WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.480 --> 00:00:04.960 Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye, and to 2 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:08.919 day I would be reading the Smithsonian Magazine dated April 3 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:12.800 May twenty twenty six. As reminder, Radio Eye is a 4 00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:15.720 reading service intended for people who are blind or have 5 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:18.800 other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. 6 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:22.679 Please join me now for the first article titled follow 7 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:25.160 in the Footsteps of the Founders and have a drink. 8 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:29.800 Where they planned the revolution over a few beers. Taverns, 9 00:00:29.879 --> 00:00:33.479 public houses, and inns served as meeting places before the 10 00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:38.119 war and unofficial headquarters during it. Some still stand, including 11 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:41.200 these nine where you can raise a glass and Memory 12 00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:46.799 of the Founders by Noah Letterman. We held our meetings 13 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:49.439 at the Green Dragon Tavern, Paul Revere wrote in a 14 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:53.560 letter Careful that our meetings should be kept secret. Soon 15 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:57.159 to be Founding fathers and other patriots, like Revere, found 16 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:00.640 great value in the American public house was a place 17 00:01:00.679 --> 00:01:04.040 to trade stories, to learn of critical world events, and 18 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:09.319 to strategize. They railed against British tyranny, plotted protests against 19 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:13.359 loathsome policy, and read aloud from Thomas Paine's Common Sense 20 00:01:13.719 --> 00:01:18.319 or from the Declaration of Independence while sipping Toddies at taverns, 21 00:01:18.359 --> 00:01:24.439 militia's recruited soldiers, held military tribunals, stored military supplies and rations, 22 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:28.200 and hosted patriot groups like the Sons of Liberty. Most 23 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:32.560 taverners supported these gatherings at their establishments because they often 24 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:36.840 felt the crushing British tariffs on raw ingredients for spirits 25 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:41.239 or on printed goods like playing cards. Revolution would be 26 00:01:41.319 --> 00:01:46.719 a boon for business. Today, most colonial era taverns are gone, 27 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:49.640 but as our country turns two hundred and fifty, a 28 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:53.359 few stalwart pubs remain, holding the hopes and stories of 29 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:57.400 the revolutionary Americans who fought to form a democratic nation. 30 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:03.000 As we celebrate America's independents, consider lifting a foggy beer 31 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:08.560 stein at one of these taverns. Right Tavern, Concord, Massachusetts. 32 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:13.879 In October seventeen seventy four, the first Massachusetts Provincial Congress 33 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:17.719 met in Concord. Samuel Adams and John Hancock began the 34 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:22.159 process of separating the thirteen colonies from Britain, made plans 35 00:02:22.199 --> 00:02:24.680 to redirect the people's taxes from the crown to the 36 00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:28.960 provincial Congress, and established the idea that the government's power 37 00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:32.439 came from the will of the people during and after 38 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:35.680 the meeting. Some reportedly went right next door to mister 39 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:40.400 Taylor's tavern now Write Tavern, to celebrate these bold steps 40 00:02:40.439 --> 00:02:45.319 by getting sloshed. On April nineteenth, seventeen seventy five, in 41 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:48.319 the wee hours of the morning, having been warned of 42 00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:52.840 approaching Redcoats, colonial militia men gathered at the tavern to 43 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:55.680 plan their maneuvers and then left, ending up in the 44 00:02:55.719 --> 00:03:00.479 nearby hills. Later that morning, seven hundred British regulars rode 45 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:05.280 into Concord to capture the colonist's stockpiled weapons. The Red 46 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:09.759 Coats then commandeered Wright Tavern as their headquarters. Today, a 47 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:13.960 replica of a line engraving by the colonial artisan Amos Doolittle, 48 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:18.319 hanging just inside the entrance depicts the British gathering before 49 00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:22.199 the tavern. When the Red Coats met the militiamen at 50 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:25.520 the North Bridge, about a mile down the road, both 51 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:28.960 sides fired, resulting in the first casualties for the Crown. 