Abandone Benelux -

 

Industrial archaeology (IA) is the systematic study of material evidence associated with the industrial past. This evidence, collectively referred to as industrial heritage, includes buildings, machinery, artifacts, sites, infrastructure, documents and other items associated with the production, manufacture, extraction, transport or construction of a product or range of products. The field of industrial archaeology incorporates a range of disciplines including archaeology, architecture, construction, engineering, historic preservation, museology, technology, urban planning and other specialties, in order to piece together the history of past industrial activities. The scientific interpretation of material evidence is often necessary, as the written record of many industrial techniques is often incomplete or nonexistent. Industrial archaeology includes both the examination of standing structures and sites that must be studied by an excavation.

remote nighttime stobe. A possible historical source for Ophelia was Katherine Hamnet, a woman who fell into the Avon River and died in December 1579. Though it was eventually concluded that she had overbalanced while carrying some heavy pails, rumours that she was suffering from a broken heart were considered plausible enough for an inquest to be conducted into whether her death was a suicide. It is possible that Shakespeare - 16 at the time of the death - recalled the romantic tragedy in his creation of the character of Ophelia.[1] The name "Ophelia" itself was either uncommon or nonexistent; the only known prior text to use the name (as Ofelia) is Jacopo Sannazaro's Arcadia, presumably etymologically deriving from Ancient Greek ὄφελος "help, good, benefit, advantage". The early modern stage in England had an established set of emblematic conventions for the representation of female madness: disheveled hair worn down, dressed in white, bedecked with wild flowers, Ophelia's state of mind would have been immediately 'readable' to her first audiences.[12] "Colour was a major source of stage symbolism" Pre-Raphaelite painters siezed on this legend and made great noise of it. (Look up Lizzie Siddal, the original super UeberModel of 1880. View FULL SIZE. always have my SB900 in the water on the gorillaPOD!

Taken in much the same spot as the preceding photo in this series, but now rotated a little to the left (and northwest toward the Argos Graben).

 

Any competent Bronze Age specialist is welcome to shoot it full of holes, but by my crude calculation, the ruins seen here existed as the walls and doorways of functional buildings for considerably less than ten percent of their entire existence. Indeed, they had already been wrecked and roofless for well over a thousand years by the time the Roman Republic turned itself into the Roman Empire.

 

So it's clear that this cyclopean masonry's highest mission always was to be ruins, albeit scenic ruins, educational ruins, inspirational ruins. Of course, the ancient Mycenaeans had no way to comprehend this. They had no way to know they'd piled up all these chunks of Mesozoic limestone not for their own convenience or glory, but to impress non-Myceneans of later eras who've paid Mycenae a visit expressly because it is a ruin.

 

In fact, it may be that humankind's greatest achievement is not create vibrant cities or enduring systems of thought and commerce, but to create ruins. We certainly have been good at this so far. And it could be argued that we're better at this than anything else.

 

This might seem a dark view of things, at least until one realizes what ruins are not. They are not nonexistent. In fact, as noted above, they often exist a lot longer than the cities they came from. One could even regard them in a geological light, as the stable end-state of cities and civilizations. The most civilized world would be that with the largest inventory of ruins.

 

In the process of becoming ruins, much of the information contained in their original cities has been lost. But so what? That's the way things work on this planet generally. (If you don't believe me, just ask a paleontologist.)

 

From the rocks on display here, students of Earth science can eluct certain hypotheses and even some facts about the Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic periods. And archaeologists can uncover all sorts of aspects of Mycenaean architecture and lifeways. Still, more has been lost about the past than we could possibly ever understand.

 

The amazing thing to discover at some later station in your life is that losing parts of the past is actually okay. It allows new imagined pasts to emerge. It turns out we've been blessed to understand things only partially—even if we arrogantly think we're more conscious than we really are.

 

To see the other photos and descriptions of this series, visit my

Architectural Geology of Mycenae album.

  

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The outbreak of the war in Europe in September 1939 did not immediately affect the status of the Armée de l'Air in French Indochina because it had the task of defending a wide area of Southeast Asia, including the future Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. And yet its array of airplanes seemed inadequate to perform any kind of real defense against any incursion by an enemy, because there were less than 100 airplanes available to it, all obsolescent or obsolete. In September 1931, Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria. This was an area of northeast China, which encompassed the provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang. Nearly six whole years later, in July 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War had begun. As yet, the French colonial authorities were hoping that the Japanese would not be brazen enough to take on the might of a European power. However, it became increasingly likely after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, since Japan was part of the Axis alliance and thus Germany's ally.

 

On September 26, 1940, Japanese troops landed in Haiphong, violating a cease-fire which had been signed only the previous day. From the middle of the following month, the French became heavily involved in repelling Japanese army assaults. Following the Fall of France in 1940, Thais perceived a chance to regain the territories they had lost years earlier. The collapse of Metropolitan France made the French hold on Indochina tenuous. After the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in September 1940, the French were forced to allow the Japanese to set up military bases. This seemingly subservient behavior convinced the Thai regime that Vichy France would not seriously resist a confrontation with Thailand.

 

During the French-Thai War, the Thai Air Force achieved several air-to-air-victories in dogfights against the Vichy Armée de l'Air. During World War II, the Thai Air Force supported the Royal Thai Army in its occupation of the Shan States of Burma as somewhat reluctant allies of the Japanese and took part in the defense of Bangkok against allied air raids in the latter part of the war, achieving some successes against state-of-the-art aircraft like the P-51 Mustang and the B-29 Superfortress. During these times, the RTAF was actively supplied by the Japanese with Imperial Japanese Army Air Force aircraft such as the Ki-43 "Oscar," and the Ki-27 "Nate." Other RTAF personnel took an active part the anti-Japanese resistance movement.

 

French forces in Indochina consisted of an army of approximately fifty thousand men, The most obvious deficiency of the French army lay in its shortage of armor; however, the Armée de l'Air had in its inventory approximately a hundred aircraft, of which around sixty could be considered first line. These consisted of thirty Potez 25 TOEs, four Farman 221s, eight Loire 130 flying boats, six Potez 542s, nine Morane M.S.406s.

 

The M.S.406 was a French fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by Morane-Saulnier starting in 1938. In response to a requirement for a fighter issued by the French Air Force in 1934, Morane-Saulnier built a prototype, designated MS.405, of mixed materials. This had the distinction of being the company's first low-wing monoplane, as well as the first to feature an enclosed cockpit, and the first design with a retracting undercarriage. The entry to service of the M.S.406 to the French Air Force in early 1939 represented the first modern fighter aircraft to be adopted by the service, and the type was also used in the French overseas colonies. The M.S.406 was France's most numerous fighter during the Second World War and one of only two French designs to exceed 1,000 in number. At the beginning of the war, it was one of only two French-built aircraft capable of 400 km/h (250 mph) – the other being the Potez 630.

 

Although a sturdy and highly manoeuvrable fighter aircraft, the M.S.406 was considered underpowered and weakly armed when compared to its contemporaries, esp. over continental Europe. Most critically, the M.S.406 was outperformed by the Messerschmitt Bf 109E during the Battle of France and no serious threat to the German fighter. In less advanced theatres like Indochina, though, the M.S. 406 was a respectable contender, but its numbers were low.

 

When the French-Thai War broke out in Indochina, the Thai Army was a relatively well-equipped force, consisting of some sixty thousand men, with artillery and tanks. The Royal Thai Navy — consisting of several vessels, including two coastal defence ships, twelve torpedo boats and four submarines — was inferior to the French naval forces, though, but the Royal Thai Air Force held both a quantitative and qualitative edge over l'Armee de l'Air. Among the 140 aircraft that composed the air force's initial first-line strength were twenty-four Mitsubishi Ki-30 light bombers, nine Mitsubishi Ki-21 and six Martin B-10 twin-engine bombers, seventy Vought Corsair dive bombers, and twenty-five Curtiss Hawk 75 fighters.

 

While nationalistic demonstrations and anti-French rallies were held in Bangkok, border skirmishes erupted along the Mekong frontier. The superior Royal Thai Air Force conducted daytime bombing runs over Vientiane, Sisophon, and Battambang with impunity. The French retaliated with their own planes, but the damage caused was less than equal. The activities of the Thai air force, particularly in the field of dive-bombing, was such that Admiral Jean Decoux, the governor of French Indochina, grudgingly remarked that the Thai planes seemed to have been flown by men with plenty of war experience.

 

In early January 1941, the Thai Burapha and Isan Armies launched their offensive on Laos and Cambodia. French resistance was instantaneous, but many units were simply swept along by the better-equipped Thai forces, with some French equipment – including some aircraft – being captured and immediately pressed into Thai army service. The Thais swiftly took Laos, but Cambodia proved a much harder nut to crack.

 

On January 16, 1941 the French launched a large counterattack on the Thai-held villages of Yang Dang Khum and Phum Preav, initiating the fiercest battle of the war. Because of over-complicated orders and nonexistent intelligence, the French counterattacks were cut to pieces and fighting ended with a French withdrawal from the area. The Thais were unable to pursue the retreating French, as their forward tanks were kept in check by the gunnery of French Foreign Legion artillerists.

 

On January 24, the final air battle took place when Thai bombers raided the French airfield at Angkor near Siem Reap, which quickly fell. The last Thai mission commenced at 0710 hours on January 28, when the Martins of the 50th Bomber Squadron set out on a raid on Sisophon, escorted by three Hawk 75Ns of the 60th Fighter Squadron.

 

Although the French won an important naval victory over the Thais, Japan forced the French to accept Japanese mediation of a peace treaty that returned the disputed territory to Thai control. A general armistice was arranged by Japan to go into effect on January 28. On May 9 a peace treaty was signed in Tokyo, with the French being coerced by the Japanese into relinquishing their hold on the disputed territories. However, the French (now part of the Axis Forces’ Vichy regime) were left in place to administer the rump colony of Indochina until 9 March 1945, when the Japanese staged a coup d'état in French Indochina and took control, establishing their own colony, the Empire of Vietnam, as a puppet state controlled by Tokyo.

 

Until then, Japanese authorities heavily influenced the diminishing Vichy French presence in the region and handed over a lot of leftover military hardware to its own allies, primarily the Thai forces. However, there was not much left to be distributed: about 30% of the French aircraft were rendered unserviceable by the end of the French-Thai War in early 1941, some as a result of minor damage sustained in air raids that remained unrepaired. The Armée de l'Air admitted the loss of only one Farman F221 and two Morane M.S.406s destroyed on the ground, but, in reality, its losses were greater and the influence of Japan on the leftover stock was fogged in order to save face. However, even in 1944, single former Vichy French aircraft and tanks were still active in the region, primarily under Thai flag.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 8.17 m (26 ft 10 in)

Wingspan: 10.61 m (34 ft 10 in)

Height: 3.25 m (10 ft 8 in)

Wing area: 16 m2 (170 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,895 kg (4,178 lb)

Gross weight: 2,540 kg (5,600 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1 × Hispano-Suiza 12Y-31 V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine with

619 kW (830 hp) for take-off at 2,520 rpm at sea level,

driving a 3-bladed variable-pitch propeller, 3 m (9 ft 10 in) diameter

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 490 km/h (304 mph; 265 kn) at 4,500 m (14,764 ft)

Stall speed: 160 km/h (99 mph, 86 kn) without flaps

135 km/h (84 mph; 73 kn) with flaps

Range: 1,100 km (680 mi, 590 nmi) at 66% power

Combat range: 720 km (450 mi, 390 nmi)

Endurance: 2 hours 20 minutes 30 seconds (average combat mission)

Service ceiling: 9,400 m (30,800 ft)

Time to altitude: 2,000 m (6,562 ft) in 2 minutes 32 seconds

9,000 m (29,528 ft) in 21 minutes 37 seconds

Wing loading: 154 kg/m2 (32 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 2.95 kg/kW (4.85 lb/hp)

Take-off run to 8 m (26 ft): 270 m (886 ft)

Landing run from 8 m (26 ft): 340 m (1,115 ft)

 

Armament:

1× 20 mm (0.787 in) Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannon, firing through the propeller hub

2× 7.5 mm (0.295 in) MAC 1934 machine guns in the outer wings

  

The kit and its assembly:

This quick build was created in the wake of the “Captured” group build at whatifmodellers.com and actually is a personal interpretation of someone else’s idea, namely of fellow modeler NARSES who came up with the idea of a captured French M.S. 406 in Indochina under a new Thai flag. I found the idea so weird, yet realistic, that I decided to build one, too.

 

The model is the very simple but quite acceptable M.S. 406 from Hobby Boss. Externally the model is nice, with recessed panel lines and a basic landing gear. Internally, it is rather bleak, even though it has a full cockpit with a floor, integrally molded seat and even some details behind the pilot’s armor bulkhead. The canopy is a single piece and very clear, but it comes with massive locator bars, so that I decided to keep the canopy closed and added a pilot figure to cover the minimal interior. I was lucky to find a Japanese (though pretty “flat”) WWII pilot in the donor bank, left over from a Hasegawa model. I also gave the figure some seat belts (made from adhesive tape), but the rest remained unchanged – even the original metal axis for the propeller was used. I just replaced the machine gun barrels with hollow steel needles and added a pitot on the wing, which is probably part of the kit but not indicated in the instructions. The same is true for the foldable ventral antenna.

 

The build was finished quickly, in the course of just a single evening, including the pilot and some overall PSR.

  

Painting and markings:

My interpretation of a French aircraft in Thai service after the French-Thai War stuck closely to the real world Vichy livery, which was the standard French camouflage in grey/green/brown with light blue-grey undersides (all from ModelMaster’s Authentic Color range), together with a yellow-and-red-striped cowling (a base with Humbrol 69 and red decal stripes added later) and a white cheatline long the fuselage. The tail of French aircraft in Indochina was painted all-red from early 1941 onwards upon Japanese command, because of friendly fire incidents. This was adopted for the model (with a mix of Humbrol 19 and some 73), which is supposed to belong into the 1942 time frame.

 

As a captured aircraft, the original French roundels were replaced/overpainted with red disks/hinomaru, and then Thai elephant markings added on top. That’s a personal idea, ordnance directly supplied to the Thai forces from Japan had the simple, square “elephant flag” emblem directly applied to the wings and the fin (but no fuselage roundel). The all-red tail was taken over, but I painted the rudder in a dark IJA green, since it would formerly carry a French fin flash. The same green was used to overpaint a serial number on the fin and a former squadron emblem under the cockpit.

The hinomaru come from a PrintScale Ki-46 sheet, and these markings are intentionally a bit oversized, so that they cover well the former French markings and are highly visible. The elephant markings some from a PrintScale Ki-27 sheet, so that the red tone on both sources are very close to each other. The Ki-27 sheet also provided the Thai ciphers “3” and “4”, combined into a “34”.

 

The interior was painted in medium grey, and the model externally received some signs of wear and tear in the form of dry-brushed leading edges and around the cockpit as well as some soot stains behind the exhaust stubs and the machine guns. Finally, the model was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

  

A quick build, and the easy-build Hobby Boss M.S. 406 is certainly not as crisp as a “real” model, but in this case the story behind the weird livery was more in the focus than the canvas underneath. However, an interesting result, and the hybrid paint scheme with heritage from three different operators make the aircraft an unusual, if not exotic sight.

Each day, we see people like him, but we hardly ever notice them. It’s ironic but true. It’s like they are visible ghosts whose existence is on the contrary, nonexistent as far as we are concerned. Let’s wake up and see if we can help, be it as inexpensive as a smile for nothing but a better world to live in.

 

SHot with : Nikon D700 + Nikon 85mm AF f1.4D IF @ 2500 iso 1/ 125 @ f1.4 Spot

 

Free Photoshop actions to make kaleidoscopic and mirrored images:

 

podsville.wixsite.com/actions

Marty “Fitz” Fitzgerald is a “good cop” in contrast to his partner. He is quiet and calculating in his approach to his job. A true professional, Fitz keeps to himself and relies on his unwavering confidence to find the answers needed to complete his task. He has deep respect for his partner and his loyalty has kept Jon out of trouble more times than can be counted. Fitz is very intelligent and his math skills are unrivaled within the department. A transplant from Blocston, Fitz has an uncanny calmness to him when approaching a crime scene. He has a highly developed photographic memory and specializes in criminology to get the job done. He has passed on promotions because he loves being in the field. His affection for New Blok City has kept him here and his love of the job keeps him going. Fitz has a different opinion than his partner when it comes to the super powered heroes within NBC. He loves the challenge of discovering new individuals and clues that would otherwise be nonexistent without them. He believes in justice, but isn’t as opposed to the vigilantes as his partner.

 

Built for the League of Lego Heroes

www.flickr.com/groups/llh/

Today's post is brought to you by Gild main store, and a perfect outfit for the nonexistent winter weather, and abnormally warm early change to the season. This style can go with just about anything from club wear to street wear, or anything in between that may tickle your fancy, or even for that date with that special someone that may have caught your eye.

  

~What the stylish outfit consists of:~

  

Pants: Classic_[Gild] color denim pants_black

  

Shoes:[ VERSOV ]<WONZOV_Black&White

  

Vest/Tanktop Combo: Warm air vest with long/T black

   

On the amphora main body fight between warriors and Amazons. All characters are named. At center of the scene, Herakles, retr. hερακλες, fights against the Amazon Andromache, Ανδρομαχε. Near the main scene two more fights: Ifis, [Ι]φις, vs. Pantariste, Πανταριστε, and Telamone, retr. Τελαμον, vs. Ainipe, Αινιπ[π]ε. Neck decoration: palmette-lotus festoons.

With Hyppolyte, the queen of the Amazons, willing to hand over her prized belt, Herakles’ ninth labor seemed rather simple. But the goddess Hera infected the Amazons with the notion that Herakles and his band of companions intended to abduct their queen. The ferocious women warriors therefore rushed to save Hippolyte from her nonexistent doom. Herakles ordered her warriors to attack, and killed the Amazons queen, taking the belt by force.

 

Tyrrhenian amphorae type is produced during the second quarter of the sixth century B.C. Made by the Athenians for export, perhaps filled with prime Attic oil, and aimed at a market which had been conditioned to the wares of Corinth, the Tyrrhenian amphora takes its name from that area in Italy, north of Rome, where they were found ( and once believed to have been made).

 

Black-figured Tyrrhenian neck amphora

Attributed to Prometheus Painter (Bothmer)

Second quarter 6th century BC

Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. n. 27524

 

VIDEO: (Coming soon!)

 

••• SCRIPT/LYRICS: •••

 

MOLEMAN'S EPIC RAP BATTLES!!!!!!

 

GARNET…

 

…VS…

 

…FIRESTORM!!!

 

BEGIN!

 

Firestorm:

We could think about what gimmicks convolute our history:

Mixups with Russians, nature-forces and Yoruba witchery,

And we could think of crises wrought on our identity…

Yes, surely…

…But today, let's only think of flaming enemies with fury!

Hey, here comes a question most alarming; not to be dismissed,

And one whose comprehension won't take an atomic physicist:

Why let a contest measure merger-might to choose from we and you

When the answer is plainer than combining two plus freaking two?!

Don't get too cocky, Ronald; let's see this done as it ought to be:

Transmute lit lyrics from raw beats, and lecture blockheads properly!

It's gonna be a far cry from your Brightest Day; I'm going dark,

With aims to end this in a Flash just like my debut story arc!

Complete transparency, now; tip: skip on a kicked-in butt tonight.

Called on and dared to speak out? Quit, not even picking up the mic!

You see your worth as apt for some Gem-world princess, or even goddess,

Yet I wouldn't appraise your value at one-half Nicki Minaj's!

It's a lock, and un-jail-breakable, at that: you're getting blasted;

Your cut's unfit for this face-off, falling flat in every facet.

Why, it's evident: our foe lacks proper grasp of her position,

Just as suits the fruit of reckless, raw romance at first collision!

Molecules are being rewritten, spelling death for sucker golems;

Souring your Sugar sweetness!

That reminds me of a poem… how's it go?

A Ruby's red, and a Sapphire's colored blue;

When they're together, all the better to set fire onto you!

 

Garnet:

It seems your touted tangibility-tweaking tricks are getting screwy:

Though plainly made with fazing aims, your statements phase directly through me!

Fisticuffs raised to the max, I'll put it heavy-handedly:

This space-borne stone immortal's here to Vandalize you Savagely!

Don't think the balanced bond behind a harmonizing master humbled

By the body-bunking counterpart of Simon and Garfunkel;

You're the one Nuclear waste it's best to keep left in the ashcan:

That brute in Supes' ill-fated Quest for Peace was less a hack, man!

Your own saw Lanterns, Squads, the Reds and A-bombs quell your mission;

That's as jacked up as your black successor's break on television!

You'd do well to fission: squishies risk affliction, sticking to that kind of nexus;

It's as if you're mixing in black clouds in morning-time for breakfast.

Hawking off your power-set as something there's no reproducing?

Your old flame Lorraine objects, and check that shared New 52 scene!

Take me on? You're tripping; I could go all Summer Day,

Mad-laughing as you're curse-slapped, your collapse one stone's throw-down away!

 

Firestorm:

I'd hardly call that verse a gem, but do see you're impassioned;

Now, brace for an opposite, unequal nuclear reaction!

I'd advise you set about disarming; keep at trying to battle,

And you'll only fall apart, so turn around, three-eyes: skedaddle!

Put a bubble on your gushing pride, and hear just what I'm made of:

Nobel Prize-commemorated brains and brawn prime for the playoffs…

Oh, and right: the atoms' might, infused not in a tiny me,

But through a union whose inducement gets them splitting violently!

The irony…

These elements comprising me like father, son and holy ghost,

Your cotton candy composition couldn't come remotely close;

These bogglers are built to leave your flipping mind

As broken as that gay love metaphor between two different kinds!

Pursuing this is straight-up suicidal; heed some good advice:

Lest you be undone swiftly as a Slipknot, fleeing would be wise!

Hmm… knots, you say?

Tying yours sure garnered fandom's queerness-touting cheers.

What an accomplishment; it merely took damn-near six thousand years!

Our souls, conjoining, form an epic entelechy, knowing which,

Forgo all hopefulness of cloning this, as shown amiss with Soviets,

You cloying, kitschy clod! As for the riffs you spit haphazardly,

Those bare-bones bars have less meat than the prick who nicked your anthem, G!

Ours? Fine-tuned to the quantum level; spliced into arrangements

Set to shake your union to the brink of thrice-induced estrangement,

And don't count on pulling back together, damaged faith restored,

'Cause just the two of us are stronger than your whole volcanic Megazord!

 

Garnet:

Yeah, I'd imagine you'd know all about that, Orange Ranger,

But your floating mentor-head ought to have warned you to the danger;

What if I told you you'll be blindsided, both blacking-out in quick turn,

When I yank you from the Matrix like my name was Laurence Fishburne?

Known to wreck hard-headed haters, your hot one'll prove no different,

As part-timing casuals get taught the sum of true commitment!

Wanna see a giant of a power couple? I'm your girl; espouse its meaning:

Steady-rocking since mankind, they say, was still fresh out of Eden!

Plus, your Time Squad of a secret team can bite me;

Your whole future's at an end, and naught will tweak it, even slightly!

I mean, blimey: screw false pretense for some cackling magician bull;

That mind-entrapping weeks-long bender? Flatly unforgivable!

I'm dropping bombs; the biggest Ron, his mommy or his pops have seen,

For overkill to match the namesake of a poor man's Constantine:

Destabilizing deconstruction, it'll make them draw a blank.

I'd call your deal a nature-crime; rechristen Raymond: "Ronnie Frank"!

 

Firestorm:

You say your bodyguard-love schtick will never come to dissolution,

Like a pair of mutant, midget technicolor Whitney Houstons!

Think we'll have a problem here?

Now, that's bananas! We'll be home by daylight,

NASA asked that she's seen, fee-free, to her own, one-way flight!

Girl, your jointly self-absorbed felicity's an utter joke;

Make threats of dropping bombs, and watch your dignity go up in smoke!

You're unprepared for prime time, Gemmy! How can you expect to win this

When your origin got upstaged by a Robot Chicken Christmas?

