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Addo Elephant National Park is a diverse wildlife conservation park situated close to Port Elizabeth in South Africa and is one of the country's 19 national parks. It currently ranks third in size after Kruger National Park and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
The original section of the park was founded in 1931, in part due to the efforts of Sydney Skaife, in order to provide a sanctuary for the eleven remaining elephants in the area. The park has proved to be very successful and currently houses more than 600 elephants and a large number of other mammals.
The original park has subsequently been expanded to include the Woody Cape Nature Reserve that extends from the Sundays River mouth towards Alexandria and a marine reserve, which includes St. Croix Island and Bird Island, both important breeding habitat for gannets and penguins, not to mention a large variety of other marine life. Bird Island is home to the world's largest breeding colony of gannets - about 120,000 birds - and also hosts the second largest breeding colony of African penguins, the largest breeding colony being St. Croix island. These marine assets form part of the plan to expand the 1,640 km² Addo National Elephant Park into the 3,600 km² Greater Addo Elephant National Park.
The expansion will mean not only that the park contains five of South Africa's seven major vegetation zones (biomes), but also that it will be the only park in the world to house Africa's "Big 7" (elephant, rhinoceros, lion, buffalo, leopard, whale and great white shark) in their natural habitat.
More than 600 elephants, 400 Cape buffaloes, over 48 endangered black rhinos as well as a variety of antelope species. Transvaal lion and spotted hyena have also recently been re-introduced to the area. The largest remaining population of the flightless dung beetle (Circellium bacchus) is located within the park. The flora within the AENP is quite varied, and like all plant life, is a central factor to the ecological system in place. Several species of rare and endemic plants, particularly succulent shrubs and geophytes are native to the South African region within the AENP. Many species are under environmental pressure, however, and are facing possible extinction.
(Wikipedia)
Name
African Elephant or African Bush Elephant [Loxodonta africana]
Introduction
The Elephant is the world's largest land mammal, and weighs up to 7 tonnes and reaches heights of 3.3 m at the shoulder. Elephants can live to a potential age of 70 years. The massive tusks of older bulls can weigh up to 50 or 60 kilograms, but tusks weighing up to 90 kilograms have been recorded.
Appearance
What is the trunk and what is it used for?
The Elephant's trunk is a modified nose which is very sensitive and can even detect water under ground. There are as many as 50 000 muscles in an Elephant trunk. The sensitive finger-like appendages at the tip of the trunk enables them to pick the smallest twig or flower, pull the toughest reed of grass or even pick out a thorn from their feet.
Do elephants have knees or elbows?
The joints that are perceived as 'knees', are in fact wrists. This is a common misunderstanding due to the belief that a leg joint that bends between the foot and the body must be a knee. The main difference between us and the elephants is that our foot bones and hand bones are separate, whereas those of the elephant are one in the same, and have evolved to suit this four-legged mammal.
Why do elephants have tusks?
The tusks are used for obtaining food, fighting (amongst males) and for self defence. They are actually their upper incisors, and grow continuously until they die at around 60 years old. Although their skin is up to 3cm (1 inch) thick, it is quite sensitive.
Diet
Elephants are voracious feeders which in a day consume up to 272 kg (600 pounds) of grass, tender shoots and bark from trees. An adult Elephant can drink up to 200 litres of water in a single session. A single Elephant deposits up to 150kg (330 pounds) of dung every day - about one dollop every 15 minutes!
Breeding
African Elephant are not seasonal breeders. Generally they produce one calf every 3 to 4 years. The gestation period is about 22 months. At birth calves weigh about 100 kg (220 pounds) and are fully weaned between 18-24 months. An orphaned calf will usually be adopted by one of the family's lactating females or suckled by various females. Elephants are very attentive mothers, and because most Elephant behavior has to be learned, they keep their offspring with them for many years. Tusks erupt at 16 months but do not show externally until 30 months. Once weaned, usually at age 4 or 5, the calf still remains in the maternal group. Females mature at about 11 years and stay in the group, while the males, which mature between 12 and 15, are usually expelled from the maternal herd. Even though these young males are sexually mature, they do not breed until they are in their mid, or late 20s or even older and have moved up in the social hierarchy.
Behaviour
Mature males form bachelor groups and become solitary bulls. Elephant form strong family units of cows, calves and young offspring. Such herds are always led by an old female. Apart from drinking large quantities of water they also love wading or swimming in it. Elephants clearly relish mud baths.
It was once thought that family groups were led by old bull elephants, but these males are most often solitary. The female family groups are often visited by mature males checking for females in oestrus. Several interrelated family groups may inhabit an area and know each other well.
How do you tell an elephant's mock charge from a serious one?
It is imperative to keep in mind that Elephant are extremely intelligent, and each individual has a distinct character. Although there will be exceptions to the rules, the common signs of a mock charge are bush-bashing, dust-throwing, trumpeting and other vocalizations, open ears and an intimidating presence, can be considered a mock-display. Aggressive or startled elephants usually make sudden headshakes and flap their large ears against their head. Serious charges usually occur after all attempts to intimidate have failed, and the Elephant feels threatened. The ears are pinned back and head and trunk are lowered. Ultimately, the key lies in the intelligence of the animal and how they will react to the 'target' and unfamiliar actions, and a conscious decision is made.
Why do elephants rhythmically flap their ears?
Contrary to common belief, it is not an expression of anger. Being an animal of such a large size, with no sweat glands and a dark body colour, elephants flap their ears to cool the body and rid themselves of irritating insects.
Where are they found?
Once ranging across most of Africa the Elephant population has declined dramatically across the continent. In South Africa the Addo Elephant and Kruger National Park protect large herds. Due to rigorous conservation measures the Elephant population in South Africa has grown from a estimated 120 in 1920 in 4 locations, to 10 000 at 40 locations to date.
Notes
The African Elephant has recently been classified into two separate species, the more common African Bush Elephant [Loxodonta Africana] and the smaller African Forest Elephant [Loxodonta cyclotis] of the rainforest of Central Africa.
(krugerpark.co.za)
Der Addo-Elefanten-Nationalpark (afrikaans: Addo Olifant Nasionale Park, englisch: Addo Elephant National Park) liegt im Distrikt Cacadu, im westlichen Teil der Provinz Ostkap in Südafrika, 70 Kilometer nordöstlich von Port Elizabeth im Sundays River Valley. Der Elefanten-Nationalpark ist mit 1640 km² der größte Nationalpark im Ostkap.
Der Nationalpark wurde 1931 zum Schutz der elf letzten überlebenden Elefanten der Region eingerichtet, die bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht zum Opfer von Elfenbeinjägern oder Farmern geworden waren. Der Gründung vorausgegangen war eine von Seiten der Regierung initiierte Jagd auf die hier heimischen Kap-Elefanten, die auf der Suche nach Nahrung immer wieder die Felder und Gärten der hier ansässigen Farmer verwüsteten. Nachdem es zu öffentlichen Protesten gekommen war, als der „letzte große weiße Jäger“ Major P. J. Pretorius in einem Jahr 130 Elefanten erlegte, wurde im Addo-Busch das seitdem mehrfach erweiterte Wildreservat eingerichtet. Im Jahr 1954, als es 22 Elefanten gab, ließ der damalige Parkmanager Graham Armstrong eine Fläche von 2270 Hektar mit Elefantenzäunen umgeben. Dieser Zaun wird noch heute vom Park genutzt und wird nach seinem Erfinder Armstrong-Zaun genannt.
Im Jahr 2004 lebten im Park etwa 350 Elefanten; 2006 wurden bereits knapp über 400 Elefanten gezählt. Damit erreichte der Nationalpark das ökologisch vertretbare Maximum an Elefanten.
Langfristig soll der Addo Elephant Park der drittgrößte Park Südafrikas werden. Der Park soll auf eine Größe von 3600 km² anwachsen.
Neben Elefanten leben im Addo-Elefanten-Nationalpark Kudus, Afrikanischer Büffel, Elenantilopen, Südafrikanische Kuhantilopen, Buschböcke, Warzenschweine, Steppenzebras, Spitzmaulnashörner, Hyänen und Leoparden. In einigen Randgebieten, etwa im Bereich des Darlington-Dammes beziehungsweise in der Nähe der Zuurberg Mountains, leben auch einige für das Kapgebiet typische Huftierarten, wie Bergzebras, Weißschwanzgnus, Oryxantilopen und Springböcke. Am Sundays River leben Flusspferde. 2003 wurden Löwen im Park angesiedelt, so dass man seither die sogenannten Big Five im Park antreffen kann. Fleckenhyänen wurden ebenfalls angesiedelt, und auch die Wiederansiedlung von Wildhunden und Geparden ist geplant.
Der Nationalpark beherbergt mehr als 500 verschiedene Pflanzenarten aus rund 70 Familien. Man findet hier vorrangig kleine Pflanzenarten sowie verschiedene Buscharten wie Schotia afra und Portulacaria afra.
(Wikipedia)
Der Afrikanische Elefant (Loxodonta africana), auch Afrikanischer Steppenelefant oder Afrikanischer Buschelefant, ist eine Art aus der Familie der Elefanten. Er ist das größte gegenwärtig lebende Landsäugetier und gleichzeitig das größte rezente landbewohnende Tier der Erde. Herausragende Kennzeichen sind neben den Stoßzähnen und dem markanten Rüssel die großen Ohren und die säulenförmigen Beine. In zahlreichen morphologischen und anatomischen Merkmalen unterscheidet sich der Afrikanische Elefant von seinen etwas kleineren Verwandten, dem Waldelefanten und dem Asiatischen Elefanten. Das Verbreitungsgebiet umfasst heute große Teile von Afrika südlich der Sahara. Die Tiere haben sich dort an zahlreiche unterschiedliche Lebensräume angepasst, die von geschlossenen Wäldern über offene Savannenlandschaften bis hin zu Sumpfgebieten und wüstenartigen Regionen reichen. Insgesamt ist das Vorkommen aber stark fragmentiert.
Die Lebensweise des Afrikanischen Elefanten ist durch intensive Studien gut erforscht. Sie wird durch einen stark sozialen Charakter geprägt. Weibliche Tiere und ihr Nachwuchs leben in Familienverbänden (Herden). Diese formieren sich wiederum zu einem enger verwandten Clan. Die einzelnen Herden treffen sich zu bestimmten Gelegenheiten und trennen sich danach wieder. Die männlichen Tiere bilden Junggesellengruppen. Die verschiedenen Verbände nutzen Aktionsräume, in denen sie teils im Jahreszyklus herumwandern. Für die Kommunikation untereinander nutzen die Tiere verschiedene Töne im niedrigen Frequenzbereich. Anhand der Lautgebung, aber auch durch bestimmte chemische Signale können sich die einzelnen Individuen untereinander erkennen. Darüber hinaus besteht ein umfangreiches Repertoire an Gesten. Hervorzuheben sind auch die kognitiven Fähigkeiten des Afrikanischen Elefanten.
Die Nahrung besteht sowohl aus weicher wie auch harter Pflanzenkost. Die genaue Zusammensetzung variiert dabei regional und jahreszeitlich. Generell verbringt der Afrikanische Elefant einen großen Teil seiner Tagesaktivitäten mit der Nahrungsaufnahme. Die Fortpflanzung erfolgt ganzjährig, regional gibt es Tendenzen zu einer stärkeren Saisonalisierung. Bullen kommen einmal jährlich in die Musth, während deren sie auf Wanderung zur Suche nach fortpflanzungswilligen Kühen gehen. Während der Musth ist die Aggressivität gesteigert, es finden dann auch Rivalenkämpfe statt. Der Sexualzyklus der Kühe dauert vergleichsweise lange und weist einen für Säugetiere untypischen Verlauf auf. Nach erfolgter Geburt setzt er in der Regel mehrere Jahre aus. Zumeist wird nach fast zweijähriger Tragzeit ein Jungtier geboren, das in der mütterlichen Herde aufwächst. Junge weibliche Tiere verbleiben später in der Herde, die jungen männlichen verlassen diese.
Die wissenschaftliche Erstbeschreibung des Afrikanischen Elefanten erfolgte im Jahr 1797 mit einer formalen artlichen Trennung des Afrikanischen vom Asiatischen Elefanten. Der heute gebräuchliche Gattungsname Loxodonta wurde offiziell erst dreißig Jahre später eingeführt. Die Bezeichnung bezieht sich auf markante Zahnunterschiede zwischen den asiatischen und den afrikanischen Elefanten. Im Verlauf des 20. Jahrhunderts wurden mehrere Unterarten unterschieden, darunter auch der Waldelefant des zentralen Afrikas. Letzterer gilt heute genetischen Untersuchungen zufolge als eigenständige Art, die weiteren Unterarten sind nicht anerkannt. Stammesgeschichtlich lässt sich der Afrikanische Elefant erstmals im beginnenden Mittleren Pleistozän belegen. Der Gesamtbestand gilt als gefährdet. Ursachen hierfür sind hauptsächlich die Jagd nach Elfenbein und Lebensraumverlust durch die zunehmend wachsende menschliche Bevölkerung. Der Afrikanische Elefant zählt zu den sogenannten „Big Five“ von Großwildjagd und Safari.
(Wikipedia)
This image provides an illusion as the background is largely blue sky but to my right it was by now almost solid thick cloud but amazingly this coincided with a very short lived gap that closed up again as soon as the loco passed me! This left the terminal 14 minutes down and consequently caused complete chaos at Derby Road in particular and had a huge knock on effect to branch services.
- - - Please note that ALL of my images are "All Rights Reserved" and are posted for educational purposes only. Please do the right thing and contact me in advance if you wish to discuss the use or reuse of my images and provide a link to my originals. I would also ask that I be given a "first look" at any 7Up UnCola billboards or posters before you market them to the general public in return for my extensive investment in time, money and research, including interviewing some of the surviving artists. Thanks, and enjoy. - - -
- - - 7Up poster sellers: please contact me before listing any UnCola posters or billboards. Thanks... - - -
If you like what you see, check out my 7Up UnCola poster offerings on eBay: www.ebay.com/usr/finishstrong312
You can learn more about my one-of-a-kind 7Up UnCola billboard & poster collection by reading this in-depth article in Collectors Weekly (dot com):
www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/collecting-7ups-most-be...
dangerousminds.net/comments/the_uncola_7up_and_the_most_p...
3/7/17:
I believe this to be the "Printer's Proof" that was used as the gold standard for comparison purposes when offset printing any subsequent copies of the 21'x10' "Size A" billboard version. Look at the cross hair markings, the hand written symbol in the bottom right corner and the mostly trimmed off color scale at the top right. Another clue is that the line of copyright text in the bottom right corner is only printed on the billboard size, not the smaller posters. Another difference here is the presence of a pale green background inside the rainbow in the billboard version that is white in the smaller 34"x21" "Size C" posters.
This treasure came from the estate of a 7Up executive and was behind glass in a sealed frame, probably since it was acquired by him in 1969. It is therefore in nearly perfect New Old Stock (NOS) MINT CONDITION!!! This is the 3rd and final acquisition from the same source. The "Visit Un-Derland" (also by Kim Whitesides) has even more printer's proof markings. The 3rd "Turn Un" by Pat Dypold was significantly trimmed during framing to just the central image, but based on what I've seen from this source, it was also likely a printer's proof. Note: The "Turn Un" Printer's Proof is the ONLY KNOWN COMPLETE COPY of that image in ANY SIZE.
The only repair needed was 2 very small pieces of acid-free scrapbooking tape behind the top left corner. Some of the mat board was stuck to the paper 48 years ago. Only the central image was visible when I purchased it. The rest was a pleasant bonus/surprise when the glossy paper was removed from behind the mat board and glass.
Kim Whitesides's signature* is on the right side, just above the first "Un". * = None of the signatures on the 7Up posters or billboards are hand written. They are on the original artwork only.
My 3 companion Size "A" billboard versions are the 3rd 21'x10' 7Up UnCola billboard image to be issued in 1969 to introduce the hugely successful "The UnCola" ad campaign to America. The rainlap diagram on the back lists this as [Design] DES 69-3 - "Un & Un Is Too" (2 guitar players).
There are 4 images by Kim Whitesides for the 7Up UnCola ad campaign that I'm aware of. The most common is this "Un & Un Is Too" from 1969. My collection includes 2 billboards and some smaller posters of this image. More can be seen on-line being offered for sale.
www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/8386017983/
www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/6267763757/
www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/5530860732/
For more information, refer to my other posts about Kim Whitesides:
www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/8388410836/in/album-72...
www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/8386017983/in/album-72...
www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/8387105130/in/album-72...
Similar elements can be seen in this 1967 "The Big Sound" Alcoa Aluminum poster by Kim Whitesides:
www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/21503262999/in/datepos...
See my other restored 7Up UnCola billboards to date in this album:
www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/albums/72157657430138044
Contact me if you have a serious interest in acquiring any of my dozen or so duplicate billboards. I'm also interested in trades that will complete my collection.
My prices would be FAR more reasonable and come with in-depth accurate research compared to my $15,000 (linen backed) & $12,500 competition:
www.1stdibs.com/furniture/wall-decorations/wallpaper/1969...] - - - ! ! !
www.20thdesign.com/itemdetails.php?id=1834992
Vintage duplicate original Billboards and Posters for sale:
www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/albums/72157658672736088
There are at least 53 billboard images in the entire body of work spanning from 1969 until the mid-1970's. Only up-and-coming artists of the day were invited to submit designs which were then judged by the client. The J. Walter Thompson [advertising] Co. in Chicago orchestrated the entire ad campaign.
Twin copies of the billboard version were up BEFORE Woodstock in mid-August of 1969!
Westward Ho! is a seaside village near Bideford in Devon, England. The A39 road provides access from the towns of Barnstaple, Bideford and Bude. It lies at the south end of Northam Burrows and faces westward into Bideford Bay, opposite Saunton Sands and Braunton Burrows. There is an electoral ward with the same name. The population at the 2011 census was 2,112.
Westward Ho! is noted for its unusual place name. The village name comes from the title of Charles Kingsley's novel Westward Ho! (1855), which was set in nearby Bideford. The book was a bestseller, and entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to develop tourism in the area. The Northam Burrows Hotel and Villa Building Company, chaired by Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth, was formed in 1863, and its prospectus stated:
This Company has been formed for the erection of a Family Hotel, on an Estate purchased for the purpose immediately contiguous to Northam Burrows, and of Villas and Lodging Houses for Sale or Lease. The want of such accommodation has long been felt, and as no attempt to supply it has hitherto been made by individuals, it is deemed to be a legitimate project to be undertaken by a Company. The salubrity and beauty of the North of Devon have long been known and appreciated. Sir James Clark has placed it in the highest position for health-giving qualities; and the recent publication of Professor Kingsley's "Westward Ho" has excited increased public attention to the western part, more especially, of this romantic and beautiful coast. Nothing but a want of accommodation for visitors has hitherto prevented its being the resort of families seeking the advantages of sea bathing, combined with the invigorating breezes of the Atlantic....
The hotel was named the Westward Ho!-tel, and the adjacent villas were also named after the book. As further development took place, the expanding settlement also acquired the name of Westward Ho! The exclamation mark is therefore an intentional part of the village's name. It is the only such place name in the British Isles; Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Quebec, shares the distinction of having an exclamation mark in its name.
The Military Collection - Bombers
From a collection of some 430 Military slides that I've had scanned from my archives. Hope they will provide some enjoyment and nostalgia from a bygone age.
Seen in the days of the Cold War, Avro Vulcan B.2 XL443 looking quite sinister under the lowering cloud at the Greenham Common Air Tattoo in 1980. The aircraft operated with No. 35 Squadron based at RAF Scampton and was one of the flying aircraft that day.
The Vulcan Bomber
The Avro Vulcan was a delta-winged, high-altitude, strategic bomber, which was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1956 until 1984. A total of 136 aircraft were built, including eight prototypes, and the production aircraft were delivered in four separate batches as follows:
First batch: XA889 - XA913 25 Vulcan B.1 & B.1As delivered between 1955 - 1957
Second batch: XH475-483, XH497-506, XH532-539, XH554-563 37 Vulcan B.1A & B.2s delivered between 1958 - 1960
Third batch: XL317-321, XL359-361, XL384-392, XL425-427, XL443-446 24 Vulcan B.2s delivered between 1960 - 1962
Fourth batch: XM569-576, XM594-612, XM645-657 40 Vulcan B.2s delivered between 1963 - 1965
Total production order - 128
The Vulcan B.1 was first delivered to the RAF in 1956, and deliveries of the improved Vulcan B.2 started in 1960. The B.2 featured more powerful engines, a larger wing, an improved electrical system, and electronic countermeasures, and many were modified to accept the Blue Steel missile.
As a part of the V-force, and one of the most distinctive military aircraft ever to take to the skies, the mighty Avro Vulcan was the backbone of the United Kingdom's airborne nuclear deterrent during much of the Cold War. Although the Vulcan was typically armed with nuclear weapons, it could also carry out conventional bombing missions, which it did in Operation Black Buck during the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina in 1982. See: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-61283828
Vulcan B.2 XL317, the first of a production batch ordered in 1960, was the first Vulcan, apart from development aircraft, to be capable of carrying the Blue Steel stand-off missile. Thirty-three aircraft were delivered to the RAF with these modifications.
Operating at higher altitudes, the first Vulcan's in RAF service were finished in an overall white anti-flash scheme, intended to protect the aircraft in the seconds following detonation of a nuclear device, however, advances in Soviet anti-aircraft missile defences brought about a significant change in the aircraft's attack profile.
Moving from high to low altitude strike operations during the early to mid 1960s, Vulcans retained their white undersides, but were given a striking grey and green camouflage on their upper surfaces, markings which really suited the huge delta shape of this magnificent aircraft. Although moving to low-level bombing operations, retention of the white anti-flash undersides clearly illustrates the Vulcan's continued role as a nuclear armed strategic bomber.
After retirement by the RAF, one example, B.2 XH558, named The Spirit of Great Britain, was restored for use in display flights and air shows, whilst two other B.2s, XL426 and XM655, have been kept in taxiable condition for ground runs and demonstrations. B.2 XH558 flew for the last time in October 2015, but has been kept in taxiable condition.
RAF Waddington
During the Cold War, RAF Waddington became an Avro Vulcan V-bomber station, with No. 83 Squadron being the first in the RAF to receive the Vulcan in May 1957. The other Squadrons to fly the Vulcan from Waddington were Nos. 9, 44, 50 and 101 Squadrons. From 1968, the UK nuclear deterrent was transferred to Polaris submarines, beginning with HMS Resolution. The station continued in this role until 1984 when the last Vulcan squadron, No. 50 Squadron, disbanded. It continued to be the home for the last flying Vulcan (XH558) of the Vulcan Display Flight until its disbandment in 1992.
RAF Scampton
In October 1960, No. 83 Squadron arrived at Scampton from RAF Waddington and equipped with the Vulcan B.2. Together with No. 27, No. 35 and No. 617 Squadrons, who by this time had also taken delivery of the Vulcan, the "Scampton Wing" was formed, the aircraft being equipped with the Blue Steel stand-off missile.
On 30 June 1968, Blue Steel operations at Scampton were terminated, as the Royal Navy, with the submarine launched Polaris missile, assumed responsibility for the UK nuclear deterrent. Scampton squadrons were assigned to the tactical nuclear and conventional bombing roles. This led to the disbandment of No. 83 Squadron in August 1969, however in December 1969 No. 230 Operational Conversion Unit moved to RAF Scampton from RAF Finningley.
With disbandment of No. 230 Operational Conversion Unit and the cessation of No. 617 Squadron's Vulcan operations in 1981, followed by the cessation of Vulcan flying at Scampton by No. 27 Squadron and No. 35 Squadron in 1982, Scampton was transferred to RAF Support Command and became home to the Central Flying School (CFS) in 1983.
Taken using a Soviet made Zenith E camera and standard lens. From an original slide, scanned with no digital restoration.
You can see a random selection of my aviation memories here: www.flickriver.com/photos/heathrowjunkie/random/
Hartebeest
Eigentliche Kuhantilope
Addo Elephant National Park is a diverse wildlife conservation park situated close to Gqeberha in South Africa and is one of the country's 20 national parks. It currently ranks third in size after Kruger National Park and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
History
The original section of the park was founded in 1931, in part due to the efforts of Sydney Skaife, in order to provide a sanctuary for the eleven remaining elephants in the area. The park has proved to be very successful and currently houses more than 600 elephants and a large number of other mammals.
Expansion
The original park has subsequently been expanded to include the Woody Cape Nature Reserve that extends from the Sundays River mouth towards Alexandria and a marine reserve, which includes St. Croix Island and Bird Island, both breeding habitat for gannets and penguins, not to mention a large variety of other marine life. Bird Island is home to the world's largest breeding colony of gannets - about 120,000 birds - and also hosts the second largest breeding colony of African penguins, the largest breeding colony being St. Croix island. These marine assets form part of the plan to expand the 1,640 km² Addo National Elephant Park into the 3,600 km² Greater Addo Elephant National Park.
The expansion will mean not only that the park contains five of South Africa's seven major vegetation zones (biomes), but also that it will be the only park in the world to house Africa's "Big 7“ (elephant, rhinoceros, lion, buffalo, leopard, whale and great white shark) in their natural habitat.
Flora and fauna
The flora within the AENP is quite varied, and like all plant life, is a central factor to the ecological system in place. Several species of rare and endemic plants, particularly succulent shrubs and geophytes are native to the South African region within the AENP. Many species are under environmental pressure, however, and are facing possible extinction.
The park is home to more than 600 elephants, 400 Cape buffaloes, over 48 endangered black rhinos (Diceros bicornis michaeli) as well as a variety of antelope species. Lion and spotted hyena have also recently been re-introduced to the area. The largest remaining population of the flightless dung beetle (Circellium bacchus) is located within the park.
Extinction and overpopulation
Two major environmental issues facing the AENP: extinction and overpopulation, which are interrelated. Since the AENP's original mission was to reintroduce certain mega-herbivores, like the African elephant and black rhinoceros, primary ecological efforts were made to preserve mammalian species. However, by overlooking the other contributors to this environmental chain, certain plant species have been subjected to overgrazing and trampling, mostly by the elephants of the park. This overgrazing and trampling not only destroys much of the plant life, but also forces it to adapt its physiology to stimuli that are not inherent to its evolutionary progress. Some biologists argue that it is not herbivorization alone that is threatening the flora, but a number of other ecological factors including zoochory and nutrient cycling. Up to 77 species of South African endemic plant species have been listed as "vulnerable to elephant browsing."
Marine protected areas
The Addo Elephant National Park Marine Protected Area[8][9] and Bird Island Marine Protected Area are associated with the park.
Tourism
In 2018 the highest visitor count in the park's 87-year history was recorded. The park received 305,510 visitors between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018 (up from 265,585 in the previous year). International visitors make up 55% of this number, with German, Dutch and British nationals in the majority.
There is a main camp, featuring a swimming pool, restaurant, flood lit water hole and various accommodation, four other rest camps and four camps run by concessionaires. The main entrance as well as two looped tourist roads in the park are tarred while the others are graveled. There is also an additional access road through the southern block of the park feeding off the N2 highway near Colchester; it joins up with the existing tourist roads in the park.
(Wikipedia)
The hartebeest (/ˈhɑːrtəˌbiːst/; Alcelaphus buselaphus), also known as kongoni or kaama, is an African antelope. It is the only member of the genus Alcelaphus. Eight subspecies have been described, including two sometimes considered to be independent species. A large antelope, the hartebeest stands just over 1 m (3 ft 3 in) at the shoulder, and has a typical head-and-body length of 200 to 250 cm (79 to 98 in). The weight ranges from 100 to 200 kg (220 to 440 lb). It has a particularly elongated forehead and oddly-shaped horns, a short neck, and pointed ears. Its legs, which often have black markings, are unusually long. The coat is generally short and shiny. Coat colour varies by the subspecies, from the sandy brown of the western hartebeest to the chocolate brown of the Swayne's hartebeest. Both sexes of all subspecies have horns, with those of females being more slender. Horns can reach lengths of 45–70 cm (18–28 in). Apart from its long face, the large chest and the sharply sloping back differentiate the hartebeest from other antelopes. A conspicuous hump over the shoulders is due to the long dorsal processes of the vertebrae in this region.
Gregarious animals, hartebeest form herds of 20 to 300 individuals. They are very alert and non-aggressive. They are primarily grazers, with their diets consisting mainly of grasses. Mating in hartebeest takes place throughout the year with one or two peaks, and depends upon the subspecies and local factors. Both males and females reach sexual maturity at one to two years of age. Gestation is eight to nine months long, after which a single calf is born. Births usually peak in the dry season. The lifespan is 12 to 15 years.
Inhabiting dry savannas and wooded grasslands, hartebeest often move to more arid places after rainfall. They have been reported from altitudes on Mount Kenya up to 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The hartebeest was formerly widespread in Africa, but populations have undergone drastic decline due to habitat destruction, hunting, human settlement, and competition with livestock for food. Each of the eight subspecies of the hartebeest has a different conservation status. The Bubal hartebeest was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1994. While the populations of the red hartebeest are on the rise, those of the Tora hartebeest, already Critically Endangered, are falling. The hartebeest is extinct in Algeria, Egypt, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Somalia, and Tunisia; but has been introduced into Eswatini and Zimbabwe. It is a popular game animal due to its highly regarded meat.
Etymology
The vernacular name "hartebeest" may have originated from the obsolete Dutch word hertebeest, literally deer beast, based on the resemblance (to early Dutch settlers) of the antelope to deer. The first use of the word "hartebeest" in South African literature was in Dutch colonial administrator Jan van Riebeeck's journal Daghregister in 1660. He wrote: "Meester Pieter ein hart-beest geschooten hadde (Master Pieter [van Meerhoff] had shot one hartebeest)". Another name for the hartebeest is kongoni, a Swahili word. Kongoni is often used to refer in particular to one of its subspecies, Coke's hartebeest
Taxonomy
The scientific name of the hartebeest is Alcelaphus buselaphus. First described by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1766, it is classified in the genus Alcelaphus and placed in the family Bovidae. In 1979, palaeontologist Elisabeth Vrba supported Sigmoceros as a separate genus for Lichtenstein's hartebeest, a kind of hartebeest, as she assumed it was related to Connochaetes (wildebeest). She had analysed the skull characters of living and extinct species of antelope to make a cladogram, and argued that a wide skull linked Lichtenstein's hartebeest with Connochaetes. However, this finding was not replicated by Alan W. Gentry of the Natural History Museum, who classified it as an independent species of Alcelaphus. Zoologists such as Jonathan Kingdon and Theodor Haltenorth considered it to be a subspecies of A. buselaphus. Vrba dissolved the new genus in 1997 after reconsideration.[15] An MtDNA analysis could find no evidence to support a separate genus for Lichtenstein's hartebeest. It also showed the tribe Alcelaphini to be monophyletic, and discovered close affinity between the Alcelaphus and the sassabies (genus Damaliscus)—both genetically and morphologically.
Evolution
The genus Alcelaphus emerged about 4.4 million years ago in a clade whose other members were Damalops, Numidocapra, Rabaticeras, Megalotragus, Oreonagor, and Connochaetes. An analysis using phylogeographic patterns within hartebeest populations suggested a possible origin of Alcelaphus in eastern Africa.[36] Alcelaphus quickly radiated across the African savannas, replacing several previous forms (such as a relative of the hirola). Flagstad and colleagues showed an early split in the hartebeest populations into two distinct lineages around 0.5 million years ago – one to the north and the other to the south of the equator. The northern lineage further diverged into eastern and western lineages, nearly 0.4 million years ago, most probably as a result of the expanding central African rainforest belt and subsequent contraction of savanna habitats during a period of global warming. The eastern lineage gave rise to the Coke's, Swayne's, Tora and Lelwel hartebeest; and from the western lineage evolved the Bubal and western hartebeest. The southern lineage gave rise to Lichtenstein's and red hartebeest. These two taxa are phylogenetically close, having diverged only 0.2 million years ago. The study concluded that these major events throughout the hartebeest's evolution are strongly related to climatic factors, and that there had been successive bursts of radiation from a more permanent population—a refugium—in eastern Africa; this could be vital to understanding the evolutionary history of not only the hartebeest but also other mammals of the African savanna.
The earliest fossil record dates back to nearly 0.7 million years ago. Fossils of the red hartebeest have been found in Elandsfontein, Cornelia (Free State) and Florisbad in South Africa, as well as in Kabwe in Zambia. In Israel, hartebeest remains have been found in northern Negev, Shephelah, Sharon Plain and Tel Lachish. This population of the hartebeest was originally limited to the open country of the southernmost regions of the southern Levant. It was probably hunted in Egypt, which affected the numbers in the Levant, and disconnected it from its main population in Africa.
Description
A large antelope with a particularly elongated forehead and oddly shaped horns, the hartebeest stands just over 1 m (3 ft 3 in) at the shoulder, and has a typical head-and-body length of 200 to 250 cm (79 to 98 in). The weight ranges from 100 to 200 kg (220 to 440 lb). The tail, 40 to 60 cm (16 to 24 in) long, ends in a black tuft.[39] The other distinctive features of the hartebeest are its long legs (often with black markings), short neck, and pointed ears. A study correlated the size of hartebeest species to habitat productivity and rainfall. The western hartebeest is the largest subspecies, and has a characteristic white line between the eyes. The red hartebeest is also large, with a black forehead and a contrasting light band between the eyes. The large Lelwel hartebeest has dark stripes on the front of its legs. Coke's hartebeest is moderately large, with a shorter forehead and longer tail in comparison to the other subspecies. Lichtenstein's hartebeest is smaller, with dark stripes on the front of the legs, as in the Lelwel hartebeest. The Swayne's hartebeest is smaller than the Tora hartebeest, but both have a shorter forehead and similar appearance.
Generally short and shiny, the coat varies in colour according to subspecies. The western hartebeest is a pale sandy-brown, but the front of the legs are darker. The red hartebeest is a reddish-brown, with a dark face. Black markings can be observed on the chin, the back of the neck, shoulders, hips and legs; these are in sharp contrast with the broad white patches that mark its flanks and lower rump. The Lelwel hartebeest is a reddish tan. Coke's hartebeest is reddish to tawny in the upper parts, but has relatively lighter legs and rump. Lichtenstein's hartebeest is reddish brown, though the flanks are a lighter tan and the rump whitish. The Tora hartebeest is a dark reddish brown in the upper part of the body, the face, the forelegs and the rump, but the hindlegs and the underbelly are a yellowish white. The Swayne's hartebeest is a rich chocolate brown with fine spots of white that are actually the white tips of its hairs. Its face is black save for the chocolate band below the eyes. The shoulders and upper part of the legs are black. Fine textured, the body hair of the hartebeest is about 25 mm (1 in) long. The hartebeest has preorbital glands (glands near the eyes) with a central duct, that secrete a dark sticky fluid in Coke's and Lichtenstein's hartebeest, and a colourless fluid in the Lelwel hartebeest.
Both sexes of all subspecies have horns, with those of females being more slender. Horns can reach lengths of 45–70 cm (18–28 in); the maximum horn length is 74.9 cm (29+1⁄2 in), recorded from a Namibian red hartebeest. The horns of the western hartebeest are thick and appear U-shaped from the front and Z-shaped from the sides, growing backward at first and then forward, ending with a sharp backward turn. The horns of the red and the Lelwel hartebeest are similar to those of the western hartebeest, but appear V-shaped when viewed from the front. The Lichtenstein's hartebeest has thick parallel ringed horns, with a flat base. Its horns are shorter than those of other subspecies, curving upward then sharply forward, followed by an inward turn at an angle of about 45° and a final backward turn. The horns of Swayne's hartebeest are thin and shaped like parentheses, curving upward and then backward. The horns of the Tora hartebeest are particularly thin and spread out sideways, diverging more than in any other subspecies.
Apart from its long face, the large chest and the sharply sloping back differentiate the hartebeest from other antelopes. The hartebeest shares several physical traits with the sassabies (genus Damaliscus), such as an elongated and narrow face, the shape of the horns, the pelage texture and colour, and the terminal tuft of the tail. The wildebeest have more specialised skull and horn features than the hartebeest. The hartebeest exhibits sexual dimorphism, but only slightly, as both sexes bear horns and have similar body masses. The degree of sexual dimorphism varies by subspecies. Males are 8% heavier than females in Swayne's and Lichtenstein's hartebeest, and 23% heavier in the red hartebeest. In one study, the highest dimorphism was found in skull weight. Another study concluded that the length of the breeding season is a good predictor of dimorphism in pedicle (the bony structures from which the horns grow) height and skull weight, and the best predictor of the horn circumference.
Ecology and behaviour
Active mainly during daytime, the hartebeest grazes in the early morning and late afternoon, and rests in shade around noon. Gregarious, the species forms herds of up to 300 individuals. Larger numbers gather in places with abundant grass. In 1963, a congregation of 10,000 animals was recorded on the plains near Sekoma Pan in Botswana. However, moving herds are not so cohesive, and tend to disperse frequently. The members of a herd can be divided into four groups: territorial adult males, non-territorial adult males, young males, and the females with their young. The females form groups of five to 12 animals, with four generations of young in the group. Females fight for dominance over the herd. Sparring between males and females is common. At three or four years of age, the males can attempt to take over a territory and its female members. A resident male defends his territory and will fight if provoked. The male marks the border of his territory through defecation.
Hartebeest are remarkably alert and cautious animals with highly developed brains. Generally calm in nature, hartebeest can be ferocious when provoked. While feeding, one individual stays on the lookout for danger, often standing on a termite mound to see farther. At times of danger, the whole herd flees in a single file after an individual suddenly starts off. Adult hartebeest are preyed upon by lions, leopards, hyenas and wild dogs; cheetahs and jackals target juveniles. Crocodiles may also prey on hartebeest.
The thin long legs of the hartebeest provide for a quick escape in an open habitat; if attacked, the formidable horns are used to ward off the predator. The elevated position of the eyes enables the hartebeest to inspect its surroundings continuously even as it is grazing. The muzzle has evolved so as to derive maximum nutrition from even a frugal diet. The horns are also used during fights among males for dominance in the breeding season; the clash of the horns is loud enough that it can be heard from hundreds of metres away. The beginning of a fight is marked with a series of head movements and stances, as well as depositing droppings on dung piles. The opponents drop onto their knees and, after giving a hammer-like blow, begin wrestling, their horns interlocking. One attempts to fling the head of the other to one side to stab the neck and shoulders with his horns. Fights are rarely serious, but can be fatal if they are.
Like the sassabies, hartebeest produce quiet quacking and grunting sounds. Juveniles tend to be more vocal than adults, and produce a quacking call when alarmed or pursued. The hartebeest uses defecation as an olfactory and visual display. Herds are generally sedentary, and tend to migrate only under adverse conditions such as natural calamities. The hartebeest is the least migratory in the tribe Alcelaphini (which also includes wildebeest and sassabies), and also consumes the least amount of water and has the lowest metabolic rate among the members of the tribe.
Diet
Hartebeest are primarily grazers, and their diets consist mostly of grasses. A study in the Nazinga Game Ranch in Burkina Faso found that the hartebeest's skull structure eased the acquisition and chewing of highly fibrous foods. The hartebeest has much lower food intake than the other members of Alcelaphini. The long thin muzzle of the hartebeest assists in feeding on leaf blades of short grasses and nibbling off leaf sheaths from grass stems. In addition to this, it can derive nutritious food even from tall senile grasses. These adaptations of the hartebeest enable the animal to feed well even in the dry season, which is usually a difficult period for grazers. For instance, in comparison with the roan antelope, the hartebeest is better at procuring and chewing the scarce regrowth of perennial grasses at times when forage is least available. These unique abilities could have allowed the hartebeest to prevail over other animals millions of years ago, leading to its successful radiation across Africa.
Grasses generally comprise at least 80 percent of the hartebeest's diet, but they account for over 95 percent of their food in the wet season, October to May. Jasminum kerstingii is part of the hartebeest's diet at the start of the rainy season. Between seasons, they mainly feed on the culms of grasses. A study found that the hartebeest is able to digest a higher proportion of food than the topi and the wildebeest. In areas with scarce water, it can survive on melons, roots, and tubers.
In a study of grass selectivity among the wildebeest, zebra, and the Coke's hartebeest, the hartebeest showed the highest selectivity. All animals preferred Themeda triandra over Pennisetum mezianum and Digitaria macroblephara. More grass species were eaten in the dry season than in the wet season.
Reproduction
Mating in hartebeest takes place throughout the year, with one or two peaks that can be influenced by the availability of food. Both males and females reach sexual maturity at one to two years of age. Reproduction varies by the subspecies and local factors. Mating takes place in the territories defended by a single male, mostly in open areas. The males may fight fiercely for dominance, following which the dominant male smells the female's genitalia, and follows her if she is in oestrus. Sometimes a female in oestrus holds out her tail slightly to signal her receptivity, and the male tries to block the female's way. She may eventually stand still and allow the male to mount her. Copulation is brief and is often repeated, sometimes twice or more in a minute. Any intruder at this time is chased away. In large herds, females often mate with several males.
Gestation is eight to nine months long, after which a single calf weighing about 9 kg (20 lb) is born. Births usually peak in the dry season, and take place in thickets – unlike the wildebeest, which give birth in groups on the plains. Though calves can move about on their own shortly after birth, they usually lie in the open in close proximity of their mothers. The calf is weaned at four months, but young males stay with their mothers for two and a half years, longer than in other Alcelaphini. Often the mortality rate of male juveniles is high, as they have to face the aggression of territorial adult males and are also deprived of good forage by them. The lifespan is 12 to 15 years.
Habitat
Hartebeest inhabit dry savannas, open plains and wooded grasslands, often moving into more arid places after rainfall. They are more tolerant of wooded areas than other Alcelaphini, and are often found on the edge of woodlands. They have been reported from altitudes on Mount Kenya up to 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The red hartebeest is known to move across large areas, and females roam home ranges of over 1,000 km2 (390 sq mi), with male territories 200 km2 (77 sq mi) in size. Females in the Nairobi National Park (Kenya) have individual home ranges stretching over 3.7–5.5 km2 (1+3⁄8–2+1⁄8 sq mi), which are not particularly associated with any one female group. Average female home ranges are large enough to include 20 to 30 male territories.
Status and conservation
Each hartebeest subspecies is listed under a different conservation status by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The species as a whole is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN. The hartebeest is extinct in Algeria, Egypt, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Somalia, and Tunisia.
The Bubal hartebeest has been declared extinct since 1994. German explorer Heinrich Barth, in his works of 1857, cites firearms and European intrusion among the reasons for the decrease in its numbers.[69] It was extinct in Tunisia by the late 19th century.[70] The last individual was shot in Missour (Algeria) in 1925.
Coke's hartebeest is listed as Least Concern. This species has been greatly affected by habitat destruction, and about 42,000 Coke's hartebeest occur today in Mara, Serengeti National Park, and Tarangire National Park in Tanzania and Tsavo East National Park in Kenya. The population is decreasing, and 70% of the population lives in protected areas.
The Lelwel hartebeest is listed as Endangered, and numbers have declined greatly since the 1980s, when its population was over 285,000. It was formerly distributed mainly in the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, northern and northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Sudan. Fewer than 70,000 individuals are left. Most of the population nowadays is found in Chad in the Salamat region and the Zakouma National Park (Chad), the National Park population benefiting from improved protection and seeing an increase in population since the 1980s; Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park and Bamingui-Bangoran National Park and Biosphere Reserve in the Central African Republic, where the populations have been falling; Rumanyika Orugundu Game Reserve and Ibanda Game Reserve in Tanzania; and Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda.
Lichtenstein's hartebeest is listed as Least Concern, and occurs in protected areas such as the Selous Game Reserve and in the wild in southern and western Tanzania and Zambia.
The red hartebeest is listed as Least Concern. It is the most widespread, with increasing numbers after its reintroduction into protected and private areas. However, it has been extinct in Lesotho since the twentieth century. Its population is estimated to be over 130,000 (as of 2008), mostly in southern Africa. In Namibia, the largest population occurs in the Etosha National Park. A reintroduced population is flourishing in the Malolotja Nature Reserve (Eswatini), outside its range. However, numbers have seen a sharp fall in southwestern Botswana.
The Tora hartebeest is listed as Critically Endangered; the IUCN has ascertained that fewer than 250 mature individuals survive as of 2008. They are possibly extinct in Sudan due to excessive hunting and agricultural expansion, but may still exist in smaller numbers in Eritrea and Ethiopia. There have been unconfirmed reports of sightings by locals of the Tora hartebeest southeast of the Dinder National Park, from where it had disappeared before 1960.
Swayne's hartebeest is listed as Endangered, and is close to being Critically Endangered. The total population in 2008 was less than 600, of which the mature specimens numbered within 250. It is confined to four major protected areas: the Senkele Wildlife Sanctuary, Nechisar National Park, Awash National Park and Maze National Park. The hartebeest in Senkele have to compete with the livestock of the Oromo people. A study in the Nechisar National Park during 2009 and 2010 found a considerable increase in the livestock of the Oromos (49.9% and 56.5% increase during 2006 and 2010, respectively), illegal resource exploitation, and habitat loss as major threats to the Swayne's hartebeest populations there.
The western hartebeest is listed as Near Threatened. It has been eliminated from most of its range, including the southwestern savannas and Boucle du Baoulé National Park in Mali; southwestern Niger; southern Senegal; Gambia; Ivory Coast; Burkina Faso. Small populations survive in Bafing National Park and the area bounded by Bamako, Bougouni and Sikasso in Mali; Tamou Reserve in Niger; Niokolo-Koba National Park in Senegal; Comoé National Park in Ivory Coast; Diefoula forest and Nazinga Game Ranch in Burkina Faso; Pendjari National Park in Benin; and Bouba Njida, Bénoué, and Faro National Parks in Cameroon.
Relationship with humans
Hartebeest are popular game and trophy animals as they are prominently visible and hence easy to hunt. Pictorial as well as epigraphic evidence from Egypt suggests that in the Upper Palaeolithic age, Egyptians hunted hartebeest and domesticated them. The hartebeest was a prominent source of meat, but its economic significance was lower than that of gazelles and other desert species. However, from the beginning of the Neolithic age, hunting became less common and consequently the remains of the hartebeest from this period in ancient Egypt, where it is now extinct, are rare.
In a study on the effect of place and sex on carcass characteristics, the average carcass weight of the male red hartebeest was 79.3 kg (174+3⁄4 lb) and that of females was 56 kg (123 lb). The meat of the animals from Qua-Qua region had the highest lipid content—1.3 g (20 gr) per 100 g (3+1⁄2 oz) of meat. Negligible differences were found in the concentrations of individual fatty acids, amino acids, and minerals. The study considered hartebeest meat to be healthy, as the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids was 0.78, slightly more than the recommended 0.7.
(Wikipedia)
Der Addo-Elefanten-Nationalpark (afrikaans: Addo Olifant Nasionale Park, englisch: Addo Elephant National Park) liegt im Distrikt Sarah Baartman, im westlichen Teil der Provinz Ostkap in Südafrika, 70 Kilometer nordöstlich von Port Elizabeth im Sundays River Valley. Der Elefanten-Nationalpark ist mit 1640 km² der größte Nationalpark im Ostkap.
Geschichte
Der Nationalpark wurde 1931 zum Schutz der elf letzten überlebenden Elefanten der Region eingerichtet, die bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht zum Opfer von Elfenbeinjägern oder Farmern geworden waren. Der Gründung vorausgegangen war eine von Seiten der Regierung initiierte Jagd auf die hier heimischen Kap-Elefanten, die auf der Suche nach Nahrung immer wieder die Felder und Gärten der hier ansässigen Farmer verwüsteten. Nachdem es zu öffentlichen Protesten gekommen war, als der „letzte große weiße Jäger“ Major P. J. Pretorius in einem Jahr 130 Elefanten erlegte, wurde im Addo-Busch das seitdem mehrfach erweiterte Wildreservat eingerichtet. Im Jahr 1954, als es 22 Elefanten gab, ließ der damalige Parkmanager Graham Armstrong eine Fläche von 2270 Hektar mit Elefantenzäunen umgeben. Dieser Zaun wird noch heute vom Park genutzt und ist als „Armstrong-Zaun“ nach seinem Erfinder benannt.
Im Jahr 2004 lebten im Park etwa 350 Elefanten; 2006 wurden bereits knapp über 400 Elefanten gezählt. Damit erreichte der Nationalpark das ökologisch vertretbare Maximum an Elefanten.
Langfristig soll der Addo Elephant Park der drittgrößte Park Südafrikas werden. Der Park soll auf eine Größe von 3600 km² anwachsen.
Flora und Fauna
Neben Elefanten leben im Addo-Elefanten-Nationalpark Kudus, Afrikanischer Büffel, Elenantilopen, Südafrikanische Kuhantilopen, Buschböcke, Warzenschweine, Steppenzebras, Spitzmaulnashörner, Hyänen und Leoparden. In einigen Randgebieten, etwa im Bereich des Darlington-Dammes beziehungsweise in der Nähe der Zuurberg Mountains, leben auch einige für das Kapgebiet typische Huftierarten, wie Bergzebras, Weißschwanzgnus, Oryxantilopen und Springböcke. Am Sundays River leben Flusspferde. 2003 wurden Löwen im Park angesiedelt, so dass man seither die sogenannten Big Five im Park antreffen kann. Fleckenhyänen wurden ebenfalls angesiedelt, und auch die Wiederansiedlung von Wildhunden und Geparden ist geplant.
Der Nationalpark beherbergt mehr als 500 verschiedene Pflanzenarten aus rund 70 Familien. Man findet hier vorrangig kleine Pflanzenarten sowie verschiedene Buscharten wie Schotia afra und Portulacaria afra.
Tourismus
Der Nationalpark hat jährlich etwa 120.000 Besucher. Von den etwa 50 Prozent ausländischen Besuchern kommt ein Großteil der Parkbesucher aus Deutschland, den Niederlanden und dem Vereinigten Königreich.
Für die Besucher des Parks wurde ein Lager eingerichtet. Hier befinden sich ein Schwimmbad, ein Restaurant, ein beleuchtetes Wasserloch sowie verschiedene Unterkünfte. Der Haupteingang sowie zwei Besucherstraßen im Park sind asphaltiert, während die anderen mit Kies bestreut sind. Durch eine zusätzliche Zufahrt von der Autobahn N2 entlang der Garden Route gelangt man auf die Straßen für Besucher.
(Wikipedia)
Die Eigentlichen Kuhantilopen (Alcelaphus) sind eine Gattung afrikanischer Antilopen aus der Tribus der Kuhantilopen (Alcelphini). Der gelegentlich auch im Deutschen verwendete Name Hartebeest kommt aus dem Afrikaans.
Merkmale
Mit einer Kopf-Rumpf-Länge von 160 bis 250 cm, einer Schulterhöhe von 108 bis 150 cm und einem Gewicht von fast 120 bis 185 kg sind diese Antilopen relativ groß. Das Fell ist je nach Art hellgrau bis rotbraun. Markant sind die schwarze Zeichnung in der Mitte des langen Gesichts und der Beine sowie ein deutlich hellgelber oder gebrochen weißer Spiegel. Ebenso eindeutig und unverwechselbar ist die Form der Hörner, die aus einem gemeinsamen Stamm wachsen und sich dann in der Form einer Leier nach außen und oben biegen. Sie werden 70 cm lang und werden von beiden Geschlechtern getragen, sodass diese sich nur schwer unterscheiden lassen. Auffällig ist auch der besonders hohe Widerrist.
Verbreitung
Die Eigentlichen Kuhantilopen waren einst weit über die trockenen Savannen Afrikas verbreitet, von der Mittelmeerküste bis zum Kap. Angeblich sollen Vertreter auch in Palästina vorgekommen sein, doch Beweise dafür sind dürftig. Im südlichen Ostafrika wird die Gattung von der Lichtenstein-Antilope vertreten. Heute sind die Eigentlichen Kuhantilopen in weiten Teilen ihres ehemaligen Verbreitungsgebiets ausgerottet.
Lebensweise
Die Eigentlichen Kuhantilopen sind tagaktive, in Herden lebende Antilopen. Wie viele andere Antilopen auch sind die Herden nach Geschlechtern getrennt. Weibchen und Jungtiere sammeln sich zu Gruppen von durchschnittlich 300 Tieren; diese Herden können auch bedeutend größer werden, vor allem im Serengeti-Nationalpark, in dem es insgesamt 18.000 Kuhantilopen gibt. Junge Männchen bilden häufig Junggesellengruppen, die überwiegend klein, in Einzelfällen bis zu 35 Individuen zählen. Im Alter von etwa vier Jahren werden die Männchen zu territorialen Einzelgängern. Sie verteidigen einen Eigenbezirk gegen Geschlechtsgenossen und erheben Anspruch auf alle darin lebenden Weibchen. Im Alter von acht Jahren sind die Männchen zu schwach für diese Kämpfe und verlieren ihre Territorien; sie wandern dann allein umher und versuchen, anderen Männchen aus dem Weg zu gehen. Die Lebensdauer kann zwanzig Jahre betragen; allerdings werden wenige älter als zehn Jahre. Eigentliche Kuhantilopen sind typische Grasfresser, die allerdings gelegentlich auch Kräuter und Laub von Büschen fressen. Sie trinken wenn möglich regelmäßig, können aber auch lange ohne Wasser auskommen. Auf der Flucht erreichen sie fast 80 km/h.
Arten
Nordafrikanische Kuhantilope (Alcelaphus buselaphus (Pallas, 1766)); diese Art ist in den 1920ern infolge intensiver Bejagung ausgestorben; sie war nördlich der Sahara von Marokko bis Ägypten verbreitet
Südliche Kuhantilope oder Kaama-Kuhantilope (Alcelaphus caama (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1803)); im südlichen Afrika
Kongoni-Kuhantilope oder Cokes Kuhantilope (Alcelaphus cokii Günther, 1884); das Kongoni lebt in den Savannen Kenias und Tansanias und ist die mit Abstand häufigste Art
Lelwel-Kuhantilope (Alcelaphus lelwel (Heuglin, 1877)); im Tschad, in Kongo und in Uganda
Lichtenstein-Antilope (Alcelaphus lichtensteinii (Peters, 1852))
Westafrika-Kuhantilope (Alcelaphus major (Blyth, 1869)); in Savannen Westafrikas
Somalia-Kuhantilope (Alcelaphus swaynei (Sclater, 1892)); ebenfalls bedroht; einst in Somalia beheimatet, heute nur noch vereinzelte Populationen im äthiopisch-somalischen Grenzgebiet
Tora-Kuhantilope (Alcelaphus tora Gray, 1873); das Tora ist in Äthiopien und Eritrea verbreitet und wird von der IUCN als stark gefährdet eingestuft.
Die Lichtenstein-Antilope wurde teilweise in die eigene Gattung Sigmoceros eingeordnet, genetischen Analysen zufolge ist sie aber sehr nah mit der Südlichen Kuhantilope verwandt. Die Südliche Kuhantilope, die durch ein auffallend rotbraunes Fell und charakteristisch schwarze Fellzeichnungen im Gesicht und an den Beinen gekennzeichnet ist, war fast ausgerottet, konnte aber in einigen Nationalparks überleben und wird inzwischen wieder häufiger.
In der Regel wurden die heute anerkannten Formen im 19. Jahrhundert als eigenständige Arten eingeführt. Im Jahr 1929 schoben A. E. Ruxton und Ernst Schwarz alle Vertreter des nördlichen, östlichen und westlichen Afrikas auf Unterartniveau innerhalb der Art Alcelaphus buselaphus. Darüber hinaus erkannten sie die südafrikanischen Formen Alcelaphus lichtensteini und Alcelaphus caama als eigenständig an. Somit beschränkten sie die Eigentlichen Kuhantilopen auf drei Arten. Später wurden auch die südafrikanischen Formen in Alcelaphus buselaphus eingegliedert, wodurch die Art im Verlauf des 20. Jahrhunderts aus bis zu acht Unterarten bestand. Molekulargenetische Studien im Übergang zum 21. Jahrhundert erkannten dann innerhalb der Eigentlichen Kuhantilopen drei eigenständige Linien: eine westliche mit der Westafrika-Kuhantilope, eine östliche mit der Kongoni-, der Lelwel-, der Somalia- sowie der Tora-Kuhantilope und eine südliche mit der Lichtenstein- sowie der Südlichen Kuhantilope. Die westliche und die östliche Linie standen sich genetisch näher, während die südliche als Schwestergruppe fungierte. Innerhalb der östlichen Gruppe bildete die Tora- und die Somalia-Kuhantilope jeweils eine monophyletische Gruppe, jedoch gab es zwischen der Somalia-Kuhantilope und den beiden anderen östlichen Vertretern eine größere Mischgruppe. Untergeordnet traten auch zwischen der westlichen und östlichen Linie einzelne Überschneidungen auf. Peter Grubb nahm den genetischen Befund im Jahr 2005 zum Anlass, die beiden südlichen Formen wieder als eigenständig anzuerkennen, so dass die Gattung seiner Meinung nach wieder drei Arten umfasste. Während einer Revision der Hornträger aus dem Jahr 2011 verschoben Colin P. Groves und Grubb ebenfalls unter Berufung auf die molekulargenetischen Daten auch die westlichen und östlichen Formen erneut in den Artstatus. Innerhalb der Eigentlichen Kuhantilopen sind damit nun acht rezente Arten anerkannt, von denen die Nordafrikanische Kuhantilope allerdings in jüngerer Zeit ausgestorben ist.
Gefährdung
Trockenheit und Krankheiten können die Populationen schnell verkleinern. Besonders stark verringern sich Kuhantilopenbestände bei Konkurrenz durch Viehherden. Auch Bejagung stellt mancherorts eine Bedrohung dar.
(Wikipedia)
We provide authentic yoga with true wisdom of yoga blend with science and spirituality free from any religion or beliefs. We offers yoga teachers training courses for 200 and 500 hrs through Association for Yoga and Meditation and Indian Yoga Alliance registered International Yoga Federation Argentina and Yoga Alliance USA, lead by Yogi Chetan Mahesh the Himalayan Yogi of Rishikesh. The yoga courses are residential as well as non residential which focus asana, pranayama, mudra, bandha, kriya, relaxation and meditation along with yogic anatomy and physiology, psychology and teaching methodology
Pu`u Hinahina Lookout provides one of the most dramatic ways to view Waimea Canyon. The canyon is ten miles long, a mile wide, and more than 3,500 feet deep. While smaller than the Grand Canyon in Arizona, it is truly a spectacular sight and one of the major natural attractions of the Garden Isle. From this lookout you can see all the way down to the Pacific Ocean from atop the Canyon walls. Additionally this location provides you the opportunity to get a clear view of the forbidden island of Ni'ihau offshore 17 miles away. Facilities are available at this location. The Puu Hinahina Lookout is at mile marker 13, just over three miles past the Waimea Canyon Lookout. A "new spur trail" also now connects this lookout to the Canyon and Cliff trails. It's a bit steep, but is a noteworthy connection to the two trails atop the Canyon.
www.hawaii-guide.com/kauai/sights/puu_hinahina_lookout
Kauai.
Hawaiian Kaua‘i, volcanic island, Kauai county, Hawaii, U.S. It lies 72 miles (116 km) northwest of Oahu island across the Kauai Channel. The northernmost and geologically the oldest of the major Hawaiian islands, it is also the most verdant and one of the most scenic and is known as the Garden Isle; the name Kauai is of uncertain origin. The nearly circular island is dominated by Mount Waialeale, rising to 5,243 feet (1,598 metres) at the island’s centre. The mountain slopes are dissected by fertile valleys and deep fissures, and the island is fringed in coastal areas by marginal lowlands. Waialeale’s summit is considered one of the wettest places on Earth, averaging some 450 inches (11,430 mm) of rain annually. Kauai has Hawaii’s only consistently navigable rivers.
Arches National Park is a national park in eastern Utah, United States. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, 4 miles (6 km) north of Moab, Utah. More than 2,000 natural sandstone arches are located in the park, including the well-known Delicate Arch, as well as a variety of unique geological resources and formations. The park contains the highest density of natural arches in the world.
The park consists of 310.31 square kilometres (76,680 acres; 119.81 sq mi; 31,031 ha) of high desert located on the Colorado Plateau. The highest elevation in the park is 5,653 feet (1,723 m) at Elephant Butte, and the lowest elevation is 4,085 feet (1,245 m) at the visitor center. The park receives an average of less than 10 inches (250 mm) of rain annually.
Administered by the National Park Service, the area was originally named a national monument on April 12, 1929, and was re designated as a national park on November 12, 1971. The park received more than 1.6 million visitors in 2018.
As stated in the foundation document in U.S. National Park Service website:
The purpose of Arches National Park is to protect extraordinary examples of geologic features including arches, natural bridges, windows, spires, and balanced rocks, as well as other features of geologic, historic, and scientific interest, and to provide opportunities to experience these resources and their associated values in their majestic natural settings.
The national park lies above an underground evaporite layer or salt bed, which is the main cause of the formation of the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths in the area. This salt bed is thousands of feet thick in places and was deposited in the Paradox Basin of the Colorado Plateau some 300 million years ago (Mya) when a sea flowed into the region and eventually evaporated. Over millions of years, the salt bed was covered with debris eroded from the Uncompahgre Uplift to the northeast. During the Early Jurassic (about 200 Mya), desert conditions prevailed in the region and the vast Navajo Sandstone was deposited. An additional sequence of stream laid and windblown sediments, the Entrada Sandstone (about 140 Mya), was deposited on top of the Navajo. Over 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of younger sediments were deposited and have been mostly eroded. Remnants of the cover exist in the area including exposures of the Cretaceous Mancos Shale. The arches of the area are developed mostly within the Entrada formation.
The weight of this cover caused the salt bed below it to liquefy and thrust up layers of rock into salt domes. The evaporites of the area formed more unusual "salt anticlines" or linear regions of uplift. Faulting occurred and whole sections of rock subsided into the areas between the domes. In some places, they turned almost on edge. The result of one such 2,500-foot (760 m) displacement, the Moab Fault, is seen from the visitor center.
As this subsurface movement of salt shaped the landscape, erosion removed the younger rock layers from the surface. Except for isolated remnants, the major formations visible in the park today are the salmon-colored Entrada Sandstone, in which most of the arches form, and the buff-colored Navajo Sandstone. These are visible in layer-cake fashion throughout most of the park. Over time, water seeped into the surface cracks, joints, and folds of these layers. Ice formed in the fissures, expanding and putting pressure on surrounding rock, breaking off bits and pieces. Winds later cleaned out the loose particles. A series of free-standing fins remained. Wind and water attacked these fins until, in some, the cementing material gave way and chunks of rock tumbled out. Many damaged fins collapsed. Others, with the right degree of hardness and balance, survived despite their missing sections. These became the famous arches.
Although the park's terrain may appear rugged and durable, it is extremely fragile. More than 1 million visitors each year threaten the fragile high-desert ecosystem. The problem lies within the soil's crust, which is composed of cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, and lichens that grow in the dusty parts of the park. Factors that make Arches National Park sensitive to visitor damage include being a semiarid region, the scarce, unpredictable rainfall, lack of deep freezing, and lack of plant litter, which results in soils that have both a low resistance to and slow recovery from, compressional forces such as foot traffic. Methods of indicating effects on the soil are cytophobic soil crust index, measuring of water infiltration, and t-tests that are used to compare the values from the undisturbed and disturbed areas.
Geological processes that occurred over 300 million years ago caused a salt bed to be deposited, which today lies beneath the landscape of Arches National Park.[ Over time, the salt bed was covered with sediments that eventually compressed into rock layers that have since been named Entrada Standstone. Rock layers surrounding the edge of the salt bed continued to erode and shift into vertical sandstone walls called fins. Sand collected between vertical walls of the fins, then slightly acidic rain combined with carbon dioxide in the air allowed for the chemical formation of carbonic acid within the trapped sand. Over time, the carbonic acid dissolved the calcium carbonate that held the sandstone together. Many of the rock formations have weaker layers of rock on bottom that are holding stronger layers on top. The weaker layers would dissolve first, creating openings in the rock. Gravity caused pieces of the stronger rock layer to fall piece by piece into an arch shape. Arches form within rock fins at points of intense fracturing localization, or weak points in the rock's formation, caused by horizontal and vertical discontinuities. Lastly, water, wind, and time continued this erosion process and ultimately created the arches of Arches National Park. All of the arches in the park are made of Entrada Sandstone, however, there are slight differences in how each arch was developed. This allows the Entrada Sandstone to be categories into 3 groups including Slick rock members, Dewey rock members, and Moab members. Vertical arches can be developed from Slick rock members, a combination of Slick rock members and Moab members, or Slick rock members resting above Dewey rock members. Horizontal arches (also called potholes) are formed when a vertical pothole formation meets a horizontal cave, causing a union into a long arch structure. The erosion process within Arches National Park will continue as time continues to pass. Continued erosion combined with vertical and horizontal stress will eventually cause arches to collapse, but still, new arches will continue to form for thousands of years.
Humans have occupied the region since the last ice age 10,000 years ago. Fremont people and Ancestral Puebloans lived in the area until about 700 years ago. Spanish missionaries encountered Ute and Paiute tribes in the area when they first came through in 1775, but the first European-Americans to attempt settlement in the area were the Mormon Elk Mountain Mission in 1855, who soon abandoned the area. Ranchers, farmers, and prospectors later settled Moab in the neighboring Riverine Valley in the late 1870s. Word of the beauty of the surrounding rock formations spread beyond the settlement as a possible tourist destination.
The Arches area was first brought to the attention of the National Park Service by Frank A. Wadleigh, passenger traffic manager of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Wadleigh, accompanied by railroad photographer George L. Beam, visited the area in September 1923 at the invitation of Alexander Ringhoffer, a Hungarian-born prospector living in Salt Valley. Ringhoffer had written to the railroad to interest them in the tourist potential of a scenic area he had discovered the previous year with his two sons and a son-in-law, which he called the Devils Garden (known today as the Klondike Bluffs). Wadleigh was impressed by what Ringhoffer showed him, and suggested to Park Service director Stephen T. Mather that the area be made a national monument.
The following year, additional support for the monument idea came from Laurence Gould, a University of Michigan graduate student (and future polar explorer) studying the geology of the nearby La Sal Mountains, who was shown the scenic area by local physician Dr. J. W. "Doc" Williams.
A succession of government investigators examined the area, in part due to confusion as to the precise location. In the process, the name Devils Garden was transposed to an area on the opposite side of Salt Valley that includes Landscape Arch, the longest arch in the park. Ringhoffer's original discovery was omitted, while another area nearby, known locally as the Windows, was included. Designation of the area as a national monument was supported by the Park Service in 1926 but was resisted by President Calvin Coolidge's Interior Secretary, Hubert Work. Finally, in April 1929, shortly after his inauguration, President Herbert Hoover signed a presidential proclamation creating the Arches National Monument, consisting of two comparatively small, disconnected sections. The purpose of the reservation under the 1906 Antiquities Act was to protect the arches, spires, balanced rocks, and other sandstone formations for their scientific and educational value. The name Arches was suggested by Frank Pinkely, superintendent of the Park Service's southwestern national monuments, following a visit to the Windows section in 1925.
In late 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation that enlarged the Arches to protect additional scenic features and permit the development of facilities to promote tourism. A small adjustment was made by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960 to accommodate a new road alignment.
In early 1969, just before leaving office, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a proclamation substantially enlarging the Arches. Two years later, President Richard Nixon signed legislation enacted by Congress, which significantly reduced the total area enclosed, but changed its status. Arches National Park was formally dedicated in May 1972.
In 1980, vandals attempted to use an abrasive kitchen cleanser to deface ancient petroglyphs in the park, prompting park officials to recruit physicist John F. Asmus, who specialized in using lasers to restore works of art, to use his technology to repair the damage. Asmus "zapped the panel with intense light pulses and succeeded in removing most of the cleanser".
Climbing Balanced Rock or any named or unnamed arch in Arches National Park with an opening larger than 3 ft (0.9 m) is banned by park regulations. Climbing on other features in the park is allowed but regulated; in addition, slacklining and BASE jumping are banned parkwide.
Climbing on named arches within the park had long been banned by park regulations, but following Dean Potter's successful free climb on Delicate Arch in May 2006, the wording of the regulations was deemed unenforceable by the park attorney. In response, the park revised its regulations later that month, eventually imposing the current ban on arch climbing in 2014.
Approved recreational activities include auto touring, hiking, bicycling, camping at the Devils Garden campground, backpacking, canyoneering, and rock climbing, with permits required for the last three activities. Guided commercial tours and ranger programs are also available.
Astronomy is also popular in the park due to its dark skies, despite the increasing light pollution from towns such as Moab.
Delicate Arch is the subject of the third 2014 quarter of the U.S. Mint's America the Beautiful Quarters program commemorating national parks and historic sites. The Arches quarter had the highest production of the five 2014 national park quarters, with more than 465 million minted.
American writer Edward Abbey was a park ranger at Arches National Monument in 1956 and 1957, where he kept journals that became his book Desert Solitaire. The success of Abbey's book, as well as interest in adventure travel, has drawn many hikers, mountain bikers, and off-pavement driving enthusiasts to the area. Permitted activities within the park include camping, hiking along designated trails, backpacking, canyoneering, rock climbing, bicycling, and driving along existing roads, both paved and unpaved. The Hayduke Trail, an 812 mi (1,307 km) backpacking route named after one of Edward Abbey's characters, begins in the park.
An abundance of wildlife occurs in Arches National Park, including spadefoot toads, antelope squirrels, scrub jays, peregrine falcons, many kinds of sparrows, red foxes, desert bighorn sheep, kangaroo rats, mule deers, cougars, midget faded rattlesnakes, yucca moths, western rattlesnakes, and collared lizards.
A number of plant species are common in the park, including prickly pear cactus, Indian ricegrass, bunch grasses, cheatgrass, moss, liverworts, Utah juniper, Mormon tea, blackbrush, cliffrose, four-winged saltbrush, pinyon pine, evening primrose, sand verbena, yucca, and sacred datura.
Biological soil crust consisting of cyanobacteria, lichen, mosses, green algae, and microfungi is found throughout southeastern Utah. The fibrous growths help keep soil particles together, creating a layer that is more resistant to erosion. The living soil layer readily absorbs and stores water, allowing more complex forms of plant life to grow in places with low precipitation levels.
Among the notable features of the park are the following:
Balanced Rock – a large balancing rock, the size of three school buses
Courthouse Towers – a collection of tall stone columns
Dark Angel – a free-standing 150 ft-tall (46 m) sandstone pillar at the end of the Devils Garden Trail
Delicate Arch – a lone-standing arch that has become a symbol of Utah and the most recognized arch in the park
Devils Garden – many arches and columns scattered along a ridge
Double Arch – two arches that share a common end
Fiery Furnace – an area of maze-like narrow passages and tall rock columns (see biblical reference, Book of Daniel, chapter 3)
Landscape Arch – a very thin and long arch in the Devils Garden with a span of 290 ft (88 m) (the longest arch in the park)
Petrified Dunes – petrified remnants of dunes blown from the ancient lakes that covered the area
The Phallus – a rock spire that resembles a phallus
Wall Arch – located along the popular Devils Garden Trail; collapsed sometime on August 4/5, 2008
The Three Gossips –a mid-sized sandstone tower located in the Courthouse Towers area.
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.
The Military Collection - Fighters
From a collection of some 430 Military slides that I've had scanned from my archives. Hope they will provide some enjoyment and nostalgia from a bygone age.
In 1982, I made a visit to RAF Cottesmore to check out the (then new) Panavia Tornados that were based there for pilot training.
Here is the unusual sight of a simultaneous takeoff - in the foreground, one of the German aircraft, 43+13 coded 'G-71' and behind is ZA327 coded B-51 - both aircraft on pilot training flights.
ZA327 Tornado GR.1 - one of the first production batch of 23 Panavia Tornados, twelve of which were dual-controlled conversion trainers.
43+13 c/n GS002 - in 1979 the Luftwaffe ordered 212 Panavia Tornados - 165 strike aircraft (c/n GSxxx) and 47 dual-control trainers (c/n GTxxx). These followed six development aircraft serialled 98+01 - 98+06.
The Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment (TTTE) was a multinational air unit based at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland, England, from 1981 to 1999. It performed training on the Panavia Tornado for the Royal Air Force, Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force. Initially, pilots received four weeks of training on the ground, followed by nine weeks in the air. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-National_Tornado_Training_Estab...
RAF Panavia Tornado - nicknamed the "Tonka" by the British, their first prototype (XX946) made its maiden flight on 30 October 1974 from BAC Warton. The first full production Tornado GR1 (ZA319) flew on 10 July 1979 from Warton. The first RAF Tornados (ZA320 and ZA322) were delivered to the TTTE at RAF Cottesmore on 1 July 1980. Crew that qualified from the TTTE went onto the Tornado Weapons Conversion Unit (TWCU), which formed on 1 August 1981 at RAF Honington, before being posted to a front-line squadron. No. IX (B) Squadron became the first front-line squadron in the world to operate the Tornado when it reformed on 1 June 1982, having received its first Tornado GR1 ZA586 on 6 January 1982. No. IX (B) Squadron was declared strike combat ready to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) in January 1983. Two more squadrons were formed at RAF Marham in 1983 - No. 617 Squadron on 1 January and No. 27 Squadron on 12 August.
To celebrate 40 years of service and to mark the type's retirement, several flypasts were carried out on 19, 20 and 21 February 2019 over locations such as BAE Warton, RAF Honington and RAF Lossiemouth. On 28 February, nine Tornados flew out of RAF Marham for a diamond nine formation flypast over a graduation parade at RAF Cranwell before returning and carrying out a series of passes over RAF Marham. On 14 March 2019 the final flight of an RAF Tornado was carried out by Tornado GR4 ZA463, the oldest remaining Tornado, over RAF Marham during the disbandment parade of No. IX (B) Squadron and No. 31 Squadron. The Tornado GR4 was officially retired from RAF service on 1 April 2019, the 101st anniversary of the force. Post-retirement, five Tornados returned to RAF Honington via road for the Complex Air Ground Environment (CAGE), which simulates a Tornado flight line for training purposes.
Luftwaffe Panavia Tornado - the first Tornado prototype made its first flight on 14 August 1974 from Ingolstadt Manching Airport, in West Germany. Deliveries of production Tornados began on 27 July 1979. The total number of Tornados delivered to the German Air Force was 247, including 35 ECR variants. Originally Tornados equipped five fighter-bomber wings (Geschwader), with one tactical conversion unit and four front-line wings, replacing the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. When one of the two Tornado wings of the German Navy was disbanded in 1994, its aircraft were used to re-equip a Luftwaffe's reconnaissance wing formerly equipped with McDonnell Douglas RF-4E Phantoms. Defence cuts announced in March 2003 resulted in the decision to retire 90 Tornados from service with the Luftwaffe. This led to a reduction in its Tornado strength to four wings by September 2005. In April 2020, it was reported that the German defence ministry planned to replace its Tornado aircraft with a purchase of 30 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, 15 EA-18G Growlers, and 55 Eurofighter Typhoons. In 2022, the German defence ministry announced that 35 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIs will replace the Tornado fleet for nuclear sharing instead of the discussed 30 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. More on the Panavia Tornado here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panavia_Tornado
Taken with a Soviet made Zenith TTL camera and 300mm lens.
You can see a random selection of my aviation memories here: www.flickriver.com/photos/heathrowjunkie/random/
To provide mail and parcel service to Austria’s remote areas the K&K Luftpost (Imperial&Royal Air Mail) used steam powered quad-copters.
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This is a redux of an old MOC of mine (flic.kr/s/aHskHS9yNi). It is supposed to evoke a Studio-Ghibli kind of vibe, which is why I tried to make the base not in that hyper-realistic style of the top castle builders out there, but kept a slightly painted, comic-y vibe. The belt drive and the fence are elastic string from the crafts shop.
Raymond Terrace.
This town is located at the confluence of the Hunter and Williams Rivers as they enter the estuary region of Newcastle. Not linked to the rivers is Lake Grahamstown which is really a water storage dam taking waters from the Williams River through a canal to the dam. It provides about 40% of the Hunter region water supply and the dam and lake was created between 1956 and 1965. The town of Raymond Terrace was named after Lieutenant Raymond who was in the party led by Lieutenant Shortland who discovered the Hunter River region in 1797 when looking for escaped convicts. The terrace name was meant to describe the terraced or layered appearance of the trees along the Hunter River where they camped. On a visit to this spot in 1818 by Governor Macquarie he named it Raymond Terrace. Australian cedar cutters were here from the early 1800s but the first land grants only date from the early 1820s and the town itself was established in 1837. In the 19th century Raymond Terrace was a bustling river port and some river barges and ships were constructed here. The area along the Hunter River soon had warehouses, ship yards etc. The town has many sandstone and heritage buildings. These include in King Street: the Richardson and Scully warehouse/action rooms from around 1854; the old commercial building from 1847 which is now marked the Masonic Lodge as it was from 1920 to 2013; and several 1880s hotels and general stores. Look for the Marriage Trees in King Street too. In Sturgeon Street is the sandstone Anglican Church built in 1862 and across the street from it facing Jacaranda Street is the former Anglican rectory. This fine colonial house built in 1844 is now a function centre. The Norfolk Island pines in the garden were planted in 1850.
An 1850 split slab cottage known as Sketchley Cottage, built for an ex-convict William Sketchley, is now the town museum. William Sketchley was assigned as a convict to work for John Richardson in 1830 on the Hunter River. John Richardson’s son later had auction rooms in King Street in Raymond Terrace. They were then purchased by his grandson James Richardson in 1902 when his grandfather retried. The business was then known as Richardson and Scully until he sold it in 1910. The old 1854 warehouse was owned by the University of Newcastle Rowing Club from 1969 to 2004. Now privately owned since 2016. Sketchley cottage is of slab construction built before 1850 and moved to this site some decades ago. It has an extensive historical collection.
Near Raymond Terrace the National Trust has a fine historic property called Tomago House which is now permanently closed. A young barrister named Richard Windeyer had the house built. He bought around 30,000 acres of land in the Hunter Valley and 850 acres of land at this then swampy site around 1838. He had the house site drained and had the acreage planted in grape vines, sugar cane and wheat. He also had some livestock here. He was especially interested in wine and planted 12 acres of vines in 1842 and imported a German vineyard worker from South Australia in 1844 and others from Germany. They produced their first wine in 1845 making Windeyer one of the first successful wine makers in the Hunter Valley. For his wheat he imported the first wheat reaping machine into NSW from South Australia in 1846. Work began on Tomago House in 1840. Richard Windeyer died in 1847 at just 41 years of age. Their only child William Charles Windeyer was just 13 years of age at that time. Richard Windeyer’s wife Maria retained the 850 acres of Tomago estate and she eventually designing the chapel in 1860-61. Three generations of the Windeyer family lived on Tomago estate until 1944 when the property was sold. In the 1980s the Tomago Aluminium Smelter bought the property as a buffer around the smelter. In 1988 the smelter company donated 5 hectares (twelve acres) of land and the mansion to the National Trust.
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Airmen provide care to a victim during a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive exercise at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., Nov. 7. The Air Force Materiel Command evaluation exercised the Airmen’s ability to meet wartime and contingency taskings of employing and sustaining the force and the ability to survive and operate. (U.S. Air Force photo/Samuel King Jr.)
Normally I do not post pictures that I have not taken or provide credit to the actual photographer but in this instance, I am bending the rules. I am not the photographer of this image and I no longer have the actual source picture to reference but this picture has been “burning a hole in my computer” and I just wanted to share it with the community. As noted, I have “Topazed” the image but not necessarily a "one-step" application of the Topaz plug-in. Actually the finished picture is comprised of three separate Topaz layers, blended and composited into one final layer. Additionally the Shadows & Highlights filter, layers masks and adjustment curves were incorporated in the final image.
This Stutz Bearcat example carries a fascinating history, having been discovered in a shipping container in England during the early 1980s. When found, the car sported several European accessories that may have been installed when the car was first shipped to England many years ago. A California-based collector imported the car to the United States, and shortly after its return, the car was restored and driven for several years in California before being sold to a new owner.
Source: supercarz
In 1912 the Stutz Bearcats proved their potential by winning 25 out of the 30 races in which they were entered. Their slogan was 'The car that made good in one day'. This was a popular slogan and is still remembered by many even to this day. The title was adorned on Harry C Stutz in 1911 when his driver, Gil Anderson, placed 11th at the Indianapolis 500, an amazing accomplishment and one that immediately inspired sales. The car had been built in just five weeks and was the first automobile to bear the name 'Stutz'. At Indianapolis, it had averaged 110 km/h (about 68 mph) and was only beaten by vehicles with engines much larger than its own.
A disgruntled buyer of a Stutz complained to the Stutz Company that Mercer's were beating his car. In response, the Stutz Company set out to be the coast-to-coast record. In 1915, Erwin George 'Cannonball' Baker drove a Bearcat from San Diego to New York in 11 days, 7 hours, and 15 minutes. This broke the previous record. Baker went on to set 143 distance records. Sales continued to climb. A Wall Street investor spear-headed by Allan A. Ryan bought controlling interest in Stutz. This allowed more capital and allowed Stutz to expand their manufacturing facilities. Harry Clayton Stutz sold his interest in the company in 1919. He turned his attention to two new endeavors, the Stutz Fire Engine Company and the H.C.S. Motor Car Company.
The production of the Stutz Bearcat continued until 1924. The car continued its tradition of being a sports car. It was fast and had excellent performance for the era. The clutch was said to be so stiff that it prevented woman from driving the vehicle - many said this was a 'man's car.' The two-wheel mechanical brakes also required much force to operate.
Source: conceptcarz
Note: Much like the “big three” of the 1950’s-60’s muscle car era (Chevy, Ford and Chrysler), the early 20th Century had its “speedsters” geared for the racing adventurer; the Marmon Model 32 speedster, the Mercer Model 35, the Hudson Speedster “33” and of course, the pictured car, the Stutz Series B Bearcat............and the competitive nature of the respective owners was fierce.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks attends Ronald Reagan Institute to provide remarks, Washington, D.C., May 6, 2022. (DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Sanders)
2000 Thomas FS-65. Former Chesapeake City school bus that was converted to provide transportation to new recruits in the Chesapeake Fire Department.
Westward Ho! is a seaside village near Bideford in Devon, England. The A39 road provides access from the towns of Barnstaple, Bideford and Bude. It lies at the south end of Northam Burrows and faces westward into Bideford Bay, opposite Saunton Sands and Braunton Burrows. There is an electoral ward with the same name. The population at the 2011 census was 2,112.
Westward Ho! is noted for its unusual place name. The village name comes from the title of Charles Kingsley's novel Westward Ho! (1855), which was set in nearby Bideford. The book was a bestseller, and entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to develop tourism in the area. The Northam Burrows Hotel and Villa Building Company, chaired by Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth, was formed in 1863, and its prospectus stated:
This Company has been formed for the erection of a Family Hotel, on an Estate purchased for the purpose immediately contiguous to Northam Burrows, and of Villas and Lodging Houses for Sale or Lease. The want of such accommodation has long been felt, and as no attempt to supply it has hitherto been made by individuals, it is deemed to be a legitimate project to be undertaken by a Company. The salubrity and beauty of the North of Devon have long been known and appreciated. Sir James Clark has placed it in the highest position for health-giving qualities; and the recent publication of Professor Kingsley's "Westward Ho" has excited increased public attention to the western part, more especially, of this romantic and beautiful coast. Nothing but a want of accommodation for visitors has hitherto prevented its being the resort of families seeking the advantages of sea bathing, combined with the invigorating breezes of the Atlantic....
The hotel was named the Westward Ho!-tel, and the adjacent villas were also named after the book. As further development took place, the expanding settlement also acquired the name of Westward Ho! The exclamation mark is therefore an intentional part of the village's name. It is the only such place name in the British Isles; Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Quebec, shares the distinction of having an exclamation mark in its name.
From 14th to 17th December 2015 the third rail route Dorchester Jc - Weymouth was closed for track renewal between the two places. On 16th December 150233 arrives at Frome Station with 2o89 1042 Gloucester - Dorchester West displaying Weymouth destination, but station info display says to Dorchester West - where all train services were terminated and re-started on return. This service returning 2e26 15:21 Dorchester West - Gloucester. Work is underway at Frome Station to provide a walkway for traincrews on HST and later IET services terminating from Paddington. Being laid on trackbed of former down line closed 19th August 1970 along with Frome South Box which stood opposite 150233.
Two members of the United States Military Academy "Black Knights" parachute team, leap from a Chinook Ch-47 belonging to the New York Army National Guard, 12,500 feet above Geneseo, N.Y., July 30. The pilots and crews from Detachment 1, B Company 3rd Battalion 126th Aviation, provided skydiving platforms for the West Point parachute teams annual training sessions. The West Point Parachute Team is made up of cadet members. The Cadets join the team during their plebe year and train with coaches from the Military Academies Department of Military Instruction. The team competes at national and college events, provides demonstrations, and jumps the game ball into Mitchie Stadium for Army football home games.
New York National Guard
Photo by Canadian Forces Sgt Steven Petibone
Date: 07.31.2009
Location: Rochester, US
A camel (from Latin: camelus and Greek: κάμηλος (kamēlos) from Ancient Semitic: gāmāl) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provide food (milk and meat) and textiles (fiber and felt from hair). Camels are working animals especially suited to their desert habitat and are a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo. There are three surviving species of camel. The one-humped dromedary makes up 94% of the world's camel population, and the two-humped Bactrian camel makes up 6%. The wild Bactrian camel is a separate species and is now critically endangered.
The word camel is also used informally in a wider sense, where the more correct term is "camelid", to include all seven species of the family Camelidae: the true camels (the above three species), along with the "New World" camelids: the llama, the alpaca, the guanaco, and the vicuña, which belong to the separate tribe Lamini. Camelids originated in North America during the Eocene, with the ancestor of modern camels, Paracamelus, migrating across the Bering land bridge into Asia during the late Miocene, around 6 million years ago.
Taxonomy
Extant species
Three species are extant:
ImageCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
Bactrian camelCamelus bactrianusDomesticated; Central Asia, including the historical region of Bactria.
Dromedary / Arabian camelCamelus dromedariusDomesticated; the Middle East, Sahara Desert, and South Asia; introduced to Australia
Wild Bactrian camelCamelus ferusRemote areas of northwest China and Mongolia
Biology
The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years. A full-grown adult dromedary camel stands 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) at the shoulder and 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) at the hump. Bactrian camels can be a foot taller. Camels can run at up to 65 km/h (40 mph) in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h (25 mph). Bactrian camels weigh 300 to 1,000 kg (660 to 2,200 lb) and dromedaries 300 to 600 kg (660 to 1,320 lb). The widening toes on a camel's hoof provide supplemental grip for varying soil sediments.
The male dromedary camel has an organ called a dulla in his throat, a large, inflatable sac that he extrudes from his mouth when in rut to assert dominance and attract females. It resembles a long, swollen, pink tongue hanging out of the side of the camel's mouth. Camels mate by having both male and female sitting on the ground, with the male mounting from behind. The male usually ejaculates three or four times within a single mating session. Camelids are the only ungulates to mate in a sitting position.
Ecological and behavioral adaptations
Camel humps store fat, which are used as nourishment when food is scarce. If a camel uses the fat inside the hump, the hump will become limp and droop down
Camels do not directly store water in their humps; they are reservoirs of fatty tissue. When this tissue is metabolized, it yields a greater mass of water than that of the fat processed. This fat metabolization, while releasing energy, causes water to evaporate from the lungs during respiration (as oxygen is required for the metabolic process): overall, there is a net decrease in water.
Camels have a series of physiological adaptations that allow them to withstand long periods of time without any external source of water. The dromedary camel can drink as seldom as once every 10 days even under very hot conditions, and can lose up to 30% of its body mass due to dehydration. Unlike other mammals, camels' red blood cells are oval rather than circular in shape. This facilitates the flow of red blood cells during dehydration and makes them better at withstanding high osmotic variation without rupturing when drinking large amounts of water: a 600 kg (1,300 lb) camel can drink 200 L (53 US gal) of water in three minutes.
Camels are able to withstand changes in body temperature and water consumption that would kill most other mammals. Their temperature ranges from 34 °C (93 °F) at dawn and steadily increases to 40 °C (104 °F) by sunset, before they cool off at night again. In general, to compare between camels and the other livestock, camels lose only 1.3 liters of fluid intake every day while the other livestock lose 20 to 40 liters per day. Maintaining the brain temperature within certain limits is critical for animals; to assist this, camels have a rete mirabile, a complex of arteries and veins lying very close to each other which utilizes countercurrent blood flow to cool blood flowing to the brain. Camels rarely sweat, even when ambient temperatures reach 49 °C (120 °F). Any sweat that does occur evaporates at the skin level rather than at the surface of their coat; the heat of vaporization therefore comes from body heat rather than ambient heat. Camels can withstand losing 25% of their body weight in water, whereas most other mammals can withstand only about 12–14% dehydration before cardiac failure results from circulatory disturbance.
When the camel exhales, water vapor becomes trapped in their nostrils and is reabsorbed into the body as a means to conserve water. Camels eating green herbage can ingest sufficient moisture in milder conditions to maintain their bodies' hydrated state without the need for drinking.
Domesticated camel calves lying in sternal recumbency, a position that aids heat loss
The camel's thick coat insulates it from the intense heat radiated from desert sand; a shorn camel must sweat 50% more to avoid overheating. During the summer the coat becomes lighter in color, reflecting light as well as helping avoid sunburn. The camel's long legs help by keeping its body farther from the ground, which can heat up to 70 °C (158 °F). Dromedaries have a pad of thick tissue over the sternum called the pedestal. When the animal lies down in a sternal recumbent position, the pedestal raises the body from the hot surface and allows cooling air to pass under the body.
Camels' mouths have a thick leathery lining, allowing them to chew thorny desert plants. Long eyelashes and ear hairs, together with nostrils that can close, form a barrier against sand. If sand gets lodged in their eyes, they can dislodge it using their translucent third eyelid (also known as the nictitating membrane). The camels' gait and widened feet help them move without sinking into the sand.
The kidneys and intestines of a camel are very efficient at reabsorbing water. Camels' kidneys have a 1:4 cortex to medulla ratio. Thus, the medullary part of a camel's kidney occupies twice as much area as a cow's kidney. Secondly, renal corpuscles have a smaller diameter, which reduces surface area for filtration. These two major anatomical characteristics enable camels to conserve water and limit the volume of urine in extreme desert conditions. Camel urine comes out as a thick syrup, and camel faeces are so dry that they do not require drying when used to fuel fires.
The camel immune system differs from those of other mammals. Normally, the Y-shaped antibody molecules consist of two heavy (or long) chains along the length of the Y, and two light (or short) chains at each tip of the Y. Camels, in addition to these, also have antibodies made of only two heavy chains, a trait that makes them smaller and more durable. These "heavy-chain-only" antibodies, discovered in 1993, are thought to have developed 50 million years ago, after camelids split from ruminants and pigs. Camels suffer from surra caused by Trypanosoma evansi wherever camels are domesticated in the world: 2 and resultantly camels have evolved trypanolytic antibodies as with many mammals. In the future, nanobody/single-domain antibody therapy will surpass natural camel antibodies by reaching locations currently unreachable due to natural antibodies' larger size.: 788 Such therapies may also be suitable for other mammals.: 788 Tran et al. 2009 provides a new reference test for surra (T. evansi) of camel. They use recombinant Invariant Surface Glycoprotein 75 (rISG75, an Invariant Surface Glycoprotein) and ELISA. The Tran test has high test specificity and appears likely to work just as well for T. evansi in other hosts, and for a pan-Trypanozoon test, which would also be useful for T. b. brucei, T. b. gambiense, T. b. rhodesiense, and T. equiperdum.
Genetics
The karyotypes of different camelid species have been studied earlier by many groups, but no agreement on chromosome nomenclature of camelids has been reached. A 2007 study flow sorted camel chromosomes, building on the fact that camels have 37 pairs of chromosomes (2n=74), and found that the karyotype consisted of one metacentric, three submetacentric, and 32 acrocentric autosomes. The Y is a small metacentric chromosome, while the X is a large metacentric chromosome.
The hybrid camel, a hybrid between Bactrian and dromedary camels, has one hump, though it has an indentation 4–12 cm (1.6–4.7 in) deep that divides the front from the back. The hybrid is 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) at the shoulder and 2.32 m (7 ft 7 in) tall at the hump. It weighs an average of 650 kg (1,430 lb) and can carry around 400 to 450 kg (880 to 990 lb), which is more than either the dromedary or Bactrian can.
According to molecular data, the wild Bactrian camel (C. ferus) separated from the domestic Bactrian camel (C. bactrianus) about 1 million years ago. New World and Old World camelids diverged about 11 million years ago. In spite of this, these species can hybridize and produce viable offspring. The cama is a camel-llama hybrid bred by scientists to see how closely related the parent species are. Scientists collected semen from a camel via an artificial vagina and inseminated a llama after stimulating ovulation with gonadotrophin injections. The cama is halfway in size between a camel and a llama and lacks a hump. It has ears intermediate between those of camels and llamas, longer legs than the llama, and partially cloven hooves. Like the mule, camas are sterile, despite both parents having the same number of chromosomes.
Evolution
The earliest known camel, called Protylopus, lived in North America 40 to 50 million years ago (during the Eocene). It was about the size of a rabbit and lived in the open woodlands of what is now South Dakota. By 35 million years ago, the Poebrotherium was the size of a goat and had many more traits similar to camels and llamas. The hoofed Stenomylus, which walked on the tips of its toes, also existed around this time, and the long-necked Aepycamelus evolved in the Miocene. The split between the tribes Camelini, which contains modern camels and Lamini, modern llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos, is estimated to have occurred over 16 million years ago.
The ancestor of modern camels, Paracamelus, migrated into Eurasia from North America via Beringia during the late Miocene, between 7.5 and 6.5 million years ago. During the Pleistocene, around 3 to 1 million years ago, the North American Camelidae spread to South America as part of the Great American Interchange via the newly formed Isthmus of Panama, where they gave rise to guanacos and related animals. Populations of Paracamelus continued to exist in the North American Arctic into the Early Pleistocene. This creature is estimated to have stood around nine feet (2.7 metres) tall. The Bactrian camel diverged from the dromedary about 1 million years ago, according to the fossil record.
The last camel native to North America was Camelops hesternus, which vanished along with horses, short-faced bears, mammoths and mastodons, ground sloths, sabertooth cats, and many other megafauna as part of the Quaternary extinction event, coinciding with the migration of humans from Asia at the end of the Pleistocene, around 13–11,000 years ago.
Domestication
Like horses, camels originated in North America and eventually spread across Beringia to Asia. They survived in the Old World, and eventually humans domesticated them and spread them globally. Along with many other megafauna in North America, the original wild camels were wiped out during the spread of the first indigenous peoples of the Americas from Asia into North America, 10 to 12,000 years ago; although fossils have never been associated with definitive evidence of hunting.
Most camels surviving today are domesticated. Although feral populations exist in Australia, India and Kazakhstan, wild camels survive only in the wild Bactrian camel population of the Gobi Desert.
History
When humans first domesticated camels is disputed. Dromedaries may have first been domesticated by humans in Somalia or South Arabia sometime during the 3rd millennium BC, the Bactrian in central Asia around 2,500 BC, as at Shar-i Sokhta (also known as the Burnt City), Iran. A study from 2016, which genotyped and used world-wide sequencing of modern and ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), suggested that they were initially domesticated in the southeast Arabian Peninsula, with the Bactrian type later being domesticated around Central Asia.
Martin Heide's 2010 work on the domestication of the camel tentatively concludes that humans had domesticated the Bactrian camel by at least the middle of the third millennium somewhere east of the Zagros Mountains, with the practice then moving into Mesopotamia. Heide suggests that mentions of camels "in the patriarchal narratives may refer, at least in some places, to the Bactrian camel", while noting that the camel is not mentioned in relationship to Canaan. Heide and Joris Peters reasserted that conclusion in their 2021 study on the subject.
In 2009-2013, excavations in the Timna Valley by Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef discovered what may be the earliest domestic camel bones yet found in Israel or even outside the Arabian Peninsula, dating to around 930 BC. This garnered considerable media coverage, as it is strong evidence that the stories of Abraham, Jacob, Esau, and Joseph were written after this time.
The existence of camels in Mesopotamia—but not in the eastern Mediterranean lands—is not a new idea. The historian Richard Bulliet did not think that the occasional mention of camels in the Bible meant that the domestic camels were common in the Holy Land at that time. The archaeologist William F. Albright, writing even earlier, saw camels in the Bible as an anachronism.
The official report by Sapir-Hen and Ben-Joseph notes:
The introduction of the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) as a pack animal to the southern Levant ... substantially facilitated trade across the vast deserts of Arabia, promoting both economic and social change (e.g., Kohler 1984; Borowski 1998: 112–116; Jasmin 2005). This ... has generated extensive discussion regarding the date of the earliest domestic camel in the southern Levant (and beyond) (e.g., Albright 1949: 207; Epstein 1971: 558–584; Bulliet 1975; Zarins 1989; Köhler-Rollefson 1993; Uerpmann and Uerpmann 2002; Jasmin 2005; 2006; Heide 2010; Rosen and Saidel 2010; Grigson 2012). Most scholars today agree that the dromedary was exploited as a pack animal sometime in the early Iron Age (not before the 12th century [BC])
and concludes:
Current data from copper smelting sites of the Aravah Valley enable us to pinpoint the introduction of domestic camels to the southern Levant more precisely based on stratigraphic contexts associated with an extensive suite of radiocarbon dates. The data indicate that this event occurred not earlier than the last third of the 10th century [BC] and most probably during this time. The coincidence of this event with a major reorganization of the copper industry of the region—attributed to the results of the campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I—raises the possibility that the two were connected, and that camels were introduced as part of the efforts to improve efficiency by facilitating trade.
Textiles
Main article: Camel hair
Desert tribes and Mongolian nomads use camel hair for tents, yurts, clothing, bedding and accessories. Camels have outer guard hairs and soft inner down, and the fibers are sorted by color and age of the animal. The guard hairs can be felted for use as waterproof coats for the herdsmen, while the softer hair is used for premium goods. The fiber can be spun for use in weaving or made into yarns for hand knitting or crochet. Pure camel hair is recorded as being used for western garments from the 17th century onwards, and from the 19th century a mixture of wool and camel hair was used.
Military uses
Main article: Camel cavalry
By at least 1200 BC the first camel saddles had appeared, and Bactrian camels could be ridden. The first saddle was positioned to the back of the camel, and control of the Bactrian camel was exercised by means of a stick. However, between 500 and 100 BC, Bactrian camels came into military use. New saddles, which were inflexible and bent, were put over the humps and divided the rider's weight over the animal. In the seventh century BC the military Arabian saddle evolved, which again improved the saddle design slightly.
Military forces have used camel cavalries in wars throughout Africa, the Middle East, and into the modern-day Border Security Force (BSF) of India (though as of July 2012, the BSF planned the replacement of camels with ATVs). The first documented use of camel cavalries occurred in the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC. Armies have also used camels as freight animals instead of horses and mules.
The East Roman Empire used auxiliary forces known as dromedarii, whom the Romans recruited in desert provinces. The camels were used mostly in combat because of their ability to scare off horses at close range (horses are afraid of the camels' scent), a quality famously employed by the Achaemenid Persians when fighting Lydia in the Battle of Thymbra (547 BC).
19th and 20th centuries
A photo of Bulgarian military-transport camels in 1912
A camel caravan of the Bulgarian military during the First Balkan War, 1912
The United States Army established the U.S. Camel Corps, stationed in California, in the 19th century.[19] One may still see stables at the Benicia Arsenal in Benicia, California, where they nowadays serve as the Benicia Historical Museum. Though the experimental use of camels was seen as a success (John B. Floyd, Secretary of War in 1858, recommended that funds be allocated towards obtaining a thousand more camels), the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 saw the end of the Camel Corps: Texas became part of the Confederacy, and most of the camels were left to wander away into the desert.
France created a méhariste camel corps in 1912 as part of the Armée d'Afrique in the Sahara in order to exercise greater control over the camel-riding Tuareg and Arab insurgents, as previous efforts to defeat them on foot had failed. The Free French Camel Corps fought during World War II, and camel-mounted units remained in service until the end of French rule over Algeria in 1962.
In 1916, the British created the Imperial Camel Corps. It was originally used to fight the Senussi, but was later used in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I. The Imperial Camel Corps comprised infantrymen mounted on camels for movement across desert, though they dismounted at battle sites and fought on foot. After July 1918, the Corps began to become run down, receiving no new reinforcements, and was formally disbanded in 1919.
In World War I, the British Army also created the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, which consisted of a group of Egyptian camel drivers and their camels. The Corps supported British war operations in Sinai, Palestine, and Syria by transporting supplies to the troops.
The Somaliland Camel Corps was created by colonial authorities in British Somaliland in 1912; it was disbanded in 1944.
Bactrian camels were used by Romanian forces during World War II in the Caucasian region. At the same period the Soviet units operating around Astrakhan in 1942 adopted local camels as draft animals due to shortage of trucks and horses, and kept them even after moving out of the area. Despite severe losses, some of these camels ended up as far west as to Berlin itself.
The Bikaner Camel Corps of British India fought alongside the British Indian Army in World Wars I and II.
The Tropas Nómadas (Nomad Troops) were an auxiliary regiment of Sahrawi tribesmen serving in the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today Western Sahara). Operational from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975, the Tropas Nómadas were equipped with small arms and led by Spanish officers. The unit guarded outposts and sometimes conducted patrols on camelback.
21st century competition
At the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, in Saudi Arabia, thousands of camels are paraded and are judged on their lips and humps. The festival also features camel racing and camel milk tasting and has combined prize money of $57m (£40m). In 2018, 12 camels were disqualified from the beauty contest after it was discovered their owners had tried to improve their camel's good looks with injections of botox, into the animals' lips, noses and jaws. In 2021 over 40 camels were disqualified for acts of tampering and deception in beautifying camels.
Food uses
Dairy
Main article: Camel milk
Camel milk is a staple food of desert nomad tribes and is sometimes considered a meal itself; a nomad can live on only camel milk for almost a month.
Camel milk can readily be made into yogurt, but can only be made into butter if it is soured first, churned, and a clarifying agent is then added. Until recently, camel milk could not be made into camel cheese because rennet was unable to coagulate the milk proteins to allow the collection of curds. Developing less wasteful uses of the milk, the FAO commissioned Professor J.P. Ramet of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires, who was able to produce curdling by the addition of calcium phosphate and vegetable rennet in the 1990s. The cheese produced from this process has low levels of cholesterol and is easy to digest, even for the lactose intolerant.
Camels provide food in the form of meat and milk. Approximately 3.3 million camels and camelids are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. A camel carcass can provide a substantial amount of meat. The male dromedary carcass can weigh 300–400 kg (661–882 lb), while the carcass of a male Bactrian can weigh up to 650 kg (1,433 lb). The carcass of a female dromedary weighs less than the male, ranging between 250 and 350 kg (550 and 770 lb). The brisket, ribs and loin are among the preferred parts, and the hump is considered a delicacy. The hump contains "white and sickly fat", which can be used to make the khli (preserved meat) of mutton, beef, or camel. On the other hand, camel milk and meat are rich in protein, vitamins, glycogen, and other nutrients making them essential in the diet of many people. From chemical composition to meat quality, the dromedary camel is the preferred breed for meat production. It does well even in arid areas due to its unusual physiological behaviors and characteristics, which include tolerance to extreme temperatures, radiation from the sun, water paucity, rugged landscape and low vegetation. Camel meat is reported to taste like coarse beef, but older camels can prove to be very tough, although camel meat becomes tenderer the more it is cooked.
Camel is one of the animals that can be ritually slaughtered and divided into three portions (one for the home, one for extended family/social networks, and one for those who cannot afford to slaughter an animal themselves) for the qurban of Eid al-Adha.
The Abu Dhabi Officers' Club serves a camel burger mixed with beef or lamb fat in order to improve the texture and taste. In Karachi, Pakistan, some restaurants prepare nihari from camel meat. Specialist camel butchers provide expert cuts, with the hump considered the most popular.
Camel meat has been eaten for centuries. It has been recorded by ancient Greek writers as an available dish at banquets in ancient Persia, usually roasted whole. The Roman emperor Heliogabalus enjoyed camel's heel. Camel meat is mainly eaten in certain regions, including Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and other arid regions where alternative forms of protein may be limited or where camel meat has had a long cultural history. Camel blood is also consumable, as is the case among pastoralists in northern Kenya, where camel blood is drunk with milk and acts as a key source of iron, vitamin D, salts and minerals.
A 2005 report issued jointly by the Saudi Ministry of Health and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention details four cases of human bubonic plague resulting from the ingestion of raw camel liver.
Australia
Camel meat is also occasionally found in Australian cuisine: for example, a camel lasagna is available in Alice Springs. Australia has exported camel meat, primarily to the Middle East but also to Europe and the US, for many years. The meat is very popular among East African Australians, such as Somalis, and other Australians have also been buying it. The feral nature of the animals means they produce a different type of meat to farmed camels in other parts of the world, and it is sought after because it is disease-free, and a unique genetic group. Demand is outstripping supply, and governments are being urged not to cull the camels, but redirect the cost of the cull into developing the market. Australia has seven camel dairies, which produce milk, cheese and skincare products in addition to meat.
Religion
Islam
Main article: Animals in Islam
Muslims consider camel meat halal (Arabic: حلال, 'allowed'). However, according to some Islamic schools of thought, a state of impurity is brought on by the consumption of it. Consequently, these schools hold that Muslims must perform wudhu (ablution) before the next time they pray after eating camel meat. Also, some Islamic schools of thought consider it haram (Arabic: حرام, 'forbidden') for a Muslim to perform Salat in places where camels lie, as it is said to be a dwelling place of the Shaytan (Arabic: شيطان, 'Devil'). According to Abu Yusuf (d.798), the urine of camel may be used for medical treatment if necessary, but according to Abū Ḥanīfah, the drinking of camel urine is discouraged.
The Islamic texts contain several stories featuring camels. In the story of the people of Thamud, the prophet Salih miraculously brings forth a naqat (Arabic: ناقة, 'milch-camel') out of a rock. After the prophet Muhammad migrated from Mecca to Medina, he allowed his she-camel to roam there; the location where the camel stopped to rest determined the location where he would build his house in Medina.
Judaism
See also: Food and drink prohibitions
According to Jewish tradition, camel meat and milk are not kosher. Camels possess only one of the two kosher criteria; although they chew their cud, they do not possess cloven hooves: "But these you shall not eat among those that bring up the cud and those that have a cloven hoof: the camel, because it brings up its cud, but does not have a [completely] cloven hoof; it is unclean for you."
Cultural depictions
What may be the oldest carvings of camels were discovered in 2018 in Saudi Arabia. They were analysed by researchers from several scientific disciplines and, in 2021, were estimated to be 7,000 to 8,000 years old. The dating of rock art is made difficult by the lack of organic material in the carvings that may be tested, so the researchers attempting to date them tested animal bones found associated with the carvings, assessed erosion patterns, and analysed tool marks in order to determine a correct date for the creation of the sculptures. This Neolithic dating would make the carvings significantly older than Stonehenge (5,000 years old) and the Egyptian pyramids at Giza (4,500 years old) and it predates estimates for the domestication of camels.
Distribution and numbers
A view into a canyon: many camels gathering around a watering hole
Camels in the Guelta d'Archei, in northeastern Chad
There are approximately 14 million camels alive as of 2010, with 90% being dromedaries. Dromedaries alive today are domesticated animals (mostly living in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, Maghreb, Middle East and South Asia). The Horn region alone has the largest concentration of camels in the world, where the dromedaries constitute an important part of local nomadic life. They provide nomadic people in Somalia and Ethiopia with milk, food, and transportation.
Over one million dromedary camels are estimated to be feral in Australia, descended from those introduced as a method of transport in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This population is growing about 8% per year; it was estimated at around 700,000 in 2008. Representatives of the Australian government have culled more than 100,000 of the animals in part because the camels use too much of the limited resources needed by sheep farmers.
A small population of introduced camels, dromedaries and Bactrians, wandered through Southwestern United States after having been imported in the 19th century as part of the U.S. Camel Corps experiment. When the project ended, they were used as draft animals in mines and escaped or were released. Twenty-five U.S. camels were bought and exported to Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush.
The Bactrian camel is, as of 2010, reduced to an estimated 1.4 million animals, most of which are domesticated. The Wild Bactrian camel is a separate species and is the only truly wild (as opposed to feral) camel in the world. The wild camels are critically endangered and number approximately 1400, inhabiting the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts in China and Mongolia.
Massimo Vitali, Drum Scan by CastorScan
Original picture: www.flickr.com/photos/castorscan/10738367025/
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CastorScan's philosophy is completely oriented to provide the highest scan and postproduction
quality on the globe.
We work with artists, photographers, agencies, laboratories etc. who demand a state-of-the-art quality at reasonable prices.
Our workflow is fully manual and extremely meticulous in any stage.
We developed exclusive workflows and profilation systems to obtain unparallel results from our scanners not achievable through semi-automatic and usual workflows.
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CastorScan uses the best scanners in circulation, Dainippon Screen SG-8060P Mark II, the best and most advanced scanner ever made, Kodak-Creo IQSmart 3, a high-end flatbed scanner, and Imacon 848.
The image quality offered by our Dainippon Screen 8060 scanner is much higher than that achievable with the best flatbed scanners or filmscanners dedicated and superior to that of scanners so-called "virtual drum" (Imacon – Hasselblad,) and, of course, vastly superior to that amateur or prosumer obtained with scanners such as Epson V750 etc .
Dainippon Screen SG-8060P Mark II exceeds in quality any other scanner, including Aztek Premier and ICG 380 (in the results, not just in the technical specifications).
8060's main features: 12000 dpi, Hi-Q Xenon lamp, 25 apertures, 2 micron
Aztek Premier's main features: 8000 dpi, halogen lamp, 18 apertures, 3 micron
ICG 380's main features: 12000 dpi, halogen lamp, 9 apertures, 4 micron
Some of the features that make the quality of our drum scanners better than any other existing scan system include:
The scans performed on a drum scanner are famous for their detail, depth and realism.
Scans are much cleaner and show fewer imperfections than scans obtained from CCD scanners, and thus save many hours of cleaning and spotting in postproduction.
Image acquisition by the drum scanner is optically similar to using a microscopic lens that scans the image point by point with extreme precision and without deformation or distortion of any kind, while other scanners use enlarger lenses (such as the Rodenstock-Linos Magnagon 75mm f8 used in the Hasselblad-Imacon scanners) and have transmission systems with rubber bands: this involves mild but effective micro-strain and micro-geometric image distortions and quality is not uniform between the center and edges.
Drum scanners are exempt from problems of flatness of the originals, since the same are mounted on a perfectly balanced transparent acrylic drum; on the contrary, the dedicated film scanners that scan slides or negatives in their plastic frames are subject to quite significant inaccuracies, as well as the Imacon-Hasselblad scanners, which have their own rubber and plastic holders: they do not guarantee the perfect flatness of the original and therefore a uniform definition between center and edge, especially with medium and large size originals, which instead are guaranteed by drum scanners.
Again, drum scanners allow scanning at high resolution over the entire surface of the cylinder, while for example the Hasselblad Imacon scans are limited to 3200 dpi in 120 format and 2000 dpi in 4x5" format (the resolution of nearly every CCD scanner in the market drops as the size of the original scanned is increased).
Drum scanners allow complete scanning of the whole negative, including the black-orange mask, perforations etc, while using many other scanners a certain percentage of the image is lost because it is covered by frames or holders.
Drum scanners use photomultiplier tubes to record the light signal, which are much more sensitive than CCDs and can record many more nuances and variations in contrast with a lower digital noise.
If you look at a monitor at 100% the detail in shadows and darker areas of a scan made with a CCD scanner, you will notice that the details are not recorded in a clear and clean way, and the colors are more opaque and less differentiated. Additionally the overall tones are much less rich and differentiated.
We would like to say a few words about an unscrupulous and deceitful use of technical specifications reported by many manufacturers of consumer and prosumer scanners; very often we read of scanners that promise cheap or relatively cheap “drum scanner” resolutions, 16 bits of color depth, extremely high DMAX: we would like to say that these “nominal” resolutions do not correspond to an actual optical resolution, so that even in low-resolution scanning you can see an enormous gap between drum scanners and these scanners in terms of detail, as well as in terms of DMAX, color range, realism, “quality” of grain. So very often when using these consumer-prosumer scanners at high resolutions, it is normal to get a disproportionate increase of file size in MB but not an increase of detail and quality.
To give a concrete example: a drum scan of a 24x36mm color negative film at 3500 dpi is much more defined than a scan made with mostly CCD scanner at 8000 dpi and a drum scan at 2500 dpi is dramatically clearer than a scan at 2500 dpi provided by a CCD scanner. So be aware and careful with incorrect advertisement.
Scans can be performed either dry or liquid-mounted. The wet mounting further improves cleanliness (helps to hide dirt, scratches and blemishes) and plasticity of the image without compromising the original, and in addition by mounting with liquid the film grain is greatly reduced and it looks much softer and more pleasant than the usual "harsh" grain resulting from dry scans.
We use Kami SMF 2001 liquid to mount the transparencies and Kami RC 2001 for cleaning the same. Kami SMF 2001 evaporates without leaving traces, unlike the traditional oil scans, ensuring maximum protection for your film. Out of ignorance some people prefer to avoid liquid scanning because they fear that their films will be dirty or damaged: this argument may be plausible only in reference to scans made using mineral oils, which have nothing to do with the specific professional products we use.
We strongly reiterate that your original is in no way compromised by our scanning liquid and will return as you have shipped it, if not cleaner.
With respect to scanning from slides:
Our scanners are carefully calibrated with the finest IT8 calibration targets in circulation and with special customized targets in order to ensure that each scan faithfully reproduces the original color richness even in the most subtle nuances, opening and maintaining detail in shadows and highlights. These color profiles allow our scanners to realize their full potential, so we guarantee our customers that even from a chromatic point of view our scans are noticeably better than similar scans made by mostly other scan services in the market.
In addition, we remind you that our 8060 drum scanner is able to read the deepest shadows of slides without digital noise and with much more detail than CCD scanners; also, the color range and color realism are far better.
With respect to scanning from color and bw negatives: we want to emphasize the superiority of our drum scans not only in scanning slides, but also in color and bw negative scanning (because of the orange mask and of very low contrast is extremely difficult for any ccd scanner to read the very slight tonal and contrast nuances in the color negative, while a perfectly profiled 8060 drum scanner – also through the analog gain/white calibration - can give back much more realistic images and true colors, sharper and more three-dimensional).
In spite of what many claim, a meticulous color profiling is essential not only for scanning slides, but also, and even more, for color negatives. Without it the scan of a color negative will produce chromatic errors rather significant, thus affecting the tonal balance and then the naturalness-pleasantness of the images.
More unique than rare, we do not use standardized profiles provided by the software to invert each specific negative film, because they do not take into account parameters and variables such as the type of development, the level of exposure, the type of light etc.,; at the same time we also avoid systems of "artificial intelligence" or other functions provided by semi-automatic scanning softwares, but instead we carry out the inversion in a full manual workflow for each individual picture.
In addition, scanning with Imacon-Hasselblad scanners we do not use their proprietary software - Flexcolor – to make color management and color inversion because we strongly believe that our alternative workflow provides much better results, and we are able to prove it with absolute clarity.
At each stage of the process we take care of meticulously adjusting the scanning parameters to the characteristics of the originals, to extrapolate the whole range of information possible from any image without "burning" or reductions in the tonal range, and strictly according to our customer's need and taste.
By default, we do not apply unsharp mask (USM) in our scans, except on request.
To scan reflective originals we follow the same guidelines and guarantee the same quality standard.
We guarantee the utmost thoroughness and expertise in the work of scanning and handling of the originals and we provide scans up to 12,000 dpi of resolution, at 16-bit, in RGB, GRAYSCALE, LAB or CMYK color mode; unless otherwise indicated, files are saved with Adobe RGB 1998 or ProPhoto RGB color profile.
To provide mail and parcel service to Austria’s remote areas the K&K Luftpost (Imperial&Royal Air Mail) used steam powered quad-copters.
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This is a redux of an old MOC of mine (flic.kr/s/aHskHS9yNi). It is supposed to evoke a Studio-Ghibli kind of vibe, which is why I tried to make the base not in that hyper-realistic style of the top castle builders out there, but kept a slightly painted, comic-y vibe. The belt drive and the fence are elastic string from the crafts shop.
The former West’s Furniture Showroom, completed in early 1953, was commissioned by Laurence (Laurie) West (1918 - 2013) as a Modern, purpose-designed furniture showroom.
Located at the northeast end of Fortitude Valley, one of Brisbane’s busiest shopping centres at the time, it was designed by renowned architect Dr Karl Langer (1903 - 1969) to attract attention and provide a unique setting for West’s cutting-edge modern furniture. As the only Australian business licenced to make and sell Knoll furniture between 1956 and 1962, West’s Furniture Showroom supplied some of the country’s most prominent architects with modern furniture for their buildings and promoted Modern design both within the design community and to the general public. Sold by the West family in 1964, the building had several owners until its purchase by architect Robert Riddel, who in 2008 instigated and managed award-winning restoration and reconstruction works.
Fortitude Valley, located on the north side of the Brisbane central business district (CBD), developed over several stages to become one of Brisbane’s most successful shopping centres, concentrated in Ann, Brunswick, and Wickham Streets. A major building boom took place there in the 1880s, reflecting the widespread economic and population growth typical of the decade. Old timber buildings were replaced with larger, more impressive buildings, marking the growing sophistication, confidence and population of the suburb. Access was improved by the introduction of public transport in the form of horse-drawn trams (replaced by electric trams in the 1890s). By the close of the 1880s the Valley had become intensively settled and was beginning to grow rapidly as a secondary retail centre to the city centre. In 1891 the train line from the city was extended to Fortitude Valley, fuelling the growth of industry in the area, with large factories and warehouses established beyond the retail centre, close to workers’ dwellings.
It was during the 1880s and 1890s that three major retailers were established in the Valley – Overell’s drapery (est. 1883), T C Beirne’s Drapery (est. 1891), and McWhirters (est. 1898) – whose ongoing expansion reflected the wealth and optimism of Valley retailers, and attracted further activity and capital to the area.
Another building boom took place throughout Brisbane in the 1920s; and the Valley in particular, with its success as a commercial and industrial hub, expanded even further. Connection to the city was improved, and electric trams, which passed the busy corner of Brunswick and Wickham Streets, brought thousands of shoppers to the Valley. In 1949, the year that Fortitude Valley celebrated its centenary of European settlement, the turnover of Valley retailers alone was estimated at £15m each year, of which the three biggest firms, McWhirters, T C Beirne, and Overells, accounted for more than a third.
In the early 1950s the Valley underwent a facelift, with the investment of more than £1m in expanding and modernising buildings in order to compete with ‘uptown’ Queen Street, bringing a ‘modern slickness’ to the area. Old shop fronts were replaced with stainless steel and plate glass, dozens of shops were renovated inside and out, and larger stores were constructed, with new features such as escalators proving very popular with customers. Unlike Queen Street, the Valley had ample room for expansion and plenty of parking space, making it a desirable location for a ‘shopping centre of the future’.
In addition to the major stores, the Valley was home to hundreds of medium and small-scale businesses, including numerous furniture manufacturers and retailers. In the post-World War II (WWII) period, a growing percentage of goods sold in the Valley were coming from factories in close proximity to the main shopping centre, including printing, textiles, timber, domestic machinery, motor car assembly, hardware, and furniture factories. Fortitude Valley was one of the main hubs for furniture retailers in Brisbane, along with Woolloongabba, South Brisbane, and the Central Business District (CBD). The 1951 - 1952 Brisbane Metropolitan Trade and Business Directory lists 18 ‘furnishers and furniture dealers’ in the Valley, most concentrated at the southwest end of Wickham Street. The types of retailers ranged from the large department stores, to shops selling mass-produced furniture at affordable prices, to more specialist retailers who designed and/or made furniture to order.
The most important feature of furniture shops were their showrooms: large, flexible spaces where the furniture was displayed, often in room-like configurations so that customers could visualise the furniture in their own homes. Most furniture showrooms at that time were housed within a variety of commercial or warehouse-type buildings; many in older buildings adapted for display purposes. Showrooms also ranged in size, from single-storey shops to multi-storey complexes of adjoining buildings.
One of the Fortitude Valley furniture businesses was West’s Furniture Emporium (West’s) at 132-134 Wickham Street, established in 1937 by Frank Presnell West (father of Laurence West). Frank West had purchased the property in 1922 and in 1927 - 1928 a four-storey building was constructed on the site for Crafti & Co. Ltd, well-known furniture retailers. After Crafti & Co. experienced financial difficulties in the mid-1930s and moved out, the building was occupied by West’s. Advertisements from the 1930s and 1940s show that West’s sold a wide variety of furniture, in both ‘period’ and ‘modern’ styles, and their motto was ‘West’s for the Best’. Promoting themselves as a small family concern, their furniture was made in a chain of small factories, each specialising in varied classes of furniture.
By the early 1950s, Frank West’s son Laurence (Laurie) West had joined the family furniture business. Born in 1918, Laurie became well known in musical circles as a fine baritone singer, and performed in many concerts and singing competitions as a young man in the 1930s and 1940s. During WWII he served in the Australian Army, attaining the rank of sergeant. After his discharge in April 1946, he and his wife Mary (nee Quine, married in 1943) moved into their new, architect-designed residence at Fairfield. While still active in performing and musical circles, Laurie spent a short time studying architecture at the Brisbane Central Technical College. During his studies, Laurie was struck by the lack of local consideration given to the ‘world scene,’ especially in terms of interior design. Extending his own knowledge of this field through ‘extensive reading in libraries and [of] purchased books’ - including subscriptions to journals from America, Sweden, and Europe - and contact with like-minded individuals, including the architect Karl Langer in Brisbane and Harry Seidler in Sydney, Laurie developed a desire to supply Brisbane (and Australia) with modern furniture. This desire grew in ambition and scale, and in the early 1950s he began planning a new purpose-designed showroom for displaying and selling modern furniture.
The site chosen for the new showroom was at the northeast edge of Fortitude Valley, in a predominantly residential and industrial area. Frank West sold his property at 132-134 Wickham Street in 1951 and in the same year purchased 618 Wickham Street (now known as 620 Wickham Street). At the time, the property consisted of an old timber residence with a shop at the front, and had rear access from Knapp Street. In 1951, Laurie West himself drew up some concept plans for a modern showroom on the site, which included a fish pond inside the front display window, a side arcade and entrance, an open-plan showroom with regularly-spaced posts painted bright primary colours, and a flat roof with rooftop garden.
The architect engaged to design West’s new furniture showroom was Dr Karl Langer, who had designed Laurie and Mary West’s house at Fairfield. Born and educated in Vienna, Langer immigrated to Australia with his wife, artist and art critic Dr Gertrude Langer, in 1939; bringing direct experience of the European Modern Movement to Queensland. In addition to working as an architect, Langer lectured part-time in architecture and architectural design at the University of Queensland from 1940, publishing his influential booklet ‘Sub-Tropical Housing’ in 1944. From 1945 Langer was employed as an assistant town planner by Brisbane City Council and was also commissioned to work on a range of town planning projects around Australia. Concurrently, he completed a wide variety of architectural projects ranging from small, economical domestic work to large commercial and institutional work.
Langer had a pronounced impact upon the built environment of Australia and set new standards for design in Queensland until his death in 1969. His body of work is a clearly-distinguishable exploration of a sub-tropical Modernism and is important in the evolution of Queensland architecture. Langer’s designs were typified by modern, highly-functional spaces lit by high levels of natural daylight, naturally ventilated, and incorporated gardens and water features for the occupation and enjoyment of users. They were fit for purpose, while having a degree of flexibility of use. Other important examples of Langer’s architectural work include: the Langer residence at Saint Lucia (1950); Mackay Sugar Research Station (1953); Saint John's Lutheran Church, Bundaberg (1960); Saint Peter's Lutheran College Chapel, Indooroopilly (1968); and the Department of Main Roads Building, Spring Hill (1967).
Langer’s design for the new West’s showroom comprised a modern display area at the front of the site, with a workshop at the rear housed in the existing residence. This followed the pattern of a new type of small, combined showroom/industrial building which emerged in Queensland in the 1950s. Located in inner-city areas on small sites, and built up to the street alignment to match adjacent buildings, these showrooms were usually a single structure of two to three storeys, with large expanses of glazing to the front elevation acting as showcases. They had a clear division between public and private space, with the ground floor area fronting the street housing display and administration areas, while production and storage areas were located to the rear or on upper levels. Detailed attention was given to the design of entryways, as access to the building was directly off the footpath; and features such as controlled illumination levels, climatic control features and sheltered street frontages reflected a sense of responsibility to the public to provide a comfortable environment.
Completed in early 1953, West’s Furniture Showroom was ‘designed with the utmost economy in the contemporary manner’. The showroom comprised a rectangular 64’ by 34’ (19.51m by 10.36m) space with a cantilevered, upswept awning that extended over the Wickham Street footpath. The building was predominantly of masonry construction, with a glass shopfront, a concrete floor, and a shallow-pitched, asbestos- and bitumen-lined roof constructed from timber trusses. The roof-top was used as garden area for displaying outdoor furniture and some furniture assembly operations. The existing timber residence was relocated to the rear of the site and converted for use as a workshop for the assemblage and storage of furniture. The workshop enabled access to the rooftop display area, and was level with Knapp Street for the loading of goods to transport vehicles. Its ground floor consisted of a woodwork shop, and the upper floor was designated for polishing and inventory storage. Public access to the showroom was through a single timber door at the northeast end of the Wickham Street shopfront, adjacent to a random rubble stone wall. Projecting from the angled shopfront, the door frame was supported by glass, so that it appeared to float.
As the furniture showroom was located on the edge of the Fortitude Valley shopping area, the shopfront was designed to be dramatic and striking, to catch the attention of potential customers. Supported by timber beams, three floor-to-ceiling windows, measuring 11ft 6in high by 8ft wide (3.51m by 2.44m), angled in toward the interior at 60 degrees. They were designed to eliminate the reflections of traffic, adjacent buildings and the sky onto footpath pedestrians; while simultaneously attracting the eye of passing traffic by catching reflections of the sky. Along the southwest side of the building, vertical plate glass walls returned into the site and created a pedestrian arcade. This arcade, combined with the absence of a building at the front of the adjacent property, meant that West’s furniture collection was noticeably visible when approached from the city and the potential customer had a clear view of the showroom. A concrete-edged, serpentine fish pond meandered around the base of the angled windows and glass return. Supported below the water-line by concrete pads with rubber cushions, the glass appeared to float atop the pond. The pond was decorated with water-plants and fish; and, through its half-interior, half-exterior location, it conveyed the notion of easy access to the furniture inside.
The interior of the showroom comprised a large open space, with a steep set of concrete stairs in the centre of the rear wall through which furniture was transported from the workshop. Hardwood timber columns supported the ceiling – five of which stood in a row, exposed within the showroom and just outside the shopfront. The columns were supported on metal pin-joints, and their timber was crafted to hide cables that led to power outlets at their base. A 1953 article in the publication Architecture Building Engineering explains that there were no fixed partitions or obstructions within the showroom to allow complete flexibility in arranging the displays. Aquariums were planned to flank the rear staircase, set within the rear wall, although it is unclear whether these were ever constructed (new windows line the rear wall in 2015, of similar proportions to those shown in a 1952 plan). Despite the length of the showroom, it was designed to be lit by natural light during the day by three large, rectangular light-wells (featuring a curved southwest edge, and running the length of the showroom), as well as three oval-shaped ventilator-skylights (arranged parallel to the shopfront windows). Both the light-wells and the skylights were covered by corrugated, transparent plastic roofing. The deep roof trusses were designed to ventilate the ceiling space, and Laurence West recalls that the showroom was kept cool by air movement in the large space above the curved plaster ceiling (within the rectangular light-wells).
Construction work for West’s Furniture Showroom was carried out by Ajax Builders (concrete and brick works), H Packman (timber), and G McKinnon (skylights and fibrous plaster, ceiling work). West’s completed the timber joinery themselves. Installation of the glass within the sloping display windows proved to be a technical challenge. Ten men were required to ease each of the three panes out of their frames and into position, and two panes were broken in the process.
Both the design and function of the Showroom demonstrated the shifting tastes and values of post-war Queensland and the strong desire within the design community and beyond to move the state towards new and modern ways of living. Modernist architecture, which developed in pre-World War I Europe and gained popularity in Australia after WWII, was notable for rationalised planning and simplicity of form and detailing. Distinguished by their extensive use of steel, reinforced concrete and glass, Australian buildings in the Modern or ‘International’ style were heavily influenced by American and European examples. Characteristics included sleek, glossy, prismatic forms, cubiform shapes clad with curtain walls and selective expression of structural systems.
Sharing the ideals of the Modernist movement, both international and Australian furniture designers of the mid-20th Century sought to revolutionise the contemporary interior. Mid-century Modern furniture turned away from traditional, ornate and ‘over-stuffed’ designs that had previously been fashionable, and instead opted for pieces that were lightweight, practical, comfortable, easily rearranged, and scaled to fit within post-war houses. A 1954 article in Home Beautiful advocated that Modern furniture met the needs of the day and rejected the use of ornamentation.
Modern furniture was designed to be pared-back and sculptural, and was ideally suited to Modernist architecture.
Influenced by international furniture trends, Australian contemporary furniture designers of the post-war period also promoted a philosophy of innovative ‘good design’ that was both functional and beautiful. An influx of European immigrants introduced specialised skills and knowledge in fine furniture making to Australia; and production techniques developed in war-time manufacturing industries encouraged experimentation in furniture design. Post-war furniture designers, both in Australia and internationally, became innovative in their use of materials, due to an increased availability of some materials and a shortage of others. This experimentation led to the use of unconventional materials in furniture design, such as: curved plastics, fibreglass and aluminium; bent and laminated plywood; spot welding that joined timber to metal, rubber and plastics; sleek and narrow steel rods; cast aluminium; polyester resins; acrylics; and foam rubber. These materials were durable, lightweight, and maintenance-free, reducing the burden on everyday living. They were manipulated to create minimalist, clean lines and, following the Bauhaus principle of ‘form follows function’, framing elements were often showcased.
When the new West’s Furniture Showroom began operating in 1953 it stocked a wide variety of high-quality, designer Modern furniture, including those from prominent Australian designers: Douglas Snelling (architect, designer of the ‘Snelling Line’, which utilised parachute webbing), Clement Meadmore (industrial designer and sculptor, known for his simple and economical designs that used readily-available materials) and Grant Featherston (designer of the ‘Contour’ line that used bent plywood, which was moulded to the human form). The work of these designers was heavily featured in home-decorating magazines throughout the 1950s.
As well as stocking Australian designers, West’s was the first known retailer in Australia to obtain the licence to manufacture and sell the furniture of Knoll Associates (1938 - present). Established by Hans Knoll (1914 - 1955) in New York as the Hans G Knoll Furniture Company, the first Knoll furniture manufacturing plant was opened in Pennsylvania in 1941. Florence Schust (1917 - ), a space planner and designer who had befriended and studied under prominent Modernist architects Eliel Saarinen, Charles Eames, Walter Gropius, and Marcel Breuer, was employed by Knoll in 1943. In 1946 Hans and Florence married, and the company changed its name to Knoll Associates. A wide range of prominent architects, designers and artists were engaged to design furniture for their company, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen, Jens Risom, and Marcel Breuer. Influenced by Bauhaus ideals, their furniture was technologically innovative, exceptionally designed, made of high-quality materials, and easily mass-produced.
In 1946, Florence established the Knoll Planning Unit – a revolutionary department which designed interior spaces for corporate clients; and later designed Knoll showrooms to allow the customer to experience their furniture and test potential purchases. The showrooms were distinctively modern, open-planned, and generally featured bright interiors of primary colours. The first Knoll showroom opened in New York in 1951 with a coloured ceiling grid, artificial pond, and open layout that allowed for a changing layout of products. As Knoll Associates continued to expand, showrooms were opened in eight other locations throughout America. A subsidiary of the company, Knoll International, was established in 1951 and set about opening Modernist showrooms around the globe in places such as Paris, Stuttgart, Stockholm, Madrid, and Milan. A 1956 index released by Knoll Associates lists West’s as the only retailer with a license to sell genuine Knoll furniture in Australia, and as one of only 13 stores selling Knoll furniture outside of America. West’s remained the only known licenced manufacturer and retailer of Knoll products in Australia until William Latchford and Sons, a Melbourne firm, obtained a licence in 1962.
Following its opening, West’s was featured in various periodicals, including a 1953 Cross Section article, a 1954 issue of Architecture (the Royal Australian Institute of Architect’s journal), and on the front cover of Queensland publication Architecture Building Engineering. The showroom was radically different to any other retail building in Brisbane at the time. It was described as having a striking street presence and it’s planning embraced unique solutions to display problems. Accounts from the West family recall the building being so eye-catching that tourist buses would regularly stop outside, and that the Duke of Edinburgh briefly stopped the Royal Cavalcade to view the building during the Queen’s visit in 1954. A few years later, the Queensland Art Gallery showcased furniture from the showroom in their contemporary living room display in the 1958 exhibition, Interiors Past and Present.
West’s was “…instrumental in introducing mass market designer furniture into Brisbane”, and sold high-quality furniture not available elsewhere in Australia to a range of prominent architects and well-known personalities. Notable clients included: architects Harry Seidler, Robin Gibson, James Birrell (for the Chermside and Annerley Libraries), Karl Langer (Broadbeach Hotel) and David Bell (Chevron Hotel); interior designer Langdon Badger; federal politician Harold Holt; and institutions including the Queensland Government, the Canadian Embassy, and the University of Queensland (Student Union Building). At the time, licencing restricted imports to a few sample pieces of furniture, so West’s organised a large group of skilled sub-contractors to make parts, which were assembled at the showroom workshop. High quality Australian wools and yarns were used to upholster the furniture made, including those from Ipswich manufacturer, Morrisons.
West’s operated from the building until the business closed in November 1963. This was due to a variety of factors, including the loss of its exclusive licence with Knoll in 1962. In 1964 the property was sold to Arthur Walter Barrs, who owned the adjacent building (then 620 Wickham Street, now 622 Wickham Street) from which he ran a car radio business. The former West’s showroom remained in the ownership of the Barrs family until the late 1970s, and was at one point leased to Philips Industries Holdings, an electrical products company. Between 1988 and 2008, Queensland Used Appliances, now Queensland Appliances, occupied the building (listing their address as 616 Wickham Street).
Over time, the Wickham Street facade of the showroom was converted into a more conventional shopfront – the sloping, front display windows were removed, and new vertical windows that spanned the full width of the site were installed. The pond was concreted in, the glass walls removed, a section of the front awning’s ceiling painted over and the light-wells roofed over (although their locations were still visible). The workshop at the rear was demolished between 1974 and 1986, and a skillion-roofed shed was constructed in its place.
In 2008, architect Robert Riddel purchased the building and carried out extensive renovations and conservation work. This was completed with the guidance of Laurence West himself, contemporary documentation, and the evidence provided by original fabric remaining within the building. Marks in the front stone wall and the ceiling lining enabled Riddel to reconstruct the front window at the original angle. A new front door was also installed, replicating the original design. The side pedestrian arcade was re-established with new glass walls, and a new wide glass door and metal ramp were added to the end of the arcade to provide a secondary entrance and equal access. Concrete that had filled the serpentine pond was removed, revealing some early edging and concrete pads. The pond was waterproofed, with the edging reconstructed, and it was once again filled with water. Light-wells were uncovered and re-glazed, with the original arched framing re-sheeted. Paint was removed from the hardwood timber posts and front awning’s soffit cladding, and the showroom ceiling was sheeted with new plasterboard. The shed at the rear of the site was gutted, re-lined and its roof was raised; and a new carport was added facing Knapp Street.
Construction was carried out by John Speare Builders and was completed in 2009. In early 2010, the building was converted for use as an office through the addition of lightweight partitions, and was occupied by Riddel Architecture until 2012.
Riddel’s restoration and reconstruction of West’s Furniture Showroom received both national and international praise and recognition. In 2009 it was awarded a Gold Medal award at the National Trust Heritage Awards, and in 2010 it received the Australian Institute of Architects State and National awards for Heritage. The Jury Citation for the National Award for Heritage praises the Showroom as ‘…a rare example of the restoration of a mid-century modernist commercial building’, and that the reinterpretation and rebuilding process was ‘…painstaking but practical and economical. The architects have helped to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of preservation over new build. This is not a museum frozen in time. The spirit is faithfully captured; details restored with rigour, energy, affection, and wit; and the building revitalized as viable commercial premises.’
The project also appeared in publications including IndesignLive (12th of August 2009), Brisbane Modern (Issue 3, 2009), Architecture Australia (vol. 99, Jan - Feb, 2010), Feminity (6th of August 2010) and Architecture and Urban Design in Brisbane (vol. 1, 2012). Brisbane Open House, an event launched in 2010 to promote the ‘hidden wealth of architecture, engineering, and history in buildings and places around Brisbane city’, featured West’s Furniture Showroom in 2011, 2012, and 2013. The building was also included in the 2014 exhibition Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland, 1945 - 1975 at the State Library of Queensland, along with furniture pieces from the Wests’ collection.
After a short period of vacancy, in September 2015 the former West’s Furniture Showroom was renovated for use as a retail tenancy, with the rear additions converted into living quarters.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
Portland provides just enough of a sun patch to light up Amtrak's Operation Lifesaver motor P42DC 203 leading the Coast Starlight through Portland's Central Eastside Industrial district headed for points south on Aug 30 2023. #ArtGrossPhotography #Amtrak #AmtrakCoastStarlight #OperationLifesaver #BNSF #Portland #PortlandOregon #Oregon #Trains #Railroads #Railroadphotography #trains_worldwide #railfanning #railfan #daily_crossing #trainspotting #railsupremacy #diesel_locomotive_shop #west_coast_rail #trainsofpnw #train_nerds #trb_express #railfans_of_instagram #railfannation #railmarkable #rsa_theyards #railways_of_america #pnw_rrshots #newtopographics #documentingspace
Rocks provide a handy anchor for these damp stramenopiles.
Hand-held. AF.
Take a break at Pelcomb Portraits.
The Pyramid/Tesla Energy Connection
Nikola Tesla regarded the Earth as one of the plates of a capacitor, the ionosphere forming the other plate. Recent measurements have shown that the voltage gradient between the two is 400,000 volts. With this principle, he said he was able, through his invention, to provide free energy to anyone, inexhaustible in quantity, anywhere on earth. That is why he had built a first prototype, the Wardenclyffe Tower, in which was to apply his famous pyramid effect. What is it exactly?
"The lines of force of the electric charge additioned to the fields from the sun act on the walls of a pyramid.The magnetic equipotentials show a high magnetic density in the summit. The voltage of the electric field increases of 100 V per meter. The terrestrial negative field reaches its maximum value at the summit of the pyramid; at the top of the pyramid of Giza, the voltage is 14,600 V. This pyramid is itself a capacitor, it accumulates an electrical charge. If an excess load is added, a discharge occurs at the top, and, as we know currently, that top was adorned with a solid gold capstone, an excellent conductor."Tesla wanted his tower to be high to increase the voltage at the top. He wanted to create an artificial lightning in the tower. In the discharge tube of a natural flash , the temperature rises to 30 000 ° C. Tesla did not want to manage such high temperatures because it is a waste of energy. Tesla's Wardenclyffe tower would have used a transformer to produce a high voltage, which would have generated, instead of a natural lightning, a "discharge of high energetic ion abundance".To accentuate the pyramid effect, he had imagined to give the tower the octagonal shape of a pyramid topped by a half sphere. Why octogonal? Tesla does not explain, but when we read his memoirs, we understand that he sensed a scientific discipline that did not yet exist, geobiology, and the theory of waves of forms. From the perspective of traditional physics, the fact that the tower is octagonal is insignificant. It could be square or have an infinite number of faces, that is conic. "In all cases the voltage would have been the same, its shape just gave it stability." This raises two objections. The octagonal shape is not a guarantee of stability comparing to the square shape. If he was really looking for stability, a hyperbolic rise, like that of the Eiffel Tower, would have been better suited. The octagonal shape has very special wave characteristics, it is possible that this pure genius sensed it without being able to theorize it.As for the square shape of the pyramids, the engineer Gustave Eiffel has chosen it for his tower, precisely because it is a guarantee of stability, as the four legs and the widening elevation. Built in 1889, our national tower was already fairly well known to be his model. As Wardenclyffe Tower, the Eiffel Tower has a pyramid effect which makes it pick at the top, even without a storm, a DC current. Its lightning rod "makes" thus some electricity that goes down in a cable to be delivered to the earth.This waste is not limited to the Eiffel Tower. All roofs and metal frames make the same production, stupidly given to the earth. The Vril energy is free, it is its biggest flaw in a world of profit. The fact that it is completely environmentally friendly and inexhaustible has no interest for the capital. The fact that it is beneficial for both the human mind and the health of people, animals and plants thanks to the virtues of water of lightning, has even much less interest for profiteers. Unfortunately, Tesla was never able to finish his tower. He did not have the opportunity to carry out the planned experiments on Long Island that sought to bring rain in the deserts. Others before him had managed that. We know that Egypt has not always been desertic. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that "Egypt is a gift of the Nile." But it was in the 5th century BC. Since then, its climate has not changed much, and yet it has not always been so. The predynastic Egypt was rather a gift of the pyramids... "In the pre-dynastic period, the Egyptian climate is much less arid than it is nowadays. Large areas of Egypt are covered with savanna and traversed by herds of ungulates. The foliage and wildlife then are much more prolific and the Nile region is home to large populations of waterfowl. Hunting is a common activity for the Egyptians and it is also during this period that many animals are domesticated for the first time."
www.apparentlyapparel.com/news/the-pyramid-energy-tesla-c...
"....If we could produce electric effects of the required quality, this whole planet and the conditions of existence on it could be transformed. The sun raises the water of the oceans and winds drive it to distant regions where it remains in state of most delicate balance. If it were in our power to upset it when and wherever desired, this mighty life-sustaining stream could be at will controlled. We could irrigate arid deserts, create lakes and rivers and provide motive power in unlimited amount. This would be the most efficient way of harnesing the sun to the uses of man......" ( Nikola Tesla, June 1919 )
Nikola Tesla, inventor of alternating current motors, did the basic research for constructing electromagnetic field lift-and-drive aircraft/space craft. From 1891 to 1893, he gave a set of lectures and demonstrations to groups of electrical engineers. As part of each show, Tesla stood in the middle of the stage, using his 6' 6" height, with an assistant on either side, each 7 feet away. All 3 men wore thick cork or rubber shoe soles to avoid being electrically grounded. Each assistant held a wire, part of a high voltage, low current circuit. When Tesla raised his arms to each side, violet colored electricity jumped harmlessly across the gaps between the men. At high voltage and frequency in this arrangement, electricity flows over a surface, even the skin, rather than into it. This is a basic circuit which could be used by aircraft / spacecraft.
The hull is best made double, of thin, machinable, slightly flexible ceramic. This becomes a good electrical insulator, has no fire danger, resists any damaging effects of severe heat and cold, and has the hardness of armor, besides being easy for magnetic fields to pass through.
The inner hull is covered on it's outside by wedge shaped thin metal sheets of copper or aluminum, bonded to the ceramic. Each sheet is 3 to 4 feet wide at the horizontal rim of the hull and tapers to a few inches wide at the top of the hull for the top set of metal sheets, or at the bottom for the bottom set of sheets. Each sheet is separated on either side from the next sheet by 1 or 2 inches of uncovered ceramic hull. The top set of sheets and bottom set of sheets are separated by about 6 inches of uncovered ceramic hull around the horizontal rim of the hull.
The outer hull protects these sheets from being short-circuited by wind blown metal foil (Air Force radar confusing chaff), heavy rain or concentrations of gasoline or kerosene fumes. If unshielded, fuel fumes could be electrostatically attracted to the hull sheets, burn and form carbon deposits across the insulating gaps between the sheets, causing a short-circuit. The space, the outer hull with a slight negative charge, would absorb hits from micrometeorites and cosmic rays (protons moving at near the speed of light). Any danger of this type that doesn't already have a negative electric charge would get a negative charge in hitting the outer hull, and be repelled by the metal sheets before it could hit the inner hull. This wouldn't work well on a very big meteor, I might add.
The hull can be made in a variety of shapes; sphere, football, disc, or streamlined rectangle or triangle, as long as these metal sheets, "are of considerable area and arranged along ideal enveloping surfaces of very large radii of curvature," p. 85. "My Inventions", by Nikola Tesla.
The power plant for this machine can be a nuclear fission or fusion reactor for long range and long-term use to run a steam engine, which turns the generators. A short range machine can use a hydrogen oxygen fuel cell to run a low-voltage motor to turn the generators, occasionally recharging by hovering next to high voltage power lines and using antennas mounted on the outer hull to take in the electricity. The short-range machine can also have electricity beamed to it from a generating plan on a long-range aircraft / spacecraft or on the ground.
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 24, 1987, Vol 109, No. 328, "The Forever Plane" by Geoffrey Rowan, p. D1, D7.)
("Popular Science", Vol 232, No. 1, Jan. 1988, "Secret of Perpetual Flight? Beam Power Plane," by Arthur Fisher, p. 62-65, 106)
One standard for the generators is to have the same number of magnets as field coils. Tesla's preferred design was a thin disc holding 480 magnets with 480 field coils wired in series surrounding it in close tolerance. At 50 revolutions per minute, it produces 19,400 cycles per second.
The electricity is fed into a number of large capacitors, one for each metal sheet. An automatic switch, adjustable in timing by the pilot, closes, and as the electricity jumps across the switch, back and forth, it raises it's own frequency; a switch being used for each capacitor.
The electricity goes into a Tesla transformer; again, one transformer for each capacitor. In an oil tank to insulate the windings and for cooling, and supported internally by wood, or plastic, pipe and fittings, each Tesla transformer looks like a short wider pipe that is moved along a longer, narrower pipe by an insulated non-electric cable handle. The short pipe, the primary, is 6 to 10 windings (loops) of wire connected in series to the long pipe. The secondary is 460 to 600 windings, at the low voltage and frequency end.
The insulated non-electric cable handle is used through a set of automatic controls to move the primary coil to various places on the secondary coil. This is the frequency control. The secondary coil has a low frequency and voltage end and a maximum voltage and frequency end. The greater the frequency the electricity, the more it pushes against the earth's electrostatic and electromagnetic fields.
The electricity comes out of the transformer at the high voltage end and goes by wire through the ceramic hull to the wide end of the metal sheet. The electricity jumps out on and flows over the metal sheet, giving off a very strong electromagnetic field, controlled by the transformer. At the narrow end of the metal sheet, most of the high-voltage push having been given off; the electricity goes back by wire through the hull to a circuit breaker box (emergency shut off), then to the other side of the generators.
In bright sunlight, the aircraft / spacecraft may seem surrounded by hot air, a slight magnetic distortion of the light. In semi-darkness and night, the metal sheets glow, even through the thin ceramic outer hull, with different colors. The visible light is a by-product of the electricity flowing over the metal sheets, according to the frequencies used.
Descending, landing or just starting to lift from the ground, the transformer primaries are near the secondary weak ends and therefore, the bottom set of sheets glow a misty red. Red may also appear at the front of the machine when it is moving forward fast, lessening resistance up front. Orange appears for slow speed. Orange-yellow is for airplane-type speeds. Green and blue are for higher speeds. With a capacitor addition, making it oversized for the circuit, the blue becomes bright white, like a searchlight, with possible risk of damaging the metal sheets involved. The highest visible frequency is violet, like Tesla's stage demonstrations, used for the highest speed along with the bright white. The colors are nearly coherent, of a single frequency, like a laser.
A machine built with a set of super conducting magnets would simplify and reduce electricity needs from a vehicle's transformer circuits to the point of flying along efficiently and hovering with little electricity.
When Tesla was developing arc lights to run on alternating current, there was a bothersome high-pitched whine, whistle, or buzz, due to the electrodes rapidly heating and cooling. Tesla put this noise in the ultrasonic range with the special transformer already mentioned. The aircraft / spacecraft gives off such noises when working at low frequencies.
Timing is important in the operation of this machine. For every 3 metal sheets, when the middle one is briefly turned off, the sheet on either side is energized, giving off the magnetic field. The next instant, the middle sheet is energized, while the sheet on either side is briefly turned off. There is a time delay in the capacitors recharging themselves, so at any time, half of all the metal sheets are energized and the other half are recharging, alternating all around the inner hull. This balances the machine, giving it very good stability. This balance is less when fewer of the circuits are in use.
Fairly close, the aircraft / spacecraft produces heating of persons and objects on the ground; but by hovering over an area at low altitude for maybe 5 or 10 minutes, the machine also produces a column of very cold air down to the ground. As air molecules get into the strong magnetic fields that the machine is transmitting out, the air molecules become polarized and from lines, or strings, of air molecules. The normal movement of the air is stopped, and there is suddenly a lot more room for air molecules in this area, so more air pours in. This expansion and the lack of normal air motion make the area intensely cold.
This is also the reason that the aircraft / spacecraft can fly at supersonic speeds without making sonic booms. As air flows over the hull, top and bottom, the air molecules form lines as they go through the magnetic fields of the metal sheet circuits. As the air molecules are left behind, they keep their line arrangements for a short time; long enough to cancel out the sonic boom shock waves.
Outside the earth's magnetic field, another propulsion system must be used, which relies on the first. You may have read of particle accelerators, or cyclotrons, or atomsmashers. A particle accelerator is a circular loop of pipe that, in cross-section, is oval. In a physics laboratory, most of the air in it is pumped out. The pipe loop is given a static electric charge; a small amount of hydrogen or other gas is given the same electric charge so the particles won't stick to the pipe. A set of electromagnets all around the pipe loop turn on and off, one after the other, pushing with one magnetic pole and pulling with the next, until those gas particles are racing around the pipe loop at nearly the speed of light. Centrifugal force makes the particles speed closer to the outside edge of the pipe loop, still within the pipe. The particles break down into electrons, or light and other wavelengths, protons or cosmic rays, and neutrons if more than hydrogen is put in the accelerator.
At least 2 particle accelerators are used to balance each other and counter each other's tendency to make the craft spin. Otherwise, the machine would tend to want to start spinning, following the direction of the force being applied to the particles. The accelerators push in opposite directions.
As the pilot and crew travel in space, outside the magnetic field of a world, water from a tank is electrically separated into oxygen and hydrogen. Waste carbon dioxide that isn't used for the onboard garden, and hydrogen (helium if the machine is using a fusion reactor) is slowly, constantly fed into the inside curves of both accelerators.
The high-speed particles go out through straight lengths of pipe, charged like the loops and in speeding out into space, push the machine along. Doors control which pips the particles leave from. This allows very long-range acceleration and later deceleration at normal (earth) gravity. This avoids the severe problems of weightlessness, including lowered physical abilities of the crew.
It is possible to use straight-line particle accelerators, even as few as one per machine, but these don't seem as able to get the best machine speed for the least amount of particles pushed out.
Using a constant acceleration of 32.2 feet per second per second provides earth normal gravity in deep space and only 2 gravities of stress in leaving the earth's gravity field. It takes, not counting air resistance, 18 minutes, 58.9521636 seconds to reach the 25,000 miles per hour speed to leave the earth's gravity field. It takes about 354 days, 12 hours, 53 minutes and 40 seconds (about) to reach the speed of light - 672,487,072.7 miles per hour. It takes the same distance to decelerate as it does to speed up, but this cuts down the time delay that one would have in conventional chemical rocketry enormously, for a long journey.
A set of super conducting magnets can be charged by metal sheet circuits, within limits, to whatever frequency is needed and will continue to transmit that magnetic field frequency almost indefinitely.
A short-wave radio can be used to find the exact frequencies that an aircraft / spacecraft is using, for each of the colors it may show whole a color television can show the same overall color frequency that the nearby, but not extremely close, craft is using This is limited, as a machine traveling at the speed of a jet airliner may broadcast in a frequency range usually used for radar sets.
The craft circuits override lower frequency, lower voltage electric circuits within and near their electromagnetic fields. One source briefly mentioned a 1941 incident, where a short-wave radio was used to override automobile ignition systems, up to 3 miles away. When the short-wave radio was turned off, the cars could work again. How many UFO encounters have been reported in which automobile ignition systems have suddenly stopped?
I figure that things would not be at all pleasant for drivers of modern cars with computer controlled engine and ignition systems. Computer circuitry is sensitive to small changes in voltage and a temporary wrong-way voltage surge may wipe the computer memory out. It could mean that a number of drivers would suddenly be stranded with their cars not working should such a craft fly low over a busy highway. Only diesel engines, already warmed up, and Stanley Steamer type steam engine cares are able to continue working in a strong electromagnetic field. In May, 1988, it was reported that the U.S. Army had lost 5 Blackhawk helicopters and 22 crewmen in crashes caused by ordinary commercial radio broadcasting overriding the computer control circuits of those helicopters. Certainly, computer circuits for this aircraft / spacecraft can and must be designed to overcome this weakness.
One construction arrangement for this craft to avoid such interference is for the metal sheet circuits to be more sharply tuned. Quartz or other crystals can be used in capacitors; in a very large number of low-powered, single frequency circuits, or as part of a frequency control for the metal sheet circuits.
The aircraft / spacecraft easily overrides lower frequency and lower voltage electric circuits up to a 6 mile wide circle around it, but the effect is usually not tuned for such a drastic show. It can be used for fire fighting: by hovering at a medium-low height at low frequency, it forms a double negative pole magnet of itself and the ground, the sides being a rotation of positive magnetic pole.
It polarizes the column of air in this field. The air becomes icy cold. If it wouldn't put the fire out, it would slow it down.
Tesla went broke in the early 1900's building a combination radio and electric power broadcasting station. The theory and experiments were correct but the financiers didn't want peace and prosperity for all.
The Japanese physicist who developed super conducting material with strong magnetism allows for a simplified construction of the aircraft / spacecraft. Blocks of this material can be used in place of the inner hull metal sheets. By putting electricity in each block, the pilot can control the strength of the magnetic field it gives off and can reduce the field strength by draining some of the electric charge. This allows the same amount of work to be done with vastly less electricity used to do it.
It is surprising that Jonathan Swift, in his "Gulliver's Travels", 1726, third book, "A Voyage to Laputa", described an imagined magnetic flying island that comes close to being what a large super conducting aircraft / spacecraft can be build as, using little or no electric power to hover and mover around.
www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/02files/Tesla_Saucer.html
Before our study group, Summerville, South Carolina #2, made a trip to A.R.E headquarters in Virginia Beach, Va., in April, 2009, Jerry Ingle, set into motion an ideal that generated a monumental synchronicity. For years, Jerry, a long-time member of our group, had been interested in Nikola Tesla. He saw many parallels between his talents and those of Edgar Cayce and hoped to somehow connect them. As a psychic, Edgar Cayce had been consulted by engineers about their inventions. Cayce was willing to help as long as it would ultimately be of service to humanity. While there are suggestions that both Thomas Edison and his former associate, Nikola Tesla, consulted Cayce separately; there is no documentation in the A.R.E. archives.
Nikola Tesla was an electrical engineer who invented the alternating current Niagara power system that made Edison's direct current obsolete. He sold Westinghouse 40 patents that broke the General Electric monopoly. In 1893 he demonstrated the use of wireless radio control with a torpedo-like boat. He invented wireless transmission of electricity, an electric car that ran by tapping into the electricity of the Earth, the microwave, and the TV remote control, just to name a few. A court recently ruled that while Marconi had been given credit for the invention of the radio and made a fortune on it, Tesla was the true inventor.
Tesla was concerned with harnessing nature to meet the needs of humankind and foresaw the end of World War I as a synthesis of history, philosophy, and science,. He had the amazing ability to construct a machine in his mind and then, by operating the device in his mind, make improvements to the design. He could develop and perfect his inventions by drawing only upon the creative forces, without actually touching anything material. Just as the Cayce readings suggest, "Mind is the builder, physical is the result."
Another inventor that Edgar Cayce met was a man named Marion L. Stansell. During World War I, while stationed in France, Stansell had a near death experience with a vision. During the experience, a "spirit guide" escorted him to another dimension where he was given a formula for a mechanical device. He was told that this device would save the planet from environmental destruction in the next millennium.
On February 1, 1928, Edgar Cayce gave a reading which confirmed that Stansell was able to see the blueprints for a revolutionary type of motor in his dreams and visions. According to the readings, the motor was designed in the spirit realm by De Witt Clinton, deceased governor of New York, who in his last incarnation was the force behind the development of the Erie Canal.
Stansell needed the assistance of Edgar Cayce to relay precise technical information from Clinton in the spirit realm to Stansell and a team of like-minded entrepreneurs in the material world. The Stansell motor readings were conducted over a two-year period. One could speculate that Mr. Cayce did the same for Nikola Tesla, and that these readings were a continuation of that work, but if so, there is no record of it.
Jerry believed that there was a deep connection between the work of Cayce and Tesla and their interest in the connection between electricity and psychic phenomena. At A.R.E., Jerry found his way to the vault, where the Cayce records are kept, hoping to discover a way to get these plans into the hands of present-day inventors.
There, he and an A.R.E. volunteer named Harry talked excitedly for some time about Tesla. Suddenly, a man came to the door of the vault. "Does anybody know if there was ever a connection between Edgar Cayce and Nikola Tesla?"
"Here is the guy who can tell you," said Harry as he pointed toward Jerry. Jerry turned to face Nikola Lonchar — the President of Nikola Tesla's Inventors Club, a man who was dedicated to locating and preserving Tesla's work. The organization was made up of scientists who wanted to be sure Tesla's work was not lost! This was the first visit to A.R.E. by anyone from the Tesla organization.
Jerry was able to supply the visitor with the information he needed. The two sat in the lobby of the A.R.E. Visitor Center, oblivious to their surroundings, talking about an interest that held them both captive. Jerry was invited to speak at the next Nikola Tesla Inventors conference.
Nikola Lonchar was at A.R.E. for only one day. During this small window of time, he and Jerry had converged at the same place, at the same time, both equipped with a desire to be of service to Cayce, to Tesla, and to humanity. That's synchronicity in motion.
www.edgarcayce.org/about-us/blog/blog-posts/synchronicity...
More Victorian erotica in which mythology provides all the excuse the artist needs for nudity. Original greyscale version here.
This is a photo of a painting I found online and applied the usual cleanups to before upscaling with Bigjpg AI Image Enlarger. and colorized using DeepAI Image Colorization API. (These are not paid endorsements, but if they're interested they may feel free to contact me.)
The colorization needed a bit of work, and if you look carefully you can see where I've digitally "repainted" a few patches, but I think the final result looks great.
Having previously been confused by the artist's signature, I believe it may belong to Georges Landelle, a French artist with very little biographical data online except the dates bearing witness to a tragically short life.
However, I've only come across a couple of Landelle's paintings, neither of them nudes; one of them had a clear signature, but it didn't look much like the one on this painting. For this reason, the attribution must remain conjectural in the absence of further proof.
Virgin East Coast 43302 provides the rear end power to a late running 1E15, 09:52 Aberdeen – Kings Cross standing in platform 4 at Newcastle, 16th December 2016.
Locomotive History
43302 was built at Crewe works as 43102 and entered service in October 1978. It was one of a batch of sixty six power cars built to power thirty two, eight coach HST sets for Eastern Region services and was initially formed as part of set 254024. Following the completion of ECML electrification 43102 was one of twenty eight class 43 power cars allocated to Western Region although it was allocated to the pool for West Coast Main Line services between Euston and Holyhead. The HST sets for these West Coast services were supplied by the Western Region and the services commenced in September 1991. In April 1992 it transferred into the general Western Region power car pool and this was followed by a transfer into the Cross Country pool in May 1995 allocated to Laira. In September 2003 it was placed in store at MOD Bicester and remained in store until the summer of 2004 when it transferred to the Great North Eastern Railway fleet and returned to East Coast Main Line duties. It was admitted to the Brush works, Loughborough in January 2008 to be “re-engineered” and has had its original Paxman Valenta engine replaced by a MTU unit. It re-entered service on the East Coast Main Line in April 2008 re-numbered 43302.
To provide social distancing, the 1 from Nottingham at 0730 is duplicated from Trent Bridge to East Leake Academy, using any available bus, providing either mundane spare OmniDekkas to branded Biogas Scanias.
403 was the bus in question this morning, seen on home turf at Victoria Embankment with the extra 1 to East Leake Academy via Wilford Green, Clifton and Gotham whilst 644 creeps round on the service board.
Posted 12/12/24
- - - Please note that ALL of my images are "All Rights Reserved" and are posted for educational purposes only. Please do the right thing and contact me in advance if you wish to discuss the use or reuse of my images and provide a link to my originals. I would also ask that I be given a "first look" at any 7Up UnCola billboards or posters before you market them to the general public in return for my extensive investment in time, money and research, including interviewing some of the surviving artists. Thanks, and enjoy. - - -
Search "7Up UnCola Billboards" on eBay or Flickr.com if you'd like to learn more about this stunning body of work or acquire originals that might be duplicates to me. I keep the best and sell the rest.
You can learn more about my one-of-a-kind 7Up UnCola billboard & poster collection by reading this in-depth article in Collectors Weekly (dot com):
www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/collecting-7ups-most-be...
dangerousminds.net/comments/the_uncola_7up_and_the_most_p...
- - - FOR SALE - - -
Check eBay for this super rare poster. It was not sold to the general public like many of the other 7Up UnCola posters via their yearly “billboard & poster” offers. This was meant to be displayed on the outside of delivery trucks so finding one is much harder than usual.
My excess inventory is available on a rotating basis via my shop on eBay, or contact me directly via Flickrmail (preferred). You will also see a variety of other even rarer retro 7Up UnCola posters listed for sale. If my collection contains more than 1 copy, the duplicates may be offered for others to enjoy.
www.ebay.com/usr/finishstrong312?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
Size: 59 5/8” (151.45 cm) x 35 ¼” (89.54 cm), Subway Size "B” vintage 7Up UnCola poster
Name: "Butterfly & Bottle" by Pat Dypold. Her signature is under the bottom left wing.
Condition: Good. Has a few water stains, some surface scuffing, short rips, wrinkles, black marks on the back side of the left edge and creases in the thick paper. Professional poster restorers could clean and stretch this to restore it to its former glory.
These color renditions are very close to the actual poster.
The billboard version of this image was posted along highways just prior to Woodstock (August 15-18) in 1969.
www.topfoto.co.uk/imageflows2/?s=7Up
TV ad on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=WkaPrAGX4dQ
This exact poster image is featured as a 2-page spread on pages 204-205 of the book entitled "Electric Banana" by Norman Hathaway:
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/8862082045?pc_redir=1400488153&...
Learn more details about giant 7Up UnCola billboards and posters like this in my "7Up Billboard" set (right, or link below):
www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/sets/72157623502964435/
If you have any UnCola billboard posters, please tell me about them. Although RARE, other copies of this poster do exist in several sizes.
Design #2 in the yellow poster offer from 1972.
Mailing Tube: www.flickr.com/photos/30559980@N07/5530833484/in/set-7215...
This is one of the very best billboards ever produced IMO. It conveys the message at 50 mph without a single word.
Lloyd: please contact me at btreat@swbell.net
I was going to accept your offer with terms.
The class used diesel-electric propulsion, with lead-acid batteries to provide power when the engines cannot be used. Each vessel has two Admiralty-pattern V-16 diesel engines (ASR1 16VMS), each driving one 1280-kW 880-V generator. These can provide power directly to the two 3000-BHP electric motors, one directly connected to each propellor, or for charging batteries. The diesel engines can only be operated with external ventilation, but this can be obtained either while on the surface or when shallowly submerged by use of two snorkels which can be raised from the fin. One snorkel brings in new air to the boat, while the other takes exhaust fumes from the engines. The ventilation system is designed so the fresh air spreads through the boat.
The submarine has two batteries, each comprising 224 2V cells (type D7420) giving a nominal 440-V output. One battery is located underneath the crew accommodation compartment, and the other under the control compartment. Each battery has a switch circuit in the middle so it can be split into two banks of 112 cells. The cells are designed to deliver 7420 Ah over a period of 5 hours. All steelwork within the battery compartments is lined with rubber to protect the metal from attack by acid, and also all conducting material is insulated to prevent risks of electric shock. Waxed timber is used to make framing and crawlways to access the batteries and support them because of its resistance to acid. The battery compartment has a sump to collect any spilled liquids. Each cell weighs 1,120 lb, measures about 4 ft × 16 in × 12 in, and contains 18.5 gallons of electrolyte. Cells are held tightly in place with wooden wedges to prevent movement with the boat. Each cell has four connector bolts to each electrode and an agitator pipe which bubbles air through the cell to ensure the electrolyte remains mixed and uniform. Cooling water is fed through pipes attached to the electrode connectors to prevent overheating and the battery temperature is monitored.
In operation, each battery is charged until the voltage reaches 560 V, then allowed a further hour's charging. Fortnightly, it should be allowed 5 hours' charging after reaching 560 V to ensure a maximum charge is reached. Every two months, the battery should be given an equalising charge of eight hours to ensure all cells have reached their maximum. The battery is designed to operate with a specific gravity of the electrolyte between 1.080 and 1.280. Initial charging current should be around 1650 amps for s.g. below 1.180, 1250 A above 1.180, falling to 280 A when charging is complete. At a voltage around 538 V, the cells begin to give off explosive hydrogen gas, so the applied power is reduced during charging to keep voltage below this value until current falls to 280 A, which is then maintained while voltage is allowed to rise until the requisite voltage and charge time are reached. In an emergency, the charging current can be raised to 2000 A. To maintain overall capacity, batteries need to be completely discharged over a 5-h period once every four months and then completely recharged. The battery compartments are sealed to prevent gases escaping into the submarine, or salt water entering, which inside a battery would cause the release of poisonous chlorine gas. Ventilation fans are used to extract hydrogen released by the cells and catalytic converters are placed strategically through the submarine to remove hydrogen from the air by recombining it with oxygen to form water.
Propeller motor control panel: The panel telegraph showed instructions issued from the motor telegraph position beside the helm station in the control room which were to be carried out.
Each of the two propellers on the submarine is connected to a 3000-BHP DC electric motor. Each motor is designed with two separate armatures, in effect two motors in the same unit. Speed of the submarine can be varied by connecting the batteries and armatures in different series and parallel combinations. Slowest speed is obtained by connecting both batteries in parallel, thus supplying 440 V, across all four motor armatures in series, thus applying 110 V to each ('shafts in series'). Next, the batteries in parallel may be applied across the two motors in parallel, with their armatures in series ('group down'). This applies 220 V across each armature. Third, both batteries are applied in parallel across all four armatures applying 440 V to each ('group up'). Finally, the batteries can be arranged in series so as to apply 880 V across all four armatures in parallel ('batteries in series'). Each armature also has an associated field winding which is separately supplied with current which may be varied resistively, providing further speed control (maximum 35 A) (Wikipedia)
***********************************************************************************La propulsion du sous-marin était assurée par deux moteurs électriques de 3 000 hp fabriqués par English Electric et couplés directement aux deux hélices. Leur alimentation électrique était assurée par deux batteries fabriquées par la D. P. Battery Company Limited. Les composantes des moteurs des sous-marins de la classe Oberon étaient montées sur des coussinets isolants en caoutchouc et, lors de la construction du NCSM Onondaga, ces moteurs étaient considérés comme les plus fiables et les plus silencieux qui existaient. Ils permettaient aux sous-marins de la classe Oberon de se déplacer sous l'eau sur de longues distances sans être repérés et ont fait en sorte que les Oberon sont demeurés compétitifs pendant très longtemps face aux sous-marins nucléaires.
Les moteurs du NCSM Onondaga lui permettaient de faire des plongées à une profondeur maximale de 170 mètres (550 pieds) à une vitesse de 17,5 nœuds (32,4 km/h) et de naviguer en surface à 12 nœuds (22 km/h). Lorsque le sous-marin plongeait à la vitesse maximale, l'autonomie de ses batteries n'était que de 30 minutes. En mode de fonctionnement usuel, c'est-à-dire en naviguant à une vitesse de 12 nœuds en surface, le rayon d'action du sous-marin était de 8 000 milles nautiques.
Les deux batteries du sous-marin possédaient une grande capacité ; la première se trouvait sous la salle de commande et la seconde sous les quartiers de l'équipage. Elles mesuraient chacune 4 mètres de large par 10 mètres de long et 1,2 mètre de hauteur. Chacune d'elles était composée de deux groupes de 224 cellules, contenait 42 560 litres d'acide et avait un poids de 220 tonnes.
Pour faire varier la vitesse du sous-marin, l'électricien responsable de l'opération des moteurs devait modifier le mode de couplage des batteries, soit en parallèle pour générer 440 volts de courant continu (DC), soit en les branchant en série pour obtenir 880 volts. Elles étaient reliées à des pôles électriques et la connexion du moteur à un seul ou aux deux pôles permettait d'obtenir la demi ou la pleine puissance de fonctionnement.
La recharge complète des batteries durait quatre heures et s'effectuait à l'aide de deux moteurs Diesel de seize cylindres en V à quatre temps construits par les chantiers de la Chatham Dockyard. Ces moteurs répondaient au standard ASR (Admirality standard range), leur puissance était de 1 840 hp chacun et ils faisaient tourner un générateur English Electric de 1 280 kW. Lorsque les moteurs Diesel fonctionnaient, le sous-marin devait se trouver en surface ou tout près de celle-ci, car il était nécessaire de se débarrasser des gaz d'échappement produits par la combustion et de fournir un apport d'air frais pour les faire fonctionner. Lorsque le sous-marin se trouvait sous l'eau près de la surface, les moteurs Diesel utilisaient alors des schnorchels, des tuyaux de métal permettant l'évacuation des gaz de combustion et l'entrée d'air fraiche. Lorsque le submersible se trouvait en surface, l'ouverture de l'écoutille du kiosque facilitait l'entrée d'air requise par les moteurs Diesel.
( Wikipédia )
The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in Par, Cornwall using a 1d. stamp on Monday the 25th. August 1930. It was sent to:
C. F. Baker Esq.,
'Hedgerow',
Russell Grove,
Westbury Park,
Bristol.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Sunday.
35, Par Green,
Par, Cornwall.
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Baker,
This is as quiet a place as
anyone could wish for - a
beautiful little bay & nice
sands.
We have the use of a hut
on the beach.
The Westermans wanted
me to preach, but I fear I
could not have stood in my
own pulpit today.
We have been thinking of
you all, and hope you are
having a good day.
Love to all from both,
S & B."
Kingswear
Kingswear is a village in the South Hams area of Devon. The village is located on the east bank of the tidal River Dart, close to the river's mouth, and opposite the small town of Dartmouth. It lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and has a population of 1,332.
Kingswear is noted for being the railhead for Dartmouth, a role continued to this day by the presence of the Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway in the village. Two vehicle ferries and one pedestrian ferry provide links to Dartmouth.
The village itself contains several small tourist-oriented shops and public houses, and is home to the Royal Dart Yacht Club. Kingswear Castle, a privately owned 15th. century artillery tower, is situated on the outskirts.
Kingswear also contains the Church of St. Thomas, which is a member of the Anglican Diocese of Exeter and whose patron saint is Saint Thomas of Canterbury.
Sir Sean Connery
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 25th. August 1930 marked the birth in Edinburgh of Sean Connery.
Sir Sean Connery, who was born Thomas Sean Connery, was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983.
Originating the role in Dr. No, Connery played Bond in six of Eon Productions' entries, and made his final Bond appearance in the non-Eon-produced Never Say Never Again.
If non-Eon-produced Bond movies are included, Connery shares the record for the most portrayals as James Bond with Roger Moore (with seven apiece).
Following Sean's third appearance as Bond in Goldfinger (1964), in June 1965, Time magazine observed:
"James Bond has developed into the
biggest mass-cult hero of the decade".
Connery began acting in smaller theatre and television productions until his break-out role as Bond. Although he did not enjoy the off-screen attention the role gave him, the success of the Bond films brought Connery offers from notable directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet and John Huston.
Their films in which Connery appeared included Marnie (1964), The Hill (1965), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975).
He also appeared in A Bridge Too Far (1977), Highlander (1986), The Name of the Rose (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart (1996), The Rock (1996), Finding Forrester (2000), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003).
Connery officially retired from acting in 2006, although he briefly returned for voice-over roles in 2012.
His achievements in film were recognised with an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (including the BAFTA Fellowship), and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award.
In 1987, Sean was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, and he received the US Kennedy Center Honors lifetime achievement award in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama.
Sean Connery - The Early Years
Thomas Connery was born at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was named after his paternal grandfather.
He was brought up at No. 176 Fountainbridge, a block which has since been demolished. His mother, Euphemia McBain "Effie" McLean, was a cleaning woman. Connery's father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and lorry driver.
His father was a Roman Catholic, and his mother was a Protestant. Connery had a younger brother Neil, and was generally referred to in his youth as "Tommy".
Although Sean was small in primary school, he grew rapidly around the age of 12, reaching his full adult height of 6 ft. 2 in. (188 cm) at 18. Connery was known during his teen years as "Big Tam", and he said that he lost his virginity to an adult woman in an ATS uniform at the age of 14.
He had an Irish childhood friend named Séamus; when the two were together, those who knew them both called Connery by his middle name Sean, emphasising the alliteration of the two names. Since then Connery preferred to use his middle name.
Connery's first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society. In 2009, Connery recalled a conversation in a taxi:
"When I took a taxi during a recent Edinburgh
Film Festival, the driver was amazed that I
could put a name to every street we passed.
"How come?" he asked. "As a boy I used to
deliver milk round here", I said. "So what do
you do now?" That was rather harder to
answer."
In 1946, at the age of 16, Connery joined the Royal Navy, during which time he acquired two tattoos. Connery's official website says:
"Unlike many tattoos, his were not frivolous –
his tattoos reflect two of his lifelong
commitments: his family and Scotland. One
tattoo is a tribute to his parents, and reads
'Mum and Dad', and the other is self-explanatory,
'Scotland Forever'".
Sean trained in Portsmouth at the naval gunnery school and in an anti-aircraft crew. He was later assigned as an Able Seaman on HMS Formidable.
Connery was discharged from the navy at the age of 19 on medical grounds because of a duodenal ulcer, a condition that affected most of the males in previous generations of his family.
Afterwards, he returned to the Co-op and worked as a lorry driver, a lifeguard at Portobello swimming baths, a labourer, an artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, and after a suggestion by former Mr. Scotland Archie Brennan, as a coffin polisher, among other jobs.
The modelling earned him 15 shillings an hour. Artist Richard Demarco, at the time a student who painted several early pictures of Connery, described him as:
"Very straight, slightly shy, too,
too beautiful for words, a virtual
Adonis".
Connery began bodybuilding at the age of 18, and from 1951 trained heavily with Ellington, a former gym instructor in the British Army. While his official website states he was third in the 1950 Mr. Universe contest, most sources place him in the 1953 competition, either third in the Junior class or failing to place in the Tall Man classification.
Connery said that he was soon deterred from bodybuilding when he found that Americans frequently beat him in competitions because of sheer muscle size and, unlike Connery, refused to participate in athletic activity which could make them lose muscle mass.
Connery was a keen footballer, having played for Bonnyrigg Rose in his younger days. He was offered a trial with East Fife.
While on tour with South Pacific, Connery played in a football match against a local team that Matt Busby, manager of Manchester United, happened to be scouting. According to reports, Busby was impressed with Sean's physical prowess, and offered Connery a contract worth £25 a week (equivalent to £743 in 2021) immediately after the game. Connery said he was tempted to accept, but he recalls,
"I realised that a top-class footballer could
be over the hill by the age of 30, and I was
already 23. I decided to become an actor,
and it turned out to be one of my more
intelligent moves".
Sean Connery's Acting Career
(a) Pre-James Bond
Seeking to supplement his income, Connery helped out backstage at the King's Theatre in late 1951. During a bodybuilding competition held in London in 1953, one of the competitors mentioned that auditions were being held for a production of South Pacific, and Connery landed a small part as one of the Seabees chorus boys.
By the time the production reached Edinburgh, he had been given the part of Marine Cpl. Hamilton Steeves, and was understudying two of the juvenile leads, and his salary was raised from £12 to £14–10s a week.
The production returned the following year, out of popular demand, and Connery was promoted to the featured role of Lieutenant Buzz Adams, which Larry Hagman had portrayed in the West End.
While in Edinburgh, Connery was targeted by the Valdor gang, one of the most violent in the city. He was first approached by them in a billiard hall where he prevented them from stealing his jacket and was later followed by six gang members to a 15-foot-high (4.6 m) balcony at the Palais de Danse.
There, Connery singlehandedly launched an attack against the gang members, grabbing one by the throat and another by the biceps and cracking their heads together. From then on, he was treated with great respect by the gang and gained a reputation as a "hard man".
Connery first met Michael Caine at a party during the production of South Pacific in 1954, and the two later became close friends. During this production at the Opera House, Manchester, over the Christmas period of 1954, Connery developed a serious interest in the theatre through American actor Robert Henderson, who lent him copies of the Ibsen works Hedda Gabler, The Wild Duck, and When We Dead Awaken, and later listed works by the likes of Proust, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Bernard Shaw, Joyce, and Shakespeare for him to digest.
Henderson urged Sean to take elocution lessons, and got him parts at the Maida Vale Theatre in London. He had already begun a film career, having been an extra in Herbert Wilcox's 1954 musical Lilacs in the Spring alongside Errol Flynn and Anna Neagle.
Although Connery had secured several roles as an extra, he was struggling to make ends meet, and was forced to accept a part-time job as a babysitter for journalist Peter Noble and his actress wife Marianne, which earned him 10 shillings a night.
One night at Noble's house Sean met Hollywood actress Shelley Winters, who described Connery as:
"One of the tallest and most charming
and masculine Scotsmen I have ever
seen."
Shelley later spent many evenings with the Connery brothers drinking beer. Around this time, Connery was residing at TV presenter Llew Gardner's house.
Henderson landed Connery a role in a £6 a week Q Theatre production of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, during which he met and became friends with fellow Scot Ian Bannen.
This role was followed by Point of Departure and A Witch in Time at Kew, a role as Pentheus opposite Yvonne Mitchell in The Bacchae at the Oxford Playhouse, and a role opposite Jill Bennett in Eugene O'Neill's play Anna Christie.
During his time at the Oxford Theatre, Connery won a brief part as a boxer in the TV series The Square Ring, before being spotted by Canadian director Alvin Rakoff, who gave him multiple roles in The Condemned, shot on location in Dover in Kent.
In 1956, Connery appeared in the theatrical production of Epitaph, and played a minor role as a hoodlum in the "Ladies of the Manor" episode of the BBC Television police series Dixon of Dock Green.
This was followed by small television parts in Sailor of Fortune and The Jack Benny Program (in a special episode filmed in Europe).
In early 1957, Connery hired agent Richard Hatton, who got him his first film role, as Spike, a minor gangster with a speech impediment in Montgomery Tully's No Road Back.
In April 1957, Rakoff – after being disappointed by Jack Palance – decided to give the young actor his first chance in a leading role, and cast Connery as Mountain McLintock in BBC Television's production of Requiem for a Heavyweight, which also starred Warren Mitchell and Jacqueline Hill.
Sean then played a rogue lorry driver, Johnny Yates, in Cy Endfield's Hell Drivers (1957) alongside Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins, and Patrick McGoohan.
Later in 1957, Connery appeared in Terence Young's poorly received MGM action picture Action of the Tiger; the film was shot on location in southern Spain.
He also had a minor role in Gerald Thomas's thriller Time Lock (1957) as a welder, appearing alongside Robert Beatty, Lee Patterson, Betty McDowall, and Vincent Winter. This commenced filming on the 1st. December 1956 at Beaconsfield Studios.
Connery had a major role in the melodrama Another Time, Another Place (1958) as a British reporter named Mark Trevor, caught in a love affair opposite Lana Turner and Barry Sullivan.
During filming, Turner's possessive gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, who was visiting from Los Angeles, believed she was having an affair with Connery. Connery and Turner had attended West End shows and London restaurants together.
Stompanato stormed onto the film set and pointed a gun at Connery, only to have Connery disarm him and knock him flat on his back. Stompanato was banned from the set. Two Scotland Yard detectives advised Stompanato to leave and escorted him to the airport, where he boarded a plane back to the United States.
Connery later recounted that he had to lay low for a while after receiving threats from men linked to Stompanato's boss, Mickey Cohen.
In 1959, Connery landed a leading role in director Robert Stevenson's Walt Disney Productions film Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959). The film is a tale about a wily Irishman and his battle of wits with leprechauns.
Upon the film's initial release, A. H. Weiler of The New York Times praised the cast (save Connery whom he described as "merely tall, dark, and handsome") and thought the film:
"An overpoweringly charming concoction
of standard Gaelic tall stories, fantasy and
romance."
Sean also had prominent television roles in Rudolph Cartier's 1961 productions of Adventure Story and Anna Karenina for BBC Television, co-starring with Claire Bloom in the latter.
Also in 1961 he portrayed the title role in a CBC television film adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth with Australian actress Zoe Caldwell cast as Lady Macbeth.
(b) James Bond: 1962–1971, 1983
Connery's breakthrough came in the role of British secret agent James Bond. He was reluctant to commit to a film series, but understood that if the films succeeded, his career would greatly benefit.
Between 1962 and 1967, Connery played 007 in Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice, the first five Bond films produced by Eon Productions.
After departing from the role, Connery returned for the seventh film, Diamonds Are Forever, in 1971. Connery made his final appearance as Bond in Never Say Never Again, a 1983 remake of Thunderball produced by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm.
All seven films were commercially successful. James Bond, as portrayed by Connery, was selected as the third-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.
Connery's selection for the role of James Bond owed a lot to Dana Broccoli, wife of producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, who is reputed to have been instrumental in persuading her husband that Connery was the right man.
James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, originally doubted Connery's casting, saying:
"He's not what I envisioned of James
Bond looks. I'm looking for Commander
Bond and not an overgrown stunt-man."
He added that Connery (muscular, 6' 2", and a Scot) was unrefined. However Fleming's girlfriend Blanche Blackwell told Fleming that Connery had the requisite sexual charisma, and Fleming changed his mind after the successful Dr. No première.
He was so impressed, he wrote Connery's heritage into the character. In his 1964 novel You Only Live Twice, Fleming wrote that Bond's father was Scottish and from Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands.
Connery's portrayal of Bond owes much to stylistic tutelage from director Terence Young, who helped polish him while using his physical grace and presence for the action.
Lois Maxwell, who played Miss Moneypenny, related that:
"Terence took Sean under his wing.
He took him to dinner, showed him
how to walk, how to talk, even how
to eat".
The tutoring was successful; Connery received thousands of fan letters a week after Dr. No's opening, and he became a major sex symbol in film.
Following the release of the film Dr. No in 1962, the line "Bond ... James Bond", became a catch phrase in the lexicon of Western popular culture. Film critic Peter Bradshaw writes:
"It is the most famous self-introduction
from any character in movie history.
Three cool monosyllables, surname first,
a little curtly, as befits a former naval
commander.
And then, as if in afterthought, the first
name, followed by the surname again.
Connery carried it off with icily disdainful
style, in full evening dress with a cigarette
hanging from his lips.
The introduction was a kind of challenge,
or seduction, invariably addressed to an
enemy.
In the early 60's, Connery's James Bond
was about as dangerous and sexy as it
got on screen."
During the filming of Thunderball in 1965, Connery's life was in danger in the sequence with the sharks in Emilio Largo's pool. He had been concerned about this threat when he read the script.
Connery insisted that Ken Adam build a special Plexiglas partition inside the pool, but this was not a fixed structure, and one of the sharks managed to pass through it. He had to abandon the pool immediately.
(c) Post-James Bond
Although Bond had made him a star, Connery grew tired of the role and the pressure the franchise put on him, saying:
"I am fed up to here with the whole
Bond bit. I have always hated that
damned James Bond. I'd like to kill
him."
Michael Caine said of the situation:
"If you were his friend in these early
days you didn't raise the subject of
Bond. He was, and is, a much better
actor than just playing James Bond,
but he became synonymous with
Bond. He'd be walking down the
street and people would say,
'Look, there's James Bond'.
That was particularly upsetting
to him."
While making the Bond films, Connery also starred in other films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964) and Sidney Lumet's The Hill (1965), which film critic Peter Bradshaw regards as his two great non-Bond pictures from the 1960's.
In Marnie, Connery starred opposite Tippi Hedren. Connery had said he wanted to work with Hitchcock, which Eon arranged through their contacts. Connery shocked many people at the time by asking to see a script, something he did because he was worried about being typecast as a spy, and he did not want to do a variation of North by Northwest or Notorious.
When told by Hitchcock's agent that Cary Grant had not asked to see even one of Hitchcock's scripts, Connery replied:
"I'm not Cary Grant."
Hitchcock and Connery got on well during filming, and Connery said he was happy with the film "with certain reservations".
In The Hill, Connery wanted to act in something that wasn't Bond related, and he used his leverage as a star to feature in it. While the film wasn't a financial success, it was a critical one, debuting at the Cannes Film Festival and winning Best Screenplay.
The first of five films he made with Lumet, Connery considered him to be one of his favourite directors. The respect was mutual, with Lumet saying of Connery's performance in The Hill:
"The thing that was apparent to me –
and to most directors – was how much
talent and ability it takes to play that
kind of character who is based on charm
and magnetism.
It's the equivalent of high comedy, and
he did it brilliantly."
In the mid-1960's, Connery played golf with Scottish industrialist Iain Maxwell Stewart, a connection which led to Connery directing and presenting the documentary film The Bowler and the Bunnet in 1967.
The film described the Fairfield Experiment, a new approach to industrial relations carried out at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Glasgow, during the 1960s; the experiment was initiated by Stewart and supported by George Brown, the First Secretary in Harold Wilson's cabinet, in 1966.
The company was facing closure, and Brown agreed to provide £1 million (£13.135 million; US$15.55 million in 2021 terms) to enable trade unions, the management and the shareholders to try out new ways of industrial management.
Having played Bond six times, Connery's global popularity was such that he shared a Golden Globe Henrietta Award with Charles Bronson for "World Film Favorite – Male" in 1972.
He appeared in John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King (1975) opposite Michael Caine. Playing two former British soldiers who set themselves up as kings in Kafiristan, both actors regarded it as their favourite film.
The same year, Sean appeared in The Wind and the Lion opposite Candice Bergen who played Eden Perdicaris (based on the real-life Perdicaris incident), and in 1976 played Robin Hood in Robin and Marian opposite Audrey Hepburn.
Film critic Roger Ebert, who had praised the double act of Connery and Caine in The Man Who Would Be King, praised Connery's chemistry with Hepburn, writing:
"Connery and Hepburn seem to have
arrived at a tacit understanding
between themselves about their
characters. They glow. They really
do seem in love."
During the 1970's, Connery was part of ensemble casts in films such as Murder on the Orient Express (1974) with Vanessa Redgrave and John Gielgud, and played a British Army general in Richard Attenborough's war film A Bridge Too Far (1977), co-starring with Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Olivier.
In 1974, he starred in John Boorman's sci-fi thriller Zardoz. Often called one of the weirdest and worst movies ever made, it featured Connery in a scarlet mankini – a revealing costume which generated much controversy for its unBond-like appearance.
Despite being panned by critics at the time, the film has developed a cult following since its release. In the audio commentary to the film, Boorman relates how Connery would write poetry in his free time, describing him as:
"A man of great depth and intelligence,
as well as possessing the most
extraordinary memory."
In 1981, Connery appeared in the film Time Bandits as Agamemnon. The casting choice derives from a joke Michael Palin included in the script, which describes the character's removing his mask and being:
"Sean Connery – or someone
of equal but cheaper stature".
When shown the script, Connery was happy to play the supporting role.
In 1981 he portrayed Marshal William T. O'Niel in the science fiction thriller Outland. In 1982, Connery narrated G'olé!, the official film of the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
That same year, he was offered the role of Daddy Warbucks in Annie, going as far as taking voice lessons for the John Huston musical before turning down the part.
Connery agreed to reprise Bond as an ageing agent 007 in Never Say Never Again, released in October 1983. The title, contributed by his wife, refers to his earlier statement that he would "never again" return to the role.
Although the film performed well at the box office, it was plagued with production problems: strife between the director and producer, financial problems, the Fleming estate trustees' attempts to halt the film, and Connery's wrist being broken by the fight choreographer, Steven Seagal.
As a result of his negative experiences during filming, Connery became unhappy with the major studios, and did not make any films for two years. Following the successful European production The Name of the Rose (1986), for which he won a BAFTA Award for Best Actor, Connery's interest in more commercial material was revived.
That same year, a supporting role in Highlander showcased his ability to play older mentors to younger leads, which became a recurring role in many of his later films.
In 1987, Connery starred in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, where he played a hard-nosed Irish-American cop alongside Kevin Costner's Eliot Ness. The film also starred Andy Garcia and Robert De Niro as Al Capone.
The film was a critical and box-office success. Many critics praised Connery for his performance, including Roger Ebert, who wrote:
"The best performance in the movie
is Connery. He brings a human element
to his character; he seems to have had
an existence apart from the legend of
the Untouchables, and when he's
onscreen we can believe, briefly, that
the Prohibition Era was inhabited by
people, not caricatures."
For his performance, Connery received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Connery starred in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), playing Henry Jones Sr., the title character's father, and received BAFTA and Golden Globe Award nominations. Harrison Ford said Connery's contributions at the writing stage enhanced the film:
"It was amazing for me in how far he got
into the script and went after exploiting
opportunities for character.
His suggestions to George Lucas at the
writing stage really gave the character
and the picture a lot more complexity
and value than it had in the original
screenplay.
Sean's subsequent box-office hits included The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Russia House (1990), The Rock (1996), and Entrapment (1999). In 1996, he voiced the role of Draco the dragon in the film Dragonheart.
He also appeared in a brief cameo as King Richard the Lionheart at the end of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). In 1998, Connery received the BAFTA Fellowship, a lifetime achievement award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Connery's later films included several box-office and critical disappointments such as First Knight (1995), Just Cause (1995), The Avengers (1998), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003).
The failure of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was especially frustrating for Connery. He sensed during shooting that the production was "going off the rails", and announced that the director, Stephen Norrington should be "locked up for insanity".
Connery spent considerable effort in trying to salvage the film through the editing process, ultimately deciding to retire from acting rather than go through such stress ever again.
However, he received positive reviews for his performance in Finding Forrester (2000). He also received a Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.
In a 2003 UK poll conducted by Channel 4, Connery was ranked eighth on their list of the 100 Greatest Movie Stars.
Connery turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings films, saying he did not understand the script. He was reportedly offered US$30 million along with 15% of the worldwide box office receipts, which would have earned him US$450 million.
He also turned down the opportunity to appear as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series and the Architect in The Matrix trilogy.
In 2005, he recorded voiceovers for the From Russia with Love video game with recording producer Terry Manning in the Bahamas, and provided his likeness. Connery said he was happy the producers, Electronic Arts, had approached him to voice Bond.
(d) Retirement
When Connery received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award on the 8th. June 2006, he confirmed his retirement from acting.
Connery's disillusionment with the "idiots now making films in Hollywood" was cited as a reason for his decision to retire.
On the 7th. June 2007, he denied rumours that he would appear in the fourth Indiana Jones film, saying:
"Retirement is just too
much damned fun."
In 2010, a bronze bust sculpture of Connery was placed in Tallinn, Estonia, outside The Scottish Club, whose membership includes Estonian Scotophiles and a handful of expatriate Scots.
In 2012, Connery briefly came out of retirement to voice the title character in the Scottish animated film Sir Billi. Connery served as executive producer for an expanded 80-minute version.
Sean Connery's Personal Life
During the production of South Pacific in the mid-1950's, Connery dated a Jewish "dark-haired beauty with a ballerina's figure", Carol Sopel, but was warned off by her family.
He then dated Julie Hamilton, daughter of documentary filmmaker and feminist Jill Craigie. Given Connery's rugged appearance and rough charm, Hamilton initially thought he was an appalling person and was not attracted to him until she saw him in a kilt, declaring him to be the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life.
He also shared a mutual attraction with jazz singer Maxine Daniels, whom he met whilst working in theatre. He made a pass at her, but she told him she was already happily married with a daughter.
Connery was married to actress Diane Cilento from 1962 to 1974, though they separated in 1971. They had a son, actor Jason Joseph. Connery was separated in the early 1970's when he dated Dyan Cannon, Jill St. John, Lana Wood, Carole Mallory, and Magda Konopka.
In her 2006 autobiography, Cilento alleged that he had abused her mentally and physically during their relationship. Connery cancelled an appearance at the Scottish Parliament in 2006 because of controversy over his alleged support of abuse of women.
He denied claims that he told Playboy magazine in 1965:
"I don't think there is anything
particularly wrong in hitting a
woman, though I don't
recommend you do it in the
same way you hit a man".
He was also reported to have stated to Vanity Fair in 1993:
"There are women who take it
to the wire. That's what they are
looking for, the ultimate
confrontation. They want a smack."
In 2006, Connery told The Times of London:
"I don't believe that any level of
abuse of women is ever justified
under any circumstances. Full stop".
When knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000 he wore a green-and-black hunting tartan kilt of his mother's MacLean clan.
Connery was married to French-Moroccan painter Micheline Roquebrune (born 4th. April 1929) from 1975 until his death. The marriage survived a well-documented affair Connery had in the late 1980's with the singer and songwriter Lynsey de Paul, which she later regretted due to his views concerning domestic violence.
Connery owned the Domaine de Terre Blanche in the South of France from 1979. He sold it to German billionaire Dietmar Hopp in 1999.
He was awarded an honorary rank of Shodan (1st. dan) in Kyokushin karate.
Connery relocated to the Bahamas in the 1990's; he owned a mansion in Lyford Cay on New Providence.
Connery had a villa in Kranidi, Greece. His neighbour was King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, with whom he shared a helicopter platform.
Growing up, Connery supported the Scottish football club Celtic F.C., having been introduced to the club by his father who was a lifelong fan of the team.
Later in life, Connery switched his loyalty to Celtic's bitter rival, Rangers F.C., after he became close friends with the team's chairman, David Murray.
Sean was a keen golfer, and English professional golfer Peter Alliss gave Connery golf lessons before the filming of the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, which involved a scene where Connery, as Bond, played golf against gold magnate Auric Goldfinger at Stoke Park Golf Club in Buckinghamshire.
The golf scene saw him wear a Slazenger v-neck sweater, a brand which Connery became associated with while playing golf in his free time, with a light grey marl being a favoured colour.
Record major championship winner and golf course designer Jack Nicklaus said:
"He loved the game of golf – Sean
was a pretty darn good golfer! –
and we played together several
times.
In May 1993, Sean and legendary
driver Jackie Stewart helped me
open our design of the PGA
Centenary Course at Gleneagles
in Scotland."
Sean Connery's Political Views
Connery's Scottish roots and his experiences in filming in Glasgow's shipyards in 1966 inspired him to become a member of the centre-left Scottish National Party (SNP), which supports Scottish independence from the United Kingdom.
In 2011, Connery said:
"The Bowler and the Bunnet was just
the beginning of a journey that would
lead to my long association with the
Scottish National Party."
Connery supported the party both financially and through personal appearances. In 1967, he wrote to George Leslie, the SNP candidate in the 1967 Glasgow Pollok by-election, saying:
"I am convinced that with our resources
and skills we are more than capable of
building a prosperous, vigorous and
modern self-governing Scotland in which
we can all take pride and which will
deserve the respect of other nations."
His funding of the SNP ceased in 2001, when the UK Parliament passed legislation prohibiting overseas funding of political activities in the United Kingdom.
Dean Connery's Tax Status
In response to accusations that he was a tax exile, Connery released documents in 2003 showing he had paid £3.7 million in UK taxes between 1997 and 1998 and between 2002 and 2003. Critics pointed out that had he been continuously residing in the UK for tax purposes, his tax rate would have been far higher.
In the run-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, Connery's brother Neil said that Connery would not come to Scotland to rally independence supporters, since his tax exile status greatly limited the number of days he could spend in the country.
After Connery sold his Marbella villa in 1999, Spanish authorities launched a tax evasion investigation, alleging that the Spanish treasury had been defrauded of £5.5 million.
Connery was subsequently cleared by officials, but his wife and 16 others were charged with attempting to defraud the Spanish treasury.
The Death and Legacy of Sean Connery
Connery died in his sleep on the 31st. October 2020, aged 90, at his home in the Lyford Cay community of Nassau in the Bahamas. His death was announced by his family and Eon Productions; although they did not disclose the cause of death, his son Jason said he had been unwell for some time.
A day later, Roquebrune revealed he had suffered from dementia in his final years. Connery's death certificate recorded the cause of death as pneumonia and respiratory failure, and the time of death was listed as 1:30 am.
Sean's remains were cremated, and the ashes were scattered in Scotland at undisclosed locations in 2022.
Following the announcement of his death, many co-stars and figures from the entertainment industry paid tribute to Connery, including Sam Neill, Nicolas Cage, Robert De Niro, Michael Bay, Tippi Hedren, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, George Lucas, Shirley Bassey, Kevin Costner, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Tributes also came from Barbra Streisand, John Cleese, Jane Seymour and Harrison Ford, as well as former Bond stars George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, the family of late former Bond actor Roger Moore, and Daniel Craig, who played 007 until No Time to Die.
Connery's long-time friend Michael Caine called him:
"A great star, brilliant actor
and a wonderful friend".
James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli released a statement saying that:
"Connery has revolutionized the world
with his gritty and witty portrayal of the
sexy and charismatic secret agent.
He is undoubtedly largely responsible
for the success of the film series, and
we shall be forever grateful to him".
In 2004, a poll in the UK Sunday Herald recognised Connery as "The Greatest Living Scot," and a 2011 EuroMillions survey named him "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure".
He was voted by People magazine as the "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century" in 1999.
Final Thoughts From Sir Sean Connery
"I am not an Englishman, I was never an
Englishman, and I don't ever want to be
one. I am a Scotsman! I was a Scotsman,
and I will always be one."
"I admit I'm being paid well, but it's no more
than I deserve. After all, I've been screwed
more times than a hooker."
"Love may not make the world go round,
but I must admit that it makes the ride
worthwhile."
"There is nothing like a challenge
to bring out the best in man."
"I like women. I don't understand
them, but I like them."
"Some age, others mature."
"I met my wife through playing golf. She is
French and couldn't speak English, and I
couldn't speak French, so there was little
chance of us getting involved in any boring
conversations - that's why we got married
really quickly."
"Everything I have done or attempted to do
for Scotland has always been for her benefit,
never my own, and I defy anyone to prove
otherwise."
"The knighthood I received was a fantastic
honor but it's not something I've ever used,
and I don't think I ever will."
"I never trashed a hotel room or did drugs."
"More than anything else, I'd like to be an
old man with a good face, like Hitchcock or
Picasso."
"Laughter kills fear, and without fear there
can be no faith. For without fear of the devil
there is no need for God."
"Perhaps I'm not a good actor, but I would
be even worse at doing anything else."
"I'm an actor - it's not brain surgery. If I do
my job right, people won't ask for their
money back."
"I haven't found anywhere in the world
where I want to be all the time. The best
of my life is the moving. I look forward to
going."
Arches National Park is a national park in eastern Utah, United States. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, 4 miles (6 km) north of Moab, Utah. More than 2,000 natural sandstone arches are located in the park, including the well-known Delicate Arch, as well as a variety of unique geological resources and formations. The park contains the highest density of natural arches in the world.
The park consists of 310.31 square kilometres (76,680 acres; 119.81 sq mi; 31,031 ha) of high desert located on the Colorado Plateau. The highest elevation in the park is 5,653 feet (1,723 m) at Elephant Butte, and the lowest elevation is 4,085 feet (1,245 m) at the visitor center. The park receives an average of less than 10 inches (250 mm) of rain annually.
Administered by the National Park Service, the area was originally named a national monument on April 12, 1929, and was re designated as a national park on November 12, 1971. The park received more than 1.6 million visitors in 2018.
As stated in the foundation document in U.S. National Park Service website:
The purpose of Arches National Park is to protect extraordinary examples of geologic features including arches, natural bridges, windows, spires, and balanced rocks, as well as other features of geologic, historic, and scientific interest, and to provide opportunities to experience these resources and their associated values in their majestic natural settings.
The national park lies above an underground evaporite layer or salt bed, which is the main cause of the formation of the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths in the area. This salt bed is thousands of feet thick in places and was deposited in the Paradox Basin of the Colorado Plateau some 300 million years ago (Mya) when a sea flowed into the region and eventually evaporated. Over millions of years, the salt bed was covered with debris eroded from the Uncompahgre Uplift to the northeast. During the Early Jurassic (about 200 Mya), desert conditions prevailed in the region and the vast Navajo Sandstone was deposited. An additional sequence of stream laid and windblown sediments, the Entrada Sandstone (about 140 Mya), was deposited on top of the Navajo. Over 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of younger sediments were deposited and have been mostly eroded. Remnants of the cover exist in the area including exposures of the Cretaceous Mancos Shale. The arches of the area are developed mostly within the Entrada formation.
The weight of this cover caused the salt bed below it to liquefy and thrust up layers of rock into salt domes. The evaporites of the area formed more unusual "salt anticlines" or linear regions of uplift. Faulting occurred and whole sections of rock subsided into the areas between the domes. In some places, they turned almost on edge. The result of one such 2,500-foot (760 m) displacement, the Moab Fault, is seen from the visitor center.
As this subsurface movement of salt shaped the landscape, erosion removed the younger rock layers from the surface. Except for isolated remnants, the major formations visible in the park today are the salmon-colored Entrada Sandstone, in which most of the arches form, and the buff-colored Navajo Sandstone. These are visible in layer-cake fashion throughout most of the park. Over time, water seeped into the surface cracks, joints, and folds of these layers. Ice formed in the fissures, expanding and putting pressure on surrounding rock, breaking off bits and pieces. Winds later cleaned out the loose particles. A series of free-standing fins remained. Wind and water attacked these fins until, in some, the cementing material gave way and chunks of rock tumbled out. Many damaged fins collapsed. Others, with the right degree of hardness and balance, survived despite their missing sections. These became the famous arches.
Although the park's terrain may appear rugged and durable, it is extremely fragile. More than 1 million visitors each year threaten the fragile high-desert ecosystem. The problem lies within the soil's crust, which is composed of cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, and lichens that grow in the dusty parts of the park. Factors that make Arches National Park sensitive to visitor damage include being a semiarid region, the scarce, unpredictable rainfall, lack of deep freezing, and lack of plant litter, which results in soils that have both a low resistance to and slow recovery from, compressional forces such as foot traffic. Methods of indicating effects on the soil are cytophobic soil crust index, measuring of water infiltration, and t-tests that are used to compare the values from the undisturbed and disturbed areas.
Geological processes that occurred over 300 million years ago caused a salt bed to be deposited, which today lies beneath the landscape of Arches National Park.[ Over time, the salt bed was covered with sediments that eventually compressed into rock layers that have since been named Entrada Standstone. Rock layers surrounding the edge of the salt bed continued to erode and shift into vertical sandstone walls called fins. Sand collected between vertical walls of the fins, then slightly acidic rain combined with carbon dioxide in the air allowed for the chemical formation of carbonic acid within the trapped sand. Over time, the carbonic acid dissolved the calcium carbonate that held the sandstone together. Many of the rock formations have weaker layers of rock on bottom that are holding stronger layers on top. The weaker layers would dissolve first, creating openings in the rock. Gravity caused pieces of the stronger rock layer to fall piece by piece into an arch shape. Arches form within rock fins at points of intense fracturing localization, or weak points in the rock's formation, caused by horizontal and vertical discontinuities. Lastly, water, wind, and time continued this erosion process and ultimately created the arches of Arches National Park. All of the arches in the park are made of Entrada Sandstone, however, there are slight differences in how each arch was developed. This allows the Entrada Sandstone to be categories into 3 groups including Slick rock members, Dewey rock members, and Moab members. Vertical arches can be developed from Slick rock members, a combination of Slick rock members and Moab members, or Slick rock members resting above Dewey rock members. Horizontal arches (also called potholes) are formed when a vertical pothole formation meets a horizontal cave, causing a union into a long arch structure. The erosion process within Arches National Park will continue as time continues to pass. Continued erosion combined with vertical and horizontal stress will eventually cause arches to collapse, but still, new arches will continue to form for thousands of years.
Humans have occupied the region since the last ice age 10,000 years ago. Fremont people and Ancestral Puebloans lived in the area until about 700 years ago. Spanish missionaries encountered Ute and Paiute tribes in the area when they first came through in 1775, but the first European-Americans to attempt settlement in the area were the Mormon Elk Mountain Mission in 1855, who soon abandoned the area. Ranchers, farmers, and prospectors later settled Moab in the neighboring Riverine Valley in the late 1870s. Word of the beauty of the surrounding rock formations spread beyond the settlement as a possible tourist destination.
The Arches area was first brought to the attention of the National Park Service by Frank A. Wadleigh, passenger traffic manager of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Wadleigh, accompanied by railroad photographer George L. Beam, visited the area in September 1923 at the invitation of Alexander Ringhoffer, a Hungarian-born prospector living in Salt Valley. Ringhoffer had written to the railroad to interest them in the tourist potential of a scenic area he had discovered the previous year with his two sons and a son-in-law, which he called the Devils Garden (known today as the Klondike Bluffs). Wadleigh was impressed by what Ringhoffer showed him, and suggested to Park Service director Stephen T. Mather that the area be made a national monument.
The following year, additional support for the monument idea came from Laurence Gould, a University of Michigan graduate student (and future polar explorer) studying the geology of the nearby La Sal Mountains, who was shown the scenic area by local physician Dr. J. W. "Doc" Williams.
A succession of government investigators examined the area, in part due to confusion as to the precise location. In the process, the name Devils Garden was transposed to an area on the opposite side of Salt Valley that includes Landscape Arch, the longest arch in the park. Ringhoffer's original discovery was omitted, while another area nearby, known locally as the Windows, was included. Designation of the area as a national monument was supported by the Park Service in 1926 but was resisted by President Calvin Coolidge's Interior Secretary, Hubert Work. Finally, in April 1929, shortly after his inauguration, President Herbert Hoover signed a presidential proclamation creating the Arches National Monument, consisting of two comparatively small, disconnected sections. The purpose of the reservation under the 1906 Antiquities Act was to protect the arches, spires, balanced rocks, and other sandstone formations for their scientific and educational value. The name Arches was suggested by Frank Pinkely, superintendent of the Park Service's southwestern national monuments, following a visit to the Windows section in 1925.
In late 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation that enlarged the Arches to protect additional scenic features and permit the development of facilities to promote tourism. A small adjustment was made by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960 to accommodate a new road alignment.
In early 1969, just before leaving office, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a proclamation substantially enlarging the Arches. Two years later, President Richard Nixon signed legislation enacted by Congress, which significantly reduced the total area enclosed, but changed its status. Arches National Park was formally dedicated in May 1972.
In 1980, vandals attempted to use an abrasive kitchen cleanser to deface ancient petroglyphs in the park, prompting park officials to recruit physicist John F. Asmus, who specialized in using lasers to restore works of art, to use his technology to repair the damage. Asmus "zapped the panel with intense light pulses and succeeded in removing most of the cleanser".
Climbing Balanced Rock or any named or unnamed arch in Arches National Park with an opening larger than 3 ft (0.9 m) is banned by park regulations. Climbing on other features in the park is allowed but regulated; in addition, slacklining and BASE jumping are banned parkwide.
Climbing on named arches within the park had long been banned by park regulations, but following Dean Potter's successful free climb on Delicate Arch in May 2006, the wording of the regulations was deemed unenforceable by the park attorney. In response, the park revised its regulations later that month, eventually imposing the current ban on arch climbing in 2014.
Approved recreational activities include auto touring, hiking, bicycling, camping at the Devils Garden campground, backpacking, canyoneering, and rock climbing, with permits required for the last three activities. Guided commercial tours and ranger programs are also available.
Astronomy is also popular in the park due to its dark skies, despite the increasing light pollution from towns such as Moab.
Delicate Arch is the subject of the third 2014 quarter of the U.S. Mint's America the Beautiful Quarters program commemorating national parks and historic sites. The Arches quarter had the highest production of the five 2014 national park quarters, with more than 465 million minted.
American writer Edward Abbey was a park ranger at Arches National Monument in 1956 and 1957, where he kept journals that became his book Desert Solitaire. The success of Abbey's book, as well as interest in adventure travel, has drawn many hikers, mountain bikers, and off-pavement driving enthusiasts to the area. Permitted activities within the park include camping, hiking along designated trails, backpacking, canyoneering, rock climbing, bicycling, and driving along existing roads, both paved and unpaved. The Hayduke Trail, an 812 mi (1,307 km) backpacking route named after one of Edward Abbey's characters, begins in the park.
An abundance of wildlife occurs in Arches National Park, including spadefoot toads, antelope squirrels, scrub jays, peregrine falcons, many kinds of sparrows, red foxes, desert bighorn sheep, kangaroo rats, mule deers, cougars, midget faded rattlesnakes, yucca moths, western rattlesnakes, and collared lizards.
A number of plant species are common in the park, including prickly pear cactus, Indian ricegrass, bunch grasses, cheatgrass, moss, liverworts, Utah juniper, Mormon tea, blackbrush, cliffrose, four-winged saltbrush, pinyon pine, evening primrose, sand verbena, yucca, and sacred datura.
Biological soil crust consisting of cyanobacteria, lichen, mosses, green algae, and microfungi is found throughout southeastern Utah. The fibrous growths help keep soil particles together, creating a layer that is more resistant to erosion. The living soil layer readily absorbs and stores water, allowing more complex forms of plant life to grow in places with low precipitation levels.
Among the notable features of the park are the following:
Balanced Rock – a large balancing rock, the size of three school buses
Courthouse Towers – a collection of tall stone columns
Dark Angel – a free-standing 150 ft-tall (46 m) sandstone pillar at the end of the Devils Garden Trail
Delicate Arch – a lone-standing arch that has become a symbol of Utah and the most recognized arch in the park
Devils Garden – many arches and columns scattered along a ridge
Double Arch – two arches that share a common end
Fiery Furnace – an area of maze-like narrow passages and tall rock columns (see biblical reference, Book of Daniel, chapter 3)
Landscape Arch – a very thin and long arch in the Devils Garden with a span of 290 ft (88 m) (the longest arch in the park)
Petrified Dunes – petrified remnants of dunes blown from the ancient lakes that covered the area
The Phallus – a rock spire that resembles a phallus
Wall Arch – located along the popular Devils Garden Trail; collapsed sometime on August 4/5, 2008
The Three Gossips –a mid-sized sandstone tower located in the Courthouse Towers area.
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.
Former Santa Fe GP39-2's provide the power for this afternoon's "Run 12", CPKC train YKK12-30, as it creeps into the West Bottoms on Main Track 2 of the UP KC Metro Sub at St. Louis Ave.
This is a daily transfer between CPKC's Knoche Yard and UP's 18th St. Yard. BNSF transfer is often utilized by this move when the 311 Job from Argentine dies at Knoche in the morning.
Typically, the nocturnal "Run 20", the job that delivers from Knoche to the BNSF at Argentine, shares the same CPKC power used by "Run 12" in daylights. "Run 20" brings a transfer to Argentine and returns light power while at virtually the same time the BNSF 311 Job brings a transfer to Knoche and returns home light power. However, sometimes both jobs hours of service expire before they can return their power to their respective yards, and when this happens, this usually means "Run 12" ends up with the BNSF transfer power to make their daily run to the UP with a transfer. 11/30/25.
● Venue Provide：GD 極頂車體美學俱樂部
● Car：Mazda3 Mazda
● Model：豆花
● Photographer Team：繫夢攝影 ContactDreams
● Photographer：Rui Huang 黃永睿
● Camera：Sony a7 II + Zeiss Batis E 85mm F1.8
Bolam Lake Country Park is a country park in Northumberland, England, near the village of Bolam and about 9 miles (14 km) west of Morpeth. It is signposted off the A696 road from Belsay.
History
The lake and woodlands were laid out by John Dobson for Reverend John Beresford, Baron Decies, the owner of the Bolam estate, who wanted to provide work for local people during a period of economic decline. The project, started in 1816, took three years to complete. The site was landscaped, and designed to provide picturesque views of nearby features in the countryside. The lake was created from a swampy area known as Bolam Bog.
By 1945 the grounds had grown wild; in 1972 the estate was purchased by Northumberland County Council in order to create a country park. In 2016 the lake and landscaped surroundings celebrated their 200th anniversary.
Description
The park, area 26.48 hectares (65.4 acres); has a lake, woodlands and open grassland. There are walks throughout the park, including a fully accessible path around the lake.
Wildlife in the park includes roe deer and red squirrels; there are swans and other waterfowl on the lake. Woodland birds to be seen include great spotted woodpecker, bullfinch, nuthatch and treecreeper.
There is a visitor centre and café next to the Boathouse Wood Car Park, to the north of the lake.
Bolam is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Belsay in the county of Northumberland, England. The village is about 20 miles (32 km) north-west of Newcastle upon Tyne, near Bolam West Houses. In 1951 the civil parish had a population of 60. On 1 April 1955 the parish was abolished and merged with Belsay.
History
The Church of England parish church of St Andrew has a late Saxon west tower and is a Grade I listed building.[3]
Shortflatt Tower, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-west of the village, is a late 15th or early 16th century pele tower, with a 17th-century house attached, and is also Grade I listed.
Bolam is the burial place of Robert de Reymes, a wealthy Suffolk merchant, who in 1296 began the building of Aydon Castle, near Corbridge.
Landmarks
Bolam Lake Country Park is next to the village.
Three archaeological sites are nearby: Huckhoe Settlement, an iron Age and Romano-British defended settlement; Slate Hill Settlement, an Iron Age defended settlement; and The Poind and his Man, a Neolithic site.
Northumberland is a ceremonial county in North East England, bordering Scotland. It is bordered by the Scottish Borders to the north, the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, and Cumbria to the west. The town of Blyth is the largest settlement.
The county has an area of 5,013 km2 (1,936 sq mi) and a population of 320,274, making it the least-densely populated county in England. The south-east contains the largest towns: Blyth (37,339), Cramlington (27,683), Ashington (27,670), and Morpeth (14,304), which is the administrative centre. The remainder of the county is rural, and the largest towns are Berwick-upon-Tweed (12,043) in the far north and Hexham (13,097) in the west. For local government purposes the county is a unitary authority area. The county historically included the parts of Tyne and Wear north of the River Tyne.
The west of Northumberland contains part of the Cheviot Hills and North Pennines, while to the east the land becomes flatter before reaching the coast. The Cheviot (815 m (2,674 ft)), after which the range of hills is named, is the county's highest point. The county contains the source of the River North Tyne and much of the South Tyne; near Hexham they combine to form the Tyne, which exits into Tyne and Wear shortly downstream. The other major rivers in Northumberland are, from south to north, the Blyth, Coquet, Aln, Wansbeck and Tweed, the last of which forms part of the Scottish border. The county contains Northumberland National Park and two national landscapes: the Northumberland Coast and part of the North Pennines.
Much of the county's history has been defined by its position on a border. In the Roman era most of the county lay north of Hadrian's Wall, and the region was contested between England and Scotland into the Early Modern era, leading to the construction of many castles, peel towers and bastle houses, and the early modern fortifications at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Northumberland is also associated with Celtic Christianity, particularly the tidal island of Lindisfarne. During the Industrial Revolution the area had significant coal mining, shipbuilding, and armaments industries.
Northumberland, England's northernmost county, is a land where Roman occupiers once guarded a walled frontier, Anglian invaders fought with Celtic natives, and Norman lords built castles to suppress rebellion and defend a contested border with Scotland. The present-day county is a vestige of an independent kingdom that once stretched from Edinburgh to the Humber, hence its name, meaning literally 'north of the Humber'.[1] Reflecting its tumultuous past, Northumberland has more castles than any other county in England, and the greatest number of recognised battle sites. Once an economically important region that supplied much of the coal that powered the industrial revolution, Northumberland is now a primarily rural county with a small and gradually shrinking population.
Prehistory
As attested by many instances of rock art, the Northumberland region has a rich prehistory. Archeologists have studied a Mesolithic structure at Howick, which dates to 7500 BC and was identified as Britain's oldest house until it lost this title in 2010 when the discovery of the even older Star Carr house in North Yorkshire was announced, which dates to 8770 BC. They have also found tools, ornaments, building structures and cairns dating to the bronze and iron ages, when the area was occupied by Brythonic Celtic peoples who had migrated from continental Europe, most likely the Votadini whose territory stretched from Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth to Northumberland. It is not clear where the boundary between the Votadini and the other large tribe, the Brigantes, was, although it probably frequently shifted as a result of wars and as smaller tribes and communities changed allegiances. Unlike neighbouring tribes, Votadini farms were surrounded by large walls, banks and ditches and the people made offerings of fine metal objects, but never wore massive armlets. There are also at least three very large hillforts in their territory (Yeavering Bell, Eildon Hill and Traprain Law, the latter two now in Scotland), each was located on the top of a prominent hill or mountain. The hillforts may have been used for over a thousand years by this time as places of refuge and as places for meetings for political and religious ceremonies. Duddo Five Stones in North Northumberland and the Goatstones near Hadrian's Wall are stone circles dating from the Bronze Age.
Roman occupation
When Gnaeus Julius Agricola was appointed Roman governor of Britain in 78 AD, most of northern Britain was still controlled by native British tribes. During his governorship Agricola extended Roman control north of Eboracum (York) and into what is now Scotland. Roman settlements, garrisons and roads were established throughout the Northumberland region.
The northern frontier of the Roman occupation fluctuated between Pons Aelius (now Newcastle) and the Forth. Hadrian's Wall was completed by about 130 AD, to define and defend the northern boundary of Roman Britain. By 142, the Romans had completed the Antonine Wall, a more northerly defensive border lying between the Forth and Clyde. However, by 164 they abandoned the Antonine Wall to consolidate defences at Hadrian's Wall.
Two important Roman roads in the region were the Stanegate and Dere Street, the latter extending through the Cheviot Hills to locations well north of the Tweed. Located at the intersection of these two roads, Coria (Corbridge), a Roman supply-base, was the most northerly large town in the Roman Empire. The Roman forts of Vercovicium (Housesteads) on Hadrian's Wall, and Vindolanda (Chesterholm) built to guard the Stanegate, had extensive civil settlements surrounding them.
The Celtic peoples living in the region between the Tyne and the Forth were known to the Romans as the Votadini. When not under direct Roman rule, they functioned as a friendly client kingdom, a somewhat porous buffer against the more warlike Picts to the north.
The gradual Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century led to a poorly documented age of conflict and chaos as different peoples contested territories in northern Britain.
Archaeology
Nearly 2000-year-old Roman boxing gloves were uncovered at Vindolanda in 2017 by the Vidolanda Trust experts led by Dr Andrew Birley. According to the Guardian, being similar in style and function to the full-hand modern boxing gloves, these two gloves found at Vindolanda look like leather bands date back to 120 AD. It is suggested that based on their difference from gladiator gloves warriors using this type of gloves had no purpose to kill each other. These gloves were probably used in a sport for promoting fighting skills. The gloves are currently displayed at Vindolanda's museum.
Anglian Kingdoms of Deira, Bernicia and Northumbria
Conquests by Anglian invaders led to the establishment of the kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia. The first Anglian settlement was effected in 547 by Ida, who, accompanied by his six sons, pushed through the narrow strip of territory between the Cheviots and the sea, and set up a fortress at Bamburgh, which became the royal seat of the Bernician kings. About the end of the 6th century Bernicia was first united with the rival kingdom of Deira under the rule of Æthelfrith of Northumbria, and the district between the Humber and the Forth became known as the kingdom of Northumbria.
After Æthelfrith was killed in battle around 616, Edwin of Deira became king of Northumbria. Æthelfrith's son Oswald fled northwest to the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata where he was converted to Christianity by the monks of Iona. Meanwhile, Paulinus, the first bishop of York, converted King Edwin to Roman Christianity and began an extensive program of conversion and baptism. By his time the kingdom must have reached the west coast, as Edwin is said to have conquered the islands of Anglesey and Man. Under Edwin the Northumbrian kingdom became the chief power in Britain. However, when Cadwallon ap Cadfan defeated Edwin at Hatfield Chase in 633, Northumbria was divided into the former kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira and Christianity suffered a temporary decline.
In 634, Oswald defeated Cadwallon ap Cadfan at the Battle of Heavenfield, resulting in the re-unification of Northumbria. Oswald re-established Christianity in the kingdom and assigned a bishopric at Hexham, where Wilfrid erected a famous early English church. Reunification was followed by a period of Northumbrian expansion into Pictish territory and growing dominance over the Celtic kingdoms of Dál Riata and Strathclyde to the west. Northumbrian encroachments were abruptly curtailed in 685, when Ecgfrith suffered complete defeat by a Pictish force at the Battle of Nechtansmere.
Monastic culture
When Saint Aidan came at the request of Oswald to preach to the Northumbrians he chose the island of Lindisfarne as the site of his church and monastery, and made it the head of the diocese which he founded in 635. For some years the see continued in peace, numbering among its bishops Saint Cuthbert, but in 793 Vikings landed on the island and burnt the settlement, killing many of the monks. The survivors, however, rebuilt the church and continued to live there until 883, when, through fear of a second invasion of the Danes, they fled inland, taking with them the body of Cuthbert and other holy relics.
Against this background, the monasteries of Northumbria developed some remarkably influential cultural products. Cædmon, a monk at Whitby Abbey, authored one of the earliest surviving examples of Old English poetry some time before 680. The Lindisfarne Gospels, an early example of insular art, is attributed to Eadfrith, the bishop of Lindisfarne from 698 to 721. Stenton (1971, p. 191) describes the book as follows.
In mere script it is no more than an admirable example of a noble style, and the figure drawing of its illustrations, though probably based on classical models, has more than a touch of naïveté. Its unique importance is due to the beauty and astonishing intricacy of its decoration. The nature of its ornament connects it very closely with a group of Irish manuscripts of which the Book of Kells is the most famous.
Bede's writing, at the Northumbrian monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, gained him a reputation as the most learned scholar of his age. His work is notable for both its breadth (encompassing history, theology, science and literature) and quality, exemplified by the rigorous use of citation. Bede's most famous work is Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which is regarded as a highly influential early model of historical scholarship.
Earldom of Northumbria
Main article: Earl of Northumbria
The kingdom of Northumbria ceased to exist in 927, when it was incorporated into England as an earldom by Athelstan, the first king of a united England[citation needed].. In 937, Athelstan's victory over a combined Norse-Celtic force in the battle of Brunanburh secured England's control of its northern territory.
The Scottish king Indulf captured Edinburgh in 954, which thenceforth remained in possession of the Scots. His successors made repeated attempts to extend their territory southwards. Malcolm II was finally successful, when, in 1018, he annihilated the Northumbrian army at Carham on the Tweed, and Eadulf the earl of Northumbria ceded all his territory to the north of that river as the price of peace. Henceforth Lothian, consisting of the former region of Northumbria between the Forth and the Tweed, remained in possession of the Scottish kings.
The term Northumberland was first recorded in its contracted modern sense in 1065 in an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relating to a rebellion against Tostig Godwinson.
