Canada
Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border, its capital is Ottawa, its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra, its population is urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons. Various indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Beginning in the 16th century and French expeditions explored, settled, along the Atlantic coast.
As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces; this began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom. This widening autonomy was highlighted by the Statute of Westminster of 1931 and culminated in the Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy in the Westminster tradition, with Elizabeth II as its queen and a prime minister who serves as the chair of the federal cabinet and head of government; the country is a realm within the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie and bilingual at the federal level. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, education.
It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Canada's long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. A developed country, Canada has the sixteenth-highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the twelfth-highest ranking in the Human Development Index, its advanced economy is the tenth-largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada is part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the etymological origins of Canada, the name is now accepted as coming from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement".
In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word Canada to refer not only to that particular village but to the entire area subject to Donnacona. From the 16th to the early 18th century "Canada" referred to the part of New France that lay along the Saint Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named the Canadas. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the legal name for the new country at the London Conference, the word Dominion was conferred as the country's title. By the 1950s, the term Dominion of Canada was no longer used by the United Kingdom, which considered Canada a "Realm of the Commonwealth"; the government of Louis St. Laurent ended the practice of using'Dominion' in the Statutes of Canada in 1951. In 1982, the passage of the Canada Act, bringing the Constitution of Canada under Canadian control, referred only to Canada, that year the name of the national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day.
The term Dominion was used to distinguish the federal government from the provinces, though after the Second World War the term federal had replaced dominion. Indigenous peoples in present-day Canada include the First Nations, Métis, the last being a mixed-blood people who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations and Inuit people married European settlers; the term "Aboriginal" as a collective noun is a specific term of art used in some legal documents, including the Constitution Act 1982. The first inhabitants of North America are hypothesized to have migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 14,000 years ago; the Paleo-Indian archeological sites at Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are two of the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada. The characteristics of Canadian indigenous societies included permanent settlements, complex societal hierarchies, trading networks; some of these cultures had collapsed by the time European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and have only been discovered through archeological investigations.
The indigenous population at the time of the first European settlements is estimated to have been between 200,000
Biddle House (Mackinac Island)
The Biddle House is a historic house and fur trade shop space, built before 1800 on Market Street on Mackinac Island in the U. S. state of Michigan. It is part of Mackinac Island State Park, it is a Michigan Registered Site and a contributing resource to Mackinac Island's status as a National Historic Landmark. The origins of the Biddle House are unknown, but its New France architectural lines and heritage indicate that it was built about 1780, at the time of the first settlement of Mackinac Island by Euro-Americans; the American fur trade grew on Mackinac Island after the War of 1812, about 1822, fur trader Edward Biddle, a member of the Philadelphia-based Biddle family, occupied the house and refitted it to serve as a home for his family and a shop space to exchange trade goods for furs of the Upper Great Lakes ecosystem, including pelts from the beaver, mink and raccoon. Edward Biddle's success in the fur trade was associated with two significant factors: his marriage to Agatha Biddle, a leading member of the Odawa nation of Native Americans who possessed an extensive regional kinship network, his close ties with the then-dominant American Fur Company.
The Biddles bought the house outright in 1832. The Biddle House, extensively restored in 1959, is part of the Mackinac Island State Park, admission is by Fort Mackinac ticket; the State Park interprets the Biddle House to its appearance in the 1820s, when it was the prosperous Biddles' family home. Interpretation centers on the house's reconstructed period kitchen, where the process of early-19th century meal preparation is demonstrated in a working open-hearth fireplace; the Biddle House was listed as a Michigan Registered Site in 1960 as #HB02. A historic marker, posted adjacent to the Biddle House's front door, reads as follows: This house is the oldest on the island. Parts of it may date from 1780. A deed to the property upon which a $100 down payment was made in 1822 by Edward Biddle was obtained by him in 1827 from the owner. Biddle was a cousin of a leading trader and citizen. For years he lived here with his Indian wife; the house is an example of the Quebec rural style. It is listed in the Historic American Buildings Survey and was restored by the Michigan Society of Architects and the building industry in 1959
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, object, site, or structure, recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Of over 90,000 places listed on the country's National Register of Historic Places, only some 2,500 are recognized as National Historic Landmarks. A National Historic Landmark District may include contributing properties that are buildings, sites or objects, it may include non-contributing properties. Contributing properties may or may not be separately listed. Prior to 1935, efforts to preserve cultural heritage of national importance were made by piecemeal efforts of the United States Congress. In 1935, Congress passed the Historic Sites Act, which authorized the Interior Secretary authority to formally record and organize historic properties, to designate properties as having "national historical significance", gave the National Park Service authority to administer significant federally owned properties. Over the following decades, surveys such as the Historic American Buildings Survey amassed information about culturally and architecturally significant properties in a program known as the Historic Sites Survey.
