1.
Westfield, Massachusetts
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Westfield is a city in Hampden County, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, United States. Westfield was first settled in 1660 and it is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 41,094 at the 2010 census, the area was originally inhabited by the Pocomtuc tribe, and was called Woronoco. Trading houses were built in 1639–40 by settlers from the Connecticut Colony, Massachusetts asserted jurisdiction, and prevailed after a boundary survey. In 1647, Massachusetts made Woronoco part of Springfield, Massachusetts, land was incrementally purchased from the Native Americans and granted by the Springfield town meeting to English settlers, beginning in 1658. The area of Woronoco or Streamfield began to be settled in the 1660s. In 1669, Westfield was incorporated as an independent town, in 1920, from its founding until 1725, Westfield was the westernmost settlement in Massachusetts Colony, and portions of it fell within the Equivalent lands. Town meetings were held in a meeting house until 1839. This building also served as City Hall from 1920 to 1958, due to its alluvial lands, the inhabitants of this area were entirely devoted to agricultural pursuits for about 150 years. Early in the 19th century, manufacture of bricks, whips, at one point in the 19th century, Westfield was a prominent center of the buggy whip industry, and the city is still known as the Whip City. Other firms produced bicycles, paper products, pipe organs, boilers and radiators, textile machinery, abrasives, wood products, South of the river, the intersecting trends of growth of Westfield State University and declining manufacturing changed the citys character. A Home Depot Store and a Price-Rite were recently added to Westfields wide array of shopping centers and these stores are located along Route 20. Only four buildings exceed four stories, until a major fire on January 6,1952 the Westfield Professional Building covered half a downtown city block and was six stories tall. Subsequent zoning prohibited virtually all new construction over three stories, even after improvements in fire suppression technologies and vehicles became available, no building is allowed to be taller than the towns firetruck ladders. In the early 20th century, Westfield was at the center of the Pure Food movement, allyn, a Westfield resident and pure foods expert for McClures, lived in Westfield until his murder. In 1906, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, Westfield is located at 42°7′46″N 72°44′46″W. Westfield is split into the South Side and the North Side by the Westfield River, and the northwestern section of town is known as Wyben. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 47.3 square miles
2.
Rocky Mountains
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The Rocky Mountains, commonly known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. Within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges, the Rocky Mountains were initially formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began to slide underneath the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks, at the end of the last ice age, humans started to inhabit the mountain range. The first mention of their present name by a European was in the journal of Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in 1752, the Rocky Mountains are commonly defined as stretching from the Liard River in British Columbia south to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The United States definition of the Rockies includes the Cabinet and Salish Mountains of Idaho and their counterparts north of the Kootenai River, the Columbia Mountains, are considered a separate system in Canada, lying to the west of the huge Rocky Mountain Trench. This runs the length of British Columbia from its beginnings in the middle Flathead River valley in western Montana to the bank of the Liard River. The Rockies vary in width from 70 to 300 miles, also west of the Rocky Mountain Trench, farther north and facing the Muskwa Range across the trench, are the Stikine Ranges and Omineca Mountains of the Interior Mountains system of British Columbia. A small area east of Prince George, British Columbia on the side of the Trench. In Canada geographers define three main groups of ranges, the Continental Ranges, Hart Ranges and Muskwa Ranges, the Muskwa and Hart Ranges together comprise what is known as the Northern Rockies. The western edge of the Rockies includes ranges such as the Wasatch near Salt Lake City, the Great Basin and Columbia River Plateau separate these sub-ranges from distinct ranges further to the west, most prominent among which are the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range and Coast Mountains. The Rocky Mountain System within the United States is a United States physiographic region, the Rocky Mountains are notable for containing the highest peaks in central North America. The ranges highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet above sea level, Mount Robson in British Columbia, at 12,972 feet, is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The Continental Divide of the Americas is located in the Rocky Mountains, triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park is so named because water that falls on the mountain reaches not only the Atlantic and Pacific, but Hudson Bay as well. Farther north in Alberta, the Athabasca and other rivers feed the basin of the Mackenzie River, see Rivers of the Rocky Mountains for a list of rivers. Human population is not very dense in the Rocky Mountains, with an average of four people per square kilometer, however, the human population grew rapidly in the Rocky Mountain states between 1950 and 1990. The 40-year statewide increases in range from 35% in Montana to about 150% in Utah
3.