Norman Conquest
The vigorous resistance of Northumbria to William the Conqueror was punished by ruthless harrying, mostly south of the River Tees. As recounted by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
A.D. 1068. This year King William gave Earl Robert the earldom over Northumberland; but the landsmen attacked him in the town of Durham, and slew him, and nine hundred men with him. Soon afterwards Edgar Etheling came with all the Northumbrians to York; and the townsmen made a treaty with him: but King William came from the South unawares on them with a large army, and put them to flight, and slew on the spot those who could not escape; which were many hundred men; and plundered the town. St. Peter's minster he made a profanation, and all other places also he despoiled and trampled upon; and the ethelling went back again to Scotland.
The Normans rebuilt the Anglian monasteries of Lindisfarne, Hexham and Tynemouth, and founded Norman abbeys at Newminster (1139), Alnwick (1147), Brinkburn (1180), Hulne, and Blanchland. Castles were built at Newcastle (1080), Alnwick (1096), Bamburgh (1131), Harbottle (1157), Prudhoe (1172), Warkworth (1205), Chillingham, Ford (1287), Dunstanburgh (1313), Morpeth, Langley (1350), Wark on Tweed and Norham (1121), the latter an enclave of the palatine bishops of Durham.
Northumberland county is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but the account of the issues of the county, as rendered by Odard the sheriff, is entered in the Great Roll of the Exchequer for 1131.
In 1237, Scotland renounced claims to Northumberland county in the Treaty of York.
During the reign of Edward I (1272–1307), the county of Northumberland was the district between the Tees and the Tweed, and had within it several scattered liberties subject to other powers: Durham, Sadberge, Bedlingtonshire, and Norhamshire belonging to the bishop of Durham; Hexhamshire to the archbishop of York; Tynedale to the king of Scotland; Emildon to the earl of Lancaster; and Redesdale to Gilbert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus. These franchises were exempt from the ordinary jurisdiction of the shire. Over time, some were incorporated within the county: Tynedale in 1495; Hexhamshire in 1572; and Norhamshire, Islandshire and Bedlingtonshire by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844.
Council of the North
The county court for Northumberland was held at different times at Newcastle, Alnwick and Morpeth, until by statute of 1549 it was ordered that the court should thenceforth be held in the town and castle of Alnwick. Under the same statute the sheriffs of Northumberland, who had been in the habit of appropriating the issues of the county to their private use, were required thereafter to deliver in their accounts to the Exchequer in the same manner as the sheriffs of other counties.
Border wars, reivers and rebels
From the Norman Conquest until the union of England and Scotland under James I and VI, Northumberland was the scene of perpetual inroads and devastations by the Scots. Norham, Alnwick and Wark were captured by David I of Scotland in the wars of Stephen's reign. In 1174, during his invasion of Northumbria, William I of Scotland, also known as William the Lion, was captured by a party of about four hundred mounted knights, led by Ranulf de Glanvill.[citation needed] This incident became known as the Battle of Alnwick. In 1295, Robert de Ros and the earls of Athol and Menteith ravaged Redesdale, Coquetdale and Tynedale. In 1314 the county was ravaged by king Robert Bruce. And so dire was the Scottish threat in 1382, that by special enactment the earl of Northumberland was ordered to remain on his estates to protect the border. In 1388, Henry Percy was taken prisoner and 1500 of his men slain at the battle of Otterburn, immortalised in the ballad of Chevy Chase.
Alnwick, Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh were garrisoned for the Lancastrian cause in 1462, but after the Yorkist victories of Hexham and Hedgley Moor in 1464, Alnwick and Dunstanburgh surrendered, and Bamburgh was taken by storm.
In September 1513, King James IV of Scotland was killed at the Battle of Flodden on Branxton Moor.
Roman Catholic support in Northumberland for Mary, Queen of Scots, led to the Rising of the North in 1569.
Harbottle
Border Reivers
Peel tower
Union and Civil War
After uniting the English and Scottish thrones, James VI and I sharply curbed the lawlessness of the border reivers and brought relative peace to the region. There were Church of Scotland congregations in Northumberland in the 17th and 18th centuries.
During the Civil War of the 17th century, Newcastle was garrisoned for the king by the earl of Newcastle, but in 1644 it was captured by the Scots under the earl of Leven, and in 1646 Charles I was led there a captive under the charge of David Leslie.
Many of the chief Northumberland families were ruined in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715.
Industrialisation
The mineral resources of the area appear to have been exploited to some extent from remote times. It is certain that coal was used by the Romans in Northumberland, and some coal ornaments found at Angerton have been attributed to the 7th century. In a 13th-century grant to Newminster Abbey a road for the conveyance of sea coal from the shore about Blyth is mentioned, and the Blyth coal field was worked throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The coal trade on the Tyne did not exist to any extent before the 13th century, but from that period it developed rapidly, and Newcastle acquired the monopoly of the river shipping and coal trade. Lead was exported from Newcastle in the 12th century, probably from Hexhamshire, the lead mines of which were very prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. In a charter from Richard I to Hugh de Puiset creating him earl of Northumberland, mines of silver and iron are mentioned. A salt pan is mentioned at Warkworth in the 12th century; in the 13th century the salt industry flourished at the mouth of the river Blyth, and in the 15th century formed the principal occupation of the inhabitants of North and South Shields. In the reign of Elizabeth I, glass factories were set up at Newcastle by foreign refugees, and the industry spread rapidly along the Tyne. Tanning, both of leather and of nets, was largely practised in the 13th century, and the salmon fisheries in the Tyne were famous in the reign of Henry I.
John Smeaton designed the Coldstream Bridge and a bridge at Hexham.
Stephenson's Rocket
Invention of the steam turbine by Charles Algernon Parsons
Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Armof the Grand Union Canal, just north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in east London. The canal is 13.8 kilometres (8.6 miles) long.
First proposed by Thomas Homer in 1802 as a link from the Paddington arm of the then Grand Junction Canal (opened in 1801) with the River Thames at Limehouse, the Regent's Canal was built during the early 19th century after an Act of Parliament was passed in 1812. Noted architect and town planner John Nash was a director of the company; in 1811 he had produced a masterplan for the Prince Regent to redevelop a large area of central north London – as a result, the Regent’s Canal was included in the scheme, running for part of its distance along the northern edge of Regent's Park.
As with many Nash projects, the detailed design was passed to one of his assistants, in this case James Morgan, who was appointed chief engineer of the canal company. Work began on 14 October 1812. The first section from Paddington to Camden Town, opened in 1816 and included a 251-metre (274 yd) long tunnel under Maida Hill east of an area now known as 'Little Venice', and a much shorter tunnel, just 48 metres (52 yd) long, under Lisson Grove. The Camden to Limehouse section, including the 886-metre (969 yd) long Islingtontunnel and the Regent's Canal Dock (used to transfer cargo from seafaring vessels to canal barges – today known as Limehouse Basin), opened four years later on 1 August 1820. Various intermediate basins were also constructed (e.g.: Cumberland Basin to the east of Regent's Park, Battlebridge Basin (close to King's Cross, London) and City Road Basin). Many other basins such as Wenlock Basin, Kingsland Basin, St. Pancras Stone and Coal Basin, and one in front of the Great Northern Railway's Granary were also built, and some of these survive.
The City Road Basin, the nearest to the City of London, soon eclipsed the Paddington Basin in the amount of goods carried, principally coal and building materials. These were goods that were being shipped locally, in contrast to the canal's original purpose of transshipping imports to the Midlands. The opening of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838 actually increased the tonnage of coal carried by the canal. However, by the early twentieth century, with the Midland trade lost to the railways, and more deliveries made by road, the canal had fallen into a long decline.
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a U.S. national monument and national preserve in the Snake River Plain in central Idaho. It is along US 20 (concurrent with US 93 and US 26), between the small towns of Arco and Carey, at an average elevation of 5,900 feet (1,800 m) above sea level.
The Monument was established on May 2, 1924. In November 2000, a presidential proclamation by President Clinton greatly expanded the Monument area. The 410,000-acre National Park Service portions of the expanded Monument were designated as Craters of the Moon National Preserve in August 2002. It spreads across Blaine, Butte, Lincoln, Minidoka, and Power counties. The area is managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
The Monument and Preserve encompass three major lava fields and about 400 square miles (1,000 km2) of sagebrush steppe grasslands to cover a total area of 1,117 square miles (2,893 km2). The Monument alone covers 343,000 acres (139,000 ha). All three lava fields lie along the Great Rift of Idaho, with some of the best examples of open rift cracks in the world, including the deepest known on Earth at 800 feet (240 m). There are excellent examples of almost every variety of basaltic lava, as well as tree molds (cavities left by lava-incinerated trees), lava tubes (a type of cave), and many other volcanic features.
Craters of the Moon is in south-central Idaho, midway between Boise and Yellowstone National Park. The lava field reaches southeastward from the Pioneer Mountains. Combined U.S. Highway 20–26–93 cuts through the northwestern part of the monument and provides access to it. However, the rugged landscape of the monument itself remains remote and undeveloped, with only one paved road across the northern end.
The Craters of the Moon Lava Field spreads across 618 square miles (1,601 km2) and is the largest mostly Holocene-aged basaltic lava field in the contiguous United States. The Monument and Preserve contain more than 25 volcanic cones, including outstanding examples of spatter cones. The 60 distinct solidified lava flows that form the Craters of the Moon Lava Field range in age from 15,000 to just 2,000 years. The Kings Bowl and Wapi lava fields, both about 2,200 years old, are part of the National Preserve.
This lava field is the largest of several large beds of lava that erupted from the 53-mile (85 km) south-east to north-west trending Great Rift volcanic zone, a line of weakness in the Earth's crust. Together with fields from other fissures they make up the Lava Beds of Idaho, which in turn are in the much larger Snake River Plain volcanic province. The Great Rift extends across almost the entire Snake River Plain.
Elevation at the visitor center is 5,900 feet (1,800 m) above sea level.
Total average precipitation in the Craters of the Moon area is between 15–20 inches (380–510 mm) per year. Most of this is lost in cracks in the basalt, only to emerge later in springs and seeps in the walls of the Snake River Canyon. Older lava fields on the plain have been invaded by drought-resistant plants such as sagebrush, while younger fields, such as Craters of the Moon, only have a seasonal and very sparse cover of vegetation. From a distance this cover disappears almost entirely, giving an impression of utter black desolation. Repeated lava flows over the last 15,000 years have raised the land surface enough to expose it to the prevailing southwesterly winds, which help to keep the area dry. Together these conditions make life on the lava field difficult.
Paleo-Indians visited the area about 12,000 years ago but did not leave much archaeological evidence. Northern Shoshone created trails through the Craters of the Moon Lava Field during their summer migrations from the Snake River to the camas prairie, west of the lava field. Stone windbreaks at Indian Tunnel were used to protect campsites from the dry summer wind. No evidence exists for permanent habitation by any Native American group. A hunting and gathering culture, the Northern Shoshone pursued elk, bears, American bison, cougars, and bighorn sheep — all large game who no longer range the area. The most recent volcanic eruptions ended about 2,100 years ago and were likely witnessed by the Shoshone people. Ella E. Clark has recorded a Shoshone legend which speaks of a serpent on a mountain who, angered by lightning, coiled around and squeezed the mountain until liquid rock flowed, fire shot from cracks, and the mountain exploded.
In 1879, two Arco cattlemen named Arthur Ferris and J.W. Powell became the first known European-Americans to explore the lava fields. They were investigating its possible use for grazing and watering cattle but found the area to be unsuitable and left.
U.S. Army Captain and western explorer B.L.E. Bonneville visited the lava fields and other places in the West in the 19th century and wrote about his experiences in his diaries. Washington Irving later used Bonneville's diaries to write the Adventures of Captain Bonneville, saying this unnamed lava field is a place "where nothing meets the eye but a desolate and awful waste, where no grass grows nor water runs, and where nothing is to be seen but lava."
In 1901 and 1903, Israel Russell became the first geologist to study this area while surveying it for the United States Geological Survey (USGS). In 1910, Samuel Paisley continued Russell's work and later became the monument's first custodian. Others followed and in time much of the mystery surrounding this and the other Lava Beds of Idaho was lifted.
The few European settlers who visited the area in the 19th century created local legends that it looked like the surface of the Moon. Geologist Harold T. Stearns coined the name "Craters of the Moon" in 1923 while trying to convince the National Park Service to recommend protection of the area in a national monument.
The Snake River Plain is a volcanic province that was created by a series of cataclysmic caldera-forming eruptions which started about 15 million years ago. A migrating hotspot thought to now exist under Yellowstone Caldera in Yellowstone National Park has been implicated. This hot spot was under the Craters of the Moon area some 10 to 11 million years ago but 'moved' as the North American Plate migrated northwestward. Pressure from the hot spot heaves the land surface up, creating fault-block mountains. After the hot spot passes the pressure is released and the land subsides.
Leftover heat from this hot spot was later liberated by Basin and Range-associated rifting and created the many overlapping lava flows that make up the Lava Beds of Idaho. The largest rift zone is the Great Rift; it is from this 'Great Rift fissure system' that Craters of the Moon, Kings Bowl, and Wapi lava fields were created. The Great Rift is a National Natural Landmark.
In spite of their fresh appearance, the oldest flows in the Craters of the Moon Lava Field are 15,000 years old and the youngest erupted about 2000 years ago, according to Mel Kuntz and other USGS geologists. Nevertheless, the volcanic fissures at Craters of the Moon are considered to be dormant, not extinct, and are expected to erupt again in less than a thousand years. There are eight major eruptive periods recognized in the Craters of the Moon Lava Field. Each period lasted about 1000 years or less and were separated by relatively quiet periods that lasted between 500 and as long as 3000 years. Individual lava flows were up to 30 miles (50 km) long with the Blue Dragon Flow being the longest.
Kings Bowl Lava Field erupted during a single fissure eruption on the southern part of the Great Rift about 2,250 years ago. This eruption probably lasted only a few hours to a few days. The field preserves explosion pits, lava lakes, squeeze-ups, basalt mounds, and an ash blanket. The Wapi Lava Field probably formed from a fissure eruption at the same time as the Kings Bowl eruption. More prolonged activity over a period of months to a few years led to the formation of low shield volcanoes in the Wapi field. The Bear Trap lava tube, between the Craters of the Moon and the Wapi lava fields, is a cave system more than 15 miles (24 km) long. The lava tube is remarkable for its length and for the number of well-preserved lava cave features, such as lava stalactites and curbs, the latter marking high stands of the flowing lava frozen on the lava tube walls. The lava tubes and pit craters of the monument are known for their unusual preservation of winter ice and snow into the hot summer months, due to shielding from the sun and the insulating properties of basalt.
A typical eruption along the Great Rift and similar basaltic rift systems starts with a curtain of very fluid lava shooting up to 1,000 feet (300 m) high along a segment of the rift up to 1 mile (1.6 km) long. As the eruption continues, pressure and heat decrease and the chemistry of the lava becomes slightly more silica rich. The curtain of lava responds by breaking apart into separate vents. Various types of volcanoes may form at these vents: gas-rich pulverized lava creates cinder cones (such as Inferno Cone – stop 4), and pasty lava blobs form spatter cones (such as Spatter Cones – stop 5). Later stages of an eruption push lava streams out through the side or base of cinder cones, which usually ends the life of the cinder cone (North Crater, Watchmen, and Sheep Trail Butte are notable exceptions). This will sometimes breach part of the cone and carry it away as large and craggy blocks of cinder (as seen at North Crater Flow – stop 2 – and Devils Orchard – stop 3). Solid crust forms over lava streams, and lava tubes (a type of cave) are created when lava vacates its course (examples can be seen at the Cave Area – stop 7).
Geologists feared that a large earthquake that shook Borah Peak, Idaho's tallest mountain, in 1983 would restart volcanic activity at Craters of the Moon, though this proved not to be the case. Geologists predict that the area will experience its next eruption some time in the next 900 years with the most likely period in the next 100 years.
All plants and animals that live in and around Craters of the Moon are under great environmental stress due to constant dry winds and heat-absorbing black lavas that tend to quickly sap water from living things. Summer soil temperatures often exceed 150 °F (66 °C) and plant cover is generally less than 5% on cinder cones and about 15% over the entire monument. Adaptation is therefore necessary for survival in this semi-arid harsh climate.
Water is usually only found deep inside holes at the bottom of blow-out craters. Animals therefore get the moisture they need directly from their food. The black soil on and around cinder cones does not hold moisture for long, making it difficult for plants to establish themselves. Soil particles first develop from direct rock decomposition by lichens and typically collect in crevices in lava flows. Successively more complex plants then colonize the microhabitat created by the increasingly productive soil.
The shaded north slopes of cinder cones provide more protection from direct sunlight and prevailing southwesterly winds and have a more persistent snow cover (an important water source in early spring). These parts of cinder cones are therefore colonized by plants first.
Gaps between lava flows were sometimes cut off from surrounding vegetation. These literal islands of habitat are called kīpukas, a Hawaiian name used for older land surrounded by younger lava. Carey Kīpuka is one such area in the southernmost part of the monument and is used as a benchmark to measure how plant cover has changed in less pristine parts of southern Idaho.
Idaho is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the United States. It shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border to the north, with the province of British Columbia. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington and Oregon to the west. The state's capital and largest city is Boise. With an area of 83,570 square miles (216,400 km2), Idaho is the 14th largest state by land area. With a population of approximately 1.8 million, it ranks as the 13th least populous and the 6th least densely populated of the 50 U.S. states.
For thousands of years, and prior to European colonization, Idaho has been inhabited by native peoples. In the early 19th century, Idaho was considered part of the Oregon Country, an area of dispute between the U.S. and the British Empire. It officially became a U.S. territory with the signing of the Oregon Treaty of 1846, but a separate Idaho Territory was not organized until 1863, instead being included for periods in Oregon Territory and Washington Territory. Idaho was eventually admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, becoming the 43rd state.
Forming part of the Pacific Northwest (and the associated Cascadia bioregion), Idaho is divided into several distinct geographic and climatic regions. The state's north, the relatively isolated Idaho Panhandle, is closely linked with Eastern Washington, with which it shares the Pacific Time Zone—the rest of the state uses the Mountain Time Zone. The state's south includes the Snake River Plain (which has most of the population and agricultural land), and the southeast incorporates part of the Great Basin. Idaho is quite mountainous and contains several stretches of the Rocky Mountains. The United States Forest Service holds about 38% of Idaho's land, the highest proportion of any state.
Industries significant for the state economy include manufacturing, agriculture, mining, forestry, and tourism. Several science and technology firms are either headquartered in Idaho or have factories there, and the state also contains the Idaho National Laboratory, which is the country's largest Department of Energy facility. Idaho's agricultural sector supplies many products, but the state is best known for its potato crop, which comprises around one-third of the nationwide yield. The official state nickname is the "Gem State."
The history of Idaho is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Idaho, one of the United States of America located in the Pacific Northwest area near the west coast of the United States and Canada. Other associated areas include southern Alaska, all of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, western Montana and northern California and Nevada.
Humans may have been present in Idaho for 16,600 years. Recent findings in Cooper's Ferry along the Salmon River in western Idaho near the town of Cottonwood have unearthed stone tools and animal bone fragments in what may be the oldest evidence of humans in North America. Earlier excavations in 1959 at Wilson Butte Cave near Twin Falls revealed evidence of human activity, including arrowheads, that rank among the oldest dated artifacts in North America. Native American tribes predominant in the area in historic times included the Nez Perce and the Coeur d'Alene in the north; and the Northern and Western Shoshone and Bannock peoples in the south.
Idaho was one of the last areas in the lower 48 states of the US to be explored by people of European descent. The Lewis and Clark expedition entered present-day Idaho on August 12, 1805, at Lemhi Pass. It is believed that the first "European descent" expedition to enter southern Idaho was by a group led in 1811 and 1812 by Wilson Price Hunt, which navigated the Snake River while attempting to blaze an all-water trail westward from St. Louis, Missouri, to Astoria, Oregon. At that time, approximately 8,000 Native Americans lived in the region.
Fur trading led to the first significant incursion of Europeans in the region. Andrew Henry of the Missouri Fur Company first entered the Snake River plateau in 1810. He built Fort Henry on Henry's Fork on the upper Snake River, near modern St. Anthony, Idaho. However, this first American fur post west of the Rocky Mountains was abandoned the following spring.
The British-owned Hudson's Bay Company next entered Idaho and controlled the trade in the Snake River area by the 1820s. The North West Company's interior department of the Columbia was created in June 1816, and Donald Mackenzie was assigned as its head. Mackenzie had previously been employed by Hudson's Bay and had been a partner in the Pacific Fur Company, financed principally by John Jacob Astor. During these early years, he traveled west with a Pacific Fur Company's party and was involved in the initial exploration of the Salmon River and Clearwater River. The company proceeded down the lower Snake River and Columbia River by canoe, and were the first of the Overland Astorians to reach Fort Astoria, on January 18, 1812.
Under Mackenzie, the North West Company was a dominant force in the fur trade in the Snake River country. Out of Fort George in Astoria, Mackenzie led fur brigades up the Snake River in 1816-1817 and up the lower Snake in 1817-1818. Fort Nez Perce, established in July, 1818, became the staging point for Mackenzies' Snake brigades. The expedition of 1818-1819 explored the Blue Mountains, and traveled down the Snake River to the Bear River and approached the headwaters of the Snake. Mackenzie sought to establish a navigable route up the Snake River from Fort Nez Perce to the Boise area in 1819. While he did succeed in traveling by boat from the Columbia River through the Grand Canyon of the Snake past Hells Canyon, he concluded that water transport was generally impractical. Mackenzie held the first rendezvous in the region on the Boise River in 1819.
Despite their best efforts, early American fur companies in this region had difficulty maintaining the long-distance supply lines from the Missouri River system into the Intermountain West. However, Americans William H. Ashley and Jedediah Smith expanded the Saint Louis fur trade into Idaho in 1824. The 1832 trapper's rendezvous at Pierre's Hole, held at the foot of the Three Tetons in modern Teton County, was followed by an intense battle between the Gros Ventre and a large party of American trappers aided by their Nez Perce and Flathead allies.
The prospect of missionary work among the Native Americans also attracted early settlers to the region. In 1809, Kullyspell House, the first white-owned establishment and first trading post in Idaho, was constructed. In 1836, the Reverend Henry H. Spalding established a Protestant mission near Lapwai, where he printed the Northwest's first book, established Idaho's first school, developed its first irrigation system, and grew the state's first potatoes. Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Hart Spalding were the first non-native women to enter present-day Idaho.
Cataldo Mission, the oldest standing building in Idaho, was constructed at Cataldo by the Coeur d'Alene and Catholic missionaries. In 1842, Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, with Fr. Nicholas Point and Br. Charles Duet, selected a mission location along the St. Joe River. The mission was moved a short distance away in 1846, as the original location was subject to flooding. In 1850, Antonio Ravalli designed a new mission building and Indians affiliated with the church effort built the mission, without nails, using the wattle and daub method. In time, the Cataldo mission became an important stop for traders, settlers, and miners. It served as a place for rest from the trail, offered needed supplies, and was a working port for boats heading up the Coeur d'Alene River.
During this time, the region which became Idaho was part of an unorganized territory known as Oregon Country, claimed by both the United States and Great Britain. The United States gained undisputed jurisdiction over the region in the Oregon Treaty of 1846, although the area was under the de facto jurisdiction of the Provisional Government of Oregon from 1843 to 1849. The original boundaries of Oregon Territory in 1848 included all three of the present-day Pacific Northwest states and extended eastward to the Continental Divide. In 1853, areas north of the 46th Parallel became Washington Territory, splitting what is now Idaho in two. The future state was reunited in 1859 after Oregon became a state and the boundaries of Washington Territory were redrawn.
While thousands passed through Idaho on the Oregon Trail or during the California gold rush of 1849, few people settled there. In 1860, the first of several gold rushes in Idaho began at Pierce in present-day Clearwater County. By 1862, settlements in both the north and south had formed around the mining boom.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints missionaries founded Fort Lemhi in 1855, but the settlement did not last. The first organized town in Idaho was Franklin, settled in April 1860 by Mormon pioneers who believed they were in Utah Territory; although a later survey determined they had crossed the border. Mormon pioneers reached areas near the current-day Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and established most of the historic and modern communities in Southeastern Idaho. These settlements include Ammon, Blackfoot, Chubbuck, Firth, Idaho Falls, Iona, Pocatello, Rexburg, Rigby, Shelley, and Ucon.
Large numbers of English immigrants settled in what is now the state of Idaho in the late 19th and early 20th century, many before statehood. The English found they had more property rights and paid less taxes than they did back in England. They were considered some of the most desirable immigrants at the time. Many came from humble beginnings and would rise to prominence in Idaho. Frank R. Gooding was raised in a rural working-class background in England, but was eventually elected as the seventh governor of the state. Today people of English descent make up one fifth of the entire state of Idaho and form a plurality in the southern portion of the state.
Many German farmers also settled in what is now Idaho. German settlers were primarily Lutheran across all of the midwest and west, including Idaho, however there were small numbers of Catholics amongst them as well. In parts of Northern Idaho, German remained the dominant language until World War I, when German-Americans were pressured to convert entirely to English. Today, Idahoans of German ancestry make up nearly one fifth of all Idahoans and make up the second largest ethnic group after Idahoans of English descent with people of German ancestry being 18.1% of the state and people of English ancestry being 20.1% of the state.
Irish Catholics worked in railroad centers such as Boise. Today, 10% of Idahoans self-identify as having Irish ancestry.
York, a slave owned by William Clark but considered a full member of Corps of Discovery during expedition to the Pacific, was the first recorded African American in Idaho. There is a significant African American population made up of those who came west after the abolition of slavery. Many settled near Pocatello and were ranchers, entertainers, and farmers. Although free, many blacks suffered discrimination in the early-to-mid-late 20th century. The black population of the state continues to grow as many come to the state because of educational opportunities, to serve in the military, and for other employment opportunities. There is a Black History Museum in Boise, Idaho, with an exhibit known as the "Invisible Idahoan", which chronicles the first African-Americans in the state. Blacks are the fourth largest ethnic group in Idaho according to the 2000 census. Mountain Home, Boise, and Garden City have significant African-American populations.
The Basque people from the Iberian peninsula in Spain and southern France were traditionally shepherds in Europe. They came to Idaho, offering hard work and perseverance in exchange for opportunity. One of the largest Basque communities in the US is in Boise, with a Basque museum and festival held annually in the city.
Chinese in the mid-19th century came to America through San Francisco to work on the railroad and open businesses. By 1870, there were over 4000 Chinese and they comprised almost 30% of the population. They suffered discrimination due to the Anti-Chinese League in the 19th century which sought to limit the rights and opportunities of Chinese emigrants. Today Asians are third in population demographically after Whites and Hispanics at less than 2%.
Main articles: Oregon boundary dispute, Provisional Government of Oregon, Oregon Treaty, Oregon Territory, Washington Territory, Dakota Territory, Organic act § List of organic acts, and Idaho Territory
On March 4, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act creating Idaho Territory from portions of Washington Territory and Dakota Territory with its capital at Lewiston. The original Idaho Territory included most of the areas that later became the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, and had a population of under 17,000. Idaho Territory assumed the boundaries of the modern state in 1868 and was admitted as a state in 1890.
After Idaho became a territory, legislation was held in Lewiston, the capital of Idaho Territory at the time. There were many territories acts put into place, and then taken away during these early sessions, one act being the move of the capital city from Lewiston to Boise City. Boise was becoming a growing area after gold was found, so on December 24, 1864, Boise City was made the final destination of the capital for the Territory of Idaho.
However, moving the capital to Boise City created a lot of issues between the territory. This was especially true between the north and south areas in the territory, due to how far south Boise City was. Problems with communicating between the north and south contributed to some land in Idaho Territory being transferred to other territories and areas at the time. Idaho’s early boundary changes helped create the current boundaries of Washington, Wyoming, and Montana States as currently exist.
In a bid for statehood, Governor Edward A. Stevenson called for a constitutional convention in 1889. The convention approved a constitution on August 6, 1889, and voters approved the constitution on November 5, 1889.
When President Benjamin Harrison signed the law admitting Idaho as a U.S. state on July 3, 1890, the population was 88,548. George L. Shoup became the state's first governor, but resigned after only a few weeks in office to take a seat in the United States Senate. Willis Sweet, a Republican, was the first congressman, 1890 to 1895, representing the state at-large. He vigorously demanded "Free Silver" or the unrestricted coinage of silver into legal tender, in order to pour money into the large silver mining industry in the Mountain West, but he was defeated by supporters of the gold standard. In 1896 he, like many Republicans from silver mining districts, supported the Silver Republican Party instead of the regular Republican nominee William McKinley.
During its first years of statehood, Idaho was plagued by labor unrest in the mining district of Coeur d'Alene. In 1892, miners called a strike which developed into a shooting war between union miners and company guards. Each side accused the other of starting the fight. The first shots were exchanged at the Frisco mine in Frisco, in the Burke-Canyon north and east of Wallace. The Frisco mine was blown up, and company guards were taken prisoner. The violence soon spilled over into the nearby community of Gem, where union miners attempted to locate a Pinkerton spy who had infiltrated their union and was passing information to the mine operators. But agent Charlie Siringo escaped by cutting a hole in the floor of his room. Strikers forced the Gem mine to close, then traveled west to the Bunker Hill mining complex near Wardner, and closed down that facility as well. Several had been killed in the Burke-Canyon fighting. The Idaho National Guard and federal troops were dispatched to the area, and union miners and sympathizers were thrown into bullpens.
Hostilities would again erupt at the Bunker Hill facility in 1899, when seventeen union miners were fired for having joined the union. Other union miners were likewise ordered to draw their pay and leave. Angry members of the union converged on the area and blew up the Bunker Hill Mill, killing two company men.
In both disputes, the union's complaints included pay, hours of work, the right of miners to belong to the union, and the mine owners' use of informants and undercover agents. The violence committed by union miners was answered with a brutal response in 1892 and in 1899.
Through the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) union, the battles in the mining district became closely tied to a major miners' strike in Colorado. The struggle culminated in the December 1905 assassination of former Governor Frank Steunenberg by Harry Orchard (also known as Albert Horsley), a member of the WFM. Orchard was allegedly incensed by Steunenberg's efforts as governor to put down the 1899 miner uprising after being elected on a pro-labor platform.
Pinkerton detective James McParland conducted the investigation into the assassination. In 1907, WFM Secretary Treasurer "Big Bill" Haywood and two other WFM leaders were tried on a charge of conspiracy to murder Steunenberg, with Orchard testifying against them as part of a deal made with McParland. The nationally publicized trial featured Senator William E. Borah as prosecuting attorney and Clarence Darrow representing the defendants. The defense team presented evidence that Orchard had been a Pinkerton agent and had acted as a paid informant for the Cripple Creek Mine Owners' Association. Darrow argued that Orchard's real motive in the assassination had been revenge for a declaration of martial law by Steunenberg, which prompted Orchard to gamble away a share in the Hercules silver mine that would otherwise have made him wealthy.
Two of the WFM leaders were acquitted in two separate trials, and the third was released. Orchard was convicted and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted, and he spent the rest of his life in an Idaho prison.
Mining in Idaho was a major commercial venture, bringing a great deal of attention to the state. From 1860-1866 Idaho produced 19% of all gold in the United States, or 2.5 million ounces.
Most of Idaho's mining production, 1860–1969, has come from metals equating to $2.88 billion out of $3.42 billion, according to the best estimates. Of the metallic mining areas of Idaho, the Coeur d'Alene region has produced the most by far, and accounts for about 80% of the total Idaho yield.
Several others—Boise Basin, Wood River Valley, Stibnite, Blackbirg, and Owyhee—range considerably above the other big producers. Atlanta, Bear Valley, Bay Horse, Florence, Gilmore, Mackay, Patterson, and Yankee Fork all ran on the order of ten to twenty million dollars, and Elk City, Leesburg, Pierce, Rocky Bar, and Warren's make up the rest of the major Idaho mining areas that stand out in the sixty or so regions of production worthy of mention.
A number of small operations do not appear in this list of Idaho metallic mining areas: a small amount of gold was recovered from Goose Creek on Salmon Meadows; a mine near Cleveland was prospected in 1922 and produced a little manganese in 1926; a few tons of copper came from Fort Hall, and a few more tons of copper came from a mine near Montpelier. Similarly, a few tons of lead came from a property near Bear Lake, and lead-silver is known on Cassia Creek near Elba. Some gold quartz and lead-silver workings are on Ruby Creek west of Elk River, and there is a slightly developed copper operation on Deer Creek near Winchester. Molybdenum is known on Roaring River and on the east fork of the Salmon. Some scattered mining enterprises have been undertaken around Soldier Mountain and on Chief Eagle Eye Creek north of Montour.
Idaho proved to be one of the more receptive states to the progressive agenda of the late 19th century and early 20th century. The state embraced progressive policies such as women's suffrage (1896) and prohibition (1916) before they became federal law. Idahoans were also strongly supportive of Free Silver. The pro-bimetallism Populist and Silver Republican parties of the late 1890s were particularly successful in the state.
Eugenics was also a major part of the Progressive movement. In 1919, the Idaho legislature passed an Act legalizing the forced sterilization of some persons institutionalized in the state. The act was vetoed by governor D.W. Davis, who doubted its scientific merits and believed it likely violated the Equal Protection clause of the US Constitution. In 1925, the Idaho legislature passed a revised eugenics act, now tailored to avoid Davis's earlier objections. The new law created a state board of eugenics, charged with: the sterilization of all feebleminded, insane, epileptics, habitual criminals, moral degenerates and sexual perverts who are a menace to society, and providing the means for ascertaining who are such persons.
The Eugenics board was eventually folded into the state's health commission; between 1932 and 1964, a total of 30 women and eight men in Idaho were sterilized under this law. The sterilization law was formally repealed in 1972.
After statehood, Idaho's economy began a gradual shift away from mining toward agriculture, particularly in the south. Older mining communities such as Silver City and Rocky Bar gave way to agricultural communities incorporated after statehood, such as Nampa and Twin Falls. Milner Dam on the Snake River, completed in 1905, allowed for the formation of many agricultural communities in the Magic Valley region which had previously been nearly unpopulated.
Meanwhile, some of the mining towns were able to reinvent themselves as resort communities, most notably in Blaine County, where the Sun Valley ski resort opened in 1936. Others, such as Silver City and Rocky Bar, became ghost towns.
In the north, mining continued to be an important industry for several more decades. The closure of the Bunker Hill Mine complex in Shoshone County in the early 1980s sent the region's economy into a tailspin. Since that time, a substantial increase in tourism in north Idaho has helped the region to recover. Coeur d'Alene, a lake-side resort town, is a destination for visitors in the area.
Beginning in the 1980s, there was a rise in North Idaho of a few right-wing extremist and "survivalist" political groups, most notably one holding Neo-Nazi views, the Aryan Nations. These groups were most heavily concentrated in the Panhandle region of the state, particularly in the vicinity of Coeur d'Alene.
In 1992 a stand-off occurred between U.S. Marshals, the F.B.I., and white separatist Randy Weaver and his family at their compound at Ruby Ridge, located near the small, northern Idaho town of Naples. The ensuing fire-fight and deaths of a U.S. Marshal, and Weaver's son and wife gained national attention, and raised a considerable amount of controversy regarding the nature of acceptable force by the federal government in such situations.
In 2001, the Aryan Nations compound, which had been located in Hayden Lake, Idaho, was confiscated as a result of a court case, and the organization moved out of state. About the same time Boise installed an impressive stone Human Rights Memorial featuring a bronze statue of Anne Frank and quotations from her and many other writers extolling human freedom and equality.
The demographics of the state have changed. Due to this growth in different groups, especially in Boise, the economic expansion surged wrong-economic growth followed the high standard of living and resulted in the "growth of different groups". The population of Idaho in the 21st Century has been described as sharply divided along geographic and cultural lines due to the center of the state being dominated by sparsely-populated national forests, mountain ranges and recreation sites: "unless you're willing to navigate a treacherous mountain pass, you can't even drive from the north to the south without leaving the state." The northern population gravitates towards Spokane, Washington, the heavily Mormon south-east population towards Utah, with an isolated Boise "[being] the closest thing to a city-state that you'll find in America."
On March 13, 2020, officials from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 within the state of Idaho. A woman over the age of 50 from the southwestern part of the state was confirmed to have the coronavirus infection. She contracted the infection while attending a conference in New York City. Conference coordinators notified attendees that three individuals previously tested positive for the coronavirus. The Idahoan did not require hospitalization and was recovering from mild symptoms from her home. At the time of the announcement, there were 1,629 total cases and 41 deaths in the United States. Five days beforehand, on March 8, a man of age 54 had died of an unknown respiratory illness which his doctor had believed to be pneumonia. The disease was later suspected to be – but never confirmed as – COVID-19.
On March 14, state officials announced the second confirmed case within the state. The South Central Public Health District, announced that a woman over the age of 50 that resides in Blaine County had contracted the infection.[44] Like the first case, she did not require hospitalization and she was recovering from mild symptoms from home. Later on in the day, three additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in the state by three of the seven health districts in the state, which brought the confirmed total cases of coronavirus to five in Idaho. Officials from Central District Health announced their second confirmed case, which was a male from Ada County in his 50s. He was not hospitalized and was recovering at home. South Central Public Health reported their second confirmed case in a female that is over the age of 70 who was hospitalized. Eastern Idaho Public Health reported a confirmed positive case in a woman under the age of 60 in Teton County. She had contracted the coronavirus from contact with a confirmed case in a neighboring state; she was not hospitalized. The South Central Public Health District announced that a woman over the age of 50 that resides in Blaine County had contracted the infection. Like the first case, she did not require hospitalization and she was recovering from mild symptoms from home.
On March 17, two more confirmed cases of the infection were reported, bringing the total to seven. The first case on this date was by officials from Central District Health reported that a female under the age of 50 in Ada County was recovering at home and was not hospitalized. The second confirmed case was a female over the age of 50 as reported by South Central Public Health officials.
On March 18, two additional confirmed cases were announced by South Central Public Health District officials. One is a male from Blaine County in his 40s and the other a male in his 80s from Twin Falls County. These cases were the first known community spread transmission of the coronavirus in South Central Idaho.
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Montblanc Hommage à A. Carnegie - Limited Edition Patron of Arts 2002.
The stylish and elegant Patron of Art Edition Hommage à Andrew Carnegie recalls the artistic style that Carnegie supported so enthusiastically: art nouveau. The clip of the pen is a graceful female figure, whose wings wrap around the cap of the pen like a butterfly’s. The black of the barrel of Edition 4810 provides a striking contrast to this delicate fretwork effect in 925 sterling silver.
The barrel and cap of Edition 888 are made of mother-of-pearl lacquer and covered with a 750 white gold weave. The Montblanc star in this edition is made of fine mother-of-pearl. A delicately engraved lily – a popular art nouveau motif – decorates the rhodium-plated 18-karat gold nib.
Montblanc Hommage à Andrew Carnegie 888 Limited Edition Fountain Pen 7277
Andrew Carnegie is still considered one of the greatest patrons of culture in the modern world. A Steel tycoon who emigrated from Scotland to the USA, he was firmly convinced that wealthy people were morally obliged to dedicate themselves to charitable works. So he spent more than 350 million dollars - almost his whole fortune - on cultural foundations, public libraries and cultural programs, and on fostering talented art nouveau artists, the most fashionable artists of the day.
The stylish and elegant Patron of Art Edition Hommage a Andrew Carnegie recalls the artistic style that Carnegie supported so enthusiastically: art nouveau. the Clip of the pen is a graceful female figure , whose wings wrap around the cap of the pen like a butterfly's. The black of the barrel of Edition 4810 provides a striking contrast to this delicate fretwork effect in 925 sterling silver. The barrel and cap of Edition 888 are made of mother-of-peral lacquer and covered with a 750 white gold weave. The Montblanc star in this edition is made of fine mother-of-pearl. A delicately engraved lily - popular art nouveau motif - decorates the rhodium-plated 18 carat gold nib.
Industrialist and philanthropist extraordinaire, Andrew Carnegie personifies the American dream and the idea that man does not live by bread alone. Overcoming poverty to become one of the richest men of his time, he rejected an elitist lifestyle to patron the arts and champion the common man. His legacy still enriches the world today and his crowning work, the Carnegie Hall, has become a temple of culture and one of the most important stages in
the world.
Echoing the style he loved, the Montblanc Andrew Carnegie is an art nouveau tribute to the man and his legacy. Its exquisitely carved, 18-carat gold nib and pitch-black barrel set a graceful scene for the dramatic crown of a sterling silver clip in the sensual form of a winged feminine figure.
Features:
Launch: 2002
Limitation: 888 Fountain Pens
Mother-of-pearl lacquer
750 white gold fretwork
Rhodium-plated 18-karat gold nib 7277
The stylish and elegant Patron of Art Edition Hommage Andrew Carnegie recalls the artistic style that Carnegie supported so enthusiastically: art nouveau. The clip of the pen is a graceful female figure, whose wings wrap around the cap of the pen like a butterfly's.
The barrel and cap of Edition 888 are made of mother-of-pearl lacquer and covered with a 750 white gold weave.
Andrew Carnegie is still considered one of the greatest patrons of culture in the modern world. A steel tycoon who emigrated from Scotland to the USA, he was firmly convinced that wealthy people were morally obliged to dedicate themselves to charitable works. So he spent more than 350 million dollars almost his whole fortune on cultural foundations, public libraries and cultural programmes, and on fostering talented art nouveau artists, the most fashionable artists of the day.
Bluma Appel - Canada. Shortened from Applebaum, her husband’s former name. According to my long time friend Bernie she owned close to 3 or 4% of Seagram's stock which provided her with very deep pockets. He also shared the evolution of her family surname.
As a Member of the Order of Canada she often volunteered to preside at Canadian citizenship ceremonies at 55 St. Clair Avenue East Toronto. Other than wearing the snow flake, that is the only perk/ honour bestowed upon recipients. I clerked many of her ceremonies and enjoyed talking with her ever present young male assistant who was a classical pianist. I took photos of dozens of volunteer presiders but lost 99% of those images when my first IBM desktop computer froze.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluma_Appel
Bluma Appel, OC, O.Ont (September 4, 1919 – July 15, 2007) was a Canadian philanthropist and patron of the arts. She was born the daughter of Russian émigrés who left Czarist Russia around 1905. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, she was the founder of CANFAR, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research. Bluma married the Montreal chartered accountant Bram Appel on July 11, 1940. It was Bram's subsequent success in business which afforded Bluma the opportunity to engage in serious philanthropic activity: in 1946 he co-founded Pall Corporation. In 1979, she ran unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate for the Canadian House of Commons in the riding of Nepean—Carleton. She lost to Walter Baker. She was a major supporter of the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, which named one of its theatres in her honour in March 1983 after she made a donation to help renovate the 876-seat theatre where the Canadian Stage Company (CanStage) performs. She was also a significant force behind Opera Atelier. In June 2005, the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts gave Ms. Appel an honorary Dora Mavor Moore Award "for her exceptional and lifelong dedication" to the performing arts in Canada. She is memorialized at The Canadian Stage Company's Bluma Appel Theatre in perpetuity. Four days after celebrating her 67th wedding anniversary, Appel lost her brief battle with lung cancer and died in a hospital in Toronto, aged 86. She was buried at Pardes Shalom Cemetery, north of Toronto. Bram Appel died October 8, 2007. They are survived by their two sons David (born 1941) and Mark (born 1944), and five grandchildren.
Her honours and awards include:
In 1988, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada for being one of a few people "as active in such a broad range of community services as she".
In 1998, she was awarded an Order of Ontario.
In 2001, she was elevated to Officer of the Order of Canada for continuing "her outstanding volunteer work on behalf of numerous cultural, social and health care organizations".
In 2005, she was awarded an honorary Dora Mavor Moore Award for her lifelong support of Canadian arts and culture, an honour given to only two other individuals, William Hutt and Urjo Kareda.
In 2006, she was awarded an honourary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto.
In 2007, she was awarded an honourary Doctor of Laws degree from Brock University.
The Bluma Appel Theatre in the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto is named in her honour for the use of The Canadian Stage Company.
Corinne Ricard - France. I found little on the internet about her.
MADAME CORINNE RICARDO (CORINNE COIFFURE)
25 Rue Sainte Catherine 27200 Vernon France.
SIREN: 401-905-476.
Irene Schulte-Hillen - Germany
Her Wiki pages were only in German. Her husband had a small English Wiki page mentioning her.
wikispooks.com/wiki/Gerd_Schulte-Hillen
Michelle Yeoh - Hong Kong
Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng, PSM (/ˈjoʊ/; born 6 August 1962)[1] is a Malaysian actress. She rose to fame in 1990s Hong Kong action films, and is best known internationally for her roles in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), along with recent international English films and series.
Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Dato' Seri
Michelle Yeoh
PSM, SPMP
杨紫琼
Michelle Yeoh Cannes 2017.jpg
Yeoh in 2017
Born: Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng. 6 August 1962 (age 57). Ipoh, Federation of Malaya
Education: Royal Academy of Dance (BA)
Occupation: Actress
Years active: 1980–present
Spouse(s): Dickson Poon. (m. 1988; div. 1992)
Partner(s): Jean Todt (2004–present)
www.flickr.com/photos/dohastadiumplusqatar/13927499681/in...
