features by bill newcott

The Ship That Would Change Everything—And Then Didn't

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

Tough Love at the Spa

The Ship That Would Change Everything—And Then Didn't

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 Long, Twisted Trip of a Japanese Minibus

The Ship That Would Change Everything—And Then Didn't

The Long, Twisted Trip of a Japanese Minibus

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

Gone Lobsterin'

The Long, Twisted Trip of a Japanese Minibus

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

A-Mushrooming We Will Go

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

The Saturday Evening Post March 15, 2023

The Healers

A-Mushrooming We Will Go

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

Delaware Beach Life Magazine Winter 2022

Armageddon's Front Door

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

National Geographic, July 2020

The Third Bomb

Armageddon's Front Door

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

Getting Lost

Armageddon's Front Door

The Most Dangerous Games

A day of deliberate wrong turns makes everything right.

Delaware Beach Life, April 2020

The Most Dangerous Games

The Moon Rock Hunter Is Coming For You

The Most Dangerous Games

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

The Moon Rock Hunter Is Coming For You

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

Sails of the Centuries

The Moon Rock Hunter Is Coming For You

Boat builders ride a 600-year tide of history.

Delaware Beach Life, Nov. 2019

Last Watch: Battle of the Bulge Veterans Remember

History may fade, but not the memories of these men who endured one of the Twentieth Century's great battles.

NationalGeographic.com December 2019

Woodstock: 3 Days Plus 50 Years

Last Watch: Battle of the Bulge Veterans Remember

The music and spirit of the greatest rock festival of all time still echo through the hills of Upstate New York.

NationalGeographic.com July 2019

Let Us Spray

Last Watch: Battle of the Bulge Veterans Remember

Descendants of the Barnstormers, modern-day crop dusters defy gravity to put food on everyone's table.

Delaware Beach Life Magazine October 2019

Wiffle Ball Glory: A Hero Remembers

On a suburban New Jersey driveway, history was made in the 1960s.

The Saturday Evening Post March-April 2019

The World's 100 Scariest Places (Book Excerpt)

Don't Read It Alone!

Catalina When It's Cool

Coast 1,000 feet downhill — then have the quaint town of Avalon all to yourself on California's island paradise.

Alaska Beyond Magazine November 2019

The Mystery of Miracles

Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back

The Mystery of Miracles

Are miracles for real? Well, they're definitely something--and I travel the country getting the lowdown from both detached experts and passionate believers.

AARP the Magazine April 2011

All The Lonely People

Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back

The Mystery of Miracles

Talk about tough interview assignments; try finding lonely people...and then getting them to open up about their affliction.

AARP The Magazine

Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back

Mad About Madrid (New Mexico)

They took away our records...now stubborn vinyl lovers like me are taking them back.

AARP the Magazine Jan/Feb 2010

Mad About Madrid (New Mexico)

You don't have to be a little crazy to live in the nowhere world of Madrid, New Mexico. But even the locals agree: It helps

AARP Bulletin

Fast Times In Rapid City

Mad About Madrid (New Mexico)

Fast Times In Rapid City

From the concrete dinosaurs to Mount Rushmore to the nation's oldest Passion Play, there's no way to take it easy in Rapid City

AARP The Magazine

Believing Las Vegas

Mad About Madrid (New Mexico)

Fast Times In Rapid City

Like a cruise ship on a sea of sand, Vegas keeps plowing ahead

National Geographic Magazine, December 1996

America's First Highway

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

The Living Tower of London

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

The Perfect Cruise

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

I Was An Easter Bunny For The Chamber Of Commerce

The author hops to it without paws.

The Huntington Park Daily Signal, March 24, 1978

The Day Elvis Died

I Was An Easter Bunny For The Chamber Of Commerce

The Day Elvis Died

"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

Me and the Blimp

I Was An Easter Bunny For The Chamber Of Commerce

The Day Elvis Died

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

The Huntington Park Daily Signal, March 23, 1979

Bill's Lobster Adventure

At the Crossroads of The Trail of Tears

Bill's Lobster Adventure

North America's southernmost lobsterman takes Bill out for a day at sea. Ahoy!

