1.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States, which simultaneously serves as the nations prime federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the U. S. Department of Justice, Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. A leading U. S. counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, although many of the FBIs functions are unique, its activities in support of national security are comparable to those of the British MI5 and the Russian FSB. At an FBI field office, a senior-level FBI officer concurrently serves as the representative of the Director of National Intelligence. Despite its domestic focus, the FBI also maintains a significant international footprint and these overseas offices exist primarily for the purpose of coordination with foreign security services and do not usually conduct unilateral operations in the host countries. The FBI can and does at times carry out secret activities overseas, just as the CIA has a domestic function. The FBI was established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation and its name was changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. The FBI headquarters is the J. Edgar Hoover Building, located in Washington, in the fiscal year 2012, the Bureaus total budget was approximately $8.12 billion. In 1896, the National Bureau of Criminal Identification was founded, the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley created an urgent perception that America was under threat from anarchists. The Departments of Justice and Labor had been keeping records on anarchists for years, the Justice Department had been tasked with the regulation of interstate commerce since 1887, though it lacked the staff to do so. It had made little effort to relieve its staff shortage until the breakage of the Oregon land fraud scandal at approximately the turn of the 20th Century, President Roosevelt instructed Attorney General Charles Bonaparte to organize an autonomous investigative service that would report only to the Attorney General. Bonaparte reached out to other agencies, including the Secret Service, for personnel, on May 27,1908, the Congress forbade this use of Treasury employees by the Justice Department, citing fears that the new agency would serve as a secret police department. Again at Roosevelts urging, Bonaparte moved to organize a formal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Investigation was created on July 26,1908, after the Congress had adjourned for the summer. Attorney General Bonaparte, using Department of Justice expense funds, hired thirty-four people, including veterans of the Secret Service. Its first Chief was Stanley Finch, Bonaparte notified the Congress of these actions in December 1908. The bureaus first official task was visiting and making surveys of the houses of prostitution in preparation for enforcing the White Slave Traffic Act, or Mann Act, in 1932, the bureau was renamed the United States Bureau of Investigation. The following year it was linked to the Bureau of Prohibition, in the same year, its name was officially changed from the Division of Investigation to the present-day Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI. J. Edgar Hoover served as Director from 1924 to 1972, a combined 48 years with the BOI, DOI, Hoover was substantially involved in most major cases and projects that the FBI handled during his tenure
2.
Uniform Crime Reports
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The Uniform Crime Reports compiles official data on crime in the United States, published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crime statistics are compiled from UCR data and published annually by the FBI in the Crime in the United States series, the FBI does not collect the data itself. Rather, law enforcement agencies across the United States provide the data to the FBI, the Uniform Crime Reports program began in 1930, and since then has become an important source of crime information for law enforcement, policymakers, scholars, and the media. In 1927, the IACP created the Committee on Uniform Crime Reporting to determine statistics for national comparisons, the committee determined seven crimes fundamental to comparing crime rates, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, burglary, aggravated assault, larceny and motor vehicle theft. The early program was managed by the IACP, prior to FBI involvement, the first report in January 1930 reported data from 400 cities throughout 43 states, covering more than 20 million individuals, approximately twenty percent of the total U. S. population. On June 11,1930, through IACP lobbying, the United States Congress passed legislation enacting 28 U. S. C. The Attorney General, in turn, designated the FBI to serve as the clearinghouse for the data collected. The July 1930 issue of the IACP crime report announced the FBI’s takeover of the program, while the IACP discontinued oversight of the program, they continued to advise the FBI to better the UCR. Since 1935, the FBI served as a clearinghouse, organizing, collecting. The UCR remained the primary tool for collection and analysis of data for the half century. Throughout the 1980s, a series of National UCR Conferences were with members from the IACP, Department of Justice, including the FBI, the purpose was to determine necessary system revisions and then implement them. The result of conferences was the release of a Blueprint for the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program release in May 1985. The report proposed splitting reported data into two categories, the eight serious crimes and 21 less commonly reported crimes. In 2003, FBI UCR data were compiled from more than 16,000 agencies, representing 93 percent of the population in 46 states, while nationally reporting is not mandated, many states have instituted laws requiring law enforcement within those states to provide UCR data. Each month, law enforcement agencies report the number of index crimes in their jurisdiction to the FBI. This mainly includes crimes reported to the police by the public, but may also include crimes that police officers discover. Law enforcement agencies report the number of crime cases cleared. For reporting purposes, criminal offenses are divided into two groups, Part I offenses and Part II offenses
3.
United States Census
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The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years. The United States Census Bureau is responsible for the United States Census, the first census after the American Revolution was taken in 1790, under Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, there have been 22 federal censuses since that time. The current national census was held in 2010, the census is scheduled for 2020. For years between the censuses, the Census Bureau issues estimates made using surveys and statistical models, in particular. Title 13 of the United States Code governs how the Census is conducted, Information is confidential as per 13 U. S. C. The United States Census is a census, which is distinct from the U. S. Census of Agriculture. It is also distinct from local censuses conducted by some states or local jurisdictions, Decennial U. S. Census figures are based on actual counts of persons dwelling in U. S. residential structures. They include citizens, non-citizen legal residents, non-citizen long-term visitors, the Census Bureau bases its decision about whom to count on the concept of usual residence. Usual residence, a principle established by the Census Act of 1790, is defined as the place a person lives, the Census also uses hot deck imputation to assign data to housing units where occupation status is unknown. This practice has effects across many areas, but is seen by some as controversial, however, the practice was ruled constitutional by the U. S. Supreme Court in Utah v. Evans. Certain American citizens living overseas are specifically excluded from being counted in the even though they may vote. Only Americans living abroad who are Federal employees and their dependents living overseas with them are counted, private U. S. citizens living abroad who are not affiliated with the Federal government will not be included in the overseas counts. These overseas counts are used solely for reapportioning seats in the U. S, in the United States recent censuses, Census Day has been April 1. However, it was previously in August, as per instructions given to U. S. Marshals, All the questions refer to the day when the enumeration is to commence. Disadvantaged minorities are more likely to be undercounted. For example, the Census Bureau estimates that in 1970 over six percent of blacks went uncounted, democrats often argue that modern sampling techniques should be used so that more accurate and complete data can be inferred. Republicans often argue against such sampling techniques, stating the U. S, constitution requires an actual enumeration for apportionment of House seats, and that political appointees would be tempted to manipulate the sampling formulas. Although the sticker was unofficial and the results were not added to the census, she, in 2015 Laverne Cox called for transgender people to be counted in the census
4.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
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Albuquerque is the most populous city in the U. S. state of New Mexico. The high-altitude city serves as the county seat of Bernalillo County, the city population is 557,169 as of the July 1,2014 population estimate from the United States Census Bureau, and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U. S. The Albuquerque metropolitan statistical area has a population of 907,301 according to the United States Census Bureaus most recently available estimate for 2015, Albuquerque is the 60th-largest United States metropolitan area. The Sandia Mountains run along the side of Albuquerque. Albuquerque is also the home of the International Balloon Fiesta, the worlds largest such gathering of hot-air balloons from around the globe, the event takes place during the first week of October. Albuquerque was named in honor of Francisco, Duke of Alburquerque, the growing village soon to become Albuquerque was named by provincial governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés. Franciscos title referred to the Spanish town of Alburquerque, in the Spanish province of Badajoz, the name has two theories of origin which denote either Latin or Arabic roots. The first of which derived from the Latin albus quercus meaning white oak and this name was probably in reference to the prevalence of cork oaks in the region, which have a white wood when the bark is removed. Alburquerque is still a center of the Spanish cork industry, another theory suggests that it may come from the Arabic Abu al-Qurq, which means father of the cork. The change was also in due to the fact that citizens found the original name difficult to pronounce. Western folklore offers a different explanation, tracing the name Albuquerque to the Galician word albaricoque, the apricot was brought to New Mexico by Spanish settlers, possibly as early as 1743. As the story goes, the settlement was established near an apricot tree, as frontiersmen were unable to correctly pronounce the Galician word, it became corrupted to Albuquerque. The Tanoan and Keres peoples had lived along the Rio Grande for centuries before European settlers arrived in what is now Albuquerque, Albuquerque was founded in 1706 as the Spanish colonial outpost of Villa de Alburquerque. Present-day Albuquerque retains much of its historical Spanish cultural heritage, Albuquerque was a farming community and strategically located military outpost along the Camino Real. The town was also the center of the West. Spain established a presidio in Albuquerque in 1706, after 1821, Mexico also had a military garrison there. The town of Alburquerque was built in the traditional Spanish village pattern, a plaza surrounded by government buildings, homes. This central plaza area has preserved and is open to the public as a museum, cultural area
5.
Anaheim, California
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Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 336,265, making it the most populous city in Orange County, Anaheim remained largely a rural community until Disneyland opened in the city in 1955. This led to the construction of hotels and motels around the area. The city also developed into a center, producing electronics, aircraft parts. Anaheims city limits extend from Cypress in the west to the Riverside County line in the east and encompass a diverse collection of neighborhoods, Anaheim Hills is a master-planned community located in the citys eastern stretches that is home to many of the citys affluent. Downtown Anaheim has three historic districts, the largest of which is the Anaheim Colony. The Anaheim Resort, a district, includes Disneyland, Disney California Adventure. The Platinum Triangle, a redevelopment district surrounding Angel Stadium, is planned to be populated with mixed-use streets. Finally, Anaheim Canyon is a district north of California State Route 91. Anaheims name is a blend of Ana, after the nearby Santa Ana River, and heim, the city of Anaheim was founded in 1857 by 50 German-Americans who were residents of San Francisco and whose families had originated in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Franconia in Bavaria. For $750 a share, the formed the Anaheim Vineyard Company. Their new community was named Annaheim, meaning home by the Santa Anna River in German, the name later was altered to Anaheim. To the Spanish-speaking neighbors, the settlement was known as Campo Alemán, although grape and wine-making was their primary objective, the majority of the 50 settlers were mechanics, carpenters and craftsmen with no experience in wine-making. The community set aside 40 acres for a center and a school was the first building erected there. The first home was built in 1857, the Anaheim Gazette newspaper was established in 1870, for 25 years, the area was the largest wine producer in California. However, in 1884, a disease infected the grape vines, other crops – walnuts, lemons and oranges – soon filled the void. Fruits and vegetables had become viable cash crops when the Los Angeles – Orange County region was connected to the railroad network in 1887. The famous Polish actress Helena Modjeska settled in Anaheim with her husband and various friends, among them Henryk Sienkiewicz, Julian Sypniewski, while living in Anaheim, Helena Modjeska became good friends with Clementine Langenberger, the second wife of August Langenberger
6.
Anchorage, Alaska
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Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the U. S. state of Alaska. All together, the Anchorage metropolitan area, which combines Anchorage with the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough, had a population of 401,635 in 2016. Anchorage is located in the portion of Alaska at the terminus of the Cook Inlet on a peninsula formed by the Knik Arm to the north. The city limits span 1,961.1 square miles encompass the urban core. Due to its location on the globe, being almost equidistant from New York City, Tokyo, Anchorage has been named an All-America City four times, in 1956,1965, 1984–85, and 2002, by the National Civic League. It has also named by Kiplinger as the most tax-friendly city in the United States. Russian presence in south central Alaska was well established in the 19th century, in 1867, U. S. Secretary of State William H. Seward brokered a deal to purchase Alaska from Imperial Russia for $7.2 million. His political rivals lampooned the deal as Sewards folly, Sewards icebox, by 1888, gold was discovered along Turnagain Arm. Alaska became a United States territory in 1912, Anchorage, unlike every other large town in Alaska south of the Brooks Range, was neither a fishing nor mining camp. The area surrounding Anchorage lacks significant economic metal minerals, a number of Denaina settlements existed along Knik Arm for years. By 1911 the families of J. D. Bud Whitney, jack Brown, and his bride, Nellie, in 1912 to have lived in the Ship Creek valley in the 1910s prior to the large influx of settlers. The city grew from its choice as the site, in 1914, under the direction of Frederick Mears. The area near the mouth of Ship Creek, where the headquarters was located. A town site was mapped out on higher ground to the south of the tent city, greatly noted in the years since for its order and rigidity compared with other Alaska town sites. In 1915, territorial governor John Franklin Alexander Strong encouraged residents to change the name to one that had more significance. In the summer of year, residents held a vote to change the citys name. However, the government ultimately declined to change the citys name. Anchorage was incorporated on November 23,1920, construction of the Alaska Railroad continued until its completion in 1923
7.
