<p>Delta Reservoir, is Located in Oneida County, New York, United States. Most of the lake is within the southwest part of the Town of Western, north of Rome. The western part of the lake is in the Town of Lee.</p><br>
<p>Delta Lake State Park is located on a peninsula extending from the south shore of the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Fishing</h2><br>
<p>The reservoir also offers great fishing. Fish species that are present in the reservoir are walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike, rock bass, black bullhead, and yellow perch. There is a state owned access with two concrete ramps on the east shore in the state park off NY-46, five miles north of Rome, New York. There is parking for 70 trucks and trailers. There is also a marina on the lake.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The reservoir was created by a dam on the Mohawk River, for which construction began in 1908. The dam is on the south side of the reservoir, southwest of the state park. Originally, the purpose of the reservoir was to guarantee sufficient water for the Erie Canal, however it today is used to control flooding in the Mohawk basin. The reservoir contains 2.7 e6ft3 of water.</p><br>
<p>The dam flooded the community of Delta, which was located on the west bank of the river. Most of the structures of the village were torn down and moved to new locations before the inundation.</p><br>
<p>The Badger Mountain Centennial Preserve protects Badger Mountain, located on the edge of Richland in Washington, provides a spectacular view of the Tri-Cities as well as the Columbia and Yakima rivers. The preserve provides a small piece of nature in a rapidly growing area. Trails are open for hiking. No motorized vehicles are allowed.</p><br>
<p>A non-profit group, Friends of Badger Mountain, worked to procure this shrub-steppe area that has most native vegetation intact and then built a trail to the summit so others can enjoy it. The 1.2 mi trail rises 984 ft above the trail head in Richland.</p><br>
<h2>Future Expansion</h2><br>
<p>Friends of Badger Mountain is working to raise $1.5 million for a purchase of 205 acres of land around Candy Mountain to expand the preserve and create trails on that mountain. This is the next step toward reaching their goal of creating a 20 mi trail connecting Little Badger Mountain, Badger Mountain, Candy Mountain and Red Mountain.</p><br>
<p>The Wawona Hotel is a historic hotel located within southern Yosemite National Park, in California. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. On March 1, 2016, the Wawona Hotel was renamed Big Trees Lodge due to a legal dispute between the US Government, which owns the property, and the outgoing concessionaire, Delaware North, which claims rights to the trademarked name.</p><br>
<h2>History to present</h2><br>
<p>The Wawona Hotel is one of the oldest mountain resort hotels in California, and a classic of Victorian era resort design. The Victorian style hotel was built in 1876 to serve tourists visiting the nearby Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum). As tourism increased, through 1916, the hotel built additional rooms and facilities. In addition, it cut more forest trails, as well as paths along the south fork of the Merced River.</p><br>
<p>The Wawona Hotel is located 4 mi from the parks south entrance, between the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees and the Yosemite Valley. It is one of the few historical period hotels still standing within Yosemite National Parks boundaries.</p><br>
<p>Most of the hotels 104 guestrooms open onto one of the Wawona Hotels deep verandas, which wrap around the first and second floors; they have open views of the gardened and natural landscapes. The hotel includes six historically distinctive buildings, built between 1876 and 1916. The rooms are furnished with antiques, period pieces, and vintage elements. The hotel has no telephones or televisions in the guestrooms. Outdoor recreation choices include quiet nature walks or scenic drives, and when snow arrives, nearby cross-country and downhill skiing and snowshoe routes.</p><br>
<p>Across from the hotel is a nine-hole 3,035 yd, par 35 golf course, Yosemite Park&#39;s only such facility. It is one of the few within any USA National Park. The course is open daily from spring to fall, weather permitting. In operation since 1918, the golf course is the oldest in the Sierra Nevada.</p><br>
<h3>Thomas Hill studio</h3><br>
