1.
Fair Oaks, California
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Fair Oaks is a census-designated place in Sacramento County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area, the population was 30,912 at the 2010 census, up from 28,008 at the 2000 census. The Fair Oaks zip code is 95628 and its code is 916. Fair Oaks is bounded on the side by the American River, and Rancho Cordova, on the north side by the city of Citrus Heights, on the west side by Carmichael. Fair Oaks is known for its mix of suburban and semi-rural neighborhoods, Fair Oaks is located at 38°39′5″N 121°15′33″W, between Sacramento and Folsom. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has an area of 11.2 square miles. The town center of Fair Oaks is called Old Fair Oaks Village, the Veterans Memorial Amphitheatre is located in this part of town. The Fair Oaks Theater Festival takes place here, the village area also hosts the Fair Oaks Fiesta and Car Show. The annual Fair Oaks Chicken Festival takes place there in September. The town center is located approximately a half-mile away from the American River Parkway, Fair Oaks also has an annual Dog Walk event on the 1st Saturday in October. The dogs are groomed by Matt Barnes, there is also a small collection of Maidu Indian artifacts. The 2010 United States Census reported that Fair Oaks had a population of 30,912, the population density was 2,748.8 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Fair Oaks was 26,479 White,729 African American,255 Native American,1,289 Asian,57 Pacific Islander,738 from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 2,954 persons. The Census reported that 30,482 people lived in households,261 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, there were 761 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 109 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 3,304 households were made up of individuals and 1,304 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.37. There were 8,564 families, the family size was 2.84. The median age was 45.8 years, for every 100 females there were 95.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.2 males. There were 13,558 housing units at a density of 1,205.6 per square mile, of which 8,605 were owner-occupied
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located 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, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
4.
Sacramento River
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The Sacramento River is the principal river of Northern California in the United States, and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for 400 miles before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, the Sacramento and its wide natural floodplain were once abundant in fish and other aquatic creatures, notably one of the southernmost large runs of chinook salmon in North America. For about 12,000 years, humans have depended on the vast natural resources of the watershed, the river has provided a route for trade and travel since ancient times. Hundreds of tribes sharing regional customs and traditions inhabited the Sacramento Valley, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga named the river Rio de los Sacramentos in 1808, later shortened and anglicized into Sacramento. In the 19th century gold was discovered on a tributary of the Sacramento River, starting the California Gold Rush, overland trails such as the California Trail and Siskiyou Trail guided hundreds of thousands of people to the gold fields. By the late part of the mining had ceased to be a major part of the economy. Many populous communities were established along the Sacramento River, including the capital of Sacramento. Intensive agriculture and mining contributed to pollution in the Sacramento River, since the 1950s the watershed has been intensely developed for water supply and the generation of hydroelectric power. Today, large dams impound the river and almost all of its major tributaries, the Sacramento is used heavily for irrigation and serves much of Central and Southern California through the canals of giant state and federal water projects. The Sacramento River originates in the mountains and plateaus of far northern California as three major waterways that flow into Shasta Lake, the Upper Sacramento River, McCloud River and Pit River. The Upper Sacramento begins near Mount Shasta, at the confluence of North, Middle and it flows east into a small reservoir, Lake Siskiyou, before turning south. The river flows through a canyon for about 60 miles, past Dunsmuir and Castella, the Pit River, by far the largest of the three, begins in Modoc County in the northeastern corner of California. Draining a vast and remote volcanic highlands area, it flows southwest for nearly 300 miles before emptying into Shasta Lake near Montgomery Creek, Goose Lake, straddling the Oregon–California border, occasionally overflows into the Pit River during wet years, although this has not happened since 1881. The Goose Lake watershed is the part of the Sacramento River basin extending into another state. Unlike most California rivers, the Pit and the McCloud Rivers are predominantly spring-fed, ensuring a large, at the lower end of Shasta Lake is Shasta Dam, which impounds the Sacramento River for flood control, irrigation and hydropower generation. Before the construction of Shasta Dam the McCloud River emptied into the Pit River, the Pit River Bridge, which carries Interstate 5 and the Union Pacific Railroad over the reservoir, is structurally the highest double-decked bridge in the United States. The Upper Sacramento River canyon also provides the route for I-5, below Shasta Dam the Sacramento River enters the foothills region of the northern Sacramento Valley. It flows through Keswick Dam, where it receives about 1,200,000 acre feet of water per year diverted from the Trinity River and it then swings east through Redding, the largest city of the Shasta Cascade region, and turns southeast, entering Tehama County
5.
South Fork American River
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The South Fork American River is a major tributary of the American River in El Dorado County, California, draining a watershed on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada east of Sacramento. The river begins in pristine Desolation Wilderness and flows through the Sierra Nevada foothills, the river at Coloma was the site of James Marshalls discovery of gold at Sutters Mill on January 24,1848, which started the California Gold Rush. The South Fork of the American is now one of the most popular whitewater rafting destinations in North America, the river begins at Nebelhorn near Johnson Pass about 10 mi south of Lake Tahoe. From there it flows west for 87 mi, past the towns of Kyburz, Pollock Pines and Coloma, before emptying into Folsom Lake, the reservoir formed by the Folsom Dam. The North Fork American River also flows into the lake, and the rivers form the American River proper. The South Fork drains an area of 840 sq mi, or about a third of the 2,150 sq mi American River watershed, major tributaries include Silver Creek, Rock Creek, Weber Creek, and Caple Creek. The river also contributes about a third of the outflow of the American River system. According to a U. S. Geological Survey stream gage at Lotus, about 5 mi above Folsom Lake, the highest recorded flow was 90,000 cu ft/s on January 1,1997, and the lowest monthly mean was 86.8 cu ft/s in July 1977. Rafting and Kayaking The South Fork of the American has approximately eight sections of boatable whitewater ranging from class II to class V, the most commonly run section of river is the class III stretch between Chili Bar Dam and Folsom Lake. This 20 mile section is best divided into two days of boating, from Chili Bar to Coloma and Coloma to Folsom Lake, established boating and river rescue skills are required to run this section of river. Those with inadequate river skills can enjoy this section of river by booking a rafting trip with one of the companies in the Coloma valley. For those wishing to practice their skills without having to face the more challenging class III rapids it is possible boat a shorter class II section from Coloma to Greenwood Creek. Meandering through the Sierra foothills this 20 mile section of river has a lot to offer, thanks to the efforts of local communities and advocacy groups the riperean eco-system of the South Fork remains despite the destructive effects of the gold rush and other developments. The river is home to an array of flora and fauna such as bald eagles, golden eagles. In Spring the hillsides of the upper Chili Bar section are adorned with stunning California poppies, There are also interesting historical sights on the river such as grinding holes made by the Nisenan people that once inhabited the area and diversion channels blasted out during the gold rush. Hiking, Mountain Biking and Horse Riding There is BLM land located off Highway 49 on the way to Auburn from Coloma with great hiking, biking, parking and use is free and it is a great way to experience the South Fork of the American River. These BLM managed areas are part of a 20-year joint effort with the American River Conservancy to protect the habitat, accessible via Cronin Ranch, Magnolia Ranch and Salmon Falls the trails are stunning every season of the year. Winter rains bring lush green landscapes that cultivate spring’s abundant wildflowers, the summer’s golden hills contrast with the oak woodlands that lead you through fragrant sage-covered ridge tops
6.
North Fork American River
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The North Fork American River is the longest branch of the American River in Northern California. It is 88 miles long from its source at the crest of the Sierra Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, prior to the construction of Folsom Dam the river was about 9 miles longer making for a total length of 97 miles. It rises at Mountain Meadow Lake near the 9,008 ft peak of Granite Chief in the Tahoe National Forest, flowing initially northwest, the river soon swings west into a gorge, paralleling the Forest Hill Divide on the south. Big Granite Creek then the North Fork North Fork American River come in from the right, the canyon shallows as the river turns southwest, carving through the Sierra foothills, then turning abruptly south near Colfax. About 4 miles downstream, it receives Shirttail Creek from the left then is impounded in Lake Clementine which is formed by the North Fork Dam, built in 1939 to contain hydraulic mining debris. Below the dam, the river south, passing under the Foresthill Bridge. The valley widens as the river flows south past Auburn, soon emptying into the arm of Folsom Lake. Its waters mingle with that of the South Fork American River to form the American River, American River topics Auburn Dam California Gold Rush Mountain Quarries Bridge — on the North Fork
7.
Sacramento, California
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Sacramento is the capital city of the U. S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. It is at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the portion of Californias expansive Central Valley. Its estimated 2014 population of 485,199 made it the sixth-largest city in California, Sacramento is the cultural and economic core of the Sacramento metropolitan area, which includes seven counties with a 2010 population of 2,414,783. In 2002, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University conducted for Time magazine named Sacramento Americas Most Diverse City, Sacramento became a city through the efforts of the Swiss immigrant John Sutter, Sr. his son John Augustus Sutter, Jr. and James W. Marshall. Sacramento grew quickly thanks to the protection of Sutters Fort, which was established by Sutter in 1839, the city was named after the Sacramento River, which forms its western border. The river was named by Spanish cavalry officer Gabriel Moraga for the Santísimo Sacramento, California State University, Sacramento, is the largest university in the city and one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. University of the Pacific is a university with one of its three campuses in Sacramento. In addition, the University of California, Davis, located in nearby Davis, operates its UC Davis Medical Center, nisenan and Plains Miwok Native Americans had lived in the area for perhaps thousands of years. Unlike the settlers who would eventually make Sacramento their home, these Native Americans left little evidence of their existence. Traditionally, their diet was dominated by acorns taken from the oak trees in the region, and by fruits, bulbs, seeds. In 1808, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga discovered and named the Sacramento Valley, a Spanish writer with the Moraga expedition wrote, Canopies of oaks and cottonwoods, many festooned with grapevines, overhung both sides of the blue current. Birds chattered in the trees and big fish darted through the pellucid depths, the air was like champagne, and drank deep of it, drank in the beauty around them. The valley and the river were then christened after the Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, John Sutter first arrived on August 13,1839 at the divergence of the American and Sacramento Rivers with a Mexican land grant of 50,000 acres. The next year, he and his party established Sutters Fort, representing Mexico, Sutter called his colony New Helvetia, a Swiss inspired name, and was the political authority and dispenser of justice in the new settlement. Soon, the colony began to grow as more and more pioneers headed west, within just a few short years, John Sutter had become a grand success, owning a ten-acre orchard and a herd of thirteen thousand cattle. Fort Sutter became a stop for the increasing number of immigrants coming through the valley. In 1847, Sutter hired James Marshall to build a sawmill so that he could continue to expand his empire, Sutter received 2,000 fruit trees in 1847, which started the agriculture industry in the Sacramento Valley. In 1848, when gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutters Mill in Coloma and he hired topographical engineer William H
8.