Arlington, Texas
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Arlington is a principal city in the U. S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, according to the U. S. Census Bureaus estimate, the city had a population of almost 379,577 at the end of 2013, making it the third-largest municipality in the metropolitan area. Arlington is the fiftieth-most populous city in the United States, the seventh-most populous city in the state of Texas, Arlington borders Kennedale, Grand Prairie, Mansfield and Fort Worth, and surrounds the smaller communities of Dalworthington Gardens and Pantego. European settlement in the Arlington area dates back at least to the 1840s, the rich soil of the area attracted farmers, and several agriculture-related businesses were well established by the late nineteenth century. Arlington was founded in 1876 along the Texas and Pacific Railway, the city was named after General Robert E. Lees Arlington House in Arlington County, Virginia. Arlington grew as a cotton-ginning and farming center, and incorporated in 1884, the city could boast of water, electricity, natural gas, and telephone services by 1910, along with a public school system. By 1925 the population was estimated at 3,031, large-scale industrialization began in 1954 with the arrival of a General Motors assembly plant. Automotive and aerospace development gave the city one of the nations greatest population growth rates between 1950 and 1990, Arlington became one of the boomburbs, the extremely fast-growing suburbs of the post-World War II era. U. S. Census Bureau population figures for the city tell the story,7,692,90,229,261,721,365,438, Tom Vandergriff served as mayor from 1951 to 1977 during this period of explosive development. Six Flags Over Texas opened in Arlington in 1961, according to the United States Census Bureau, Arlington has a total area of 99.0 square miles,95.8 square miles of it was land, and 3.2 square miles of it is water. Johnson Creek, a tributary of the Trinity River, and the Trinity River itself, Arlington falls in the Cfa region of the Köppen climate classification system which is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters. The highest recorded temperature was 113 °F in 1980, the lowest recorded temperature was −8 °F in 1899. The maximum average precipitation occurs in May, severe weather generally occurs April and May months. The population density was 3,811 people per square mile, there were 144,805 housing units at an average density of 1,510 per square mile. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 27. 4% of the population, 25% of all households were made up of individuals and 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.7 and the family size was 3.3. In the city, the 2010 population was out with 31% under the age of 20, 8% from 20 to 24, 30% from 25 to 44, 23% from 45 to 64. The median age was 32 years, for every 100 females there were 104 males
8.
Atlanta, Georgia
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Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
9.
Aurora, Colorado
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Aurora is a Home Rule Municipality in the U. S. state of Colorado, spanning Arapahoe and Adams counties, with the extreme southeastern portion of the city extending into Douglas County. Aurora is one of the cities of the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The citys population was 325,078 in the 2010 census, which made it the third most populous city in the state of Colorado, the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an estimated population of 2,645,209 on July 1,2012. However, Denver and Aurora combined make up less than half of the Denver Metro Areas population, the estimated population of Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area was 3,214,218 on July 1,2012. Aurora originated in the 1880s as the town of Fletcher, taking its name from Denver businessman Donald Fletcher who saw it as a real estate opportunity. He and his partners staked out four miles east of Denver. At that point Fletcher skipped town, leaving the community with a huge water debt, Aurora is composed of hundreds of subdivisions thus carries the name of one of the original development plats from which it sprang. Former mayor Dennis Champine once expressed the somewhat whimsical notion that eventually the area would be called the Aurora/Denver Metropolitan Area, indeed, since the 2000 Census Aurora has surpassed Denver in land area, and much of Aurora is undeveloped, while Denver is more fully built-out. However, such efforts are hampered by the lack of a large. Aurora is largely suburban in character, as evidenced by the citys modest collection of tall buildings, a large military presence has existed in Aurora since the early 20th century. In 1918, Army General Hospital #21 opened, with the U. S. government expanding and upgrading the facilities in 1941 just in time to care for the wounded servicemen of World War II. Lowry Air Force Base was opened in 1938, straddling the border of Aurora and it eventually closed in 1994, and was redeveloped into a master-planned community featuring residential, commercial, business and educational facilities. In 1942, the Army Air Corps built Buckley Field, which over the course of history has been renamed Naval Air Station, Buckley Air National Guard Base and finally Buckley Air Force Base. The base, home of the 460th Space Wing and the 140th Wing Colorado Air National Guard, is Auroras largest employer, President Warren G. Harding visited Fitzsimons Army Hospital in 1923, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited in 1936. In 1943 the hospital was the birthplace of 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, President Dwight D. Eisenhower recovered from a heart attack at Fitzsimons for seven weeks during the fall of 1955. Decommissioned in 1999, the facility is part of the Anschutz Medical Campus of the University of Colorado Denver, the Anschutz Medical Campus also includes the University of Colorado Hospital, which moved to Aurora from Denver in 2007, and the Childrens Hospital. The first carbon-ion radiotherapy research and treatment facility in the U. S. has been proposed at the site and these facilities will employ a workforce of 32,000 at build-out. In 1965, mayor Norma O. Walker became the first woman to head a U. S. city with a population over 60,000
10.
Austin, Texas
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Austin is the capital of the U. S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. It is the 11th-most populous city in the U. S. and it is the fastest growing large city in the United States and the second most populous capital city after Phoenix, Arizona. As of the U. S. Census Bureaus July 1,2015 estimate and it is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 2,056,405 as of July 1,2016. In the 1830s, pioneers began to settle the area in central Austin along the Colorado River, in 1839, the site was officially chosen to replace Houston as the new capital of the Republic of Texas and was incorporated under the name Waterloo. Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas and the republics first secretary of state. The city subsequently grew throughout the 19th century and became a center for government and education with the construction of the Texas State Capitol and the University of Texas at Austin. After a lull in growth from the Great Depression, Austin resumed its development into a city and, by the 1980s, it emerged as a center for technology. A number of Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin, including Amazon. com, cisco, eBay, Google, IBM, Intel, Oracle Corporation, Texas Instruments, 3M, and Whole Foods Market. Dells worldwide headquarters is located in nearby Round Rock, a suburb of Austin, residents of Austin are known as Austinites. They include a mix of government employees, college students, musicians, high-tech workers, blue-collar workers. The city also adopted Silicon Hills as a nickname in the 1990s due to an influx of technology. In the late 1800s, Austin was known as the City of the Violet Crown because of the glow of light across the hills just after sunset. Even today, many Austin businesses use the term Violet Crown in their name, Austin is known as a clean-air city for its stringent no-smoking ordinances that apply to all public places and buildings, including restaurants and bars. The FBI ranked Austin as the second-safest major city in the U. S. for the year 2012, U. S. News & World Report named Austin the best place to live in the U. S. in 2017. Austin, Travis County and Williamson County have been the site of habitation since at least 9200 BC. When settlers arrived from Europe, the Tonkawa tribe inhabited the area, the Comanches and Lipan Apaches were also known to travel through the area. Spanish colonists, including the Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre expedition, traveled through the area for centuries, in 1730, three missions from East Texas were combined and reestablished as one mission on the south side of the Colorado River, in what is now Zilker Park, in Austin. The mission was in area for only about seven months
11.
Bakersfield, California
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Bakersfield is a city in California, United States, and the county seat of Kern County. It covers about 142 square miles near the end of the San Joaquin Valley. Bakersfields population is approximately 365,000, making it the ninth-most populous city in California, the Bakersfield–Delano Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Kern County, had a 2010 census population of 839,631, making it the 62nd largest metropolitan area in the United States. The more built-up urban area that includes Bakersfield and areas immediately around the city, such as East Bakersfield, the city is a significant hub for both agriculture and oil production. Kern County is the most productive oil producing county, and the fourth most productive county in the United States. Industries include natural gas and other energy extraction, aerospace, mining, petroleum refining, manufacturing, distribution, food processing, the city is also the birthplace of the country music genre known as the Bakersfield sound. Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of Native American settlements dating back thousands of years, the Yokuts lived in lodges along the branches of the Kern River Delta and hunted antelope, tule elk, deer, bear, fish, and game birds. In 1776, Spanish missionary Father Francisco Garcés became the first European to explore the area, following the discovery of gold in California in 1848, settlers flooded into the San Joaquin Valley. In 1851, gold was discovered along the Kern River in the southern Sierra Nevada, the Bakersfield area, once a tule-reed-covered marshland, was first known as Kern Island to the handful of pioneers who built log cabins there in 1860. The area was subject to flooding from the Kern River, which occupied what is now the downtown area. In 1862, disastrous floods swept away the original settlement founded in 1860 by the German-born Christian Bohna, among those attracted to the area by the California gold rush was Thomas Baker, a lawyer and former colonel in the militia of Ohio, his home state. Baker moved to the banks of the Kern River in 1863, at what became known as Bakers Field, by 1870, with a population of 600, what is now known as Bakersfield was becoming the principal town in Kern County. In 1873, Bakersfield was officially incorporated as a city, alexander Mills was hired as the city marshal, a man one historian would describe as. An old man by the time he became Marshal of Bakersfield, but he was a Kentuckian, a handy man with a gun, and not lacking in initiative and resource when the mood moved him. Businessmen and others began to resent Mills, who was cantankerous, wanting to fire him but fearing reprisals, they came up with a scheme to disincorporate, effectively leaving him without an employer. According to local historian Gilbert Gia, the city was also failing to collect the taxes it needed for services, in 1876, the city voted to disincorporate. For the next 22 years, a citizens council managed the community, by 1880, the town had a population of 801, and by 1890, it had a population of 2,626. Migration from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Southern California brought new residents, the city reincorporated on January 11,1898
12.
Baltimore
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Baltimore is the largest city in the U. S. state of Maryland, and the 29th-most populous city in the country. It was established by the Constitution of Maryland and is not part of any county, thus, it is the largest independent city in the United States, with a population of 621,849 as of 2015. As of 2010, the population of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area was 2.7 million, founded in 1729, Baltimore is the second largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic. Baltimores Inner Harbor was once the leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States. With hundreds of identified districts, Baltimore has been dubbed a city of neighborhoods, in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner, later the American national anthem, in Baltimore. More than 65,000 properties, or roughly one in three buildings in the city, are listed on the National Register, more than any city in the nation. The city has 289 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives. The city is named after Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, of the Irish House of Lords, Baltimore Manor was the name of the estate in County Longford on which the Calvert family lived in Ireland. Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name Baile an Tí Mhóir, in 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 210 miles from Jamestown to the uppermost Chesapeake Bay, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River. The name Patapsco is derived from pota-psk-ut, which translates to backwater or tide covered with froth in Algonquian dialect, a quarter century after John Smiths voyage, English colonists began to settle in Maryland. The area constituting the modern City of Baltimore and its area was first settled by David Jones in 1661. He claimed the area today as Harbor East on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was populated, if at all. The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least the 10th millennium BC, one Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period. During the Late Woodland period, the culture that is called the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore to the Rappahannock River in Virginia. It was located on the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County, in 1674, the General Assembly passed An Act for erecting a Court-house and Prison in each County within this Province. The site of the house and jail for Baltimore County was evidently Old Baltimore near the Bush River. In 1683, the General Assembly passed An Act for Advancement of Trade to establish towns, ports, one of the towns established by the act in Baltimore County was on Bush River, on Town Land, near the Court-House
13.
Boston
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies
14.
