Puebloan Culture

Archeologists use three things to define a specific culture:  architecture, agriculture, and ceramics.  (I guess for our culture you would need to change "Ceramics" to "Plastics," huh?)

The Native American culture that developed in the Grand Canyon area is known as the Puebloans.  Their architecture was structures of stone that were accessed from a hole in the roof.

 

Why a hole in the roof rather than a doorway on the side?  Safety.  Safety from wild animals and human enemies.  I thought it was a pretty good idea!

The Tusayan Ruins on the rim of the Grand Canyon are what is left of a village of about 30 people who lived here for about 30 years in the late 1100's.   The Spanish named the area, and when archeologists excavated here in the 1930's they affixed that name forevermore to the ruins.

This Museum on the site of the Ruins gives you a real-time idea of the Puebloan architecture - except for the doors and windows on the sides.  I like rocks, so I think it's beautiful.  I'm sure it makes my momma think of scorpions.  Scorpions on the outside maybe, but the inside is cool and dark so I don't think the scorpions would be comin' in.

This is all that's left of the original pueblos.  It's been raining all morning so they are filled with water.  (I wonder what they did with those holes in their roofs when it rained??)  It really is beautiful here.  I can easily see why they wanted to live here!

Their religious activities took place in a Kiva.  Traditionally, kivas were built underground and accessed by an opening in the "roof" because they believed mankind first emerged on Earth from a Sipapu, a hole in the ground.  There would have been a stone cover over it when no rites were being performed.  Here on the rim, digging a hole in this rocky soil was impossible, so they built up the kiva. 

As for agriculture, the Puebloan's relied on what most Native Americans relied on:  cultivated corn, squash, and beans.

In ceramics, they had distinctive black on white, black on red or orange, or corrugated pottery.  Corrugated pottery is usually made by coiling the clay or strips of clay and the making indentations on the surface.  It was very common in the later stages of the Anasazi culture from which these Puebloans and today's Pueblo Native Americans are descended. 

Spaniards Arrive at the Grand Canyon

Coronado started from Mexico City in February 1540.  He had more the 300 soldiers with him, plus four priests, hundreds of (Central) America Indian allies, slaves and 1500 stock animals.  Thus began a two year exploration for the seven cities of gold known as Cibola.

Six months into their search, the Hopi Indians asked if they'd like to see a "great river."  After twenty days, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas and his men (Coronado wasn't with them) walked out of the stubby, twisted, pine forest to stand on the southern edge of the eastern end of what we now call the Grand Canyon.

Cardenas was totally amazed, but entirely frustrated after staying for three days trying to figure out how to get down to the bottom of Canyon and thus the Colorado River, and never succeeding.  We know this because twenty years later, in 1560, Pedro de Castaneda wrote down his memories of the Coronado excursion into North America.

Coronado never did find the Seven Cities of Gold, but he did find Kansas!

The American Government Shuts Down

Just doing our own little research...

Glen Canyon Dam Visitors Center

Maybe the Visitor's Center is closed, but the government can't shut God down:

Lake Powell at the Glen Canyon Dam

Down this 40 mile long dirt road is the remains of an old west town, Paria, and pioneer's cemetery that was used in Hollywood movies like "The Outlaw Josey Wales."  The photographs we took on the way down this road are fabulous.  We finally get there, traveling through unbelievably beautiful scenery, and find this:

But, and I think this is pretty funny, the Navajo Indian Reservation is open for business!

This is the Upper Antelope Canyon.  See the tops of the tourist's heads at the bottom of the photo.  I'll do another blog post on the Canyon and use Granpa's photos.  This was just with my cell phone, but even with it's poor non-flash, point-n-shoot quality, you can see this Canyon is amazing!  And this is what we came to see, so it doesn't matter one whit that the American government is shut down.  All  the European and Asian tourists know is that Obama closed America and ruined their once-in-a-lifetime vacations - but Michelle Obama's website is still up and running, and Obama's ordered his golf course to remain open.