<p>Thomas Hill (1829–1908), a renowned landscape painter of the Hudson River School, stayed at the Wawona Hotel toward the end of his life. He used the hotel pavilion as his painting studio and completed numerous works of the region. This is listed separately on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>The Arid Land Ecology Reserve is the largest tract of shrub-steppe ecosystem remaining in the U.S. state of Washington. It is managed for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory . The 320 km² area is a portion of the 1500 km² National Environmental Research Park located on the Hanford Site on the northwest boundary of Richland, Washington.</p><br>
<p>On June 27, 2000, a range fire destroyed most of the native sagebrush and bunchgrass. Though the US Fish and Wildlife Service has attempted to re-introduce native flora, the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve is currently dominated by non-native species such as cheatgrass, knapweeds, and Russian thistle (tumbleweed) which flourished after the 2000 fire. Other species such as spiny hopsage and Wyoming big sagebrush were decimated by the fire and in its aftermath.</p><br>
<p>The James Charnley Residence, also known as the Charnley-Persky House, is a historic house museum at 1365 North Astor Street in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1892, it is one of the few surviving residential works of Louis Sullivan, and features major contributions by Frank Lloyd Wright, who was then working as a draftsman in Sullivan&#39;s office. The house is operated as a museum and organization headquarters by The Society of Architectural Historians . The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The Charnley Residence is located in Chicago&#39;s Gold Coast north of the commercial downtown, at the southeast corner of North Astor Street and East Schiller Street. It is three stories in height, with a raised basement of stone and 2-1/2 stories of largely austere brickwork. The facade is divided into three parts, the center portion housing the main entrance in a stone surround flanked by paired sash windows. Above it is a projecting ornate wooden balcony that obscures the fact that the wall behind it is recessed. The flanking sections each have single sash windows set on large expanses of brick, in deep rectangular openings with splayed soldier brick lintels. The third level is separated from the lower levels by a stone stringcourse, and has two deeply recessed square windows in each section.</p><br>
<p>The interior of the house is a marked contrast to its relatively plain exterior. It has high-quality woodwork throughout, with builtin bookcases featuring doors with glass of varying shapes and sizes. The main library features a fireplace of African rose marble, and the dining room has extensive use of mahogany, a favorite wood of Louis Sullivan&#39;s.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The house was completed in 1892 for Charnley, a Chicago lumberman who lived in the house with his family for about a decade. It is a distinctive and original design of Sullivan&#39;s, in which a modern aesthetic was brought to an essentially Classical symmetrical form. It is unclear exactly how much influence Wright had on the design, but it is clear that it is found in both interior and exterior features.</p><br>
<p>The building was later owned by members of the Waller family, who invested in real estate. The house was purchased by the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in 1986 and subsequently restored. Seymour Persky purchased the house in 1995 and donated it to the SAH who renamed the building to the Charnley–Persky House to honor their benefactor.</p><br>
<p>Mount Leuser is one of three prominent peaks on the Leuser Range in the Indonesian province of Aceh. The range lies to the south and west of the Alas River that flows east from the Gayo highlands of central Aceh before turning south through Karo Batak country in North Sumatra province. The Leuser region is of ancient uplifted formations - it is non-volcanic. The region is billed as the largest wilderness area in South-East Asia.</p><br>
<p>This entry establishes the names, altitudes, locations and prominence of the three peaks, Tanpa Nama, Loser and Leuser, on the Leuser Range. It is often assumed, incorrectly, that the highest peak is Mount Leuser when in fact it is Mount Tanpa Nama. Mount Leuser is the lowest of the three peaks.</p><br>
<h2>Peaks on the Leuser Range</h2><br>
<p>BAKOSURTANAL, the Indonesian Survey and Mapping Agency, provides the names and locations of Loser and Leuser on their topographical maps. The Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP) authorities have adopted these names and their locations.</p><br>
<p>The altitude, coordinates and prominence of the three summits are:</p><br>
