Colin Dickey is the author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, along with two other books of non-fiction. He is currently writing a book on conspiracy theories and other delusions, The Unidentified, forthcoming in 2020.
If it's true we're on the verge of a sixth extinction, these smaller collections offer crucial perspectives—and specimens—that bigger museums simply can't provide.
A secluded, Edenic lake just a mile off the Appalachian Trail was once the site of a fight in which locals tried hard to keep people away from what they believed to be an environmental menace. Were they right to?