1.
United States Geological Survey
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The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its resources. The organization has four science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology. The USGS is a research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior, the USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, the current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is science for a changing world. The agencys previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its anniversary, was Earth Science in the Public Service. Prompted by a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the USGS was created, by a last-minute amendment and it was charged with the classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain. This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the legislation also provided that the Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler surveys be discontinued as of June 30,1879. Clarence King, the first director of USGS, assembled the new organization from disparate regional survey agencies, after a short tenure, King was succeeded in the directors chair by John Wesley Powell. Administratively, it is divided into a Headquarters unit and six Regional Units, Other specific programs include, Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide. The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location, the USGS also runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System. The USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, and it also maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research. It also conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards, USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time, the USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online, since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global, lunar, and planetary exploration and mapping. USGS operates a number of related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program. USGS Water data is available from their National Water Information System database
2.
Minneapolis
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Minneapolis is the county seat of Hennepin County, and the larger of the Twin Cities, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. As of 2015, Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Saint Paul anchor the second-largest economic center in the Midwest, after Chicago. Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul. It was once the worlds flour milling capital and a hub for timber, the city and surrounding region is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle, with Minneapolis proper containing Americas fifth-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies. As an integral link to the economy, Minneapolis is categorized as a global city. Noted for its music and performing arts scenes, Minneapolis is home to both the award-winning Guthrie Theater and the historic First Avenue nightclub. The name Minneapolis is attributed to Charles Hoag, the citys first schoolteacher, who combined mni, a Dakota Sioux word for water, and polis, Dakota Sioux had long been the regions sole residents when French explorers arrived around 1680. For a time relations were based on fur trading, gradually more European-American settlers arrived, competing for game and other resources with the Dakota. In the early 19th century, the United States acquired this territory from France, fort Snelling was built in 1819 by the United States Army, and it attracted traders, settlers and merchants, spurring growth in the area. The United States government pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, the Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present-day Minneapolis as a town in 1856 on the Mississippis west bank. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago. It later joined with the city of St. Anthony in 1872. Minneapolis developed around Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi River, forests in northern Minnesota were a valuable resource for the lumber industry, which operated seventeen sawmills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses, including mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes. Due to the hazards of milling, six local sources of artificial limbs were competing in the prosthetics business by the 1890s. The farmers of the Great Plains grew grain that was shipped by rail to the citys thirty-four flour mills, a father of modern milling in America and founder of what became General Mills, Cadwallader C. Some ideas were developed by William Dixon Gray and some acquired through industrial espionage from the Hungarians by William de la Barre, pillsbury Company across the river were barely a step behind, hiring Washburn employees to immediately use the new methods. The hard red spring wheat that grows in Minnesota became valuable, not until later did consumers discover the value in the bran that Minneapolis
3.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include Paul Reveres Ride, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieris Divine Comedy, Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, which was then a part of Massachusetts. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later and his first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night and Ballads and Other Poems. Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854, to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts and his first wife Mary Potter died in 1835, after a miscarriage. His second wife Frances Appleton died in 1861, after sustaining burns when her dress caught fire, after her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on translating works from foreign languages. Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and he became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized, however, for imitating European styles and his father was a lawyer, and his maternal grandfather, Peleg Wadsworth, was a general in the American Revolutionary War and a Member of Congress. He was named after his mothers brother Henry Wadsworth, a Navy lieutenant who had died three years earlier at the Battle of Tripoli, Longfellow was the second of eight children, his siblings were Stephen, Elizabeth, Anne, Alexander, Mary, Ellen and Samuel. Longfellow was of entirely English ancestry, all of which had been in New England since the early 1600s, Longfellow attended a dame school at the age of three and by age six was enrolled at the private Portland Academy. In his years there he earned a reputation as being very studious and his mother encouraged his enthusiasm for reading and learning, introducing him to Robinson Crusoe and Don Quixote. He published his first poem, a patriotic and historical four-stanza poem called The Battle of Lovells Pond and he stayed at the Portland Academy until the age of fourteen. He spent much of his summers as a child at his grandfather Pelegs farm in the western Maine town of Hiram, in the fall of 1822, the 15-year-old Longfellow enrolled at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, along with his brother Stephen. His grandfather was a founder of the college and his father was a trustee, there Longfellow met Nathaniel Hawthorne, who would later become his lifelong friend. He boarded with a clergyman for a time before rooming in 1823 on the floor of what is now known as Winthrop Hall. He joined the Peucinian Society, a group of students with Federalist leanings, in his senior year, Longfellow wrote to his father about his aspirations, I will not disguise it in the least. The fact is, I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature, my whole soul burns most ardently after it, and every earthly thought centres in it. I am almost confident in believing, that if I can ever rise in the world it must be by the exercise of my talents in the field of literature. He pursued his goals by submitting poetry and prose to various newspapers and magazines
4.
