1.
Waco siege
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The Waco siege was a siege of a compound belonging to the group Branch Davidians by American federal and Texas state law enforcement and US military between February 28 and April 19,1993. The group was suspected of violations, causing a search and arrest warrant to be obtained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms. The incident began when the ATF attempted to raid the ranch, an intense gun battle erupted, resulting in the deaths of four government agents and six Branch Davidians. Upon the ATFs failure to raid the compound, a siege was initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, eventually, the FBI launched an assault and initiated a tear gas attack in an attempt to force the Branch Davidians out of the ranch. During the attack, a fire engulfed Mount Carmel Center, in total,76 people died, including David Koresh. Much dispute remains as to the events of the siege. A particular controversy ensued over the origin of the fire, an internal Justice Department investigation concluded in 2000 that sect members themselves had started the fire. The events near Waco, and the siege at Ruby Ridge less than 12 months earlier were both cited as the motivations behind the Oklahoma City bombing that took place exactly two years later. Houteff founded the Davidians based on his prophecy of an imminent apocalypse involving the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, a few years later, they moved again to a much larger site east of the city. In 1959, the widow of Victor Houteff, Florence Houteff, announced that the expected Armageddon was about to take place, many built houses, others stayed in tents, trucks, or buses, and most sold their possessions. He promoted different doctrinal beliefs than Victor Houteffs original Davidian Seventh-day Adventist organization, on Rodens death, control fell to his wife, Lois Roden. Lois considered their son, George Roden, unfit to assume the position of prophet, instead, she groomed Vernon Howell as her chosen successor. In 1984, a meeting led to a division of the group, with Howell leading one faction, after this split, George Roden ran Howell and his followers off Mount Carmel. Howell and his group relocated to Palestine, Texas, after the death of Lois Roden and probate of her estate in January 1987, Howell attempted to gain control of Mount Carmel Center by force. George Roden had dug up the casket of Anna Hughes from the Davidian cemetery and had challenged Howell to a resurrection contest to prove who was the heir to the leadership. Howell instead went to the police and claimed Roden was guilty of corpse abuse, on November 3, Howell and seven armed companions attempted to access the Mount Carmel chapel, with the goal of photographing the body in the casket as evidence to incriminate Roden. Roden was advised of the interlopers and grabbed an Uzi in response, the Sheriffs Department responded about 20 minutes into the gunfight, during which Roden was wounded. Sheriff Harwell got Howell on the phone and told him to stop shooting, Howell and his companions, dubbed the Rodenville Eight by the media, were tried for attempted murder on April 12,1988, seven were acquitted and the jury was hung on Howells verdict
2.
McLennan County, Texas
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McLennan County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in Central Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 234,906, the U. S. census 2016 county population estimate is 247,934. The county is named for Neil McLennan, an early settler, McLennan County is included in the Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area. McLennan County was created by the Texas Legislature in 1850 out of Milam County, the county seat, Waco, had been founded as an outpost of the Texas Rangers, laid out by George B. Erath, and was known by 1850 as Waco Village, according to local lore, the first sustained flight did not occur in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, but just outside Tokio by a man flying a gyrocopter. During World War I, McLennan County was home to at least one military airfield, in the aftermath of World War I, racial violence disrupted county life, culminating in two major Ku Klux Klan marches and the public lynching of numerous Black citizens. McLennan Countys contributions to World War II include the reopening of Rich Field, Doris Miller, in 1886, Baylor University relocated from Independence, Texas, to Waco and absorbed Waco University. In the 1960s, the Texas Legislature created the first community college to use words in the name. Around the same time, what is now the institution of Texas State Technical College was founded as James Connally Technical Institute. Crush, Texas, was a town in McLennan County. It was established to stage a publicity stunt concocted by William George Crush, the stunt involved the collision of two 35-ton steam locomotives in front of spectators whom the railway transported to the event for $2 each. After heavy promotion, on September 15,1896, the event was delayed by several hours as the police maneuvered the crowd of over 40,000 back to what was thought to be a safe distance. The crews of the two tied the throttles open and jumped off. The two engines, pulling wagons filled with railroad ties, traveled a 4-mile track and thunderously crashed into each other at a speed of up to 120 mph. The boilers exploded and sent steam and flying debris into the crowd, three people were killed and about six were injured, including event photographer Jarvis Joe Deane, who lost an eye because of a flying bolt. Ragtime composer Scott Joplin commemorated the event with The Great Crush Collision March, Texas composer and singer Brian Burns wrote and recorded a song about the collision, The Crash at Crush, in 2001. In May 17,2015, motorcycle clubs gathered at the Twin Peaks Restaurant in Waco for a Confederation of Clubs meeting. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 1,060 square miles
3.
Dr Pepper
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Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink marketed as having a unique flavor. The drink was created in the 1880s by Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, variants include a version without high fructose corn syrup, Diet Dr Pepper, as well as a line of additional flavors, first introduced in the 2000s. Patent Office recognizes December 1,1885, as the first time Dr Pepper was served and it was introduced nationally in the United States at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition as a new kind of soda pop, made with 23 flavors. Its introduction in 1885 preceded the introduction of Coca-Cola by one year and it was formulated by Brooklyn-born pharmacist Charles Alderton in Morrisons Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas. To test his new drink, he first offered it to store owner Wade Morrison, patrons at Morrisons soda fountain soon learned of Aldertons new drink and began ordering a Waco. Alderton gave the formula to Morrison, who named it Dr. Pepper, as with Coca-Cola, the formula for Dr Pepper is a trade secret, and allegedly the recipe is kept as two halves in safe deposit boxes in two separate Dallas banks. Theories abound about the origins of the drinks name. One conjecture is the pep refers to pepsin, in 2009, an old ledger book filled with formulas and recipes was discovered by Bill Waters while shopping at antiques stores in the Texas Panhandle. Several sheets and letterheads hinted it had come from the W. B. Morrison & Co, Old Corner Drug Store and faded letters on the books cover spelled out Castles Formulas. John Castles was a partner of Morrisons for a time and worked at that location as early as 1880, One recipe in the book titled D Peppers Pepsin Bitters was of particular interest, and some speculated it could be an early recipe for Dr Pepper. However, Dr Pepper Snapple Group insists it is not the formula for Dr Pepper, the book was put up for auction in May 2009, but no one purchased it. Like many early sodas, the drink was marketed as a tonic and energizing pick-me-up. Others believe the drink was named after a real Dr. Pepper, One candidate is Dr. Charles T. However, Morrison lived nearly 50 miles from Rural Retreat, another possibility is Dr. Pepper of Christiansburg, Virginia. U. S. Census records show a young Morrison working as a clerk in Christiansburg. One of the pages of this census supposedly shows a Dr. Pepper and daughter Malinda or Malissa. The period after Dr was discarded for stylistic and legibility reasons in the 1950s, Dr Peppers logo was redesigned and the text in this new logo was slanted. The period made Dr. look like Di, after having been used intermittently in previous logos, followed by some debate, the period was removed permanently
4.
Waco Mammoth National Monument
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The site is the largest known concentration of a single herd of mammoths dying from the same event, which is believed to have been a flash flood. A local partnership developed around the site after the bone was discovered. The Waco Mammoth Foundation worked in partnership with the city of Waco, in 2015, they successfully sought the National Monument designation to bring the expertise of the National Park Service into the partnership. Columbian mammoths lived 10,000 to 1 million years ago and they migrated to North America and as far south as Nicaragua. The Columbian mammoth was a herbivore, with a diet consisting of varied plant life ranging from grasses to conifers, at this time, the Central Texas landscape consisted of temperate grasslands and savannahs surrounded by river floodplains. How the animals at the site died is unknown, but there is no evidence that humans were involved. The current theory is that approximately 68,000 years ago, at least 19 mammoths from a nursery herd were trapped in a steep-sided channel during a flash flood, a camel was also trapped and killed during this event. A second event took place sometime later, during this event, an unidentified animal associated with a juvenile saber-toothed cat died and was buried. The third event claimed the lives of a mammoth, two juvenile mammoths, and an adult female. Approximately 15,000 years after the herd was trapped. Luminescence dating of the fossils was done by optically stimulated luminescence, OSL uses light to excite electrons and cause the emission of photons. The photons can be sensed and measured to calculate when the test sample was last exposed to the sun, the soil near the mammoths remains was examined using OSL to determine how long the minerals were buried. As the soil was buried at the time as the mammoths. The site was discovered in 1978 by Paul Barron and Eddie Bufkin, the men found a large bone and took the bone to the Strecker Museum at Baylor University for analysis. Once identified as a Columbian mammoth, the staff organized a formal dig at the site. Between 1978 and 1990, sixteen mammoths were discovered and these first remains were protected with plaster jackets and stored at the Strecker Museum. The other remains were excavated between 1990 and 1997 and these remains include a large male, a female, two juveniles and a camel and are in situ at the site. Though the first bones at the site were discovered in 1978 and that year, a shelter was completed to protect the bones and allow the site to be viewed by the general public
5.