Nights in Arizona

Golly gee, it's beautiful weather here for August!!  Our home has a little group of seating around a cozy firepit - in the front yard!  Granpa and I like to come out here to watch the sunsets.
 

They are always different from each other and always spectacular!

After dark we look at the stars.  We're fifteen miles outside of Kingman, and there are very few lights out here.  Therefore we can see gazillions of stars!  They are fantastic!

One of our sons told us about an app:  SkyView Free.  Look!  It even outlines the constellations when I point the iPhone to the heavens, AND it lets me take pictures!!!

A scorpion is certainly apropos for Arizona seeing as how we found one in our bed the first night we were here - and another in the shower a few nights later.  They even sell them in suckers for crazy folks like me:

All over the sky, where ever I point the phone, there are beautiful constellations.  I can't quite figure out how the ancients "connected the dots" to draw the figures, but there they are!

The app even shows the Hubble Telescope and the ISS (International Space Station.)  Now that's cool!

Notes from Museums

1915 - when the National Old Trails Highway became the first coast-to-coast road, travelers began to experience running alongside the monstrous train engines.  Portions of this road, which later served as the 1926 alignment of the newly designated U.S. Route 66, through Northern Arizona gave some Americans their first taste of "riding shotgun" with the trains (a pastime which is still alive and well along Historic Route 66.)

Mohave County Miner:  "W.C. Babcock and wife motored as far as Seligman...and found the going mighty bad, having been stuck in the mud several times east of Nelson...They ditched the car at Seligman and took the train..."

1917 - Oatmen News:  "no more work (might) be done on any of the State Highways until after the war (WWI)...the entire state highway staff of engineers and road makers are to be turned over to the army to build roads from...France to Berlin..."

1923 - from Hobbs Grade and Surface Guide we find that "there is no dangerous or really bad road on the Santa Fe Trail...but there are stretches of slow, rough and tiresome road...Remember New Mexico and Arizona have been states for only twelve years ...but likely....spend more on their roads...than the state you came from."

1939 -  Route 66 was paved from Chicago to Los Angeles.  The completion of the paving on the eve of World War II was very significant to the war effort.  Improved highways were needed for rapid mobilization during the war.  At the outset of World War II the military chose the West for many of its training bases because of the good weather and geographic isolation.  Several of these, including Kingman Army Airfield Gunnery School were located on or near Route 66.  The military appropriation of the railroads during the war proved a boom to the trucking industry.  While car production fell from 3.7 million in 1941 to 610 rationed cars in 1943, production of trucks capable of hauling 300,000 pounds and more increased.  Fifty percent of all military equipment was hauled by truck during the war years.  It was not uncommon to see mile-long convoys transporting troops and equipment on U.S. Highway 66.

(Can you IMAGINE only 610 cars were built for private purchase during 1943!?!)

Check out this advertising:

YOUR 1943 CAR IS THEIR TANK OR GUN

     The wheels of the great automotive industry are attuned to war productions and the assembly lines which formerly turned out new automobiles for your business and pleasure are turning out equipment for your protection.

     You can't buy new cars so protect your old automobile by bringing it into our expert mechanics for inspection and repairs.

    Old Trails Garage

Overhead in the 1950's:

"No one can afford to be sick anymore.  $35 a day in the hospital is too rich for my blood."
"The drive-in restaurant is convenient, but I doubt they will ever catch on."
"If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit.  A quarter a pack is ridiculous."
"Have you seen the new cars coming out next year?  It won't be long when $5000 will only buy a used one."
"I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it is going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20."
"We won't be going out much anymore.  Our baby sitter is now asking 50 cents an hour.  Kids think money grows on trees."

Wikame - The Holy Mountain Legends

Tudjupa created from pieces of cane the various Native-American tribes.  The Havasupai were the first offspring, followed by the Apaches, Hualapais, Hopis, Paiutes, and Navajos.

