1.
Iowa
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Iowa is a U. S. state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by the Mississippi River on the east and the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west. Surrounding states include Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Missouri to the south, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, in colonial times, Iowa was a part of French Louisiana and Spanish Louisiana, its state flag is patterned after the flag of France. After the Louisiana Purchase, people laid the foundation for an economy in the heart of the Corn Belt. Iowa is the 26th most extensive in area and the 30th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city by population is Des Moines, Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states in which to live. Its nickname is the Hawkeye State, Iowa derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many Native American tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east, the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west, Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are formed entirely by rivers. Iowa has 99 counties, but 100 county seats because Lee County has two, the state capital, Des Moines, is in Polk County. Iowas bedrock geology generally increases in age from west to east, in northwest Iowa, Cretaceous bedrock can be 74 million years old, in eastern Iowa Cambrian bedrock dates to c.500 million years ago. Iowa is generally not flat, most of the consists of rolling hills. Iowa can be divided into eight landforms based on glaciation, soils, topography, Loess hills lie along the western border of the state, some of which are several hundred feet thick. Northeast Iowa along the Mississippi River is part of the Driftless Zone, consisting of steep hills, several natural lakes exist, most notably Spirit Lake, West Okoboji Lake, and East Okoboji Lake in northwest Iowa. To the east lies Clear Lake, man-made lakes include Lake Odessa, Saylorville Lake, Lake Red Rock, Coralville Lake, Lake MacBride, and Rathbun Lake. The states northwest area has remnants of the once common wetlands. Iowas natural vegetation is tallgrass prairie and savanna in areas, with dense forest and wetlands in flood plains and protected river valleys. Most of Iowa is used for agriculture, crops cover 60% of the state, grasslands cover 30%, as of 2005 Iowa ranked 49th of U. S. states in public land holdings. Endangered or threatened plants include western prairie fringed orchid, eastern prairie fringed orchid, Meads milkweed, prairie bush clover, the explosion in the number of high-density livestock facilities in Iowa has led to increased rural water contamination and a decline in air quality. Iowa has a continental climate throughout the state
2.
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
3.
Des Moines County, Iowa
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Des Moines County is a county located in the U. S. state of Iowa. As of the 2010 census, the population was 40,325 and it is one of Iowas two original counties along with Dubuque County, both were organized by the Michigan Territorial legislature in 1834. Des Moines County is part of the Burlington, IA–IL Micropolitan Statistical Area, Des Moines County should not be confused with the city of Des Moines, which is the capital of Iowa. Des Moines County sits on Iowas eastern border alongside the Mississippi River, the city of Des Moines is in Polk County in south-central Iowa. Both places derive their name from the Des Moines River, which flows through the city of Des Moines, when the county was divided early in Iowas history, the river ended up further west, forming the border between Lee County, Iowa and the state of Missouri. The territory north of line was named Dubuque County. It was named after the Des Moines River, from July 3,1836 until July 3,1838, Des Moines County was part of Wisconsin Territory. The county underwent various changes during this time. July 4,1838, the county became part of Iowa Territory. The current Des Moines County Court House was completed in 1940, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 430 square miles, of which 416 square miles is land and 14 square miles is water. The Mississippi River forms the east border, Skunk River, the border. There were 18,535 housing units, of which 17,003 were occupied, as of the 2000 census, there were 42,351 people,17,270 households, and 11,536 families residing in the county. The population density was 102 people per square mile, there were 18,643 housing units at an average density of 45 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 93. 69% White,3. 57% Black or African American,0. 25% Native American,0. 59% Asian,0. 04% Pacific Islander,0. 68% from other races, and 1. 18% from two or more races. 1. 75% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,28. 60% of all households were made up of individuals and 12. 60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the family size was 2.94. In the county, the population was out with 24. 40% under the age of 18,8. 50% from 18 to 24,26. 10% from 25 to 44,24. 30% from 45 to 64. The median age was 39 years, for every 100 females there were 93.50 males
4.
City council
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A city council, town council, town board, or board of aldermen is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area. Because of the differences in legislation between the states, the definition of a City Council varies. However, it is only those local government areas which have been specifically granted city status that are entitled to refer to themselves as cities. The official title is Corporation of the City of ------ or similar, some of the larger urban areas of Australia are governed mostly by a single entity, while others may be controlled by a multitude of much smaller city councils. Also some significant urban areas can be under the jurisdiction of rural local governments. Periodic re-alignments of boundaries attempt to rationalize these situations and adjust the deployment of assets, the 2001 Local Government Act restyled the five county boroughs of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, and Limerick as city councils, with the same status in law as county councils. For many decades until the government reforms of 1989, a borough with more than 20,000 people could be proclaimed a city. The boundaries of councils tended to follow the edge of the built-up area, as a result, the term city began to take on two meanings. The word city came to be used in a formal sense to describe major urban areas independent of local body boundaries. This informal usage is jealously guarded, gisborne, for example, adamantly described itself as the first city in the world to see the new millennium. Gisborne is administered by a council, but its status as a city is not generally disputed. Under the current law the minimum population for a new city is 50,000, in the Republic of China, a city council represents a provincial city. Members of the councils are elected through local elections for provincial cities which are held every 4–5 years, Councils for the provincial cities in Taiwan are Chiayi City Council, Hsinchu City Council and Keelung City Council. In the UK, a city council is, In England, a parish council that has been granted city status. The council of a London borough that has been granted city status, in Wales, The council of a principal area that has been granted city status. A community council that has been granted city status, in Scotland, The council of one of four council areas designated a City by the Local Government etc. City councils and town boards generally consist of elected aldermen or councillors. In the United States, members of city councils are typically called council member or council man/woman, while in Canada they are typically called councillor
5.
2010 United States Census
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The 2010 United States Census, is the twenty-third and currently most recent United States national census. National Census Day, the day used for the census, was April 1,2010. As part of a drive to increase the accuracy,635,000 temporary enumerators were hired. The population of the United States was counted as 308,745,538, as required by the United States Constitution, the U. S. census has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. The 2000 U. S. Census was the previous census completed, participation in the U. S. Census is required by law in Title 13 of the United States Code. On January 25,2010, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves personally inaugurated the 2010 Census enumeration by counting World War II veteran Clifton Jackson, more than 120 million census forms were delivered by the U. S. Post Office beginning March 15,2010, the number of forms mailed out or hand-delivered by the Census Bureau was approximately 134 million on April 1,2010. The 2010 Census national mail participation rate was 74%, from April through July 2010, census takers visited households that did not return a form, an operation called non-response follow-up. In December 2010, the Census Bureau delivered population information to the president for apportionment, personally identifiable information will be available in 2082. The Census Bureau did not use a form for the 2010 Census. In several previous censuses, one in six households received this long form, the 2010 Census used only a short form asking ten basic questions, How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1,2010. Were there any additional people staying here on April 1,2010 that you did not include in Question 1, mark all that apply, Is this house, apartment, or mobile home – What is your telephone number. What is Person 1s age and Person 1s date of birth, is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else, the form included space to repeat some or all of these questions for up to twelve residents total. In contrast to the 2000 census, an Internet response option was not offered, detailed socioeconomic information collected during past censuses will continue to be collected through the American Community Survey. The survey provides data about communities in the United States on a 1-year or 3-year cycle, depending on the size of the community, rather than once every 10 years. A small percentage of the population on a basis will receive the survey each year. In June 2009, the U. S. Census Bureau announced that it would count same-sex married couples, however, the final form did not contain a separate same-sex married couple option
6.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
7.
Central Time Zone
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The North American Central Time Zone is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time is six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, during summer most of the zone uses daylight saving time, and changes to Central Daylight Time which is five hours behind UTC. The province of Manitoba is the province or territory in Canada that observes Central Time in all areas. Also, most of the province of Saskatchewan is on Central Standard Time year-round, major exceptions include Lloydminster, a city situated on the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city charter stipulates that it shall observe Mountain Time and DST, putting the community on the time as all of Alberta, including the major cities of Calgary. As a result, during the summer, clocks in the province match those in Alberta. The Central Time Zone is the second most populous in the US after the Eastern Time Zone, lanett and Valley observe Eastern Time historically because they were textile mill towns and the original home office of their mills was in West Point, Georgia. Some eastern counties observe Central Time because they are close to the border of the Middle Tennessee counties surrounding the Nashville metropolitan area. Louisiana Michigan, All of Michigan observes Eastern Time except the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin, other westernmost counties from this area such as Ontonagon observe Eastern Time. South Dakota, Eastern half as divided by the Missouri river adjacent to the state capital, note, the metropolitan area of Pierre is Central, including Fort Pierre. Wisconsin Most of Mexico—roughly the eastern three-fourths—lies in the Central Time Zone, except for six northwestern states, the federal entities of Mexico that observe Central Time, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all use Central Standard Time year-round. The Galápagos Islands in Ecuador uses Central Standard Time all year-round, Daylight saving time is in effect in much of the Central time zone between mid-March and early November. The modified time is called Central Daylight Time and is UTC−5, in Canada, Saskatchewan does not observe a time change. One reason that Saskatchewan does not take part in a change is that, geographically. The province elected to move onto permanent daylight saving by being part of the Central Time Zone, Mexico decided not to go along with this change and observes their horario de verano from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In December 2009, the Mexican Congress allowed ten border cities, eight of which are in states that observe Central Time, to adopt the U. S. daylight time schedule effective in 2010
8.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
9.