Most of the designations made under this legislation became National Historic Sites, although the first designation, made December 20, 1935, was for a National Memorial, the Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, Missouri; the first National Historic Site designation was made for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on March 17, 1938. In 1960, the National Park Service took on the administration of the survey data gathered under this legislation, the National Historic Landmark program began to take more formal shape; when the National Register of Historic Places was established in 1966, the National Historic Landmark program was encompassed within it, rules and procedures for inclusion and designation were formalized. Because listings triggered local preservation laws, legislation in 1980 amended the listing procedures to require owner agreement to the designations. On October 9, 1960, 92 properties were announced as designated NHLs by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton; the first of these was a political nomination: the Sergeant Floyd Monument in Sioux City, Iowa was designated on June 30 of that year, but for various reasons, the public announcement of the first several NHLs was delayed.
NHLs are designated by the United States Secretary of the Interior because they are: Sites where events of national historical significance occurred. More than 2,500 NHLs have been designated. Most, but not all, are in the United States. There are the District of Columbia. Three states account for nearly 25 percent of the nation's NHLs. Three cities within these states all separately have more NHLs than 40 of the 50 states. In fact, New York City alone has more NHLs than all but five states: Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. There are 74 NHLs in the District of Columbia; some NHLs are in U. S. commonwealths and territories, associated states, foreign states. There are 15 in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, other U. S. territories. S.-associated states such as Micronesia. Over 100 ships or shipwrecks have been designated as NHLs. About half of the National Historic Landmarks are owned; the National Historic Landmarks Program relies on suggestions for new designations from the National Park Service, which assists in maintaining the landmarks.
A friends' group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, works to preserve and promote National Historic Landmarks. If not listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an NHL is automatically added to the Register upon designation. About three percent of Register listings are NHLs. American Water Landmark List of U. S. National Historic Landmarks by state List of churches that are National Historic Landmarks in the United States Listed building, a similar designation in the UK National Historic Sites and Persons, similar designations in Canada National Natural Landmark United States Memorials United States National Register of Historic Places listings Official National Historic Landmarks Program website A History of the NHL Program List of National Historic Landmarks National Historic Landmarks: Archaeological Properties Historical Landmarks - United States Lighthouses
Mackinac Island Airport
Mackinac Island Airport is a public use airport in Mackinac County, United States. It is located one nautical mile northwest of downtown Mackinac Island, Michigan in the center of Mackinac Island; the airport is owned by Mackinac Island State Park Commission. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a basic general aviation facility. Mackinac Island Airport started as a grass strip in 1934, it got a paved runway in 1963 and a terminal building in 1969. A $4.6 million project in 2012 moved the runway 65 feet east to a flatter location. Mackinac Island Airport covers an area of 125 acres at an elevation of 739 feet above mean sea level, it has one runway designated 8/26 with a concrete surface measuring 3,501 by 75 feet. For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2015, the airport had 11,100 aircraft operations, an average of 30 per day: 32% air taxi and 68% general aviation. In March 2017, there were no aircraft based at this airport.
The airport is staffed September through May from 7:30AM until 5:30PM, June through August from 8AM until 5PM. There is no fuel available at Mackinac Island Airport; the closest FBOs with fuel are in St. Ignace and Pellston. No camping is allowed on Mackinac Island, but nearby Bois Blanc island has an airstrip and allows camping at the field. Pilot Controlled Lighting is on 122.8, UNICOM is on 122.7 The airport is accessible by road from Annex Road, is close to M-185 Michigan's only highway that prohibits vehicles. One special note is that no motorized vehicles, with the exception of emergency vehicles, snowmobiles in winter, are allowed on Mackinac Island. Travel on the island is accomplished on foot, horse-drawn vehicle, or bicycle. Walking: The airport is about 1.6 miles by paved road from Market Street and the downtown area shops and restaurants. Taxi: The Mackinac Island Taxi Service runs horse-drawn taxi carriages 24 hours from May to October. Reservations are recommended to be made before flight departure to Mackinac Island, or a taxi can be requested any time, by calling the Taxi Service radio dispatch: phone 847-3323.