After the Havasupai and Apache were initially created, Tochopa, another god of the Havasupai universe, asked both of them to live together in Havasu Canyon.  Then there was a "Hatfields and McCoys" kinda thing and the Apache were driven out of the Canyon.  Rumor has it, though, that that rift was patched up a long time ago.  A Franciscan friar, Padre Francisco Tomas Garces, was the first European to document the legends of the Havasupai when he met them in June, 1776.  He managed to traced their ancestors back to 800 A.D.

The Hualapai made their home closest to Wikame.

You probably know of the Hopi tribe from World War II and the code-talkers.

Wikame, located in Mohave County in the pine-covered Hualapai mountain range, is the biggest and most ancient in the County, with an elevation of 8,417 feet.  That's why the elk hang out there!

Going To The Next Level

The views from here are spectacular.

But there is still a LOT more climbing to do!  I told Granpa that if it took me six hours to get to the top I was not leaving until I made it.  But I have to tell you, they have made it as easy as possible:

And as entertaining as possible.  This is Devil's Head rock:

There are dainty little flowers on the way:

But once you reach the top of Skyline Trail it is spectacular!

Now remember, the last 17 minutes of "The Last of the Mohicans" was shot here at Chimney Rock State Park.  If you've seen the movie, what scenes might have been shot here?

No, it didn't take me six hours to get here.  All in all, I think I did pretty good - but now it's time to go back down...

I told you that they had made the "path" as easy as possible, but that is still a lot of steps!  Just think, we had just finished coming UP those steps about 20 minutes ago!  and there are more, lots and lots and lots more.  But it's been a really good day, and we are very glad we came.  We know that there is great beauty all around us and a refreshing river waiting at the bottom.

Kingman Army-Airfield Base

In 1942, when the Kingman community agreed to dig another water well to provide water to the base, the United States Military decided that they would establish a Army base, the Army Air Force Flexible Gunnery School, in Kingman, Arizona.  In May, 1943 it officially became the Kingman Army Air Field (KAAF).  The climate was perfect, and the new Route 66 provided easy access along with the Santa Fe Railroad.

At the height of the war, in late 1943, the U.S. had 345 main bases, 116 sub-bases and 322 auxiliary fields.  KAAF was a main base with one sub-base and five auxiliary fields.  But in the beginning there was nothing here in Kingman, so the airmen located in the Harvey House hotel downtown.   Eventually, there were 400 buildings and almost 6,000 aircraft, making KAAF the 6th largest U.S. Army Air Corp facility.

By mid-January, 1943 the base had established Bugs Bunny (with the permission of Leon Schlesinger, "Bugs'" producer) as the official mascot in honor of all the rabbits around the Kingman area.  At about the same time the first flexible gunnery training classes were started with about 25 men per class.  At the height of the war, KAAF was turning out 200-300 trained men every six weeks.

The Gunnery School was activated on August 4, 1942.  Trainees included one of the first B-17 outfits, the 1120th, a detachment of Chinese gunners, the 334th Aviation Squadron of African-Americans, and detachments of the WASP (Women's Aircorp Service Pilots).  White, black, Chinese, men, women ... no racism out here in the west!  The WASP's were used to ferry new planes from America to the European theaters. 

KAAF trained about 36,000 gunners.  They weren't trained to just shoot guns and drop bombs, they were trained to be able to disassemble those guns in the dark in case the guns jammed during an engagement in those nighttime raids over Germany.

 

One of those gunnery teams was known as the "Lucky Partners:" 

 

After the war, this was cut from the fuselage before the plane was sent for scrap. 

 

The war ended September 2nd, 1945 and so did the KAAF mission.  The field was ordered shut down as of February, 1946.  It's designation was changed to "Storage Depot 41."

 

Most of Kingman's planes (over 5,500) were bought after the war for $2,780,000 by Martin Wunderlich of Jefferson City, Missouri.  The fuel left in the planes at the time of their decommissioning was almost worth that price all by itself.  But, Wunderlich melted the planes down, and from 1946 - 1948, he shipped 70 million pounds of scrap aluminum from Kingman.  (Contrary to some rumors, no planes were buried in the desert.)

