Prior to the opening of Bank Street, Lady Stair's Close, the first below Gladstone's Land, was the chief thoroughfare for foot passengers, taking ad-vantage of the half-formed Earthen Mound to reach the New Town. It takes its name from Elizabeth Countess Dowager of Stair, who was long looked up to as a leader of fashion in Edinburgh, admission to her select circle being one of the highest objects of ambition among the lesser gentry of her day, when the distinctions of rank and family were guarded with an angry jealousy of which we have but little conception now. Lady Stair's Close is narrow and dark, for the houses are of great height; the house she occupied still remains on the west side thereof, and was the scene of some romantic events and traditions, of which Scott made able use in his "Aunt Margaret's Mirror," ere it be-came the abode of the widow of the Marshal Earl of Stair, who, when a little boy, had the misfortune to kill his elder brother, the Master, by the accidental discharge of a pistol; after which, it is said, that his mother could never abide him, and sent him in his extreme youth to serve in Flanders as a volunteer in the Cameronian Regiment, under the Earl of Angus. The house occupied by Lady Stair has over its door the pious legend-- " Feare the Lord and depart from evill," with the date 1622, and the initials of its founder and of his wife--Sir William Gray of Pittendrum, and Egidia Smith, daughter of Sir John Smith, of Grothall, near Craigleith, Provost of Edinburgh in 1643. Sir William was a man of great influence in the time of Charles I.; and though the ancient title of Lord Gray reverted to his family, he devoted himself to commerce, and became one of the wealthiest Scottish merchants of that age. But troubles came upon him; he was fined 100,00 merks for corresponding with Montrose, and was imprisoned, first in the Castle and then in the Tolbooth till the mitigated penalty of 35,000 merks was paid. Other exorbitant exactions followed, and these hastened his death, which took place in 1648, Three years before that event, his daughter died, in the old house, of the plague. His widow survived him, and the street was named Lady Gray's Close till the advent of Lady Stair, in whose time the house had a terraced garden that descended towards the North Loch.

 

Lady Eleanor Campbell, widow of the great marshal and diplomatist, John Earl of Stair, was by paternal descent related to one of the most celebrated historical figures of the seventeenth century, being the grand-daughter of the Lord High Chancellor Loudon, whose talents and influence on the Covenanting side procured him the enmity of Charles I.

In her girlhood she had the misfortune to be united to James Viscount Primrose, of Castlefield, who died in 1706 a man of dissipated habits and intolerable temper, who treated her so barbarously that there were times when she had every reason to feel that her life was in peril. One morning she was dressing herself before her mirror, near an apen window, when she saw the viscount suddenly appear in the room behind her with a drawn rapier in his hand. He had softly opened the door, and in the mirror she could see that his face, set white and savage, indicated that he had nothing less than murder in his mind. She threw herself out of window into the street, and, half-dressed as she was fled, with great good sense, to Lord Primrose's mother, who had been Mary Scott of Thirlstane, and received protection; but no attempt was made to bring about a reconciliation, and, though they had four children, she never lived with him again, and soon after he went abroad.

 

During his absence there came to Edinburgh a certain foreign conjuror, who, among other occult powers, professed to be able to inform those present of the movements of the absent, however far they might be apart; and the young viscountess was prompted by curiosity to go with a lady friend to the abode of the wise man in the Canongate, wearing over their heads, by way of disguise, the tartan plaid then worn by women of the lower classes. After describing the individual in whose move-ments she was interested, and expressing a desire to know what he was then about, the conjuror led her before a large mirror, in which a number of colours and forms rapidly assumed the appearance of a church with a marriage party before the altar; and in the shadowy bridegroom she instantly recognised her absent husband ! She gazed upon the delineation as if turned to stone, while the ceremonial of the marriage seemed to proceed, and the clergyman to be on the point of bidding the bride and bridegroom join hands, when suddenly a gentleman in whose face she recognised a brother of her own, came forward, and paused. His face assumed an expression of wrath; drawing his sword he rushed upon the bridegroom, who also drew to defend himself; the whole phantasmagoria then became tumultuous and indistinct, and faded com-pletely away. When the viscountess reached home she wrote a minute narrative of the event, noting the day and hour. This narrative she sealed up in presence of a witness and deposited it in a cabinet. Soon after this her brother returned from his travels abroad--which brother we are not told, and she had three: Hugh the Master of Loudon, Colonel John Campbell of Shankeston, and James, who was Colonel of the Scots Greys, and was killed at Fontenoy. She asked him if he heard aught of the viscount in his wanderings. He answered, furiously, "I wish I may never again hear the name of that detestable personage mentioned !" On being questioned he confessed to " having met his lordship under very strange circumstances." While spending some time at Rotterdam he made the acquaintance of a wealthy merchant who had a very beautiful daughter, an only child, who, he informed him, was on the eve of her marriage with a Scottish gentleman, and he was invited to the wedding as a countryman of the bridegroom. He went accordingly, and though a little too late for the commencement of the ceremony, was yet in time to save an innocent girl from becoming the vic-tim of his own brother-in-law, Viscount Primrose

Though the deserted wife had proved her willing-ness to believe in the magic mirror, by having committed to writing what she had seen, yet she was so astonished by her brother's tidings, that she nearly fainted; but something more was to be learned still. She asked her brother on what day the circumstance took place, and having been informed, she gave him her key, and desired him to bring to her the sealed paper. On its being opened, it was then found, that at the very moment when she had seen the roughly-interrupted nuptial ceremony it had actually been in progress.

 

Primrose died, as we have said, in the year before the Union. His widow was still young and beautiful, but made a resolution never again, after her past experience, to become a wife; but the great Earl Stair, who had been now resident some twenty years in Edinburgh, and whose public and private character was irreproachable, earnestly sued for her hand, yet she firmly announced her intention of remaining unwedded; and in his love and des-peration the Earl bethought him of an expedient indicative of the roughness and indelicacy of the age. By dint of powerfully bribing her household he got himself introduced over-night into a small room where she was wont to say her prayers--such private oratories being common in most of the Edinburgh houses of the time--and the window of which overlooked the High Street. Thereat he showed himself, en déshabillc, to the people passing, an exhibition which so seriously affected the reputation of the young widow, that she saw the neces-sity of accepting him as her husband.

 

Lady Eleanor was happier as Countess of Stair than she had ever been as Viscountess Primrose; but the Earl had one failing--a common one enough among gentlemen in those days--a dispo-sition to indulge in the bottle, and then his temper was by no means improved; thus, on coming home he more than once treated the Countess with violence. Once--we regret to record it of so heroic a soldier--when transported beyond the bounds of reason, he gave her a blow on the face with such severity as to draw blood; and then, all unconscious of what he had done, fell asleep. Poor Lady Stair, overwhelmed by such an insult,and recalling perhaps much that she had endured with Lord Primrose, made no attempt to bind up the wound, but threw herself on a sofa, and wept and bled till morning dawned. When the Earl awoke, her bloody and dishevelled aspect filled him with horror and dismay. " What has hap-pened ? How came you to be thus ?" he exclaimed. She told him of his conduct over-night, which filled him with shame--such shame and compunction that he made a vow never again to take any species of drink, unless it had first passed through her hands; and this vow he kept religiously till the day of his death, which took place on the 9th April, 1747~ at Queensberry House in the Canon-gate, when he was in his seventy-fifth year. He was General of the Marines, Governor of Minorca, Colonel of the Greys, and Knight of the Thistle. He was buried in the family vault at Kirkliston, and his funeral is thus detailed in the Scots Maga-zine for 1747:--

" 1 Six baton men, two and two. 2. A mourn-ing coach with four gentlemen ushers and the Earl's crest. 3. Another mourning coach with three gentlemen ushers, and a friend carrying the coronet on a velvet cushion. 4. Six ushers on foot, with batons and gilt streamers. 5. The corpse, under a dressed canopy, drawn by six dressed horses, with the Earl's achievement, within the Order of the Thistle. 6. Chief mourners in a coach and six. 7. Nine mourning coaches, each drawn by six horses. 8. The Earl's body coach empty. 9. Carriages of nobility and gentry, in order of rank."

A sky-rocket was thrown up in the Canongate when the procession began, as a signal to the garrison in the Castle, when the flag was half hoisted, and minute guns fired, till the funeral was clear of the city.

 

With much that was irreproachable in her charac-ter, Lady Stair was capable of ebullitions of temper, and of using terms that modern taste would deem objectionable. The Earl of Dundonald had stated to the Duke of Douglas that Lady Stair had expressed her doubts concerning the birth of his nephew-- a much-vexed question, at this time before the House of Lords and Court of Session. In support of what he stated, Dundonald, in a letter to the Lord Justice Clerk, gave the world leave to deem him " a damned villain " if he spoke not the truth. Involved thus unpleasantly with the ducal house of Douglas, Lady Stair went straight to Holyrood Palace, and there, before the Duke, the Duchess, and their attendants, she said that she " had lived to a good age, and never, until now, got entangled in any scandal." She then struck the floor thrice with her cane, each time calling the Earl of Dundonald " a damned villain," after which she withdrew, swelling with rage; but Lady Mary Wortley Montagu mentions in her " Letters," that the Countess of Stair was subject to hysterical fits--the result perhaps of all she had undergone as a wife. After being long the queen of society in Edinburgh, she died in November, 1759~ twelve years after the death of the Marshal. She was the first person in the city, of her time, who had a black domestic servant. Another dowager, the Lady Clestram, succeeded her in the old house in the close. It was advertised for sale, at the upset price of £250, in the Edinburgh Advertiser of 1789; and is described as "that large dwelling-house, sometime belonging to the Dowager Countess of Stair, situated at the entry to the Earthen Mound. The sunk storey consists of a good kitchen, servants' rooms, closets, cellars, &c.; the second of a dining and bed rooms; the third storey of a dining and five bed rooms." It has long since been the abode of the humblest artisans.

 

The parents of Miss Ferrier, the well-known novelist, according to a writer in Temple Bar for November, 1878~ occupied a flat in Lady Stair's Close after their marriage. Mrs. Ferrier (nee Coutts) was the daughter of a farmer at Gourdon, near Montrose, and was a woman of remarkable beauty, as her portrait by Sir George Chalmers, Bart. (a native of Edinburgh) in 1765 attests. At the time of her marriage, in 1767, she had resided in Holyrood with her aunt, the Hon. Mrs. Mait-land, widow of a younger son of Lord Lauderdale; and the flat the young married couple took in the old close had just been vacated by Sir James Pulteney and his wife Lady Bath.

 

When Sir Richard Steele, of the Spectator, visited Edinburgh, in 1717, on the business of the Forfeited Estates Commission, we know not whether he resided in Lady Stair's Close, but it is recorded that he gave, in a tavern there, a whimsical supper, to all the eccentric-looking mendicants in the city, giving them the enjoyment of an abundant feast, that he might witness their various oddities. Richard Sheils mentions this circumstance, and adds that Steele confessed afterwards that he had "drunk enough of native drollery to compose a comedy.''

Information www.royal-mile.com

It was a day devoted to finding small birds, specifically Bushtits and Kinglets. I did find Kinglets but I didn't find Bushtits until I got home and the tree in my front yard was full of them. Of course, by that time it was too dark to take photos!!

Free download under CC Attribution (CC BY 4.0). Please credit the artist and rawpixel.com.

Vintage fish illustrations from Ichtyologie, ou, Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des poissons (1785–1797) by Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799), the German physician and naturalist. Bloch was the most influential ichthyologist of the 18th century who consistently devoted himself to natural objects, anatomy, and physiology. This collection showcases his devotion to ichthyology, illustrating more than 400 various types of fish. We have digitally enhanced these richly colored public domain illustrations in high-resolution printable quality. Free to download under the CC0 license.

Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: https://www.rawpixel.com/board/938140/ichtyologie-ou-histoire-naturelle-generale-et-particuliere-des-poissons?sort=curated&mode=shop&page=1

 

Ford Transit Connect

Devoted to energy and overall economy, this truck can be purchased in a couple of wheelbases with seating for up to 7 in about three series. There’s more than 100 cubic foot associated with packages space; whenever effectively outfitted it offers a payload associated with 1...

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The idea of a museum devoted to the history of Paris came about under the Second Empire, when a large part of the historic heart of Paris was being demolished.

 

In 1866, at the instigation of Baron Haussmann, the city council bought the hôtel Carnavalet to house the new institution. The building, which was constructed in 1548 and altered by François Mansart in the seventeenth century, was home to Madame de Sévigné from 1677 to 1696.

 

The museum opened in 1880. It has been extended several times and since 1989 it has also occupied the adjoining hôtel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau, built in 1688 by Pierre Bullet. Its orangery, one of the last two remaining in the Marais, was restored in 2000 and houses prehistoric and Gallo-Roman collections

“I have found that when you are deeply troubled there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source.” - Doris Day

samsonleePhoto

The German Spitz is one of the oldest dog breeds originating from Europe. Attentive, energetic, and devoted, these pups have some of the best qualities among any dog breed around. German Spitzes go by several other names such as Spitz, German Spitz Mittelspitz, and Deutscher Spitz. If you’d like to bring home a German Spitz puppy, be sure to do your research on requirements for care and training.

Holme Village 1940's Event.

Filmed in Xaara Pavillion.

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Dress is: S/D Mesh Spaghetti Minidress in Checkerboard L$1

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Boots are: Mooonshine Allerhand Gift L$1

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Collar is: **RE** Inked Collar RLV * ENGRAVABLE * MESH * (*LUX** Collection*)

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=-=-=

 

"Hopelessly Devoted to You"

Olivia Newton-John

 

Guess mine is not the first heart broken

My eyes are not the first to cry

I'm not the first to know

There's just no getting over you

 

I know I'm just a fool who's willing

To sit around and wait for you

But baby, can't you see there's nothing else for me to do?

