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Treaty of Painted Post

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New York, Steuben County, Painted Post

Col. Timothy Pickering, commissioner appointed by President Washington, negotiated the Treaty of Painted Post with the Iroquois Indians, which ended warfare between the Six Nations and the white settlers in New York State.

Dedicated: June 11, 1966 - Colonial Day

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


Sulphur Springs Church and Campground

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Virginia, Smyth County, near Chilhowie
Across the highway was a log meeting house and campground visited by Bishop Francis Asbury and early Methodist circuit riders. On this site Col. W. P. Thompson gathered his regiment in 1812. Here Elizabeth Henry Russell often worshipped and this was the home church of the Rev. R. Gannaway. The church, brick-cased about 1860, was moved to the present location of Chilhowie United Methodist Church in 1893.

(Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

California Admission Day

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California, San Francisco City and County, San Francisco

This Fountain
is Dedicated to
the Native Sons
of the Golden West
To Commemorate
The Admission of California
Into the Union
September the Ninth
Anno Domini
MDCCCL

“The unity of our
empire hangs on
the decision of
this day.”
— W.H. Seward

On the Admission of California U.S. Senate 1850

(Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 14 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Phillip H. Vetter

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Wyoming, Park County, Cody
Phillip Henry Vetter was born February 7, 1855 near Woodstock, Shenandoah County, Virginia. He was killed by a grizzly bear on the Greybull River in Wyoming in 1892.
A few years after the Civil War, Phillip's family came West by wagon train and settled in the Wind River Country near Lander, Wyoming Territory.
Through the 1880's Phillip Vetter pursued the occupation of market hunter and trapper. About 1890 he moved over to the Greybull River above Meeteetse, Wyoming. Here he built a log cabin and continued his hunting and trapping.
On September 1, 1892, Vetter left a note at his cabin which said, "Jake, if you come to get your horses, I'm going down to the river after some bear."
A week or so later John Corbett, and old buffalo hunter, was riding over to John Gleavers on Wood River. When he was near Vetter's cabin, black clouds threatened a heavy rain. Corbett decided to wait out the storm in shelter with Vetter.
He road up to the cabin. The door stood open. Inside, Corbett found Vetter's body. Dishes from Vetter's last meal stood unwashed on the dusty table. The storm was forgotten. Corbett jumped on his horse and raced to the Gleaver ranch.
The two men returned and sought to piece the story together. They found Vetter's neatly written note to Jake. In contrast, scribbled on the edge of a newspaper in Vetter's handwriting, in what they believed his blood, were several terse messages. The first said something about a battle with a grizzly bear. A later notation said, "Should go to Franc's but too weak." Vetter's handwriting grew shakier. "It's getting dark, I'm smothering." The final message read, "I'm dying."
One of Vetter's arms had been badly mangled and his chest was crushed. He had tried unsuccessfully to stop the flow of blood.
The men walked down to the river to look for more clues. Near the stream the men found a water bucket and Vetter's hat, and not far away was his rifle. A shell had jammed in the chamber. On the ground lay two empty casings.
The wounded bear had mauled him severely before leaving him for dead. Vetter was able to drag himself back to his cabin where he wrote his death message in his own blood. Thirty-seven year old Phillip Vetter died alone, far from help.
Corbett and Gleaver built a casket of rough boards with timbers hewn from logs for a lid. Vetter was buried on (a) upper river bank, near his cabin. A slab of sandstone with the inscription "P.H. Vetter - 1892" was placed at the grave.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