Bicycles: There are no bicycle rentals available at the airport, but there are several bicycle rental businesses downtown. Some private bikes can be stored in the racks outside the airport terminal. On July 13, 2010, a owned Beechcraft Baron 58, registered as N3081N, en route from Mackinac Island Airport to Chicago Executive Airport crashed shortly after takeoff from Mackinac County Airport where it had stopped to refuel. Four Israeli-American citizens were killed, another was injured. On December 3, 2011, a Great Lakes Air Piper PA-32-260 registered as N33315 crashed en route from St. Ignace, killing both passengers. In July and August 2013, a Cessna 172 and ERCO Ercoupe experienced weather issues on the runway, causing substantial damage to both aircraft. Mackinac Island Airport official Facebook Page Mackinac Island Airport webpage Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau Great Lakes Air Inc. "Mackinac Island". at Michigan DOT Airport Directory Aerial image as of April 1998 from USGS The National Map FAA Terminal Procedures for MCD, effective March 28, 2019 Resources for this airport: FAA airport information for MCD AirNav airport information for KMCD ASN accident history for MCD FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker NOAA/NWS latest weather observations SkyVector aeronautical chart, Terminal Procedures
M-185 (Michigan highway)
M-185 is a state trunkline highway in the U. S. state of Michigan that circles Mackinac Island, a popular tourist destination on the Lake Huron side of the Straits of Mackinac, along the island's shoreline. A narrow paved road of 8.004 miles, it offers scenic views of the straits that divide the Upper and the Lower peninsulas of Michigan and Lakes Huron and Michigan. It has no connection to any other Michigan state trunkline highways—as it is on an island—and is accessible only by passenger ferry; the City of Mackinac Island, which shares jurisdiction over the island with the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, calls the highway Main Street within the built-up area on the island's southeast quadrant, Lake Shore Road elsewhere. M-185 passes by several important sites within Mackinac Island State Park, including Fort Mackinac, Arch Rock, British Landing, Devil's Kitchen. Lake Shore Road carries the highway next to the Lake Huron shoreline, running between the water's edge and woodlands outside the downtown area.
According to the Michigan Department of Transportation, M-185 is "the only state highway in the nation where motor vehicles are banned". Traffic on it is on horse, by horse-drawn vehicle, or by bicycle. Restrictions on automobiles date back to the 1890s, since the ban, only a few vehicles have been permitted on the island other than the city's emergency vehicles; the highway was built during the first decade of the 20th century by the state and designated as a state highway in 1933. The highway was paved in the 1950s, portions were rebuilt to deal with shoreline erosion in the 1980s; until an accident in 2005, it was the only state highway without any automobile accidents. As a circular highway, M-185 has no specific termini; the highway uses wooden markers to measure miles instead of the common metal signage. M-185 is one of only three state trunkline highways in Michigan on islands. No part of M-185 has been listed on the National Highway System, a network of roadways important to the country's economy and mobility.
Over a half million people travel along the trunkline in a year. Mackinac Island has been a tourist destination since the late 19th century; the island was the country's second national park, after Yellowstone, until the land was given to Michigan in 1895 to become its first state park. M-185 has been recognized in the press for its unique role as the only state highway without car traffic in the United States by such publications as the Chicago Tribune, The Kansas City Star, The Saturday Evening Post, the Toronto Star. and In 2003, it was named the "best scenic drive" in the state by The Detroit News. In 2008, USA Today named the island one of the "10 great places to get your feet back on the ground" as a car-free destination, highlighting the unique status of M-185 in the process; the magazine Paraplegia News, in an article encouraging its readers to visit Mackinac Island, called the trek around the island on M-185 a "high priority" for visitors. The trip around the island "provides a photo opportunity at every bend in the path", according to the PSA Journal, the official magazine of the Photographic Society of America.