Buffalo, New York
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Buffalo is a city in western New York state and the county seat of Erie County, on the eastern shores of Lake Erie at the head of the Niagara River. As of 2014, Buffalo is New York states 2nd-most populous city after New York City, the metropolitan area has a population of 1.13 million. After an economic downturn in the half of the 20th century, Buffalos economy has transitioned to sectors that include financial services, technology, biomedical engineering. Residents of Buffalo are called Buffalonians, the citys nicknames include The Queen City, The Nickel City and The City of Good Neighbors. The city of Buffalo received its name from a creek called Buffalo Creek. British military engineer Captain John Montresor made reference to Buffalo Creek in his journal of 1764, there are several theories regarding how Buffalo Creek received its name. In 1804, as principal agent opening the area for the Holland Land Company, Joseph Ellicott, designed a radial street and grid system that branches out from downtown like bicycle spokes similar to the street system he used in the nations capital. Although Ellicott named the settlement New Amsterdam, the name did not catch on, during the War of 1812, on December 30,1813, Buffalo was burned by British forces. The George Coit House 1818 and Samuel Schenck House 1823 are currently the oldest houses within the limits of the City of Buffalo, on October 26,1825, the Erie Canal was completed with Buffalo a port-of-call for settlers heading westward. At the time, the population was about 2,400, the Erie Canal brought about a surge in population and commerce, which led Buffalo to incorporate as a city in 1832. In 1845, construction began on the Macedonia Baptist Church, an important meeting place for the abolitionist movement, Buffalo was a terminus point of the Underground Railroad with many fugitive slaves crossing the Niagara River to Fort Erie, Ontario in search of freedom. During the 1840s, Buffalos port continued to develop, both passenger and commercial traffic expanded with some 93,000 passengers heading west from the port of Buffalo. Grain and commercial goods shipments led to repeated expansion of the harbor, in 1843, the worlds first steam-powered grain elevator was constructed by local merchant Joseph Dart and engineer Robert Dunbar. Darts Elevator enabled faster unloading of lake freighters along with the transshipment of grain in bulk from barges, canal boats, by 1850, the citys population was 81,000. At the dawn of the 20th century, local mills were among the first to benefit from hydroelectric power generated by the Niagara River, the city got the nickname City of Light at this time due to the widespread electric lighting. It was also part of the revolution, hosting the brass era car builders Pierce Arrow. President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by an anarchist at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on September 6,1901, McKinley died in the city eight days later and Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in at the Wilcox Mansion as the 26th President of the United States. The Great Depression of 1929–39 saw severe unemployment, especially working class men
15.
Chandler, Arizona
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Chandler is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is a prominent suburb of the Phoenix, Arizona, Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is bordered to the north and west by Tempe, to the north by Mesa, to the west by Phoenix, to the south by the Gila River Indian Community and it also has satellite locations for many technology companies, including Intel and Orbital ATK. In 1891, Dr. Alexander John Chandler, the first veterinary surgeon in Arizona Territory, settled on a ranch south of Mesa, studying irrigation engineering. By 1900, he had acquired 18,000 acres of land, the townsite office opened on May 17,1912, the same year that Chandler High School was established. The townsite was bounded by Galveston Street on the north, Frye Road on the south, Hartford Street on the west, by 1913, a town center had become established, featuring the Hotel San Marcos, the first golf resort in the state. Most of Chandlers economy was sustained during the Great Depression. Later, the founding of Williams Air Force Base in 1941 led to a surge in population. By 1980, it had grown to 30,000, some of this growth was fueled by the establishment of manufacturing plants for communications and computing firms such as Microchip, Motorola and Intel. Since the early 1990s, the City of Chandler has experienced exponential growth, indeed, nearly 100,000 homes dot the landscape today and the population has surged to more than 238,000 residents. The heart of Chandler remains its revitalized historic downtown, which includes the award-winning Chandler City Hall, in 2010, Chandler was named as an All-America City, bestowed by the National Civic League. Chandler was the only Arizona winner for the 61st annual awards, in 2012, the city celebrated its 100th Birthday. Centennial events were planned throughout the year, according to the United States Census Bureau, Chandler has a total area of 58.0 square miles, of which,57.9 square miles of it is land and 0.1 square miles of it is water. As of the Census of 2010, there were 236,123 people,86,924 households, and 60,212 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 73. 3% White,4. 8% Black or African American,1. 5% Native American,8. 2% Asian,0. 2% Pacific Islander,21. 9% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. 19. 3% of all households were made up of individuals and 3. 6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.26. In the city, the population was out with 29. 8% under the age of 18,8. 6% from 18 to 24,38. 0% from 25 to 44,17. 8% from 45 to 64. The median age was 31 years, for every 100 females there were 99.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.9 males, there are 101,229 Housing Units as of May 2016
16.
Charlotte, North Carolina
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Charlotte /ˈʃɑːrlət/ is the largest city in the state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Mecklenburg County and the second-largest city in the southeastern United States, just behind Jacksonville, Charlotte is the third-fastest growing major city in the United States. In 2014 the estimated population of Charlotte according to the U. S. Census Bureau was 809,958, the Charlotte metropolitan area ranks 22nd-largest in the U. S. and had a 2014 population of 2,380,314. The Charlotte metropolitan area is part of a sixteen-county market region or combined statistical area with a 2014 U. S. Census population estimate of 2,537,990, residents of Charlotte are referred to as Charlotteans. It is listed as a global city by the Globalization. Charlotte Douglas International Airport is an international hub, and was ranked the 23rd-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic in 2013. Charlotte has a subtropical climate. The city is located several miles east of the Catawba River and southeast of Lake Norman, Lake Wylie and Mountain Island Lake are two smaller man-made lakes located near the city. The Catawba Native Americans were the first to settle Mecklenburg County and were first recorded in European records around 1567, by 1759 half the Catawba tribe had been killed by smallpox. At the time of their largest population, Catawba people numbered 10,000, Mecklenburg County was initially part of Bath County of New Hanover Precinct, which became New Hanover County in 1729. The western portion of New Hanover split into Bladen County in 1734, Mecklenburg County formed from Anson County in 1762. Further apportionment was made in 1792, with Cabarrus County formed from Mecklenburg and these areas were all part of one of the original six judicial/military districts of North Carolina known as the Salisbury District. The area that is now Charlotte was settled by people of European descent around 1755, Thomas Polk, who later married Thomas Spratts daughter, built his house by the intersection of two Native American trading paths between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers. One path ran north–south and was part of the Great Wagon Road, within decades of Polks settling, the area grew to become Charlotte Town, incorporating in 1768. The crossroads, perched atop the Piedmont landscape, became the heart of Uptown Charlotte, in 1770, surveyors marked the streets in a grid pattern for future development. The east–west trading path became Trade Street, and the Great Wagon Road became Tryon Street, in honor of William Tryon, the intersection of Trade and Tryon—commonly known today as Trade & Tryon, or simply The Square—is more properly called Independence Square. While surveying the boundary between the Carolinas in 1772, William Moultrie stopped in Charlotte Town, whose five or six houses were very ordinary built of logs, local leaders came together in 1775 and signed the Mecklenburg Resolves, more popularly known as the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. While not a declaration of independence from British rule, it is among the first such declarations that eventually led to the American Revolution
17.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
18.
Chula Vista, California
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The population was 243,916 as of the 2010 census. Chula Vista is so named because of its location between the San Diego Bay and coastal mountain foothills. Founded in the early 19th century, fast population growth has recently observed in the city. In the year 3000 BCE, people speaking the Yuman language began movement into the region from the Lower Colorado River Valley, later the Kumeyaay tribe came to populate the land, on which the city sits today, who lived in the area for hundreds of years. In the year 1542 CE, a fleet of three Spanish Empire ships commanded by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailed into San Diego Harbor, early explorations by Spanish conquistadors, such as these, led to Spanish claims of the land. The historic land on which Chula Vista sits became part of the 1795 land grant known as Rancho del Rey or The Kings Ranch, the land eventually was renamed Rancho de la Nación. During the Mexican-American War, California was claimed by the United States, though California was now under the jurisdiction of the United States, land grants were allowed to continue in the form of private property. The San Diego Land and Town Company developed lands of the Rancho de la Nación for new settlement, the town began as a five thousand acre development, with the first house being erected in 1887, by 1889, ten houses had been completed. Around this time, the lemon was introduced to the city, Chula Vista can be roughly translated from Spanish as beautiful view. The 1888 completion of the Sweetwater Dam allowed for irrigation of Chula Vista farming lands, Chula Vista eventually became the largest lemon-growing center in the world for a period of time. The citizens of Chula Vista voted to incorporate on October 17,1911, although the Great Depression affected Chula Vista significantly, agriculture still provided considerable income for the residents. In 1931, the lemon orchards produced $1 million in revenue, the relocation of Rohr Aircraft Corporation to Chula Vista in early 1941, just months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, changed Chula Vista. The land never returned to being orchard groves again, the population of post-World War II Chula Vista tripled from 5,000 residents in 1940 to more than 16,000 in 1950. After the war, many of the workers and thousands of servicemen stayed in the area resulting in the huge growth in population. The last of the groves and produce fields disappeared as Chula Vista became one of the largest communities in San Diego County. From 1960 to 2013, the South Bay Power Plant, a 700 megawatt four boiler plant, in 1944, the state of California attempted to seize land in Chula Vista owned by Kajiro Oyama, a legal Japanese resident who was then interned in Utah. Oyama was correctly charged with putting the property in his son Freds name with the intent to evade the Alien Land Law because Fred was a native-born citizen. The case went to the U. S. Supreme Court as Oyama v. California where the court found that Kajiros equal protection rights had been violated, in January 1986, Chula Vista annexed the unincorporated community of Montgomery, which had previously rejected annexation in 1979 and 1982
19.
Cincinnati
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Cincinnati is a city in the U. S. state of Ohio that serves as county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the side of the confluence of the Licking with the Ohio River. With a population of 298,550, Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and its metropolitan statistical area is the 28th-largest in the United States and the largest centered in Ohio. The city is part of the larger Cincinnati–Middletown–Wilmington combined statistical area. In the 19th century, Cincinnati was an American boomtown in the heart of the country, it rivaled the larger cities in size. Throughout much of the 19th century, it was listed among the top 10 U. S and it was by far the largest city in the west. By the end of the 19th century, with the shift from steamboats to railroads drawing off freight shipping, trade patterns had altered and Cincinnatis growth slowed considerably. Cincinnati is home to two sports teams, the Cincinnati Reds, the oldest franchise in Major League Baseball. The University of Cincinnati, founded in 1819, is one of the 50 largest in the United States, Cincinnati is known for its historic architecture. In the late 1800s, Cincinnati was commonly referred to as Paris of America, due mainly to such ambitious projects as the Music Hall, Cincinnatian Hotel. The original surveyor, John Filson, named it Losantiville, in 1790, Arthur St. Ethnic Germans were among the early settlers, migrating from Pennsylvania and the backcountry of Virginia and Tennessee. General David Ziegler succeeded General St. Clair in command at Fort Washington, after the conclusion of the Northwest Indian Wars and removal of Native Americans to the west, he was elected as the mayor of Cincinnati in 1802. Cincinnati was incorporated as a city in 1819, exporting pork products and hay, it became a center of pork processing in the region. From 1810 to 1830 its population tripled, from 9,642 to 24,831. Completion of the Miami and Erie Canal in 1827 to Middletown, Ohio further stimulated businesses, the city had a labor shortage until large waves of immigration by Irish and Germans in the late 1840s. The city grew rapidly over the two decades, reaching 115,000 persons by 1850. Construction on the Miami and Erie Canal began on July 21,1825, the first section of the canal was opened for business in 1827. In 1827, the canal connected Cincinnati to nearby Middletown, by 1840, during this period of rapid expansion and prominence, residents of Cincinnati began referring to the city as the Queen City
20.
Cleveland
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Cleveland is a city in the U. S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the states second most populous county. The city proper has a population of 388,072, making Cleveland the 51st largest city in the United States, Greater Cleveland ranked as the 32nd largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 2,055,612 people in 2016. The city is the center of the Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, the city is located on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border. Clevelands economy has diversified sectors that include manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, Cleveland is also home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Residents of Cleveland are called Clevelanders, Cleveland has many nicknames, the oldest of which in contemporary use being The Forest City. Cleaveland oversaw the plan for what would become the downtown area, centered on Public Square, before returning home. The first settler in Cleaveland was Lorenzo Carter, who built a cabin on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, the Village of Cleaveland was incorporated on December 23,1814. In spite of the swampy lowlands and harsh winters, its waterfront location proved to be an advantage. The area began rapid growth after the 1832 completion of the Ohio, growth continued with added railroad links. Cleveland incorporated as a city in 1836, in 1836, the city, then located only on the eastern banks of the Cuyahoga River, nearly erupted into open warfare with neighboring Ohio City over a bridge connecting the two. Ohio City remained an independent municipality until its annexation by Cleveland in 1854, the citys prime geographic location as a transportation hub on the Great Lakes has played an important role in its development as a commercial center. Cleveland serves as a point for iron ore shipped from Minnesota. In 1870, John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in Cleveland, other manufacturers located in Cleveland produced steam-powered cars, which included White and Gaeth, as well as the electric car company Baker. Because of the significant growth, Cleveland was known as the Sixth City during this period, by 1920, due in large part to the citys economic prosperity, Cleveland became the nations fifth largest city. The city counted Progressive Era politicians such as the populist Mayor Tom L. Johnson among its leaders, many prominent Clevelanders from this era are buried in the historic Lake View Cemetery, including President James A. Garfield, and John D. Rockefeller. In commemoration of the centennial of Clevelands incorporation as a city, conceived as a way to energize a city after the Great Depression, it drew four million visitors in its first season, and seven million by the end of its second and final season in September 1937. The exposition was housed on grounds that are now used by the Great Lakes Science Center, following World War II, the city experienced a prosperous economy. In sports, the Indians won the 1948 World Series, the hockey Barons became champions of the American Hockey League, as a result, along with track and boxing champions produced, Cleveland was dubbed City of Champions in sports at this time
21.
