Why the Chicago Cubs are Named After a Baby Bear and The Long, Weird History of Their Mascot

Route 66 is no longer the main thoroughfare between Chicago and St. Louis, but if local lore is to be believed, ghostly traffic along the Mother Road continues unabated. Janice Tremeear chases down accounts of a man executed for witchcraft, the demon baby of Hull House and the secrets of H.H. Holmes's Murder Castle. Native American legends place the piasa bird in the skies above the highway's southern stretch with the same insistence that characterize contemporary UFO sightings in the north.