Interactive World Map: Click a location and view photographs. Very cool.
Category: Places & Travel
Scotts Bluff National Monument (Nebraska)
… was so designated on this date in 1919. It is one of five National Park Service sites in Nebraska.
Towering eight hundred feet above the North Platte River, Scotts Bluff has been a natural landmark for many peoples, and it served as the path marker for those on the Oregon, California, Mormon, and Pony Express Trails.
Scotts Bluff National Monument preserves 3,000 acres of unusual land formations which rise over the otherwise flat prairieland below.
Andrew Johnson National Historic Site (Tennessee)
… was re-designated on this date in 1962. It had been a national monument since 1935.
The Andrew Johnson National Historic Site honors the life of the 17th President. Andrew Johnson’s presidency, 1865-1869, illustrates the United States Constitution at work following President Lincoln’s assassination and during attempts to reunify a nation torn by civil war. His presidency shaped the future of the United States and his influences continue today.
Adams National Historical Park (Massachusetts)
… was first designated Adams Mansion National Historical Site 60 years ago today.
Adams National Historical Park tells the story of four generations of the Adams family (from 1720 to 1927). The park has two main sites: the Birthplaces of 2nd U.S. President John Adams and 6th U.S. President John Quincy Adams, and Peacefield including the “Old House,” home to four generations of the Adams family, and the Stone Library which contains more than 14,000 historic volumes.
Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona)
… was first proclaimed a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt under the Antiquities Act 100 years ago today. It became a national park in 1962.
With one of the world’s largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood, multi-hued badlands of the Painted Desert, historic structures, archeological sites, and displays of 225 million year old fossils, this is a surprising land of scenic wonders and fascinating science.
Montezuma Castle National Monument (Arizona)
… was established by President Theodore Roosevelt under the Antiquities Act 100 years ago today.
This five-level, 20 room cliff dwelling nestled into a limestone recess high above Beaver Creek served as a “high-rise apartment building” for prehistoric Sinagua Indians over 600 years ago. It is one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America.
Erroneously named for the 16th century Aztec ruler, the site is a classic example of the last phase of southern Sinagua occupation of the Verde Valley.
El Morro National Monument (New Mexico)
… was established by President Theodore Roosevelt under the Antiquities Act 100 years ago today.
Paso por aqui . . . A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a massive sandstone bluff made El Morro (the bluff) a popular campsite. Ancestral Puebloans settled on the mesa top over 700 years ago. Spanish and American travelers rested, drank from the pool and carved their signatures, dates and messages for hundreds of years. Today, El Morro National Monument protects over 2,000 inscriptions and petroglyphs, as well as Ancestral Puebloan ruins.
For events this weekend: One hundred years as a National Moument.
December 8th is the birthday
… of David Carradine. Kwai Chang Caine is 70.
… of James MacArthur. Danno can book 69 years worth.
… of Jerry Butler. His precious love is 67.
… of Gregg Allman. Not such a ramblin’ man now that he’s 59.
As the principal architects of Southern rock, the Allman Brothers Band forged this new musical offshoot from elements of blues, jazz, soul, R&B and rock and roll. Along with the Grateful Dead and Cream, they help advance rock as a medium for improvisation. Their kind of jamming required a level of technical virtuosity and musical literacy that was relatively new to rock & roll, which had theretofore largely been a song-oriented medium. The original guitarists in the Allman Brothers Band – Duane Allman and Dickey Betts – broke that barrier with soaring, extended solos. Combined with organist Gregg Allman’s gruff, soulful vocals and Hammond B3 organ, plus the forceful, syncopated drive of a rhythm section that included two drummers, the Allman Brothers Band were a blues-rocking powerhouse from their beginnings in 1969. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
… of Bill Bryson. The humor writer is 54. Not much funny about that.
… of Kim Basinger. Might take her more than 9½ weeks now that she’s 53.
… of Teri Hatcher. She’s desperate at 42.
… of Sinead O’Connor. Nothing compares 2 her at 40.
Sammy Davis Jr. was born 80 years ago today.
John Lennon was killed on this date in 1980.
Jeanette Rankin cast the sole vote in Congress against the U.S. declaration of war on Japan on this date in 1941. She had also voted against entry into World War I. When elected in 1916, Rankin was the first woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She was not re-elected in 1918, after voting against entry in the First World War, but was returned to Congress for one term in 1940. Jeanette Rankin was a social worker and a lobbyist for peace and women’s rights. She died just before her 93rd birthday in 1973. She is one of the two Montanans honored in The National Statuary Hall Collection of the U.S. Capitol.
In 1702, the Duke of Alburquerque, Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva Enriquez, arrived in Mexico City to become Viceroy. In a kiss-ass move a few years later, some folks around here named a town after him.
One-hundred-years ago today was a good day for national parks: El Morro, Montezuma Castle, and Petrified Forest were all proclaimed national monuments on December 8, 1906.