W.A. Gallagher and Blind Bill

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Wyoming, Park County, Cody
William Gallagher and his friend, Blind Bill, were killed on Meeteese Creek below the old town of Arland in mid-March of 1894. Both men, about thirty, were born during the Civil War period.
Gallagher, who was somewhat of an outlaw, was tall, lean and wore a drooping dark mustache. He wore a gun most of the time, had a severe temper, and was a hard case in general.
Blind Bill was short, muscular, and wore a patch over his left eye, which was blind. Blind Bill was a good friend of Gallagher's. Both men were working as cowboys in the Greybull River Country, and had probably found their way into the region on one of the early trail drives.
Gallagher was once described by A.A. Anderson, for whom he had once worked, as being one of the best horsemen and ropers he had ever known. However, his reputation was not as good as his figure. Gallagher told Anderson, one time after getting out of jail in Thermopolis, that; "I captured the town and was about to trade it off to the Indians when they threw me in jail." On another occasion, Gallagher was accused of horse stealing and tried at the district court in Lander, Wyoming in 1891. Later that year he was tried for forgery. He escaped being jailed each time, due to technicalities.
In 1893, Gallagher had become involved with 27 year old Belle Drewery, one of the single women that hung out around the town of Arland. Early in 1894 Belle began seeing Bill Wheaton. When Gallagher became aware of the friendship, he went into a jealous rage. On March 15th Gallagher took Belle over to the ranch house where Wheaton was. An argument developed and Gallagher pulled his six-shooter and held Wheaton and Belle at gunpoint for two hours, while he threatened them and kept cocking his six-shooter. Finally, Gallagher passed the incident off as kind of a joke and holstered his gun.
Belle informed Wheaton as to were a gun was hidden in the house. A little later she went out of the house and started walking toward Meeteese.
When she didn't return, Gallagher went out to see where she went. Wheaton the got the gun that was in the house. Gallagher was walking across the yard when Wheaton rested the gun against the ride of the door frame and shot him from behind. Wheaton then got on his horse and left.
When Blind Bill learned of Gallagher's death, he was very upset and swore he would kill Wheaton in revenge for the death of his friend.
Wheaton was soon informed that Blind Bill intended to kill him. Gallagher's loyal friend never fulfilled his vow, for he was found a few days later, shot in the back by an unknown assassin. Although it was believed that Wheaton killed Blind Bill, it was never proven.
Both Gallagher and his friend, Blind Bill, were buried on a sage brush hill near Meeteese Creek.
Wheaton was tried in the death of W.A. Gallagher and sentenced to eight years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary. He was released in 1898 after serving four years. Belle Drewery had been killed the year before in a gunfight at a saloon in Arland.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Belle Drewry

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Wyoming, Park County, Cody
Belle Drewry was born in 1867, just two years after the Civil War. Her birth place and family are unknown. It is known that she left home at an early age and changed her name. Belle was a rather attractive young woman; about five foot six inches all, medium to heavy boned with auburn hair. No one knows how or why Belle showed up in Wyoming Territory in the 1880's. However, it is suspected that she drifted west from mining towns in the Black Hills. She seemed to be drawn to the dark side of life and felt comfortable with the lawless element. A news item in the "Sundance Gazette" stated that in 1888, Belle Drewry was arraigned in court, for theft, with a piano player who was known to be an outlaw with an unsavory reputation. She was 21 years old.
By 1890 Belle had arrived (probably by stage coach) at the frontier town of Arland, Wyoming. Arland was located about twenty-five miles south of present Cody, Wyoming and was the first settlement in northwest Wyoming. It was a lawless town with a reputation for unrestrained violence and murder. Belle Drewry worked in the saloon and dance hall. Here she got to know W.A. Gallagher, Blind Bill Hoolihan , Robert Parker (Butch Cassidy), Jack Bliss and other suspected members of a gang known as the "Woodriver Horse Thieves."
Belle soon developed a close relationship with W.A. Gallagher, a well known cowboy and horse thief. In 1891 Gallagher was lodged in the Fremont County Jail where he was held on charges of stealing a bay mare from the L U Ranch on Gooseberry Creek. Belle Dreary and Ed Lanigan put up $200.00 in bond money to get Gallagher out of jail.
Gallagher had the reputation of bring a quarrelsome, and vicious man. By the spring of 1894 Belle's relationship with Gallagher was deteriorating and she developed a friendship with Bill Wheaton, another cowboy in the area. This resulted in a dispute in which Gallagher was shot and killed by Wheaton. Blind Bill, Gallaghers friend attempted a show down to avenge Gallagher's death. However Blind Bill was shot in the back and died in his cabin in Arland after a farewell letter to the undertaker. Belle Drewry and Bill Wheaton were charged with premeditated murder in the death of Gallagher, apprehended, and taken to the County Jail in Lander, Wyoming. However, the charges against Belle were dismissed at the preliminary hearing. Bill Wheaton's charge was later reduced to second degree manslaughter and was sentenced to eight years in the Wyoming Penitentiary in Laramie.
Bell continued her activities in the Arland-Meeteese country and was well known. Early in 1897 Belle Drewry and three of her followers gave a party, one night. Everyone was drinking and the cowboys proceeded to shoot up the place. In the uproar that followed Belle pulled a six-shooter from a hiding place and shot the leader of the cowboy gang. A few days later, an unknown assassin came into the house and killed Belle Drewry, apparently in revenge, for their comrades death.
Belle was given a respectable burial on the hill overlooking Arland. Thirty year old Belle Drewry was laid to rest in a red wood coffin, wearing a cobalt blue silk dress with a black sash. When Belle was disinterred for reburial at Old Trail Town, fired 45-70 and 45-60 cartridge cases were found in the ground around the coffin. It appears that a parting salute was fired, and the cartridge cases were dropped into the open grave.
One might imagine; the boom of the rifles, the rolling echo across the hills and the black powder smoke drifting away with the wind like departing ghosts. -- Perhaps, a fitting farewell from a wild land.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Sampson E. Stilwell