The beginning and ending of M-185 is marked at the intersection of Main and Fort streets next to the visitor center. That building is operated by the MISPC, but it was a US Coast Guard station. From its starting point, M-185 heads east between Marquette Park, at the base of Fort Mackinac, the marina at Haldimand Bay; the roadway passes the Indian Dormitory, as well as various hotels and breakfast establishments, private residences and landmarks such as Sainte Anne's Catholic Church, Mission Church and the Mission House. Main Street turns northeasterly, passing Mission Point Resort, after which the road name changes to Lake Shore Road. Along this section of the trunkline, Shoreline Trail departs to the south and follows the water's edge before returning to M-185 at the city's water filtration plant. After rounding Mission Point, M-185 continues north-northwesterly along the eastern shore of Mackinac Island, first passing Dwightwood Spring the Arch Rock viewing area just beyond the mile 1 marker.
The next two miles of M-185 are isolated and devoid of major landmarks as the highway rounds Hennepin Point and runs along Voyageur's Bay. Other than a few picnic tables, the only feature between Arch Rock and mile 3 is the Lake Shore Nature Trail, a short interpretive trail on the inland side of the road. Just beyond mile 3, Scott's Shore Road, a short gravel-surfaced connecting roadway between Lake Shore Road and Scott's Road, departs inland near Point St. Clair. M-185 is bounded by the interior woods on one side and the beaches and rocky shores on the other through this area. Mile 4 is situated at Point aux Pins at the northernmost point of the island. Here, M-185 turns southerly, passing the state boat dock and a nature center before coming to British Landing at the intersection with British Landing Road; the area is a popular stopping point for tourists biking or walking M-185. Located around British Landing are various amenities including restrooms, picnic tables, a concession stand. M-185 passes the mile 5 marker near Radisson Point.
The next area along M-185 is sparsely developed as it passes along Griffin Cove
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States, the United Kingdom, their respective allies from June 1812 to February 1815. Historians in Britain see it as a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars. From the outbreak of war with Napoleonic France, Britain had enforced a naval blockade to choke off neutral trade to France, which the US contested as illegal under international law. To man the blockade, Britain impressed American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy. Incidents such as the Chesapeake–Leopard affair, which happened five years before the war, inflamed anti-British sentiment in the US. In 1811, the British were in turn outraged by the Little Belt affair, in which 11 British sailors died. Britain supplied Native Americans who raided American settlers on the frontier, hindering American expansion and provoking resentment. Historians debate whether the desire to annex some or all of British North America contributed to the American decision to go to war. On June 18, 1812, US President James Madison, after heavy pressure from the War Hawks in Congress, signed the American declaration of war into law.
With most of its army in Europe fighting Napoleon, Britain adopted a defensive strategy, with offensive operations limited to the border, the western frontier. American prosecution of the war effort suffered from its unpopularity in New England, where it was derogatorily referred to as "Mr. Madison's War". American defeats at the Siege of Detroit and the Battle of Queenston Heights thwarted attempts to seize Upper Canada, improving British morale. American attempts to invade Lower Canada and capture Montreal failed. In 1813, the Americans won the Battle of Lake Erie, gaining control of the lake, at the Battle of the Thames defeated Tecumseh's Confederacy, securing a primary war goal. A final American attempt to invade Canada was fought to a draw at the Battle of Lundy's Lane during the summer of 1814. At sea, the powerful Royal Navy blockaded American ports, cutting off trade and allowing the British to raid the coast at will. In 1814, one of these raids burned the capital, but the Americans repulsed British attempts to invade New York and Maryland, ending invasions of the northern and mid-Atlantic United States from Canada.
Fighting took place overseas in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In neighbouring Spanish Florida, a two-day battle for the city of Pensacola ended in Spanish surrender. In Britain, there was mounting opposition to wartime taxation. With the abdication of Napoleon, the war with France ended and Britain ceased impressment, rendering the issue of the impressment of American sailors moot; the British were able to increase the strength of the blockade on the United States coast, annihilating American maritime trade, but attempts to invade the U. S. ended unsuccessfully. Peace negotiations began in August 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24. News of the peace did not reach America for some time. Unaware of the treaty, British forces invaded Louisiana and were defeated at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815; these late victories were viewed by Americans as having restored national honour, leading to the collapse of anti-war sentiment and the beginning of the Era of Good Feelings, a period of national unity.