The Song of Hiawatha
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The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem in trochaic tetrameter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that features Native American characters. The epic relates the adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha, events in the story are set in the Pictured Rocks area on the south shore of Lake Superior. Longfellows poem, though based on oral traditions surrounding the figure of Manabozho, represents not a work of transmission. In sentiment, scope, overall conception, and many particulars, Longfellow insisted, I can give chapter and their chief value is that they are Indian legends. But in his entry for June 28,1854, he wrote, Work at Manabozho, or, as I think I shall call it. Longfellow, following Schoolcraft, was mistaken in thinking the names were synonyms, in Ojibwe lore the figure of Manabozho is legendary but the name Hiawatha is unknown. The name Hiawatha derives from the name of a figure associated with the League of the Iroquois. The poem was published on November 10,1855, and was an immediate success, in 1857, Longfellow calculated that it had sold 50,000 copies. Longfellow chose to set The Song of Hiawatha at the Pictured Rocks, the Song presents a legend of Hiawatha and his lover Minnehaha in 22 chapters. Hiawatha is not introduced until Chapter III, in Chapter I, Hiawathas arrival is prophesied by a mighty peace-bringing leader named Gitche Manito. Chapter II tells a legend of how the warrior Mudjekeewis became Father of the Four Winds by slaying the Great Bear of the mountains and his son Wabun, the East Wind, falls in love with a maiden whom he turns into the Morning Star, Wabun-Annung. Wabuns brother, Kabibonokka, the North Wind, bringer of autumn and winter, attacks Shingebis, Shingebis repels him by burning firewood, and then in a wrestling match. A third brother, Shawondasee, the South Wind, falls in love with a dandelion, in Chapter III, in unremembered ages, a woman named Nokomis falls from the moon. Nokomis gives birth to Wenonah, who grows to be a young woman. Nokomis warns her not to be seduced by the West Wind but she does not heed her mother, becomes pregnant and bears Hiawatha. In the ensuing chapters, Hiawatha has childhood adventures, falls in love with Minnehaha, slays the evil magician Pearl-Feather, invents written language, discovers corn, Minnehaha dies in a severe winter. The poem closes with the approach of a canoe to Hiawathas village, containing the Priest of Prayer. Hiawatha welcomes him joyously, and the Black-Robe chief brings word of Jesus Christ, Hiawatha and the chiefs accept the Christian message
5.
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
6.
Scuba diving
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Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving in which the scuba diver uses a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus which is completely independent of surface supply, to breathe underwater. They may include additional cylinders for decompression gas or emergency breathing gas, closed-circuit or semi-closed circuit rebreather scuba systems allow recycling of exhaled gases. The volume of gas used is reduced compared to that of open circuit, therefore, scuba divers engaged in armed forces covert operations may be referred to as frogmen, combat divers or attack swimmers. A scuba diver primarily moves underwater by using fins attached to the feet, scuba divers are trained in the procedures and skills appropriate to their level of certification by instructors affiliated to the diver certification organisations which issue these certifications. A minimum level of fitness and health is required by most training organisations, the closed-circuit rebreathers were first developed for escape and rescue purposes, and were modified for military use, due to their stealth advantages, as they produce very few bubbles. The first commercially successful closed-circuit scuba was designed and built by English diving engineer, Henry Fleuss in 1878, while working for Siebe Gorman in London. Sir Robert Davis, head of Siebe Gorman, improved the oxygen rebreather in 1910 with his invention of the Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus, rebreathers have been increasingly used by civilians for recreation, especially since the end of the Cold War. This reduced the risk of attack by Communist Bloc forces. After that, the armed forces had less reason to requisition civilian rebreather patents. The single hose two stage scuba regulators trace their origins to Australia, where Ted Eldred developed the first example of type of regulator. This was developed because patents protected the Aqualungs twin hose design, the single hose regulator separates the demand valve from the cylinder, giving the diver air at the ambient pressure at the mouth, rather than ambient pressure at the cylinder valve. The term SCUBA originally referred to United States combat frogmens oxygen rebreathers, SCUBA was originally an acronym, but is now generally used as a common noun or adjective, scuba. It has become acceptable to refer to equipment or scuba apparatus—examples of the linguistic RAS syndrome. Scuba diving may be performed for a number of reasons, both personal and professional, recreational diving is done purely for enjoyment and has a number of technical disciplines to increase interest underwater, such as cave diving, wreck diving, ice diving and deep diving. Divers may be employed professionally to perform tasks underwater, some of these tasks are suitable for scuba. There are divers who work, full or part-time, in the diving community as instructors, assistant instructors, divemasters. Other specialist areas of diving include military diving, with a long history of military frogmen in various roles. Their roles include direct combat, infiltration behind enemy lines, placing mines or using a manned torpedo, in some cases diver rescue teams may also be part of a fire department, paramedical service or lifeguard unit, and may be classed as public service diving
7.
