09/13/00: Rebecca recalls her roots
Rebecca explores the importance of connecting with relatives who are "living history." Having both lost and taken advantage of her ancestors' life experiences, she urges students to connect NOW with the stories of their past.

09/20/00: Goopy goo and mammoth tusks
Dispatch describes a visit to the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California and discusses the ancient environment of southern California and the creatures that used to live in this area.

09/30/00: If Jamestown wasn't the first colony, what was?
Trekkers investigate European expansion into the Americas, and check out Spain's first permanent colonies in St. Augustine, Florida and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

10/14/00: Iroquois Federation - The founding fathers?
Rebecca learns about the Great Peace of the Iroquois that united six Indian nations into a strong, united government called the Iroquois Confederacy.

10/14/00: Massive wall of falling water!
Ft. Niagara was built by the French to protect the water "highways" that enabled fur trade routes across the northeast. Rebecca visits the fort and the Niagara Falls near it to learn about its role in the French and Indian (7 years) War.

Stage Two: The Birth of the United States

10/25/00: A duel over pride ends in disaster!
The Alexander Hamilton/Aaron Burr Duel. Rebecca takes a look at the violence and passions of early US politics, and wonders what that would look like in today's debates.

Stage Three: Expansion & Reaction

11/15/00: A simple walk 'round Walden Pond
Rebecca explores "simple living" and the transcendentalist movement by visiting Henry David Thoreau's home at Walden Pond.

Stage Four: Civil War and Reconstruction

11/22/00: Pass the gumbo!
Southern food: Becky tries out the tantalizing tastes of the South that originated in antebellum Louisianna - soul food and creole/cajun. YUM!

12/02/00: The unluckiest lottery winner
Becky and Neda visit Charleston, South Carolina, to learn about Denmark Vesey, the organizer of what would have been the biggest slave rebellion in the United States

12/16/00: General Sherman mows down the South
General William T. Sherman charged that the best way to win the war was to devastate the resources of the south, striking the supplies and support of the Confederacy. He commenced a March to the Sea, burning and pillaging Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah, then through the Carolinas, to bring the 'War Between the States' to its close.