UTC-5
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UTC−05,00 is a time offset that subtracts five hours from Coordinated Universal Time. In North America, it is observed in the Eastern Time Zone during standard time, the western Caribbean uses it year round. The southwestern and northwestern portions of Indiana Mexico – Central Zone Central, in most of Mexico, daylight time starts a few weeks after the United States. Communities on the U. S. border that observe Central Time follow the U. S. daylight time schedule
10.
ZIP Code
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ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
11.
Geographic Names Information System
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It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names to promote the standardization of feature names, the database is part of a system that includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps that confirm the feature or place name are cited, variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded. Each feature receives a permanent, unique feature record identifier, sometimes called the GNIS identifier, the database never removes an entry, except in cases of obvious duplication. The GNIS accepts proposals for new or changed names for U. S. geographical features, the general public can make proposals at the GNIS web site and can review the justifications and supporters of the proposals. The Bureau of the Census defines Census Designated Places as a subset of locations in the National Geographic Names Database, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28 gives standards for addressing mail. In this publication, the postal service defines two-letter state abbreviations, street identifiers such as boulevard and street, department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, National Mapping Division, Digital Gazeteer, Users Manual. Least Heat Moon, William, Blue Highways, A Journey Into America, standard was withdrawn in September 2008, See Federal Register Notice, Vol.73, No. 170, page 51276 Report, Principles, Policies, and Procedures, Domestic Geographic Names, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28, November 2000. Board on Geographic Names website Geographic Names Information System Proposals from the general public Meeting minutes
12.
County seat
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A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is used in the United States, Canada, Romania, China, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, county towns have a similar function. In the United States, counties are the subdivisions of a state. Depending on the state, counties may provide services to the public, impose taxes. Some types of subdivisions, such as townships, may be incorporated or unincorporated. The city, town, or populated place that houses county government is known as the seat of its respective county, a county seat is usually, but not always, an incorporated municipality. The exceptions include the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia, likewise, some county seats may not be incorporated in their own right, but are located within incorporated municipalities. For example, Cape May Court House, New Jersey, though unincorporated, is a section of Middle Township, in some of the colonial states, county seats include or formerly included Court House as part of their name. Most counties have only one county seat, an example is Harrison County, Mississippi, which lists both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats. The practice of multiple county seat towns dates from the days when travel was difficult, there have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement, since a county seat is a source of pride for the towns involved. There are 36 counties with multiple county seats in 11 states, Coffee County, for example, the official county seat is Greensboro, but an additional courthouse has been located in nearby High Point since 1938. For example, Clearwater is the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, in New England, the town, not the county, is the primary division of local government. Historically, counties in this region have served mainly as dividing lines for the judicial systems. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no county level of government and thus no county seats, in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maine the county seats are legally designated shire towns. County government consists only of a Superior Court and Sheriff, both located in the shire town. Bennington County has two towns, but the Sheriff is located in Bennington. In Massachusetts, most government functions which would otherwise be performed by county governments in other states are performed by town governments. As such, Massachusetts has dissolved many of its county governments, two counties in South Dakota have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county
13.
2000 United States Census
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This was the twenty-second federal census and was at the time the largest civilly administered peacetime effort in the United States. Approximately 16 percent of households received a form of the 2000 census. Full documentation on the 2000 census, including forms and a procedural history, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Microdata from the 2000 census is available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, personally identifiable information will be available in 2072. The U. S. resident population includes the number of people in the 50 states. The Bureau also enumerated the residents of the U. S. territory of Puerto Rico, its population was 3,808,610, the 2000 Census was the first time survey options for multiracial Americans were provided. S. Households had access to computers, 42% have Internet access, regionally, the South and West experienced the bulk of the nations population increase,14,790,890 and 10,411,850, respectively. This meant that the center of U. S. population moved to Phelps County. The Northeast grew by 2,785,149, the Midwest by 4,724,144, the results of the census are used to determine how many congressional districts each state is apportioned. Congress defines the formula, in accordance with Title 2 of the U. S. Code, each member of the House represents a population of about 647,000. The populations of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are excluded from the apportionment population because they do not have voting seats in the U. S, since the first census in 1790, the decennial count has been the basis for the United States representative form of government. Article I, Section II specifies that The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, in 1790, each member of the House represented about 34,000 residents. Since then, the House more than quadrupled in size, today, each member represents about 20 times as many constituents. This recommendation was followed by the Secretary of Commerce, after the census was tabulated, Utah challenged the results in two different ways. Utah was extremely close to gaining a fourth seat, falling 857 people short. The margin was later shortened to 80 people, after the government discovered that it overcounted the population of North Carolina by 2,673 residents. Utah claimed that individuals traveling abroad as religious missionaries should be counted as residents, almost half of all Mormon missionaries, more than 11,000 individuals, were from Utah, only 102 came from North Carolina
14.
West Burlington, Iowa
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The City of West Burlington is in Des Moines County, Iowa, United States, adjacent to the City of Burlington located on the bluffs of the Mississippi River. The population was 2,968 at the 2010 census and it is part of the Burlington, IA–IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. The community was incorporated on December 15,1883, West Burlington is located at 40°49′13″N 91°9′52″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 4.95 square miles. As of the census of 2010, there were 2,968 people,1,372 households, the population density was 599.6 inhabitants per square mile. There were 1,479 housing units at a density of 298.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 90. 7% White,4. 1% African American,0. 3% Native American,1. 8% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander,1. 0% from other races, and 2. 0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3. 9% of the population,36. 8% of all households were made up of individuals and 15. 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.12 and the family size was 2.76. The median age in the city was 44.4 years. 20. 2% of residents were under the age of 18,9. 1% were between the ages of 18 and 24,21. 4% were from 25 to 44,29. 5% were from 45 to 64, and 19. 9% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 46. 9% male and 53. 1% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 3,161 people,1,434 households, and 871 families residing in the city. The population density was 628.7 people per square mile, there were 1,498 housing units at an average density of 297.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 94. 72% White,2. 50% African American,0. 06% Native American,1. 04% Asian,0. 57% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 3. 07% of the population. 34. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 15. 6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 2.77. Age spread,21. 0% under the age of 18,10. 1% from 18 to 24,24. 7% from 25 to 44,25. 1% from 45 to 64, the median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 92.7 males, for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.9 males. The median income for a household in the city was $38,958, males had a median income of $34,574 versus $21,225 for females
15.
Middletown, Iowa
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Middletown is a city in Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. The population was 318 at the 2010 census and it is part of the Burlington, IA–IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Middletown was laid out in 1846, middletown is located at 40°49′41″N 91°15′37″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 0.61 square miles. As of the census of 2010, there were 318 people,127 households, the population density was 521.3 inhabitants per square mile. There were 148 housing units at a density of 242.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 95. 3% White,1. 6% African American,1. 6% Asian,0. 9% Pacific Islander, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 3% of the population. 22. 8% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 2.88. The median age in the city was 37.5 years. 27. 4% of residents were under the age of 18,5. 6% were between the ages of 18 and 24,26. 6% were from 25 to 44, 27% were from 45 to 64, and 13. 2% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 50. 9% male and 49. 1% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 535 people,191 households, and 141 families residing in the city. The population density was 875.2 people per square mile, there were 223 housing units at an average density of 364.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 93. 27% White,2. 62% African American,1. 31% Asian,1. 50% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 43% of the population. 18. 8% of all households were made up of individuals and 4. 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 2.92. Age spread,28. 2% under the age of 18,7. 9% from 18 to 24,31. 4% from 25 to 44,18. 7% from 45 to 64, the median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 94.5 males, for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.2 males. The median income for a household in the city was $37,083, males had a median income of $37,000 versus $19,167 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,835, about 15. 4% of families and 19. 5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28. 8% of those under age 18 and 16. 0% of those age 65 or over
16.
Gulfport, Illinois
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Gulfport is a village in Henderson County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 207. It is part of the Burlington, IA–IL Micropolitan Statistical Area, the village was completely submerged, save the roofs of some homes and buildings, by a levee break during the flood of 2008. The village is slowly cleaning up and several people are calling it home again and its primary source of industry was several adult entertainment clubs. Gulfport is located at 40°48′32″N 91°5′1″W, according to the 2010 census, Gulf Port has a total area of 2.424 square miles, of which 1.5 square miles is land and 0.924 square miles is water. As of the census of 2000, there were 207 people,89 households, the population density was 137.5 people per square mile. There were 112 housing units at a density of 74.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 95. 65% White,0. 48% Native American,0. 48% Pacific Islander, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 45% of the population. 23. 6% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.73. In the village, the population was out with 20. 3% under the age of 18,6. 8% from 18 to 24,29. 5% from 25 to 44,33. 8% from 45 to 64. The median age was 42 years, for every 100 females there were 86.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.9 males, the median income for a household in the village was $36,167, and the median income for a family was $38,750. Males had an income of $30,750 versus $21,250 for females. The per capita income for the village was $16,918, about 5. 9% of families and 5. 4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4. 9% of those under the age of eighteen and none of those sixty five or over
17.