Placer County, California
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Placer County, officially the County of Placer, is a county located in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 348,432, Placer County is included in the Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is located in both the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada regions, in what is known as the Gold Country and it stretches from the suburbs of Sacramento to Lake Tahoe and the Nevada border. The discovery of gold in 1848 brought tens of thousands of miners from around the world, in addition to many more thousands intending to provide goods and services to the miners. Only three years after the discovery of gold, the county was formed from portions of Sutter. Placer County took its name from the Spanish word for sand or gravel deposits containing gold, miners washed away the gravel, leaving the heavier gold, in a process known as placer mining. Gold mining was a major industry through the 1880s, but gradually the new residents turned to farming the fertile soil, harvesting timber. Auburn was settled when Claude Chana discovered gold in Auburn Ravine in May 1848 and later became a shipping, the cornerstone of Placers beautiful and historic courthouse, which is clearly visible from Interstate 80 through Auburn, was laid on July 4,1894. The building itself was renovated during the late 1980s and continues to serve the public today with courtrooms, a sheriffs office. Loomis and Newcastle began as mining towns, but soon became centers of a booming fruit-growing industry, penryn was founded by a Welsh miner, Griffith Griffith, who turned from mining to establish a large granite quarry. Rocklin began as a town and became home to a number of granite quarries. Lincoln and Sheridan continue to support ranching and farming, Lincoln also is the home of one of the countys oldest businesses, the Gladding, McBean terra cotta clay manufacturing plant established in 1875. The 1960 Winter Olympics were hosted in Squaw Valley, which is located in Placer County. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 1,502 square miles. Watercourses in Placer County include the American River and Bunch Creek, Lake Tahoe has 40. 96% of its surface area in Placer County, more than in any of the four other counties in which it lies. El Dorado National Forest in part Tahoe National Forest in part The 2010 United States Census reported that Placer County had a population of 348,432. The racial makeup of Placer County was 290,977 White,4,751 African American,3,011 Native American,20,435 Asian,778 Pacific Islander,13,375 from other races, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 44,710 persons. As of the census of 2000, there were 248,399 people,93,382 households, the population density was 177 people per square mile
9.
El Dorado County, California
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El Dorado County, officially the County of El Dorado, is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 181,058, El Dorado County is part of the Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is in the historic Gold Country in the Sierra Nevada, El Dorado Countys population has grown as Greater Sacramento has expanded into the region. The County of El Dorado was one of Californias original 27 counties created effective February 18,1850 and its name is derived from the Spanish meaning the gilded/golden. The final segments of the Pony Express mail route ran through El Dorado County until its replacement with the service in 1861. Mother lode James W. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 1,786 square miles. The racial makeup of El Dorado County was 156,793 White,1,409 African American,2,070 Native American,6,297 Asian,294 Pacific Islander,7,278 from other races, and 6,917 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21,875 persons, the largest growth in the county has come in El Dorado Hills where the population grew by 24,092 residents to a total of 42,108 since 2000. As of the census of 2000, there were 156,299 people,58,939 households, the population density was 91 people per square mile. There were 71,278 housing units at a density of 42 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 89. 7% White,0. 5% Black or African American,1. 0% Native American,2. 1% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander,3. 6% from other races, and 3. 0% from two or more races. 9. 3% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,14. 9% were of German,13. 4% English,10. 3% Irish,6. 6% Italian and 6. 6% American ancestry according to Census 2000. 90. 5% spoke English and 6. 5% Spanish as their first language,20. 1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the family size was 3.04. In the county, the population was out with 26. 1% under the age of 18,6. 8% from 18 to 24,27. 8% from 25 to 44,26. 9% from 45 to 64. The median age was 39 years, for every 100 females there were 99.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.3 males, the 2000 census also states that the median income for a household in the county was $51,484, and the median income for a family was $60,250. Males had an income of $46,373 versus $31,537 for females
10.
Folsom Lake
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Folsom Lake is a reservoir on the American River in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. It is located within Placer, El Dorado, and Sacramento Counties and it is about 25 mi northeast of Sacramento. The lake contains 11,500 acres of water, the lake has a surface elevation of 466 feet. There are 75 miles of undulated shoreline surrounding the lake, Folsom lake and the surrounding Folsom Lake State Recreation Area is one of the most visited parks in the California Park system. The largest and most natural part of the area is the Peninsula which is approximately 1,465 acres. The Folsom Lake reservoir is formed by Folsom Dam, built in 1955 to control, the dam and reservoir are part of the Folsom Project, which also includes the Nimbus afterbay reservoir and dam facilities. When the dam was built it was designed to hold 976,000 acre feet with an area of 11,450 acres. The Dam is 1400 feet wide and 340 feet high, it is a structure with approximately 9 miles of earth fill wing dams. The Folsom Lake State Recreation Area surrounds the reservoir, and is managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. It is widely used for recreation, with areas designated for hiking, camping, and biking. The lake is commonly used for fishing, boating, water-skiing. The recreation area is Located at the union of the north and south forks of the American River, there are 20,000 acres of water and land within the boundaries of the SRA. The State Recreation Area spans across three counties, El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento as well as the City of Folsom, the majority of the SRA is owned by the US Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation, and the area is managed by the state parks. There are two major freeways that feed access to the SRA, Highway 80 and Highway 50, a number of local roadways, trails, and public transportation routes access the SRA. Six key roadways that access the SRA are Douglas Boulevard, Auburn/Folsom Road, Folsom Boulevard, East Natoma Street, Green Valley Road, the most recognized regional trails are Jedidiah Smith Memorial Trail and Pioneer Express Trail. The public transport that accesses the SRA include Placer County Transit, Folsom Stageline, Roseville Transit, the lake supports a large number of recreational activities. Aquatic activities account for 85% of all visits to the SRA. Additional activities include Personal water crafts, wakeboarding, sailing, swimming, cruising, paddling, there are five major day use areas on the lake, Granite Bay, Beales Point, Folsom Point, Negro Bar, and Nimbus Flats. The Granite Bay facility includes an activity center which is available to rent
11.
Folsom, California
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Folsom is a city in Sacramento County, California, United States. Folsom is most commonly known for its infamous Folsom Prison, the population was 72,203 at the 2010 census. Folsom is part of the Sacramento−Arden-Arcade−Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area, though few amassed a great deal of wealth, the city prospered due to Joseph Folsoms lobbying to get a railway to connect the town with Sacramento. Joseph died in 1855, and Granite City was later renamed to Folsom in his honor, the railway was abandoned in the 1980s but opened up as the terminus of the Gold Line of Sacramento Regional Transit Districts light rail service in 2005. A few former gold-rush era towns are located within city limits of Folsom, including Prairie City, Salmon Falls, Folsom hosted a significant Chinese American community when it was first incorporated, but arsonists burned Folsoms Chinatown in March 1886, driving Chinese Americans out of town. The establishment of Folsom Prison came in 1880, when the Livermore family made an agreement with the state to land for the prison in exchange for prison labor. They planned to build a dam from the American River for a sawmill. At the time it was opened, it had the longest overhead run of electricity in the country, Folsom Dam was built in 1956, providing much-needed flood control and water rights for the Sacramento Valley. The creation of this dam also created one of the most popular lakes in Northern California, the dam is located on the southwest corner of the lake. The lake is an estimated 4.8 miles from Granite Bay to the most southern point of Folsom Lake, Folsom is home to Folsom Lake College, Folsom Dam, Folsom Lake, Folsom High School, Vista del Lago High School and a historic district. Folsom is also home to the largest private employer in the Sacramento area, Folsom is located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Folsoms climate is characterized by long, hot, dry summers and cool, the 2010 United States Census reported that Folsom had a population of 72,203. The population density was 2,971.2 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Folsom was 53,627 White,4,140 African American,427 Native American,9,000 Asian,173 Pacific Islander,1,818 from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 8,064 persons. The Census reported that 65,243 people lived in households,188 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, there were 1,150 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 137 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 5,788 households were made up of individuals and 1,930 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.61. There were 17,600 families, the family size was 3.13. The median age was 37.6 years, for every 100 females there were 114.1 males
12.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
13.
Rubicon River (California)
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The Rubicon River is a river in the Sierra Nevada of northern California, west of Lake Tahoe. It is a tributary of the Middle Fork American River, and is 60 miles long with a watershed of about 184 square miles, the rivers headwaters are in the Crystal Range of the Sierra Nevada, within the Eldorado National Forests Desolation Wilderness. Historically, the Rubicon River was known as the South Fork of the Middle Fork of the American River, the Rubicon River originates at 9,900 feet near Clyde Lake in El Dorado County. It flows north-northwest for approximately 8 mi until it reaches the Rubicon Reservoir, the river then travels northwest and within 4.8 mi of the Rubicon Reservoir is met by Highland Creek, Miller Creek and the Little Rubicon River. It continues northwest for approximately 5 mi to Hell Hole Reservoir, shortly after the river begins flowing southwest from the reservoir, it serves as a border between El Dorado and Placer Counties, and joins the South Fork of the Rubicon River. The South Fork of the Rubicon River originates about a mile southeast of Loon Lake and it flows southwest for several miles until it is joined by Gerle Creek, and then travels west to its confluence with the Rubicon River. The river slowly changes course and eventually heads northwest again, finally, the Middle Fork meets the North Fork of the American River in the Auburn State Recreation Area below the Foresthill Bridge, and flows into Folsom Lake. The reservoirs and trails along the Rubicon River are recreation areas, http, //www. fs. fed. us/r5/eldorado Sacramento Municipal Utility District Columbia Gazetteer of North America California Association of Resource Conservation Districts
14.