I'm hopelessly devoted to you

 

But now there's nowhere to hide

Since you pushed my love aside

I'm out of my head

Hopelessly devoted to you

 

Hopelessly devoted to you

Hopelessly devoted to you

 

My head is sayin', "Fool, forget him"

My heart is sayin', "Don't let go

Hold on to the end", that's what I intend to do

I'm hopelessly devoted to you

 

But now there's no way to hide

Since you pushed my love aside

I'm outta my head

Hopelessly devoted to you

 

Hopelessly devoted to you

Hopelessly devoted to you

 

Songwriters: J. Farrar

For non-commercial use only.

Data from: Musixmatch

   

Visit this location at The Arts Club in Second Life

therainbowfashionista.blogspot.com/2013/02/devoted-viole-...

 

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Hair: >TRUTH< - Hollana - Elvira (Available at Collabor88)

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BULLFIGHT

Pablo Picasso

( 1934 )

 

During 1933–34, Pablo Picasso produced a series of paintings, drawings, and etchings devoted to the subject of the bullfight, inspired by a trip to Barcelona. This work was painted in Picasso’s studio in Château Boisgeloup, France, on July 27, 1934. It is related to other colorful and gestural works from this moment that show the vicious battle of a lanced bull savaging a frightened horse that rears on its hind legs. The horse and bull may signify polarities in life, such as good versus evil. Picasso often identified with the bull, an important subject in his paintings, and an animal synonymous with cruelty and creativity. He believed that, “A picture lives a life like a living creature….[A]s the picture lives only though the man who is looking at it.”

 

For Duncan Phillips, this painting vividly expressed the light, color, and excitement of a bullfight in the Spanish sun.

_______________________

The close relationship between the world of bullfighting and Picasso’s oeuvre is unquestionable. From his childhood days in Málaga, where his father often took him to the bullring, he was greatly fascinated by the national sport. In addition to the artistic possibilities of the bullfight — a theme steeped in drama, which would prove very useful at certain conflictive times — Picasso regarded it as an expression of Spanishness: “The life of the Spanish consists of Mass in the morning, the bullfight in the afternoon, and the whorehouse at night. What element do they have in common? Sadness, ” he came out with to André Malraux one day.

 

The bull, the artist’s alter ego, is laden with symbolism, although always infused with ambiguous meanings. It can be a metaphor for different types of human conduct — be it violence, eroticism or love — and can also be portrayed as a violent killer or poor victim. On other occasions Picasso identifies with Minotaur, the mythological brother of the bull. Born in Crete of the relationship between a woman and a bull, the figure of Minotaur is repeated in numerous drawings and prints produced between 1933 and 1935, almost always locked in a loving embrace with a female figure who is none other than Marie-Thérèse, then his mistress.

 

The Bullfight in the permanent collection of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza belongs to a series of works on bullfight themes that Picasso painted at the Château de Boisgeloup between June and September 1934. The series focused on the suerte de varas, the moment in the bullfight when the bull is pitted against the horse, as a symbolic embodiment of the struggle between man and woman. In some versions the bull is kept at bay by the picador’s lance; in others the ferocious animal succeeds in toppling the horse and even disembowelling it.

 

The violence unleashed in these works should also be related to Picasso’s anger at the last of the pitiful events involving the Nazis, which culminated three years later in the political testament of Guernica. When Picasso started on the sketches and drawings for this great canvas he was experiencing a profound crisis triggered, on the one hand, by the unstoppable rise of the fascist movements in Europe and, on the other, by his delicate personal situation since the young Marie-Thérèse had secretly entered his life and his marriage to Olga had reached a critical stage beyond solution, leading to their separation in 1935. This emotional instability drove Picasso to rekindle his fascination with the rite of bullfighting and his work once again became filled with images of the bullfighter’s art, picadors, bullfights and minotaurs.

 

As a result of Picasso’s return to bull iconography, bulls and bullfights began to enjoy an unforeseen importance in Europe. Intellectual circles, which had branded the fiesta as contrary to the idea of modernisation, shifted to the opposite opinion and numerous artists belonging to Picasso’s milieu — Picabia, Braque, Gris and André Masson — developed an interest in bullfighting from the avant-garde point of view. In 1933 the Surrealists published their review entitled Minotaure, for which Picasso made the cover illustration, and later André Masson showed some works on bullfight themes at the Galerie Simon in 1937 which the anthropologist Michel Leiris compared to the act of creation: “through bullfights, André Masson takes us to the crucial point of art: inexpiable war of the creator with his work.”

 

Paloma Alarcó

www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/picasso-pablo/...

 

_______________________

 

www.phillipscollection.org

 

Founded by art collector and philanthropist Duncan Phillips in 1921, The Phillips Collection has been collecting modern and contemporary art for over one hundred years. Duncan Phillips’s former home—and additions to it—in Washington’s historic Dupont Circle neighborhood provides a unique setting for the growing collection of over 6,000 works. Following Phillips’s unconventional approach to exhibitions, The Phillips Collection galleries are frequently rearranged to facilitate new conversations between artworks and fresh experiences for visitors.

 

HISTORY

“Sorrow all but overwhelmed me,” Duncan Phillips wrote. “Then I turned to my love of painting for the will to live.”

 

Duncan Phillips (1886-1966) was the son of Major Duncan Clinch Phillips, a Pittsburgh businessman and Civil War veteran, and Eliza Laughlin Phillips, whose father was a banker and co-founder of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company. The family moved to Washington, DC, in winter 1895-96.

 

Duncan was close to his older brother, Jim; Jim postponed attending college for two years so that he and Duncan could attend Yale University together. The brothers moved from DC to an apartment in New York in 1914. Duncan wrote extensively on art and published his first book, The Enchantment of Art, in 1914. Duncan’s passion for art was fueled by trips to Europe in 1911 and 1912 and visits to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with friendships in New York with artists Augustus Vincent Tack, who became a lifelong friend, and American impressionist painter Julian Alden Weir. In 1916 the brothers convinced their parents to set aside $10,000 annually to allow them to assemble a collection of contemporary American painting for the family.

 

Soon after, tragedy struck the Phillips family. Major Duncan Phillips died suddenly in 1917 from a heart condition and James died from the flu epidemic in 1918. To cope with these stunning blows, Duncan turned to the restorative quality of art. “Sorrow all but overwhelmed me,” he later wrote. “Then I turned to my love of painting for the will to live.” He and his mother founded the museum in late 1918. It was originally called the Phillips Memorial Art Gallery, and opened it to the public in fall of 1921. In a specially designed room added onto the second floor of the family home, they showed selections from their growing 237-work collection that now included examples by European artists, reflecting Duncan Phillips’s pioneering idea of creating a museum in the nation’s capital where one could encounter the art of the past and the present on equal terms. As the collection grew, the family moved out of their Dupont Circle home to a new residence in 1930, allowing the entire house to become a dedicated space for the museum.

 

Duncan Phillips married painter Marjorie Acker (1894-1985) in 1921, shortly before the museum opened, and she became his partner in developing The Phillips Collection. Born in Bourbon, Indiana, and raised in New York State, she was encouraged by her uncles―painters Gifford and Reynolds Beal―to pursue art; she studied at the Art Students League in New York City. Duncan and Marjorie met at an exhibition of his collection at The Century Club in New York in late 1920. After they were married, Marjorie painted almost every morning, ran the household, and served as Associate Director of the museum. She helped him gain insight into the artist’s process, and over the course of their lifetime together they collected nearly 2,500 works of art. When Duncan died in 1966, Marjorie became the museum director, continuing to develop close relationships with artists and the artistic community of DC. She held that position for six years.

 

From the outset, the vision for The Phillips Collection was “an intimate museum combined with an experiment station.” As a collector, Duncan Phillips was noted for his willingness to deviate from the art museum standard of displaying works together based on shared nationality and geography, interpreting modernism as a dialogue between past and present. He collected the work of his contemporaries at a time when art that did not follow traditional, academic standards was not widely accepted as aesthetically and culturally valuable. This philosophy of taking risks allowed for Phillips to be the first to collect and exhibit artists who were not well known at the time, such as Milton Avery, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Jacob Lawrence, Grandma Moses, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Rufino Tamayo.

 

www.flickr.com/photos/ugardener/54812157486/in/dateposted/

 

www.youtube.com/@PhillipsArtMuseum

 

www.cntraveler.com/activities/washington/phillips-collection

....

Looking east down the north aisle devoted to windows in memory of Ina Maude daughter of William Hedges-White, 3rd Earl of Bantry and Jane Herbert. & wife of Sewallis Edward Shirley, 10th Earl Ferrers (24 January 1847 – 26 July 1912) son of Washington Sewallis Shirley, 9th Earl & Augusta Annabella Chichester. They are buried in the small mausoleum on the south side www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/43R0E6 which Sewallis built after enlarging the lake in the grounds which flooded the vaults beneath the church

The church was built by royalist Sir Robert Shirley 4th baronet 1629-1656 during the Parliamentary era,on his private estate beside his family residence. Construction began in 1653, and work continued after his death in the Tower, according to instructions left in his will and was finally completed in 1662-5.

Unusually the arcade piers are clad with wood panelling to the same level as the walls.

The painted ceiling was painted on boards in the late 1660s to match that of the nave which representing "creation out of chaos"- Chapel of the Holy Trinity, Staunton Harold, Leicestershire

Included are very high resolution images of the Emerald Ash Borer Beetle. Specimens provided by Dr. David Wagner of the University of Connecticut.

 

Since its accidental introduction from Asia, emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), has killed millions of ash trees in North America. As it continues to spread, it could functionally ex- tirpate ash with devastating economic and ecological impacts. Little was known about EAB when it was first discovered in North America in 2002, but substantial advances in understanding of EAB biology, ecology, and man- agement have occurred since. Ash species indigenous to China are generally resistant to EAB and may eventually provide resistance genes for introgres- sion into North American species. EAB is characterized by stratified disper- sal resulting from natural and human-assisted spread, and substantial effort has been devoted to the development of survey methods. Early eradication efforts were abandoned largely because of the difficulty of detecting and de- lineating infestations. Current management is focused on biological control, insecticide protection of high-value trees, and integrated efforts to slow ash mortality.

 

Abstract by Daniel A. Herms (The Ohio State University) and Deborah G. McCullough (Michigan State University)

 

- See more at: www.emeraldashborer.info

 

You can download or view Macroscopic Solutions’ images in more detail by selecting any image and clicking the downward facing arrow in the lower-right corner of the image display screen.

 

The individuals of Macroscopic Solutions, LLC captured the images in this database collaboratively.

 

www.macroscopicsolutions.com

 

Contact information:

 

Mark Smith M.S. Geoscientist

mark@macroscopicsolutions.com

 

Annette Evans Ph.D. Student at the University of Connecticut

annette@macroscopicsolutions.com

"I'll never hurt you, I'll never lie

I'll never be untrue

I'll never give you reason to cry

I'd be unhappy if you were blue"

 

"Devoted to You" The Everly Brothers

youtu.be/LboNYB_oKTY

  

Devoted friendship.

foto by kvali tet.

Taken at Blessed Be Thy Name, Hopelessly Devoted (152, 107, 1003)

Original early Series 2.

 

Series 2, 2A and 3 have a devoted following all over the world as anyone who has ever used one will confirm.

 

Legendary capabilities off road and superior refinements all round compared to Series 1. Perfectly engineered longer and wider relative to S1. Iconic period styling by David Bache.

 

Owned and operated by Border Rovers.

 

Border Rovers can be contacted on:

 

07515899390

 

Series II 88-inch utilities (1958-1961)

 

The Series II Land Rover was introduced in April 1958, exactly 10 years after the original was shown in Amsterdam. Both “Regular” and “Long” models had the same wheelbases as the Series Is they replaced, but there were many important differences. Most obvious was the styling (by Rover’s David Bache), which was impressive enough to survive with only minor changes into the 21st century. It provided barrel-sides to cover axles with wider tracks, plus a sill panel to conceal the underpinnings, and a particularly neat truck cab option. Mechanical changes focussed on a new and much more powerful petrol engine, this time an OHV four-cylinder of 2286cc. However, the 88-inch models retained the old 2-litre engine until summer 1958. The existing 2052cc diesel, a close cousin of the new petrol engine, remained available. The usual range of body styles was on offer – soft top, truck cab, and Station Wagon (see below). Overseas buyers could also have a Window Hardtop model. Bronze Green was still the most popular colour, but there were six others: Beige, Dark Grey, Light Green, Light Grey, Marine Blue and Poppy Red, the latter for fire engines. There were 60,456 88-inch Series II models, of which just 9,539 were diesel-powered. The last five 1500-series chassis (from 1960) appear to have had Perkins diesel engines from new.

 

vimeo.com/225317099

 

"The CEI (Cochrane Ecological Institute) is a family founded, charitable organization devoted to breeding endangered species for reintroduction, wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, and release, educating the public, monitoring habitat and species, and developing non intrusive wildlife survey methods. The CEI was founded (1971) by Miles and Beryl Smeeton and is now run by their daughter, Clio Smeeton. Miles and Beryl Smeeton were internationally known sailors, mountaineers, and explorers.

 

The Smeetons initiated the swift fox reintroduction program in Canada in 1972, six years before the species was declared extirpated in Canada. All animals held at the CEI are destined for reintroduction. They are not maintained for public exhibit, trade, or sale. Over the 26 years of its existence the CEI has also been an integral part of the Canadian Wildlife Service's Trumpeter swan (Cygnus bucinnator) and wood bison (B.b.athabascae) reintroduction programs, as well as playing a key role in the Canadian swift fox reintroduction program. The CEI is unique in that it holds the world's longest established (1972), largest (20 pairs), and only captive breeding colony of swift fox. These animals are bred solely for reintroduction as part of the CEI's ecosystem restoration program.

 

Internationally, as species and habitat vanish, the concept of ecosystem restoration through the reintroduction of indigenous flora and fauna, is gaining greater and greater prominence. The preservation of habitat without those species, which made that habitat a viable whole, is a sterile exercise." From the CEI's website.

 

www.ceinst.org/about-us.html

 

"Cochrane Ecological Institute's Swift Fox Reintroduction programs began in 1972 under the direction of Beryl and Miles Smeeton. Since that time 0ver 800 Swift fox were reintroduced to the Canadian Prairie. This has resulted in the Species being downlisted by the Canadian Government from Extirpated to Endangered.