 

 

 

 

 

 



Ever Heard of Hair-Weaving?

This is an old method for remembering loved ones who have died.  Folks coming to America were usually "on the move," and might never make it back to the grave of a parent or child or close family member.  And so they would take a lock of hair from the loved one, weave it into these beautiful patterns, and frame them to hang on the wall.  Good memories are critical to our health! 

Speaking of Hiking

We were chatting with some folks on the rim of the Grand Canyon.  The man said that he trained for three months before visiting the Canyon because he did want to hike down into the Canyon, and he knew you had to be pretty fit to get back out!

There are signs like this throughout the Park:

Special Note to the young, strong and invincible:

Let's take a short quiz before hiking into the abyss.

1.  At what temperature will your brain FRY (and you die) from extreme heat exposure and dehydration leaving you utterly useless?  Answer: When your core body temperature reaches 105 degree F. or greater.  (This can happen at any summer temperature when you're overheated and underfueled.) 
2.  How long does it take to get out of the canyon on foot?  Answer: Two to three times as long as it takes to hike down.
3.  What is hyponatremia?  Answer:  A life=threatening electrolyte imbalance caused by salt depletion from sweating. 
NO KIDDING - DO NOT attempt to hike from the rim to the river and back without being prepared to possibly suffer the following:  Permanent brain damage, cardiac arrest, death.

And this:

And this:

Sheila Rowan, age 26, died in the Grand Canyon from heat stroke on the Bright Angel Trail.  Her three companions noted that she suddenly had leg cramps, acted disoriented, was breathing rapidly, and her lips turned blue.  She was just a few feet from Bright Angel Creek, where she cooled down easily -- and possibly still be living today.  *Source:  Death in the Canyon

We had a friend, his wife, and two teenage sons who hiked down to the bottom of the Bright Angel Trail and spent the night.  They were pretty physically fit folks - especially the boys.  Before they reached the top the next day, they ditched their backpacks and bedrolls.  It was hundreds of dollars worth of gear - but they simply couldn't finish the trip otherwise.  When they got back to Texas they found a message on their answering machine advising them that they had one week to get back to the Grand Canyon and retrieve that equipment or the National Park Service would beginning fining them (I think) $100 a day per pack!  Lawsa mercy me!!  But I suppose it happens SO often that the Park Service would spend all their time retrieving and selling or shipping things back to the tourists!

So those are my warnings to you if you ever want to visit the Canyon and plan on doing some hiking...  As our youngest son always tells us:  Be safe!

Mining at the Grand Canyon

Yup, there was mining goin' on in the Canyon.  In 1890 one brave soul, Pete Berry, staked his claim to mine for copper 3,000 feet below the rim of Horseshoe Mesa.  He called it the Last Chance Mine, and he thrived there for seventeen years below what is now called Grandview Point.

The ore was so rich that it claimed a prize at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago because the ore was 70% pure copper.  Even so, again we go back to the cost of getting equipment in and ore out of the Arizona desert to be refined.  By 1901 Berry had sold out to new owners.  The price of copper plummeted in 1907, and even the new owners couldn't make a go of it.

But as early as 1893, Berry saw another "gold mine" - tourists!  At first he just offered crude lodging in a cabin, but the people were delighted for a place to stretch out after their 12-hour stagecoach ride from Flagstaff.  The next day they would get to ride a mule down into the canyon.  By 1897 he had built a two-story log hotel.  Business was so good that Berry even added another building later.

Even with the capricious, sometimes testy nature of the human being, mining tourists was probably a WHOLE lot easier than mining copper! However, progress can't be held back.  Eventually the Santa Fe Railroad folks also counted the tourists and said, "Ah-ha!"  They built a track to Grand Canyon Village eleven miles west of Grandview and the tourists saw no reason to hop a stage from there over to Grandview.  They stayed a the Village, and Grandview facilities fell into decline.  Today, there is very little left of the Grandview Hotel, but now tourists arrive by their own vehicles and DO make that eleven mile trip.  The trail built by those first intrepid miners is now used by thousands of hikers every year, so all is not lost! 