National Wild and Scenic Rivers System
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The National Wild and Scenic River is a designation for certain protected areas in the United States. The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was an outgrowth of the recommendations of a Presidential commission, among other things, the commission recommended that the nation protect wild rivers and scenic rivers from development that would substantially change their wild or scenic nature. The act was sponsored by Sen. Frank Church and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 2,1968, a river or river section may be designated by the U. S. Congress or the Secretary of the Interior. In 1968, as part of the act, eight rivers were designated as National Wild. As of July 2011,203 rivers, totaling 12,598 miles of river in 38 states and Puerto Rico, have wild and scenic status. By comparison, more than 75,000 large dams across the country have modified at least 600,000 miles, or about 17%, of American rivers. Selected rivers in the United States are preserved for possessing outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, Rivers, or sections of rivers, so designated are preserved in their free-flowing condition and are not dammed or otherwise impeded. National wild and scenic designation essentially vetoes the licensing of new projects on or directly affecting the river. Designation as a wild and scenic river is not the same as a national park designation, however, wild and scenic designation protects the free-flowing nature of rivers in non-federal areas, something the Wilderness Act and other federal designations cannot do. Designation does not alter property rights, federally administered National Wild and Scenic rivers are managed by one or more of the four principal land-managing agencies of the federal government. Of the 156 National Wild and Scenic Rivers, the most are managed by the U. S. Forest Service, thirty-eight are managed under the Bureau of Land Managements National Landscape Conservation System while the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages several rivers in Alaska. State-managed wild and scenic rivers are subject to the same protections as federally administered rivers and these state rivers are added to the National System by the Secretary of the Interior following an application by the governor of the state the river flows through. Wild and scenic rivers are assigned one or more classifications, wild, scenic and these classifications are based on the developmental character of the river on the date of designation. Wild rivers are the most remote and undeveloped while recreational rivers often have access points, roads, railroads. A rivers classification is not related to the value that made it worthy of designation, for instance, recreation may not be an outstanding value on a river with a recreational classification nor scenery on a river classified as scenic. Notably, wild and scenic rivers receive the standard of protection regardless of classification. Nashua River Wild and Scenic River Study Act – proposed a study of the Nashua River in Massachusetts for possible inclusion in the system, list of National Wild and Scenic Rivers Protected areas of the United States National Wild and Scenic Rivers System Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
15.
Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
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The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Basin and Range Province. The vast majority of the lies in the state of California. The Sierra runs 400 miles north-to-south, and is approximately 70 miles across east-to-west, the Sierra is home to three national parks, twenty wilderness areas, and two national monuments. These areas include Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks, the character of the range is shaped by its geology and ecology. More than one hundred years ago during the Nevadan orogeny. The range started to uplift four M. A. ago, the uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra Nevada, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones. Uplift continues due to faulting caused by forces, creating spectacular fault block escarpments along the eastern edge of the southern Sierra. The Sierra Nevada has a significant history, the California Gold Rush occurred in the western foothills from 1848 through 1855. Due to inaccessibility, the range was not fully explored until 1912, the Sierra Nevada lies in Central and Eastern California, with a very small but historically important spur extending into Nevada. West-to-east, the Sierra Nevadas elevation increases gradually from 1,000 feet in the Central Valley to an height of about 10,500 feet at its crest only 50–75 miles to the east. The east slope forms the steep Sierra Escarpment, unlike its surroundings, the range receives a substantial amount of snowfall and precipitation due to orographic lift. The Sierra Nevada stretches from the Susan River and Fredonyer Pass in the north to Tehachapi Pass in the south and it is bounded on the west by Californias Central Valley and on the east by the Basin and Range Province. The geographical boundary between the Sierra and the Cascades is virtually indistinguishable, with the Fredonyer Pass designation being traditional, physiographically, the Sierra is a section of the Cascade-Sierra Mountains province, which in turn is part of the larger Pacific Mountain System physiographic division. The range is drained on its western slope by the Central Valley watershed, the northern third of the western Sierra is part of the Sacramento River watershed, and the middle third is drained by the San Joaquin River. The eastern slope watershed of the Sierra is much narrower, its rivers flow out into the endorheic Great Basin of eastern California and western Nevada. Although none of the eastern rivers reach the sea, many of the streams from Mono Lake southwards are diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct which provides water to Southern California, the height of the mountains in the Sierra Nevada increases gradually from north to south. Between Fredonyer Pass and Lake Tahoe, the range from 5,000 feet to more than 9,000 feet. The crest near Lake Tahoe is roughly 9,000 feet high, farther south, the highest peak in Yosemite National Park is Mount Lyell
16.
Mountain range
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A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically related. Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys, individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earths land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Andes is 7,000 kilometres long and is considered the worlds longest mountain system. The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, the belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, mountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a range is stretched to include underwater mountains. The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, the sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains, equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians. The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow, when air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation. As the air descends on the side, it warms again and is drier. Often, a shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills, rivers are traditionally believed to be the principle erosive factor on mountain ranges, with their ability of bedrock incision and sediment transport. The rugged topography of a range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to a mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example and this mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift
17.
San Francisco Bay
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San Francisco Bay is a shallow estuary in the U. S. state of California. It is surrounded by a region known as the San Francisco Bay Area, dominated by the large cities San Francisco, Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from approximately 40 percent of California and it then connects to the Pacific Ocean via the Golden Gate strait. However, this group of interconnected bays is often called the San Francisco Bay. The bay was designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on February 2,2013, the bay covers somewhere between 400 and 1,600 square miles, depending on which sub-bays, estuaries, wetlands, and so on are included in the measurement. The main part of the bay measures 3 to 12 miles wide east-to-west and it is the largest Pacific estuary in the Americas. Later, wetlands and inlets were filled in, reducing the Bays size since the mid-19th century by as much as one third. Recently, large areas of wetlands have been restored, further confusing the issue of the Bays size, despite its value as a waterway and harbor, many thousands of acres of marshy wetlands at the edges of the bay were, for many years, considered wasted space. As a result, soil excavated for building projects or dredged from channels was often dumped onto the wetlands, from the mid-19th century through the late 20th century, more than a third of the original bay was filled and often built on. The idea was, and remains, controversial, there are five large islands in San Francisco Bay. Alameda, the largest island, was created when a shipping lane was cut in 1901 and it is now predominantly a bedroom community. Angel Island was known as Ellis Island West because it served as the point for immigrants from East Asia. It is now a park accessible by ferry. Mountainous Yerba Buena Island is pierced by a tunnel linking the east and west spans of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, attached to the north is the artificial and flat Treasure Island, site of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. From the Second World War until the 1990s, both served as military bases and are now being redeveloped. Isolated in the center of the Bay is Alcatraz, the site of the federal penitentiary. The federal prison on Alcatraz Island no longer functions, but the complex is a popular tourist site, despite its name, Mare Island in the northern part of the bay is a peninsula rather than an island. During the last ice age, the now filled by the bay was a large linear valley with small hills
18.
Middle Fork American River
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The Middle Fork American River is one of the three main branches of the American River in Northern California. The river flows 62 miles from its headwaters in the Sierra Nevada, in a generally southwest direction, the main stem of the river begins along the Sierra Crest, on the south flank of Granite Chief near Squaw Valley Ski Resort west of Lake Tahoe. It flows west than southwest into French Meadows Reservoir, which is impounded by the L. L. Anderson Dam, below the dam the Middle Fork enters a rugged and inaccessible canyon more than 2,000 feet deep. About 15 miles downstream, the Middle Fork flows into the Ralston Afterbay, directly below this point, the North Fork of the Middle Fork American River joins from the north. The Middle Fork then flows southwest, past Foresthill, through the Auburn State Recreation Area, below this confluence the North Fork flows a further 5 miles to the Folsom Lake reservoir above Sacramento. Although nominally a tributary of the North Fork, the Middle Fork has a greater flow, the Middle Fork is used heavily for water supply and the generation of about 1.03 billion kilowatt hours of hydroelectricity each year. The Placer County Water Agency operates the dams and power plants on the river, the project consists of two major reservoirs, French Meadows on the Middle Fork and Hell Hole Reservoir on the Rubicon River, which can store 342,583 acre·ft combined. The reservoirs store winter and spring runoff and release it during the summer and fall, in dry years, the firm water supply provided by these reservoirs is about 120,000 acre·ft. Water released from these reservoirs flows through the Middle Fork and Ralston Powerhouses and is returned to the river at Ralston Afterbay. As a consequence, the Middle Fork from LL Anderson Dam to Ralston Afterbay is often dry, the river is known for its challenging Class III and IV rapids. Both guided and solo whitewater rafting and kayaking tours are popular, the Middle Fork is a heavily dam-controlled river and during the height of the summer rafting season, flows are highly dependent on electric power demand in the Sacramento area. However, this also guarantees steady flows in the river during dry years, American River topics List of rivers of California
19.
Coloma, California
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Coloma is a census-designated place in El Dorado County, California, USA. It is approximately 36 miles northeast of Sacramento, California, Coloma is most noted for being the site where James W. Marshall found gold in the Sierra Nevada, at Sutters Mill on January 24,1848, leading to the California Gold Rush. The settlement is a tourist attraction known for its ghost town, Coloma was designated a National Historic Landmark District on July 4,1961. It lies at an elevation of 764 feet, Coloma grew around Sutters Mill following the finding of gold. A post office was established in 1849 under the name Culloma, one of Colomas earliest settlers was Silas Sanderson, who went on to become the 7th Chief Justice of California. The tailrace of Sutters Mill remains, along with a nearby reconstruction, in reality the meaningfulness of the township of Coloma has dissipated as residents who live in the wider Coloma Valley area generally share a community spirit. The town currently has approximately 300 inhabitants, the local economy is predominately agriculture and tourism. Of particular note is the industry as the South Fork American River is one of the most popular white water trips in North America. The name comes from the natives name for the valley Coloma is in, Cullumah. Coloma is on the South Fork American River that runs through the valley and was built on the original Native American village of Koloma, the 2010 United States Census reported that Coloma had a population of 529. The population density was 157.7 people per square mile, the racial makeup of Coloma was 462 White,4 African American,3 Native American,8 Asian,0 Pacific Islander,15 from other races, and 37 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 63 persons, the Census reported that 429 people lived in households,34 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 were institutionalized. There were 22 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 2 same-sex married couples or partnerships,51 households were made up of individuals and 20 had someone living alone. The average household size was 2.29, there were 140 families, the average family size was 2.64. The median age was 49.0 years, for every 100 females there were 115.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 120.1 males, there were 251 housing units at an average density of 74.8 per square mile, of which 153 were owner-occupied and 63 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1. 3%, the vacancy rate was 12. 5%. 355 people lived in owner-occupied housing units, and 140 people lived in housing units
20.