Beach
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A beach is a landform along a body of water. It usually consists of particles, which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles. The particles comprising a beach are occasionally biological in origin, such as shells or coralline algae. Some beaches have man-made infrastructure, such as posts, changing rooms. They may also have hospitality venues nearby, wild beaches, also known as undeveloped or undiscovered beaches, are not developed in this manner. Wild beaches can be valued for their beauty and preserved nature. Beaches typically occur in areas along the coast where wave or current action deposits, although the seashore is most commonly associated with the word beach, beaches are also found by lakes and alongside large rivers. Beach may refer to, small systems where rock material moves onshore, offshore, or alongshore by the forces of waves and currents, the former are described in detail below, the larger geological units are discussed elsewhere under bars. There are several parts to a beach that relate to the processes that form. The part mostly above water, and more or less influenced by the waves at some point in the tide, is termed the beach berm. The berm is the deposit of material comprising the active shoreline, the berm has a crest and a face — the latter being the slope leading down towards the water from the crest. At the very bottom of the face, there may be a trough, at some point the influence of the waves on the material comprising the beach stops, and if the particles are small enough, winds shape the feature. Where wind is the force distributing the grains inland, the deposit behind the beach becomes a dune and these geomorphic features compose what is called the beach profile. The beach profile changes seasonally due to the change in energy experienced during summer and winter months. In temperate areas where summer is characterised by calmer seas and longer periods between breaking wave crests, the profile is higher in summer. The gentle wave action during this season tends to transport sediment up the beach towards the berm where it is deposited, onshore winds carry it further inland forming and enhancing dunes. Conversely, the profile is lower in the storm season due to the increased wave energy. The removal of sediment from the berm and dune thus decreases the beach profile
8.
Minneapolis Aquatennial
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The Minneapolis Aquatennial is an annual outdoor event held in the U. S. city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the third full week of July. Originating in 1940, the Minneapolis Aquatennial celebrates the citys lakes, rivers. The annual Milk Carton Boat Races, featured various divisions of boat races with boats constructed of milk cartons, the fireworks display is one of the largest in the country, and larger than the citys Fourth of July celebration. Minneapolis celebrated its centennial in 1956 in conjunction with the Aquatennial, the citys sesquicentennial was July 18–27,2008, the year Minnesota celebrated 150 years of statehood. The Queen of the Lakes Scholarship Program is a week-long candidate program for women ages 18–22 that is held in Minneapolis in conjunction with the Minneapolis Aquatennial every July. The Queen of the Lakes and two Aquatennial Princesses are chosen to represent the festival and city of Minneapolis all over the state, nation, fifty young women representing communities throughout the state of Minnesota participate in this once-in-a-lifetime program. Official Aquatennial Site Aquatennial Ambassadors Site
9.
