Port Huron, Michigan
Port Huron is a city in the U. S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County; the population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is administratively autonomous. Located along the St. Clair River, it is connected to Point Edward, Ontario in Canada via the Blue Water Bridge; the city is the easternmost point on land in Michigan. Port Huron is home to two paper mills, Mueller Brass, many businesses related to tourism and the automotive industry; the city features a historic downtown area, marina, museum and the McMorran Place arena and entertainment complex. This area was long occupied by the Ojibwa people. French colonists had a temporary trading fort at this site in the 17th century. In 1814 following the War of 1812, the United States established Fort Gratiot at the base of Lake Huron. A community developed around it; the early 19th century was the first time a settlement developed with a permanent European-American population. Until 1836, an Ojibwa reservation occupied land in part of the modern area of Port Huron.
They were removed by the United States to west of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. In 1857, Port Huron became incorporated, its population grew after the 1850s due a high rate of immigration attracted by the successful shipbuilding and lumber industries. In 1859 the city had a total of 4,031 residents. By 1870, Port Huron's population exceeded that of surrounding villages. In 1871, the State Supreme Court designated Port Huron as the county seat. On October 8, 1871, the city, as well as places north in Sanilac and Huron counties, burned in the Port Huron Fire of 1871. A series of other fires leveled Holland and Manistee, Michigan, as well as Peshtigo and Chicago on the same day; the Thumb Fire that occurred a decade also engulfed Port Huron. In 1895 the village of Fort Gratiot, in the vicinity of the former Fort Gratiot, was annexed by the city of Port Huron; the following historic sites have been recognized by the State of Michigan through its historic marker program. Fort St. Joseph; the fort was built in 1686 by the French explorer Duluth.
This fort was the second European settlement in lower Michigan. This post guarded the upper end of the St. Clair River, the vital waterway joining Lake Erie and Lake Huron. Intended by the French to bar English traders from the upper lakes, the fort in 1687 was the base of a garrison of French and Indians. In 1688 the French abandoned this fort; the site was incorporated into Fort Gratiot in 1814. A park has been established at the former site of the fort. Fort Gratiot Light; the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse was built in 1829 to replace a tower destroyed by a storm. In the 1860s workers extended the tower to its present height of 84 feet; the light, automated in 1933, continues to guide shipping on Lake Huron into the narrow and swift-flowing St. Clair River, it was the first lighthouse established in the State of Michigan. Lightship Huron. From 1935 until 1970, the Huron was stationed in southern Lake Huron to mark dangerous shoals. After 1940 the Huron was the only lightship operating on the Great Lakes.
Retired from Coast Guard Service in 1970, she was presented to the City of Port Huron in 1971. Grand Trunk Railway Depot; the depot, now part of the Port Huron Museum, is where 12-year-old Thomas Edison departed daily on the Port Huron – Detroit run. In 1859, the railroad's first year of operation, Edison convinced the railroad company to let him sell newspapers and confections on the daily trips, he became so successful. He made enough money to buy chemicals and other experimental materials. Port Huron Public Library. In 1902 the city of Port Huron secured money from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to erect a municipal library. In 1904, a grand Beaux-Arts-style structure was built at a cost of $45,000. At its dedication, Melvil Dewey, creator of a used book classification system, delivered the opening address; the Port Huron Public Library served in its original capacity for over sixty years. In 1967, a larger public library was constructed; the following year the former library was renovated and re-opened as the Port Huron Museum of Arts and History.
An addition was constructed in 1988. Harrington Hotel; the Hotel opened in 1896 and is a blend of Romanesque and Queen Anne architecture. The hotel closed in 1986, but a group of investors bought the structure that same year to convert it into housing for senior citizens; the Harrington Hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Grand Trunk Western Railroad Tunnel; the tunnel links Port Huron with Canada. This international submarine railway tunnel was the first international tunnel in the world; the tunnel's total length is 6,025 feet, with 2,290 feet underwater. The tunnel operations were electrified in 1908. Tracks were lowered in 1949 to accommodate larger freight cars. During World War I, a plot to blast the tunnel was foiled. A new tunnel has since been opened; the city received the All-America City Award in 1955 and 2005. Port Huron is the only site in Michigan; the event is now memorialized. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.26 square miles, of which 8.08 square miles is land and 4.18 square miles is water.
