Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad abbreviated as MoPac and nicknamed The Mop, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway and Pacific Railway and Eastern Illinois Railroad, St. Louis and Mexico Railway, Kansas and Gulf Railway, Midland Valley Railroad, San Antonio and Gulf Railroad, Gulf Coast Lines, International-Great Northern Railroad, New Orleans and Mexico Railway, Missouri-Illinois Railroad, as well as the small Central Branch Railway, joint ventures such as the Alton and Southern Railroad. In 1967, the railroad operated 9,041 miles of road and 13,318 miles of track, not including DK&S, NO&LC, T&P and its subsidiaries, C&EI and Missouri-Illinois. Union Pacific Corporation, the parent company of the Union Pacific Railroad, agreed to buy the Missouri Pacific Railroad on January 8, 1980. Lawsuits filed by competing railroads delayed approval of the merger until September 13, 1982.
After the Supreme Court denied a trial to the Southern Pacific, the merger took effect on December 22, 1982. However, due to outstanding bonds of the Missouri Pacific, its full merger into the Union Pacific Railroad did not become official until January 1, 1997. On July 4, 1851, ground was broken at St. Louis on the Pacific Railroad, the predecessor of the Missouri Pacific Railroad; the first section of track was completed in 1852. In 1872, the Pacific Railroad was reorganized as the Missouri Pacific Railway by new investors after a railroad debt crisis; because of corporate ties extending back to the Pacific Railroad, Missouri Pacific at one time advertised itself as being "The First Railroad West of the Mississippi". Missouri Pacific was under the control of successful but controversial New York financier Jay Gould from 1879 until his death in 1892. Gould developed a system extending through Colorado, Arkansas and Louisiana, his son George Gould inherited control upon his father's death, but lost control of the company after it declared bankruptcy in 1915.
The line was merged with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway and reorganized as the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1917. Missouri Pacific acquired or gained a controlling interest in other lines in Texas, including the Gulf Coast Lines, International-Great Northern Railroad, the Texas and Pacific Railway. MoPac declared bankruptcy again in 1933, during the Great Depression, entered into trusteeship; the company was reorganized and the trusteeship ended in 1956. By the 1980s the system would own 11,469 miles of rail line over 11 states bounded by Chicago to the east, Colorado, in the west, north to Omaha, south to the U. S.-Mexico border in Laredo and southeast along the Gulf seaports of Louisiana and Texas. MoPac operated a fleet of more than 1,500 diesel locomotives all purchased within the previous 10 years. Under the leadership of Downing B. Jenks, who became president and chief executive in 1961, the company became a pioneer in the early days of computer-guided rail technology.
It was a major hauler of coal, ore, dry goods and shipping containers. At the time of its mega-merger in 1982, the MoPac owned more and newer locomotives and operated more track than partner Union Pacific Railroad. On December 22, 1982 the Missouri Pacific was purchased by the Union Pacific Corporation and combined with the Western Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad to form one large railroad system; the new entity was called Pacific Rail Systems. On December 1, 1989, the Missouri Kansas Texas and the Galveston, Houston & Henderson were merged into the Missouri Pacific after having been acquired by the Union Pacific Corporation in 1988. By 1994 all motive power of the Missouri Pacific was repainted and on January 1, 1997, the Missouri Pacific was merged into the Union Pacific Railroad by the Union Pacific Corporation. UP continued to use the MoPac headquarters building at 210 N. 13th St. in downtown St. Louis for its customer service center until February 15, 2005; the former MoPac building is now known as Park Pacific.
