Discover the St. Louis you drive past everyday without even realizing history happened here.

Hello. I'm Don. Thanks for checking out my page.

Even though I'm from St. Louis, I spent about 25 years working as a television newscaster all around the country; mostly as a state legislative correspondent and crime reporter. Won an Emmy and some other awards for my work, but the stories I was most proud of were the ones I discovered myself. In the news business, we called them "enterprise pieces." Translation: "We got nothing today.....can anybody enterprise something?" Well, I always did! My producers knew they could count on me to fill two minutes with something usable if the well was dry that day.

That, of course, meant I had to carry in my head a slate of possible stories that could be pressed into duty on a moment's notice and I got pretty good at making a mental note of what happened, where and when? And when I left the business I still had a lot of cool stories in the old memory bank.

Years ago, there was no YouTube or any other way of getting video stories out there. But today the media landscape has changed enough to let me do whatever I want...wherever the road of history leads me. And they're not just two minutes squeezed into a newscast, most of mine are 20 minutes-plus.

When I moved back to St. Louis to take care of my Dad as he wrestled with Alzheimer's, the city I came back to was hardly one I recognized.

This site uses the canvas of the city I once knew to help me dig deeper into a past I never knew existed. These are the places we drive by everyday without even realizing history happened here.

I'm really into history, so say hi. Shoot me some stories and let's go back in time and see where it happened.

About Highway Farty

Today we know it as Interstate 64. The great connector road from Downtown to the far Western Suburbs.

But for most of its hundred years, all of St. Louis simply called it Highway Forty.

Or....FARTY.

Listen to an old time St. Louisan talk and you'll hear it....a distinctive speech pattern that sets them unmistakably apart from, say a New Yarker.

Sadly, that uniqueness is disappearing.

This video history project pays tribute to the unique legacy of one of America's great Legacy Cities.

Watch a brief introduction by Don here:

Your Guide on this Rust Belt Road Trip in and around St. Louis: