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Excerpt from AI Overview:
The main Icewine Festival in 2026 is the Niagara Icewine Festival in Ontario, running from January 16 to February 1, 2026, featuring the Discovery Pass for winery pairings, the NOTL Icewine Village (Jan 17-18, 24-25) with ice sculptures and fire pits, and the "Cool as Ice Gala" (Jan 31) at the Niagara Parks Power Station. It celebrates Ontario's unique dessert wine with culinary experiences across Niagara-on-the-Lake and Twenty Valley.
Key Events & Dates:
•Icewine Discovery Pass: Jan 16–18, Jan 23–25, Jan 30–Feb 1, 2026 (11 AM–5 PM).
•NOTL Icewine Village: Jan 17–18, Jan 24–25, 2026 (Free admission with VIP options).
•Cool as Ice Gala: January 31, 2026 (7 PM at Niagara Parks Power Station).
What to Expect:
•Discovery Pass: A self-guided tour with icewine and food pairings at over 20 wineries, exploring sweet, spicy, and savory combinations.
•Icewine Village: A festive winter wonderland in historic Niagara-on-the-Lake with ice carvings, fire pits, live entertainment, and local wines.
•Gala: An all-inclusive evening of premium wines, cocktails, and gourmet food.
DIRTY MARTINI onstage at LOW LIFE CITY
HOWL! FESTIVAL AND THE JACKIE FACTORY PRESENTED
LOW LIFE CITY
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 7, 2008
5-7 PM, FREE ADMISSION
TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK, NYC
CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF BRILLIANT BOWERY PERFORMANCE
On September 7, JACKIE FACTORY producers CHI CHI VALENTI and JOHNNY DYNELL presented
their second annual HOWLUCINATION to crown the 2008 HOWL! FESTIVAL.
LOW LIFE CITY was a two hour theatrical showcasing the East Village - and especially, The Bowery, in a lavishly costumed production starring dozens of downtown's finest. A time-travelling, bawdy and witty cavalcade of talent, this show is not recommended for children!
HOWLUCINATION '08: LOW LIFE CITY was inspired by the seminal LUC SANTE book "LOW LIFE: The Lures and Snares of Old New York." It continues a body of work born at JACKIE 60 a decade ago, with past editions in London, Minneapolis and of course, last year's HOWL! For the show's producers, East Village residents for over two decades, this annual show is a Valentine to the neighborhood's past, present and future stars.
I’ll be honest: if there’s one photography exhibition of my work worth visiting, it’s this one!
The exhibition opens on Thursday, June 4, 2026, at 6:30 p.m., in the presence of the artist, the curator, the authors of the critical essays in the catalog, and the president of the POMA Liberatutti Foundation, Paolo Trinci.
Piazza San Francesco 12, Pescia (PT) 51017, Italy. . Tel +39 0572 1770011
Free admission.
www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/l/leightonmoss/index.asp
Leighton Moss is the largest reedbed in north-west England, and home to some really special birds such as breeding bitterns, bearded tits and marsh harriers. You might see deer too, not to mention butterflies aplenty!
Opening times
The reserve and visitor centre are open daily all year round (except 25 December). The reserve is open from 9 am to dusk and the visitor centre from 9.30 am-5 pm (4.30 pm November-January inclusive).
Entrance charges
Free to the visitor centre and tearoom. Admission to hides and nature trails: £4.50 adults, £3 concessions, £1 children, £9 family. Free to RSPB members and those who come by public transport or on bike.
Avocet
Avocets can be seen from the hides overlooking the Allen and Eric Morecambe Pools in spring and summer.
Bearded tit
A year-round attraction here in the extensive reedbeds. They form flocks in autumn and can often be seen picking up grit from special tables on the causeway or directly from the paths.
Bittern
Bitterns can be heard 'booming' from the causeway between march and May. Scan over the reedbeds and you may catch a glimpse of one in flight - particularly in May and June. You may also see one sitting at the edge of the pools on frosty winter days.
Marsh harrier
Spring brings displaying marsh harriers to Leighton Moss. The males and females are busy feeding their young throughout summer and can often be seen hunting over the reedbed.
Water rail
Watch from the hides for water rails emerging to feed on the edge of the channels and pool within the reedbed. They may venture out onto exposed mud when the water drops in late summer and autumn or onto ice in winter.