From N.Y.C. streets to Justice Leagues, we've made ourselves a name;

You've kept ones shared with countless drones, all bred and trained to be the same!

I live up to and past the heights of my Star-Spangled heritage;

You aren't worth your own weight at the ideal price per carat, bitch:

You're meritless! You call those palette-swapped foam Hulk props on you gauntlets?

Come at me with them, and catch a flaming knuckle through the faceplate!

Your lame cheeto P.S.A. coach couldn't top this all-new hotness,

So if you can't stand the heat, beam back on up into your safe space.

See all notions that it's nearly so severely hard to beat her

Shattered like the trust invested in her dear, departed leader!

You perceive self-value more-than-constituting both your parts' sum,

But the math says otherwise; check any jewelry broker's charts, hon!

Half of you served in a royal court as its official seer;

You've gone some kind of third-eye-blind, though, if this isn't crystal-clear:

You don't look awesome, and it's time you went to bed!

Now close the deal!

I'll let your godson know that what you did today was choke, for real!

 

Garnet:

Oh, you'll find no exhaustion here; I'm far from prone to break a sweat:

When I wipe the floor with phony-hot shits, it's liable to wind up painted red!

It's viable to say I've wholly got this: child's play, though only for Garnet;

Joining in on it? You're gonna get rolled and left cold, all your folks going: "Oh no, they are dead."

Try on a total toxin-taste: raw space-rock rhymes, created ground-up,

Like your Ogaden oasis, the fate of which I wouldn't take it you're too proud of.

A tenth-level belter, I rep rebel melders:

Test against my mettle? Best inject some Nth; augment your cells, or get to shelter!

It's a song of ice and fire; when you're packing just the latter,

Your whole rhythm-ride's implosion-bound, and plasma's gonna splatter.

As for your nuclear family values? I'm beyond such rigid norms,

With Multiplex strengths, all rolled up inside one monolithic form!

Ever-flowering, love letter-showered, empowering, towering gay-romantic titan,

Shade thrown my way's, with a hand-flick, reflected, and BAM: it's the source who sees dishonor.

Dominant during debates, dissent-drainingly as any achromatic tyrant,

Try shouting this down, and watch me unshakenly pluck out your core; ensure you'll be a goner!

 

………

 

(*SOLO ROUND!*)

 

………

 

Martin Stein:

How's Stein's schooling session's starting something Sapph's supposed to handle?

Kindergarten rooms have brought her whole proud pairing to a standstill!

Singlehandedly one-upping that accursed menagerie,

Observe: in verse, a worse-disturbing blasphemy!

Your present-perspicacity has faltered from foresight-fixation; your taste in soulmates shows, for starters:

Even Jason never sunk to such low standards with his partners!

When this atomic architect takes to the floor,

The only overhyped-up ship that's headed for a wreck is yours!

 

Sapphire:

I see a glorified Jiminy Cricket with a nonexistent sex life.

He will find less clemency afforded here than with his ex-wife!

You've not met a Crystal cold to you as this; you'd better hide:

No psycho on any of infinite Earths could hope to sway me to your side.

Your Doomsday Clock is ticking; precognition needn't spell what's gonna happen,

When the baddest blue boss bombshells 'bout you break since Doc Manhattan's!

This alleged Legend won't see tomorrow: it's apparent you'll be slaughtered;

Deploring the oracle was a mistake just as aberrant as your daughter!

 

Martin Stein:

Hey, h- …Oh, why should I fall back onto dumb distraction-tunes,

When you're as prone to cause your own strikeout, all while we shoot the moon?

Cut with the C.R.A.P.; let this theory of mine be self-fulfilled: you'll cease to diss me,

Lest I cut your lifeline like your Greek ancestors three from Disney!

 

Sapphire:

If that Titanic travesty of trite trash-talk's all you've got,

Then it's no inner-fascist speaking when I say you should be shot!

Though I'd have warned you, that would be to squander breath for me; I know this:

You'd be heedless even with a quarter-century of notice!

 

Ruby:

Hit the streets, relapsed to homelessness: you'll want to keep anonymous;

A fuming-to-the-brim stone's bent on bringing your Apokalips!

The CW can have Ms. Kane informed on termination:

There was no room for her once this Ruby rose to the occasion!

 

Ronnie Raymond:

It was plain why you would be a cowboy: shit got polarizing.

Now, take one more comic page to heart: ride into the horizon;

No horsebacking, though! Try force-propelled ascension through the sky;

Yo, when you get to space's vacuum, tell your brethren I said "Hi",

And like the Happy of those five red dwarves reneged on standing with you,

Just back down from whence you've stepped up. Better yet, abandon ship, too!

Gangster-rapping worthily of some Dakotaversal bang-baby,

Watch this meta-S.T.A.R. extinguish your eternal flame, baby!

 

Ruby:

Funny you'd mention horizons: the events that I discern

Are painting you abyss-inbound, and past the point of no return!

Your jerkhole gripes and talking smack? I wouldn't fly to such judgments, were I to be you;

Full-circled like a Tokamak, your lapped back attacks will bite you something entirely new!

 

Ronnie Raymond:

A tempered temper lends to endless energy attained to blow through;

Rage has got you burning out, and that's my okay to K.O. you,

So let's leave the hero business to myself and the professor,

Making sure they'll see the written notice of your surrend

er!

 

Ruby:

Have you turned your own brains to jelly?! You're intoxicated; face it:

Flying off the rails, you'll plummet to rock bottom, getting wasted!

I'm out to bring hurt beyond mere heartbreak, and thus, your wounds yet need more salting,

Like your record's blackest mark, which Rusch won't soon let be forgotten!

Sapphire: That was rotten, alright; biting to look back upon as Sodom's burning.

White light this night, too, will end your torment, though with no returning!

Ruby: Or, in more straightforward wording: DIE. You must be nuts,

'Cause if the wedding stage didn't clue you in…

R+S: Today belongs to us!

 

Martin Stein:

I'll gladly rain on your reunion, jerks; it's time to face the truth:

You're plainly out of it as any circus sideshow saber-tooth!

Ronnie Raymond: If the professor is the passenger beside my pilot, punks,

That puts you as the ones blindfolded, bound and gagged inside our trunk!

Firestorm: You've walked Earth since prehistory?

Well, let's address the elephant…

A flung-back Furby's apt to outpace your epochal relevance!

You'll soon return to purpose-lacking, playing parent off the table,

Once our 'verses clash, and Steven takes an arrow in the navel!

 

Ruby:

Dude; leukemia is one thing, but those bars of your creation?

Sapphire: Cancerous beyond the help of your most cosmic incarnation!

R+S: Striking with a shadow's subtle grace, yet shining steel's lethality,

You may think it's Injustice, but we're winning by fatality! (Frosty!)

(*♪, ♪-♪-♪, ♪-♪*)

Garnet: You're getting throttled,

Harder than you dropped the ball with Brainiac's whole ship of bottles!

Take a moment to think, now, of just how very wrong you were, disputing me:

A clear-cut polymerized paragon; let no-con-fusion be.

 

?????????:

The trigger word's been stated! Now, my trap is activated;

Thus, the trump card's played in my fair maiden's name, so sayeth I!

The coming game's experience? You bums should take to fearing it,

Because it's time to D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DIE!

 

Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon:

I'm the overkill O.G. of owning old O.C.G. scenes; don't test me:

M.C. B.E.U.D. on the track? Best bet that it's your Death-T!

I inflict direct attacks; take life points down to zero, no doubt,

For this joke of a Gem-Knight and Elemental HERO dropout!

I drop right on in, without a brutal cost; sans Cyber-Stein:

Bring triple threats, converging onto Ruby, Ron, Sapphire and Stein!

You're all exhausted; left defenseless as a goblin-force one-shotter:

Losing hands dealt to you all played-out, and now I strike like Yata

Garasu, to lock you pussy Fusionists in strangleholds!

You'd never bend my will in shining armor forged of rarest gold.

In terms of targets fixed upon you, you'll have no chance to Scapegoat it:

One fell burst-stream's zapping your whole sheepish quartet of components!

Weighing you against me, the Millennium Scales will tip so hard,

You'll catapult, with robo-turtles wishing they could flick as far.

You're standing on the edge; ensuing shock is sure to wreck your balance,

Come the baddest dragon's dark discharge from his Zorc Necrophallus!

Need I spell it out? Your destiny is FINAL; undisputed!

As for changing fate, moreover, that's my job, with gods tributed!

Crushing you, why would I spring some virus? That ain't worth my time,

When all your values at their highest couldn't match a third of mine!

The legend that began it all: oft-mimicked, never replicated.

My pot runneth over; it's not necessary to explain it!

You'll beg for some shadow penalty, such twistedness you'll face;

For those who come in behind Blue-Eyes, a Limp Bizkit's what they taste!

 

Firestorm:

Self-special-summoning into our double-duel? Screw that whole deal;

If I had wanted a royale, I'd just be playing Battlefield!

Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon: Don't drag this out with dialogue, delaying; I haven't got all day,

And when this card is heartless to you, how can you so much as pray?

Garnet: Well, I'd say you've let your defenses down, and I ain't talking misprints:

Your effect on me's, put simply as your text box, nonexistent!

 

Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon:

It's the rapper-kingdom finals, whelp; that isn't gonna fly:

Those one-star-studded gauntlets plainly tell that you're unqualified!

I've got you insects flipping out, but doing so won't serve to bite me,

For your lot's too basic!

Lusterless!

Dull!

…Let alone worthy to ride me,

While I shine on ever brightly, even scaled down for the big screen;

Steal the thunder of Gate-Guards: my lyrics' layout's labyrinthine!

This collective looks combustion-bound, face flared up; in a frenzy,

But I've felled far more infernal red-eyed monsters full of envy.

Cards here stacked against you steeper still than Reshef of Destruction,

White light's sealing your demise, so though you guessed correct on one thing,

Know my arsenal's evolved to make for new alternatives;

With chaos rituals to maximize the pain, I'll burn you, bitch!

Watch me send this three-eyed sucker straight to the grave; negate a compensating deck search:

End malformed mashups' miseries, like the doggy saying "Edward"!

 

Garnet:

Oh, you can banish that shit; try, instead, Fullmetal Jacket,

'Cause I have to ask it: what is your mammoth malfunction, maggot?!

Firestorm: I have had it with these Muto-fighting dragons, coalesced as one,

But for us coming back from this hijacking, hopes look next to none…

Our best's yet unexhausted…

Garnet: The sole option left to take here…

Firestorm: …Should we all agree we want it.

Garnet: …Would be nuclear in nature.

Firestorm: Are you thinking what I am?

Garnet: I don't think that's how fusion works.

Firestorm: Well, screw the rules; we have fan fiction logic!

Garnet: Let's just do this, jerk…

 

………

 

Garnetstorm:

Know your last-minute winning plays; details: I take no pleasure in this

As I bust loose from our tightest spot and get direct to business,

No less vocal for it, mind you, while I counter-steal the show,

And finish what your master started, with one down, and three to go!

These blows will knock you sideways, keeping up the damage all the same,

With meteoric impacts fit to fuel your blackest rival's flames!

I'm breaking your sustaining chains; those of my components' restraint, too:

But four pieces here need come together to obliterate you!

Brightly-blazing stone conglomerate, far from some shadow puppet:

Mega-mixture; this vanilla triple-dipper can go shove it!

If you're triple-A, call me the alphabet's whole backmost leg;

No Toonish trickery required, I'll deflect attacks all day!

My fighting spirit's too intense to stay; my presence here is fleeting,

But the Last Turn is upon us, and you're set for searing beating!

Wanna end this with a draw? I'll go Berserker, then: get violent,

And remake Destroy All Monsters; stomp out this tri-headed tyrant.

 

WHO WON?

 

WHO'S NEXT?

 

I DECIDE!

 

MOLE…

 

…MAN'S…

 

HA!

 

…EPIC RAP BATTLES!!!!!!!

What would be a Finnish summer without weddings? I don't know how it happens in the rest of the world, but in Finland majority of weddings are arranged in summer when there is plenty of light and warm. So it happened that my own sister Senja was getting married with Esa and she asked if I could take some pictures of the event. Now, I've never done any wedding photography before but I thought that while I'm trying to stay active with my photography I should also throw myself into situations that are far beyond my comfort zone – and besides being a close relative I couldn't have said 'no' for her anyway. So I decided to try out some wedding photography.

 

In overall the situation was not as challenging as it first sounds because my role was to act as a 'second shooter' which also meant that I didn't have to sweat for the formal wedding portrait (phew), and I could concentrate on being there at the moment armed with my camera. I chose to work this through with the Batis 1.8/85 and Batis 2/25 because of their autofocus capability. I had plenty of excitement already and I didn't want to mix the challenge of manual focus with the Loxias there. This was definitely an oddball setup as I was basically missing some of the most used focal lengths and was kind of working with the extreme ends of standard 24-70 mm lens which is pretty common in wedding and event photography. Afterwards I think I should have tried the Loxias there as well because for certain kind of pictures focusing manually isn't really a problem (and I've become accustomed to it quite a bit actually). Working with Batis lenses was great from image quality's point of view, but I have to admit that nothing beats a fast zoom like the new Sony 24-70 f/2.8 GM as it would have given me a lot more agility during the fast moments.

 

I already knew beforehand that the most challenging part of the day would definitely be the ceremony. It's been awhile since I've attended to a wedding and to be honest I didn't have any clue how the ceremony would progress. But preparation is everything and I walked it through with my sister couple of days before the actual event and composed myself a strategy of what I would shoot, where I would be and when I would switch lenses. This was some of the best decisions I made regarding the whole wedding and it was a great help for better pictures. During the rehearsal the light was pretty low inside the church (constantly above iso1600) which made me a bit nervous for the actual wedding day, but when the day came it was a lot better - considering it afterwards it seems I had a bit of beginner's luck as it could have been a lot more difficult regarding the light during the ceremony.

 

When the ceremony was done the celebration was kicked off in a small local vineyard and I stayed there photographing the event until the night. Over the whole day I shot approximately 1400 shots, and already at the party I thought that the large quantity of pictures could be a potential headache later on when post processing them. Add in a different kind of low light and mixed light situations I was afraid that editing all pictures could turn out to be too laborious work which I would be chewing weeks after the event. In short, I thought this could turn out to be a potential nightmare.

 

But this is where the Mastin Labs presets kick in (see what I wrote about them earlier here). Since I got the presets and I've liked them a lot I decided that I would edit the whole shoot with just them and nothing else. This way I would become familiar with them and see how they work in this kind of more demanding situation. This turned out to be a very wise choice since the Portra pack, especially the Portra 800 preset, gave me a very nice starting point for the whole project. From 1400 shots I chose 120 final shots which I edited all in just three nights. With my old post processing routines this would have taken a lot more time, and I'm pretty sure I like the result is even better this way. Especially the skin colors were lot easier to achieve and I only had to resort to Photoshop in couple of pictures (everything was originally edited in Lightroom). Another big plus regarding the Portra pack was the consistent look I was able achieve. This is something I haven't really paid attention before, but now that I used basically just one preset (Portra 800) as starting point for the whole project, the end result looks more consistent and 'professional' – if I dare to say that with my nonexistent wedding photography experience (for the b&w I used the Ilford pack which also came out pretty nice in my eye though I'm clearly no expert when it comes to b&w photography). All in all I have to say that the Mastin Labs presets saved me from drifting into too laborious work, and I got the job done with results that I really like. I'm really happy that I came across them since they have change the way I approach the whole post processing thing.

 

In the end I think I made it through with honorably, and Senja & Esa were also happy with the pictures I did. Of course I missed some situations during the day and having more experience of weddings could have improved my output, but in the end I'm also happy with the results. Being there at their wedding was also one of the summer highlights which I had been waiting for whole summer. And in retrospect it's easy to say that our summer would not have been complete without this wedding celebration. Again, congratulations to Senja & Esa!

 

Days of Zeiss: www.daysofzeiss.com

After spending about a week in the province of Palawan with my family I then took a flight to the Island of Cebu to meet longtime flickr contact Raycoy. I got there Saturday afternoon and then at 7 pm Saturday evening we went to meeting. We got some fun pictures after the meeting and this was one of them. I somehow managed to post this right to flickr from my phone although the internet connection was weak to nonexistent most of the trip.

 

It was very special to meet with Raycoy after knowing him for so many years through flickr. I've seen the pictures of his family so many times so I feel like I knew them too. You can see the joy on our faces.

November 7–28

See this page for info: www.newtoulouse.org/nosuchthing.html

I mentioned that the sunset behind me was just as beautiful as the Golden Gate before me. But I only had one camera and one tripod…and I was pretty sure I'd have only one moment in which to shoot the bridge lit up with that golden glow.

 

Still! I whipped around a few times and snuck shots of the sunset with my Nexus 5X. I only got a few before my battery crapped out.

 

I've been tempted by the iPhone 7 Plus and Google's new Pixel phone. On a technical level, they both have much better cameras.

 

But I've become convinced that the difference between "the best" phone cameras and a merely "very good" one is slim today. Do those 2016 phones take better pictures than my 2015 Nexus? Yup! But when we factor in "five or ten minutes of fiddling with the photo, with a free app" the differences become razor thin...or even nonexistent.

 

So: This was shot with a $300 Nexus 5X, in HDR+ mode (I leave it in this mode all the time). Then I fiddled with it for about ten or fifteen minutes in Snapseed on my iPad.

 

"Oh, sure..._after_ you fiddled with it!" Yes. It's a fair cop. But I would have fiddled with it later, no matter what camera I used.

 

Plus! This phone cost me $400 less to begin with. And! I didn't have to spend $700 for a new phone last fall.

 

(Edited to add: Oh! I stand corrected: I shot this with my iPad Mini 3! Because I had exhausted the battery on my Nexus 5X.

 

If anything, it's even more wow-able! The iPad Mini 3 came out the same year as my Nexus 5X _and_ it wasn't meant to be an A+ camera to begin with.

 

Just goes to show: it's hard to come away with a poor photo when you start with a spectacular sunset and you dump it into a good photo editor.)

It's a bit scabby round the edge has a crack and the ford badge is nonexistent but I still had to have it ;))

Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately 60 miles (97 km) long on its north–south axis and just 6 miles (9.7 km) wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve 241,904 acres (377.98 sq mi; 97,895.08 ha; 978.95 km2) of desert landscape and is open all year, with May through September being the highest visitation months.

 

Partially in Wayne County, Utah, the area was originally named "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s by local boosters Ephraim P. Pectol and Joseph S. Hickman. Capitol Reef National Park was designated a national monument on August 2, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to protect the area's colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths; however, it was not until 1950 that the area officially opened to the public. Road access was improved in 1962 with the construction of State Route 24 through the Fremont River Canyon.

 

The majority of the nearly 100 mi (160 km) long up-thrust formation called the Waterpocket Fold—a rocky spine extending from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell—is preserved within the park. Capitol Reef is an especially rugged and spectacular segment of the Waterpocket Fold by the Fremont River. The park was named for its whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome formations—similar to the white domes often placed on capitol buildings—that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. Locally, reef refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel.

 

Capitol Reef encompasses the Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth's crust that is 65 million years old. It is the largest exposed monocline in North America. In this fold, newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape. This warp, probably caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and fossils. The park is filled with brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs, gleaming white domes, and contrasting layers of stone and earth.

 

The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building, that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold.

 

The fold forms a north-to-south barrier that has barely been breached by roads. Early settlers referred to parallel impassable ridges as "reefs", from which the park gets the second half of its name. The first paved road was constructed through the area in 1962. State Route 24 cuts through the park traveling east and west between Canyonlands National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, but few other paved roads invade the rugged landscape.

 

The park is filled with canyons, cliffs, towers, domes, and arches. The Fremont River has cut canyons through parts of the Waterpocket Fold, but most of the park is arid desert. A scenic drive shows park visitors some highlights, but it runs only a few miles from the main highway. Hundreds of miles of trails and unpaved roads lead into the equally scenic backcountry.

 

Fremont-culture Native Americans lived near the perennial Fremont River in the northern part of the Capitol Reef Waterpocket Fold around the year 1000. They irrigated crops of maize and squash and stored their grain in stone granaries (in part made from the numerous black basalt boulders that litter the area). In the 13th century, all of the Native American cultures in this area underwent sudden change, likely due to a long drought. The Fremont settlements and fields were abandoned.

 

Many years after the Fremont left, Paiutes moved into the area. These Numic-speaking people named the Fremont granaries moki huts and thought they were the homes of a race of tiny people or moki.

 

In 1872 Almon H. Thompson, a geographer attached to United States Army Major John Wesley Powell's expedition, crossed the Waterpocket Fold while exploring the area. Geologist Clarence Dutton later spent several summers studying the area's geology. None of these expeditions explored the Waterpocket Fold to any great extent.

 

Following the American Civil War, officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City sought to establish missions in the remotest niches of the Intermountain West. In 1866, a quasi-military expedition of Mormons in pursuit of natives penetrated the high valleys to the west. In the 1870s, settlers moved into these valleys, eventually establishing Loa, Fremont, Lyman, Bicknell, and Torrey.

 

Mormons settled the Fremont River valley in the 1880s and established Junction (later renamed Fruita), Caineville, and Aldridge. Fruita prospered, Caineville barely survived, and Aldridge died. In addition to farming, lime was extracted from local limestone, and uranium was extracted early in the 20th century. In 1904 the first claim to a uranium mine in the area was staked. The resulting Oyler Mine in Grand Wash produced uranium ore.

 

By 1920 no more than ten families at one time were sustained by the fertile flood plain of the Fremont River and the land changed ownership over the years. The area remained isolated. The community was later abandoned and later still some buildings were restored by the National Park Service. Kilns once used to produce lime are still in Sulphur Creek and near the campgrounds on Scenic Drive.

 

Local Ephraim Portman Pectol organized a "booster club" in Torrey in 1921. Pectol pressed a promotional campaign, furnishing stories to be sent to periodicals and newspapers. In his efforts, he was increasingly aided by his brother-in-law, Joseph S. Hickman, who was the Wayne County High School principal. In 1924, Hickman extended community involvement in the promotional effort by organizing a Wayne County-wide Wayne Wonderland Club. That same year, Hickman was elected to the Utah State Legislature.

 

In 1933, Pectol was elected to the presidency of the Associated Civics Club of Southern Utah, successor to the Wayne Wonderland Club. The club raised U.S. $150 (equivalent to $3,391 in 2022) to interest a Salt Lake City photographer in taking a series of promotional photographs. For several years, the photographer, J. E. Broaddus, traveled and lectured on "Wayne Wonderland".

 

In 1933, Pectol was elected to the legislature and almost immediately contacted President Franklin D. Roosevelt and asked for the creation of "Wayne Wonderland National Monument" out of the federal lands comprising the bulk of the Capitol Reef area. Federal agencies began a feasibility study and boundary assessment. Meanwhile, Pectol guided the government investigators on numerous trips and escorted an increasing number of visitors. The lectures of Broaddus were having an effect.

 

Roosevelt signed a proclamation creating Capitol Reef National Monument on August 2, 1937. In Proclamation 2246, President Roosevelt set aside 37,711 acres (15,261 ha) of the Capitol Reef area. This comprised an area extending about two miles (3 km) north of present State Route 24 and about 10 mi (16 km) south, just past Capitol Gorge. The Great Depression years were lean ones for the National Park Service (NPS), the new administering agency. Funds for the administration of Capitol Reef were nonexistent; it would be a long time before the first rangers would arrive.

 

Administration of the new monument was placed under the control of Zion National Park. A stone ranger cabin and the Sulphur Creek bridge were built and some road work was performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. Historian and printer Charles Kelly came to know NPS officials at Zion well and volunteered to watchdog the park for the NPS. Kelly was officially appointed custodian-without-pay in 1943. He worked as a volunteer until 1950, when the NPS offered him a civil-service appointment as the first superintendent.

 

During the 1950s Kelly was deeply troubled by NPS management acceding to demands of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that Capitol Reef National Monument be opened to uranium prospecting. He felt that the decision had been a mistake and destructive of the long-term national interest. It turned out that there was not enough ore in the monument to be worth mining.