You might also be interest in mining in southeastern Arizona:

http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/11/mining-around-tombstone.html
and in northwestern Arizona:
http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/09/mining-in-mohave-desert.html

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Oh, Shenandoah!

Wow! That song, Oh, Shenandoah!, has been recorded by at least eighty different artists including:

Archibald Asparagus from "Veggie Tales" (I know you're excited about that), but also Tennessee Ernie Ford (what an amazing voice HE had!), Harry Belafonte, Glenn Campbell, Celtic Woman, Bing Crosby, Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, Arlo Guthrie, The Kingston Trio, Michael Landon! for "Bonanza," the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Pete Seegar, Bruce Springsteen, The Statler Brothers, the Virginia Military Institute Regimental Band and Glee Club, and my favorite, The Trampled Turtles!  You can see that it is such a truly beautiful composition that it crosses all genres of music, but it will always remain a folk song, a real American original.

VMI (the Virginia Military Institute), of course, is located IN the Shenandoah Valley, so it makes sense that they recorded it - I hope they did it acapella because I'm certain it would be truly beautiful performed that way. 

The song, also known as Across the Wide Missouri, has nebulous origins.  It's positively known to date back to the early 1800's, and, again because of the importance of rivers to travel, made its way down to the sea and became a favorite of sailors.  Once it reached the coast the song was picked up by Clipper ship crews and became known world wide.  But it wasn't just a single song the way we think of them today.  The genera was known as sea chanties, and verses were added by seemingly every crew.  

If you've ever seen the epic movie How The West Was Won (1962) or Shenandoah (1965) starring Jimmy Stewart, you've heard at least a version of the song.   Some versions tell of a roving trader in the American west in love with an Indian chief's daughter, others of homesick pioneers who've left the Shenandoah behind in search of something more for their lives, still others chant of a rebel soldier from the Civil War dreaming of going home to Virginia, and slaves were known to have their own versions that they sung in praise of the Shenandoah River for covering the scent of their escape across the river away from the hounds hunting them down as runaways.

Here are a few of the versions - but they're all sung to the same hauntingly beautiful tune:

Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you, Away you rolling river. Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you, Away, I'm bound away, 'cross the wide Missouri.

Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter, Away, you rolling river. For her I'd cross, Your roaming waters, Away, I'm bound away, 'Cross the wide Missouri.

'Tis seven years, since last I've seen you, And hear your rolling river. 'Tis seven years, since last I've seen you, Away, we're bound away, Across the wide Missouri.

Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you, And hear your rolling river. Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you, Away, we're bound away, Across the wide Missouri.

A Mr. J.E. Laidlaw of San Francisco reported hearing a version sung by a black Barbadian sailor aboard the Glasgow ship Harland in 1894, which went:

Oh, Shenandoah! I hear you calling! Away, you rolling river! Yes, far away I hear you calling, Ha, Ha! I'm bound away across the wide Missouri.

My girl, she's gone far from the river, Away, you rolling river! An' I ain't goin' to see her never. Ha, Ha! I'm bound away, " &c.

The deep sonorous voice of Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1971 recorded:

Oh Shenandoah, I hear you calling, Hi-Ho, You rolling river. Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you, Hi-Ho, I'm bound Away. 'Cross the wide, Missouri.

Miss-ou-ri, She's a mighty river, Hi-Ho, You rolling River. When she rolls down, Her topsoils shiver, Hi-Ho, I'm bound Away, 'Cross the wide, Missouri.

Farwell my Dearest, I'm bound to leave you, Hi-Ho, You rolling river. Oh Shenandoah, I'll not Deceive you, Hi-Ho, I'm bound Away. 'Cross the wide Miss-ou-ri.

Both of the movies are really good movies, (my favorite being the one with Jimmy Stewart), so if you want to get a feel for the song, watch either or both of those.  I'm sure you could find just a soundtrack of one of the versions in a multitude of different ways.  All of them will be pleasing to the ear!