Awards:
Full list
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
楊紫瓊
Simplified Chinese
杨紫琼
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinYáng Zǐqióng
IPA[jáŋ tsɹ̩̀.tɕʰjʊ́ŋ]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationYèuhng Jíkìhng
JyutpingJoeng4 Zi2-king4
IPA[jœ̏ːŋ tsǐː.kʰȅŋ]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJIôⁿ Chú-khêng
Tâi-lôIônn Tsú-khîng
Born in Ipoh, Malaysia, she won the Miss Malaysia pageant of 1983 at the age of 20. She later achieved fame in the early 1990s after starring in a series of Hong Kong action films in which she performed her own stunts, such as Yes, Madam (1985), Police Story 3: Supercop (1992) and Holy Weapon (1993). She was credited as Michelle Khan in her early Hollywood films. She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her work in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
She has appeared in many English, Mandarin and Cantonese language films. Her other works include Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Reign of Assassins (2010), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016), Star Trek: Discovery (2017) and The Lady (2011), in which she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2018, she starred in the American romantic comedy-drama film, Crazy Rich Asians. She has also co-starred in the 2019 films Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy and Last Christmas.
The film review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action heroine of all time in 2008.[2] In 1997, she was chosen by People as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World", and in 2009 the same magazine listed her as one of the "35 All-Time Screen Beauties"—the only Asian actress to make the list.[3]
Early life and education:
She was born in Ipoh, Malaysia, to a local ethnic Malaysian Chinese family of Hokkien and Cantonese descent.[4] Her parents are Janet Yeoh and Yeoh Kian Teik (died on 5 November 2014), a lawyer and MCA politician,[5] as well as the man behind the popular express bus service, Sri Maju.[6]
She was keen on dance from an early age, beginning ballet at the age of four. She studied at Convent Ipoh (Main Convent) as a primary student. At the age of 15, she moved with her parents to the United Kingdom, where she was enrolled in a boarding school. Yeoh later studied at the UK's Royal Academy of Dance in London, majoring in ballet. However, a spinal injury prevented her from becoming a professional ballet dancer, and she transferred her attention to choreography and other arts. She later received a BA degree in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama.
Career:
Main article: List of Michelle Yeoh performances
In 1983, at the age of 20, Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant.[7] She represented Malaysia at the Queen of the Pacific 1983 beauty pageant which was held in Australia and won the crown. While in Melbourne, she also won the Miss Moomba title.[8] She was also Malaysia's representative at the Miss World 1983 pageant in London. From there, she appeared in a television commercial with Jackie Chan which caught the attention of a fledgling Hong Kong film production company, D&B Films.
Yeoh started her film career acting in action and martial arts films such as Yes, Madam in 1985, after which she did most of her own stunts.[9] She was credited as Michelle Khan in these earlier films. This alias was chosen by D&B studio who thought it might be more marketable to international and western audiences. Yeoh later preferred using her real name.[7]
The D&B Group in Hong Kong was run by the businessman Dickson Poon. Yeoh married Poon in 1987 and retired from acting.
Yeoh at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
In 1992, Yeoh and Dickson Poon divorced and Yeoh returned to acting.[7] Yeoh's performance in Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992) marked her comeback to film. She acted in The Heroic Trio in 1993, and the Yuen Woo-ping films Tai Chi Master and Wing Chun in 1994.
She played Wai Lin in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Brosnan was impressed, describing her as a "wonderful actress" who was "serious and committed about her work".[10] He referred to her as a "female James Bond" in reference to her combat abilities. She wanted to perform her own stunts but was prevented because director Roger Spottiswoode considered it too dangerous. Nevertheless, she performed all of her own fighting scenes.[11][12]
Yeoh was then recruited by Ang Lee to star as Yu Shu Lien in the Chinese language martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film was shot in various provinces around China. Yeoh had grown up speaking English and Malay, before learning Cantonese. She spoke little Mandarin, and learned the Mandarin lines for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon phonetically.[13] The film was an international success, and earned Yeoh a BAFTA 2000 nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Thereafter, she was offered the role of Seraph in the two sequels to The Matrix, but she could not accept due to a scheduling conflict (the Matrix writers then changed Seraph into a male character and cast Collin Chou in the role).[14] In 2002, she produced her first English film, The Touch, through her own production company, Mythical Films.
In 2005, Yeoh starred as the graceful Mameha in the film adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha, and she continued her English-language work in 2007 with Sunshine. In 2008, Michelle Yeoh also starred in fantasy action film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with Brendan Fraser and Jet Li.[15]
In October 2011, she was chosen by Guerlain to be its skincare ambassador.[16] Yeoh will play a role in strengthening the French cosmetics company's relationship with Asia.[17] Apart from action films, she is famous for playing nationalists in two biopics. In 1997, she played Soong Ai-ling in the award-winning The Soong Sisters. In 2011, she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi in Luc Besson's The Lady.[18] Yeoh was blacklisted by the Burmese government allegedly because of her participation in The Lady; she was refused entry to Myanmar on 22 June 2011 and was deported on the same day.[19]
Yeoh has also recently branched out into television, as it was announced in September 2014 that she had accepted her first television role on the fifth and final season of Strike Back.[20] Yeoh plays the role of Mei Foster, wife to the British Ambassador to Thailand, and who is secretly a North Korean spy named Li-Na.[21]
In 2016, Yeoh was cast as Federation Captain Philippa Georgiou of the starship USS Shenzhou in the series Star Trek: Discovery, and recurs as Georgiou's "mirror" doppelganger in the second season.[22][23] In 2018, she played family matriarch Eleanor Young in Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians, a film adaptation of Kevin Kwan's book of the same name, opposite Constance Wu and Henry Golding.[24]
In 2019, she played Christmas themed-store owner "Santa" in Last Christmas, opposite Henry Golding and Emilia Clarke. The film was released on 8 November 2019.
Personal life:
Yeoh was married to Hong Kong entrepreneur Dickson Poon, owner of businesses such as Harvey Nichols and Charles Jourdan,[25] from 1988 to 1992. In 1998, Yeoh was engaged to Alan Heldman, an American cardiologist.[26] In 2004, she started dating Jean Todt,[27] a leading figure in motor racing, and in July 2008 she confirmed her engagement to him during an interview with Craig Ferguson on CBS's The Late Late Show.[citation needed][28]
Yeoh is a Buddhist.[29][30] In March 2008, she visited Vietnam to film a documentary for the Asian Injury Prevention Foundation (AIPF).[31] Yeoh is also a patron of the Save China's Tigers project committed to protect the endangered South China tiger.[32]
Awards, honors and styles:
Michelle Yeoh's handprints on the "Avenue of Stars" in Hong Kong
In 1999, she was a member of the jury at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.[33]
On 19 April 2001, Yeoh was awarded the Darjah Datuk Paduka Mahkota Perak (DPMP), which carries the title Dato', by Sultan Azlan Shah, the Sultan of Perak, her home state, in recognition of the fame she brought to the state.[34]
On 25 November 2002, she was honoured as The Outstanding Young People of the World (TOYP) (Cultural Achievement) by JCI (Junior Chamber International).[35]
On 23 April 2007, French President Jacques Chirac awarded Yeoh as Knight of the Legion of Honour (Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur). The decoration was presented to her in a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on 3 October 2007.[36] She was promoted to Officer of the same French Order (Officier de la Légion d'honneur) by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on 14 March 2012. The decoration was presented to her at a ceremony held at the president's official residence, the Élysée Palace on that day.[37] She was promoted to Commander of the same French Order (Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur) by French President François Hollande on 28 March 2017. The decoration was presented to her at a ceremony held at the president's official residence, the Élysée Palace on that day.
In 2011, she received a special award for her contribution to Malaysian cinema at Malaysian Film Festival (FFM 24).
On 22 May 2012, she was awarded the Darjah Seri Paduka Mahkota Perak (SPMP) which carries the title Dato' Seri during the investiture ceremony in conjunction with the Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah's birthday.[38]
Michelle Yeoh received the Excellence in Asian Cinema award during the seventh annual Asian Film Awards on March 2013 in Hong Kong.
On 1 June 2013, she was awarded the Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM) which carries the title Tan Sri during the investiture ceremony in conjunction with the birthday of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah.[39][40]
On 30 November 2013, she presided as the Chief Guest at the International Film Festival of India.[41]
On 12 February 2016 she was conferred France's Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres award by the French government in Kuala Lumpur.
Honours of Malaysia:
Malaysia :
Order of Loyalty to the Crown of Malaysia - PSM.svg Commander of the Order of Loyalty to the Crown of Malaysia (PSM) - Tan Sri (2013)[42][43]
Perak :
MY-PERA Order of the Perak State Crown - lower classes.svg Knight Commander of the Order of the Perak State Crown (DPMP) - Dato' (2001)[42][44]
MY-PERA Order of the Perak State Crown - Kn Grd Commander - SPMP.svg Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Perak State Crown (SPMP) - Dato' Seri (2012)[42]
International Honours:
France :
Legion Honneur Chevalier ribbon.svg Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (2007)[45]
Legion Honneur Officier ribbon.svg Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (2012)[46]
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Officier ribbon.svg Officier of the National Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2016)[47]
Legion Honneur Commandeur ribbon.svg Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (2017)[48]
Awards and nominations:
Year Nominated Work Award:
1986Yes, MadamHong Kong Film Award for Best New PerformerNominated
1998Tomorrow Never DiesMTV Movie Award for Best FightNominated
1998The Soong SistersHong Kong Film Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated
2000Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonTFCA Award for Best Performance, FemaleNominated
2001Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonSaturn Award for Best ActressNominated
2001Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonBAFTA Film Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading RoleNominated
2001Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonBlockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Action TeamNominated
2001Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonGolden Horse Award for Best ActressNominated
2001Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonHong Kong Film Award for Best ActressNominated
2001Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonVFCC Award for Best ActressNominated
2011Reign of AssassinsAsian Film Award for Best ActressNominated
2011Reign of AssassinsPeople's Choice Award for Favorite ActressNominated
2011Reign of AssassinsHuabiao Film Award for Outstanding Abroad ActressNominated
2018Star Trek: DiscoverySaturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role on TelevisionNominated[49]
2019Crazy Rich AsiansThe Asian Awards for Outstanding Achievement in CinemaWon[50]
Special Awards:
Year Award
1998Asian Media Award Won
2001ShoWest Award for International Star of the YearW on
2013Outstanding Contribution to Asian Cinema Won
References:
^ Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac 2010, p. 75
^ "Total Recall: The 25 Best Action Heroines of All Time". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
^ "35 All-Time Screen Beauties: Michelle Yeoh". People. 6 October 2009. ISSN 0093-7673. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
^ Chinatown
^ "Michelle Yeoh Biography (1962–)". film reference. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
^ Chan Li Leen (5 November 2014). "Michelle Yeoh's father passes away". The Star (Malaysia).
^ a b c Kee Hua Chee (19 January 2004). "Her own person". The Star. Malaysia. Retrieved 13 November 2011. Interview.
^ Michelle Yeoh Biography, IMDb. Accessed 13 October 2018.
^ Tourtellotte, Bob (2 August 2008). "Michelle Yeoh brings kicks and poise to 'Mummy'". Reuters. Retrieved 15 May 2011. Yeoh said that as she grows older, she understands her body will not be able to do what it once did with kick boxing and stunts.
^ Cohen, David (11 February 1997). "Bond girl Yeoh gets licence to thrill 007". South China Morning Post.
^ "Bond Leading Lady Won't Do Stunts". Associated Press. 21 May 1997.
^ Chung, Winnie (30 May 1997). "Much More Than Just A Bond Girl". South China Morning Post.
^ "Michelle Yeoh Web Theatre Q&A".
^ "Michelle Yeoh Biography". Scrup.au. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
^ Chung, Philip W. (1 August 2008). "Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh: From 'Tai Chi Master' to 'The Mummy'". AsianWeek. Archived from the original on 17 September 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2008.
^ "Michelle Yeoh, The New Face of Guerlain". Butterboom. 24 October 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
^ "Michelle Yeoh Named as Guerlain's New Celebrity Ambassador". Asia Pacific Arts. 13 October 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
^ Petty, Martin (29 March 2012). "Myanmar's Suu Kyi: from prisoner to would-be lawmaker". Reuters. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
^ "Myanmar Deports Michelle Yeoh Over Suu Kyi Movie". Yahoo News. Associated Press. 27 June 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
^ Frater, Patrick. "Michelle Yeoh and Will Yun Lee Join Final Season of 'Strike Back'". Variety. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
^ Ellwood, Greg. "Strike Back: Legacy episode 4 preview". Entertainment Focus. Entertainment Focus. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
^ Hibbred, J (23 November 2016).'Star Trek Discovery: Michelle Yeoh In Captain Role', Deadline. Retrieved from deadline.com/2016/11/star-trek-discovery-michelle-yeoh-ca..., retrieved on 23 November 2016.
^ Holloway, Daniel (29 November 2016). "'Star Trek: Discovery': Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp Join Michelle Yeoh in Cast". Variety. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
^ "'Crazy Rich Asians' Adds Michelle Yeoh (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
^ Swain, Jon (25 March 2007). "No business like Yeoh business". The Times. London. Retrieved 8 April 2007. (subscription required).
^ "A night on the tiles in the capital of chic". South China Morning Post. 12 January 2019.
^ Sunday, The New Paper; Apr 21; 2013. "'Don't be a traitor, Michelle Yeoh'". www.asiaone.com.
^ "Michelle Yeoh: The lady strikes back". TODAYonline.
^ "Michelle Yeoh: I believe in afterlife". The Buddhist Channel. 29 July 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
^ "The Lady – Interview with Michelle Yeoh". AVIVA-Berlin. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
^ "Bond girl Michelle Yeoh to visit Vietnam for road safety campaign". talkvietnam.com. 22 October 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
^ "Patrons and Supporters". Save China's Tigers. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
^ "Berlinale: 1999 Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
^ "Just Call Me Datuk". Asiaweek. 27 (17). 4 May 2001. ISSN 1012-6244. Archived from the original on 9 May 2001. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
^ "Awards & Recognitions / Achievements". jciklm.org. Archived from the original on 6 December 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
^ "Yeoh receives France's top honour". BBC News. 4 October 2007. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
^ "Michelle Yeoh receives Legion of Honour from France". Bernama via mysinchew.com. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
^ "Datuk Michelle Yeoh now 'Datuk Seri'". Yahoo News. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
^ "She's Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh now". Yahoo News. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
^ "Semakan Penerima Darjah Kebesaran, Bintang dan Pingat".
^ "Actress Michelle Yeoh to be Chief Guest at IFFI Closing Ceremony". Biharprabha News. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
^ a b c "SEMAKAN PENERIMA DARJAH KEBESARAN, BINTANG DAN PINGAT". Prime Minister's Department (Malaysia). Retrieved 25 October 2018.
^ "She's Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh now". Joseph Sipalan and Lee Yen Mun. The Star. 1 June 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
^ "Michelle Yeoh set to receive honour". Desmond Yap. Yahoo! Newsroom. 30 May 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
^ "Actress Michelle Yeoh gets top French award". Reuters. 3 October 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
^ "Michelle Yeoh Receives Legion of Honor from France". Bernama. Malaysian Digest. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
^ "Michelle Yeoh now a Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres". The Star. 12 February 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
^ "Michelle Yeoh now a Commander of the Legion of Honour". The Star. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
^ Hammond, Pete (27 June 2018). "'Black Panther' Tops 44th Saturn Awards With Five; 'Blade Runner 2049' , 'Shape Of Water', 'Get Out' Also Score". Deadline. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
^ "Outstanding Achievement in Cinema – CRAZY RICH ASIANS". The Asian Awards. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
Further reading:
Kho Tong Guan: Yeoh Chu Kheng, Michelle. In: Leo Suryadinata (ed.): Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume I & II. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2012, ISBN 9789814345217, pp. 1347–1350
Ken E. Hall: Michelle Yeoh. In: Garry Bettinson: Directory of World Cinema: CHINA 2. Intellect Books, 2015, ISBN 9781783204007, pp. 71–73
Lisa Funnell: Warrior Women: Gender, Race, and the Transnational Chinese Action Star. Suny Press, 2014, ISBN 9781438452494, pp. 31–57 (chapter Transnational Chinse Mothers: The Heroic Identities of Michelle Yeoh and Pei Pei Cheng)
Rikke Schubart: Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970–2006. McFarland, 2012, ISBN 9780786482849 , pp. 123–143 (chapter Beautiful Vase Made of Iron and Steel Michelle Yeoh).
Franca Coin - Italy
www.venicefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ARTE....
Yutaka Sado - Japan
Yutaka Sado (佐渡 裕, Sado Yutaka, born 13 May 1961 in Kyoto) is a Japanese conductor.
Yutaka Sado, 2016
While still in school, Sado obtained a position in the Kansai Nikikai, a Japanese school of opera, where he had the opportunity to work with the New Japan Philharmonic and the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, learning operatic repertoire. In 1987, he traveled to the United States to attend the Tanglewood Music Festival, where he studied with Seiji Ozawa. Later he won the Davidoff Special Prize for a competition in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He returned to Japan as an assistant to Ozawa and made his debut with the New Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo with a Haydn symphony series. He later studied with Charles Dutoit, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and Leonard Bernstein,[1] with whom he toured the Soviet Union and Germany.
Sado won first prize and became the third Japanese winner (after Seiji Ozawa in 1959 and Yoko Matsuo in 1982) at the 39th annual International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors in Besançon, France in 1989. In 1990, he became a regular participant in the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, along with Christoph Eschenbach and Michael Tilson Thomas. Sado also serves as Artistic Director and Artistic Advisor of the Hyogo Performing Arts Center and principal conductor of the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra which he helped establish in 2005. Sado also is chief conductor of the Siena Wind Orchestra in Japan.
Outside Japan, Sado was Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Lamoureux from 1993 to 2011. He recorded with the Orchestre Lamoureux for such labels as Erato.[2] In October 1995, Sado was named the winner of the first Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem International Music Competition.[3] In 2011, he conducted Beethoven's 9th symphony, with 10,000 Japanese people, for the victims of the 2011 Japanese earthquake. He conducted 10,000 people, previously in 2007 and another time too (the date is unknown). In November 2013, the Tonkünstler Orchestra announced the appointment of Sado as its next principal conductor, effective with the 2015–2016 season, with an initial contract of 3 years.[4][5]
References:
^ Allan Kozinn (19 January 1990). "Bernstein and Thomas Head New Pacific Music Festival". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
^ Roger Nichols (August 2000). "Hommage à l'Orchestre Lamoureux". Gramophone. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ "Japanese Wins Bernstein Competition". The New York Times. 13 October 1995. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
^ "Yutaka Sado wird Chefdirigent des Tonkünstler-Orchesters" (PDF) (Press release). Tonkünstler Orchestra. November 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
^ "Yutaka Sado wird neuer Tonkünstler-Chefdirigent". Der Standard. 6 November 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
External links;
Official website of Yutaka Sado
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Digital Concert Hall, interview with Yutaka Sado
Preceded by:
Valentin KojinPrincipal Conductor, Lamoureux Orchestra
1993–2011Succeeded by:
Fayçal Karoui
Preceded by:
Andrés Orozco-EstradaPrincipal Conductor, Tonkünstler Orchestra
2015–presentSucceeded by: incumbent.
Tan Siah Kwee - Singapore
www.esplanade.com/offstage/arts/tan-siah-kwee
“Before writing, a calligrapher has to gather his concentration in order to perfect his technique on brush and ink, and watch the paper absorb his ink. Through these movements, many different kinds of enjoyment can be produced.”
Tan Siah Kwee was born in Guangdong, China, on 6 Oct 1948, and moved to Singapore in the 1950s, where he began developing an interest in Chinese calligraphy. As founder of the Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore, he has been one of the key promoters of the art form over the past four decades. He has worked tirelessly and taught many, spreading interest in the genre across the island. Tan is also well known for his public calligraphy demonstrations and workshops, and counts important Singapore politicians among his students. In 2000, Tan Received the Cultural Medallion for his contributions to visual arts in Singapore.
Tan Siah Kwee was introduced to Chinese calligraphy while he was a student in Kong Hwa School. Weekly lessons involved calligraphy exercises, and he soon found an interest in the art form. During his time in Chung Cheng High School, he joined the Chinese calligraphy club. And under the guidance of the club’s teachers who saw his potential, his passion and skill in calligraphy grew. Later, he would regard Pan Shou as the person who influenced his calligraphy the most.
Tan credits the art form with teaching him patience and instilling in him an ethos of hard work. His years of determined practice and study has resulted in a calligraphic style that is marked by a bold engagement with paper, clearly defined characters, considered composition and bravura brushwork.
Tan founded the nation’s premiere organisation for calligraphy—the Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore. His perseverance towards the cause of promoting Chinese calligraphy saw the society through its difficult times when membership dropped to only 12 members. Today, the Chinese Calligraphic Society has over 600 members, Tan serving as its president.
Over his illustrious career, he also gave several hundred public and private calligraphic demonstrations, and participated in numerous Singaporean diplomatic missions as a cultural ambassador and performing calligrapher.
Tan has taught calligraphy at his own society and also at the National University of Singapore, the National Institute of Education and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, among other tertiary institutions. Besides students of all ages and races, he also counts former president of Singapore, S. R. Nathan, among his list of distinguished politician-students. Inspired by one of his calligraphy teachers who would give calligraphic prints to his students for reference and practice, Tan continues to provide quality calligraphic materials and equipment for free to his dedicated students.
In 2000, Tan Received the Cultural Medallion for his contributions to visual arts in Singapore.
Today, Tan continues to practise calligraphy, teach—often for free—and contribute his expertise on the subject as advisor and consultant to arts institutions in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and China.
6 Oct 1948. Born in Swatow, Guangdong, Republic of China.
15 Mar 1955. Moved to Singapore.
1956. Enrolled in Kong Hwa Primary.
Carlos Zurita - Spain
Carlos Emilio Juan Zurita y Delgado, Duke of Soria and Hernani (born 9 October 1943 in Antequera), is the husband of Infanta Margarita and uncle of King Felipe VI of Spain.
Carlos Zurita
Duke of Soria and Hernani
The Duchess and Duke of Soria
Born: 9 October 1943 (age 76). Antequera, Málaga, Spain
Spouse: Infanta Margarita, 2nd Duchess of Hernani (m. 1972)
Issue:
Don Alfonso Zurita y de Borbón
Doña María Zurita y de Borbón
Full name: Carlos Emilio Juan Zurita y Delgado
Father: Carlos Zurita y González-Vidalte
Mother: María del Carmen Delgado y Fernández de Santaella
He was born to Carlos Zurita y González-Vidalte[1] and wife María del Carmen Delgado y Fernández de Santaella[2] in Antequera, Málaga, Spain.
The Duke of Soria is a retired medical doctor and was, as his father, a specialist in the respiratory and circulatory system. He studied at the medical faculty of the University of Seville, where he obtained a licentiate in medicine with accompanying award "Premio Extraordinario de Licenciatura" for extraordinary merit in 1967.[3] He received his doctorate with a scholarship at the Spanish College in Bologna, Italy. In 1971, the duke gained the position of teacher service manager of the Spanish National College of the Thorax Illness.[4]
He married Infanta Margarita, on 12 October 1972 in Estoril at St. Anthony's Church. They have two children:
Don Alfonso Juan Carlos Zurita y de Borbón (b. Madrid, 9 August 1973).
Doña María Sofía Emilia Carmen Zurita y de Borbón (b. Madrid, 16 September 1975). She has a son, Carlos, born on 28 April 2018 in Madrid.[5]
In 1989, the Duke and the Duchess of Soria created the Fundación Cultural Duques de Soria (The Duke and Duchess of Soria Cultural Foundation), its objective is to stimulate the Spanish language and culture. The Foundation cooperates with universities and Spanish cultural institutions to contribute the cultural and scientific development in Spain.[6]
The Duke of Soria is President of the Spanish Federation of the Museums Friends Associations and President of the Friends of Prado Museum Foundation. He also is a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine.[4]
Titles, styles, honours and arms.
Titles:
9 October 1943 – 1967: Mr. Carlos Zurita y Delgado
1967 – 12 October 1972: Dr. Carlos Zurita y Delgado
12 October 1972 – 27 May 1981: His Excellency Don Carlos Zurita y Delgado
27 May – 23 June 1981: His Excellency The Duke of Hernani
23 June 1981 – present: His Excellency The Duke of Soria and Hernani
The Duke's style and title in full: His Excellency Don Carlos Emilio Juan Zurita y Delgado de Borbón, Duke of Soria, Duke of Hernani, Grandee of Spain.
Honours:
See also: List of honours of the Spanish Royal Family by country
In 2003, the Duke and Duchess of Soria were appointed Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise of Spain.[7]
References:
^ Obituary of his father
^ (in Spanish) www.geneall.net (accessed 2 November 2008)
^ Los títulos de la familia del Rey - website of the Spanish newspaper El Mundo
^ a b (in Spanish) Anales de la Real Academia Nacional de Medicina Archived January 18, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Duke of Soria’s laudatio in his appointment as member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine by Hipólito Durán Sacristán, 235-242. (accessed 2 November 2008)
^ Vanitatis
^ (in Spanish) The Duke and Duchess of Soria Cultural Foundation website. (accessed 2 November 2008)
^ (in Spanish) Royal Decree 484/2003 The Duke of Soria member of the Spanish Royal Order of Alfonso X. BOE, Spanish Official Journal. (accessed 2 November 2008).
Griff Rhys Jones - United Kingdom
This British surname is barrelled, being made up of multiple names. It should be written as Rhys Jones, not Jones.
Griffith Rhys Jones OBE (born 16 November 1953) is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. He starred in a number of television series with his comedy partner, Mel Smith.
Griff Rhys Jones: OBE
Rhys Jones in March 2014
Birth name: Griff Rhys Jones
Born: 16 November 1953 (age 66)[1]. Cardiff, Wales
Medium: Film, television
Years active: 1979–present
Genres: Improvisational comedy, sketch comedy
Spouse: Jo Jones
Rhys Jones came to national attention in the 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones. With Smith, he founded television production company Talkback Productions, now part of RTL Group and later in 2005, he started the production company Modern Television.[2]
He went on to develop a career as a television presenter and writer, as well as continuing with acting work. From 2008 until 2016, he presented the television bloopers show It'll be Alright on the Night for ITV, having replaced Denis Norden who hosted the show for almost 30 years. Rhys Jones was himself replaced on the show in 2018 by David Walliams.[3]
Early life and education:
Rhys Jones was born in Cardiff, the son of Gwynneth Margaret (née Jones) and Elwyn Rhys Jones,[4] a medical doctor. The family moved because of his father's occupation to West Sussex when he was 6 months old.[5] Rhys Jones attended Conifers Primary School in Midhurst, West Sussex, junior school in Epping, Essex, and Brentwood School, also in Essex.[6]
After a short spell working as a petrol pump attendant, Rhys Jones gained a gap year job on the P&O ship Uganda, working for a company organising school trips. In his autobiography, Semi-Detached, he describes how he was charged with helping to look after 600 Canadian schoolgirls, followed by a similar number of younger Scottish schoolchildren, and refers to the experience as being like "St Trinians at sea".[7] He wrote to eight of the Canadians afterwards.[8]
Rhys Jones read History and English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating with a 2:1.[9]
Career:
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This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification.
After Cambridge, Rhys Jones then joined BBC Radio Light Entertainment as a trainee producer, with his output including the satirical show Week Ending and Brain of Britain.[10]
An evening planned to spend watching his hero Frankie Howerd at the invitation of friends Clive Anderson and Rory McGrath, who were writing the show at the time, resulted in Rhys Jones replacing the show's producer, who had suffered from a stress-related illness from dealing with the comedian. He later produced Rowan Atkinson's show The Atkinson People for the BBC and has appeared twice on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Rhys Jones filled in several minor roles in the first series of Not the Nine O'Clock News, and was brought in as a regular cast member from the second series onwards, replacing Chris Langham. Rhys Jones says that the reason he got the part was not due to his appearance in the initial shows, or his talent, but because producer John Lloyd was going out with his sister at the time. Rhys Jones became a regular from the commissioned second series.
Rhys Jones was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1984 (1983 season) for Best Comedy Performance in Charley's Aunt and in 1994 (1993 season) for Best Comedy Performance for his performance in An Absolute Turkey. He also played Toad in The Wind in the Willows at the National Theatre in 1990, as well as a number of other theatre roles. He provided the voices on the series of short cartoons Funnybones, for which he also sang the theme tune.
Rhys Jones has continued his acting career, having roles in Casualty and Agatha Christie's Marple as well as starring in Russell T Davies' drama series Mine All Mine on ITV. It'll be Alright on the Night returned with Rhys Jones as the new presenter, taking over from Denis Norden. The first programme starring Rhys Jones aired in 2008.
In January 2012, Rhys Jones returned to sketch comedy at the BBC alongside "some of the biggest names in TV", including Hugh Bonneville, Tom Hollander and Larry Lamb, for one of a three episode series in which comedy legends take to the stage for a mix of stand-up and sketches. It also featured a special guest appearance by former comedy partner Mel Smith in a new Head to Head sketch, referring many times to it having been 16 years since their last.[11]
Partnership with Mel Smith:
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This section relies largely or entirely on a single source.
After Not the Nine O'Clock News, Mel Smith and Rhys Jones decided to create and write more material together, and to start a management company. From 1984, Smith and Rhys Jones appeared in the comedy sketch series Alas Smith and Jones (the show's title being a pun on the American television series Alias Smith and Jones). After the first series, the pair appeared on the big screen in Mike Hodges' sci fi comedy movie Morons from Outer Space and then in 1989, the LWT production Wilt.
Smith and Rhys Jones were reunited in March 2005, for a Comic Relief sketch, which led to a revival of their previous television series in The Smith and Jones Sketchbook, recorded that same year but aired over twelve months later. Their final television appearance together was a Head To Head routine for the special of 2012 The One Griff Rhys-Jones.
When Smith died in the summer of 2013, Rhys Jones wrote a moving piece about his comedy partner in the Radio Times, saying it was "sheer bliss" to perform with Mel.[12]
Production companies:
In 1981, Rhys Jones along with Mel Smith founded Talkback, a production company which produced many of the most popular British comedy series of the past two decades, including Smack the Pony, Da Ali G Show, I'm Alan Partridge, They Think It's All Over, QI and Big Train. They eventually sold the company to Pearson for £62 million.
In 2005, Rhys Jones created his own production company 'Modern Television',[13] which has since made a number of productions with Rhys Jones as presenter[14] and executive producer.
Documentaries:
Rhys Jones has developed a career as a television presenter, beginning as the co-host on several Comic Relief programmes. He presented Bookworm from 1994 to 2000, was the presenter of the BBC's Restoration programme and has done a considerable amount of fundraising work for the Hackney Empire theatre conservation project. In 2004, he led a demonstration at the Senate House in Cambridge University for the purpose of saving architecture as a degree in Cambridge.
Since 2006, Rhys Jones has starred in the BBC's Three Men in a Boat series, alongside Dara Ó Briain and Rory McGrath.[15] The series has included the trio rowing the River Thames, as in the 1889 novel, sailing from London to the Isle of Wight for a sailing boat race, borrowing numerous vessels to make their way from Plymouth to the Isles of Scilly.
In more recent adventures, the three took to the Irish Canals and Rivers on a trip from Dublin to Limerick (Dara's Greyhound Snip Nua also tagged along for the trip), went to Scotland, and sailed along the Balkan coast ending up in Venice for a gondola race. His documentary series Mountain, for which he climbed 15 British peaks during 2006,[16] was broadcast on BBC One 29 July–26 August 2007.
Rhys Jones fronted Greatest Cities of the World, which saw him visiting a different city each week. The first series, featuring London, New York and Paris, aired on primetime ITV in October 2008. A second series featuring Rome, Sydney and Hong Kong was broadcast in April and May 2010.
He presented a seasonal documentary, Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas, which was broadcast on 23 December 2007 on BBC One.[17]
Rhys Jones has also created and presented programmes about Arthur Ransome,[18] Thomas Hardy,[19] John Betjeman[20] and Rudyard Kipling.[21]
During July to August 2009, Rhys Jones presented the BBC programme Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones.[22] which featured on the cover of Radio Times[23]
In 2010, Rhys Jones presented a programme called The Prince's Welsh Village that featured Prince Charles.[24]
In 2011, he presented the series Hidden Treasures of Art, which examined the art of Australia, India and Africa over the course of three episodes.[25]
Rhys Jones presented Britain's Lost Routes with Griff Rhys Jones[26] on BBC One from 30 May to 20 June 2012. The show looked at lesser known routes around Great Britain. On 29 April 2012, Rhys Jones guest presented an episode of Perspectives on ITV, his chosen subject being Wind in the Willows.[citation needed]
In 2013, Rhys Jones presented a documentary about his father's service as a medical officer with the Gold Coast Regiment and the war in Burma,[27] Burma, My Father and the Forgotten Army, was broadcast on BBC Two on 7 July.[28]
In 2014, Rhys Jones fronted an eight-part ITV documentary series entitled A Great Welsh Adventure with Griff Rhys Jones.[29]
From 10 April 2015, he introduced a five-part documentary series for ITV, Slow Train Through Africa, taking in life on and off trains from Morocco to South Africa, by way of Algeria, Tunisia, Kenya and Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia.[30]
In December 2015, it was announced that Rhys Jones would present Griff's Great Britain, a new eight-part series for ITV.[31] The show began airing in January 2016.
Radio:
In 2002, Rhys Jones starred in a series of adaptations of comedic stories by Nikolai Gogol broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (subsequently re-broadcast on BBC Radio 7 and BBC Radio 4 Extra) under the umbrella title of Three Ivans, Two Aunts and an Overcoat.[citation needed]
Stage:
Rhys Jones won Olivier awards for best comedy performance in Charley's Aunt (1984) and An Absolute Turkey (1994), and appeared at the National Theatre as Toad in The Wind in the Willows in 1990. He starred as Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh's acclaimed production of Oliver! in London's West End from 14 December 2009 until 8 January 2011.[citation needed]
Writing:
Rhys Jones has written or co-written many of the programmes he has appeared in, and a number of spin-off books. In 2002, he started writing a book called To the Baltic with Bob, describing his adventures on the high seas with his sailing friend Bob, as they make their way to Saint Petersburg, port by port.[32]
Rhys Jones released the book in 2003, saying of the experience: "As a child you go out and play and you lose all track of time and space. It's harder and harder to attain that blissful state of absorption as you get older. I did a six-month sailing trip to St Petersburg with some mates just to get it back."[8]
His early life has been captured in his autobiography, Semi-Detached, published in 2006 by Penguin Books. His book to accompany the BBC One series Mountain was published in July 2007.[33]
Other work:
During 1999 to 2001, Rhys Jones featured in television adverts for the Vauxhall range of cars, as a "boffin". In April 2001, he was dismissed by Vauxhall, after an embarrassing advert for the Vauxhall VX220.[34] He officially signed the deal in May 1999.[35]
Rhys Jones provided the voice over for Brentwood School's 450th anniversary DVD, reading a script written by fellow Old Brentwoodian Jonathan Ruffle.[36]
Rhys Jones is a Vice President of the Victorian Society and has done much to publicise their Top Ten Endangered Buildings.[37] Since 2007, he has been a Vice President of the River Stour Trust, a registered charity led by volunteers who are dedicated to the restoration and conservation of the River Stour Navigation for the benefit and enjoyment of the public. Rhys Jones says, "I am a strong supporter of the River Stour Trust and everything to do with it. The riverway is so beautiful and unspoilt, especially with the wildlife and water-lilies and bullrushes, it is just terrific. It is a great example of why rivers should be open to people...I salute the River Stour Trust for opening the locks...it is supposed to be a river that traffic travels on."[citation needed]
In June 2008, it was announced that Rhys Jones was to become the President of Civic Voice, the nationwide charity that campaigns for better places in the built and green environment.[38]
In May 2014, Rhys Jones was executive producer on his production company's debut BBC drama A Poet in New York starring Tom Hollander as Dylan Thomas.[39]
Filmography:
YearTitleRoleNotes
1979–82Not the Nine O'Clock NewsVarious
1984–98Alas Smith and JonesVarious
1984The Young OnesHost of University ChallengeEpisode – "Bambi"
1985Morons from Outer SpaceGraham Sweetley
1989WiltHenry Wilt
1992FunnybonesAll voices
1994–2000BookwormPresenter
1994Monty the DogAll voices
1994Staggered (film)Graham
2003–09RestorationPresenter
2004Mine All MineMax Vivaldi
2006–11Three Men in a BoatPresenter
2007MountainPresenter
2008–16It'll be Alright on the NightPresenter
2008–10Greatest Cities of the WorldPresenter
2009Rivers with Griff Rhys JonesPresenter
2010The Prince's Welsh VillagePresenter
2012Britain's Lost Routes with Griff Rhys JonesPresenter
2014A Great Welsh Adventure with Griff Rhys JonesPresenter
2013Burma, My Father and the Forgotten ArmyPresenter
2015Slow Train Through Africa with Griff Rhys JonesPresenter
2015The QuizeumPresenter
2016Griff's Great BritainPresenter
2017Murder on the Blackpool ExpressDavid
2019Griff's Great Kiwi Road TripPresenter
Personal life:
Rhys Jones met his wife, Jo, a graphic designer, while working at the BBC. He has described their first meeting by saying "The day we met, I was semi naked and she was throwing water over me." The couple have two children, and live between homes in London (previously in Islington, now in a Grade I listed house in London's Fitzrovia in the West End) and Holbrook in Suffolk.[40][41] Rhys Jones owned Undina, the 45-foot (14 m), fifty year old wooden sailing yacht which was used in Three Men in Another Boat; he spent £500,000 on her restoration and in 2013 stated she was for sale for £195,000, "probably less".[42]
Around 2011, he bought a 1948 57-foot (17 m) wooden yacht, Argyll, which he races at various regattas, including the Fastnet Race.[42][43] He and Jo are keen gardeners, and he discussed their extensive garden in an October 2015 episode of BBC Gardeners' World, part of which was filmed there.[44]
A former heavy drinker, Rhys Jones is a teetotaller: "I don't drink so going to a party can become very tedious. By about 11 o'clock, everybody goes to another planet and you're not there with them, so I tend to avoid that sort of thing."[40] He started running as a leisure pursuit in his early forties. In 2008, he presented two programmes called Losing It which were shown on BBC Two, in which he discussed his own problems with anger management.[citation needed]
An active conservationist, Rhys Jones is the president of Civic Voice, the national organisation representing Britain's civic societies. He also owns a small pack of alpacas.[45]
In August 2014, Rhys Jones was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.[46]
A resident of East Anglia, Rhys Jones was awarded an honorary degree by the University of East Anglia in 2002.[32]
He was awarded honorary degrees by the University of Glamorgan, the University of Essex[6] and an honorary D.Litt from Anglia Ruskin University.[47] He is also a Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama,[48] the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Fellow of his alma mater, Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[49] In 2009 he was honoured by his father's former university, the University of Wales College of Medicine (now part of Cardiff University).[9]
Rhys Jones was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to the National Civic Society Movement, charity and entertainment.[50][51]
Family:
Rhys Jones returned to his mother's roots in Ferndale, Rhondda Cynon Taff for the purposes of an episode of the BBC One series Who Do You Think You Are?, broadcast on 20 September 2007. In the episode, he detailed early memories and stories of his grandparents' fruit and vegetable shop on the high street and his mother's childhood concert performances at Trerhondda Chapel.[citation needed]
See also:
Grouted roof, a building technique that Jones employed when restoring Trehilyn farmhouse, causing controversy in the process.
References:
^ "Rhys Jones, Griff (1953–)". Retrieved 11 December 2017.
^ "Griffith Rhys Jones biography". Modern Television. Archived from the original on 18 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
^ Reynolds, Simon Rhys Jones to host 'Alright On The Night'. Digital Spy, 15 August 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2017
^ "Griffith Rhys Jones biography". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
^ Matthew Stadlen "Griff Rhys Jones: 'I’m greedy for life – I do too many things'", The Daily Telegraph, 3 November 2014.
^ a b "Essex announces honorary graduands". essex.ac.uk. 4 May 2010. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013.
^ Semi-Detached, Griff Rhys Jones' autobiography, Penguin, 2006
^ a b Michael Odell, "This much I know: Griff Rhys Jones", The Guardian, 5 November 2006. Retrieved 3 March 2007.
^ a b "Degree for Griff Rhys Jones from father's old university". South Wales Echo. 14 July 2009.
^ "Griff Rhys Jones profile". Screenonline.org.uk. 16 November 1953. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
^ BBC series: The Ones, BBC. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
^ "Griff Rhys Jones on his comedy soul mate Mel Smith". Radio Times. 3 August 2013.
^ "Modern TV". Archived from the original on 18 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
^ "Griff Presenter Burma". Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
^ "Interview: Griff Rhys Jones". The Tab. 3 May 2012.
^ Rhys Jones, Griff (2007). Mountain: Exploring Britain's High Places (1st ed.). Michael Joseph Ltd. ISBN 0-7181-4989-0.
^ Radio Times, 22 December 2007 – 4 January 2008.
^ "The Secret Life of Arthur Ransome", BBC.
^ Serena Davies, "The Heart of Thomas Hardy", The Telegraph, 3 September 2008.
^ Helen Brown, "A tribute to the poet of privet hedges", The Telegraph, 19 August 2006.
^ Kipling: A Remembrance Tale, BBC, 12 November 2006.
^ "Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones – BBC One". BBC.
^ "Radio Times Cover July 2009".
^ "Modern TV: The Prince's Welsh Village". Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
^ Hidden Treasures Of Art, Amazon.com. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
^ "Britain's Lost Route". Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
^ "Guardian Article".
^ "Burma Doc". Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
^ "A Great Welsh Adventure With Griff Rhys Jones". Archived from the original on 6 October 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
^ Slow Train Through Africa with Griff Rhys Jones, Programme preview, ITV corporate website, Undated. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
^ "Griff’s Great Britain", itv.com, 1 December 2015.
^ a b "My Cardiff". Archived from the original on 19 February 2006. Retrieved 26 April 2017.. Retrieved 3 March 2007.
^ "Griff Rhys Jones". Retrieved 15 October 2018.
^ Roland Gribben (13 April 2001). "Vauxhall gives comedian the boot". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
^ "Rhys Jones to star in 12.5m Vauxhall Zafira launch". Marketing Week. 20 May 1999. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
^ "Famous OB Griff Rhys Jones records DVD voice over". brentwoodschool.co.uk. 10 March 2008. Archived from the original on 15 January 2014.
^ Griff Rhys Jones Victorian Society's Top Ten Endangered Buildings (2015) on YouTube
^ Writer, actor and comedian Griff Rhys Jones becomes President of the Civic Trust Archived 30 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine, civictrust.org.uk. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
^ "Tom Hollander cast as Dylan Thomas in new drama A Poet in New York". BBC Media Centre. 9 April 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
^ a b "Clowning around with Mr Jones". BBC Entertainment. 14 May 1999. Retrieved 3 March 2007.
^ Griff on an even keel in suffolk | Celebrity Interviews | EADT Suffolk Magazine Retrieved 16 February 2018.
^ a b "Q & A BY Griff Rhys Jones". Classic Yacht Argyll. 2013. Archived from the original on 5 May 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
^ James Boyd (23 August 2015). "2015 Rolex Fastnet Race – Five boats remain at sea". sail-world.com. Archived from the original on 5 May 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
^ "Episode 30". BBC Gardeners' World. Episode 30. 16 October 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
^ Moffitt, Dominic. "Come and meet my alpacas! Celebrity Griff Rhys Jones invites youngster to his Suffolk home". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
^ "Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories". The Guardian. London. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
^ "Anglia Ruskin University Honorary Graduates". anglia.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 17 December 2012.
^ "Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama – Honorary Fellows". rwcmd.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012.
^ "Emmanuel College – About Emmanuel – The Fellows". University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 11 June 2012.
^ "Birthday Honours 2019: Olivia Colman and Bear Grylls on list". BBC News. 8 June 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
^ "No. 62666". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 2019. p. B12.
External links:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Griff Rhys Jones.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Griff Rhys Jones
Griff Rhys Jones on IMDb
Griff Rhys Jones at British Comedy Guide
TLS editor Peter Stothard remembers his schooldays with Rhys Jones
Griff Rhys Jones – Official website
Griff Rhys Jones Myspace appreciation group[permanent dead link]
Griff Rhys Jones – Vice President, River Stour Trust
Preceded by
Simon LeveneFootlights Vice President
1975–1976Succeeded by
Nicholas Hytner.
Rosie O’Donnell - USA
Roseann O'Donnell (born March 21, 1962)[2] is an American comedian, producer, actress, author, and television personality. She began her comedy career as a teenager and received her breakthrough on the television series Star Search in 1984. After a series of television and film roles that introduced her to a larger national audience, O'Donnell hosted her own syndicated daytime talk show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, between 1996 and 2002, which won several Daytime Emmy Awards. During this period, she developed the nickname "Queen of Nice", as well as a reputation for philanthropy.