The city is considered to be part of the Thumb area of East-Central Michigan called the Blue Water Area. The easternmost point of Michigan can be found in Port Huron, near the site of the Municip
Michigan
Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The state's name, originates from the Ojibwe word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". With a population of about 10 million, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area, is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River, its capital is Lansing, its largest city is Detroit. Metro Detroit is among the nation's largest metropolitan economies. Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas; the Lower Peninsula is noted as shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan; the Mackinac Bridge connects the peninsulas. The state has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair; as a result, it is one of the leading U.
S. states for recreational boating. Michigan has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds. A person in the state is never more than six miles from a natural water source or more than 85 miles from a Great Lakes shoreline; the area was first occupied by a succession of Native American tribes over thousands of years. Inhabited by Natives, Métis, French explorers in the 17th century, it was claimed as part of New France colony. After France's defeat in the French and Indian War in 1762, the region came under British rule. Britain ceded this territory to the newly independent United States after Britain's defeat in the American Revolutionary War; the area was part of the larger Northwest Territory until 1800, when western Michigan became part of the Indiana Territory. Michigan Territory was formed in 1805, but some of the northern border with Canada was not agreed upon until after the War of 1812. Michigan was admitted into the Union in 1837 as a free one, it soon became an important center of industry and trade in the Great Lakes region and a popular immigrant destination in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Although Michigan developed a diverse economy, it is known as the center of the U. S. automotive industry, which developed as a major economic force in the early 20th century. It is home to the country's three major automobile companies. While sparsely populated, the Upper Peninsula is important for tourism thanks to its abundance of natural resources, while the Lower Peninsula is a center of manufacturing, agriculture and high-tech industry; when the first European explorers arrived, the most populous tribes were Algonquian peoples, which include the Anishinaabe groups of Ojibwe, Odaawaa/Odawa, the Boodewaadamii/Bodéwadmi. The three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires; the Ojibwe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the largest. The Ojibwe were established in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern and central Michigan, inhabited Ontario and southern Manitoba, Canada; the Ottawa lived south of the Straits of Mackinac in northern and southern Michigan, but in southern Ontario, northern Ohio and eastern Wisconsin.
The Potawatomi were in southern and western Michigan, in addition to northern and central Indiana, northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, southern Ontario. Other Algonquian tribes in Michigan, in the south and east, were the Mascouten, the Menominee, the Miami, the Sac, the Fox; the Wyandot were an Iroquoian-speaking people in this area. French voyageurs and coureurs des bois settled in Michigan in the 17th century; the first Europeans to reach what became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlé's expedition in 1622. The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as a base for Catholic missions. Missionaries in 1671–75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette. Jesuit missionaries were well received by the area's Indian populations, with few difficulties or hostilities. In 1679, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph. In 1691, the French established a trading post and Fort St. Joseph along the St. Joseph River at the present-day city of Niles.
In 1701, French explorer and army officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or "Fort Pontchartrain on-the-Strait" on the strait, known as the Detroit River, between lakes Saint Clair and Erie. Cadillac had convinced King Louis XIV's chief minister, Louis Phélypeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain, that a permanent community there would strengthen French control over the upper Great Lakes and discourage British aspirations; the hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent and named it Fort Pontchartrain. Cadillac's wife, Marie Thérèse Guyon, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of the first European women to settle in what was considered the wilderness of Michigan; the town became a major fur-trading and shipping post. The Église de Saint-Anne was founded the same year. While the original building does not survive, the congregation remains active. Cadillac departed to serve as the French governor of Louisiana from 1710 to 1716.
French attempts to consol
Chemical plant
A chemical plant is an industrial process plant that manufactures chemicals on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological transformation and or separation of materials. Chemical plants use specialized equipment and technology in the manufacturing process. Other kinds of plants, such as polymer, pharmaceutical and some beverage production facilities, power plants, oil refineries or other refineries, natural gas processing and biochemical plants and wastewater treatment, pollution control equipment use many technologies that have similarities to chemical plant technology such as fluid systems and chemical reactor systems; some would consider an oil refinery or a pharmaceutical or polymer manufacturer to be a chemical plant. Petrochemical plants are located adjacent to an oil refinery to minimize transportation costs for the feedstocks produced by the refinery. Speciality chemical and fine chemical plants are much smaller and not as sensitive to location.