Baylor University
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Baylor University is a private Baptist university in Waco, Texas. It is the largest Baptist university in the world, the universitys 1, 000-acre campus is located on the banks of the Brazos River next to I-35, between the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and Austin. Baylor Universitys athletic teams, known as the Bears, participate in 19 intercollegiate sports, the university is a member of the Big 12 Conference in the NCAA Division I. In 1841,35 delegates to the Union Baptist Association meeting voted to adopt the suggestion of Rev. William Milton Tryon, Baylor to establish a Baptist university in Texas, then an independent republic. Baylor, a Texas district judge and onetime U. S, congressman and soldier from Alabama, became the schools namesake. In the fall of 1844, the Texas Baptist Education Society petitioned the Congress of the Republic of Texas to charter a Baptist university, Republic President Anson Jones signed the Act of Congress on February 1,1845, officially establishing Baylor University. The founders built the university campus in Independence, Texas. Rev. James Huckins, the first Southern Baptist missionary to Texas, was Baylors first full-time fundraiser and he is considered the third founding father of the university. Although these three men are credited as being the founders of the university, many others worked to see the first university established in Texas, the noted Texas revolutionary war leader and hero Sam Houston gave the first $5,000 donation to start the university. In 1854, Houston was also baptized by the Rev. Rufus Columbus Burleson, future Baylor President, during the 1846 school year Baylor leaders would begin including chapel as part of the Baylor educational experience. The tradition continues today and has been a part of the life of students for over 160 years. Baylor and Abner S. Lipscomb of the Texas Supreme Court began teaching classes in the science of law, making Baylor the first in Texas, during this time Stephen Decatur Rowe would earn the first degree awarded by Baylor. He would be followed by the first female graduate, Mary Kavanaugh Gentry, in 1851, Baylors second president Rufus Columbus Burleson decided to separate the students by sex, making the Baylor Female College an independent and separate institution. Baylor University became an all-male institution, during this time, Baylor thrived as the only university west of the Mississippi offering instruction in law, mathematics, and medicine. At the time a Baylor education cost around $8–$15 per term for tuition, and many of the early leaders of the Republic of Texas, such as Sam Houston, would later send their children to Baylor to be educated. For the first half of the American Civil War, the Baylor president was George Washington Baines, maternal great-grandfather of the future U. S. President, Lyndon Baines Johnson. He worked vigorously to sustain the university during the Civil War, following the war, the city of Independence slowly declined, primarily caused by the rise of neighboring cities being serviced by the Santa Fe Railroad. Because Independence lacked a railroad line, university fathers began searching for a location to build a new campus, beginning in 1885, Baylor University moved to Waco, Texas, a growing town on the railroad line
6.
Cameron Park (Waco)
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Cameron Park is a 416-acre urban park located in Waco, Texas. The park was dedicated on May 27,1910, and named in memory of Waco philanthropist, the park also contains Wacos 52-acre zoo, the Cameron Park Zoo. Many wanted to make Proctor Springs, a gathering site near the Brazos River that had become subject to commercialization around the turn of the century. Before the city could act, the land was purchased for $25,000 by a businessman, despite this apparent setback, the hopes of Wacoans to preserve Proctor Springs were not lost, on May 24,1910, Flora B. Cameron, wife of the late William Cameron, announced that she was donating all 125 acres of the land to the city of Waco. Mrs. Cameron revealed that she had purchased the land with Lawson as a liaison with the intention of donating it as a park in memory of her late husband. The gift came attached with a $5,000 gift for park development, as well as stipulations to preserve the name and funding for the park, the park was officially dedicated on May 27,1910, with a large ceremony attended by nearly 15,000 people. Baylor University President Samuel Palmer Brooks served as the master of ceremonies for the dedication and these gifts more than doubled the size of the park, and left it at the size it is today. During the Great Depression, federal workers affiliated with New Deal programs constructed trails, water drains, from this point, up until the mid-1960s, the park enjoyed significant popularity among Wacoans. In that decade, however, a controversy developed over plans to construct a bridge across the Brazos at Herring Avenue that would link East Waco more directly with the park. As attendance dropped, the facilities in the park began to deteriorate, until the late 1980s, Cameron Park continued to fall into disrepair and disuse. At the end of decade, however, a revitalization process began to restore the parks former beauty and popularity. Congressman W. R. Pogue made a donation of $100,000 towards a wildflower preserve in honor of his late mother, a greater police presence, including mounted police, was established to patrol the park. The opening of the Cameron Park Zoo in 1993 and the expansion of trails throughout that decade helped bring Cameron Park back to popularity among the population of the Waco area. Today, Cameron Park is one of the largest city parks in Texas, with over 20 miles of trails, a golf course, recreational courts and playgrounds, picnic areas. It celebrated its centenary in 2010, and funds raised for that celebration will be funding a new pavilion in the park. Waco, Texas William Cameron Park, A Long Love Affair with Natures Splendor, A Centennial History, 1910-2010
7.
Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum
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The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, Texas, is the state-designated official historical center of the famed Texas Rangers law enforcement agency. It consists of the Homer Garrison, Jr. museum gallery, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame, the Texas Ranger Research Center, the City of Waco serves as the appointed trustee on behalf of the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Legislature. The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum is located near Interstate Highway 35 Exit 335B in Waco, in 1964 the Texas Department of Public Safety chartered the City of Waco, Texas, to construct and operate the official museum of the Texas Rangers. In return, the City of Waco agreed to commit 32 acres for a site, provide an ongoing annual operating subsidy. More than three persons have visited the historical center since it opened in 1968. The museum complex was originally named Fort Fisher after an 1837 Ranger camp from which the City of Waco traces its origin and it was designed in a vernacular style of Texas hill country architecture reminiscent of a 19th-century Texas Ranger headquarters. The first museum gallery was named after Col. Homer Garrison, Jr. who served and later directed the Texas Department of Public Safety, in 1971 the Texas Legislature appointed the Texas Ranger Commemorative Commission to honor the 150th anniversary of the Texas Rangers. The Commission was charged with raising funds and erecting the official state Hall of Fame of the Texas Rangers, the project was opened for the American Bicentennial in 1976. Soon afterwards the name of the complex was changed to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. In 1975 the Moody Foundation of Galveston donated seed money to establish the Moody Texas Ranger Memorial Library, along with the State Library and Archives in Austin, it has become a primary research center on the history and popular culture of the Texas Rangers. In 1997 it was renamed the Texas Ranger Research Center with the permission of the Moody Foundation to recognize its expanding role, Texas Ranger artifacts and archives donated to the institution become property of the People of Texas through the trusteeship of the City of Waco. The Garrison Gallery was dedicated in 1968 and tells the story of the Rangers and it preserves more than 14,000 irreplaceable artifacts dating back to the founding of the Texas Rangers. The Hall of Fame is a memorial to Texas Rangers who significantly contributed to the development of the service or died heroically in the line of duty. A separate mission of the Hall of Fame is the compilation of a roll of Texas Rangers killed in the line of duty from 1823 to 2004. Rangers are inducted in the Hall of Fame by the Texas Rangers and currently include, Armstrong, aten, Ira Baylor, George W. Brooks, James Burton, Marvin Crowder, Robert A. Doherty, Bobby Paul Ford, John Salmon Rip Gillett, James B. Gonzaullas, Manuel T. Guffey, Stanley Keith Hall, Jesse Lee Hamer, Frank Hays, John Coffee Hickman, Thomas R. Hughes, John R. Jones, John B. Each year more than 3,000 researchers utilize the Center to research ancestors, write books or produce movies, the Center has been used by the Texas Rangers in the investigation of cold cases. List of museums in Central Texas Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum Texas Rangers
8.
Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
9.
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
10.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
11.
U.S. state
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A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
12.
City council
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A city council, town council, town board, or board of aldermen is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area. Because of the differences in legislation between the states, the definition of a City Council varies. However, it is only those local government areas which have been specifically granted city status that are entitled to refer to themselves as cities. The official title is Corporation of the City of ------ or similar, some of the larger urban areas of Australia are governed mostly by a single entity, while others may be controlled by a multitude of much smaller city councils. Also some significant urban areas can be under the jurisdiction of rural local governments. Periodic re-alignments of boundaries attempt to rationalize these situations and adjust the deployment of assets, the 2001 Local Government Act restyled the five county boroughs of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, and Limerick as city councils, with the same status in law as county councils. For many decades until the government reforms of 1989, a borough with more than 20,000 people could be proclaimed a city. The boundaries of councils tended to follow the edge of the built-up area, as a result, the term city began to take on two meanings. The word city came to be used in a formal sense to describe major urban areas independent of local body boundaries. This informal usage is jealously guarded, gisborne, for example, adamantly described itself as the first city in the world to see the new millennium. Gisborne is administered by a council, but its status as a city is not generally disputed. Under the current law the minimum population for a new city is 50,000, in the Republic of China, a city council represents a provincial city. Members of the councils are elected through local elections for provincial cities which are held every 4–5 years, Councils for the provincial cities in Taiwan are Chiayi City Council, Hsinchu City Council and Keelung City Council. In the UK, a city council is, In England, a parish council that has been granted city status. The council of a London borough that has been granted city status, in Wales, The council of a principal area that has been granted city status. A community council that has been granted city status, in Scotland, The council of one of four council areas designated a City by the Local Government etc. City councils and town boards generally consist of elected aldermen or councillors. In the United States, members of city councils are typically called council member or council man/woman, while in Canada they are typically called councillor
13.
City manager
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A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the executive officer or chief administrative officer in some municipalities. Other small or middle sized American cities, especially in the West, in Europe, smaller cities in the Netherlands were specially attracted by the plan. Most sources trace the first city manager to Staunton, Virginia in 1908, some of the other cities that were among the first to employ a manager were Sumter, South Carolina and Dayton, Ohio, Dayton was featured in the national media, and became a national standard. The first City Managers Association meeting of eight city managers was in December 1914, by 1930200 American cities used a city manager form of government. In addition, many states, such as the states of New Hampshire, the City Manager position focuses on efficiency and providing a certain level of service for the lowest possible cost. The competence of a city manager can be assessed using composite indicators, Manager members of the ICMA are bound by a rather rigid and strongly enforced code of ethics that was originally established in 1924. Since that time the code had been up-dated/revised on seven occasions, in the early years of the profession, most managers came from the ranks of the engineering professions. As of 2005 more than 60% of those in the profession had a MPA, MBA, the average tenure of a manager is now 7–8 years and has risen gradually over the years. Tenures tend to be less in smaller communities and higher in larger ones, educational Level of Local Government Managers, Local government Local government in the United States council-manager government Clerk Kemp, Roger L. Managing Americas Cities, A Handbook for Local Government Productivity, McFarland, jefferson, NC, USA, and London, Eng. UK1998. _______, Model Government Charters, A City, County, Regional, State, jefferson, NC, USA, and London, Eng. UK,2003 _______, Forms of Local Government, A Handbook on City, County and Regional Options, McFarland, jefferson, NC, USA, and London, Eng. The rise of the city manager, A public professional in local government, organized business and the city commission and manager movements. In JSTOR White, Leonard D. Staunton, Virginia, Birthplace Of City Manager Form Of Government, a history on the city manager system of government
14.
Metropolitan area
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As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions. The Greater São Paulo is a term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil. A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration with zones not necessarily urban in character and these outlying zones are sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well beyond the urban zone, to other political entities. For example, El Monte, California is considered part of the Los Angeles metro area in the United States, in practice, the parameters of metropolitan areas, in both official and unofficial usage, are not consistent. Population figures given for one area can vary by millions. A polycentric metropolitan area is one not connected by continuous development or conurbation, in defining a metropolitan area, it is sufficient that a city or cities form a nucleus that other areas have a high degree of integration with. The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines statistical divisions as areas under the influence of one or more major towns or a major city. However, this definition has become obsolete with the conurbation of several statistical divisions into a larger metropolitan areas. In Brazil, metropolitan areas are called metropolitan regions, each State defines its own legislation for the creation, definition and organization of a metropolitan region. The creation of a region is not intended for any statistical purpose, although the Brazilian Institute of Geography. Their main purpose is to allow for a management of public policies of common interest to all cities involved. They dont have political, electoral or jurisdictional power whatsoever, so living in a metropolitan region do not elect representatives for them. Statistics Canada defines a metropolitan area as an area consisting of one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core. To form a CMA, the area must have a population of at least 100,000. To be included in the CMA, adjacent municipalities must have a degree of integration with the core. As of the Canada 2011 Census, there were 33 CMAs in Canada, including six with a population over one million—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. In Denmark the only area is Greater Copenhagen, consisting of the Capital Region of Denmark along with the neighboring regions Region Zealand. Greater Copenhagen has an population of 1.25 million people
15.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
16.
Central Time Zone
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The North American Central Time Zone is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time is six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, during summer most of the zone uses daylight saving time, and changes to Central Daylight Time which is five hours behind UTC. The province of Manitoba is the province or territory in Canada that observes Central Time in all areas. Also, most of the province of Saskatchewan is on Central Standard Time year-round, major exceptions include Lloydminster, a city situated on the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city charter stipulates that it shall observe Mountain Time and DST, putting the community on the time as all of Alberta, including the major cities of Calgary. As a result, during the summer, clocks in the province match those in Alberta. The Central Time Zone is the second most populous in the US after the Eastern Time Zone, lanett and Valley observe Eastern Time historically because they were textile mill towns and the original home office of their mills was in West Point, Georgia. Some eastern counties observe Central Time because they are close to the border of the Middle Tennessee counties surrounding the Nashville metropolitan area. Louisiana Michigan, All of Michigan observes Eastern Time except the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin, other westernmost counties from this area such as Ontonagon observe Eastern Time. South Dakota, Eastern half as divided by the Missouri river adjacent to the state capital, note, the metropolitan area of Pierre is Central, including Fort Pierre. Wisconsin Most of Mexico—roughly the eastern three-fourths—lies in the Central Time Zone, except for six northwestern states, the federal entities of Mexico that observe Central Time, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all use Central Standard Time year-round. The Galápagos Islands in Ecuador uses Central Standard Time all year-round, Daylight saving time is in effect in much of the Central time zone between mid-March and early November. The modified time is called Central Daylight Time and is UTC−5, in Canada, Saskatchewan does not observe a time change. One reason that Saskatchewan does not take part in a change is that, geographically. The province elected to move onto permanent daylight saving by being part of the Central Time Zone, Mexico decided not to go along with this change and observes their horario de verano from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In December 2009, the Mexican Congress allowed ten border cities, eight of which are in states that observe Central Time, to adopt the U. S. daylight time schedule effective in 2010
17.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
18.
ZIP Code
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ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
19.