O'Donnell at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Born: Roseann O'Donnell[1]. March 21, 1962 (age 57). Commack, New York, U.S.
Occupation: Television personality, comedian, actress, author producer
Years active: 1979–present
Spouse(s): Kelli Carpenter (m. 2004; annul. 2004), Michelle Rounds (m. 2012; div. 2015)
Children: 5
Relatives: Daniel J. O'Donnell (brother)
Website:
www.rosie.com Edit this at Wikidata
From 2006 to 2007, O'Donnell endured a controversial run as the moderator on the daytime talk show The View, which included a public feud with Donald Trump and on-air disputes regarding the Bush administration's policies with the Iraq War. She hosted Rosie Radio on Sirius XM Radio between 2009 and 2011, and from 2011 to 2012 hosted a second, short-lived daytime talk show on OWN, The Rosie Show. O'Donnell returned to The View in 2014, leaving after a brief five-month run due to personal issues. From 2017 to 2019, she starred on the Showtime comedy series SMILF.
In addition to comedy, film, and television, O'Donnell has also been a magazine editor, celebrity blogger, and author of several memoirs, including Find Me (2002) and Celebrity Detox (2007). She used the Find Me $3 million advance to establish her For All foundation and promote other charity projects, encouraging celebrities on her show to take part.
She has also been an outspoken advocate for lesbian rights and gay adoption issues. O'Donnell is a foster and adoptive mother. She was named The Advocate's 2002 Person of the Year; in May 2003, she became a regular contributor to the magazine. O'Donnell also continues to be a television producer and a collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company, R Family Vacations.
Early life:
O'Donnell, the third of five children, was born and raised in Commack, Long Island, New York.[3][4] She is the daughter of homemaker Roseann Teresa (née Murtha; 1934–1973) and Edward Joseph O'Donnell (1933–2015), an electrical engineer who worked in the defense industry.[4] O'Donnell's father had immigrated from County Donegal, Ireland during his childhood, and her mother was Irish American; O'Donnell was raised Roman Catholic.[1][5] Her older brother is Daniel J. O'Donnell, now a member of the New York State Assembly.[6] On March 17, 1973, four days before her 11th birthday, O'Donnell lost her mother to breast cancer.[2] While she attended Commack High School, O'Donnell was voted homecoming queen, prom queen, senior class president, and class clown.[3] During high school, she began exploring her interest in comedy, beginning with a skit performed in front of the school in which she imitated Gilda Radner's character Roseanne Roseannadanna.[2] After graduating in 1980, O'Donnell briefly attended Dickinson College, later transferring to Boston University before ultimately dropping out of college.[3]
Career:
Early work:
O'Donnell toured as a stand-up comedian in clubs from 1979 to 1984.[7] She got her first big break on Star Search, explaining on Larry King Live:[8].
Brief History of Norfolk as a Penal Settlement.
As noted previously Norfolk was settled to provide flax fibre rope, flax sails and tree masts from Norfolk Island pine trees and also because it was uninhabited. It was also an island paradise with rich volcanic soils. Its only major drawback was its isolation and its lack of a good harbour. Its history falls into several phases.
Phase One- 1788-1814. This phase was run along the same lines as the settlement of Sydney. Both men and women convicts were quartered here. The women were to work making flax rope and sails and the men were to do the building, road making, land clearing, agriculture and stone masonry work. Some free settlers came too. The settlement was centred on Kingston (then called Sydney) and nearby Arthur’s Vale (watermill valley.) By 1806 the population had reached over 1,000 people. Then for financial reasons- the cost of sending supply ships from Sydney to Norfolk was too great- the evacuation of the island was ordered. Convicts and other settlers were moved to Van Diemen’s Land- hence the settlements there of New Norfolk and Norfolk Plains (later Longford.)
Phase Two- 1825-1855. This time the island was run as a total penitentiary for the worse offenders. There would be no escape from Norfolk Island. Conditions were harsh, severe and degrading. It was a place of extreme punishment. The worst commandant was Captain Turton. During the period 1840-44 conditions were slightly better. Free settlers were not encouraged to settle during this second phase but a few of the best behaved convicts were allowed to work small farms across the island. Massive government expenditure on the penitentiary meant that fine sandstone Georgian buildings were erected and like Port Arthur in Tasmania many of them still remain. A large prison was built in the 1840s, and the prison required large military barracks, large stores and Commissariat stores, officer headquarters, a large hospital etc and good quality homes for the prison and military officers on the island. Kingston remained the administration and shipping centre of the island.
Phase Three – 1856-. In the third phase some of the original stone buildings were dismantled or left to go to ruins. Some were burnt down or the stone re-used for other structures. But the major feature of this period was the introduction of 194 Pitcairn Islanders in 1856. Norfolk remained isolated and largely forgotten. At one stage the Governor of NSW (the British Crown representative in charge of the island) ordered that the Pitcairn Islanders could no longer reside in the former penal settlement buildings in Kingston. This was in 1908 just before the Commonwealth government took charge. The resentment of this change led to fires and some beautiful buildings being destroyed. In 1893 Norfolk got a telegraph office and an underwater cable link to the world via Canada. Soon it had a cable link to New Zealand and a cable station opened at Anson Bay in 1902. Once it became a territory of the new Australian federal government conditions improved a little. Shipping came irregularly but during World War Two the Australian government built an airstrip for defence reasons. Flights continued after the War and now the main linkage between Norfolk and Australia is by air. The federal government has also put more money into other facilities on the island including the Botanic Gardens, and all the restoration work at Kingston etc.
Norfolk Island – an introduction.
By lunch time we will be settled into our accommodation on Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island is just five by eight kilometres and it was first discovered in 1774 by Captain James Cook on his second South Pacific voyage of exploration. Today the island is a territory of Australia, part of the Commonwealth but with a large degree of independence and self government. It is one of Australia’s eleven territories (Northern Territory; ACT; Jervis Bay; Christmas Island; Cocos Islands; Ashmore Islands; Coral Sea Islands; Antarctic Territories; Heard Island and Indian Ocean Islands.) Norfolk’s residents are not represented in the Australian parliament. It has its own stamps, flag governing body etc. The census of August 2011 recorded a population of 2,302 people. It has a constant influx of tourists as well with the island receiving about 12,000 visitors a year mainly from Australia.
The main population centres are in the middle of the island at Burnt Pine and Middlegate. The old convict settlement is on the coast at Kingston. The highest point is Mt Bates at 319 metres or 1,045 feet. Nearby by is Mt Pitt at just over 1,000 feet high and it is an old volcanic cone indicating the origins of Norfolk Island. Cook named it after the British Prime Minister William Pitt, Earl of Chatham and PM during the 1750s and again 1766-68. Norfolk Island is one of a series of volcanic islands on the top of the Lord Howe seamount or ridge which stretches from New Zealand to New Caledonia. The volcanic islands that emerge from the sea are New Zealand, Norfolk, Lord Howe and New Caledonia extending along a zone more than 1,600 kms in length. Near Norfolk the submarine trench is around 33,000 feet deep. Norfolk Island territory has two nearby uninhabited islands named Phillip and Nepean Islands and both are visible from Kingston. Approximately 10% of the island is a National Park centred round Mt Pitt and Mt Bates. There are 178 species of native plants on the island and 40 of these are unique to Norfolk. Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla) is still abundant. It can reach a height of over 150 feet. It constitutes the emblem on the Norfolk Island flag. The other endemic tree, now widely grown as an ornamental in Australia is the Norfolk Island Hibiscus (Lagunaria patersonii). The island also grows the Norfolk Island palm, many ferns, and a native passionfruit. The island has no mammals or amphibians, and only a couple of reptiles - a skink and a gecko. The coral formations around the island teem with marine life and are home to many tropical fish, eels, octopus, starfish etc. The island provides a good habitat for many local and migratory birds including the wedge-tailed shearwater, (Puffinus pacificus) whose moaning calls echo around the island at night!
Norfolk Island was the second settlement of the Australian region following the arrival of the British and their convicts at Sydney Cove. Just six weeks after arrival at Sydney Cove in 1788 some 23 free settlers, 15 convicts, and commandant Lieutenant Phillip Parker King landed on Norfolk. Several hundred more convicts and settlers were sent from Sydney to Norfolk in 1790. It was 14 years later that the third Australian settlement was made in Van Diemen’s Land (1804) at Hobart. Norfolk started out as part of NSW and later became part of Van Diemen’s Land. But after the closure of the convict settlement by the British government in 1855 on Norfolk they set the island aside for the people from Pitcairn Island and many Norfolk residents still dispute Australia’s control of Norfolk Island as an Australian territory. Britain has never regarded Norfolk Island as a separate British colony.
The old school text book explanation for the settlement of Norfolk Island is largely true. The British government wanted to access the New Zealand flax plants growing on the island ( Phormium tenax.) The NZ flax was not native but archaeologists believe Polynesians, probably Maoris, introduced flax to Norfolk Island about 600 to 800 years ago. (They introduced the common rat at the same time!) As a naval empire Britain needed supplies of flax rope and flax sails for its sailing fleets. At the time of the settlement of Norfolk Island (1788) Britain obtained its wooden masts from Nova Scotia and its hemp and flax from Russia. Britain wanted new supplies of both masts and rope and sails as they feared the relationship with Russia would be terminated. Because of these concerns Norfolk Island was settled early in 1788 and many female convicts were sent to Norfolk Island so that they could weave and sew the flax and rope. When the second lot of convicts went to Norfolk in 1790 there were 150 females aboard the ship but only 30 male convicts. But by the early 1800s the authorities realised that the convict women would not be able to produce much rope or cloth. Only one ship ever left Norfolk with locally produced sails. Additionally, the tall, straight Norfolk Island pines proved unsuitable for ship masts as the wood was too soft and lacked strength. Thus the commercial justifications for settling Norfolk as a penal settlement diminished. But the origins of Norfolk are fascinating. One of the 1790 ships taking convicts to Norfolk, the former flagship of the First Fleet to Botany Bay was shipwrecked near Kingston whilst unloading supplies. Hundreds of artifacts have been retrieved from the wreck of the Sirius, including three anchors and two carronades which are displayed in the Norfolk Island Museum. The loss of the Sirius left Sydney settlement with just one supply ship normally used to obtain flour from Cape Town.
The Howard Smith Wharves were constructed 1934-early 1940s by the Queensland government to provide relief work during the depression years of the 1930s. Initially known as the Brisbane Central Wharves, the project was undertaken in conjunction with the construction of the Story Bridge, one of the Forgan-Smith government's principal employment-generating projects. Like other such schemes, the Brisbane Central Wharves not only provided employment, but established important infrastructure for Queensland's future development. Brisbane Central Wharves were leased by the Australian coastal shipping company Howard Smith Co. Ltd from the mid-1930s until the early 1960s, and are more usually referred to as the Howard Smith Wharves.
The site had an even earlier connection with Howard Smith, as the Brisbane Central Wharves replaced smaller wharves constructed in the early years of the 20th century by Brisbane Wharves Ltd, for lease by William Howard Smith & Sons Ltd [later Howard Smith Co. Ltd].
The construction of wharves beyond Circular Quay was part of the gradual move downstream of port facilities at Brisbane, in a process which began in the 1840s. Following the opening of Moreton Bay to free settlement in 1842, commercial wharf facilities were erected at South Brisbane, which offered more direct access for Darling Downs and Ipswich commodities than the north bank of the river where the government wharf [Queen's Wharf] was located. By 1850 there were 5 commercial wharves on the south side of the Brisbane River.
However, following the declaration of Brisbane as a port of entry in 1846, a customs house was built in Queen Street near the Town Reach of the Brisbane River, on the north side of the river at Petrie Bight. From this time, the Town Reach rivalled South Brisbane in terms of shipping activity. In the late 1840s, 1850s and 1860s, a number of shipping companies and private investors constructed wharves and warehouses between Petrie Bight and Alice Street, near the botanic gardens. To encourage private business activity the colonial government and Brisbane Municipal Council also built wharves along Petrie Bight in the 1870s and leased them to shipping companies. By 1900 the Brisbane Municipal Council owned a string of wharves from the custom's house to Boundary Street.
Private companies constructed wharves further downstream at New Farm, Teneriffe and Newstead from the early 1900s. In the 1920s-30s the government built railway wharves at Pinkenba, branch rail lines to Teneriffe and Hamilton, and the state cold stores and reinforced concrete wharves at Hamilton. After the Story Bridge was opened in 1940 most large overseas and interstate vessels did not use the wharves at the Town Reach. Hamilton became the heart of Brisbane's port, and the part of the river from the South Brisbane Reach, round the Town Reach to Petrie Bight lost the ascendancy it had around the turn of the century. Since the 1960s, most of Brisbane's port activity has relocated to the mouth of the river.
In the 1880s William Howard Smith & Sons Ltd [later Howard Smith Co. Ltd] leased the Commercial Wharf on the Town Reach from the Brisbane Municipal Council. Howard Smith was one of several important shipping companies which traded on the Australian coast from the mid-19th century, and was one of the earliest. The business was established in Melbourne in 1854 by Captain William Howard Smith, and in the second half of the 19th century developed as one of the dominant companies in the Australian coastal shipping trade. Initially the firm traded between Melbourne and England, but in 1860 entered the inter-colonial trade, and from 1864 concentrated solely on this. Howard Smith was trading in central Queensland by the early 1870s, and in the 1880s extended its operations to northern Queensland. In the 1890s, the firm entered into a strong rivalry with other coastal shipping companies for the lucrative intra- and inter-colonial passenger trade.
In the late 1890s, Howard Smith moved downstream from the Commercial Wharves to the Brisbane City Council's Boundary Street Wharf at Petrie Bight, and in the early years of the 20th century leased adjacent new wharves constructed by Brisbane Wharves Limited at the base of the New Farm cliffs. These wharves were extended c1912 and in the 1920s, and in the 1930s were resumed by the Queensland government and rebuilt as the Brisbane Central Wharves.
The resumption and rebuilding of the Brisbane Central Wharves was an adjunct to the construction of the Story Bridge between Kangaroo Point and Fortitude Valley. As part of the bridge project the state government had resolved to improve the Brisbane River at Petrie Bight, by widening it to a uniform width of 800 feet (240 m), deepening the draught to about 26 feet (8 m), and improving the river approaches. This necessitated demolishing the existing wharves and sheds at the Brisbane Central Wharves, excavating the cliff below Bowen Terrace, and widening the river at this point by up to 70 feet (21 metres). The path of the river was cut back and made smoother. Three chords were planned around the bend in the river, each providing a berth of about 500 feet (152 m). The total work, described in the 1935 Annual Report of the Bureau of Industry (the government body in charge of the project), was estimated to cost in excess of £400,000.
Work on the scheme commenced in 1934 and continued into the early 1940s. In January 1935 the existing wharf facilities occupied by Howard Smith Co. Ltd were resumed, along with a disused wharf upstream owned by the Brisbane City Council. The construction of the wharves was undertaken using day labour, and was staged over several years so that port activity could continue.
The first of the new structures erected was a two-storeyed reinforced concrete building completed by 1936 as offices for Howard Smith Co. Ltd. It was located on the waterfront, and commanded excellent views of the Town and Shafton Reaches of the Brisbane River.
Three berths with five new storage sheds were planned. Each of the gabled sheds was constructed primarily of hardwood timber, and sheeted and roofed with timber boards and corrugated iron. Sliding doors within these sheds opened towards the river for the handling of cargo. Sheds nos.1-3 were located at the upper berth under the Story Bridge, the middle berth accommodated the large no.4 shed [double-gabled , twice as wide as the others, and much longer], and no.5 shed was located at the lower berth downstream. No.5 shed was the first to be erected and a temporary wharf constructed. The middle berth with no.4 shed was almost completed by 1937, then work commenced on the upper berth, which was to contain sheds 1-3. This was completed in 1939.
For the wharves, a reinforced concrete base was laid on the rock at the river's edge, with timber piles rammed into the riverbed. Large hardwood timbers were used for the walings and decking, which extended about 24 feet (8 metres) out over the river. Hundreds of thousands of feet of timber - mostly hardwoods such as ironbark, blue gum, yellow stringybark, spotted gum and messmate - were required to build the berths.
The road widening behind the sheds, which necessitated the cutting back of the New Farm cliffs, was completed by 1938.
As work continued on the lower berth into 1940, the Second World War intervened. By 1942 the men working on the Petrie Bight works were transferred to other projects more directly connected with the war effort, and work on the wharves was closed down. The third berth appears never to have been completed. A 1945 plan of the site shows the upper and middle berths complete but the lower berth still without any timber decking for wharfage.
In 1941-42 the Brisbane City Council constructed five air-raid shelters near the Howard Smith Wharves below the cliff face, for the Bureau of Industry. The threat of invasion by Japan appeared very real at the time, there was a substantial workforce employed at the wharves, and the site was located adjacent to the Story Bridge - a prime target in wartime. Three of the shelters were the usual 'pillbox' style built by the City Council at many places in the inner city and in the suburbs. This was a standard type, rectangular in plan and constructed of concrete. However, the other two shelters at the Howard Smith Wharves were constructed of large stormwater pipes with multiple entrances. The Brisbane City Council used concrete stormwater pipes to cover the slit trenches in the Botanic Gardens and Victoria Park, but no other air raid shelters of the 'pipe' type have been identified in Brisbane. It is not known why the two different types of shelters were constructed at the Howard Smith Wharves.
Howard Smith signed a 21 year lease over the Brisbane Central Wharves site in 1936. After this lease expired the company made the inevitable move in the early 1960s to better facilities downstream at the mouth of the Brisbane River. The Water Police then occupied part of the site [the office building and several sheds], and Queensland Works Department has used the site for storage for many years. Vehicles impounded by the police were stored here as well.
A large part of the timber decking from both the upper and middle berths was washed away during the 1974 floods.
Most of the wharves which were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the central city have been demolished in the riverside re-developments of the last 20 years. The former Howard Smith Wharves remain one of the few surviving, and the most intact, with office, sheds and wharfage.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
I'm taking a short break from my promised tour of the Upper Arlington High School construction to provide an update on our American robin chicks. They're both continuing to do well and are keeping their parents busy with feeding and umbrella duties. This photo is a couple days old now, and the last time I saw them they were rapidly growing real feathers on top of their baby fuzz. I hope to get at least one more photo before they get too close to fledging.
This is a photo in a series of mostly self-portraits made during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. The idea is to show scenes from my life that in some small way document this extraordinary time. To distinguish these photos from my usual stream, I'm using the Fujifilm Classic Chrome film emulation provided by my X100F camera.
There is plenty of evidence about the early occupation of Bourton on the Water. Iron-age man was here and the early British encampment of Salmonsbury was later occupied by the 2nd August Legion of the Roman Imperial Army. In late Roman times the settlement moved out of the encampment to build villas along the banks of the River Windrush.
However, we know little of the Christian beginnings in Roman times, though a charter exists to show that in the year 708AD a local Saxon king, Cenred, gave lands in his kingdom to the newly founded Abbey and Convent of Evesham. In return the Abbot was to provide monks to spread the Gospel in specific places in the kingdom including Bourton on the Water. The charter suggests that a simple wooden church was built here in 709AD. By the 10th Century charters clearly talk of the existence of a church here, and the Domesday Register (1086) notes that Bourton has its own priest with 60 acres of land and a church.
In 1957 the bells were recast and rehung, by Messrs John Taylor of Loughborough. The old wooden frame had become warped and shaky; some of the bells were badly worn, and they were very far out of tune. The bell metal was redistributed and recast into eight new bells, which were rehung in an iron frame. At the same time the hammers and wires in the carillon and chimes were renewed. There are four hammers to each of six bells, three for the carillon and one for the chimes, and a striker for tolling the tenor bell. The total cost of all this work was £2,045: £1,762 for recasting and rehanging the bells, £205 for the carillon and chimes, and £78 for builders work, fixing the iron frame in the Tower. The bells were rededicated by the Bishop of Gloucester on Sunday November 22nd, 1957 at Morning Service.
No major work had been undertaken since 1957, so it was decided in 2016 to have a thorough inspection and overhaul in order to ensure the bells are in good order for the next fifty years. The work was appropriately undertaken by Taylor’s of Loughborough. The iron frame was rubbed down and repainted and all worn parts were repaired or replaced at a cost of £18,590.
The Clock: The diamond-shaped clock of 1785 was upgraded in 1911 by Smiths of Derby with a Westminster chime clock.
Smiths continue to maintain both the clock and carillon.
Transformation…
Knowing we had stewardship of a building loved and used by many over the years was a responsibility we felt keenly: working out exactly what we needed and why took 18 months to work through, before we began asking the Diocese for permission, finally going out to tender in Summer 2016.
A major 8 month re-ordering project began in January 2017, to make the interior more suited to the needs of the Church family and parish today.
The alterations were all carried out using high quality materials and executed with outstanding craftsmanship and skill. The contemporary features were sympathetically applied in consideration of the age and existing beauty of the church building.
We celebrated our re-opening in August 2017 with a service led by the Rt Revd Robert Springett, Bishop of Tewkesbury.
Transformation…
Knowing we had stewardship of a building loved and used by many over the years was a responsibility we felt keenly: working out exactly what we needed and why took 18 months to work through, before we began asking the Diocese for permission, finally going out to tender in Summer 2016.
A major 8 month re-ordering project began in January 2017, to make the interior more suited to the needs of the Church family and parish today.
The alterations were all carried out using high quality materials and executed with outstanding craftsmanship and skill. The contemporary features were sympathetically applied in consideration of the age and existing beauty of the church building.
We celebrated our re-opening in August 2017 with a service led by the Rt Revd Robert Springett, Bishop of Tewkesbury.
Bourton-on-the-Water is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, that lies on a wide flat vale within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village had a population of 3,296 at the 2011 census. Much of the village centre is a designated Conservation Area.
Bourton-on-the-Water's high street is flanked by long wide greens and the River Windrush that runs through them. The river is crossed by five low, arched stone bridges. They were built between 1654 and 1953, leading to the nickname of "Venice of the Cotswolds"
The village often has more visitors than residents during the peak tourist season. Some 300,000 visitors arrive each year as compared to under 3,500 permanent residents.
There are three churches, Our Lady and St Kenelm Roman Catholic Church, Bourton-on-the-Water Baptist Church and St Lawrence, Church of England. The latter is usually open to visitors during the week. It is a Grade II listed building. A part of it was built in the 14th century but major modifications were made in the 1780s and in the late 1800s.
Educational institutions include Bourton-on-the-Water Primary School and the Cotswold School, a co-educational comprehensive school.
An electoral ward of the same name exists and includes Cold Aston in addition to Bourton. The total population of the ward at the 2011 census was 3,676. The village itself had 3,296 people; the estimated population in mid-2016 was 3,482.
Bourton-on-the-Water parish is bounded by the Fosse Way along the northwest, while the eastern boundary is defined by a series of brooks, namely Slaughter Brook, the River Dikler and the River Windrush. The southern boundary is associated with a watercourse that runs between Bourton Hill and Broadwater Bottom.
The earliest evidence of human activity within the Bourton-on-the-Water area was found in the Slaughter Bridge gravel-spread, where Neolithic pottery (dated c. 4000 B.C.) was discovered. Moreover, excavations of the Salmonsbury Camp give evidence of almost continuous habitation through the Neolithic period, the Bronze Age and throughout England's Roman period (c. 43 to 410 A.D.). A Roman road, Icknield Street (also known as Ryknild Street), ran from the Fosse Way at Bourton-on-the-Water to Templeborough in South Yorkshire. Ancient Roman pottery and coins discovered in the village itself give clear evidence of extended Roman occupation. By the 11th century a Christian church, Norman, was established and the village had developed along the River Windrush much as it is today. Centuries earlier, a Saxon timber church was located on that site in about AD 708, built on the site of an old Roman temple. Some of the St Lawrence church on that site today was built in the 14th century but most of it is from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The village was served by a passenger railway between 1862 and 1962. Tourism did not become a significant factor in the village until the 1920s and 1930s. The Model Village opened in 1937. There was a significant increase in the population between 1931 and 1951.
Following the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908, the town, for recruiting, was granted to the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars. Following this formation the regiment maintained a troop from B Squadron. Today the regiment, now a squadron of The Royal Wessex Yeomanry, continues to recruit from this area.
The houses and shops in the village are constructed of the ashlar yellow limestone characteristic of the Cotswolds and they have the embellishments that make Cotswold architecture so picturesque: projecting gables, string-courses, windows with stone mullions, dripmoulds and stone hoodmoulds over the doors.
Parts of the James Bond movie Die Another Day (2002) were filmed in the car park at Bourton-on-the-Water and on the nearby ex-RAF aircraft runway at RAF Little Rissington.
The small historic core of Bourton-on-the-Water along with associated areas along the River Windrush have been designated a UK Conservation Area.
Salmonsbury Camp, a nearby Iron Age habitation, is designated a UK National scheduled monument (SAM 32392).
English Heritage designates 114 buildings within Bourton-on-the-Water; all have Grade II or Grade II* listed status. (Grade II* indicates particularly important buildings of more than special interest.)
During the summer, a game of medieval football is played with goalposts set up in the River Windrush itself. Two teams play with a standard football and a referee attempts to keep order. Crowds line the banks of the river and the aim is to score as many goals as possible (while getting everyone else as wet as possible).
The model village is a 1:9 replica of the village and includes a model of the model village itself (a model within a model). It was built by local craftsmen in the 1930s, and opened in 1937. The model village was awarded Grade II listed status in 2013 in recognition of its uniquely precise details and the genuine building materials and methods used, which replicate those used in the construction of the life-size village.
The model railway
The Cotswold Motoring Museum (home of Brum)
Birdland Park and Gardens, which has a collection of birds, including penguins, parrots and passerine (perching) birds and a large pond full of salmon which can be fed by the public. There are bird-of-prey displays and a penguin feeding demonstration.
The Dragonfly Maze, designed by Kit Williams
On the fourth Sunday of each month, there is a farmers' market
Oasis' music video "I'm Outta Time" was recorded in the town, and shows Liam Gallagher walking in the countryside of the area, and in the model village and the town.
Long-distance footpaths and local walks start, finish or pass through Bourton-on-the-Water. One such route that begins its 100-mile route north is the Heart of England Way.
The village has its own non-league football club, Bourton Rovers, who play in the Hellenic Football League at the Rissington Road ground.
Local news and television programmes are provided BBC South and ITV Meridian. Television signals are received from the Oxford TV transmitter and the local relay transmitter situated in Icomb. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Heart West, Greatest Hits Radio South West, WRFM (Witney Radio) and Cotswolds Radio, community based radio station The town is served by the local newspaper, Cotswold Journal.
Bourton-on-the-Water was first served by rail with the opening of the Bourton-on-the-Water railway in 1862. This was a branch line from Kingham on the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OWWR). The station was situated just to the north of the village. The OWWR (and its branch) later amalgamated with the Great Western Railway (GWR) and, in 1881, the branch was extended westwards and formed part of the GWR's Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway. The station closed to passengers in 1962 and to goods in 1964.
The closest operating railway station now is in Moreton-in-Marsh. The heritage Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway uses part of the route of the former Great Western Railway's main line in the Cotswolds; it does not pass through the village.
Notable people
Actor Wilfrid Hyde-White was born in Bourton-on-the-Water in 1903
Major-general Dudley Johnson, British Army officer and Victoria Cross recipient, was born here in 1884 and fought in the First World War (1914–18).
Racing cyclist Sharon Laws, who competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, grew up in the village.
Composer Edwin Ransford.
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. On 22 November 2023 the AONBs in England and Wales adopted a new name, National Landscapes, and are in the process of rebranding.
Areas are designated in recognition of their national importance by the relevant public body: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency respectively. In place of AONB, Scotland uses the similar national scenic area (NSA) designation. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty enjoy levels of protection from development similar to those of UK national parks, but unlike national parks the responsible bodies do not have their own planning powers. They also differ from national parks in their more limited opportunities for extensive outdoor recreation.
The idea for what would eventually become the AONB designation was first put forward by John Dower in his 1945 Report to the Government on National Parks in England and Wales. Dower suggested there was need for protection of certain naturally beautiful landscapes that were unsuitable as national parks owing to their small size and lack of wildness. Dower's recommendation for the designation of these "other amenity areas" was eventually embodied in the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 as the AONB designation.
The purpose of an AONB designation is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the designated landscape.
There are two secondary aims: meeting the need for quiet enjoyment of the countryside and having regard for the interests of those who live and work there. To achieve these aims, AONBs rely on planning controls and practical countryside management. As they have the same landscape quality, AONBs may be compared to the national parks of England and Wales. National parks are well known in the UK; by contrast, there is evidence to indicate many residents in AONBs may be unaware of the status. However, the National Association of AONBs is working to increase awareness of AONBs in local communities, and, in 2014, successfully negotiated to have the boundaries of AONBs in England shown on Google Maps.
There are 46 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the United Kingdom: 33 in England, four in Wales, one on the England–Wales border, and eight in Northern Ireland. The first AONB was established in 1956 on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales, and the most recent to be designated is the Tamar Valley AONB, established in 1995. More recent changes include the Clwydian Range AONB being extended in 2012 to form the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB, and the Strangford Lough and Lecale Coast AONBs being merged to form a single AONB in 2010.
AONBs vary greatly in terms of size, type and use of land, and whether they are partly or wholly open to the public. The smallest AONB is the Isles of Scilly, 16 km2 (6.2 sq mi), and the largest is the Cotswolds, 2,038 km2 (787 sq mi). AONBs cover around 15% of England and 4% of Wales.
AONBs in England and Wales were originally created under the same legislation as the national parks, the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Unlike AONBs, national parks have special legal powers to prevent unsympathetic development. AONBs in general remain the responsibility of their local authorities by means of special committees that include members appointed by a minister and by parishes, and only very limited statutory duties were imposed on local authorities within an AONB by the original 1949 Act. However, further regulation and protection of AONBs in England and Wales was added by the Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act 2000, under which new designations are now made,
In the National Planning Policy Framework (March 2012), the government stated that AONBs and national parks have equal status when it comes to planning decisions on landscape issues. Two of the AONBs (the Cotswolds and the Chilterns), which extend into a large number of local authority areas, have their own statutory bodies, known as conservation boards. In 2019 the Glover Report made various recommendations regarding the future of AONBs – the report's 'central proposal' being to bring National Parks and AONBs together as part of one 'family of national landscapes' – but as at 1 November 2020 the government has yet to respond to those recommendations. However, the Cotswolds Conservation Board announced in September 2020 that they were re-styling the area name and it is now known as the Cotswolds National Landscape.
All English and Welsh AONBs have a dedicated AONB officer and other staff. As required by the CRoW Act, each AONB has a management plan that sets out the characteristics and special qualities of the landscape and how they will be conserved and enhanced. The AONBs are collectively represented by the National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (NAAONB), an independent registered charity acting on behalf of AONBs and their partners, which uses the slogan "Landscapes for Life".
AONBs in Northern Ireland was designated originally under the Amenity Lands (NI) Act 1965; subsequently under the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands (NI) Order 1985.
There are growing concerns among environmental and countryside groups that AONB status is increasingly under threat from development. The Campaign to Protect Rural England said in July 2006 that many AONBs were under greater threat than ever before. Three particular AONBs were cited: the Dorset AONB threatened by a road plan, the threat of a football stadium in the Sussex Downs AONB, and, larger than any other, a £1 billion plan by Imperial College London to build thousands of houses and offices on hundreds of acres of AONB land on the Kent Downs at Wye. In September 2007 government approval was finally given for the development of a new football ground for Brighton and Hove Albion within the boundaries of the Sussex Downs AONB, after a fierce fight by conservationists. The subsequent development, known as Falmer Stadium, was officially opened in July 2011. The Weymouth Relief Road in Dorset was constructed between 2008 and 2011, after environmental groups lost a High Court challenge to prevent its construction.
Writing in 2006, Professor Adrian Phillips listed threats facing AONBs, which he says include uncertainty over future support for land management, increasing development pressures, the impacts of globalization, and climate change. More subtle threats include creeping suburbanization and horsiculture.
Poet Laureate Simon Armitage wrote a poem "Fugitives", commissioned by the National Association of AONBs, which he read on Arnside Knott on 21 September 2019 to launch the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act.
Gloucestershire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire to the east, Wiltshire to the south, Bristol and Somerset to the south-west, and the Welsh county of Monmouthshire to the west. The city of Gloucester is the largest settlement and the county town.
The county is predominantly rural, with an area of 3,150 square kilometres (1,220 sq mi) and a population of 916,212. After Gloucester (118,555) the largest distinct settlements are Cheltenham (115,940), Stroud (26,080), and Yate (28,350). In the south of the county, the areas around Filton and Kingswood are densely populated and part of Bristol built-up area. For local government purposes Gloucestershire comprises a non-metropolitan county, with six districts, and the unitary authority area of South Gloucestershire.
Gloucestershire is bisected by the river River Severn, which enters the county near Tewkesbury and forms a wide valley down its centre before broadening into a large tidal estuary. The hills to the east form the majority of the Cotswolds AONB, and the uplands to the west are part of the Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley AONB, which stretches into Wales.
Gloucestershire was likely established in the tenth century, and expanded to approximately its current borders in the eleventh. The county was relatively settled during the late Middle Ages, and contained several wealthy monasteries such as Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Hailes, and Cirencester; the Forest of Dean was also a major iron-producing region in this period. The city of Bristol became an independent county in 1373, by which point it was the third-largest city in England. Gloucestershire was not heavily industrialised during the Industrial Revolution, but the Port of Gloucester was expanded with new docks and the small Forest of Dean coalfield was exploited.
The region now known as Gloucestershire was originally inhabited by Brythonic peoples (ancestors of the Welsh and English and other Romano-British peoples) in the Iron Age and Roman periods. After the Romans left Britain in the early 5th century, the Brythons re-established control but the territorial divisions for the post-Roman period are uncertain. The city of Caerloyw (Gloucester today, still known as Caerloyw in modern Welsh) was one centre and Cirencester may have continued as a tribal centre as well. The only reliably attested kingdom is the minor south-east Wales kingdom of Ergyng, which may have included a portion of the area (roughly the Forest of Dean). In the final quarter of the 6th century, the Saxons of Wessex began to establish control over the area.
The English conquest of the Severn valley began in 577 with the victory of Ceawlin at Deorham, followed by the capture of Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath. The Hwiccas who occupied the district were a West Saxon tribe, but their territory had become a dependency of Mercia in the 7th century, and was not brought under West Saxon dominion until the 9th century. No important settlements were made by the Danes in the district. Gloucestershire probably originated as a shire in the 10th century, and is mentioned by name in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1016. Towards the close of the 11th century, the boundaries were readjusted to include Winchcombeshire, previously a county by itself, and at the same time the forest district between the Wye and the Severn was added to Gloucestershire. The divisions of the county for a long time remained very unsettled, and the thirty-nine hundreds mentioned in the Domesday Survey and the thirty-one hundreds of the Hundred Rolls of 1274 differ very widely in name and extent both from each other and from the twenty-eight hundreds of the present day.
Gloucestershire formed part of Harold's earldom at the time of the Norman Conquest of England, but it offered slight resistance to William the Conqueror.
During The Anarchy, Empress Matilda was supported by her half brother, Robert of Gloucester, who had rebuilt Bristol Castle. The castles at Gloucester and Cirencester were garrisoned on her behalf. Beverston Castle was also a site of the conflict.
During 13th century Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany was imprisoned for quite some time in Gloucester Castle and Bristol Castle, both were considered strongest among England castles.
In the barons' war of the reign of Henry III, Gloucester was garrisoned for Simon de Montfort, but was captured by Prince Edward in 1265, in which year de Montfort was slain at the Battle of Evesham.
Bristol and Gloucester actively supported the Yorkist cause during the Wars of the Roses.
In the religious struggles of the 16th century Gloucester showed strong Protestant sympathy, and in the reign of Mary, Bishop Hooper was sent to Gloucester to be burnt as a warning to the county.
The same Puritan leanings induced the county to support the Parliamentary cause in the civil war of the 17th century. In 1643 Bristol and Cirencester were captured by the Royalists, but the latter was recovered in the same year and Bristol in 1645. Two Civil War battles were fought at Beverston Castle, and Parliament ordered its battlements destroyed to deprive the Royalists use of the fortress. Gloucester was garrisoned for the Parliament throughout the struggle.
On the subdivision of the Mercian diocese in 680 the greater part of modern Gloucestershire was included in the diocese of Worcester, and shortly after the Conquest constituted the archdeaconry of Gloucester, which in 1290 comprised the deaneries of Campden, Stow, Cirencester, Fairford, Winchcombe, Stonehouse, Hawkesbury, Bitton, Bristol, Dursley and Gloucester. The district west of the Severn, with the exception of a few parishes in the deaneries of Ross and Staunton, constituted the deanery of the forest within the archdeaconry and diocese of Hereford. In 1535 the deanery of Bitton had been absorbed in that of Hawkesbury. In 1541 the diocese of Gloucester was created, its boundaries being identical with those of the county. On the erection of Bristol to a see in 1542 the deanery of Bristol was transferred from Gloucester to that diocese. In 1836 the sees of Gloucester and Bristol were united; the archdeaconry of Bristol was created out of the deaneries of Bristol, Cirencester, Fairford and Hawkesbury; and the deanery of the forest was transferred to the archdeaconry of Gloucester. In 1882 the archdeaconry of Cirencester was constituted to include the deaneries of Campden, Stow, Northleach north and south, Fairford and Cirencester. In 1897 the diocese of Bristol was recreated, and included the deaneries of Bristol, Stapleton and Bitton.
After the Conquest very extensive lands and privileges in the county were acquired by the church, the Cirencester Abbey alone holding seven hundreds at fee-farm, and the estates of the principal lay-tenants were for the most part outlying parcels of baronies having their caput in other counties. The large estates held by William Fitz Osbern, Earl of Hereford, escheated to the crown on the rebellion of his son Earl Roger in 1074. The Berkeleys have held lands in Gloucestershire from the time of the Domesday Survey, and the families of Basset, Tracy, Clifton, Dennis and Poyntz have figured prominently in the annals of the county. Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and Richard of Cornwall claimed extensive lands and privileges in the shire in the 13th century, and Simon de Montfort owned Minsterworth and Rodley.
Bristol was made a county in 1373, and in 1483 Richard III created Gloucester as an independent county, adding to it the hundreds of Dudston and Kings Barton. The latter were reunited to Gloucestershire in 1673, but the cities of Bristol and Gloucester continued to rank as independent counties, with separate jurisdiction, county rate and assizes. The chief officer of the Forest of Dean was the warden, who was generally also constable of St Briavel Castle. The first justice-seat for the forest was held at Gloucester Castle in 1282, the last in 1635.
Gloucestershire was first represented in parliament in 1290, when it returned two members. Bristol and Gloucester acquired representation in 1295, Cirencester in 1572 and Tewkesbury in 1620. Under the Reform Act of 1832 the county returned four members in two divisions; Bristol, Gloucester, Cirencester, Stroud and Tewkesbury returned two members each, and Cheltenham returned one member. The act of 1868 reduced the representation of Cirencester and Tewkesbury to one member each.
The physical characteristics of the three natural divisions of Gloucestershire have given rise in each to a special industry. The forest district, until the development of the Sussex mines in the 16th century, was the chief iron producing area of the kingdom, the mines having been worked in Roman times, while the abundance of timber gave rise to numerous tanneries and to an important shipbuilding trade. The hill district, besides fostering agricultural pursuits, gradually absorbed the woollen trade from the big towns, which now devoted themselves almost entirely to foreign commerce. Silkweaving was introduced in the 17th century, and was especially prosperous in the Stroud valley. The abundance of clay and building-stone in the county gave rise to considerable manufactures of brick, tiles and pottery. Numerous minor industries sprang up in the 17th and 18th centuries, such as flax-growing and the manufacture of pins, buttons, lace, stockings, rope and sailcloth.
Gloucester Cathedral and Bristol Cathedral, Tewkesbury Abbey, and the Church of St. John the Baptist in Cirencester with its great Perpendicular porch, are historic buildings of Gloucestershire. Of the abbey of Hailes near Winchcomb, founded by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in 1246, little more than the foundations are left, but these have been excavated with great care, and interesting fragments have been brought to light.
Most of the old market towns have line parish churches. At Deerhurst near Tewkesbury, and Cleeve near Cheltenham, there are churches of special interest on account of the pre-Norman work they retain. The Perpendicular church at Lechlade is unusually perfect; and that at Fairford was built (c. 1500), according to tradition, to contain the remarkable series of stained glass windows which are said to have been brought from the Netherlands. These are, however, adjudged to be of English workmanship, and are one of the finest series in the country. The castle at Berkeley is a splendid example of a feudal stronghold. Thornbury Castle, in the same district, is a fine Tudor ruin, the pretensions of which evoked the jealousy of Cardinal Wolsey against its builder, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, who was beheaded in 1521. Near Cheltenham is the fine 15th-century mansion of Southam de la Bere, of timber and stone.
Memorials of the de la Bere family appear in the church at Cleeve. The mansion contains a tiled floor from Hailes Abbey. Near Winchcomb is Sudeley Castle, dating from the 15th century, but the inhabited portion is chiefly Elizabethan. The chapel is the burial place of Queen Catherine Parr. At Great Badminton is the mansion and vast domain of the Beauforts (formerly of the Botelers and others), on the south-eastern boundary of the county.
Lake Catani is an artificial lake in the Mount Buffalo National Park in Victoria, Australia. It was constructed in 1910 under the supervision and probably design of the Victorian Public Works engineer, Carlo Catani, to provide recreational facilities in the newly opened winter resort. Lake Catani was completed in 1910 by construction of a mass concrete arched dam across Eurobin Creek at Haunted Gorge. The dam blocked what was then known as the “Underground River” and flooded Long Plain, in the process also covering an Aboriginal camp site. It was initially intended to provide water for the Grossman sawmill, which was milling timber for the construction of the Mount Buffalo Chalet. Lake Catani provided a popular venue for visitors, with boating and fishing in summer and ice-skating in winter. A golf course was also opened nearby at Tuckerbox Corner in 1911. A campground is located near the shores of the lake.
Mount Buffalo National Park is located in the Australian Alps, around 350 kilometres north east of Melbourne. In November 1898, an area of 1,166 hectares was reserved on the Mount Buffalo plateau around the Eurobin Falls to form the Mount Buffalo National Park. This makes it one of the oldest national parks in Australia. In 1908 was expanded to 10,406 hectares, before being expanded again in 1980 to its current size. The park exists on a high elevation around the top of the mountain, and it has striking granite boulders, outcrops and rock formations which make the landscape look striking and in some places, almost alien. This is enhanced by many dead trees which were a result of a bushfire that tore through the Mount Buffalo National Park in late 2006 and early 2007. It features The Horn, Cathedral Mountain and Lake Catani amongst other beautiful places to see. The Horn is the highest accessible peak on Mount Buffalo and it offers wonderful views from the top. Lake Catani is a man made ornamental lake which is very tranquil and beautiful. A road into the Mount Buffalo National Park was opened in 1908, and so the alpine tourist trade began. Visitor accommodation was made available at the historic guest house, the Mount Buffalo Chalet, built in 1910, until January 2007. Parks Victoria and the Victorian Government undertook restoration work on the exterior and gardens of the Chalet in 2017 and 2018. The chalet overlooks large sheets of granite and has views of the Ovens Valley and Buckland Valley below. During the winter season, Mount Buffalo is a destination for cross-country skiing. There are a number of cross-country ski trails near the Cathedral, and toboggan runs at Dingo Dell and Cresta Valley, both of which are used by beginners. The Mount Buffalo National Park was added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2008, listing it as one of eleven sites that make up the Australian Alpine National Parks and Reserves.
Look around you. Mother Nature provides us with so much beauty.
All you have to do is take the time to notice it!
U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles, from the 389th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, like the ones shown here, helped provide 176 consecutive hours of air support and drop more than 100 bombs in support of Operation Hammer Down II. Air Force close air support assets played a critical role in the success of the operation. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Michael B. Keller)
455th Air Expeditionary Wing
Date Taken:06.26.2011
Location:BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF
Related Photos: dvidshub.net/r/eoryun
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Monsoon is a weather phenomenon that provides Life to millions of people on Earth. The impact is felt the most in the Indian subcontinent where survival and existence was dependent on precipitation and food. Closely linked to the sowing and harvesting of food crops in India, it reaches the western coast in the last few days of May. It is the end of the month right now and then this is the right time for it.
In general it brings down the angst and frustration of the over heated Indian mind in the over heated land that India is from March to May.
The word monsoon was coined in colonial India referring to the rains that would descend from Kerala upwards bringing relief to the hot and dusty baking plains. You have to live in India to know what it means.
So if you are anywhere in India keep a lookout for the rains. It is a harbinger of Hope and Life. Go out and see the skies. :)
This post is dedicated to the most awaited event in India after maybe birth, food, mangoes and sex.
_DSC6006 nef 2 exp bnw revised on flickr