Colorado Springs, Colorado
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Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in the east central portion of the state and it is situated on Fountain Creek and is located 60 miles south of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. At 6,035 feet the city stands over 1 mile above sea level, Colorado Springs is situated near the base of one of the most famous American mountains, Pikes Peak, rising above 14,000 feet on the eastern edge of the Southern Rocky Mountains. The city is home to 24 national governing bodies of sport, the United States Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Training Center. The city had an population of 456,568 in 2015, ranking as the second most populous city in the state of Colorado, behind Denver. The Colorado Springs, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an population of 712,327 in 2016. The city covers 194.9 square miles, making it the most extensive municipality in Colorado, Colorado Springs was ranked number five by U. S. News & World Report on the list of 2016 Best Places to Live in the USA. The Ute, Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples were the first to inhabit the area which would become Colorado Springs, part of the territory included in the United States 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the current city area was designated part of the 1854 Kansas Territory. In 1859, after the first local settlement was established, it part of the Jefferson Territory on October 24. Colorado City at the Front Range confluence of Fountain and Camp creeks was formally organized on August 13,1859 during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. It served as the capital of the Colorado Territory from November 5,1861, until August 14,1862, in 1871 the Colorado Springs Company laid out the towns of La Font and Fountain Colony, upstream and downstream respectively, of Colorado City. Within a year, Fountain Colony would be renamed Colorado Springs, the El Paso County seat shifted from Colorado City in 1873 to the Town of Colorado Springs. On December 1,1880, Colorado Springs expanded northward with two annexations, the second period of annexations was during 1889–90, and included Seaveys Addition, West Colorado Springs, East End, and another North End addition. In 1891 the Broadmoor Land Company built the Broadmoor suburb, which included the Broadmoor Casino, and by December 12,1895, by 1898, the city was designated into quadrants by the north-south Cascade Avenue and the east-west Washington/Pikes Peak avenues. From 1899 to 1901 Tesla Experimental Station operated on Knob Hill, alexander Airport north of the city opened in 1925, and in 1927 the original Colorado Springs Municipal Airport land was purchased east of the city. In World War II the United States Army Air Forces leased land adjacent to the municipal airfield and this was only one of several military presences in and around Colorado Springs during the war. In November 1950, Ent Air Force Base was selected as the Cold War headquarters for Air Defense Command. The former WWII Army Air Base, Peterson Field, which had been inactivated at the end of the war, was re-opened in 1951 as a U. S. Air Force base
22.
Columbus, Ohio
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Columbus is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of Ohio. It is the 15th-largest city in the United States, with a population of 850,106 as of 2015 estimates and this makes Columbus the fourth-most populous state capital in the United States, and the third-largest city in the Midwestern United States. It is the city of the Columbus, Ohio, Metropolitan Statistical Area. With a population of 2,021,632, it is Ohios third-largest metropolitan area, Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County. The city proper has also expanded and annexed portions of adjoining Delaware County, named for explorer Christopher Columbus, the city was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, and assumed the functions of state capital in 1816. As of 2013, the city has the headquarters of five corporations in the U. S, fortune 500, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, American Electric Power, L Brands, Big Lots, and Cardinal Health. In 2012, Columbus was ranked in BusinessWeeks 50 best cities in America. In 2013, Forbes gave Columbus an A rating as one of the top cities for business in the U. S. and later that included the city on its list of Best Places for Business. Columbus was also ranked as the No.1 up-and-coming tech city in the nation by Forbes in 2008, and the city was ranked a top-ten city by Relocate America in 2010. In 2007, fDi Magazine ranked the city no.3 in the U. S. for cities of the future, and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium was rated no.1 in 2009 by USA Travel Guide. The area including modern-day Columbus once comprised the Ohio Country, under the control of the French colonial empire through the Viceroyalty of New France from 1663 until 1763. In the 18th century, European traders flocked to the area, the area found itself frequently caught between warring factions, including American Indian and European interests. In the 1740s, Pennsylvania traders overran the territory until the French forcibly evicted them, in the early 1750s, the Ohio Company sent George Washington to the Ohio Country to survey. Fighting for control of the territory in the French and Indian War became part of the international Seven Years War, during this period, the region routinely suffered turmoil, massacres, and battles. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded the Ohio Country to the British Empire, after the American Revolution, the Ohio Country became part of the Virginia Military District, under the control of the United States. Colonists from the East Coast moved in, but rather finding a empty frontier, they encountered people of the Miami, Delaware, Wyandot, Shawnee. The tribes resisted expansion by the fledgling United States, leading to years of bitter conflict, the decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers resulted in the Treaty of Greenville, which finally opened the way for new settlements. By 1797, a surveyor from Virginia named Lucas Sullivant had founded a permanent settlement on the west bank of the forks of the Scioto River
23.
Corpus Christi, Texas
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Corpus Christi, colloquially Corpus, is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U. S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it extends into Aransas, Kleberg. It is 130 miles southeast of San Antonio and its political boundaries encompass Nueces Bay and Corpus Christi Bay. Its zoned boundaries include small land parcels or water inlets of three neighboring counties, the citys population was estimated to be 320,434 in 2014, making it the eighth-most populous city in Texas. The Corpus Christi metropolitan area had an population of 442,600. It is also the hub of the six-county Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice Combined Statistical Area, the Port of Corpus Christi is the fifth-largest in the United States. The region is served by the Corpus Christi International Airport, the citys name means Body of Christ in Latin. The name was given to the settlement and surrounding bay by Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519, the citys nickname is Sparkling City by the Sea, particularly featured in tourist literature. Corpus Christi was founded in 1839 by Colonel Henry Lawrence Kinney and William P. Aubrey as Kinneys Trading Post and it was a small trading post that sold supplies to a Mexican revolutionary army camped about 25 mi west. In July 1845, U. S. troops commanded by General Zachary Taylor set up there in preparation for war with Mexico. About a year later, the settlement was named Corpus Christi and was incorporated on 9 September 1852, the Battle of Corpus Christi was fought between August 12 and August 18,1862, during the American Civil War. United States Navy forces blockading Texas fought a land and sea engagement with Confederate forces in and around Corpus Christi Bay. Union forces defeated Confederate States Navy ships operating in the area, the Port of Corpus Christi was opened in 1926, and the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station was commissioned in 1941. The 1919 Storm devastated the city, killing hundreds on September 14, only three structures survived the storm on North Beach. To protect the city, the seawall was built, the city also suffered damage from Hurricane Celia in 1970 and Hurricane Allen in 1980, but little damage from Hurricane Ike in 2008. In November 1873, seven Mexican shepherds were lynched by a mob near the city, in February 1929, the League of United Latin American Citizens was founded in Corpus Christi. This organization was created to battle racial discrimination against Hispanic people in the United States, since its founding, LULAC has grown and now has a national headquarters in Washington, D. C. In March 1949, the American GI Forum was founded in Corpus Christi, currently, AGIF focuses on veterans issues, education, and civil rights issues
24.
Dallas
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Dallas is a major city in the U. S. state of Texas. It is the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the citys population ranks ninth in the U. S. and third in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. The citys prominence arose from its importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries. The bulk of the city is in Dallas County, of which it is the county seat, however, sections of the city are located in Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties. According to the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 1,197,816, the United States Census Bureaus estimate for the citys population increased to 1,300,092 as of July 1,2015. In 2016 DFW ascended to the one spot in the nation in year-over-year population growth. In 2014, the metropolitan economy surpassed Washington, D. C. to become the fifth largest in the U. S. with a 2014 real GDP over $504 billion, as such, the metropolitan areas economy is the 10th largest in the world. As of January 2017, the job count has increased to 3,558,200 jobs. The citys economy is based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare and medical research. The city is home to the third-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Located in North Texas, Dallas is the core of the largest metropolitan area in the South. Dallas and nearby Fort Worth were developed due to the construction of railroad lines through the area allowing access to cotton, cattle. Later, France also claimed the area but never established much settlement, the area remained under Spanish rule until 1821, when Mexico declared independence from Spain, and the area was considered part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. In 1836, the Republic of Texas, with majority Anglo-American settlers, in 1839, Warren Angus Ferris surveyed the area around present-day Dallas. John Neely Bryan established a permanent settlement near the Trinity River named Dallas in 1841, the origin of the name is uncertain. The Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845, Dallas was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1856. With construction of railroads, Dallas became a business and trading center and it became an industrial city, attracting workers from Texas, the South and the Midwest. The Praetorian Building of 15 stories, built in 1909, was the first skyscraper west of the Mississippi and it marked the prominence of Dallas as a city
25.
Denver
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Denver, officially the City and County of Denver, is the capital and most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Colorado. Denver is in the South Platte River Valley on the edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile above sea level, making it the highest major city in the United States. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the reference for the Mountain Time Zone. Denver is ranked as a Beta- world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. With a 2015 estimated population of 682,545, Denver ranks as the 19th-most populous U. S. city, and with a 2. 8% increase in 2015, the city is also the fastest-growing major city in the United States. The 10-county Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 2,814,330 and ranked as the 19th most populous U. S. metropolitan statistical area. The 12-city Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 3,418,876, which ranks as the 16th most populous U. S. metropolitan area. Denver is the most populous city of the 18-county Front Range Urban Corridor, Denver is the most populous city within a 500-mile radius and the second-most populous city in the Mountain West after Phoenix, Arizona. In 2016, Denver was named the best place to live in the USA by U. S. News & World Report and this was the first historical settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The site faded quickly, however, and by the summer of 1859 it was abandoned in favor of Auraria, Larimer named the townsite Denver City to curry favor with Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver. Larimer hoped the name would help make it the county seat of Arapaho County but, unbeknownst to him. The location was accessible to existing trails and was across the South Platte River from the site of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne, the site of these first towns is now the site of Confluence Park near downtown Denver. Larimer, along with associates in the St. Charles City Land Company, sold parcels in the town to merchants and miners, Denver City was a frontier town, with an economy based on servicing local miners with gambling, saloons, livestock and goods trading. In the early years, land parcels were often traded for grubstakes or gambled away by miners in Auraria, in May 1859, Denver City residents donated 53 lots to the Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express in order to secure the regions first overland wagon route. Offering daily service for passengers, mail, freight, and gold, in 1863, Western Union furthered Denvers dominance of the region by choosing the city for its regional terminus. The Colorado Territory was created on February 28,1861, Arapahoe County was formed on November 1,1861, Denver City served as the Arapahoe County Seat from 1861 until consolidation in 1902. In 1867, Denver City became the territorial capital, with its newfound importance, Denver City shortened its name to Denver
26.
Detroit
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Detroit is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Michigan, the fourth-largest city in the Midwest and the largest city on the United States–Canada border. It is the seat of Wayne County, the most populous county in the state, the municipality of Detroit had a 2015 estimated population of 677,116, making it the 21st-most populous city in the United States. Roughly one-half of Michigans population lives in Metro Detroit alone, the Detroit–Windsor area, a commercial link straddling the Canada–U. S. Border, has a population of about 5.7 million. Detroit is a port on the Detroit River, a strait that connects the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Detroit Metropolitan Airport is among the most important hubs in the United States, the City of Detroit anchors the second-largest economic region in the Midwest, behind Chicago, and the thirteenth-largest in the United States. Detroit and its neighboring Canadian city Windsor are connected through a tunnel and various bridges, Detroit was founded on July 24,1701 by the French explorer and adventurer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and a party of settlers. During the 19th century, it became an important industrial hub at the center of the Great Lakes region, with expansion of the American automobile industry in the early 20th century, the Detroit area emerged as a significant metropolitan region within the United States. The city became the fourth-largest in the country for a period, in the 1950s and 1960s, suburban expansion continued with construction of a regional freeway system. A great portion of Detroits public transport was abandoned in favour of becoming a city in the post-war period. Due to industrial restructuring and loss of jobs in the auto industry, between 2000 and 2010 the citys population fell by 25 percent, changing its ranking from the nations 10th-largest city to 18th. In 2010, the city had a population of 713,777 and this resulted from suburbanization, corruption, industrial restructuring and the decline of Detroits auto industry. In 2013, the state of Michigan declared an emergency for the city. Detroit has experienced urban decay as its population and jobs have shifted to its suburbs or elsewhere, conservation efforts managed to save many architectural pieces since the 2000s and allowed several large-scale revitalisations. More recently, the population of Downtown Detroit, Midtown Detroit, paleo-Indian people inhabited areas near Detroit as early as 11,000 years ago. In the 17th century, the region was inhabited by Huron, Odawa, Potawatomi, for the next hundred years, virtually no British, colonist, or French action was contemplated without consultation with, or consideration of the Iroquois likely response. When the French and Indian War evicted the Kingdom of France from Canada, the 1798 raids and resultant 1799 decisive Sullivan Expedition reopened the Ohio Country to westward emigration, which began almost immediately, and by 1800 white settlers were pouring westwards. By 1773, the population of Detroit was 1,400, by 1778, its population was up to 2,144 and it was the third-largest city in the Province of Quebec
27.
Durham, North Carolina
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Durham is a city in the U. S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County, though portions also extend into Wake County in the east, the U. S. Census Bureau estimated the citys population to be 251,893 as of July 1,2014. Durham is the core of the four-county Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Area and it is the home of Duke University and North Carolina Central University, and is also one of the vertices of the Research Triangle area. The Eno and the Occoneechi, related to the Sioux and the Shakori and they may have established a village named Adshusheer on the site. The Great Indian Trading Path has been traced through Durham, and Native Americans helped to mold the area by establishing settlements, in 1701, Durhams beauty was chronicled by the English explorer John Lawson, who called the area the flower of the Carolinas. During the mid-1700s, Scots, Irish, and English colonists settled on land granted to George Carteret by King Charles I, early settlers built gristmills, such as West Point, and worked the land. Prior to the American Revolution, frontiersmen in what is now Durham were involved in the Regulator movement, according to legend, Loyalist militia cut Cornwallis Road through this area in 1771 to quell the rebellion. Later, William Johnston, a shopkeeper and farmer, made Revolutionaries munitions, served in the Provincial Capital Congress in 1775. Large plantations, Hardscrabble, Cameron, and Leigh among them, were established in the antebellum period, by 1860, Stagville Plantation lay at the center of one of the largest plantation holdings in the South. There were free African-Americans in the area as well, including several who fought in the Revolutionary War and this road, eventually followed by US Route 70, was the major east-west route in North Carolina from colonial times until the construction of interstate highways. Steady population growth and an intersection with the road connecting Roxboro and Fayetteville made the area near this site suitable for a US Post Office, Durhams location is a result of the needs of the 19th century railroad industry. The wood-burning steam locomotives of the time had to frequently for wood and water. Eventually a railway depot was established on land donated by Bartlett S. Durham in 1849, sherman occupied the nearby state capital of Raleigh during the American Civil War. The last formidable Confederate Army in the South, commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston, was headquartered in Greensboro 50 miles to the west. After the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia by Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9,1865, fortunately for Durham, its future had nothing to do with 19th-century politics. As both armies passed through Durham, Hillsborough, and surrounding Piedmont communities, they confiscated the areas Brightleaf Tobacco, the community of Durham Station grew slowly before the Civil War, but expanded rapidly following the war. Much of this attributed to the establishment of a thriving tobacco industry. Veterans returned home after the war, with an interest in acquiring more of the tobacco they had sampled in North Carolina
28.
El Paso, Texas
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El Paso is the seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The city is situated in the far corner of the U. S. state of Texas. El Paso stands on the Rio Grande river across the Mexico–United States border from Ciudad Juárez, the region of over 2.9 million people constitutes the largest bilingual and binational work force in the Western Hemisphere. The city hosts the annual Sun Bowl college football post-season game, El Paso has a strong federal and military presence. William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Biggs Army Airfield, and Fort Bliss call the city home, Fort Bliss is one of the largest military complexes of the United States Army and the largest training area in the United States. Also headquartered in El Paso are the DEA domestic field division 7, El Paso Intelligence Center, Joint Task Force North, Border Patrol El Paso Sector, and U. S. In 2010, El Paso received an All-America City Award, El Paso has been ranked the safest large city in the U. S. for four consecutive years and has ranked in the top three since 1997. As of July 1,2015, the estimate for the city from the U. S. Census was 681,124. Its U. S. metropolitan area covers all of El Paso and Hudspeth counties in Texas, the El Paso MSA forms part of the larger El Paso–Las Cruces CSA, with a population of 1,053,267. The El Paso region has had human settlement for thousands of years, the evidence suggests 10,000 to 12,000 years of human habitation. The earliest known cultures in the region were maize farmers, when the Spanish arrived, the Manso, Suma, and Jumano tribes populated the area. These were subsequently incorporated into the Mestizo culture, along with immigrants from central Mexico, captives from Comanchería, the Mescalero Apache were also present. El Paso del Norte was founded on the bank of the Río Bravo del Norte. El Paso remained the largest settlement in New Mexico until its cession to the U. S. in 1848, the Texas Revolution was generally not felt in the region, as the American population was small, not being more than 10% of the population. However, the region was claimed by Texas as part of the treaty signed with Mexico, during this interregnum, 1836–1848, Americans nonetheless continued to settle the region. The present Texas–New Mexico boundary placing El Paso on the Texas side was drawn in the Compromise of 1850, El Paso County was established in March 1850, with San Elizario as the first county seat. The United States Senate fixed a boundary between Texas and New Mexico at the 32nd parallel, thus largely ignoring history and topography, a military post called The Post opposite El Paso was established in 1854. Further west, a settlement on Coons Rancho called Franklin became the nucleus of the future El Paso, a year later, pioneer Anson Mills completed his plan of the town, calling it El Paso
29.
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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Fort Wayne is a city in the U. S. state of Indiana and the seat of Allen County. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is 18 miles west of the Ohio border and 50 miles south of the Michigan border. With an estimated population of 260,326 in 2015, Fort Wayne is the 77th most populous city in the United States and the second largest in Indiana, after Indianapolis. It is the city of the Fort Wayne metropolitan area, consisting of Allen, Wells, and Whitley counties. In addition to the three counties, the combined statistical area includes Adams, DeKalb, Huntington, Noble. Under the direction of American Revolutionary War statesman Anthony Wayne, the United States Army built Fort Wayne last in a series of forts near the Miami tribe village of Kekionga in 1794. Named in Waynes honor, the European-American settlement developed at the confluence of the St. Joseph, St. Marys, the village was platted in 1823 and underwent tremendous growth after completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal and advent of the railroad. The city is a center for the industry which employs thousands. Fort Wayne was an All-America City Award recipient in 1982,1998, the city also received an Outstanding Achievement City Livability Award by the U. S. This area at the confluence of rivers was long occupied by cultures of indigenous peoples. The Miami tribe established its settlement of Kekionga at the confluence of the Maumee, St. Joseph and it was the capital of the Miami nation and related Algonquian tribes. In 1696, Comte de Frontenac appointed Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes as commander of the outpost, the French built Fort Miami in 1697 as part of a group of forts and trading posts built between Quebec and St. Louis. In 1721, a few years after Bissots death, Fort Miami was replaced by Fort St. Philippe des Miamis, the first census in 1744 recorded a population of approximately 40 Frenchmen and 1,000 Miami. Increasing tension between France and the United Kingdom developed over the territory, in 1760, the area was ceded to the British Empire after French forces surrendered during the French and Indian War. In 1763, various Native American nations rebelled against British rule, the Miami regained control of Kekionga, a rule that lasted for more than 30 years. In 1790, George Washington ordered the United States Army to secure Indiana Territory, Three battles were fought at Kekionga against Little Turtle and the Miami Confederacy. Miami warriors defeated U. S. forces in the first two battles, Anthony Wayne led a third expedition resulting in the destruction of Kekionga and the start of peace negotiations between Little Turtle and the U. S. After General Wayne refused to negotiate, the tribe advanced to Fallen Timbers where they were defeated on August 20,1794
30.
Fort Worth, Texas
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Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. The city is in North Central Texas and covers nearly 350 square miles in the counties of Denton, Parker, Wise, according to the 2015 census, estimates, Fort Worths population is 833,319. The city is the second-largest in the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, the city was established in 1849 as an Army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. Today, Fort Worth still embraces its Western heritage and traditional architecture, USS Fort Worth is the first ship of the United States Navy named after the city. Fort Worth is home to the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, also of note is the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, designed by Tadao Ando. The Amon Carter Museum of American Art, designed by Philip Johnson, the Sid Richardson Museum, redesigned by David M. Schwarz, has one of the most focused collections of Western Art in the U. S. emphasizing Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. The Treaty of Birds Fort between the Republic of Texas and several Native American tribes was signed in 1843 at Birds Fort in present-day Arlington, Texas. Article XI of the treaty provided that no one may pass the line of trading houses without permission of the President of Texas and these trading houses were later established at the junction of the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River in present-day Fort Worth. At this river junction, the U. S, War Department established Fort Worth in 1849 as the northernmost of a system of 10 forts for protecting the American Frontier following the end of the Mexican–American War. The City of Fort Worth continues to be known as where the West begins, originally 10 forts had been proposed by Major General William Jenkins Worth, who commanded the Department of Texas in 1849. In January 1849, Worth proposed a line of 10 forts to mark the western Texas frontier from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the West Fork, One month later, Worth died from cholera in South Texas. General William S. Harney assumed command of the Department of Texas, Arnold to find a new fort site near the West Fork and Clear Fork. On June 6,1849, Arnold, advised by Middleton Tate Johnson, established a camp on the bank of the Trinity River, in August 1849, Arnold moved the camp to the north-facing bluff, which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. The United States War Department officially named the post Fort Worth on November 14,1849, E. S. Terrell from Tennessee claimed to be the first resident of Fort Worth. The fort was flooded the first year and moved to the top of the bluff, the fort was abandoned September 17,1853. As a stop on the legendary Chisholm Trail, Fort Worth was stimulated by the business of the cattle drives, millions of head of cattle were driven north to market along this trail. Fort Worth became the center of the drives, and later. It was given the nickname of Cowtown, during Civil War, Fort Worth suffered from shortages of money, food, and supplies
31.
Fresno, California
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Fresno (/ˈfrɛznoʊ/ FREZ-no is a city in California, United States, and the county seat of Fresno County. It covers about 112 square miles in the center of the San Joaquin Valley, named for the abundant ash trees lining the San Joaquin River, Fresno was founded in 1872 as a railway station of the Central Pacific Railroad before it was incorporated in 1885. The population of Fresno proper soared in the half of the 20th century. It was here in Fresno in 1958 that Bank of America first launched the BankAmericard credit card, Fresno is near the geographical center of California. It lies approximately 220 miles northeast of Los Angeles,170 miles south of the capital, Sacramento. Yosemite National Park is about 60 miles to the north, Kings Canyon National Park is 60 miles to the east, the county of Fresno was formed in 1856 after the California Gold Rush. It was named for the abundant ash trees lining the San Joaquin River, Millerton, then on the banks of the free-flowing San Joaquin River and close to Fort Miller, became the county seat after becoming a focal point for settlers. Other early county settlements included Firebaughs Ferry, Scottsburg and Elkhorn Springs, the San Joaquin River flooded on December 24,1867, inundating Millerton. Flooding also destroyed the town of Scottsburg on the nearby Kings River that winter, rebuilt on higher ground, Scottsburg was renamed Centerville. In 1867, Anthony McQeen Easterby purchased land bounded by the present Chestnut, Belmont, Clovis and California avenues, unable to grow wheat for lack of water, he hired sheep man Moses J. Church in 1871 to create an irrigation system. Building new canals and purchasing existing ditches, Church then formed the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company, in 1872, the Central Pacific Railroad established a station near Easterbys—by now a hugely productive wheat farm—for its new Southern Pacific line. Soon there was a store around the station and the store grew the town of Fresno Station, many Millerton residents, drawn by the convenience of the railroad and worried about flooding, moved to the new community. Fresno became a city in 1885. By 1931 the Fresno Traction Company operated 47 streetcars over 49 miles of track, in 1877, William Helm made Fresno his home with a five-acre tract of land at the corner of Fresno and R streets. Helm was the largest individual sheep grower in Fresno County, in carrying his wool to market at Stockton, he used three wagons, each drawn by ten mules, and spent twelve days in making the round trip. Two years after the station was established, county residents voted to move the county seat from Millerton to Fresno, when the Friant Dam was completed in 1944, the site of Millerton became inundated by the waters of Millerton Lake. In extreme droughts, when the reservoir shrinks, ruins of the county seat can still be observed. In the nineteenth century, with so much wooden construction and in the absence of sophisticated firefighting resources, fires often ravaged American frontier towns, the greatest of Fresnos early-day fires, in 1882, destroyed an entire block of the city
32.