Union Army
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The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War,1861 to 1865. It included the permanent regular army of the United States, which was augmented by numbers of temporary units consisting of volunteers as well as conscripts. The Union Army fought and eventually defeated the Confederate Army during the war, at least two and a half million men served in the Union Army, almost all were volunteers. About 360,000 Union soldiers died from all causes,280,000 were wounded and 200,000 deserted. When the American Civil War began in April 1861, there were only 16,000 men in the U. S. Army, and of these many Southern officers resigned and joined the Confederate army. The U. S. Army consisted of ten regiments of infantry, four of artillery, Lincolns call forced the border states to choose sides, and four seceded, making the Confederacy eleven states strong. The war proved to be longer and more extensive than anyone North or South had expected, the call for volunteers initially was easily met by patriotic Northerners, abolitionists, and even immigrants who enlisted for a steady income and meals. Over 10,000 Germans in New York and Pennsylvania immediately responded to Lincolns call, as more men were needed, however, the number of volunteers fell and both money bounties and forced conscription had to be turned to. Nevertheless, between April 1861 and April 1865, at least two and a million men served in the Union Army, of whom the majority were volunteers. It is a misconception that the South held an advantage because of the percentage of professional officers who resigned to join the Confederate army. At the start of the war, there were 824 graduates of the U. S, Military Academy on the active list, of these,296 resigned or were dismissed, and 184 of those became Confederate officers. Of the approximately 900 West Point graduates who were civilians,400 returned to the Union Army and 99 to the Confederate. Therefore, the ratio of Union to Confederate professional officers was 642 to 283, the South did have the advantage of other military colleges, such as The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute, but they produced fewer officers. The Union Army was composed of numerous organizations, which were generally organized geographically, Military Division A collection of Departments reporting to one commander. Military Divisions were similar to the modern term Theater, and were modeled close to, though not synonymous with. Department An organization that covered a region, including responsibilities for the Federal installations therein. Those named for states usually referred to Southern states that had been occupied and it was more common to name departments for rivers or regions. District A subdivision of a Department, there were also Subdistricts for smaller regions
4.
Oberlin College
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Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio. The college was founded as the Oberlin Collegiate Institute in 1833 by John Jay Shipherd and it is the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States and the second oldest continuously operating coeducational institute of higher learning in the world. The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, part of the college, is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States, the College of Arts & Sciences offers more than 50 majors, minors, and concentrations. Oberlin is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association and the Five Colleges of Ohio consortium, both the college and the town of Oberlin were founded in northern Ohio in 1833 by a pair of Presbyterian ministers, John Jay Shipherd and Philo Stewart. The College was built on 500 acres of land donated by the previous owners, Titus Street, founder of Streetsboro, Ohio, and Samuel Hughes. Shipherd and Stewert named their project after Jean-Frédéric Oberlin, an Alsatian minister whom they both admired, the ministers vision was for both a religious community and school. Oberlins founders bragged that Oberlin is peculiar in that which is good, asa Mahan accepted the position as first President of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute in 1835, simultaneously serving as the chair of intellectual and moral philosophy and a professor of theology. The college had some difficult beginnings, and Rev. John Keep, a nondenominational seminary, Oberlins Graduate School of Theology, was established alongside the college in 1833. Oberlins role as an educator of African-American students prior to the Civil War, in 1844, Oberlin College graduated its first black student, George B. Vashon, who one of the founding professors at Howard University. The African Americans of Oberlin and those attending Oberlin College have experienced intense challenges and its African American and other students of color have used education and activism to influence the college, the town, and beyond. Their efforts have helped Oberlin remain committed to its values of freedom, social justice, the Colleges approach to African Americans was by no means perfect. Intensely anti-slavery, Oberlin was the college to admit black students in the 1830s. By the 1880s, however, with the fading of evangelical idealism, nonetheless, Oberlin graduates accounted for a significant percentage of African-American college graduates by the end of the 19th century. The college was listed as a National Historic Landmark on December 21,1965, for its significance in admitting African Americans, Oberlin is also the oldest coeducational institution in the United States, having admitted four women in 1837. These four women, who were the first to enter as full students, were Mary Kellogg, Mary Caroline Rudd, Mary Hosford, Mary Jane Patterson graduated in 1862 as the first black woman to earn a B. A. degree. Soon women were integrated into the college, and comprised from a third to half of the student body. The religious founders, especially evangelical theologian Charles Grandison Finney, saw women as morally superior to men
5.
