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Community of True Inspiration Residence

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New York, Erie County, West Seneca
Community of True Inspiration Residence has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 by the United States Department of the Interior William G. Pomeroy Foundation 2013

(Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Pu'ukohola Heiau

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Hawaii, Hawaii County, Kawaihae
A heiau (temple) at Pu’ukohola was built long before Kamehameha started construction on the heiau that you see. This showed great vision and strategy on the part of the kahuna (priests). The heiau was physically very prominent and imposing on the landscape, adding to its spiritual power.

Only the male kahuna (priests), male ali’i (chiefs) and other royalty were allowed to enter the heiau. Women of all status were forbidden entry into the heiau proper. The structure was designed so that no one could see into it from the land side nor look up into it from the water. Wooden fencing along the edge of the platform further blocked visibility into it. Early written accounts also describe numerous structures and large carved images on the platform.

(Inscription next to the photo in the lower left) An 1882 photograph of Pu’ukohola Heiau looking southeast, from a study of volcanoes done by Clarence E. Dutton, U.S. Geological Survey.

(Inscription below the photo in the upper right) The heiau is about the same shape and size now as when it was constructed by Kamehamela in 1790-91. The platform footprint is 200 feet long and 80 feet wide, and the stone walls surrounding it are anywhere from 10 to 20 feet high depending on the ground surface. This survey, drawn in 1869, shows the condition of the heiau 50 years after the death of Kamehameha.

(Anthropology • Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Hun'ge

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California, Amador County, near Pine Grove
The semi-subterranean assembly and dance house was the largest structure in the principal village or capital of the tribelet and was owned by the headman.
     The sacred hun’ge was the community center for dances, meetings, social gatherings, and religious ceremonies; it is analogous to churches and other houses of worship.
     The construction and care of the roundhouse was guided by ritual and great moral obligation that only a headman or “captain” could bear; therefore, roundhouses were either destroyed or abandoned after the death of their owners.
     The four large center poles and beams support the roof, and thus are important structurally, but they are also important spiritually.
     Near the rear wall and between the two rear poles is the foot drum tu’mma. Traditionally, a half section of hollow oak log was placed over a pit and stamped upon by the drummer to set the rhythm for the dancers.
     In the old days the hun’ge was 40 or 50 feet in diameter with an earth covered roof.
     The hun’ge here at Chaw’se has the essential features common to traditional roundhouses, and is actively used throughout the year by the Native American community.
     Please show respect for this spiritual place and do not climb on the roof.

(Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Chaw'se

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California, Amador County, near Pine Grove
Chaw’se is the Miwok word for a mortar hole. The cup-shaped depression in a grinding rock was used to process acorns and other seeds into food by pounding and grinding with a cobblestone pestle.
     The hole or chaw’se began as a slight natural depression in the rock that became deeper through years of use. The deep mortar holes were used when the objective was to crack the shells of seeds without crushing the meats. Shallow depressions were used for acorn grinding and when a chaw'se became too deep, a new one was started a few inches or a few feet away.
     The great outcropping of marbleized limestone, with some 1,185 grinding its, is the largest occurrence of bedrock mortars in North America! Large grinding rocks were used by all the women of a village and served as the community milling place or outdoor kitchen. The women could tell stories, socialize and work at the same time.
     Listen closely, the great rock still echoes the pounding of acorns and the stories handed down from generation to generation. “A long time ago Oo-soo’ma-te the Grizzly Bear and Hoi-yah’ko the first people made the chaw’se mortar holes in the big flat-topped rocks. Then Nek-na-ka’tah the rock maiden helped make the stone pestles for grinding acorns ....”