Snake Alley
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Snake Alley is a street located in Burlington, Iowa, once recognized by Ripleys Believe It or Not as the Crookedest Street in the World. The physical limitations and steep elevation of Heritage Hill inspired the construction of Snake Alley in 1894 and it was intended to link the downtown business district and the neighborhood shopping area located on North Sixth Street, of which Snake Alley is a one-block section. The alley originally provided a shortcut from Heritage Hill to the business district, bricks were laid at an angle to allow horses better footing as they descended. In the 1940s, writer Robert L. Ripley saw the street in person, column, calling it The Crookedest Street in the World. The idea was novel enough, however, San Franciscos Lombard Street beats it by several turns, the turns on Snake Alley are sharper though, giving it a total of 1100° of turning from end to end, where Lombard Streets straighter curves total only 1000°. The alley is composed of limestone and blueclay bricks, the constantly changing slant from one curve to the next necessitated a complicated construction technique to keep the high grade to the outside. Snake Alley consists of five half-curves and two quarter-curves over a distance of 275 feet, rising 58.3 ft, a 21% grade, the street is the site of an annual uphill bike race, the Snake Alley Criterium. There is also an art fair, the Snake Alley Art Fair, there is also the annual Snake Alley Festival of Film where filmmakers from around the world gather to compete in the various categories for the awards. Lombard Street, a street in San Francisco with a similarly crooked path, vermont Street also in San Francisco. Snake Alley - Archived copy Snake Alley - Roadside America
18.
Sauk people
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The Sac or Sauk are a group of Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands culture group. Their autonym is oθaakiiwaki, and their exonym is Ozaagii in Ojibwe, the latter name was transliterated into French and English by colonists of those cultures. Today they have three federally recognized tribes, together with the Meskwaki, located in Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas, the Sauk, an Algonquian languages people, are believed to have developed as a people along the St. Lawrence River. They were driven by pressure from other tribes, especially the powerful Iroquois League or Haudenosaunee, to migrate to Michigan, French colonists transliterated that as Sac and the English as Sauk. Anishinaabe expansion and the Huron attempt to gain regional stability drove the Sac out of their territory, the Huron were armed with guns supplied by their French trading partners. The Sac moved south to territory in parts of what are now northern Illinois, a closely allied tribe, the Meskwaki, were noted for resisting French encroachment, having fought two wars against them in the early 18th century. The Sac continued moving west to Iowa and Kansas, two important leaders arose among the Sac, Keokuk and Black Hawk. At first Keokuk accepted the loss of land as inevitable in the face of the vast numbers of soldiers and settlers coming west. He tried to preserve land and his people, and to keep the peace. Having failed to receive expected supplies from the Americans on credit, Black Hawk wanted to fight, about this time, one group of Sac moved into Missouri, and later to Kansas and Nebraska. In 1869 the larger group of Sac moved into reservations in Oklahoma, a smaller number returned to the Midwest from Oklahoma They joined the Mesquakie at the Mesqwaki Settlement, Iowa. Originally, the Sauk had a clan system, in which descent. Clans which continue are, Fish, Ocean/Sea, Thunder, Bear, Fox, Potato, Deer, Beaver, Snow, the tribe was governed by a council of sacred clan chiefs, a war chief, the head of families, and the warriors. Chiefs were recognized in three categories, civil, war, and ceremonial, only the civil chiefs were hereditary. The other two chiefs were recognized by bands after they demonstrated their ability or spiritual power, in the 20th century, the tribe adopted a constitutional government patterned after the United States form. Sauk is one of the many Algonquian languages and it is very closely related to the varieties spoken by the Meskwaki and the Kickapoo tribes, linguist often describe these three as dialects of the same language. Each of the dialects contains archaisms and innovations that distinguish them from each other, Sauk and Meskwaki appear to be the most closely related of the three, reflecting the peoples long relationship. Sauk is considered to be mutually intelligible, to a point, in their own language, the Sauk at one time called themselves asakiwaki, people of the outlet
19.
Meskwaki
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The Meskwaki are a Native American people often known to Anglo-Americans as the Fox tribe. They have been linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, the Meskwaki call themselves Meshkwahkihaki, which means the Red-Earths, historically their homelands were in the Great Lakes region. The tribe coalesced in the St. Lawrence River Valley in present-day Ontario, the Meskwaki suffered damaging battles with French and their Native American allies in the early 18th century, with one in 1730 decimating the tribe. In the 19th century, Euro-American colonization and settlement proceeded by the United States and they forced the Meskwaki/Fox south and west into the tall grass prairie in the American Midwest. In 1851 the Iowa state legislature passed an act to allow the Fox to buy land. Other Sac and Fox were removed to Indian territory in what became Kansas, Oklahoma, in the 21st century, three federally recognized tribes of Sac and Fox have reservations. The name is derived from the Meskwaki creation myth, in which their culture hero, Wisaka and they called themselves Meshkwahkihaki in Meskwaki, meaning the Red-Earths. Later the English and Anglo-Americans adopted the French name, using its translation in English as Fox and this name was also used officially by the United States government from the 19th century. Historically the Meskwaki used Triodanis perfoliata as an emetic in tribal ceremonies to make one sick all day long and they traditionally smoked it at purification and other spiritual rituals. Meskwaki are of Algonquian origin from the prehistoric Woodland period culture area, the Meskwaki language is a dialect of the language spoken by the Sauk and Kickapoo, within the Algonquian languages family. This broad group includes many tribes on the Atlantic Coast and around the Great Lakes, the Meskwaki and Sauk peoples are two distinct tribal groups. Linguistic and cultural connections between the two tribes have made them often associated in history, under US government recognition treaties, officials treat the Sac and Meskwaki as a single political unit, despite their distinct identities. Historically the Meskwaki lived along the Saint Lawrence River in present-day Ontario, the tribe may have numbered as many as 10,000, but years of war with the Huron, whom French colonial agents supplied with arms, and exposure to new European infectious diseases reduced their numbers. In response to pressures, the Meskwaki migrated west, first to present-day eastern Michigan in the area between Saginaw Bay and Detroit west of Lake Huron. Later they moved further west into what is now Wisconsin, the Meskwaki gained control of the Fox River system in eastern and central Wisconsin. As part of the Fox–Wisconsin Waterway, the Fox River allowed travel from Lake Michigan, at first European contact in 1698, the French estimated the number of Meskwaki as about 6,500. By 1712, the number of Meskwaki had declined to 3,500, the Meskwaki fought against the French, in what are called the Fox Wars, for more than three decades to preserve their homelands
20.
Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Previously, he was elected the second Vice President of the United States, Jefferson was primarily of English ancestry, born and educated in colonial Virginia. He graduated from the College of William & Mary and briefly practiced law and he became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, and subsequently the nations first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System, as President, Jefferson pursued the nations shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies. He also organized the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the countrys territory, as a result of peace negotiations with France, his administration reduced military forces. Jeffersons second term was beset with difficulties at home, including the trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr, American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807, responding to British threats to U. S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began a process of Indian tribe removal to the newly organized Louisiana Territory. Jefferson mastered many disciplines, which ranged from surveying and mathematics to horticulture and he was a proven architect in the classical tradition. Jeffersons keen interest in religion and philosophy earned him the presidency of the American Philosophical Society and he shunned organized religion, but was influenced by both Christianity and deism. He was well versed in linguistics and spoke several languages and he founded the University of Virginia after retiring from public office. He was a letter writer and corresponded with many prominent and important people throughout his adult life. His only full-length book is Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson owned several plantations which were worked by hundreds of slaves. Most historians now believe that, after the death of his wife in 1782, he had a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered at least one of her children. Various modern scholars are more critical of Jeffersons private life, pointing out the discrepancy between his ownership of slaves and his political principles, for example. Presidential scholars, however, consistently rank Jefferson among the greatest presidents, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13,1743, at the family home in Shadwell in the Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children. He was of English and possibly Welsh descent and was born a British subject and his father Peter Jefferson was a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen, his mother was Jane Randolph. Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in 1745 upon the death of a friend who had named him guardian of his children, the Jeffersons returned to Shadwell in 1752, where Peter died in 1757, his estate was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph. Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres of land, including Monticello and he assumed full authority over his property at age 21
21.