Greensboro, North Carolina
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Greensboro is a city in the U. S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the county seat and largest city in Guilford County, as of the 2010 census, the city population was 269,666, and in 2015 the estimated population was 285,342. Three major interstate highways in the Piedmont region of central North Carolina were built to intersect at this city, in 1808, Greensborough was planned around a central courthouse square to succeed Guilford Court House as the county seat. In 2003, the previous Greensboro – Winston-Salem – High Point metropolitan statistical area was re-defined by the U. S. Office of Management and this region was separated into the Greensboro-High Point MSA and the Winston-Salem MSA. The 2010 population for the Greensboro-High Point MSA was 723,801, the combined statistical area of Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, popularly referred to as the Piedmont Triad, had a population of 1,599,477. At the time of European encounter, the inhabitants of the area that became Greensboro were a Siouan-speaking people called the Saura, other indigenous cultures had occupied this area for thousands of years, typically settling along the waterways, as did the early settlers. Quaker migrants from Pennsylvania, by way of Maryland, arrived at Capefair in about 1750, the new settlers began organized religious services affiliated with the Cane Creek Friends Meeting in Snow Camp in 1751. Three years later,40 Quaker families were granted approval to establish New Garden Monthly Meeting, the settlement grew rapidly during the next three years, adding members from as far away as Nantucket in Massachusetts. It soon became the most important Quaker community in North Carolina and mother of several other Quaker meetings that were established in the state and west of the Appalachians. After the Revolutionary War, the city of Greensboro was named for Major General Nathanael Greene, although the Americans lost the battle, Greenes forces inflicted heavy casualties on the British Army of General Cornwallis. Following this battle, Cornwallis withdrew his troops to a British coastal base in Wilmington, Greensboro was established near the geographic center of Guilford County, on land that was an unbroken forest with thick undergrowth of huckleberry bushes, that bore a finely flavored fruit. Property for the village was purchased from the Saura for $98. Three north-south streets were laid out intersecting with three east-west streets, the courthouse was built at the center of the intersection of Elm and Market streets. By 1821, the town was home to 369 residents, stimulated by rail traffic and improved access to markets, the city grew substantially, soon becoming known as the Gate City due to its role as a transportation hub for the Piedmont. The railroads transported goods to and from the textile mills. Many of the manufacturers developed workers housing in mill villages near their facilities, Textile companies and related businesses continued into the 21st century, when most went bankrupt, reorganized, and/or merged with other companies as textile manufacturing jobs moved offshore. Greensboro is still a center of the textile industry, with the main offices of International Textile Group, Galey & Lord, Unifi. ITG Brands, maker of Kool, Winston and Salem brand cigarettes, is the third largest tobacco company in the United States and is headquartered in Greensboro, rail traffic continues to be important for the citys economy, as Greensboro is a major regional freight hub
33.
Henderson, Nevada
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Henderson, officially the City of Henderson, is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, about 16 miles southeast of Las Vegas. It is the second-largest city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, the city is part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which spans the entire Las Vegas Valley. Henderson occupies the end of the valley, at an elevation of approximately 1,330 feet. In 2011, Forbes magazine ranked Henderson as Americas second-safest city and it has also been named as One of the Best Cities to Live in America by Bloomberg Businessweek. In 2014, Henderson was again ranked as one of the Top 10 Safest Cities in the United States by the FBI Uniform Crime Report, the township of Henderson first emerged in the 1940s during World War II with the building of the Basic Magnesium Plant. Henderson quickly became a supplier of magnesium in the United States. The plant supplied the US War Department with magnesium for incendiary munition casings and airplane engines, frames, a quarter of all US wartime magnesium came from the Henderson Plant to strengthen aluminum, using 25% of Hoover Dams power to separate the metal from its ore by electrolysis. The British liaison officer sent to Henderson, Major Charles Ball, had a named after him. There was some concern that Ball St, would sound improper, although born in Americas defense, Hendersons future after World War II was uncertain. In 1947, magnesium production was no longer necessary for defense, enrollment in the school system was reduced by two thirds, and well over half the townsite houses, built to house plant workers, became vacant. In 1947, the United States War Asset Administration had offered Henderson for sale as war surplus property, in an effort to save the city, the Nevada Legislature spent a weekend visiting Henderson, evaluating the possibility of state administration of Basic Magnesium. Within days of the visit, the unanimously approved a bill giving the Colorado River Commission of Nevada the authority to purchase the industrial plants. Governor Vail Pittman signed the bill on March 27,1947, with the help of local industry, Henderson was incorporated on April 16,1953 as the City of Henderson. On May 23,1953, Henderson, with its population of 7,410, originally only about 13 square miles in size, the city quickly began to grow, reaching over 94 square miles in size today. In 1988, the Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada rocket fuel factory, in the modern-day Gibson Springs neighborhood of Henderson and these sent shockwaves throughout Henderson and parts of the Las Vegas Valley, shattering glass and damaging buildings. The explosions also caused earthquakes, some of which measured over 3.0 on the Richter magnitude scale, two people were killed, and an additional 372 injured. The events of the PEPCON factory disaster spurred development in Henderson years later, there are now no signs of the explosion where it happened. Today, the site consists mostly of office buildings, Henderson is located 16 miles southeast of downtown Las Vegas at 36°2′23″N 114°58′52″W
34.
Honolulu, Hawaii
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Honolulu is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of Hawaii. It is an part of and the county seat of the City and County of Honolulu on the island of Oahu. The city is the gateway to Hawaii and a major portal into the United States. The city is also a hub for international business, military defense, as well as famously being host to a diverse variety of east-west and Pacific culture, cuisine. Honolulu is the most remote city of its size in the world and is both the westernmost and the southernmost major U. S. city. For statistical purposes, the U. S. Census Bureau recognizes the area commonly referred to as City of Honolulu as a census county division. Honolulu is a financial center of the islands and of the Pacific Ocean. The population of the city of Honolulu was 337,256 as of the 2010 census, while the Honolulu CCD was 390,738, Honolulu means sheltered harbor or calm port. The old name is said to be Kou, a district encompassing the area from Nuuanu Avenue to Alakea Street. The city has been the capital of the Hawaiian Islands since 1845, as of 2015, Honolulu was ranked high on world livability rankings, and was also ranked as the 2nd safest city in the U. S. It is also the most populated Oceanian city outside Australasia and ranks second to Auckland as the most populous city in Polynesia, evidence of the first settlement of Honolulu by the original Polynesian migrants to the archipelago comes from oral histories and artifacts. These indicate that there was a settlement where Honolulu now stands in the 11th century, however, after Kamehameha I conquered Oʻahu in the Battle of Nuʻuanu at Nuʻuanu Pali, he moved his royal court from the Island of Hawaiʻi to Waikīkī in 1804. His court relocated in 1809 to what is now downtown Honolulu, the capital was moved back to Kailua-Kona in 1812. In 1794, Captain William Brown of Great Britain was the first foreigner to sail into what is now Honolulu Harbor, more foreign ships followed, making the port of Honolulu a focal point for merchant ships traveling between North America and Asia. In 1845, Kamehameha III moved the permanent capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom from Lahaina on Maui to Honolulu and he and the kings that followed him transformed Honolulu into a modern capital, erecting buildings such as St. Andrews Cathedral, ʻIolani Palace, and Aliʻiōlani Hale. At the same time, Honolulu became the center of commerce in the islands, an economic and tourism boom following statehood brought rapid economic growth to Honolulu and Hawaiʻi. Modern air travel brings, as of 2007,7.6 million visitors annually to the islands, today, Honolulu is a modern city with numerous high-rise buildings, and Waikīkī is the center of the tourism industry in Hawaiʻi, with thousands of hotel rooms. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has an area of 68.4 square miles
35.
Houston
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Houston is the most populous city in the state of Texas and the fourth-most populous city in the United States. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 2.239 million within an area of 667 square miles, it also is the largest city in the southern United States and the seat of Harris County. Located in Southeast Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, it is the city of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land. Houston was founded on August 28,1836, near the banks of Buffalo Bayou and incorporated as a city on June 5,1837. The city was named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had commanded, the burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the citys population. Houstons economy has an industrial base in energy, manufacturing, aeronautics. Leading in health care sectors and building equipment, Houston has more Fortune 500 headquarters within its city limits than any city except for New York City. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled, the city has a population from various ethnic and religious backgrounds and a large and growing international community. Houston is the most diverse city in Texas and has described as the most diverse in the United States. It is home to cultural institutions and exhibits, which attract more than 7 million visitors a year to the Museum District. Houston has a visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District. In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneurs from New York, Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, purchased 6,642 acres of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city. The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the general at the Battle of San Jacinto. The great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the slave states. Sizable numbers, however, came through the slave trade. New Orleans was the center of trade in the Deep South. Thousands of enslaved African Americans lived near the city before the Civil War, many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. Houston was granted incorporation on June 5,1837, with James S. Holman becoming its first mayor, in the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County and the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas
36.
Indianapolis
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Indianapolis, is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. It is in the East North Central region of the Midwestern United States, with an estimated population of 853,173 in 2015, Indianapolis is the second most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and 14th largest in the U. S. The city is the economic and cultural center of the Indianapolis metropolitan area, home to 2 million people and its combined statistical area ranks 26th, with 2.4 million inhabitants. Indianapolis covers 372 square miles, making it the 16th largest city by area in the U. S. The city grew beyond the Mile Square, as completion of the National Road and advent of the railroad solidified the position as a manufacturing. Indianapolis is within a single-day drive of 70 percent of the nations population, Indianapolis has developed niche markets in amateur sports and auto racing. The city is perhaps best known for hosting the worlds largest single-day sporting event. The city is notable as headquarters for the American Legion and home to a significant collection of monuments dedicated to veterans and war dead, the most in the U. S. outside of Washington, D. C. Since the 1970 city-county consolidation, known as Unigov, local government administration has operated under the direction of an elected 25-member city-county council, Indianapolis is considered a high sufficiency global city. In 1816, the year Indiana gained statehood, the U. S. Congress donated four sections of land to establish a permanent seat of state government. Two years later, under the Treaty of St. Marys and this tract of land, which was called the New Purchase, included the site selected for the new state capital in 1820. The availability of new lands for purchase in central Indiana attracted settlers. Although many of these first European and American setters were Protestants, few African Americans lived in central Indiana before 1840. The first European Americans to permanently settle in the area that became Indianapolis were either the McCormick or Pogue families, on January 11,1820, the Indiana General Assembly authorized a committee to select a site in central Indiana for the new state capital. The state legislature approved the site, adopting the name Indianapolis on January 6,1821, in April, Alexander Ralston and Elias Pym Fordham were appointed to survey and design a town plan for the new settlement. Indianapolis became a seat of county government on December 31,1821, a combined county and town government continued until 1832, when Indianapolis incorporated as a town. Indianapolis became an incorporated city effective March 30,1847, Samuel Henderson, the citys first mayor, led the new city government, which included a seven-member city council. In 1853, voters approved a new city charter provided for an elected mayor
37.