 

In 1998 the CEI was invited by the Blackfeet Tribal Fish and Wildlife Department, Browning, Montana to join in a partnership to start the first swift fox re-introduction in the USA on the Blackfeet Tribal Lands. Defenders of Wildlife also became partners in this project and the first swift foxes were released on Blackfeet land in the fall of 1998.This program continued until 2003.

 

The CEI was requested to design and implement a Swift Fox reintroduction program on Blood reserve lands in Alberta Canada in 2003. This resulted in only a 2 year program because of complications resulting from permitting problems and the new Species at Risk Act in Canada." From the CEI website. I have added a previously posted photo of a Swift Fox, taken at the Calgary Zoo in 2009, in a comment box below.

 

Friend, Gayle, had made an appointment to go to this Centre on 9 December 2017, and invited me to go along, too. I had longed to visit and, a few years ago, two friends and I were all set to go, but a major storm prevented us from going. Made an interesting morning, going on a tour of the grounds with our guide, Lisa Dahlseide. I know Lisa in connection with the Weaselhead Natural Area and it was so nice to see that she was going to be our leader for this walk. She has such a wealth of knowledge and her personality is very much a "people person", including doing a lot of work with young children and nature. As well as being a busy mother of three young children, she is part time Naturalist with Weaselhead/Glenmore Park Preservation Society and the Education Director for the Cochrane Ecological Institute.

 

This young deer, with fading "Bambi" spots, was in a large, forested enclosure, along with several other deer. Talk about cute and curious! Unfortunately, I was too busy being distracted by taking photos of things, that I missed a lot of the explanations for the animals/birds that we saw. I always think that I will be able to find information once I get home and get on the Internet, but that doesn't always happen. "Wildlife" that we saw including several (4?) Bison that had originally been brought up from Waterton years ago; the deer; several Wild Turkeys; a Great Horned Owl that is unable to be released and, apparently, does not have the right personality for being trained as a Wildlife Ambassador; and a pair of birds that I have never seen before - White Pheasants. I missed the explanation for these Pheasants, unfortunately.

 

After our visit to the Centre, we drove to Cochrane for an enjoyable lunch. Took a while to drive round looking for somewhere to eat - I had no idea that Cochrane had grown so much. Thanks so much, Gayle, for a different kind of day! Much enjoyed and appreciated.

PEACE

In sweet memory of

My devoted son

WILLIAM JOHN MAIDMENT KENDALL,

Killed in action on H.M.S. "Exmoor,"

Feb. 25th. 1941, aged 37 years.

Too soon it seemed God called him Home

and closed his bright and brief career

and all he had he gave

 

C/JX 225267 Able Seaman William John Maidment Kendall, Royal Naval Reserve, Hunt class destroyer HMS Exmoor (L61).

Born on 17th. February 1904 at Deritend, Birmingham the son of George Henry Dring and Marie E. Maidment.

Killed in action in the North Sea on February 25th, 1941, aged 37.

Buried in Sec. 15. Grave 230 at Normanston Drive Cemetery, Lowestoft, Suffolk.

 

HMS Exmoor (L61) was a Hunt class destroyer ordered on 21st. March 1939 under the 1939 Naval Building Programme from Parsons Marine Steam Turbines Company, with the hull building being subcontracted to the Vickers-Armstrong's yard on Tyneside. She was laid down as Job No. J4099 on 8th. June 1939 and launched on 25th. January 1940. She was commissioned into service on 18th. October 1940, and after working up, was assigned to the 16th. Destroyer Flotilla at Scapa Flow.

On 6th November Exmoor was detached in company with HMS Pytchley (L92) to escort the merchant ship SS Adda to the Faeroe Islands. Exmoor returned on 11th. November and resumed her working up period. In December she escorted the armed merchant cruisers Chitral and Salopian on their way to begin patrols. Exmoor then sailed to Plymouth.

In January Exmoor was part of the escort for the battleship Queen Elizabeth as she sailed from Portsmouth to Rosyth. Exmoor then sailed to Harwich to begin escorting coastal convoys through the North Sea with the 16th. Destroyer Flotilla. She carried out these duties into February, and on 23rd. February, commanded by Lt. Cdr. Robert Tindle Lampard, was deployed with HMS Shearwater (L39) to escort convoy FN417 from the Thames estuary to Methil in Fife. The convoy was attacked by German E-boats as it passed off Lowestoft, Suffolk on 25th. February. Exmoor suffered an explosion aft, suffering major structural damage and rupturing a fuel supply line which ignited. Fire spread rapidly forward from after compartments and the ship capsized and sank in ten minutes about 12 nautical miles east-north-east of Lowestoft, in position 52º32'N 02º05'E with the loss of 4 officers, including her Commanding Officer and 100 men. The survivors were picked up by Shearwater and HM Trawler Commander Evans, and were taken to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

The Kriegsmarine (German Navy of WW2) claimed Exmoor had been hit by a torpedo fired by E-boat S30 commanded by Klaus Feldt. It is also recorded that her loss was more likely to have been due to hitting a British mine in the East Coast Barrier, as the Admiralty claimed.

The wreck is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. During a 2008 to 2011 marine biology survey of the area in which Exmoor sank, the fisheries research vessel Cefas Endeavour of Lowestoft discovered the wreck.

The name Exmoor was carried forward to another Hunt class destroyer then being built, previously planned as HMS Burton. She was launched by Swan Hunter at Wallsend on 12th. March 1941 as HMS Exmoor (L08)

 

Name: HMS Exmoor

Pennant number: L61

Complement: 146

Length: 280 ft. (85.3 m)

Beam: 29 ft. (8.8 m)

Draught: 10 ft. 9 in. (3.27 m)

Displacement, standard: 1,000 ton

Displacement, full load: 1,340 ton

Boilers: 2 x Admiralty 3 drum boilers

Turbines: Two shaft Parsons geared turbines

Turbines output: 19,000 hp (14,168 kW)

Speed, standard displacement: 27.5 knots

Speed, full displacement, 26 knots

Range at 15 knots: 3,500 nautical miles (4,025 miles - 6,480 km)

Range at 26 knots:1,080 nautical miles (1,245 miles - 2,000 km)

Armament

4 x QF 4 in. (102 mm) Mark XVI guns on twin mounts

4 x QF 2 pounder (40 mm) Mk VIII AA guns on quad mount

2 x 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns on single mounts

1 x rack of 40 x depth charges c/w 2 x throwers

   

Photo credit: JHC Archives

  

Mother’s Day is an occasion to honor strong and devoted women in our lives. This year it was also a cause for celebration at the Jay Heritage Center as they announced their receipt of an exceptional collection of 19th century daguerreotypes of Jay women and their family members who lived in Rye at the historic 1838 Mansion. The gift was applauded on Saturday, May 12 with a gathering of Jay descendants and members of the Jay Heritage Center Board of Trustees. Westchester's Deputy County Executive, Kevin Plunkett presented Jay Heritage Center President, Suzanne Clary with a Proclamation from County Executive Rob Astorino commending her non-profit's organization for their work in preservation and education. Also on hand were Senator Suzi Oppenheimer and NY State Assemblyman George Latimer.

 

The highlight of the new collection is a never before seen mother and daughter portrait circa 1848 of Mrs. John Clarkson Jay (nee Laura Prime, daughter of NY banker Nathaniel Prime) and her eldest child Laura at 16 years old. Yet another charming vignette dated 1850 shows 2 of the youngest daughters, Alice and Sarah, in gingham dresses at age 4 and 2. These rare and luminous treasures were generously donated by architectural historian and preservationist, Anne Andrus Grady of Lexington, Massachusetts in memory of her aunt, Miriam Jay Wurts Andrus, a direct descendant of John Jay. Mrs. Andrus was born in New York City, the only child of Edith Maud Benedict and Pierre Jay Wurts. A 1931 graduate of Vassar College, she also attended Columbia University, and Johns Hopkins University where she studied international relations. During her lifetime she was known as an accomplished photographer as well as a civic activist and noted philanthropist. Her range of volunteer efforts benefited many academic and cultural institutions like the League of Women Voters, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Center Stage Theatre in Baltimore and Vassar College to name just a few. Mrs. Andrus’ niece, Anne Andrus Grady has distinguished herself as well as an outstanding champion of historic preservation in Massachusetts. She has authored numerous Historic Structure Reports and National Historic Landmark nominations, advising on the preservation of many of that state’s most prominent buildings such as Boston’s Old South Meeting House. Her work of 3 decades culminated in a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Historical Commission in 2010. She is delighted that the Jay daguerreotypes will be conserved and find a permanent home in Rye where they can be studied and interpreted.

 

The Andrus Collection is composed of 8 leather cased daguerreotype plates several of which are hand-tinted. For the Jay Heritage Center, a gift with this most meaningful provenance, including plates produced in the studios of well known New York Daguerrians, Rufus Anson and Jeremiah Gurney, opens the door to new educational programming about America’s “New Art” as photography was then dubbed. This magical method of capturing images on silvered copper plates was introduced in the United States by none other than Samuel F. B. Morse. Morse, who was a colleague of John Jay’s eldest son, Peter Augustus Jay, first brought the daguerreotype process back to America in 1839. Morse’s earliest students included Gurney, as well as a young man named Edward Anthony. Anthony produced popular steroviews during the Civil War and also branched out into the photographic supplies business, creating many of the decorative book-like cases in which Gurney’s and other Daguerrians’ photos were sealed. (Coincidentally Anthony’s granddaughter married John Clarkson Jay III in 1903.)

 

An opening reception and exhibit on the Andrus collection is scheduled for this fall at the 1838 Jay Mansion accompanied by a series of lectures on early American photography.

 

###

Jay Heritage Center

210 Boston Post Road

Rye, NY 10580

(914) 698-9275

Email: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com

www.jayheritagecenter.org

  

Follow and like us on:

 

Twitter @jayheritage

Facebook www.facebook.com/jayheritagecenter

Pinterest www.pinterest.com/jaycenter

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www.jayheritagecenter.org

www.instagram.com/jayheritagecenter/

  

A National Historic Landmark since 1993

Member of the African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County since 2004

Member of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area since 2009

On NY State's Path Through History (2013)

I know I only posted an update yesterday on the single cygnet at Ladyton but they caught my eye again. The cygnet seems to spend a lot of time with the cob.

FATHER AND SON yusuf islam CAT STEVENS VIÑA DEL MAR 2015

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuDZNhQnOF8DSC09519

The photo is part of a collection devoted to the Indians of the Colorado Valley. The young woman in the photo is identified as Won-Si-Vu, or Young Antelope, and she was in the Kai-vav-its tribe of the Pai Utes, living on the Kai-bab Plateau, near the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. The photo was taken by Hillers in 1874 during the Powell expeditions. John Wesley Powell, a Civil War veteran and professor of geology at Wesleyan College in Illinois, proposed a geological and geographical survey by boat of the Colorado River and its tributaries. Powell's initial expedition exploring the Colorado River from May 24 to late August 1869 received favorable media coverage, in part due to Powell's entertaining lectures. However, the survey yielded very little in the way of physical data.

 

For the second expedition Powell turned to the U.S. Congress as a means to supplement funds that he was currently receiving from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. In June of 1872, Powell was granted $10,000 to lead a second expedition, the Geographical and Topographical Survey of the Colorado River of the West.

 

Powell's primary interest was in geology and ethnology, and his investigations centered on the problem of aridity and human adaptation in the lands of the West. Powell's travels by foot and by boat brought him into contact with what he called the plateau tribes; the Paiutes, the Shivwits, the Unikarits, the Utes, and others. Inspired by these encounters and by the ancient ruins of cities he saw while on the Colorado River, Powell later became the Smithsonian Institution's first Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, a post he held from 1872 until his death in 1902. [From the Online Nevada Encyclopedia at www.onlinenevada.org/]

 

(Note: An inexpensive viewer can turn the side-by-side images on the computer screen into a 3-D image. The viewer is available from the following source:

 

civilwarin3d.com/html/viewers.html )

 

The 45surf and gold 45 revolver swimsuits, shirts, logos, designs, and lingerie are designed in accordance with the golden ratio! More about the design and my philosophy of "no retouching" on the beautiful goddesses in my new book:

 

www.facebook.com/Photographing-Women-Models-Portrait-Swim...

 

"Photographing Women Models: Portrait, Swimsuit, Lingerie, Boudoir, Fine Art, & Fashion Photography Exalting the Venus Goddess Archetype"

 

If you would like a free review copy, message me!

 

Epic Landscape Photography! New Book!

www.facebook.com/epiclandscapephotography

 

And here's more on the golden ratio which appears in many of my landscape and portrait photographs (while shaping the proportions of the golden gun)!

 

www.facebook.com/goldennumberratio/

'

The dx4/dt=ic above the gun on the lingerie derives from my new physics books devoted to Light, Time, Dimension Theory!

 

www.facebook.com/lightimedimensiontheory/

 

Thanks for being a fan! Would love to hears your thoughts on my philosophies and books! :)

 

facebook.com/mcgucken

http:/instagram.com/elliotmcgucken

instagram.com/goldennumberratio

 

Beautiful swimsuit bikini model goddess!

 

Golden Ratio Lingerie Model Goddess LTD Theory Lingerie dx4/dt=ic! The Birth of Venus, Athena, and Artemis! Girls and Guns!

 

Would you like to see the whole set? Comment below and let me know!

 

Follow me!

instagram.com/45surf

facebook.com/mcgucken

instagram.com/elliotmcgucken

 

I am working on several books on "epic photography," and I recently finished a related one titled: The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography: An Artistic and Scientific Introduction to the Golden Mean . Message me on facebook for a free review copy!

 

www.facebook.com/goldennumberratio/

 

The Golden Ratio informs a lot of my art and photographic composition. The Golden Ratio also informs the design of the golden revolver on all the swimsuits and lingerie, as well as the 45surf logo! Not so long ago, I came up with the Golden Ratio Principle which describes why The Golden Ratio is so beautiful.