Louisiana Purchase
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The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803. The U. S. paid fifty million francs and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs for a total of sixty-eight million francs, the Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U. S. states and two Canadian provinces. Its non-native population was around 60,000 inhabitants, of whom half were African slaves, the Kingdom of France controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762. Napoleon in 1800, hoping to re-establish an empire in North America, however, Frances failure to put down the revolt in Saint-Domingue, coupled with the prospect of renewed warfare with the United Kingdom, prompted Napoleon to sell Louisiana to the United States. The Americans originally sought to purchase only the city of New Orleans and its adjacent coastal lands. The Louisiana Purchase occurred during the term of the third President of the United States, before the purchase was finalized, the decision faced Federalist Party opposition, they argued that it was unconstitutional to acquire any territory. Constitution did not contain provisions for acquiring territory, but he asserted that his constitutional power to negotiate treaties was sufficient. Throughout the second half of the 18th century, Louisiana was a pawn on the chessboard of European politics and it was controlled by the French, who had a few small settlements along the Mississippi and other main rivers. Following French defeat in the Seven Years War, Spain gained control of the territory west of the Mississippi, the United States controlled the area east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans. The main issue for the Americans was free transit of the Mississippi to the sea, as the lands were being gradually settled by a few American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that the territory would be acquired piece by piece. The risk of power taking it from a weakened Spain made a profound reconsideration of this policy necessary. New Orleans was already important for shipping goods to and from the areas of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. Pinckneys Treaty, signed with Spain on October 27,1795, gave American merchants right of deposit in New Orleans, Americans used this right to transport products such as flour, tobacco, pork, bacon, lard, feathers, cider, butter, and cheese. The treaty also recognized American rights to navigate the entire Mississippi, in 1798 Spain revoked this treaty, prohibiting American use of New Orleans, and greatly upsetting the Americans. In 1801, Spanish Governor Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo took over from the Marquess of Casa Calvo, Napoleon Bonaparte had gained Louisiana for French ownership from Spain in 1800 under the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, but the treaty was kept secret. Louisiana remained nominally under Spanish control, until a transfer of power to France on November 30,1803, another ceremony was held in St. Louis a few months later, in part because during winter conditions the news of the New Orleans formalities did not reach Upper Louisiana. The March 9–10,1804, event is remembered as Three Flags Day, James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston had traveled to Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans in January 1803. Their instructions were to negotiate or purchase control of New Orleans and its environs, the Louisiana Purchase was by far the largest territorial gain in U. S. history
22.
Lewis and Clark Expedition
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It began near St. Louis, made its way westward, and passed through the continental divide to reach the Pacific coast. The Corps of Discovery comprised a group of U. S. Army volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend, Second Lieutenant William Clark. The campaigns secondary objectives were scientific and economic, to study the plants, animal life, and geography. With maps, sketches, and journals in hand, the returned to St. Louis to report its findings to Jefferson. According to Thomas Jefferson himself, one goal was to find the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent, Jefferson also placed special importance on declaring U. S. The expedition made notable contributions to science, but scientific research was not the goal of the mission. During the 19th century, references to Lewis and Clark scarcely appeared in history books even during the United States Centennial in 1876, Lewis and Clark began to gain new attention around the start of the 20th century. Both the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, in St. Louis, in 2004, a complete and reliable set of the expeditions journals was compiled by Gary E. Moulton. In the 2000s, the bicentennial of the expedition further elevated popular interest in Lewis, as of 1984, no U. S. exploration party was more famous, and no American expedition leaders are more instantly recognizable by name. In the 1780s, while Minister to France, Jefferson met John Ledyard in Paris, like Captain Cook, Jefferson also wished to discover a practical route through the Northwest to the Pacific coast. Alexander Mackenzie had already charted a route in his quest for the Pacific, Mackenzie and his party then became the first on record to cross America north of Mexico to the Pacific, when he arrived near Bella Coola in 1793—a dozen years before Lewis and Clark. Two years into his presidency, Jefferson asked Congress to fund an expedition through the Louisiana territory to the Pacific Ocean and he did not attempt to hide the Lewis and Clark expedition itself from Spanish, French, and British officials, but rather claimed different reasons for the venture. He used a message to ask for funding due to poor relations with the opposition party in Congress. In 1803, Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery, and named U. S. Army Captain Meriwether Lewis its leader, Lewis demonstrated remarkable skills and potential as a frontiersman. As the expedition was gaining approval and funding, Jefferson made efforts to him for the long journey ahead. All the latter qualifications Capt. Lewis has, in 1803, Jefferson sent Lewis to Philadelphia to study medicinal cures under Benjamin Rush, a physician and humanitarian. Jefferson also arranged for Lewis to be educated by Andrew Ellicott. Lewis, however, was not ignorant of science and had demonstrated to Jefferson a marked capacity to learn, at Monticello, Jefferson possessed the largest library in the world on the subject of the geography of the North American continent, and Lewis had full access to that library
23.
Missouri River
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The Missouri River is the longest river in North America. Rising in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2,341 miles before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The river takes drainage from a populated, semi-arid watershed of more than half a million square miles. When combined with the lower Mississippi River, it forms the fourth longest river system. For over 12,000 years, people have depended on the Missouri River and its tributaries as a source of sustenance and transportation. More than ten major groups of Native Americans populated the watershed, most leading a nomadic lifestyle, the Missouri River was one of the main routes for the westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century. The growth of the fur trade in the early 1800s laid much of the groundwork as trappers explored the region, pioneers headed west en masse beginning in the 1830s, first by covered wagon, then by the growing numbers of steamboats entering service on the river. Former Native American lands in the watershed were taken over by settlers, leading to some of the most longstanding, during the 20th century, the Missouri River basin was extensively developed for irrigation, flood control and the generation of hydroelectric power. Fifteen dams impound the main stem of the river, with more on tributaries. Meanders have been cut and the river channelized to improve navigation, from the Rocky Mountains of Montana and Wyoming, three streams rise to form the headwaters of the Missouri River. The longest begins near Browers Spring,9,100 feet above sea level, on the southeastern slopes of Mount Jefferson in the Centennial Mountains. Flowing west then north, it runs first in Hell Roaring Creek, then west into the Red Rock, swings northeast to become the Beaverhead and these two streams then flow north and northwest into Montana. The Missouri River officially starts at the confluence of the Jefferson and Madison in Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks, Montana, the Missouri then passes through Canyon Ferry Lake, a reservoir west of the Big Belt Mountains. Issuing from the mountains near Cascade, the flows northeast to the city of Great Falls, where it drops over the Great Falls of the Missouri. Farther on, the passes through the Fort Peck Dam, and immediately downstream. At the confluence, the Yellowstone is actually the larger river, the Missouri then meanders east past Williston and into Lake Sakakawea, the reservoir formed by Garrison Dam. Below the dam the Missouri receives the Knife River from the west and flows south to Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota and it slows into the Lake Oahe reservoir just before the Cannonball River confluence. While it continues south, eventually reaching Oahe Dam in South Dakota, the Missouri makes a bend to the southeast as it winds through the Great Plains, receiving the Niobrara River and many smaller tributaries from the southwest
24.
Zebulon Pike
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Zebulon Montgomery Pike was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was renamed. As a U. S. Pikes expeditions coincided with other Jeffersonian expeditions, including the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis expedition. Pikes second expedition crossed the Rocky Mountains into southern Colorado, which led to his capture by the Spanish, later in 1807, Pike and some of his men were escorted by the Spanish through Texas and released near American territory. In 1810, Pike published an account of his expeditions, a book so popular that it was translated into Dutch, French, and German, for publication in Europe. He later achieved the rank of general in the Army and served during the War of 1812. Pike was born during the Revolutionary War, on January 5,1779, near Lamberton, now called Lamington, in Somerset County, New Jersey. The younger Pike grew to adulthood with his family at a series of outposts in Ohio and he was commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry in 1799 and promoted to first lieutenant later that same year. Pike was descended from John Pike, who immigrated from England as a child in 1635 and helped found Woodbridge, Pike, though he left no male descendants. This paternal line descends from an ancestor of the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. Zebulon Pike, Jr. married Clarissa Harlow Brown in 1801 and they had one child who survived to adulthood, Clarissa Brown Pike, who later married President William Henry Harrisons son, John Cleves Symmes Harrison. Pikes military career included working on logistics and payroll at a series of frontier posts, General James Wilkinson, appointed Governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory and headquartered there, became his mentor. In 1805, Wilkinson ordered Pike to find the source of the Mississippi River, so Pike traveled into the northern Louisiana Territory, newly purchased from France. Over 100 years later, France released official records showing General Wilkinson received personal trade concessions, additional objectives of this exploratory expedition into the southwestern part of the Louisiana Territory were to evaluate natural resources and establish friendly relations with Native Americans. Beginning July 15,1806, Pike led what became known as the Pike Expedition, General Wilkinsons son James served as one of his lieutenants, although it now seems that Wilkinson planned that the Spanish who controlled Mexico would capture him and his men. In early November 1806, Pike and his team sighted and tried to climb to the summit of the later named after him. They made it as far as Mt. Rosa, located southeast of Pikes Peak and they had already gone almost two days without food. They then continued south, searching for the Red Rivers headwaters, however, they had crossed the border, whether through confusion or deliberation. Spanish authorities captured Pike and some of his party in what was then northern New Mexico on February 26,1807
25.
