1.
Summit
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A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a maximum in elevation. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak, and zenith are synonymous, the UIAA definition is that a summit is independent if it has a prominence of 30 metres or more, it is a mountain if it has a prominence of at least 300 metres. This can be summarised as follows, A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top, Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. In many parts of the western United States, the term refers to the highest point along a road, highway. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit while the highest point on Interstate 5 is Siskiyou Mountain Summit, geoid Hill List of highest mountains Maxima and minima Nadir Summit accordance Peak finder
2.
Topographic prominence
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It is a measure of the independence of a summit. A peaks key col is a point on this contour line. By convention, the prominence of Mount Everest, the Earths highest mountain, is taken to equal the elevation of its summit above sea level, if the peaks prominence is P metres, to get from the summit to any higher terrain one must descend at least P metres. Together with the convention for Mount Everest, this implies that the prominence of any island or continental highpoint is equal to its elevation above sea level, for every ridge connecting the peak to higher terrain, find the lowest point on the ridge. The key col is defined as the highest of these cols, the prominence is the difference between the elevation of the peak and the elevation of the key col. The following mental exercise may illustrate the meaning of topographic prominence, imagine you are standing at the top of a peak and imagine that an imaginary sea level rises to your feet. Now slowly lower the sea level and an imaginary island appears beneath your feet. Your island will grow and will merge with other islands that emerge, the parent peak may be either close or far from the subject peak. The summit of Mount Everest is the parent peak of Aconcagua at a distance of 17,755 km, the key col may also be close or far from the subject peak. The key col for Aconcagua is the Bering Strait at a distance of 13,655 km, the key col for the South Summit of Mount Everest is about 100 m distant. Prominence is interesting to many mountaineers because it is a measurement that is strongly correlated with the subjective significance of a summit. Peaks with low prominences are either subsidiary tops of some higher summit or relatively insignificant independent summits, peaks with high prominences tend to be the highest points around and are likely to have extraordinary views. Only summits with a sufficient degree of prominence are regarded as independent mountains, for example, the worlds second-highest mountain is K2. While Mount Everests South Summit is taller than K2, it is not considered an independent mountain because it is a subsummit of the main summit, many lists of mountains take topographic prominence as a criterion for inclusion, or cutoff. John and Anne Nuttalls The Mountains of England and Wales uses a cutoff of 15 m, in the contiguous United States, the famous list of fourteeners uses a cutoff of 300 ft /91 m. Also in the U. S.2000 feet of prominence has become a threshold that signifies that a peak has major stature. This generates lists of peaks ranked by prominence, which are different from lists ranked by elevation. Such lists tend to emphasize isolated high peaks, such as range or island high points, one advantage of a prominence-ranked list is that it needs no cutoff, since a peak with high prominence is automatically an independent peak
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Albany County, Wyoming
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Albany County is a county in the U. S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2010 census, the population was 36,299 and its county seat is Laramie, the site of the University of Wyoming. It is north from the Colorado state line, Albany County comprises the Laramie, WY Micropolitan Statistical Area. Albany County was organized December 16,1868, from Laramie County in Dakota Territory and it became a county in Wyoming Territory when that territorys government was formally organized on May 19,1869. Charles D. Bradley, a member of the legislature of the Dakota Territory named the county for Albany, New York, in 1875, Albany County lost territory when Crook County and Johnson County were created by the legislature of the Wyoming Territory. Converse County was created with land ceded by Albany County in 1888, the boundaries of the county were final at that time except for minor adjustments in 1911 and 1955. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 4,309 square miles. Highway 30 U. S. Highway 287 WYO230 WYO130 At the 2000 census, the population density was 8 per square mile. There were 15,215 housing units at a density of 4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 91. 32% White,1. 11% Black or African American,0. 95% Native American,1. 7% Asian,0. 06% Pacific Islander,2. 65% from other races, and 2. 22% from two or more races. 7. 49% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,24. 4% were of German,11. 1% English,10. 2% Irish and 6. 1% American ancestry. 31. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 6. 2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.84. 18. 4% of the population were under the age of 18,28. 2% from 18 to 24,26. 1% from 25 to 44,19. 1% from 45 to 64, the median age was 27 years. For every 100 females there were 106.7 males, for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.4 males. The median household income was $28,790 and the family income was $44,334. Males had an income of $31,087 compared with $22,061 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,706. About 10. 8% of families and 21. 0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15. 7% of those under the age of 18 and 8. 8% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line
5.
Carbon County, Wyoming
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Carbon County is a county located in the U. S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2010 census, the population was 15,885 and it is north from the Colorado state line. Carbon County was organized in 1868. S. government and this area is defined by the 42nd parallel on the north, and straight lines south from there to the headwaters of the Arkansas river on the east and the headwaters of the Rio Grande on the west. The documents defining that area include the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, the 1824 Constitution of Mexico, Carbon County was organized December 16,1868, from Laramie County in Dakota Territory, which at the time had jurisdiction over part of modern-day Wyoming. It became a county in Wyoming Territory when that government was formally organized on May 19,1869. In 1868, the Union Pacific Railroad opened the first coal mine in Carbon County, in 1875, Carbon County lost territory when Johnson County was created by the legislature of the Wyoming Territory. Natrona County was created with land ceded by Carbon County in 1888, the boundaries of the county were final at that time except for minor adjustments in 1911. From 1978-1982, Carbon County was represented in the Wyoming House of Representatives by Democrat Thomas E. Trowbridge of Saratoga, from 1982-1986, Trowbridge was a member of the Wyoming State Senate. He was later appointed by Governor Mike Sullivan to the Wyoming State Board of Equalization, trowbridges father, Elton Trowbridge, held the state House seat from Carbon County from 1961 until his death in office in 1974. George R. Salisbury, Jr. a rancher from Savery and he was succeeded in office by his son-in-law and fellow Democrat, Patrick F. OToole, also a Savery rancher. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 7,964 square miles. It is the third-largest county in Wyoming by area, the population density was 2 people per square mile. There were 8,307 housing units at a density of 1 per square mile. 13. 83% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,20. 1% were of German,11. 8% English,10. 0% Irish and 8. 9% American ancestry. Of 6,129 households,364 were unmarried partner households,318 heterosexual,41 same-sex male,27. 50% of all households were made up of individuals and 9. 60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the family size was 2.91. In the county, the population was out with 24. 10% under the age of 18,8. 60% from 18 to 24,28. 40% from 25 to 44,26. 70% from 45 to 64. The median age was 39 years, for every 100 females there were 115.30 males
6.
Wyoming
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Wyoming /waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/ is a state in the mountain region of the western United States. The state is the tenth largest by area, the least populous, Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city in Wyoming, the state population was estimated at 586,107 in 2015, which is less than the population of 31 of the largest U. S. cities. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were some of the inhabitants of the region. Southwestern Wyoming was included in the Spanish Empire and then Mexican territory until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. The region acquired the name Wyoming when a bill was introduced to Congress in 1865 to provide a government for the territory of Wyoming. The territory was named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, with the name ultimately being derived from the Munsee word xwé, wamənk, the mineral extraction industry—especially coal, oil, natural gas, and trona—along with the travel and tourism sector are the main drivers behind Wyomings economy. Agriculture has historically been an important component of the economy with the main commodities being livestock, hay, sugar beets, grain. The climate is generally semi-arid and continental, being drier and windier in comparison to the rest of the United States, except for the 1964 election, Wyoming has been a politically conservative state since the 1950s, with the Republican party winning every presidential election. Wyoming is one of three states to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the tenth largest state in the United States in total area, from the north border to the south border it is 276 miles, and from the east to the west border is 365 miles at its south end and 342 miles at the north end. The Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, the state is a great plateau broken by many mountain ranges. Surface elevations range from the summit of Gannett Peak in the Wind River Mountain Range, at 13,804 feet, to the Belle Fourche River valley in the states northeast corner, at 3,125 feet. In the northwest are the Absaroka, Owl Creek, Gros Ventre, Wind River, in the north central are the Big Horn Mountains, in the northeast, the Black Hills, and in the southern region the Laramie, Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges. The Snowy Range in the central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies in both geology and appearance. The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes more than 40 mountain peaks in excess of 13,000 ft tall in addition to Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state. The Big Horn Mountains in the central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains
7.
Mountain range
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A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically related. Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys, individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earths land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Andes is 7,000 kilometres long and is considered the worlds longest mountain system. The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, the belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, mountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a range is stretched to include underwater mountains. The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, the sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains, equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians. The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow, when air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation. As the air descends on the side, it warms again and is drier. Often, a shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills, rivers are traditionally believed to be the principle erosive factor on mountain ranges, with their ability of bedrock incision and sediment transport. The rugged topography of a range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to a mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example and this mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift
8.
Medicine Bow Mountains
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The Medicine Bow Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that extend for 100-mile from northern Colorado into southern Wyoming. The northern extent of this range is the sub-range the Snowy Range, in Wyoming, the range sits west of Laramie, in Albany and Carbon counties to the route of the Union Pacific Railroad and U. S. The mountains often serve as a symbol for the city of Laramie, the range is home to Snowy Range Ski Area. The highest peak in the range is Clark Peak, located in Rawah Wilderness and is along the end of the range in Northern Colorado. Much of the range is located within the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming, the highest peak on the Wyoming side is Medicine Bow Peak. The range is drained along the flank by the Michigan and Canadian rivers. On its eastern flank it is drained by the Laramie River, another tributary of the North Platte, the Medicine Bow Mountains resulted from continental compression during the Laramide Orogeny. Beginning about 70 million years ago, the Rockies began uplifting along thrust faults that broke up the Precambrian granite of Earths crust, by 50 million years ago, all of Wyomings major mountain ranges were elevated and the major basins defined. Rocks exposed along the flanks and peaks of the Medicine Bow Mountains span the Precambrian to modern and this rock was once a shallow marine sand deposit that has since been compressed and heated during burial, forming the metamorphic rock, quartzite. What may be traces of animals are preserved in this rock. The Cheyenne belt, the 1. 78–1.74 billion year old suture between the Wyoming craton and the Yavapai province that formed as North America was assembled, is exposed in the Medicine Bow Mountains. Brook and rainbow trout as well as grayling and golden trout are found in the streams, a disjunct population of arctic fairy shrimp has been documented in a few lakes in the northern part of the range. Since 1987, the Glacier Lakes area of the Snowy Range has been home to the Glacier Lakes Ecosystem Experiments Site, a field unit of the Rocky Mountain Research Station, United States Forest Service. Areas of scientific inquiry at the site include atmospheric pollutant deposition, forest carbon and water vapor cycling, effect of insect outbreaks, the site is 642 ha in extent and hosts facilities for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, the National Dry Deposition Network and AmeriFlux. This mountain range is home to some of the remains of a Douglas DC-4 aircraft. The aircraft crashed into Medicine Bow Peak on October 6,1955, killing all 66 people on board
9.