 

The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Dr. E’s Golden Ratio Principle: The golden ratio exalts beauty because the number is a characteristic of the mathematically and physically most efficient manners of growth and distribution, on both evolutionary and purely physical levels. The golden ratio ensures that the proportions and structure of that which came before provide the proportions and structure of that which comes after. Robust, ordered growth is naturally associated with health and beauty, and thus we evolved to perceive the golden ratio harmonies as inherently beautiful, as we saw and felt their presence in all vital growth and life—in the salient features and proportions of humans and nature alike, from the distribution of our facial features and bones to the arrangements of petals, leaves, and sunflowers seeds. As ratios between Fibonacci Numbers offer the closest whole-number approximations to the golden ratio, and as seeds, cells, leaves, bones, and other physical entities appear in whole numbers, the Fibonacci Numbers oft appear in nature’s elements as “growth’s numbers.” From the dawn of time, humanity sought to salute their gods in art and temples exalting the same proportion by which all their vital sustenance and they themselves had been created—the golden ratio.

 

The Birth of Venus! Beautiful Golden Ratio Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess! Helen of Troy! She was tall, thin, fit, and quite pretty!

  

Read all about how classical art such as The Birth of Venus inspires all my photography!

www.facebook.com/Photographing-Women-Models-Portrait-Swim...

 

"Photographing Women Models: Portrait, Swimsuit, Lingerie, Boudoir, Fine Art, & Fashion Photography Exalting the Venus Goddess Archetype"

King Croesus of Sardis built this large temple (300 x 160 ft), completing it around 300 BCE. Although originally dedicated to Artemis, the temple was also devoted to Zeus during a portion of its history. Just outside the entrance was an altar of Artemis much older than the temple, from as early as the 6th century BCE. In the Hellenistic period the altar was incorporated into a large stepped platform that still exists.

 

The catastrophic earthquake of 17 CE damaged the temple, but in about 150 CE it underwent a renovation. The project was sparked by Sardis' gaining the prestigous title of neokoros, "temple-warden." The neokoros status required Sardis to have a temple dedicated to the imperial family. The Temple of Artemis was thus divided into a double temple: one half for Artemis and the Empress Faustina and the other half for Zeus and Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-61).

 

Most of what remains today dates from the Roman renovation in the second century. Only two complete columns and a few partial ones still stand, but the temple remains an impressive site against the backdrop of the the remnants of the acropolis.

 

(Wikimapia)

 

A broad description of the Temple of Artemis:

  

www.sardisexpedition.org/en/essays/about-artemis-temple

  

Cornel University;

 

classics.cornell.edu/sardis

 

Harvard University;

www.harvardartmuseums.org/teaching-and-research/research-...

  

www.harvardartmuseums.org/visit/calendar/new-digs-and-dis...

 

sardisexpedition.org/en/essays/about-sardis-expedition

 

For more information about sardes ancient city see

www.sardisexpedition.org/en

  

www.ancient.eu/sardis/

 

www.kultur.gov.tr/EN,114103/sardis.html

 

Harvard Museum;

 

www.harvardartmuseums.org/search-results?q=sardis

 

'' Historic monuments are the common values of humanity. It

must be protected''

 

FFA

  

Mural devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe just off Mariachi Square in Los Angeles, CA. Where the Mariachi's workers pray and wait for work, mostly on the weekends. Shot with Scala Film

They devoted the city to the lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it - men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

The Book of Joshua 6:21

“…HERE WILL RISE A FITTING STRUCTURE—A SYMBOL OF DEVOTED PATRIOTISM AND UNSELFISH SERVICE. WE IN AMERICA DO NOT BUILD MONUMENTS TO WAR: WE DO NOT BUILD MONUMENTS TO CONQUESTS; WE BUILD MONUMENTS TO COMMEMORATE THE SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE IN WAR—REMINDERS OF OUR DESIRE FOR PEACE. THE MEMORY OF THOSE, WHOM THE WAR CALLED TO THE BEYOND, URGES US TO CONSECRATE THE BEST THAT IS IN US TO THE SERVICE OF COUNTRY IN TIMES OF PEACE. WE BEST HONOR THE MEMORY OF THOSE DEAD BY STRIVING FOR PEACE, THAT THE TERROR OF THE DAYS OF WAR WILL BE WITH US NO MORE. MAY THE BEAUTY OF THIS MONUMENT, WHICH WILL RISE ON THIS SITE, CAST A BENEFICENT LIGHT ON THE MEMORIES OF OUR COMRADES, MAY A SUBSTANTIAL STRUCTURE TYPIFY THE STRENGTH OF THEIR PURPOSE, AND MAY IT INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS WITH A DESIRE TO BE OF SERVICE TO THEIR FELLOWS AND THEIR COUNTRY.”

 

-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the dedication of the site for the Soldiers Memorial building in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 14, 1936.

 

Opening on Memorial Day, May 30, 1938, the Soldiers' Memorial in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, was originally designed by the architectural firm of Mauran, Russell & Crowell to commemorate the St. Louis citizens who gave their lives in World War I. The building houses the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum, which contains military displays and memorabilia from World War I and subsequent American wars.

 

Operated for many years by the St. Louis Board of Public Service, the City of St. Louis recently signed an agreement to turn over operations to the Missouri Historical Society. Beginning February 28, 2016, the Historical Society will close the museum for approximately two years to begin a multi-million dollar renovation of the historic structure in order to create a state-of-the-art museum facility.

 

This is a view of the exterior of the building which is made of Bedford limestone. Four large figures sculptured from stone stand at the entrances to the atrium which separates the east and west wings of the building; two on the south side along Chestnut street representing Courage [male] and Vision [female], and two on the north side along Pine Street representing Loyalty [male] and Sacrifice [female]. These sculptures are the work of native St. Louisan Walker Hancock.

 

© All rights reserved - - No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without the Written Consent of the photographer.

 

The best way to view my photostream is on Flickriver: Nikon66's photos on Flickriver

Free download under CC Attribution (CC BY 4.0). Please credit the artist and rawpixel.com.

Vintage fish illustrations from Ichtyologie, ou, Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des poissons (1785–1797) by Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799), the German physician and naturalist. Bloch was the most influential ichthyologist of the 18th century who consistently devoted himself to natural objects, anatomy, and physiology. This collection showcases his devotion to ichthyology, illustrating more than 400 various types of fish. We have digitally enhanced these richly colored public domain illustrations in high-resolution printable quality. Free to download under the CC0 license.

Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: https://www.rawpixel.com/board/938140/ichtyologie-ou-histoire-naturelle-generale-et-particuliere-des-poissons?sort=curated&mode=shop&page=1

 

The Mausoleum of Genghis Khan, Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China,

 

The Mausoleum of Genghis Khan is a temple devoted to the worship of Genghis Khan. It is located along a river in Kandehuo Enclosure, Xinjie Town, Ejen Khoruu Banner, Ordos Prefecture-Level City , Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China.

 

Genghis Khan worship is a religion popular among Mongolians, with ties to traditional Mongolian shamanism. There are other temples of this worship culture in Inner Mongolia and Northern China.

 

The mausoleum is a cenotaph, where the coffin contains no body but only headdresses and accessories, because the actual Tomb of Genghis Khan has never been discovered. It was built between 1954 and 1956 by the government of the PRC in the traditional Mongol style. The mausoleum is located in the town of Ejin Horo Qi, 115 kilometers north of Yulin, and 55 kilometers south of Dongsheng.

 

After Genghis Khan died around Gansu, his coffin was carried to central Mongolia. According to his will, he was buried without any markings. The burial place is unknown. Instead of the real tomb, portable mausoleums called naiman tsagaan ger (eight white yurts) enshrined him. They were originally palaces where Genghis Khan lived, but were altered to mausoleums by Ögedei Khan. They settled at the base of the Khentii Mountains. The site, located in Delgerkhaan Sum, Khentii Aimag, Mongolia, is called the Avraga site.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Genghis_Khan

 

Genghis Khan's Mausoleum

 

Statue of Genghis Khan, Baotou

Statue of Genghis Khan, BaotouGenghis Khan is a Mongolian hero. He reunified the chaotic Inner Mongolia prairie and led his people to be a great civilization. He made great contributions to the founding of the powerful Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and the unification of China which enhanced greatly the interactions of the peoples of China. Due to this great feat, he was named 'Genghis Khan' by Mongolian tribes, meaning 'powerful king' in Mongolian. Today, Genghis Khan is still worshipped and remembered by his people.

 

www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/inner_mongolia/baotou...

Divers 2022 - Helltopia Brussels Halloweex

 

The Helltopia mott breaks out of its slimy cocoon after a long break.

 

Helltopia is back in 2022 and just like the monsters it proudly brings to life, our Horror concept is also transforming form. This year not as a festival but as an underground expo in Brussels.

 

It is a true Horror festival with film screenings, lectures, podcasts, but as the main theme an exhibition entirely devoted to Pop Culture around Horror.

 

Brussels Halloweex: 13 Days Of Horror.

 

Come visit us from October 21 to November 666 if you dare!

 

( Divers albums de photos prisent en 2022 sans sujet precis.

Various albums of pictures taken in 2022 without subject. )

Devoted friendship.

foto by kvali tet.

Archaeologist and painter Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), who came from a noble and rich Irish family, was born in Dublin and studied literature and archeology at Trinity College in Cambridge. Thanks to the economic comfort provided by his great fortune, he stayed away from the need to acquire a profession, and he devoted himself to the researches about the Mediterranean civilizations.

 

In 1801, he traveled with Ionian Islands (Corfu, Zante etc.) and the region of Troy together with Atkins and well-known traveler W. Gell. In 1805-06, he travels to Rumeli with his traveling companion, Simone Pomardi. He then settled in Naples and Rome and marries a woman thirty years younger from him. He was an honorary member of many European cultural foundations. He died of sickness while exploring in the mountains of Italy. The large archaeological collection he created (coins, 115 copper items, 143 amphoras) was sold to the Munich Sculpture Museum after being housed in his home in Rome for a while.

 

As a productive writer and visual artist at the same time, Dodwell reveals his multi-faceted talent, which includes his sense of curiosity, critical gaze and artistic sensitivity as an archaeologist in his works that are unique for the era. For the first time in his work, we can recognize the true discovery of a "place": walking; It becomes a form of discovery and recognition (reading) of the view, which includes monuments, history, contemporary people and proven information.

 

The journey, which is described in these two volumes of publications and has rich data in archeology and topography material, creates an infinite wealth of information about the public and private lives of the Greeks in the period before the rebellion (before 1821). In late April 1801, Dodwell took a smart and well-read Greek from Santorini, whom he met in Italy, as an interpreter and set off from Venice. In one month, he crossed the Adriatic sea and arrived in Corfu under Russian-ottoman occupation with his companions. Their journey continues towards Paksos islands, Parga, Santa Mavra. Dodwell writes about the nose of Lefkata, where ancient Greek poet Saffo, according to ancient ruins, products, villages and legend, fell into the sea because of his desperate love for Faon. From here go to Preveza and go to Nikopolis. He travels to the archeological site at the village, continues to Ithaka island and writes about the geography and economic situation there and about the search for ancient ruins. Finally, he came to Kefalonia and completed his first trip to the regions of Greece with William Gell.

 

In 1805, Dodwell, along with the artist Simone Pomardi, arrives in Zante from the city of Messina in Sicily, where he writes about the villages, population, products; he then goes to Mesolongi. Tepedelenli Ali Pasha writes about the persecution of local people, local products, the Akheloos river and the Echinades archipelago. After the journey, he reached Patra and became the guest of the consul Nikolaos Stranis. Stranis's mansion had been the meeting place of many European guests for years. Dodwell's visit to Patra confirms his theoretical knowledge about them. Speaking of Contemporary Patra, the city's architectural arrangement is easily understandable (noting that "the houses of Greeks are lime and the houses of Turks are painted in red"), writes about its economic condition (including products exported from the region). In Patra, he visits the castle, the famous big-bodied cypress tree, the church of Saint Andrea and the holy spring. He adds the pattern that his travel companion Pomardi has drawn and displays the sacred source. Noting that many black slaves were found in Patra, Dodwell also made efforts to acquire some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. It documents its own knowledge in a scientific way with the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece on its route and previous travel testimonies. adds the pattern drawn by and displaying the sacred source. Noting that many black slaves were found in Patra, Dodwell also made efforts to acquire some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. It documents its own knowledge in a scientific way with the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece on its route and previous travel testimonies. adds the pattern drawn by and displaying the sacred source. Noting that many black slaves were found in Patra, Dodwell also made efforts to acquire some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. It documents its own knowledge in a scientific way with the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece on its route and previous travel testimonies.

 

Dodwell chooses to go to Athens in another way due to an epidemic in Peloponnese and passes through Inebahti, Galaksidi (watches carnival shows here) and passes through Amfisa (here is a guest at a Kefalonian doctor's house and visits the voivodeship), makes his way up to Parnasos mountain, stops in Hriso village and stay in Kastri and tour the Kastalya fountain and very few ancient ruins that can be seen in Delfi. The road passes through Arahova and Distomo and takes it to the ancient site of Trophonius priests in Livadia, from there it continues to other Boeotia villages (Orchomenos, Aliartos, Thespiae). Crossing the Eleutherae road and the Eleusis plain, on March 26, Lord Elgin's work teams arrive in Athens when the Acropolis was removing the relief marbles. Dodwell stayed here until September and almost all of Attica (Pendeli mountain, Fili, Acharnai, Kifisia, Vrauron, Porto Rafti, Thorikos, Lavrion, Sunion, Piraeus) and Aegina and Salamis islands. In addition to archaeological issues, he also writes about the dances, music and games of the Greeks, as well as about baths and even insects and birds.