Nebraska Territory
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The Nebraska Territory was created by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854. The territory encompassed areas of what is today Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Colorado, an enabling act was passed by Congress in 1864. Delegates for a convention were elected, this convention did not produce a constitution. Two years later, in 1866, a constitution was drafted and voted upon and it was approved by 100 votes. However, a clause in this constitution that limited suffrage to white males delayed Nebraskas entry into the Union for almost a year. The 1866 enabling act for the state was subject to a veto by President Andrew Johnson. When Congress reconvened in 1867, it passed another bill to create the state of Nebraska and this bill was also vetoed by President Johnson. It was first mentioned in fur trading records in 1823, Fort Lisa, founded by Manuel Lisa near present-day Dodge Park in North Omaha was founded in 1812, although Lisa had earlier founded posts further up the Missouri in Montana and North Dakota. Fort Atkinson, was founded on the Council Bluff in 1819, mormon settlers founded Cutlers Park in 1846, and the town of Bellevue was incorporated in 1853. Nearby Omaha City was founded in 1854, with Nebraska City, the influential towns of Brownville and Fontanelle were founded that year as well. The early village of Lancaster, later called Lincoln, was founded in 1856, along with the towns of Saratoga, South Nebraska City, thirty years later the Nebraska territory was settled and print media served the dual purposes of sharing the news and promoting the area for settlement. In 1854 the Nebraska Palladium was the first paper to be published in the territory however it would last less than a year and these territorial newspapers were efficient but rough and many of the papers folded under quickly, changed owners, or consolidated with other publications. By 1860 the Nebraska territory had twelve weekly publications, one biweekly and one monthly, after statehood in 1867 the newspaper industry expanded greatly. With a variety of fur trading posts, Fort Atkinson, founded in 1819, was the location of the first military post in what became the Nebraska Territory. Upon creation, the territory encompassed most of the northern Great Plains, much of the upper Missouri River basin, the Nebraska Territory gradually reduced in size as new territories were created in the 1860s. The Colorado Territory was formed February 28,1861 from portions of the south of 41° N and west of 102°03′ W. March 2,1861. It was made of all of the portions of Nebraska Territory north of 43° N and these portions had not been part of the Louisiana Purchase, rather, they had been part of Oregon Country and became part of the United States in 1846. On March 3,1863, the Idaho Territory was formed of all the territory west of 104°03′ W. S. S, T. Andreas,1882 History of Nebraska History of Nebraska State Government Organization
6.