Irvine, California
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Irvine is an affluent city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a city, the Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28,1971, the 66-square-mile city had a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census, a number of corporations, particularly in the technology and semiconductor sectors, have their national or international headquarters in Irvine. The Gabrieleño indigenous group inhabited Irvine about 2,000 years ago, gaspar de Portolà, a Spanish explorer, came to the area in 1769, which led to the establishment of forts, missions and cattle herds. The King of Spain parceled out land for missions and private use, after Mexicos independence from Spain in 1821, the Mexican government secularized the missions and assumed control of the lands. It began distributing the land to Mexican citizens who applied for grants, three large Spanish/Mexican grants made up the land that later became the Irvine Ranch, Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, Rancho San Joaquin and Rancho Lomas de Santiago. In 1864, Jose Andres Sepulveda, owner of Rancho San Joaquin sold 50,000 acres to Benjamin and Thomas Flint, Llewellyn Bixby, in 1866, Irvine, Flint and Bixby acquired 47, 000-acre Rancho Lomas de Santiago for $7,000. After the Mexican-American war the land of Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana fell prey to tangled titles, in 1868, the ranch was divided among four claimants as part of a lawsuit, Flint, Bixby and Irvine. The ranches were devoted to sheep grazing, however, in 1870, tenant farming was permitted. In 1878, James Irvine acquired his partners interests for $150,000 and his 110,000 acres stretched 23 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Santa Ana River. The ranch was inherited by his son, James Irvine, Jr. who incorporated it into The Irvine Company, James, Jr. shifted the ranch operations to field crops, olive and citrus crops. In 1888, the Santa Fe Railroad extended its line to Fallbrook Junction, north of San Diego, the town that formed around this station was named Myford, after Irvines son, because a post office in Calaveras County already bore the family name. The town was renamed Irvine in 1914, by 1918,60,000 acres of lima beans were grown on the Irvine Ranch. Two Marine Corps facilities, MCAS El Toro and MCAS Tustin, were built during World War II on ranch land sold to the government, James Irvine, Jr. died in 1947 at the age of 80. His son, Myford, assumed the presidency of The Irvine Company and he began opening small sections of the Irvine Ranch to urban development. The Irvine Ranch played host to the Boy Scouts of Americas 1953 National Scout Jamboree, Jamboree Road, a major street which now stretches from Newport Beach to the city of Orange, was named in honor of this event. David Sills, then a young Boy Scout from Peoria, Illinois, was among the attendees at the 1953 Jamboree, Sills came back to Irvine as an adult and went on to serve four terms as the citys mayor. The same year, the University of California asked The Irvine Company for 1,000 acres for a new university campus, the Irvine Company sold the requested land for $1 and later the state purchased an additional 500 acres
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Jacksonville, Florida
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Jacksonville is a seaport city and the seat of Duval County, Florida, United States. With an estimated 868,031 residents as of 2015, Jacksonville is the most populous city in both the state of Florida and the southeastern United States. It is estimated to be the 12th most populous city in the United States and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Jacksonville metropolitan area has a population of 1,603,497 and is the 34th largest in the United States and fourth largest in the state of Florida. The city is situated on the banks of the St. Johns River, in the First Coast region of North Florida, prior to European settlement, the Jacksonville area was inhabited by Native American people known as the Timucua. In 1564, the French established the colony of Fort Caroline at the mouth of the St. Johns River. In 1822, a year after the United States gained Florida from Spain, Jacksonville is the cultural, commercial and financial center of North Florida. A major military and civilian deep-water port, the citys riverine location supports two United States Navy bases and the Port of Jacksonville, Floridas third largest seaport. The two US Navy bases, Blount Island Command and the nearby Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Jacksonville is also home to several colleges and universities, including University of North Florida, Jacksonville University and Florida State College at Jacksonville. The area of the city of Jacksonville has been inhabited for thousands of years. In the 16th century, the beginning of the era, the region was inhabited by the Mocama. At the time of contact with Europeans, all Mocama villages in present-day Jacksonville were part of the powerful chiefdom known as the Saturiwa, centered around the mouth of the St. Johns River. One early map shows a village called Ossachite at the site of what is now downtown Jacksonville, French Huguenot explorer Jean Ribault charted the St. Johns River in 1562 calling it the River of May because he discovered it in May. Ribault erected a column near present-day Jacksonville claiming the newly discovered land for France. In 1564, René Goulaine de Laudonnière established the first European settlement, Fort Caroline, philip II of Spain ordered Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to protect the interest of Spain by attacking the French presence at Fort Caroline. On September 20,1565, a Spanish force from the nearby Spanish settlement of St. Augustine attacked Fort Caroline, the Spanish renamed the fort San Mateo, and following the ejection of the French, St. Augustines position as the most important settlement in Florida was solidified. The location of Fort Caroline is subject to debate but a reconstruction of the fort was established on the St. Johns River in 1964. Spain ceded Florida to the British in 1763 after the French and Indian War, the British introduced the cultivation of sugar cane, indigo and fruits as well the export of lumber
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Jersey City, New Jersey
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Jersey City is the second-most-populous city in the U. S. state of New Jersey after Newark. It is the seat of Hudson County as well as the countys largest city. 7% from the 2010 United States Census, when the citys population was at 247,597, ranking the city the 75th-largest in the nation. Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City is bounded on the east by the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay and on the west by the Hackensack River and Newark Bay. After a peak population of 316,715 measured in the 1930 Census, the land comprising what is now Jersey City was inhabited by the Lenape, a collection of tribes. After spending nine days surveying the area and meeting its inhabitants, by 1621, the Dutch West India Company was organized to manage this new territory and in June 1623, New Netherland became a Dutch province, with headquarters in New Amsterdam. Michael Reyniersz Pauw received a grant as patroon on the condition that he would establish a settlement of not fewer than fifty persons within four years. He chose the west bank of the North River and purchased the land from the Lenape and this grant is dated November 22,1630 and is the earliest known conveyance for what are now Hoboken and Jersey City. Pauw, however, was a landlord who neglected to populate the area and was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633. That year, a house was built at Communipaw for Jan Evertsen Bout, superintendent of the colony, during Kiefts War, approximately eighty Lenapes were killed by the Dutch in a massacre at Pavonia on the night of February 25,1643. Scattered communities of farmsteads characterized the Dutch settlements at Pavonia, Communipaw, Harsimus, Paulus Hook, Hoebuck, Awiehaken, and other lands behind Kil van Kull. The first village established on what is now Bergen Square in 1660, among the oldest surviving houses in Jersey City are the Newkirk House, the Van Vorst Farmhouse, and the Van Wagenen House. During the American Revolutionary War, the area was in the hands of the British who controlled New York, in the Battle of Paulus Hook Major Light Horse Harry Lee attacked a British fortification on August 19,1779. During the 19th century, former slaves reached Jersey City on one of the four routes of the Underground Railroad that led to the city. The City of Jersey was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on January 28,1820, from portions of Bergen Township, while the area was still a part of Bergen County. The city was reincorporated on January 23,1829, and again on February 22,1838, on February 22,1840, it became part of the newly created Hudson County. Soon after the Civil War, the idea arose of uniting all of the towns of Hudson County east of the Hackensack River into one municipality. A bill was approved by the legislature on April 2,1869. An element of the bill provide that only contiguous towns could be consolidated, while a majority of the voters across the county approved the merger, the only municipalities that had approved the consolidation plan and that adjoined Jersey City were Hudson City and Bergen City
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Kansas City, Missouri
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Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri and the sixth largest city in the Midwest. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the city had an population of 475,378 in 2015. It is the city of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a Missouri River port at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west, on June 1,1850 the town of Kansas was incorporated, shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued and the name Kansas City was assigned to them soon thereafter. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, but portions spill into Clay, Cass, along with Independence, it serves as one of the two county seats for Jackson County. Major suburbs include the Missouri cities of Independence and Lees Summit and the Kansas cities of Overland Park, Olathe, and Kansas City. The city is composed of neighborhoods, including the River Market District in the north, the 18th and Vine District in the east. Kansas City is also known for its cuisine, its craft breweries, Kansas City, Missouri was officially incorporated as a town on June 1,1850, and as a city on March 28,1853. The territory straddling the border between Missouri and Kansas at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers was considered a place to build settlements. The Antioch Christian Church, Dr. James Compton House, the first documented European visitor to Kansas City was Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, who was also the first European to explore the lower Missouri River. Criticized for his response to the Native American attack on Fort Détroit, Bourgmont lived with a Native American wife in a village about 90 miles east near Brunswick, Missouri, where he illegally traded furs. In the documents, he describes the junction of the Grande Riv des Cansez and Missouri River, French cartographer Guillaume Delisle used the descriptions to make the areas first reasonably accurate map. The Spanish took over the region in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French continued their fur trade under Spanish license. After the 1804 Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark visited the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, in 1831, a group of Mormons from New York settled in what would become the city. They built the first school within Kansas Citys current boundaries, but were forced out by mob violence in 1833, in 1833 John McCoy established West Port along the Santa Fe Trail,3 miles away from the river. In 1834 McCoy established Westport Landing on a bend in the Missouri to serve as a point for West Port. Soon after, the Kansas Town Company, a group of investors, began to settle the area, in 1850, the landing area was incorporated as the Town of Kansas
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Laredo, Texas
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Laredo is the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Its metropolitan area is the 178th-largest in the U. S. and includes all of Webb County, Laredo is also part of the cross-border Laredo-Nuevo Laredo Metropolitan Area with an estimated population of 636,516. Because Laredo is 95.6 percent Hispanic and Latino, it is one of the least ethnically diverse cities in the United States. When economic diversity, household diversity and social diversity, are considered. Laredos economy is based on trade with Mexico. Most major transportation companies have a facility in Laredo, the citys location on the southern end of I-35 close to the manufacturers in northern Mexico promotes its vital role in trade between the two nations. Laredo International Airport is within the Laredo city limits, while the Quetzalcoatl International Airport is nearby in Nuevo Laredo on the Mexican side, Laredo has the distinction of flying seven flags. Founded in 1755, Laredo grew from a village to the capital of the brief Republic of the Rio Grande to the largest inland port on the Mexico–United States border, today, it has four international bridges and one railway bridge. Laredo has a soccer team, the Heat, baseball team, the Laredo Lemurs, and a womens full contact football team. Texas A&M International University and Laredo Community College are located in Laredo, the biggest festival, Washingtons Birthday Celebration, is held during the later part of January and the majority of February, attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists. The European colonial settlement of Villa de San Agustin de Laredo was founded in 1755 by Don Tomás Sánchez while the area was part of the Nuevo Santander region in the Spanish colony of New Spain. Villa de San Agustin de Laredo was named after Laredo, Cantabria, in 1840, Laredo was the capital of the independent Republic of the Rio Grande, set up in opposition to Antonio López de Santa Anna, it was brought back into Mexico by military force. In 1846 during the Mexican–American War, the town was occupied by the Texas Rangers, after the war, the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ceded the land to the United States. A referendum was taken in the town, which voted to petition the American military government in charge of the area to return the town to Mexico. When this petition was rejected, most of the population, who were Tejano and had been in the area for generations, moved across the river into Mexican territory, in 1849, the United States Army set up Fort McIntosh. Laredo was rechartered as a city in 1852, Laredo is one of the oldest crossing points along the Mexico–United States border, and the nations largest inland port of entry. In 2005, Laredo celebrated the 250th anniversary of its founding, the origin of name of the original Spanish town of Laredo is unclear. Some scholars say the name stems from Glaretum which means sandy, others state that Laredo stems from a Basque word meaning beautiful pastures
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Las Vegas
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The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment and it is the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World and it is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the worlds most visited tourist destinations. The citys tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century, population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85. 2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to a 2013 estimate, perhaps the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled there 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago, a young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, the area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for the meadows, as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers. The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C, frémont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas Fremont Street is named after him, eleven years later members of the LDS Church chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward, the remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres of adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city,1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks and this year also witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935, in 1941, the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Gunnery School was established. Currently known as Nellis Air Force Base, it is home to the team called the Thunderbirds
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Lexington, Kentucky