Tools have been developed for converting a base project cost from one geographic location to another. Chemical plants use chemical processes, which are detailed industrial-scale methods, to transform feedstock chemicals into products; the same chemical process can be used at more than one chemical plant, with differently scaled capacities at each plant. A chemical plant at a site may be constructed to utilize more than one chemical process, for instance to produce multiple products. A chemical plant has large vessels or sections called units or lines that are interconnected by piping or other material-moving equipment which can carry streams of material; such material streams can include fluids or sometimes mixtures such as slurries. An overall chemical process is made up of steps called unit operations which occur in the individual units. A raw material going into a chemical process or plant as input to be converted into a product is called a feedstock, or feed. In addition to feedstocks for the plant as a whole, an input stream of material to be processed in a particular unit can be considered feed for that unit.
Output streams from the plant as a whole are final products and sometimes output streams from individual units may be considered intermediate products for their units. However, final products from one plant may be intermediate chemicals used as feedstock in another plant for further processing. For example, some products from an oil refinery may used as feedstock in petrochemical plants, which may in turn produce feedstocks for pharmaceutical plants. Either the feedstock, the product, or both may be individual mixtures, it is not worthwhile separating the components in these mixtures completely. Chemical processes may be run in batch operation. In batch operation, production occurs in time-sequential steps in discrete batches. A batch of feedstock is fed into a process or unit the chemical process takes place the product and any other outputs are removed; such batch production may be repeated over again with new batches of feedstock. Batch operation is used in smaller scale plants such as pharmaceutical or specialty chemicals production, for purposes of improved traceability as well as flexibility.
Continuous plants are used to manufacture commodity or petrochemicals while batch plants are more common in speciality and fine chemical production as well as pharmaceutical active ingredient manufacture. In continuous operation, all steps are ongoing continuously in time. During usual continuous operation, the feeding and product removal are ongoing streams of moving material, which together with the process itself, all take place and continuously. Chemical plants or units in continuous operation are in a steady state or approximate steady state. Steady state means that quantities related to the process do not change as time passes during operation; such constant quantities include stream flow rates, heating or cooling rates, temperatures and chemical compositions at any given point. Continuous operation is more efficient in many large scale operations like petroleum refineries, it is possible for some units to operate continuously and others be in batch operation in a chemical plant. The amount of primary feedstock or product per unit of time which a plant or unit can process is referred to as the capacity of that plant or unit.
For examples: the capacity of an oil refinery may be given in terms of barrels of crude oil refined per day. In actual daily operation, a plant will operate at a percentage of its full capacity. Engineers assume 90% operating time for plants which work with fluids, 80% uptime for plants which work with solids. Specific unit operations are conducted in specific kinds of units. Although some units may operate at ambient temperature or pressure, many units operate at higher or lower temperatures or pressures. Vessels in chemical plants are cylindrical with rounded ends, a shape which can be suited to hold either high pressure or vacuum. Chemical reactions can convert certain kinds of compounds into other compounds in chemical reactors. Chemical reactors may be packed beds and may have solid heterogeneous catalysts which stay in the r
First Nations
In Canada, the First Nations are the predominant indigenous peoples in Canada south of the Arctic Circle. Those in the Arctic area are distinct and known as Inuit; the Métis, another distinct ethnicity, developed after European contact and relations between First Nations people and Europeans. There are 634 recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Under the Employment Equity Act, First Nations are a "designated group", along with women, visible minorities, people with physical or mental disabilities. First Nations are not defined as a visible minority under the Act or by the criteria of Statistics Canada. North American indigenous; some of their oral traditions describe historical events, such as the Cascadia earthquake of 1700 and the 18th-century Tseax Cone eruption. Written records began with the arrival of European explorers and colonists during the Age of Discovery, beginning in the late 15th century.
