our feet.

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We visit northern Italy, where a mysterious religious community founded by an insurance agent–turned–spiritual leader spent 15 years constructing an underground temple.

All this week, we’re heading underground to discover the stories beneath our feet.

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