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Tweedsmuir Park is located east of the Kitimat Ranges in the western interior of British Columbia. The park covers almost 1 million hectares and spans four regional districts: Bulkley-Nechako, Cariboo, Central Coast, and Mount Waddington.
The southern portion of the park is along Highway 20, approximately 400 kilometres west of Williams Lake. Access is also possible along the Discovery Coast Passage ferry and Inside Passage from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island on BC Ferries or by float plane from Nimpo Lake, Anahim Lake or Bella Coola.
Tweedsmuir Park protects the entirety of the Rainbow Range, a collection of volcanic peaks where heavy mineralization has given the soil an array of colours. The park also protects Hunlen Falls, a 260 metre tall waterfall with one of highest unbroken drops in Canada.
The park was also home to Lonesome Lake, famed for homesteader and conservationist Ralph Edwards, who worked to preserve migration habitat there for the trumpeter swan.
The Alexander MacKenzie Heritage Trail is a heritage trail that follows the routing of a historic footpath used by local First Nations for trade and travel between the coast and the interior. This trail would later be used by British explorer Alexander Mackenzie to become the first European to transit the continent by land and see the Pacific Ocean. A portion of the trail transits the park via Heckman Pass and Burnt Bridge Creek (Wikipedia).
Directions: North of I-40 between Crossville and Harriman and in Cumberland and Morgan counties. TN 298, also called Genesis Road, runs north from Crossville and then goes easterly through the WMA.
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, 218 Genesis Road, Crossville, TN 38555. Phone (931) 484-9571.
Coachwork by Pininfarina
Palimpsest.
Designers on both sides of the Atlantic were attracted by the glass bubble that retained the pure shape of an open car and comfort for two passengers, but rarely with such elegance On the base of one of the 8 racing 3000 CMs, Pininfarina designed four concept cars of which this is the ultimate iteration making it all the more precious.
2.300 cc
6 in-line
Post-War Alfa-Romeo with Special Bodywork
Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille
Château de Chantilly
Chantilly
France - Frankrijk
September 2017
An illegible ghost sign, seen on a wall in San Diego, California. This is at least two signs painted one on top of the other.
PALIMPSEST, APRIL, 1932
FROM BELLEVUE TO CASCADE
Beside the North Fork of the Maquoketa River, situated on the line between Jackson and Dubuque counties, lies the town of Cascade. As a pioneer village it was neglected by all the early railroad building activities, and the lack of such transportation threatened for a generation to doom the community to oblivion.
At intervals for thirty years, various projected railroad schemes included Cascade on their route, only to fail, one by one, leaving the community in deeper despair. The earliest of these proposed roads was the “Ram’s-Horn”, first broached in 1848. It was to have extended from Keokuk to Dubuque by way of Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Cascade. An “air line” directly across Iowa, passing from Bellevue through Cascade, was suggested, but interest in this road was soon overshadowed by a more promising “Southwestern” route from Dubuque, which likewise pledged a station at Cascade. The organization of the Davenport and St. Paul seemed promising but it “also went up in thin air”.
If ever a community had reasons to feel discouraged Cascade certainly did. Outside aid had apparently failed, and it seemed that the town would have to build the railroad if there was ever to be one. Various citizens bestirred themselves.
On October 13, 1876, Dr. W. H. Francis of Cascade wrote to Captain M. R. Brown of Bellevue concerning the feasibility of constructing a narrow gauge road from Bellevue to Cascade. The matter “met with instant favorable response on the part of the people of Bellevue.” All winter the subject was discussed. On March 9, 1877, a meeting was held by the citizens of Bellevue for the purpose of organizing and financing a preliminary survey for a narrow gauge road to Cascade.
Not until August 4, 1877, however, was the Chicago, Bellevue, Cascade and Western Railroad Company organized at Bellevue. This arrangement was apparently not entirely satisfactory, for another meeting was held at Garrytown and a third at Cascade on August 30th when final details were settled. Officers and a board of directors, including three men from each township on the route of the proposed road, were elected. It appears that capable, energetic men were chosen, who believed that the road could actually be built. From the name of the company it may be assumed that the promoters held high hopes that the new railroad might eventually become an important link in a trunk line across the State connecting with the Milwaukee narrow gauge then building westward to Galena from the lakes.
The project was eyed jealously by Dubuque, for the “gate city” did not welcome competition at Bellevue. According to a Cascade Pioneer editorial in September, 1877, D. A. Mahony was urging “the business men and capitalists of Dubuque to take active steps to build, or assist in building a Narrow Gauge Railway to Cascade,” and warning them that “the loss of the trade of the southern part of the county” would be incalculable. He warned his fellow citizens that Cascade was “putting her shoulder to the wheel” in behalf of the Bellevue project.
“The time for action has come,” declared the editor of the Pioneer, “and our people have organized for a purpose, and that purpose is to secure a home market for the products of the surrounding country, and an outlet for other markets” by establishing rail connections with the grain market at Galena to the east and with the thriving cities on the Missouri River. “We understand”, he continued, “that Dubuque business men scoff at the very idea of the people of this section having the financial ability to construct the road. We beg to differ with them on that point, and refer them to the directory elected to manage the organization who alone if they chose to, or were required to furnish the capital could construct the line between Cascade & Bellevue.”
Even in those times, however, when the wages of unskilled labor were as low as fifty cents a day, railroad building was expensive, and few roads were completed without one or more reorganizations. The capitalization of the company was fixed at $200,000, and stock was distributed in sums ranging from $5000 to a few shares held by enthusiastic boosters along the way, some of whom, not having the money to pay, arranged to assist by working out their subsections with teams and labor. In 1878, a tax was voted in Bellevue and in various townships along the route. The people of Bellevue were particularly loyal in their financial support of the new road, as they felt such a railroad would be advantageous in securing the relocation of the county seat at that place.
Perhaps the most important task confronting railroad builders was the location of the route. The determination of the grade between Bellevue and Cascade was particularly difficult, for the altitude of the river town was only about six hundred feet above sea level while the table land only a few miles to the west attained an elevation of eleven hundred feet. But the financial support which might be expected from the various communities that were directly benefited was as important as the engineering factors in determining the location of the right of way.
At the lower end of Bellevue, Mill Creek empties into the Mississippi, and it was the valley of this little stream that afforded the only practicable opportunity of reaching the prairies inland. For a distance of about two miles, the line runs on the north side of Mill Creek, then crosses to the south side for about three miles, and thence returns to the north side, climbing steadily all the while until it emerges upon the uplands. Passing on westward with a great sweeping S curve, the road reaches the first station at the town of La Motte, eleven miles from Bellevue. A mile and a half east of La Motte is a long siding which is used for “doubling”, since the grade ascends there at the rate of about one hundred feet per mile.
Beyond La Motte the topography of the country is of bold relief, and the line contains many stiff grades and sharp curves. Passing Zwingle slightly more than four miles west of La Motte, the line continues down grade to Washington Mills on Otter Creek, twenty-two miles from Bellevue. About fourteen miles from Bellevue, the road passes into Dubuque County and thence along the county line between Dubuque and Jackson counties through Bernard and Fillmore to Cascade. At two sharp curves the right of way dips over into Jackson County for a distance of about a mile in each instance. Nineteen and sixteenths miles of the entire route lies in Dubuque County and sixteen miles in Jackson.
With very little ready cash in the treasury but with unswerving faith that the job could actually be accomplished, the directors launched bravely upon their undertaking and on September 19, 1878, the first ground was broken at Cascade. According to the Cascade Pioneer, it was an event “that will never be forgotten by the present generation. It was a grand gala day for Cascade and five thousand people were present to participate in the happy occasion.” The line was partially graded in Washington Mills, and some work was done at Zwingle and La Motte that year.
By the close of the season, however, the cash was practically exhausted and reorganization was imminent. On January 7, 1879, J. W. Tripp resigned the office of president whereupon Vice president James Hill assumed the management until March 1st, when he was made president. On May 9th, George Runkel, acting in behalf of J. F. Joy, a Detroit capitalist, proposed to take over the unfinished road and complete it without further delay, the offer was accepted and the old company’s franchise was transferred at Zwingle on May 17th to the Joy interest, operating under the name of the Chicago, Clinton, Dubuque & Minnesota Railroad Company. The new management prosecuted the work of construction with vigor, and on January 1, 1880, the road was completed from Bellevue to Cascade.
“At Last We Have It!” proudly announced the Cascade Pioneer. “On Monday it became apparent that the track would be completed to the town on Tuesday. Although no general celebration was announced, yet a large number of people gathered at the depot to see the last rail laid and the train come in. The laying of the track to the depot was completed at noon. Engineer Allen Woodward and his fireman, Sam Elmer, on No. 2, were patiently waiting for the completion of a switch east of the depot, while an immense crowd of men and boys occupied every available space on the cars, to enjoy their first ride on the narrow gauge.”
As soon as the switch was completed, “Woodward seized the bar of the throttle valve of No. 2” and backed the train up the track “as far as the O’Brien place,” then, reversing the lever, he “sent the little engine flying towards Cascade, and in a few minutes drew up at the depot” where a cheer of welcome went up from the multitude. Vice-president Runkel honored the members of the press by inviting them to ride in the cab of the engine. Among the number were John Blanchard of the Monticello Express, Tom Duffy of the Dubuque Herald, and the editor of the Pioneer.
More than fifty years have now elapsed since the celebration of this notable event in the history of Cascade, but the little narrow gauge trains still make their daily trip from Bellevue and return. At seven in the morning, after the arrival of the mail at Bellevue, the little engine and cars, constituting the mixed train, begin their “up” trip, which is made on the leisurely schedule of ten miles per hour. Between stations, however, considerably greater speed is attained than the schedule indicates, as one hour is allowed for climbing the steep grade up Mill Creek to La Motte. When business is heavy or the track is slippery, this is accomplished by “doubling”. The train is divided and part is taken up and side tracked at the summit while the engine and crew return to the bottom of the hill for the remainder of the train.
There is always considerable switching at the stations en route, “spotting” cars at the elevators, coal sheds, and stock-yard platforms, as well as the work of loading and unloading the local freight at the depots. Much of the schedules time is consumed in this manner, especially at Cascade where one hour and ten minutes is allowed for the turn around and work in the yards. At 11:25 A. M. the train begins its “down” trip to Bellevue, where it arrives in due time at 2:40 P.M.
A ride on the downward journey is a delightful experience. At places the train travels high on the edge of a precipitous bluff where wonderful vistas greet the eye in every direction. Again the track leads through deep valleys close to a crystal clear, gurgling little stream, hemmed in on either side by rocky ledges. But most of the way the route is across open farming country, more prosaic though none the less beautiful.
For the amount and quality of service expected, the road is well equipped with motive power and rolling stock. There are in use about fifty box cars, thirty-eight stock cars, twenty-six coal and flat cars, and one caboose. The passenger equipment consists of two coaches both of the combination express and passenger variety. Four engines, numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, constitute the motive power of the road. A rotary snow plow is used to remove the deep drifts from the numerous cuts through the hills. The engines are of regular type, one with four drivers and three with six drivers about four feet in diameter. They are all equipped with automatic couplers and air brakes. Occasionally, when in need of repairs, they are loaded on a specially constructed flat car and transported to the Milwaukee engine shops at Dubuque or Marquette where they are repaired without being removed from the car.
Compared with modern transportation units, the little engines, cars, and coaches seem Lilliputian, yet for the territory served they are adequate. The trains are operated as efficiently and perhaps more economically than their more impressive neighbors out on the main line. Freight has to be transferred at the Bellevue terminal. Two small coal cars are required to handle the standard load of thirty tons, five narrow gauge box cars of grain fill only one large box car, and two narrow gauge stock cars make up one standard gauge carload of hogs or cattle. Formerly the task of loading and unloading was all done by hand and sometimes as many as ten or twelve men were employed in this operation, but in recent years modern machinery has been installed. A clam-shell bucket loader is used for transferring coal, and belt conveyors for grain and corn.
There can be no doubt that the building of the narrow gauge saved the life of Cascade. In 1876 it was only a straggling village, “lazying along side of a sandy street”. It had once been a way station on the Western Stage Company line, “but that means of transportation had long ceased to exit, when the railroads came west of the Mississippi river.” Only the existence of a few churches seemed to hold the town together. Then along came Isaac W. Baldwin with a few cases of type and a Washington hand press. Apparently “he had bout as much excuse for running a newspaper in this village as he would have had peddling peanuts in a grave yard”, but he exerted a decisive influence on public opinion by his Pioneer editorials. Cascade got its railroad, and in consequence grew into a prosperous community of more than twelve hundred inhabitants.
From time to time there have been several attempts to induce the Milwaukee to transform the road into a standard gauge, but the company has always maintained that the business was not sufficient to warrant the unusual expense due to the topography of the country.