Topographic map
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Traditional definitions require a topographic map to show both natural and man-made features. A topographic map is published as a map series, made up of two or more map sheets that combine to form the whole map. A contour line is a line connecting places of equal elevation, however, in the vernacular and day to day world, the representation of relief is popularly held to define the genre, such that even small-scale maps showing relief are commonly called topographic. The study or discipline of topography is a broader field of study. Topographic maps are based on topographical surveys, performed at large scales, these surveys are called topographical in the old sense of topography, showing a variety of elevations and landforms. This is in contrast to older cadastral surveys, which primarily show property, the first multi-sheet topographic map series of an entire country, the Carte géométrique de la France, was completed in 1789. Topographic surveys were prepared by the military to assist in planning for battle, as such, elevation information was of vital importance. As they evolved, topographic map series became a resource in modern nations in planning infrastructure. Excluding borders, each sheet was 44 cm high and up to 66 cm wide, although the project eventually foundered, it left an indexing system that remains in use. TIGER was developed in the 1980s and used in the 1990, digital elevation models were also compiled, initially from topographic maps and stereographic interpretation of aerial photographs and then from satellite photography and radar data. Since all these were government projects funded with taxes and not classified for security reasons. Initial applications were mostly professionalized forms such as innovative surveying instruments, by the mid-1990s, increasingly user-friendly resources such as online mapping in two and three dimensions, integration of GPS with mobile phones and automotive navigation systems appeared. As of 2011, the future of standardized, centrally printed topographical maps is left somewhat in doubt, the various features shown on the map are represented by conventional signs or symbols. For example, colors can be used to indicate a classification of roads and these signs are usually explained in the margin of the map, or on a separately published characteristic sheet. Topographic maps are commonly called contour maps or topo maps. In the United States, where the national series is organized by a strict 7. 5-minute grid. Topographic maps conventionally show topography, or land contours, by means of contour lines, contour lines are curves that connect contiguous points of the same altitude. In other words, every point on the line of 100 m elevation is 100 m above mean sea level
10.
United States Geological Survey
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The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its resources. The organization has four science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology. The USGS is a research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior, the USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, the current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is science for a changing world. The agencys previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its anniversary, was Earth Science in the Public Service. Prompted by a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the USGS was created, by a last-minute amendment and it was charged with the classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain. This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the legislation also provided that the Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler surveys be discontinued as of June 30,1879. Clarence King, the first director of USGS, assembled the new organization from disparate regional survey agencies, after a short tenure, King was succeeded in the directors chair by John Wesley Powell. Administratively, it is divided into a Headquarters unit and six Regional Units, Other specific programs include, Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide. The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location, the USGS also runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System. The USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, and it also maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research. It also conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards, USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time, the USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online, since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global, lunar, and planetary exploration and mapping. USGS operates a number of related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program. USGS Water data is available from their National Water Information System database
11.
Quartzite
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Quartzite is a hard, non-foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to grey, though quartzites often occur in shades of pink. Other colors, such as yellow, green, blue and orange, are due to other minerals, when sandstone is cemented to quartzite, the individual quartz grains recrystallize along with the former cementing material to form an interlocking mosaic of quartz crystals. Most or all of the texture and sedimentary structures of the sandstone are erased by the metamorphism. The grainy, sandpaper-like surface becomes glassy in appearance, minor amounts of former cementing materials, iron oxide, silica, carbonate and clay, often migrate during recrystallization and metamorphosis. This causes streaks and lenses to form within the quartzite, orthoquartzite is a very pure quartz sandstone composed of usually well-rounded quartz grains cemented by silica. Orthoquartzite is often 99% SiO2 with only minor amounts of iron oxide and trace resistant minerals such as zircon, rutile. Although few fossils are present, the original texture and sedimentary structures are preserved. The term is traditionally used for quartz-cemented quartz arenites. Quartzite is very resistant to weathering and often forms ridges. The nearly pure silica content of the rock provides little for soil, therefore, because of its hardness and angular shape, crushed quartzite is often used as railway ballast. Quartzite is a stone and may be used to cover walls, as roofing tiles, as flooring. Its use for countertops in kitchens is expanding rapidly and it is harder and more resistant to stains than granite. Crushed quartzite is used in road construction. High purity quartzite is used to produce ferrosilicon, industrial silica sand, during the Paleolithic quartzite was used, in addition to flint, quartz, and other lithic raw materials, for making stone tools. Quartzite is also found in the Morenci Copper Mine in Arizona, the town of Quartzsite in western Arizona derives its name from the quartzites in the nearby mountains in both Arizona and Southeastern California. A glassy vitreous quartzite has been described from the Belt Supergroup in the Coeur d’Alene district of northern Idaho, in the United Kingdom, a craggy ridge of quartzite called the Stiperstones runs parallel with the Pontesford-Linley fault,6 km north-west of the Long Mynd in south Shropshire
12.
Laramie, Wyoming
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Laramie /ˈlærəmi/ is a city and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 30,816 at the 2010 census, located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U. S. Route 287. Laramie was settled in the mid-19th century along the Union Pacific Railroad line and it is home to the University of Wyoming, Wyoming Technical Institute, and a branch of Laramie County Community College. The ruins of Fort Sanders, an army fort predating Laramie, lie just south of the city along Route 287. Located in the Laramie Valley between the Snowy Range and the Laramie Range, the city draws outdoor enthusiasts with its abundance of outdoor activities, and is the home of the University of Wyoming. In 2011, Laramie was named as one of the best cities in which to retire by Money Magazine, which cited its scenic location, low taxes, and educational opportunities. Laramie was named for Jacques LaRamie, a French or French-Canadian trapper who disappeared in the Laramie Mountains in the late 1810s and was never heard from again and he was one of the first Europeans to visit the area. European-American settlers named a river, mountain range, peak, US Army fort, county, more Wyoming landmarks are named for him than for any other trapper but Jim Bridger. Because the name was used so frequently, the town was called Laramie City for decades to distinguish it from other uses. Laramie was founded in the mid-1860s as a tent city near the Overland Stage Line route, the Union Pacific portion of the first transcontinental railroad, the rails reached Laramie on May 4,1868 when construction crews worked through town. A few passengers arrived on that same day, the first regular passenger service began on May 10,1868, by which time entrepreneurs were building more permanent structures. Laramie City soon had stores, houses, a school, and this was due to the threat to the community from three half-brothers, early Old West gunman Big Steve Long, Con Moyer and Ace Moyer. Long was Laramies first marshal, and with his brothers owned the saloon Bucket of Blood, the three began harassing settlers, forcing them to sign over the deeds to their property to them. Any who refused was killed, usually goaded into a gunfight by Long, by October 1868, Long had killed 13 men. The first Albany County sheriff, rancher N. K. Boswell, on October 28,1868, Boswell led the committee into the Bucket of Blood, overwhelmed the three brothers, and lynched them at an unfinished cabin down the street. Through a series of other lynchings and other forms of intimidation, in 1869, Wyoming was organized as Wyoming Territory, the first legislature of which passed a bill granting equal political rights to women in the territory. In March 1870, five Laramie residents became the first women in the world to serve on a jury. As Laramie was the first town in Wyoming to hold an election, on September 6,1870
13.
Wyoming Highway 130
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Wyoming Highway 130 is known locally as the Snowy Range Road. It makes its way west from Laramie across the plains, the road then turns north through the town of Saratoga, and ends at Interstate 80. WYO130 heads east across the Medicine Bow Mountains and through part of the Medicine Bow National Forest, six miles east of Centennial,130 intersects Wyoming Highway 11 which provides a route to Albany. From there Highway 130 travels 17 miles in a due east direction over rolling hills. At 91.7 miles Wyoming Highway 12 is intersected, from here the routes 130 and 230 run together into Laramie as Snowy Range Road. This is the instance in Wyoming where two state routes are merged. Shortly after, Snowy Range Road has an interchange with I-80, the current routing of Wyoming 130 from the Highway 74 junction south to the Highway 230 junction was once part of Wyoming Highway 70. Originally Highway 130 traveled southeast along the Carbon County Route 504 path to Ryan Park, the roadway from Ryan Park to the WYO 130/WYO230 junction was not built at that time. Then 130 resumes its current course east to Centennial and Laramie, Wyoming State Route 200-299 WYO130 - I-80 Bus/US 30/US 287/WYO230 to I-80/US 30/US287 Snowy Range Scenic Byway Scenic Mountain Drives - Snowy Range Road
14.
Proterozoic
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The Proterozoic is a geological eon representing the time just before the proliferation of complex life on Earth. The name Proterozoic comes from Greek and means life, the Greek root protero-, means former, earlier and zoic-, means animal. The Proterozoic Eon extended from 2500 Ma to 541 Ma, and is the most recent part of the Precambrian Supereon and it is subdivided into three geologic eras, the Paleoproterozoic, Mesoproterozoic, and Neoproterozoic. The geologic record of the Proterozoic Eon is more complete than that for the preceding Archean Eon, studies of these rocks have shown that the eon continued the massive continental accretion that had begun late in the Archean Eon. The Proterozoic Eon also featured the first definitive supercontinent cycles and wholly modern mountain building activity, there is evidence that the first known glaciations occurred during the Proterozoic. One of the most important events of the Proterozoic was the accumulation of oxygen in the Earths atmosphere, until roughly 2.3 billion years ago, oxygen was probably only 1% to 2% of its current level. The Banded iron formations, which provide most of the iron ore, are one mark of that mineral sink process. Their accumulation ceased after 1.9 billion years ago, after the iron in the oceans had all been oxidized, red beds, which are colored by hematite, indicate an increase in atmospheric oxygen 2 billion years ago. Such massive iron oxide formations are not found in older rocks, the Proterozoic Eon was a very tectonically active period in the Earth’s history. The late Archean Eon to Early Proterozoic Eon corresponds to a period of increasing crustal recycling, suggesting subduction, evidence for this increased subduction activity comes from the abundance of old granites originating mostly after 2.6 Ga. The appearance of eclogites, which metamorphic rocks created by pressure, are explained using a model that incorporates subduction. As a result of remelting of basaltic oceanic crust due to subduction, the long-term tectonic stability of those cratons is why we find continental crust ranging up to a few billion years in age. It is believed that 43% of modern continental crust was formed in the Proterozoic, 39% formed in the Archean, studies by Condie 2000 and Rino et al.2004 suggest that crust production happened episodically. By isotopically calculating the ages of Proterozoic granitoids it was determined there were several episodes of rapid increase in continental crust production. The reason for these pulses is unknown, but they seemed to have decreased in magnitude after every period, evidence of collision and rifting between continents raises the question as to what exactly were the movements of the Archean cratons composing Proterozoic continents. Paleomagnetic and geochronological dating mechanisms have allowed the deciphering of Precambrian Supereon tectonics and it is known that tectonic processes of the Proterozoic Eon resemble greatly the evidence of tectonic activity, such as orogenic belts or ophiolite complexes, we see today. Hence, most geologists would conclude that the Earth was active at that time and it is also commonly accepted that during the Precambrian, the Earth went through several supercontinent breakup and rebuilding cycles. In the late Proterozoic, the dominant supercontinent was Rodinia and it consisted of a series of continents attached to a central craton that forms the core of the North American Continent called Laurentia
15.