52 00:03:29.639 --> 00:03:34.400 Six decades later, Concordinative Ralph Waldo Emerson would refer to 53 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:37.759 the instigation of that skirmish as the shot heard round 54 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:42.840 the world. By seventeen ninety three right tavern had ceased operations, 55 00:03:43.159 --> 00:03:46.560 and over the next two centuries the building had dozens 56 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:50.520 of other uses. It was a bakery, a whig manufacturer, 57 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:54.039 and a kindergarten where one hundred and ninety five kids 58 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:58.120 signed the eighteen sixty four Little People's Petition to President 59 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:03.280 Abraham Lincoln calling for enslaved children to be freed. Today, 60 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:06.319 it is a museum open to the public Fridays through 61 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:10.960 Sundays and also hosts private events. In the fall, tavern 62 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:14.840 service will return so that visitors can enjoy colonial era 63 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.040 drinks like stone fences, rum or rye mixed with applejack 64 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:23.319 and hard cider, and flip a rum cocktail made with molasses, 65 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:26.680 spices and a raw egg that was once cooked into 66 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:30.040 a froth with a hot poker from the fireplace. Wright 67 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:36.680 no longer uses the hot poker France's Tavern, New York City. 68 00:04:37.079 --> 00:04:40.399 Many of the original gray yellow bricks of France's tavern 69 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:44.240 hold firm with their original eighteenth century oyster shell mortar 70 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:49.279 along Broad Street in Lower Manhattan. When Samuel Francis purchased 71 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:53.000 the tavern in seventeen sixty two, he marked his establishment 72 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:56.360 with the sign bearing Queen Charlotte's lightness, and the public 73 00:04:56.439 --> 00:05:01.279 called it the Queen's Head Tavern, but inside was despised. 74 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:05.240 During the seventeen seventies, the Sons of Liberty met at 75 00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:10.480 France's to plot out New York's tea Party protests, Adams 76 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:14.639 and Hancock visited to devour oysters, and the New York 77 00:05:14.680 --> 00:05:19.160 Provincial Congress used Frances to host meetings and one court martial, 78 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:22.959 as well as parties, including a barn burner on June eighteenth, 79 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:27.759 seventeen seventy six, with George Washington in attendance. They made 80 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:31.279 thirty one toasts, drank one hundred and nine bottles of wine, 81 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:34.839 and paid ninety one pounds equal to around twenty six 82 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:40.160 thousand dollars today, plus sixteen additional shillings for broken wine glasses. 83 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:44.160 It was also the site of perhaps the biggest party 84 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:48.879 to celebrate Evacuation Day November twenty fifth, seventeen eighty three, 85 00:05:49.399 --> 00:05:51.879 when the British left New York City after more than 86 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:54.759 seven years, marking the end of the war in the 87 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:58.839 birth of a Nation. That evening, New York's Governor George 88 00:05:58.839 --> 00:06:03.480 Clinton gave a public dinner at France's tavern. General Washington 89 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:07.480 joined in thirteen toasts to the new Nation, to lost heroes, 90 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:11.000 to America's future as an asylum, to the persecuted of 91 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:14.040 the earth, and to the hope that this day will 92 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:18.839 be a lesson to princes. Nine days later, France's tavern 93 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:24.319 hosted a more lacrymose occasion. The Patriot spy master Benjamin 94 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:28.920 Talmadge recalled the lamentations that followed Washington as the latter 95 00:06:29.079 --> 00:06:32.399 left New York to return to Mount vernon such a 96 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:35.519 scene of sorrow and weeping I had never before witnessed, 97 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:39.160 and fondly hope I may never be called to witness again. 