Each season brings a different experience at our nature reserves. In spring, the air is filled with birdsong as they compete to establish territories and attract a mate. In summer, look out for young birds making their first venture into the outside world. Autumn brings large movements of migrating birds - some heading south to a warmer climate, others seeking refuge in the UK from the cold Arctic winter. In winter, look out for large flocks of birds gathering to feed, or flying at dusk to form large roosts to keep warm.
Spring
Booming bitterns in the reedbeds, best heard from the Causeway. Marsh harriers displaying high above the reedbeds. Butterflies along the reserve trails. The arrival of summer-visiting birds fills the reedbed with the rattling calls of sedge and reed warblers. Birdsong can be enjoyed in the woodland. Buzzards can be seen daily flying over the reserve. On the Allen and Eric Morecambe pools, large flocks of migrant black-tailed godwits stop off on their way to Iceland and the first avocets return to nest.
Summer
The special sight of marsh harriers passing food to each other in flight. Red deer grazing the Jackson and Griesdale meres in the evenings. The sight and sound of a busy black-headed gull colony. A chance to see young bitterns venturing out into the edges of the pools to feed, as well as a variety of young waterbirds. A succession of marsh flowers along the reserve tracks. Avocets and their chicks on the Allen and Eric Morecambe pools.
Autumn
Parties of bearded tits flying across the reeds and picking up grit from the paths. Huge flocks of starlings wheeling above the reedbed before pouring into the reeds to roost. Migrant wading birds, especially greenshanks, ruffs and returning black-tailed godwits on the pools viewed from the Allen and Eric Morecambe hides.
Winter
Teals, shovelers and gadwalls join the resident ducks to congregate in large numbers in the pools. Bitterns and water rails can be seen out on the ice during cold spells. Flocks of siskins feed in the alders. Flocks of wigeons and greylag geese graze the saltmarsh at the Allen and Eric Morecambe pools, and are regularly disturbed by wintering peregrines and merlins.
Viewing points
Seven hides with the nearest hide to visitor centre only 160 yards (150 m) away.
Nature trails
Three nature trails: 0.5 miles, 0.8 km to 2 miles, and 3.2 km.
Tearoom
A wide selection of hot and cold food and drinks throughout the day. Parties catered for on request.
Refreshments available
•Hot drinks
•Cold drinks
•Hot meals
•Cold meals
•Sandwiches
•Snacks
Shop
The shop stocks:
•Binoculars and telescopes
•Books
•Bird food
•Gifts
Educational facilities
Education visits to Leighton Moss offer an exciting opportunity for your pupils to explore nature through the first-hand study of birds, other animals and plants. Led by professional RSPB educators, the curriculum-linked programmes are safe, hands-on, thought-provoking and fun. Approved as a safe provider of outdoor education activities by Lancashire County Council, Leighton Moss's risk-assessed programmes help children to understand the value of wildlife and natural places through experiential learning. Leighton Moss has the largest remaining reedbed in north-west England - a magical place where you and your pupils could hear the bitterns booming in the spring, watch the marsh harriers swooping in the summer or see the meres full of over-wintering ducks and geese in the winter. With a well-equipped classroom, shop, picnic area, trails and bird hides, Leighton Moss is the ideal place to bring your class for an unforgettable experience of nature. You can visit any day of the year. Our start times are flexible to suit you. It is advisable to book well in advance for the summer term, which is our busiest time. We can cater for two classes (or approximately 60 children), which will be divided into smaller groups of approximately 15.
Access to hides and viewpoints
Bird-feeding station has a screen, with varied height viewing slots and knee hole extension, which overlooks the birdtables and feeders. Lilian's hide is accessed via 1:20 ramp; a large, glazed, picture window overlooks the lagoon and reedbeds; an induction loop is available. Jackson's hide is accessed via 1:10 ramp; there are no adapted wheelchair places.
Griesdale hide is accessed via 1:10 ramp; there are no adapted wheelchair places. Public hide is accessed via a very shallow, 1:40 ramp; specially adapted places for wheelchairs are at left end of hide. Lower hide is accessed via three steep steps.
