50th Northumbrian Division Memorial

September 14, 2015, 2:22 pm

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France, Basse-Normandie, Calvados Département, Bayeux
To the Glory of God and in memory of all ranks of the brave men of the 50th Northumbrian Division who laid down their lives for justice, freedom and the liberation of France in the assault on the beaches of La Riviere, La Hamel & Arromanches on the 6th of June 1944 and in battle on the fields of Normandy.

The town of Bayeux, the first town in France to be liberated by the Allied armies, was entered and freed by troops of this division on the morning of 7th June 1944.

Les troupes de cette division ont pénètre le 7 juin 1944 au matin dans Bayeux première ville de France à être rendue à la liberté par la armées alliées.

(War, World II) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Edge of a Glacier

September 14, 2015, 2:24 pm

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North Dakota, McKenzie County, Watford City

      These small boulders are clues to a fascinating story. Geologists believe they were ripped from bedrock 400 miles north in Canada and carried to this point by a great glacier which covered nearly all North America north and east of here.

      The ice melted thousands of years ago, but these rocks, called “erratics” because they are “out of place”, are clear evidence the glacier once covered the ground upon which you stand.

      The course of the Little Missouri and Missouri Rivers from here east marks the southern edge of the glacier that dropped these rocks.

(Natural Features) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Captain John Lonergan

September 14, 2015, 2:58 pm

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Vermont, Chittenden County, Burlington

In this park on July 22, 1863, Vermont's only ethnic Civil War unit was welcomed home from the battle of Gettysburg. Lonergan commanded Co. A, 13th VT Regiment - the Irish Company - and he received the Medal of Honor for gallantry in the battle.
The five VT regiments on 9-months duty formed the 2nd VT Brigade on October 27, 1862. In late June of 1863, the brigade marched from Union Mills, VA. to Gettysburg in six days.
On July 2, 1863, the Irish Company helped recapture four cannons and took 83 rebel prisoners. The next day Lonergan's men led the way when two VT regiments flanked Pickett's forces assaulting Cemetery Ridge, causing heavy rebel losses.
The Irish battle cry:
Faugh a ballagh - Clear the way!

(Notable Persons • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Longhorns

September 14, 2015, 4:03 pm

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North Dakota, McKenzie County, Watford City

Good grass and shelter attracted ranching interests to the badlands. Taking advantage of the void left by the killing of the bison, a Texas trail drive pushed 4,000 head of longhorn cattle into this region in the fall of 1884. Other trail drives followed, bringing thousands of longhorns. Hardy animals, longhorns fared well on the long walk from Texas. Turned loose on the open range, they adapted quickly and were ready for market in two years.

Twenty years later, the longhorns had almost vanished from the Northern Plains. Overgrazing and severe winters had taken their toll on the open range cattle industry. By the early 1900’s, ranchers were replacing longhorns with newer, more productive breeds of cattle. Fortunately, a few people intervened to save the longhorn from extinction.

Today you may see a small herd of 10-25 longhorn steers in the North Unit. Obtained from Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge in Nebraska, the herd is maintained as a reminder of the bygone open range cattle era.
“Old Joe Clark has got a cow -
She was muley born.
It takes a jay bird forty-eight hours
To fly from horn to horn.”
(Old Texas folksong)

(Animals • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The West Passage to Narragansett Bay

September 14, 2015, 4:55 pm

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Rhode Island, Newport County, near Jamestown

You are looking at the West Passage, one of two entrances to Narragansett Bay, New England's largest estuary. There are over 30 islands in the bay. There is very little commercial shipping in the West Passage since it is much shallower than the East Passage. Among the landmarks to be seen from this point are the following:

(1) On clear days you may be able to see Block Island as a hazy shadow on the horizon. Giovanni da Verrazano, an Italian explorer in the service of the French crown, sighted the island in 1524. In 1614 it was charted by the Dutch explorer Adrian Block, who named it for himself. This 9.734 square mile (25.2 km) part of Rhode Island is over 17 miles south of Beavertail light but only 14 miles wast of Montauk Point, New York. Ferries to Block Island run from Point Judith and seasonally from Newport.

(2) Point Judith Light, 7.2 miles away, is the southernmost landmark on the west side of the Bay. Three light structures have been built on this site. The first was built in 1810. The present 51-foot octagonal tower was built in 1856. It was fitted with a fourth-order Fresnel lens from Paris, which remains in place today. The upper half of the tower is painted brown and the lower half white.

(3) To the west is the town of Narragansett. If you look carefully and you may be able to make out The Towers, the last remaining portion of a Victorian-period casino built between 1883 and 1886 that burned down during the Great Fire of September 12, 1900. One of the state's most iconic structures was designed by the famed architectural form of McKim, Mead and White. The Rhode Island State House in Providence is just one of the many famous buildings designed by the firm.

(4) What many people mistake for a submarine is the Whale Rock Light foundation, all that is left of a caisson lighthouse destroyed by the Great Hurricane of 1938 (see the separate sign about the Whale Rock). (5) The large development to the west is Bonnet Shores Beach Club, a private club that began in 1928 as part of the Bonnet Shores summer residential community. The cliffs by the club are 60-feet high and extend nearly a mile.

(6) Just visible up the Bay is the University of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay Campus. The 200-acre campus was a coastal defense site during the Spanish-American War through World War II. The prominent white building is the university's research atomic reactor, the only reactor in the state. The campus is home to the Graduate School of Oceanography, one of the top five oceanic institutions in the country, and is the homeport for the university's oceanographic research vessel RV Endeavor.