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Wyoming, Park County, Cody
Sampson E. Stilwell, better known as "Comanche Jack," was born in Kansas in 1850 and served on the frontier during his youth as a scout and hunter. He is best known for his heroic deeds at the Battle of Beechers Island on September 6 (sic), 1868.
August of 1886 was a trying time in Kansas Territory, as bands of marauding Sioux and Cheyenne were killing many settlers in what is now western Kansas and eastern Colorado.
It was well-known that the regular troops had little effect against the hit-and-run tactics of the Indians.
On August 24, 1868, General Sheridan ordered Colonel G.A. Forsyth to enlist "50 first class hardy frontiersmen" and arm them with the new Spencer Carbine, a repeating cartridge rifle that could fire nine shots without reloading. The ranks were soon filled, and among the volunteers was 18-year-old Jack Stilwell, described as "a youth of six feet three or more, short of years but long on frontier lore."
Forsyth's contingent left Fort Hayes on August 29, 1868, and headed northwest into the Indian country. On the morning of September 16 (sic), his scouts crossed the trail of a large band of Indians. That evening Forsyth's party camped along the north bank of the Arikaree Fork of the Republican River. Before dawn young warriors tried to steal some of the scouts horses. Shortly after dawn, the entire horizon seemed filled with mounted and unmounted Indians. It is said that Jack Stilwell pointed to a small island in the river and the officers and scouts made a mad dash for it.
Almost immediately, approximately six hundred Cheyenne and Sioux warriors began their charge down the slope toward the island. The scouts killed their horsed for breastworks and dug into the sand behind them. Then, like a cyclone, the massive screaming force hit the island. When the first warriors were within twenty-five yards of the scouts, they opened fire with the new repeating guns. Horses and men fell in the first volley, many of which rolled over the defenders of the island. Colonel Forsyth's leg was shattered by a bullet, Lt. Beecher and Surgeon Moore were fatally wounded while others received lesser wounds.
The warriors, surprised by the rapid fire of the new guns, changed their tactics. They began riding and swerving off as they fired, while others sniped at the defenders from hidden positions. After the first day of fighting Forsyth realized that without food and medical supplies their situation was hopeless. That night Jack Stilwell and Pierre Trudeau volunteered to try to sneak through the Indians and bring help from Fort Wallace, 125 miles away. Everyone feared that they would not make it. But after several close calls and a great deal of hardship, they did make it. On September 15 Jack Stilwell arrived with the 10th Cavalry and saved the survivors on the Island.
After the Beechers Island battle, Stilwell remained a scout for the army for some time. Later in life he became a deputy United States Marshal in Oklahoma Territory, where he killed and captured several outlaws. Later he became the Police Judge at El Reno, Oklahoma. In the mid-1890s he became a government cattle inspector for the Comanche Agency at Anadarko, Oklahoma. After that, Stilwell became United States Commissioner and Master of the Masonic Lodge at Erwin Springs, Oklahoma.
Through the influence of his friend, Buffalo Bill, he came to Cody, Wyoming in 1897. There he took care of Cody's interests while he was away with the Wild West show. Jack Stilwell had a small ranch on the South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody and died from a sudden illness in 1903.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Memorial to the Zulu Dead

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South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Elandskraal, Rorke's Drift
English text:
This bronze memorial, sculpted by Peter Hall was commissioned in 2005. It depicts a leopard, representing the Zulu monarch, protectively covering the shields of the fallen Zulu warriors. The tree growing in the centre of the memorial is an Mphafa, or uMlahlankosi, traditionally planted on the graves members of the royal family, and also used to bring home the spirit of a person who had died far from home, as did most of the warriors who perished in this battle.