<p>Tanpa Nama (true summit)): 3,466 m (11,317 ft); 3.7976 N (3°47&#39;5"N), 97.1218 E (97°13’9”E); prominence 2,941 m (9,649 ft)</p><br>
<p>Loser: 3,404 m (11,178 ft); 3.7567 N (3°45&#39;24"N), 97.173 E (97°10’24”E); prominence 319 m (1,047 ft)</p><br>
<p>Leuser: 3,119 m (10,348 ft); 3.7413 N (3°44&#39;29"N), 97.1551 E (97°9’18”E); prominence 107 m (351 ft)</p><br>
<h2>Mount Tanpa Nama</h2><br>
<p>Mount Tanpa Nama, 3,466 m (11,317 ft), which in Indonesian means mountain without a name, is the second highest peak in Sumatra after Mount Kerinci (3,805 m, 12,484 ft). The peak lies inland from the escarpment, is easy to climb, and has views in all directions. The mountain has two knolls: a painted sign on the lower knoll (3,455 m, 11,335 ft) reads “Puncak Tanpa Nama” (summit of Mount Tanpa Nama), which is technically incorrect. On the higher, more prominent knoll to the north-east, the true summit, a plaque embedded in a cement block reads, “Prof Dr Syamsuddin Mahmud, Governor Aceh, 1997...”.</p><br>
<p>The name, Mount Tanpa Nama, is used in the absence of a formally recognised name. BAKOSURTANAL does not attribute a name to this peak on its 1977 map series; only the altitude of the lower knoll is indicated. A formal name may appear if and when BASKOSURTANAL issues new topographical maps of Sumatra.</p><br>
<h2>Mounts Loser and Leuser</h2><br>
<p>Mounts Loser and Leuser, by comparison with Mount Tanpa Nama, rise from the east with precipitous drop-offs on their western faces over the rugged escarpment towards the west coast of Aceh. Most trekkers set Mount Loser as their objective being the higher and more accessible of the two peaks.</p><br>
<p>The origin of the names, Loser and Leuser, are obscure. One source informs that Leuser is a Gayo word meaning “place where animals go to die”. Local folk lore provides a not-unrelated story: a Dutch officer was hunting deer on the Leuser Range in colonial times and accidentally shot his hunting partner on the Loser peak. The porters, accompanying the party, used the Gayo word, los, meaning “dead”, to describe the fate of the partner. Mount Loser thus acquired its name, supposedly. Further research required!</p><br>
<p>Lake Phelps is North Carolina&#39;s second largest natural lake. It has a surface area of 16,600 acre, and it is located primarily in Washington County on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula between the Albemarle Sound and the Pamlico Sound. The easternmost part of the lake extends into Tyrrell County. An Indian dugout canoe was found in the lake dating back nearly 4,400 years. Other artifiacts have been found around the area dating as early as 8,000 B.C.</p><br>
<p>Its origin has long puzzled scientists. Some say that its origin is underground springs, wave action, wind, a meteor, glacial activity or a peat burn. It is more or less a round shape.</p><br>
<p>Lake Phelps is named for Josiah Phelps, the first white man to enter its waters. Phelps and another colonial explorer, Benjamin Tarkington, were searching through what was then known as the Great Eastern Dismal or Great Alligator Dismal in 1755. Phelps and Tarkington were part of a group of hunters who entered the swamps in search of game and farmland. The group had become discouraged and were about to leave when Tarkington scaled one of the many trees and spotted the lake a short distance away. Phelps went ahead and ran into the water. As the first in the water he was given the honor of naming the lake.</p><br>
<p>The lake was established as a North Carolina State Lake in 1929, and it is managed by the adjacent Pettigrew State Park.</p><br>
<p>Four Mile Tree is the name of a plantation near Jamestown, Virginia that once encompassed two thousand acres , it was situated on the south bank of the James River opposite Jamestown, four miles  further north. On a hill near the waters edge a handsome old house overlooks the river. This plantation, was the seat of the Browne family for two hundred years. The first owner, Colonel Henry Browne, was a member of Sir William Berkeleys Council in 1643. The plantation house constructed circa 1745 remains well-preserved in its original historical state.</p><br>
