manifesto? all of these things. that took us on this journey to a number of college campuses. i will take you back to 1985. one of the things that happened in 1985 in november was that a professor in michigan, university of michigan got a bomb in the mail. his name was mcconnell -- professor mcconnell. it was a bomb that was actually built into a three-ring binder. there was a letter with it. this is my thesis statement on the history of science. i would like you to take a look at this and maybe tell me what you think. sponsor my thesis. of course, when professor mcconnell and his assistant opened up the binder, it was actually a bomb that went off. we were really fascinated in 1994 a couple of postal inspectors were fascinated by and proposed a project to focus in on this history of science what does it mean. we had done a lot of work on that. gone to a lot of university campuses and talked to a lot of professors.

by the time the manifesto came, a lot of the information that came from knowing all the professors enabled us to go back to them and drill down and try to bring more details together about the books that were referenced in the manifesto the language and how it might relate to the history of science, which was our first clue from this guy when he wrote that letter. we spent months really trying to get to know and understanding and reading the manifesto. by the time we had someone step forward that could help us bring it together, we had kind of been on trails. we were able to go back and pull a lot of pieces together. >> there was debate about whether or not to publicsh the manifesto. "the washington post" did. tell us about how -- i believe there was a meeting that you can maybe describe where at first you said no, don't publish it. but then changed your mind quickly. tell us about how -- about that meeting. >> there was a meeting at the task force in san francisco.

the knee jerk reaction was, the national policy against doing business with a terrorist. we have an extortion demand. we should keep that in mind. we will recommend to the director of the fbi that they should not public. it took an hour to turn that decision around. the task force members to say we should look at this from a law enforcement perspective and let washington deal with national issue policies. if it will move the investigation forward and give us the opportunity to make an arrest in this case, doesn't that outweigh a national policy broad national policy? so we changed the task force members -- changed the recommendation to me and terry and i went back to -- came back here to washington and we went across the street to janet reno

the attorney general at the time, and she agreed. the next day when -- i was amazed but busy people made themselves available and we had the publishers of the "new york times" and "washington post" at a meeting along with the editorial staff, which was very interesting. terry, do you want to comment? >> it was funny. we're sitting on opposite sides of the table. we thought the tension would have to do with talking about unabomb and publication. it really came down to the -- i mentioned that we have this scenario where we think if you published it one of the things we would do is sur veil newsstands in san francisco and other cities because our profilers tell us that perhaps the unabomber will try to show up at a newsstand and get a trophy copy of the paper. i'm telling the story. they are listening. finally -- i said, we really think that if the post or the times published this, we would

set up on newsstands. we found in san francisco there's only a couple of places where the same day "washington post" is actually published -- i mean sold. we think that would be the perfect way, because "the new york times" is everywhere, the perfect way to publish it in the post and we can kind of stand up on those two places. there was quiet. and then someone -- i don't remember actually if it was from the post or the times but i have my thoughts, said by the way, who sells more papers in san francisco, the post or the times? i had no answer. i didn't know what i should do. go ahead tell them. i said, actually, we all kind of laugh because "the washington post" sells nothing in san francisco. he then said, well i wouldn't have been surprised at that. who reads the post washington? so we had a good moment there.

ultimately, they shared the cost of publication. on september 19, "the washington post" published in a special insert the unabomb manifesto. we then implemented our plan. again, max and i were going home one night, had it all ready, we had people coming in early the next morning to set up on the newsstands. we figured that we needed so many agents to watch about four or five locations because we really didn't figure we would have over 100 -- maybe 150 people show up. at 3:00 in the morning we got a call before we ever started the commute. they told us we have got lines around the block at these places. we have hundreds of people waiting to buy "the post." we needed more agents. that's what we had to do. >> it turned out to be -- we got the help of the media by publishing it and then i did

numerous press conferences talking about remember what we know about the unabomber. we know the geographical areas he worked in. urging the public to come forward. there was a million dollar reward that existed for a few years. and a 1-800 telephone line that people were calling in their potential suspects, people -- exwives reporting their husbands. 52 or 54 brothers reported third brothers were the unabomber. of course, we were just looking for the one tip that would be the one that made good. that is what happened. >> that's exactly where i was going to lead to. tell us about the tip. >> max you want to talk about that? >> i want to talk about zeroing in on him, too. >> we got a call from an attorney who was brokering -- trying to broker a deal with us about a client that he had. he was a washington, d.c.