In this table "MP" includes New Orleans Texas & Mexico and all its subsidiary railroads that merged into MP in 1956. Ton-miles for C&EI in 1970 don't include the L&N portion. By that same definition MP operated 10431 route-miles at the end of 1929, after A&G, SAS and Sugar Land had come under NOT&M. At the end of 1960 MP operated 9362 route-miles, NO&LC and DK&S were the same, M-I operated 172 miles. "T&P" includes its subsidiary roads. In the early years of the 20th century, most Missouri Pacific and St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern passenger trains were designated by number only, with little emphasis on premier name trains; this changed in May, 1915, with the inauguration of the Scenic Limited between St. Louis, Kansas City, Pueblo, Colorado. Between Pueblo and Salt Lake City, the Scenic Limited operated through the Royal Gorge over the tracks of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. F
Iowa
Iowa is a state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states. In colonial times, Iowa was a part of Spanish Louisiana. After the Louisiana Purchase, people laid the foundation for an agriculture-based economy in the heart of the Corn Belt. In the latter half of the 20th century, Iowa's agricultural economy made the transition to a diversified economy of advanced manufacturing, financial services, information technology and green energy production. Iowa is the 26th most extensive in land area and the 30th most populous of the 50 U. S states, its capital and largest city by population is Des Moines. Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states in, its nickname is the Hawkeye State. Iowa derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many Native American tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east.
The southern border is the Des Moines River and a not-quite-straight line along 40 degrees 35 minutes north, as decided by the U. S. Supreme Court in Missouri v. Iowa after a standoff between Missouri and Iowa known as the Honey War. Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are formed by rivers. Iowa has 99 counties; the state capital, Des Moines, is in Polk County. Iowa's bedrock geology increases in age from west to east. In northwest Iowa, Cretaceous bedrock can be 74 million years old. Iowa is not flat. Iowa can be divided into eight landforms based on glaciation, soils and river drainage. Loess hills lie along the western border of the state. Northeast Iowa along the Upper Mississippi River is part of the Driftless Area, consisting of steep hills and valleys which appear mountainous. Several natural lakes exist, most notably Spirit Lake, West Okoboji Lake, East Okoboji Lake in northwest Iowa. To the east lies Clear Lake. Man-made lakes include Lake Odessa, Saylorville Lake, Lake Red Rock, Coralville Lake, Lake MacBride, Rathbun Lake.
The state's northwest area has many remnants such as Barringer Slough. Iowa's natural vegetation is tallgrass prairie and savanna in upland areas, with dense forest and wetlands in flood plains and protected river valleys, pothole wetlands in northern prairie areas. Most of Iowa is used for agriculture; the Southern part of Iowa is categorised as the Central forest-grasslands transition ecoregion. The Northern, drier part of Iowa is categorised as the Central tall grasslands and is thus considered to be part of the Great Plains. There is a dearth of natural areas in Iowa; as of 2005 Iowa ranked 49th of U. S. states in public land holdings. Threatened or endangered animals in Iowa include the interior least tern, piping plover, Indiana bat, pallid sturgeon, the Iowa Pleistocene land snail, Higgins' eye pearly mussel, the Topeka shiner. Endangered or threatened plants include western prairie fringed orchid, eastern prairie fringed orchid, Mead's milkweed, prairie bush clover, northern wild monkshood.
There is little proof to suggest that the explosion in the number of high-density livestock facilities in Iowa has led to increased rural water contamination and a decline in air quality. In fact, covered manure storage in modern barns prevent that manure from washing away into surface water, as it does in open lots as snow melts and thunderstorms occur. Other factors negatively affecting Iowa's environment include the extensive use of older coal-fired power plants and pesticide runoff from crop production, diminishment of the Jordan Aquifer. Iowa has a humid continental climate throughout the state with extremes of both cold; the average annual temperature at Des Moines is 50 °F. Winters are harsh and snowfall is common. Spring ushers in the beginning of the severe weather season. Iowa averages about 50 days of thunderstorm activity per year; the 30 year annual average Tornadoes in Iowa is 47. In 2008, twelve people were killed by tornadoes in Iowa, making it the deadliest year since 1968 and the second most tornadoes in a year with 105, matching the total from 2001.
