Category: Media Interviews

Mike Dixon, a public historian, is often asked to do media interviews on his areas of scholarship for radio and television stations, magazines, and newspapers.

Historian Discusses Mason-Dixon Line in Media Interview

milestone one Mason-Dixon line chester county
While doing the Mason-Dixon Line interview, they stood next to this English Portland Stone Marker on the Chester County Line. It is milestone 1 (Photo: Kyle Dixon)

During a recent Harrisburg Public Media interview, historian Mike Dixon joined Scott LaMar of WITF to explore the complex history of the Mason-Dixon Line. Standing beside milestone 1, a stone maker placed in 1765 by the surveyors, the discussion centered on the colonial divide between Maryland and Pennsylvania over territory.  This dispute ended in the 1760s when the colonial proprietors hired Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to establish a permanent boundary line.

The conversation then shifted to discussing how the Mason-Dixon Line took on meanings beyond its intended purpose, a geographic boundary that sorted out land ownership claims. In the centuries after the British astronomers and surveyors completed their work, the line became associated with symbolism as a political and cultural border between the North and South 

As a historian specializing in community studies and social history, Dixon has curated exhibits, conducted research, published articles, and delivered numerous lectures on the Mason-Dixon Line and its complex history.

With his popular midday show. The Spark on WTIF, LaMar interviews experts, community leaders, and authors on contemporary and historical topics of public interest to central Pennsylvania.

The Mason-Dixon Line is still a significant historical marker today. It is a reminder of the United States’ complex history and the divisions that have shaped the country.

Historian Interviewed by TV Station After Loss of Historic Hotel

As a social historian specializing in community studies, I am often asked to do media interviews after catastrophes or significant accidents. These tragedies can profoundly impact the social, economic, and historical fabric, altering lives, historic buildings, landmarks, and artifacts.

Mike dixon TV interview
Mike Dixon TV interview on Station WJZ in Baltimore

This was the case this week. After a three-alarm fire destroyed a 170-year-old hotel in Elkton on Sunday, May 21, 2023. WJZ-TV Baltimore asked me to provide context around the landmark’s story, discuss how things have changed over the centuries, and comment on the impact of the destructive fire for the interview.

Once located on the main thoroughfare between Philadelphia and Baltimore, the Howard Hotel was an anchor in downtown Elkton for generations. It was a popular destination for travelers, families, and locals- a gathering place for generations.

The Northeastern Maryland landmark bustled with activity as waitresses served fine meals, bartenders dispensed drinks, and overnight guests booked comfortable rooms. This was long before Interstates and dual highways bypassed the town center, and hotel chains sprouted up along those new roads. In that earlier age, traveling salesmen, families making their way up or down the east coast, and others passing this way came right down Elkton’s Main Street, formerly Route 40.

The Howard Hotel was more than just a place to stay.  It was a gathering place for the town. People met here for celebrations and to catch up with friends and neighbors.

Now a place that has anchored downtown since before the Civil War and prospered under the guidance of generations of hotelkeepers and tavern owners is gone.

Philadelphia Road Elkton in 1920
In the 1920s, traffic flows through downtown Elkton on the Philadelphia Road. The Howard Hotel is in the background. (Source: Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia)

Discussing the Impact of Disasters on a Community With Fox News

Various things make up the shared historical memory of a community. These narratives take assorted forms, but the most jarring materialize when an unthinkable tragedy strikes. Whether a storm or accident, the catastrophes are seared deeply into the collective memory of residents. They shatter many lives and became part of history in the aftermath — the shared experience remembered and passed down through the generations.

Disasters impact communities. pan american disaster impact on Elkton
Remembering the impact of the Pan American plane crash in 1963 on Dec. 8, 2022.

These large-scale disasters, which often change a community forever, are part of understanding the story of a place, so people want the disruptive occurrence documented. Thus in my community studies and social history practice, I sometimes do fieldwork centered on researching, documenting, and memorializing them. Often, the process involves oral history interviews, as people reflect and discuss recollections; for others, it happened so long ago that firsthand recall has faded, so the process involves archival research as stakeholders establish a remembrance archive.    

One project I worked on in 2013 was the Flight 214 Remembrance Archive, which marked fifty years since the accident.  On December 8, 1963, at 8:59 p.m. A Pan American jet on final approach to Philadelphia exploded in flight. That night, all 81 people on the jet perished instantly while hundreds of first responders rushed to a cornfield at the edge of the Delaware State Line.  One firefighter answering the alarm was Stewart W. Godwin. While searching the debris field, he suddenly collapsed and died. He was the first North East Fire Company member to die in the line of duty. 

Those connected with this tragedy don’t forget it; this year, as we marked fifty-nine years since the accident, was no exception. Too, major broadcast networks often mark the disaster. And this year, on December 8, 2022, the Fox Network asked me to discuss the disaster’s impact and how a northeastern Maryland town recalls it.    

More on Researching Disasters

Historical Research into a Railroad Disaster: Greenwood, Delaware

Young Railroader Edwin Road Killed in Greenwood Explosion

Interview With WBAL About Hurricane Agnes

Delmarva Pandemic of 1918 Archive

Remembering Three Mile Island in Maryland

Interview With WBAL-TV About Hurricane Agnes

As the nation marks 50 years since the remnants of Hurricane Agnes ripped across Maryland, WBAL-TV’s Tommie Clark stopped by the Conowingo Dam to interview me about the destructive storm’s impact on Maryland.  

The Weather Service downgraded the hurricane to a tropical storm by the time it hit Maryland on June 21, 1972.  But Agnes stalled over Pennsylvania and New York, causing the worst flooding on record for the Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania and northeastern Maryland.

Mike Dixon on WBAL talking about Hurricane Agnes
Mike Dixon talking to WBAL about Hurricane Agnes

As a record rainfall soaked the river basin between June 21 and 24, the flood-swollen waterway spread over a wide area. Once all the gates on the Conowingo Dam opened Port Deposit’s Main Street filled with rushing water. Earlier, officials ordered a mandatory evacuation — only one small part of a block in the center of town remained dry as rescue boats floated down Main Street. 

Havre de Grace, Port Deposit, Perryville, and other places suffered enormous destruction.  Those who lived through this record-breaking storm will never forget the destructive force that disrupted lives.   So as we mark the passage of a half-century, 11 news Baltimore, took a look back at the damage and the progress made in weather forecasting in “Hurricane Agnes: 50 Years Later.”

I talked to WBAL about those destructive days, discussing the impact of Agnes and how people nearly two generations later remember it in northeastern Maryland. Having taken 21 lives in Maryland, it remains the deadliest named storm in state history.

For More on Hurricane Agnes See

The full 30-minute broadcast on WBAL-TV.

Tropical Storm Agnes Won’t be forgotten in Cecil County

The storm path of Hurricane Agnes (Source: Final Report of the Disaster Survey Team on the Events of Agnes, Report 73-1, NOAA. Feb. 1973)