Mississippi River
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The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest drainage system on the North American continent. Flowing entirely in the United States, it rises in northern Minnesota, with its many tributaries, the Mississippis watershed drains all or parts of 31 U. S. states and 2 Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest and fifteenth largest river in the world by discharge, the river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans long lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the way of life as first explorers, then settlers. The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. Formed from thick layers of the silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the country. In recent years, the river has shown a shift towards the Atchafalaya River channel in the Delta. The word itself comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe name for the river, see below in the History section for additional information. In addition to historical traditions shown by names, there are at least two measures of a rivers identity, one being the largest branch, and the other being the longest branch. Using the largest-branch criterion, the Ohio would be the branch of the Lower Mississippi. Using the longest-branch criterion, the Middle Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson-Beaverhead-Red Rock-Hellroaring Creek River would be the main branch and its length of at least 3,745 mi is exceeded only by the Nile, the Amazon, and perhaps the Yangtze River among the longest rivers in the world. The source of this waterway is at Browers Spring,8,800 feet above sea level in southwestern Montana and this is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase Trans-Mississippi as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. It is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, the New Madrid Seismic Zone along the river is also noteworthy. These various basic geographical aspects of the river in turn underlie its human history and present uses of the waterway, the Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca,1,475 feet above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, however, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation. The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river
26.
Flag of the United States
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The flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag, is the national flag of the United States. S. Nicknames for the flag include The Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, the current design of the U. S. flag is its 27th, the design of the flag has been modified officially 26 times since 1777. The 48-star flag was in effect for 47 years until the 49-star version became official on July 4,1959, the 50-star flag was ordered by the then president Eisenhower on August 21,1959, and was adopted in July 1960. It is the version of the U. S. flag and has been in use for over 56 years. At the time of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the flag contemporaneously known as the Continental Colors has historically been referred to as the first national flag. The name Grand Union was first applied to the Continental Colors by George Preble in his 1872 history of the American flag, the flag closely resembles the British East India Company flag of the era, and Sir Charles Fawcett argued in 1937 that the company flag inspired the design. Both flags could have been constructed by adding white stripes to a British Red Ensign. However, an East India Company flag could have nine to 13 stripes. In any case, both the stripes and the stars have precedents in classical heraldry, Flag Day is now observed on June 14 of each year. While scholars still argue about this, tradition holds that the new flag was first hoisted in June 1777 by the Continental Army at the Middlebrook encampment. The first official U. S. flag flown during battle was on August 3,1777, Massachusetts reinforcements brought news of the adoption by Congress of the official flag to Fort Schuyler. A voucher is extant that Capt. Swartwout of Dutchess County was paid by Congress for his coat for the flag, the 1777 resolution was most probably meant to define a naval ensign. In the late 18th century, the notion of a flag did not yet exist. The flag resolution appears between other resolutions from the Marine Committee, on May 10,1779, Secretary of the Board of War Richard Peters expressed concern it is not yet settled what is the Standard of the United States. However, the term, Standard, referred to a standard for the Army of the United States. Each regiment was to carry the standard in addition to its regimental standard. The national standard was not a reference to the national or naval flag, the appearance was up to the maker of the flag. Some flag makers arranged the stars into one big star, in a circle or in rows, one arrangement features 13 five-pointed stars arranged in a circle, with the stars arranged pointing outwards from the circle, the so-called Betsy Ross flag
27.
John Jacob Astor
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Born in Germany, Astor emigrated to England as a teenager and worked as a musical instrument manufacturer. He moved to the United States after the American Revolutionary War and he entered the fur trade and built a monopoly, managing a business empire that extended to the Great Lakes region and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific coast. Seeing the decline of demand, he got out of the fur trade in 1830, diversifying by investing in New York City real estate and he was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States. Johann Jakob Astor was born in Walldorf near Heidelberg in the old Palatinate and he was the youngest son of Johann Jakob Astor and Maria Magdalena Vorfelder. His three elder brothers were Georg Peter, Heinrich, and Melchior, Astors father was a butcher, Johann first worked in his fathers shop and as a dairy salesman. In 1779, at the age of 16, he moved to London to join his brother George in working for a piano and flute manufactory. While there, he learned English and anglicized his name and his intent was to join his brother Henry, who had established a butcher shop there, but a chance meeting with a fur trader on his voyage inspired him to join the North American fur trade as well. After working at his brothers shop for a time he began to purchase raw hides from Native Americans, prepare them himself and he opened his own fur goods shop in New York in the late 1780s and also served as the New York agent of his uncles musical instrument business. Astor took advantage of the Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States in 1794, which opened new markets in Canada and the Great Lakes region. In London, Astor at once made a contract with the North West Company, Astor imported furs from Montreal to New York and shipped them to Europe. By 1800, he had amassed almost a quarter of a million dollars and his agents worked throughout the western areas and were ruthless in competition. In 1800, following the example of the Empress of China, the first American trading vessel to China, Astor traded furs, teas, and sandalwood with Canton in China, embargo Act in 1807, however, disrupted Astors import/export business because it closed off trade with Canada. With the permission of President Thomas Jefferson, Astor established the American Fur Company on April 6,1808 and he later formed subsidiaries, the Pacific Fur Company, and the Southwest Fur Company, in order to control fur trading in the Great Lakes areas and Columbia River region. His Columbia River trading post at Fort Astoria was the first United States community on the Pacific coast and he financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810–12 to reach the outpost. Members of the expedition were to discover South Pass, through hundreds of thousands of settlers on the Oregon, Mormon. Astors fur trading ventures were disrupted during the War of 1812, in 1816, he joined the opium-smuggling trade. His American Fur Company purchased ten tons of Turkish opium, then shipped the contraband item to Canton on the packet ship Macedonian, Astor later left the China opium trade and sold solely to the United Kingdom. Astors business rebounded in 1817 after the U. S. Congress passed a protectionist law that barred foreign fur traders from U. S. territories, the American Fur Company came to dominate trading in the area around the Great Lakes
28.
Black Hawk Purchase
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The Upper Iowa River is in the northeast corner of Iowa, from Missouri nearly to Minnesota. It was fifty miles wide at the ends, and forty in the middle, the land, originally owned by the Sauk, Meskwaki, and Ho-Chunk Native American people, was acquired by treaty following their defeat by the United States in the Black Hawk War. After being defeated the Sauk and Mesquakie to relinquish another 2, the Black Hawk Purchase contained an area of 6 million acres, and the price was equivalent to 11 cents/acre. The region is bounded on the East by the Mississippi River and includes Dubuque, Fort Madison, the treaty was made by General Winfield Scott and the Governor of Illinois, John Reynolds, at what is now Davenport, Iowa, on the west bank of the Mississippi River. According to The Making of Iowa, The Black Hawk Purchase extended along the west side of the Mississippi River from the boundary of Missouri north to the Upper Iowa River. The Upper Iowa River is in the northeast corner of Iowa and this is than where the tract extended from Missouri nearly to Minnesota. It was 50 miles wide at the ends, and 40 in the middle, still another history describes it as extending from the Yellow River in the north to the Des Moines River in the south. Two areas were held back as special awards, one was assigned to the chief Keokuk and his Sauk people in thanks for their neutrality, the land of the purchase was successively governed by the legislatures of the Michigan Territory, the Wisconsin Territory, Iowa Territory and finally Iowa. The Black Hawk Purchase was followed by the so-called Second Black Hawk Purchase, Iowa Path Ways, Johnston, Iowa, Website Accessed October 16,2014, Lewis, James. Davenport, Iowa, Website Accessed October 16,2014 Not Displayed, Making of Iowa. ”How the Indians Lost Iowa, makataimeshekiakiak, Black Hawk and His War
29.
Morton M. McCarver
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General Morton Matthew McCarver was an American politician and pioneer in the West. A native of Kentucky, he helped found cities in Iowa, Oregon and he served in the Provisional Legislature of Oregon, including as the first speaker of that body, and also fought in the Rogue River Wars. Morton Matthew McCarver was born on January 14,1807, to Joseph and Betsy McCarver in Lexington and his father died during Mortons youth, and the younger McCarver left home at the age of 14. McCarver headed south and spent a few years in Texas and Louisiana before returning to Kentucky and he moved to Illinois in 1829 where he married Marry Ann Jennings on May 6,1830, at Monmouth, Illinois, and the couple had two children before her death in 1846. In 1832, he fought with the Illinois militia in the Black Hawk War, after moving to what would become Iowa, he helped found Burlington, Iowa, in 1833 and 1834. He had established a ferry across the Mississippi River in 1833, once the Black Hawk Purchase was complete in June 1833 he rebuilt his cabin in what was then the Iowa Territory. While in Iowa he served as general of Iowa, earning him the nickname of general. In 1843, he joined the Great Migration and traveled the Oregon Trail west to the Oregon Country, once in Oregon, McCarver settled along the Columbia River in what is now Portland, Oregon. He made a claim and founded Linnton in 1843, which is now part of Portland. On June 18,1844, he was selected as the speaker of the Legislative Committee, the next year he started an orchard near Oregon City after buying the land claim next to that city. In 1848, he married Julia Backalow, and they had five children, Thomas J. Jennie, Mary A. Naomi, Julia, Elizabeth, and Dollie. McCarver left Oregon for the California Gold Rush in August 1848, in 1849, he claims to have helped to found Sacramento, where he constructed housing to rent out. McCarver was then elected to a designed to govern the city on April 30,1849. He was also elected to serve at the Constitutional Convention of 1849 that was held in Monterrey, also in 1849, along with some others, he purchased three passenger ships, including the Ocean Bird. The Ocean Bird was then put into service between San Francisco Bay and Milwaukie, Oregon, due to flooding and fires, McCarver decided to return to Oregon aboard the Ocean Bird, bringing with him a house that had been cut in Boston. This Aladdin House was then constructed in 1849 on his farm near Oregon City and his farm became known as the Locust Farm. During the Rogue River Wars of 1855 to 1856 McCarver served as commissary general, McCarver also participated in a gold rush in Idaho in 1862, setting up a company in what became Idaho City. In March 1868, McCarver then moved north and helped found Tacoma and he first went to Olympia, capital of the then Washington Territory, and procured a map to study the area and consider the most likely terminus of the then planned transcontinental railroad
30.