 

In 1958 Kelly got additional permanent help in protecting the monument and enforcing regulations; Park Ranger Grant Clark transferred from Zion. The year Clark arrived, fifty-six thousand visitors came to the park, and Charlie Kelly retired for the last time.

 

During the 1960s (under the program name Mission 66), NPS areas nationwide received new facilities to meet the demand of mushrooming park visitation. At Capitol Reef, a 53-site campground at Fruita, staff rental housing, and a new visitor center were built, the latter opening in 1966.

 

Visitation climbed dramatically after the paved, all-weather State Route 24 was built in 1962 through the Fremont River canyon near Fruita. State Route 24 replaced the narrow Capitol Gorge wagon road about 10 mi (16 km) to the south that frequently washed out. The old road has since been open only to foot traffic. In 1967, 146,598 persons visited the park. The staff was also growing.

 

During the 1960s, the NPS purchased private land parcels at Fruita and Pleasant Creek. Almost all private property passed into public ownership on a "willing buyer-willing seller" basis.

 

Preservationists convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson to set aside an enormous area of public lands in 1968, just before he left office. In Presidential Proclamation 3888 an additional 215,056 acres (87,030 ha) were placed under NPS control. By 1970, Capitol Reef National Monument comprised 254,251 acres (102,892 ha) and sprawled southeast from Thousand Lake Mountain almost to the Colorado River. The action was controversial locally, and NPS staffing at the monument was inadequate to properly manage the additional land.

 

The vast enlargement of the monument and diversification of the scenic resources soon raised another issue: whether Capitol Reef should be a national park, rather than a monument. Two bills were introduced into the United States Congress.

 

A House bill (H.R. 17152) introduced by Utah Congressman Laurence J. Burton called for a 180,000-acre (72,800 ha) national park and an adjunct 48,000-acre (19,400 ha) national recreation area where multiple use (including grazing) could continue indefinitely. In the United States Senate, meanwhile, Senate bill S. 531 had already passed on July 1, 1970, and provided for a 230,000-acre (93,100 ha) national park alone. The bill called for a 25-year phase-out of grazing.

 

In September 1970, United States Department of Interior officials told a house subcommittee session that they preferred about 254,000 acres (103,000 ha) be set aside as a national park. They also recommended that the grazing phase-out period be 10 years, rather than 25. They did not favor the adjunct recreation area.

 

It was not until late 1971 that Congressional action was completed. By then, the 92nd United States Congress was in session and S. 531 had languished. A new bill, S. 29, was introduced in the Senate by Senator Frank E. Moss of Utah and was essentially the same as the defunct S. 531 except that it called for an additional 10,834 acres (4,384 ha) of public lands for a Capitol Reef National Park. In the House, Utah Representative K. Gunn McKay (with Representative Lloyd) had introduced H.R. 9053 to replace the dead H.R. 17152. This time, the House bill dropped the concept of an adjunct Capitol Reef National Recreation Area and adopted the Senate concept of a 25-year limit on continued grazing. The Department of Interior was still recommending a national park of 254,368 acres (102,939 ha) and a 10-year limit for grazing phase-out.

 

S. 29 passed the Senate in June and was sent to the House, which dropped its own bill and passed the Senate version with an amendment. Because the Senate was not in agreement with the House amendment, differences were worked out in Conference Committee. The Conference Committee issued its report on November 30, 1971, and the bill passed both houses of Congress. The legislation—'An Act to Establish The Capitol Reef National Park in the State of Utah'—became Public Law 92-207 when it was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971.

 

The area including the park was once the edge of a shallow sea that invaded the land in the Permian, creating the Cutler Formation. Only the sandstone of the youngest member of the Cutler Formation, the White Rim, is exposed in the park. The deepening sea left carbonate deposits, forming the limestone of the Kaibab Limestone, the same formation that rims the Grand Canyon to the southwest.

 

During the Triassic, streams deposited reddish-brown silt that later became the siltstone of the Moenkopi Formation. Uplift and erosion followed. Conglomerate, followed by logs, sand, mud, and wind-transported volcanic ash, then formed the uranium-containing Chinle Formation.

 

The members of the Glen Canyon Group were all laid down in the middle- to late-Triassic during a time of increasing aridity. They include:

 

Wingate Sandstone: sand dunes on the shore of an ancient sea

Kayenta Formation: thin-bedded layers of sand deposited by slow-moving streams in channels and across low plains

Navajo Sandstone: huge fossilized sand dunes from a massive Sahara-like desert.

 

The Golden Throne. Though Capitol Reef is famous for white domes of Navajo Sandstone, this dome's color is a result of a lingering section of yellow Carmel Formation carbonate, which has stained the underlying rock.

The San Rafael Group consists of four Jurassic-period formations, from oldest to youngest:

 

Carmel Formation: gypsum, sand, and limey silt laid down in what may have been a graben that was periodically flooded by sea water

Entrada Sandstone: sandstone from barrier islands/sand bars in a near-shore environment

Curtis Formation: made from conglomerate, sandstone, and shale

Summerville Formation: reddish-brown mud and white sand deposited in tidal flats.

Streams once again laid down mud and sand in their channels, on lakebeds, and in swampy plains, creating the Morrison Formation. Early in the Cretaceous, similar nonmarine sediments were laid down and became the Dakota Sandstone. Eventually, the Cretaceous Seaway covered the Dakota, depositing the Mancos Shale.

 

Only small remnants of the Mesaverde Group are found, capping a few mesas in the park's eastern section.

 

Near the end of the Cretaceous period, a mountain-building event called the Laramide orogeny started to compact and uplift the region, forming the Rocky Mountains and creating monoclines such as the Waterpocket Fold in the park. Ten to fifteen million years ago, the entire region was uplifted much further by the creation of the Colorado Plateau. This uplift was very even. Igneous activity in the form of volcanism and dike and sill intrusion also occurred during this time.

 

The drainage system in the area was rearranged and steepened, causing streams to downcut faster and sometimes change course. Wetter times during the ice ages of the Pleistocene increased the rate of erosion.

 

There are more than 840 species of plants that are found in the park and over 40 of those species are classified as rare and endemic.

 

The closest town to Capitol Reef is Torrey, about 11 mi (18 km) west of the visitor center on Highway 24, slightly west of its intersection with Highway 12. Its 2020 population is less than 300. Torrey has a few motels and restaurants and functions as a gateway town to Capitol Reef National Park. Highway 12, as well as a partially unpaved scenic backway named the Burr Trail, provide access from the west through the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and the town of Boulder.

 

A variety of activities are available to tourists, both ranger-led and self-guided, including auto touring, hiking, backpacking, camping, bicycling (on paved and unpaved roads only; no trails), horseback riding, canyoneering, and rock climbing. The orchards planted by Mormon pioneers are maintained by the National Park Service. From early March to mid-October, various fruit—cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, or apples—can be harvested by visitors for a fee.

 

A hiking trail guide is available at the visitor center for both day hikes and backcountry hiking. Backcountry access requires a free permit.

 

Numerous trails are available for hiking and backpacking in the park, with fifteen in the Fruita District alone. The following trails are some of the most popular in the park:

 

Cassidy Arch Trail: a very steep, strenuous 3.5 mi (5.6 km) round trip that leads into the Grand Wash to an overlook of the Cassidy Arch.

Hickman Bridge Trail: a 2 mi (3.2 km) round trip leading to the natural bridge.

Frying Pan Trail: an 8.8 mi (14.2 km) round trip that passes the Cassidy Arch, Grand Wash, and Cohab Canyon.

Brimhall Natural Bridge: a popular, though strenuous, 4.5 mi (7.2 km) round trip with views of Brimhall Canyon, the Waterpocket Fold, and Brimhall Natural Bridge.

Halls Creek Narrows: 22 mi (35 km) long and considered strenuous, with many side canyons and creeks; typically hiked as a 2-3 day camping trip.

 

Visitors may explore several of the main areas of the park by private vehicle:

 

Scenic Drive: winds through the middle of the park, passing the major points of interest; the road is accessible from the visitor center to approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) into the Capitol Gorge.

Notom-Bullfrog Road: traverses the eastern side of the Waterpocket Fold, along 10 mi (16 km) of paved road, with the remainder unpaved.

Cathedral Road: an unpaved road through the northern areas of the park, that traverses Cathedral Valley, passing the Temples of the Sun and Moon.

 

The primary camping location is the Fruita campground, with 71 campsites (no water, electrical, or sewer hookups), and restrooms without bathing facilities. The campground also has group sites with picnic areas and restrooms. Two primitive free camping areas are also available.

 

Canyoneering is growing in popularity in the park. It is a recreational sport that takes one through slot canyons. It involves rappelling and may require swimming and other technical rope work. Day-pass permits are required for canyoneering in the park, and can be obtained for free from the visitor's center or through email. It's key to know that each route requires its own permit. If one is planning on canyoneering for multiple days, passes are required for each day. Overnight camping as part of the canyoneering trip is permitted, but one must request a free backcountry pass from the visitor center.

 

It is imperative to plan canyoneering trips around the weather. The Colorado Plateau is susceptible to flash flooding during prime rainy months. Because canyoneering takes place through slot canyons, getting caught in a flash flood could be lethal. Take care to consult reliable weather sources. The Weather Atlas shows charts with the monthly average rainfall in inches.

 

Another risk to be aware of during the summer months is extreme heat. Visitors can find weather warnings on the National Weather Service website. The heat levels are detailed by a color and numerical scale (0-4).

 

One of the most popular canyoneering routes in Capitol Reef National Park is Cassidy Arch Canyon. A paper by George Huddart, details the park's commitment to working with citizens to maintain the route as well as the vegetation and rocks. The canyon route is approximately 2.3 miles long (0.4 miles of technical work), consisting of 8 different rappels, and takes between 2.5 and 4.5 hours to complete. The first rappel is 140 ft and descends below the famous Cassidy Arch.

 

Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.

 

Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.

 

People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.

 

Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.

 

The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.

 

Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.

 

The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:

 

use of the bow and arrow while hunting,

building pithouse shelters,

growing maize and probably beans and squash,

building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,

creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,

producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.

 

The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.

 

These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.

 

In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.

 

In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.

 

Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.

 

At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.

 

The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.

 

A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.

 

Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.

 

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.

 

Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.

 

Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.

 

Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.

 

The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.

 

Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.

 

Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.

 

In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.

 

The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.

 

Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.

 

After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.

 

As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.

 

Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.

 

Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.

 

Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.

 

Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.

 

On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.

 

Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century

During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.

 

The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.

 

Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:

 

William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859

Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866

3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868

A Black man in Uintah, 1869

Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873

Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874

Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880

William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883

John Murphy in Park City, 1883

George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884

Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886

Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925

Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).

 

Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.

 

Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.

 

During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.

 

In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.

 

Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.

 

Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.

 

As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.

 

One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.

 

It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.

The 150 canals of Venice are its streets - roads for land passenger vehicles are nonexistent. Everyone must travel by foot or boat, tourists and locals alike.

 

Venice is just fascinating, getting lost is part of the adventure!

 

Yearly upload. Comment or tag yourself or whatever if you'll be there and want to say hi! I'll be in the bionicle section, specifically the lower left corner of the bionicle section.

 

Last year was frustrating; with the combination of tight spaces and people sitting far away, socializing was quite the exercise. Hopefully both of those troubles will be nonexistent this year!

 

If we hung out last year and you want to display near me, send me a PM or something so I can reserve some space for you. I already sent out some PM's but I know I've forgotten or haven't gotten around to a bunch of people.

 

In other news, I again won't be bringing too many mocs. There should be a few surprises though, and a new collab! Plus lots of new and old faces will be there!

 

I'm also bringing a lot of sets to sell. Prepare your wallets.

 

ALSO! Colin (modalt) will be bringing his lightbox setup to brickfair all 5 days if anyone wants to take professional pictures of their mocs.

Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately 60 miles (97 km) long on its north–south axis and just 6 miles (9.7 km) wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve 241,904 acres (377.98 sq mi; 97,895.08 ha; 978.95 km2) of desert landscape and is open all year, with May through September being the highest visitation months.

 

Partially in Wayne County, Utah, the area was originally named "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s by local boosters Ephraim P. Pectol and Joseph S. Hickman. Capitol Reef National Park was designated a national monument on August 2, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to protect the area's colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths; however, it was not until 1950 that the area officially opened to the public. Road access was improved in 1962 with the construction of State Route 24 through the Fremont River Canyon.

 

The majority of the nearly 100 mi (160 km) long up-thrust formation called the Waterpocket Fold—a rocky spine extending from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell—is preserved within the park. Capitol Reef is an especially rugged and spectacular segment of the Waterpocket Fold by the Fremont River. The park was named for its whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome formations—similar to the white domes often placed on capitol buildings—that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. Locally, reef refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel.

 

Capitol Reef encompasses the Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth's crust that is 65 million years old. It is the largest exposed monocline in North America. In this fold, newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape. This warp, probably caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and fossils. The park is filled with brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs, gleaming white domes, and contrasting layers of stone and earth.

 

The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building, that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold.

 

The fold forms a north-to-south barrier that has barely been breached by roads. Early settlers referred to parallel impassable ridges as "reefs", from which the park gets the second half of its name. The first paved road was constructed through the area in 1962. State Route 24 cuts through the park traveling east and west between Canyonlands National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, but few other paved roads invade the rugged landscape.

 

The park is filled with canyons, cliffs, towers, domes, and arches. The Fremont River has cut canyons through parts of the Waterpocket Fold, but most of the park is arid desert. A scenic drive shows park visitors some highlights, but it runs only a few miles from the main highway. Hundreds of miles of trails and unpaved roads lead into the equally scenic backcountry.

 

Fremont-culture Native Americans lived near the perennial Fremont River in the northern part of the Capitol Reef Waterpocket Fold around the year 1000. They irrigated crops of maize and squash and stored their grain in stone granaries (in part made from the numerous black basalt boulders that litter the area). In the 13th century, all of the Native American cultures in this area underwent sudden change, likely due to a long drought. The Fremont settlements and fields were abandoned.

 

Many years after the Fremont left, Paiutes moved into the area. These Numic-speaking people named the Fremont granaries moki huts and thought they were the homes of a race of tiny people or moki.

 

In 1872 Almon H. Thompson, a geographer attached to United States Army Major John Wesley Powell's expedition, crossed the Waterpocket Fold while exploring the area. Geologist Clarence Dutton later spent several summers studying the area's geology. None of these expeditions explored the Waterpocket Fold to any great extent.

 

Following the American Civil War, officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City sought to establish missions in the remotest niches of the Intermountain West. In 1866, a quasi-military expedition of Mormons in pursuit of natives penetrated the high valleys to the west. In the 1870s, settlers moved into these valleys, eventually establishing Loa, Fremont, Lyman, Bicknell, and Torrey.

 

Mormons settled the Fremont River valley in the 1880s and established Junction (later renamed Fruita), Caineville, and Aldridge. Fruita prospered, Caineville barely survived, and Aldridge died. In addition to farming, lime was extracted from local limestone, and uranium was extracted early in the 20th century. In 1904 the first claim to a uranium mine in the area was staked. The resulting Oyler Mine in Grand Wash produced uranium ore.

 

By 1920 no more than ten families at one time were sustained by the fertile flood plain of the Fremont River and the land changed ownership over the years. The area remained isolated. The community was later abandoned and later still some buildings were restored by the National Park Service. Kilns once used to produce lime are still in Sulphur Creek and near the campgrounds on Scenic Drive.

 

Local Ephraim Portman Pectol organized a "booster club" in Torrey in 1921. Pectol pressed a promotional campaign, furnishing stories to be sent to periodicals and newspapers. In his efforts, he was increasingly aided by his brother-in-law, Joseph S. Hickman, who was the Wayne County High School principal. In 1924, Hickman extended community involvement in the promotional effort by organizing a Wayne County-wide Wayne Wonderland Club. That same year, Hickman was elected to the Utah State Legislature.

 

In 1933, Pectol was elected to the presidency of the Associated Civics Club of Southern Utah, successor to the Wayne Wonderland Club. The club raised U.S. $150 (equivalent to $3,391 in 2022) to interest a Salt Lake City photographer in taking a series of promotional photographs. For several years, the photographer, J. E. Broaddus, traveled and lectured on "Wayne Wonderland".

 

In 1933, Pectol was elected to the legislature and almost immediately contacted President Franklin D. Roosevelt and asked for the creation of "Wayne Wonderland National Monument" out of the federal lands comprising the bulk of the Capitol Reef area. Federal agencies began a feasibility study and boundary assessment. Meanwhile, Pectol guided the government investigators on numerous trips and escorted an increasing number of visitors. The lectures of Broaddus were having an effect.

 

Roosevelt signed a proclamation creating Capitol Reef National Monument on August 2, 1937. In Proclamation 2246, President Roosevelt set aside 37,711 acres (15,261 ha) of the Capitol Reef area. This comprised an area extending about two miles (3 km) north of present State Route 24 and about 10 mi (16 km) south, just past Capitol Gorge. The Great Depression years were lean ones for the National Park Service (NPS), the new administering agency. Funds for the administration of Capitol Reef were nonexistent; it would be a long time before the first rangers would arrive.

 

Administration of the new monument was placed under the control of Zion National Park. A stone ranger cabin and the Sulphur Creek bridge were built and some road work was performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. Historian and printer Charles Kelly came to know NPS officials at Zion well and volunteered to watchdog the park for the NPS. Kelly was officially appointed custodian-without-pay in 1943. He worked as a volunteer until 1950, when the NPS offered him a civil-service appointment as the first superintendent.

 

During the 1950s Kelly was deeply troubled by NPS management acceding to demands of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that Capitol Reef National Monument be opened to uranium prospecting. He felt that the decision had been a mistake and destructive of the long-term national interest. It turned out that there was not enough ore in the monument to be worth mining.

 

In 1958 Kelly got additional permanent help in protecting the monument and enforcing regulations; Park Ranger Grant Clark transferred from Zion. The year Clark arrived, fifty-six thousand visitors came to the park, and Charlie Kelly retired for the last time.

 

During the 1960s (under the program name Mission 66), NPS areas nationwide received new facilities to meet the demand of mushrooming park visitation. At Capitol Reef, a 53-site campground at Fruita, staff rental housing, and a new visitor center were built, the latter opening in 1966.

 

Visitation climbed dramatically after the paved, all-weather State Route 24 was built in 1962 through the Fremont River canyon near Fruita. State Route 24 replaced the narrow Capitol Gorge wagon road about 10 mi (16 km) to the south that frequently washed out. The old road has since been open only to foot traffic. In 1967, 146,598 persons visited the park. The staff was also growing.

 

During the 1960s, the NPS purchased private land parcels at Fruita and Pleasant Creek. Almost all private property passed into public ownership on a "willing buyer-willing seller" basis.

 

Preservationists convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson to set aside an enormous area of public lands in 1968, just before he left office. In Presidential Proclamation 3888 an additional 215,056 acres (87,030 ha) were placed under NPS control. By 1970, Capitol Reef National Monument comprised 254,251 acres (102,892 ha) and sprawled southeast from Thousand Lake Mountain almost to the Colorado River. The action was controversial locally, and NPS staffing at the monument was inadequate to properly manage the additional land.

 

The vast enlargement of the monument and diversification of the scenic resources soon raised another issue: whether Capitol Reef should be a national park, rather than a monument. Two bills were introduced into the United States Congress.

 

A House bill (H.R. 17152) introduced by Utah Congressman Laurence J. Burton called for a 180,000-acre (72,800 ha) national park and an adjunct 48,000-acre (19,400 ha) national recreation area where multiple use (including grazing) could continue indefinitely. In the United States Senate, meanwhile, Senate bill S. 531 had already passed on July 1, 1970, and provided for a 230,000-acre (93,100 ha) national park alone. The bill called for a 25-year phase-out of grazing.

 

In September 1970, United States Department of Interior officials told a house subcommittee session that they preferred about 254,000 acres (103,000 ha) be set aside as a national park. They also recommended that the grazing phase-out period be 10 years, rather than 25. They did not favor the adjunct recreation area.

 

It was not until late 1971 that Congressional action was completed. By then, the 92nd United States Congress was in session and S. 531 had languished. A new bill, S. 29, was introduced in the Senate by Senator Frank E. Moss of Utah and was essentially the same as the defunct S. 531 except that it called for an additional 10,834 acres (4,384 ha) of public lands for a Capitol Reef National Park. In the House, Utah Representative K. Gunn McKay (with Representative Lloyd) had introduced H.R. 9053 to replace the dead H.R. 17152. This time, the House bill dropped the concept of an adjunct Capitol Reef National Recreation Area and adopted the Senate concept of a 25-year limit on continued grazing. The Department of Interior was still recommending a national park of 254,368 acres (102,939 ha) and a 10-year limit for grazing phase-out.

 

S. 29 passed the Senate in June and was sent to the House, which dropped its own bill and passed the Senate version with an amendment. Because the Senate was not in agreement with the House amendment, differences were worked out in Conference Committee. The Conference Committee issued its report on November 30, 1971, and the bill passed both houses of Congress. The legislation—'An Act to Establish The Capitol Reef National Park in the State of Utah'—became Public Law 92-207 when it was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971.

 

The area including the park was once the edge of a shallow sea that invaded the land in the Permian, creating the Cutler Formation. Only the sandstone of the youngest member of the Cutler Formation, the White Rim, is exposed in the park. The deepening sea left carbonate deposits, forming the limestone of the Kaibab Limestone, the same formation that rims the Grand Canyon to the southwest.

 

During the Triassic, streams deposited reddish-brown silt that later became the siltstone of the Moenkopi Formation. Uplift and erosion followed. Conglomerate, followed by logs, sand, mud, and wind-transported volcanic ash, then formed the uranium-containing Chinle Formation.

 

The members of the Glen Canyon Group were all laid down in the middle- to late-Triassic during a time of increasing aridity. They include:

 

Wingate Sandstone: sand dunes on the shore of an ancient sea

Kayenta Formation: thin-bedded layers of sand deposited by slow-moving streams in channels and across low plains

Navajo Sandstone: huge fossilized sand dunes from a massive Sahara-like desert.

 

The Golden Throne. Though Capitol Reef is famous for white domes of Navajo Sandstone, this dome's color is a result of a lingering section of yellow Carmel Formation carbonate, which has stained the underlying rock.

The San Rafael Group consists of four Jurassic-period formations, from oldest to youngest:

 

Carmel Formation: gypsum, sand, and limey silt laid down in what may have been a graben that was periodically flooded by sea water

Entrada Sandstone: sandstone from barrier islands/sand bars in a near-shore environment

Curtis Formation: made from conglomerate, sandstone, and shale

Summerville Formation: reddish-brown mud and white sand deposited in tidal flats.

Streams once again laid down mud and sand in their channels, on lakebeds, and in swampy plains, creating the Morrison Formation. Early in the Cretaceous, similar nonmarine sediments were laid down and became the Dakota Sandstone. Eventually, the Cretaceous Seaway covered the Dakota, depositing the Mancos Shale.

 

Only small remnants of the Mesaverde Group are found, capping a few mesas in the park's eastern section.

 

Near the end of the Cretaceous period, a mountain-building event called the Laramide orogeny started to compact and uplift the region, forming the Rocky Mountains and creating monoclines such as the Waterpocket Fold in the park. Ten to fifteen million years ago, the entire region was uplifted much further by the creation of the Colorado Plateau. This uplift was very even. Igneous activity in the form of volcanism and dike and sill intrusion also occurred during this time.

 

The drainage system in the area was rearranged and steepened, causing streams to downcut faster and sometimes change course. Wetter times during the ice ages of the Pleistocene increased the rate of erosion.

 

There are more than 840 species of plants that are found in the park and over 40 of those species are classified as rare and endemic.

 

The closest town to Capitol Reef is Torrey, about 11 mi (18 km) west of the visitor center on Highway 24, slightly west of its intersection with Highway 12. Its 2020 population is less than 300. Torrey has a few motels and restaurants and functions as a gateway town to Capitol Reef National Park. Highway 12, as well as a partially unpaved scenic backway named the Burr Trail, provide access from the west through the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and the town of Boulder.