Lake Calhoun
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Lake Calhoun is the largest lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and part of the citys Chain of Lakes. Surrounded by city park land and circled by bike and walking trails, the lake has an area of 401 acres and a maximum depth of 87 feet. The lake is part of the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway, connecting with Lake of the Isles on the northeast, Cedar Lake on the northwest, and Lake Harriet on the south. The trail system has a 3. 4-mile trail around Lake Calhoun for bicyclists and skaters, both of these trails connect to the larger trail system via connections to Lake of the Isles and Lake Harriet. In addition, the Midtown Greenway Trail is located just north of the lake and Lake Street, the lake itself is popular for canoeing, kayaking, and windsurfing, and it has three swimming beaches. The three beaches are Calhoun North Beach on the side of the lake, Calhoun 32nd Beach on the east side. There is Lake Calhoun Park and Surrounding park land offers parking, picnicking, volleyball and it is also home of sailing, hosting the Calhoun Yacht Club, the Lake Calhoun Sailing School, as well as local high school teams and the University of St Thomas Sailing Team. A plaque on the east side of the lake commemorates the first home built in Minneapolis by Gideon Pond, on the west side is located the Bakken Museum, which is devoted to the study of electricity in life. The Dakota originally called the lake Mde Maka Ska meaning White Earth Lake, another Dakota name for the lake may have been Mde Medoza, which was the name initially adopted by settlers, either as Lake Medoza or in translation as Loon Lake. The United States Secretary of War, John C, Calhoun, sent the Army to survey the area that would surround Fort Snelling in 1817. Calhoun had also authorized the construction of Fort Snelling, one of the earliest Euro-American settlements in the state, the surveyors renamed the water body Lake Calhoun in his honor. The Fort Snelling Military Reservation survey map created by Lt. James L. Thompson in 1839 clearly shows the lake as bearing the name Calhoun, calhouns legacy as a pro-slavery politician has led critics to question whether he is the best person to be honored. In 2011 the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board visited the issue, following the Charleston church shooting in June 2015, a fresh drive to change the name started via an online petition. The Park Board indicated it would look into whether they could change the name through state action. On March 22,2016, a group decided via majority vote to urge the Minnesota Park. The lake contains black crappie, bluegill, bowfin, common carp, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed, tiger muskellunge, walleye, white sucker, and yellow perch. Some fish consumption guideline restrictions have been placed on the lakes bluegill, crappie, largemouth bass, northern pike, walleye, in 1991, the then-Minnesota state record tiger muskellunge at 33 pounds 8 ounces was caught in the lake. List of lakes in Minneapolis David C. Smith,1911 Minneapolis Civic Celebration Minnesota DNR Lake Information Report Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, Lake Calhoun
10.
Bluegill
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The bluegill is a species of freshwater fish sometimes referred to as bream, brim, or copper nose. It is a member of the sunfish family Centrarchidae of the order Perciformes and it is native to North America and lives in streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds. It is commonly found east of the Rockies and it usually hides around, and inside, old tree stumps and other underwater structures. It can live in deep or very shallow water, and will often move back and forth. Bluegills also like to find shelter among water plants and in the shade of trees along banks, bluegills can grow up to 12 inches long and about 4 1⁄2 pounds. They have very distinctive coloring, with blue and purple on the face and gill cover, dark olive-colored bands down the side. The fish are omnivores and will eat anything they can fit in their mouth and they mostly feed on small aquatic insects and fish. The fish play a key role in the chain, and are prey for muskies, walleye, trout, bass, herons, kingfishers, snapping turtles. The bluegill is the fish of Illinois. The bluegill is noted for the spot that it has on the posterior edge of the gills. The sides of its head and chin are a shade of blue. It usually contains 5–9 vertical bars on the sides of its body and it has a yellowish breast and abdomen, with the breast of the breeding male being a bright orange. The bluegill has three spines, ten to 12 anal fin rays, six to 13 dorsal fin spines,11 to 12 dorsal rays. They are characterized by their deep, flattened bodies and they have a terminal mouth, ctenoid scales, and a lateral line that is arched upward anteriorly. The bluegill typically ranges in size from four to 12 inches. The largest bluegill ever caught was four pounds,12 ounces in 1950, the bluegill is most closely related to the orangespotted sunfish and the redear sunfish, but different in a distinct spot at or near the base of the soft dorsal fin. Today they have introduced to almost everywhere else in North America, and have also been introduced into Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Asia, South America. Bluegills have also found in the Chesapeake Bay, indicating they can tolerate up to 1. 8% salinity