William F. Raynolds
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William Franklin Raynolds was an explorer, engineer and U. S. army officer who served in the Mexican-American War and American Civil War. He is best known for leading the 1859–60 Raynolds Expedition while serving as a member of the U. S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, during the 1850s and again after his participation in the American Civil War, Raynolds was the head engineer on numerous lighthouse construction projects. He oversaw riverway and harbor dredging projects intended to improve accessibility, as a cartographer, Raynolds surveyed and mapped the islands and shorelines on the Great Lakes and other regions. At least six lighthouses whose construction he oversaw are still standing, some are still in use and of these, several are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1859, Raynolds was placed in charge of the first government-sponsored expedition to venture into the upper Yellowstone region that was later to become Yellowstone National Park, after negotiating the pass the expedition entered Jackson Hole and surveyed the Teton Range, now within Grand Teton National Park. On March 13,1865 Raynolds was brevetted brigadier general for service during the Civil War. Raynolds retired from the Corps of Engineers on March 17,1884 with the permanent rank of colonel after a 40-year military career, William Franklin Raynolds was born on March 17,1820 in Canton, Ohio, the fourth of six children to William Raynolds and Elizabeth Seabury. William F. Raynoldss grandfather was also named William Raynolds and had been a veteran of the War of 1812, during the War of 1812, the grandfather Raynolds rose to the rank of major while serving under Lewis Cass. William F. Raynolds entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and he graduated fifth out of 39 classmates in his class of 1843, which included William B. Franklin, Raynoldss friend Joseph J. Reynolds and future president Ulysses S. Grant, Raynolds married at a young age, he and his wife had no children. Initially appointed a second lieutenant in the 5th U. S. Infantry. The Topographical Engineers performed surveys and developed maps for use until their merger with the Corps of Engineers in 1863. When war with Mexico seemed imminent, topographic engineers were sent to the border to assist with the armys preparations, Raynolds served in Winfield Scotts Mexican-American War campaign which marched overland to Mexico City from the Gulf of Mexico seaport at Veracruz. After the war, the American army occupied Mexico City and the surrounding region, during the occupation, Raynolds and others set out to map and explore nearby mountains. Raynoldss party is credited with being the first confirmed to climb to the summit of Pico de Orizaba which at 18,620 feet is the tallest mountain in Mexico and third tallest in North America. Over a period of months, Raynolds and other officers from both the army and navy mapped the best approach route to Pico de Orizaba. As the expedition left to ascend the mountain, a pack train of nearly fifty officers, soldiers. After several days of hiking through dense jungle, the expedition slowly gained altitude, starting from base camp in the early morning of May 10 nearly two dozen climbers made the final push to the top of the mountain, but only Raynolds and a few others reached the summit
7.
United States Army Corps of Engineers
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The United States Army Corps of Engineers, also sometimes shortened to CoE is a U. S. Although generally associated with dams, canals and flood protection in the United States, the Corps of Engineers provides outdoor recreation opportunities to the public, and provides 24% of U. S. hydropower capacity. The corps mission is to Deliver vital public and military engineering services, partnering in peace and war to strengthen our Nations security, energize the economy and their most visible missions include, Planning, designing, building, and operating locks and dams. Other civil engineering projects include flood control, beach nourishment, design and construction of flood protection systems through various federal mandates. Design and construction management of military facilities for the Army, Air Force, Army Reserve and Air Force Reserve and other Defense and Federal agencies. The history of United States Army Corps of Engineers can be traced back to 16 June 1775, colonel Richard Gridley became General George Washingtons first chief engineer, however, it was not until 1779 that Congress created a separate Corps of Engineers. One of its first tasks was to build fortifications near Boston at Bunker Hill, the first Corps of Engineers was mostly composed of French subjects who had been hired by General Washington from the service of Louis XVI. that the said Corps. Shall be stationed at West Point in the State of New York, until 1866, the superintendent of the United States Military Academy was always an officer of engineer. During the first half of the 19th century, West Point was the major and, for a while, the General Survey Act of 1824 authorized the use of Army engineers to survey road and canal routes. Separately authorized on 4 July 1838, the U. S and it was merged with the Corps of Engineers on 31 March 1863, at which point the Corps of Engineers also assumed the Lakes Survey District mission for the Great Lakes. In 1841, Congress created the Lake Survey, the survey, based in Detroit, Mich. was charged with conducting a hydrographical survey of the Northern and Northwestern Lakes and preparing and publishing nautical charts and other navigation aids. The Lake Survey published its first charts in 1852, in the mid-19th century, Corps of Engineers officers ran Lighthouse Districts in tandem with U. S. Naval officers. The Army Corps of Engineers played a significant role in the American Civil War, many of the men who would serve in the top leadership in this institution were West Point graduates who rose to military fame and power during the Civil War. Some of these men were Union Generals George McClellan, Henry Halleck, George Meade, and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, the versatility of officers in the Army Corps of Engineers contributed to the success of numerous missions throughout the Civil War. They were responsible for building pontoon and railroad bridges, forts and batteries, the destruction of supply lines. The Army Corps of Engineers served as a function in making the war effort logistically feasible. This method of building trenches was known as the zigzag pattern, from the beginning, many politicians wanted the Corps of Engineers to contribute to both military construction and works of a civil nature. During World War II the mission grew to more than 27,000 military, included were aircraft, tank assembly, and ammunition plants, camps for 5.3 million soldiers, depots, ports, and hospitals, as well as the Manhattan Project, and the Pentagon
8.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
9.