 

A variety of activities are available to tourists, both ranger-led and self-guided, including auto touring, hiking, backpacking, camping, bicycling (on paved and unpaved roads only; no trails), horseback riding, canyoneering, and rock climbing. The orchards planted by Mormon pioneers are maintained by the National Park Service. From early March to mid-October, various fruit—cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, or apples—can be harvested by visitors for a fee.

 

A hiking trail guide is available at the visitor center for both day hikes and backcountry hiking. Backcountry access requires a free permit.

 

Numerous trails are available for hiking and backpacking in the park, with fifteen in the Fruita District alone. The following trails are some of the most popular in the park:

 

Cassidy Arch Trail: a very steep, strenuous 3.5 mi (5.6 km) round trip that leads into the Grand Wash to an overlook of the Cassidy Arch.

Hickman Bridge Trail: a 2 mi (3.2 km) round trip leading to the natural bridge.

Frying Pan Trail: an 8.8 mi (14.2 km) round trip that passes the Cassidy Arch, Grand Wash, and Cohab Canyon.

Brimhall Natural Bridge: a popular, though strenuous, 4.5 mi (7.2 km) round trip with views of Brimhall Canyon, the Waterpocket Fold, and Brimhall Natural Bridge.

Halls Creek Narrows: 22 mi (35 km) long and considered strenuous, with many side canyons and creeks; typically hiked as a 2-3 day camping trip.

 

Visitors may explore several of the main areas of the park by private vehicle:

 

Scenic Drive: winds through the middle of the park, passing the major points of interest; the road is accessible from the visitor center to approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) into the Capitol Gorge.

Notom-Bullfrog Road: traverses the eastern side of the Waterpocket Fold, along 10 mi (16 km) of paved road, with the remainder unpaved.

Cathedral Road: an unpaved road through the northern areas of the park, that traverses Cathedral Valley, passing the Temples of the Sun and Moon.

 

The primary camping location is the Fruita campground, with 71 campsites (no water, electrical, or sewer hookups), and restrooms without bathing facilities. The campground also has group sites with picnic areas and restrooms. Two primitive free camping areas are also available.

 

Canyoneering is growing in popularity in the park. It is a recreational sport that takes one through slot canyons. It involves rappelling and may require swimming and other technical rope work. Day-pass permits are required for canyoneering in the park, and can be obtained for free from the visitor's center or through email. It's key to know that each route requires its own permit. If one is planning on canyoneering for multiple days, passes are required for each day. Overnight camping as part of the canyoneering trip is permitted, but one must request a free backcountry pass from the visitor center.

 

It is imperative to plan canyoneering trips around the weather. The Colorado Plateau is susceptible to flash flooding during prime rainy months. Because canyoneering takes place through slot canyons, getting caught in a flash flood could be lethal. Take care to consult reliable weather sources. The Weather Atlas shows charts with the monthly average rainfall in inches.

 

Another risk to be aware of during the summer months is extreme heat. Visitors can find weather warnings on the National Weather Service website. The heat levels are detailed by a color and numerical scale (0-4).

 

One of the most popular canyoneering routes in Capitol Reef National Park is Cassidy Arch Canyon. A paper by George Huddart, details the park's commitment to working with citizens to maintain the route as well as the vegetation and rocks. The canyon route is approximately 2.3 miles long (0.4 miles of technical work), consisting of 8 different rappels, and takes between 2.5 and 4.5 hours to complete. The first rappel is 140 ft and descends below the famous Cassidy Arch.

 

Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.

 

Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.

 

People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.

 

Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.

 

The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.

 

Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.

 

The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:

 

use of the bow and arrow while hunting,

building pithouse shelters,

growing maize and probably beans and squash,

building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,

creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,

producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.

 

The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.

 

These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.

 

In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.

 

In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.

 

Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.

 

At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.

 

The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.

 

A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.

 

Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.

 

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.

 

Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.

 

Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.

 

Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.

 

The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.

 

Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.

 

Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.

 

In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.

 

The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.

 

Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.

 

After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.

 

As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.

 

Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.

 

Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.

 

Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.

 

Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.

 

On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.

 

Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century

During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.

 

The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.

 

Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:

 

William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859

Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866

3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868

A Black man in Uintah, 1869

Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873

Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874

Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880

William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883

John Murphy in Park City, 1883

George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884

Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886

Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925

Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).

 

Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.

 

Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.

 

During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.

 

In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.

 

Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.

 

Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.

 

As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.

 

One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.

 

It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.

THEME: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUAcDMHuC2E

 

Introducing my Self-MOC! This is actually the 12th version (12.4 to be exact) and a character reboot, though, and I have revamped the whole thing again since this version, too. I will post a picture showing some of the previous versions (I don't have pictures of pre-7th versions, except for the very first), just so you can get an idea of the evolution of the character.

 

---DESCRIPTION---

Nicknamed "Rahksha" due to her Makuta heritage, Nyctoria is somewhat of a Toa: the most accurate way to put it is, she's a protector...of sorts. She has a strong link with the Netherverse, enabling her to draw on its dark power to perform necromancy, as well as harvest souls and summon them as Netherwalkers (inhabitants of the Netherverse) with her scythe. She can also reanimate corpses to serve her by using seals on their Kanohi.

 

However, the power of the Netherverse always takes it toll, and the user's soul - and therefore body - will decay the more they use it. The only way to maintain oneself is to harvest the souls of others. Hence, Nyctoria hunts down villains to defeat and consume.

 

While Nyctoria does defend others from Makuta and other threats, she is not altrustic in her motives -- she will just as easily consume innocents if there is no other source available, and rarely helps others unless she perceives them or the target as useful in her quest for revenge against her "father", Teridax -- and by extension, her de facto creator, Mutran.

 

As an individual, Nyctoria is largely anti-social, apathetic and an on-off misanthrope - hardly surprising considering her origins. That being said, she is not without a sense of justice and empathy, although her concept of morality is nonexistent at worst and dubious at best.

 

---BIO---

NAME: Nyctoria

 

ALIASES: Rahksha, Daughter of Teridax, Destral's Shadowborne

 

SPECIES: Rahkshi/Toa (mutant; Kraata infused with energy from a Nui Stone)

 

GENDER: Female

 

KANOHI: N/A

 

ELEMENT: Shadow

 

WEAPON: Harvest Scythe - "Slayer's Slave"

 

 

“The true explanation of this subject is very difficult.

Know that beings are of two kinds: material and spiritual, those perceptible to the senses and those intellectual.

Things which are sensible are those which are perceived by the five exterior senses;

thus those outward existences which the eyes see are called sensible.

Intellectual things are those which have no outward existence but are conceptions of the mind.

For example, mind itself is an intellectual thing which has no outward existence.

All man’s characteristics and qualities form an intellectual existence and are not sensible.

Briefly, the intellectual realities, such as all the qualities and admirable perfections of man,

are purely good, and exist.

Evil is simply their nonexistence. So ignorance is the want of knowledge; error is the want of guidance; forgetfulness is the want of memory; stupidity is the want of good sense.

All these things have no real existence.

In the same way, the sensible realities are absolutely good, and evil is due to their nonexistence—that is to say, blindness is the want of sight, deafness is the want of hearing, poverty is the want of wealth, illness is the want of health, death is the want of life, and weakness is the want of strength.

Nevertheless a doubt occurs to the mind—that is, scorpions and serpents are poisonous.

Are they good or evil, for they are existing beings?

Yes, a scorpion is evil in relation to man; a serpent is evil in relation to man;

but in relation to themselves they are not evil, for their poison is their weapon, and by their sting they defend themselves. But as the elements of their poison do not agree with our elements—that is to say, as there is antagonism between these different elements, therefore, this antagonism is evil; but in reality as regards themselves they are good.

The epitome of this discourse is that it is possible that one thing in relation to another may be evil,

and at the same time within the limits of its proper being it may not be evil.

Then it is proved that there is no evil in existence; all that God created He created good.

This evil is nothingness; so death is the absence of life. When man no longer receives life, he dies. Darkness is the absence of light: when there is no light, there is darkness.

Light is an existing thing, but darkness is nonexistent.

Wealth is an existing thing, but poverty is nonexisting.

Then it is evident that all evils return to nonexistence.

Good exists; evil is nonexistent.

‘Abdu’l-Baha: Some Answered Questions p 263-264

Inspired on Venice, Mississippi delta, Dutch compact cities and English neighbourhoods (e.g. Southampton).

 

Handdrawn with pencils. In the western suburb I erroneously used a black pencil instead of blue. I decided to upload the orginial map as after all it's not too bad (but stupid, stupid me). I don't draw perfect cities as they should be, but realistic cities how they are. But then imaginary.

 

The city lies within a broader estuary without notable tidal effects (like in the Mediterranian). It's blocked by a dam (north of the mapped area) if a flood should occur. Another city upstream was been absorbed by 1920s expansions, but further urbanisation of open lands came to a halt due to the need of open river water reservoirs in times of high water levels.

 

Water managment

Upstream, north of the meander, a lock system was built, which regulate water flows into the city center.

At the very mouths of the braches debris platforms collect the sediments and dredge (slib). In the very north of all suburbs a amphitheatre-like neighbourhood is constructed with the material.

North of all built-up environments inundation areas limit town's expansions, as in case of floods the fields will overflow to prevend damage to the city.

 

Infrastructure

The city is mostly car free. Northern canal districts are connected by roads, but as all roads entering the entire city require toll duties, parking spaces on the western and eastern coast directly link the highway with vaporettos, no fees raised. On the western coast, a multi transport hub exists with a highway, secondary roads, bus routes, a railway, transit railway, a marina, vaporetto stops, float plane base and (for police) helicopter platforms. And of course bicycles, Dutch/Danish-like loads of them. Some canals have been filled up and are visible as broad boulevards, just as happened in many European countries after wars.

 

Appr. 40×40 cm. 2012. ©

Those days when...

 

You’ll rather lock yourself in your room and tune out the world.

 

Be consumed by your emptiness and wish to be nonexistent.

 

You get easily bruised; live with them for awhile and feel completely torn the next day.

 

Isn’t it grand that you will get out of your way for absolutely anyone, to make them thrilled with life and no one will ever do the same for you because they think you are perfectly fine???

 

I’m not!!!;(

 

Bottom line:

I’ll take a breather; maybe a day or two or perhaps a week, until I feel whole again.

 

Radical Christianity

Radical Christianity is a life-style, not just a mindset; radical Christianity is concerned with conquering, not cowering; with sacrifice, not superficiality; with victory, not verbiage; with scoring, not slumming; with penetration, not pandering. Radical Christianity is in first gear, neutral is nonexistent; radical Christianity is courageous but never constrictive constraining or cautious! Radical Christianity moves mountains; crosses Red Seas; pulls down walls; builds walls; walks on water; raises the dead; calms storms; feeds 5000 and walks through closed doors.

 

It suffers regularly; soars often; sweats daily; saturates everything and spreads everywhere. Radical Christianity calls sin black, hell hot, hypocrisy evil, Satan a liar and judgment sure. It doesn’t back down, sit down or stay down. Radical Christianity doesn't depend on the strokes of others to keep it going. It doesn’t acquiesce in the face of loud opposition, fold under pressure, wince under criticism, tarnish under time, die under duress, fade under technology nor rot under moisture. It doesn’t rust, retreat, renounce, reconsider, return or renege.

 

Radical Christianity always lifts up Christ; knocks down barriers; marches over objections; overwhelms pessimism; gobbles up cynicism; and tramples down skepticism.

 

Radical Christianity gives lavishly; prays relentlessly; claims abundantly; works feverishly; preaches powerfully; serves lovingly; perseveres patiently and believes expectantly! Radical Christianity dares to challenge the prevailing standard to make it God’s. It never plays to the grandstands; nor waters down its position; nor adjusts its principles, but rather is a thermostat that controls its surroundings, never a thermometer that merely adjusts to them. It is never big, popular, stylish, convenient, in vogue or in-step with the world. Its adherents are few; its sound clear; its philosophy unpopular and its rewards great. Its disciples aren’t rewarded by this world but are those to whom Christ will say, “Well done!”

--From Open Doors, STANDING STRONG THROUGH THE STORM

 

November 26

Esperanza Limjap-Osmeña, wife of Philippine President Sergio Osmeña, reserves her first painting at the Filipino painters exhibition, Manila, Philippines, Feb. 23, 1946

 

She became first lady upon the death of Manuel L. Quezon, when her husband succeeded to the presidency of the Philippine government-in-exile in the United States. However, while her husband was president-in-exile, she herself was still in the Philippines and remained there, during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II. Mrs. Osmena was in Baguio. She and her three children, Ramon, (22), Rosie (20) and Victor (11), escaped from Japanese held Baguio by walking 50 miles across the mountains to Dagupan, Luzon, Philippines early Feb. 1945.

 

US Signal Corps Photo, US National Archives

 

I have been going through the USA National Archives, WWII Philippines photographs albums that are posted on line. The picture here is one of them. It will take a long time to go through them all, as there are 134 albums of about 160 pictures per album that equals approximately 21,000 pictures. I believe it is import to save the most important images and to share them as I have time to work on them and to have them available on a memory drive that will go to researchers for many years to come. There are a lot of pictures of people shaking hands and pinning metals on each other that does not interest me much. The subject mater of the pictures are mostly haphazardly arranged with very poor to nonexistent indexing so I have to look at each what appears in a postage stamp size thumbnail picture to ascertain if it is important to save. Many of the pictures are very gruesome and difficult to look at but needs to be seen for an accurate picture of what truly happened here in the Philippines. I am realizing that what most think of the history of WWII Philippines is not the real picture of what happened but only a selected very condensed picture that often relate to personal views, I will take some of the blame as this includes myself. The pictures I will personally be sharing online will predominately show the humanitarian side of the war.

I am needing a memory storage device such as a USB hard drive that would last a long time and be a safe place to archive all the pictures I am saving if anyone would like to help. Also need advice to where would be best for all my history pictures could be saved for future generations long after I am gone.

 

Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata) are neotropical birds not native to North America but populations have been well established in Utah for several decades. In this video a male Muscovy duck approaches a female and mates with her.

 

Muscovy females reach sexual maturity at 28 weeks and males at 29 weeks. Their mating season is from August-May. Courtship is brief or nonexistent and males are polygamous though sometimes they display social monogamy and help to guard nests and ducklings.

 

By reproducing sexually, Muscovy ducks, as well as most* other birds, increase genetic variation in their offspring. Sexual reproduction increases genetic diversity because the sperm and egg provided by the parents each offer a different set of genes.

 

*some exceptions include turkeys who can sometimes reproduce asexually

 

There are several benefits to increased levels of diversity. On the level of the individual organism, one important benefit is that they are less likely to be affected by deleterious alleles. In avian species this is especially true for males. In birds, females are sex-determining. Males have 2 Z chromosomes whereas females have 1 Z and 1 X chromosome. Therefore, males are less likely to have sex-linked disorders because if they were to inherit a mutated chromosome the second, healthy Z chromosome, would be able to mask the effect of the mutation. If birds were asexual reproducers then both sexes would have a more equal likelihood to inherit sex-linked disorders and the overall percentage for both sexes would be greater due to the absence of the benefit of recombination that sexual reproduction provides.

 

Increased genetic diversity is also important on a population level. The more variation there is, the more likely it is that some individuals will have variations of alleles that make them suited to survive certain circumstances. Therefore, when conditions are unfavorable for some genotypes, those who are different will not die off with those who are not well suited to their environment. Therefore increasing the overall survival of the population.

 

This photo was taken on March 17, 2020 at Beus Pond in Ogden, UT.

 

Today, 3 March 2023 is World Wildlife Day.

 

"Every 3rd of March, wildlife is celebrated all over the world for the UN World Wildlife Day. This date was chosen as it is the birthday of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, signed in 1973."

 

Continuing to grab a few more odds and ends of photos from my archives. Then, already saved to a hard drive, I can delete them from my computer to make some much-needed free space.

 

""Agoutis have five front and three hind toes; the first toe is very small. The tail is very short or nonexistent and hairless. Agoutis may grow to be up to 60 cm (24 in) in length and 4 kg (8.8 lb) in weight. Most species are brown on their backs and whitish or buff on their bellies; the fur may have a glossy appearance and then glimmers in an orange colour. Reports differ as to whether they are diurnal or nocturnal animals.... They can live for as long as 20 years, a remarkably long time for a rodent

 

In the wild, they are shy animals and flee from humans, while in captivity they may become trusting. In Trinidad, they are renowned for being very fast runners, able to keep hunting dogs occupied with chasing them for hours." From Wikipedia.

 

"This adventure was only the second holiday of any kind, anywhere, that I have had in something like 30 or 35 years! The other holiday was a wonderful, one-week trip with my dear friends from England, Linda and Tony, when we went down south to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons in September 2012. I have had maybe half a dozen weekends away, including to Waterton National Park, which have helped keep me going.

 

Six birding/photographer friends and I decided that we would take this exciting trip together (from 12-21 March 2017), spending the first two or three days on the island of Tobago and then the rest of the time at the Asa Wright Nature Centre on the nearby, much larger island of Trinidad. We decided to take a complete package, so everything was included - accommodation at both places, all our food, and the various walks and day trips that we could choose from. Two of my friends, Anne B. and Brenda, saw to all the planning of flights and accommodations, which was so very much appreciated by the rest of us. I could never have done all this myself! We were so lucky with our flights, as we were just in time to get Black Friday prices, which were 50% off!

 

What a time we had, seeing so many beautiful and interesting things - and, of course, everything was a lifer for me. Some of these friends had visited Costa Rica before, so were familiar with some of the birds. There was a lot more to see on Trinidad, so we were glad that we chose Tobago to visit first and then spend a longer time at Asa Wright. It was wonderful to be right by the sea, though, at the Blue Waters Inn on the island of Tobago. Just gorgeous.

 

The Asa Wright Nature Centre, on Trinidad, is such an amazing place! We stayed in cabins up or down hill from the main building. Really, one doesn't need to travel away from the Centre for birding, as so many different species visit the Hummingbird feeders that are right by the huge, open veranda, and the trees of the rain forest high up the mountainous road. The drive up and down this narrow, twisting, pot-holed road was an adventure in itself! Never would I ever do this drive myself - we had a guide who drove us everywhere in a minibus. I had read many accounts of this road, lol! There was enough room for two vehicles to pass each other, and the honking of horns was almost continuous - either to warn any vehicle that might be coming fast around the next bend or as a sign that drivers knew each other. The drive along this road, from the coast to Asa Wright, took just over an hour each way.

 

I still sometimes think about the great food that was provided every single day at Asa Wright and even the Rum Punch that appeared each evening. I never drink at all, so I wasn't sure if I would even try the Punch - glad I did, though, as it was delicious and refreshing. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all served buffet-style, with a great variety of dishes from which to choose. To me, pure luxury. So very, very grateful to have been invited to be part of this amazing adventure.

 

This is a video that I came across on YouTube, taken by Rigdon Currie and Trish Johnson, at many of the same places we visited on Trinidad and Tobago. Not my video, but it made me feel like I was right there still. Posting the link here again, so that I won't lose it."

 

youtu.be/BBifhf99f_M

 

I also came across the following 27-minute YouTube video of the flora and fauna of Trinidad, filmed by John Patrick Smith in February 2015.

 

youtu.be/6HHBm9MIxnk

This week the Val Marie group of 4 assignment was "blue". I thought it would be difficult, but it wasn't. Although blue sky was nonexistent for most of the week, I found plenty of blue subjects around the house.

 

For this photo I had my camera on a tripod and the lens stopped down to a small aperture. Blueberries, of course, are more purple than blue, so I shot the first image at 2500 degrees K - which turned the daylight from my kitchen window very blue indeed. I could have done this in post processing, but wanted to see the result while shooting. Then I made a few shots using auto white balance, and finished with several out of focus shots from the same camera angle, at a wide f-stop. I ended up using one of these in the final composite.

 

In RAW adjustments, I boosted the contrast so that most of the middle tones were eliminated. Then in Photoshop I did some extreme sharpening, and sandwiched the shot with one of the out of focus images, adjusted the opacity until I had the blend I wanted, et voila!

 

Most important, though, is that the milk was poured OVER the frozen blueberries so that it partially froze too, and under the blueberries was some Greek yogurt, and under the Greek yogurt was some hot oatmeal with raisins. All of which I ate.

 

Here are the other interpretations of "blue":

www.flickr.com/photos/rwharwood/8394540138/in/contacts/

www.flickr.com/photos/redcalfstudio/8395152896/in/contacts/

www.flickr.com/photos/pjwoodland/8396790654/in/contacts/

www.flickr.com/photos/pjwoodland/8396790530/in/photostream

 

Don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission.

© James R. Page - all rights reserved

 

ROR1299FN04

©Romano

 

Bonded (Slave) Child Laborer at a Brick Kiln

 

West Bengal, India

 

A 9-year-old girl trafficked from a catchment area in neighboring state pulls excess clay from a brick form. The discoloration in her hair is due to vitamin deficiency from a poor diet and long hours of exhausting work in 100 degree plus temperatures. The bricks behind her represent a day’s work. Grinding poverty, race, caste and gender prejudice, bad economic policy, and greedy profit taking all contribute to the terrible plight of the 250 million children that are represented in Stolen Childhoods.

 

THOUSANDS OF BRICK KILNS LINE LINE THE RIVERBANKS IN BENGAL AND THE SURROUNDING STATES OF INDIA. MOST OF THE WORKERS HERE ARE BONDED (SLAVE) LABORERS. THE FAMILIES THAT WORK HERE ARE EXPLOITED 12-16 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK. THEIR WORLD CONSISTS ONLY OF THESE MUD HOLES, DRYING FIELDS AND KILNS. AT NIGHT THEY SLEEP IN THE OPEN OR IN MAKESHIFT SHANTYS WHERE SANITARY CONDITIONS ARE NONEXISTENT. THERE ARE NO SCHOOLS HERE, AND FOR MANY OF THE CHILDREN THERE AREN'T EVEN FAMILIES. OVER 1/4 OF THE CHILDREN WORKING HERE HAVE BEEN TRAFFICKED FROM OTHER AREAS WHERE THEIR PARENTS HAVE BEEN FORCED TO EITHER SELL THEM INTO DEBT BONDAGE (SLAVERY) OR, IF THEY ARE LUCKY ENOUGH NOT TO BE BONDED, ARE DEPENDENT ON THE MEAGER WAGES THAT THESE CHILDREN CAN PROVIDE.

THE WORK IS EXTREMELY BRUTAL, HAZARDOUS, ABUSIVE AND SOMETIMES LETHAL. WORKING ALL DAY IN THE HOT SUN WHERE TEMPERATURES REGULARLY CLIMB ABOVE 100F (37C), THEY CARRY WELL OVER A TON OF CLAY A DAY AND CROUCH FOR HOURS AS THEY FABRICATE THOUSANDS OF BRICKS IN OLD FASHION MOLDS. THE PAY, IF THERE IS ANY, AND CONDITIONS FALL WELL BELOW MINIMUM LEVELS REQUIRED BY LAW AND ARE ILLEGAL FOR CHILDREN. NONETHELES THE KIDS COME, DRIVEN BY NECESSITY, OFTEN UNAWARE OF WHAT THEY ARE GETTING INTO AND SOMETIMES TRICKED OR VIRTUALLY KIDNAPPED BY UNSCRUPULOUS AGENTS AND MIDDLEMEN. FOR MANY, THEIR DEBT ACTUALLY INCREASES OVER TIME DUE TO DISHONEST ACCOUNTING.

THE POOR PAY AND HARD WORK ARE JUST THE BEGINNING. BRICK KILN CHILDREN TEND TO BE CHRONICALLY TIRED FROM THE LONG HOURS AND IRREGULAR REST, INCREASING THE PROBABILITY OF ACCIDENTS, INJURIES AND DEFORMITY. DISEASE, MALNUTRITION AND PERMANENT SKELETAL INJURY ARE THE COMMON LOT.

UNABLE TO RECEIVE THE EDUCATION TO WHICH THEY ARE ENTITLED BY LAW, THEY ARE POWERLESS TO ACT, AND TRAPPED IN A CONTINUAL CYCLE OF GRINDING POVERTY.

