A cannonball-eating fort and 6 more of our most-read stories this month

ICYMI Email not displaying correctly? View in your browser. July 31, 2019 Conch-Shell Graveyard A massive conch-shell graveyard sits off the island of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands. Some say the massive mounds of discarded shells is the reason the humble mollusk remains so plentiful there–but they actually repel living conch. Read more → Mysterious Fort Back when the Spanish still ruled Florida, Castillo de San Marcos guarded the Spanish empire’s trade routes and the city of St. Augustine. After nearly two months of being shelled with cannonballs and gunfire by the English, the fort’s walls never gave. But how? Read More → Atlas Obscura Trips Galician Adventure Next March, join us on a week-long pilgrimage to Galicia, the rugged coastal region of northwestern Spain, where we’ll delve deep into the world of barnacle hunters, oyster fisherman, lobster trap builders, and more. Though the focus will be seafood, we’ll be exploring all facets of Galician identity and its unbreakable bond with the sea. Learn more → Staged Train Wrecks From 1896 until the 1930s, staged train wrecks were a popular—albeit destructive—event at fairs and festivals all across the United States. Read more → Happy Little Paintings An inconspicuous warehouse in Herndon, Virginia, houses almost every painting, over 1,000 landscapes, ever created by Bob Ross on The Joy of Painting. Read more → Old Stolen Wallets Fifteen wallets from the 1940s were found stashed behind a bathroom wall in the former Centralia High School in Illinois. Although the money is long gone, the wallets still hold a trove of precious memories. Read more → DURANGO, COLORADO Narrow Gauge Railroad As one of the United States’s most scenic historic railroads, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad travels along the same tracks that miners, frontiersmen, and cowboys journeyed nearly 140 years ago. Read more → FREIBURG IM BREISGAU, GERMANY Grave of Caroline Walter Fresh flowers have mysteriously appeared on Caroline Walter’s grave every day for the last 150 years. Read more → Visit AtlasObscura.com · View in Browser · Unsubscribe · See All Newsletters 61 Greenpoint Ave #622, Brooklyn, NY 11222