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Lexington, consolidated with Fayette County, is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 61st largest in the United States. Known as the Horse Capital of the World, it is the heart of the states Bluegrass region, with a mayor-alderman form of government, it is one of two cities in Kentucky designated by the state as first-class, the other is the states largest city of Louisville. In the 2016 U. S. Census Estimate, the population was 318,449, anchoring a metropolitan area of 506,751 people. Lexington ranks tenth among US cities in college education rate, with 39. 5% of residents having at least a bachelors degree and this area of fertile soil and abundant wildlife was long occupied by varying tribes of Native Americans. European explorers began to trade with them but settlers did not come in force until the late 18th century, Lexington was founded by European Americans in June 1775, in what was then considered Fincastle County, Virginia,17 years before Kentucky became a state. A party of frontiersmen, led by William McConnell, camped on the Middle Fork of Elkhorn Creek at the site of the present-day McConnell Springs, upon hearing of the colonists victory in the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19,1775, they named their campsite Lexington. It was the first of what would be many American places to be named after the Massachusetts town, the risk of Indian attacks delayed permanent settlement for four years. In 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, Col. Robert Patterson and 25 companions came from Fort Harrod and they built cabins and a stockade, establishing a settlement known as Bryan Station. In 1780, Lexington was made the seat of Virginias newly organized Fayette County, colonists defended it against a British and allied Shawnee attack in 1782, during the last part of the American Revolutionary War. The town was chartered on May 6,1782, by an act of the Virginia General Assembly, the First African Baptist Church was founded c. 1790 by Peter Durrett, a Baptist preacher and slave held by Joseph Craig. Durrett helped guide The Travelling Church, a migration of several hundred pioneers led by the preacher Lewis Craig and Captain William Ellis from Orange County. It is the oldest black Baptist congregation in Kentucky and the third oldest in the United States, I would suppose it contains about five hundred dwelling houses, many of them elegant and three stories high. The country around Lexington for many miles in every direction, is equal in beauty and fertility to anything the imagination can paint and is already in a state of cultivation. Residents have fondly continued to refer to Lexington as The Athens of the West since Espys poem dedicated to the city, in the early 19th century, planter John Wesley Hunt became the first millionaire west of the Alleghenies. London Ferrill, second preacher of First African Baptist, was one of three clergy who stayed in the city to serve the suffering victims, additional cholera outbreaks occurred in 1848–49 and the early 1850s. Cholera was spread by using contaminated water supplies, but its transmission was not understood in those years. Often the wealthier people would flee town for outlying areas to try to avoid the spread of disease, planters held slaves for use as field hands, laborers, artisans, and domestic servants. In the city, slaves worked primarily as servants and artisans, although they also worked with merchants, shippers
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Lincoln, Nebraska
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Lincoln is the capital of the U. S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers 92.81 square miles with a population of 277,348 in 2015 and it is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 72nd-largest in the United States. The statistical area is home to 345,478 people, making it the 105th-largest combined statistical area in the United States, the city was founded in 1856 as the village of Lancaster on the wild salt marshes of what was to become Lancaster County. In 1867, the village of Lancaster became Nebraskas state capital and was renamed Lincoln, bertram G. Goodhue designed state capitol building was completed in 1932 and is the second tallest capitol in the United States. As the city is the seat of government for the state of Nebraska, the state, the University of Nebraska was founded in Lincoln in 1867. The university is the largest in Nebraska with 25,006 students enrolled and is the citys third-largest employer, other primary employers fall within the service and manufacturing industries, including a growing high-tech sector. The region makes up a part of what is known as the greater Midwest Silicon Prairie, designated as a refugee-friendly city by the U. S. Department of State in the 1970s, the city was the twelfth-largest resettlement site per capita in the United States by 2000. Refugee Vietnamese, Karen, Sudanese, and Yazidi people have resettled in the city. Lincoln Public Schools during the year of 2016–17 provided support for approximately 3,200 students from 118 countries. Prior to the westward of settlers, the prairie was covered with buffalo grass. Plains Indians, descendants of peoples who occupied the area for thousands of years, lived in. The Pawnee, which included four tribes, lived in villages along the Platte River, an occasional buffalo could still be seen in the plat of Lincoln in the 1860s. Lincoln was founded in 1856 as the village of Lancaster and became the county seat of the newly created Lancaster County in 1859, the village was sited on the east bank of Salt Creek. The first settlers were attracted to the due to the abundance of salt. Once J. Sterling Morton developed his salt mines in Kansas, Captain W. T. Donovan, a former steamer captain, and his family settled on Salt Creek in 1856. In the fall of 1859, the settlers met to form a county. A caucus was formed and the committee, which included Captain Donovan, after the passage of the 1862 Homestead Act, homesteaders began to inhabit the area. The first plat was dated August 6,1864, by the close of 1868, Lancaster had a population of approximately 500 people
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Long Beach, California
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Long Beach is the 36th most populous city in the United States and the 7th most populous in California. It is located on the Pacific Coast of the United States, as of 2010, its population was 462,257. Long Beach is the second largest city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the Port of Long Beach is the second busiest container port in the United States and is among the worlds largest shipping ports. The city also maintains a progressively declining oil industry with minor wells located both directly beneath the city as well as offshore, manufacturing sectors include those in aircraft, automotive parts, electronic equipment, audiovisual equipment, petrochemicals, precision metals and home furnishings. Long Beach lies in the corner of Los Angeles County. Downtown Long Beach is approximately 22 miles south of Downtown Los Angeles, indigenous people have lived in coastal Southern California for over 10,000 years, and several successive cultures have inhabited the present-day area of Long Beach. By the 16th-century arrival of Spanish explorers, the dominant group were the Tongva people and they had at least three major settlements within the present-day city. Tevaaxaanga was a settlement near the Los Angeles River, while Ahwaanga and Povuunga were coastal villages. Along with other Tongva villages, they were forced to relocate in the century due to missionization, political change. In 1784 the Spanish Empires King Carlos III granted Rancho Los Nietos to Spanish soldier Manuel Nieto, the Rancho Los Cerritos and Rancho Los Alamitos were divided from this territory. The boundary between the two ran through the center of Signal Hill on a southwest to northeast diagonal. A portion of western Long Beach was originally part of the Rancho San Pedro and its boundaries were in dispute for years, due to flooding changing the Los Angeles River boundary, between the ranchos of Juan Jose Dominguez and Manuel Nieto. In 1843 Jonathan Temple bought Rancho Los Cerritos, having arrived in California in 1827 from New England and he built what is now known as the Los Cerritos Ranch House, a still-standing adobe which is a National Historic Landmark. Temple created a cattle ranch and prospered, becoming the wealthiest man in Los Angeles County. Both Temple and his house played important local roles in the Mexican–American War. On an island in the San Pedro Bay, Mormon pioneers made an attempt to establish a colony. Two years previous Flint, Bixby & Co had also purchased along with Northern California associate James Irvine, to manage Rancho Los Cerritos, the company selected Lewellyns brother Jotham Bixby, the Father of Long Beach. Three years later Bixby bought into the property and would form the Bixby Land Company
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Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
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Louisville, Kentucky
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Louisville is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 30th-most populous city in the United States. It is one of two cities in Kentucky designated as first-class, the other being the states second-largest city of Lexington, Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County. Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark and is named after King Louis XVI of France, making Louisville one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachian Mountains. Sited beside the Falls of the Ohio, the major obstruction to river traffic between the upper Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico, the settlement first grew as a portage site. It was the city of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Its main airport is also the site of United Parcel Services worldwide air hub, since 2003, Louisvilles borders have been the same as those of Jefferson County because of a city-county merger. The official name of this consolidated city-county government is the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, the citys total consolidated population as of the 2014 census estimate was 760,026. However, the total of 612,780 excludes other incorporated places and semiautonomous towns within the county and is the population listed in most sources. As of 2014, the MSA had a population of 1,269,702, the history of Louisville spans hundreds of years, and has been influenced by the areas geography and location. The rapids at the Falls of the Ohio created a barrier to river travel, the first European settlement in the vicinity of modern-day Louisville was on Corn Island in 1778 by Col. George Rogers Clark, credited as the founder of Louisville. Several landmarks in the community are named after him, two years later, in 1780, the Virginia General Assembly approved the town charter of Louisville. The city was named in honor of King Louis XVI of France, early residents lived in forts to protect themselves from Indian raids, but moved out by the late 1780s. In 1803, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark organized their expedition across America in the town of Clarksville, Indiana at the present-day Falls of the Ohio opposite Louisville, Kentucky. The citys early growth was influenced by the fact river boats had to be unloaded and moved downriver before reaching the falls. By 1828, the population had swelled to 7,000, the city grew rapidly in its formative years. Louisville was a shipping port and slaves worked in a variety of associated trades. The city was often a point of escape for slaves to the north, during the Civil War, Louisville was a major stronghold of Union forces, which kept Kentucky firmly in the Union. It was the center of planning, supplies, recruiting, and transportation for numerous campaigns, by the end of the war, Louisville had not been attacked, although skirmishes and battles, including the battles of Perryville and Corydon, took place nearby
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Memphis, Tennessee
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Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U. S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf, Memphis had a population of 653,450 in 2013, making it the largest city in the state of Tennessee. It is the largest city on the Mississippi River, the third largest in the greater Southeastern United States, the greater Memphis metropolitan area, including adjacent counties in Mississippi and Arkansas, had a 2014 population of 1,317,314. This makes Memphis the second-largest metropolitan area in Tennessee, surpassed by metropolitan Nashville, Memphis is the youngest of Tennessees major cities, founded in 1819 as a planned city by a group of wealthy Americans including judge John Overton and future president Andrew Jackson. A resident of Memphis is referred to as a Memphian, and the Memphis region is known, particularly to media outlets, as Memphis and the Mid-South. Occupying a substantial bluff rising from the Mississippi River, the site of Memphis has been a location for human settlement by varying cultures over thousands of years. The historic Chickasaw Indian tribe, believed to be their descendants, French explorers led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto would encounter the Chickasaw in that area, in the 16th century. J. D. L. Chickasaw Bluffs, located on the Mississippi River at the present day location of Memphis, spain and the United States vied for control of this site, which was a favorite of the Chickasaws. The United States gained the right to navigate the Mississippi River, the Spanish dismantled the fort, shipping its lumber and iron to their locations in Arkansas. Captain Isaac Guion led an American force down the Ohio River to claim the land, by this time, the Spanish had departed. The forts ruins went unnoticed twenty years later when Memphis was laid out as a city, the city of Memphis was founded on May 22,1819 by John Overton, James Winchester and Andrew Jackson. They named it after the ancient capital of Egypt on the Nile River, Memphis developed as a trade and transportation center in the 19th century because of its flood-free location high above the Mississippi River. Located in the delta region along the river, its outlying areas were developed as cotton plantations. The cotton economy of the antebellum South depended on the labor of large numbers of African-American slaves. Through the early 19th century, one million slaves were transported from the Upper South, Many were transported by steamboats along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This gave planters and cotton brokers access to the Atlantic Coast for shipping cotton to England, the citys demographics changed dramatically in the 1850s and 1860s under waves of immigration and domestic migration. Due to increased immigration since the 1840s and the Great Famine, ethnic Irish made up 9.9 percent of the population in 1850, but 23.2 percent in 1860, when the total population was 22,623. They had encountered considerable discrimination in the city but by 1860 and they also gained many elected and patronage positions in the Democratic Party city government, and an Irish man was elected as mayor before the Civil War
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Mesa, Arizona
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Mesa is a city in Maricopa County, in the U. S. state of Arizona, and is a suburb located about 20 miles east of Phoenix. Mesa is the city of the East Valley section of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is bordered by Tempe on the west, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community on the north, Chandler and Gilbert on the south, as of the 2010 Census Mesa became Arizonas center of population. Mesa is the third-largest city in Arizona, after Phoenix and Tucson, the city is home to 439,041 people as of 2010 according to the Census Bureau. Mesa is home to higher education facilities including the Polytechnic campus of Arizona State University. The history of Mesa dates back at least 2,000 years to the arrival of the Hohokam people, the Hohokam, whose name means All Used Up or The Departed Ones, built the original canal system. The canals were the largest and most sophisticated in the prehistoric New World, some were up to 90 feet wide and ten feet deep at their head gates, extending for as far as 16 miles across the desert. By A. D.1100 water could be delivered to an area over 110,000 acres, by A. D.1450, the Hohokam had constructed hundreds of miles of canals many of which are still in use today. After the disappearance of the Hohokam and before the arrival of the early settlers little is known, by the late 19th century near present-day Mesa, U. S. Army troops subdued the Apache opening the way for settlement. Mormon pioneer Daniel Webster Jones led an expedition to found a Mormon settlement in Arizona, leaving St. George, Utah in March 1877, Jones and others arrived at Lehi, an area within the northern edge of present-day Mesa. Jones had been asked by Mormon officials to direct a party of people in establishing a settlement in Arizona. This settlement was known as Jonesville and Fort Utah and did not receive the name of Lehi until 1883. At the same time, another group dubbed the First Mesa Company arrived from Utah and their leaders were named Francis Martin Pomeroy, Charles Crismon, George Warren Sirrine and Charles I. Rather than accepting an invitation to settle at Jones Lehi settlement and they dug irrigation canals, some of which were over the original Hohokam canals, and by April 1878, water was flowing through them. The Second Mesa Company arrived in 1879 and settled to the west of where the First Mesa Company settled in 1880, on July 17,1878, Mesa City was registered as a 1-square-mile townsite. The first school was built in 1879, in 1883, Mesa City was incorporated with a population of 300 people. Dr. A. J. Chandler, who would go on to found the city of Chandler. In 1917, the city of Mesa purchased the utility company, the revenues from the company provided enough for capital expenditures until the 1960s