 

Bonded Labour, slave labour, CHILD LABOUR TRAVAIL DES ENFANTS Trabajo infantil Kinderarbeit

CHILDREN Kids ENFANTS Niños Kinder

SLAVERY ESCLAVAGE Esclavitud Sklaverei

This month’s challenge called I Smell A (Modern) Rat asks us what would rat rodding be like if we applied the same principles to modern cars. For this I chose a Dodge Magnum with a V-8 Hemi. Instead of a more predictable post-apoc Mad Max look, I went with a beach combing car with rugged tires, wood paneling, and a nonexistent roof and tailgate. Just enough rust and patina adds a bit of well loved character while a wooden deck and benches gives this “Magnum Opus” a boat-like appearance that’s suitable for fishing, surfing, or just soaking up some rays. Its the perfect modern rat rod for a hot summer day!

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Céfiro (Del lat. Zephyrus); Viento suave y apacible. Brisa primaveral.

 

The b-east wind has been lashing the strait for a few days. Or a few weeks. When it happens, the ocean turns out a bit greenish and the waves fade away. Then, you can see on the crests of the undulating water how minusculous drops begin to fly off.

 

When the sun of May just got out, some of them landed on our window. From the misted up glass, I heard a murmur about rebuilding an empire and becoming a wave again. Then, as I used to do when I was a child, I told them that I have found someone who truly empathises and whose breeze does not destroy us. Neither deliberately, nor unconciously. As an answer, a new murmur appeared speaking about a confluence of the guardian, the healer and the oracle. All in one. Each for each. We, all together, as a team.

 

Meanwhile, on my side, I am learning how to deal with what is nonexistent on my inner-world but pretty common in the one I live, and trying to make something beautiful out of all of this.

 

Listening to:

Pequeña Gran Revolución, Izal.

 

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Thank you to W., for following my strict directions and making this photograph possible.

  

I recently acquired this in an auction box lot. It's a typewritten draft of what seems like a short piece for a magazine. My hunch is it was never published. I also suspect that the true author is Charlotte G. Moulton; her contact info is furnished at the end of the piece and her middle name is Glidden. Ms. Moulton was for several decades the UPI wire correspondent covering the Supreme Court. She was among the very first to report some momentous decisions in the 20th century, among them Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, and the Miranda case.

 

Here's a transcript of the article:

Moteling — 1955

By Susan K. Glidden [probably a pseudonym of Charlotte G. Moulton]

To those who have never moteled may I say that in this pursuit, as elsewhere in life, it’s the little things that count.

Motel owners please note.

Having just returned from a grand circle vacation tour of the United States, where three of us located for a night in 16 different motor courts and three cabins in national parks, I speak with the voice of experience — not bitter but pretty well seasoned.

Of course after a daily 350 miles or so of dusty wayfaring, any modest billet with a clean-sheeted bed looks like a corner of heaven.

Cabins in national parks are designed to rent as cheaply as possible and naturally have to be rustic, with no fancy extras. The government now hopes to embark on an ambitious development program to meet the needs of an ever-increasing tourist load.

But the better motels go all-out for the motorist’s comfort. Wall-to-wall carpeting is usual, with gay draperies, easy chairs, radio and/or TV (usually the “insert a coin” type), immaculate tiled shower and air-conditioning. One motel clerk asked us to select either foam rubber or inner spring mattresses. All for prices ranging from $7 to $10 a night.

But, as I said, it’s the little things that count. And we soon had our own list of small desirables. After a few days on the road it became a standing joke to them off on arrival to see how the night’s stopping place met the test.

A shelf in the bathroom and a hook on the inside of the door headed the list. It’s right difficult to dispose of your toothbrush and toothpaste, lotion, soap flakes, pajamas and robe, soiled undies and other accessories when the bathroom offers no place to hang anything or set anything down. When even the toilet seat lacks a cover, it’s downright frustrating.

A wastebasket in both the bathroom and bedroom is also a help. We were always walking from one room to the other with crumpled paper or other rubbish in search of that essential article.

Small nightly laundry is highly important to the traveler but apparently seldom enters the thinking of motel designers. Bathroom basins are usually small, with no rim to hold wet garments between washing and rinsing. After the laundry is finished there is no place to hang it up to dry.

A shower curtain rod is a life-saver. But the trend in showers appears to be toward glass doors rather than curtains. Stretch clotheslines are obtainable at department store notion counters, but motels seldom provide any convenient appurtenances between which the line can stretch.

So bedtime usually found nylons panties draped on doorknobs, socks dangling from uplifted covers of vanity cases, and T-shirts on wire coat hangers balanced on door frames.

Many motels provide water glasses wrapped carefully in crisp little paper bags labeled “sterilized for your health and safety.” We had added this fine idea to our list until we observed the “sterilizing” being effected in something less than a super-safe manner. But even after that the little bags with their reassuring message made us feel protected anyway.

There were other acceptables — nice but not necessary. They included a real closet, instead of a clothes rack, a separate dressing alcove with a shelf for toilet articles, etc. (seldom found), and more than one luggage rack.

Frequently a room with two double beds would boast only one rack for a suitcase. The only other out-of-the-way space was often between wall and bed or even under the bed. Access to the bag’s contents could be had most conveniently by lying flat across the bed on the stomach.

Most motor courts had their own ideas of the “little extras” a traveler likes. A bottle-opener attached to a door jamb was a virtual certainty. Also small cakes of soap and bath mats, either cloth or fiber. Ice cubes were usually readily available, frequently in enormous quantity in a freezer in either the motel office or outside in the patio.

About a third of the motels provided face cloths along with the towels. Some had paper cups and facial tissue. One had a couple of super-fine quality tissues in envelopes inscribed with the management’s compliments. Another supplied two tough-fiber utility cloths for bathroom use which we used on the car for three weeks afterwards.

Free post cards bearing a picture of the motel were common. A few supplied stationery. In one or two we found packets of instant coffee for an early bracer. One advertised a continental breakfast of coffee and sweet roll for a quarter. And one even offered hot coffee and a doughnut “on the house.”

We seldom found a telephone in our room but there was always one in the office or in an outside booth.

Free reading matter included newspapers, the Bible and the Book of Mormon. One motel office offered borrowers an assortment of recent magazines.

Eating is always a travel problem. Some motels also operate cafes, with fairly good food at reasonable prices. But restaurants that would be considered A-1 in New York or Chicago simply don’t exist in small cities and towns. The motel manager directed us to the nearest eating place and we hoped for the best.

In first-class motels, serious defects are virtually nonexistent. In one place, however, the bathroom fixtures came off at the slightest encouragement. Sometimes the faucets dripped. A rodent gnawing away in the woodwork overhead caused one wakeful night.

We never realized how many systems there are for turning a shower on and off. But we always solved the mystery after a few tries. Soundproofing in all but one instance was excellent.

Of course we had to take in stride the afflictions suffered by the local residents themselves. For instance, as we approached one court in Oklahoma, we saw the manager pacing back and forth menacingly, with fly swatter in hand. It turned out that a horde of king-size crickets, different from the reassuring Eastern chirpers, had descended on the town, invading stores and homes. We found only one in our room, which we promptly dispatched.

Because motels must be on highways, we were sometimes disturbed at night by traffic noises. But this disadvantage was more than offset by the convenience of driving in and obtaining comfortable accommodations in less than five minutes.

Sometimes we didn’t even have to get out of the car. The manager came out to meet us, determined our needs and directed us to a room. Later we registered at the office, stating name, address, license plate and make and model of car.

From there we were on our own. Motels offer no bellboy service. Managers offered in a half-hearted way to carry our bags but they never insisted.

Names of motels run to a pattern. The country is dotted with Knotty Pines, Sunsets, Skylines, Westerns, Holidays and Trail’s Ends. Many owners concentrate on the atmosphere of their own region — El Rancho, Sea Breeze, Coral Sands, Plantation, Westward Ho, Desert Inn, etc. But some go to great expense to be different. One owner was importing blue spruce trees from another state so his patio would justify the name Blue Spruce Motel.

We soon became expert at telling from the outside what the inside of a motor court would look like. The safest bet is to choose one recommended by the American Automobile Association or some other reputable travel agency. That way you can’t go wrong.

[END]

Charlotte G. Moulton

Falls Church, Virginia

 

hand made fantasy map. I 'design' complete fantasy cities, no new one, but places that are grown over centuries. This city is situated at beginning/end (how does that work?) of an inlet, where two rivers end in sea. Completely drawns with pencils, so notice the colour difference between north and south... as I ran out of pencils :(

 

2011.

99/365

 

Week 15 theme: Contronym 7 April- 13 April

 

Not exactly a Contronym, but hopefully close enough

 

Inspiration, motivation, mojo… nonexistent over the past 2-3 week. Being extremely busy at work does not help either. I've been going through the motions for this 365 lately but I guess that's expected at one point or another. I just did not think it would happen this early.

 

But I'm still here. Hopefully things will get better.

  

best_of_2021: The Wire, Uncut, Resident Advisor, The Quietus, Rough Trade UK, Gorilla vs Bear, Mojo, Rolling Stone, Louder Than War, Stereogum, Billboard, AllMusic, Consequence of Sound, Pitchfork, NME, Slant, NPR, PopMatters, Gigwise, The Guardian & deepskyobject.

 

...

 

The 50 Best Albums of 2021 by deepskyobject

 

1. Crystal Canyon - Yours With Affection and Sorrow [shoegaze]

2. Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend [alternative]

3. Черноплодь/Чернохор - И З Г О Р А [drone, russian avantgarde metal]

4. Nation of Language - A Way Forward [new wave]

5. Amyl and The Sniffers - Comfort To Me [punk]

6. Trigg & Gusset - Black Ocean [dark jazz]

7. TRPP - TRPP [dream pop]

8. Biosphere - Angel's Flight [ambient]

9. Alessandro Cortini - Scuro Chiaro [drone, electronic]

10. Divide and Dissolve - Gas Lit [doom]

11. Flyying Colours - Fantasy Country [shoegaze, dream pop]

12. Stereolab - Electrically Possessed [Switched On vol. 4] [lo-fi]

13. НОМ - МАЛГИЛ [Посвящается ОБЭРИУ] [russian avantgarde]

14. Kraków Loves Adana - Follow The Voice [darkwave]

15. Kælan Mikla - Undir Köldum Norðurljósum [icelandic post-punk]

16. Soft Blade - Softic [minimal wave, russian electronic]

17. Drug Store Romeos - The World Within Our Bedrooms [indie pop]

18. Vollam - Mirror EP [shoegaze, dream pop]

19. Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion [atmospheric black]

20. Olivia Rodrigo - Sour [pop]

21. Goat Girl - On All Fours [indie pop]

22. Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny Haha [indie pop]

23. The Splashers - Homesick EP [dream pop]

24. Françoiz Breut - Flux Flou de la Foule [french pop]

25. Jarvis Cocker - Chansons D'Ennui Tip-Top [pop]

26. Tape Waves - Bright [dream pop]

27. 김민하 [BrokenTeeth] - 편지​(​The Letters) [shoegaze, dream pop]

28. Blankenberge - Everything [shoegaze]

29. Midwife - Luminol [ambient pop, shoegaze, slowcore]

30. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg [indie rock]

31. Minuit Machine - Sainte Rave [darkwave]

32. Leila Abdul-Rauf - Phantasiai [dark ambient]

33. Alice Phoebe Lou - Glow [pop]

34. Wednesday - Twin Plagues [dream pop]

35. Lucid Express - Lucid Express [shoegaze, dream pop]

36. Suffering Hour - The Cyclic Reckoning [black, death]

37. Vessel of Iniquity - The Doorway [death, industrial]

38. Space Afrika - Honest Labour [ambient]

39. Still Corners - The Last Exit [dream pop]

40. Seefeel - St / Fr / Sp [unreleased][electronic]

41. Pia Fraus - Now You Know It Still Feels the Same [shoegaze, dream pop]

42. BadBadNotGood - Talk Memory [jazz fusion]

43. White Flowers - Day By Day [dream pop]

44. Dummy - Mandatory Enjoyment [noise pop, kraut]

45. Mogwai - As The Love Continues [post-rock]

46. Elephant9 - Arrival of the New Elders [nu-jazz]

47. Shamblemaths - Shamblemaths 2 [avant-prog]

48. Ora Clementi - Sylva Sylvarum [electroacoustic]

49. BRUIT ≤ - The Machine is burning and now everyone knows it could happen again [post-rock, drone]

50. Valentina Goncharova - Recordings 1987-1991, vol. 1,2 (2020-2021) [musique concrète]

 

...

 

The Wire's Releases of the Year 2021

 

1. L'Rain - Fatigue

2. Moor Mother - Black Encyclopedia of the Air

3. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

4. Low - Hey What

5. Daniel Bachman - Axacan

6. Apartment House - Number Pieces

7. Hamid Drake, Elaine Mitchener, William Parker, Orphy Robinson & Pat Thomas - Some Good News

8. Jana Rush - Painful Enlightenment

9. Circuit Des Yeux - -io

10. Phew - New Decade

11. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

12. Angel Bat Dawid - Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1 Doxology

13. James Brandon Lewis - Jesup Wagon

14. Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt - Made Out Of Sound

15. Les Filles de Illighadad - At Pioneer Works

16. Tomaga - Intimate Immensity

17. Anthony Braxton - 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017

18. The Bug - Fire

19. Sons of Kemet - Black To The Future

20. Maggie Nicols - Creative Contradiction: Poetry, Story, Song & Sound

21. BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - Minds in Flux

22. Muqata'a - Kamil manqus

23. Alpha Maid - CHUCKLE

24. William Parker - Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World (Volumes 1–10)

25. Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt - Lucy & Aaron

26. Space Afrika - Honest Labour

27. Clarissa Connelly - The Voyager

28. Perila - How much time it is between you and me?

29. Grouper - Shade

30. Sourdure - De mòrt viva

31. Madlib - Sound Ancestors

32. Moor Mother & Billy Woods - BRASS

33. Divide And Dissolve - Gas Lit

34. RP Boo - Established!

35. Eliane Radigue - Occam Ocean 3

36. Karkhana - Al Azraqayn

37. Pauline Anna Strom - Angel Tears in Sunlight

38. Pamela Z - A Secret Code

39. Patricia Brennan - Maquishti

40. Rambutan - parallel systems

41. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

42. Azita - Glen Echo

43. Raed Yassin - Archeophony

44. Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble - Now

45. William Parker - Mayan Space Station

46. Meemo Comma - Neon Genesis: Soul Into Matter²

47. Patrick Shiroishi - Hidemi

48. Ahmed [حمد] - Nights on Saturn (Communication)

49. Ben LaMar Gay - Open Arms to Open Us

50. IZ Band - IZ: 路过旧天堂书店 Drop by Old Heaven Books

 

...

 

Uncut's 75 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. The Weather Station - Ignorance

2. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

3. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE

4. Low - Hey What

5. SAULT - Nine

6. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince

7. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

8. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

9. Black Country, New Road - For the first time

10. Richard Dawson & Circle - Henki

11. Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over the Country Club

12. Sons of Kemet - Black To The Future

13. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

14. Saint Etienne - I've Been Trying To Tell You

15. Mogwai - As the Love Continues

16. Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs

17. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

18. Hiss Golden Messenger - Quietly Blowing It

19. John Grant - Boy from Michigan

20. Modern Nature - Island Of Noise

21. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

22. The Coral - Coral Island

23. St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

24. Valerie June - The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

25. Jane Weaver - Flock

26. Paul Weller - Fat Pop (Volume 1)

27. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

28. Ryley Walker - Course In Fable

29. Steve Gunn - Other You

30. Teenage Fanclub - Endless Arcade

31. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raise The Roof

32. The Hold Steady - Open Door Policy

33. Chuck Johnson - The Cinder Grove

34. Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time

35. John Murry - The Stars Are God's Bullet Holes

36. Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark

37. Dean Wareham - I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L A

38. Madlib - Sound Ancestors

39. Squid - Bright Green Field

40. Sturgill Simpson - The Ballad of Dood & Juanita

41. Damon Albarn - The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows

42. Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny haha

43. My Morning Jacket - My Morning Jacket

44. Rhiannon Giddens With Francesco Turrisi - They're Calling Me Home

45. Bobby Gillespie & Jehnny Beth - Utopian Ashes

46. Israel Nash - Topaz

47. Elephant9 - Arrival of the New Elders

48. David Crosby - For Free

49. Sunburned Hand Of The Man - Pick A Day To Die

50. Lindsey Buckingham - Lindsey Buckingham

51. Yasmin Williams - Urban Driftwood

52. Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble - Now

53. The Black Keys - Delta Kream

54. Daniel Bachman - Axacan

55. LoneLady - Former Things

56. Damon & Naomi - A Sky Record

57. Haiku Salut - The Hill, The Light, The Ghost

58. Big Red Machine - How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?

59. Strand of Oaks - In Heaven

60. Grouper - Shade

61. The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings

62. Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine - A Beginner’s Mind

63. Chris Schlarb & Chad Taylor - Time No Changes

64. Pino Palladino & Blake Mills - Notes With Attachments

65. Moor Mother - Black Encyclopedia of the Air

66. Sarah Davachi - Antiphonals

67. Lucy Dacus - Home Video

68. Cathal Coughlan - Song of Co-Aklan

69. Dave - We're All Alone In This Together

70. black midi - Cavalcade

71. Buffalo Nichols - Buffalo Nichols

72. Marianne Faithfull With Warren Ellis - She Walks In Beauty

73. Sleater-Kinney - Path of Wellness

74. Rosali - No Medium

75. Rose City Band - Earth Trip

 

...

 

Resident Advisor's Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Space Afrika - Honest Labour

2. AceMoMa - A Future

3. Eris Drew - Quivering in Time

4. Emeka Ogboh - Beyond the Yellow Haze

5. Erika De Casier - Sensational

6. George Riley - interest rates, a tape

7. Hoavi - Invariant

8. Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, 1993-1997

9. Various Artists - The Sound Of Limo

10. Skee Mask - Pool

11. Yu Su - Yellow River Blue

12. Perila - How much time it is between you and me?

13. Andy Stott - Never the Right Time

14. Wanton Witch - Wanton Witch

15. Dawn Richard - Second Line

16. L'Rain - Fatigue

17. Various Artists - Amapiano Now

18. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

19. DJ Manny - Signals in My Head

20. Dean Blunt - Black Metal 2

21. Tirzah - Colourgrade

22. aya - im hole

23. HTRK - Rhinestones

24. Joy Orbison - still slipping vol. 1

25. Mr. Mitch - Lazy

26. Loraine James - Reflection

27. Arushi Jain - Under the Lilac Sky

28. Conclave - Conclave

29. Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8

 

...

 

The Quietus Albums Of The Year 2021

 

1. The Bug – Fire

2. aya – im hole

3. Dean Blunt – Black Metal 2

4. The Weather Station – Ignorance

5. William Doyle – Great Spans Of Muddy Time

6. Loraine James – Reflection

7. Richard Dawson & Circle – Henki

8. Scotch Rolex – Tewari

9. Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs

10. Gazelle Twin & NYX – Deep England

11. Tanz Mein Herz – Quattro

12. Liars – The Apple Drop

13. Divide And Dissolve – Gas Lit

14. The Armed – ULTRAPOP

15. L'Rain – Fatigue

16. Tomaga – Intimate Immensity

17. Tirzah – Colourgrade

18. Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark

19. Rắn Cạp Đuôi – Ngủ Ngày Ngay Ngày Tận Thế

20. black midi – Cavalcade

21. Natalia Beylis & Eimear Reidy – Whose Woods These Are

22. Eris Drew – Quivering In Time

23. audiobooks – Astro Tough

24. Ben LaMar Gay – Open Arms To Open Us

25. MICROCORPS – XMIT

26. Joy Orbison – still slipping vol. 1

27. Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

28. The Transcendence Orchestra – All Skies Have Sounded

29. HARD FEELINGS – HARD FEELINGS

30. Part Chimp – Drool

31. Rochelle Jordan – Play With The Changes

32. ioulus – oddkin

33. Kìzis – Tidibàbide / Turn

34. Black Country, New Road – For The First Time

35. Space Afrika – Honest Labour

36. Shirley Collins – Crowlink

37. Skee Mask – Pool

38. Shackleton – Departing Like Rivers

39. Grouper – Shade

40. Ed Dowie – The Obvious I

41. Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg

42. ---__--___ ‎– The Heart Pumps Kool-Aid

43. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – G_d's Pee At STATE'S END!

44. Erika de Casier – Sensational

45. Hawthonn – Earth Mirror

46. Rufus Isabel Elliot – A/am/ams (come ashore, turn over)

47. Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee

48. Ruth Goller – Skylla

49. Succumb – XXI

50. Melvins – Working With God

51. Frog Of Earth – Frog Of Earth

52. Oliver Leith – 'Me Hollywood'

53. Andy Stott – Never The Right Time

54. Goodbye World – At Death's Door

55. Slikback – MELT

56. Max Syedtollan / Plus-Minus Ensemble – Four Assignments

57. Time Binding Ensemble – Nothing New Under The Sun

58. William Parker – Mayan Space Station

59. NONEXISTENT – NONEXISTENT

60. Årabrot – Norwegian Gothic

61. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson – Searching For The Disappeared Hour

62. Manic Street Preachers – The Ultra Vivid Lament

63. Claire Rousay – a softer focus

64. Helm – Axis

65. Clairo – Sling

66. Aging ~ Land Trance – Embassy Nocturnes

67. Rien Virgule – La Consolation Des Violettes

68. Jane Weaver – Flock

69. Jeff Parker – Forfolks

70. Vapour Theories – Celestial Scuzz

71. At The Gates – The Nightmare Of Being

72. GNOD – La Mort Du Sens

73. Ursula Sereghy – OK Box

74. Bloody Head – The Temple Pillars Dissolve Into The Clouds

75. Jorja Chalmers – Midnight Train

76. Leather Rats – No Live 'Til Leather '98

77. Koreless – Agor

78. Snapped Ankles – Forest Of Your Problems

79. Hedvig Mollestad – Tempest Revisited

80. Richard Youngs – CXXI

81. Squid – Bright Green Field

82. Mirage – Mirage

83. Laura Cannell & Kate Ellis – May Sounds

84. My Bloody Sex Party – Vol. 2

85. Taqbir – Victory Belongs To Those Who Fight For A Right Cause

86. The Altered Hours – Convertible

87. Perkins & Federwisch – One Dazzling Moment

88. Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Bloodmoon. I

89. Fluisteraars – Gegrepen Door De Geest Der Zielsontluiking

90. Angharad Davies – gwneud a gwneud eto / Do And Do Again

91. Vanishing Twin – Ookii Gekkou

92. Antonina Nowacka – Vocal Sketches From Oaxaca

93. Turnstile – GLOW ON

94. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime

95. Senyawa – Alkisah

96. Ruth Mascelli – A Night At The Baths

97. LoneLady – Former Things

98. Low – HEY WHAT

99. Marco Shuttle – Cobalt Desert Oasis

100. Celestial – I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night

 

...

 

Rough Trade UK's Albums of the Year 2021

 

1. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

2. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

3. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

4. Black Country, New Road - For the first time

5. Idles - CRAWLER

6. Squid - Bright Green Field

7. Jane Weaver - Flock

8. Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

9. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

10. Madlib - Sound Ancestors

11. The Weather Station - Ignorance

12. black midi - Cavalcade

13. For Those I Love - For Those I Love

14. Bicep - Isles

15. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

16. St Vincent - Daddy's Home

17. Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time

18. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

19. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

20. 박 혜진 [Park Hye Jin] - Before I Die

21. Leon Vynehall - Rare, Forever

22. L'Rain - Fatigue

23. Koreless - Agor

24. Alfa Mist - Bring Backs

25. Vanishing Twin - Ookii Gekkou

26. Viagra Boys - Welfare Jazz

27. Snapped Ankles - Forest of Your Problems

28. Pip Blom - Welcome Break

29. Jungle - Loving In Stereo

30. Damon Albarn - The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows

31. shame - Drunk Tank Pink

32. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END!