 

After Athens, it passes through Thiva (Thebai), Kopais lake, Thermopylae and Lamia, Stylis and Almyros to Volos and Pelion; in his article he mentions all the ancient city ruins he met along the way. After that, Larissa and Ambelakia come to the superior level of life here, highly influenced by cultured people and the cotton yarn dyeing industry. Thessaly plain returns to Athens after passing through Lilaia, Amfikleia, Fokida, Boeotia and stopping at Chalkida and Marathon. He stays here all summer. In December of 1805, we find him visiting the Argos-Corinth region: Dafni monastery, Eleusis and its religious mysteries, Megara, Corinthian isthmus, Corinthian fortress, Kechries, Nemea and its vineyards, the acropolis and ancient theater in Argos, the treasure of Mycenae and Atreus, Tiryns and Nauplion, The ruins of the Epidaurus and Asclepius temple, Troizina, Methana, Poros are places he traveled and wrote. Then, on the road of Aegion, Sikyon passes through Xylokastron and stops in the local inns, and after Patra, he reaches Olympia on January 24, 1806 by describing all villages of Achaia and Ileia. In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (by stopping at Tegea, Tripoli, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavryta, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806. passing through, stops in the local inns, and after Patra, he describes all the villages of Achaia and Ileia and arrives at Olympia on January 24, 1806. In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (by stopping at Tegea, Tripoli, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavryta, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806. passing through, stops at the inns of the region and after Patra, he describes all the villages of Achaia and Ileia and arrives at Olympia on January 24, 1806. In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (stop by Tegea, Tripoliçe, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavryta, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806.

 

In the appendix of the publication: place names and different spelling forms, catalog of Kefalonia and Zante islands, Livadia, Amfisa, Lamia, Thebai cities and their major settlements, Corfu, Delfi, Fokis, Thespiae There are inscriptions from the islands of Piraeus, Tinos and Lezbos, musical instruments used in Attica, and the price catalog of products in Athens, as well as a catalog of fruits and vegetables on sale as long as they stay there.

 

After documenting and archiving the archaeological remains that he visited, using the camera obscura technique, Dodwell aimed to combine art with the scientific view. In his published three volumes of his work, which is a basic resource for all travelers who traveled to Greece after him, and which is still a very useful work in archaeological research, there are nearly 400 pictures of landscape and historical monuments drawn by Dodwell. Recently, dozens more patterns have appeared that have not been known to date.

 

Written By: İoli Vingopoulou

~

Okay, I can take a joke, but…

 

Susan and I had devoted the month of January for a road trip to Florida, camping and kayaking the clear springs across the state. We worked for weeks to get everything ready, eager with anticipation. Finally, a couple of days before the new year, we strapped the boats on top of the truck, loaded all the gear, but then had to hold back for a weekend, as it was raining heavily. (It’s not fun to start a tent camping trip in a puddle.)

 

Once we made our first stop in Charleston for New Year’s festivities, we checked the weather. More heavy rain was on the way, so we cancelled our next beach camping plan in lieu of a cabin in the Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia. While comfortable there, we couldn’t paddle due to high winds and constant rain. I suppose that’s okay, because as it turns out, almost 3/4 of the acreage in the swamp burned badly in 2011. We used to escape to the Okefenokee, as it was the quietest, most primordial-looking place we had ever known. Now it looks like a war zone, with charred sticks that used to be beautiful cypress trees, and it will take many years for it to grow back to its former glory. (That said, fire is a good thing. The Okefenokee is not so much a swamp as it is a peat bog. If the peat doesn’t burn from time to time, the entire area would fill in, with no waterways available.)

 

We had anticipated staying in the tent in the Okefenokee for a few more days, but weather forecasts indicated that we should move further south for warmth and dryness, so we re-routed to Silver Springs, Florida. More on that wonderful place later.

 

A full week after leaving the house, we managed to get a paddle in on the Silver River, although it was cool and overcast. When we landed back at the camp and checked the weather, we saw the massive, record-breaking cold front coming down on us. Poring over the forecasts, we decided that rather than enduring 20F cold, we would move down to Jupiter, Florida. Yes, it was much warmer down there, but being at the edge of the cold front, we were inundated with Gulf moisture and high winds. Three days, no paddling.

We had planned to go to the southernmost point of Florida, Flamingo, then to the west coast, but every place we had planned was subject to some of the most rotten camping weather imaginable.

 

We called a Full Retreat. Enough was enough. Two weeks out on the road living out of the truck; changing plans at every stop; only had one paddle trip; one day of sunshine. Home starts to look pretty good after a while.

 

On the way back north, we managed to snag this beautiful cabin back in Silver Springs. Surrounded by Live Oak trees draped in Spanish Moss, these “cabins” are more like full-sized houses, with a huge wraparound porch that we enjoyed to the fullest extent. (Yes, it rained that night.)

 

There were several good moments and highlights along the way; it wasn’t all bad. But as I sat on the porch and contemplated our fortunes, I couldn’t help but think that someone was up there, looking down at me with their thumb on the weather button, and saying, “You know, Rob: You… just… tick… me… off.”

 

~

 

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Mating couple in the Masai Mara in Kenya.

The gallery devoted to the War of 1812 was created by Carlo Rossi in 1826 in commemoration of Russian victories in the Napoleonic Wars. On the walls hang 332 portraits of the generals who were heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 and European campaigns of 1813-14. These portraits were created by the British artist George Dawe with the participation of Russian artists Alexander Poliakov and Wilhelm Golike. At the short ends of the Gallery hang equestrian portraits of Emperor Alexander I and his ally in the war with Napoleon, Frederick William III of Prussia (both by Franz Kruger), and of the Austrian Emperor Francis I (by Johann Peter Krafft). Formal portraits of General-Field Marshals Mikhail Kutuzov and Mikhail Barclay de Tolly are hung on the sides of the door leading to the St. George Hall (Large Throne Room).

© 2007 State Hermitage Museum

 

Archaeologist and painter Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), who came from a noble and rich Irish family, was born in Dublin and studied literature and archeology at Trinity College in Cambridge. Thanks to the economic comfort provided by his great fortune, he stayed away from the need to acquire a profession, and he devoted himself to the researches about the Mediterranean civilizations.

 

In 1801, he traveled with Ionian Islands (Corfu, Zante etc.) and the region of Troy together with Atkins and well-known traveler W. Gell. In 1805-06, he travels to Rumeli with his traveling companion, Simone Pomardi. He then settled in Naples and Rome and marries a woman thirty years younger from him. He was an honorary member of many European cultural foundations. He died of sickness while exploring in the mountains of Italy. The large archaeological collection he created (coins, 115 copper items, 143 amphoras) was sold to the Munich Sculpture Museum after being housed in his home in Rome for a while.

 

As a productive writer and visual artist at the same time, Dodwell reveals his multi-faceted talent, which includes his sense of curiosity, critical gaze and artistic sensitivity as an archaeologist in his works that are unique for the era. For the first time in his work, we can recognize the true discovery of a "place": walking; It becomes a form of discovery and recognition (reading) of the view, which includes monuments, history, contemporary people and proven information.

 

The journey, which is described in these two volumes of publications and has rich data in archeology and topography material, creates an infinite wealth of information about the public and private lives of the Greeks in the period before the rebellion (before 1821). In late April 1801, Dodwell took a smart and well-read Greek from Santorini, whom he met in Italy, as an interpreter and set off from Venice. In one month, he crossed the Adriatic sea and arrived in Corfu under Russian-ottoman occupation with his companions. Their journey continues towards Paksos islands, Parga, Santa Mavra. Dodwell writes about the nose of Lefkata, where ancient Greek poet Saffo, according to ancient ruins, products, villages and legend, fell into the sea because of his desperate love for Faon. From here go to Preveza and go to Nikopolis. He travels to the archeological site at the village, continues to Ithaka island and writes about the geography and economic situation there and about the search for ancient ruins. Finally, he came to Kefalonia and completed his first trip to the regions of Greece with William Gell.

 

In 1805, Dodwell, along with the artist Simone Pomardi, arrives in Zante from the city of Messina in Sicily, where he writes about the villages, population, products; he then goes to Mesolongi. Tepedelenli Ali Pasha writes about the persecution of local people, local products, the Akheloos river and the Echinades archipelago. After the journey, he reached Patra and became the guest of the consul Nikolaos Stranis. Stranis's mansion had been the meeting place of many European guests for years. Dodwell's visit to Patra confirms his theoretical knowledge about them. Speaking of Contemporary Patra, the city's architectural arrangement is easily understandable (noting that "the houses of Greeks are lime and the houses of Turks are painted in red"), writes about its economic condition (including products exported from the region). In Patra, he visits the castle, the famous big-bodied cypress tree, the church of Saint Andrea and the holy spring. He adds the pattern that his travel companion Pomardi has drawn and displays the sacred source. Noting that many black slaves were found in Patra, Dodwell also made efforts to acquire some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. It documents its own knowledge in a scientific way with the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece on its route and previous travel testimonies. adds the pattern drawn by and displaying the sacred source. Noting that many black slaves were found in Patra, Dodwell also made efforts to acquire some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. It documents its own knowledge in a scientific way with the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece on its route and previous travel testimonies. adds the pattern drawn by and displaying the sacred source. Noting that many black slaves were found in Patra, Dodwell also made efforts to acquire some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. It documents its own knowledge in a scientific way with the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece on its route and previous travel testimonies.

 

Dodwell chooses to go to Athens in another way due to an epidemic in Peloponnese and passes through Inebahti, Galaksidi (watches carnival shows here) and passes through Amfisa (here is a guest at a Kefalonian doctor's house and visits the voivodeship), makes his way up to Parnasos mountain, stops in Hriso village and stay in Kastri and tour the Kastalya fountain and very few ancient ruins that can be seen in Delfi. The road passes through Arahova and Distomo and takes it to the ancient site of Trophonius priests in Livadia, from there it continues to other Boeotia villages (Orchomenos, Aliartos, Thespiae). Crossing the Eleutherae road and the Eleusis plain, on March 26, Lord Elgin's work teams arrive in Athens when the Acropolis was removing the relief marbles. Dodwell stayed here until September and almost all of Attica (Pendeli mountain, Fili, Acharnai, Kifisia, Vrauron, Porto Rafti, Thorikos, Lavrion, Sunion, Piraeus) and Aegina and Salamis islands. In addition to archaeological issues, he also writes about the dances, music and games of the Greeks, as well as about baths and even insects and birds.

 

After Athens, it passes through Thiva (Thebai), Kopais lake, Thermopylae and Lamia, Stylis and Almyros to Volos and Pelion; in his article he mentions all the ancient city ruins he met along the way. After that, Larissa and Ambelakia come to the superior level of life here, highly influenced by cultured people and the cotton yarn dyeing industry. Thessaly plain returns to Athens after passing through Lilaia, Amfikleia, Fokida, Boeotia and stopping at Chalkida and Marathon. He stays here all summer. In December of 1805, we find him visiting the Argos-Corinth region: Dafni monastery, Eleusis and its religious mysteries, Megara, Corinthian isthmus, Corinthian fortress, Kechries, Nemea and its vineyards, the acropolis and ancient theater in Argos, the treasure of Mycenae and Atreus, Tiryns and Nauplion, The ruins of the Epidaurus and Asclepius temple, Troizina, Methana, Poros are places he traveled and wrote. Then, on the road of Aegion, Sikyon passes through Xylokastron and stops in the local inns, and after Patra, he reaches Olympia on January 24, 1806 by describing all villages of Achaia and Ileia. In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (by stopping at Tegea, Tripoli, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavryta, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806. passing through, stops in the local inns, and after Patra, he describes all the villages of Achaia and Ileia and arrives at Olympia on January 24, 1806. In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (by stopping at Tegea, Tripoli, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavryta, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806. passing through, stops at the inns of the region and after Patra, he describes all the villages of Achaia and Ileia and arrives at Olympia on January 24, 1806. In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (stop by Tegea, Tripoliçe, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavryta, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806.

 

In the appendix of the publication: place names and different spelling forms, catalog of Kefalonia and Zante islands, Livadia, Amfisa, Lamia, Thebai cities and their major settlements, Corfu, Delfi, Fokis, Thespiae There are inscriptions from the islands of Piraeus, Tinos and Lezbos, musical instruments used in Attica, and the price catalog of products in Athens, as well as a catalog of fruits and vegetables on sale as long as they stay there.

 

After documenting and archiving the archaeological remains that he visited, using the camera obscura technique, Dodwell aimed to combine art with the scientific view. In his published three volumes of his work, which is a basic resource for all travelers who traveled to Greece after him, and which is still a very useful work in archaeological research, there are nearly 400 pictures of landscape and historical monuments drawn by Dodwell. Recently, dozens more patterns have appeared that have not been known to date.

 

Written By: İoli Vingopoulou

What the heck is the American Legion? I've been going by American Legion posts for years without ever delving into that question. It's time to shed some light on the subject.

 

Here's who they are in their own words:

 

The American Legion was chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness. It is the nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization, committed to mentoring youth and sponsorship of wholesome programs in our communities, advocating patriotism and honor, promoting strong national security, and continued devotion to our fellow servicemembers and veterans.

 

Hundreds of local American Legion programs and activities strengthen the nation one community at a time. American Legion Baseball is one of the nation’s most successful amateur athletic programs, educating young people about the importance of sportsmanship, citizenship and fitness. The Operation Comfort Warriors program supports recovering wounded warriors and their families, providing them with "comfort items" and the kind of support that makes a hospital feel a little bit more like home. The Legion also raises millions of dollars in donations at the local, state and national levels to help veterans and their families during times of need and to provide college scholarship opportunities.

 

The American Legion is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization with great political influence perpetuated by its grass-roots involvement in the legislation process from local districts to Capitol Hill. Legionnaires’ sense of obligation to community, state and nation drives an honest advocacy for veterans in Washington. The Legion stands behind the issues most important to the nation's veterans community, backed by resolutions passed by volunteer leadership.