attorney. it just -- things don't happen like they appear to have happened. this attorney had a good working relationship with an fbi agent here in washington, d.c. he was no longer here. he was in south carolina. he contacted him in south carolina. he in turn said i'm not there, i will give you an agent in d.c. to contact. he did. this young lady met with him and got a 20-page or 21-page document to read. it was typed on an antique typewriter. we had one forensic piece of evidence that we were always searching for. it was an antique smith corona 1925 to '30 typewriter. that's the one thing that connected all of the cases together over the years. molly got it took it to the -- our laboratory. they examined it and said it's not that typewriter. they sent it back to molly. molly was a good agent.

she knew how massive this case was. this case was not the normal case. you ask about the unabomb file, it was 59,000 volumes of information. that translates over to 11,800,000 pages of documents. she knew that. she called out to another supervisor and told him she had this document. she was sending it but she didn't want it to get lost in the stuff coming in. she said pay attention to it. even though the typewriter isn't the same the ideas here are the exact to the ideas in the manifesto. so joel got it and read it and got excited. he took it to terry and to our psychologist on the task force and they got excited. terry and jim were going to lunch. they took it to terry. terry said oh my god, we need to talk about this. he canceled his meeting with

jim. gave him some lame excuse and we went to lunch together with that document. as we were having lunch and reading the document, who walks in but jim? he looked at terry and said -- so anyway, everyone got excited about it. our task force, you have to understand, relates to a question you asked before, we had come off of a very compelling suspect that jim had determined could not possibly be the unabomber. the members a lot believed that it was. they had worked hard long exhausting hours. we said, man we need to give them a break before we start on this again. so we do a little reconnaissance, jerry does and talks to jim's setting. jim is gone for the afternoon. he won't be back. terry said, perfect. i can't withhold it from him. i will take it in and lay it on his desk with a little yellow

flynn on it and say we need to talk about this monday morning. terry and i go downstairs in the cafeteria and have coffee and relax. we hadn't been there 15 minutes and this is a day of the pager and his pager is going off like crazy with the signal number in there that the boss wants to see you. guess what? he didn't go home. he came back. the minute he read it he got excited. we went back up and terry talked to him and jim said, this is the man. this is the unabomber. we are turning the ship and -- we had 2,417 suspects. he was very perceptive. >> this document was -- 1973 that it was written? >> 1971. >> it was a treatise that ted kaczynski had written and given to his brother and his brother had kept that. when you read the pages from that many years before and compared it to reading of the

manifesto, i came to a conclusion the same person wrote it. others did as well. you can't take that to the bank. that does not get you a federal search warrant or a federal warrant. a lot more work to be done. but the gut feeling was there. we started a study and started developing common phrases as well as thoughts common to both documents. as well as the letters that were being written by the unabomber. known writings of the unabombers versus the suspect writings of ted kaczynski. and comparing it to a time line. we knew the unabomber had been in sacramento at a certain date when he dropped a package in the mailbox. or mailed a letter from here and it's postmarked from there. david kaczynski saved the outside envelopes which gave us dates where the unabomber had to be in these cities at this time.

we had this unabomb time line. and we had a ted kaczynski time line. they started to jive very well. we never found a conflict between the two. >> once we got the document from the attorney, he didn't tell us who his client was, but jim instituted an investigation all over the country. agents were sent back to interface with him and meet with his client and to broker the deal. then in turn david kaczynski and his wife agreed to meet with agents and talk. they in turn agreed to take the agents to chicago and talk with the mother and get letters and documents over the years and other investigation was going on. i was fortunate or unfortunate enough to be sent a short time later by these guys to montana in february to head the investigation there. while they were in the warmth and comfort of northern california. anyway, so there was a lot of things going on. the parts that were going on all over the country and being pulled together.