European accounts by trappers, traders and missionaries give important evidence of early contact culture. In addition and anthropological research, as well as linguistics, have helped scholars piece together an understanding of ancient cultures and historic peoples. Although not without conflict, Euro-Canadians' early interactions with First Nations, Métis, Inuit populations were less combative compared to the violent battles between colonists and native peoples in the United States. Collectively, First Nations, Métis peoples constitute Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, or first peoples. First Nation as a term became used beginning in 1980s to replace the term Indian band in referring to groups of Indians with common government and language; the term had come into common usage in the 1970s to avoid using the word Indian, which some Canadians considered offensive. No legal definition of the term exists; some indigenous peoples in Canada have adopted the term First Nation to replace the word band in the formal name of their community.
A band is a "body of Indians for whose use and benefit in common lands... have been set apart... moneys are held... or declared... to be a band for the purposes of" the Indian Act by the Canadian Crown. The term Indian is a misnomer given to indigenous peoples of North America by European explorers who erroneously thought they had landed on the Indian subcontinent; the use of the term Native Americans, which the US government and others have adopted, is not common in Canada. It refers more to the Indigenous peoples residing within the boundaries of the United States; the parallel term Native Canadian is not used, but Native and autochtone are. Under the Royal Proclamation of 1763 known as the "Indian Magna Carta," the Crown referred to indigenous peoples in British territory as tribes or nations; the term First Nations is capitalized. Bands and nations may have different meanings. Within Canada, First Nations has come into general use for indigenous peoples other than Inuit and Métis. Individuals using the term outside Canada include U.
S. tribes within the Pacific Northwest, as well as supporters of the Cascadian independence movement. The singular used on culturally politicized reserves, is the term First Nations person. A more recent trend is for members of various nations to refer to themselves by their tribal or national identity only, e.g. "I'm Haida". For pre-history, see: Paleo-Indians and Archaic periods First Nations by linguistic-cultural area: List of First Nations peoplesFirst Nations peoples had settled and established trade routes across what is now Canada by 1,000 BC to 500 BC. Communities developed, each with its own culture and character. In the northwest were the Athapaskan-speaking peoples, Slavey, Tłı̨chǫ, Tutchone-speaking peoples, Tlingit. Along the Pacific coast were the Haida, Kwakiutl, Nuu-chah-nulth, Nisga'a and Gitxsan. In the plains were the Blackfoot, Kainai and Northern Peigan. In the northern woodlands were the Chipewyan. Around the Great Lakes were the Anishinaabe, Algonquin and Wyandot. Along the Atlantic coast were the Beothuk, Innu and Micmac.
The Blackfoot Confederacies reside in the Great Plains of Montana and Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The name "Blackfoot" came from the colour of the peoples' leather footwear, known as moccasins, they had painted the bottoms of their moccasins black. One account claimed that the Blackfoot Confederacies walked through the ashes of prairie fires, which in turn coloured the bottoms of their moccasins black, they had migrated onto the Great Plains from the Plateau area. The Blackfoot may have lived in their homeland since the end of the Pleistocene 11,000 years ago.. For thousands of years, they managed the prairie to support bison herds and cultivated berries and edible roots, they allowed only legitimate traders into their territory, making treaties only when the bison herds were exterminated in the 1870s. The Squamish history is a series of past events, both passed on through oral tradition and recent history, of the Squamish indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Prior to colonization, they recorded their history through oral tradition as a way to transmit stories and knowledge across generations. This was common among all the peoples; the writing system esta
Environmental impact of the chemical industry in Sarnia
Sarnia's Chemical Valley and the surrounding area are home to sixty-two facilities and refineries. A quoted 2007 Ecojustice Canada report showed those large industrial facilities located within 25 km of Sarnia, Canada emitted more than 131,000 tonnes of air pollution in 2005, a toxic load of more than 1,800 kilograms per resident. In January 2011, the Sarnia Observer noted "Sarnia had by far the highest levels of fine particulate matter recorded at any of the province's 40 monitoring stations, with sootier air than Windsor, Hamilton and Chatham". In September 2011, the World Health Organization reported that "While Canada ranks third in the world when it comes to air quality, Sarnia was ranked the worst city in the country, with the most particulate matter per cubic metre of air." Pamela Calvert's 2006 documentary on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation, The Beloved Community, details the startling revelation that the Aamjiwmnaang birth rate of males to females is 1 to 2, the lowest live male birth rate in Canada.