Thus the sole survivor of the narrow gauge railroads in Iowa continues to function, perpetuating the history of an early phase of railroading. Tourists in northeastern Iowa who come across the Bellevue-Cascade railroad for the first time find it an interesting surprise. What impresses them as an amusing curiosity is none the less a genuine railroad of vital importance to a number of substantial communities
Aberdeen SPECTRA 2016 light festival
www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/community_life_leisure/arts/cultu...
No flash, high ISO.
White Sands National Park is an American national park located in the state of New Mexico and completely surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range. The park covers 145,762 acres (227.8 sq mi; 589.9 km2) in the Tularosa Basin, including the southern 41% of a 275 sq mi (710 km2) field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals. This gypsum dunefield is the largest of its kind on Earth, with a depth of about 30 feet (9.1 m), dunes as tall as 60 feet (18 m), and about 4.5 billion short tons (4.1 billion metric tons) of gypsum sand.
Approximately 12,000 years ago, the land within the Tularosa Basin featured large lakes, streams, grasslands, and Ice Age mammals. As the climate warmed, rain and snowmelt dissolved gypsum from the surrounding mountains and carried it into the basin. Further warming and drying caused the lakes to evaporate and form selenite crystals. Strong winds then broke up crystals and transported them eastward. A similar process continues to produce gypsum sand today.
Thousands of species of animal inhabit the park, a large portion of which are invertebrates. Several animal species feature a white or off-white coloration. At least 45 species are endemic, living only in this park, with 40 of them being moth species. The Tularosa Basin has also seen a number of human inhabitants, from Paleo-Indians 12,000 years ago to modern farmers, ranchers, and miners.
White Sands National Park was originally designated White Sands National Monument on January 18, 1933 by President Herbert Hoover, and redesignated as a national park by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump on December 20, 2019. It is the most visited NPS site in New Mexico, with about 600,000 visitors each year. The park features a drive from the visitor center to the heart of the dunes, picnic areas, backcountry campground in the dunefield, marked hiking trails, and sledding on the dunes. Ranger-guided orientation and nature walks occur at various times and months throughout the year.
A fossil trackway of footprints of humans and ground sloths found at White Sands and dating from the last ice age shows that ground sloths were hunted by humans at least 11,700 years ago. Paleo-Indians inhabited the shoreline of Lake Otero, a large lake that covered much of the Tularosa Basin. They used stone from the mountains to create projectile points, known as Folsom and Plano points, and attached them to spears for hunting mammoths, camels, ground sloths, and bison. Projectile points and stone tools have been found in the basin associated with ancient shorelines, streams, and hills. As the large ice sheet that capped the North American continent receded, Lake Otero began to evaporate, leaving behind Alkali Flat and Lake Lucero. The grassland died and the basin became increasingly arid, slowly changing into desert scrubland. The megafauna disappeared from the basin leaving behind fossil footprints.
The Archaic people improved upon the hand thrown spear used by Paleo-Indians with the invention of the atlatl. After Lake Otero dried out, wind carried large quantities of gypsum sand up from the basin floor which accumulated into a large dunefield. Archaic people entered the Tularosa Basin about 4,000 years ago, after the dunes had stabilized, possibly attracted by a cereal grass called Indian ricegrass. The first evidence of agriculture is found in the Archaic period. Archaic peoples would tend to wild plants so they would produce in a more reliable manner and in larger quantities than they did naturally. Archaic people started living in small villages throughout the year to tend their fields. Hearth mounds are found within the dunes, which are the remains of prehistoric fires containing charcoal and ash. When gypsum is heated to 300 °F (149 °C) it becomes a plaster that hardens when moisture is added and subsequently evaporates. The plaster cements these hearths in place, preserving them for thousands of years.
The Jornada Mogollon people made pottery, lived in permanent houses, and farmed the Tularosa Basin. Evidence of their prehistoric presence dates back to about 200 CE. The Jornada Mogollon inhabited the basin until about 1350 CE when they moved away, leaving behind puddled adobe structures and pottery sherds.
Over 700 years ago, bands of Apaches followed herds of bison from the Great Plains to the Tularosa Basin. The Apaches were nomadic hunters and gatherers who lived in temporary houses known as wickiups and teepees. The Apaches had established a sizable territory in southern New Mexico by the time European explorers arrived. They fiercely defended the rights to their homeland against the encroachment of colonial settlers. Apache groups, led by Victorio and Geronimo, fought with settlers in the basin and engaged in military battles with Buffalo Soldiers. The Battle of Hembrillo Basin in 1880 was a military engagement between Victorio's warriors and the United States Army's 9th Cavalry Regiment of Buffalo Soldiers. The battleground, located on White Sands Missile Range, is the closest archaeological evidence of the Apache Wars (1849 to 1924). Conflict between the Apaches and the American settlers over their conflicting interests in the basin ultimately ended in the forceful removal of the Apaches from their homelands to the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation. The Mescalero Apache maintain an active cultural affinity to the landscape of their ancestors.
While a Spanish colony was established to the north around Santa Fe, the Tularosa Basin was generally avoided until the nineteenth century. The basin lacked any reliable water sources and was the primary stronghold of local Apaches who stole livestock from Pueblo and Spanish settlements near the basin. When Spaniards did enter the basin, they traveled along established trails to the salt pan north of Alkali Flat. Spanish colonists had established the salt trails in 1647, to connect the salt deposits with the Camino Real in El Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juárez) and silver mines in Durango, Mexico. Salt is a fundamental element in the processing of silver ore. Expeditionary parties using mule-drawn carts with military escorts would be formed a few times each year for the journey to the salinas (salt pans).
Hispanic populations throughout the Spanish colonial and Mexican periods were allowed to gather salt from the salinas, which were considered public property. Texan-American settlers made private claims to the land to profit from mining of minerals on their property. James Magoffin held a title to the salt flats north of Lake Lucero but had been unsuccessful in collecting fees for salt gathering. In 1854, using military force, he intercepted a salt gathering expedition of Hispanos from Doña Ana at the salt flats and fatally wounded three members of the party. In response to Magoffin's use of extreme force during the Magoffin Salt War, the courts dissolved his property claim to the salt flats and established a precedent for free public access to salt deposits.
The first US Army exploration of south-central New Mexico was led by a party of topographical engineering officers in 1849. They passed west of the San Andres Mountains and Organ Mountains. A lieutenant was dispatched east across the basin with a scouting party to map a potential military wagon route to the Sierra Blanca.
Hispanic families started farming communities at Tularosa in 1861 and La Luz in 1863. The villagers mixed water with gypsum sand from the dunefield to create plaster for the adobe walls of their homes. The white color was not only decorative but functional in deflecting the rays of the summer sun.
In the 1880s, a brief period of heavy rainfall supported the return of lush grasslands in the Tularosa Basin which attracted the attention of goat, sheep, and cattle grazers, predominately from Texas. Large cattle drives pushed into the basin, and ranching became the dominant economy for the next sixty years. In 1897, the Lucero brothers, Jose, Felipe, and Estevan, began ranching on the south shore of the lake that would eventually bear their name. By 1940, Felipe consolidated the family's ranches into a 20,000-acre (31 sq mi; 81 km2) property. Shortly afterward, the National Park Service took over ownership of the Lucero family properties with their appropriation of Lake Lucero and Alkali Flat. The remnants of the Lucero family ranch include the stock pens, watering trough, a water well, and a fallen windmill which visitors can see on a ranger-led tour to Lake Lucero once each month, in the cooler months of the year.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the discovery of oil, coal, silver, gold, and other precious mineral deposits inspired many settlers to cover the Tularosa Basin in mining claims. By 1904, over 114 people made mineral claims to more than 10,400 acres (16.3 sq mi; 42 km2) of Lake Lucero; however, very few of the claims were developed. Eddy’s Soda Prospect, developed by the same Eddy brothers that had founded the El Paso and Northeastern Railway and the town of Alamogordo, was a mineral recovery operation for glauberite salt mining along the southern shore of Lake Lucero. In 1907, J.R. Milner and Bill Fetz constructed a plaster of Paris batching plant along the southern edge of the dunes. The operation involved drilling long shafts into the dunes and extracting gypsum to cook into plaster at night. Though successful, the establishment of the national monument permanently shut down the plant.
The idea of creating a national park to protect the white sands formation dates to 1898 when a group from El Paso, Texas, proposed the creation of Mescalero National Park. The plan failed as it included a game hunting preserve that conflicted with the idea of preservation held by the Department of the Interior.
From 1912 to 1922, Albert B. Fall, a Senator from New Mexico—later appointed Secretary of the Interior—and the owner of a large ranch in Three Rivers northeast of the dune field, promoted four separate bills in Congress for a national park in the Tularosa Basin. Fall's ultimate plan was called the All-Year National Park as it would be open throughout the year, unlike more northerly parks. The bill included four geographically separate and diverse areas, to be administered as one national park. The proposed areas included a 2,000-acre (3.1 sq mi; 8.1 km2) scenic portion of the Mescalero Indian reservation, 640 acres (1.0 sq mi; 2.6 km2) of the dunefield, 640 acres of a volcanic area to the north named Carrizozo Malpais, and the shoreline of the Elephant Butte Reservoir to the west, beyond the San Andres Mountains. Stephen Mather, the director of the National Park Service, criticized the proposal as having "disjointed boundaries, lack of spectacular scenery, and questionable usage." The National Parks Association and the Indian Rights Association campaigned against Fall's bill, mainly because of the appropriation of Indian reservation land and that it might establish a precedent of industrial usage within parks. The bill failed in Congress, and Fall resigned in 1923 during the Teapot Dome scandal.
During the 1920s, an Alamogordo businessman named Tom Charles promoted the potential economic benefits of protecting the white sands formation. Charles mobilized enough local support for construction of an improved state route between Las Cruces and Alamogordo (now U.S. Route 70), passing the southern edge of the dunefield. He lobbied to have the dunes declared a national park but was advised by Senator Bronson M. Cutting, who had influence with President Herbert Hoover, that national monument status would be much easier to obtain.
On January 18, 1933, President Hoover designated White Sands National Monument, acting under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906. The dedication and grand opening was on April 29, 1934. Tom Charles became the first custodian of the monument, and the first concessionaire in 1939, operating as White Sands Service Company.
The visitor center and a nearby comfort station, three ranger residences, as well as three maintenance buildings were constructed of adobe bricks as a Works Progress Administration project starting in 1936 and completed in 1938. The original eight adobe buildings and other nearby structures were designated the White Sands National Monument Historic District when they were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The principal architects were Lyle E. Bennett and Robert W. Albers, who also designed NPS buildings together at Casa Grande and Bandelier national monuments. Bennett also designed the picnic table shelters at White Sands, the Painted Desert Inn at Petrified Forest, and buildings at Carlsbad Caverns and Mesa Verde national parks.
The park is completely surrounded by the military installations of White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base, and has always had an uneasy relationship with the military. The missile range and air force base were established after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, with continuing operations after World War II and throughout the Cold War. Errant missiles often fell within the park's boundaries, occasionally destroying some of the visitor areas. Overflights from Holloman disturbed the tranquility of the area. Flight training missions continue over the dunefield, and the park closes temporarily for several hours during missile tests in the adjacent range and cooperative use area on the west side of the park.
Between 1969 and 1977, 95 oryx were released on the missile range and adjacent areas of the Tularosa Basin by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish for hunting purposes. The oryx, having no natural predators, entered the park and competed with native species for forage. Thousands of oryx reside on the missile range presently, though annual hunts have occurred since 1974 to help control and stabilize the population. The National Park Service, concerned about the negative effects on native plants and animals within the park, erected a 67-mile (108 km) long boundary fence in 1996 to prevent oryx from entering.
Increasingly problematic alcohol abuse by students on spring break in the 1990s led to a ban on the consumption of alcohol. The possession of alcohol or alcohol containers is banned throughout the park from February 1 to May 31.
White Sands was placed on a tentative list of potential World Heritage Sites on January 22, 2008. The state's two U.S. Senators, Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, wrote letters of support of the application. U.S. Representative Stevan Pearce declined to support the application, saying, "I would guarantee that if White Sands Monument receives this designation, that there will at some point be international pressures exerted that could stop military operations as we know them today."
The WHS application generated much controversy in Otero County, most of it taking place in meetings of the Otero County Commission. A petition with 1,200 signatures opposing the application was presented to the commission on August 16, 2007. The commission passed a resolution of opposition to the application on August 23, 2007, and passed Ordinance 07-05 on October 18, 2007, relating to any potential World Heritage Site designations within the county. The ordinance requires coordination with the county in following its environmental planning and review process through its Public Land Use Advisory Council, and states that "No world heritage site...will be located on or adjacent to any military land...within or adjacent to the boundaries of Otero County." On January 24, 2008, after the WHS tentative list was announced, the commission instructed the county attorney to write a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, demanding that WSNM be taken off the list (Wikipedia).