(Agriculture • Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Petroglyphs (Rock Carvings)

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California, Amador County, near Pine Grove
In addition to the bedrock mortars, over 363 petroglyph designs are carved into the surface of the marbleized outcropping of limestone. This association of rock art and grinding pits is unique in California. Except for one other small site, Chaw’se has the only known occurrence of mortars intentionally decorated with petroglyphs.
     The designs were created by pecking through the darker weathered rock surface to expose the contrasting lighter-colored underlying stone.
     The meaning and significance of these geometric forms including concentric circles, sun-disks, spoke wheels, wavy lines, dot elements, tracks of humans and animals remains a mystery to this day - 2,000 to 3,000 years after they were carved.
     Some evidence suggests the petroglyphs were made ceremonially, and are not aimless “doodling”, to attain various results such as: good luck in hunting, human fertility, weather control, health, prosperity, and the like. There are many theories about these ancient symbols, but their significant meaning may carefully be hidden from the uninitiated.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY MEAN?
     The marble grinding rock is fragile and very susceptible to weathering and chipping. The natural elements are claiming many of the petroglyphs and they are now becoming difficult to see.
     Please stay off the rock and do not throw objects, coins or rocks into the mortars. Treat this irreplaceable reminder of the old world with respect.

(Arts, Letters, Music • Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

A New Deal for Fort Ridgely State Park

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Minnesota, Nicollet County, near Fairfax

President Franklin D. Roosevelt Creates the CCC
During the early 1930s close to 40% of America's youth (16 to 24 years old) were unemployed and not in school. Twenty-five percent of adult men were unemployed. Out of this great economic depression came President Franklin D. Roosevelt's national assistance program called the New Deal. One of those programs was the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC).

Creating the CCC was one of the first things President Franklin D. Roosevelt recommended to Congress when he took office in March 1933. The CCC was established to put young men to work and to assist them in developing job skills and work ethic.

Four US government departments cooperated in the operation of the CCC: The Department of Labor recruited, screened, and selected the enrollees; the Department of War trained, housed, fed, clothed, educated, and provided medical care for the enrollees while in the camps; the department of Agriculture and Interior selected the work sites, designed the work projects and supervised the men.

Fort Ridgely State Park was one of 30 Minnesota state parks to be started or developed during the New Deal period. The CCC was in Fort Ridgely from July 31, 1934 to November 1, 1935. The Veterans Conservation Corps (VCC) was here from October 1936 to July 1939.

The CCC Enrollees
According to the CCC enrollee handbook, enrollment was for "physically fit, unemployed, unmarried men between the ages of 17 and 23 years, who are citizens of the United States, and in need of employment, who have dependents and who wish to allot to these dependents a substantial portion of the $30 monthly cash allowance." Selections were to be made on a basis of "fitness of the applicant and the greatest possible good to the community." Young men were enrolled for periods of six months, with the privilege of re-enrolling for another six months.

Wages were $30 per month; $25 was sent to their home and $5 paid directly to the enrollee. Other benefits included free medical and dental care while in the camp, food and lodging, work clothing, educational and recreational opportunities, and time off for holidays. While the monthly pay was considered below average, when the other benefits were included it was in line with typical wages for that time.

About 10% of the enrollees were World War I Veterans. These men could be of any age and either married or single, so long as they were in need of a job and were willing to allot part of their pay to dependents.

"The intangible benefits of the CCC/VCC to its members and society are greater than its material accomplishments."
                                                                Lee Evans, Assistant Education Advisor, VCC Company 2713

"Our location upon the level top of a bluff offered absolutely no protection, and during a high wind, dirt was readily blown about, through the tents, into food and it made life miserable. Just across the road was a large pig pen, the birth place for millions of flies."
                                                                                               A CCC enrollee

"I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work...this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only through the prevention of great financial loss, but also as a means of creating future national wealth."

"More important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work. It is not a panacea for all the unemployed but it is an essential step in this emergency."

                                                                                               President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Fort Ridgely
State Park and
Historic Site


(Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Miles Archer

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California, San Francisco City and County, San Francisco
On approximately this spot
Miles Archer,
partner of Sam Spade,
was done in by
Brigid O’Shaughnessy

(Arts, Letters, Music) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

A Zoo, a Monkey, and a Mansion Here Too!

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California, Alameda County, San Leandro
Since the operation of Chabot reservoir in 1876, four different water companies have managed the lake. Their staff led colorful lives on this hill as they kept an eye on this valuable resource.

In 1904, William Dingee, then head of CCWC, tore down the superintendant’s cottage and replaced it with the “Slate House” designed by Oakland architect Walter J. Matthew. Black slate shingles from Dingee’s Eureka quarry covered its roof and sides, George Logan of the People’s Water Company became the first superintendent to live in the mansion. His stepson, Walter Hood, watched wide-eyed from the hill as the lake water “stood up” during the earthquake of 1906.

