The Passenger Pigeon once traveled across North America in numbers so immense that its flocks could transform the appearance and sound of the landscape. Observers described skies darkened by birds, the thunderous noise of countless wings, and migrations that continued overhead for hours or days. The birds gathered in colonies containing millions of individuals and…
Tag: southern
SBP Podcast Episode 19: Pom Pom Mom
In January of 1991, a bizarre story out of Channelview, Texas, became a national obsession. Wanda Holloway, a mother from a blue-collar town east of Houston, was accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill the mother of her daughter’s junior high cheerleading rival. But behind the “Pom-Pom Mom” headline was a deeper story…
SBP Podcast Episode 18: Anne Bonny: Pirate Queen, Pirate Legend
Anne Bonny is one of the most famous pirates in history — and perhaps one of the most mysterious. She sailed during the final violent years of the Golden Age of Piracy alongside the infamous Calico Jack Rackham and fellow female pirate Mary Read, becoming one of the most feared women in the Atlantic world….
Southern Reads: Blood and Treasure
Blood and Treasure is the kind of history book that reminds you why some figures never really leave the American imagination. Daniel Boone is one of those names that most people know before they ever really know anything about him. He exists somewhere between schoolbook history, frontier legend, old television reruns, coonskin-cap mythology, and the…
SBP Podcast Episode 17: The Dixie Mafia and the Vincent & Margaret Sherry Murders
On September 14, 1987, Circuit Court Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife, Biloxi city councilwoman Margaret Sherry, were found murdered inside their home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. There was no forced entry. No robbery. No obvious sign of a random attack. At first, the case seemed to point in several directions. Local politics. City…
The Hellbender: The River’s Last Secret
There are creatures in the South that feel like they belong to another time. Not folklore. Not exaggerated. Not misunderstood. Just old. The hellbender is one of them. If you’ve ever stood in a cold, fast-moving Appalachian stream—western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, north Georgia—and felt like the place itself had weight to it… like it…
Kentucky Derby 2026: The Southern Blueprint Guide to the 152nd Run for the Roses
The 2026 Kentucky Derby is not just another running of America’s most famous horse race. It is the 152nd Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the Triple Crown, and it arrives at Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 2, 2026, with a full 20-horse field, four also-eligibles, a $5 million purse, a rail-drawn favorite, a deep…
SBP Podcast Episode 16: Rae Carruth: A Murder Plot, a 911 Call, and a Trunk in Tennessee
In November of 1999, a late-night shooting on a quiet road in Charlotte set off one of the most disturbing criminal cases tied to professional sports. At the center of it was Rae Carruth — a first-round draft pick for the Carolina Panthers — and Cherica Adams, a 24-year-old woman who, in her final moments,…
Aviary: The Cardinal
The Cardinal is one of the most recognizable birds in the South and a year-round resident across North Carolina and much of the region. It is often heard before it is seen, known for its clear, whistling calls. States where the Northern Cardinal is the official state bird:North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana,…
Venus Flytrap Facts, Habitat, and Care Guide | North Carolina Native Plant
The Venus flytrap: everyone’s seen it snap shut on a bug, but most folks don’t realize it’s a true Southern original. This isn’t some exotic curiosity from deep in the jungle, or a greenhouse novelty that wandered in from nowhere. It’s rooted in a very particular patch of the American South—wet, wild, and fire-shaped, right…