North American Numbering Plan
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The North American Numbering Plan is a telephone numbering plan that encompasses 25 distinct regions in twenty countries primarily in North America, including the Caribbean and the U. S. territories. Not all North American countries participate in the NANP, each participating country forms a regulatory authority that has plenary control over local numbering resources. The FCC also serves as the U. S. regulator, Canadian numbering decisions are made by the Canadian Numbering Administration Consortium. The NANP divides the territories of its members into numbering plan areas which are encoded numerically with a telephone number prefix. Each telephone is assigned a telephone number unique only within its respective plan area. The telephone number consists of a central office code and a four-digit station number. The combination of a code and the telephone number serves as a destination routing address in the public switched telephone network. For international call routing, the NANP has been assigned the calling code 1 by the International Telecommunications Union. The North American Numbering Plan conforms with ITU Recommendation E.164, from its beginnings in 1876 and throughout the first part of the 20th century, the Bell System grew from essentially local or regional telephone systems. These systems expanded by growing their subscriber bases, as well as increasing their service areas by implementing additional local exchanges that were interconnected with tie trunks and it was the responsibility of each local administration to design telephone numbering plans that accommodated the local requirements and growth. As a result, the Bell System as a developed into an unorganized system of many differing local numbering systems. The diversity impeded the efficient operation and interconnection of exchanges into a system for long-distance telephone communication. The new numbering plan was accepted in October 1947, dividing most of North America into 86 Numbering Plan Areas. Each NPA was assigned a Numbering Plan Area code, often abbreviated as area code and these codes were first used by long-distance operators to establish long-distance calls between toll offices. The first customer-dialed direct call using area codes was made on November 10,1951, from Englewood, New Jersey, to Alameda, California. Direct distance dialing was introduced across the country and by the early 1960s most areas of the Bell System had been converted and it was commonplace in cities. In the following decades, the system expanded to all of the United States and its territories, Canada, Bermuda. By 1967,129 area codes had been assigned, mexican participation was planned, but implementation stopped after two area codes had been assigned and Mexico opted for an international numbering format, using country code 52
20.
Geographic Names Information System
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It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names to promote the standardization of feature names, the database is part of a system that includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps that confirm the feature or place name are cited, variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded. Each feature receives a permanent, unique feature record identifier, sometimes called the GNIS identifier, the database never removes an entry, except in cases of obvious duplication. The GNIS accepts proposals for new or changed names for U. S. geographical features, the general public can make proposals at the GNIS web site and can review the justifications and supporters of the proposals. The Bureau of the Census defines Census Designated Places as a subset of locations in the National Geographic Names Database, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28 gives standards for addressing mail. In this publication, the postal service defines two-letter state abbreviations, street identifiers such as boulevard and street, department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, National Mapping Division, Digital Gazeteer, Users Manual. Least Heat Moon, William, Blue Highways, A Journey Into America, standard was withdrawn in September 2008, See Federal Register Notice, Vol.73, No. 170, page 51276 Report, Principles, Policies, and Procedures, Domestic Geographic Names, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28, November 2000. Board on Geographic Names website Geographic Names Information System Proposals from the general public Meeting minutes
21.
Interstate Highway System
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The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways is a network of controlled-access highways that forms a part of the National Highway System of the United States. The system is named for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who championed its formation, construction was authorized by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, and the original portion was completed 35 years later, although some urban routes were cancelled and never built. The network has since been extended and, as of 2013, as of 2013, about one-quarter of all vehicle miles driven in the country use the Interstate system. In 2006, the cost of construction was estimated at about $425 billion, the nations revenue needs associated with World War I prevented any significant implementation of this policy, which expired in 1921. In the plan, Mehren proposed a 50, 000-mile system, the system would include two percent of all roads and would pass through every state at a cost of $25,000 per mile, providing commercial as well as military transport benefits. As the landmark 1916 law expired, new legislation was passed—the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 and this new road construction initiative once again provided for federal matching funds for road construction and improvement, $75 million allocated annually. The Bureau of Public Roads asked the Army to provide a list of roads that it considered necessary for national defense. A boom in construction followed throughout the decade of the 1920s. As automobile traffic increased, planners saw a need for such a national system to supplement the existing, largely non-freeway. By the late 1930s, planning had expanded to a system of new superhighways, in 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave Thomas MacDonald, chief at the Bureau of Public Roads, a hand-drawn map of the United States marked with eight superhighway corridors for study. He recognized that the system would also provide key ground transport routes for military supplies. The publication in 1955 of the General Location of National System of Interstate Highways, informally known as the Yellow Book, assisting in the planning was Charles Erwin Wilson, who was still head of General Motors when President Eisenhower selected him as Secretary of Defense in January 1953. The Interstate Highway System was authorized on June 29,1956 by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, popularly known as the National Interstate, three states have claimed the title of first Interstate Highway. Missouri claims that the first three contracts under the new program were signed in Missouri on August 2,1956, the first contract signed was for upgrading a section of US Route 66 to what is now designated Interstate 44. On August 13,1956, Missouri awarded the first contract based on new Interstate Highway funding, kansas claims that it was the first to start paving after the act was signed. Preliminary construction had taken place before the act was signed, the state marked its portion of I-70 as the first project in the United States completed under the provisions of the new Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The Pennsylvania Turnpike could also be considered one of the first Interstate Highways, on October 1,1940,162 miles of the highway now designated I‑70 and I‑76 opened between Irwin and Carlisle. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania refers to the turnpike as the Granddaddy of the Pikes, October 12,1979, The final section of the Canada to Mexico freeway Interstate 5 is dedicated near Stockton, California
22.
Interstate 35 in Texas
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Interstate 35 in Texas is a major north–south Interstate Highway running from Laredo near the United States-Mexico border to the Red River north of Gainesville where it crosses into Oklahoma. Along its route, it passes through the cities of San Antonio, Austin, Interstate 35E heads northeast where it passes through Dallas. Interstate 35W turns northwest to run through Fort Worth, the two branches meet up in Denton to again form Interstate 35, where it continues to the Oklahoma border. Interstate 35W maintains its own sequence of exit numbers, in Texas, Interstate 35 runs for just over 407 miles, which does not include either the 85-mile segment of Interstate 35W or the 97-mile segment of Interstate 35E. Texas contains more miles of the length of Interstate 35 than any other state. The Interstate is currently undergoing a renovation and expansion project. The project includes work on portions of the interstate from Dallas south to Laredo, in Laredo, Interstate 35 is between 6 and 8 main lanes in each direction, dropping to 4 near mile marker 13. After running concurrently with US83 for 20 miles, the highway continues north-northeast across the South Texas Plains, the highway passes through the towns of Cotulla, Dilley, Pearsall, Devine, and Lytle before reaching San Antonio. In San Antonio, I-35 is listed as the PanAm Expressway and it starts out as four lanes from the south until it reaches the Poteet-Jourdanton Freeway, expanding to six to eight mainlanes of travel. Its southern point begins in the southwest corner of town and travels northeast, at the southwest corner of Downtown, it reaches an intersection with Interstate 10, United States Route 87 and United States Route 90. US90 continues east and west from junction, while I-10 westbound/U. S. 87 northbound joins with I-35 northbound along the side of Downtown. In this section, it splits lanes to two levels, a lower one for local traffic and a higher one for express traffic. They briefly rejoin near the northwest corner of Downtown to allow I-10/U. S,87 to split off and go northwest. I-35 continues, resplitting lanes again as it curves around the northwest corner of Downtown, I-35 continues east for a few miles until it begins to curve back to the northeast. It merges with I-410 on its eastern north–south leg from its direction in a triangular interchange. A couple miles later, I-410 will split off onto its northern west–east leg, trucks are restricted from travel in the far left lane of I-35 in either direction throughout the San Antonio area. The restriction covers Bexar, Guadalupe, and Comal Counties, in Austin, Interstate 35 is named Interregional Highway
23.