Iowa summers are known for heat and humidity, with daytime temperatures sometimes near 90 °F and exceeding 100 °F. Average winters in the state have been known to drop well below freezing dropping below −18 °F. Iowa's all-time hottest temperature of 118 °F was recorded at Keokuk on July 20, 1934. Iowa has a smooth gradient of var
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City is the largest city in the U. S. state of Missouri. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the city had an estimated population of 488,943 in 2017, making it the 37th most-populous city in the United States, it is the central city of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Kansas–Missouri state line. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a Missouri River port at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west. On June 1, 1850 the town of Kansas was incorporated. Confusion between the two ensued and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon after. Sitting on Missouri's western boundary, with Downtown near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, the modern city encompasses some 319.03 square miles, making it the 23rd largest city by total area in the United States. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, but portions spill into Clay and Platte counties. Along with Independence, one of its major suburbs, it serves as one of the two county seats of Jackson County.
Other major suburbs include the Missouri cities of Blue Springs and Lee's Summit and the Kansas cities of Overland Park and Kansas City. The city is composed of several neighborhoods, including the River Market District in the north, the 18th and Vine District in the east, the Country Club Plaza in the south. Kansas City is known for its long tradition of jazz music and culture, for its cuisine, its craft breweries. Kansas City, Missouri was incorporated as a town on June 1, 1850, as a city on March 28, 1853; the territory straddling the border between Missouri and Kansas at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers was considered a good place to build settlements. The Antioch Christian Church, Dr. James Compton House, Woodneath are listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the first documented European visitor to Kansas City was Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, the first European to explore the lower Missouri River. Criticized for his response to the Native American attack on Fort Détroit, he had deserted his post as fort commander and was avoiding French authorities.
Bourgmont lived with a Native American wife in a village about 90 miles east near Brunswick, where he illegally traded furs. To clear his name, he wrote Exact Description of Louisiana, of Its Harbors and Rivers, Names of the Indian Tribes That Occupy It, the Commerce and Advantages to Be Derived Therefrom for the Establishment of a Colony in 1713 followed in 1714 by The Route to Be Taken to Ascend the Missouri River. In the documents, he describes the junction of the "Grande Riv des Cansez" and Missouri River, making him the first to adopt those names. French cartographer Guillaume Delisle used the descriptions to make the area's first reasonably accurate map; the Spanish took over the region in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, but were not to play a major role other than taxing and licensing Missouri River ship traffic. The French continued their fur trade under Spanish license; the Chouteau family operated under Spanish license at St. Louis in the lower Missouri Valley as early as 1765 and in 1821 the Chouteaus reached Kansas City, where François Chouteau established Chouteau's Landing.
After the 1804 Louisiana Purchase and Clark visited the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, noting it was a good place to build a fort. In 1831, a group of Mormons from New York settled in, they built the first school within Kansas City's current boundaries, but were forced out by mob violence in 1833 and their settlement remained vacant. In 1833 John McCoy, son of missionary Isaac McCoy, established West Port along the Santa Fe Trail, 3 miles away from the river. In 1834 McCoy established Westport Landing on a bend in the Missouri to serve as a landing point for West Port. Soon after, the Kansas Town Company, a group of investors, began to settle the area, taking their name from an English spelling of "Cansez." In 1850, the landing area was incorporated as the Town of Kansas. By that time, the Town of Kansas and nearby Independence, had become critical points in the United States' westward expansion. Three major trails – the Santa Fe, Oregon – all passed through Jackson County. On February 22, 1853, the City of Kansas was created with a newly elected mayor.
It had an area of 0.70 square miles and a population of 2,500. The boundary lines at that time extended from the middle of the Missouri River south to what is now Ninth Street, from Bluff Street on the west to a point between Holmes Road and Charlotte Street on the east; the Kansas City area was rife with animosity just prior to the U. S. Civil War. Kansas petitioned the U. S. to enter the Union as a free state that did not allow slavery under the new doctrine of popular sovereignty. Missouri had many slaves, slavery sympathizers crossed into Kansas to sway the state towards allowing slavery, at first by ballot box and by bloodshed. During the Civil War, the city and its immediate surroundings were the focus of intense military activity. Although the First Battle of Independence in August 1862 resulted in a Confederate States Army victory, the Confederates were unable to leverage their win in any significant fashion, as Kansas City was occupied by Union troops and proved too fortified to assault.