California Gold Rush
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The California Gold Rush began on January 24,1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutters Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States, the Gold Rush initiated the California Genocide, with 100,000 Native Californians dying between 1848 and 1868. By the time it ended, California had gone from a thinly populated ex-Mexican territory to the state of the first nominee for the Republican Party. The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial, whole indigenous societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by the gold-seekers, called forty-niners. The first to hear confirmed information of the rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, and Latin America. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, agriculture and ranching expanded throughout the state to meet the needs of the settlers. San Francisco grew from a settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California, in 1849 a state constitution was written. The new constitution was adopted by vote, and the future states interim first governor. In September,1850, California became a state, at the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no law regarding property rights in the goldfields and a system of staking claims was developed. Prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, although the mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service, by 1869 railroads were built across the country from California to the eastern United States. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, Gold worth tens of billions of todays dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with more than they had started with. The Mexican–American War ended on February 3,1848, although California was firmly in American hands before that, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided for, among other things, the formal transfer of Upper California to the United States. The California Gold Rush began at Sutters Mill, near Coloma, on January 24,1848, James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter on the American River. Marshall brought what he found to John Sutter, and the two tested the metal. However, rumors started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher
21.
Hydroelectricity
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Hydroelectricity is electricity produced from hydropower. In 2015 hydropower generated 16. 6% of the total electricity and 70% of all renewable electricity. Hydropower is produced in 150 countries, with the Asia-Pacific region generating 33 percent of global hydropower in 2013, China is the largest hydroelectricity producer, with 920 TWh of production in 2013, representing 16.9 percent of domestic electricity use. The cost of hydroelectricity is relatively low, making it a source of renewable electricity. The hydro station consumes no water, unlike coal or gas plants, the average cost of electricity from a hydro station larger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5 U. S. cents per kilowatt-hour. With a dam and reservoir it is also a source of electricity since the amount produced by the station can be changed up or down very quickly to adapt to changing energy demands. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct waste, Hydropower has been used since ancient times to grind flour and perform other tasks. In the mid-1770s, French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published Architecture Hydraulique which described vertical-, by the late 19th century, the electrical generator was developed and could now be coupled with hydraulics. The growing demand for the Industrial Revolution would drive development as well, in 1878 the worlds first hydroelectric power scheme was developed at Cragside in Northumberland, England by William George Armstrong. It was used to power an arc lamp in his art gallery. The old Schoelkopf Power Station No.1 near Niagara Falls in the U. S. side began to produce electricity in 1881. The first Edison hydroelectric power station, the Vulcan Street Plant, began operating September 30,1882, in Appleton, Wisconsin, by 1886 there were 45 hydroelectric power stations in the U. S. and Canada. By 1889 there were 200 in the U. S. alone, at the beginning of the 20th century, many small hydroelectric power stations were being constructed by commercial companies in mountains near metropolitan areas. Grenoble, France held the International Exhibition of Hydropower and Tourism with over one million visitors, by 1920 as 40% of the power produced in the United States was hydroelectric, the Federal Power Act was enacted into law. The Act created the Federal Power Commission to regulate hydroelectric power stations on federal land, as the power stations became larger, their associated dams developed additional purposes to include flood control, irrigation and navigation. Federal funding became necessary for development and federally owned corporations, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority. Hydroelectric power stations continued to become larger throughout the 20th century, Hydropower was referred to as white coal for its power and plenty. Hoover Dams initial 1,345 MW power station was the worlds largest hydroelectric station in 1936
22.
Spaniards
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Within Spain there are a number of nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the countrys complex history and diverse culture. There are several commonly spoken languages, most notably Basque. There are many populations outside Spain with ancestors who emigrated from Spain, the Roman Republic conquered Iberia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. As a result of Roman colonization, the majority of languages, with the exception of Basque. The Germanic Vandals and Suebi, with part of the Iranian Alans under King Respendial conquered the peninsula in 409 AD. The Iberian Peninsula was conquered and brought under the rule of the Arab Umayyads in 711 and by the Berber North African dynasties the Almohads, in the early 16th century the Kingdom of Navarre was also conquered. In parallel, a wave of emigration began to the Americas began with over 16 million people emigrating to the Americas during the colonial period. In the post-colonial period, a further 3.5 million Spanish left for the Americas, particularly Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, as a result, Spanish-descendants in Latin America number in the hundreds of millions. Spain is home to one of the largest communities of Romani people, the Spanish Roma, which belong to the Iberian Kale subgroup, are a formerly-nomadic community, which spread across Western Asia, North Africa, and Europe, first reaching Spain in the 15th century. The population of Spain is became increasingly diverse due to recent immigration, the earliest modern humans inhabiting Spain are believed to have been Neolithic peoples who may have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula as early as 35, 000–40,000 years ago. In more recent times the Iberians are believed to have arrived or developed in the region between the 4th millennium BC and the 3rd millennium BC, initially settling along the Mediterranean coast, celts settled in Spain during the Iron Age. Some of those tribes in North-central Spain, which had contact with the Iberians, are called Celtiberians. In addition, a known as the Tartessians and later Turdetanians inhabited southwestern Spain. The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians successively founded trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast over a period of several centuries, the Second Punic War between the Carthaginians and Romans was fought mainly in what is now Spain and Portugal. The Roman Republic conquered Iberia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC transformed most of the region into a series of Latin-speaking provinces, hispania emerged as an important part of the Roman Empire and produced notable historical figures such as Trajan, Hadrian, Seneca and Quintilian. The Germanic Vandals and Suebi, with part of the Iranian Alans under King Respendial, the Suebi became the first Germanic kingdom to convert officially to Roman Catholicism in 447 AD. under king Rechiar. After two centuries of domination by the Visigothic Kingdom, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by a Muslim force under Tariq Bin Ziyad in 711 and this army consisted mainly ethnic Berbers from the Ghomara tribe, which were reinforced by Arabs from Syria once the conquest was complete. Muslim Iberia became part of the Umayyad Caliphate and would be known as Al-Andalus, the Berbers of Al Andalus revolted as early as 740 AD, halting Arab expansion across the Pyrenees into France
23.
Americans
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Americans are citizens of the United States of America. The country is home to people of different national origins. As a result, Americans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, although citizens make up the majority of Americans, non-citizen residents, dual citizens, and expatriates may also claim an American identity. See Names for United States citizens. S, virgin Islands and Northern Mariana Islands in the 20th century. It also includes influences of African-American culture, westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe introduced a variety of elements, immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America has also had impact. A cultural melting pot, or pluralistic salad bowl, describes the way in which generations of Americans have celebrated and exchanged distinctive cultural characteristics, in addition to the United States, Americans and people of American descent can be found internationally. As many as seven million Americans are estimated to be living abroad, the United States of America is a diverse country, racially, and ethnically. Some other race is also an option in the census and other surveys, people of European descent, or White Americans, constitute the majority of the 308 million people living in the United States, with 72. 4% of the population in the 2010 United States Census. They are considered people who trace their ancestry to the peoples of Europe, the Middle East. Of those reporting to be White American,7,487,133 reported to be Multiracial, with largest combination being white, additionally, there are 29,184,290 White Hispanics or Latinos. Non-Hispanic Whites are the majority in 46 states, there are four minority-majority states, California, Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii. In addition, the District of Columbia has a non-white majority, the state with the highest percentage of non-Hispanic White Americans is Maine. The largest continental ancestral group of Americans are that of Europeans who have origins in any of the peoples of Europe. This includes people via African, North American, Caribbean, Central American or South American and Oceanian nations that have a large European diaspora, the Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the United States. Martín de Argüelles born 1566, San Agustín, La Florida, was the first person of European descent born in what is now the United States. Twenty-one years later, Virginia Dare born 1587 Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents. 8% of the total population, Hispanic or Latino Americans constitute the largest ethnic minority in the United States. They form the second largest group after non-Hispanic Whites in the United States, hispanic/Latino Americans are very racially diverse, and as a result form an ethnic category, rather than a race
24.
Roundhouse (dwelling)
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Roundhouse is a term applied by archaeologists and anthropologists to a type of house with a circular plan, usually with a conical roof. In the later part of the 20th century modern designs of roundhouse eco-buildings started to be built using such as cob, cordwood or straw bale walls. Roundhouses were the form of housing built in Britain from the Bronze Age throughout the Iron Age. They used walls made either of stone or of wooden posts joined by wattle-and-daub panels, the Atlantic roundhouse, Broch and Wheelhouse styles were used in Scotland. The remains of many Bronze Age roundhouses can still be found scattered across open heathland, such as Dartmoor, most of what is assumed about these structures is derived from the layout of the postholes, although a few timbers have been found preserved in bogs. The rest has been postulated by experimental archaeology, which has shown the most likely form, for example, experiments have shown that a conical roof with a pitch of about 45 degrees would have been the strongest and most efficient design. Peter J. Instead, smoke would have accumulated harmlessly inside the roof space, many modern simulations of roundhouses have been built, including, New designs of roundhouse are again being built in Britain and elsewhere. In the UK straw bale construction or cordwood walls with reciprocal frame green roofs are used, there is one manufacturer of contemporary Roundhouses in Cheshire, England, using modern materials and engineering to bring the circular floorplan back for modern living. It was subject to a lengthy planning battle including an injunction to force its demolition before finally receiving planning approval for 3 years in September 2008. A palloza is a thatched house as found in the Serra dos Ancares in Galicia, Spain. It is circular or oval, and about ten or twenty metres in diameter and is built to withstand winter weather at a typical altitude of 1,200 metres. The main structure is stone, and is divided internally into separate areas for the family and their animals, the roof is conical, made from rye straw on a wooden frame. There is no chimney, the smoke from the kitchen fire seeps out through the thatch, as well as living space for humans and animals, a palloza has its own bread oven, workshops for wood, metal and leather work, and a loom. Only the eldest couple of a family had their own bedroom. The rest of the family slept in the hay loft, in the roof space, see also Castros in Spain Round houses can be found in various countries in Africa. In South Africa they are known by the Afrikaans word rondavel, modern roundhouses are being built such as the one at Dancing Rabbit ecovillage near Rutledge, Missouri, built of cob. Roundhouses are still in use in Papua New Guinea and are similar to the ones built in western Europe
25.