>> i want to make sure that we get the audience into the conversation. we have a staffer there with a microphone. if you have a question raise your hand. she will come to you. go over there. the first row. before -- i want to jump forward. once you identified ted kaczynski and knew where he was, there was another race against the clock against the media which was cbs. tell us about what they had and the negotiations with them about not releasing it. >> that was an interesting time. because we were under very serious time constraints. once we had focused in or terry and i had come to the conclusion that ted kaczynski is a suspect is our man, there's a lot of work to be done. an investigation is two stages. one, you identify the perpetrator.

two, you put together the evidence that can stand up in court and prove it. when we looked at ted kaczynski and max looked at him at first -- saw him first in montana, here is this hermit living in a cabin that had no running water nor electricity, no means of heating other than a stove. but yet our laboratories told us he puts components in the bombs where he melts aluminum. he has to have a kiln of many sort some sort. we found out he was doing it in the stove. there was many aspects about looking at ted kaczynski that didn't fit. how did this man travel in all these places and carry bombs and place them when all he had for transportation was a bicycle? in the winter, he is snowed in. then to see him with his clothes falling off of him and a hermit that how did this man target

university professors and heads of corporations? it didn't fit in. not every one of our staff really believed that ted was a viable suspect. max was a holedout until we searched the cabin. >> i wondered if you felt that the manifesto was released as sort of a feeling from ted kaczynski he was in competition with the terrorist who bombed the trade center and mcveigh who had blown up oklahoma city federal building? >> we thought that might be the case. terry, you in particular looked into that. >> one of the first calls we made was to our profiler after the mcveigh bombing of the oklahoma city federal building. she pointed out very quickly to us that this was something done by somebody who wants to be a mass killer as opposed to the un

box bomber who kills from afar. those distinctions didn't seem to be something we could make a final conclusion on were enough to convince people these are separate bombings. in fact kaczynski put his plan in motion as mcveigh was putting his plan in motion. it was coincidental. that's an important question. if you think back to after 9/11 and the terrible tragedy of the twin towers, it was a week later that up and down the east coast you had the anthrax attacks. there was a huge outcry and people that wanted specific actions to take place. which would have unleashed a lot of significant weapons and issues. because they thought the anthrax was connected to 9/11 was all connected to hussein in iraq. it turns out we found other reasons to go into iraq. these are the things that go on. if you look at the history of terrorism, you can see coincidences.

i give you one more example. ooh receive was thinking of putting bombs on 11 airplanes about the same time that kaczynski was threatening to put a bomb on an airplane out of lax. the world is a resignificant complicated and yet aplace you have to tread in caution when you deal with terrorism. >> kaczynski was on a bus to sacramento when oklahoma city occurred. it was a popular theory but he had no knowledge of oklahoma city. >> you misunderstood my question. did you did you feel he was in competition in that he felt he wasn't being noticed lieblg other like others receiving media coverage? >> we did feel that way even going back to 1993 and first world trade center bombing. we did feel that way. >> but he didn't know about oklahoma city. that wasn't competition. he was already setting his own plan in motion. >> a second question right there.

>> in a case like this with all the bombings how many bombings did it take before they connected that they were all from the same bomber? how often -- is 100% of your work when you are on the task force that work or do you do anything else? >> no. once it was formed, we were 100%. we had anywhere from 40 fbi agents and similar amounts of atf agents and postal inspectors working together full-time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, very few nights, very few vacations, long days and so forth. the other part of the question? >> how many bombings before you realized it was connected? >> law enforcement in the late '70s didn't know about the existence of a serial bomber until the fourth bombing. they concluded about the third bombing. if you follow this case at all, you know that in some of his early bombs, the unabomber started putting metal tags that were stamped with letters f.c.