 

The American Legion’s success depends entirely on active membership, participation and volunteerism. The organization belongs to the people it serves and the communities in which it thrives.

www.legion.org/mission

=====================

 

Here's the very long story of Raymond, Washington:

 

The blanket of old growth forest that covered the Willapa Hills surrounding Raymond, on the Willapa River in Pacific County, fueled the town's growth from a handful of farms to a mill town bustling with trains filled with freshly cut logs, mills running 24 hours a day, and ships laden with lumber bound for the East Coast, South American, San Francisco, and Hawaii in less than a decade after its founding in 1903.

 

When a combination of overharvesting, environmental laws, and changes in the global market severely reduced logging and milling in the 1980s and 1990s, Raymond residents looked to new, more sustainable ways to utilize the surrounding hills, rivers, and bay to create jobs and sustain their community.

 

First Peoples

 

The Willapa River, with headwaters in the Willapa Hills, winds through the Willapa Valley until it is reaches the sea at Willapa Bay. A few miles upstream from the river's mouth, the South Fork of the Willapa joins the main river. Sloughs thread through the lowland forming what is called the Island, though it is not technically completely encircled by water.

 

Prior to contact with Europeans, three tribes lived around the Willapa's mouth, the Shoalwater (or Willapa) Chinook, the Lower Chehalis, and, seasonally, the Kwalhiloqua. Epidemic diseases brought by European and white American traders wreaked havoc in the Indian communities because they lacked immunities to the diseases. A malaria epidemic in the 1830s, probably brought to the area by sailors who had been in the tropics, decimated tribes in the lower Columbia River region.

 

After the epidemic, the Kwalhioqua all but disappeared, and the few remaining individuals joined the Willapa Chinook and Lower Chehalis. The northern part of Willapa Bay and the Willapa River formed a boundary between the Chinooks to the south and the Lower Chehalis to the north. The two groups intermarried and traded often.

 

These are the people who oystermen met when they came to Willapa Bay in the 1850s to harvest shellfish for the San Francisco market. The Indians worked with the oystermen in harvesting the shellfish.

 

Loggers, Farmers, and Indians

 

It was not long before the area's forests attracted loggers and sawmill operators. Brothers John (b. ca. 1830) and Valentine Riddell (b. ca. 1817) established a mill at what would become South Bend in 1869. Others followed, included John Adams' mill on the north side of the junction of the Willapa River with the South Fork.

 

Several farmers staked claims in the vicinity of the junction. The community, known as Riverside, had a school in 1875 and a post office.

 

The Indians in the area continued to work with oystermen, and in the more recently established salmon canneries and saw mills. They also continued to visit their traditional gathering places for berries and other plant materials.

 

The tribes had not yet formally agreed to allow the white Americans to live on their land, so, in February 1855, Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862) met with the Quinault, Queets, Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, Shoalwater Bay, Chinook, and Cowlitz tribes at the Chehalis River Treaty Council (at the location of Cosmopolis today). The tribes did not object to ceding their lands, but once they heard the terms of the treaty they rejected the provision that required them to move to a shared reservation away from their traditional lands with the location of the reservation to be determined later. The tribes refused to accept those conditions and Stevens left without an agreement.

 

The absence of a treaty did not prevent white settlers from claiming lands along the Willapa River, thereby leaving less and less room for the Indians to live. On September 22, 1866 President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) established the Shoalwater Bay Tribes Reservation by reserving 335 acres near Tokeland for the Lower Chehalis and Willapa Chinook who lived along Willapa Bay. The reservation is and has been used by a number of the tribes' members, but many also live in the surrounding communities (and elsewhere).

 

Raymond is Formed

 

In 1889 the promise of a Northern Pacific Railway terminus in South Bend, just downstream from the river junction, led to a land boom. Lots in South Bend and along the river in both directions sold for incredible profits until 1893 when a national financial panic led to a bust in South Bend. South Bend had the county seat and retained the railroad and some operating mills, but a grant of land to the Northern Pacific on the waterfront tied up many of its choicest industrial sites.

 

Upriver, at the river junction, a group of residents, some with Homestead Act claims and others who had bought land at low prices following the bust in South Bend, formed the Raymond Land and Development Company in 1903.

 

Incorporators of the land company included Leslie (1874-1961) (often referred to as L. V.) and Stella (1875-1960) Raymond, who had a farm on the Island. Stella had inherited the land from her father, Captain George Johnson (1823-1882), who had established a Homestead Act Claim for almost 179 acres. Presumably Johnson or the Raymonds purchased part of their holdings, because they brought 310 acres to the partnership.

 

L. V. and Stella, who married in 1897, moved to the farm in 1899 and Raymond became the name of the town that grew up on and around their land. L. V. served as the town's first postmaster, first Northern Pacific Railway agent, and developed a water system for the town. The Raymonds donated land and their time to community projects, such as a playfield and the fire department. A bequest from the Raymonds established the Raymond Foundation in 1962 as a non-profit organization to fund scholarships and community development projects.

 

Building a River Town

 

Alexander C. Little (1860-1932) was also a partner in the land company. After a career in local and state politics that included serving as Aberdeen's mayor, helping elect Governor John R. Rogers, and serving on the State Fisheries Commission, in 1903 Little decided to shift to the private sector. According to Pacific County historian Douglas Allen, "Raymond was named for L. V. but from the beginning A.C. Little formed the character of the town" (Allen, 65).

 

According to Allen, Little contributed two key elements to the town's success. First, he recommended that the land company offer free riverfront lots to mills, thereby ensuring an economic foundation for the town. Second, Little brought Harry C. Heermans (1852-1943) into the partnership. Heermans's engineering background helped solve issues associated with building a town on a river. The sloughs that laced the land rose and fell with the tides, but uphill development would have taken mills too far from the riverfront. Besides, the hills surrounding the river junction rose abruptly and would have posed their own engineering challenges.

 

Other incorporators of the land company included J. B. Duryea, Winfield S. Cram (b.1866), and John T. Welsh (1866-1954). A second land company, the Great West Land Company, also formed in 1903, had some of the same investors and also worked to develop the town.

 

In 1903, the first mill, operated by Jacob Siler and Winfield Cram, began operations. Several more mills, including the West Coast Veneer & Manufacturing Company mill run by Little, followed and businesses grew up nearby.

 

On April 16, 1904, the Raymond Land Company filed a plat for the town of Raymond. The business district consisted of a store, a saloon, and a mess house that served mill workers. A drug store and hotel were coming soon.

 

Lots Sold by the Gallon

 

To allow people to cross the water-sodden landscape, the town constructed 2,900 feet of elevated wooden sidewalks. These sidewalks ran down either side of what would become 1st Street, which was really an open space onto which the buildings fronted. Additional wooden sidewalks crossed the void at regular intervals.

 

Lillian Smith (1875-1960), a teacher from Michigan who came to teach in Raymond for a year not long after the town's founding, remembered her first impressions of the town,

 

"At first I seemed to be crossing the river no matter what street I took. It was like losing oneself with Alice on the other side of the Looking Glass where you had to keep going in order to stand still, and vice versa. Imagine streets like long bridges built on piles driven into the slough (pronounced slu). Wooden railings on either side, and beyond these narrower wooden bridges of sidewalk width, these too with railings — a perfect maze of railings, necessary to keep careless pedestrians from falling into the slough" (Smith, 3).

 

Still, the town's location provided enough benefits to outweigh the difficulties of being what Smith called, "an amphibious town" (Smith, 6). It was located at the head of navigable waters, close to the bay and to the forests that fed its mills. It also had access to the Northern Pacific Railway, without having had to give up its waterfront lots the way South Bend had.

 

Navigation on the river depended on assistance from the Army Corps of Engineers. Early in its history Willapa Bay was known as Shoalwater Bay because of its many shallow areas. These made ideal oyster grounds, but limited ships' access to ports. The Corps, under the provisions of several different Rivers and Harbors Acts, had dredged the river up to Willapa City, just upstream from the Raymond townsite, and kept it clear of snags. The Corps also maintained a channel through the bar at the mouth of the bay.

 

Businesses besides lumber mills diversified the economy. In 1907 Stewart L. Dennis (1873-1952) and Perry W. Shepard (b. ca. 1871) formed a transfer company that would become an important retail business in Pacific County, now known as the Dennis Company, and John W. Dickie and his son, David, came to Raymond to establish a boatyard.

 

The Dickies had worked in the San Francisco Bay area and, according to local historian Ina E. Dickie, came to Raymond because the more-isolated Willapa Bay offered better access to lumber and to employees who accepted lower wages and had not yet formed unions. Dickie & Son built steamships -- the first was the Willapa -- at Raymond over the next several years. All were built for the coastwise lumber trade, which was booming following the 1906 earthquake and fires in San Francisco.

 

On August 6, 1907, voters approved a measure to incorporate the town of Raymond. A handful of residents resisted the town's boundaries because they included some outlying farms in anticipation of the town's growth.

 

Little served as the first mayor, an office he would hold for 10 of the next 11 years. When asked in 1910 to serve as president of the Southwest Washington Development Association, Little replied that he was "disqualified because of his partiality for the place where lots are sold by the gallon at high tide" ("Southwest Part of the State Unites").

 

A Lumber Town

 

The first council consisted of seven men: C. Frank Cathcart, president of Raymond Transfer and Storage and Northern Pacific agent, Winfield S. Cram, Timothy H. Donovan, superintendent of the Pacific & Eastern Railway and Sunset Timber Company, Floyd Lewis, real estate agent, Charles Myers, sawyer at the Siler Mill, L. V. Raymond, and Willard G. Shumway a clerk. P. T. Johnson served as the first treasurer and Neal Stupp as the clerk and secretary.

 

By 1910 the population had increased to 2,540, but that was just the start of the flood of new residents. In 1911, there were about 5,000 people in Raymond. They were needed for the kind of production boasted of by a promotional brochure from 1912. It lists the output of the towns mills for the previous year as 27,834,779 board feet of lumber, 226,712,250 shingles, 105 million berry baskets (made from veneer), and 33 million pieces of lath for plaster walls. The newcomers included business people, mill owners, mill workers, and loggers from all parts of the world.

 

Labor v. Capital

 

The 1910s, although economically prosperous, saw a series of disputes between labor unions and mill owners up and down the West Coast. Working conditions in the lumber industry were dismal and lumber workers struck for better wages and better logging camp conditions.

 

On March 25, 1912, mill workers in Raymond walked off the job to prevent the lumber companies from using their Raymond mills to replace lost production at Grays Harbor mills, where workers had begun a strike two weeks earlier. The town's business community's response was swift and severe. They held a meeting the second day of the strike. A. C. Little led the discussion, railing against the strike's organizers, the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies. The meeting participants decided that they should protect "any man who might want to work" ("Strikes Close Raymond Mills"). To that stated end, several committees formed to support the effort. Over the next several days the sheriff swore in 460 deputies to "protect property and the working men" ("Strikes Close Raymond Mills").

 

To prevent the mill workers from gathering, the city closed all the saloons and brothels for the duration of the strikes. Likewise, three "Socialists speakers," were arrested upon disembarking the Raymond depot ("Strikes Close Raymond Mills").

 

A few days later, on March 30, 1912, the mill owners blew their whistles for the start of work. Anyone who did not heed to the call found themselves and their families rounded up by about 200 men with rifles and shotguns and loaded onto a railroad car bound for Centralia. The South Bend Journal identified those who refused to work as Finns and Greeks.

 

The Greek workers were taken to Centralia, where the Greek consul from Tacoma, Hans Heldner, met them and protested their treatment. The Finns had been removed by boat to Nahcotta. From there they traveled on to Astoria where there was a large Finnish American community. After the strike ended, the South Bend Journal said that the Greek mill workers asked to return, but, "American flags have been hoisted on the mills and only Americans or civilized foreigners need apply" ("Agitators Banished from Raymond"). Other strikes would come to Raymond and labor unions led fights for improved safety, better conditions, and higher pay.

 

Despite labor problems, the mills kept prospering in Raymond. In 1912 there were 14 mills in operation. They used an average of 50 railroad cars full of logs from logging camps in the surrounding fills. The mills produced an average of 20 railroad cars a day of lumber and other forest products. These included shingles, cascara bark, used for medications, doors, and window frames.

 

Growth and Development

 

In 1912 the town also started to fill the sloughs that ran through town so residents could have actual streets and so that houses would not flood at high tide. In 1915 the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad began passenger and freight service between Raymond and Puget Sound. The mayors of Raymond and South Bend presented the railroad's representatives with a wooden key "symbolical [sic] of the freedom of Willapa Harbor" (Krantz). The train service was a vital link between the Willapa River towns and the interior of Washington. Not until 1917 would a road through the Willapa Hills open. The precursor of State Route 6, it was not reliably useable. It featured steep switchbacks and its gravel surface routinely suffered from water damage.

 

The late 1910s saw Raymond operating at full bore. Six saw mills, two veneer plants, a box factory, five shingle mills, and a woodworking plant were joined by the Sanderson & Porter shipyard, which employed 1,000 workers in building ships for the United States Navy during World War I. In the postwar era, the population dropped to about 4,500.

 

Port of Willapa Harbor

 

In 1928 residents of Raymond joined with South Bend to form the Port of Willapa Harbor, a public port district. The Port built a public dock on land between Raymond and South Bend that allowed smaller sawmills access to the river. This facilitated the transport of logs, which could be floated down the river from logging camps in the Willapa Hills, and the shipping of finished lumber. Before the public dock was completed in 1930, sawmills and other forest-products factories that did not have riverfront property had to send their goods to Grays Harbor or Puget Sound via the railroad, adding significantly to transport costs and time.

 

The Port dedicated the dock on October 8, 1930, and the city of South Bend dedicated a reconstructed city dock and improved slip. The same day, state highway officials led a celebration of the opening of Highway 101 between Aberdeen and Raymond-South Bend. For the first time travelers could follow a road through the Willapa Hills to the north of South Bend. It also connected Aberdeen with Ilwaco and the Long Beach Peninsula. This provided drivers with a direct route to the ferries that crossed the Columbia River to Astoria.