Romulus and Remus
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In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus are twin brothers, whose story tells the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus. The killing of Remus by his brother, and other tales from their story, have inspired artists throughout the ages, since ancient times, the image of the twins being suckled by a she-wolf has been a symbol of the city of Rome and the Roman people. Although the tale takes place before the founding of Rome around 750 BC, whether the twins myth was an original part of Roman myth or a later development is a subject of ongoing debate. Romulus and Remus were born in Alba Longa, one of the ancient Latin cities near the site of Rome. Their mother, Rhea Silvia was a virgin and the daughter of the former king, Numitor. In some sources, Rhea Silvia conceived them when their father, through their mother, the twins were descended from Greek and Latin nobility. Seeing them as a threat to his rule, King Amulius ordered them to be killed. They were saved by the god Tiberinus, Father of the River and survived with the care of others, in the most well-known episode, the twins were suckled by a she-wolf, in a cave now known as the Lupercal. Eventually, they were adopted by Faustulus, a shepherd and they grew up tending flocks, unaware of their true identities. Over time, their leadership abilities attracted a company of supporters from the community. When they were adults, they became involved in a dispute between supporters of Numitor and Amulius. As a result, Remus was taken prisoner and brought to Alba Longa, both his grandfather and the king suspected his true identity. Romulus, meanwhile, had organized an effort to free his brother, during this time they learned of their past and joined forces with their grandfather to restore him to the throne. Amulius was killed and Numitor was reinstated as king of Alba, the twins set out to build a city of their own. After arriving back in the area of the seven hills, they disagreed about the hill upon which to build, Romulus preferred the Palatine Hill, above the Lupercal, Remus preferred the Aventine Hill. When they could not resolve the dispute, they agreed to seek the gods approval through a contest of augury, Remus first saw 6 auspicious birds but soon afterward, Romulus saw 12, and claimed to have won divine approval. The new dispute furthered the contention between them, in the aftermath, Remus was killed either by Romulus or by one of his supporters. Romulus then went on to found the city of Rome, its institutions, government, military and he reigned for many years as its first king
31.
Burlington, Vermont
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Burlington is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located 45 miles south of the Canada–United States border and 94 miles south of Montreal and its population was 42,452 according to a 2015 U. S. census estimate. Burlington is the least populous city in the U. S. to be the most populous within a state, a regional college town, the municipality is home to the University of Vermont and Champlain College, a small private college. Vermonts largest hospital, the UVM Medical Center, is located within the city limits, in 2015, Burlington became the first city in the U. S. to run completely on renewable energy. Two theories have been put forward regarding the origin of Burlingtons name, the first is that it was named after Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, and the second is that the name honors the politically prominent and wealthy Burling family of New York. While no Burling family members are listed as grantees of the town, one of the New Hampshire grants, the land that was developed as Burlington was awarded by New Hampshire colonial governor Benning Wentworth on June 7,1763 to Samuel Willis and 63 others. In the summer of 1775, settlers began clearing land and built two or three log huts, but the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War delayed permanent settlement until after its conclusion, in 1783, Stephen Lawrence arrived with his family. The town was organized in 1785, the War of 1812 was unpopular in Vermont and New England, which had numerous trading ties with Canada. Neither Vermont nor other New England states provided militia units or financial support, Vermont voters supported the Federalist Party, which opposed the war. At one point during the war, the U. S. had 5,000 troops stationed in Burlington, outnumbering residents, about 500 soldiers died of disease, which was always a problem due to poor sanitation in army camps. Some soldiers were quartered in the building at the University of Vermont. In a skirmish on August 2,1813, British forces from Canada shelled Burlington and this is described as either a bold stroke by the British with an ineffectual response from the Americans, or a weak sally by the British, which was rightfully ignored by the Americans. The cannonade lasted about 10 minutes and caused no casualties, the American troops involved were commanded by Naval Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough, later hero of the Battle of Lake Champlain. Wharves allowed steamboats to connect freight and passengers with the Rutland & Burlington Railroad, Burlington became a bustling lumbering and manufacturing center and was incorporated as a city in 1865. Its Victorian era prosperity left behind fine architecture, including buildings by Ammi B. Young, H. H. Richardson, and McKim, Mead & White, in 1870, the waterfront was extended by construction of the Pine Street Barge Canal. This became polluted over the years and was a focus for cleanup in 2009 under the U. S. Environmental Protection Agencys Superfund program, in 1978, the ice cream enterprise Ben & Jerrys was founded in Burlington in a renovated gas station. It became a brand, with retail outlets in numerous cities
32.
Wisconsin Territory
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Belmont was initially chosen as the capital of the territory. In 1837, the legislature met in Burlington, just north of the Skunk River on the Mississippi. In that year,1838, the capital of Wisconsin was moved to Madison. The Wisconsin Territory initially included all of the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa. Much of the Territory had originally been part of the Northwest Territory, the portion in what is now Iowa and the Dakotas was originally part of the Louisiana Purchase and was split off from the Missouri Territory in 1821 and attached to the Michigan Territory in 1834. The portion that was part of the Northwest Territory and which later became the state of Wisconsin was part of the Indiana Territory when this was formed in 1800. In 1809, it part of the Illinois Territory, then, when Illinois was about to become a state in 1818. Then, the Wisconsin Territory was split off from Michigan Territory in 1836 as the state of Michigan prepared for statehood, in 1838, the section of the territory to the west of the Mississippi became the Iowa Territory. Most of the land of the original Wisconsin Territory was originally part of the Louisiana Purchase. This land west of the Mississippi had been split off from the Missouri Territory in 1821, there are irregularities in the historical timeline at the outset of the Territory. Yet, Michigan did not enter the Union until January 26,1837 and this council was to meet in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on January 1,1836. Horner issued his own proclamation on November 9,1835, calling for the council to meet on December 1,1835 — giving delegates less than a month to learn of the change and this caused considerable annoyance among the delegates, who ignored it. Even Horner himself neglected to attend, for its concession to the Toledo Strip, Michigan was given the Upper Peninsula. President Andrew Jackson appointed Henry Dodge Governor and Horner Secretary, the first legislative assembly of the new territory was convened by Governor Dodge at Belmont, in the present Lafayette County, on October 25,1836. In 1837, Burlington, Iowa, became the territorial capital of the Wisconsin Territory. The next year, the Iowa Territory was created and the capital was moved to Madison, additionally when Iowa became a state on December 28,1846, no provision was made for official organization of the remainder of what had been Iowa Territory. While the bill passed in the House, it did not pass the Senate, in the following session a bill by Stephen A. Douglas was introduced in the Senate but also did not pass. In the summer of 1848, residents in the area organized themselves, as these meetings commenced, the most recent territorial delegate to congress John H. Tweedy officially tendered his resignation, thus vacating the seat
33.
Iowa Territory
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The remainder of the territory would have no organized territorial government until the Minnesota Territory was organized on March 3,1849. Most of the comprising the territory was originally part of the Louisiana Purchase and was a part of the Missouri Territory. When Missouri became a state in 1821, this effectively became unorganized territory. The area was closed to white settlers until the 1830s, after the Black Hawk War ended and it was attached to the Michigan Territory on June 28,1834. The territory north of line was named Dubuque County. When Michigan became a state in 1836 the area became the Iowa District of western Wisconsin Territory—the region west of the Mississippi River. The original boundaries of the territory, as established in 1838, included Minnesota and parts of the Dakotas, burlington was the stop-gap capital, Iowa City was designated as the official territorial capital in 1841. When Iowa became a state on December 28,1846, no provision was made for official organization of the remainder of the territory. Morgan L. Martin, the Wisconsin territorial delegate to congress, while the bill passed in the house, it did not pass the senate. In the following session a bill by Stephen A. Douglas was introduced in the senate, the situation was resolved when Minnesota Territory was organized on March 3,1849, the day before the close of congress. Conway, appointed 1838, died in office, November 1839, william W. Chapman 25th and 26th Congresses, 1838–1840 Francis Gehon, irregularly elected in 1839, but never served as delegate Augustus C. S. S
34.