Access to visitor centre, shop and tearoom
The front entrance is accessed through double doors, which open both ways, to reception desk on ground floor. The upper floor, with tearoom, is accessed via a stair-lift from the shop and rear entrance of the visitor centre. This lift does not accommodate wheelchairs; transfer from chair to lift via shallow ramp; staff are available to help.
Shop is on the ground floor of the visitor centre; staff are available to help. Tearoom is on the first floor of visitor centre, staff are available to help with carrying trays etc.
Path surfaces and gradients
There are 8 km of trails on the nature reserve. There is a bird-feeding station 50 m from visitor centre, down 1:15 and 1:40 gradients with an adverse camber; the path is surfaced with compacted gravel/rolled stone. From the feeding station to Lilian's hide is 100 m, initially down a 1:20 slope, levelling and then another 1:20 slope to the hide entrance; the path is surfaced with compacted gravel/rolled stone.
From Lilian's hide to Jackson's hide is 535 m. From Lilian's hide to Griesdale hide is 735 m; the path is surfaced with compacted gravel/rolled stone, and narrows to one metre in places. From Lilian's hide to Public hide is 1,000 m; the path is undulating, rolled stone with two non-wheelchair accessible kissing gates; it has a steep gradient of 1:10 along some of its length. There is a 100 m stretch along the public highway.
The final approach to the hide is along a public causeway of rough, rolled stone with a 1:10 slope. Visitors with limited mobility can drive to the start of the public causeway. From Public hide to Lower hide is 820 m; the path is surfaced with compacted mud and stone; it is narrow in places and accessible to semi-ambulant visitors.
Car parking
Visitors can park in front of and behind the visitor centre; the surface is rolled stone. There is an alternative car park on the opposite side of the road from the visitor centre.
Toilets
One adapted, unisex toilet accessed via shop and rear entrance to visitor centre.
Wheelchair loan
One wheelchair available for loan, contact reserve staff for availability.
Every year in spring and fall, the palace is open to tourists for several weeks after dark, with some of the buildings illuminated. The building pictured here is Geunjeongjeon. If you show up in Hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing, admission is free. I paid.
SF-90-RS
23-06-1987 - First Admission
10-06-1987 - First Dutch Registration
Original Dutch, Private Sidecode 4 License
"I have failed you Anakin, I have failed you."
"I should have known the Jedi were plotting to take over."
"Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine is evil!"
"From my point of view the Jedi are evil."
"WELL THEN YOU ARE LOST!"
"If you are not with me...then you are my enemy."
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes. I will do what I must."
"You will try.."
"Your anger and your lust for power have already done that! You have allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind until now… until now, you have become the very thing you swore to destroy!''
"You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!"
The Mesa Drive-In outside of Pueblo Colorado on Christmas Eve 2008. And no this is not HDR. I did some post processing with curves but all on one image.
www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/south-walney.html
The reserve is open daily from 10.00am - 5.00pm (4.00pm in winter).
Spring
Birds: courting eider duck, spring migrants, wheatear, willow warbler, sandwich tern
Plants: flowering thrift and sea campion,
Butterflies: common blue butterfly
Summer
Birds: gull and eider ducks, nesting oystercatcher and ringed plover.
Butterflies and moths: burnet moths and grayling butterfly.
Plants: Shingle flora including viper’s bugloss, yellow horned poppy and henbane. Flowering sea lavender, heartsease pansy.
Orchids: pyramidal orchid
Autumn
Birds: migratory birds including curlew snapper, spotted redshank, redstart, wheatear, and pink footed geese.
Plants: flowering sea lavender and sea aster.
Winter
Birds: High tide roost of wader and wildfowl including knot, dunlin, grey plover and oystercatcher. Barn owl and short-eared owl, pergrine and merlin twite, feeding on salt marsh.
All year
Birds: oystercatcher, large gull roosts/breeding colony. birds of prey
Mammals: grey seals at high tide
General: Amazing views across three counties and across the sea to the isle of man
Location
Walney Island, Barrow in Furness
Map reference
OS 1:50,000
Sheet No. 96
Grid reference SD 225 620
Size
130 hectares
Status
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
Special Protection Area (SPA)
Access
Free admission for Wildlife Trust members. A small admission fee is payable by non-members. There are several waymarked trails on the reserve (Red trail 5km/3 miles, blue trail 3km/2 miles) No dogs are allowed on the reserve (except assistance dogs). The reserve has toilets and a number of birdwatching hides.