Who Fought Whom?

During the American Revolution against England the colonists were not alone. We had help from the French and some Spanish seamen, but some of the American Indians joined us against the English, too.  The Oneida and Tuscarora most especially were on our side.

The British hired German soldiers to fight us, but they also had the Iroquois Confederacy against us.  May not sound like much, the Iroquois, but they were often known as the Romans of the New World.  Yikes!

The Iroquois Confederacy was made up of five nations: the Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and the Oneida.  (Oops.  The Oneida sided with the colonists!  Seems there were some internal disagreements, eh?)  These dudes, the Iroquois, terrorized all of the other Indian tribes they came into contact with.  They conquered them just in the fashion of Romans, and they took over their lands just like the Romans.  Had ol' Christopher Columbus not come a knockin' the Iroquois may have taken over the whole North American continent!  Why those four other tribes wanted to help the English is beyond me, but they did.  The Cherokee Indians were also part of the Iroquois Confederacy and fought with the British against the colonists.  (Maybe that's why, fifty years later in 1839, they were forced on the Trail of Tears by the U.S. government??)

Miner's Jargon

One of ours sons just got a new job.  It's basically the same thing he's been doing for years, but the language is different.  I guess every industry has it's own vernacular.  This is some of the miner's jargon:

Adit - a horizontal working with one entrance

Cross Cut - a working that connects two drifts

Desert canaries - the miner's burros

Drift - a horizontal working that attempts to follow a vein

Drill steel - a sharpened, hardened steel rod held by one miner while another strikes it with a jack.  Must be rotated after each strike.

Fire in the hole - shouted when the fuse of an explosive charge was lit

Glory hole - a large open pit from where ore has been extracted

Headframe - the structure above the shaft that supported the winch cable

High grade - rich ore

High grader - someone who is stealing ore from the mine

Incline  - inclined working

Jack - single jack was a short-handled sledge hammer slung with one hand; a double jack was long-handled and required both hands to swing it.

Muck - blasted rock

Mucking - digging out the blasted rock

Ore - material that contains valuable minerals and can be mined at a profit

Ore bucket - used to haul ore to the surface

Ore chute - spout used to load ore onto wagons

Ore shoot - valuable part of the vein

Salting a vein - putting high grade ore in a barren vein to swindle someone into buying worthless property

Shaft - vertical working

Stope - excavation from which ore has been extracted

Tunnel - horizontal working that has an entrance and an exit

Vein - long, thin structure containing valuable minerals

Widow makers - air hammers (invented in the 1880's) used to drill blasting holes because they create a fine powder that miners inhale and causes silicosis, a deadly lung disease.

Winze - a steeply inclined shaft connecting different levels

Working - general term for any mine development or prospect hole made by a miner.

The U.S.S. Philadelphia, 1776

So I'm resting down by the afore-mentioned sit-in lunch counter, and Granpa is continuing through the enormous Smithsonian venues.  He knows how to please me though, and comes back with these amazing photos (including shots of interpretive plaques so that I can read the stories that go with the artifacts.)  What a good man he is!

Literally, 1776.  She was built and sunk in the same year.  Bummer.  But she has been resurrected and is now known as the oldest American man-of-war in existence.  That's cool. 

Water was the super-highway before automobiles because unpaved roads back then could turn into muddy bogs - especially for the narrow wheels of wagons.  Therefore, control of rivers and lakes and oceans was of tantamount military importance.  Lake Champlain (over 100 miles long and about 15 miles wide) sits between what is now the states of Vermont and New York.

Benedict Arnold, a very successful Connecticut businessman by the age of 21, had sailed many times to the West Indies and Canada.  In 1774 he was elected captain of his states' militia, and later put in command of American forces on Lake Champlain.