In addition to the detrimental effect on birth rates among the First Nation peoples of the area, there is correlation between Sarnia and cancer rates among men—34% higher overall cancer rate than the provincial average, a lung cancer rate, 50% higher, a mesothelioma rate five times higher and an asbestosis rate nine times higher. On a positive note, the Observer stated in the January 2011 article that, "despite having what has been described as the'dirtiest air in the province,' Sarnia has reduced its nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide problems by 30% in the last three years" and "Environment Minister John Wilkinson said it's the first time in the report's 39-year history pollutants have not exceeded provincial monitoring standards; that translated into a record low of three smog advisories and five smog days in 2009."Additionally, a Lambton County document indicates that in 2005, up to fifty-five percent of ground level ozone and fine particulate matter emissions come from neighboring US facilities.
In fact, the 2005 study "Transboundary Air Pollution in Ontario" states that "Long-range transport and transboundary flow of air pollutants play a significant role in air quality considerations on a regional scale." Water pollution is a serious concern in Sarnia. A June 2003 Ryerson University study concluded that the main source of water pollution in the St. Clair River occurs at the Sarnia Water Pollution Control Center due to chemical spills and ship emissions; the study goes on to say that "A significant reduction of the pollution to the St. Clair River will only be achieved by improving the quality of the Sarnia WPCC effluent." In 2008, the city resolved to replace the aging sewer pumps. Minutes of a meeting between Mayor Mike Bradley and Sarnia City Council state "The cost of repairing the raw sewage pumps is a significant portion of purchasing a new unit; however based on the performance of the existing units over the past 8 years, City staff prefers to look at other manufacturers for replacing the existing Fairbanks-Morse pumps as they require their second rebuilding."
In 2010, the Water Distribution Report indicated that "It should be noted that no filter effluent turbidity exceeded the prescribed test result for adverse reporting..." Further, the Water Distribution Report concluded that "Note- No inorganic or organic parameters exceeded half the standard prescribed in Schedule 2 of the Ontario Drinking Water Quality Standards." As a city, Sarnia is committed to the improvement of both air and water. The following statements from City of Sarnia Website succinctly establish this position: "As part of the City's commitment to monitoring and improving the environment, the City Council has established a number of committees to advise Council as well as appointing City representatives to outside committees who have an interest in the environment and the preservation of habitats" and "The City of Sarnia has adopted a Smog Alert Response Plan in support of the Ontario Government's Air Quality Ontario initiative; the initiative is to provide more timely air quality information to the Ontario public.
City staff are notified of smog alerts and implement the air quality improvement strategies outlined in the City's Smog Alert Plan.". In 2009, Sarnia had only five smog days; the County of Lambton reports that from 1995–2008, Sarnia experienced a high of thirteen smog advisories and forty-six smog days, both in 2005. Despite all Sarnia has done to improve its pollution, there are plans to bring shale gas into Chemical Valley by pipeline in mid-2013; this process is environmentally divisive because it necessitates hydraulic fracturing to extract the gas. Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting a liquid into rock, shale or otherwise, at high pressure to extract fossil fuels such as the aforementioned shale gas. Environmentalists oppose hydraulic fracturing since it can damage water supplies and produce long lasting toxic deposits, either in the waste water produced, air particulates, or solid forms of the gels or chemicals mixed with the water as part of the process. Supporters tout the employment benefits to an sagging Sarnia petrochemical industry.
Business interests seem to have won the argument since the shale gas is expected to flow into Chemical Valley this year, notably to Nova Chemicals. Due to the risk of hazardous materials incidents occurring in the industrial corridor south of Sarnia, four sirens have been placed in Sarnia south of Wellington Street, three more on nearby the Aamjiwnaang First Nation reserve, three in Corunna, one in Point Edward. In the event of an emergency requiring immediate action by the public, the sirens are sounded fo
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
St. Clair River
The St. Clair River is a 40.5-mile-long river in central North America which drains Lake Huron into Lake St. Clair, forming part of the international boundary between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U. S. state of Michigan. The river is a significant component in the Great Lakes Waterway, with shipping channels permitting cargo vessels to travel between the upper and lower Great Lakes; the river, which some consider a strait, flows in a southerly direction, connecting the southern end of Lake Huron to the northern end of Lake St. Clair, it branches into several channels near its mouth at Lake St. Clair, creating a broad delta region known as the St. Clair Flats; the river drops 5 feet in elevation from Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair; the flow rate averages around 182,000 cubic feet per second, the drainage area is 223,600 square miles. This takes into account the combined drainage areas of Lakes Huron and Superior. In the 18th century, French voyageurs and coureurs des bois travelled on the river to trade with Native Americans and transport furs in canoes to major posts of French and British traders, including Fort Detroit, built downriver in 1701.