Periglaciation
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Periglaciation describes geomorphic processes that result from seasonal thawing of snow in areas of permafrost, the runoff from which refreezes in ice wedges and other structures. Periglacial suggests an environment located on the margin of past glaciers, however, freeze and thaw cycles influence landscapes outside areas of past glaciation. Therefore, periglacial environments are anywhere that freezing and thawing modify the landscape in a significant manner, tundra is a common ecological community in periglacial areas. Periglaciation became a subject within the study of geology after Walery Łoziński. Łoziński drew upon the work of Johan Gunnar Andersson. According to Alfred Jahn, his introduction of his work at the 1910 International Geological Congress held in Stockholm caused significant discussion, in the field trip to Svalbard that followed the congress participants were able to observe the phenomena reported by Łoziński, directly. Łoziński published his contribution to the congress in 1912, from 1950 to 1970, periglacial geomorphology developed chiefly as a subdiscipline of climatic geomorphology that was current in Europe at the time. The journal Biuletyn Peryglacjalny, established in 1954 by Jan Dylik, was important for the consolidation of the discipline, albeit the definition of what a periglacial zone is not clear-cut a conservativa estimated is that a quarter of Earths land surface has periglacial conditions. Beyond this quarter an additional quarter or fifth or Earths land surface had periglacial conditions at some time during the Pleistocene, in the northern hemisphere larger swathes of northern Asia and northern North America are periglaciated. In Europe parts of Fennoscandia, Iceland, northern European Russia, in addition Alpine areas in the non-arctic northern hemisphere might also be subject to periglaciation. A major outlier in the northern hemisphere is the Tibetan Plateau that stands out by its size, in the southern hemisphere parts of the Andes, the ice-free areas of Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands are periglaciated. Since Carl Troll introduced the concept of climate in 1944 there have various attempts to classify the diversity of periglacial climates. Hugh M. Periglacial environments tend to be found in higher latitudes, since there is more land at these latitudes in the north, most of this effect is seen in the northern hemisphere. However, in latitudes, the direct effect of the suns radiation is greater so the freeze-thaw effect is seen. Altitude – Air temperature drops by approximately 1 °C for every 100 m rise above sea level and this means that on mountain ranges, modern periglacial conditions are found nearer the Equator than they are lower down. Conversely, warm currents from tropical seas increases mean temperatures. The cold conditions are found only in more northerly places. This is apparent in western North America which is affected by the North Pacific current, in the same way but more markedly, the Gulf Stream affects Western Europe
16.
Glacial lake
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A glacial lake is a lake with origins in a melted glacier. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land, and then melts, near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,000 years ago, glaciers began to retreat. A retreating glacier left behind large deposits of ice in hollows between drumlins or hills. As the ice age ended, these melted to create lakes and this is apparent in the Lake District in Northwestern England where post-glacial sediments are normally between 4 and 6 metres deep. These lakes are surrounded by drumlins, along with other evidence of the glacier such as moraines, eskers and erosional features such as striations. The scouring action of the glaciers pulverizes minerals in the rock over which the glacier passes and these pulverized minerals become sediment at the bottom of the lake, and some of the rock flour becomes suspended in the water column. These suspended minerals support a population of algae, making the water appear green. These lakes are visible in aerial photos of landforms in regions that were glaciated during the last ice age. The coastlines near these areas are very irregular, reflecting the same geological process. By contrast, other areas have fewer lakes that often appear attached to rivers and these areas were carved more by water erosion. As seen in the English Lake District, the layers of the sediments at the bottom of the lakes contain evidence of the rate of erosion. The elemental make up of the sediments are not associated with the lakes themselves, the distribution of these elements, within the lake bed, are attributed to the condition of the drainage basin and the chemical composition of the water. The amount halogens and boron found in the sediments accompanies a change in erosional activity, the rate of deposition reflects the amount of halogen and boron in the deposited sediments. Great Lakes of North America Glacial history of Minnesota Proglacial lake Moraine-dammed lake Subglacial lake Zungenbecken
17.
Orogeny
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An Orogeny is an event that leads to a large structural deformation of the Earths lithosphere due to the interaction between tectonic plates. Orogens or orogenic belts develop when a plate is crumpled and is pushed upwards to form mountain ranges. Orogeny is the mechanism by which mountains are built on continents. The word orogeny comes from Ancient Greek, though it was used before him, the term was employed by the American geologist G. K. Gilbert in 1890 to describe the process of mountain building as distinguished from epeirogeny. Formation of an orogen is accomplished in part by the processes of subduction or convergence of two or more continents. Orogeny usually produces long arcuate structures, known as orogenic belts, generally, orogenic belts consist of long parallel strips of rock exhibiting similar characteristics along the length of the belt. Orogenic belts are associated with zones, which consume crust, produce volcanoes. Geologists attribute the arcuate structure to the rigidity of the descending plate and these island arcs may be added to a continent during an orogenic event. The processes of orogeny can take tens of millions of years, frequently, rock formations that undergo orogeny are severely deformed and undergo metamorphism. Orogenic processes may push deeply buried rocks to the surface, sea-bottom and near-shore material may cover some or all of the orogenic area. If the orogeny is due to two continents colliding, very high mountains can result, an orogenic event may be studied, as a tectonic structural event, as a geographical event, and as a chronological event. The foreland basin forms ahead of the orogen due mainly to loading and resulting flexure of the lithosphere by the mountain belt. The basin migrates with the front and early deposited foreland basin sediments become progressively involved in folding and thrusting. Sediments deposited in the basin are mainly derived from the erosion of the actively uplifting rocks of the mountain range. The fill of many such shows an change in time from deepwater marine through shallow water to continental sediments. Although orogeny involves plate tectonics, the tectonic forces result in a variety of associated phenomena, including magmatism, metamorphism, crustal melting, what exactly happens in a specific orogen depends upon the strength and rheology of the continental lithosphere, and how these properties change during orogenesis. In addition to orogeny, the orogen is subject to other processes, for example, the Caledonian Orogeny refers to the Silurian and Devonian events that resulted from the collision of Laurentia with Eastern Avalonia and other former fragments of Gondwana. The Caledonian Orogen resulted from events and various others that are part of its peculiar orogenic cycle
18.
Precambrian
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The Precambrian is the earliest period of Earths history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is a supereon that is subdivided into three eons of the time scale. It spans from the formation of Earth about 4.6 billion years ago to the beginning of the Cambrian Period, about 541 million years ago, the Precambrian accounts for 89% of geologic time. Relatively little is known about the Precambrian, despite it making up roughly seven-eighths of the Earths history, the Precambrian fossil record is poorer than that of the succeeding Phanerozoic, and fossils from that time are of limited biostratigraphic use. This is because many Precambrian rocks have been metamorphosed, obscuring their origins, while others have been destroyed by erosion. A stable crust was apparently in place by 4,412 Ma, the term Precambrian is recognized by the International Commission on Stratigraphy as a general term including the Archean and Proterozoic eons. It is still used by geologists and paleontologists for general discussions not requiring the more specific eon names and it was briefly called the Cryptozoic eon. A specific date for the origin of life has not been determined, carbon found in 3.8 billion year old rocks from islands off western Greenland may be of organic origin. Well-preserved microscopic fossils of bacteria older than 3.46 billion years have found in Western Australia. Probable fossils 100 million years older have been found in the same area, there is a fairly solid record of bacterial life throughout the remainder of the Precambrian. The oldest fossil evidence from that era of such complex life comes from the Lantian formation of the Ediacarian period, a very diverse collection of soft-bodied forms is found in a variety of locations worldwide and date to between 635 and 542 Ma. These are referred to as Ediacaran or Vendian biota, hard-shelled creatures appeared toward the end of that time span, marking the beginning of the Phanerozoic era. By the middle of the following Cambrian period, a diverse fauna is recorded in the Burgess Shale. The explosion in diversity of lifeforms during the early Cambrian is called the Cambrian explosion of life, while land seems to have been devoid of plants and animals, cyanobacteria and other microbes formed prokaryotic mats that covered terrestrial areas. Evidence of the details of plate motions and other activity in the Precambrian has been poorly preserved. It is generally believed that small proto-continents existed prior to 4280 Ma, the supercontinent, known as Rodinia, broke up around 750 Ma. A number of glacial periods have been identified going as far back as the Huronian epoch, one of the best studied is the Sturtian-Varangian glaciation, around 850–635 Ma, which may have brought glacial conditions all the way to the equator, resulting in a Snowball Earth. The atmosphere of the early Earth is not well understood, most geologists believe it was composed primarily of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and other relatively inert gases, and was lacking in free oxygen
19.
Unconformity
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An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the layer was exposed to erosion for an interval of time before deposition of the younger. The significance of angular unconformity was shown by James Hutton, who found examples of Huttons Unconformity at Jedburgh in 1787, the rocks above an unconformity are younger than the rocks beneath. An unconformity represents time during which no sediments were preserved in a region, the local record for that time interval is missing and geologists must use other clues to discover that part of the geologic history of that area. The interval of time not represented is called a hiatus. A disconformity is an unconformity between parallel layers of rocks which represents a period of erosion or non-deposition. Disconformities are marked by features of subaerial erosion and this type of erosion can leave channels and paleosols in the rock record. A paraconformity is a type of disconformity in which the separation is a simple bedding plane with no obvious buried erosional surface. A nonconformity exists between sedimentary rocks and metamorphic or igneous rocks when the rock lies above and was deposited on the pre-existing. Namely, if the rock below the break is igneous or has lost its bedding due to metamorphism, the whole sequence may later be deformed and tilted by further orogenic activity. A typical case history is presented by the evolution of the Briançonnais realm during the Jurassic. A paraconformity is a type of unconformity in which strata are parallel, there is no apparent erosion and it is also called nondepositional unconformity or pseudoconformity. A buttress unconformity occurs when younger bedding is deposited against older strata thus influencing its bedding structure. S, bureau of Mines Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms published on CD-ROM in 1996
20.