Marsh
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A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species. Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams and they are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds. If woody plants are present they tend to be low-growing shrubs, Marshes provide a habitat for many species of plants, animals, and insects that have adapted to living in flooded conditions. The plants must be able to survive in wet mud with low oxygen levels, many of these plants therefore have aerenchyma, channels within the stem that allow air to move from the leaves into the rooting zone. Marsh plants also tend to have rhizomes for underground storage and reproduction, familiar examples include cattails, sedges, papyrus and sawgrass. Aquatic animals, from fish to salamanders, are able to live with a low amount of oxygen in the water. Some can obtain oxygen from the air instead, while others can live indefinitely in conditions of low oxygen, Marshes provide habitats for many kinds of invertebrates, fish, amphibians, waterfowl and aquatic mammals. Marshes have extremely high levels of production, some of the highest in the world. Marshes also improve water quality by acting as a sink to filter pollutants, Marshes are able to absorb water during periods of heavy rainfall and slowly release it into waterways and therefore reduce the magnitude of flooding. The pH in marshes tends to be neutral to alkaline, as opposed to bogs, Marshes differ depending mainly on their location and salinity. Both of these factors influence the range and scope of animal and plant life that can survive. The three main types of marsh are salt marshes, freshwater marshes, and freshwater marshes. These three can be found worldwide and each contains a different set of organisms, saltwater marshes are found around the world in mid to high latitudes, wherever there are sections of protected coastline. They are located close enough to the shoreline that the motion of the tides affects them and they flourish where the rate of sediment buildup is greater than the rate at which the land level is sinking. Salt marshes are dominated by specially adapted rooted vegetation, primarily salt-tolerant grasses, salt marshes are most commonly found in lagoons, estuaries, and on the sheltered side of shingle or sandspit. The currents there carry the fine particles around to the side of the spit. These locations allow the marshes to absorb the nutrients from the water running through them before they reach the oceans. Coastal development and urban sprawl has caused significant loss of these essential habitats, although considered a freshwater marsh, this form of marsh is affected by the ocean tides
26.
Jedediah Smith
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Jedediah Strong Smith, was a clerk, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the North American West, and the Southwest during the early 19th century. Coming from a modest family background, Smith traveled to St. Louis and joined William H. Ashley, Smith led the first documented exploration from the Salt Lake frontier to the Colorado River. From there, Smiths party became the first white Americans to cross the Mojave Desert into California, on the return journey, Smith and his companions were the first United States citizens to explore and eastwardly cross the Sierra Nevada and the treacherous Great Basin Desert. Smith and his companions were also the first white Americans to travel up the California coast to reach the Oregon Country, surviving three Indian massacres and one bear mauling, Jedediah Smiths explorations and documented travels were important resources to later American westward expansion. In March 1831, while in St. Louis, Smith requested of Secretary of War John H, Eaton a federally funded exploration of the West, but to no avail. Smith informed Eaton that he was completing a map of the West derived from his own journeys, in May, Smith and his partners launched a planned para-military trading party to Santa Fe. On May 27, while searching for water in present-day southwest Kansas and it was learned some weeks later that he had been killed during an encounter with the Comanche. After his death, Smiths memory and his accomplishments were mostly forgotten by his countrymen, at the beginning of the 20th century, scholars and historians made efforts to recognize and study his achievements. In 1918, a book by Harrison Clifford Dale was published covering Ashley-Smith western explorations, in 1935, Smiths summary autobiography was finally listed in a biographical dictionary. Smiths first comprehensive biography by Maurice S. Sullivan was published in 1936, a popular Smith biography by Dale Morgan, published in 1953, established Smith as an authentic national hero. Smiths map of the West in 1831 was superimposed by the U. S. Army, Smiths father was a New Hampshire native. Smith received an adequate English instruction, learned some Latin, and was taught how to write decently. Around 1810, Smiths father, who owned a store, was caught up in a legal issue involving counterfeit currency, after which the elder Smith moved his family west to Erie County. At the age of 13, Smith worked as a clerk on a Lake Erie freighter and this work gave Smith an ambition for adventurous wilderness trade. According to Dale L. Morgan, Smiths love of nature and adventure came from his mentor, Dr. Titus G. V. Simons, Smith would provide Clark, who had become Superintendant of Indian Affairs, much information on Smiths expeditions into the West. In 1817, the Smith family moved again, to Ohio. Coming from a family of very modest means, Smith struck out to make his own way and he may have left his family in search of a trade or employment a year prior to their settlement in Green Township. In 1822, Smith was living in St. Louis, the same year Smith responded to an advertisement in the Missouri Gazette placed by Gen. William H. Ashley
27.
Ebbetts Pass
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Ebbetts Pass, named after John Ebbetts, is a high mountain pass through the Sierra Nevada range in Alpine County, California. Ebbetts is the eastern of two passes in the area traversed by State Route 4, the western pass is the Pacific Grade Summit. The pass is registered as a California Historical Landmark, the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2, 650-mile long National Scenic Trail crosses State Route 4 at Ebbetts Pass. The pass was used by John Bidwell on his emigration to California. John Ebbetts, a California pioneer, traversed the pass in April 1851 with a train of mules. He hoped it would make a route for the transcontinental railroad. However, this was likely an anomaly, as the current highway is closed from November through May due to snow accumulation. He later surveyed near the pass for a railroad route. He intended to return to the pass itself to survey it for a road but was killed in the explosion of the steamboat Secretary on San Pablo Bay in 1854 before he could do so. While the pass was referred to by his earlier, it was not until 1893, when the U. S. Geological Survey surveyed the Markleeville quadrangle. This became a road in 1862. From Markleeville, travel further eastward was taken along established routes, Ebbetts Pass was designated as a California State Scenic Highway in 1971 and was honored with National Scenic Byway status September 22,2005 by the U. S Department of Transportation in Washington D. C. It is one of seven nationally designated byways in California and 151 in the nation. Today, Ebbetts Pass is one of the least traveled passes in the Sierra Nevada, an extensive section of highway over the pass is less than two lanes with no dividing line. It has very steep sections with hairpin corners, the eastern slope is particularly difficult, as many of the hairpin corners are blind, and steepen suddenly at the apex, making it necessary to shift to first gear in most vehicles. It is rarely used by traffic and is not recommended for vehicles towing long trailers. Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway official site Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway on byways. org Ebbetts Pass Historical Association Calaveras Heritage Council
28.
Stanislaus River
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The Stanislaus River is a tributary of the San Joaquin River, about 96 miles long, in north-central California in the United States. The Stanislaus is known for its rapids and scenic canyons in the upper reaches. The river is named for Estanislao, who led an uprising in Mexican-controlled California in 1828. During the California Gold Rush, the Stanislaus River was the destination of tens of thousands of seekers, many of them reached California via Sonora Pass. Many miners and their families settled along the lower Stanislaus River. The farms and ranches they established are now part of the richest agricultural region in the United States. Starting in the early 1900s, many dams were built to store and divert water, although New Melones was eventually built, its completion is considered to have marked the end of large dam building in the US. Water rights along the Stanislaus River are a topic, with the senior rights of farmers coming into conflict with federal and state laws protecting endangered salmon. The Stanislaus irrigation districts contend that diverting water for fish damages the local economy, Water managers have struggled to find a balance between competing needs, which also include groundwater recharge, flood control, and river-based recreation such as fishing and whitewater rafting. The Stanislaus River headwaters consist of three forks in the high Sierra Nevada, in parts of Alpine County, Calaveras County, the Middle Fork,46 miles long, is the largest tributary and is sometimes considered part of the main stem. It begins in the Emigrant Wilderness of the Stanislaus National Forest about 5 miles west of 9 and it flows northwest then west, receiving the Clark Fork below Dardanelle, before feeding Donnell Lake and Beardsley Lake, both formed by hydroelectric power dams. Below the Beardsley dam, it continues west to its confluence with the North Fork at Camp Nine, the 31-mile -long North Fork rises in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness and flows in a generally southwest direction to its confluence with the Middle Fork, passing through several small hydropower dams. For most of their lengths, both flow in deep canyons through rugged, heavily forested terrain. The total length of the Stanislaus River, measured from its mouth to the head of Kennedy Creek in the Emigrant Wilderness, is about 150 miles, the confluence of the Middle and North Forks marks the start of the Stanislaus River proper. It flows southwest through a canyon to the 12, 500-acre New Melones Lake reservoir in the Sierra Nevada foothills, at the reservoir, it is joined by the smaller South Fork, which descends for 42 miles from the Sierra Nevada to the east. Much of State Route 108 runs parallel to the South Fork, as well as the part of the Middle Fork. Below New Melones, the flows through the smaller Tulloch Reservoir before reaching Goodwin Dam. At Riverbank it begins to form the border of Stanislaus County, at Ripon, it is crossed by Highway 99
29.
Alta California
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Alta California, founded in 1769 by Gaspar de Portolà, was a polity of New Spain and after the Mexican War of Independence in 1822, a territory of Mexico. The region included all of the states of California, Nevada, and Utah. Large areas east of the Sierra Nevada and San Gabriel Mountains were claimed to be part of Alta California, to the southeast, beyond the deserts and the Colorado River, lay the Spanish settlements in Arizona. The areas formerly comprising Alta California were ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican–American War in 1848, two years later, California joined the union as the 31st state. Other parts of Alta California became all or part of the later U. S. states of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. The Spanish explored the area of Alta California by sea beginning in the 16th century. During the following two centuries there were plans to settle the area, none of which were effectively carried out. Ultimately, New Spain did not have the resources nor population to settle such a far northern outpost. To ascertain the Russian threat a number of Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest were launched, the Spanish Crown funded the construction and subsidized the operation of the missions, with the goal that the relocation, conversion and enforced labor of Native people would bolster Spanish rule. The first Alta California mission and presidio were established by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra, the following year,1770, the second mission and presidio were founded in Monterey. In 1773 a boundary between the Baja California missions and the Franciscan missions of Alta California was set by Francisco Palóu, the missionary effort coincided with the construction of presidios and pueblos, which were to be manned and populated by Hispanic people. The first pueblo founded was San José in 1777, followed by Los Ángeles in 1781, by law, mission land and property were to pass to the indigenous population after a period of about ten years, when the natives would become Spanish subjects. In the interim period, the Franciscans were to act as mission administrators who held the land in trust for the Native residents, the transfer of property never occurred under the Franciscans. As the number of Spanish settlers grew in Alta California, the boundaries, conflicts between the Crown and the Church and between Natives and settlers arose. State and ecclesiastical bureaucrats debated over authority of the missions and they advocated that the Natives owned property and had the right to defend it. Governor Diego de Borica is credited with defining Alta and Baja Californias official borders, Mexico won independence in 1822, and Alta California became a territory of Mexico. The Spanish and later Mexican governments rewarded retired soldados de cuera with large grants, known as ranchos, for the raising of cattle. Hides and tallow from the livestock were the primary exports of California until the mid-19th century, the construction, ranching and domestic work on these vast estates was primarily done by Native Americans, who had learned to speak Spanish and ride horses
30.