98 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:44.240 To day, visitors to France's tavern can toast like Washington 99 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:47.639 with the punch cocktail of rum and whisky flavored with peach, 100 00:06:47.720 --> 00:06:50.879 tea and lemon juice, a nod to a time when 101 00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:57.199 fresh ingredients were rare. Ye Old Centerton in Pittsgrove, New Jersey, 102 00:06:58.519 --> 00:07:01.639 Brian Good and his wife Joe Anne where chefs who 103 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:04.680 had worked at some of New York City's most famous restaurants, 104 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:09.240 including Le Bernardine and Jean George, respectively, But when the 105 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:12.399 Twin Towers fell in two thousand one, they sought a 106 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:15.240 new start outside the city and moved to the town 107 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:17.439 of Elmer, in one of the most rural parts of 108 00:07:17.480 --> 00:07:20.519 New Jersey, and in two thousand three bought ye old 109 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:25.000 Centerton Inn in nearby Pittsgrove. Built in seventeen o six, 110 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:27.759 the two story inn was a stop on the stage 111 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:31.920 coach route from Bridgeton, New Jersey to Philadelphia, where travelers 112 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:35.160 came for pints and a bed. Based on an eighteen 113 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:38.639 o three deed, we can determine that the original eighteenth 114 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:42.759 century rooms comprised the bar area, the dining room behind it, 115 00:07:42.839 --> 00:07:46.600 and the second story. The inn may have held munitions 116 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:51.279 for the Continental Army. Brian Good recounts the legend that 117 00:07:51.399 --> 00:07:55.639 Patriot militiamen once killed two loyalists here and buried the 118 00:07:55.680 --> 00:08:00.399 bodies under the fireplace, but there's no way to substantiate things. 119 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:07.519 He laments Middleton Tavern, Annapolis, Maryland. Traveling from Virginia to 120 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:11.639 Philadelphia was arduous in the seventeen hundreds, but meetings of 121 00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:15.639 the Continental Congress in the North required Southern delegates to 122 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:19.480 leave their plantations and make the long journey to trim 123 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:23.920 many hours and miles off the ride. Horatio Middleton's ferry 124 00:08:23.959 --> 00:08:27.519 out of Annapolis, Maryland, offered a short cut across the 125 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:31.759 Chesapeake Bay. While Middleton claimed in an ad in the 126 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:35.799 Maryland Gazette that he keeps the best entertainment as good 127 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:39.360 boats and hands as any that crossed the bay. Boats 128 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:43.960 crossing the bay weren't so reliable. One ferry carrying George 129 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:48.879 Washington ran aground twice, nearly costing the president his life. 130 00:08:49.559 --> 00:08:53.759 Another boat got stuck while ferrying Tench Tillman, one of 131 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:57.840 Washington's aide de camp, while he carried surrendered documents from 132 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:04.200 British General Charles Cornwallis north to Philadelphia. As a ferry owner, 133 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:08.320 Middleton needed a tavern where customers could gamble and drink 134 00:09:08.360 --> 00:09:13.320 while waiting for passage. In seventeen fifty, Middleton purchased a 135 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:17.720 sturdy building erected on a stone foundation with brick walls 136 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:22.480 and oyster shell grout. The construction helped the tavern survive 137 00:09:22.919 --> 00:09:25.960 a nineteen thirty eight hurricane and two fires in the 138 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:32.000 nineteen seventies. In November seventeen eighty three, Annapolis became the 139 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:35.320 nation's capital for the better part of a year, and 140 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:39.240 the tavern would have been busy with associates of Benjamin Franklin, 141 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:43.039 one of whom once requested that debtors meet him at 142 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:48.720 the tavern to make speedy payment. Middleton's bustled with members 143 00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:53.000 of the Maryland Jockey Club, the Freemasons, and the Tuesday Club, 144 00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:58.080 a social organization comprising the city's self styled elite, such 145 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:03.840 as Middleton's son Samuel. According to Tuesday Club records, raucous 146 00:10:03.960 --> 00:10:08.480 members visited Middleton's to sing, dance, brisk jigs, play music, 147 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:13.759 and drink good rack, punch and claret. Today, guests can 148 