33. Lady Blackbird - Black Acid Soul

34. Amyl & The Sniffers - Comfort to Me

35. Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs

36. Altın Gün - Yol

37. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE

38. Marina Allen - Candlepower

39. Clairo - Sling

40. Tindersticks - Distractions

41. Tirzah - Colourgrade

42. Saint Etienne - I've Been Trying To Tell You

43. LUMP - Animal

44. Durand Jones & The Indications - Private Space

45. Joy Orbison - still slipping vol

46. Sunroof - Electronic Music Improvisations Vol

47. Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine - A Beginner’s Mind

48. Desire Marea - Desire

49. Mogwai - As the Love Continues

50. Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready

51. SAULT - Nine

52. Public Service Broadcasting - Bright Magic

53. Martha Wainwright - Love Will Be Reborn

54. Julien Baker - Little Oblivions

55. Orla Gartland - Woman on the Internet

56. Low - Hey What

57. FUR - When You Walk Away

58. Nao - And Then Life Was Beautiful

59. Goat Girl - On All Fours

60. Drug Store Romeos - The world within our bedrooms

61. Jordan Rakei - What We Call Life

62. Portico Quartet - Terrain

63. Sedibus - The Heavens

64. Elder Island - Swimming Static

65. Sons of Kemet - Black To The Future

66. dodie - Build a Problem

67. Paul Weller - Fat Pop (Volume 1)

68. Greentea Peng - MAN MADE

69. Manic Street Preachers - The Ultra Vivid Lament

70. The Joy Formidable - Into the Blue

71. Bobby Gillespie & Jehnny Beth - Utopian Ashes

72. Parquet Courts - Sympathy for Life

73. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

74. John Grant - Boy from Michigan

75. TORRES - Thirstier

76. Django Django - Glowing in the Dark

77. Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny haha

78. The Goon Sax - Mirror II

79. Tot Taylor - Frisbee

80. Pom Pom Squad - Death of a Cheerleader

81. Yann Tiersen - Kerber

82. Squirrel Flower - Planet (i)

83. Spencer Cullum - Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection

84. Hannah Peel - Fir Wave

85. Berwyn - DEMOTAPE/VEGA

86. Skee Mask - Pool

87. slowthai - TYRON

88. Kojaque - Town’s Dead

89. Pearl Charles - Magic Mirror

90. Stephen Fretwell - Busy Guy

91.Steve Earle - J.T.

92. Flock of Dimes - Head of Roses

93. Geese - Projector

94. Nation of Language - A Way Forward

95. Rostam - Changephobia

96. Villagers - Fever Dreams

97. Gruff Rhys - Seeking New Gods

98. Sleater-Kinney - Path of Wellness

99. Chubby and The Gang - The Mutt's Nuts

100. serpentwithfeet - DEACON

 

...

 

Gorilla vs Bear’s Top 50 Albums of 2021

 

1. Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World

2. Tirzah - Colourgrade

3. HTRK - Rhinestones

4. Grouper - Shade

5. Mach-Hommy - Pray For Haiti

6. Dean Blunt - Dean Blunt

7. Space Afrika - Honest Labour

8. Wet - Letter Blue

9. Dorothea Paas - Anything Can't Happen

10. Karima Walker - Waking the Dreaming Body

11. Enumclaw - Jimbo Demo

12. Doss - 4 New Hit Songs

13. Jessy Lanza - DJ-Kicks

14. Mr Twin Sister - Al Mundo Azul

15. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - Haram

16. Erika de Casier - Sensational

17. Men I Trust - Untourable Album

18. Wednesday - Twin Plagues

19. Loraine James - Reflection

20. Small Black - Cheap Dreams

21. Hildegard - Hildegard

22. Ada Lea - one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden

23. Sun June - Somewhere

24. Nana Yamato - Before Sunrise

25. Rosie Lowe & Duval Timothy - Son

26. DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ - The Makin' Magick II Album

27. Madlib - Sound Ancestors

28. Buzzy Lee - Spoiled Love

29. Tyler, The Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost

30. Sangre Nueva - Goteo

31. Indigo Sparke - echo

32. harvey_dug - Nu Grip

33. Snail Mail - Valentine

34. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview on Phenomenal Nature

35. Nite Jewel - No Sun

36. Skee Mask - Pool

37. Renée Reed - Renée Reed / J’ai rêvé

38. Cleo Sol - Mother

39. Low - Hey What

40. JPEGMAFIA - LP! (OFFLINE)

41. Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters

42. Hand Habits - Fun House

43. Holy Other - Lieve

44. Sloppy Jane - Madison

45. VA - I can't complain but sometimes I still do

46. Navy Blue - Navy’s Reprise

47. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince

48. Equiknoxx - Basic Tools

49. You’ll Never Get to Heaven - Wave Your Moonlight Hat for the Snowfall Train

50. Wau Wau Collectif - Yaral Sa Doom

 

...

 

Mojo's 75 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

2. St Vincent - Daddy's Home

3. Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over the Country Club

4. Low - Hey What

5. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE

6. Paul Weller - Fat Pop (Volume 1)

7. The Coral - Coral Island

8. Sons of Kemet - Black To The Future

9. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raise The Roof

10. Villagers - Fever Dreams

11. John Grant - Boy from Michigan

12. The Weather Station - Ignorance

13. Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs

14. Black Country, New Road - For the first time

15. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

16. Manic Street Preachers - The Ultra Vivid Lament

17. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

18. Idles - CRAWLER

19. David Crosby - For Free

20. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

21. The Bug - Fire

22. Amyl & The Sniffers - Comfort to Me

23. Teenage Fanclub - Endless Arcade

24. SAULT - Nine

25. The Black Keys - Delta Kream

26. Mogwai - As the Love Continues

27. Lindsey Buckingham - Lindsey Buckingham

28. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

29. Field Music - Flat White Moon

30. Yola - Stand for Myself

31. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - L.W.

32. Paul McCartney - McCartney III

33. Endless Boogie - Admonitions

34. Greentea Peng - MAN MADE

35. The Stranglers - Dark Matters

36. Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

37. Sturgill Simpson - Cuttin' Grass - Vol. 2 (Cowboy Arms Sessions)

38. Saint Etienne - I've Been Trying To Tell You

39. Jane Weaver - Flock

40. Chrissie Hynde - Standing in the Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Dylan

41. Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8

42. Durand Jones & The Indications - Private Space

43. Damon Albarn - The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows

44. Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark

45. Jungle - Loving In Stereo

46. Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny haha

47. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

48. Squid - Bright Green Field

49. Public Service Broadcasting - Bright Magic

50. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & Matt Sweeney - Superwolves

51. Dean Blunt - Black Metal 2

52. Nathan Salsburg - Psalms

53. Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood - LIVE

54. Tony Joe White - Smoke from the Chimney

55. BADBADNOTGOOD - Talk Memory

56. Lorde - Solar Power

57. Reigning Sound - A Little More Time with Reigning Sound

58. Ryley Walker - Course In Fable

59. Billy F Gibbons - Hardware

60. Cedric Burnside - I Be Trying

61. Steve Gunn - Other You

62. Parquet Courts - Sympathy for Life

63. Howlin' Rain - The Dharma Wheel

64. Tony Allen - There Is No End

65. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END!

66. Lucy Dacus - Home Video

67. AC/DC - Power Up

68. Loretta Lynn - Still Woman Enough

69. Dinosaur Jr. - Sweep It Into Space

70. black midi - Cavalcade

71. Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow

72. Hiss Golden Messenger - Quietly Blowing It

73. Stephen Fretwell - Busy Guy

74. Gruff Rhys - Seeking New Gods

75. BLK JKS - Abantu/Before Humans

 

...

 

Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

2. Adele - 30

3. Rauw Alejandro - VICE VERSA

4. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

5. Lucy Dacus - Home Video

6. Lil Nas X - MONTERO

7. Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales

8. Turnstile - GLOW ON

9. C. Tangana - El Madrileño

10. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

11. Playboi Carti - Whole Lotta Red

12. He has never been more enigmatic

13. PinkPantheress - to hell with it

14. Morgan Wade - Reckless

15. Polo G - Hall Of Fame

16. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

17. Low - Hey What

18. Tems - If Orange Was A Place

19. Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

20. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

21. Leon Bridges - Gold-Diggers Sound

22. Doja Cat - Planet Her

23. Dawn Richard - Second Line

24. Cimafunk - El Alimento

25. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

26. Carly Pearce - 29

27. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

28. This is how free rock & roll should sound

29. The Weather Station - Ignorance

30. Mabiland - Niñxs Rotxs

31. Young Thug - Punk

32. Mustafa - When Smoke Rises

33. Madlib - Sound Ancestors

34. Snail Mail - Valentine

35. Summer Walker - STILL OVER IT

36. Adult Mom - Driver

37. Silk Sonic - An Evening with Silk Sonic

38. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

39. Pooh Shiesty - Shiesty Season

40. Yola - Stand for Myself

41. Topaz Jones - Don't Go Tellin' Your Momma

42. Foo Fighters - Medicine at Midnight

43. Mickey Guyton - Remember Her Name

44. illuminati hotties - Let Me Do One More

45. Myke Towers - LYKE MIKE

46. Iron Maiden - Senjutsu

47. Boldy James & The Alchemist - Bo Jackson

48. TOMORROW X TOGETHER - The Chaos Chapter: FIGHT OR ESCAPE

49. Jhay Cortez - Timelezz

50. Drake - Certified Lover Boy

 

...

 

Louder Than War Albums of the Year 2021

 

1. Amyl & The Sniffers - Comfort to Me

2. JOHN - Nocturnal Manoeuvres

3. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

4. The Courettes - Back in Mono

5. Mogwai - As the Love Continues

6. The Stranglers - Dark Matters

7. Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs

8. Self Esteem - Prioritise Pleasure

9. Cold Water Swimmers - Holiday At The Secret Lake

10. Squid - Bright Green Field

11. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

12. Gazelle Twin & NYX - Deep England

13. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - L.W.

14. Sons of Kemet - Black To The Future

15. Carol Hodge - The Crippling Space Between

16. Hello Cosmos - Golden Dirt

17. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE

18. Idles - CRAWLER

19. CHIHUAHUA - Violent Architecture

20. Greentea Peng - MAN MADE

21. Rats On Rafts - Excerpts From Chapter 3: The Mind Runs A Net Of Rabbit Paths

22. The Mudd Club - Bottle Blonde

23. Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark

24.St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

25. black midi - Cavalcade

26. Matt Berry - The Blue Elephant

27. Mad Daddy - Mad Daddy

28. Private Function - Whose Line Is It Anyway?

29. Stephen Fretwell - Busy Guy

30. Pink Suits - Political Child

31. Blue Orchids - Speed The Day

32. Jane Weaver - Flock

33. Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

34. ZoZo Ginzburg - Blue Mountains

35. Steve Conte - Bronx Cheer

36. James - All the Colours of You

37. 24/7 Diva Heaven - Stress

38. Deathretro - Deathretro

39. The William Loveday Intention - Will There Ever Be A Day That You’re Hung Like A Thief?

40. Damon Albarn - The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows

41. Marissa Nadler - The Path of the Clouds

42. Lola In Slacks - Moon Moth

43. Neighborhood Brats - Confines of Life

44. The Catenary Wires - Birling Gap

45. Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under

46. Turner - Daydreams & Stars

47. LUMP - Animal

48. Reigning Sound - A Little More Time with Reigning Sound

49. Slow Down, Molasses - Minor Deaths

50. The Stan Laurels - There is No Light Without the Dark

51. Low - Hey What

52. La Luz - La Luz

53. Gojira - Fortitude

54. Viagra Boys - Welfare Jazz

55. Kiwi Jr

56. Manic Street Preachers - The Ultra Vivid Lament

57. Dark Mark & Skeleton Joe - Dark Mark Vs Skeleton Joe

58. The Bug - Fire

59. The Shadracks - From Human Like Forms

60. Amigo the Devil - Born Against

61. shame - Drunk Tank Pink

62. LoneLady - Former Things

63. Night Beats - Outlaw R&B

64. Fightmilk - Contender

65. Johnny Mafia - Sentimental

66. Jim Bob - Who Do We Hate Today

67. The Coral - Coral Island

68. Field Music - Flat White Moon

69. Jim McCulloch - When I Mean What I Say

70. Alan Vega - Mutator

71. Kiss Me, Killer - 2020 Vision

72. John Grant - Boy from Michigan

73. Lou Barlow - Reason To Live

74. Parquet Courts - Sympathy for Life

75. Snapped Ankles - Forest of Your Problems

76. Sonny Vincent - Snake Pit Therapy

77. The Chills - Scatterbrain

78. Sister John - I Am By Day

79. Du Blonde - Homecoming

80. Hooveriii - Water for the Frogs

81. Erica Nockalls - Dark Music From a Warm Place

82. Piroshka - Love Drips And Gathers

83. Amy MacDonald - The Human Demands

84. Francis Lung - Miracle

85. Cult Figures - Deritend

86. ANTHRAX - Serfs Out

87. VEX - Average Minds Think Alike

88. Freya Beer - Beast

89. Digital Resistance - Alternative Facts

90. Divide And Dissolve - Gas Lit

91. Mush - Lines Redacted

92. Filthydirty - The Rise And Fall Of Blasphemouth

93. Gary Numan - Intruder

94. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END!

95. Rutger Hoedemaekers - The Age of Oddities

96. The Bevis Frond - Little Eden

97. Blowers - Blowers

98. The Brothers Steve - Dose

99. Delilah Bon - Delilah Bon

100. Primitive Knot - A New Ontology of Evil

101. TV Priest - Uppers

 

...

 

Stereogum's 50 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

2. Snail Mail - Valentine

3. Turnstile - GLOW ON

4. Low - Hey What

5. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

6. serpentwithfeet - DEACON

7. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & Matt Sweeney - Superwolves

8. The Weather Station - Ignorance

9. Polo G - Hall Of Fame

10. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

11. Wednesday - Twin Plagues

12. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

13. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

14. Lucy Dacus - Home Video

15. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE

16. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

17. Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark

18. Tirzah - Colourgrade

19. Clairo - Sling

20. Fiddlehead - Between The Richness

21. Water From Your Eyes - Structure

22. KA - A Martyr's Reward

23. Julien Baker - Little Oblivions

24. The Armed - Ultrapop

25. Nation of Language - A Way Forward

26. Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

27. SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE - ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH

28. Kacey Musgraves - star-crossed

29. Squid - Bright Green Field

30. 파란노을 [Parannoul] - To See the Next Part of the Dream

31. Boldy James & The Alchemist - Bo Jackson

32. One Step Closer - This Place You Know

33. Xenia Rubinos - Una Rosa

34. Madlib - Sound Ancestors

35. Sons of Kemet - Black To The Future

36. Men I Trust - Untourable Album

37. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - HARAM

38. Summer Walker - STILL OVER IT

39. Home Is Where - I Became Birds

40. Erika De Casier - Sensational

41. Ada Lea - one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden

42. Portrayal of Guilt - We Are Always Alone

43. Loraine James - Reflection

44. Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt - Made Out Of Sound

45. Iceage - Seek Shelter

46. CHVRCHES - Screen Violence

47. Mach-Hommy - Pray For Haiti

48. Flock of Dimes - Head of Roses

49. Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days

50. Closer - Within One Stem

 

...

 

Billboard's 50 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

2. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

3. Lil Nas X - MONTERO

4. Adele - 30

5. Doja Cat - Planet Her

6. Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

7. Silk Sonic - An Evening with Silk Sonic

8. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

9. Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales

10. C. Tangana - El Madrileño

11. Baby Keem - The Melodic Blue

12. Bo Burnham - Inside (The Songs)

13. Kacey Musgraves - star-crossed

14. PinkPantheress - to hell with it

15. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

16. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

17. Summer Walker - STILL OVER IT

18. Drake - Certified Lover Boy

19. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

20. Snail Mail - Valentine

21. Isaiah Rashad - The House Is Burning

22. Giveon - When It's All Said And Done

23. Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days

24. Karol G - KG0516

25. Taylor Swift - Red (Taylor's Version)

26. girl in red - if i could make it go quiet

27. Turnstile - GLOW ON

28. Lucky Daye - Table For Two

29. Elton John - The Lockdown Sessions

30. Porter Robinson - Nurture

31. Carín León - Inédito

32.J. Cole - The Off-Season

33. Mon Laferte - SEIS

34. Vince Staples - Vince Staples

35. Carly Pearce - 29: Written In Stone

36. Justin Bieber - Justice

37. Rauw Alejandro - VICE VERSA

38. Joy Oladokun - In Defense of My Own Happiness

39. Kanye West - Donda

40. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

41. Willow - lately i feel EVERYTHING

42. Tems - If Orange Was A Place

43. Don Toliver - Life of a DON

44. Fred Again

45. Myke Towers - LYKE MIKE

46. Julien Baker - Little Oblivions

47. SG Lewis - times

48. Young Dolph & Key Glock - Dum and Dummer 2

49. Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert & Jon Randall - The Marfa Tapes

50. Clairo - Sling

 

...

 

AllMusic's Best of 2021 (alphabetic)

 

Adele - 30

Aimee Mann - Queens Of The Summer Hotel

Allison Russell - Outside Child

Amyl & The Sniffers - Comfort to Me

BADBADNOTGOOD - Talk Memory

Ben LaMar Gay - Open Arms to Open Us

Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

Billy F Gibbons - Hardware

Bo Burnham - Inside (The Songs)

Bomba Estéreo - Deja

Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days

C. Tangana - El Madrileño

Cadence Weapon - Parallel World

Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

Chelsea Carmichael - The River Doesn’t Like Strangers

CHVRCHES - Screen Violence

Clark - Playground in a Lake

Cleo Sol - Mother

Cola Boyy - Prosthetic Boombox

Colleen - The Tunnel and the Clearing

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I

Curtis Harding - If Words Were Flowers

Damon Albarn - The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows

Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

Ed Dowie - The Obvious I

Eivind Aarset - Phantasmagoria or a Different Kind of Journey

Eric Bibb - Dear America

Field Music - Flat White Moon

Foo Fighters - Medicine at Midnight

Geoffrey O'Connor - For As Long As I Can Remember

Grouper - Shade

Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

Helado Negro - Far In

Helsinki Chamber Choir / Nils Schweckendiek - Pärt: Passio

Hiatus Kaiyote - Mood Valiant

Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert & Jon Randall - The Marfa Tapes

James McMurtry - The Horses and the Hounds

Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

Jazzmeia Horn And Her Noble Force - Dear Love

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet - Haydn: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 9

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten

John Carroll Kirby - Septet

Jon Batiste - WE ARE

Jorge Elbrecht - Presentable Corpse 002

Karol G - KG0516

Kenneth Whalum - Broken Land 2

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Butterfly 3000

Klenke Quartett, Nicola Jürgensen & Stephan Katte - Mozart: Clarinet Quintet; Horn Quintet

L'Rain - Fatigue

Laura Mvula - Pink Noise

Lil Nas X - MONTERO

Lindsey Buckingham - Lindsey Buckingham

Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

Liz Phair - Soberish

LoneLady - Former Things

Los Lobos - Native Sons

Makthaverskan - För Allting

Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Marisa Monte - Portas

Marissa Nadler - The Path of the Clouds

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

Matthias Goerne / Seong-Jin Cho - Im Abendrot: Wagner, Pfitzner, Strauss

Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

Mocky - Overtones for the Omniverse

Mogwai - As the Love Continues

Mouse on Mars - AAI

Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8

Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

Olivier Latry - Liszt: Inspirations

PinkPantheress - to hell with it

Playboi Carti - Whole Lotta Red

Polo & Pan - Cyclorama

René Jacobs - Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

Robert Finley - Sharecropper's Son

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raise The Roof

Rochelle Jordan - Play with the Changes

Roxana Amed - Ontology

Saint Etienne - I've Been Trying To Tell You

Smile Machine - Bye For Now

Sons of Kemet - Black To The Future

Squid - Bright Green Field

Steve Gunn - Other You

TEKE::TEKE - Shirushi

Terrace Martin - DRONES

The Armed - Ultrapop

The Coral - Coral Island

The Hold Steady - Open Door Policy

The Mountain Goats - Dark in Here

The Reds, Pinks & Purples - Uncommon Weather

 

...

 

Consequence of Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2021

 

1. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

2. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

3. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

4. Turnstile - GLOW ON

5. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

6. Lucy Dacus - Home Video

7. CHVRCHES - Screen Violence

8. Lil Nas X - MONTERO

9. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - HARAM

10. illuminati hotties - Let Me Do One More

11. serpentwithfeet - DEACON

12. Snail Mail - Valentine

13. Doja Cat - Planet Her

14. Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks Of God

15. Julien Baker - Little Oblivions

16. Idles - CRAWLER

17. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

18. Boldy James & The Alchemist - Bo Jackson

19. Geese - Projector

20. Adele - 30

21. Pom Pom Squad - Death of a Cheerleader

22. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

23. McKinley Dixon - For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her

24. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE

25. Hovvdy - True Love

26. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

27. SAULT - Nine

28. Indigo De Souza - Any Shape You Take

29. Remi Wolf - Juno

30. Bo Burnham - Inside (The Songs)

31. Taylor Swift - Red (Taylor's Version)

32. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

33. Isaiah Rashad - The House Is Burning

34. Jon Batiste - WE ARE

35. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

36. Mach-Hommy - Pray For Haiti

37. Black Country, New Road - For the first time

38. The Armed - Ultrapop

39. Amigo the Devil - Born Against

40. Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

41. Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix

42. The Weather Station - Ignorance

43. Squid - Bright Green Field

44. Haviah Mighty - Stock Exchange

45. Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time

46. BROCKHAMPTON - ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE

47. Yola - Stand for Myself

48. Amyl & The Sniffers - Comfort to Me

49. Katy Kirby - Cool Dry Place

50. St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

 

...

 

Pitchfork's 50 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales

2. L'Rain - Fatigue

3. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

4. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

5. Low - Hey What

6. Turnstile - GLOW ON

7. The Weather Station - Ignorance

8. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

9. Playboi Carti - Whole Lotta Red

10. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

11. Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny haha

12. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince

13. Tirzah - Colourgrade

14. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

15. Snail Mail - Valentine

16. MIKE - Disco!

17. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

18. Grouper - Shade

19. Dean Blunt - Black Metal 2

20. Mach-Hommy - Pray For Haiti

21. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

22. Dawn Richard - Second Line

23. black midi - Cavalcade

24. Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8

25. Indigo De Souza - Any Shape You Take

26. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - HARAM

27. Moor Mother - Black Encyclopedia of the Air

28. Spirit Of The Beehive - Entertainment, Death

29. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

30. Claire Rousay - A Softer Focus

31. Wiki - Half God

32. Adele - 30

33. Xenia Rubinos - Una Rosa

34. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

35. illuminati hotties - Let Me Do One More

36. Lost Girls - Menneskekollektivet

37. RP Boo - Established!

38. Navy Blue - Navy's Reprise / Song of Sage: Post Panic!

39. Loraine James - Reflection

40. Erika De Casier - Sensational

41. Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready

42. Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh & Tyshawn Sorey - Uneasy

43. Hand Habits - Fun House

44. Sofia Kourtesis - Fresia Magdalena

45. aya - im hole

46. Helado Negro - Far In

47. dltzk - Frailty

48. KA - A Martyr's Reward

49. Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World

50. Yasmin Williams - Urban Driftwood

 

...

 

NME's 50 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under

2. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

3. Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

4. Self Esteem - Prioritise Pleasure

5. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

6. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE

7. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

8. Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

9. Turnstile - GLOW ON

10. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

11. For Those I Love - For Those I Love

12. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

13. Ghetts - Conflict Of Interest

14. Clairo - Sling

15. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

16. Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs

17. Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters

18. Dave - We're All Alone In This Together

19. Lorde - Solar Power

20. Lil Nas X - MONTERO

21. London Grammar - Californian Soil

22. Silk Sonic - An Evening with Silk Sonic

23. Bicep - Isles

24. Snail Mail - Valentine

25. Royal Blood - Typhoons

26. CHVRCHES - Screen Violence

27. Summer Walker - STILL OVER IT

28. Idles - CRAWLER

29. Genesis Owusu - Smiling With No Teeth

30. The Killers - Pressure Machine

31. slowthai - TYRON

32. Laura Mvula - Pink Noise

33. AJ Tracey - Flu Game

34. Remi Wolf - Juno

35. Big Red Machine - How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?

36. girl in red - if i could make it go quiet

37. Ray BLK - Access Denied

38. TOMORROW X TOGETHER - The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE

39. Easy Life - Life's a Beach

40. Black Country, New Road - For the first time

41. Joy Crookes - Skin

42. Vince Staples - Vince Staples

43. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

44. Bleachers - Take The Sadness Out of Saturday Night

45. Young Thug - Punk

46. Nao - And Then Life Was Beautiful

47. SAULT - Nine

48. Kacey Musgraves - star-crossed

49. Inhaler - It Won't Always Be Like This

50. Doja Cat - Planet Her

 

...

