In the fall of 1995, the webmaster first began creating web pages for the math department at Johnson County Community College, a role in which he continued for almost 15 years. Also in 1995, he created his own web page, one which provided some background on him and his activities. All of these pages were hosted by the college.
In 1997, the webmaster began developing web pages for mathematics instruction. These first pages were on isolated topics, generally related to the connections between equations and graphs. In 1999, he added material that focused on the needs of his Business Math courses. Over the years, many other mathematical topics were added, including algebra, trigonometry, calculus, discrete math, and statistics.
In 2000, the webmaster began experimenting with interactive web pages on mathematical topics. The first such endeavor was a financial calculator powered by JavaScript. In 2002, thanks to the college's license, he and his colleague Mike Martin began writing pages powered by webMathematica. These efforts earned them the 2004 Award for Excellence and Innovation with the Use of Technology in Collegiate Mathematics, given by the International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics, as well as an Innovation of the Year Award in 2005 from the League for Innovation in the Community Colleges. The interactivity provided by web applications is a hallmark of Web 2.0 (yet the first Web 2.0 conference did not occur until 2003, according to Wikipedia).
In 2001, the webmaster began hosting Integermania!, a recreational mathematics site prompted by the Four Fours problem. Since that time, over 200 individuals have contributed solutions to a number of related problems. Solutions are ranked according to their exquisiteness, and the better solutions are always preferred. Most of the submitters have been students of the webmaster, but the site has gained a small international following.
In 2009, having already considered almost a dozen variations of Integermania problems, the webmaster performed some computer analyses on all possible sets of four digits. It was found that the digits 1, 2, 5, and 8 would produce the greatest exquisiteness. Looking for a name for this problem, he considered all 24 possible permutations of the digits, and found 5281 to be the most interesting, being equivalent to one mile plus one foot. Thus the Milefoot problem was born.
In 2010, after much consideration, the webmaster opted to move the site from the college server to a commercial hosting company. This move has removed some of the restrictions that were present at the college, and opened a number of new doors for the site. However, the site needed a name, and by 2010 many speculators had already registered most of the "sensible" names. Not wanting to purchase a domain name as well, the webmaster considered his options. The name Milefoot.com was short, memorable, and still available, and so Milefoot.com became the name of this site.