Mon, Mar 24th 2008, 09:55. Filed under News Releases.

Mill Run, PA – April 29, 2008 – Brian Butko, the historian and co-author of Roadside Attractions, will speak at Fallingwater at 2 p.m. on May 23, 2008. Butko will offer a delightful look at the wild, wacky roadside businesses and larger-than-life creations that enliven roadtrips.” The cost is $10 per person, which includes a Fallingwater Grounds Pass, or $5 if purchased with any other Fallingwater tour. Proceeds will benefit the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor (LHHC) and Fallingwater.

Butko's books have a theme − to document people, places, and things that go mostly unnoticed by other historians, such as giant Paul Bunyan statues, diners and their neon signs, old gas stations and drive-in theaters.

“There are still lots of loveable roadside attractions, from well-known stops like Wall Drug and South of the Border, to mom-and-pop mini-golfs and tourist cabins, many of them in or near Western Pennsylvania, ” Butko said.

Roadside Attractions, co-authored by Butko’s wife Sarah, celebrates the one-of-a-kind roadside attractions created between 1920 to 1970, when the automobile era began to take shape across our national landscape. In the book, more than 50 fellow travelers offer stories about their favorite attractions − among them artist John Baeder, filmmaker Rick Sebak, archeological historian Alan Hess, TV’s Survivor champion Amber Mariano and travel writers from across the country.

In reviewing the book, the Washington Examiner noted , “If I were going on such a [road] trip now, I would definitely want Roadside Attractions on the car seat beside me. Brian and Sarah retain convincingly infectious enthusiasm about the things that make a road trip so appealing.... [And] it’s a great book simply to sit down with and read, remember and dream. “

The event will be co-hosted with the LHHC. Items from the Lincoln Highway will be available for purchase the day of the event, and Butko will be available to autograph copies of his books.

Butko is a longtime board member of the Society for Commercial Archeology, and was a founding director of the Lincoln Highway Association. On weekdays, he edits Western Pennsylvania History magazine at the Senator John Heinz History Center.

For reservations, please call 724-329-1441, ext. 1107.

About the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy

To date, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has protected nearly 225,000 acres of natural lands in Pennsylvania. Now in its 75th year, Pennsylvania’s first conservancy continues to partner with grassroots organizations to protect land, restore watersheds and save natural habitats.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) preserves Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater®, which was designed in 1935 and entrusted to the Conservancy in 1963 by Edgar Kaufmann jr. A symbol of living in harmony with nature, Fallingwater is open to the public and offers a wide variety of educational programs to its more than 135,000 annual visitors.

Each year, WPC plants and maintains community gardens and greening projects throughout Western Pennsylvania. In 2007, WPC partnered with more than 5,000 volunteers and dozens of community organizations to plant 140 gardens in 19 western Pennsylvania counties.