00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:18.720 eat like colonists, enjoying daily rockfish offerings and oyster shooters, 149 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:22.480 served with cocktail, sauce and Natty Beau beer, a Maryland 150 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:29.759 favorite dating back to the first Cleveland administration. Whitehorse Tavern, Newport, 151 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.919 Rhode Island, built in sixteen fifty two, This tavern served 152 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:37.320 in its early days as the meeting place for the 153 00:10:37.399 --> 00:10:41.240 Rhode Island Colony's General Assembly, as well as the city 154 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:45.720 Council and the Criminal Court. By seventeen o two, William 155 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:49.879 Mays Junior, a notorious pirate who'd proud the Indian Ocean, 156 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:53.919 succeeded his father as innkeeper and received a license to 157 00:10:53.960 --> 00:10:58.720 sell all sorts of strong drink. Six years later, the 158 00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:03.200 businessman's lunch was supposedly invented there, as councilors began dining 159 00:11:03.240 --> 00:11:06.480 at the tavern and charging meals to the public treasury. 160 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:11.360 By seventeen thirty, new owners trotted out the tavern's new sign, 161 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:15.440 an image of a white horse. During the war, in 162 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:19.559 seventeen seventy six, the owners left Newport when British troops 163 00:11:19.639 --> 00:11:25.000 and Loyalist allies turned the white Horse into their accommodations. Today, 164 00:11:25.159 --> 00:11:27.639 you won't see much of a rabble at the White Horse. 165 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:34.279 It's now an establishment for Newport's upper crust. Red Fox 166 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:39.600 Inn and Tavern. Middleburg, Virginia. In seventeen twenty eight, using 167 00:11:39.639 --> 00:11:44.960 local fieldstone, Joseph Chen built Chen's Ordinary, a tavern in Middleburg, 168 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:49.480 midway between bustling Alexandria and Winchester on the Ashby Gap 169 00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:53.279 trading route. Being dead center gave rise to the town's 170 00:11:53.399 --> 00:11:56.960 name Middleburg when it was chartered in seventeen eighty seven. 171 00:11:57.879 --> 00:12:01.519 George Washington was Chen's cousin, and when the first President 172 00:12:01.639 --> 00:12:04.559 rolled through town to visit family, he might have stayed 173 00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:07.080 at the inn, or at least had a drink. There 174 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:12.600 Chen's Ordinary became the Beverage House in eighteen twelve. In 175 00:12:12.679 --> 00:12:15.960 the Civil War, it served as a Confederate hospital during 176 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:19.679 the eighteen sixty three Gettysburg Campaign and the headquarters for 177 00:12:19.799 --> 00:12:23.759 General J. E. B. Stewart, who hatched battle plans upstairs. 178 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:27.960 To day, visible square nail heads in non uniform with 179 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:33.960 floorboards appeared consistent with eighteen hundreds design. In nineteen thirty seven, 180 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:37.559 the property was revamped and expanded to become the Red 181 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:41.840 Fox Inn, a more luxurious property surrounding the original tavern, 182 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:47.120 which became popular with the Kennedys. Jackie Kennedy Onassis frequented 183 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:54.120 the inn during her fox hunting outings. Griswold Inn, Essex, Connecticut. 184 00:12:54.919 --> 00:12:58.799 Beneath a domed ceiling made of horsehair and crushed clam shells, 185 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:02.759 the Griswold Inns Tavern boasts a large and handsome collection 186 00:13:03.240 --> 00:13:06.919 of maritime art. In the other rooms, there's an antique 187 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:10.840 firearm collection and a rich history of chaos and gaiety. 188 00:13:11.879 --> 00:13:15.840 The tavern room began as a schoolhouse in seventeen thirty five, 189 00:13:16.279 --> 00:13:19.120 but graduated to become a tavern in eighteen oh one, 190 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:23.240 though not before townspeople watched the building roll down Main 191 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:26.480 Street on logs pulled by a team of oxen to 192 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:31.480 the tavern's current location. Owners maintain that the Griswald Inn 193 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:37.000 has been in continuous operation since seventeen seventy six. Although 194 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:40.519 none of the famed Revolutionary rabble rousers are known to 195 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:43.879 have visited the Griswold Inn, the tavern does have a 196 00:13:43.960 --> 00:13:46.799 musket that had in its barrel a note from a 197 00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:50.519 father to his son encouraging Junior to take up arms 198 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:55.799 