The Second Battle of Independence, which occurred on October 21–22, 1864 as part of Sterling Price's Missouri expedition of 1864 resulted in a Confederate triumph. Once again their victory proved hollow, as Price was decisively defeated in the pivotal Battle of Westport the next day ending Confederate e
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, forms part of the Omaha Metropolitan Area, it is located on the east bank of the Missouri River, across from the city of Omaha. Council Bluffs was known, as Kanesville, it was the historic starting point of the Mormon Trail. Kanesville is the northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trails, since there was a steam powered boat to ferry their wagons, cattle, across the Missouri River. Council Bluffs' population was 62,230 at the 2010 census; the Omaha metropolitan region, of which Council Bluffs is a part, is the 59th largest in the United States, with an estimated population of 933,316. While Council Bluffs is more than a decade older than Omaha, the latter has grown to be a larger city and the anchor of the bi-state metropolitan region; the first Council Bluff was on the Nebraska side of the river at Fort Atkinson, about 20 miles northwest of the current city of Council Bluffs.
It was named by Lewis and Clark for a bluff where they met the Otoe tribe on August 2, 1804. The Iowa side of the river became an Indian Reservation in the 1830s for members of the Council of Three Fires of Chippewa and Potawatomi, who were forced to leave the Chicago area under the Treaty of Chicago, which cleared the way for the city of Chicago to incorporate; the largest group of Native Americans who moved to the area were the Pottawatomi, who were led by their chief Sauganash, the son of the British loyalist William Caldwell, who founded Canadian communities on the south side of the Detroit River, a Pottawatomi woman. Seeking to avoid confrontation with the Sioux, who were natives of the Council Bluffs area, the 1,000 to 2,000 Pottawattamie had settled east of the Missouri River in Indian territory between Leavenworth, Kansas and St. Joseph, Missouri; when this area was bought from Ioway and Fox tribes in the Platte Purchase and part of Missouri in 1837, Sauganash and the Pottawatomi were forced to move to their assigned reservation in Council Bluffs.
Sauganash's English name was Billy Caldwell, his village was called Caldwell's Camp. The tribe were sometimes called the Bluff Indians. U. S. Army Dragoons built a small fort nearby. In 1838–39, the missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet founded St. Joseph's Mission to minister to the Potawatomi. De Smet was appalled by the violence and brutality caused by the whiskey trade, tried to protect the tribe from unscrupulous traders. However, he had little success in persuading tribal members to convert to Christianity and resorted to secret baptisms of Indian children. During this time, De Smet contributed to Joseph Nicollet's work in mapping the upper midwest. De Smet produced the first detailed map of the Council Bluffs area. De Smet wrote an early description of the Potawatomi settlement, which captures his bias: Imagine a great number of cabins and tents, made of the bark of trees, buffalo skins, coarse cloth and sods, all of a mournful and funeral aspect, of all sizes and shapes, some supported by one pole, others having six, with the covering stretched in all the different styles imaginable, all scattered here and there in the greatest confusion, you will have an Indian village.
As more Native Americans were pushed into the Council Bluffs area by pressure of European-American settlement to the east, intertribal conflict increased, fueled by the illegal whiskey trade. The US Army built Fort Croghan in 1842, to keep order and try to control liquor traffic on the Missouri River; however that fort was destroyed in a flood the same year. By 1846 the Pottawatomi were forced to move again to a new reservation at Kansas. In 1844, the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party crossed the Missouri River here, on their way to blaze a new path into California across the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Beginning in 1846, there was a large influx of Latter-day Saints into the area, although in the winter of 1847–1848 most Latter-day Saints crossed to the Nebraska side of the Missouri River; the area was called "Miller's Hollow", after Henry W. Miller, who would be the first member of the Iowa State Legislature from the area. Miller was the foreman for the construction of the Kanesville Tabernacle. By 1848, the town had become known as Kanesville, named for benefactor Thomas L. Kane, who had helped negotiate in Washington, DC federal permission for the Mormons to use Indian land along the Missouri for their winter encampment of 1846–47.
