We hit the road for USA 250
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How did USA TODAY reporters document journeys for the USA 250 project?
To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, USA Today sent reporters to follow iconic American journeys from the Mississippi River to the moon and to capture our shared American heritage. USA Today national correspondent Trevor Hughes and USA Today national news reporters Sarah D. Weier and Carissa Waddock have spent 2026 in the places that define who we are, doing what they do best, capturing the voice and spirit of America.
Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Friday, July 3rd, 2026. Sarah, Trevor, Carissa, it's so wonderful to speak with you.
Good to be here.
Thanks for having us.
Great to be here. To begin, tomorrow flags will be waving across the country, some stitched at a factory in South Boston, Virginia. Carissa, you've probably written about symbols before, but inside this factory, the meaning attached to the American flag varies from person to person. What stayed with you, not only about these workers, but also the culture inside the factory?
They all thought about freedom differently as they were sewing the American flag, putting themselves kind of into the American flag and their dreams for their future and the country. I talked to one woman who recently got out of incarceration, and she said that freedom really meant a second chance to her. This job represented freedom. I talked to another woman who said, you know, this job and the American flag really represented being able to have crab legs on the couch for Fourth of July with her grandchildren. And so really, you know, the differences that freedom represents to every American, but all represented under that one flag.
That moment where a flag from the factory is seen at the 9-11 memorial was particularly moving. Can you talk a bit about that and the deeper purpose the workers you spoke with tied to what they make on the factory floor?
Yeah, we were walking around the factory with Mark Lane, the operations director, and he was telling us all about the nitty gritty details of how the flag comes together. And we stopped and we asked him, you know, what does it mean actually, though, to you when it's completed? And he paused. and he reflected on a moment with his grandchildren when he was at the 9 11 memorial in new york as you said and he saw an annan flag there in a crevice next to the names of those who died on that day and he realized that somebody had put that flag there an annan flag to remember somebody that they had loved and they had lost and he really choked up at that moment and And I think to him, that deeper purpose was really finding a way to help everybody kind of find their own meaning.
Trevor, you were a man on the move this year. One of the places you visited was the Oregon Trail. You captured the pioneer spirit of America on that trail. What struck you the most as you explored our roots of being a nation on the move?
Yeah, I mean, that was such a great assignment. I took my camper and my dogs, because my wife had to work, and we spent about a week traveling down portions of Interstate 80 across Wyoming and Nebraska, which followed the Oregon Trail. And I stopped at Scott's Bluff in Nebraska. It's sort of one of the big, iconic landmarks on the Oregon Trail, but it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. And it really struck me as I was talking to people there, what an adventurous spirit that we have as people. You know, many of the people on the Oregon Trail, their families had just come from Europe a generation before their parents or maybe their grandparents. These were relatively new families to America, and they really went west in search of a better life.
You know, that obviously had a lot of consequences for the Native Americans who lived there. But it was really this this adventurous spirit, this idea of like, well, what's what is on the other side of the hill? What is over there? Could things be better? I'm sure they could be better. I was really struck by that in the course of my reporting on this story.
Well, I was struck by how many people walked and what a long walk it was.
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Chapters
3 chapters
1
How did USA TODAY reporters document journeys for the USA 250 project?
0:03–5:08
2
What did workers at the South Boston American flag factory say about the flag’s meaning?
5:08–15:41
3
What did reporters learn driving the Oregon Trail about the pioneer spirit and consequences for Native Americans?
15:41–20:37
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Excerpt
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