United States Numbered Highway System
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The United States Numbered Highway System is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. The route numbers and locations are coordinated by the American Association of State Highway, the only federal involvement in AASHTO is a nonvoting seat for the United States Department of Transportation. Generally, north-to-south highways are odd-numbered, with lowest numbers in the east, the area of the thirteen states of the United States. Similarly, east-to-west highways are typically even-numbered, with the lowest numbers in the north, where roads were first improved most intensively, major north–south routes have numbers ending in 1 while major east–west routes have numbers ending in 0. Three-digit numbered highways are spur routes of parent highways but are not necessarily connected to their parents, some divided routes exist to provide two alignments for one route, even though many splits have been eliminated. Special routes, usually posted with a banner, can provide various routes, such as an alternate, bypass or business route, Routes were designated, auto trails designated by auto trail associations were the main means of marking roads through the United States. In 1925, the Joint Board on Interstate Highways, recommended by the American Association of State Highway Officials, after several meetings, a final report was approved by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in November 1925. They received complaints from across the country about the assignment of routes, so the Board made several modifications, as a result of compromises made to get the U. S. Highway System approved, many routes were divided, with alignments to serve different towns. In subsequent years, AASHTO called for such splits in U. S, expansion of the system continued until 1956, when the Interstate Highway System was formed. After construction was completed, many U. S, Routes were replaced by Interstate Highways for through traffic. Highways still form many important regional connections, and new routes are still being added, Routes do not have a minimum design standard, unlike the later Interstate Highways, and are not usually built to freeway standards. Many are designated using the streets of the cities and towns through which they run. New additions to the system, however, must substantially meet the current AASHTO design standards, as of 1989, the United States Numbered Highways system has a total length of 157,724 miles. Except for toll bridges and tunnels, very few U. S. AASHTO policy says that a road may only be included as a special route. U. S. Route 3 meets this obligation, in New Hampshire, but US Routes in the system do use parts of four toll roads, US51 uses part of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway in Illinois, the old road is Illinois Route 251. US278 uses the tolled Cross Island Parkway in South Carolina, US412 uses the Cimarron Turnpike in Oklahoma, the old road is US64. US412 also uses the Cherokee Turnpike in Oklahoma, the old road is Alternate US412, Routes follow a simple grid in the contiguous United States, in which odd-numbered routes run generally north to south and even-numbered routes run generally east to west
24.
U.S. Route 77 in Texas
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U. S. Route 77 is a major highway that is part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from the Veterans International Bridge in Brownsville to Sioux City, Iowa. In Texas, the road runs south-north for 471.3 miles from the International border with Mexico to the Oklahoma state line north of Gainesville. The highway is being upgraded to a freeway near Corpus Christi to connect to the part of the highway in Raymondville as part of future I-69. A freeway in Robstown is already signed as part of I-69, from Waco to the Oklahoma state line, US77 overlaps or runs parallel to I-35/I-35E. US77 crosses the Rio Grande with US83 on the Veterans International Bridge, the two highways run together concurrent with I-69E until Harlingen. US83 runs west along I-2 to McAllen while US77 runs north along with I-69E to Raymondville, the highway is the only one to pass through Kenedy County. In Robstown, US77 again picks up the I-69E designation until the interchange with I-37 in north Corpus Christi, US77 shares a short overlap with I-37 before leaving the highway. US77 runs through many small to mid-size communities before arriving in Waco, here, US77 begins its overlap with I-35 that lasts until Hillsboro, where the highway then parallels I-35E until Red Oak. →U. S. Route 77 Business US77 has an overlap with I-35E until US77 leaves the interstate in Corinth to serve Denton. The highway then returns to I-35 in north Denton until the two highways cross into Oklahoma together north of Gainesville
25.
U.S. Route 84 in Texas
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U. S. Route 84 is a U. S. highway that runs from Pagosa Springs, CO to Midway, GA. In Texas, the highway enters the state from New Mexico at Farwell, major cities along the highway include Lubbock, Abilene, Waco and Palestine. The highway exits Texas into Louisiana near Joaquin, crossing the Toledo Bend Reservoir, US84 enters into Texas concurrent with US70 from New Mexico. The US70 overlap ends in Muleshoe, US84 bypasses the towns of Littlefield and Shallowater before entering Lubbock. The highway just passes north of the Texas Tech University campus, as Avenue Q, the highway parallels I-27 before crossing it, just north of that highways southern terminus. Leaving the city, US84 serves the towns of Post and Snyder before reaching Roscoe, the two highways run through Sweetwater before reaching Abilene. US84 leaves the interstate on the side of the city. US84 joins US 83/US277, with US277 leaving the concurrency after a short distance, US84 leaves US83, northeast of Tuscola. US84 runs southeast to Coleman, overlapping with US283 in the process, after leaving Brownwood, US84 leaves US67 and joins US183. US84 becomes a solo route again in Goldthwaite, traveling through Gatesville, in Gatesville, the hwy meets SH36, which coincidentally also runs to Abilene, albeit in a more direct way than US84. East of McGregor, US84 becomes a 4-lane divided highway before becoming a freeway in Woodway, at SH6, US84 becomes a surface street, running through Waco. The highway enters Bellmead before leaving the Waco area, several miles to the east, the highway enters Palestine. US84 runs through several smaller communities before crossing over the Toledo Bend Reservoir, into Louisiana, US84 is part of the El Camino East/West Corridor, which spans five states starting in Texas. Studies are underway to build a new route of US84 around the city of Lubbock. This bypass, tentatively named Loop 88, is to start construction in 2020, in Abilene, Winters Freeway from Canyon Rock Road to FM707 is beginning upgrades. This includes converting two-way frontage roads to one-way, adding u-turns, removing the crossover of Iberis Road, an upgrade is in progress along US84 from Ritchie Road to Harris Creek Road, this includes implementing a divide-interchange with Speegleville Road in south Waco. US84 in Tenaha between the US 59/US 96/Future I-69/Future I-369 interchange and just about 2 miles east of the interchange will become I-69 and this would allow for heavy traffic on I-69 not have to slow down throughout Tenaha. This segment is expected to work in 2016
26.
County seat
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A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is used in the United States, Canada, Romania, China, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, county towns have a similar function. In the United States, counties are the subdivisions of a state. Depending on the state, counties may provide services to the public, impose taxes. Some types of subdivisions, such as townships, may be incorporated or unincorporated. The city, town, or populated place that houses county government is known as the seat of its respective county, a county seat is usually, but not always, an incorporated municipality. The exceptions include the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia, likewise, some county seats may not be incorporated in their own right, but are located within incorporated municipalities. For example, Cape May Court House, New Jersey, though unincorporated, is a section of Middle Township, in some of the colonial states, county seats include or formerly included Court House as part of their name. Most counties have only one county seat, an example is Harrison County, Mississippi, which lists both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats. The practice of multiple county seat towns dates from the days when travel was difficult, there have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement, since a county seat is a source of pride for the towns involved. There are 36 counties with multiple county seats in 11 states, Coffee County, for example, the official county seat is Greensboro, but an additional courthouse has been located in nearby High Point since 1938. For example, Clearwater is the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, in New England, the town, not the county, is the primary division of local government. Historically, counties in this region have served mainly as dividing lines for the judicial systems. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no county level of government and thus no county seats, in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maine the county seats are legally designated shire towns. County government consists only of a Superior Court and Sheriff, both located in the shire town. Bennington County has two towns, but the Sheriff is located in Bennington. In Massachusetts, most government functions which would otherwise be performed by county governments in other states are performed by town governments. As such, Massachusetts has dissolved many of its county governments, two counties in South Dakota have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county
27.
Brazos River
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It sometimes is used to mark the boundary between East Texas and West Texas. Another major tributary of the Upper Brazos is the Clear Fork Brazos River, the main stem of the Brazos is dammed in three places, all north of Waco, forming Possum Kingdom Lake, Lake Granbury, and Lake Whitney. Of these three, Granbury was the last to be completed, in 1969, when its construction was proposed in the mid-1950s, John Graves wrote the book, Goodbye to a River. A small municipal dam is near the city limit of Waco at the end of the Baylor campus. This impoundment of the Brazos through Waco is locally called Lake Brazos, a total of nineteen major reservoirs are located along the Brazos. Later Spanish accounts call it Los Brazos de Dios, for which there were several different explanations. In 1842, native Indian commissioner of Texas, Ethan Stroud established a trading post on this river, Brazos River was the scene of a battle between the Texas Navy and Mexican Navy during the Texas Revolution. Texas Navy ship Independence was defeated by one Mexican vessel, the river was important for navigation before and after the American Civil War, and steam boats sailed as far up the river as Washington-on-the-Brazos. While attempts to improve navigation on the river continued, railroads proved more reliable. The Brazos River also flooded, often seriously, on a basis before a piecemeal levee system was replaced. The river is important today as a source of water for power, irrigation. The water is administered by the Brazos River Authority, the river also features prominently in a number of prison songs, because at one time nearly every prison in Texas was near the Brazos. On June 2,2016, the rising of the river required evacuations for portions of Brazoria County, the Brazos River watershed covers a total area of 119,174 square kilometers. Within the watershed lie 42 lakes and rivers which have a storage capacity of 2.5 million acre-feet. The Brazos watershed also has a ground water availability of 119,275 acre-feet per year. Approximately 31% of the use within the watershed is cropland. Approximately 61% is grassland shrubland and forest while urban use only makes up 4. 6%, the population density within the watershed is 19.5 people per square kilometer. The main water quality issues within the Brazos Watershed are high nutrient loads, high bacterial and salinity levels and these water quality issues can be attributed to livestock, fertilizer and chemical run off
28.