Built at or next to Caldwell's Camp, Kanesville became the main outfitting point for the Mormon Exodus to Utah, it is the recognized head end of the Mormon Trail. Edwin Carter, who would become a noted naturalist in Colorado, worked here from 1848–1859 in a dry goods store, he helped supply Mormon wagon trains. Settlers departing west from Kanesville, into the sparsely settled, unorganized parts of the Territory of Missouri to the Oregon Country and the newly conquered California Territory, through the Nebraska Territory, traveled by wagon trains along the much-storied Oregon, Mormon, or California Trails into the newly expanded United States western lands. After the first large organized wagon trains left Missouri in 1841, the annual migration waves began in earnest by spring of 1843, they built up, with the opening of the Mormon Trail until peaking in the 1860s, when news of railroad's progress had a braking effect. By the 1860s all migration wagon trains were passing near the renamed town.
The wagon train trails became less important with the advent of the first complet
Fort Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth since it was annexed on April 12, 1977, in the northeast part of the state. Built in 1827, it is the oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D. C. and the oldest permanent settlement in Kansas. Fort Leavenworth has been known as the "Intellectual Center of the Army."Fort Leavenworth was the base of African-American soldiers of the U. S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on 21 September 1866 at Fort Leavenworth. They became known as Buffalo Soldiers, nicknamed by the Native American tribes; the term was applied to all of the African-American regiments formed in 1866. During the country's westward expansion, Fort Leavenworth was a forward destination for thousands of soldiers, immigrants, American Indians and settlers who passed through. On August 1, 1846, a Mormon Battalion, led by Col. James Allen, arrived at Fort Leavenworth. Colonel Allen died at the fort.
Today, the garrison supports the US Army Training and Doctrine Command by managing and maintaining the home of the US Army Combined Arms Center. CAC's mission involves collective training, Army doctrine and battle command. Fort Leavenworth is home to the Military Corrections Complex, consisting of the United States Disciplinary Barracks, the Department of Defense's only maximum security prison and the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility. In addition, the Fort Leavenworth Garrison supports numerous tenant organizations that directly and indirectly relate to the functions of the CAC, including the United States Army Command and General Staff College and the Foreign Military Studies Office; the fort occupies 7,000,000 sq ft of space in 1,000 buildings and 1,500 quarters. It is located on the Frontier Military Scenic Byway, a military road connecting to Fort Scott and Fort Gibson; the garrison commander is a colonel reporting via IMCOM West to the Installation Management Command. The fort is nicknamed the "intellectual center" of the Army because much of its mission involves training.
Major tenants include: United States Army Combined Arms Center which among its various responsibilities is the United States Army Command and General Staff College, which includes a degrees granting graduate school for U. S. and allied officers. The school trains all of the army's majors. All modern five-star army generals have passed through the college including George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, Henry "Hap" Arnold, Omar Bradley. Since 1978 it has been commanded by a Lieutenant General. In 2007, its commander was David Petraeus, it reports to the United States Army Doctrine Command. United States Disciplinary Barracks, the only maximum security prison for military personnel of all branches. Since a 2007 reorganization, its commander is a colonel who reports to the United States Army Corrections Command. Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility, a low security prison. Reports to the United States Army Corrections Command. Foreign Military Studies Office Munson Army Health Center University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies Sherman Army Airfield—the base airport Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery TRADOC Analysis Center Headquarters of the National Guard's 35th Infantry Division Mission Command Training Program is the focal point for National Guard of the United States division and brigade staff training and development.