William Henry Jackson
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William Henry Jackson was an American painter, Civil War veteran, geological survey photographer and an explorer famous for his images of the American West. He was a nephew of Samuel Wilson, the progenitor of Americas national symbol Uncle Sam. Jackson was born in Keeseville, New York, on April 4,1843, Harriet, a talented water-colorist, was a graduate of the Troy Female Academy, later the Emma Willard School. Painting was his passion from a young age, by age 19, he had become a skillful, talented artist of American pre-Civil War visual arts. Orson Squire Fowler wrote that Jackson was excellent as a painter and he served in the American Civil War for nine months including one major battle, the Battle of Gettysburg. Jackson spent most of his tour on garrison duty and helped guard a train during the engagement. His regiment mustered out on July 14,1863, Jackson then returned to Rutland, where he worked as an artistic painter in post-Civil War American society. Having broken his engagement to Miss Carolina Eastman, he left Vermont for the American West, in 1867 along with his brother Edward Jackson he settled down in Omaha and entered the photography business. In 1869 Jackson won a commission from the Union Pacific to document the scenery along the railroad routes for promotional purposes. When his work was discovered by Ferdinand Hayden, who was organizing a geologic survey to explore the Yellowstone River region, he was asked to join the expedition. The following year, he got an invitation to join the 1870 U. S. government survey of the Yellowstone River. He also was a member of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 which led to the creation of Yellowstone National Park, painter Thomas Moran was also part of the expedition, and the two artists worked closely together to document the Yellowstone region. These photographs played an important role in convincing Congress in 1872 to establish Yellowstone National Park and his involvement with Haydens survey established his reputation as one of the most accomplished explorers of the American continent. Jackson worked in multiple camera and plate sizes, under conditions that were incredibly difficult. His photography was based on the process invented in 1848. Jackson traveled with as many as three camera-types—a stereographic camera, a whole-plate or 8x10 plate-size camera, and one even larger and these cameras required fragile, heavy glass plates, which had to be coated, exposed, and developed onsite, before the wet-collodion emulsion dried. Without light metering equipment or sure emulsion speeds, exposure times required inspired guesswork, preparing, exposing, developing, fixing, washing then drying a single image could take the better part of an hour. Washing the plates in 160 °F hot spring water cut the time by more than half
10.
Odometer
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An odometer or odograph is an instrument that indicates distance travelled by a vehicle, such as a bicycle or automobile. The device may be electronic, mechanical, or a combination of the two, the noun derives from the Greek words hodós and métron. Possibly the first evidence for the use of an odometer can be found in the works of the ancient Roman Pliny, both authors list the distances of routes traveled by Alexander the Great as by his bematists Diognetus and Baeton. However, the accuracy of the bematistss measurements rather indicates the use of a mechanical device. 2% from the actual distance. From the nine surviving bematists measurements in Plinys Naturalis Historia eight show a deviation of less than 5% from the actual distance, three of them being within 1%. An odometer for measuring distance was first described by Vitruvius around 27 and 23 BC, hero of Alexandria describes a similar device in chapter 34 of his Dioptra. Some researchers have speculated that the device might have included technology similar to that of the Greek Antikythera mechanism, the odometer of Vitruvius was based on chariot wheels of 4 feet diameter turning 400 times in one Roman mile. For each revolution a pin on the axle engaged a 400 tooth cogwheel thus turning it one complete revolution per mile and this engaged another gear with holes along the circumference, where pebbles were located, that were to drop one by one into a box. The distance traveled would thus be given simply by counting the number of pebbles, whether this instrument was ever built at the time is disputed. Leonardo da Vinci later tried to build it himself according to the description, however, in 1981 engineer Andre Sleeswyk built his own replica, replacing the square-toothed gear designs of da Vinci with the triangular, pointed teeth found in the Antikythera mechanism. With this modification, the Vitruvius odometer functioned perfectly, the odometer was also independently invented in ancient China, possibly by the prolific inventor and early scientist Zhang Heng of the Han Dynasty. By the 3rd century, the Chinese had termed the device as the jì lĭ gŭ chē, there is speculation that some time in the 1st century BC, the beating of drums and gongs were mechanically-driven by working automatically off the rotation of the road-wheels. This might have actually been the design of one Loxia Hong, the odometer was used also in subsequent periods of Chinese history. In the historical text of the Jin Shu, the oldest part of the compiled text, the passage in the Jin Shu expanded upon this, explaining that it took a similar form to the mechanical device of the south-pointing chariot invented by Ma Jun. As recorded in the Song Shi of the Song Dynasty, the odometer and south-pointing chariot were combined into one wheeled device by engineers of the 9th century, 11th century, and 12th century. The Sun Tzu Suan Ching, dated from the 3rd century to 5th century, the historical text of the Song Shi, recording the people and events of the Chinese Song Dynasty, also mentioned the odometer used in that period. At the completion of every li, the figure of a man in the lower storey strikes a drum, at the completion of every ten li. The carriage-pole ends in a phoenix-head, and the carriage is drawn by four horses, the escort was formerly of 18 men, but in the 4th year of the Yung-Hsi reign-period the emperor Thai Tsung increased it to 30