Did you know that when Anthony Chabot died in 1888, the funeral procession from 12th and Webster in downtown Oakland to the Mountain View Cemetery was the longest in Oakland’s history up to that time, and possible to the present?

(Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Tunnel No. 1 Control Shaft

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California, Alameda County, San Leandro
The stone structure before you is a 157 foot vertical control shaft. It joins to Tunnel No. 1 to open and close the flow of water running through the tunnel pipes. Two known accidents took place at this site. Tunnel No. collapsed on two Chinese workers in 1874 causing an uproar in the camp. In 1875, when water was forced down the control shaft to dislodge debris, four Chinese laborers were washed out of the tunnel. Although injured, the four survived.

San Leandro Plaindealer of 1874 described the bustling activities on this hill: “The glare of the forge, the ring of the smith’s hammer, the noise of the wheelwright’s saw, the hurrying to and fro of busy men, all going to make up a picture, to the visitor, exceedingly interesting, and giving him to understand that a grand site is being achieved there.”

The first superintendent, Frank Boardman, lived in a cottage on this knoll. Frank’s father, former Alameda County supervisor, William Boardman, was the dam’s chief engineer who created its many building diagrams. He drew the plans for the two water supply tunnels that run through this hill.

(Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Yem-Po: Chinese Labor Camp

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California, Alameda County, San Leandro
In 1979 a renovation of Chabot dam unearthed a century-old Chinese encampment buried in the creek embankment below. California State University Hayward (now called California State University, East Bay) was contracted and students excavated over 60,000 artifacts revealing the once invisible life, diet, and work habits of the 800 Chinese people who worked on Chabot dam from 1874-1892.

Soy pots and stoneware rice bowls spoke of familiar foods. Remnants of imported turtle and perhaps wild cat disclosed the use of traditional medicines for vitality. Opium bowls and paraphernalia pointed to the enjoyment of an ancient pastime. Rusting pieces of metal tools communicated the similarity of tasks performed by many in the gold mines of the Sierra and railways.

The excavators named the historic work camp “Yema-po,” Cantonese for “wild-horse slope.” This acknowledges the role of the Chinese laborers in running horses across the dam to compact the soil during its construction, one of their many contributions. Just as the name “Yema Po” preserves their cultural heritage, we too can preserve their memory in the stories in of the dam.

Did you know that of the 20,000 animal bones found at Yema-po, 70% were pig, revealing a diet much heavier in pork than their Euro-American counterparts? Also found were the remnants of cuttlefish, duck, turtle, and rare fish like the puffer fish.

(Asian Americans) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Taming the Waters’ Flow

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California, Alameda County, San Leandro
“Aha!” exclaimed Anthony Chabot It was spring of 1866 when he saw the raging waters of San Leandro Creek collide with Grass Valley Creek. He studied the vast surrounding watershed and determined it could nourish a reservoir year-round. He had found his dam site.

Taming the waters’ flow would require engineering creativity, and unexpected setbacks. In the fall of 1874, Chabot watched as the rains washed out 21,000 cubic yards of the earthen dam wall downstream. The runaway sediment is believed to have created Arrowhead Marsh at Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline. Once rebuilt, the reservoir was Oakland and San Leandro’s main water supply from 1876-1926.

EBMUD built Upper San Leandro Reservoir in 1926 and Pardee Reservoir in 1928 to supplement Lake Chabot water. In 1964 Lake Chabot was place on “stand-by” to be used only as an emergency drinking supply.

Chabot’s dam was not the first to be built here. In 1860 William Heath Davis, son-in-law of Don José Joaquin Estudillo, built a smaller earthen brush dam near the same site to provide water for Estudillo’s Ranch San Leandro, now the City of San Leandro.

(Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Of Fins and Flippers

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California, Alameda County, San Leandro
How do you climb the wall of a dam using fins? The dam blocked the natural migratory route of the steelhead trout, prohibiting them from swimming up San Leandro Creek to spawn in their natural habitat, what is now upper San Leandro Reservoir and tributary creeks. To sustain the fish population and stock the lake, Anthony Chabot constructed a fish hatchery in 1874 near the dam. The hatchery became the California State Fish and Game Hatchery 1878-1883. The hardiness of fish, like the land-locked Maine salmon and Eastern brook trout, were tested here before distribution across California. Some of the fish now found in the lake are illustrated here.