Gneiss
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Gneiss is a common distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks. The foliations are characterized by alternating darker and lighter colored bands, the word gneiss comes from the Middle High German verb gneist. It has occurred in English since at least 1757, gneissic rocks are usually medium- to coarse-foliated, they are largely recrystallized but do not carry large quantities of micas, chlorite or other platy minerals. Gneisses that are metamorphosed igneous rocks or their equivalent are termed granite gneisses, diorite gneisses, gneiss rocks may also be named after a characteristic component such as garnet gneiss, biotite gneiss, albite gneiss, etc. Orthogneiss designates a gneiss derived from a rock, and paragneiss is one from a sedimentary rock. Gneissose rocks have properties similar to gneiss, gneiss appears to be striped in bands, called gneissic banding. The banding is developed under high temperature and pressure conditions, the minerals are arranged into layers that appear as bands in cross section. The appearance of layers, called compositional banding, occurs because the layers, the darker bands have relatively more mafic minerals. The lighter bands contain relatively more felsic and these forces stretch out the rock like a plastic, and the original material is spread out into sheets. Another cause of banding is metamorphic differentiation, which separates different materials into different layers through chemical reactions, not all gneiss rocks have detectable banding. In kyanite gneiss, crystals of kyanite appear as random clumps in what is mainly a plagioclase matrix, henderson gneiss is found in North Carolina and South Carolina, US, east of the Brevard Shear Zone. It has deformed into two sequential forms, the second, more warped, form is associated with the Brevard Fault, and the first deformation results from displacement to the southwest. Most of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland have a formed from Lewisian gneiss. In addition to the Outer Hebrides, they form basement deposits on the Scottish mainland west of the Moine Thrust and on the islands of Coll and Tiree. These rocks are igneous in origin, mixed with metamorphosed marble, quartzite and mica schist with later intrusions of basaltic dikes. Gneisses of Archean and Proterozoic age occur in the Baltic Shield, in antiquity, gneisses were also utilized in architectural construction. They were used to erect the Sphinx of Taharqo in the Nile Valley, list of rock types Blatt, Harvey and Robert J. Tracy. Petrology, Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic, 2nd ed. Freeman, mcKirdy, Alan, Roger Crofts and John Gordon
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Pseudofossil
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Pseudofossils are inorganic objects, markings, or impressions that might be mistaken for fossils. Pseudofossils may be misleading, as types of mineral deposits can mimic lifeforms by forming what appear to be highly detailed or organized structures. One common example is when manganese oxides crystallize with a characteristic treelike or dendritic pattern along a rock fracture, the formation of frost dendrites on a window is another common example of this crystal growth. Concretions are sometimes thought to be fossils, and occasionally one contains a fossil, chert or flint nodules in limestone can often take forms that resemble fossils. Pyrite disks or spindles are sometimes mistaken for fossils of sand dollars or other forms, cracks, bumps, gas bubbles, and such can be difficult to distinguish from true fossils. Specimens which cannot be attributed with certainty to either the fossils or the pseudofossils are treated as dubiofossils, debates about whether specific forms are pseudo or true fossils can be lengthy and difficult. For example, Eozoön is a complex laminated form of interlayered calcite and it was at first thought to be the remains of a giant fossil protozoan, then being by far the oldest fossil known. Similar structures were found in metamorphosed limestone blocks ejected during an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. It was clear that high-temperature physical and chemical processes were responsible for the formation of Eozoön in the carbonate rock, the debate over the interpretation of Eozoon was a significant episode in the history of paleontology. Adelman, J. Eozoön, debunking the dawn animal, on the structure of certain organic remains in the Laurentian limestones of Canada. OBrien, C. F. Eozoön canadense The dawn animal of Canada, the coprolites that arent, the straight poop on specimens from the Miocene of southwestern Washington State
22.
Arapaho
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The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota, the Arapaho language, Heenetiit, is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early offshoot of the Arapaho. Blackfeet and Cheyenne are the other Algonquian-speakers on the Plains, by the 1850s, Arapaho bands formed two tribes, the Northern Arapaho and Southern Arapaho. Since 1878, the Northern Arapaho have lived with the Eastern Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and are recognized as the Arapahoe Tribe of the Wind River Reservation. The Southern Arapaho live with the Southern Cheyenne in Oklahoma, together, their members are enrolled as the federally recognized Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. It is uncertain where the word Arapaho came from and it may have come from the Pawnee word for trader, iriiraraapuhu, or it may have been a corruption of a Crow word for tattoo. The Arapaho autonym is Hinonoeino or Inun-ina, when referring to the tribe they use Hinonoeiteen and they were also known as Hitanwoiv or Hetanevoeo/Hetanevoeoo by their Cheyenne allies or Mahpíyato by Dakota, Maȟpíya thó by Lakota and Assiniboine. The Caddo called them Detsekayaa, the Wichita Niarharis-kûrikiwaahûski, and the Comanche Saria Tʉhka / Säretika, to Pawnee, Ute and other tribes they were also known as “dog-eaters”. The Northern Arapaho were also known as BSakuunena, the Cheyenne adapted the Arapaho terms and referred to the Northern Arapaho as Vanohetan or Vanohetaneo/ Vánoétaneoo and to the Southern Arapaho as Nomsennat or Nomseneo. The Arapaho recognize among themselves five main divisions, each speaking a different dialect and apparently representing as many originally distinct, through much of Arapaho history, each tribal-nation maintained a separate ethnic identity, although they occasionally came together and acted as political allies. Each also spoke mutually intelligible dialects, but there existed a degree of difference from Arapaho proper, dialectically, the Haaninin, Beesowuunenno, and Hinonoeino were closely related. Arapaho elders claimed that the Hánahawuuena dialect was the most difficult to comprehend of all the dialects, Hánahawuuena, Hananaxawuunenan or Aanûnhawa, occupying territory adjacent to, but further north of the Nanwacinahaana, spoke the now extinct Haanahawunena dialect. Hinonoeino or Hinanaeinan, they spoke the Arapaho language Beesowuunenno, Baasanwuunenan or Bäsawunena and their war parties used temporary brush shelters like the dome-shaped shade or Sweat lodge of the Great Lakes Algonquian peoples. They are said to have left their old homes more recently than the other Arapaho tribes, before their historic geo-political ethnogensis, each tribal-nation had a principal headman. The exact date of the fusion or fission of each social division is not known. Both sacred objects traditionally were kept by the Beesowuunenno, the different tribal-nations lived together and the Beesowuunenno have dispersed for at least 150 years among the former distinct Arapaho tribal groups. They keep the sacred tribal articles, and are considered the nucleus or mother tribe of the Arapaho and they absorbed the historic Hánahawuuena and Beesowuunenno. There are still about 50 people of Beesowuunenno-lineage among the Northern Arapaho, Southern Arapaho, Náwunena or Noowunenno, are called by the Northern Arapaho Nawathineha, the Kiowa know them as Ähayädal, the name for the wild plum
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Cheyenne
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The Cheyenne are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and their language is of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Sótaeoo or Sótaétaneoo and the Tsétsêhéstâhese and these tribes merged in the early 19th century. At the time of their first contact with the Europeans, the Cheyenne were living in the area of what is now Minnesota, at times they have been allied with the Lakota and Arapaho, and at other points enemies of the Lakota. In the early 18th century they migrated west across the Mississippi River and into North and South Dakota, having settled the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Powder River Country of present-day Montana, they introduced the horse culture to Lakota bands about 1730. Allied with the Arapaho, the Cheyenne pushed the Kiowa to the Southern Plains, in turn, they were pushed west by the more numerous Lakota. The Cheyenne Nation or Tsêhéstáno was at one time composed of ten bands that spread across the Great Plains from southern Colorado to the Black Hills in South Dakota and they fought their traditional enemies, the Crow and later the United States Army forces. In the mid-19th century, the bands began to split, with some choosing to remain near the Black Hills. Tribal enrollment figures, as of late 2014, indicate there are approximately 10,840 members. Approximately 91% of the population are Native Americans, with 72. 8% identifying themselves as Cheyenne, slightly more than one quarter of the population five years or older spoke a language other than English. The Southern Cheyenne, known in Cheyenne as Heévâhetaneoo meaning Roped People, together with the Southern Arapaho, form the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and their combined population is 12,130, as of 2008. In 2003, approximately 8,000 of these identified themselves as Cheyenne, the Tsétsêhéstâhese, which translates to those who are like this. Though the identity of the Šahíya is not known, many Great Plains tribes assume it means Cree or some people who spoke an Algonquian language related to Cree. The Cheyenne word for Ojibwe is Sáheaeoo, a word that sounds similar to the Dakota word Šahíya, another of the common etymologies for Cheyenne is a bit like the alien speech. The etymology of the name Tsitsistas, which the Cheyennes call themselves, is uncertain, grinnells record is typical, he states They call themselves Tsistsistas, which the books commonly give as meaning people. It most likely related to one another, similarly bred, like us, our people. The term for the Cheyenne homeland is Tsiihistano, the Cheyenne of Montana and Oklahoma speak the Cheyenne language, known as Tsêhésenêstsestôtse. Approximately 800 people speak Cheyenne in Oklahoma, there are only a handful of vocabulary differences between the two locations. The Cheyenne alphabet contains 14 letters, the Cheyenne language is one of the larger Algonquian-language group
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Lakota people
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They speak the Lakota language, the westernmost of the three Siouan language groups, occupying lands in both North and South Dakota. Siouan language speakers may have originated in the lower Mississippi River region and they were agriculturalists and may have been part of the Mound Builder civilization during the 9th–12th centuries CE. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Dakota-Lakota speakers lived in the upper Mississippi Region in present-day Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, conflicts with Anishnaabe and Cree peoples pushed the Lakota west onto the Great Plains in the mid- to late-17th century. Early Lakota history is recorded in their Winter counts, pictorial calendars painted on hides or later recorded on paper, the Battiste Good winter count records Lakota history back to 900 CE, when White Buffalo Calf Woman gave the Lakota people the White Buffalo Calf Pipe. Around 1730, Cheyenne people introduced the Lakota to horses, called šuŋkawakaŋ, after their adoption of horse culture, Lakota society centered on the buffalo hunt on horseback. The total population of the Sioux was estimated at 28,000 by French explorers in 1660, the Lakota population was first estimated at 8,500 in 1805, growing steadily and reaching 16,110 in 1881. The Lakota were, thus, one of the few Native American tribes to increase in population in the 19th century, the number of Lakota has now increased to more than 170,000, of whom about 2,000 still speak the Lakota language. However, by about 1750 the Saône had moved to the east bank of the Missouri River, followed 10 years later by the Oglála, the large and powerful Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa villages had long prevented the Lakota from crossing the Missouri. However, the smallpox epidemic of 1772–1780 destroyed three-quarters of these tribes. The Lakota crossed the river into the drier, short-grass prairies of the High Plains and these newcomers were the Saône, well-mounted and increasingly confident, who spread out quickly. In 1765, a Saône exploring and raiding party led by Chief Standing Bear discovered the Black Hills, ten years later, the Oglála and Brulé also crossed the river. In 1776, the Lakota defeated the Cheyenne, who had taken the region from the Kiowa. The Cheyenne then moved west to the Powder River country, initial United States contact with the Lakota during the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806 was marked by a standoff. Lakota bands refused to allow the explorers to continue upstream, and the expedition prepared for battle, some bands of Lakotas became the first Indians to help the United States Army in an Indian war west of the Missiouri during the Arikara War in 1823. In 1843, the southern Lakotas attacked Pawnee Chief Blue Coats village near the Loup in Nebraska, killing many, next time the Lakotas inflicted a blow so severe on the Pawnee would be in 1873, during the Massacre Canyon battle near Republican River. The Cheyenne and Lakota had previously attacked emigrant parties in a competition for resources, the Fort Laramie Treaty acknowledged Lakota sovereignty over the Great Plains in exchange for free passage on the Oregon Trail for as long as the river flows and the eagle flies. The United States government did not enforce the treaty restriction against unauthorized settlement, Lakota and other bands attacked settlers and even emigrant trains, causing public pressure on the U. S. Army to punish the hostiles. On September 3,1855,700 soldiers under American General William S. Harney avenged the Grattan Massacre by attacking a Lakota village in Nebraska, killing about 100 men, women, and children
25.