Commemorative plaque
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A monumental plaque or tablet commemorating a deceased person or persons, can be a simple form of church monument. A plaquette is a plaque, but in English, unlike many European languages. The Benin Empire, which flourished in present-day Nigeria between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, had a rich sculptural tradition. One of the kingdom’s chief sites of production was the elaborate ceremonial court of the Oba at the palace in Benin. Among the wide range of artistic forms produced at the court were rectangular brass or bronze plaques, surviving in great numbers, they were manufactured from sheet brass or latten, very occasionally coloured with enamels, and tend to depict highly conventional figures with brief inscriptions. In England, the London blue plaques scheme, which is administered by English Heritage, has been running for over 140 years and is thought to be the oldest of its kind in the world, Plaques are attached to buildings to commemorate their association with important occupants or events. A range of other commemorative plaque schemes, which are run by local councils and charitable bodies. These tend to use their own criteria for determining the eligibility to put up a plaque, a list of schemes currently operating in England is available on the English Heritage website. After the First World War, the families of British and British Empire service men and women killed during the conflict were presented with bronze Memorial Plaques, the plaques, of about 125 millimetres in diameter, were designed by the eminent sculptor and medallist, Edward Carter Preston. In the United States, various governments have commemorative plaque schemes usually using the name historical markers. The National Trust for Historic Preservation or the U. S. Government, through the National Register of Historic Places, state programmes, such as the California Register of Historical Resources allows designated sites to place their own markers. As the price of metal has increased plaques have been the target of metal thieves wishing to resell the metal for cash. Plaques or, more often, plaquettes, are given as awards instead of trophies or ribbons. Such plaques usually bear text describing the reason for the award and, often, blue plaque Hartog Plate Parting stone Stolperstein
35.
Black Hawk (Sauk leader)
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Black Hawk, born Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, was a band leader and warrior of the Sauk American Indian tribe in what is now the Midwest of the United States. Although he had inherited an important historic medicine bundle from his father, Black Hawk earned his status as a war chief or captain by his actions, leading raiding and war parties as a young man, and a band of Sauk warriors during the Black Hawk War of 1832. During the War of 1812, Black Hawk had fought on the side of the British against the U. S. hoping to push white American settlers away from Sauk territory. Later he led a band of Sauk and Fox warriors, known as the British Band, against European-American settlers in Illinois, after the war, he was captured by U. S. forces and taken to the eastern U. S. He and other war leaders were taken on tour of several cities, the first Native American autobiography to be published in the U. S. his book became an immediate bestseller and has gone through several editions. Black Hawk died in 1838 in what is now southeastern Iowa and he has been honored by an enduring legacy, his book, many eponyms, and other tributes. Black Hawk, or Black Sparrow Hawk was born in 1767 in the village of Saukenuk on the Rock River, Black Hawks father Pyesa was the tribal medicine man of the Sauk people. The Sauk used the village in the summer for raising corn, during the winter, they moved across the Mississippi to present-day Iowa for winter hunts and fur trapping. Little is known about Black Hawks youth and he was said to be a descendant of Nanamakee, a Sauk chief who, according to tradition, met an early French explorer, possibly Samuel de Champlain. At age 15, Black Hawk accompanied his father Pyesa on a raid against the Osage and he won approval by killing and scalping his first enemy. The young Black Hawk tried to establish himself as a war captain by leading other raids and he had limited success until, at age 19, he led 200 men in a battle against the Osage, in which he personally killed five men and one woman. Soon after, he joined his father in a raid against Cherokee along the Meramec River in Missouri, after Pyesa died from wounds received in the battle, Black Hawk inherited the Sauk medicine bundle which his father had carried, giving him an important role in the tribe. After an extended period of mourning for his father, Black Hawk resumed leading raiding parties over the years, usually targeting the traditional enemy. Black Hawk did not belong to a clan that provided the Sauk with hereditary civil leaders and he achieved status through his exploits as a warrior and by leading successful raiding parties. Twenty-first century historians such as John W. Hall have suggested the term war captain for this role, during the War of 1812, Black Hawk, now 45, served as a war leader of a Sauk band at their village of Saukenuk, which fielded about 200 warriors. The Sauk and Fox are consensus-based decision makers and those sent to the meeting with the US government did not have the power to cede tribal territory although Quashquame did. The lack of the consensus aspect by each the Sauk and Fox councils the treaty could never be considered valid by Black Hawk and other traditionalists. Black Hawk took part in skirmishes against US forces at the newly constructed Fort Madison in the disputed land, this was the first time he fought directly against the U. S. Army
36.
James Fenimore Cooper
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James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a form of American literature. He lived most of his life in Cooperstown, New York, Cooper was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and, in his later years, contributed generously to it. He attended Yale University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian Society, but was expelled for misbehavior. Before embarking on his career as a writer, he served in the U. S. Navy as a Midshipman, the novel that launched his career was The Spy, a tale about counterespionage set during the Revolutionary War and published in 1821. He also wrote numerous sea stories, and his works are five historical novels of the frontier period known as the Leatherstocking Tales. Among naval historians, Coopers works on the early U. S. Navy have been well received, among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of the Mohicans, often regarded as his masterpiece. James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1789 to William Cooper and Elizabeth Cooper and he was descended from James Cooper of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, who emigrated to the American colonies in 1679. James and his wife were Quakers who purchased plots of land in New Jersey, seventy-five years after his arrival in America, his great-grandson William was born on December 2,1754. Shortly after James first birthday, his family moved to Cooperstown, New York, later, his father was elected as a United States Congressman from Otsego County. Their town was in a area of New York that had previously been occupied by the Iroquois of the Six Nations. The Iroquois were forced to cede their territory after British defeat in the Revolutionary War, shortly after the American Revolutionary War, the state opened up these former Iroquois lands for sale and development. Coopers father purchased several acres of land in upstate New York along the head-waters of the Susquehanna River. By 1788, William Cooper had selected and surveyed the site where Cooperstown would be established and he erected a home on the shore of Otsego lake and moved his family there in the autumn of 1790. He soon began construction of the mansion that would be known as Otsego Hall and it was completed in 1799 when James was ten. At age 13, Cooper was enrolled at Yale, but he incited a dangerous prank that involved blowing up another students door — after having already locked a donkey in a recitation room, Cooper was expelled in his third year without completing his degree. Disenchanted with college, he obtained work in 1806 as a sailor and, at age 17, by 1811, he obtained the rank of midshipman in the fledgling United States Navy, conferred upon him on an officers warrant signed by Thomas Jefferson. At 20, Cooper inherited a fortune from his father and he married Susan Augusta de Lancey at Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York on January 1,1811 at age 21
37.
The Last of the Mohicans
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The Last of the Mohicans, A Narrative of 1757 is a historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper. It is the book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. The Pathfinder, published 14 years later in 1840, is its sequel, the Last of the Mohicans is set in 1757, during the French and Indian War, when France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. The novel is set in the upper New York wilderness. Among the caravan guarding the women are the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, Major Duncan Heyward, and the Indians Chingachgook and Uncas and these characters are sometimes seen as a microcosm of the budding American society, particularly with regards to their racial composition. The novel has one of the most popular English-language novels since its publication and is frequently assigned reading in American literature courses. It has been adapted numerous times and in different languages for films, TV movies, at the time of Coopers writing, many people believed that the Native Americans were disappearing, and would ultimately be assimilated or fail to survive. Especially in the East, their numbers continued to decline, at the same time, the author was interested in the period of the frontier of transition, when more colonists were increasing pressure on the Native Americans. He grew up in Cooperstown, New York, which his father had established on what was then a frontier of settlement. The conflict arrayed British colonial settlers and minimal regular forces against royal French forces, the war was fought primarily along the frontiers of the British colonies from Virginia to Nova Scotia. In the spring of 1757, Lieutenant Colonel George Monro became garrison commander of Fort William Henry, in early August, Major General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and 7,000 troops besieged the fort. On 2 August General Webb, who commanded the area from his base at Fort Edward, in the novel, this is the relief column with which Monros daughters travel. He wrote to Munro on 4 August that he should negotiate the best terms possible, in Coopers version, the missive was being carried by Bumppo when he, and it, fell into French hands. On 7 August Montcalm sent men to the fort under a flag to deliver Webbs dispatch. By then the walls had been breached, many of its guns were useless. After another day of bombardment by the French, Monro raised the white flag, when the withdrawal began, some of Montcalms Indian allies, angered at the lost opportunity for loot, attacked the British column. Coopers account of the attack and aftermath is lurid and somewhat inaccurate, a detailed reconstruction of the action and its aftermath indicates that the final tally of British missing and dead ranges from 70 to 184, more than 500 British were taken captive. They are guided through the forest by a native named Magua, Heyward is dissatisfied with Maguas shortcut, and the party roam unguided and finally join Natty Bumppo, a scout for the British, and his two Mohican friends, Chingachgook and his son Uncas
38.