At times certain fish like carp were not desired, as they were believed to stir up silt in the reservoir. In the early 1900s sea lions were introduced as fish eating predators to alleviate the carp problem, but instead they clamored up the hills in search of saltier waters.

In the 1930s, carp and suckers were accused of mucking up the lake. A San Francisco company netted 16 tons of these unwanted fish, reselling the live catch for 40 cents a pound.

In 1966, the East Bay Regional Park District opened Lake Chabot for public recreation. Under a lease agreement with the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Fishing licenses and permits are required for all anglers aged 16 and older. Licenses may be purchased at the Marina. Enjoy youR catch and thank you for keeping Lake Chabot clear for other anglers.

Angler fees help keep Lake Chabot stocked with fish.

(Environment • Sports) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Chabot Dam

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California, Alameda County, San Leandro
Chabot Dam, originally called San Leandro Dam, was built by Anthony Chabot who started Contra Coast Water Company in 1868. When artesian wells and Temescal and Sausal Creeks failed to bring Oakland and surrounding cities enough water he decided to dam San Leandro Creek. In 1874 some 800 Chinese laborers were imported to sluice in 682,000 cubic yards of earth fill. Wild horses brought from Oregon trampled successive layers of San Leandro Dam’s clay center. The reservoir’s water first flowed into pipelines in May 1876. The East Bay’s first filter plant was added in 1890. In December 1928 East Bay Municipal Utility District acquired the facilities remaining them Chabot Dan Reservoir, and Filter Plant to honor the pioneer.
EBMUD

An American Water Landmark
Significant in the history of public water supply
Designated by
American Water Works Association

(Charity & Public Work • Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Dorchester

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South Carolina, Dorchester County, Dorchester

(side 1)
This town, in Colleton County before Dorchester County was founded in 1897, dates to the early 19th century and the origins of railroading in S.C. By 1843, only ten years after the S.C. Canal & Rail Road Company completed its first 133 miles of track from Charleston to Hamburg, the station here was called Ross, sometimes known as Ross's, Ross's Station, or Ross's Turnout. The post office established here in 1854 was called Elmville until Reconstruction. (Continued on other side) (side 2)
(Continued from other side) The railroad, later the S.S. RR and by 1899 part of the Southern Railway, kept a station, a "turnout" or second set of tracks, and a water tower here for more than 100 years. It carried wood, turpentine, pulpwood, and livestock, and was instrumental in the town's development. The post office here was renamed Ross Station by 1875, then renamed Dorchester in 1903. The town, incorporated as Rosses in 1892, was incorporated again as Dorchester in 1912.

(Railroads & Streetcars • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Transporting the Water

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California, Alameda County, San Leandro
The Transporting the Water marker consists of an illustration and two photographs accompanied by captions. They captions are presented here, left to right. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Hydraulicing:
Hydraulics were used to widen and strengthen the dam. In this sketch drawn by John Muir in 1888, look for the metal-lined wooden flume into which workmen shoveled and sprayed earth from nearby hills that gravity would move to the dam. Notice the superintendent’s cottage that used to sit on top of the hill.

Tunnel No. 2:
Underneath the mock neo-classical temple lies the inlet of Tunnel No. 2, which was completed in 1875. It connected reservoir waters to the main Oakland pipelines in 1876. The decorative temple, named “Diana’s Temple,” was built in 1917. Note for scale the man standing at the bottom-left of the inlet.

Tunnel No. 3:
This tunnel was built in 1889 as a secondary spillway to move excess water from the reservoir back to San Leandro Creek. Dug and dynamited 1,438 feet through rock, the exit is visible near the city of San Leandro’s Chabot Park.

(Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

To Build a Dam

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California, Alameda County, San Leandro
Underneath the lake lies evidence of the dams construction. The steps on this panel and the next one show how hands and hooves toiled to complete this engineering feat in 1892.