(Landmarks) Includes location, directions, 7 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Birthplace of Alain, Jean and Guillaume Chartier

September 14, 2015, 5:12 pm

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France, Basse-Normandie, Calvados Département, Bayeux
En française:
Ici naquirent dans le XIVe siècle Alain Chartier Poëte, Orateur, Historien, et ses deux frères, Jean, Historiographe de Charles VII, Guillaume, Évêque de Paris

English:
Here were born, in the 14th century, Alain Chartier, poet, orator, historian, and his two brothers Jean, biographer of Charles VII, and Guillaume, Bishop of Paris

(Notable Persons) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Slump Formation

September 14, 2015, 5:54 pm

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North Dakota, McKenzie County, Watford City

      These tilted mounds were once part of the higher cliffs beyond. Stream cutting against their base over-steepened the cliffs. During wet periods, blocks of earth slid downhill, retaining their original layered sequence.

      Can you match the layers?

(Natural Features) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

“Cannon Ball” Concretions

September 14, 2015, 6:22 pm

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North Dakota, McKenzie County, Watford City

      The large spherical boulders in front of you are called concretions. They may have any shape, but most are round. Concretions are formed within rocks (shale, clay, sandstone, etc.) by the deposition of mineral around a core. More concretions will be exposed here as erosion continues.

(Natural Features) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Long X Cattle Trail

September 14, 2015, 6:39 pm

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North Dakota, McKenzie County, Watford City

      Abundant grass in North Dakota resulted in cattle being driven in the 1880’s along this trail to the Long X Ranch three miles north of this point. In North Dakota the trail passed through the place that is now the town of New England, then on west of Dickinson and the Killdeer Mountains. The trail crossed the Little Missouri River about a mile southeast of here and then led up the Squaw Creek Valley to your left.

(Animals • Industry & Commerce • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Pulp Grinding Limestone Wheels

September 14, 2015, 8:21 pm

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New York, Saint Lawrence County, Potsdam

Pulp grinding Limestone wheels from the paper mill in Pyrites, NY; a gift to the Village of Potsdam by Greg & Kendra Walsh, May 2000.

(Charity & Public Work • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

First Presbyterian Church of Dailey Ridge

September 14, 2015, 8:51 pm

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New York, Saint Lawrence County, Potsdam
First Presbyterian Church
of Dailey Ridge
1853
has been placed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior

(Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

McCain School

September 15, 2015, 7:47 am

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Michigan, Jackson County, near Jackson
This typical one-room schoolhouse was built for School District No. 2 of Summit Township in the 1880s. Named for a school board member, McCain School is the second schoolhouse erected on this site. The first was built in the early 1850s shortly after the land was set aside for school purposes. The rear lean-to addition was completed in 1899. The building operated as a school until 1956. It later served as a social center. In 1976 it was renovated as a studio apartment.

(Education) Includes location, directions, GPS coordinates, map.

Graham Family Homeplace

September 15, 2015, 7:50 am

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North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, Charlotte
Built by Billy's Father
William Franklin Graham,
in the 1920's on Park Road,
just a few miles east of this site.

(Charity & Public Work • Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Pottery Industry

September 15, 2015, 7:56 am

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North Carolina, Moore County, near Seagrove
Begun in 18th century by Chriscoe, Cole, Craven, Luck, McNeill, Owen, & Teague families living within 5 mile radius.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Jacques and Juliana Busbee

September 15, 2015, 7:59 am

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North Carolina, Moore County, near Seagrove
Artists, ushered old folk pottery tradition into the modern era. Est. in 1922 Jugtown Pottery 3 miles N.E.

(Arts, Letters, Music • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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Mechanic's Hill

September 15, 2015, 8:05 am

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North Carolina, Moore County, Robbins
Site of extensive gunsmithing operations in 18th and 19th centuries. The Kennedy family led in producing long rifles.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Dirt-and-Log Forts

September 15, 2015, 8:17 am

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Kentucky, Bell County, Middlesboro

Where you see a picnic ground today, imagine a seven-sided structure made of earth and wooden walls, approximately 40 feet by 70 feet. The outer walls of this Civil War fort were approximately five feet high with an earth-covered powder magazine in the center, and a 750-foot rifle pit curving underneath to protect the fort.

This outpost - like the other forts, rifle pits, and cannon batteries here in the Gap - was garrisoned from 1861-65 alternately by Confederates, then by Federals. Troops posted here guarded Harlan Road, the best way up Pinnacle Mountain.

(Cumberland Gap) is the roughest place in the world, but we are going to stick the mountain full of cannon to prevent the Lincolnites from crossing.
- Letter of Confederate soldier, November 1861

(captions)
(center) Fort McRae's outer earthworks were built with gabions - rounded wicker baskets filled with earth and rocks, similar to this photo (left) taken at Petersburg, Virginia - to reinforce its outer defenses.

(lower left) Confederates called this outpost Fort Mallory. Union soldiers renamed in Fort McRae after Union Captain Alexander McRae killed in battle in 1862.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

John MacRae

September 15, 2015, 8:27 am

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North Carolina, Moore County, near Carthage
Gaelic poet. Emigrated from Scotland in 1774. Loyalist during the Revolution. His home stood 2½ miles south.

(Arts, Letters, Music • Colonial Era • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Buggy Company

September 15, 2015, 8:31 am

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North Carolina, Moore County, Carthage
Thomas B. Tyson & W.T. Jones's factory produced horse-drawn vehicles sold across South. 1850s to 1920s. At peak made 3000 per year. Stood here.

(Industry & Commerce • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

John McConnell

September 15, 2015, 8:34 am

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North Carolina, Moore County, Carthage
World War I soldier; aviator. Flew for France in Lafayette Escadrille. Killed in action, March 19, 1917. Lived 1 mi. W.

(Air & Space • Patriots & Patriotism • War, World I) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.