News of the treaty arrived shortly thereafter. The treaty was unanimously ratified by the US Senate on February 17, 1815, ending the war with no boundary changes. Historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812; this section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States. As Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard affair. H. W. Brands says, "The other war hawks spoke of the struggle with Britain as a second war of independence; the approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was about vindication of American identity." Americans at the time and historians since have called it the United States' "Second War of Independence". The British were offended by what they considered insults such as the Little Belt affair.
This gave the British a particular interest in capturing the United States flagship President, which they succeeded in doing in 1815. In 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via the Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, which Britain was fighting in the Napoleonic Wars; the United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law. Historian Reginald Horsman states, "a large section of influential British opinion, both in the government and in the country, thought that America presented a threat to British maritime supremacy."The American merchant marine had nearly doubled between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton and 50% of other U. S. exports. The British public and press were resentful of commercial competition; the United States' view was. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man.
While the Royal Navy could man its ships with volunteers in peacetime, it competed in wartime with merchant shi
Mission Church (Michigan)
The Mission Church was a historic Congregational church located at the corner of Huron and Tuscott Streets on Mackinac Island, United States. Built in 1829, it was the oldest surviving church in the state of Michigan. In 1971, the Mission Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Sainte Anne Church was built before this, as the island had a historic French and Metis population before Anglo-American settlement, its original building was replaced by a new structure in 1874, still used. The Mission Church was constructed in the New England Colonial church style, it was a 1-1/2 story rectangular frame building sitting atop a plastered stone foundation and covered with clapboard siding. The base construction was of heavy timber, the interior was plastered; the front facade had a double-door center entrance, boasts a square tower topped with an octagonal belfry. The roof was covered with wooden shingles. French Jesuits established a mission to the Ottawa in this area in the 17th century.
Their church did not have a permanent priest after suppression of the Jesuits in Canada in the late 18th century. This Sainte Anne Church was used by the French and Metis residents who were the majority of the permanent population through the early 1800s, most connected to the fur trade; the church did not have a permanent priest for some years, but devoted parishioners kept the congregation active. Magdelaine Laframboise, a prominent Métis fur trader, donated land next to her mansion for the church when it needed a new site. In 1874, a new Sainte Anne Church was built there, still in use; the first permanent Christian pastoral presence on Mackinac Island was that of David Bacon, who lived on the island for a short time beginning in 1802. Following the conclusion of the War of 1812, the number of Anglo-American residents on the island and in the region increased. In 1821, Jedidiah Morse was reputed to have preached on the island on a Sunday. In 1823, missionaries William Montague Ferry and his wife Amanda founded a Protestant mission on the southeast corner of Mackinac Island at the location since known as Mission Point.
This mission was to educate Indian youth, enrolled students from all around the Great Lakes region. In 1825, they built a boardinghouse and school at the site, for some time the schoolroom was used as a chapel. During the winter of 1828-29, the Ferrys' congregation grew, adding 33 people to total 52 congregants. Soon the churchgoers included Island residents such as American Fur Company magnate Robert Stuart and ethnographer Henry Schoolcraft, married to an English-Ojibwe woman, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. In 1829-1830 their congregation built this church. Heydenburk and helpers cut and planed lumber on the main shore, transported it to the island, finished the church over the winter; the church was dedicated on March 4, 1831. The congregation grew to number about 80, but changes soon came to the island: the American Fur Company withdrew as the fur trade declined in the 1830s. The tribes which the mission school served were being removed to locations west of the Mississippi River; the mission, with it the church congregation, declined.
The Ferrys left Mackinac Island in 1834, in 1837, the mission was closed. In 1838 the mission property, including the church, was sold to a private owner; the church was used for some years for political meetings and plays, for church services. In 1870 it was reroofed and used temporarily by the Catholic Church for services until the current Sainte Anne's was constructed in 1874; the building continued to deteriorate. In the late 19th century, the island became used a summer resort destination for people from major cities such as Chicago and Detroit; the Grand Hotel was constructed in 1887. The seasonal influx of summer residents soon overwhelmed the space available for the island's small Protestant congregation. In 1894, a group of residents purchased the church for nondenominational services, restored it, opened it in the summer of 1895, it was used for years for Protestant services in the summer. The Mackinac Island State Park Commission did some renovation. In the 1980s, the church was extensively restored.
As of 2012, the church is open to the public daily in the summer, can be rented for weddings. Oldest churches in the United States Historic American Buildings Survey record
United States