in it. the reason he did that was because law enforcement wasn't connecting the bombs that he had left. he wanted credit. rather than depend upon law enforcement to connect them, he started putting his calling card in there so we would know. so he would get credit for what he was doing. >> i'm a retired customs agents. worked with the fbi in south florida. you have an amazing organization and investigative capability. i would like to ask a question related to mentions of sovereignty and national policy takes precedent over law enforcement investigative priorities. we have a recurring theme in american history of the lone bomber lone assassin. in this case you did an amazing job and it was a lone bomber. lee harvey oswald, lone assassin. osama bin laden, sole person. world trade center 7 which wasn't been discussed in the

media, discussed in seven seconds in new york city. the third tower that collapsed that day. how did bin laden do that? are you confident that there weren't explosive devices used in seven as well as the other towers? also, as we approach the 50th anniversary of the warren commission, e. howard hunt, former cia watergate convict confessed to being part of the plot and identified other cia personnel as involved in the kennedy assassination before he died in 2007. media won't report it. final question then, would you believe lee harvey oswald was the lone shooter? >> we will stop it there. if you want to take that. >> you asked a lot. i think you kind of put your fingers on a lot of cases where many people have many questions. i would not even pretend to try and answer or give some sort of

comfort to any particular position. i think that i read the warren commission report. i felt good about it. it looked like they covered a lot. there are people that don't think that. i think everybody who is interested in this and interested in terrorism should go back and look at some of the things that you mentioned and look at the cases you mentioned. they can make up their mind. i think that bottom line for us as far as things like the world trade center, we have an indict ment on a number of people because of the world train center. we have indictments in the coal bombing and embassy bombings. the reason i think them up and they are important you can read those and see interconnection between the chashs scharacters that led to 9/11. we can go all day, but that's what i would suggest. certainly appreciate your assessment of things. >> as the mike gets to a question up there i want to get back to the unabomber. tell us about the first moment -- you were the first of the three of you to see him.

once you were surrounding the cabin, what was the lure to get him out? >> first of all, i saw him a month before we actually took him into custody. i developed a good source of information who owned the property around him. we were trying to get a physical description of the cabin for the search warrant affidavit or arrest warrant affidavit. we had to be specific of what it looked like, where it was located. don't go to a court and say i want a search warrant or arrest warrant of this cabin in montana. that was one of the jobs that jim task me to do. i walked up along with his neighbor -- one of his neighbors up a skid road that brought lumber trees out of the forest above him. as we were about 40 yards away from the cabin outs in the clearing he stuck his head out. my first response was my31$ñ god, is that what we have been looking for all these years? he was a wild looking person.

he had on an orange knit cap. you conjure up an image of who you think you are looking for over the years. we're listening as jim said to all these people telling us about power tools and all of this stuff. here is a guy living in this little cabin which downstairs here that just amazed me. with that perspective in mind when jim made the decision that we had to take him out of the cabin, another job that he had given me was to develop an arrest plan for safety getting ted kaczynski out of that cabin. one thing that we promised his family was that we would arrest him humanely if they cooperated with us. we wouldn't have a ruby ridge or waco standoff in which he would be killed. so we had to develop a plan. in my estimation, the plan was pretty simple. he had to come out some time.

all the time i was up there, he wasn't coming out. he was staying in close proximity to the cabin. the plan had been to wait for him to come out and go to town to get provisions, supplies or what have you. as he pedalled his bike into town on a gravel road, we would zoom in and pounce on him and take him into custody. well, we couldn't do that because of the demands of some people in the media who threatened to take it to a program that in the near future -- we didn't know if he had capability of monitoring the program. we found out he had a radio in there, a battery operated radio. it was to develop a plan to get him out of the cabin safely. in developing this source, we discussed that possibility. i was quite confident that we could trick him into coming out of the cabin without him knowing who we were and why we were there. if he got close enough to one of

