Michelle Cassidy

Joined Atlas Obscura in 2019

Deputy Editor at Atlas Obscura michelle.cassidy@atlasobscura.com

2 Followers 0 Following

Follow travelers to discover remarkable places through their journeys.

My Travel Badges

Badge Earned!

West Virginia Visitor

As part of the West Virginia Destination Challenge, this badge celebrates the beginning of your journey through West Virginia's remarkable places. Every place you mark brings you closer to discovering more of what makes the Mountain State unique.

Next Badge: West Virginia Adventurer You're just getting started. Mark 10 West Virginia places as Been There or Want to Go to unlock the Adventurer badge.
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West Virginia Adventurer

As part of the West Virginia Destination Challenge, this badge celebrates your deeper exploration of West Virginia's remarkable places. Your journey has taken you beyond the highlights to uncover even more of what makes the Mountain State extraordinary.
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First Contribution

This badge celebrates your first contribution to the Atlas Obscura community and the role you play in helping others discover wonder.

Next Badge: 25 Contributions Make 25 total contributions to earn your next badge.
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25 Contributions

This badge celebrates your first 25 contributions to the Atlas Obscura community and the role you play in helping others discover wonder.

Next Badge: 100 Contributions Make 100 total contributions to earn your next badge.
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100 Contributions

This badge celebrates your first 100 contributions to the Atlas Obscura community and the lasting impact you've made by helping others discover wonder.

Next Badge: 500 Contributions Make 500 total contributions to earn your next badge.
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500 Contributions

This badge celebrates 500 contributions to the Atlas Obscura community and your extraordinary commitment to helping others discover wonder.

Next Badge: 1,000 Contributions Make 1,000 total contributions to earn your next badge.
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1,000 Contributions

This badge celebrates 1,000 contributions to the Atlas Obscura community. Your generosity and dedication have helped countless people discover more wonder around the world.

Thank you for helping make Atlas Obscura an even richer place for curious explorers.

Articles by Michelle Cassidy

12

Stories

Stories shared by this traveler.

A White Star Line postcard promoting two new steamships: Olympic and Titanic.

disasters

Titanic's Legacy: Our Favorite Reads

The world's fastest glacier, Chartreuse jelly, and other stories connected to the doomed ocean liner.

The square-shaped, blood-filled toe tips of a wandering salamander (Aneides vagrans) help them navigate their treetop habitat.

science

Blood-Powered Toes Give ‘Skydiving’ Salamanders a Boost

These amphibians evolved unique strategies to move around the canopies of the world's tallest trees.

In 1911, at the age of 61, Annie Peck Smith climbed the 21,083-foot Coropuna volcano in Peru and planted a flag reading "Votes for Women" at the summit.

mountains

Don't Call Annie Smith Peck a Woman Mountain Climber

The 19th-century mountaineer and suffragist competed with men and women alike to find the apex of the Americas.

Spotted skunks perform an impressive handstand to appear twice their size and ward off would-be predators.

vampires

Our Favorite Headlines of the Year Offer Skunk Stunts and Sandwich Scandals

Wild wordplay and curious questions from 2021.

The South 32 Hermosa mine site is only half a mile away from the Soto family homestead, and likely holds the largest undeveloped zinc deposit in the world.

ghost towns

Once a Boom Town, Now a Ghost Town, Always a Hometown

The Soto family has lived through Arizona's mining booms and the broken promises that come with them.

"It's scary and dark out in the dark forest."

literature

Read 8 Pieces of Creative Writing Inspired by Atlas Obscura Stories

We gave you the opening lines. You gave us inspired storytelling.

Inaccessible Island is an extinct volcano rising out of the South Atlantic Ocean. Surely there's an inaccessible island in your life.

landscapes

Art Challenge: Take a Photograph Inspired by a Wondrous Place

Show us how far-flung sights inspire you, even when you're stuck at home.

One in a series of maps created by Linda-Marlena Ross that illustrate rising sea levels and the ships in the polar seas.

maps

Art Challenge: Readers Show Us How They Map Their Worlds

Travel down the Road to Productivity, go on a bear hunt, and hope you get to see Super Island.

Every journey begins with a single step.

literature

Writing Challenge: Pen a Story Based on an Intriguing First Line

We'll get you started, the ending is up to you.

A vision of the Swing at the End of the World in Ecuador in oils, by Alexandrea Farquhar.

paintings

Art Challenge: Readers Draw Places They've Never Seen

Some of your creations are even more extraordinary than their real-life counterparts.

This map, created in 1927, includes the sites of historical events and landmarks in Hartford, Connecticut.

maps

Art Challenge: Make Your Own Amazing Maps

Show us how you navigate your world today.

Tokangawhā / Split Apple Rock

paintings

Art Challenge: Draw a Place You’ve Never Seen Before

Is your imagination as wondrous as reality?