National park bill
Zwingle, Iowa, ca. 1928-1933
PALIMPSEST, APRIL, 1932
FROM BELLEVUE TO CASCADE
Beside the North Fork of the Maquoketa River, situated on the line between Jackson and Dubuque counties, lies the town of Cascade. As a pioneer village it was neglected by all the early railroad building activities, and the lack of such transportation threatened for a generation to doom the community to oblivion.
At intervals for thirty years, various projected railroad schemes included Cascade on their route, only to fail, one by one, leaving the community in deeper despair. The earliest of these proposed roads was the “Ram’s-Horn”, first broached in 1848. It was to have extended from Keokuk to Dubuque by way of Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Cascade. An “air line” directly across Iowa, passing from Bellevue through Cascade, was suggested, but interest in this road was soon overshadowed by a more promising “Southwestern” route from Dubuque, which likewise pledged a station at Cascade. The organization of the Davenport and St. Paul seemed promising but it “also went up in thin air”.
If ever a community had reasons to feel discouraged Cascade certainly did. Outside aid had apparently failed, and it seemed that the town would have to build the railroad if there was ever to be one. Various citizens bestirred themselves.
On October 13, 1876, Dr. W. H. Francis of Cascade wrote to Captain M. R. Brown of Bellevue concerning the feasibility of constructing a narrow gauge road from Bellevue to Cascade. The matter “met with instant favorable response on the part of the people of Bellevue.” All winter the subject was discussed. On March 9, 1877, a meeting was held by the citizens of Bellevue for the purpose of organizing and financing a preliminary survey for a narrow gauge road to Cascade.
Not until August 4, 1877, however, was the Chicago, Bellevue, Cascade and Western Railroad Company organized at Bellevue. This arrangement was apparently not entirely satisfactory, for another meeting was held at Garrytown and a third at Cascade on August 30th when final details were settled. Officers and a board of directors, including three men from each township on the route of the proposed road, were elected. It appears that capable, energetic men were chosen, who believed that the road could actually be built. From the name of the company it may be assumed that the promoters held high hopes that the new railroad might eventually become an important link in a trunk line across the State connecting with the Milwaukee narrow gauge then building westward to Galena from the lakes.
The project was eyed jealously by Dubuque, for the “gate city” did not welcome competition at Bellevue. According to a Cascade Pioneer editorial in September, 1877, D. A. Mahony was urging “the business men and capitalists of Dubuque to take active steps to build, or assist in building a Narrow Gauge Railway to Cascade,” and warning them that “the loss of the trade of the southern part of the county” would be incalculable. He warned his fellow citizens that Cascade was “putting her shoulder to the wheel” in behalf of the Bellevue project.
“The time for action has come,” declared the editor of the Pioneer, “and our people have organized for a purpose, and that purpose is to secure a home market for the products of the surrounding country, and an outlet for other markets” by establishing rail connections with the grain market at Galena to the east and with the thriving cities on the Missouri River. “We understand”, he continued, “that Dubuque business men scoff at the very idea of the people of this section having the financial ability to construct the road. We beg to differ with them on that point, and refer them to the directory elected to manage the organization who alone if they chose to, or were required to furnish the capital could construct the line between Cascade & Bellevue.”
Even in those times, however, when the wages of unskilled labor were as low as fifty cents a day, railroad building was expensive, and few roads were completed without one or more reorganizations. The capitalization of the company was fixed at $200,000, and stock was distributed in sums ranging from $5000 to a few shares held by enthusiastic boosters along the way, some of whom, not having the money to pay, arranged to assist by working out their subsections with teams and labor. In 1878, a tax was voted in Bellevue and in various townships along the route. The people of Bellevue were particularly loyal in their financial support of the new road, as they felt such a railroad would be advantageous in securing the relocation of the county seat at that place.
Perhaps the most important task confronting railroad builders was the location of the route. The determination of the grade between Bellevue and Cascade was particularly difficult, for the altitude of the river town was only about six hundred feet above sea level while the table land only a few miles to the west attained an elevation of eleven hundred feet. But the financial support which might be expected from the various communities that were directly benefited was as important as the engineering factors in determining the location of the right of way.
At the lower end of Bellevue, Mill Creek empties into the Mississippi, and it was the valley of this little stream that afforded the only practicable opportunity of reaching the prairies inland. For a distance of about two miles, the line runs on the north side of Mill Creek, then crosses to the south side for about three miles, and thence returns to the north side, climbing steadily all the while until it emerges upon the uplands. Passing on westward with a great sweeping S curve, the road reaches the first station at the town of La Motte, eleven miles from Bellevue. A mile and a half east of La Motte is a long siding which is used for “doubling”, since the grade ascends there at the rate of about one hundred feet per mile.
Beyond La Motte the topography of the country is of bold relief, and the line contains many stiff grades and sharp curves. Passing Zwingle slightly more than four miles west of La Motte, the line continues down grade to Washington Mills on Otter Creek, twenty-two miles from Bellevue. About fourteen miles from Bellevue, the road passes into Dubuque County and thence along the county line between Dubuque and Jackson counties through Bernard and Fillmore to Cascade. At two sharp curves the right of way dips over into Jackson County for a distance of about a mile in each instance. Nineteen and sixteenths miles of the entire route lies in Dubuque County and sixteen miles in Jackson.
With very little ready cash in the treasury but with unswerving faith that the job could actually be accomplished, the directors launched bravely upon their undertaking and on September 19, 1878, the first ground was broken at Cascade. According to the Cascade Pioneer, it was an event “that will never be forgotten by the present generation. It was a grand gala day for Cascade and five thousand people were present to participate in the happy occasion.” The line was partially graded in Washington Mills, and some work was done at Zwingle and La Motte that year.
By the close of the season, however, the cash was practically exhausted and reorganization was imminent. On January 7, 1879, J. W. Tripp resigned the office of president whereupon Vice president James Hill assumed the management until March 1st, when he was made president. On May 9th, George Runkel, acting in behalf of J. F. Joy, a Detroit capitalist, proposed to take over the unfinished road and complete it without further delay, the offer was accepted and the old company’s franchise was transferred at Zwingle on May 17th to the Joy interest, operating under the name of the Chicago, Clinton, Dubuque & Minnesota Railroad Company. The new management prosecuted the work of construction with vigor, and on January 1, 1880, the road was completed from Bellevue to Cascade.
“At Last We Have It!” proudly announced the Cascade Pioneer. “On Monday it became apparent that the track would be completed to the town on Tuesday. Although no general celebration was announced, yet a large number of people gathered at the depot to see the last rail laid and the train come in. The laying of the track to the depot was completed at noon. Engineer Allen Woodward and his fireman, Sam Elmer, on No. 2, were patiently waiting for the completion of a switch east of the depot, while an immense crowd of men and boys occupied every available space on the cars, to enjoy their first ride on the narrow gauge.”
As soon as the switch was completed, “Woodward seized the bar of the throttle valve of No. 2” and backed the train up the track “as far as the O’Brien place,” then, reversing the lever, he “sent the little engine flying towards Cascade, and in a few minutes drew up at the depot” where a cheer of welcome went up from the multitude. Vice-president Runkel honored the members of the press by inviting them to ride in the cab of the engine. Among the number were John Blanchard of the Monticello Express, Tom Duffy of the Dubuque Herald, and the editor of the Pioneer.
More than fifty years have now elapsed since the celebration of this notable event in the history of Cascade, but the little narrow gauge trains still make their daily trip from Bellevue and return. At seven in the morning, after the arrival of the mail at Bellevue, the little engine and cars, constituting the mixed train, begin their “up” trip, which is made on the leisurely schedule of ten miles per hour. Between stations, however, considerably greater speed is attained than the schedule indicates, as one hour is allowed for climbing the steep grade up Mill Creek to La Motte. When business is heavy or the track is slippery, this is accomplished by “doubling”. The train is divided and part is taken up and side tracked at the summit while the engine and crew return to the bottom of the hill for the remainder of the train.
There is always considerable switching at the stations en route, “spotting” cars at the elevators, coal sheds, and stock-yard platforms, as well as the work of loading and unloading the local freight at the depots. Much of the schedules time is consumed in this manner, especially at Cascade where one hour and ten minutes is allowed for the turn around and work in the yards. At 11:25 A. M. the train begins its “down” trip to Bellevue, where it arrives in due time at 2:40 P.M.
A ride on the downward journey is a delightful experience. At places the train travels high on the edge of a precipitous bluff where wonderful vistas greet the eye in every direction. Again the track leads through deep valleys close to a crystal clear, gurgling little stream, hemmed in on either side by rocky ledges. But most of the way the route is across open farming country, more prosaic though none the less beautiful.
For the amount and quality of service expected, the road is well equipped with motive power and rolling stock. There are in use about fifty box cars, thirty-eight stock cars, twenty-six coal and flat cars, and one caboose. The passenger equipment consists of two coaches both of the combination express and passenger variety. Four engines, numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, constitute the motive power of the road. A rotary snow plow is used to remove the deep drifts from the numerous cuts through the hills. The engines are of regular type, one with four drivers and three with six drivers about four feet in diameter. They are all equipped with automatic couplers and air brakes. Occasionally, when in need of repairs, they are loaded on a specially constructed flat car and transported to the Milwaukee engine shops at Dubuque or Marquette where they are repaired without being removed from the car.
Compared with modern transportation units, the little engines, cars, and coaches seem Lilliputian, yet for the territory served they are adequate. The trains are operated as efficiently and perhaps more economically than their more impressive neighbors out on the main line. Freight has to be transferred at the Bellevue terminal. Two small coal cars are required to handle the standard load of thirty tons, five narrow gauge box cars of grain fill only one large box car, and two narrow gauge stock cars make up one standard gauge carload of hogs or cattle. Formerly the task of loading and unloading was all done by hand and sometimes as many as ten or twelve men were employed in this operation, but in recent years modern machinery has been installed. A clam-shell bucket loader is used for transferring coal, and belt conveyors for grain and corn.
There can be no doubt that the building of the narrow gauge saved the life of Cascade. In 1876 it was only a straggling village, “lazying along side of a sandy street”. It had once been a way station on the Western Stage Company line, “but that means of transportation had long ceased to exit, when the railroads came west of the Mississippi river.” Only the existence of a few churches seemed to hold the town together. Then along came Isaac W. Baldwin with a few cases of type and a Washington hand press. Apparently “he had bout as much excuse for running a newspaper in this village as he would have had peddling peanuts in a grave yard”, but he exerted a decisive influence on public opinion by his Pioneer editorials. Cascade got its railroad, and in consequence grew into a prosperous community of more than twelve hundred inhabitants.
From time to time there have been several attempts to induce the Milwaukee to transform the road into a standard gauge, but the company has always maintained that the business was not sufficient to warrant the unusual expense due to the topography of the country.
Thus the sole survivor of the narrow gauge railroads in Iowa continues to function, perpetuating the history of an early phase of railroading. Tourists in northeastern Iowa who come across the Bellevue-Cascade railroad for the first time find it an interesting surprise. What impresses them as an amusing curiosity is none the less a genuine railroad of vital importance to a number of substantial communities
Dark Hollow Falls Trail is a 2.3 kilometer heavily trafficked out and back trail located near Stanley, Virginia that features a waterfall and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, and nature trips and is best used from April until October.
Salvage operations near Zwingle, Iowa, June, 1936, "Engine "The Ox"
THE PALIMPSEST, APRIL, 1932
FROM BELLEVUE TO CASCADE
Beside the North Fork of the Maquoketa River, situated on the line between Jackson and Dubuque counties, lies the town of Cascade. As a pioneer village it was neglected by all the early railroad building activities, and the lack of such transportation threatened for a generation to doom the community to oblivion.
At intervals for thirty years, various projected railroad schemes included Cascade on their route, only to fail, one by one, leaving the community in deeper despair. The earliest of these proposed roads was the “Ram’s-Horn”, first broached in 1848. It was to have extended from Keokuk to Dubuque by way of Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Cascade. An “air line” directly across Iowa, passing from Bellevue through Cascade, was suggested, but interest in this road was soon overshadowed by a more promising “Southwestern” route from Dubuque, which likewise pledged a station at Cascade. The organization of the Davenport and St. Paul seemed promising but it “also went up in thin air”.
If ever a community had reasons to feel discouraged Cascade certainly did. Outside aid had apparently failed, and it seemed that the town would have to build the railroad if there was ever to be one. Various citizens bestirred themselves.
On October 13, 1876, Dr. W. H. Francis of Cascade wrote to Captain M. R. Brown of Bellevue concerning the feasibility of constructing a narrow gauge road from Bellevue to Cascade. The matter “met with instant favorable response on the part of the people of Bellevue.” All winter the subject was discussed. On March 9, 1877, a meeting was held by the citizens of Bellevue for the purpose of organizing and financing a preliminary survey for a narrow gauge road to Cascade.