 

Slant Magazine's 50 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

2. St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

3. Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters

4. Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over the Country Club

5. Low - Hey What

6. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

7. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE

8. serpentwithfeet - DEACON

9. PinkPantheress - to hell with it

10. Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time

11. Suzanne Santo - Yard Sale

12. Taylor Swift - Red (Taylor's Version)

13. Lucy Dacus - Home Video

14. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

15. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

16. Lost Girls - Menneskekollektivet

17. TORRES - Thirstier

18. Erika De Casier - Sensational

19. Spellling - The Turning Wheel

20. Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

21. Loraine James - Reflection

22. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

23. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

24. Snail Mail - Valentine

25. The Killers - Pressure Machine

26. Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine - A Beginner’s Mind

27. James McMurtry - The Horses and the Hounds

28. Hiatus Kaiyote - Mood Valiant

29. Doja Cat - Planet Her

30. Porter Robinson - Nurture

31. Kanye West - Donda

32. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

33. DJ Seinfeld - Mirrors

34. Helado Negro - Far In

35. Tinashe - 333

36. LSDXOXO - Dedicated 2 Disrespect

37. For Those I Love - For Those I Love

38. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

39. Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready

40. Valerie June - The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

41. Julien Baker - Little Oblivions

42. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

43. Squid - Bright Green Field

44. Young Stoner Life, Young Thug & Gunna - Slime Language 2 (Deluxe)

45. Vince Staples - Vince Staples

46. Lightning Bug - A Color of the Sky

47. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - HARAM

48. Black Country, New Road - For the first time

49. Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales

50. MARINA - Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land

 

...

 

NPR Music's 50 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales

2. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

3. Lucy Dacus - Home Video

4. Allison Russell - Outside Child

5. C. Tangana - El Madrileño

6. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

7. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince

8. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

9. Vince Staples - Vince Staples

10. Wild Up & Christopher Rountree - Julius Eastman, Vol. 1: Femenine

11. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

12. Helado Negro - Far In

13. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

14. Adele - 30

15. Tems - If Orange Was A Place

16. Baby Keem - The Melodic Blue

17. Willow - lately i feel EVERYTHING

18. Mach-Hommy - Pray For Haiti

19. illuminati hotties - Let Me Do One More

20. Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix

21. Low - Hey What

22. PinkPantheress - to hell with it

23. Mickey Guyton - Remember Her Name

24. Turnstile - GLOW ON

25. Eris Drew - Quivering in Time

26. Cleo Sol - Mother

27. Toumani Diabaté & The London Symphony Orchestra - Kôrôlén

28. Summer Walker - STILL OVER IT

29. Lukah - When The Black Hand Touches You

30. Lil Nas X - MONTERO

31. Doja Cat - Planet Her

32. Hiatus Kaiyote - Mood Valiant

33. James Brandon Lewis - Jesup Wagon

34. Emily D'Angelo - enargeia

35. Moor Mother - Black Encyclopedia of the Air

36. Spellling - The Turning Wheel

37. Amythyst Kiah - Wary + Strange

38. Mon Laferte - SEIS

39. MIKE - Disco!

40. Yasmin Williams - Urban Driftwood

41. Susana Baca - Palabras Urgentes

42. Kenny Garrett - Sounds from the Ancestors

43. Yebba - Dawn

44. Adia Victoria - A Southern Gothic

45. Rodrigo Amarante - Drama

46. Vadim Repin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig & Andris Nelsons - Sofia Gubaidulina: Dialog: Ich und Du; The Wrath of God; The Light of the End

47. Artifacts - ...and then there's this

48. Pink Siifu - GUMBO'!

49. Circuit Des Yeux - -io

50. Silk Sonic - An Evening with Silk Sonic

 

...

 

PopMatters' 75 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

2. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

3. Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under

4. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

5. Dawn Richard - Second Line

6. Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs

7. Kacey Musgraves - star-crossed

8. Dave - We're All Alone In This Together

9. Lil Nas X - MONTERO

10. Rochelle Jordan - Play with the Changes

11. Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix

12. Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

13. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

14. Black Country, New Road - For the first time

15. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

16. St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

17.Pepe Deluxé - Phantom Cabinet, Vol. 1

18. Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days

19. The Bug - Fire

20. Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World

21. Loraine James - Reflection

22. Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

23. Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready

24. Damon Albarn - The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows

25. Public Service Broadcasting - Bright Magic

26. Snail Mail - Valentine

27. Valerie June - The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

28. The Weather Station - Ignorance

29. Genesis Owusu - Smiling With No Teeth

30. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

31. Elbow - Flying Dream 1

32. Moor Mother - Black Encyclopedia of the Air

33. Headie One - Too Loyal for My Own Good

34. Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over the Country Club

35. Yasmin Williams - Urban Driftwood

36. Rhiannon Giddens With Francesco Turrisi - They're Calling Me Home

37. Amythyst Kiah - Wary + Strange

38. Julien Baker - Little Oblivions

39. Helado Negro - Far In

40. Sierra Ferrell - Long Time Coming

41. Backxwash - I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and My Dresses

42. Lucy Dacus - Home Video

43. Self Esteem - Prioritise Pleasure

44. Yola - Stand for Myself

45. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

46. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

47. Maisie Peters - You Signed Up For This

48. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

49. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END!

50. CHVRCHES - Screen Violence

51. Goat Girl - On All Fours

52. Hayes Carll - You Get It All

53. Vince Staples - Vince Staples

54. Hiatus Kaiyote - Mood Valiant

55. Jungle - Loving In Stereo

56. Turnstile - GLOW ON

57. Jane Weaver - Flock

58. Between the Buried and Me - Colors II

59. John Grant - Boy from Michigan

60. Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time

61. Anz - All Hours

62. Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

63. Alessia Cara - In The Meantime

64. Bremer/McCoy - Natten

65. King Woman - Celestial Blues

66. John Hiatt With The Jerry Douglas Band - Leftover Feelings

67. Jon Hopkins - Music for Psychedelic Therapy

68. Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts

69. Aaron Lee Tasjan - Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!

70. Iron Maiden - Senjutsu

71. Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power

72. Portico Quartet - Terrain

73. black midi - Cavalcade

74. Altın Gün - Yol

75. Mogwai - As the Love Continues

 

...

 

Gigwise's 51 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Self Esteem - Prioritise Pleasure

2. Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs

3. Amyl & The Sniffers - Comfort to Me

4. Sons of Kemet - Black To The Future

5. PinkPantheress - to hell with it

6. McKinley Dixon - For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her

7. For Those I Love - For Those I Love

8. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

9. Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark

10. Du Blonde - Homecoming

11. Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under

12. Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow

13. Charli Adams - Bullseye

14. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

15. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

16. Silk Sonic - An Evening with Silk Sonic

17. Mogwai - As the Love Continues

18. Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales

19. Idles - CRAWLER

20. Surfbort - Keep On Truckin'

21. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

22. Drug Store Romeos - The world within our bedrooms

23. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

24. Lil Nas X - MONTERO

25. Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

26. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

27. Tommy Genesis - goldilocks x

28. The Vaccines - Back In Love City

29. Summer Walker - STILL OVER IT

30. Indigo De Souza - Any Shape You Take

31. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

32. Clairo - Sling

33. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

34. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE

35. JPEGMAFIA - LP!

36. St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

37. Laura Mvula - Pink Noise

38. Bicep - Isles

39. CHAI - WINK

40. Paris Texas - BOY ANONYMOUS

41. Low Hummer - Modern Tricks For Living

42. Nation of Language - A Way Forward

43. Parquet Courts - Sympathy for Life

44. James Blake - Friends That Break Your Heart

45. Doja Cat - Planet Her

46. Joe & The Shitboys - The Reson for Hardcore Vibes Again

47. Iceage - Seek Shelter

48. Royal Blood - Typhoons

49. Bull - Discover Effortless Living

50. Ashnikko - DEMIDEVIL

51. Remi Wolf - Juno

 

...

 

The Guardian's 50 Best Albums of 2021

 

1. Self Esteem - Prioritise Pleasure

2. Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

3. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

4. The Weather Station - Ignorance

5. Tyler, the Creator - CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

6. SAULT - Nine

7. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

8. Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR

9. Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams

10. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

11. Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under

12. Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales

13. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

14. Lil Nas X - MONTERO

15. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - CARNAGE

16. Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

17. Tirzah - Colourgrade

18. Turnstile - GLOW ON

19. Dave - We're All Alone In This Together

20. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince

21. The Coral - Coral Island

22. Laura Mvula - Pink Noise

23. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

24. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever

25. Madlib - Sound Ancestors

26. Mogwai - As the Love Continues

27. St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

28. Kacey Musgraves - star-crossed

29. Clairo - Sling

30. Greentea Peng - MAN MADE

31. Low - Hey What

32. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

33. PinkPantheress - to hell with it

34. The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

35. Aly & AJ - a touch of the beat gets you up on your feet...

36. aya - im hole

37. Erika De Casier - Sensational

38. Goat Girl - On All Fours

39. Hayley Williams - FLOWERS for VASES / descansos

40. Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over the Country Club

41. Eris Drew - Quivering in Time

42. Gojira - Fortitude

43. Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt - Made Out Of Sound

44. Black Country, New Road - For the first time

45. For Those I Love - For Those I Love

46. Stephen Fretwell - Busy Guy

47. CHAI - WINK

48. Lucy Dacus - Home Video

49. Møl - Diorama

50. Agnes - Magic Still Exists

 

...

 

2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014

 

2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

 

#topofthepops #top2021 #best_of_2021 #uncut #thequietus #roughtrade #gorillavsbear #mojo #residentadvisor #rollingstone #louderthanwar #theguardian #stereogum #billboard #allmusic #albumoftheyear #thewire #consequenceofsound #pitchfork #nme #slant #npr #popmatters #gigwise #deepskyobject

Though personalized art appeared during World War I, and occasionally grew to incorporate the entire aircraft, most pilots carried a saying or a slogan, or a family crest, or squadron symbol. Some were named, but nose art was not common. During World War II, nose art not only saw its true beginnings, but its heyday.

 

No one knows exactly who started nose art first--it appeared with both the British and the Germans around the first time, with RAF pilots painting Hitler being kicked or skulls and crossbones on their aircraft, while German nose art was usually a personal symbol, named for a girlfriend or adopting a mascot (such as Adolf Galland using Mickey Mouse, something Walt Disney likely didn't approve of). It would be with the Americans, and a lesser extent the Canadians, that nose art truly became common--and started including its most famous forms, which was usually half-naked or completely naked women. This was not always true, but it often was.

 

The quality of nose art depended on the squadron or wing artist. Some of it was rather crude, while others were equal to the finest pinup artists in the United States, such as Alberto Vargas. For men thousands of miles away from home and lonely, a curvaceous blonde on a B-17 or a P-51 made that loneliness a bit easier. Others thought naked women were a little crude, and just limited themselves to names, or depicted animals, cartoon characters, or patriotic emblems, or caricatures of the Axis dictators they were fighting.

 

Generally speaking, there was little censorship, with squadron and group commanders rarely intervening on names or pictures; the pilots themselves practiced self-censorship, with profanity almost unknown, and full-frontal nudity nearly nonexistent. After the loss of a B-17 named "Murder Inc.," which the Germans captured and used to make propaganda, the 8th Air Force, at least, set up a nose art committee that reviewed the nose art of aircraft--but even it rarely wielded its veto. For the most part, nose art was limited only by the crew's imagination and the artist's ability. The British tended to stay away from the lurid nudes of the Americans, though the Canadians adopted them as well. (The Axis also did not use nose art in this fashion, and neither did the Soviets, who usually confined themselves to patriotic slogans on their aircraft, such as "For Stalin!" or "In the Spirit of the Motherland!")

 

When World War II ended, so did nose art, for the most part. In the peacetime, postwar armed forces, the idea of having naked women were wives and children could see it was not something the postwar USAF or Navy wanted, and when it wasn't scrapped, it was painted over. A few units (especially those away from home and family) still allowed it, but it would take Korea to begin a renaissance of nose art.

 

"In the Mood" is B-25J 44-29199, which never saw combat; instead, it served as a TB-25N navigation trainer during its postwar USAF service, and retired in 1958. After a decade as a firefighting aircraft, it was restored back to its wartime appearance, and today is part of the collection at the National Museum of World War II Aviation at Colorado Springs, Colorado. 44-29199 is still flyable.

 

"In the Mood" is today painted in the colors of the 345th Bomb Group, based in New Guinea during World War II. The Varga Girl pinup is very World War II-appropriate (though more than likely the wartime version's negilgee would be see-through). Naturally, it's named for Glenn Miller's 1938 jazz hit, which became very popular during the war.

P98 screams out of town and heads past one of the few deciduous trees in the area. Most of the trees in Eastern NC are pine trees, so fall foliage is practically nonexistent.

APPROXIMATE RELEASE DATE: 2016-2021

DOLLS IN LINE: Willa; Camille; Ashlynn; Kendall; Emerson

HEAD MOLD: "Willa"

 

***The girl on the far right is wearing Glitter Girls Ladybug Shimmer.

 

PERSONAL FUN FACT: For me, I always knew Wellie Wishers were a "when" scenario, not an "if." By that I mean I had immediately connected with the Wellies, but held out for the perfect timing. These dolls debuted in 2016, when I was a full blown American Girl addict. There were so many delightful things to ogle online or in the pages of the catalogue back then. Yet, I still felt drawn to the Wellie Wishers. Admittedly the concept of the line was a tad baffling. Were the doll designers huddled up at a meeting too long, tossing back and forth new ideas for a doll line? Were they cooped up so long that some over caffeinated, under slept business person jumped up and said, "AHA! We can give them wellies and call them...wait for it...WELLIE WISHERS!!!" Why I ask myself constantly. It's not like every outfit has wellies either...as if they possess some magical power that the girls acquire when wearing them. Maybe I'm missing something...I'm not familiar with the background of the dolls. Despite the obvious idea reach, I love the dolls. Even the name is charming (although I can imagine how my dad would twist it to be inappropriate, but I'll spare you). The outdoorsy, cutesy, innocent vibe of these charming dolls is compelling.

 

Right away, Colleen and I clicked with Kendall and Willa. Emerson was a close third...but Ashlynn and Camille were the "bland" ones. I felt a bond to the dolls because they reminded me a bit of an updated version of the Hopscotch Hill line. In the early 2000s, the Hopscotch Hill gals were the middle aged American Girls. You had Bitty Baby for the young girls, Hopscotch Hill for the early elementary school aged, and of course the 18" dolls for the oldest. The Hopscotch Hill dolls were short lived...and questionably homely. They featured these strange grimacing smiles and jointed bodies (which were notorious for going limp...and the doll hospital stopped repairing them years ago). Don't misinterpret me though...I wanted a Hopscotch Hill doll as a kid (which is why I pounced on Gwen at the local Salvation Army in 2017). I am a lustful doll glutton after all, and American Girl could sell me just about anything if you give them 45 minutes to make a pitch (or if you leave me unattended and bored with a catalogue for 30 minutes). In a strange way, the Wellie Wisher brought me back to my childhood, because they filled in the empty spot that the Hopscotch Hill dolls left behind. Honestly, I expected this line to be a flop, which is part of why I didn't bother putting much thought into getting a Wellie Wisher.

 

The more time progressed, the more I couldn't resist the lure of the Wellies. They had some of the most eye catching spreads in the catalogue. The photos reminded me of my elaborate outdoor garden setups I'd painstakingly put together as a kid. It also was even harder to resist the dolls when they started appearing at non-American Girl stores. American Girl licensed the Wellies to some other retailers, like Barnes and Noble, Kohl's, Toys 'R' Us, and even Amazon. There were even exclusive outfits only sold at some of these locations. This meant I was likely to encounter one of the cuties in the "wild." I remember before Toys 'R' Us closed, Colleen and I spent WAY too much time ogling the Wellie Wishers. It was the last time we ever went before the store permanently closed its doors. To our disappointment, all the fashion dolls were either not marked down, or not interesting. The Wellies weren't discounted either...but American Girl is strict with things going on sales (like you can't use a store discount on them). There was a moment of strong contemplation...do we buy one? In the end, my rational, responsible side won out. I did not need to splurge $60 on a Wellie Wishers doll and heaven knows how much more on an elaborate wardrobe for her. The time would come...but that occasion wasn't it.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by how well the Wellies seemed to sell (pun intended). Rather than being discontinued, their little world seemed to develop more and more. I was astonished by how many outfits American Girl cranked out for them. When Colleen and I realized that the Wellies had a matching Star & Snow Dress made for them in 2020, we both desperately wanted a Wellie of our own. What could be cuter than having a Bitty Baby, Truly Me, and Wellie Wishers dolls all wearing MATCHING dresses?!!! I guess fate decided that the time had finally come. If things had played out any other way, I don't think Willa would be standing in this photo before you. It was a dreary Sunday in April...what was supposed to be our second flea market weekend of the year. Since we had done some online shopping that week (cough, Cave Club bonanza), I was hesitant to spend MORE money on dolls. It was cold, dark, and wet from the snow that had melted. We had just gotten a little storm that Friday that left us with four inches of super slushy snow. While it had melted on Saturday, the ground was muddy. I woke up that Sunday morning determined not to go to the flea market. Colleen had also had her second COVID vaccine the day before. We were anticipating that she'd be sick from side effects. However, she felt like her usual ray of sunshine and we were both restless. It's very hard to resist going to the flea market during the first month of the season. The BEST deals are always at the start or end of the season...and we hadn't even reconnected with regular sellers (since the opening week was so slow).

 

I thought we would go home empty handed as we strolled around the last two aisles of the flea market. Despite the fact that there were a considerable amount of sellers, nobody had anything worthwhile. Then I spotted two friendly faces, and a very distinctive pile of dolls. The elderly couple Colleen and I had been buying from since 2012 had returned!!! They love the flea market as much as we do. It had become a wonderful buyer/seller relationship over the nine years we'd known them. It all started with three "ugly" Bratz dolls they were happy to unload in 2012 (one of them being my first Pretty 'N' Punk Cloe). After that they kept bringing in more and more dolls...and the more we bought, the more deals we got. I was so distracted by "Doll Mountain" that I didn't even look over at the other end of the booth where their more expensive items were usually displayed. It wasn't all that uncommon for this couple to have some sort of American Girl (obviously ones we already had, generic ones we weren't interested in, or overpriced ones). I had already paid for the four fashion dolls when I spotted three Wellie Wishers.

 

I assumed at a distant glance they'd be expensive. But curiosity compelled me to book it over to the Wellies. It turns out they were just $20 and fully dressed. Well, one of the Willa dolls was missing her boots. I pretended I needed "time" to ponder this purchase. Secretly I'd already made up my mind, but I was feeling guilty about buying two Wellie Wishers because I knew I'd have to get them clothes. You can summarize my personality with "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie." However, my story would go more like this: "If you give Shelly a doll, she'll have to buy her an outfit. Once she has the outfit, she'll have to make her accessories. Once she's done that, the doll will need a friend...." You get the idea...I may or may not have a problem. Anyways, we double backed to the booth after finishing the last aisle and getting some money from the ATM (I was like $5 short). The seller was not surprised that we bought the Wellie Wishers. She knew they'd sell that day since they were affordable and American Girl. She even made sure we snagged the Willa who had her boots (doll on left side of photo). Other than the missing hair accessories, Willa and Camille were complete. Camille had some staining on her face, and part of Willa's wig was coming undone. I had to sew down the prominent weft that was hanging off her head by her hairline. After a bath and laundering their clothes, the gals were good as new...and of course we had to hit up the AG website to get some goodies for them.

 

All the stars aligned the day we got Willa. If Colleen had side effects from her vaccine, we wouldn't have gone to the flea market. Likewise, if it had rained sooner or if the snow had not melted we would have stayed home. Had we gone later, Willa and Camille might have been sold to someone else! Somehow, I always knew Willa would be one of our first Wellie Wishers. I also had a similar feeling about Camille, despite the fact that I thought she was more boring than the other characters. It's also special that both dolls were bought together. I'm guessing they originated from the same previous home. It was a pleasant addition to the story that we got them from our favorite flea market sellers (who share our passion for said flea market). The best part of the story though was the excuse to finally get my hands on the wonders of the world of the Wellies. These dolls have some of the most whimsical fashions I've ever seen! I also found that Willa and Camille were far more attractive in person than I ever anticipated (and that was with a messed up wig and stained face). Willa is the perfect little sister for my 18" dolls, and a friend for Gwen (who hopes to profit off all the Wellie clothes because she can fit some). Timing really is everything, and I'm so glad that the Wellies joined our dolly family in 2021!

 

The longer we had Wellies, the more I fell for their fragile, childlike features and whimsical fashions. That's why I was SO excited when five more showed up at my door. It was a little bit before lunchtime one Thursday in February of 2023. I was listening to a Youtube video, while working on a dolly flooring project. I looked up from the table to see the mail truck pulling out of our driveway. I knew that a package must have been delivered, but I was flummoxed. I wasn't expecting anything...so what could have been dropped off? I opened the door to see an ENORMOUS Chewy box sitting on the mat. I was even more baffled...I hadn't ordered anything for the guinea pigs or chinchillas. Then I realized it was a gift, that had simply been packed into a reused Chewy box. Inside there were fifty some odd dolls. FIVE were Wellie Wishers. The doll in the middle of the photo was from the "Wondrous Wellie Wishers Lot" as we dubbed it. She was in the worst condition of the bunch--given her nicked face and messed up wig. Plus, not a single doll had a stitch of clothing on (other than Kendall, who was sporting a non-AG fashion). Although I didn't "need" this duplicated Willa, the thought of turning her out was nonexistent. She was an extremely generous gift, and was in need of TLC. Plus, Wellies are quite small and don't take up too much space. I named this little lady Willow, and found her a "meet" outfit from a lot on Mercari. I didn't "need" another "meet" getup, but I feel weird when my American Girls are missing them (even if they are a duplicate). Her hair went straight after the boil wash--it was so gnarly and dry I had no other choice. Rather than curling it, I kept it sleek for easier maintenance. Plus, it gives Willow her own personality, separate from Willa's. It's funny that the day we bought our first Willa there was a second one at the flea market booth. In the end, we got a second Willa...just not from the same seller!!!

 

You can tell Willa is a very popular doll...because we ended up with a third. Ironically, the girl on the far right of this photo was also a gift. In July of 2024, my sister and I were surprised with two boxes of dollies! They had been generously sent to us as a surprise. One of the packages contained mostly Barbies. The other, larger one, had bigger scale dolls...like Cabbies and American Girls. This lady needed some work. Her hair was a disaster, she was nude, and she was squalid. Based on the accompanying letter, I believe she was rescued from a thrift store. Wellie Wishers are fortunately very forgiving, so it was easy fixing her up. We opted to name her Wella (keeping the "w" themed name trend going). One day I'd like to get her a "meet" outfit too, but it wasn't a priority when we first got the bin. She too is very special, as she was an incredibly generous gift!

After a super disappointing overnight for the nonexistent first light, the second one was a hell lot better. Big Huat to everyone of you for this 2015!

An imaginary city I drew by hand. This one is appr. 55x35 cm (14x21 inches). I used to draw my maps in blue, but the pencil shop doesn't sell my pencils any longer - only some red ones were left.

 

The city is inspired on Dordrecht and Amsterdam. It's a typical Dutch city, as in Holland places can't just expand wherever people want to build; new buildings must be around existing towns. Urban sprawl simply doesn't exist, except very old urban sprawl. Therefore, cities are always distinct from other towns, agglomeration of suburbs is not possible. Between ever-expanding cities, green buffers must prevent cities from growing into one, large megacity,

 

The city is on the northern bank of the imaginary east-west river (being not far away from the river's mouth into the sea) while at the point where the southern river flows into the main river, a fortress was built in order to have a good view of the river during war time.