The rest of this marker consists of three illustration accompanied by captions. They captions are presented here, left to right. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Clearing the area:
Workers “grubbed” (removed) 333 acres of brush and trees from the area to be flooded, to ensure rotting vegetation would not affect the quality of the reservoir’s water.

Tunnel No. 1:
In 1874, laborers dug a spillway tunnel through the rocky hillside to divert San Leandro Creek while constructing the dam. Tunnel No. 1 was originally 30 feet above the canyon floor and later delivered water to homes.

Digging the dam:
To prevent leakage and the creeks’ return, laborers dug three trenches nesting one inside the other. The largest ditch was 900 feet by 150 feet; the second ditch or “puddlepit” was 90 feet from bank to bank and about 140 feet long creek-wise. In the third ditch, laborers constructed three concrete walls and then sealed the trench with concrete grout.

Puddling and compacting:
Laborers spread clay and choice materials obtained from adjacent areas to fill the two larger trenches. Water from a stream pump kept the clay wet and workable, and would form puddles giving the second ditch, puddle-pit, its name. Laborers drove gangs of horses across the puddle-pit to compact the layers and create a water resistant surface.

”Historians say Chabot was watching some cattle trample across a muddy creek bottom when he got the idea for the primordial impacting plan.”
Oakland Tribune June 9, 1968.


(Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Commemoration of Old Redwood Road from Redwood Canyon

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California, Alameda County, Oakland
Commemoration of
Old Redwood Road from Redwood Canyon
1859 – 1867

Peralta Adobe Chapel incorporated
In the home of
George and Mary Coonan McCrea

Oakland Chapter
Sons of the American Revolution
7 October 1976

(Churches, Etc. • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Monument Loop: A Legacy

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California, Alameda County, Oakland
This 50-minute walk through the park features five rustic monuments. Four of them were hand-made by Joaquin Miller between 1892 and 1913. The walk is steep in places, but provides exhilarating views of the Bay and a visit to the Cascade.

”...maybe he was erecting some of the monuments or stone terraces; and did he point to the older trees, saying “Why! these trees, these very stones could tell how long I’ve loved them and how well, and in after years maybe I will come and sit; sit here so silently you may not know of it.”
(Except from “About the Hights” by Juanita Miller, 1919)


(Photographs on the right, from top to bottom)

1) Statue of Joaquin Miller
The work of Kisa Beeck, the statue of Oakland’s “Poet of the Sierras” was commissioned by his daughter to mark the spot were her grandmother’s cottage once stood.

2) Funeral Pyre
Joaquin Miller erected this funeral pyre for his own cremation but was not cremated here.

3) Pyramid to Moses
Built by Joaquin Miller in 1892 to symbolize his belief in the Ten Commandments.

4) Browning Monument
Created in 1904 by Joaquin Miller to honor his fellow poets, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The monument is built in the shape of a rook chess piece.

5) Fremont Monument
Joaquin Miller dedicated this monument to General John C. Fremont, the noted 19th century explorer. The story is that Miller fell in love with the view at this spot, where Fremont supposedly stood when he named the view “The Golden Gate.”

(Arts, Letters, Music) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

C.D. Henry House

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Arizona, Pinal County, Florence
This American-Victorian (Queen Anne) house was built tin 1889, by its owner Charles D. Henry. Henry was a building contractor who specialized in brick and built other houses in Florence of similar architecture. These probably included the Colton-Freeman House nearby. With the introduction of brick as the "new" building material and with a brick yard in town, this material came into general use for both homes and commercial buildings.

Considered one of the earliest fired-brick residences remaining in Florence, this structure is an excellent example of the Eastern architectural influence which symbolized a new era of buildings in Florence in the late Territorial Period.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Year Built: Circa 1889
144 South Willow

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Ross/Fryer – Cushman Residence

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Arizona, Pinal County, Florence
In 1876, Roderick Ross, one of Florence's first blacksmiths, constructed this Sonoran-style adobe house. The original flat earthen roof made of round log beams, saguaro ribs, and mud is well-preserved by a gable roof added between 1899 and 1910. Turned-wood posts support a timber-framed, hip-roof veranda. W.C. Smith was the second owner. Celebrated union spy Pauline Cushman and her husband, Jere Fryer, later purchased the house. Tom Mix was a tenant here in the 1930s.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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