the three of us that approached the cabin we would grab him. we used a ruse. we went up three of us. a four-service police officer in full police uniform who patrolled the area who kaczynski knew and who knew kaczynski, my partner, our senior residents agent, who looks like a could you buoycowboy and myself. we let the police officer do all the talking. when you go on someone's private property in the mountains in particular, you just -- you are trespassing. you don't walk on their property without permission. jerry started hailing him as we left the trail and went on his property. there was no response from in the cabin. the plan had been for jerry to do the talking because they knew one another. he would introduce us as people from a mining company who the surrounding property owner had leased the mining exploratory rights for the coming summer to

that company. he had told ted kaczynski that he had done that in december and ted was not happy. but he had ensured ted that he would see to it that this mining company stayed off of ted's property when they came up. of course, he didn't know that the reason ted kaczynski didn't want people around was he was experimenting with bombs and explosives and so forth. as we got up to the cabin he opened the door and jerry the police officer said, hi mr. kaczynski, i'm here with the men from the mining company. we need to see where your corner posts are so they will ensure the employees don't trespass on your land this summer when they come up here. he said, my corner posts are marked. jerry said they are under snow. we could go out and dig around, but we thought it would be easier if you help us. he said, okay. he took one step toward jerry.

and jerry is a sizable guy. that was his big mistake. jerry grabbed him. it was not very dramatic. he started wrestling and fighting. big tom mcdaniel wrapped him up and they struggled and i got to walk around and had the privilege that every fbi agent enjoys which was taking my credentials out and saying mr. kaczynski, fbi. he looked at my weapon staring him at the nose and he complied. it was not dramatic. it was very easy and simple. it went like we planned it, thank god. >> we have time for one more question. >> i was wondering if you could comment more on the manifesto itself. i haven't read the full document. my understanding of it is that it focuses on the socialization and political theories and psychology behind it. i was wondering what was i guess the importance of the manifesto to ted kaczynski and how it

relates to the bombing itself? >> it was a philosophy of -- against technology. it wasn't -- the philosophy itself was not unique to ted kaczynski kaczynski. but the way he expressed it was unique. that's what helped us out in the investigation and made it recognizable. >> it was called industrial society and its future. it was like a return to living with little technology. ted kaczynski, a lot of people asked, ted was anger revenge motivated. we did huge studies on trying to connect victims in this. what was the common i'llty? there was no commonality. he selected victims who were representational of things he didn't like. he didn't like university professors. he didn't like graduate students. he didn't like airlines. he didn't like computers in the technology. he didn't like psychologists.

he went on -- i called him the equal opportunity hater. he hated anything and everything that wasn't him. he would act on it. we took 22,000 pages of journals out of his cabin. we knew why he did what he did. there's no question about it. he wrote it down. he says very specifically, i have a lot of hate in me. i'm doing this for no particular purpose other than revenge and anger. >> we actually inserted in the -- in our book in each chapter has a quotation of ted's own words describing his motivations and his reaction to people that he had killed or people that he didn't kill, or the bomb malfunctioned. he expressed regret that he didn't kill them. i think it adds an interesting flavor to our description of the investigation. >> this was actually the -- his passion, these words. when we had him as a suspect and

had him arrested, we went back and found he had written editorials to the chicago tribune. had we been able to go back and thought about checking papers and been lucky to find some of these, it looked like the manifesto. he had been having these thoughts and he had this grand vision of the way life should be for many years. >> you need to understand, ted kaczynski had an iq of 170. he graduated from high school and went to harvard when he was 16 years old. he went to the university of michigan and got his ph.d. in math mathematics in two years. we know that when he was at michigan, he wrote that he had -- he was dedicating his life to going to the wilderness after he graduated and accumulate enough money to do this, going to the wilderness and beginning his campaign of terror ichl and killing people he didn't like. this wasn't something that just occurred spontaneously. he had been forming this idea

for many many years. >> we have run out of time. we invite you to our second floor dining room where you can ask further questions. there's going to be light refreshments there. you are welcome. most importantly, we will be selling copies of the book "unabomber, how the fbi broke its own rules." the gentlemen will sign copies and take other questions. thank you for joining us here today. [ applause ]