Ute people
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Ute people /ˈjuːt/ are Native Americans of the Ute tribe and culture. They are now living primarily in Utah and Colorado, the Ute are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People. They have three Ute tribal reservations, Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah, Southern Ute in Colorado, and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, the majority of Ute are believed to live on one of these reservations. The State of Utah is named after these people, the primary language of the Ute people is English. However, some of the people speak their ancestral Ute language. It is related to the Southern Paiute language and belongs to the Southern subdivision of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, a dictionary and grammar have been written for the language, and the Bible has been translated into Ute. Several orthographies exist, but the language is written in the Latin script, different ideas about the phonetic spelling of many names and some words has caused confusion about the spelling, so many names are often spelled in several different ways. An example is Timpanogos, which has also been spelled as Toompahnahwach, Tumpanuwac, Tumpanawach, Timpanog, Tumpipanogo or Timanogos, from this area, speakers of Uto-Aztecan languages gradually diffused northward and southward. The Ute, Paiute, Shoshone, Comanche and some belong to what is called the Numic subdivision within the Uto-Aztecan language family. It is believed that this Numic group originated near the border of Nevada and California, then spread North, the Numic group is divided into 3 main subdivisions - Southern, Central and Western. Not all of the languages are mutually intelligible, especially those in different subdivisions, Ute and Southern Paiute are Southern Numic Languages, while Shoshone, Gosiute and Comanche are Central Numic, and Northern Paiute and Bannock are Western Numic. The Numic-speaking tribes share many cultural, genetic and linguistic characteristics, many of the tribes met and merged with each other or divided from each other at various times. For instance, the Comanche split off from the Shoshone in about the mid-1600s, since the mid-1800s, some Ute bands merged with Southern Paiute bands to become Paiute. Some possibly Shoshonean tribes, such as the Timpanogos, merged with the Ute and it is also true that there were many times when the tribes did not get along. The name Comanche is from the Ute name for them, kɨmantsi, before Mexican settlers arrived, the Utes occupied significant portions of what are today eastern Utah, western Colorado, including the San Luis Valley, and parts of New Mexico and Wyoming. The Utes were never a group within historic times, instead. Some of the largest known groups were the Capote, Moache, Moanumts, Parianuche, Taviwach, Weeminuche, also the Uintah or Uinta, Uncompahgre tribe and White River Utes. The last partial migration of the Utes within this area was in the year 1885, “In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln signed an executive order establishing the original Uintah Valley Reservation in the eastern part of the Utah territory
26.
Shoshone
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The Shoshone were sometimes called the Snake Indians by neighboring tribes and early American explorers. Their peoples have become members of recognized tribes throughout their traditional areas of settlement, often colocated with the Paiute. The name Shoshone comes from Sosoni, a Shoshone word for high-growing grasses, some neighboring tribes call the Shoshone Grass House People, based on their traditional homes made from soshoni. Shoshones call themselves Newe, meaning People, meriwether Lewis recorded the tribe as the Sosonees or snake Indians in 1805. The Shoshoni language is spoken by approximately 1,000 people today and it belongs to the Central Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Speakers are scattered from central Nevada to central Wyoming, the largest numbers of Shoshoni speakers live on the federally recognized Duck Valley Indian Reservation, located on the border of Nevada and Idaho, and Goshute Reservation in Utah. Idaho State University also offers Shoshoni-language classes, the Shoshone are a Native American tribe, who originated in the western Great Basin and spread north and east into present-day Idaho and Wyoming. By 1500, some Eastern Shoshone had crossed the Rocky Mountains into the Great Plains, after 1750, warfare and pressure from the Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho pushed Eastern Shoshone south and westward. Some of them moved as far south as Texas, emerging as the Comanche by 1700, as more European-American settlers migrated west, tensions rose with the indigenous people over competition for territory and resources. Wars occurred throughout the half of the 19th century. The Northern Shoshone, led by Chief Pocatello, fought during the 1860s with settlers in Idaho, as more settlers encroached on Shoshone hunting territory, the natives raided farms and ranches for food, and attacked immigrants. The warfare resulted in the Bear River Massacre, when US forces attacked and killed an estimated 410 Northwestern Shoshone, a large number of the dead were civilians, including women and children, deliberately killed by the soldiers. This was the highest number of deaths which the Shoshone suffered at the hands of United States forces, allied with the Bannock, to whom they were related, the Shoshone fought against the United States in the Snake War from 1864 to 1868. They fought US forces together in 1878 in the Bannock War, in 1876, by contrast, the Shoshone fought alongside the U. S. Army in the Battle of the Rosebud against their traditional enemies, the Lakota and Cheyenne. In 1879 a band of approximately 300 Eastern Shoshone became involved in the Sheepeater Indian War and it was the last Indian war fought in the Pacific Northwest region of the present-day United States. In 1911 a small group of Bannock under a leader named Mike Daggett, also known as Shoshone Mike, killed four ranchers in Washoe County, the settlers formed a posse and went out after the Native Americans. They caught up with the Bannock band on February 26,1911 and they lost one man of the posse, Ed Hogle. The posse captured three children and a woman, a rancher donated the partial remains of three adult males, two adult females, two adolescent males, and three children to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC for study
27.
Biome
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A biome /ˈbaɪoʊm/ is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in, and can be found over a range of continents. Spanning continents, biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate, biome is a broader term than habitat, any biome can comprise a variety of habitats. While a biome can cover large ares, a microbiome is a mix of organisms that coexist in a space as well. For example, the microbiome is the collection of bacteria, viruses. The biotas of the Earth make up the biosphere, the term was suggested in 1916 by Clements, originally as a synonym for biotic community of Möbius. In 1935, Tansley added the climatic and soil aspects to the idea, the International Biological Program projects popularized the concept of biome. However, in contexts, the term biome is used in a different manner. Both includes many biomes in fact and their boundaries must therefore be drawn arbitrarily and their characterization made according to the average conditions that predominate in them. A1978 study on North American grasslands found a positive correlation between evapotranspiration in mm/yr and above-ground net primary production in g/m2/yr. These findings help explain the categories used in Holdridge’s bioclassification scheme, Holdridge uses the four axes to define 30 so-called humidity provinces, which are clearly visible in his diagram. While this scheme largely ignores soil and sun exposure, Holdridge acknowledged that these were important and his scheme can be seen as a simplification of Holdridges, more readily accessible, but missing Holdridges greater specificity. Whittaker based his approach on theoretical assertions and empirical sampling and he was in a unique position to make such a holistic assertion because he had previously compiled a review of biome classifications. Physiognomy, the apparent characteristics, outward features, or appearance of communities or species. Biome, a grouping of terrestrial ecosystems on a continent that are similar in vegetation structure, physiognomy, features of the environment. Formation, a kind of community of plants on a given continent. Biome-type, grouping of convergent biomes or formations of different continents, whittakers distinction between biome and formation can be simplified, formation is used when applied to plant communities only, while biome is used when concerned with both plants and animals. Whittakers convention of biome-type or formation-type is simply a method to categorize similar communities. Whittaker considered four main ecoclines in the terrestrial realm, changes in physiognomic complexity vary with how favorable of an environment exists
28.
Alpine tundra
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Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high altitude. The high altitude causes an adverse climate, which is too cold, Alpine tundra transitions to sub-alpine forests below the tree line, stunted forests occurring at the forest-tundra ecotone are known as Krummholz. With increasing elevation it ends at the line where snow. Alpine tundra occurs in mountains worldwide, the flora of the alpine tundra is characterized by dwarf shrubs close to the ground. The cold climate of the tundra is caused by the lack of greenhouse effect at high altitude. Alpine tundra occurs at high altitude at any latitude. Portions of Montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregions worldwide include alpine tundra, Alpine tundra occupies high-mountain summits, slopes, and ridges above timberline. Aspect plays a role as well, the treeline often occurs at higher elevations on warmer equator-facing slopes, with limited access to infrastructure, only a handful of human communities exist in alpine zones. Many are small and have heavily specialized economies, often relying on such as agriculture, mining. An example of such a town is La Rinconada, Peru, a gold-mining town. A counterexample is El Alto, Bolivia, at 4,150 metres, which has a diverse service and manufacturing economy. Alpine climate is the weather for the alpine tundra. The climate becomes colder at high elevations—this characteristic is described by the rate of air, air tends to get colder as it rises. The dry adiabatic lapse rate is 10 °C per km of elevation or altitude, therefore, moving up 100 metres on a mountain is roughly equivalent to moving 80 kilometers towards the pole. This relationship is only approximate, however, since local factors such as proximity to oceans can drastically modify the climate, typical high-elevation growing seasons range from 45 to 90 days, with average summer temperatures near 10 °C. Growing season temperatures frequently fall below freezing, and frost occurs throughout the season in many areas. Precipitation occurs mainly as snow, but soil water availability is highly variable with season, location. For example, snowfields commonly accumulate on the lee sides of ridges while ridgelines may remain nearly snow free due to redistribution by wind, some alpine habitats may be up to 70% snow free in winter
29.
Montane ecosystems
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Montane ecosystems refers to any ecosystem found in mountains. These ecosystems are affected by climate, which gets colder as elevation increases. They are stratified according to elevation, dense forests are common at moderate elevations. However, as the elevation increases, the climate becomes harsher, as elevation increases, the climate becomes cooler, due to a decrease in the greenhouse effect. The characteristic flora and fauna in the mountains tend to depend on elevation. This dependency causes life zones to form, bands of similar ecosystems at similar altitude, one of the typical life zones on mountains is the montane forest, at moderate elevations, the rainfall and temperate climate encourages dense forests to grow. Holdridge defines the climate of montane forest as having a biotemperature of between 6 and 12 °C, where biotemperature is the mean temperature considering temperatures below 0 °C to be 0 °C. Above the elevation of the montane forest, the trees thin out in the zone, become twisted krummholz. Therefore, Montane forests often contain trees with twisted trunks and this phenomenon is observed due to the increase in the wind strength with the elevation. The elevation where trees fail to grow is called the tree line. The biotemperature of the zone is between 3 and 6 °C. Above the tree line the ecosystem is called the zone or alpine tundra, dominated by grasses. The biotemperature of the zone is between 1.5 and 3 °C. Many different plant species live in the environment, including perennial grasses, sedges, forbs, cushion plants, mosses. Alpine plants must adapt to the conditions of the alpine environment, which include low temperatures, dryness, ultraviolet radiation. Alpine plants display adaptations such as structures, waxy surfaces. Because of the characteristics of these zones, the World Wildlife Fund groups a set of related ecoregions into the montane grassland and shrubland biome. Climates with biotemperatures below 1.5 °C tend to consist purely of rock, Montane forests occur between the submontane zone and the subalpine zone. The elevation at which one habitat changes to another varies across the globe, the upper limit of montane forests, the forest line or timberline, is often marked by a change to hardier species that occur in less dense stands
30.