Not until August 4, 1877, however, was the Chicago, Bellevue, Cascade and Western Railroad Company organized at Bellevue. This arrangement was apparently not entirely satisfactory, for another meeting was held at Garrytown and a third at Cascade on August 30th when final details were settled. Officers and a board of directors, including three men from each township on the route of the proposed road, were elected. It appears that capable, energetic men were chosen, who believed that the road could actually be built. From the name of the company it may be assumed that the promoters held high hopes that the new railroad might eventually become an important link in a trunk line across the State connecting with the Milwaukee narrow gauge then building westward to Galena from the lakes.
The project was eyed jealously by Dubuque, for the “gate city” did not welcome competition at Bellevue. According to a Cascade Pioneer editorial in September, 1877, D. A. Mahony was urging “the business men and capitalists of Dubuque to take active steps to build, or assist in building a Narrow Gauge Railway to Cascade,” and warning them that “the loss of the trade of the southern part of the county” would be incalculable. He warned his fellow citizens that Cascade was “putting her shoulder to the wheel” in behalf of the Bellevue project.
“The time for action has come,” declared the editor of the Pioneer, “and our people have organized for a purpose, and that purpose is to secure a home market for the products of the surrounding country, and an outlet for other markets” by establishing rail connections with the grain market at Galena to the east and with the thriving cities on the Missouri River. “We understand”, he continued, “that Dubuque business men scoff at the very idea of the people of this section having the financial ability to construct the road. We beg to differ with them on that point, and refer them to the directory elected to manage the organization who alone if they chose to, or were required to furnish the capital could construct the line between Cascade & Bellevue.”
Even in those times, however, when the wages of unskilled labor were as low as fifty cents a day, railroad building was expensive, and few roads were completed without one or more reorganizations. The capitalization of the company was fixed at $200,000, and stock was distributed in sums ranging from $5000 to a few shares held by enthusiastic boosters along the way, some of whom, not having the money to pay, arranged to assist by working out their subsections with teams and labor. In 1878, a tax was voted in Bellevue and in various townships along the route. The people of Bellevue were particularly loyal in their financial support of the new road, as they felt such a railroad would be advantageous in securing the relocation of the county seat at that place.
Perhaps the most important task confronting railroad builders was the location of the route. The determination of the grade between Bellevue and Cascade was particularly difficult, for the altitude of the river town was only about six hundred feet above sea level while the table land only a few miles to the west attained an elevation of eleven hundred feet. But the financial support which might be expected from the various communities that were directly benefited was as important as the engineering factors in determining the location of the right of way.
At the lower end of Bellevue, Mill Creek empties into the Mississippi, and it was the valley of this little stream that afforded the only practicable opportunity of reaching the prairies inland. For a distance of about two miles, the line runs on the north side of Mill Creek, then crosses to the south side for about three miles, and thence returns to the north side, climbing steadily all the while until it emerges upon the uplands. Passing on westward with a great sweeping S curve, the road reaches the first station at the town of La Motte, eleven miles from Bellevue. A mile and a half east of La Motte is a long siding which is used for “doubling”, since the grade ascends there at the rate of about one hundred feet per mile.
Beyond La Motte the topography of the country is of bold relief, and the line contains many stiff grades and sharp curves. Passing Zwingle slightly more than four miles west of La Motte, the line continues down grade to Washington Mills on Otter Creek, twenty-two miles from Bellevue. About fourteen miles from Bellevue, the road passes into Dubuque County and thence along the county line between Dubuque and Jackson counties through Bernard and Fillmore to Cascade. At two sharp curves the right of way dips over into Jackson County for a distance of about a mile in each instance. Nineteen and sixteenths miles of the entire route lies in Dubuque County and sixteen miles in Jackson.
With very little ready cash in the treasury but with unswerving faith that the job could actually be accomplished, the directors launched bravely upon their undertaking and on September 19, 1878, the first ground was broken at Cascade. According to the Cascade Pioneer, it was an event “that will never be forgotten by the present generation. It was a grand gala day for Cascade and five thousand people were present to participate in the happy occasion.” The line was partially graded in Washington Mills, and some work was done at Zwingle and La Motte that year.
By the close of the season, however, the cash was practically exhausted and reorganization was imminent. On January 7, 1879, J. W. Tripp resigned the office of president whereupon Vice president James Hill assumed the management until March 1st, when he was made president. On May 9th, George Runkel, acting in behalf of J. F. Joy, a Detroit capitalist, proposed to take over the unfinished road and complete it without further delay, the offer was accepted and the old company’s franchise was transferred at Zwingle on May 17th to the Joy interest, operating under the name of the Chicago, Clinton, Dubuque & Minnesota Railroad Company. The new management prosecuted the work of construction with vigor, and on January 1, 1880, the road was completed from Bellevue to Cascade.
“At Last We Have It!” proudly announced the Cascade Pioneer. “On Monday it became apparent that the track would be completed to the town on Tuesday. Although no general celebration was announced, yet a large number of people gathered at the depot to see the last rail laid and the train come in. The laying of the track to the depot was completed at noon. Engineer Allen Woodward and his fireman, Sam Elmer, on No. 2, were patiently waiting for the completion of a switch east of the depot, while an immense crowd of men and boys occupied every available space on the cars, to enjoy their first ride on the narrow gauge.”
As soon as the switch was completed, “Woodward seized the bar of the throttle valve of No. 2” and backed the train up the track “as far as the O’Brien place,” then, reversing the lever, he “sent the little engine flying towards Cascade, and in a few minutes drew up at the depot” where a cheer of welcome went up from the multitude. Vice-president Runkel honored the members of the press by inviting them to ride in the cab of the engine. Among the number were John Blanchard of the Monticello Express, Tom Duffy of the Dubuque Herald, and the editor of the Pioneer.
More than fifty years have now elapsed since the celebration of this notable event in the history of Cascade, but the little narrow gauge trains still make their daily trip from Bellevue and return. At seven in the morning, after the arrival of the mail at Bellevue, the little engine and cars, constituting the mixed train, begin their “up” trip, which is made on the leisurely schedule of ten miles per hour. Between stations, however, considerably greater speed is attained than the schedule indicates, as one hour is allowed for climbing the steep grade up Mill Creek to La Motte. When business is heavy or the track is slippery, this is accomplished by “doubling”. The train is divided and part is taken up and side tracked at the summit while the engine and crew return to the bottom of the hill for the remainder of the train.
There is always considerable switching at the stations en route, “spotting” cars at the elevators, coal sheds, and stock-yard platforms, as well as the work of loading and unloading the local freight at the depots. Much of the schedules time is consumed in this manner, especially at Cascade where one hour and ten minutes is allowed for the turn around and work in the yards. At 11:25 A. M. the train begins its “down” trip to Bellevue, where it arrives in due time at 2:40 P.M.
A ride on the downward journey is a delightful experience. At places the train travels high on the edge of a precipitous bluff where wonderful vistas greet the eye in every direction. Again the track leads through deep valleys close to a crystal clear, gurgling little stream, hemmed in on either side by rocky ledges. But most of the way the route is across open farming country, more prosaic though none the less beautiful.
For the amount and quality of service expected, the road is well equipped with motive power and rolling stock. There are in use about fifty box cars, thirty-eight stock cars, twenty-six coal and flat cars, and one caboose. The passenger equipment consists of two coaches both of the combination express and passenger variety. Four engines, numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, constitute the motive power of the road. A rotary snow plow is used to remove the deep drifts from the numerous cuts through the hills. The engines are of regular type, one with four drivers and three with six drivers about four feet in diameter. They are all equipped with automatic couplers and air brakes. Occasionally, when in need of repairs, they are loaded on a specially constructed flat car and transported to the Milwaukee engine shops at Dubuque or Marquette where they are repaired without being removed from the car.
Compared with modern transportation units, the little engines, cars, and coaches seem Lilliputian, yet for the territory served they are adequate. The trains are operated as efficiently and perhaps more economically than their more impressive neighbors out on the main line. Freight has to be transferred at the Bellevue terminal. Two small coal cars are required to handle the standard load of thirty tons, five narrow gauge box cars of grain fill only one large box car, and two narrow gauge stock cars make up one standard gauge carload of hogs or cattle. Formerly the task of loading and unloading was all done by hand and sometimes as many as ten or twelve men were employed in this operation, but in recent years modern machinery has been installed. A clam-shell bucket loader is used for transferring coal, and belt conveyors for grain and corn.
There can be no doubt that the building of the narrow gauge saved the life of Cascade. In 1876 it was only a straggling village, “lazying along side of a sandy street”. It had once been a way station on the Western Stage Company line, “but that means of transportation had long ceased to exit, when the railroads came west of the Mississippi river.” Only the existence of a few churches seemed to hold the town together. Then along came Isaac W. Baldwin with a few cases of type and a Washington hand press. Apparently “he had bout as much excuse for running a newspaper in this village as he would have had peddling peanuts in a grave yard”, but he exerted a decisive influence on public opinion by his Pioneer editorials. Cascade got its railroad, and in consequence grew into a prosperous community of more than twelve hundred inhabitants.
From time to time there have been several attempts to induce the Milwaukee to transform the road into a standard gauge, but the company has always maintained that the business was not sufficient to warrant the unusual expense due to the topography of the country.
Thus the sole survivor of the narrow gauge railroads in Iowa continues to function, perpetuating the history of an early phase of railroading. Tourists in northeastern Iowa who come across the Bellevue-Cascade railroad for the first time find it an interesting surprise. What impresses them as an amusing curiosity is none the less a genuine railroad of vital importance to a number of substantial communities
Eastbound train entering Zwingle ca. 1928-1929.
PALIMPSEST, APRIL, 1932
FROM BELLEVUE TO CASCADE
Beside the North Fork of the Maquoketa River, situated on the line between Jackson and Dubuque counties, lies the town of Cascade. As a pioneer village it was neglected by all the early railroad building activities, and the lack of such transportation threatened for a generation to doom the community to oblivion.
At intervals for thirty years, various projected railroad schemes included Cascade on their route, only to fail, one by one, leaving the community in deeper despair. The earliest of these proposed roads was the “Ram’s-Horn”, first broached in 1848. It was to have extended from Keokuk to Dubuque by way of Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Cascade. An “air line” directly across Iowa, passing from Bellevue through Cascade, was suggested, but interest in this road was soon overshadowed by a more promising “Southwestern” route from Dubuque, which likewise pledged a station at Cascade. The organization of the Davenport and St. Paul seemed promising but it “also went up in thin air”.
If ever a community had reasons to feel discouraged Cascade certainly did. Outside aid had apparently failed, and it seemed that the town would have to build the railroad if there was ever to be one. Various citizens bestirred themselves.
On October 13, 1876, Dr. W. H. Francis of Cascade wrote to Captain M. R. Brown of Bellevue concerning the feasibility of constructing a narrow gauge road from Bellevue to Cascade. The matter “met with instant favorable response on the part of the people of Bellevue.” All winter the subject was discussed. On March 9, 1877, a meeting was held by the citizens of Bellevue for the purpose of organizing and financing a preliminary survey for a narrow gauge road to Cascade.
Not until August 4, 1877, however, was the Chicago, Bellevue, Cascade and Western Railroad Company organized at Bellevue. This arrangement was apparently not entirely satisfactory, for another meeting was held at Garrytown and a third at Cascade on August 30th when final details were settled. Officers and a board of directors, including three men from each township on the route of the proposed road, were elected. It appears that capable, energetic men were chosen, who believed that the road could actually be built. From the name of the company it may be assumed that the promoters held high hopes that the new railroad might eventually become an important link in a trunk line across the State connecting with the Milwaukee narrow gauge then building westward to Galena from the lakes.
The project was eyed jealously by Dubuque, for the “gate city” did not welcome competition at Bellevue. According to a Cascade Pioneer editorial in September, 1877, D. A. Mahony was urging “the business men and capitalists of Dubuque to take active steps to build, or assist in building a Narrow Gauge Railway to Cascade,” and warning them that “the loss of the trade of the southern part of the county” would be incalculable. He warned his fellow citizens that Cascade was “putting her shoulder to the wheel” in behalf of the Bellevue project.
“The time for action has come,” declared the editor of the Pioneer, “and our people have organized for a purpose, and that purpose is to secure a home market for the products of the surrounding country, and an outlet for other markets” by establishing rail connections with the grain market at Galena to the east and with the thriving cities on the Missouri River. “We understand”, he continued, “that Dubuque business men scoff at the very idea of the people of this section having the financial ability to construct the road. We beg to differ with them on that point, and refer them to the directory elected to manage the organization who alone if they chose to, or were required to furnish the capital could construct the line between Cascade & Bellevue.”