European demand for American furs beaver, was high until the 1830s. Ships built at Marine City, during the mid-19th century carried immigrants up the river on their way to new homes in the American West. Lumber harvested on The Thumb of Michigan was shipped downriver as log rafts to Detroit. In the early 20th century, lake steamers carried passengers and traveled among the small towns along the St. Clair and Detroit rivers, around the Great Lakes. During the 20th century, freighters traveled throughout the Great Lakes transporting commodities such as iron ore from the Mesabi Range and grain, all products of settlers' labor. Iron was taken to Ashtabula and other industrial cities for processing and steel manufacture, grain was shipped through to major eastern markets such as Cleveland and New York City; the St. Clair River and its Lambton County tributaries in Ontario contributes 103,210 acres to the watershed, although this does not include the Sydenham River watershed. In Michigan, the Black River, Pine River, Belle River drain 780,600 acres in Lapeer, Sanilac, St. Clair counties.
Stag Island lies between Corunna and Marysville, Michigan. Fawn Island is near Port Lambton and Marine City, Michigan. Walpole, Bassett, Pottowatamie, St. Anne, Dickinson and Harsens islands are located where the St. Clair River flows into Lake St. Clair near Algonac, Michigan; these islands are part of the only major river delta in the Great Lakes. Six of the islands in this delta are unceded territory that are part of the Walpole Island First Nations, whose members include Ojibwe and Odawa peoples, they call this delta area Bkejwanong, meaning "where the waters divide". Most of the watershed away from the river in Ontario and Michigan is used for agriculture. There were numerous sugar beet farms in the flatlands, an annual beet market was held in Marine City, for years at harvest time. Many of the 19th-century English immigrants to this area came from Lincolnshire, where sugar beets have been a major commodity crop. A few forest and wetland areas have survived, although their area has declined since European settlement and development of cultivated fields for various agricultural crops.
Much of the shoreline on both sides of the St. Clair River is urbanized and industrialized. Intensive development has occurred in and near the adjacent cities of Port Huron and Sarnia, Ontario, at the northern end of the river; the heaviest concentration of industry, including a large petrochemical complex, lies along the Ontario shore south of Sarnia. Several communities along the St. Clair rely on the river as their primary source of drinking water. About one-third to one-half of the residents of Michigan receive their water from the St. Clair/Detroit River waterway. Industries including petroleum refineries, chemical manufacturers, paper mills, salt producers and electric power plants need high-quality water for their operations. Since the late 20th century and passage of environmental laws to protect air and water quality, there have still been events when some of these industries have illegally contaminated river waters after discharging pollutants. Major clean-up activities were required.
Land areas of the St. Clair River shoreline and flats consist of two biological zones: upland and transitional, both of which are above the water table, but which may be flooded periodically; the upland forests consist of deciduous species, many of which are near their northern climatic limit. Most pre-European settlement trees have been cleared for industry, or urbanization. Remaining forest stands, such as oak savannas as well as lakeplain prairies, are found along the southern reaches of the river on the islands of the St. Clair River Delta and on the Michigan shore in Algonac State Park. Transitional species are abundant in the low-lying regions, categorized as shrub ecotones, wet meadows, sedge marshes, island shorelines and beaches; this habitat is home to water and land mammals, including humans, as well as songbirds, insects, pollinators and amphibians. The aquatic habitat of the St. Clair River ranges from deep and fast near the Blue Water Bridge to shallow and slow in the lower river near its discharge point into Lake St. Clair.
Each area provides a unique habitat for
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