Description

From founding myths to cultures, Issue 8 of JRNY America is shaped by the United States at 250 – not as a fixed idea, but as a country still being made and remade by its people, landscapes, histories and communities. This special anniversary issue looks beyond the familiar shorthand of 1776 to explore the places that shaped America, the stories that predate the nation, and the journeys that reveal what the USA has been, is now, and might yet become.

Cover Feature

USA Turns 250 – Discover the places that shaped the United States of America – The cover story is an expansive, time-travelling guide to the history of the USA, using key moments as a route map through the country. From Native American sites and early European settlements to the American Revolution, slavery, emancipation, Civil Rights and the space race, the feature builds a richer picture of a nation whose story began long before independence. It matters because it treats the anniversary not as a simple celebration, but as an invitation to travel more thoughtfully through the places where American identity was forged, contested and transformed.

Features

A 250-year-old story that’s still unfinished – Civil Rights Trail in Mississippi – In Jackson and the Mississippi Delta, we follow Civil Rights landmarks that speak with intimacy rather than spectacle. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, Farish Street, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home, Jackson State University, Tougaloo College and the wider Delta reveal a history written in schools, homes, Black-owned businesses and community spaces. It is one of our most resonant stories and a reminder that the first 250 years of the United States are also the beginning of a longer road towards equality.

A Native Lens on the Southwest – Written by a Cherokee Nation member, this feature reframes the anniversary through Native voices, sovereignty and living culture. Travelling through the American Southwest, from Navajo-led canyon tours to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and Taos Pueblo, we ask you to recognise that America’s story did not begin in 1776. It is a story of continuity, resilience, ceremony, language, land and the importance of travelling with Native-led guides and communities on their own terms.

A Tale of Two Plymouths – A reflective, personal journey between Plymouth, Massachusetts and Plymouth, Devon, Kassondra Cloos revisits the Mayflower story from both sides of the Atlantic. With wit, unease and historical clarity, it moves beyond childhood versions of the Pilgrim narrative to consider migration, mythmaking, colonial violence and the strange emotional pull of home.

Land of True Freedom: Wyoming – In Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park, Sophie Morgan finds not simply a dramatic mountain landscape, but a place of adaptive possibility. Arriving on an adapted motorbike, she discovers a destination where wheelchair users can experience the mountains, river and sky with warmth, expertise and confidence. The feature broadens the meaning of freedom in an anniversary issue, connecting wilderness not with conquest, but with access, inclusion and the right to adventure.

California Zephyr – One of America’s great rail journeys becomes a slow, observant crossing of the nation. Travelling 2,438 miles between Chicago and San Francisco, the California Zephyr passes through seven states and some of the most cinematic scenery in North America. Yet this isn’t only about views from a cabin window; it is also about the people encountered along the way, and the deeper rhythms of a country best understood at rail speed.

A Broader Story of Florida – Jameela Malcolm looks beyond Florida’s obvious tourist grammar to quieter places, local voices and layered stories. In an issue concerned with how nations are narrated, Florida becomes more than a spectacle: a place of culture, community and complexity. Its value lies in asking you to look past the expected and find the real stories that sit behind a destination’s most familiar image.

The Springs That Built Las Vegas – Before neon, resorts and spectacle, Las Vegas was shaped by water. Kav Dadfar traces the city’s origins back to the springs and landscape that made settlement possible long before the modern Strip existed. It offers a grounded counterpoint to the city’s mythology and a reminder that even America’s most artificial-seeming destinations have environmental histories written into the land.

The Highway That Goes to Sea – The Overseas Highway, part of US Route 1, becomes one of the issue’s great road-trip stories: a journey over water, bridges and islands through the Florida Keys. It is a route defined by engineering, horizon and atmosphere, but also by the way roads can connect fragile landscapes and coastal communities. This is a story that captures the American road trip at its most elemental: movement, salt air and the pull of the next mile.

Shorter Features & Regulars

The issue also includes News, with openings, launches and cultural events across America; Yellowstone, a compact guide to America’s first national park; Native Food in Oklahoma, exploring how local chefs are reimagining ancestral knowledge through modern cooking; and New York City is 400, a timely reminder that the country’s greatest metropolis predates the USA by 150 years.