New Spain
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New Spain was a colonial territory of the Spanish Empire, in the New World north of the Isthmus of Panama. It was established following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521, after 1535 the colony was governed by the Viceroy of New Spain, an appointed minister of the King of Spain, who ruled as monarch over the colony. The capital of New Spain was Mexico City and it developed highly regional divisions, which reflect the impact of climate, topography, the presence or absence of dense indigenous populations, and the presence or absence of mineral resources. The areas of central and southern Mexico had dense indigenous populations with complex social, political, silver mining not only became the engine of the economy of New Spain, but vastly enriched Spain, and transformed the global economy. New Spain was the New World terminus of the Philippine trade, although New Spain was a dependency of Spain, it was a kingdom not a colony, subject to the presiding monarch on the Iberian Peninsula. Every privilege and position, economic political, or religious came from him and it was on this basis that the conquest, occupation, and government of the New World was achieved. The Viceroyalty of New Spain was established in 1535 in the Kingdom of New Spain and it was the first New World viceroyalty and one of only two in the Spanish empire until the 18th century Bourbon Reforms. The Spanish Empire comprised the territories in the north overseas Septentrion, from North America, to the west of the continent, New Spain also included the Spanish East Indies. To the east of the continent, it included the Spanish West Indies and this was not occupied by many Spanish settlers and were considered more marginal to Spanish interests than the most densely populated and lucrative areas of central Mexico. To shore up its claims in North America starting in the late 18th century, Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest explored and claimed the coast of what is now British Columbia and Alaska. The indigenous societies of Mesoamerica brought under Spanish control were of unprecedented complexity, the societies could provide the conquistadors, especially Hernán Cortés, a base from which the conquerors could become autonomous, or even independent, of the Crown. As a result, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, since the time of the Catholic Monarchs, central Iberia was governed through councils appointed by the monarch with particular jurisdictions. Thus, the creation of the Council of the Indies became another, the crown had set up the Casa de Contratación in 1503 to regulate contacts between Spain and its overseas possessions. A key function was to gather information about navigation to make trips less risky and they were accompanied by maps of the area discussed, many of which were drawn by indigenous artists. The Francisco Hernández Expedition, the first scientific expedition to the New World, was sent to gather information medicinal plants, an earlier Audiencia had been established in Santo Domingo in 1526 to deal with the Caribbean settlements. That Audiencia, housed in the Casa Reales in Santo Domingo, was charged with encouraging further exploration, management by the Audiencia, which was expected to make executive decisions as a body, proved unwieldy. Therefore, in 1535, King Charles V named Don Antonio de Mendoza as the first Viceroy of New Spain. After the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 opened up the vast territories of South America to further conquests, the Crown established an independent Viceroyalty of Peru there in 1540
31.
Hudson's Bay Company
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The Hudsons Bay Company, commonly referred to as The Bay, is a Canadian retail business group. HBCs head office is in the Simpson Tower in Toronto, Ontario, the company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HBC. It was once the worlds largest landowner, with the area of the Hudson Bay watershed, known as Ruperts Land, having 15% of North American acreage. From its long-time headquarters at York Factory on Hudson Bay, the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of the English, undertaking early exploration, its traders and trappers forged relationships with many groups of aboriginal peoples. Its network of trading posts formed the nucleus for later official authority in areas of Western Canada. By the mid-19th century, the company evolved into a business selling everything from furs to fine homeware. They quickly introduced a new type of client to the HBC – one that shopped for pleasure and not with skins, in July 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners, which also owns the upmarket American department store Lord & Taylor. From 2008 to 2012, the HBC was run through a company of NRDC, Hudsons Bay Trading Company. Since 2012, the HBC directly oversees its Canadian subsidiaries Hudsons Bay and Home Outfitters, on 29 July 2013, the HBC announced its takeover of Saks, Inc. operator of the Saks Fifth Avenue brand. The merger was completed on 3 November 2013, in September 2015, HBC acquired the German department store chain Galeria Kaufhof and its Belgian subsidiary from Metro Group for $3.2 billion U. S. In May 2016, HBC announced it would expand to the Netherlands by taking over up to 20 former Vroom & Dreesmann sites by 2017, v&D was an historic Dutch department store chain that went bankrupt and shut down in early 2016. HBC said the expansion would cost CAD $340 million and create 2,500 jobs in the stores, the Dutch stores would operate under the Hudsons Bay and Saks Off Fifth brands. In January 2016, HBC announced it would also expand deeper in the space with its acquisition of online flash sales site. In the 17th century the French had a de facto monopoly on the Canadian fur trade with their colony of New France. Assuming this was Hudson Bay, they sought French backing for a plan to set up a trading post on the Bay, despite this refusal, in 1659 Radisson and Groseilliers set out for the upper Great Lakes basin. A year later returned with premium furs, evidence of the potential of the Hudson Bay region. Subsequently, they were arrested for trading without a licence and fined, determined to establish trade in the Hudson Bay, Radisson and Groseilliers approached a group of businessmen in Boston, Massachusetts to help finance their explorations. The Bostonians agreed on the plans merits but their speculative voyage in 1663 failed when their ship ran into pack ice in Hudson Strait, boston-based English commissioner Colonel George Cartwright learned of the expedition and brought the two to England to raise financing
32.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
33.
John Sutter
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Although famous throughout California for his association with the Gold Rush, Sutter saw his business ventures fail while those of his elder son, John Augustus Sutter, Jr. were more successful. John Augustus Sutter was born Johann August Suter on February 15,1803 in Kandern, Baden, Germany, Johann went to school in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. At age 21, Johann married the daughter of a rich widow and he operated a store but he was more interested in spending money than making it. Because of family and mounting debts, Johann faced charges that would have him placed in jail, so he decided to dodge trial and ventured to America, he styled his name to Captain John Augustus Sutter. In North America, John Augustus Sutter undertook extensive travels, before he went to the U. S. he had learned Spanish and English in addition to Swiss French. Together with 35 Germans he moved from the St. Louis area to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a province of Mexico, then moved to the town of Westport, Oregon Territory. On April 1,1838, he joined a group of missionaries, led by the fur trapper Andrew Drips, and traveled the Oregon Trail to Fort Vancouver in Oregon Territory, which they reached in October. Sutter originally planned to cross the Siskiyou Mountains during the winter, Sutter was charged £21 by Douglas to arrange transportation on the British bark Columbia for himself and his eight followers. The Columbia departed Fort Vancouver on 11 November and sailed to the Kingdom of Hawaii, Sutter had missed the only ship inbound for the Alta California, and had to remain in the Kingdom for four months. The brig Clementine was eventually hired by Sutter to take provisions and general merchandise for New Archangel. Joining the crew as unpaid supercargo, Sutter,10 Native Hawaiians laborers, staying at New Archangel for a month, Sutter joined several balls hosted by Governor Kupreyanov, who likely gave help in determining the course of the Sacramento River. The Clementine then sailed for Alta California, reaching Yerba Buena on July 1,1839, which at that time was only a small seaport town. At the time of Sutters arrival in California, Alta California was a province of Mexico, and had a population of only about 1,000 Europeans and an estimated 100, 000-700,000 Native Americans. Sutter had to go to the capital at Monterey to obtain permission from the governor, Juan Bautista Alvarado, Alvarado saw Sutters plan of establishing a colony in Central Valley as useful in buttressing the frontier which he was trying to maintain against Indians, Russians, Americans and British. The governor stipulated however that for Sutter to qualify for land ownership, he had to reside in the territory for a year and become a Mexican citizen, which he did on August 29,1840. Construction was begun in August 1839 on a settlement which Sutter named New Helvetia, or New Switzerland, after his homeland. Sutter often began to identify himself as Captain Sutter of the Swiss Guard, when the settlement was completed in 1841, on 18 June, he received title to 48,827 acres on the Sacramento River. The site is now part of the California state capital of Sacramento, Sutter at first supported the establishment of an independent California Republic but when United States troops under John C
34.
New Helvetia
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New Helvetia, meaning New Switzerland, was a 19th-century Mexican-era Alta California settlement and rancho, centered in present-day Sacramento, California. The Swiss pioneer John Sutter arrived in Alta California with other Euro-American settlers in August 1839 and he established an agricultural and trading colony, with the stockade Sutters Fort, and named it Nueva Helvetia. It was located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and American River, in English the name means New Switzerland, after Sutters home country. The site of Nueva Helvetia is just a few miles east of where his son, John Sutter, Jr. established Sacramento, and is on the eastern edge of present-day downtown Sacramento. Rancho New Helvetia, in Spanish Rancho Nueva Helvetia, was a 48 and it encompassed lands in present-day Sacramento County, Sutter County, and Yuba County, California. The grant extended roughly from near present-day Marysville, southwards along the Feather River, to the confluence of the Sacramento River and it was significantly larger than Sutters 1839 Nueva Helvetia colony. By 1840, the pueblo and rancho settlements in Mexican Alta California were primarily located on coastal plains, the Californios were worried about encroachments by foreigners, especially by American immigrants. Part of Sutters mandate with the grant was to encourage settlers, however, these grants far exceeded the quantity of land ultimately awarded to him. As many as six hundred Indians worked at New Helvetia during the wheat harvest, other industries included a distillery, hat factory, blanket works, and a tannery. These workers were recruited through local leaders such as Maximo, a Miwok who had sent many workers to Mission San José, housing and working conditions at the fort were very poor, and have been described as enslavement, with uncooperative Indians being whipped, jailed, and executed. Housing for workers living in villages and rancherías was described as somewhat better. The settlement was defended by an army of Miwok, Nisenan, and Mission Indians, all consisting of 150 infantry,50 cavalry, and German-speaking white officers. This group, wearing Russian uniforms purchased from Fort Ross, marched to the Pueblo of Los Angeles area, in January 1848 James W. Marshall found gold at Sutters Mill on the rancho, starting the California Gold Rush. Sutter was forced to abandon his business ventures at the settlement after that, Sutters Fort is preserved as a California State Historic Park. With the gold rush, Sutters workers abandoned him to seek their fortune in the gold fields, with the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, in 1852 Sutter filed a claim with the Public Land Commission for the eleven square leagues granted by Alvarado in 1841. Both grants were confirmed by the US District Court in 1857, although Sutter could not produce the original records of his grant, the Supreme Court accepted the 1841 Alvarado grant and sent the 1845 Micheltorena grant back to the district court. In 1864, the US Supreme Court rejected the 1845 Micheltorena grant, the eleven square league Alvarado grant was patented to John A. Sutter in 1866
35.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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With the defeat of its army and the fall of its capital, Mexico entered into negotiations to end the war. The treaty called for the U. S. to pay $15 million to Mexico, Mexicans in those annexed areas had the choice of relocating to within Mexicos new boundaries or receiving American citizenship with full civil rights. Over 90% chose to become U. S. citizens, the U. S. Senate advised and consented to ratification of the treaty by a vote of 38–14. The opponents of this treaty were led by the Whigs, who had opposed the war and rejected Manifest destiny in general, and rejected this expansion in particular. The peace talks were negotiated by Nicholas Trist, chief clerk of the US State Department, Nicholas Trist negotiated with a special commission representing the collapsed government led by Don José Bernardo Couto, Don Miguel de Atristain, and Don Luis Gonzaga Cuevas of Mexico. Instead, Article V of the treaty simply described the new U. S. –Mexico border. Comparing the boundary in the Adams–Onís Treaty to the Guadalupe Hidalgo boundary, Mexico conceded about 55% of its pre-war, pre-Texas territorial claims, articles VIII and IX ensured safety of existing property rights of Mexican citizens living in the transferred territories. Despite assurances to the contrary, the property rights of Mexican citizens were not honored by the U. S. in accordance with modifications to. The U. S. also agreed to assume $3.25 million in debts that Mexico owed to United States citizens, the residents had one year to choose whether they wanted American or Mexican citizenship, Over 90% chose American citizenship, which included full voting rights. The others returned to Mexico, or in cases in New Mexico were allowed to remain in place as Mexican citizens. Article XII engaged the United States to pay, In consideration of the acquired,15 million dollars. Article XI of the treaty was important to Mexico. S, would return captives of the Indians to Mexico. Mexicans believed that the United States had encouraged and assisted the Comanche and Apache raids that had devastated northern Mexico in the years before the war and this article promised relief to them Article XI, however, proved unenforceable. Destructive Indian raids continued despite a heavy U. S. presence near the Mexican border, Mexico filed 366 claims with the U. S. government for damages done by Comanche and Apache raids between 1848 and 1853. In 1853, in the Treaty of Mesilla concluding the Gadsden Purchase, the remainder of New Mexico and Arizona were peacefully purchased under the Gadsden Purchase, which was carried out in 1853. In this purchase the United States paid an additional $10 million, however, the American Civil War delayed construction of such a route, and it was not until 1881 that the Southern Pacific Railroad finally was completed, fulfilling the purpose of the acquisition. Mexico had claimed the area in question since winning its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. About 80,000 Mexicans lived in the areas of California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas during the period of 1845 to 1850, and far fewer in Nevada, in southern and western Colorado, and in Utah
36.