Even in those times, however, when the wages of unskilled labor were as low as fifty cents a day, railroad building was expensive, and few roads were completed without one or more reorganizations. The capitalization of the company was fixed at $200,000, and stock was distributed in sums ranging from $5000 to a few shares held by enthusiastic boosters along the way, some of whom, not having the money to pay, arranged to assist by working out their subsections with teams and labor. In 1878, a tax was voted in Bellevue and in various townships along the route. The people of Bellevue were particularly loyal in their financial support of the new road, as they felt such a railroad would be advantageous in securing the relocation of the county seat at that place.
Perhaps the most important task confronting railroad builders was the location of the route. The determination of the grade between Bellevue and Cascade was particularly difficult, for the altitude of the river town was only about six hundred feet above sea level while the table land only a few miles to the west attained an elevation of eleven hundred feet. But the financial support which might be expected from the various communities that were directly benefited was as important as the engineering factors in determining the location of the right of way.
At the lower end of Bellevue, Mill Creek empties into the Mississippi, and it was the valley of this little stream that afforded the only practicable opportunity of reaching the prairies inland. For a distance of about two miles, the line runs on the north side of Mill Creek, then crosses to the south side for about three miles, and thence returns to the north side, climbing steadily all the while until it emerges upon the uplands. Passing on westward with a great sweeping S curve, the road reaches the first station at the town of La Motte, eleven miles from Bellevue. A mile and a half east of La Motte is a long siding which is used for “doubling”, since the grade ascends there at the rate of about one hundred feet per mile.
Beyond La Motte the topography of the country is of bold relief, and the line contains many stiff grades and sharp curves. Passing Zwingle slightly more than four miles west of La Motte, the line continues down grade to Washington Mills on Otter Creek, twenty-two miles from Bellevue. About fourteen miles from Bellevue, the road passes into Dubuque County and thence along the county line between Dubuque and Jackson counties through Bernard and Fillmore to Cascade. At two sharp curves the right of way dips over into Jackson County for a distance of about a mile in each instance. Nineteen and sixteenths miles of the entire route lies in Dubuque County and sixteen miles in Jackson.
With very little ready cash in the treasury but with unswerving faith that the job could actually be accomplished, the directors launched bravely upon their undertaking and on September 19, 1878, the first ground was broken at Cascade. According to the Cascade Pioneer, it was an event “that will never be forgotten by the present generation. It was a grand gala day for Cascade and five thousand people were present to participate in the happy occasion.” The line was partially graded in Washington Mills, and some work was done at Zwingle and La Motte that year.
By the close of the season, however, the cash was practically exhausted and reorganization was imminent. On January 7, 1879, J. W. Tripp resigned the office of president whereupon Vice president James Hill assumed the management until March 1st, when he was made president. On May 9th, George Runkel, acting in behalf of J. F. Joy, a Detroit capitalist, proposed to take over the unfinished road and complete it without further delay, the offer was accepted and the old company’s franchise was transferred at Zwingle on May 17th to the Joy interest, operating under the name of the Chicago, Clinton, Dubuque & Minnesota Railroad Company. The new management prosecuted the work of construction with vigor, and on January 1, 1880, the road was completed from Bellevue to Cascade.
“At Last We Have It!” proudly announced the Cascade Pioneer. “On Monday it became apparent that the track would be completed to the town on Tuesday. Although no general celebration was announced, yet a large number of people gathered at the depot to see the last rail laid and the train come in. The laying of the track to the depot was completed at noon. Engineer Allen Woodward and his fireman, Sam Elmer, on No. 2, were patiently waiting for the completion of a switch east of the depot, while an immense crowd of men and boys occupied every available space on the cars, to enjoy their first ride on the narrow gauge.”
As soon as the switch was completed, “Woodward seized the bar of the throttle valve of No. 2” and backed the train up the track “as far as the O’Brien place,” then, reversing the lever, he “sent the little engine flying towards Cascade, and in a few minutes drew up at the depot” where a cheer of welcome went up from the multitude. Vice-president Runkel honored the members of the press by inviting them to ride in the cab of the engine. Among the number were John Blanchard of the Monticello Express, Tom Duffy of the Dubuque Herald, and the editor of the Pioneer.
More than fifty years have now elapsed since the celebration of this notable event in the history of Cascade, but the little narrow gauge trains still make their daily trip from Bellevue and return. At seven in the morning, after the arrival of the mail at Bellevue, the little engine and cars, constituting the mixed train, begin their “up” trip, which is made on the leisurely schedule of ten miles per hour. Between stations, however, considerably greater speed is attained than the schedule indicates, as one hour is allowed for climbing the steep grade up Mill Creek to La Motte. When business is heavy or the track is slippery, this is accomplished by “doubling”. The train is divided and part is taken up and side tracked at the summit while the engine and crew return to the bottom of the hill for the remainder of the train.
There is always considerable switching at the stations en route, “spotting” cars at the elevators, coal sheds, and stock-yard platforms, as well as the work of loading and unloading the local freight at the depots. Much of the schedules time is consumed in this manner, especially at Cascade where one hour and ten minutes is allowed for the turn around and work in the yards. At 11:25 A. M. the train begins its “down” trip to Bellevue, where it arrives in due time at 2:40 P.M.
A ride on the downward journey is a delightful experience. At places the train travels high on the edge of a precipitous bluff where wonderful vistas greet the eye in every direction. Again the track leads through deep valleys close to a crystal clear, gurgling little stream, hemmed in on either side by rocky ledges. But most of the way the route is across open farming country, more prosaic though none the less beautiful.
For the amount and quality of service expected, the road is well equipped with motive power and rolling stock. There are in use about fifty box cars, thirty-eight stock cars, twenty-six coal and flat cars, and one caboose. The passenger equipment consists of two coaches both of the combination express and passenger variety. Four engines, numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, constitute the motive power of the road. A rotary snow plow is used to remove the deep drifts from the numerous cuts through the hills. The engines are of regular type, one with four drivers and three with six drivers about four feet in diameter. They are all equipped with automatic couplers and air brakes. Occasionally, when in need of repairs, they are loaded on a specially constructed flat car and transported to the Milwaukee engine shops at Dubuque or Marquette where they are repaired without being removed from the car.
Compared with modern transportation units, the little engines, cars, and coaches seem Lilliputian, yet for the territory served they are adequate. The trains are operated as efficiently and perhaps more economically than their more impressive neighbors out on the main line. Freight has to be transferred at the Bellevue terminal. Two small coal cars are required to handle the standard load of thirty tons, five narrow gauge box cars of grain fill only one large box car, and two narrow gauge stock cars make up one standard gauge carload of hogs or cattle. Formerly the task of loading and unloading was all done by hand and sometimes as many as ten or twelve men were employed in this operation, but in recent years modern machinery has been installed. A clam-shell bucket loader is used for transferring coal, and belt conveyors for grain and corn.
There can be no doubt that the building of the narrow gauge saved the life of Cascade. In 1876 it was only a straggling village, “lazying along side of a sandy street”. It had once been a way station on the Western Stage Company line, “but that means of transportation had long ceased to exit, when the railroads came west of the Mississippi river.” Only the existence of a few churches seemed to hold the town together. Then along came Isaac W. Baldwin with a few cases of type and a Washington hand press. Apparently “he had bout as much excuse for running a newspaper in this village as he would have had peddling peanuts in a grave yard”, but he exerted a decisive influence on public opinion by his Pioneer editorials. Cascade got its railroad, and in consequence grew into a prosperous community of more than twelve hundred inhabitants.
From time to time there have been several attempts to induce the Milwaukee to transform the road into a standard gauge, but the company has always maintained that the business was not sufficient to warrant the unusual expense due to the topography of the country.
Thus the sole survivor of the narrow gauge railroads in Iowa continues to function, perpetuating the history of an early phase of railroading. Tourists in northeastern Iowa who come across the Bellevue-Cascade railroad for the first time find it an interesting surprise. What impresses them as an amusing curiosity is none the less a genuine railroad of vital importance to a number of substantial communities
The interesting thing of quadralectic art is the fact that its orientation is not a main issue. However, this is the way it should be - in relation to the original photo of Sam Houston Forest.
Van links naar rechts:
I. Anaximander - Anaximander dankt zijn bekendheid vooral aan zijn kosmogonie en kosmologie. Net als zijn tijdgenoten was hij op zoek naar de archè (Oudgrieks: ἀρχή) van het universum, een eerste principe als begin van de wereld. Bij Anaximander was de ene elementaire substantie, waaruit alles was ontstaan, niet het water zoals bij Thales en ook niet een andere stof die we kennen. Geen van deze elementen zou volgens hem in staat zijn om alle tegenstellingen in de natuur kunnen verklaren. Het principe dat hij als oersubstantie poneerde was oneindige, eeuwige en onbepaalde massa, die hij het apeiron (Oudgrieks: τὸ ἄπειρον) noemde. Deze oersubstantie, die niet direct waarneembaar is, maar wel in staat is een antwoord te bieden op alle bestaande tegenstellingen, vormde de basis voor alle stoffen die wij kennen. Hij werkte zijn grondbeginsel niet gedetailleerd uit, maar het principe van het apeiron werd door Anaxagoras, een leerling van Anaximenes, verder onderzocht en geformuleerd. Deze zag het Apeiron als een oorspronkelijke oerchaos. Ook Plato en Augustinus vatten later de theorie van Anaximander op die manier op.
II. Empedocles ca. 492 v.Chr. — ca. 432 v.Chr.
Volgens de legende was Empedocles een self-styled god. die zijn eigen dood teweegbracht door zichzelf in de vulkanische krater te gooien bovenop de Etna om aanhangers van zijn goddelijkheid te overtuigen . Voor zijn tijdgenoten leek hij inderdaad meer dan alleen een sterveling; Aristoteles prees hem naar verluid als de uitvinder van retoriek, en Galenus beschouwde hem als de grondlegger van de Italiaanse geneeskunde. Lucretius bewonderde zijn hexametrische poëzie. Van de verschillende geschriften die aan hem worden toegeschreven, blijven niets anders over dan 400 regels uit zijn gedicht Peri physeōs (“On Nature”) en minder dan 100 verzen uit zijn gedicht Katharmoi (“Purifications”).
Hoewel sterk beïnvloed door Parmenides, die de eenheid van alle dingen benadrukte, nam Empedocles in plaats daarvan aan dat alle materie was samengesteld uit vier essentiële ingrediënten, vuur, lucht, water en aarde, en dat er niets ontstaat of wordt vernietigd maar dat dingen zijn alleen getransformeerd, afhankelijk van de verhouding van basisstoffen, met elkaar. Net als Heracleitus geloofde hij dat twee krachten, Liefde en Strijd, op elkaar inwerken om de vier substanties samen te brengen en te scheiden. Strijd maakt dat elk van deze elementen zich terugtrekt van de anderen; Liefde zorgt ervoor dat ze zich vermengen. De echte wereld bevindt zich in een stadium waarin geen van beide krachten domineert. In het begin was liefde dominant en alle vier de substanties waren met elkaar vermengd; tijdens de vorming van de kosmos ging Strijd binnen om lucht, vuur, aarde en water van elkaar te scheiden. Vervolgens werden de vier elementen op bepaalde plaatsen opnieuw in gedeeltelijke combinaties gerangschikt; bronnen en vulkanen tonen bijvoorbeeld de aanwezigheid van zowel water als vuur in de aarde.
III. Descartes
René Descartes of gelatiniseerd Renatus Cartesius (La Haye en Touraine, 31 maart 1596 – Stockholm, 11 februari 1650) was een uit Frankrijk afkomstige filosoof en wiskundige, die een groot deel van zijn leven in de Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden woonde. Zijn benadering van het probleem van de kennis en de aard van de menselijke geest speelde een belangrijke rol in de ontwikkeling van de filosofie. Hij is met name bekend om zijn uitspraak "Cogito ergo sum" en wordt algemeen beschouwd als de vader van de moderne filosofie. Hij was een van de eersten die de filosofie van Aristoteles niet alleen verwierp, maar ook verving door een eigen filosofisch systeem. Daarmee legde hij de basis voor de 17e-eeuwse stroming van het rationalisme. Descartes was sterk beïnvloed door de vooruitgang in de natuur- en sterrenkunde en een van de centrale figuren van de wetenschappelijke revolutie. Hij gaf voor het eerst een idee van wat de natuurwetenschap in de toekomst zou bieden.
Descartes woonde en werkte 20 jaar in de Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden, waar hij zijn belangrijkste publicaties schreef. In de wiskunde legde hij de basis voor de analytische meetkunde en leverde bijdragen aan de natuurkunde en fysiologie, maar zijn Verhandeling over de methode (1637) behoort tot zijn invloedrijkste werk.
