Jefferson City incorporated in 1825, but so much of that history has changed or been forgotten. Today's Lincoln University practice field used to host early circus visitors. Although called St. Peter Cemetery #1, the old recently restored cemetery on West Main Street was the second Catholic cemetery, after the sight and smell at the northeast corner of Bolivar and McCarty Streets was too much for neighbors. The man who designed the Missouri State Seal and served as a longtime judge built a Steamboat-style home on a hill at the northwest corner of Adams and High Streets, where the Missouri River Regional Library is today. Author Michelle Brooks explores the world of the Mill Bottom and the Foot, as well as cemeteries, fairgrounds, ballparks and stately homes lost to time.

Michelle Brooks studied anthropology and history at Lincoln University, Jefferson City, and worked on larger research projects, including identifying of members of the Sixty-Second U.S. Colored Troops, founders of Lincoln University; finding men who attended Lincoln University and also served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II as Tuskegee Airmen; and discovering the broad and pioneering career of her grandfather Harry HAP Peebles, who was a country music promoter across the Midwest from 1938 to 1993.