Placer mining
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Placer mining is the mining of stream bed deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit or by various surface excavating equipment or tunnelling equipment, the metal or gemstones, having been moved by stream flow from an original source such as a vein, are typically only a minuscule portion of the total deposit. Since gems and heavy metals like gold are more dense than sand. The containing material may be too loose to safely mine by tunnelling, where water under pressure is available, it may be used to mine, move, and separate the precious material from the deposit, a method known as hydraulic mining, hydraulic sluicing or hydraulicking. The word placer derives from the Spanish placer, meaning shoal or alluvial/sand deposit, from Catalan placer, from plassa, from Medieval Latin placea the origin word for place and plaza in English. The word in Spanish is thus derived from placea and refers directly to an alluvial or glacial deposit of sand or gravel. Placers supplied most of the gold for a part of the ancient world. Hydraulic mining methods such as hushing were used widely by the Romans across their empire, one of the largest sites was at Las Médulas, where seven 30 mile long aqueducts were used to work the alluvial gold deposits through the first century AD. Placer mining continues in many areas of the world as a source of diamonds, industrial minerals and metals, gems, platinum, an area well protected from the flow of water is a great location to find gold. Gold is very dense and is found in a stream bed. Many different gold deposits are dealt with in different ways, placer deposits attract many prospectors because their costs are very low. There are many different places gold could be placed, such as a residual, alluvial, residual deposits are more common where there has been weathering on rocks and where there hasn’t been water. They are deposits which have not been washed away yet or been moved, the residual usually lies at the site of the lode. This type of deposit undergoes rock weathering, alluvial or eluvial deposits sometimes have the largest gold deposit and are very common. This deposit is created when a force of nature moves or washes the gold away and it contains pieces of ore that have been washed away from the lode. Alluvial deposits are the most common type of placer gold and this type of deposit occurs mostly in valleys. Bench deposits are created when gold reaches a stream bed, gold accumulations in an old stream bed that are high are called bench deposits. They can be found on slopes that drain into valleys
37.
Hydraulic mining
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Hydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment. In the placer mining of gold or tin, the resulting water-sediment slurry is directed through sluice boxes to remove the gold and it is also used in mining kaolin and coal. Hydraulic mining originated out of ancient Roman techniques that used water to excavate soft underground deposits and its modern form, using pressurized water jets produced by a nozzle called a monitor, came about in the 1850s during the California Gold Rush in the United States. These problems led to its legal regulation, Hydraulic mining has since been used in various forms around the world. The method was used in Elizabethan England & Wales for developing lead, tin. Water was used on a large scale by Roman engineers in the first centuries BC, using a process later known as hushing, the Romans stored a large volume of water in a reservoir immediately above the area to be mined, the water was then quickly released. The resulting wave of water removed overburden and exposed bedrock, Gold veins in the bedrock were then worked using a number of techniques, and water power was used again to remove debris. The remains at Las Medulas and in surrounding areas show badland scenery on a gigantic scale owing to hydraulicking of the alluvial gold deposits. Las Medulas is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the site shows the remains of at least seven large aqueducts of up to 30 miles in length feeding large supplies of water into the site. The gold-mining operations were described in vivid terms by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia published in the first century AD, Pliny was a procurator in Hispania Terraconensis in the 70s and must have witnessed for himself the operations. The use of hushing has been confirmed by field survey and archaeology at Dolaucothi in South Wales, matteson used canvas hose which was later replaced with crinoline hose by the 1860s. In California, hydraulic mining often brought water from higher locations for long distances to holding several hundred feet above the area to be mined. California hydraulic mining exploited gravel deposits, making it a form of placer mining, early placer miners in California discovered that the more gravel they could process, the more gold they were likely to find. Instead of working with pans, sluice boxes, long toms, Hydraulic mining became the largest-scale, and most devastating, form of placer mining. Water was redirected into a channel, through a large canvas hose. The extremely high pressure stream was used to wash entire hillsides through enormous sluices, by the mid-1880s, it is estimated that 11 million ounces of gold had been recovered by hydraulic mining in the California Gold Rush. Millions of tons of earth and water were delivered to mountain streams that fed rivers flowing into the Sacramento Valley, cities and towns in the Sacramento Valley experienced an increasing number of devastating floods, while the rising riverbeds made navigation on the rivers increasingly difficult. Perhaps no other city experienced the boon and the bane of gold mining as much as Marysville, situated at the confluence of the Yuba and Feather rivers, Marysville was the final jumping off point for miners heading to the northern foothills to seek their fortune
38.
Great Flood of 1862
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The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the high elevations that began in Oregon in November 1861. Immense snowfalls in the mountains of the far western United States caused more flooding in Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, the event was capped by a warm intense storm that melted the high snow load. The resulting snow-melt flooded valleys, inundated or swept away towns, mills, dams, flumes, houses, fences, and domestic animals, an atmospheric river is a narrow band of water vapor about a mile above sea level and about 400 to 600 kilometres wide. Prior to the flooding, Oregon had steady but heavier than normal rainfall during November and heavier snow in the mountains, researchers believe the jet stream slid south accompanied by freezing conditions reported at Oregon stations by December 25. Eventually the trough moved even further south, causing snow to fall in the Central Valley, there was an excess of precipitation in November 1861 over most of Oregon, less so in the extreme northwest. Tributaries of the Willamette rising in the Oregon Coast Range did not rise so high, then the depression that came in at the beginning of December produced strong, warm southerly winds in Oregon, with extremely heavy rain. The crest at Albany and Salem were the highest ever known at any time, in Oregon, the flood was one of the largest in the history of the Willamette Valley and the rest of Western Oregon. Flooding was heaviest on rivers with tributaries arising from the snow-covered Cascade Range, clair was able to run the falls, and steamers were able to visit points at some distance from the normal river channel. Although large amounts of wheat and flour were swept away, some was recovered when Oregon Citys Island Mill was found on Sauvie Island downriver from Portland, the nearby town of Linn City was completely destroyed by flooding and was not rebuilt. In addition, the destroyed the historic town of Champoeg, site of the first provisional government in Oregon. The flooding was severe in other parts of Oregon, the Umpqua River had the greatest flood known even to the oldest Native Americans. It rose from November 3 to December 3, subsided for two days, then again until the 9th. At Fort Umpqua, communication upriver was cut off above Scottsburg, at Port Orford, the Coquille River swept away settlers property and also did great damage on the Rogue River and on other small streams. Flood damage was so great because the rivers in Oregon were the routes of travel. The river front was the site of mills, freight depots. Business houses and many residences were near the landings, farm buildings were mostly on sites convenient to the rivers, along with supplies of feed for livestock. Loss of so much flour and demand from the new Idaho gold fields caused a spike in its price from $7 to $12 per barrel
39.