Spring and summer, 1776.  Picture the northern end of Lake Champlain at Quebec teeming with British shipbuilders pounding together war ships as fast as they could.  Now then, at the southern end, a short distance from Saratoga and Albany, New York, imagine colonists doing the same quick ship building.  It was a race for control of Lake Champlain.

The Philadelphia was built over a two month time frame.  She was a gundalow (now called a gondola).  That is to say, she was a flat bottom ship designed to carry cargo.  She was typical of vessels common at the time in Maine and New Hampshire for river travel.   They floated on tidal currents but might have a large sail in case of good winds.  The Philadelphia was outfitted for war, though, and not cargo.

Now it's October, 1776, and these could be considered good times for Benedict Arnold.   He was in command of the American war ships on Lake Champlain.  It was his duty to prevent the British from capturing Fort Ticonderoga and thereby gaining control of central colonial New York.  (Remember, it's not a state yet because America is not a country yet...)  At Valcour Island, Arnold led the small American fleet of fifteen ships against the British's twenty-nine ships.  The fate of the Philadelphia was sealed when the British dropped a 24-pound shot on her.  She sank to the bottom.  Arnold's other ships were either burned, sunk or captured.

The Americans lost the battle, but in a manner of speaking, they won the war because of the delay it caused the British.  Before the British could regroup winter had set in, and back then armies went to ground in the winter.  By the time things began to thaw out (Lake Champlain can sometimes freeze over solid in the winter regardless of its size), George Washington and the Continental Army had gotten its act together and were able to win a victory at Saratoga.  Armies have been known to make huge sacrifices of men and material in order for the larger war effort to succeed.  That's exactly what the Texas Alamo fight was all about!

So, though Arnold's little fleet was almost entirely wiped out, it was a "win" in the long run, as was the Alamo - though I think the Alamo is remembered and not Arnold because Arnold eventually turned against America.

Now fast forward to 1935.  The 54-foot Philadelphia is discovered sitting upright at the bottom of Lake Champlain!  She still bears three of her cannon and eight swivel guns!  She not only retained most of her armaments but also hundreds of other items - including human bones.  Even her mast was intact and upright - with only about 15 feet of water from its tip to the lake's surface!  All those years and she was hiding just under the surface.  Cool!

The level of preservation is astonishing to me.

 

At first it was used as a tourist attraction, but finally ended up - along with the 24-pound shot that sank her - at the Smithsonian in 1964.

Presidential Heirlooms

We all know that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and that former Yankee Civil War General Ulysses S Grant was later elected President.  This is the actual carriage Grant purchased during his first term.

Even after Lincoln's assassination Grant was willing to ride around in an open carriage.  Cool? or not?  Meeks Carriage and Wagon Repository sold it to Grant and then purchased it back when Grant left office.  They held onto it for about a hundred years before donating it to the Smithsonian in 1968.

John Quincy Adams was a chess fan.  Awesome.  But hot pink chess pieces??  What kind of rumors would come out today if Obama played with hot pink?  The table sure is gorgeous though - that's not painted, it's inlay.  Who even takes the time to make furniture like this nowadays?

There was a time when Presidents took home things that were gifted to them as Head of State.  Now they have to leave it all to the American people, and it ends up in a Smithsonian vault somewhere.  Hey!  Maybe that's where they came up with the idea for the TV series, Warehouse 13.

Granpa thought this was a great photo.  Is this what's meant by balance of power?  Two Democrats and two Republicans?  That's America!  I'm so proud of America.  This kind of balance is what keeps the pendulum from swinging too far left or too far right.  It's best to be mostly in the middle, everything in moderation.  My question is, has the fixed point of America's pendulum been moved?

Ladies Can Be Miners, Too!

This lady discovered her own mine, learned how to set the blasting caps, blew tons of mountain loose, and rummaged through the debris all by herself.  She was known as the Lady Miner from Mineral Park.  Her husband died during all of this, she remarried, had twins (both of whom died).  Over the next years which included giving birth to four more children, Cordelia built a very profitable mining business.  Through it all, she was always known as a lady!

The Lady Miner From Mineral Park, Arizona