Zulu text:
Lesi sikhumbuzo esakhiwe ngethusi, esabazwa ngu Peter Hall saphothulwa ngonyaka wezi 2005. Sikhombisa ingulule, emele ubukhosi bakwaKwaZulu, legulule yemboze ngokucophelela izihlangu zamabutho kaZulu asala kulenkundla. Isihlahla esikhula maphakhathi nendawo yalesi sikhumbuzo, uMphafa noma uMlahlankosi ngaphambilini sasitshalwa emalibeni endlunkulu, futhi sisetshenziswa ukubuyisa umufi ekhaya njengalokhu kwakwenza amabutho amaningi asala kulempi.

(Wars, Non-US) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Jim White

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Wyoming, Park County, Cody
Jim White was born in Missouri in 1828. He found his way into the southwest as a young man, where he was a freighter with ox-drawn wagons.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Jim White served the Confederate Army as a grain buyer and wagon boss. At the end of the Civil War, Jim White married and returned to the southwest.
In 1868 he drifted down into Mexico, where a rich Spaniard won his wife away. White killed him and wounded several others in the fracas that followed.
There was a large reward offered for him, dead or alive. This was when he dropped his original name and adopted the name Jim White, for which he is known. His original name is unknown.
White walked 700 miles back into Texas where he got into the buffalo hunting profession. White kept several skinners busy as he preyed on the wandering herds.
One day a group of ciboleros rode over a hill and scared away a small herd of buffalo that White was firing on. In a fit of temper, he shot the horses out from under four of the party.
Jim White was hunting in the Texas Panhandle during the mid 1870s. He was in the region at the time of the Battle of Adobe Walls and other lesser battles with the Kiowas and Commanches.
White had the reputation in Texas for being a tough character. He operated best alone or with his own men.
By 1878 the buffalo on the Southern Plains were gone. Many hunters started looking toward the unspoiled Northern Plains of Wyoming and Montana.
Jim White was among the first hunters to reach the northern buffalo range. By late summer,1878, he had reached the Big Horn Mountains with two big span of mules. two wagons, 700 pounds of lead, five kegs of gun-powder, three 16 pound Sharp’s rifles, varied equipment, and an old buffalo skinner named Watson.
White soon met Oliver Hanna, who had been a scout with General Crook in 1876, and they became hunting partners.
During the winter of 1878-79 the two men had a contract to furnish 5,000 pounds of game meat to the Army at Fort McKinney, near present Buffalo, Wyoming.
The following winter of 1879-80, White and Hanna had a buffalo hunting camp north of the Yellowstone River near Miles City. The two hunters kept six buffalo skinners busy. By spring, they had collected 4,600 buffalo hides which were freighted to the Yellowstone River by ox teams and then hauled down the river by steam boats.
In the following fall of 1880, White and Hanna came into the Big Horn Basin and set up a hunting camp on Shell Creek, near the foot of the Big Horn Mountains. They were hunting and trapping in the area. In late October, Hanna made a quick trip over the Big Horns. When he returned he found Jim White dead. He had been shot in the head by thieves who had stolen their horses, mules. wagons, guns, hides, furs, etc.
Hanna buried Jim White on the upper bank, on the north side of Shell Creek, presently on the ranch of Irvy Davis near Shell, Wyoming.
Hanna later stated that Jim White was the greatest buffalo hunter the world has ever known. Hanna stated that White had a ledger book that contained records of hide sales for over 16,000 buffalo.
Jim White, who had lived by the gun, now, also died by the gun.
Recent examination of his remains revealed that he was killed by a 50 caliber bullet; probably from a Sharp’s buffalo rifle. Possibly from the same gun that killed his own victims.
The bronze statue of White was sculpted and donated by Tom Hillis of Stanton, Michigan.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

McAlevy’s Fort

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Pennsylvania, Huntingdon County, Huntingdon
A defense against the Indians-Built in 1778 near this spot by William McAlevy 1728-1822.

A pioneer settler, French and Indian War 1758. A Colonel in the American Revolution, one of five trustees appointed by the General Assembly 1787 to act for the erection of Huntingdon County. Brigadier General, Pennsylvania Militia, 1800.