Steamboat
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A steamboat is a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the prefix designation SS, S. S. or S/S or PS, the term steamboat is used to refer to smaller, insular, steam-powered boats working on lakes and rivers, particularly riverboats. As using steam became more reliable, steam power became applied to larger, Early attempts at powering a boat by steam were made by the French inventor Denis Papin and the English inventor Thomas Newcomen. Papin invented the steam digester and experimented with closed cylinders and pistons pushed in by atmospheric pressure, Papin proposed applying this steam pump to the operation of a paddlewheel boat and tried to market his idea in Britain. He was unable to convert the piston motion into rotary motion. Newcomens design did solve the first problem, but remained shackled to the inherent limitations of the engines of the time, a steamboat was described and patented by English physician John Allen in 1729. In 1736, Jonathan Hulls was granted a patent in England for a Newcomen engine-powered steamboat, William Henry of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, having learned of Watts engine on a visit to England, made his own engine. In 1763 he put it in a boat, the boat sank, and while Henry made an improved model, he did not appear to have much success, though he may have inspired others. At its first demonstration on 15 July 1783, Pyroscaphe travelled upstream on the river Saône for some fifteen minutes before the engine failed, presumably this was easily repaired as the boat is said to have made several such journeys. Following this, De Jouffroy attempted to get the government interested in his work, De Jouffroy did not have the funds for this, and, following the events of the French revolution, work on the project was discontinued after he left the country. Similar boats were made in 1785 by John Fitch in Philadelphia and William Symington in Dumfries and this boat could typically make 7 to 8 miles per hour and traveled more than 2,000 miles during its short length of service. The Fitch steamboat was not a success, as this travel route was adequately covered by relatively good wagon roads. The following year, a boat made 30-mile excursions, and in 1790. Miller sent King Gustav III of Sweden an actual version,100 feet long. Miller then engaged engineer William Symington to build his patent steam engine drove a stern-mounted paddle wheel in a boat in 1785. The boat was successfully tried out on Dalswinton Loch in 1788 and was followed by a steamboat the next year. The boat was built by Alexander Hart at Grangemouth to Symingtons design with a cylinder engine. Trials on the River Carron in June 1801 were successful and included towing sloops from the river Forth up the Carron and thence along the Forth, in 1801, Symington patented a horizontal steam engine directly linked to a crank
39.
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
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The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City, because of this extensive trackage in the midwest and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans Everywhere West, Way of the Zephyrs, and The Way West. It merged into Burlington Northern in 1970, in 1967, it reported 19,565 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 723 million passenger miles, corresponding totals for C&S were 1,100 and 10 and for FW&D were 1,466 and 13. At the end of the year CB&Q operated 8,538 route-miles, C&S operated 708, the earliest predecessor of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, the Aurora Branch Railroad, was chartered by act of the Illinois General Assembly on October 2,1848. The Aurora Branch was built from Aurora, through Batavia, to Turner Junction in what is now West Chicago, the line was built with old strap rail and minimal, if any, grading. The line from Aurora to Chicago was built through the towns of Naperville, Lisle, Downers Grove, Hinsdale, Berwyn. It was opened in 1864, and passenger and freight service began, regular commuter train service started in 1864 and remains operational to this day, making it the oldest surviving regular passenger service in Chicago. Both the original Chicago line, and to a lesser extent. With a steady acquisition of locomotives, cars, equipment, and trackage, the Burlington Route was able to enter the trade markets in 1862. From that year to date, the railroad and its successors have paid dividends continuously, the B&MR continued building west into Nebraska as a separate company, the Burlington & Missouri River Rail Road, founded in 1869. During the summer of 1870 it reached Lincoln, the designated capital of Nebraska and by 1872 it reached Kearney. That same year the B&MR across Iowa was absorbed by the CB&Q, by the time the Missouri River bridge at Plattsmouth, Nebraska was completed the B&MR in Nebraska was well on its way to the Mile High city of Denver, Colorado. That same year, the Nebraska B&MR was purchased by the CB&Q, Burlingtons rapid expansion after the American Civil War was based upon sound financial management, dominated by John Murray Forbes of Boston and assisted by Charles Elliott Perkins. Perkins was an administrator who eventually forged a system out of previously loosely held affiliates. Ultimately, Perkins believed the Burlington Railroad must be included into a powerful transcontinental system, though the railroad as far west as Denver and Billings, Montana, it had failed to reach the Pacific Coast during the 1880s and 1890s, when construction was less expensive. Though approached by E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, with its river line to the Twin Cities, the Burlington Route formed a natural connection between Hills home town of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the railroad hub of Chicago. Moreover, Hill was willing to meet Perkins $200-a-share asking price for the Burlingtons stock, by 1900, Hills Great Northern, in conjunction with the Northern Pacific Railway, held nearly 100 percent of Burlingtons stock. In 1901 a rebuffed Harriman tried to gain an indirect influence over the Burlington by launching a raid on the Northern Pacific
40.
Burlington Northern Railroad
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The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U. S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996 and that corporation was purchased by Berkshire Hathaway in 2009 which is controlled by investor Warren Buffett. The merged railroad was going to be called Great Northern Pacific & Burlington Lines. The merger was approved in 1970 even though a challenge occurred in the Supreme Court. To further expand the Burlington Northern railroad, a track was constructed in 1972 into the Powder River Basin to serve various coal mines. On November 21,1980, the St. Louis - San Francisco Railway was acquired, in 1971, BN/C&S/FW&D carried 64116 million revenue ton-miles of freight, in 1979 the total was 135004 million. Most of the increase was Powder River coal from Wyoming, a fount of traffic unprecedented in United States railroad history, the Burlington Northern, along with handling freight trains, briefly operated inter-city passenger trains. The BN also operated a commuter line inherited from the CB&Q from Chicago Union Station to the suburb of Aurora. On September 22,1995, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged with the Burlington Northern to create the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, on January 24,2005, the railroad shortened its name to BNSF Railway. The Burlington Northern traversed the most northerly routes of any railroad in the western United States and these routes started at Chicago, Illinois and ran west-northwest to La Crosse, Wisconsin. From here the routes continued northwest through Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota to Grand Forks, from Grand Forks the routes ran west through North Dakota, Montana, and Idaho to Spokane, Washington. At Spokane the routes split into three, the Spokane, Portland and Seattle ran southwest to the Tri-Cities, then followed the north bank of the Columbia River to Vancouver, Washington. With the acquisition of the St. Louis – San Francisco Railway the route was extended into the South Central and Southeastern United States. Transport Statistics shows BN operated 23609 miles of line and 34691 miles of track at the end of 1970, it shows 4547 SLSF miles of line not including QA&P, at the end of 1981 BN showed 27374 miles of line and 40041 miles of track. The livery of the Burlington Northern traces its history to Chicago, Burlington, EMD GP40 #629 was painted in a green, black and white scheme that introduced the BNs lettering and logo. The green color was known as Cascade Green due to the reflections of pine trees. As the final approval of the merger was approaching the Spokane, Portland, by the 1980s the locomotives and rolling stock had an unfortunate habit of camouflaging into the scenery and causing accidents at railroad crossings. By 1987 the study did not show vast improvement of the visibility and was dropped
41.
BNSF Railway
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The BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroad networks in North America, second to the Union Pacific Railroad, and is one of seven North American Class I railroads. It has 44,000 employees,32,500 miles of track in 28 states and it has three transcontinental routes that provide rail links between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad, the BNSF and UP have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western U. S. and share trackage rights over thousands of miles of track. According to corporate press releases, the BNSF Railway is among the top transporters of intermodal freight in North America, for instance, the railroad hauls enough coal to generate roughly ten percent of the electricity produced in the United States. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the railroad is an owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The creation of BNSF started with the formation of a holding company, on January 24,2005, the railroads name was officially changed to BNSF Railway, using the initials of its original name. The United States Surface Transportation Board placed a 15-month moratorium on all rail mergers, the company is investing an estimated $34 billion in BNSF and acquiring $10 billion in debt. On February 12,2010, shareholders of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation voted in favor of the acquisition, BNSFs history dates back to 1849, when the Aurora Branch Railroad in Illinois and the Pacific Railroad of Missouri were formed. The Aurora Branch eventually grew into the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, a portion of the Pacific Railroad became the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway was chartered in 1859 and it built one of the first transcontinental railroads in North America, linking Chicago and Southern California, major branches led to Texas, Denver, and San Francisco. The Interstate Commerce Commission denied a proposed merger with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in the 1980s and it absorbed the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway in 1980. Its main lines included Chicago-Seattle with branches to Texas and Montgomery, Alabama, on June 30,1994, BN and ATSF announced plans to merge, they were the largest and smallest of the Super Seven, the seven largest of the then-twelve U. S. The long-rumored announcement was delayed by a disagreement over the disposition of Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation and this announcement began the next wave of mergers, as the Super Seven were merged down to four in the next five years. The Illinois Central Railroad and Kansas City Southern Railway, two of the five small Class Is, announced on July 19 that the former would buy the latter, but this plan was called off on October 25. The Union Pacific Railroad, another major Western system, started a war with BN for control of the SF on October 5. The UP gave up on January 31,1995, paving the way for the BN-ATSF merger, subsequently, the UP acquired the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1996, and Eastern systems CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway split Conrail in 1998. UP was satisfied with a segment of trackage rights from Abilene, Kansas to Superior, Nebraska. KCS gained haulage rights to several Midwest locations, including Omaha, East St. Louis, and Memphis, in exchange for BNSF getting similar access to New Orleans
Iowa
Barbacena, Brazil