Taiga
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Taiga also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces and larches. The taiga is the worlds largest biome apart from the oceans, in North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States, where it is known as the Northwoods or North woods. However, the tree species, the length of the growing season. Hoffman discusses the origin of this use in North America. Although at high elevations taiga grades into alpine tundra through Krummholz, it is not an alpine biome only like subalpine forest, Taiga is the worlds largest land biome, and makes up 29% of the worlds forest cover, the largest areas are located in Russia and Canada. The taiga is the terrestrial biome with the lowest annual average temperatures after the tundra, extreme winter minimums in the northern taiga are typically lower than those of the tundra. The lowest reliably recorded temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were recorded in the taiga of northeastern Russia, the taiga or boreal forest has a subarctic climate with very large temperature range between seasons, but the long and cold winter is the dominant feature. This climate is classified as Dfc, Dwc, Dsc, Dfd and Dwd in the Köppen climate classification scheme, meaning that the summer lasts 1–3 months. In Siberian taiga the average temperature of the coldest month is between −6 °C and −50 °C, the mean annual temperature generally varies from -5 °C to 5 °C, but there are taiga areas in eastern Siberia and interior Alaska-Yukon where the mean annual reaches down to -10 °C. According to some sources, the boreal forest grades into a mixed forest when mean annual temperature reaches about 3 °C. The winters, with temperatures below freezing, last five to seven months. Temperatures vary from −54 °C to 30 °C throughout the whole year, the summers, while short, are generally warm and humid. In much of the taiga, -20 °C would be a winter day temperature and 18 °C an average summer day. In Canada, Scandinavia and Finland, the season is often estimated by using the period of the year when the 24-hour average temperature is +5 °C or more. For the Taiga Plains in Canada, growing season varies from 80 to 150 days, some sources claim 130 days growing season as typical for the taiga. Other sources mention that 50–100 frost-free days are characteristic, data for locations in southwest Yukon gives 80–120 frost-free days. The closed canopy boreal forest in Kenozersky National Park near Plesetsk, Arkhangelsk Province, Russia, the longest growing season is found in the smaller areas with oceanic influences, in coastal areas of Scandinavia and Finland, the growing season of the closed boreal forest can be 145–180 days. High latitudes mean that the sun not rise far above the horizon
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Krummholz
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Under these conditions, trees can only survive where they are sheltered by rock formations or snow cover. As the lower portion of these continues to grow, the coverage becomes extremely dense near the ground. Instances of the form of black spruce, Picea mariana, are found in the northern Canadian boreal forests. Krumholtz-form black spruce and balsam fir are abundant in the transition zone of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Subalpine fir is the most common associate of spruce in krummholz vegetation, lodgepole pine is a minor associate in most of the British Columbia interior, except in dry alpine areas of southwest Cariboo/Chilcotin district where it is abundant. Ericaceous species are common in the accumulation zone around the base of krummholz colonies. A variation of krummholz formation is a tree or banner tree. Branches on the side are killed or deformed by the almost constant strong winds. Where the lower portion of the tree is protected by snow cover or rocks, trade winds in tropical regions near the equator can also shape trees in a similar manner. Divi-divi Elfin forests Reaction wood Windthrow Krumholtz formation in Hudson Bay subarctic landscape
32.
Spruce
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A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea /paɪˈsiːə/, a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from about 20–60 m tall when mature, the needles, or leaves, of spruce trees are attached singly to the branches in a spiral fashion, each needle on a small, peg-like structure. The needles are shed when 4–10 years old, leaving the branches rough with the retained pegs, spruces are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species. They are also used by the larvae of gall adelgids, the word spruce entered the English language from the Polish Prusy, Prussia. DNA analyses have shown that traditional classifications based on the morphology of needle, Spruce has been found in the fossil record from the early Cretaceous,136 million years ago. Thirty-five named species of spruce exist in the world, the Plant List has 59 accepted spruce names. Beyond that, determination can become more difficult, intensive sampling in the Smithers/Hazelton/Houston area of British Columbia showed Douglas, according to Coates et al. Daubenmire, after sampling, had already recognized the importance of the 2 latter characters. Without cones, morphological differentiation among spruce species and their hybrids is more difficult, but, if an extended photoperiod is provided for Sitka spruce, seedlings become unacceptably tall by the end of the first growing season. g. Growth rhythm, shoot and root weight, and needle serration, or some combination of, Spruce seedlings are most susceptible immediately following germination, and remain highly susceptible through to the following spring. Seedlings that germinate late in the season are particularly vulnerable because they are tiny and have not had time to harden off fully. Mortality rates generally decrease sharply thereafter, but losses often remain high for some years, establishment is a subjective concept based on the idea that once a seedling has successfully reached a certain size, not much is likely to prevent its further development. Growth remains very slow for several to many years, Spruce is useful as a building wood, commonly referred to by several different names including North American timber, SPF and whitewood. Spruce wood is used for many purposes, ranging from construction work. The Wright brothers first aircraft, the Flyer, was built of spruce, because this species has no insect or decay resistance qualities after logging, it is generally recommended for construction purposes as indoor use only. Spruce wood, when left outside cannot be expected to last more than 12–18 months depending on the type of climate it is exposed to, Spruce is one of the most important woods for paper uses, as it has long wood fibres which bind together to make strong paper. The fibres are thin walled and collapse to thin bands upon drying, spruces are commonly used in mechanical pulping as they are easily bleached. Together with northern pines, northern spruces are commonly used to make NBSK, spruces are cultivated over vast areas as pulpwood
33.
Tree line
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The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and in frigid environments, beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions. The tree line should not be confused with a lower timberline or forest line, at the tree line, tree growth is often sparse and stunted, with the last trees forming densely matted bushes, known as krummholz. The tree line, like other natural lines, appears well-defined from a distance. Trees grow shorter towards the inhospitable climate until they stop growing. The climate above the line of mountains is called an alpine climate. In the northern hemisphere treelines on north-facing slopes are lower than on south-facing slopes because the increased shade on north-facing slopes means the snowpack takes longer to melt and this shortens the growing season for trees. In the southern hemisphere, the slopes have the shorter growing season. The alpine tree line boundary is seldom abrupt, it forms a transition zone between closed forest below and treeless alpine tundra above. Environmentally dwarfed shrubs commonly forms the upper limit, the decrease in air temperature due to increasing elevation causes the alpine climate. Skin effects and topography can create microclimates that alter the general cooling trend, however, the number of degree days calculated from leaf temperatures may be very similar in the two kinds of timberlines. A series of warm summers in the 1940s seems to have permitted the establishment of “significant numbers” of spruce seedlings above the treeline in the hills near Fairbanks. Survival depends on a sufficiency of new growth to support the tree, the windiness of high-elevation sites is also a potent determinant of the distribution of tree growth. However, snow accumulation in sheltered gullies in the Selkirk Mountains of southeastern British Columbia causes timberline to be 400 metres lower than on exposed intervening shoulders. In a desert, the line marks the driest places where trees can grow. These tend to be called the tree line and occur below about 5,000 ft elevation in the Desert Southwestern United States. In some mountainous areas, higher elevations above the line or on equator-facing and leeward slopes can result in low rainfall. This dries out the soil, resulting in an arid environment unsuitable for trees
34.
Castilleja
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These plants are classified in the broomrape family, Orobanchaceae. They are hemiparasitic on the roots of grasses and forbs, the generic name honors Spanish botanist Domingo Castillejo. Castilleja species are eaten by the larvae of some species, including Schinia cupes and Schinia pulchripennis. The flowers of Indian paintbrush are edible, and were consumed in moderation by various Native American tribes as a condiment with other fresh greens, highly alkaline soils increase the selenium levels in the plants. Indian paintbrush has similar benefits to consuming garlic if only the flowers are eaten in small amounts. The Ojibwe used a hairwash made from Indian paintbrush to make their hair glossy and full bodied, the high selenium content of this plant has been cited as the reason for its effectiveness for these purposes. Nevada Indian tribes used the plant to treat sexually transmitted diseases, Castilleja linariifolia is the state flower of Wyoming. The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, Native Plant Information Network, Listing of species in the Castilleja genus. Jepson Manual - taxonomic description of the genus
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Aquilegia
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The genus name Aquilegia is derived from the Latin word for eagle, because the shape of the flower petals, which are said to resemble an eagles claw. The common name comes from the Latin for dove, due to the resemblance of the inverted flower to five doves clustered together. The five points that stick out further than the petals are the calyx, Columbines are closely related to plants in the genera Actaea and Aconitum, which like Aquilegia produce cardiogenic toxins. They are used as food plants by some Lepidoptera caterpillars and these are mainly of noctuid moths – noted for feeding on many poisonous plants without harm – such as Cabbage Moth, Dot Moth and Mouse Moth. The Engrailed, a moth, also uses columbine as a larval foodplant. Plants in the Aquilegia genus are a food source for Bombus hortorum. Specifically, they have found to forage on species of Aquilegia vulgaris in Belgium and Aquilegia chrysantha in North America. The bees do not show any preference in color of the flowers, columbine is a hardy perennial, which propagates by seed. It will grow to a height of 15 to 20 inches and it will grow in full sun, however, it prefers growing in partial shade and well drained soil, and is able to tolerate average soils and dry soil conditions. Columbine is rated at hardiness zone 3 in the USA so does not require mulching or protection in the winter, large numbers of hybrids are available for the garden, since the European A. vulgaris was hybridized with other European and North American varieties. Aquilegia species are very interfertile, and will self-sow, some varieties are short-lived so are better treated as biennials. The following hybrid cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit, the plants seeds and roots are highly poisonous however, and contain cardiogenic toxins which cause both severe gastroenteritis and heart palpitations if consumed as food. Native Americans used very small amounts of Aquilegia root as a treatment for ulcers, however, the medical use of this plant is better avoided due to its high toxicity, columbine poisonings may be fatal. The Colorado blue columbine is the state flower of Colorado. Columbines have been important in the study of evolution and it was found that the Sierra columbine and crimson columbine each have adapted specifically to a pollinator. Bees and hummingbirds are the visitors to A. formosa, while hawkmoths would only visit A. pubescens when given a choice, such a pollination syndrome, being due to flower color and orientation controlled by their genetics, ensures reproductive isolation and can be a cause of speciation. Aquilegia petals show a range of petal spur length diversity ranging from a centimeter to the 15 cm spurs of Aquilegia longissima. Selection from pollinator shifts is suggested to have driven these changes in nectar spur length, interestingly, it was shown that this amazing spur length diversity is achieved solely through changing cell shape, not cell number or cell size
36.