Descartes' methode van en visie op onderzoek kreeg navolging in heel Europa. Zijn werk werd gepropageerd door Baruch Spinoza, Nicolas Malebranche, Gottfried Leibniz en door de wiskundige Frans van Schooten, die een boek over het (wiskundige) werk van Descartes schreef. Er vonden hevige discussies plaats tussen voor- en tegenstanders en in veel gevallen werd het refereren aan het werk van Descartes verboden. Volgens de tegenstanders zou het toepassen van het dualisme van Descartes leiden tot atheïsme. Benoemingen aan de universiteiten waren afhankelijk van het al of niet cartesiaan zijn. Rond 1700 was de aandacht voor de cartesiaanse filosofie voorbij en verschoven naar de dan modernere filosofische systemen van Spinoza, Locke en Leibniz.
IV. Ikzelf
De formulering van een nieuw soort vierdelingsdenken in 1983 - en de uitwerking daarvan in de volgende twee decennia - betekende het begin van een nieuwe, gestructureerde denkwijze, die (door mij) met de term quadralektiek werd aangeduid. Binnen het streven van de filosofie om naar wijsheid te zoeken, was aan het einde van de twintigste eeuw de noodzaak ontstaan om de groeiende (wetenschappelijke) kennis binnen een kader te plaatsen. Een overvloed aan data, die door de computer werden gecreeerd, veroorzaakten op kennisgebied een ware aardverschuiving. De ‘waarheid’ liet zich hierin steeds moeilijker vinden. De mogelijkheid om weer ‘grip’ te krijgen op de werkelijkheid werd – tot mijn grote opluchting - gevonden in een uitbreiding van het delingsdenken.
Een belangrijke toevoeging was de bewustwording, dat de uitbreiding zich afspeelde in een cyclische omgeving. Het cumulatieve effekt van de verbreding wordt niet in een liniaire opstapeling verkregen, maar in een waardering van een verschuiving tussen delen. Om dit te kunnen begrijpen is een ‘gnostisch’ inzicht nodig, een eureka-moment. Als het begrip ‘zichtbaarheid’ (het zijn) eenmaal in de nieuwe context wordt begrepen, komen de filosofische verworvenheden van historische denkers in een heel ander licht te staan. Daarbij is er geen reden om zich tegen hun inzichten te keren. Eerder is er sprake van een integratie binnen de quadralektiek, waarbij iedere gedachtengang – gebaseerd de vorm van het deeldenken – een plaats kan vinden.
Een bijkomende bijzonderheid in een cyclische beweging is het voorspellend vermogen, dat anders is dan in een liniaire omgeving. Zo kan er een verklaring worden gevonden voor bepaalde ‘feiten’ op grond van een analogie met andere cyclische ontwikkelingen. Van dit gebied is nog weinig bekend – mede omdat het om de geloofwaardigheid van de uitgangs-punten gaat. Als de Europese cultuurgeschiedenis – volgens de nieuwe, cyclische methode - wordt vergeleken met de Egyptisch, Griekse en/of Romeinse cultuurperiode kan ons ‘heden’ worden geprojekteerd op genoemde beschavingen. Dan wordt ook duidelijk, dat de quadralektiek nog minstens tachtig tot honderd jaar moet wachten voor het gedachtengoed een historische betekenis zal krijgen. Het zij zo, en misschien denkt nog iemand dan aan mij.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico, Natural Entrance.
The Natural Entrance route descends more than 750 feet into the earth following steep and narrow trails through a tall and spacious trunk passage called the Main Corridor.
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Carlsbad Caverns National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park is the show cave, Carlsbad Cavern. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center.
The park entrance is located on US Highway 62/180, approximately 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Carlsbad Caverns National Park participates in the Junior Ranger Program. The park has two entries on the National Register of Historic Places: The Caverns Historic District and the Rattlesnake Springs Historic District. Approximately two thirds of the park has been set aside as a wilderness area, helping to ensure no future changes will be made to the habitat.
Carlsbad Cavern includes a large limestone chamber, named simply the Big Room, which is almost 4,000 feet (1,220 m) long, 625 feet (191 m) wide, and 255 feet (78 m) high at its highest point. The Big Room is the largest chamber in North America and the thirty-first largest in the world.
An estimated 250 million years ago, the area surrounding Carlsbad Caverns National Park served as the coastline for an inland sea. Present in the sea was a plethora of marine life, whose remains formed a reef. Unlike modern reef growths, the Permian reef contained bryozoans, sponges, and other microorganisms. After the Permian Period, most of the water evaporated and the reef was buried by evaporites and other sediments. Tectonic movement occurred during the late Cenozoic, uplifting the reef above ground. Susceptible to erosion, water sculpted the Guadalupe Mountain region into its present-day state.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is situated in a bed of limestone above groundwater level. During cavern development, it was within the groundwater zone. Deep below the limestones are petroleum reserves (part of the Mid-Continent Oil Field). At a time near the end of the Cenozoic, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) began to seep upwards from the petroleum into the groundwater. The combination of hydrogen sulfide and oxygen from the water formed sulfuric acid: H2S + 2O2 → H2SO4. The sulfuric acid then continued upward, aggressively dissolving the limestone deposits to form caverns. The presence of gypsum within the cave is a confirmation of the occurrence of this process, as it is a byproduct of the reaction between sulfuric acid and limestone.
Once the acidic groundwater drained from the caverns, speleothems began to be deposited within the cavern. Erosion above ground created the natural entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns within the last million years. Exposure to the surface has allowed for the influx of air into the cavern. Rainwater and snowmelt percolating downward into the ground pick up carbon dioxide; once this water reaches a cavern ceiling, it precipitates and evaporates, leaving behind a small calcium carbonate deposit. Growths from the roof downward formed through this process are known as stalactites. Additionally, water on the floor of the caverns can contain carbonic acid and generate mineral deposits by evaporation. Growths from the floor upward through this process are known as stalagmites. Different formations of speleothems include columns, soda straws, draperies, helictites, and popcorn. Changes in the ambient air temperature and rainfall affect the rate of growth of speleothems, as higher temperatures increase carbon dioxide production rates within the overlying soil. The color of the speleothems is determined by the trace constituents in the minerals of the formation (Wikipedia).
Much of Italy still uses noticeboards, so every now and then you come across one like this, where the traces of death announcements, political campaigns, circus adverts and so on, lie exposed until the next thing covers them.
ca. 1928-1933.
THE PALIMPSEST, APRIL, 1932
FROM BELLEVUE TO CASCADE
Beside the North Fork of the Maquoketa River, situated on the line between Jackson and Dubuque counties, lies the town of Cascade. As a pioneer village it was neglected by all the early railroad building activities, and the lack of such transportation threatened for a generation to doom the community to oblivion.
At intervals for thirty years, various projected railroad schemes included Cascade on their route, only to fail, one by one, leaving the community in deeper despair. The earliest of these proposed roads was the “Ram’s-Horn”, first broached in 1848. It was to have extended from Keokuk to Dubuque by way of Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Cascade. An “air line” directly across Iowa, passing from Bellevue through Cascade, was suggested, but interest in this road was soon overshadowed by a more promising “Southwestern” route from Dubuque, which likewise pledged a station at Cascade. The organization of the Davenport and St. Paul seemed promising but it “also went up in thin air”.
If ever a community had reasons to feel discouraged Cascade certainly did. Outside aid had apparently failed, and it seemed that the town would have to build the railroad if there was ever to be one. Various citizens bestirred themselves.
On October 13, 1876, Dr. W. H. Francis of Cascade wrote to Captain M. R. Brown of Bellevue concerning the feasibility of constructing a narrow gauge road from Bellevue to Cascade. The matter “met with instant favorable response on the part of the people of Bellevue.” All winter the subject was discussed. On March 9, 1877, a meeting was held by the citizens of Bellevue for the purpose of organizing and financing a preliminary survey for a narrow gauge road to Cascade.
Not until August 4, 1877, however, was the Chicago, Bellevue, Cascade and Western Railroad Company organized at Bellevue. This arrangement was apparently not entirely satisfactory, for another meeting was held at Garrytown and a third at Cascade on August 30th when final details were settled. Officers and a board of directors, including three men from each township on the route of the proposed road, were elected. It appears that capable, energetic men were chosen, who believed that the road could actually be built. From the name of the company it may be assumed that the promoters held high hopes that the new railroad might eventually become an important link in a trunk line across the State connecting with the Milwaukee narrow gauge then building westward to Galena from the lakes.
The project was eyed jealously by Dubuque, for the “gate city” did not welcome competition at Bellevue. According to a Cascade Pioneer editorial in September, 1877, D. A. Mahony was urging “the business men and capitalists of Dubuque to take active steps to build, or assist in building a Narrow Gauge Railway to Cascade,” and warning them that “the loss of the trade of the southern part of the county” would be incalculable. He warned his fellow citizens that Cascade was “putting her shoulder to the wheel” in behalf of the Bellevue project.
“The time for action has come,” declared the editor of the Pioneer, “and our people have organized for a purpose, and that purpose is to secure a home market for the products of the surrounding country, and an outlet for other markets” by establishing rail connections with the grain market at Galena to the east and with the thriving cities on the Missouri River. “We understand”, he continued, “that Dubuque business men scoff at the very idea of the people of this section having the financial ability to construct the road. We beg to differ with them on that point, and refer them to the directory elected to manage the organization who alone if they chose to, or were required to furnish the capital could construct the line between Cascade & Bellevue.”
Even in those times, however, when the wages of unskilled labor were as low as fifty cents a day, railroad building was expensive, and few roads were completed without one or more reorganizations. The capitalization of the company was fixed at $200,000, and stock was distributed in sums ranging from $5000 to a few shares held by enthusiastic boosters along the way, some of whom, not having the money to pay, arranged to assist by working out their subsections with teams and labor. In 1878, a tax was voted in Bellevue and in various townships along the route. The people of Bellevue were particularly loyal in their financial support of the new road, as they felt such a railroad would be advantageous in securing the relocation of the county seat at that place.
Perhaps the most important task confronting railroad builders was the location of the route. The determination of the grade between Bellevue and Cascade was particularly difficult, for the altitude of the river town was only about six hundred feet above sea level while the table land only a few miles to the west attained an elevation of eleven hundred feet. But the financial support which might be expected from the various communities that were directly benefited was as important as the engineering factors in determining the location of the right of way.
At the lower end of Bellevue, Mill Creek empties into the Mississippi, and it was the valley of this little stream that afforded the only practicable opportunity of reaching the prairies inland. For a distance of about two miles, the line runs on the north side of Mill Creek, then crosses to the south side for about three miles, and thence returns to the north side, climbing steadily all the while until it emerges upon the uplands. Passing on westward with a great sweeping S curve, the road reaches the first station at the town of La Motte, eleven miles from Bellevue. A mile and a half east of La Motte is a long siding which is used for “doubling”, since the grade ascends there at the rate of about one hundred feet per mile.
Beyond La Motte the topography of the country is of bold relief, and the line contains many stiff grades and sharp curves. Passing Zwingle slightly more than four miles west of La Motte, the line continues down grade to Washington Mills on Otter Creek, twenty-two miles from Bellevue. About fourteen miles from Bellevue, the road passes into Dubuque County and thence along the county line between Dubuque and Jackson counties through Bernard and Fillmore to Cascade. At two sharp curves the right of way dips over into Jackson County for a distance of about a mile in each instance. Nineteen and sixteenths miles of the entire route lies in Dubuque County and sixteen miles in Jackson.
With very little ready cash in the treasury but with unswerving faith that the job could actually be accomplished, the directors launched bravely upon their undertaking and on September 19, 1878, the first ground was broken at Cascade. According to the Cascade Pioneer, it was an event “that will never be forgotten by the present generation. It was a grand gala day for Cascade and five thousand people were present to participate in the happy occasion.” The line was partially graded in Washington Mills, and some work was done at Zwingle and La Motte that year.
By the close of the season, however, the cash was practically exhausted and reorganization was imminent. On January 7, 1879, J. W. Tripp resigned the office of president whereupon Vice president James Hill assumed the management until March 1st, when he was made president. On May 9th, George Runkel, acting in behalf of J. F. Joy, a Detroit capitalist, proposed to take over the unfinished road and complete it without further delay, the offer was accepted and the old company’s franchise was transferred at Zwingle on May 17th to the Joy interest, operating under the name of the Chicago, Clinton, Dubuque & Minnesota Railroad Company. The new management prosecuted the work of construction with vigor, and on January 1, 1880, the road was completed from Bellevue to Cascade.
“At Last We Have It!” proudly announced the Cascade Pioneer. “On Monday it became apparent that the track would be completed to the town on Tuesday. Although no general celebration was announced, yet a large number of people gathered at the depot to see the last rail laid and the train come in. The laying of the track to the depot was completed at noon. Engineer Allen Woodward and his fireman, Sam Elmer, on No. 2, were patiently waiting for the completion of a switch east of the depot, while an immense crowd of men and boys occupied every available space on the cars, to enjoy their first ride on the narrow gauge.”