 

The old road to the fortress from the south is still in use, new neighbourhoods have been built around it, so it's a perfect bicycle/bus lane. In the southwest on the river, the Plaza area with a cruise quai, schools, station, P+R, ferry dock, sports palais, outlet shops, many offices and a hotel make this shore a vivid place. Newer neighbourhoods (Dutch: VINEX) are built at the southeastern bank of the river.

 

2011.

Model: Martina Pinto

Make up: Nonexistent

Location: When we were preparing there

I'm gobsmacked by several things here. First, the light was nonexistent. Yet the Sony A7RII performed extremely well at incredibly high ISO. Second, using knowledge developed around a digital Zone System, I knew precisely where I wanted the tonal values and was able to place them accordingly. Third, I am happy to confirm the dynamic range of the sensor extends usefully to below Zone 0 (Zone -2!), even at such high ISO settings. Fourth, 1950s German optics can do the trick. These images were made using a triplet wide angle. Who would design such a thing and make it work? Micro-contrast is something to be seen, otherwise you wouldn't believe it.

Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately 60 miles (97 km) long on its north–south axis and just 6 miles (9.7 km) wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve 241,904 acres (377.98 sq mi; 97,895.08 ha; 978.95 km2) of desert landscape and is open all year, with May through September being the highest visitation months.

 

Partially in Wayne County, Utah, the area was originally named "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s by local boosters Ephraim P. Pectol and Joseph S. Hickman. Capitol Reef National Park was designated a national monument on August 2, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to protect the area's colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths; however, it was not until 1950 that the area officially opened to the public. Road access was improved in 1962 with the construction of State Route 24 through the Fremont River Canyon.

 

The majority of the nearly 100 mi (160 km) long up-thrust formation called the Waterpocket Fold—a rocky spine extending from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell—is preserved within the park. Capitol Reef is an especially rugged and spectacular segment of the Waterpocket Fold by the Fremont River. The park was named for its whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome formations—similar to the white domes often placed on capitol buildings—that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. Locally, reef refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel.

 

Capitol Reef encompasses the Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth's crust that is 65 million years old. It is the largest exposed monocline in North America. In this fold, newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape. This warp, probably caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and fossils. The park is filled with brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs, gleaming white domes, and contrasting layers of stone and earth.

 

The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building, that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold.

 

The fold forms a north-to-south barrier that has barely been breached by roads. Early settlers referred to parallel impassable ridges as "reefs", from which the park gets the second half of its name. The first paved road was constructed through the area in 1962. State Route 24 cuts through the park traveling east and west between Canyonlands National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, but few other paved roads invade the rugged landscape.

 

The park is filled with canyons, cliffs, towers, domes, and arches. The Fremont River has cut canyons through parts of the Waterpocket Fold, but most of the park is arid desert. A scenic drive shows park visitors some highlights, but it runs only a few miles from the main highway. Hundreds of miles of trails and unpaved roads lead into the equally scenic backcountry.

 

Fremont-culture Native Americans lived near the perennial Fremont River in the northern part of the Capitol Reef Waterpocket Fold around the year 1000. They irrigated crops of maize and squash and stored their grain in stone granaries (in part made from the numerous black basalt boulders that litter the area). In the 13th century, all of the Native American cultures in this area underwent sudden change, likely due to a long drought. The Fremont settlements and fields were abandoned.

 

Many years after the Fremont left, Paiutes moved into the area. These Numic-speaking people named the Fremont granaries moki huts and thought they were the homes of a race of tiny people or moki.

 

In 1872 Almon H. Thompson, a geographer attached to United States Army Major John Wesley Powell's expedition, crossed the Waterpocket Fold while exploring the area. Geologist Clarence Dutton later spent several summers studying the area's geology. None of these expeditions explored the Waterpocket Fold to any great extent.

 

Following the American Civil War, officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City sought to establish missions in the remotest niches of the Intermountain West. In 1866, a quasi-military expedition of Mormons in pursuit of natives penetrated the high valleys to the west. In the 1870s, settlers moved into these valleys, eventually establishing Loa, Fremont, Lyman, Bicknell, and Torrey.

 

Mormons settled the Fremont River valley in the 1880s and established Junction (later renamed Fruita), Caineville, and Aldridge. Fruita prospered, Caineville barely survived, and Aldridge died. In addition to farming, lime was extracted from local limestone, and uranium was extracted early in the 20th century. In 1904 the first claim to a uranium mine in the area was staked. The resulting Oyler Mine in Grand Wash produced uranium ore.

 

By 1920 no more than ten families at one time were sustained by the fertile flood plain of the Fremont River and the land changed ownership over the years. The area remained isolated. The community was later abandoned and later still some buildings were restored by the National Park Service. Kilns once used to produce lime are still in Sulphur Creek and near the campgrounds on Scenic Drive.

 

Local Ephraim Portman Pectol organized a "booster club" in Torrey in 1921. Pectol pressed a promotional campaign, furnishing stories to be sent to periodicals and newspapers. In his efforts, he was increasingly aided by his brother-in-law, Joseph S. Hickman, who was the Wayne County High School principal. In 1924, Hickman extended community involvement in the promotional effort by organizing a Wayne County-wide Wayne Wonderland Club. That same year, Hickman was elected to the Utah State Legislature.

 

In 1933, Pectol was elected to the presidency of the Associated Civics Club of Southern Utah, successor to the Wayne Wonderland Club. The club raised U.S. $150 (equivalent to $3,391 in 2022) to interest a Salt Lake City photographer in taking a series of promotional photographs. For several years, the photographer, J. E. Broaddus, traveled and lectured on "Wayne Wonderland".

 

In 1933, Pectol was elected to the legislature and almost immediately contacted President Franklin D. Roosevelt and asked for the creation of "Wayne Wonderland National Monument" out of the federal lands comprising the bulk of the Capitol Reef area. Federal agencies began a feasibility study and boundary assessment. Meanwhile, Pectol guided the government investigators on numerous trips and escorted an increasing number of visitors. The lectures of Broaddus were having an effect.

 

Roosevelt signed a proclamation creating Capitol Reef National Monument on August 2, 1937. In Proclamation 2246, President Roosevelt set aside 37,711 acres (15,261 ha) of the Capitol Reef area. This comprised an area extending about two miles (3 km) north of present State Route 24 and about 10 mi (16 km) south, just past Capitol Gorge. The Great Depression years were lean ones for the National Park Service (NPS), the new administering agency. Funds for the administration of Capitol Reef were nonexistent; it would be a long time before the first rangers would arrive.

 

Administration of the new monument was placed under the control of Zion National Park. A stone ranger cabin and the Sulphur Creek bridge were built and some road work was performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. Historian and printer Charles Kelly came to know NPS officials at Zion well and volunteered to watchdog the park for the NPS. Kelly was officially appointed custodian-without-pay in 1943. He worked as a volunteer until 1950, when the NPS offered him a civil-service appointment as the first superintendent.

 

During the 1950s Kelly was deeply troubled by NPS management acceding to demands of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that Capitol Reef National Monument be opened to uranium prospecting. He felt that the decision had been a mistake and destructive of the long-term national interest. It turned out that there was not enough ore in the monument to be worth mining.

 

In 1958 Kelly got additional permanent help in protecting the monument and enforcing regulations; Park Ranger Grant Clark transferred from Zion. The year Clark arrived, fifty-six thousand visitors came to the park, and Charlie Kelly retired for the last time.

 

During the 1960s (under the program name Mission 66), NPS areas nationwide received new facilities to meet the demand of mushrooming park visitation. At Capitol Reef, a 53-site campground at Fruita, staff rental housing, and a new visitor center were built, the latter opening in 1966.

 

Visitation climbed dramatically after the paved, all-weather State Route 24 was built in 1962 through the Fremont River canyon near Fruita. State Route 24 replaced the narrow Capitol Gorge wagon road about 10 mi (16 km) to the south that frequently washed out. The old road has since been open only to foot traffic. In 1967, 146,598 persons visited the park. The staff was also growing.

 

During the 1960s, the NPS purchased private land parcels at Fruita and Pleasant Creek. Almost all private property passed into public ownership on a "willing buyer-willing seller" basis.

 

Preservationists convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson to set aside an enormous area of public lands in 1968, just before he left office. In Presidential Proclamation 3888 an additional 215,056 acres (87,030 ha) were placed under NPS control. By 1970, Capitol Reef National Monument comprised 254,251 acres (102,892 ha) and sprawled southeast from Thousand Lake Mountain almost to the Colorado River. The action was controversial locally, and NPS staffing at the monument was inadequate to properly manage the additional land.

 

The vast enlargement of the monument and diversification of the scenic resources soon raised another issue: whether Capitol Reef should be a national park, rather than a monument. Two bills were introduced into the United States Congress.

 

A House bill (H.R. 17152) introduced by Utah Congressman Laurence J. Burton called for a 180,000-acre (72,800 ha) national park and an adjunct 48,000-acre (19,400 ha) national recreation area where multiple use (including grazing) could continue indefinitely. In the United States Senate, meanwhile, Senate bill S. 531 had already passed on July 1, 1970, and provided for a 230,000-acre (93,100 ha) national park alone. The bill called for a 25-year phase-out of grazing.

 

In September 1970, United States Department of Interior officials told a house subcommittee session that they preferred about 254,000 acres (103,000 ha) be set aside as a national park. They also recommended that the grazing phase-out period be 10 years, rather than 25. They did not favor the adjunct recreation area.

 

It was not until late 1971 that Congressional action was completed. By then, the 92nd United States Congress was in session and S. 531 had languished. A new bill, S. 29, was introduced in the Senate by Senator Frank E. Moss of Utah and was essentially the same as the defunct S. 531 except that it called for an additional 10,834 acres (4,384 ha) of public lands for a Capitol Reef National Park. In the House, Utah Representative K. Gunn McKay (with Representative Lloyd) had introduced H.R. 9053 to replace the dead H.R. 17152. This time, the House bill dropped the concept of an adjunct Capitol Reef National Recreation Area and adopted the Senate concept of a 25-year limit on continued grazing. The Department of Interior was still recommending a national park of 254,368 acres (102,939 ha) and a 10-year limit for grazing phase-out.

 

S. 29 passed the Senate in June and was sent to the House, which dropped its own bill and passed the Senate version with an amendment. Because the Senate was not in agreement with the House amendment, differences were worked out in Conference Committee. The Conference Committee issued its report on November 30, 1971, and the bill passed both houses of Congress. The legislation—'An Act to Establish The Capitol Reef National Park in the State of Utah'—became Public Law 92-207 when it was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971.

 

The area including the park was once the edge of a shallow sea that invaded the land in the Permian, creating the Cutler Formation. Only the sandstone of the youngest member of the Cutler Formation, the White Rim, is exposed in the park. The deepening sea left carbonate deposits, forming the limestone of the Kaibab Limestone, the same formation that rims the Grand Canyon to the southwest.

 

During the Triassic, streams deposited reddish-brown silt that later became the siltstone of the Moenkopi Formation. Uplift and erosion followed. Conglomerate, followed by logs, sand, mud, and wind-transported volcanic ash, then formed the uranium-containing Chinle Formation.

 

The members of the Glen Canyon Group were all laid down in the middle- to late-Triassic during a time of increasing aridity. They include:

 

Wingate Sandstone: sand dunes on the shore of an ancient sea

Kayenta Formation: thin-bedded layers of sand deposited by slow-moving streams in channels and across low plains

Navajo Sandstone: huge fossilized sand dunes from a massive Sahara-like desert.

 

The Golden Throne. Though Capitol Reef is famous for white domes of Navajo Sandstone, this dome's color is a result of a lingering section of yellow Carmel Formation carbonate, which has stained the underlying rock.

The San Rafael Group consists of four Jurassic-period formations, from oldest to youngest:

 

Carmel Formation: gypsum, sand, and limey silt laid down in what may have been a graben that was periodically flooded by sea water

Entrada Sandstone: sandstone from barrier islands/sand bars in a near-shore environment

Curtis Formation: made from conglomerate, sandstone, and shale

Summerville Formation: reddish-brown mud and white sand deposited in tidal flats.

Streams once again laid down mud and sand in their channels, on lakebeds, and in swampy plains, creating the Morrison Formation. Early in the Cretaceous, similar nonmarine sediments were laid down and became the Dakota Sandstone. Eventually, the Cretaceous Seaway covered the Dakota, depositing the Mancos Shale.

 

Only small remnants of the Mesaverde Group are found, capping a few mesas in the park's eastern section.

 

Near the end of the Cretaceous period, a mountain-building event called the Laramide orogeny started to compact and uplift the region, forming the Rocky Mountains and creating monoclines such as the Waterpocket Fold in the park. Ten to fifteen million years ago, the entire region was uplifted much further by the creation of the Colorado Plateau. This uplift was very even. Igneous activity in the form of volcanism and dike and sill intrusion also occurred during this time.

 

The drainage system in the area was rearranged and steepened, causing streams to downcut faster and sometimes change course. Wetter times during the ice ages of the Pleistocene increased the rate of erosion.

 

There are more than 840 species of plants that are found in the park and over 40 of those species are classified as rare and endemic.

 

The closest town to Capitol Reef is Torrey, about 11 mi (18 km) west of the visitor center on Highway 24, slightly west of its intersection with Highway 12. Its 2020 population is less than 300. Torrey has a few motels and restaurants and functions as a gateway town to Capitol Reef National Park. Highway 12, as well as a partially unpaved scenic backway named the Burr Trail, provide access from the west through the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and the town of Boulder.

 

A variety of activities are available to tourists, both ranger-led and self-guided, including auto touring, hiking, backpacking, camping, bicycling (on paved and unpaved roads only; no trails), horseback riding, canyoneering, and rock climbing. The orchards planted by Mormon pioneers are maintained by the National Park Service. From early March to mid-October, various fruit—cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, or apples—can be harvested by visitors for a fee.

 

A hiking trail guide is available at the visitor center for both day hikes and backcountry hiking. Backcountry access requires a free permit.

 

Numerous trails are available for hiking and backpacking in the park, with fifteen in the Fruita District alone. The following trails are some of the most popular in the park:

 

Cassidy Arch Trail: a very steep, strenuous 3.5 mi (5.6 km) round trip that leads into the Grand Wash to an overlook of the Cassidy Arch.

Hickman Bridge Trail: a 2 mi (3.2 km) round trip leading to the natural bridge.

Frying Pan Trail: an 8.8 mi (14.2 km) round trip that passes the Cassidy Arch, Grand Wash, and Cohab Canyon.

Brimhall Natural Bridge: a popular, though strenuous, 4.5 mi (7.2 km) round trip with views of Brimhall Canyon, the Waterpocket Fold, and Brimhall Natural Bridge.

Halls Creek Narrows: 22 mi (35 km) long and considered strenuous, with many side canyons and creeks; typically hiked as a 2-3 day camping trip.

 

Visitors may explore several of the main areas of the park by private vehicle:

 

Scenic Drive: winds through the middle of the park, passing the major points of interest; the road is accessible from the visitor center to approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) into the Capitol Gorge.

Notom-Bullfrog Road: traverses the eastern side of the Waterpocket Fold, along 10 mi (16 km) of paved road, with the remainder unpaved.

Cathedral Road: an unpaved road through the northern areas of the park, that traverses Cathedral Valley, passing the Temples of the Sun and Moon.

 

The primary camping location is the Fruita campground, with 71 campsites (no water, electrical, or sewer hookups), and restrooms without bathing facilities. The campground also has group sites with picnic areas and restrooms. Two primitive free camping areas are also available.

 

Canyoneering is growing in popularity in the park. It is a recreational sport that takes one through slot canyons. It involves rappelling and may require swimming and other technical rope work. Day-pass permits are required for canyoneering in the park, and can be obtained for free from the visitor's center or through email. It's key to know that each route requires its own permit. If one is planning on canyoneering for multiple days, passes are required for each day. Overnight camping as part of the canyoneering trip is permitted, but one must request a free backcountry pass from the visitor center.

 

It is imperative to plan canyoneering trips around the weather. The Colorado Plateau is susceptible to flash flooding during prime rainy months. Because canyoneering takes place through slot canyons, getting caught in a flash flood could be lethal. Take care to consult reliable weather sources. The Weather Atlas shows charts with the monthly average rainfall in inches.

 

Another risk to be aware of during the summer months is extreme heat. Visitors can find weather warnings on the National Weather Service website. The heat levels are detailed by a color and numerical scale (0-4).

 

One of the most popular canyoneering routes in Capitol Reef National Park is Cassidy Arch Canyon. A paper by George Huddart, details the park's commitment to working with citizens to maintain the route as well as the vegetation and rocks. The canyon route is approximately 2.3 miles long (0.4 miles of technical work), consisting of 8 different rappels, and takes between 2.5 and 4.5 hours to complete. The first rappel is 140 ft and descends below the famous Cassidy Arch.

 

Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.

 

Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.

 

People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.

 

Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.

 

The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.

 

Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.

 

The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:

 

use of the bow and arrow while hunting,

building pithouse shelters,

growing maize and probably beans and squash,

building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,

creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,

producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.

 

The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.

 

These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.

 

In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.

 

In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.

 

Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.

 

At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.

 

The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.

 

A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.

 

Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.

 

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.

 

Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.

 

Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.

 

Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.

 

The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.

 

Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.

 

Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.

 

In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.

 

The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.

 

Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.

 

After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.

 

As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.

 

Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.

 

Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.

 

Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.

 

Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.

 

On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.

 

Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century

During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.

 

The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.

 

Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:

 

William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859

Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866

3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868

A Black man in Uintah, 1869

Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873

Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874

Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880

William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883

John Murphy in Park City, 1883

George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884

Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886

Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925

Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).

 

Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.

 

Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.

 

During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.

 

In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.

 

Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.

 

Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.

 

As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.

 

One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.

 

It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.

An eastbound empty coal crawls out of the siding in Canmore, Alberta with a solo CP up front. On this day, due to the wildfires in Jasper, there was a lot of smoke in the air, causing for an almost nonexistent mountain backdrop

Centennial Park Coronado, San Diego, California

Wow, putting these two side by side really shows how dull and washed out the Humbrol yellow is; I can see why people who do more serious model repaints than me use car body paint. Though, similarly, OOC’s chosen shade of green is really murky compared to the Humbrol no.2, so I guess it goes both ways.

 

As well as the colours, the thing that connects these two is Stagecoach, since RoadCar 904 went on to be Stagecoach 16904 for most of its life, and the open topper is basically a fictitious version of the exact same thing; a bus new to an operator that was later absorbed into Stagecoach. And the fact it’s in a green and white colour scheme is no coincidence; it can pass itself off as a faux RoadCar vehicle if I ever need it to.

 

As far as I’m aware, there never was a V320 HBD, and if there was then it definitely wasn’t a Plaxton President Dennis Trident. What used to be my pretty terrible ‘what if’ NCT open topper now assumes the identity of the equally nonexistent Newall Citybus 1220/Stagecoach 18550. The open top President casting offers limited options for depicting real vehicles, so I figured I’d redo it as a member of another fictitious operator I’ve come up with that isn’t Robertson Buses.

 

I suppose I could’ve had it be part of the RB fleet (and I did consider it), but eh, I didn’t really feel like it. There’s nothing stopping it appearing there on loan, though!

 

“A Little Tale”…

 

He was born to two very powerful wizards. Both his parents were highly respected for their strong abilities and gifts. Other wizards were in awe of what each could do alone and together. They were a force no one dared to reckon with.

 

Unfortunately, as life does, it extracts a price for every gift received. Maybe that is Universal Laws’ “Law of Balance”. In the case of the young wizard, he was the price his parents had to pay for their great wizardly and other abilities. You see, their son, their only child, had very little, okay, truth be told, almost no wizardly abilities. And, the ones he did possess were uncontrollable and weak.

 

Rather ironic, don’t you think? The two most powerful wizards produced an offspring who was barely a wizard; and, they were ashamed of him. He shamed them because they felt they failed to continue the long line of superior wizards, and thus, to them, that meant that they had flaws and were not as perfect as they considered themselves to be. They felt that the other wizards took delight in their son’s lack of powers and abilities and that they were ridiculed behind their backs. So, they regarded their son, their own child, as something less and an abomination. They also believed he was dumb and simple minded.

 

And, he, their son, knew how they felt and rather than being in their loving sunlight, as their son, he was cast into their shadows. No matter what he did, it never succeeded in pleasing his parents. He always fell short of their mark in some way.

 

The way his parents felt about and regarded him alienated them from him…He saw each time they glanced at him, they saw failure…his and theirs. But, in truth, it was no one’s failure or fault, but, rather, nature’s doing. But, they did not see him that way. He was an enormous embarrassment and burden to them.

 

Thus, they avoided him as much as possible and when in his presence, treated him as if were simple minded. And, that could not be farther from the truth. He was, in fact, quite brilliant, in spite of his lack of wizard super powers and abilities. He would have been considered a genius among humans. But, sadly, he was not human and so, his parents were blind to the gifts he was given…all of them.

 

He had the ability to invent and create gadgets, machines, gizmos, and the like at a time in history when there were no electronics, computer was not nonexistent and neither were many of today’s taken for granted conveniences. Some of his creations, which I am certain you have heard of, include…the Time Reversenum, the Magnifyometer, and the Energy Directiumus.

 

More than once, he tried to share his inventions with his parents, but they always waved him off like a mere fly. They had no need for gadgets or machinery. They had their powers. Plus, they had, in reality, disowned him, unofficially, as their son. They simply didn’t care about him or want him.

 

Hurt badly to his very core by his parents’ feelings toward him and their treatment of and disregard for him, he made a vow to himself that he would not let them make him feel as if he was a failure, a nothing or a loser. They, in fact, were the ones, in spite of their super powers, who fell short of the mark as sentient beings. They were conceited, small minded, self involved and self absorbed, vain, and looked down on others. He was grateful he was nothing like them. He was his own person.

 

So, he packed his things, left them a brief note of goodbye, which he knew would bring them great joy, and set out to follow his own life plan and destiny. He settled in the Enchanted Woods where he was immediately accepted. He found a very old, huge, and dead Oak tree, which had been abandoned. Inside it had so many floors going up to the top of the tree; each connected by spiral branch staircases. But best of all, it had, below the ground, where its dead roots were, a cellar. It was enormous. This was the ideal place to set up his lab and create his inventions.

 

His neighbors in the Enchanted Woods-elementals, fairies, witches, hobbits, gnomes, squirrels, wizards, and others, delighted in each of his “odd”, scary, and “magical” inventions. They loved to see them work and try them out. They were fascinated by them and by him. The wizards and witches especially loved his Energy Directiumus because it helped them direct the energy needed for difficult or complicated spells.

 

They would “pop” in unexpected from time to time just to see what he was working on. This was fine with him. He enjoyed hearing the fairies giggle, the gnomes snort in glee, and the wizards and witches saying, “OOOO! or “Hmmmm”. Their reactions gave him great pleasure and a sense of worth. He was accepted for himself and respected for his gifts. The hurt and the pain of his early years with his parents fell away and his life was one of accomplishment, friendship, and happiness.

~ Marsha J. West, Author~ edited for Flickr

(This is my original story or “A Little Tale”. It is my personal property and cannot be copied or used in any medium either online or written without prior approval.)

  

A look at the simple mechanism for winching up the (nonexistent) string. Included a hand-crank for human-scale use. Decided to build this after watching the documentary Secrets of The Castle.

Unfortunately I couldn't stop down more than f2.8 as the ambient light was nearly nonexistent. So the depth of field is a little limited but I hope the beautifully crafted handrail makes up for that...

Press L for view on black.

Leica M6 TTL 1.4/35mm Summilux ASPH

Fuji Superia 200 (C-41)

Same morning as the previous upload, Sterkstroom to Indwe behind 24 no 3635 and 19D no 2698.

 

This is one of the coldest regions of South Africa in winter, the steam effects were almost nonexistent and any smoke got blown all over the show in the wind.

 

Steam & Safaris 1995 tour struggling photographically on the Maclear line again.