Directions
By car From Barrow in Furness follow signs for Walney Island. Cross Jubilee Bridge onto the Island and follow brown signs left at traffic lights, follow this road for about 1km/0.6 miles then turn left down Carr Lane. Pass Biggar Village and follow the road to the South End Caravan Site. Follow the road for a further kilometre until the reserve is reached.
By bicycle The reserve is 5km/ 3 miles from National Route 72 Walney to Wear.
By public transport Buses run from Barrow in Furness to Biggar.
Opening Times
Daily 10.0am - 5.00pm (4.00pm winter)
Overview
South Walney forms the southern tip of a shingle island lying at the end of the Furness Peninsula. During the medieval period it was farmed by the monks of Furness Abbey, whilst during the 19th and 20th centuries salt, sand and gravel were extracted leaving large lagoons and some industrial remains.
What to see
Every spring, large numbers of lesser black backed and herring gulls still return and begin to set up nest territories. Other breeding birds include eider duck, greater black backed gull, shelduck, oystercatcher, mallard, moorhen and coot. Of the 250 bird species recorded, most are passage migrants on their way to or from breeding grounds. These include common species such as wheatear, redstart, willow warbler and gold crest, as well as more unusual species, which may have been blown off their normal migration route. In winter, large numbers of waders and wildfowl feed and roost around the nature reserve both on the gravel pools and the intertidal areas. Vegetated shingle being a highly unusual habitat, and yellow horned poppy, sea campion and biting stonecrop grow on the single beaches.
Small areas of dune grassland survive with pyramidal orchid, Portland spurge, restharrow and wild pansy. The old gravel workings have developed their own communities with striking plants such as viper's bugloss, henbane and alkanet. Saltmarsh occurs in Lighthouse Bay with species such as thrift, glasswort and sea purslane.
Recent History
South Walney has been leased from Holker Estates since 1963.
on tour with maxelmann
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
Admission was free for the weekend at science world. It still amazes me what a kit lens can do! Still wish I had an L lens though, haha.
The St. Augustine Light Station is an active lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida. The current lighthouse stands at the north end of Anastasia Island and was built in 1874; it is the most recent of a number of towers built in the area. The tower is owned by the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum, Inc. (SAL&M), a not-for-profit maritime museum and private aid-to-navigation. Open to the public, admission fees support continued preservation of the Lighthouse and fund programs in maritime archaeology and education.
Data above originated from the following website:
Norristown State Hospital, Pennsylvania
An expansion of the asylum's campus was completed between 1907 and 1909, with the construction of several new buildings funding by a state grant. This period saw the construction of: the Acute Admissions Building (Building #17).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnE6QyL_tF0&feature=related
أنا سعيد ..
شخص سعيد دائما .. إنسان لا يحزن ..
وجهي جذع شجرة .. مرسوم فوقها ابتسامتي ..
قد يمنع الحب تفاصيل فكري من الصعود نحو السماء ..
قد يمنع القلق عيني من تذوق النوم العميق ..
قد يمنع الشعر قلبي من كسل ما بعد الظهيرة ..
قد تمنعني أرضي من التنفس .. فأموت ..
لكنني سعيد .. و لا أخفي سعادتي ..
فقد بات الحزن في بلادي تهمة ..
و باتت الدموع جريمة ..
مسموح لك أن تبكي إذ تشاهد مسلسل السهرة ..
مسموح لك أن تحزن إن مات قط جيرانك ..
مسموح لك أن تبدي بعض القلق لغلاء المعيشة ..
مسموح لك أن تحرق روحك في لهيب وهم سباقات الوظيفة ..
مسموح لك أن تغتم إن تغير منصب والدك ..
مسموح لك أن تلعن التاريخ إن فاتتك حفلة .. قد يقال إن اشتريت تذاكرها بأنك فيلسوف ..
.....
عدا ذلك .. فالحزن يبقيك خارج أرض البشر..
قد يصنفونك ..
قد يضايقونك ..
قد يتهمونك بالكآبة .. و شتان ما بين الحزن و الاكتئاب ..
قد يرمونك بالتشاؤم ..
قد يشنون عليك الحروب ..
قد يظنونك واعظا ..