Interstate 35
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Interstate 35 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the central United States. I-35 stretches from Laredo, Texas, on the American–Mexican border to Duluth, Minnesota, at Minnesota Highway 61 and 26th Avenue East. In two stretches, both through twin cities, the splits into Interstate 35E—at Dallas and at Saint Paul, Minnesota—and Interstate 35W—at Fort Worth, Texas. At 1,568 mi, Interstate 35 is the ninth-longest Interstate Highway following Interstate 94, even though the route is generally considered to be a border to border highway, this highway does not directly connect to either international border. I-35s southern terminus is a signal in Laredo, Texas. Route 53 in Duluth, but that route is typically accessed from the south by Minnesota Highway 33 at Cloquet. Interstate 35 northbound begins at a intersection with Business Spur I-35 in Laredo, Texas, just north of the Rio Grande. Through Webb, La Salle, and Frio Counties, it has a mostly north-northeastern course and it then cuts across the corners of Medina and Atascosa Counties before entering Bexar County and San Antonio. Interstate 35 is named the Pan Am Expressway in San Antonio, there, it has brief concurrencies with both Interstate 10 and Interstate 410, and it serves as the northern terminus of Interstate 37. I-35 heads northward out of the city towards the capital, Austin. In Austin, Interstate 35 is the Interregional Highway, throughout Austin, elevated express lanes were constructed on either side of the original freeway. Prior to this expansion, this included an at-grade railroad crossing. From Austin, I-35 goes through Round Rock, Temple, in Waco, I-35 is the Jack Kultgen Freeway. The campuses of the University of Texas at Austin and Baylor University are located adjacent to I-35, I-35 then heads to Hillsboro, where it splits up into I-35W and I-35E and runs through the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The official mile markers follow I-35E through Dallas—I-35W, which is 85 miles in length, carries its own mileage from Hillsboro to Denton, in Dallas, I-35 is the R. L. Thornton Freeway south of I-30, which picks up the name heading east. North of I-30, it is the Stemmons Freeway, after passing through Dallas and Fort Worth, I-35s two forks merge in Denton near the University of North Texas campus. The unified interstate then continues north to Gainesville before crossing the Red River into Oklahoma, in Oklahoma, I-35 runs from the Red River at the Texas border to the Kansas state line near Braman. It passes through or adjacent to many of the major cities
29.
Dallas
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Dallas is a major city in the U. S. state of Texas. It is the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the citys population ranks ninth in the U. S. and third in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. The citys prominence arose from its importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries. The bulk of the city is in Dallas County, of which it is the county seat, however, sections of the city are located in Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties. According to the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 1,197,816, the United States Census Bureaus estimate for the citys population increased to 1,300,092 as of July 1,2015. In 2016 DFW ascended to the one spot in the nation in year-over-year population growth. In 2014, the metropolitan economy surpassed Washington, D. C. to become the fifth largest in the U. S. with a 2014 real GDP over $504 billion, as such, the metropolitan areas economy is the 10th largest in the world. As of January 2017, the job count has increased to 3,558,200 jobs. The citys economy is based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare and medical research. The city is home to the third-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Located in North Texas, Dallas is the core of the largest metropolitan area in the South. Dallas and nearby Fort Worth were developed due to the construction of railroad lines through the area allowing access to cotton, cattle. Later, France also claimed the area but never established much settlement, the area remained under Spanish rule until 1821, when Mexico declared independence from Spain, and the area was considered part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. In 1836, the Republic of Texas, with majority Anglo-American settlers, in 1839, Warren Angus Ferris surveyed the area around present-day Dallas. John Neely Bryan established a permanent settlement near the Trinity River named Dallas in 1841, the origin of the name is uncertain. The Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845, Dallas was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1856. With construction of railroads, Dallas became a business and trading center and it became an industrial city, attracting workers from Texas, the South and the Midwest. The Praetorian Building of 15 stories, built in 1909, was the first skyscraper west of the Mississippi and it marked the prominence of Dallas as a city
30.
Austin, Texas
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Austin is the capital of the U. S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. It is the 11th-most populous city in the U. S. and it is the fastest growing large city in the United States and the second most populous capital city after Phoenix, Arizona. As of the U. S. Census Bureaus July 1,2015 estimate and it is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 2,056,405 as of July 1,2016. In the 1830s, pioneers began to settle the area in central Austin along the Colorado River, in 1839, the site was officially chosen to replace Houston as the new capital of the Republic of Texas and was incorporated under the name Waterloo. Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas and the republics first secretary of state. The city subsequently grew throughout the 19th century and became a center for government and education with the construction of the Texas State Capitol and the University of Texas at Austin. After a lull in growth from the Great Depression, Austin resumed its development into a city and, by the 1980s, it emerged as a center for technology. A number of Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin, including Amazon. com, cisco, eBay, Google, IBM, Intel, Oracle Corporation, Texas Instruments, 3M, and Whole Foods Market. Dells worldwide headquarters is located in nearby Round Rock, a suburb of Austin, residents of Austin are known as Austinites. They include a mix of government employees, college students, musicians, high-tech workers, blue-collar workers. The city also adopted Silicon Hills as a nickname in the 1990s due to an influx of technology. In the late 1800s, Austin was known as the City of the Violet Crown because of the glow of light across the hills just after sunset. Even today, many Austin businesses use the term Violet Crown in their name, Austin is known as a clean-air city for its stringent no-smoking ordinances that apply to all public places and buildings, including restaurants and bars. The FBI ranked Austin as the second-safest major city in the U. S. for the year 2012, U. S. News & World Report named Austin the best place to live in the U. S. in 2017. Austin, Travis County and Williamson County have been the site of habitation since at least 9200 BC. When settlers arrived from Europe, the Tonkawa tribe inhabited the area, the Comanches and Lipan Apaches were also known to travel through the area. Spanish colonists, including the Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre expedition, traveled through the area for centuries, in 1730, three missions from East Texas were combined and reestablished as one mission on the south side of the Colorado River, in what is now Zilker Park, in Austin. The mission was in area for only about seven months
31.
Indigenous peoples
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Groups are usually described as indigenous when they maintain traditions or other aspects of an early culture that is associated with a given region. Not all indigenous peoples share such characteristics, Indigenous societies are found in every inhabited climate zone and continent of the world. Estimates put the population of indigenous peoples from 220 million to 350 million. The adjective indigenous is derived from the Latin word indigena, which is based on the root gen- to be born with a form of the prefix in in. Any given people, ethnic group or community may be described as indigenous in reference to some particular region or location that they see as their tribal land claim. Other terms used to refer to indigenous populations are aboriginal, native, original, james Anaya, former Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, has defined indigenous peoples as living descendants of pre-invasion inhabitants of lands now dominated by others. They are culturally distinct groups that find themselves engulfed by other settler societies born of forces of empire, throughout history, different states designate the groups within their boundaries that are recognized as indigenous peoples according to international or national legislation by different terms. Their ability to influence and participate in the policies that may exercise jurisdiction over their traditional lands. The presence of external laws, claims and cultural mores either potentially or actually act to constrain the practices and observances of an indigenous society. These constraints can be observed even when the society is regulated largely by its own tradition. They may be imposed, or arise as unintended consequence of trans-cultural interaction. They may have an effect, even where countered by other external influences. This definition has some limitations, because the definition applies mainly to pre-colonial populations, the primary impetus in considering indigenous identity comes from the post-colonial movements and considering the historical impacts on populations by the European imperialism. Greek sources of the Classical period acknowledge the existence of indigenous people. These peoples inhabited lands surrounding the Aegean Sea before the subsequent migrations of the Hellenic ancestors claimed by these authors, the disposition and precise identity of this former group is elusive, and sources such as Homer, Hesiod and Herodotus give varying, partially mythological accounts. However, it is clear that cultures existed whose indigenous characteristics were distinguished by the subsequent Hellenic cultures, greco-Roman society flourished between 250 BC and 480 AD and commanded successive waves of conquests that gripped more than half of the globe. The rapid and extensive spread of the various European powers from the early 15th century onwards had an impact upon many of the indigenous cultures with whom they came into contact. The Canary Islands had an indigenous population called the Guanches whose origin is still the subject of discussion among historians, the United Nations estimates that there are over 370 million indigenous people living in over 70 countries worldwide
32.