 

The Port's dock housed a sawmill, owned first by Ralph Tozier (1920-2005) and then Ben Cheney (1905-1971), who owned Cheney Lumber Company. According to Med Nicholson, writing in the Sou'wester, in 1945, Cheney was faced with a problem of wasted wood that resulted from cutting logs for ties. In order to square up the logs, large slabs were cut off each of four sides. Cheney had the insight that the slabs were eight feet long (the length of railroad ties) and house ceilings were eight and one-half feet tall. At the time home builders were buying studs in 10- and 12-foot lengths and cutting them down, also resulting in a lot of wasted wood. Cheney cut the slabs into a "Cheney Stud," what are now known as eight-foot two-by-four and sold them to home builders. Eight-foot ceilings became standard in houses, "putting to use an enormous amount of formerly wasted timber and incidentally saving American homeowners uncounted millions of dollars in heating expense" ("The Ben Cheney Story," 10).

 

Raymond's Great Depression

 

Unfortunately, the advantages presented by the new port and highway were hampered by the Great Depression. The economic downturn resulted in drastically decreased demand for lumber and Raymond residents struggled to find jobs. The decline of the Great Depression would reduce the town's population to 4,000. A steady decline after the Depression brought the population to just under 3,000 by 1990, where it has stayed since.

 

Though circumstances improved slightly when Weyerhaeuser purchased two mills in Raymond and one in South Bend and reorganized them in 1931, larger economic forces made it nearly impossible for commerce to continue in Raymond. In 1932 the Raymond Chamber of Commerce, faced with a near stoppage of business following the failure of the First Willapa Harbor National Bank, printed its own currency called "oyster money" to carry people over until real money became available again.

 

The Port of Willapa Harbor continued its efforts to improve the port's facilities. The Army Corps of Engineers carried out at federally funded dredging and channel straightening project on the river in 1936. The dredge spoils created Jensen Island and the new channel allowed deeper-draft boats to reach Raymond.

 

Logging and Lumber

 

A 1954 report by Nathaniel H. Engle and Delbert C. Hastings of the University of Washington's Bureau of Business Research, draws an interesting portrait of Pacific County's average male citizen as delineated by the 1950 Federal Census:

 

"Mr. Average Citizen of Pacific County, at the last census, 1950, was white and 33 years of age. He had had two years of high school education. He was employed as a laborer or an operative in the lumber industry. His income for the year was about $3,042. He was married and had two children. He lived in a 4 or 5 room house in good condition, with hot and cold running water, toilet, and bath. He had mechanical refrigeration, and a radio, but no central heating. His home was worth close to $4,000 and was owned clear of debt. Thus Pacific County's average citizen rates as a substantial American wage earner, somewhat better off, on the whole, than the average American, although not quite up to the average in Washington state" (Engle and Hastings, 5).

 

The lumber industry supported a significant number of these "average" residents. Where Grays Harbor had nearly cleared much its surrounding forest lands in the 1920s, Pacific County still had considerable standing timber in the 1950s. In 1951 more than 66 million board feet of logs and more than 90 million board feet of lumber left Raymond on ships and railroad cars. This may have been the result of a high concentration of ownership by large companies such as Weyerhaeuser, which owned 380 square miles (nearly half of the county), Crown-Zellerbach, owner of 60 square miles, and Rayonier, owner of 50 square miles.

 

Engle and Hastings described the logging companies' success as resulting from the companies' willingness to use sustained yield practices, rather than cutting the forests as quickly as the mills could cut the logs. Sustained yield did lead to more selective and more reseeding, but it did not maintain forests that could support diverse ecosystems because most of the reseeding was of single, productive species such as Douglas fir. Wildlife populations were further damaged by hunting programs designed to eliminate animals such as deer or bear that browsed on seedlings and new growth on older trees.

 

In 1954 and 1955, Weyerhaeuser carried out a two-part renovation of the old Willapa Lumber Company mill that it had acquired in 1931. First they replaced all the mill's facilities and then they rebuilt the mill itself. This mill, known as Mill W, remains in operation in 2010, the last softwood lumber mill in operation in Raymond,

 

In the 1970s the region saw another lumber boom. According to Richard Buck, of The Seattle Times, a new generation of baby boomers began buying houses, which increased the demand for lumber, leading to increased competition and prices. Prices reached $337 per 1,000 board feet.

 

The next decade, the declines in the national economy devastated the local economy rather than driving it. Prices dropped by two-thirds to $102 per 1,000 board feet in 1985. According to Buck this was due to a decline in housing starts and the increase in the value of the dollar and interest rates, which made Canadian lumber cheaper. Also, deregulation of the transportation industry increased the disadvantage West Coast lumber mills had compared to Southern and Midwestern lumber mills' proximity to East Coast markets.

 

In addition to the economic forces battering the lumber industry, in the late 1980s the local environment could no longer support the intense logging of the previous century. Historical overharvest and increased environmental regulations reduced the acreage of public forestland open to logging. In 1990, the Northern Spotted Owl was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. With the owl's listing, communities in Pacific County had to adjust to reduced logging and fewer jobs at the area's sawmills. The effects of the environmental regulations were compounded by plant modernization, which also led to fewer jobs in the mills. Many smaller mills could not compete with the larger companies' more efficient mills and a number went out of business.

 

The closure of the federal forests combined with changes in how Weyerhaeuser managed its lands and utilized mills in Pacific County led to the closure of numerous mills. This, in turn, led to fewer jobs in the forest products industry, as well as other sectors of the county's economy.

 

According to a Seattle Times article, "Some residents liken the area to a Third World nation, an underdeveloped colony whose resources are removed by 'foreign' corporations. Weyerhaeuser, they note, owns more than 50 percent of the land in Pacific County" (Hatch). Additionally, they accused Weyerhaeuser of using profits gained in Pacific County to build the very mills in the American South, where wages were lower, that undermined the viability of Raymond's mills. Although there is certainly a component of anger at outside companies taking a tremendous amount of natural resources out of the surrounding hills without investing a significant portion of the resulting profits in the local community, this sentiment also reflects the frustration that resulted from one company owning so much of the county's land and making decisions driven by the global market.

 

Strategies for Change

 

Raymond residents have created multiple strategies to address the changes to the regional economy. When one mill, the Mayr Brothers sawmill, closed in 1986, the Port of Willapa Harbor bought the land and buildings and leased them to Pacific Hardwoods. When that mill closed in 2001, a group of Raymond investors banded together and reopened it as Willapa Bay Hardwoods, employing 35 people. It planned to cut 17.5 million board feet a year, a far more sustainable volume than during the boom years.

 

The Port of Willapa Harbor has been involved in other economic development projects. The Port developed two industrial parks and received grants to construct light manufacturing buildings at one of the industrial parks and at the Port dock. A variety of industries have leased Port buildings, including a chitosan (a natural polymer produced from shellfish shells) producer, seafood processors, and an airplane prototype design company. Additionally, some of the buildings are used by retail stores, including a saw shop and a health club.

 

The Raymond community, in conjunction with the city government and the Port of Willapa Harbor, has developed attractions that will draw tourists to the region as a way to build the economy. The former railroad bed across the Willapa Hills has been turned into a hiking and biking trail. The city has begun redeveloping its riverfront and a regional consortium developed the Willapa Water Trail, which small boats can follow to explore Willapa Bay.

 

Over the past century the environment in and around Raymond has attracted people, many of whom have sought to remove as much of it as possible for sale in markets far from Pacific County. The town's future lies in a more sustainable use of those resources, including the intangible ones that have to be experienced in person.

www.historylink.org/File/9590

youtu.be/rSSgM94sSxQ

Starring Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall, John Wengraf, Philip Van Zandt, and William Schallert. Directed by Herbert L. Strock.

When two scientists at a top-secret government installation devoted to space research are killed -- in their own test chamber, seemingly by an experiment gone awry -- Dr. David Sheppard (Richard Egan) is sent out from Washington to investigate. Sheppard mixes easily enough with the somewhat eccentric team of scientists, though he always seems in danger of being distracted by the presence of Joanne Merritt (Constance Dowling), who serves as the aide to the project director Dr. Van Ness (Herbert Marshall) but is, in reality, another security agent. Sheppard is as puzzled as anyone else by the seemingly inexplicable series of events overtaking the installation -- properly operating equipment suddenly undergoing lethal malfunctions, and the radar tracking aircraft that aren't there -- until he puts it together with the operations of NOVAC (Nuclear Operated Variable Automatic Computer), the central brain of the complex. But the mystery deepens when he discovers that NOVAC was shut down during one of the "accidents" -- and even the computer's operators can't account fully for the whereabouts of GOG and MAGOG, the two robots under the computer's control.

"...and then without warning, the machine became a frankenstein of steel," says the sensationalist poster text. This is the third story in Ivan Tors' OSI trilogy. His first "Office of Scientific Investigation" story was Magnetic Monster in early 1953. The second was Riders to the Stars in early '54. With Gog the loose trilogy is complete. Unlike the Star Wars trilogy in which the stories build upon each other, each of the three OSI stories are separate tales which have nothing to do with each other. The common thread is the idea of there being a sort of Science FBI agency whose job it is, is to check out the scientifically strange. In that regard, Tors' OSI is a bit like a foreshadowing of the X-Files TV series, but without any of the New Age paranormal focus.

 

In keeping with the previous two stories, Gog is more of a detective murder mystery movie. Tors was a huge fan of "hard" science, not fanciful fiction fluff, so Gog, like the other two movies, is chock full of reveling in sciencey stuff in an almost geeky way. This reverence for real science keeps things from getting out on shaky limb, as many sci-fi films to. The events are much more plausible, less fantastic.

 

Synopsis

At a secret underground research facility, far out in the desert, scientists working on preparations for a manned space mission, are getting murdered mysteriously. Two agents from the OSI are dispatched to solve the mystery and keep the super secret space station program on track. The scientists are killed in various ways, mostly through equipment malfunctions. The facility director and the agents suspect sabotage. Small transmitter/receiver boxes are found within equipment in different parts of the facility. They suggest that someone on the outside is transmitting in the "malfunctions" in order to kill off the program's scientists. Occasional alarms indicate some flying high intruder, but nothing is clearly found. One of the base's two robots, named Gog, kills another technician while it's mate, Magog, tries to set up an overload within the base's atomic pile. The OSI agents stop Magog with a flame thrower. Meanwhile, interceptor jets scramble and find the highflying spy jet and destroy it with missiles. Once the trouble is past, the Director announces that they will be launching their prototype space station the next day, despite the sabotage attempts to stop it. The End.

  

The time spent reveling in techno-geekery has a certain Popular Science charm to it. There's an evident gee-whiz air about space and defense sciences which is fun to see. People were fascinated with things rockety and atomic. For various fun bits, see the Notes section.

  

Gog oozes Cold War from every frame. First is the base's underground location to make them safe from A-bombs. Next is the mysterious killer trying to stop the space station program. The high-flying mystery plane is "not one of ours." (that leaves: Them, and we all knew who they were.) The space station is to be powered by a solar mirror. Even that benign mirror has sinister possibilities. While demonstrating the mirror, the scientists use it to burn a model of a city. "This could happen...if we're not the first to reach space," says the Director. Space is the next "high ground" to be contested. At the end of the movie, when discussing the launch (despite the sabotage attempt) of the prototype space station, the Director says, "Through it's eye, we'll be able to see everything that goes on upon this tired old earth." The Defense Secretary says, "Nothing will take us by surprise again." An obvious reference to Pearl Harbor.

 

B-films often re-used props and sets from prior films in order to save on their budgets. Gog, even though shot in Eastman Color, was no exception. Two old prop friends show up in Gog. One is our venerable old friend, the space suits from Destination Moon ('50). Look for the centrifuge scene. The research assistants are dressed in them, and as an added bonus, they wear the all-acrylic fish bowl helmets used in Abbot and Costello Go to Mars ('53). Our second old friend is scene in the radar / security room, (the one with the annoying tuning fork device). Check out the monitor wall. It's been gussied up a bit, but it is the spaceship control panel wall from Catwomen of the Moon and Project Moon Base -- complete with the empty 16mm film reels on the right side. It's fun to see old friends.

 

B-films often include stock footage of military units, tanks, jets, battleships, etc. to fill things out. Gog is no different, and even commits the common continuity error of showing one type of plane taking off, but a different kind in the air.

 

What amounts to a small treat amid the usual stock footage of jets, some shots of a rather obscure bit of USAF hardware -- the F-94C Starfire with its straight wings and huge wing tanks. In 1954, the Starfire was one of America's coolest combat jets, yet we hear little about it. The swept-wing F-86 Sabers (which we see taxiing and taking off) were the agile fighter which gained fame over Korea. They're common stock footage stars. The F-94, with its onboard radar (in the nose cone) was deemed too advanced to risk falling into enemy hands. So, it didn't see much action , and therefore little fame. The heavier, yet powerful F-94C (one of the first US jets to have an afterburner) was 1954 America's hottest Interceptor -- designed to stop high flying Soviet bombers. It's blatant cameo appearance in Gog, intercepting the high-flying mystery plane, was a fun little bit of patriotic showing off.

 

The very name of the movie, Gog, is charged with meaning to American audiences of the mid 50s, though virtually lost on viewers of the 21st century. The names of the two robots, Gog and Magog, come from the Bible. More specifically, from the prophecies of Ezekiel (Chapter 38) and the Book of Revelation (chapter 20). While just who they are (nations? kings?) has been debated for centuries, their role as tools of Satan in the battle of Armageddon is clear. Mainstream American patriotic Christendom had settled on the idea that the Soviet Union was the prophesied "nations from the north" who would join Satan to oppose God. This gives the title of the movie a special Cold War significance. It also puts an interesting spin on the Dr. Zeitman character for having named the two robots in the first place. Since they were tools of the mega-computer NOVAC, what was he saying about NOVAC?

 

It is interesting that the base's radar could not detect the mystery plane (which was beaming in the 'kill' instructions to NOVAC) because it was made of "fiberglass" which rendered it invisible to radar. Now, fiberglass itself isn't sturdy enough for high-speed jets, and it would take until the 1990s before composite materials advanced to make the dream of a stealth aircraft a reality. Nonetheless, the dream (or nightmare) of stealth aircraft was on-screen in 1954 in Gog.

