During the month of April I am participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge has each blogger select a theme and then do a post thematically from A to Z during each day of April , except Sundays. My blog is number 1337 out of 1670 participating blogs. This year my A to Z posts will take you across the back roads of America to many unique what other bloggers will be posting about, check out the link: A to Z Theme Reveal List for 2016

The Q Towns

Quincy, Illinois

I mentioned the town of Nauvoo, Illinois in my N Towns post a few days ago.  Just down Illinois 96 south of Nauvoo is the town of Quincy, Illinois.  Like Nauvoo, or Hannibal, Missouri, this is a river town.  Full of amazing architecture and history, its a nice place to visit.  I last visited with my family on a trip to Nauvoo back in the late 1990s. We visited on a genealogy excursion as my adoptive mother’s ancestry was also here — the Hanks Family.  Ironically, they lived in Quincy about the same time the Mormons were being persecuted and driven from Nauvoo.  Apparently many of the citizens of Quincy were sympathetic to the Mormon cause and offered their homes to the homeless Mormons before they headed west. I have often wondered if the Hanks family was one of these kind folks.  If you plan on a trip to Nauvoo, definitely take a day and cruise around Quincy.  You’ll be glad you did.

Quartzsite, Arizona

Long before I began writing blog posts, I made a trip to California and passed through Quartzsite, Arizona.  It is one of those places I would like to return to someday. It is located at the crossroads of Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Los Angeles, and US Highway 95 between Lake Havasu City and Yuma. This area was a gathering place for pioneers on their way to the rich gold fields in California, a way station and hub of activity for travelers going in every direction.  One site in town worth looking into is the marker for Hi Jolly (aka Hadji Ali) became one of the first camel drivers ever hired by the US Army to lead the camel driver experiment in the Southwest. Hi Jolly became a living legend until his death in Arizona in December 1902.

Queen City, Ohio (aka Cincinnati)

I had planned not to add any large cities to these posts, but rather those found on the back roads of America.  But, I needed more Q Cities and Cincinnati is known as “The Queen City.”  The classic nickname “Queen City” is taken from the 1854 poem Catawba Wine. In it, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of the city: “And this Song of the Vine, This greeting of mine, The winds and the birds shall deliver, To the Queen of the West, In her garlands dressed, On the banks of the Beautiful River.” In the 1850s, Cincinnati was the largest westernmost inland city from the East Coast.  There are many wonderful things to see in Cincinnati — a great zoo, fabulous museums, dozens of impressive murals on the sides of buildings and more. Check out one of my posts about Cincinnati HERE or maybe THIS ONE.

Quicksand, Kentucky (Honorable Mention)

One place I have yet to visit in Kentucky is the small community of Quicksand, Kentucky.  At one point in the early twentieth century it was the worlds largest lumber producer with its many sawmills. All the sawmills were closed by 1923. Its post office closed in 1996, but it is the home of the University of Kentucky’s Robinson Experimental Substation.  The small town sits alongside the North Fork of the Kentucky on Kentucky Highway 15 south of Jackson, Kentucky. I will visit there soon on a day trip.

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