(Forts, Castles • War, US Revolutionary • War, French and Indian) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Pennsylvania Furnace

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Pennsylvania, Centre County, Pennsylvania Furnace
The remaining buildings here were part of the iron works established about 1810. Operating first as a charcoal iron manufactory, the furnace later used coke. Iron was made here as late as 1888.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Rorke's Drift Memorial

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South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Elandskraal, Rorke's Drift
North face: Killed Pte Horrican W. 1Bn
Jenkins.J. • Nicholas.E.
Sgt Maxfield R. 2Bn
Pte Adams. R. • Chick.J. • Cole.T. • Facan.J. • Hayden.C. • Scanlan.J. • Williams.J. Died of Wounds Beckett.W. 1Bn
Sgt Williams.T 2Bn

South face: Died C.Sgt Cuthbert.H. 26
L.Sgt Jones.D.
L.Cgt Frowan.C. • Haslam.T.
Pte Farr.J. • Foster.C. • James.C. • Jones.T. • Williams.J.

East face: Died Pte Sullivan.T.2Bn

Pte Betts.R. R.E.
Russell.F.W. Killed J.Byrne.C.D.
CPl Anderson.N.N.C
TPr Hunger. N.M.P

Nearby is a grave memorial for another British soldier buried here. It reads:
In memory of Private Thorne, 6th Dracoons, who was drowned in the Buffalo River by the upsetting of the punt.

Includes location, directions, 8 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Spruce Creek Church

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Pennsylvania, Centre County, Pennsylvania Furnace
Present church built in 1858 by a Presbyterian congregation organized in 1798. Their first house of worship, a log church built in 1805, was within old Graysville Cemetery, on the hilltop opposite.

(Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Frankstown Path

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Pennsylvania, Huntingdon County, Water Street
The path turned south, up the Frankstown Branch of Juniata. The Warriors Path from Great Island came in at Water Street, so named because the river bed was used as a passage through Tusseys Mountain.

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

Juniata Iron

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Pennsylvania, Huntingdon County, Water Street
Along the streams of this region are ruins of many charcoal iron furnaces and forges built between 1790-1850. Juniata iron was the best in America. Its reign ended with the rise of coal and coke iron making.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Aaronsburg Story

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Pennsylvania, Centre County, Aaronsburg
Aaron Levy, a Jewish immigrant who founded this village in 1786, donated ground for Lutheran and Reformed congregations here and presented them with a pewter communion set. In remembrance of his generosity, 30,000 people gathered in Aaronsburg on October 23, 1949, for a day-long celebration of religious and racial understanding. It included a huge outdoor pageant on a natural stage just north of this site.

(Churches, Etc. • Settlements & Settlers • Charity & Public Work) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Fort Reed Stockade

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Pennsylvania, Clinton County, Lock Haven
Located in the Stockade of Fort Reed. Built in 1775 for defence against the Indians.

(Native Americans • Forts, Castles) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Susquehanna Greenway

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Pennsylvania, Clinton County, Lock Haven

What is the Susquehanna Greenway?
The Susquehanna Greenway is a corridor of farms, forests, parks, trails and river towns that connects people to the natural and cultural treasures of the Susquehanna River. Nearly 500 miles in length, it is Pennsylvania’s largest greenway, and it is waiting for you to explore.

Why is the Susquehanna Watershed Important?
The Susquehanna’s water, timber, coal, and minerals built and powered a growing nation in the 1800s and 1900s. However, clear-cutting timber and coal mining without proper environmental protections in place led to the legacy of contaminated soils and streams for subsequent generations to clean up.

Thanks to the work of early Pennsylvania conservationists like Gifford Pinchot, Joseph Rothrock and Rachel Carson, our forests and streams have been largely restored and we now understand the link between land used, clean water and healthy communities. The Susquehanna Greenway continues this conservation movement and provides opportunities for exploration of its river towns, land and water trails. To learn more, explore or get involved.

(Inscription under the image in the center)
The Susquehanna River watershed provides drinking water to over six million people and nearly half of the fresh water entering the Chesapeake Bay, our nation’s largest estuary.

(Inscription beside the image in the center)
Named for its earliest inhabitants, the Susquehannock Indians, the scenic beauty and rich natural resources of the Susquehanna River have continued to draw people to its shores.

(Waterways & Vessels • Environment) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Site of Glen Haven House

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New York, Cortland County, Glen Haven
Site Of Glen Haven House which in 1845 was converted into Glen Haven Sanitarium destroyed to protect Syracuse Water supply State Education Department 1932

(Notable Places) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Glen Haven

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New York, Cortland County, Glen Haven
School and Public Library shingle architecture Ehrick Rossiter architect 1901-1968 Glen Haven Historical Society

(Education • Settlements & Settlers • Arts, Letters, Music) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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