Delaware
“The First State,” ratified the Constitution on this date in 1787. Named for Thomas West, Lord De La Warre, colonial governor of Virginia, the modern state has just its original three counties. The state bird is the blue hen chicken and the state insect is the ladybug.
Photo is of the Delaware capitol, Legislative Hall, dedicated in 1933.
[NewMexiKen photo, 2002. Click to enlarge.]
Ins and Outs, Mostly Outs
Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner asks: Would You Fly on an Airplane With No Pilot?. That is, would you fly on a remotely operated airliner?
Called and then showed up at a restaurant Sunday afternoon. Was told in turn by four different people: “definitely open for dinner at 4,” “it’s early, but not a problem,” “I don’t think we’re serving yet, but I’ll check,” (it was no), and “not until five.” C’mon folks, how hard can it be? Maybe they had too many hosts and hostesses and not enough cooks. We went somewhere else.
The photo in the masthead (as this is written) is of my neighbor’s house. Don’t tell him. (It’s the least he could do. He’s left than darn things on all night the last two nights.)
My cockles are still warm from the rock ballet last evening. As my friend Donna said, when she danced you had to be the right size and just so to be in the cast. Now everyone is allowed to perform. Seeing as how it wasn’t exactly the Bolshoi, letting everyone perform is just perfect.
True to form (that’s why I love him) FunctionalAmbivalent found a particularly tacky underwear Christmas gift today.
What I’d really like for Christmas:
- Someone to wash all my house windows, inside and out.
- Someone to detail my car.
Jeff Bridges is 57 today, Cassandra Wilson 51, Jay-Z 37, and Tyra Banks 33. Bridges has four Oscar nominations, three for supporting actor and one for leading — Starman.
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act
…became law on this date in 1980, more than doubling the size of the national park system.
According to America’s National Park System: The Critical Documents edited by Lary M. Dilsaver:
In the waning days of the Carter Democratic administration, Congress acted to further protect and expand preserved areas in Alaska, many rescued from exploitation two years earlier by presidential proclamation. This complex and lengthy act defines preserved parks, forests, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, wild and scenic rivers, and Native American corporation lands and the degrees of preservation and usage for each. It prescribes timber, fish, and wildlife protection and use by Native Americans and other citizens.
New areas for the national park system included Aniakchak National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kobuk Valley National Park, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Noatak National Preserve, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. The act also added new lands to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Katmai National Monument and Preserve, and Denali National Park and Preserve (renamed from Mount McKinley National Park).
New wild and scenic rivers under Park Service administration included Alagnak, Alatna, Aniakchak, Charley, Chilikadrotna, John, Kobuk, Mulchatna, Noatak, North Fork of the Koyukuk, Salmon, Tinayguk, and Tlikakila rivers. Other wild and scenic rivers are designated or expanded in wildlife refuges and in other areas.
The vast majority of acreage in the Denali, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier Bay, Katmai, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark, Noatak, and Wrangell-St. Elias units is designated wilderness.
Photo taken by Ken, official oldest son of NewMexiKen, 1998.
Amistad National Recreation Area (Texas)
… was authorized on this date in 1990.
Amistad NRA is known primarily for excellent water-based recreation including: boating, fishing, swimming, and water-skiing. The park also provides opportunities for picnicking, camping and hunting. The reservoir, formed at the confluence of the Rio Grande, Devils and Pecos rivers, is surrounded by a landscape rich in archeology and rock art, as well as a wide variety of plant and animal life.
Camp? Outside? Um, no thanks
From a report in the Los Angeles Times:
As the National Park Service begins planning for its 100th birthday in 2016, the venerable agency has reason to wonder who will show up.
By the services own reckoning, visits to national parks have been on a downward slide for 10 years. Overnight stays fell 20% between 1995 and 2005, and tent camping and backcountry camping each decreased nearly 24% during the same period.
Visits are down at almost all national parks, even at Yosemite, notorious for summertime crowds and traffic jams. Meanwhile, most of the 390 properties in the park system are begging for business.
“Most days, wed be delighted to see 10 people,” said Craig Dorman, superintendent at Lava Beds National Monument, a seldom-visited site near the California-Oregon border that is even emptier these days. “It was pretty crowded around here during the Modoc War,” he said, referring to the 1872 Modoc Indian uprising. “But there probably havent been that many people here since.”
Typically, families with children recede from the parks in the fall. Now, the retirees who traditionally take their place in the fall and winter are choosing to go elsewhere. Last year, about 569,000 vacationers went to Yosemite in July, nearly 20% fewer than in the same month in 1995. In January, there were 94,000 visitors, about 30% fewer than in January 1995.
NewMexiKen wonders how much of the recent drop-off is from foreign visitors. I’ve read recently that entering the U.S. has become so difficult (so much of a hassle) that many are traveling to other destinations.
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (Colorado)
… was redisignated on this date in 2000. It had been a national monument since 1932. It became America’s 57th national park in 2004.