you have been watching american history tv. we want to hear from you. every saturday at 4:00 p.m. eastern, it's history bookshelf with the best known american history writers of the past decade talking about their books. every saturday at 4:00 eastern

here on american history tv on c-span3. throughout 2014, c-span city tours features the history of communities throughout the country. here is a look at one of those cities. ♪ ♪ we are standing here at historic fort sneling. it's the first foot hold in this region for united states expansion. during the early 1800s, you

begin to have this idea spreading across the country of the manifest destiny to spread from sea to shining sea. it's the right to extend across north america. of course, that's problematic because there are other people who lived here first. the american indian nations. in this region, that was primary the dakota. fort snelling establishes and it's a foothold for expansion. nothing was the same after it was established here. relations between american indians in this region and the united states government began to change. about 1650 the first europe yaps arrive in what would be minnesota. they are arriving because of the fur trade. they are interested in exchanging furs with the indians who lived north of here. they are exchanging for furs and manufactured goods. the fur trade is what really establishes european presence in

this region. it goes on for over 200 years. it is because of the fur trade that the army eventually, united states army establishes a fort here. they are interested in protecting the fur trade interests once it becomes a part of the united states possession after the war of 1812. so the fur trade is the engine -- the economic engine that drives the united states' interests in the region. the dakota had their economy to a large part based on the fur trade throughout the 17 and 1800s. so when the fur trade begins to decline, that's when you see a shift in relations between the people. >> aim, fire. >> in 1851 the treaties were

signed, which the dakotas creed over 24 million acres of the their land to the united states. so then by the 1860s, you had divisions between those who wanted to maintain traditional way of life and those who didn't. you had food shortages. and you had increasing pressure from immigrants coming into the area. in 1862, the small group of dakota decided to declare war on the united states. they began attacking civilians trading posts, farms settlements and there was a six-week war. solders from the fort were sent to fight in the war. as a result, dakota treaties were aboutry gated. they were for theed out of minnesota. fort snelling became the site.

over the winter of 1862 and 1863 dakota, were held there. because of the living conditions, the poor quarters there, many of them died. there was acts of violence against people in the concentration camp. it was a horrible place for them. it was part of this effort after the u.s. dakota war to remove the dakota from minnesota. what's really tragically ironic is that this place, which for many is seen as a place of birth of their people is also a place of their confinement in a concentration camp and expulsion and genocide. it's important when you think about the story and the history of this region that you think beyond the walls of fort

snelling. we try to push people to think more about what does it mean when all these cultures came together? what perspectives did they have on these historic events? you could look at a single event from multiple angles and multiple perspectives. that helps us think about the world we live in today how can we see things through someone else's eyes. how can we be more understanding of multiple perspectives? so you can look at the fort in multiple ways. you can look at it as the expansion of the the pioneer spirit moving west conquering the wilderness. or you could look at it as a place of interment for the dakota that we are here because of the u.s. dakota war of 1862. you could look at it as expansion and colonization of native lands by the united states government. there is the story of african-americans, free and enslaved. this is a place that was to be free of slavery.

yet you have existence of slavery in the walls of the fort alongside free african-americans. so the fort is a wonderful way to explore the splex tis s kprex tis of history and how people's choices and decisions shaped the world we live in today. we are inside one of the furnished squad rooms in the stone barracks which wases the home for the enlisted men.

one thing people notice here is there are only six beds. soldiers were required to sleep two to a bed box. each of these bunks would have had two soldiers sleeping in it. . . . a soldier in the 1820s would recognize much of this as what he would have lived in. it was used all the way up through the civil war this way. the only difference being during the 1860s they would have added an extra bunk on top of the beds. fort snelling was the central rendezvous for minnesota's volunteers and draftees during the civil war.