 

The super computer, NOVAC, controlled everything on the base. Even though the machines were not really killing scientists on their own, but following human orders from the mystery plane, there was the on-screen depiction of machines having a murderous mind of their own. (all pre-Steven King) In the techno starry-eyed 50s, it was fairly uncommon for the technology itself to be turning on its masters. This idea would gain traction later in the 50s, and especially in the 60s, but in '54, it was unusual.

 

A cautionary subtext to Gog is the danger of trusting in a supercomputer to manage defenses and a whole base. NOVAC doesn't go bad on its own, as the computer will in The Invisible Boy, Hal in 2001 or Colossus in The Forbin Project. In this movie, it was the nefarious "others" who hacked into NOVAC to make it do the killing, but this just demonstrates the danger. People were getting a little nervous about letting machines take over too much responsibility. We were starting to distrust our creations.

 

Until Gog, robots were fairly humanoid.

 

They had two legs, two arms, a torso and a head. Audiences had seen the mechanical Maria in Metropolis ('27), the fedora-wearing metal men in Gene Autrey's Phantom Empire serial ('35). The water-heater-like Republic robot appeared in several rocketman serials. There was the gleaming giant Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still ('51) and the cute left over fedora-dudes in Captain Video ('51). The metal giant in Devil Girl from Mars ('54) was also humaniod, in a chunky way. Gog and Magog were a departure from the stereotype. They were noticeably in-human, which was part of the mood.

 

Bottom line? Gog seems a bit bland, as far as sci-fi tends to go, but it has a lot in it for fans of 50s sci-fi.

 

In this second of the series of colliery railways, the 1st being that devoted to the Thurgoland Branch, which left the Woodhead Main line, just before the Thurgoland Tunnel, to head of north-east to the Stanhope Silkstone Main Colliery, see-

www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/30979712625/

this second line is much more contemporary having survived into the 1980s. The reason for the line resulted from the sinking of pits in the area, the 1st sod being cut on 14 November 1913 and a Wagonway was built to transport coal south to the Dun Navigation. what later became the Sheffield & S.Yorks Navigation(S&SYN). Initially, the movement of coal from the pits, used what was at first a Wagonway, the 'Low Stubbin Incline', and Rail Tramway, to deliver the 'black nuggets' of coal to the staithes at the northern end of the Earl's short canal which had a junction with S&SYN. This waterway, the Greasbrough canal, was opened in 1780 to serve the pits of the Marquess of Rockingham on the west and north side of Rawmarsh; the Marquess died two years later and the estate passed to Earl Fitzwilliam. He owned the pits at High Stubbin & Swallow Wood and from the early 19th century these were joined to the canal by a Wagonway or 'Incline', so the coal could be either delivered to the coke ovens or trans-shipped further afield. This was is was the situation for a goodly number of years until the Sheffield & Rotherham Railway arrived in 1839, and built a branch line from its line at Holmes Junction, opened the year before, and joined the Earle's Incline railway at Parkgate alongside the canal. The Earl's estate bought a steam locomotive in 1840 for use on the line and the wagonway was re-built to accommodate a standard gauge loco to provide the motive power for the transport of the coal to the coke ovens of the SOuth Yorkshire Chemical Co. Ltd; they in turn proved coke for the blast furnaces at the Parkgate Iron & Steel works, a short distance away. Coal was also transferred onto barges at the coal staithes at the northern end of the canal, which had a junction with the main cut at Parkgate, the South Yorkshire & Sheffield Navigation, the coal then being transported onwards to Hull and Sheffield. Once the North Midland had built its railway in the area in the 1840s, between Derby and Leeds, the line passing through its station at Masbrough, the original connection of the colliery branch which went off to Holmes Junction was not required anymore and the line was finally closed in 1977. In the later years of the 1800s, the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway built its own line through the area and to the south of the Midland's line, providing a junction at Rotherham Road for a line which ran alongside the Greasbrough Canal to the canal head with its coke ovens and coal staithes. As seen in the video, the line can be divided into two parts, both originally using the Incline, the lower section serving New Stubbin Colliery, sunk between 1913 and 1915, was changed to locomotive working when the Midland and MSLR railway lines finally arrived, the upper section retaining its Wagonway. The final steam motive power was provided by two examples built by Hudswell Clarke & Co. of Leeds, No. 34, an outside cylinder, six-coupled side tank locomotive, No.1523, built in 1925, originally at the Appleby-Frodingham Steel Company in Scunthorpe, and which came to the line in the 1950s. The other was No.37, an outside cylinder, six-coupled saddle tank and they both worked until the mid-1960s, when the line became fully dieselised, Hudswell Clarke again supplying the power. The colliery ceased production on 6 July 1978 but the buildings were retained for a while as an underground store, until the mid-1980s when the site was cleared.

 

This first, mosaic image, in the pair of pieces on the Stubbin Colliery branch, shows the scene as it looked from the turn of the last century upto the situation in around 1960; there being no point in showing anything after that, map-wise, as changes in industrial usage around the southern end at Parkgate has obliterated almost all signs of what the area's past history was. The video which follows is in two parts, as mentioned above, the southern end around the canal and the second part from the Westfield Pumping station to the northern end of the New Stubbin site. Here are the details relating to the pictures in this mosaic-

 

1. Top left. An aerial view taken in 1947 from the 'Britain from Above' website, albeit in low resolution, showing all aspects of the colliery and associated Brickworks to the north-east. The line of the Low Stubbin Incline can clearly be seen heading towards the High Stubbin Colliery over to the left. The Incline then ran from the High Stubbin colliery area, north-east to yet another of the Earl Fitzwilliam sites at Low Stubbin, next to Wentworth Lane. Presumably the coal tubs were sent down the incline under gravity to end up at the rail head at the New Stubbin Colliery to the south. This picture also shows the open, and essentially vegetation free nature of the landscape in those years. There are a multitude of coal wagons around the place at the colliery site and the Brickworks appears to be supplied from material in the quarry right next door to it; called Bank Pit. At left is the hamlet of Upper Haugh with farmland occupying most of the other space and, in the right background, Swinton.. 'Twas a different world', back then, 2 or 3 years after the end of World War II and most attempting to recover from 5 years of nightmare ... lest hope recent events don't result in a nightmare of different proportions.

 

2. Centre. Main map of the area in 1905, from the junction with the GC line at Parkgate in the south and heading north-west, running to the west of Rawmarsh and passing Nether & Upper Haugh before turning to the north-east, past Higher Stubbin and on to terminate at Low Stubbin. The northern extremity was close to Warren House on Wentworth Road and this whole area is now covered in new housing, some of it in the process of expansion at the present time. Earl Fitzwilliam established colliers at Low and High Stubbin, and eventually at New Stubbin further south, and coal was transported away from there using an incline, built in two sections, one from Low Stubbin Colliery to High Stubbin and then on from High Stubbin to the coal staithes at the top of the Greasbrough Canal. This was until the arrival of the railways, when a branch line was built from a junction off the GC at Parkgate, and in fact as the map shows, there was also a connection to the Midland line, the branch line extending as far as the New Stubbin Colliery. This 1905 map shows that at this time there were Coke Ovens on the north-west side of the end of the canal, a bridge over the canal just south of the ovens which took a line over to the east, fanning out into a mass of sidings closer to Parkgate. The end of the canal branch from the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation can be seen on the map with yet another set of sidings come of the branch line and heading south-west towards Parkgate. The end of the canal was just south of Mangham Road and that too has now been populated with a host of industrial units on both sides of the road completely obliterating any sign of the railway there; however, in 1982 Adrian Wynn was about with his camera and in the associated video, I have included this picture, with his permission. It is a stark testament to how things were starting to change in 1982 after the big industrial clearances of the area, here and all over. Mangham Quarry is also shown on the map, just above Mangham Road not far from the branch line rail alignment. The bridge over which the freight movements pass, shown in the associated video, can be seen to the south where the branch line curves round to form a junction with the GC's main line at Rotherham Road, home to both the GC's signalbox, also shown in the video and the Rotherham Road Station. The station is visible at the bottom of the map, juts under the Rotherham to Rawmarsh road bridge, and the map also shows, at this time, the signalbox in its old position, just beyond the station and next to the swing bridge over the Greasbrough Canal. The box must have been moved further west alongside the Stubbin Colliery Branch, when the swing bridge fell out of use and when the station finally succumbed to the closures in the 1970s; the final position of the signal box is also shown in the video. As can be seen from the terrain shown in picture 1 at top left and inspection of the map, the colliery branch wended its way northwards through countryside and behind housing and garden allotments to ride in grade towards the main colliery almost totally obliterated from view in the surrounding area; itself heavily festooned with iron & steel works, collieries and other heavy manufacturing concerns, all of which would have been enough to hide the site of the coal works further north. In this map, just as the alignment veers off from direct north to slightly north-west, a line comes off the branch and heads to the Earl Fitzwilliam pumping shaft at the Westfield Pump House on Westfield Road. The area of the pump house is still extant, as is the splendid looking pump house and this too is featured in the accompanying video. This facility was still in operation in 1923, the epoch of the map detail in picture 3, but by the 1950s, shown in the map in picture 6, the single track line to the pump house had gone, but the pumping station was still in place; as it was in October this year, see video! Apart from the main colliery sites, the map shows other colliery shafts, 'New Deep', a Roman Ridge(Road), Bank Pit brickworks, Kent's Main Colliery, Low Pottery, a 'Fever Hospital', the British Wagon Works, Car House Colliery and in the lower left corner, 'Primrose Bridge' over the Midland Main Line, which many of us will recognise as a vantage point for photography, and which is also still in place. This map identifies some of the features, shown in blue, mentioned here in the text, including the location of the long gone 'Swallow Wood Colliery', opened in 1828, and as can be seen here on this 1905 map, it had gone by this time, with only 'Old Shafts' marked, indicting where it used to be. Just a little further north from the Swallow Wood site, a road bridge passes over the Low Stubbin Incline, the route of this Incline later being used to extend the railway as far as Bank Pit Brick Works and the New Stubbin Colliery. This bridge is shown in the video as a 'Then & Now' piece featuring a picture by the noted railway photographer and writer, Adrian Booth, and a picture I took on the 15th September this year; the contrast between the two pictures couldn't be more stark. This change in the fortunes of the branch is also reflected in a similar fashion with the 'Then & Now' pictures, four and five, featured on this page, see the details which follow next.

 

3. Top right. Detail from the top of the 1905 map at centre, but this time in 1923, showing the end of the colliery Incline to both the Higher & Lower Stubbin sites. Now things have changed in the 18 or so years since the 1905 map and the two-part Incline has gone, there just being a track on the map to indicate its location. In addition, both the Higher and Low Stubbin collieries have gone and the sites look to have been cleared. The space where the collieries were located were left almost untouched for decades but over the last 10 or 20 years new housing development, Upper Haugh, on and near the Low Stubbin site, along with the Marquis Public house, built right on the old Wagonway trackbed and with some limited residential dwellings built on the site of Higher Stubbin. At the lower edge of this map, the New Stubbin Colliery and its railway can be seen which had its first 'sod cut', on 14 November 1913 and it took until 1915 to complete the sinking; this map is from 1923.

 

4. A picture taken in 1978 by Adrian Booth, the railway photographer and writer, and reproduced here with his permission. This shows the Hudswell-Clark diesel shunter, #D1128, backing a rake of MGR coal wagons down grade, alongside the Greasbrough Canal. It will soon pass under what is now the Midland Main line bridge, see next picture, past the South Yorkshire Chemical Works behind the train on the right and on to the junction and sidings of the MSLR's main line at Rotherham Road. There was limited room for manoeuvre of the loco along the branch line and it looks as if the shunter always 'faced north', and depending on the grade was either at the high-end of the rake of wagons, as here, or at the low-end, as will be seen as the shunter passes under the road bridge, in the video which follows next. The shunter isn't far off the Rotherham Road sidings here and it must be backing the rake, wrong-line? back along the main line towards the sidings from where, after uncoupling, it will set off back to the colliery, 'funnel first'.

 

5. Lower right. The best I could do, looking south towards the MSLR's main line, this picture shows a similar vantage point, a little further up the branch line than that shown in picture 4. The bank on the right, behind the fisherman and palisade fence protecting the Midland line, was where the diesel shunter was reversing its rake of coal wagons down grade to the Rotherham Road sidings. This view being taken from the 'tow path', on the same side of the canal as in the previous picture, the canal banks now much showing much more in the way of unkempt undergrowth along the bank sides. Passing north across the bridge on the Midland Main line is a Cross Country class 220, 'Voyager', heading to Glasgow Central on the 1S35, eight hour service from Bath Spa, having departed around 06:00 that morning. It would have been interesting to see a similar picture with the shunter reversing under the Midland line with traction of that era, 1978, passing over the top!

 

6. Lower left. A later, 1950s, map showing the colliery branch, with all of the line up to the New Stubbin Colliery still in place, beyond that, the formation up to the Higher & Low Stubbin Collieries & the Low Stubbin Incline, have all been abandoned and removed. The South Yorkshire Chemical Works now stands prominent at the southern end of the line with the coke ovens & coal staithes surrounding the head of the canal still in situ as shown on the 1905 map at centre. The short line off the branch line, to the Westfield Pumping house has been removed but the pumping station was still in place at that time and in fact it is still there in 2016, see video. PArts of the Pumping Station site are now given over to small businesses as is part of the Pumping Station house itself. What this map also shows, once again, is the extent of the workings and rail-related infra-structure which once existed in this very dense area of old industry, the Parkgate Iron & Steel Works and the associated colliery taking up much of the land in-between and to either side of the two main lines, North Midland & MSLR to its south. 'Park Gate' has now become 'Parkgate' on the latest maps, the collieries have all gone and now only the Aldwarke site remains withe its U.E.S. United Engineering Steels division and still, currently owned by TATA.

Don't use this image on websites, blogs, facebook or other media without my explicit permission. Copyright © Claudia Merighi-Lamerighi All rights reserved.