and join ye ranks of Ye Washington. The Griswald Inn 199 00:13:55.879 --> 00:13:59.240 was commandeered by the British during the eighteen fourteen raid 200 00:13:59.320 --> 00:14:03.799 on Essex, a site of Temperance Movement protests, the banners 201 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:07.759 still hang inside. It was also where Frederick Law Olmsted 202 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:11.759 as rumored to have celebrated his commission to design Central Park. 203 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:18.240 Pirates House, Savannah, Georgia. The Pirates House consists of a 204 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:22.840 number of conjoined historical buildings, including the Herb House, which 205 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:26.440 is considered the oldest standing structure in the state of Georgia. 206 00:14:27.159 --> 00:14:29.639 Built in seventeen thirty four on the site of the 207 00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:34.240 Trustees' Garden, the first public experimental garden in the colonies 208 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:38.600 where colonists grew cotton and peaches. The herb House served 209 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:43.200 as the gardener's accommodations. The Pirate's House started operating as 210 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:47.399 a tavern in seventeen fifty three, its haint blue shutters 211 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:51.840 and doors ostensibly ward off ghosts. In the mid seventeen hundreds, 212 00:14:51.960 --> 00:14:55.840 legends tell pirates began using tunnels under the tavern to 213 00:14:55.919 --> 00:15:01.159 kidnap unwary and bibers, including per one legend, a local constable. 214 00:15:02.440 --> 00:15:07.320 Pirate associations continued in the next century, It said Scottish 215 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:11.080 writer Robert Louis Stevenson's visit to the Pirate's House helped 216 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:15.679 inspire his eighteen eighty three novel Treasure Island. Pages from 217 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:18.480 an early edition of the novel are on display in 218 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:23.960 a tavern chamber known as the Treasure Room. And Finally, 219 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:29.240 A Man Full of Trouble Philadelphia. During the mid twentieth century, 220 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:33.759 many buildings in Philadelphia's Society Hill were raised amid a 221 00:15:33.799 --> 00:15:38.360 fever for redevelopment. Up went skyscrapers and modern brick homes. 222 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:41.600 But just off the corner of Second and Spruce Streets 223 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:45.639 sits an odd, little standalone building with tilting brick walls. 224 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:49.279 While Philadelphia is estimated to have had more than one 225 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:53.600 hundred taverns during the colonial period, A Man full of Trouble, 226 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:57.600 founded in seventeen fifty nine, is the only one surviving 227 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:00.679 from that time. For the second one and half of 228 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:04.240 the twentieth century and into the new millennium, the property 229 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:08.000 languished in despair, serving as a museum of the Revolution 230 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:12.120 and later as spartan housing for visiting scholars and students 231 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:16.639 from the University of Pennsylvania. Dan Wheeler, an attorney and 232 00:16:16.679 --> 00:16:20.000 real estate investor, bought the building in twenty twenty one 233 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:23.080 and opened it to the public in December twenty twenty four. 234 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:26.759 The tavern serves drinks from a bar in the precise 235 00:16:26.840 --> 00:16:30.879 location where one had stood during the Revolutionary War, and 236 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:36.200 brought in succession Fermentory, a rural Pennsylvania brewery, to pour 237 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:41.279 its farmhouse brews. In the eighteen thirties, William Breton made 238 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:43.879 the first known painting of A Man Full of Trouble 239 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:48.240 in watercolor. But as you peruse the artifacts that Wheeler 240 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:52.120 has gathered in the tavern's second floor museum, including period 241 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:55.120 muskets and one of the oldest printings of the United 242 00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:59.440 States Constitution printed on nearby Front Street. It's easy to 243 00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:03.720 imagine patriots within these walls, whispering plans for the impending 244 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:09.680 war and accompanying this article, did you know the role 245 00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:14.720 of taverns in Colonial America? Taverns were critical political and 246 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:19.480 economic infrastructure in colonial