Christopher Columbus is credited with one of North America’s earliest manatee sightings, recorded in 1492 near the Dominican Republic. This account raises the possibility that these “sea cows,” found in Florida and the Caribbean, may have fed the age-old mermaid legends.

On a cool Appalachian night, the fog rolls in along the river and transforms an ordinary landscape into a realm of mystery. It is here, in a place nicknamed the TNT area, that the lines between reality and imagination become intriguingly blurred.