Gentiana
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Gentiana /ˌdʒɛntʃiˈeɪnə/ is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the gentian family, the tribe Gentianeae, and the monophyletic subtribe Gentianinae. With about 400 species it is considered a large genus and they are notable for their mostly large, trumpet-shaped flowers, which are often of an intense blue. The genus name is a tribute to Gentius, an Illyrian king who may have been the discoverer of tonic properties in gentians and this is a cosmopolitan genus, occurring in alpine habitats in temperate regions of Asia, Europe and the Americas. Some species also occur in northwestern Africa, eastern Australia, and they are annual, biennial, and perennial plants. Some are evergreen, others are not, many gentians are difficult to grow outside their wild habitat, but several species are available in cultivation. Gentians are fully hardy and can grow in sun or partial shade. They grow in well-drained, neutral to acid soils rich in humus and they are popular in rock gardens. Many beverages are made with gentian root and it is used to produce gentian, a distilled beverage produced in the Alps. Some species are harvested for the manufacture of apéritifs, liqueurs, gentian root is a common beverage flavouring for bitters. The soft drink Moxie contains gentian root, the French liqueur Suze is made with gentian. Americano apéritifs contain gentian root for bitter flavoring and it is an ingredient in the Italian liqueur Aperol. It is also used as the flavor in the German after-dinner digestif called Underberg. Gentians have oppositely arranged leaves, sometimes in a basal rosette, the trumpet-shaped flowers are usually deep blue or azure, but can be white, cream, yellow, or red. Many species are polymorphic with respect to color, bearing flowers of different colors. Blue-flowered species predominate in the Northern Hemisphere, with red-flowered species dominant in the Andes, white-flowered species are scattered throughout the range of the genus but dominate in New Zealand. Most flowers are pentamerous, with 5 lobes in the corolla and 5 sepals, a few species have 4 to 7 flower parts. The corolla has folds called plicae between the lobes, the style is short or absent. The ovary is sessile and has nectary glands
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Campanula rotundifolia
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Campanula rotundifolia is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. It has a distribution in the Northern Hemisphere, from about latitude 40° N to about 70° N. In Scotland, it is known as the bluebell. Elsewhere in Britain, bluebell refers to Hyacinthoides non-scripta, and in North America, campanula rotundifolia was historically also known by several other names including blawort, hair-bell, ladys thimble, witchs bells, and witchs thimbles. Campanula rotundifolia is a species of flowering plant, a slender, prostrate to erect herb, spreading by seed. The basal leaves are long-stalked, rounded to heart-shaped, usually toothed, with prominent hydathodes. Leaves on the stems are long and narrow and the upper ones are unstemmed. The inflorescence is a panicle or raceme, with 1 – many flowers borne on slender pedicels. The flowers usually have five pale to mid violet-blue petals fused together into a shape, about 12–30 mm long and five long. Plants with pale pink or white flowers may also occur, the petal lobes are triangular and curve outwards. The seeds are produced in a capsule about 3–4 mm diameter and are released by pores at the base of the capsule, seedlings are minute, but established plants can compete with tall grass. As with many other Campanulas, all parts of the plant exude white latex when injured or broken, the flowering period is long, and varies by location. In the British Isles, harebell flowers from July to November, in Missouri, it flowers from May to August, in Minnesota, from June to October. The flowers are pollinated by bees, but can self-pollinate and it occurs on the southern coasts of Greenland, on Iceland and Svalbard and on southern Novaya Zemlya. It occurs as tetraploid or hexaploid populations in Britain and Ireland, in Britain, the tetraploid population has an easterly distribution and the hexaploid population a westerly distribution, and very little mixing occurs at the range boundaries. Harebells are native to dry, nutrient-poor grassland and heaths in Britain, northern Europe, the plant often successfully colonises cracks in walls or cliff faces and dunes. If exposed to moist cool conditions during the summer no pause in vegetative growth is exhibited, C. rotundifolia is more inclined to occupy climates that have an average temperature below 0 °C in the cold months and above 10 °C in the summer. The harebell is dedicated to Saint Dominic, in 2002 Plantlife named it the county flower of Yorkshire in the United Kingdom
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Bighorn sheep
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The bighorn sheep is a species of sheep native to North America named for its large horns. These horns can weigh up to 14 kilograms, while the sheep themselves weigh up to 140 kg, recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered, O. c. sierrae. By 1900, the population had crashed to several thousand, due to diseases introduced through European livestock, divergence from their closest Asian ancestor occurred about 600,000 years ago. In North America, wild sheep diverged into two extant species—Dall sheep, which occupy Alaska and northwestern Canada, and bighorn sheep, which range from southern Canada to Mexico. However, the status of species is questionable given that hybridization has occurred between them in their recent evolutionary history. This subspecies has been extinct since 1925, California bighorn sheep, O. c. californiana, are found from British Columbia south to California and east to North Dakota. The definition of this subspecies has been updated, nelsons bighorn sheep, O. c. nelsoni, the most common desert bighorn sheep, ranges from California through Arizona. Mexican bighorn sheep, O. c. mexicana, range from Arizona and New Mexico south to Sonora and Chihuahua. Peninsular bighorn sheep O. c. cremnobates, occur in the Peninsular Ranges of California and Baja California Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, weems bighorn sheep, O. c. weemsi, also are found in Baja California. However, starting in 1993, Ramey and colleagues, using DNA testing, have shown this division into seven subspecies is largely illusory, most scientists currently recognize three subspecies of bighorn. Thus the three subspecies of Ovis canadensis, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep – occupying the U. S. and Canadian Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep – formerly California bighorn sheep, a genetically distinct subspecies that only occurs in the Sierra Nevada in California. However, historic observer records suggest that bighorn sheep may have ranged as far west as the California Coastal Ranges which are contiguous to the Sierra Nevada via the Transverse Ranges. An account of sheep in the vicinity of the Mission San Antonio near Jolon, California. Desert bighorn sheep – occurring throughout the regions of the Southwestern United States. The 2016 genetics study suggested more modest divergence of this desert bighorn sheep into three lineages consistent with the work of Cowan, Nelson, Mexican, and Peninsular. These three lineages occupy desert biomes that vary significantly in climate, suggesting exposure to different selection regimes, Bighorn sheep are named for the large, curved horns borne by the rams. Ewes also have horns, but they are shorter with less curvature and they range in color from light brown to grayish or dark, chocolate brown, with a white rump and lining on the backs of all four legs. Males typically weigh 58–143 kg, are 90–105 cm tall at the shoulder, females are typically 34–91 kg, 75–90 cm tall, and 1. 28–1.58 m long
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Marmot
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Marmots are large squirrels in the genus Marmota, of which there are 15 species. Other species prefer rough grassland and can be found widely across North America, the similarly-sized but more social prairie dog is not classified in the genus Marmota but in the related genus Cynomys. Marmots typically live in burrows, and hibernate there through the winter, most marmots are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed. Marmots mainly eat greens and many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots, the following is a list of all Marmota species recognized by Thorington and Hoffman plus the recently defined M. kastschenkoi. They divide marmots into two subgenera, the etymology of the term marmot is uncertain. It may have arisen from the Gallo-Romance prefix marm-, meaning to mumble or murmur, another possible origin is post-classical Latin, mus montanus, meaning mountain mouse. Beginning in 2010, Alaska celebrates February 2 as Marmot Day, the Marmot Burrow International Marmot Network
40.
Pika
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A pika is a small mammal, with short limbs, very round body, rounded ears, and no external tail. Pikas look like a combination of a rabbit, Guinea Pig or vole and they live in mountainous countries in Asia, with two species also in North America. The large-eared pika of the Himalayas and nearby mountains is one of the highest living mammals, pikas graze on a range of plants, mostly grasses, flowers and young stems. In the autumn, they pull hay, soft twigs and other stores of food into their burrows to eat during the long, the name pika is used for any member of the Ochotonidae, a family within the order of lagomorphs, which also includes the Leporidae. One genus, Ochotona, is recognised within the family, and it is also known as the whistling hare due to its high-pitched alarm call when diving into its burrow. In the United States, the pika is colloquially called a coney, a term also used for rabbits, hares. The name pika appears to be derived from the Tungus piika, pikas are native to cold climates, mostly in Asia, North America, and parts of Eastern Europe. Most species live on mountain sides, where numerous crevices in which to shelter occur. A few burrowing species are native to open steppe land, in the mountains of Eurasia, pikas often share their burrows with snowfinches, which build their nests there. Pikas are small mammals, with limbs and rounded ears. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres in length and weigh between 120 and 350 grams, depending on species. Like rabbits, after eating they initially produce soft green feces, some pikas, such as the collared pika, have been known to store dead birds in their burrows, for food during winter. These animals are herbivores, and feed on a variety of plant matter, including forbs, grasses, sedges, shrub twigs, moss. As with other lagomorphs, pikas have gnawing incisors and no canines, although they have fewer molars than rabbits, the young are born after a gestation period of between 25 and 30 days. Pikas are diurnal or crepuscular, with species generally being more active during the daytime. They show their peak activity just before the winter season, pikas do not hibernate, so they generally spend time during the summer collecting and storing food they will eat over the winter. Each rock-dwelling pika stores its own haypile of dried vegetation, while burrowing species often share food stores with their burrow mates, haying behavior is more prominent at higher elevations. Many of the vocalizations and social behaviors that pikas exhibit are related to haypile defense, eurasian pikas commonly live in family groups and share duties of gathering food and keeping watch
41.
Marten
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The martens constitute the genus Martes within the subfamily Mustelinae, in the family Mustelidae. Martens are slender, agile animals, adapted to living in taigas and they have bushy tails, and large paws with partially retractible claws. The fur varies from yellowish to brown, depending on the species. Martens are omnivorous animals related to wolverines, minks, badgers, ferrets and their diet consists of squirrels, mice, rabbits, birds, fish, insects, and eggs, and they will also eat fruit and nuts when these are available. Martens are solitary animals, meeting only to breed in spring or early summer. Litters of up to five blind and nearly hairless kits are born in early spring and they are weaned after around two months, and leave the mother to fend for themselves at about three to four months of age. The genus first evolved up to seven years ago during the Miocene epoch. During the fur trade, commissioned by the Hudson Bay Company in the 17th and 18th century, the marten is still traded locally. The locals place a value on this pelt, typically trading it for chips, pop. In the Middle Ages, marten pelts were highly valued goods used as a form of payment in Slavonia, the Croatian Littoral, the banovac, a coin struck and used between 1235 and 1384, included the image of a marten. This is one of the reasons why the Croatian word for marten, a marten is depicted on the obverse of the 1-, 2-, and 5-kuna coins, minted since 1993, and on the reverse of the 25-kuna commemorative coins. A running marten is shown on the coat of arms of Slavonia, the official seal of the Croatian Sabor from 1497 until the late 18th century had a similar design. The Finnish communications company Nokia derives its name, via the river Nokianvirta, data related to Martes at Wikispecies Media related to Martes at Wikimedia Commons
42.
