features by bill newcott

The N.S. Savannah was built to introduce an atomic age of super-clean, hyper-efficient sailing vessels, but ended up a relic in Baltimore Harbor. Why?

National Geographic April 5, 2023

I knew the spa at Buckstaff Bathouse in Hot Springs, Arkansas, wasn't going to caress me in Canyon Ranch luxury. But I was not prepared to be transported back 110 years to a time when tough love was the rule for health-seeking gangsters and millionaires alike.

The Saturday Evening Post April-May 2023

The weird route of a Japanese minisub that somehow found its way from Pearl Harbor to Chicago to Key West to, of all places, Fredericksburg, Texas.

National Geographic December 5, 2022

When you go to sea with one of America's Southernmost lobstermen, it's best to just stay out of the way. 

Delaware Beach Life Magazine April 2023

I tramp through the wilds of Bloomington, Indiana, in search of the reclusive, delicious morel mushroom.

The Saturday Evening Post   March 15, 2023

Discovering the thin line between "alternative medicine" and "covered by Blue Cross."  

Delaware Beach Life Magazine  Winter 2022

I trekked to a nuclear crater to see where the Atomic Age first began

National Geographic, July 2020

There was a third nuclear bomb ready, just in case Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not result in a Japanese surrender. I found it sitting in the corner of a small  New Mexico museum.

August 2020

A day of deliberate wrong turns makes everything right. 

Delaware Beach Life, April 2020

You haven't lived until you're a kid frolicking in the mist of a DDT spray truck. On the other hand, you're lucky if you lived at all. 

Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild 2018

Joe Gutheinz is on a quest to recover the missing or stolen lunar samples collected by America’s space program.

The Saturday Evening Post, May 2019

Boat builders ride a 600-year tide of history.

Delaware Beach Life, Nov. 2019

I crisscrossed the U.S. asking one question: "Why do we keep gazing Heavenward even when answers elude us?"

AARP the Magazine Feb/March 2015

Caring for my dying wife of 36 years, I did what every guy would do: I hunkered down and tried to fix it.

AARP The Magazine Sept. 19 2012

I asked people 50 and over to share their most deeply held beliefs. The result is an illuminating glimpse into America’s spiritual core.

AARP the Magazine Sept.  2007

I visited astronomers and observatories coast-to-coast to learn how comets capture our imagination now...and once shaped the future of our planet.

National Geographic Magazine Dec. 1997

In a hollowed-out Virginia mountain,  the Library of Congress keeps copies of every movie, TV show, and sound recording. It’s called the the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center.  I call it Heaven. 

AARP.org April 2013

Cured, in remission, and facing dire prognoses, people facing the harsh realities of cancer across the U.S. and Canada share their inspiring, often heartbreaking, stories.

AARP Bulletin

George Washington envisioned it; Thomas Jefferson signed off on it--today motorists still travel the route from Cumberland, MD to Visalia, IL

National Geographic Magazine, March 1998

It's not just London's most popular tourist spot--it's a palace, prison, and home to a squad of Beefeaters and their families

National Geographic Magazine, October 1993

Don't like "Pirate Night" or passenger Karaoke? Savvy cruise lovers know how to steer clear of seaborne disasters like that

 The author hops to it without paws.

The Huntington Park Daily Signal, March 24, 1978

 "Write something about Elvis," my editor said when the news came over the wires that The King was dead. So I did. 

The Huntington Park Daily Signal, August  23, 1977

Floating, roaring, and looking for a seatbelt over 1970s Los Angeles.

The Huntington Park Daily Signal, March  23, 1979