Army/ACE Registry Transcript Systems See Fort Leavenworth School District The Fort Leavenworth Lamp newspaper serves the military community living on post. The fort is 10 miles south of the 18th century French Fort de Cavagnal, the farthest west fort in Louisiana, its commandant was François Coulon de Villiers, a brother to Louis Coulon de Villiers, the only military commander to force George Washington to surrender. The French abandoned the fort after ceding its territory to Louisiana at the conclusion of the French and Indian War. Early American explorers on the Missouri River to visit the area of Fort de Cavagnal include Lewis and Clark on 26–29 June 1804 and Stephen Harriman Long in 1819; the fort location had been chosen because of its proximity to a large Kansa tribe village. Colonel Henry Leavenworth, with the officers and men of the 3rd Infantry Regiment from Jefferson Barracks at St. Louis, established Fort Leavenworth in 1827 to be a forward base protecting the Santa Fe Trail. Leavenworth's instructions had been the following: Colonel Leavenworth of the 3d Infantry, with four companies of his regiment will ascend the Missouri and when he reaches a point on its left band near the mouth of Little Platte River and within a range of twenty miles above or below its confluence, he will select such position as in his judgment is best calculated for the site of a permanent cantonment.
The spot being chosen, he will construct with the troops of his command comfortable, though temporary quarters sufficient for the accommodation of four companies. This movement will be made as early. Leavenworth
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of transferring of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails known as tracks. It is commonly referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a prepared flat surface, rail vehicles are directionally guided by the tracks on which they run. Tracks consist of steel rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock fitted with metal wheels, moves. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a rail transport system encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger and freight cars can be coupled into longer trains; the operation is carried out by a railway company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway electrification system or produce their own power by diesel engines.
Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system. Railways are a safe land transport system. Railway transport is capable of high levels of passenger and cargo utilization and energy efficiency, but is less flexible and more capital-intensive than road transport, when lower traffic levels are considered; the oldest known, man/animal-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC in Greece. Rail transport commenced in mid 16th century in Germany in the form of horse-powered funiculars and wagonways. Modern rail transport commenced with the British development of the steam locomotives in the early 19th century, thus the railway system in Great Britain is the oldest in the world. Built by George Stephenson and his son Robert's company Robert Stephenson and Company, the Locomotion No. 1 is the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line, the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. George Stephenson built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use only the steam locomotives all the time, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which opened in 1830.
With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution. Railways reduced the costs of shipping, allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships; the change from canals to railways allowed for "national markets" in which prices varied little from city to city. The spread of the railway network and the use of railway timetables, led to the standardisation of time in Britain based on Greenwich Mean Time. Prior to this, major towns and cities varied their local time relative to GMT; the invention and development of the railway in the United Kingdom was one of the most important technological inventions of the 19th century. The world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, opened in 1863. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, leading to electrification of tramways and rapid transit systems. Starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being complete by the 2000s.
During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan and in some other countries. Many countries are in the process of replacing diesel locomotives with electric locomotives due to environmental concerns, a notable example being Switzerland, which has electrified its network. Other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. Following a decline after World War II due to competition from cars, rail transport has had a revival in recent decades due to road congestion and rising fuel prices, as well as governments investing in rail as a means of reducing CO2 emissions in the context of concerns about global warming; the history of rail transport began in the 6th century BC in Ancient Greece. It can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used. Evidence indicates that there was 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos paved trackway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC.
Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD; the paved trackways were later built in Roman Egypt. In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria; the line used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel. The line still exists and is operational, although in updated form and is the oldest operational railway. Wagonways using wooden rails, hauled by horses, started appearing in the 1550s to facilitate the transport of ore tubs to and from mines, soon became popular in Europe; such an operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica. This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way.
The miners called the wagons Hunde from the noise. There are many references to their use in central Europe in the 16th century; such a transport system was used by German miners at Cal
Salina, Kansas
Salina is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 47,707. Located in one of the world's largest wheat-producing areas, Salina is a regional trade center for north-central Kansas, it is home to multiple colleges. Prior to European colonization of the area, the site of Salina was located within the territory of the Kansa people. Claimed first by France as part of Louisiana and acquired by the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, it was within the area organized by the U. S. as Kansas Territory in 1854. In 1856, a colony led by Preston B. Plumb established the first American settlement near the site at a location on the Saline River. Settlers led by journalist and lawyer William A. Phillips founded Salina in 1858. During the following two years, the territorial legislature chartered the town company, organized the surrounding area as Saline County, named Salina the county seat; the westernmost town on the Smoky Hill Trail, Salina established itself as a trading post for westbound immigrants, prospectors bound for Pikes Peak, area American Indian tribes.