<p>In a nearby garden is the second oldest tombstone in Virginia, dated January 7, 1650. It marks the grave of Alice Miles, daughter of John Miles, of Branton, Herefordshire, and wife of Colonel George Jordan, Attorney General of Virginia in 1670. The tombstone of Captain William Perry of Westover, who died in 1637, is the oldest in Virginia.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The Four Mile Tree Plantation House is a brick structure, one-and-one-half-stories with hip-on-gambrel roof, pedimented dormers and four interior end chimneys. The brick is laid in Flemish bond above the beveled watertable raith English bond below. The entire brick surface was stuccoed and scored in imitation ashlar in the nineteenth century but the stucco has deteriorated on portions of the facade and fallen off. All openings on the five-bay facade, except for the central entranceway, were altered in the late nineteenth century or early twentieth century and have two-over-two sash; the entranceway, sheltered by a nineteenth-century Roman Ionic porch, consists of a transom over three-paneled double doors, the top panel of each being scrolled. A modillioned cornice is used on the eaves.</p><br>
<p>Four Mile Tree&#39;s oldest interior woodwork is in the central stairhall where the turned balustrading on the stair, the heavy hand rail and the high dado place the date in the first half of the eighteenth century. The southwest room, which probably dates from the early nineteenth century, has two framed niches flanking a simple mantel and overmantel topped by an architrave, frieze and cornice; only the cornice and a paneled dado ornament the other walls of the room. The remaining rooms have mantels which seem to date from the first half of the nineteenth century but only in the southeastern room is there a paneled room.</p><br>
<p>Four Mile Tree is a successor to two of the earliest plantations in Virginia ("Burrows Hill" and "Paces Paines"). It is "ancient" in its own right having been founded in the first half of the seventeenth century; its grave-site contains the oldest legible tombstone in Virginia (1650). Four Mile Tree was the seat of the Brownes, a leading Surry family, from the Reign of Charles I until the death of their last male heir in 1799.</p><br>
<p>The plantation, named for its distance from Jamestown, was one of Surry Countys more prosperous; its owners served as viewers of tobacco and had slaves from an early period. The Brownes were regularly Justices of the County Court throughout the colonial period. Several members of the family served on the Governors Council or in the House of Burgesses during the seventeenth century. During the War for Independence, William Browne was a member of the Surry Committee of Safety and Lieutenant Colonel of Militia. His son, the last of his name to be Master of Four Mile Tree, was a lieutenant in the revolutionary militia. The British sacked the plantation during the War of 1812 according to the then Colonel of county militia. In 1815 the plantation passed to William Browne, Jr.&#39;s granddaughter, Sally Elizabeth Bowdoin, and her husband, General Philip St. George Cocke. The Cockes lived at Four Mile tree until 1840 when they moved to another plantation, Belmeade, in Powhatan County, Virginia.</p><br>
<p>After the Cocke&#39;s departure no significant changes were made to the house until the late 20th century when a modern addition was added to the south side of the house. Four Mile Tree was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The plantation is a private residence.</p><br>
<p>The Cape May Canal is a 2.9-nautical mile  waterway connecting Cape May Harbor to the Delaware Bay, at the southern tip of Cape May County, New Jersey. There is a long history of unfulfilled plans for a canal across Cape May. The canal was finally constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers during World War II to provide a protected route to avoid German U-boats operating off Cape May Point and to become part of the Intracoastal Waterway. The canal was dredged as a wartime emergency measure in 1942 and was the final link in a protected waterway intended to allow coastal shipping to travel along the coast with a greatly reduced risk of attack from German submarines.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, recommended in an 1808 report that "a series of canals be constructed along the seacoast, cutting across the necks of many peninsulas so as to provide an inland passage for seagoing vessels from Massachusetts Southward through North Carolina."</p><br>
<p>More serious plans developed after 1905 when Cape May Sound was dredged to form part of the Intracoastal Waterway. Later Cape May Harbor was formed by dredging, and Cold Springs inlet was dredged to form an entrance to the harbor for larger seagoing vessels. The importance of these extensions to the Intracoastal Waterway was underlined when the Navy built a base in 1917 on the south shore of Cape May Harbor. (The base later became a Coast Guard facility, today called the United States Coast Guard Training Center Cape May.)</p><br>
