Curious City WBEZ Chicago

As Curious City goes through some changes, we take some time to look back and reflect on more than a decade of answering listeners' questions and lessons learned over the years.

We go searching for the oldest book in circulation at the library, and find out how a title avoids the book “weeding” process.

It's difficult to find records of Underground Railroad activity in Chicago because the work was inherently dangerous. But some historical documents offer a glimpse.

We went digging for dinosaur bones in Chicago and found a bunch of other fossils along the way. We explore the region's prehistoric activity, and we’ll hear about that one time a federal judge found a mastodon in his yard.

Chicago has enclaves for numerous communities throughout its 77 neighborhoods. In the mid-20th century, Uptown was the nucleus for Native Americans who relocated to the city. Learn how Uptown became a cultural hub and what happened to that enclave.

Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in Midlothian is rumored to be haunted with alleged sightings of a woman in white. But there’s more to this place than spooky stories. Learn about the early settlers who called this place home and why a historian worries the ghost stories are overshadowing the history here.