Leland Stanford
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Amasa Leland Stanford was an American tycoon, industrialist, politician, and the founder of Stanford University. Migrating to California from New York at the time of the Gold Rush, he became a merchant and wholesaler. He served one term as governor of California after his election in 1861. As president of Southern Pacific Railroad and, beginning in 1861, Central Pacific, he had power in the region. He is widely considered a robber baron, Stanford was born in 1824 in what was then Watervliet, New York. He was one of eight children of Josiah and Elizabeth Phillips Stanford, among his siblings were New York State Senator Charles Stanford and Australian businessman and spiritualist Thomas Welton Stanford. His immigrant ancestor, Thomas Stanford, settled in Charlestown, Massachusetts, later ancestors settled in the eastern Mohawk Valley of central New York about 1720. Stanfords father was a farmer of some means, Stanford was raised on family farms in the Lisha Kill and Roessleville areas of Watervliet. The family home in Roessleville was called Elm Grove, the Elm Grove home was razed in the 1940s. Stanford attended the schools until 1836 and was tutored at home until 1839. He attended Clinton Liberal Institute, in Clinton, New York, in 1845, he entered the law office of Wheaton, Doolittle and Hadley in Albany. After being admitted to the bar in 1848, Stanford migrated with other settlers, moving to Port Washington, Wisconsin. His father presented him with a law library said to be the finest north of Milwaukee, in 1850, Stanford was nominated by the Whig Party as Washington County, Wisconsin district attorney. On September 30,1850, Stanford married Jane Elizabeth Lathrop in Albany and she was the daughter of Dyer Lathrop, a merchant of that city, and Jane Anne Lathrop. The couple did not have any children for years, until their only child, in 1852, having lost his law library and other property to a fire, Stanford followed his five brothers to California during the California Gold Rush. His wife, Jane, returned temporarily to Albany and her family and he served as a justice of the peace and helped organize the Sacramento Library Association, which later became the Sacramento Public Library. In 1855, he returned to Albany to join his wife, in 1856, he and Jane moved to Sacramento, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits on a large scale. His other three associates were Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, and Collis P. Huntington and they hired Theodore Dehone Judah as the chief engineer
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Sacramento County, California
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Sacramento County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,418,788 and its county seat is Sacramento, which has been the state capital of California since 1854. Sacramento County is included in the Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, the county covers about 994 square miles in the northern portion of the Central Valley, on into Gold Country. The southernmost portion of Sacramento County has direct access to San Francisco Bay, Sacramento County was one of the original counties of California, which were created in 1850 at the time of statehood. The county was named after the Sacramento River, which forms its western border, the river was named by Spanish cavalry officer Gabriel Moraga for the Santisimo Sacramento, referring to the Catholic Eucharist. Alexander Hamilton Willard, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is buried in the old Franklin Cemetery. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 994 square miles. Most of the county is at a close to sea level. The highest point in the county is Carpenter Hill at 828 feet, Carpenter Hill is the lowest high point of any county in California. Major watercourses in the county include the American River, Sacramento River, Cosumnes River, a tributary of the Mokelumne River and Dry Creek, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 306,196 persons. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,223,499 people,453,602 households, the population density was 1,267 people per square mile. There were 474,814 housing units at a density of 492/sq mi. The racial makeup of the county was 64. 0% White,10. 6% Black or African American,1. 09% Native American,13. 5% Asian,0. 6% Pacific Islander,7. 5% from other races, and 5. 8% from two or more races. 19. 3% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,10. 2% were of German,7. 0% English,6. 7% Irish and 5. 1% American ancestry according to Census 2000. 75. 7% spoke only English at home,10. 0% spoke Spanish,1. 5% Hmong,1. 4% Chinese or Mandarin,1. 3% Vietnamese,1. 2% Tagalog and 1. 2% Russian. 26. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 8. 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.24. In the county, the population was out with 27. 6% under the age of 18,9. 5% from 18 to 24,31. 0% from 25 to 44,20. 9% from 45 to 64. The median age was 34 years, for every 100 females there were 95.9 males
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Tahoe National Forest
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Tahoe National Forest is a U. S. National Forest located in the state of California, northwest of Lake Tahoe. It includes the 8, 587-foot peak of Sierra Buttes, near Sierra City and it is located in parts of six counties. In descending order of forestland area they are Sierra, Placer, Nevada, Yuba, Plumas, the forest has a total area of 871,495 acres. Its headquarters is in Nevada City, California, there are local ranger district offices in Camptonville, Foresthill, Sierraville, and Truckee. Also within its borders is the National Wilderness Preservation Systems Granite Chief Wilderness, the Forest Reserves were established in 1893 to halt uncontrolled exploitation. In California the Sierra Forest Reserve consisted of over 4,000,000 acres, thus began the United States National Forest System. The timber, water, pasture and mineral resources of the forests are for the use of the people. + Tahoe was originally established as the Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve on April 13,1899. The name was changed to Tahoe on October 3,1905, a 2002 report estimated nearly 84,000 acres of old growth in the Forest. The old growth includes Coast Douglas-fir, Ponderosa Pine, White Fir, Sugar Pine, California Incense Cedar, California Black Oak, Lodgepole Pine, and Red Fir. A number of species of weeds have been recorded in the Forest, including thistles, knapweeds, mustards, toadflaxes, daisies, brooms. Placer County Big Trees Grove is a giant sequoia located in the American River watershed of Tahoe National Forest. It is known as a giant sequoia grove, and is the northern most grove. The grove contains six old growth giant sequoias, two of which are considered giant size
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Eldorado National Forest
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Eldorado National Forest is a U. S. National Forest located in the central Sierra Nevada mountain range, in eastern California. Most of the forest lies in El Dorado County, in descending order of land area the others counties are, Amador, Alpine, and Placer counties in California, and Douglas County in Nevada with 78 acres. Eldorado National Forest headquarters are located in Placerville, California, there are local ranger district offices in Camino, Georgetown, Pioneer, and Pollock Pines. The parcels of Other Ownership are mostly isolated and surrounded on all sides by government land, an opposite pattern occurs outside of the Forest Boundary where several small scattered pieces of National Forest lands are separated from the main body and surrounded by lands of Other Ownership. The mountainous topography is broken by the canyons of the Mokelumne, Cosumnes, American. Plateaus of generally moderate relief are located between these steep canyons, the Desolation Wilderness is located within the forests boundaries, as is most of the Mokelumne Wilderness. A cool montane version of Mediterranean climate extends over most of the forest with warm, dry summers and cold, annual precipitation,40 to 70 inches on average. Precipitation falls mainly from October through April, temperature range,0 °F in winter to 100 °F in the summer. Snow pack,5 to 10 feet on average, can be as high as 15 feet, snow is present from December to May at elevations above 6,000 feet. A wide variety of hardwoods, conifers, shrubs, native grasses, water is a major resource of the Eldorado National Forest. The forest receives about 56 inches of precipitation annually, average annual runoff is about 29 inches. This is equal to an annual yield of 2.4 acre feet per acre, therefore National Forest lands yield an estimated 1,444,000 acre feet annually. 611 miles of streams in four major drainage systems, Middle Fork of the American River, South Fork of the American River, Cosumnes River. 297 lakes and reservoirs, which total 11,994 acres,11 large reservoirs account for 9,000 acres. The rest are small, high mountain lakes. The Eldorado National Forest has a density of transportation routes, with 2,367 miles of roads. Roads under Forest Service jurisdiction total 2,158 miles, there are 209 miles of county roads, and 400 miles of private roads within the National Forest boundaries. The forest was established on July 28,1910 from a portion of Tahoe National Forest, list of plants of the Sierra Nevada Index, Fauna of the Sierra Nevada The forest was formed by the last ice age
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Auburn, California
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Auburn is the county seat of Placer County, California. Its population was 13,330 during the 2010 census, Auburn is known for its California Gold Rush history, and is registered as a California Historical Landmark. Auburn is part of Greater Sacramento and is home to the Auburn State Recreation Area, the park is the site of more sporting endurance events than any other place in the world, giving Auburn the undisputed and internationally acclaimed title of Endurance Capital of the World. Archaeological finds place the border for the prehistoric Martis people in the Auburn area. The indigenous Nisenan, an offshoot of the Maidu, were the first to establish a permanent settlement in the Auburn area, in the spring of 1848, a group of French gold miners arrived and camped in what would later be known as the Auburn Ravine. This group was on its way to the fields in Coloma, California, and it included Francois Gendron, Philibert Courteau. The young Chana discovered gold on May 16,1848, after finding the gold deposits in the soil, the trio decided to stay for more prospecting and mining. Placer mining in the Auburn area was good, with the camp first becoming known as the North Fork Dry Diggings. This name was changed to the Woods Dry Diggings, after John S. Wood settled down, built a cabin, the area soon developed into a mining camp, and it was officially named Auburn in August 1849. By 1850, the population had grown to about 1,500 people. Gold mining operations moved up the ravine to the site of present-day Auburn, in 1865, the Central Pacific Railroad, the western leg of the First Transcontinental Railroad, reached Auburn, as it was being built east from Sacramento toward Ogden, Utah. The restored Old Town has houses and retail buildings from the middle of the 19th century, the oldest fire station and the Post Office date from the Gold Rush years. Casual gold-mining accessories, as well as American Indian and Chinese artifacts, Auburn was the home and birthplace of noted science fiction and fantasy poet and writer Clark Ashton Smith. A memorial to him is located near Old Town, Auburn is home to Placer High School, which is one of the oldest high schools in California. Local dentist Kenneth H. Foxs colossal sculptures are located throughout the town, the statues chronicle Auburns history, such as a middle-aged Claud Chana gold panning in the nearby American River, and a Chinese coolie worker building the Transcontinental Railroad. Auburn is located at 38°53′55″N 121°04′28″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.2 square miles, of which 0.03 square miles, or 0. 38%, is water. Auburn is situated in the Northern California foothills of the Sierra Nevada range, approximately 800 vertical feet above the confluence of the North Fork and it is located between Sacramento and Reno, Nevada along Interstate 80. Mountainous wilderness canyons and the slope of the Sierra Nevada lie adjacent eastward
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Rafting
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Rafting and white water rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water, dealing with risk and the need for teamwork is often a part of the experience. It is considered a sport, and can be fatal. The International Rafting Federation, often referred to as the IRF, is the body which oversees all aspects of the sport. Otherwise known as the International Scale of River Difficulty, below are the six grades of difficulty in white water rafting and they range from simple to very dangerous and potential death or serious injuries. Class 1, Very small rough areas, might require slight maneuvering, Class 2, Some rough water, maybe some rocks, might require some maneuvering. Class 3, Small waves, maybe a small drop, Class 6, Class 6 rapids are considered to be so dangerous that they are effectively unnavigable on a reliably safe basis. Traversing a Class 6 rapid has an increased likelihood of ending in serious injury or death compared to lesser classes. Rafts in white water are very different vehicles than canoes or kayaks and have their own techniques to maneuver through whitewater obstacles. Punching – Rafts carry great momentum, and on rivers hydraulics that are dodged by canoes and this involves the rafting crew paddling the raft to give it enough speed to push through the hydraulic without getting stopped. High siding – If a raft is caught in a hydraulic it will quickly go sideways. In this position the rafters may be able to use the draw stroke to pull the raft out of the head, low siding- more of a professional maneuver sometimes used at LOW water to slide through a channel less than the size of your craft. Dump truck – Rafts are inherently stable craft because of their size and low center of mass, in the industry, if a raft dumps some or all of its passengers but remains upright, it is said to have dump-trucked. Left over right or right over left – Rafts almost always flip side over side, If the left tube rises over the right tube, the raft is said to have flipped left over right and vice versa. Taco – If a raft is soft, or under-inflated, it may taco, Rafts are said to have tacoed if the middle of the raft buckles and the front of the raft touches or nearly touches the back of the raft. This is often a result of surfing in a hydraulic, a reverse taco is when the nose or stern of the raft is pulled down under water and buckles to touch the middle, back or nose of the raft. End over end – Occasionally rafts will flip end over end and this is usually after the raft has dump-trucked to lighten the load, allowing the water to overcome the weight of the boat, flipping it vertically before it lands upside down. Rafts will more often taco and turn sideways, making an end-over-end flip very rare in most rafts, downstream flip – A raft capsizes after encountering an obstacle, such as a rock, a feature like a hydraulic, or even another raft
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