Wichita people
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The Wichita people are a confederation of Midwestern Native Americans. Historically they spoke the Wichita language, a Caddoan language and they are indigenous to Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Today the four Wichita tribes — the Waco, Taovaya, Tawakoni, the Wichita tribe is headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area is in Caddo County, Oklahoma, the Wichitas are a self-governance tribe, who operate their own housing authority and issue tribal vehicle tags. The current tribal administration is as follows and their annual economic impact in 2010 was $4.5 million. After the man and woman were made they dreamed that things were made for them, the woman was given an ear of corn. It was to be the food of the people that should exist in the future, to be used generation after generation. - Tawakoni Jim in The Mythology of the Wichita,1904 The ancestors of the Wichita have lived in the eastern Great Plains from the Red River north to Nebraska for at least 2,000 years, early Wichita people were hunters and gatherers who gradually adopted agriculture. Farming villages began to appear about 900 CE on terraces above the Washita and these 10th century communities cultivated maize, beans, squash, marsh elder, and tobacco. They also hunted deer, rabbits, turkey, and, increasingly, bison and these villagers lived in rectangular, thatched-roof houses. Archaeologists describe the Washita River Phase from 1250 to 1450, when populations grew. These farmers may have had contact with the Panhandle culture villages in the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles, the Panhandle villagers showed signs of adopting cultural characteristics of the Pueblo peoples of the Rio Grande Valley. Structures called council circles were excavated in prehistoric Wichita sites, archaeological excavations have suggested they consist of a central patio surrounded by four semi-subterranean structures. The function of the circles is unclear. Archaeologist Waldo Wedel suggested in 1967 that they may be ceremonial structures, other archaeologists leave open the possibility that the council circle earthen works served a defensive role. In the late 15th century, most of these Washita River villages were abandoned for reasons not known today. Numerous archaeological sites in central Kansas near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River share common traits and are known as the Great Bend aspect. Radiocarbon dates from these sites range from 1450 to 1700 CE, Great Bend aspect sites are generally accepted as ancestral to the Wichita peoples described by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and other early European explorers
33.
Native Americans in the United States
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In the United States, Native Americans are people descended from the Pre-Columbian indigenous population of the land within the countrys modern boundaries. These peoples were composed of distinct tribes, bands, and ethnic groups. Most Native American groups had historically preserved their histories by oral traditions and artwork, at the time of first contact, the indigenous cultures were quite different from those of the proto-industrial and mostly Christian immigrants. Some of the Northeastern and Southwestern cultures in particular were matrilineal, the majority of Indigenous American tribes maintained their hunting grounds and agricultural lands for use of the entire tribe. Europeans at that time had patriarchal cultures and had developed concepts of property rights with respect to land that were extremely different. Assimilation became a consistent policy through American administrations, during the 19th century, the ideology of manifest destiny became integral to the American nationalist movement. Expansion of European-American populations to the west after the American Revolution resulted in increasing pressure on Native American lands and this resulted in the ethnic cleansing of many tribes, with the brutal, forced marches coming to be known as The Trail of Tears. As American expansion reached into the West, settler and miner migrants came into increasing conflict with the Great Basin, Great Plains and these were complex nomadic cultures based on horse culture and seasonal bison hunting. Over time, the United States forced a series of treaties and land cessions by the tribes, in 1924, Native Americans who were not already U. S. citizens were granted citizenship by Congress. Contemporary Native Americans have a relationship with the United States because they may be members of nations, tribes. The terms used to refer to Native Americans have at times been controversial, by comparison, the indigenous peoples of Canada are generally known as First Nations. It is not definitively known how or when the Native Americans first settled the Americas and these early inhabitants, called Paleoamericans, soon diversified into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes. The archaeological periods used are the classifications of archaeological periods and cultures established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips 1958 book Method and they divided the archaeological record in the Americas into five phases, see Archaeology of the Americas. The Clovis culture, a hunting culture, is primarily identified by use of fluted spear points. Artifacts from this culture were first excavated in 1932 near Clovis, the Clovis culture ranged over much of North America and also appeared in South America. The culture is identified by the distinctive Clovis point, a flaked flint spear-point with a notched flute, dating of Clovis materials has been by association with animal bones and by the use of carbon dating methods. Recent reexaminations of Clovis materials using improved carbon-dating methods produced results of 11,050 and 10,800 radiocarbon years B. P, other tribes have stories that recount migrations across long tracts of land and a great river, believed to be the Mississippi River. Genetic and linguistic data connect the people of this continent with ancient northeast Asians
34.
Stephen F. Austin
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Stephen Fuller Austin was an American empresario born in Virginia and raised in southeastern Missouri. Known as the Father of Texas, and the founder of Texas, he led the second, in addition, he worked with the Mexican government to support emigration from the United States. He was also granted Mexican nationality when settling Texas, Stephen F. Austin was born in the mining region of southwestern Virginia in what is known as Austinville today, some 256 miles southwest of Richmond, Virginia. He was the child of Moses Austin and Mary Brown Austin. On June 8,1798, when Stephen was four years old, his family moved west to the region of present-day Potosi. His father Moses Austin received a sitio from the Spanish government for the site of Mine à Breton. His great-great-grandfather Anthony Austin in Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England, he and his wife Esther were original settlers of Suffield, after graduating, Austin began studying to be a lawyer, at age 21, he served in the legislature of the Missouri Territory. As a member of the legislature, he was influential in obtaining a charter for the struggling Bank of St. Louis. Left penniless after the Panic of 1819, Austin decided to move south to the new Arkansas Territory and he acquired property on the south bank of the Arkansas River, in the area that would later become Little Rock. After purchasing the property, he learned the area was being considered as the location for the new territorial capital and he made his home in Hempstead County, Arkansas. Two weeks before the first Arkansas territorial elections in 1820, Austin declared his candidacy for Congress and his late entrance meant his name did not appear on the ballot in two of the five counties, but he still placed second in the field of six candidates. He was later appointed as a judge for the First Circuit Court, over the next few months, Little Rock did become the territorial capital, but Austins claim to land in the area was contested, and the courts ruled against him. The Territorial Assembly reorganized the government and abolished Austins judgeship, Austin left the territory, moving to Louisiana. He reached New Orleans in November 1820, where he met and stayed with New Orleans lawyer and former Kentucky congressman Joseph H. Hawkins and made arrangement to study law. During Austins time in Arkansas, his father traveled to Spanish Texas, Moses Austin caught pneumonia soon after returning to Missouri. He left his empresario grant to his son Stephen, Austin boarded the steamer Beaver and departed to New Orleans to meet Spanish officials led by Erasmo Seguín. He was at Natchitoches, Louisiana, on June 31,1821 and this news has effected me very much, he was one of the most feeling and affectionate Fathers that ever lived. His faults I now say, and always have, were not of the heart, at the age of 24, Austin led his party to travel 300 miles in four weeks to San Antonio with the intent of reauthorizing his fathers grant, arriving on August 12
35.