America. As a result, there were 247 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:23.000 a lot of them. Colonial Boston alone was home to 248 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:26.200 roughly one hundred and fifty taverns around the start of 249 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:30.960 the Revolutionary War. That amounted to roughly one tavern for 250 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:35.880 every one hundred Bostonians. By seventeen seventy, New York City 251 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:41.319 hosted around one tavern for every sixty New Yorkers. Next. 252 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:47.079 Cascade red foxes are notoriously reclusive, So how did this 253 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:52.559 photographer capture these stunning images of the endangered species. Even 254 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:56.319 the scientists who study the animals rarely see them except 255 00:17:56.359 --> 00:18:00.559 on camera, but Gretchen K Stewart spent a season documenting 256 00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:07.240 them up close. By Jenny Rothenberg Gritz, you never forget 257 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:10.680 your first glimpse of a Cascade red fox for the 258 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:14.480 wild life photographer Gretchen K stuart It happened in twenty 259 00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:17.519 twenty while she was driving up the slope of Washington 260 00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:21.359 State's Mount Rainier. As soon as she spotted the bundle 261 00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:24.000 of fur on a snow bank, she says, I knew 262 00:18:24.039 --> 00:18:28.880 she wasn't a normal fox. The animal's coat was pale, tawny, 263 00:18:28.920 --> 00:18:33.079 and extraordinarily bushy. She looked so different and so beautiful. 264 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:36.480 I instantly fell in love and I photographed her, but 265 00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:40.480 I was like, what is this fox? An online fox 266 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:44.559 hunt revealed very little information. The one short write up 267 00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:47.240 she could find was on the website of the Cascade's 268 00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:51.039 Carnivore Project, a non profit founded and directed by the 269 00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:56.240 wild life biologist Joscelyn Aikins. A photo made clear that 270 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:59.519 the animal Stuart had seen was a Cascade red fox. 271 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:05.160 Somewhat confusingly, these animals aren't always read. Their name simply 272 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:08.559 indicates that they're a subspecies of the standard red fox 273 00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:12.920 that lives in the lowlands. Only about fifty Cascade red 274 00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:16.759 foxes have been identified, all of them on or around 275 00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:21.559 Mount Rainier or near by Mount Adams. Even Akins, who 276 00:19:21.599 --> 00:19:24.279 had been working to protect them since nineteen ninety nine, 277 00:19:24.759 --> 00:19:28.559 had rarely spotted one in the wild. Joscelyn told me, 278 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:31.559 we really only see them on our trail cameras. If 279 00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:35.440 we're lucky, recalls Stuart, who took those words as a challenge. 280 00:19:35.960 --> 00:19:38.319 She just laughed at me, like, ha ha, good luck. 281 00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:41.359 She didn't think I would find them, but I found 282 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:44.920 another individual that summer, and the following year I found 283 00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:51.319 another too. I became obsessed. Conservationists usually don't worry much 284 00:19:51.319 --> 00:19:55.480 about foxes. These adaptable animals, in the same family as 285 00:19:55.559 --> 00:19:59.759 dogs and wolves, live on every continent other than Antarctica. 286 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:03.319 The ancestors of North America's foxes are thought to have 287 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:06.960 crossed the Baring Land Bridge from Asia, just as early 288 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:10.720 humans likely did, but during an ice age that ended 289 00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:16.240 eleven thousand years ago, these foxes became isolated in separate populations. 