أو يعتقدون بأنك تدعي الشهادة ...
و لأجل ذلك .. فأنا إنسان سعيد ..
ابتسامتي تنير وجهي الخشبي ..
و سعادتي تطغى على حياتي ...
سعادتي تخنقني ..
أرجوكم .. خففوا عني بعض السعادة فإنني أموت ..
Car: 1977 Greenwood Chevrolet Corvette
Class: Peter Gregg Trophy
Driver: Patrick Byrne
Track: Laguna Seca
The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the Bonneville Speedway. Access to the Flats is open to the public.
The Flats are about 12 miles (19 km) long and 5 miles (8 km) wide, with a crust almost 5 ft (1.5m) thick at the center and less than one inch (2.5 cm) towards the edges. It is estimated to hold 147 million tons of salt, approximately 90% of which is common table salt.
Geologist Grove Karl Gilbert named the area after Benjamin Bonneville, a U.S. Army officer who explored the Intermountain West in the 1830s. In 1907, Bill Rishel and two local businessmen tested the suitability of the salt for driving by taking a Pierce-Arrow onto its surface.
A railway line across the Flats was completed in 1910, marking the first permanent crossing. The first land speed record was set there in 1914 by Teddy Tetzlaff.
Entertainment filmed at the Flats include portions of Walking with Dinosaurs Special - The Ballad of Big Al, Knight Rider, Warlock, Independence Day (1996) and its sequel, SLC Punk, Cremaster 2 from Cremaster Cycle, The Brown Bunny, The World's Fastest Indian, Gerry, The Tree of Life, Top Gear and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Furthermore, the Pontiac Bonneville (former flagship sedan of the Pontiac motor division), the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, and the Bonneville International media company are all named for the Flats.
The Bonneville Salt Flats hosts the annual US Flight Archery Championships. The goal of flight archery is to shoot arrows from bows at the greatest distance possible without regard to hitting a target, and so the vast flat plane of the flats serves as an ideal location to measure the linear distance traveled by arrows without geographic interference. Both the 1977 (archer Don Brown) and 1982 (archer Alan Webster) world records were set there; while the current world record, achieved in 1987 (archer Don Brown), was set at the salt flats near Smith Creek, Nevada.
The thickness of salt crust is a critical factor in racing use of the salt flats. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has undertaken multiple studies on the topic; while a 2007 study determined that there was little change in the crust's thickness from 1988 to 2003, more recent studies have shown a reduction in thickness, especially in the northwest area where racing occurs. The flats' overall area has contracted significantly over the past several decades. The cause or causes of this remain unclear, but many believe adjacent evaporative potash mining is the primary factor.
Collaboration between racing organizations, the potash mine, and the BLM led to a pilot program begun in 1998 to release excess brine onto the salt flats during winter. Plans to increase the volume of brine returned to the salt flats are hoped to halt loss of crust thickness, or possibly restore it where it has become too thin to sustain human use.
Motorcar racing has taken place at the salt flats since 1914. Racing takes place at part of the Bonneville Salt Flats known as the Bonneville Speedway. There are five major land speed events that take place at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Bonneville "Speed Week" takes place mid-August followed by "World of Speed" in September and the "World Finals" take place early October.
These three events welcome cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The "Bub Motorcycle Speed Trials" are for motorcycles only. World records are contested at the Mike Cook ShootOut in September. The Southern California Timing Association and the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association organizes and plans the multi-vehicle events, but all event promoters contribute to prepping and maintaining the salt. "Speed Week" events in August were canceled in 2015 and 2022, due to the poor condition of the salt in certain parts of the flats. The salt flats had been swamped by heavy rains earlier in the year, as usual, but this year the rains also triggered mudslides from surrounding mountains onto a section of the flats used for the land-speed racing courses.
Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed records. The Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The salt flats were first used for motor sports in 1912, but did not become truly popular until the 1930s when Ab Jenkins and Sir Malcolm Campbell competed to set land speed records.
A reduction of available racing surface and salt thickness has led to the cancellation of events at Bonneville, such as Speed Week in 2014 and 2015. Available racing surface is much reduced with just 2.5 miles (4.0 km) available instead of the 9-mile (14 km) courses traditionally used for Speed Week.