Spring (hydrology)
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A spring is any natural situation where water flows from an aquifer to the Earths surface. It is a component of the hydrosphere, a spring may be the result of karst topography where surface water has infiltrated the Earths surface, becoming part of the area groundwater. The groundwater then travels through a network of cracks and fissure—openings ranging from intergranular spaces to large caves, the water eventually emerges from below the surface, in the form of a karst spring. The forcing of the spring to the surface can be the result of an aquifer in which the recharge area of the spring water table rests at a higher elevation than that of the outlet. Spring water forced to the surface by elevated sources are artesian wells and this is possible even if the outlet is in the form of a 300-foot-deep cave. In this case the cave is used like a hose by the higher elevated area of groundwater to exit through the lower elevation opening. Non-artesian springs may simply flow from a higher elevation through the earth to a lower elevation, still other springs are the result of pressure from an underground source in the earth, in the form of volcanic activity. The result can be water at elevated temperature such as a hot spring, the action of the groundwater continually dissolves permeable bedrock such as limestone and dolomite, creating vast cave systems. The term seep refers to springs with small flow rates in which the water has filtered through permeable earth. Fracture springs, discharge from faults, joints, or fissures in the earth, tubular springs, in which the water flows from underground caverns. Spring discharge, or resurgence, is determined by the springs recharge basin, factors that affect the recharge include the size of the area in which groundwater is captured, the amount of precipitation, the size of capture points, and the size of the spring outlet. Water may leak into the system from many sources including permeable earth, sinkholes. In some cases entire creeks seemingly disappear as the water sinks into the ground via the stream bed, grand Gulf State Park in Missouri is an example of an entire creek vanishing into the groundwater system. The water emerges 9 miles away, forming some of the discharge of Mammoth Spring in Arkansas, human activity may also affect a springs discharge--withdrawal of groundwater reduces the water pressure in an aquifer, decreasing the volume of flow. Springs are often classified by the volume of the water they discharge, the largest springs are called first-magnitude, defined as springs that discharge water at a rate of at least 2800 liters or 100 cubic feet of water per second. The scale for spring flow is as follows, Minerals become dissolved in the water as it moves through the underground rocks and this may give the water flavor and even carbon dioxide bubbles, depending on the nature of the geology through which it passes. This is why spring water is bottled and sold as mineral water. Springs that contain significant amounts of minerals are sometimes called mineral springs, Springs that contain large amounts of dissolved sodium salts, mostly sodium carbonate, are called soda springs
36.
Brandy
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Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume and is taken as an after-dinner drink. Some brandies are aged in casks, some are coloured with caramel colouring to imitate the effect of aging. In broader sense, the term also denotes liquors obtained from distillation of pomace or mash or wine of any other fruit. These products are also named eaux-de-vie, varieties of wine brandy can be found across the winemaking world. Among the most renowned are Cognac and Armagnac from Southwestern France, the origins of brandy were clearly tied to the development of distillation. While the process was known in times, it wasnt used for significant beverage production until the 15th century. Initially wine was distilled as a method and as a way to make it easier for merchants to transport. It is also thought that wine was distilled to lessen the tax which was assessed by volume. The intent was to add the water removed by distillation back to the brandy shortly before consumption and it was discovered that after having been stored in wooden casks, the resulting product had improved over the original distilled spirit. Non-volatile substances such as pigments, sugars, and salts remained behind in the still, as a result, the taste of the distillate was often quite unlike that of the original source. This liquor, distilled only once, was called spirit of wine or brandy, purified by another distillation, this was then called spirit of wine rectified. The second distillation was made in balneo mariae and in a glass cucurbit, and this was further rectified—as long as the operator thought necessary—to produce brandy. To shorten these several distillations, which were long and troublesome, to test the purity of the rectified spirit of wine, a portion was ignited. If the entire contents were consumed by a fire without leaving any impurities behind, another, better test involved putting a little gunpowder in the bottom of the spirit. If the gunpowder could ignite after the spirit was consumed by fire, as most brandies have been distilled from grapes, the regions of the world producing excellent brandies have roughly paralleled those areas producing grapes for viniculture. In 1884, David Sarajishvili founded his brandy factory in Tbilisi, Georgia, a crossroads for Turkish, Central Asian, and Persian trade routes and a part of the Russian Empire at the time. The storehouses of the Romanov Court in St. Petersburg were regarded as the largest collections of cognacs, the Russian market was always a huge brandy-consuming region in which home-grown varieties were common but much of it was imported
37.
Fort Worth, Texas
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Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. The city is in North Central Texas and covers nearly 350 square miles in the counties of Denton, Parker, Wise, according to the 2015 census, estimates, Fort Worths population is 833,319. The city is the second-largest in the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, the city was established in 1849 as an Army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. Today, Fort Worth still embraces its Western heritage and traditional architecture, USS Fort Worth is the first ship of the United States Navy named after the city. Fort Worth is home to the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, also of note is the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, designed by Tadao Ando. The Amon Carter Museum of American Art, designed by Philip Johnson, the Sid Richardson Museum, redesigned by David M. Schwarz, has one of the most focused collections of Western Art in the U. S. emphasizing Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. The Treaty of Birds Fort between the Republic of Texas and several Native American tribes was signed in 1843 at Birds Fort in present-day Arlington, Texas. Article XI of the treaty provided that no one may pass the line of trading houses without permission of the President of Texas and these trading houses were later established at the junction of the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River in present-day Fort Worth. At this river junction, the U. S, War Department established Fort Worth in 1849 as the northernmost of a system of 10 forts for protecting the American Frontier following the end of the Mexican–American War. The City of Fort Worth continues to be known as where the West begins, originally 10 forts had been proposed by Major General William Jenkins Worth, who commanded the Department of Texas in 1849. In January 1849, Worth proposed a line of 10 forts to mark the western Texas frontier from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the West Fork, One month later, Worth died from cholera in South Texas. General William S. Harney assumed command of the Department of Texas, Arnold to find a new fort site near the West Fork and Clear Fork. On June 6,1849, Arnold, advised by Middleton Tate Johnson, established a camp on the bank of the Trinity River, in August 1849, Arnold moved the camp to the north-facing bluff, which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. The United States War Department officially named the post Fort Worth on November 14,1849, E. S. Terrell from Tennessee claimed to be the first resident of Fort Worth. The fort was flooded the first year and moved to the top of the bluff, the fort was abandoned September 17,1853. As a stop on the legendary Chisholm Trail, Fort Worth was stimulated by the business of the cattle drives, millions of head of cattle were driven north to market along this trail. Fort Worth became the center of the drives, and later. It was given the nickname of Cowtown, during Civil War, Fort Worth suffered from shortages of money, food, and supplies
38.
Oklahoma
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Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central United States. Oklahoma is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the 50 United States, the states name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning red people. The name was settled upon statehood, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged, on November 16,1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state to enter the union. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, or informally Okies, and its capital, a major producer of natural gas, oil, and agricultural products, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. In 2007, it had one of the economies in the United States, ranking among the top states in per capita income growth. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahomas primary economic anchors, with nearly two-thirds of Oklahomans living within their metropolitan statistical areas. With small mountain ranges, prairie, mesas, and eastern forests, most of Oklahoma lies in the Great Plains, Cross Timbers, interior Highlands—a region especially prone to severe weather. The name Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw phrase okla humma, literally meaning red people, equivalent to the English word Indian, okla humma was a phrase in the Choctaw language used to describe Native American people as a whole. Oklahoma later became the de facto name for Oklahoma Territory, and it was approved in 1890. Oklahoma is the 20th-largest state in the United States, covering an area of 69,898 square miles and it is one of six states on the Frontier Strip and lies partly in the Great Plains near the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states. It is bounded on the east by Arkansas and Missouri, on the north by Kansas, on the northwest by Colorado, on the far west by New Mexico, much of its border with Texas lies along the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, a failed continental rift. The geologic figure defines the placement of the Red River, the Oklahoma panhandles Western edge is out of alignment with its Texas border. The Oklahoma/New Mexico border is actually 2.1 to 2.2 miles east of the Texas line, the border between Texas and New Mexico was set first as a result of a survey by Spain in 1819. It was then set along the 103rd Meridian, in the 1890s, when Oklahoma was formally surveyed using more accurate surveying equipment and techniques, it was discovered the Texas line was not set along the 103rd Meridian. Surveying techniques were not as accurate in 1819, and the actual 103rd Meridian was approximately 2.2 miles to the east and it was much easier to leave the mistake than for Texas to cede land to New Mexico to correct the surveying error. The placement of the Oklahoma/New Mexico border represents the true 103rd Meridian, cimarron County in Oklahomas panhandle is the only county in the United States that touches four other states, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Kansas. Its highest and lowest points follow this trend, with its highest peak, Black Mesa, at 4,973 feet above sea level, situated near its far northwest corner in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The states lowest point is on the Little River near its far southeastern boundary near the town of Idabel, Oklahoma, which dips to 289 feet above sea level
United States
Texas