The town's growth halted with the outbreak of the American Civil War when much of the male population left to join the U. S. Army. In 1862, local residents fended off American Indian raiders only to fall victim to a second assault by bushwhackers that year. In May and June 1864, the Salina Stockade was built to protect the town against further Indian raids. Troops were garrisoned in Salina until March 1865, some may have returned in June 1865; the stockade was used until at least spring or summer 1865. Growth returned with the soldiers after the war, the town expanded with the arrival of the Kansas Pacific Railway in 1867. Salina incorporated as a city in 1870; the cattle trade arrived in 1872. The trade brought the city further prosperity, but a rowdy culture that agitated local residents; the cattle trade relocated westward just two years later. During the 1870s, wheat became the dominant crop in the area, steam-powered flour mills were built, agriculture became the engine of the local economy.
In 1874, Salina resident E. R. Switzer introduced alfalfa to area farmers, its cultivation spread throughout the state. By 1880, the city was an area industrial center with several mills, a carriage and wagon factory, a farm implement works. Salina was the location of the first garment factory of jeans maker Lee, which opened in 1889. Over the following decade, three railroads were built through the city; the success of the wholesale and milling industries drove Salina's growth into the early 1900s such that, at one point, it was the third-largest producer in the state and the sixth-largest in the United States. In 1943, the U. S. Army established Smoky Hill Army Airfield southwest of the city; the installation served as a base for strategic bomber units throughout World War II. Renamed Smoky Hill Air Force Base in 1948, the base closed the following year only to be reopened in 1951 as Schilling Air Force Base, part of Strategic Air Command; the re-opening of the base triggered an economic boom in Salina, causing the city's population to increase by nearly two-thirds during the 1950s.
The U. S. Department of Defense closed the base permanently in 1965, but the city of Salina acquired it and converted it into Salina Municipal Airport and an industrial park; this led to substantial industrial development, attracting firms such as Beechcraft, made manufacturing a primary driver of the local economy. Today, Salina remains a center of trade and industry in north-central Kansas. Salina is located at 38°50′25″N 97°36′41″W at an elevation of 1,224 feet. Located in north-central Kansas at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Interstate 135, it is 81 miles north of Wichita, Kansas, 164 miles west of Kansas City, 401 miles east of Denver, Colorado. Salina lies in the Smoky Hills region of the Great Plains 6 miles west-southwest of the confluence of the Saline and Smoky Hill Rivers; the Smoky Hill River runs north northeast through the eastern part of the city. In the northeast part of the city, the old channel of the Smoky Hill branches from the river's current course and winds west and back east before draining back into the river.
Mulberry Creek, a tributary of the Saline, flows northeast through the far northern part of the city. Dry Creek, a tributary of Mulberry Creek, flows north through the western part of the city. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 25.15 square miles, of which 25.11 square miles is land and 0.04 square miles is water. Salina lies in the transition area between North America's humid subtropical and humid continental climate zones. Summers in Salina are hot and humid, winters are cold and dry. On average, January is the coldest month, July is the hottest month, May is the month with the greatest precipitation; as is common in the region, Salina is prone to severe thunderstorms which may produce damaging winds and tornadoes. On June 21, 1969, an F3 tornado struck the southern part of the city damaging or destroying more than 100 homes and businesses and injuring 60 people. On September 25, 1973, a second F3 tornado passed through the southeast part of town, injuring six people and destroying two houses and a trailer park.
On June 11, 2008, another EF3 tornado passed on the south side of the town damaging several buildings. The annual average temperature in Salina is 56.1 °F. The monthly daily a
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