290 00:20:16.920 --> 00:20:19.880 Some stayed in the lowlands and became the ancestors of 291 00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:24.599 ordinary red foxes that amble through suburban neighborhoods sniffing around 292 00:20:24.599 --> 00:20:29.279 garbage cans. Others adapted to cold conditions, and as the 293 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:33.079 climate warmed, they sought refuge and higher altitudes, like the 294 00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:37.079 Cascade Mountains in what is now Washington State. They're just 295 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:40.839 stuck in these high elevations without the ability to increase 296 00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:45.279 genetic diversity, Stuart says, they're becoming inbred. Really, they have 297 00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:48.559 a lot of threats that they face. Some of the 298 00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:52.799 most dire threats come from humans. Foxes spend three to 299 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:57.319 four months raising their kits in dens, sheltered sites, sometimes 300 00:20:57.319 --> 00:21:01.480 close to human communities where food is more plentiful. In 301 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:05.160 June twenty twenty five, Stuart was excited to come across 302 00:21:05.240 --> 00:21:08.720 a cascade red fox den at a ski resort, but 303 00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:13.279 she noticed right away that the location had many hazards. Indeed, 304 00:21:13.319 --> 00:21:16.359 the father ended up being hit by a car. Other 305 00:21:16.440 --> 00:21:21.359 members of the family died, apparently after ingesting rodenticide, which 306 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:26.519 ski resorts often used to prevent deer mouse infestations. Aikens 307 00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:29.839 says the Washington State government has been working with resorts 308 00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:34.279 to minimize such hazards, but they are impossible to eliminate completely. 309 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:38.759 People want to ski. Aikins said that is a challenge 310 00:21:38.759 --> 00:21:42.359 for wildlife, as is a road, as is climate change. 311 00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:46.640 About a month after the dispiriting news about the ski 312 00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:50.759 resort den, Stuart got a call from Mount Rainier National Park. 313 00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:55.200 A volunteer had found another Cascade red fox den with 314 00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:59.480 three kits, one male and two female. Although Stuart is 315 00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:03.839 a photograph not a scientist. Researchers and park rangers knew 316 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:08.039 that she had a special history with the famously elusive creatures. 317 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:12.359 A few years earlier, she'd partnered with the Cascade's Carnivore 318 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:16.720 Project on a public awareness campaign which helped persuade Washington 319 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:20.480 State to list the Cascade red fox as endangered. In 320 00:22:20.519 --> 00:22:24.440 twenty twenty two, When Stuart arrived at the new Den, 321 00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:28.119 she realized she knew the mother. She'd even given the 322 00:22:28.119 --> 00:22:33.880 female fox a name, Shadow Aikens, the wildlife biologist, says, 323 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:38.559 I always thought of foxes as not being identifiable as individuals. 324 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:41.519 With a tiger or a leopard, you can identify it 325 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:45.079 by its spots or stripes. But Gretchen was looking at 326 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:48.839 subtler things. She was able to say, for instance, that 327 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:51.720 one has a notch in its ear. Then we could 328 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:54.599 look at the camera traps and say that red fox 329 00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:57.640 we saw yesterday is the same one or it's different. 330 00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:00.799 We could get a better sense of how many there 331 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:05.119 are across the population. The new Den site was a 332 00:23:05.160 --> 00:23:09.000 sloping piece of land around several big trees. Its main 333 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:12.759 access points were drainage tunnels under a trail, but the 334 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:15.880 foxes built their own tunnels, which allowed them to pop 335 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:19.480 up all over the place, But during Stuart's first hour 336 00:23:19.640 --> 00:23:23.759 at the site, she watched tourists thronging around the fox family. 337 00:23:24.279 --> 00:23:26.759 At one point, the mother tried to bring a meal 338 00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:29.640 to her kits and was so spooked by the crowds 339 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:33.599 that she ran off without making the delivery. When Stuart 340 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:37.440 reported this to park officials, they swiftly barricaded the area 341 00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:41.799 and assigned volunteers to take turns guarding access points from 342 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:44.960 five a m. To nine p m. For the next 343 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:48.400 few months, Stuart was the only person granted access to 344 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:52.680 the den site. She spent long hours sitting behind a blind, 345 00:23:53.079 --> 00:23:57.559 taking photos and jotting down copious notes documenting how Cascade 346 00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:01.279 foxes raised their kits in a den. When I'm living 347 00:24:01.319 --> 00:24:03.759 out of