Mule deer
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The mule deer is a deer indigenous to western North America, it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. There are believed to be several subspecies including the black-tailed deer, unlike the related white-tailed deer, mule deer are generally more associated with the land west of the Missouri River, and more specifically with the Rocky Mountain region of North America. Mule deer have also introduced to Argentina and Kauai, Hawaii. The most noticeable differences between white-tailed and mule deer are the size of their ears, the color of their tails, in many cases, body size is also a key difference. The mule deers tail is black-tipped, whereas the whitetails is not, mule deer antlers are bifurcated, they fork as they grow, rather than branching from a single main beam, as is the case with white-tails. Each spring, a bucks antlers start to regrow almost immediately after the old antlers are shed, shedding typically takes place in mid-February, with variations occurring by locale. Although capable of running, mule deer are often seen stotting, the mule deer is the larger of the two Odocoileus species on average, with a height of 80–106 cm at the shoulders and a nose-to-tail length ranging from 1.2 to 2.1 m. Of this, the tail may comprise 11.6 to 23 cm, adult bucks normally weigh 55–150 kg, averaging around 92 kg, although trophy specimens may weigh up to 210 kg. Does are rather smaller and typically weigh from 43 to 90 kg, an exception to this is the subspecies, the Sitka black-tailed deer. This race is smaller than other mule deer, with an average weight of 54.5 kg and 36 kg in males and females. In addition to related to available shelter and food, the breeding cycle is important in understanding deer behavior. The rut or mating season begins in the fall as does go into estrus for a period of a few days and males become more aggressive. Does may mate more than one buck and go back into estrus within a month if they did not become pregnant. The gestation period is about 190–200 days, with fawns born in the spring, staying with their mothers during the summer, mule deer females usually give birth to two fawns, although if it is their first time having a fawn, they often have just one. A bucks antlers fall off during the winter, to again in preparation for the next seasons rut. The annual cycle of growth is regulated by changes in the length of the day. For a guide to identify the sex and age class of Rocky Mountain mule deer at various seasons see S1 File, for more information see the main article on deer. The size of mule deer groups follow a seasonal pattern
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Dwarf shrew
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The dwarf shrew is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, the type locality is Estes Park, Colorado, USA. As described by their name, the dwarf shrew is a very small species of shrew. They change their pelage based on the season to aid in hiding from predators, in summer their pelage is brown to olive brown on the dorsal side, their backs. This color extends down their sides and merges with the smoke gray fur on their stomachs and their tails are bi-colored, a mixture of dark fur on top and beige fur underneath. During the winter their pelage turns lighter and grayer, especially on their backs, the phylogeny of the dwarf shrew is very controversial. Given the sheer number of species in the genus Sorex it is difficult to tell all of them apart. There is a proposed, and widely accepted now, in which S. vagrans gave rise to S. nanus along with S. longirostris. The ecological distribution of dwarf shrews isn’t fully known and they have mostly been reported from rocky habitats in the alpine tundra and subalpine coniferous forests. It does seem that the shrew is more tolerant of dry situations than its other shrew relatives. Dwarf shrews are found in dry brushy slopes in Colorado around 1,670 m, in sagebrush-grassland in Montana at 1, 036-1,128 m. This further adds to the mystery of their distribution, Dwarf shrew fossils have been found in late Pleistocene deposits in Hermit’s Cave, New Mexico and Moonshiner and Middle Butte caves in Idaho. In the past mammalogists considered the dwarf shrew to be a rare species, from 1895 to 1966 there were only reports of 18 sightings of the dwarf shrew but a study on a frog in 1966 led to the capture of 24 dwarf shrews using pitfall traps. Don E. Wilson & DeeAnn M. Reeder, a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Johns Hopkins University Press,2,142 pp. Hoffmann, R. & Owen, J. Sorex tenellus and Sorex nanus. American Society of Mammalogists,131, 1-4, retrieved March 12,2015, from http, //www. science. smith. edu/msi/ Emslie, S. Fossil Shrews from the Late Pleistocene of Colorado. Southwestern Association of Naturalists,47, 62-69, retrieved March 12,2015, from JSTOR. George, S. Systematics, Historical Biogeography, and Evolution of the Genus Sorex, retrieved March 12,2015, from JSTOR. Distribution of Merriams Shrew and the Dwarf Shrew and New Records for New Mexico, retrieved March 12,2015, from JSTOR
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JSTOR
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JSTOR is a digital library founded in 1995. Originally containing digitized back issues of journals, it now also includes books and primary sources. It provides full-text searches of almost 2,000 journals, more than 8,000 institutions in more than 160 countries have access to JSTOR, most access is by subscription, but some older public domain content is freely available to anyone. William G. Bowen, president of Princeton University from 1972 to 1988, JSTOR originally was conceived as a solution to one of the problems faced by libraries, especially research and university libraries, due to the increasing number of academic journals in existence. Most libraries found it prohibitively expensive in terms of cost and space to maintain a collection of journals. By digitizing many journal titles, JSTOR allowed libraries to outsource the storage of journals with the confidence that they would remain available long-term, online access and full-text search ability improved access dramatically. Bowen initially considered using CD-ROMs for distribution, JSTOR was initiated in 1995 at seven different library sites, and originally encompassed ten economics and history journals. JSTOR access improved based on feedback from its sites. Special software was put in place to make pictures and graphs clear, with the success of this limited project, Bowen and Kevin Guthrie, then-president of JSTOR, wanted to expand the number of participating journals. They met with representatives of the Royal Society of London and an agreement was made to digitize the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society dating from its beginning in 1665, the work of adding these volumes to JSTOR was completed by December 2000. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded JSTOR initially, until January 2009 JSTOR operated as an independent, self-sustaining nonprofit organization with offices in New York City and in Ann Arbor, Michigan. JSTOR content is provided by more than 900 publishers, the database contains more than 1,900 journal titles, in more than 50 disciplines. Each object is identified by an integer value, starting at 1. In addition to the site, the JSTOR labs group operates an open service that allows access to the contents of the archives for the purposes of corpus analysis at its Data for Research service. This site offers a facility with graphical indication of the article coverage. Users may create focused sets of articles and then request a dataset containing word and n-gram frequencies and they are notified when the dataset is ready and may download it in either XML or CSV formats. The service does not offer full-text, although academics may request that from JSTOR, JSTOR Plant Science is available in addition to the main site. The materials on JSTOR Plant Science are contributed through the Global Plants Initiative and are only to JSTOR
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University of Wyoming
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It is known as UW to people close to the university. The university was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, the University of Wyoming is unusual in that its location within the state is written into the states constitution. The university also offers education in communities throughout Wyoming and online. The University of Wyoming consists of seven colleges, agriculture and natural resources, arts and sciences, business, education, engineering and applied sciences, health sciences, the university offers over 190 undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs including Doctor of Pharmacy and Juris Doctor. The University of Wyoming was featured in the 2011 Princeton Review Best 373 Colleges, in addition to on-campus classes in Laramie, the university’s Outreach School offers more than 41 degree, certificate and endorsement programs to distance learners across the state and beyond. These programs are delivered through the use of technology, such as online, the Outreach School has nine regional centers across the state, with several on community college campuses, to give Wyoming residents access to a university education without relocating to Laramie. On September 27,1886, the cornerstone of Old Main was laid marking the beginning of the University of Wyoming, the stone is inscribed Domi Habuit Unde Disceret, which is often translated, He need not go away from home for instruction. The following year, the first class of 42 men and women began their college education, for the next decade the building housed classrooms, a library and administration offices. The style of Old Main set a precedent for all future University buildings, the main stone used is rough-cut sandstone from a quarry east of Laramie and the trim stone is smooth Potsdam Sandstone from a quarry near Rawlins. Old Main was designed to be a structure and was designed to be a symmetrical building with a prominent central spire as the focal point. The building was designed to reflect the character of Wyoming. The design of Old Main had an effect on university structures. In 1916, the spire was removed due to structural concerns. In 1949, the building was thoroughly remodeled—the auditorium and exterior stairs were completely removed and it also became officially known as Old Main and the name was carved above the east entrance. Currently, Old Main houses university administration including the Presidents Office, Prexys Pasture is a large grassy area located within a ring of classroom and administrative buildings and serves as the center mall of the campus. The name is attributed to a rule that the university president. During the administration of Arthur G. Crane the name, Prexys Pasture, was formally declared, Prexys, as it is often called today, is also known for the unique pattern formed by concrete pathways that students and faculty use to cross the pasture. When the University of Wyoming first opened its doors in 1887, the football team played their games on the pasture until 1922, when Corbett Field opened at the southeast corner of campus
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Absaroka Range
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The Absaroka Range (/əbˈsɔərkə/ or local /əbˈsɔərki/ is a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The range borders the Beartooth Mountains to the north and the Wind River Range to the south, the northern edge of the range rests along I-90 and Livingston, Montana. The highest peak in the range is Francs Peak, located in Wyoming at 13,153 ft, there are 46 other peaks over 12,000 ft. The range is drained by the Yellowstone River and various tributaries and it is only open during the summer. U. S Route 14/16/20 follows the Shoshone River from Cody through the range to the gate of the park. The range is named after the Absaroka Indians, the name is derived from the Hidatsa name for the Crow people, it means children of the large-beaked bird. John Colter, who may have been the first white person to visit the area, early explorers also included Gustavus Cheyney Doane and Nathaniel P. Langford, who climbed the summit of Colter Peak in 1870. USS Absaroka was named after this mountain range, geologically, the section of the range in Wyoming consists of volcanic breccia, whereas there is a transition to granite and gneiss bedrock further north of the state line. Igneous rocks of the Absaroka Volcanic Province cover an area of approximately 23,000 km2 in southwestern Montana and these extrusive rocks were erupted during the Eocene Epoch of the Paleogene Period. Radiometric dating has shown that eruptive activity lasted from about 53 to 43.7 million years ago, the eroded remnants of many large stratovolcanoes are found in the area. The dissection of these long extinct volcanoes by erosion allows geologists to see structures that are impossible to see in active volcanoes. Many terms now used in volcanology originated in nineteenth century field studies of these ancient volcanoes. Mountains and mountain ranges of Yellowstone National Park List of mountain ranges in Montana List of mountain ranges in Wyoming