at the end of the war they left and returned through the fort. the garrison fluctuated quite a bit depending upon the year you are looking at. in the 1820s most estimates are around 500 people would have been here at the fort. that's about 350 soldiers and about 150 civilians and enslaved people. that's a rough estimate. it fluctuated based on the goals of the army whether they wanted a large garrison. they were called off fighting that war. of course by world war ii the number skyrockets. during the period that the united states was involved over 300,000 men and women passed through fort snelling as they were inducted into military

service. it depends on the historic area you look at. bottom line is this was a busy place throughout much of its history. we are standing in front of the place we believe dred and har ayatollah scott lived when they were at fort snelling between 1836 and 1840. when guests of the fort hear the story of the enslaved people that were here many are surprised. they may have heard of dre d scott in high school history, a long time ago. they didn't know he lived here. they didn't know he and his family were herement they didn't know the institution of slavery existed this far north. it surprises a lot of people. we hope learning about these people whose stories are important and realizing what happened here at the fort really impacted american history. the scotts' experience here informed part of the legal case when they sued for freedom throughout the 1840s and 50s.

part of their time means they should be free. the case when the to the united states supreme court. because of the dred scott decision in 1857. it's stated dre d and harriet didn't have the right to sue in court. as african-americans, as black people they were not citizens of the united states. also that the missouri compromise which limited where slavery could exist in the country was unconstitutional. enslaved human beings at the time were property not people. it furtherered the divide between the north and south prior to the civil war. one of the direct causes leading up to the rupture in the 1860s the fighting in the civil war had its origin right here with dred and harriet scott. evidence about the daily lives of enslaved people here at the

fort is scarce. we believe that they were primarily working in what'sle called domestic slavery. that's cooking, cleaning doing domestic chores for their owners. in this case mostly they were officers here at the fort. dred and harriet scott for example, belonged to dr. john emerson. he was the post surgeon. they would have been in his kitchen. the enslaved people working under that type of condition would have been living inside the places that they worked. so for a long officer's quarters down in the basement kitchens, we believe that's where the majority of the enslaved people working and living would have been and it's arguable that this is the place for the first major african-american community and what would become minnesota right here at fort snelling.

it was a stone fort. you don't have the context around it. you miss out on the important role it played not just in minnesota's history but in national history. you are miss the narrative. you miss the whole point of this being here. if uh you don't have the large wrapping around it you will miss out on the other stories. all the other stories that shape the history. they may not have realized it at the time. what those people did shaped the world that their descendents would live in. our world is shaped by what people did then. if we think in terms of a small piece, you can't get the full story. the full amazing, complex, diverse story. >> to learn more about the cities on the 2014 tour and

watch videos from sites throughout the country, visit c-span.org/local content. this is american history tv on c c-span3. the c-span cities tour takes us on the road traveling to u.s. cities to learn about their history and literary life. we partnered with time warner cable for a visit to austin texas. >> we are in the private suite of lyndon and ladybird johnson. this was private quarters for the president and first lady. when i say private, i mean it. this is not part of a tour that's offered to the public. this has never been opened to the public. you're seeing it because of c-span's special access. vips come into this space as they did in lyndon johnson's day. it's not open to our visitors on a daily basis.

the remarkable thing about the space is it's really a living, breathing artifact. it hasn't changed at all since president johnson died in january of 1973. there is a document in the corner of the room signed by among others the archivist of the united states and ladybird johnson telling my predecessors myself and my successors that nothing this this room can change. to my left down the block is the colorado river. this is an important site in the city's history. this is where waterloo was. it was a cluster of cabin occupied by four or five familieses including j. carol. i'm standing at the spot where the cabin was. this is where mirabella mar was when he and the rest got word of a big buffalo herd in the

vicinity. they jumped on the horses congress avenue -- wasn't the avenue. it was a muddy ravine then that led north to the hill where the capitol sits. the men galloped on the horse s. they stuffed their belts full of pistols and rode into the midst of the buffalo firing and shouting. lamar at 8th and congress shot this enormous buffalo. from there he went to the top of the hill to where the capitol is. he told everybody this should be the seat of a future empire. >> watch our oh >> the 114th congress gavels in tuesday. american history tv looks back at the opening remarks from former house speaker's.