As soon as the switch was completed, “Woodward seized the bar of the throttle valve of No. 2” and backed the train up the track “as far as the O’Brien place,” then, reversing the lever, he “sent the little engine flying towards Cascade, and in a few minutes drew up at the depot” where a cheer of welcome went up from the multitude. Vice-president Runkel honored the members of the press by inviting them to ride in the cab of the engine. Among the number were John Blanchard of the Monticello Express, Tom Duffy of the Dubuque Herald, and the editor of the Pioneer.
More than fifty years have now elapsed since the celebration of this notable event in the history of Cascade, but the little narrow gauge trains still make their daily trip from Bellevue and return. At seven in the morning, after the arrival of the mail at Bellevue, the little engine and cars, constituting the mixed train, begin their “up” trip, which is made on the leisurely schedule of ten miles per hour. Between stations, however, considerably greater speed is attained than the schedule indicates, as one hour is allowed for climbing the steep grade up Mill Creek to La Motte. When business is heavy or the track is slippery, this is accomplished by “doubling”. The train is divided and part is taken up and side tracked at the summit while the engine and crew return to the bottom of the hill for the remainder of the train.
There is always considerable switching at the stations en route, “spotting” cars at the elevators, coal sheds, and stock-yard platforms, as well as the work of loading and unloading the local freight at the depots. Much of the schedules time is consumed in this manner, especially at Cascade where one hour and ten minutes is allowed for the turn around and work in the yards. At 11:25 A. M. the train begins its “down” trip to Bellevue, where it arrives in due time at 2:40 P.M.
A ride on the downward journey is a delightful experience. At places the train travels high on the edge of a precipitous bluff where wonderful vistas greet the eye in every direction. Again the track leads through deep valleys close to a crystal clear, gurgling little stream, hemmed in on either side by rocky ledges. But most of the way the route is across open farming country, more prosaic though none the less beautiful.
For the amount and quality of service expected, the road is well equipped with motive power and rolling stock. There are in use about fifty box cars, thirty-eight stock cars, twenty-six coal and flat cars, and one caboose. The passenger equipment consists of two coaches both of the combination express and passenger variety. Four engines, numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, constitute the motive power of the road. A rotary snow plow is used to remove the deep drifts from the numerous cuts through the hills. The engines are of regular type, one with four drivers and three with six drivers about four feet in diameter. They are all equipped with automatic couplers and air brakes. Occasionally, when in need of repairs, they are loaded on a specially constructed flat car and transported to the Milwaukee engine shops at Dubuque or Marquette where they are repaired without being removed from the car.
Compared with modern transportation units, the little engines, cars, and coaches seem Lilliputian, yet for the territory served they are adequate. The trains are operated as efficiently and perhaps more economically than their more impressive neighbors out on the main line. Freight has to be transferred at the Bellevue terminal. Two small coal cars are required to handle the standard load of thirty tons, five narrow gauge box cars of grain fill only one large box car, and two narrow gauge stock cars make up one standard gauge carload of hogs or cattle. Formerly the task of loading and unloading was all done by hand and sometimes as many as ten or twelve men were employed in this operation, but in recent years modern machinery has been installed. A clam-shell bucket loader is used for transferring coal, and belt conveyors for grain and corn.
There can be no doubt that the building of the narrow gauge saved the life of Cascade. In 1876 it was only a straggling village, “lazying along side of a sandy street”. It had once been a way station on the Western Stage Company line, “but that means of transportation had long ceased to exit, when the railroads came west of the Mississippi river.” Only the existence of a few churches seemed to hold the town together. Then along came Isaac W. Baldwin with a few cases of type and a Washington hand press. Apparently “he had bout as much excuse for running a newspaper in this village as he would have had peddling peanuts in a grave yard”, but he exerted a decisive influence on public opinion by his Pioneer editorials. Cascade got its railroad, and in consequence grew into a prosperous community of more than twelve hundred inhabitants.
From time to time there have been several attempts to induce the Milwaukee to transform the road into a standard gauge, but the company has always maintained that the business was not sufficient to warrant the unusual expense due to the topography of the country.
Thus the sole survivor of the narrow gauge railroads in Iowa continues to function, perpetuating the history of an early phase of railroading. Tourists in northeastern Iowa who come across the Bellevue-Cascade railroad for the first time find it an interesting surprise. What impresses them as an amusing curiosity is none the less a genuine railroad of vital importance to a number of substantial communities
Suggests a blacksmiths that later turned to car repairs. The word "Fahrzeug" can be made out on the left of the sign
Hill Country State Natural Area (HCSNA) preserves 5,369 acres (21.73 km2) of rugged, relatively pristine Hill Country terrain in Bandera County, Texas. It was first opened to the public in 1984. Since HCSNA is designated a "Natural Area" rather than a "State Park", the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's first priority is the maintenance and preservation of the property's natural state. Accordingly, facilities are purposely somewhat primitive and recreational activities may be curtailed if the TPWD deems it necessary to protect the environment.
Hill Country State Natural Area is located on the border of Bandera County and Medina County, approximately 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Bandera, Texas, 20 miles (32 km) north of Hondo, Texas, and 45 miles (72 km) west-northwest of San Antonio, Texas.
Address: 10600 Bandera Creek Road, Bandera, TX 78003
Set in the scenic hills and canyons typical of the Texas Hill Country, the preserve lies about ten miles north of the Balcones escarpment and within the Balcones Fault Zone. The elevation ranges from approximately 1,280 to 2,000 feet (390 to 610 m). The local Woodard Cave Fault runs through the property on a general east-west line. The terrain of the area consists of eroded limestone hills and mesas, typical landforms of the Hill Country. There are also relatively flat bottomland areas surrounding the small creeks that drain the property. The local bedrock is exposed throughout much of the preserve. The highest hilltops, and the lower hills in the southern part of the Natural Area, are capped by fairly resistant limestone of the Fort Terret formation within the Edwards Group, which is the dominant bedrock of the Edwards Plateau to the north. The rest of the preserve lies atop the softer, more easily eroded Upper Glen Rose Formation, also a limestone.
The Natural Area supports eight recognized plant community types and over 450 plant species. The majority of the preserve is covered by Texas live oak (Quercus fusiformis) and Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei)...commonly called "mountain cedar"... woodlands, live oak savannah, Texas red oak (Quercus buckleyi) woodlands, and open grasslands composed primarily of sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). Smaller communities include stands of Lacey oak (Quercus laceyi), pecan (Carya illinoinensis)-sugarberry (Celtis laevigata) groves, and gramagrass-switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) grasslands, as well as fields of sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri). The natural vegetation of the property, like much of the Texas Hill Country, has suffered from overgrazing and the introduction of invasive species like exotic King Ranch bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum var. songarica).
HCSNA affords good opportunities for bird watching. Over 160 species of birds have been sighted in the preserve, including two bird species classified as endangered: the golden-cheeked warbler (Dendroica chrysoparia) and the black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapilla).
As in much of the Hill Country, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are by far the most common large mammal on the property. Wild turkeys, armadillos, skunks, raccoons, opossums, cottontail rabbits, jack rabbits, and fox squirrels are also present. Feral pigs, exotic fallow and axis deer, porcupines, rock squirrels, and ringtailed cats can occasionally be encountered. Bobcats, coyotes, both red and grey foxes, and rarely, mountain lions, inhabit the area, but are seldom seen by visitors.
The land within the preserve has been inhabited for several thousand years, and a number of Native American artifacts have been found on the property, including human remains. After the arrival of European settlers in the mid-1800s, the area became part of a working ranch. The bottomlands were converted to cropland and the remainder was used for grazing. Eventually becoming the Bar-O Ranch, several parcels of land were subsequently donated by Louise Merrick between 1976 and 1982 to establish the Hill Country State Natural Area. Ms. Merrick stipulated that the property was “to be kept far removed and untouched by modern civilization, where everything is preserved intact, yet put to a useful purpose.” The preserve was opened to the public in 1984 with 4,753 acres (19.23 km2). In 1986 a further 616 acres (2.49 km2) were acquired, bringing the total size to the current 5,369 acres (21.73 km2).
HCSNA has over 40 miles (64 km) of multi-use trails and permits hiking, biking and horseback riding. Equestrian facilities are available (see the TPWD - Hill Country State Natural Area website in the External links below for more details). Several dude ranches adjoin the property and regularly lead hikes and trail rides through the Natural Area. The picturesque, but intermittent, West Verde Creek runs through the preserve, allowing for swimming and fishing when water levels are high enough. For herd management purposes, TPWD conducts controlled deer hunting by a limited number of hunters during a few weekends each season. HCSNA also hosts the annual Bandera 100 km ultramarathon run in January.
Consistent with its designation as a natural area, the site is deliberately left largely undeveloped and natural, relative to a typical state park. Camping is limited to nine walk-in campsites, three small hike-in camping areas, and five equestrian campsites with horse pens. The campsites and camping areas lack sewer, electric, and potable water hookups. There is a group lodge with electric hookups, but it also lacks potable water (Wikipedia).
The last of the Palimpsest sequence. The idea of virtual travel was developed during the Corona World War III, starting March 2020, with far-reaching measures to restrict personal freedom, cultural interaction and travel worldwide.
The War of Fear - which I already predicted some ten years ago - started with a virus but was driven by fear:
See: Chapter 4.2.3. Citadels and Castle of my book:
Quadralectic Architecture (2011) - Fig. 755 (p. 906) - The position of the prominence of fear as a psychological entity on the universal communication graph compared to an average human life of a duration of eighty years (upper figures) and to a projection of the European cultural history (lower figures).
Drawings derived from the tales in Ovid's 'Metaporphoses' provided a primary means of escape, collected in four albums:
1. Sailing to Megara (January 2020)
2. Conversations with Persephone (Febr. 2020)
3. Passing the shallow Pools of Cephisus (April 2020)
4. Roaming the Lands of the Peneus/Transformations (April 2020)
The album 'Harvest 2020' kept the creative process going (January 2021). A 'Via Crucis' was invented consisting of 14 stages (of approximately 120 km each) from de Tankenberg (Twente) to Tivoli (Rome).
The idea to use 'palimpsest' material was tried before (May 2020), but took a major flight with 'The Visit to a Picture Exhibition' (February 2021).
At present an Albelli-album of 120 pages is being prepared to bring the Corona Travel Quadrilogue Collection to an end:
1. Visit to a picture exhibition (#1 - #44); (February2021)
2. From Cripple Creek to the Yukon (#45 - 62); (March 2021)
3. 444 Miles Down the Susquehanna (#63 - 94); (March 2021)
4. Going South, #95 - 140. (April 2021)
Pinnacle Overlook - Susquehannock State Park
Pinnacle Overlook is a satellite site of the Susquehannock State Park Complex that offers sweeping views of the Susquehanna River’s Lake Aldred and provides a good place to access the Kelly’s Run Trail System and the Conestoga Trail System. Panoramic views of the Susquehanna River can be seen from the 380 feet high overlook of the park complex.
Pinnacle Road, Holtwood, PA 17532
Ghost sign on a wall in Owosso, Michigan. This sign is at least two ads on top of one another. One is for Quaker Oats and the other is for Mail Pouch Tobacco.
Waterfall in the Lincoln National Forest, Sacramento Mountains, outside of Cloudcroft, New Mexico - Near the Tunnel.
June, 1936, engine "The Ox."
THE PALIMPSEST, APRIL, 1932
FROM BELLEVUE TO CASCADE
Beside the North Fork of the Maquoketa River, situated on the line between Jackson and Dubuque counties, lies the town of Cascade. As a pioneer village it was neglected by all the early railroad building activities, and the lack of such transportation threatened for a generation to doom the community to oblivion.
At intervals for thirty years, various projected railroad schemes included Cascade on their route, only to fail, one by one, leaving the community in deeper despair. The earliest of these proposed roads was the “Ram’s-Horn”, first broached in 1848. It was to have extended from Keokuk to Dubuque by way of Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Cascade. An “air line” directly across Iowa, passing from Bellevue through Cascade, was suggested, but interest in this road was soon overshadowed by a more promising “Southwestern” route from Dubuque, which likewise pledged a station at Cascade. The organization of the Davenport and St. Paul seemed promising but it “also went up in thin air”.
If ever a community had reasons to feel discouraged Cascade certainly did. Outside aid had apparently failed, and it seemed that the town would have to build the railroad if there was ever to be one. Various citizens bestirred themselves.