11.
Yellowstone National Park
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Yellowstone National Park is a national park located in the U. S. states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U. S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1,1872. Yellowstone was the first National Park in the U. S. and is widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many features, especially Old Faithful Geyser. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant and it is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion. Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years, aside from visits by mountain men during the early-to-mid-19th century, organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s. Management and control of the park fell under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior. However, the U. S. Army was subsequently commissioned to oversee management of Yellowstone for a 30-year period between 1886 and 1916, in 1917, administration of the park was transferred to the National Park Service, which had been created the previous year. Hundreds of structures have been built and are protected for their architectural and historical significance, Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles, comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years, half of the worlds geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earths northern temperate zone, hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include species of plants. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous location in the Continental United States. Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in the park, the Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. Forest fires occur in the each year, in the large forest fires of 1988. Yellowstone has numerous opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing and sightseeing
12.
Wyoming
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Wyoming /waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/ is a state in the mountain region of the western United States. The state is the tenth largest by area, the least populous, Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city in Wyoming, the state population was estimated at 586,107 in 2015, which is less than the population of 31 of the largest U. S. cities. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were some of the inhabitants of the region. Southwestern Wyoming was included in the Spanish Empire and then Mexican territory until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. The region acquired the name Wyoming when a bill was introduced to Congress in 1865 to provide a government for the territory of Wyoming. The territory was named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, with the name ultimately being derived from the Munsee word xwé, wamənk, the mineral extraction industry—especially coal, oil, natural gas, and trona—along with the travel and tourism sector are the main drivers behind Wyomings economy. Agriculture has historically been an important component of the economy with the main commodities being livestock, hay, sugar beets, grain. The climate is generally semi-arid and continental, being drier and windier in comparison to the rest of the United States, except for the 1964 election, Wyoming has been a politically conservative state since the 1950s, with the Republican party winning every presidential election. Wyoming is one of three states to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the tenth largest state in the United States in total area, from the north border to the south border it is 276 miles, and from the east to the west border is 365 miles at its south end and 342 miles at the north end. The Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, the state is a great plateau broken by many mountain ranges. Surface elevations range from the summit of Gannett Peak in the Wind River Mountain Range, at 13,804 feet, to the Belle Fourche River valley in the states northeast corner, at 3,125 feet. In the northwest are the Absaroka, Owl Creek, Gros Ventre, Wind River, in the north central are the Big Horn Mountains, in the northeast, the Black Hills, and in the southern region the Laramie, Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges. The Snowy Range in the central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies in both geology and appearance. The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes more than 40 mountain peaks in excess of 13,000 ft tall in addition to Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state. The Big Horn Mountains in the central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hayden, Ferdinand Vandeveer". Encyclopædia Britannica. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 109.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
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