Delaware Beach Life Magazine April 2023

Up the Creeks

At the Crossroads of The Trail of Tears

Bill's Lobster Adventure

Coastal Delaware continues its sprawl, but if you kayak far enough upstream, you just might get away from it all.

Delaware Beach Life Magazine Sept. 2022

At the Crossroads of The Trail of Tears

Sister Mary Joseph and the Spanking Machine

Native Americans' forced march in the 1800s ran through Arkansas's capital. The city is now grappling with how to memorialize this tragic past.

National Geographic. Sept. 14 2022

Sister Mary Joseph and the Spanking Machine

Eight-year-old Me knew the diabolical contraption was behind that door in Sister Mary Joseph's classroom. I just knew it.

Bill Newcott At Large

Game Changers

Shameless puns are my game.

Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild

The Artisans

They start with a pile of stuff and a pair of extraordinarily gifted hands. What happens next is pure magic.

Delaware Beach Life Magazine July 2021

features by bill newcott

The Ship That Would Change Everything—And Then Didn't

The Ship That Would Change Everything—And Then Didn't

The Ship That Would Change Everything—And Then Didn't

Tough Love at the Spa

The Ship That Would Change Everything—And Then Didn't

The Ship That Would Change Everything—And Then Didn't

The Long, Twisted Trip of a Japanese Minibus

The Ship That Would Change Everything—And Then Didn't

The Long, Twisted Trip of a Japanese Minibus

Gone Lobsterin'

The Long, Twisted Trip of a Japanese Minibus

A-Mushrooming We Will Go

A-Mushrooming We Will Go

The Healers

A-Mushrooming We Will Go

Secrets of the Smithsonian

Nukes Over North Carolina

Horse Country

Horse Country

Up the Creek

Horse Country

Even a Haunted House Can Be a Home

Tracking the First F-5 Tornado

Armageddon's Front Door

Armageddon's Front Door

Armageddon's Front Door

The Third Bomb

Armageddon's Front Door

Armageddon's Front Door

Getting Lost

Armageddon's Front Door

The Most Dangerous Games

The Most Dangerous Games

The Moon Rock Hunter Is Coming For You

The Most Dangerous Games

The Moon Rock Hunter Is Coming For You

The Moon Rock Hunter Is Coming For You

The Moon Rock Hunter Is Coming For You

Sails of the Centuries

The Moon Rock Hunter Is Coming For You

The Moon Rock Hunter Is Coming For You

Last Watch: Battle of the Bulge Veterans Remember

Last Watch: Battle of the Bulge Veterans Remember

Last Watch: Battle of the Bulge Veterans Remember

Woodstock: 3 Days Plus 50 Years

Last Watch: Battle of the Bulge Veterans Remember

Last Watch: Battle of the Bulge Veterans Remember

Let Us Spray

Last Watch: Battle of the Bulge Veterans Remember

Wiffle Ball Glory: A Hero Remembers

The World's 100 Scariest Places (Book Excerpt)

Catalina When It's Cool

The Paradox of Prayer

The Silent Cry Of The Caregiver

Visions of Life After Death

Visions of Life After Death

The Age of Comets

Where Robots Watch Movies

Visions of Life After Death

Where Robots Watch Movies

Where Robots Watch Movies

Where Robots Watch Movies

Living With Cancer

Where Robots Watch Movies

Where Robots Watch Movies

The Mystery of Miracles

Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back

The Mystery of Miracles

All The Lonely People

Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back

The Mystery of Miracles

Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back

Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back

Mad About Madrid (New Mexico)

Mad About Madrid (New Mexico)

Mad About Madrid (New Mexico)

Mad About Madrid (New Mexico)

Fast Times In Rapid City

Mad About Madrid (New Mexico)