Historically, the speedway was marked out by the Utah Department of Transportation at the start of each summer. Originally, two tracks were prepared; a 10-mile (16 km) long straightaway for speed trials and an oval or circular track for distance runs, which was typically between 10 and 12 miles (16 and 19 km) long depending on the condition of the salt surface.
Since at least the 1990s, track preparations have been the responsibility of the event organizers. Days or weeks in advance, the track preparers identify an area best suited for their track layouts and begin grading the tracks. Surveyors are brought in to survey the timing trap distances. A day before racing begins, the track markers are added.
Originally, the straightaway was marked with a broad black line down its center. This was eventually changed to lines down either side, as the center line wore out too quickly. As the costs for painting the lines has gone up, organizations have switched to flags and cones as track markers. The last event to use black lines was Speed Week, August 2009.
The number of tracks and the timed sections for each track are set according to what is most beneficial for each event. Large public meets such as Speed Week run as many as four tracks with several timed miles, usually starting with the second mile and running to the fifth mile. Smaller meets that typically only run world record attempts will utilize a single track, with one timed mile and one timed kilometer in the middle of the track. Additional marks and cones indicate the end of the track and the position of timing equipment.
The annual Speed Week was cancelled in both 2014 and 2015, as were many land-speed racing events, due to deteriorating track conditions. Heavy rains caused a layer of mud from surrounding mountains to flow onto the flats, covering approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) of the track. Although another section of the flats would normally be used, nearby salt mining operations had reduced the size of the alternative track.
The depth of the salt crust at Bonneville has also been decreasing, possibly leaching into a saltwater aquifer. Measured at as much at 3 ft (0.91 m) in the 1940s and 50s, it has been reduced to just 2 in (0.051 m) in 2015.
Though recent studies have been made (since 1960), the causes of this deterioration are not clear, although the evidence points toward both local climatic changes and salt mining. Some strategies were devised to revert the decreasing salt surface, such as pumping back salt, though this had no effect.
In August, the Southern California Timing Association and Bonneville Nationals Inc. organize Speed Week, the largest meet of the year, which attracts several hundred drivers who compete to set highest speed in a range of categories. Bonneville Speed Week has been taking place since 1949.
In late August, the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials are held.
In September each year is the World of Speed, (similar to Speed Week) organized by the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association. The USFRA also meet on the first Wednesday of each month throughout the summer.
In October, the Southern California Timing Association puts on World Finals, a scaled-down version of Speed Week. This event tends to have cooler weather and often drier salt that Speed Week the prior month. There are less spectators and it tends to draw serious racers, as this event is the last chance to break a land speed record and be in the SCTA record book for that year.
Each year, there are usually a few private meets that are not publicized scattered among the larger public meets.
Several motor-paced racing speed records have been attempted at Bonneville.
In 1985, American cyclist John Howard set a then world record of 244 km/h (152 mph).
On 15 October 1995, Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelberg achieved 268.831 km/h (167.044 mph), using a special bicycle behind a dragster with a large shield.
In 2016, Denise Mueller-Korenek claimed a women's bicycle land speed record at 147 mph (237 km/h). She was coached by Howard. It is not clear which authority was supervising the record attempt.
In 2018, Mueller-Korenek broke her own women's record and the men's record at a speed of 183.9 miles per hour (296.0 km/h).
In popular culture
In the 2003 film The Brown Bunny, Bud Clay races his motorcycle at the speedway.
In the 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, Burt Munro and his highly modified Indian Scout motorcycle sets a world record.
In the 2015 series finale episode of Mad Men, Donald Draper drives a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS muscle car in the races at Bonneville Speedway.
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.
Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.
People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.
Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.
The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.
Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.
The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:
use of the bow and arrow while hunting,
building pithouse shelters,
growing maize and probably beans and squash,
building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,
creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,
producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.
The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.
These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.
In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.
In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.
Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.
At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.
The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.
A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.
Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.
Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.
Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.
Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.
The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.
Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.
Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.
In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.
The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.
Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.
After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.
As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.
Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.
Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.
Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.
Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.
On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.
Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century
During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.
The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.
Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:
William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859
Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866
3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868
A Black man in Uintah, 1869
Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873
Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874
Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880
William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883
John Murphy in Park City, 1883
George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884
Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886
Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925
Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).
Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.
Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.
During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.
In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.
Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.
Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.
As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.
One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.
It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.