my van up on the mountain, my sleep 348 00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:08.000 schedule adjusts to sunrise and sunset, Stuart says. I was 349 00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:10.519 so anxious to be with the foxes that I didn't 350 00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:13.359 want to waste time heating up coffee, so I would 351 00:24:13.400 --> 00:24:19.039 just have cold coffee. I ate a lot of snaky stuff, bananas, oranges, apples, 352 00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:22.279 granola bars, bread with hummus, and I would just sit 353 00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:27.319 and watch and wait. Male foxes are involved in raising 354 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:30.880 and feeding their kits, and Stuart soon realized she knew 355 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:34.599 the father too. She'd seen him a year earlier out 356 00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:37.799 in the back country and named him Crag because he 357 00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:41.240 was so good at scaling the mountains. He's got a 358 00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:44.240 bigger white portion on his tail, and he's got longer 359 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:47.920 legs than a lot of the others, she says. Stuart 360 00:24:47.960 --> 00:24:52.039 watched Crag make meal deliveries to his offspring. He brought 361 00:24:52.039 --> 00:24:55.000 the kits a long tailed weasel, and that was pretty 362 00:24:55.039 --> 00:24:59.200 surprising because long tailed weasels are vicious, but this dad 363 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:02.519 was a fierce hunter. The kits didn't eat the weasel, 364 00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:05.400 They just played tug of war with it. The funny 365 00:25:05.440 --> 00:25:08.359 thing was the dad was insisting that the kits play 366 00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:11.759 with this weasel. They would play with it for a while, 367 00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:14.680 and then they'd drop it and start playing with each other. 368 00:25:14.759 --> 00:25:17.400 She said he would go and pick it up and 369 00:25:17.480 --> 00:25:19.920 bring it back to them and make them keep playing 370 00:25:19.960 --> 00:25:24.359 with it. Why was the father fox so enthusiastic about 371 00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:28.079 this morbid version of pop Goo's The weasel parents who 372 00:25:28.200 --> 00:25:31.640 encouraged their kits to play with dead animals are generally 373 00:25:31.759 --> 00:25:34.759 teaching them to hunt, though a weasel seemed like an 374 00:25:34.839 --> 00:25:39.240 unusual choice because foxes generally don't eat them. Maybe a 375 00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:43.160 weasel was the dad's favorite childhood toy, Stuart speculates, I 376 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:46.759 wish I could read their minds. The mother and father 377 00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:50.240 took turns bringing food, but every now and then Stuart 378 00:25:50.279 --> 00:25:54.000 got to see the whole family of five together. One time, 379 00:25:54.319 --> 00:25:56.559 the mom was with the kits and all of a sudden, 380 00:25:56.880 --> 00:25:59.680 she ran up the slope and scrunched down really quickly. 381 00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:03.160 I looked and there was the dad. She was being 382 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:06.279 really submissive, kind of rolling around, and he was just 383 00:26:06.359 --> 00:26:09.400 sitting there. The kits got all excited and ran over 384 00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:13.720 to him. Stuart hopes she'll be able to observe another 385 00:26:13.799 --> 00:26:17.920 den at the same site next year. Aikens says Stuart's 386 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:21.240 work is a testament to how a photographer can integrate 387 00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:25.359 into a research project. There's only so much we can do, 388 00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:28.759 she says of her science team. We don't spend hours 389 00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:32.920 and days at dens. We're covering a bigger geographic scope, 390 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:37.839 endlessly collecting scat and setting cameras across the landscape, trying 391 00:26:37.880 --> 00:26:40.720 to find out how many cascade red foxes there are 392 00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:44.480 and what their genetic diversity is I tromped through the 393 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:49.039 woods at top speed checking camera stations, and Gretchen's like, God, 394 00:26:49.119 --> 00:26:52.920 you walk so fast. She has complete patience and she 395 00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:58.519 always has her big lens. And Accompanying this article, did 396 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:03.880 you know following the Cascade red fox? Traditional tales from 397 00:27:04.039 --> 00:27:08.920 local native cultures about clever mountain foxes provide clues about 398 00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:13.799 where the Cascade red fox lived before Europeans arrived. The 399 00:27:13.880 --> 00:27:17.599 mountains where the Cascade red foxes reside have a higher 400 00:27:17.640 --> 00:27:21.640 annual snowfall than any other place in the United States, 401 00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:25.160