Cary O'Dell Bücher

"Visionary," "Man of God," "Cult Leader," "Fugitive," "Inmate," "Patriot." John R. Harrell of Louisville, IL, far better known as "Johnny Bob," was--rightfully or not--called all those things during his long, colorful life. A deeply religious, independently wealthy man, in the 1960s, Harrell was known throughout the Midwest for his eccentric estate (which included a full-size replica of Washington's Mt. Vernon) and the rogue Louisville-based religious colony he founded which many labeled a "cult." In August of 1961, U.S. federal agents stormed his Louisville property to retrieve an AWOL Marine who had taken refuge on Harrell's "sovereign" grounds. This military action, involving over 100 armed officers, was national news and set off a chain of events in the U.S. courts, in military tribunals, and eventually across the United States as Harrell and his family became fugitives, running from the law. This book retraces Johnny Bob Harrell's nine decades from his claims of an early "miracle" healing to the founding of his religious community to the '61 siege, and Harrell's subsequent life as fugitive, federal inmate, and right-wing provocateur.

Recognized as one of the great design and architectural thinkers of the twentieth century, R. Buckminster Fuller's name is synonymous with the geodesic dome. But throughout his long life and career, Fuller would only ever call one geodesic dome "home," and that was the house he built in 1960 on a corner lot in the small Midwestern town of Carbondale, Illinois. Erected in just one day, Carbondale's famous "Bucky Dome" was an architectural innovation that is now recognized as a local, state and national historic site. The Dome was the residence of Fuller and his wife, Anne, for over a decade and it endures until this day. This book recounts the building of the Fuller's remarkable home, the Midwestern lives of its two famous owners, and the home's history of subsequent owners and renters. And it covers the nearly twenty-year process involving architects, carpenters, preservationists and volunteers in their efforts to restore the Dome to its original individualistic and revolutionary state.