On October 13, 1876, Dr. W. H. Francis of Cascade wrote to Captain M. R. Brown of Bellevue concerning the feasibility of constructing a narrow gauge road from Bellevue to Cascade. The matter “met with instant favorable response on the part of the people of Bellevue.” All winter the subject was discussed. On March 9, 1877, a meeting was held by the citizens of Bellevue for the purpose of organizing and financing a preliminary survey for a narrow gauge road to Cascade.
Not until August 4, 1877, however, was the Chicago, Bellevue, Cascade and Western Railroad Company organized at Bellevue. This arrangement was apparently not entirely satisfactory, for another meeting was held at Garrytown and a third at Cascade on August 30th when final details were settled. Officers and a board of directors, including three men from each township on the route of the proposed road, were elected. It appears that capable, energetic men were chosen, who believed that the road could actually be built. From the name of the company it may be assumed that the promoters held high hopes that the new railroad might eventually become an important link in a trunk line across the State connecting with the Milwaukee narrow gauge then building westward to Galena from the lakes.
The project was eyed jealously by Dubuque, for the “gate city” did not welcome competition at Bellevue. According to a Cascade Pioneer editorial in September, 1877, D. A. Mahony was urging “the business men and capitalists of Dubuque to take active steps to build, or assist in building a Narrow Gauge Railway to Cascade,” and warning them that “the loss of the trade of the southern part of the county” would be incalculable. He warned his fellow citizens that Cascade was “putting her shoulder to the wheel” in behalf of the Bellevue project.
“The time for action has come,” declared the editor of the Pioneer, “and our people have organized for a purpose, and that purpose is to secure a home market for the products of the surrounding country, and an outlet for other markets” by establishing rail connections with the grain market at Galena to the east and with the thriving cities on the Missouri River. “We understand”, he continued, “that Dubuque business men scoff at the very idea of the people of this section having the financial ability to construct the road. We beg to differ with them on that point, and refer them to the directory elected to manage the organization who alone if they chose to, or were required to furnish the capital could construct the line between Cascade & Bellevue.”
Even in those times, however, when the wages of unskilled labor were as low as fifty cents a day, railroad building was expensive, and few roads were completed without one or more reorganizations. The capitalization of the company was fixed at $200,000, and stock was distributed in sums ranging from $5000 to a few shares held by enthusiastic boosters along the way, some of whom, not having the money to pay, arranged to assist by working out their subsections with teams and labor. In 1878, a tax was voted in Bellevue and in various townships along the route. The people of Bellevue were particularly loyal in their financial support of the new road, as they felt such a railroad would be advantageous in securing the relocation of the county seat at that place.
Perhaps the most important task confronting railroad builders was the location of the route. The determination of the grade between Bellevue and Cascade was particularly difficult, for the altitude of the river town was only about six hundred feet above sea level while the table land only a few miles to the west attained an elevation of eleven hundred feet. But the financial support which might be expected from the various communities that were directly benefited was as important as the engineering factors in determining the location of the right of way.
At the lower end of Bellevue, Mill Creek empties into the Mississippi, and it was the valley of this little stream that afforded the only practicable opportunity of reaching the prairies inland. For a distance of about two miles, the line runs on the north side of Mill Creek, then crosses to the south side for about three miles, and thence returns to the north side, climbing steadily all the while until it emerges upon the uplands. Passing on westward with a great sweeping S curve, the road reaches the first station at the town of La Motte, eleven miles from Bellevue. A mile and a half east of La Motte is a long siding which is used for “doubling”, since the grade ascends there at the rate of about one hundred feet per mile.
Beyond La Motte the topography of the country is of bold relief, and the line contains many stiff grades and sharp curves. Passing Zwingle slightly more than four miles west of La Motte, the line continues down grade to Washington Mills on Otter Creek, twenty-two miles from Bellevue. About fourteen miles from Bellevue, the road passes into Dubuque County and thence along the county line between Dubuque and Jackson counties through Bernard and Fillmore to Cascade. At two sharp curves the right of way dips over into Jackson County for a distance of about a mile in each instance. Nineteen and sixteenths miles of the entire route lies in Dubuque County and sixteen miles in Jackson.
With very little ready cash in the treasury but with unswerving faith that the job could actually be accomplished, the directors launched bravely upon their undertaking and on September 19, 1878, the first ground was broken at Cascade. According to the Cascade Pioneer, it was an event “that will never be forgotten by the present generation. It was a grand gala day for Cascade and five thousand people were present to participate in the happy occasion.” The line was partially graded in Washington Mills, and some work was done at Zwingle and La Motte that year.
By the close of the season, however, the cash was practically exhausted and reorganization was imminent. On January 7, 1879, J. W. Tripp resigned the office of president whereupon Vice president James Hill assumed the management until March 1st, when he was made president. On May 9th, George Runkel, acting in behalf of J. F. Joy, a Detroit capitalist, proposed to take over the unfinished road and complete it without further delay, the offer was accepted and the old company’s franchise was transferred at Zwingle on May 17th to the Joy interest, operating under the name of the Chicago, Clinton, Dubuque & Minnesota Railroad Company. The new management prosecuted the work of construction with vigor, and on January 1, 1880, the road was completed from Bellevue to Cascade.
“At Last We Have It!” proudly announced the Cascade Pioneer. “On Monday it became apparent that the track would be completed to the town on Tuesday. Although no general celebration was announced, yet a large number of people gathered at the depot to see the last rail laid and the train come in. The laying of the track to the depot was completed at noon. Engineer Allen Woodward and his fireman, Sam Elmer, on No. 2, were patiently waiting for the completion of a switch east of the depot, while an immense crowd of men and boys occupied every available space on the cars, to enjoy their first ride on the narrow gauge.”
As soon as the switch was completed, “Woodward seized the bar of the throttle valve of No. 2” and backed the train up the track “as far as the O’Brien place,” then, reversing the lever, he “sent the little engine flying towards Cascade, and in a few minutes drew up at the depot” where a cheer of welcome went up from the multitude. Vice-president Runkel honored the members of the press by inviting them to ride in the cab of the engine. Among the number were John Blanchard of the Monticello Express, Tom Duffy of the Dubuque Herald, and the editor of the Pioneer.
More than fifty years have now elapsed since the celebration of this notable event in the history of Cascade, but the little narrow gauge trains still make their daily trip from Bellevue and return. At seven in the morning, after the arrival of the mail at Bellevue, the little engine and cars, constituting the mixed train, begin their “up” trip, which is made on the leisurely schedule of ten miles per hour. Between stations, however, considerably greater speed is attained than the schedule indicates, as one hour is allowed for climbing the steep grade up Mill Creek to La Motte. When business is heavy or the track is slippery, this is accomplished by “doubling”. The train is divided and part is taken up and side tracked at the summit while the engine and crew return to the bottom of the hill for the remainder of the train.
There is always considerable switching at the stations en route, “spotting” cars at the elevators, coal sheds, and stock-yard platforms, as well as the work of loading and unloading the local freight at the depots. Much of the schedules time is consumed in this manner, especially at Cascade where one hour and ten minutes is allowed for the turn around and work in the yards. At 11:25 A. M. the train begins its “down” trip to Bellevue, where it arrives in due time at 2:40 P.M.
A ride on the downward journey is a delightful experience. At places the train travels high on the edge of a precipitous bluff where wonderful vistas greet the eye in every direction. Again the track leads through deep valleys close to a crystal clear, gurgling little stream, hemmed in on either side by rocky ledges. But most of the way the route is across open farming country, more prosaic though none the less beautiful.
For the amount and quality of service expected, the road is well equipped with motive power and rolling stock. There are in use about fifty box cars, thirty-eight stock cars, twenty-six coal and flat cars, and one caboose. The passenger equipment consists of two coaches both of the combination express and passenger variety. Four engines, numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, constitute the motive power of the road. A rotary snow plow is used to remove the deep drifts from the numerous cuts through the hills. The engines are of regular type, one with four drivers and three with six drivers about four feet in diameter. They are all equipped with automatic couplers and air brakes. Occasionally, when in need of repairs, they are loaded on a specially constructed flat car and transported to the Milwaukee engine shops at Dubuque or Marquette where they are repaired without being removed from the car.
Compared with modern transportation units, the little engines, cars, and coaches seem Lilliputian, yet for the territory served they are adequate. The trains are operated as efficiently and perhaps more economically than their more impressive neighbors out on the main line. Freight has to be transferred at the Bellevue terminal. Two small coal cars are required to handle the standard load of thirty tons, five narrow gauge box cars of grain fill only one large box car, and two narrow gauge stock cars make up one standard gauge carload of hogs or cattle. Formerly the task of loading and unloading was all done by hand and sometimes as many as ten or twelve men were employed in this operation, but in recent years modern machinery has been installed. A clam-shell bucket loader is used for transferring coal, and belt conveyors for grain and corn.
There can be no doubt that the building of the narrow gauge saved the life of Cascade. In 1876 it was only a straggling village, “lazying along side of a sandy street”. It had once been a way station on the Western Stage Company line, “but that means of transportation had long ceased to exit, when the railroads came west of the Mississippi river.” Only the existence of a few churches seemed to hold the town together. Then along came Isaac W. Baldwin with a few cases of type and a Washington hand press. Apparently “he had bout as much excuse for running a newspaper in this village as he would have had peddling peanuts in a grave yard”, but he exerted a decisive influence on public opinion by his Pioneer editorials. Cascade got its railroad, and in consequence grew into a prosperous community of more than twelve hundred inhabitants.
From time to time there have been several attempts to induce the Milwaukee to transform the road into a standard gauge, but the company has always maintained that the business was not sufficient to warrant the unusual expense due to the topography of the country.
Thus the sole survivor of the narrow gauge railroads in Iowa continues to function, perpetuating the history of an early phase of railroading. Tourists in northeastern Iowa who come across the Bellevue-Cascade railroad for the first time find it an interesting surprise. What impresses them as an amusing curiosity is none the less a genuine railroad of vital importance to a number of substantial communities
Lincoln National Forest is a unit of the U.S. Forest Service located in southern New Mexico. Established by Presidential Proclamation in 1902 as the Lincoln Forest Reserve, the 1,103,897 acres (4,467.31 km2) forest begins near the Texas border and contains lands in parts of Chaves, Eddy, Lincoln, and Otero counties. The three Ranger Districts within the forest contain all or part of four mountain ranges, and include a variety of different environmental areas, from desert to heavily forested mountains and sub-alpine grasslands. Established to balance conservation, resource management, and recreation, the lands of the Lincoln National Forest include important local timber resources, protected wilderness areas, and popular recreation and winter sports areas. The forest headquarters is located in Alamogordo, N.M. with local offices in Carlsbad, Cloudcroft, and Ruidoso.
The land was inhabited in pre-Columbian times by the Niit'a-héõde band of the Mescalero Apache. The modern Lincoln National Forest traces its origins to several different forest reserves and national forests designated in the 1902-1908 period. These included the Lincoln Forest Reserve, a 545,256 acre area established July 26, 1902 around Capitan and Lincoln, the 78,480 acre Gallinas Forest Reserve established on November 5, 1906 in the Gallinas Mountains west of Gallinas, the Guadalupe National Forest, established April 19, 1907 in the mountains along the Texas border, and the Sacramento National Forest, created on April 24, 1907 to reserve the forested heights of the Sacramento Mountains near Alamogordo. Scattered throughout south-central New Mexico, these individual units contained lands in the Guadalupe, Sacramento, Sierra Blanca/White Mountains, Capitan and Gallinas ranges, and encompassed environments from the desert shrubs at the floor of the Chihuahuan Desert through forests of Piñon, Pine and Juniper to sub-alpine grasslands above the tree-line.
The process of integrating these individual units into a single, unified National Forest began in July 1908, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed Executive Order 908, which combined a number of national forests in the Southwestern states into larger units. One of the first foresters was Arthur Ringland who later founded the international relief organization, CARE. One element of this order was to add the Gallinas National Forest, a tract of land around the Gallinas Mountains west of Corona, New Mexico to the existing Lincoln National Forest. Another element of Roosevelt's Executive Order that would have a great impact on the development of the Lincoln National Forest was the decision to combine the existing Guadalupe and Sacramento National Forests into the Alamo National Forest. A wholly new administrative unit, the Alamo National Forest was headquartered in Alamogordo and led by inaugural Forest Supervisor Arthur M. Neal.
Nearly nine years later, on June 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed an Executive order that transferred the lands of the Alamo National Forest to the control of the Lincoln National Forest. As a result of this order, the main elements of the Alamo National Forest, the public lands around the Sacramento and Guadalupe Mountains, were transferred to the Lincoln, greatly expanding its size. The last major change in the Forest's boundaries came in 1945, when administrative control of the former Gallinas National Forest was transferred from the Lincoln to the sprawling Cibola National Forest. Officially transferred in 1958. the Gallinas area was renamed the Mountainair Ranger District, with its headquarters in Mountainair (Wikipedia).