In this high mountain valley are the tallest dunes in North America, flanked by some of the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains. The park and preserve protects much of the Great Sand Dunes’ natural system, including alpine tundra and lakes, forests, streams, dunes, grasslands, and wetlands.
The First 31 Years Were Just a Blip
Tourist #1: I want a soda, but I don’t see it on the menu.
Tourist #2: They don’t have soda here?
Tourist #3: I don’t see any drinks on the menu at all.
Tourist #1: This place’ll never make it without soda.
–Carnegie Deli, 54th & 7th
Overheard by: Sitting at the table next to them, three feet away
City of Rocks National Reserve (Idaho)
… was established on this date in 1988.
This unique geologic area became a landmark in 1843 for California-bound emigrants. They left wagon ruts across the landscape and their signatures in axle grease on Register Rock, Camp Rock and many others.
A few granite pinnacles and monoliths are in excess of sixty stories tall and 2.5 billion years old. The smooth granite faces offer exceptional rock climbing. Today, over 500 climbing routes have been identified.
The Reserve is managed by the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.
Gila Cliff Dwellings (New Mexico)
… was proclaimed a national monument 99 years ago today by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument offers a glimpse of the homes and lives of the people of the Mogollon culture who lived in the Gila Wilderness from the 1280s through the early 1300s. The surroundings probably look today very much like they did when the cliff dwellings were inhabited.
Pike Speak
Over the past few years NewMexiKen has driven from Albuquerque to Denver or back several times. Driving along, passing time in idle thought, I occasionally think of Zebulon Pike, the first American to explore the area — 200 years ago this month in fact.
Today as I passed through Colorado Springs for the umpteenth time I thought what Pike might say if he were to return after two centuries.
First he’d say, “What a beautiful and magnificent mountain that is, and it’s named after me.”
Second he’d say, “My god, are they still working on I-25!”
Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site (Virginia)
… was authorized on this date in 1978.
Richmond, VA. is home to many famous Americans including one of the nation’s great entrepreneurial spirits, Maggie Lena Walker. Come visit her home in the Jackson Ward community. Through exhibits and guided tours you will experience the life of this great African American woman, who was born during slavery and achieved success despite segregation and the limited opportunities offered to her race.
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (Indiana)
… was authorized 40 years ago today. It is one of just three National Park Service sites in Indiana.
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is a treasure of diverse natural resources located within an urban setting. The national lakeshore features communities that have both scientific and historic significance to the field of ecology. In addition, four National Natural Landmarks and one National Historical Landmark are located within its boundaries.
The park is comprised of over 15,000 acres of dunes, oak savannas, swamps, bogs, marshes, prairies, rivers, and forests. It contains 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline spanning the distance from Gary to Michigan City. Lake Michigan is part of the largest complex of freshwater lakes in the world. The national lakeshore’s beaches are the park’s most significant recreational resource.
Korean War Veterans Memorial (Washington, D.C.)
… was authorized 20 years ago today.
“Freedom is not free.” Here, one finds the expression of American gratitude to those who restored freedom to South Korea. Nineteen stainless steel sculptures stand silently under the watchful eye of a sea of faces upon a granite wall—reminders of the human cost of defending freedom. These elements all bear witness to the patriotism, devotion to duty, and courage of Korean War veterans.
The Indispensable Founding Father
Washington’s importance has been so beyond question that, as one exhibition here shows, 155 towns and counties, 740 schools and 26 mountains in the United States are named after Washington.
But, James C. Rees, the institution’s executive director, said in an interview here, less is being taught about Washington in schools these days, and fewer visitors to Mount Vernon arrive with an understanding of his achievements. So after long planning and annual consultations with a panel of scholars, the expansion was designed to reaffirm his importance, elucidate his character and dramatize his life.
This is not an easy task: there really is a mystery about Washington in a way there is not with other founding fathers. The historian Joseph J. Ellis said that Benjamin Franklin was wiser, Alexander Hamilton more brilliant, John Adams better read, Thomas Jefferson more intellectually sophisticated and James Madison more politically astute, yet each thought Washington his “unquestioned superior.” Why?
From an excellent review of the extraordinary new exhibits at Mount Vernon.
Rosie the Riveter / WWII Home Front National Historical Park (California)
… was authorized on this date in 2000.
Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, located in the wartime boomtown of Richmond, California, preserves and interprets the stories and places of our nation’s home front response to World War II.
— Rosie the Riveter / WWII Home Front National Historical Park
Golden Gate
Saturday sunset, San Francsico Bay looking through the Golden Gate.
Fort Scott National Historic Site (Kansas)
… was authorized on this date in 1978. It is one of four national historic sites in Kansas; there’s also a national preserve in Kansas.
Promises made and broken! A town attacked at dawn! Thousands made homeless by war! Soldiers fighting settlers! Each of these stories is a link in the chain of events that encircled Fort Scott from 1842-73. All of the site’s structures, its parade ground, and its tallgrass prairie bear witness to this era when the country was forged from a young republic into a united transcontinental nation.