<p>The first congressional bill to build the canal was introduced in 1935, but never reported out of committee. A 1940 bill passed both houses of Congress, but was vetoed by President Franklin Roosevelt. A November 1941 bill authorizing construction was signed into law, but did not provide funding. Federal and state funding became available in 1942 after several ships were sunk by German U-boats in early 1942.</p><br>
<p>The canal completed Cape Island, which includes Cape May, Cape May Point, West Cape May and the southernmost portions of Lower Township. The island is separated from the mainland and the rest of Cape May County by the Cape May Canal, Cape Island Creek and Cape May Harbor which cut it off from the rest of the peninsula.</p><br>
<p>There are three bridges across the canal: Route 109 (the link from the Garden State Parkway into Cape May), Route 162 (Seashore Road into West Cape May), and the railroad swing bridge of the Cape May Seashore Lines. The canal is used heavily by recreational boat traffic during the summer.</p><br>
<p>Congregation Beth Israel is a synagogue located in West Hartford, Connecticut. The synagogue is one of the two oldest Jewish congregations in Connecticut and one of the largest Reform Jewish congregations in New England, with about 900 member families and about 2,000 individual members.</p><br>
<p>As Temple Beth Israel, its 1933 building was listed on the USA National Register of Historic Places in 1995.</p><br>
<p>Beth Israel serves as a center for worship, education, and social programs.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Congregation Beth Israel is located at 701 Farmington Ave in West Hartford, Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>The congregation occupies a large building dominated by an enormous Byzantine dome. Inside are a sanctuary (upon which the dome is built), a chapel, a religious school, a pre-school, offices, two meeting halls, a small museum, and a library. Beautiful stained glass windows are present in both the sanctuary and the chapel. The building has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the USA government.</p><br>
<p>The congregation worships in a notable 1936 building by architect Charles R. Greco. Built at the height of the Art Deco period, the Byzantine revival form in Art Deco style presents a majestic appearance. In 2006, the congregation was given the West Hartford Historic Preservation Award for its meticulous restoration of the historic structure.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Founding and affiliation</h3><br>
<p>Beth Israel, which means "House of Israel" in Hebrew, was founded in 1843, the year the Connecticut legislature first permitted public worship by Jews in the state. Congregation Mishkan Israel was founded in the same year. Congregation Beth Israel began as an Orthodox congregation, however, in part influenced by the immigration of German Jews to Hartford, the congregation quickly adopted Reform practices. In 1877, it joined with other American Reform Jewish congregations to form the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (which is now known as the Union for Reform Judaism), an umbrella support organization for American Reform Jewish congregations. Beth Israel continues to be a member of the Union for Reform Judaism.</p><br>
<h3>First synagogue</h3><br>
<p>Congregation Beth Israel&#39;s first synagogue was built at 21 Charter Oak Ave. in Hartford in 1876. Though Beth Israel left the building in 1936, the building still stands and is occupied by the Charter Oak Cultural Center. It is among the oldest synagogue buildings still standing in the United States.</p><br>
<h3>Rabbi Feldman</h3><br>
<p>Beth Israel moved to into its present location in 1936. For most of the middle of the 20th century (1925–1977), the congregation was led by Rabbi Abraham Feldman, a leading exponent of Classical Reform philosophy. One of the innovations that Rabbi Feldman brought to Congregation Beth Israel was the confirmation ceremony at age 16.</p><br>
<p>Feldman&#39;s influence was far reaching. He fostered a sense of community and was held in great respect by most, if not all, of the congregation. He focused on building a congregation that people stayed in for a long time and celebrated all their life events as a congregation. His long service as Rabbi meant that many people were born, confirmed, and married under his leadership. Indeed, even at the beginning of the 21st century, a number of older congregants would use his leadership and rabbinate as an example.</p><br>
<h3>Rabbi Silver</h3><br>
<p>Rabbi Harold Silver succeeded Feldman in 1968. He would serve as senior rabbi for 25 years, retiring in 1993. Silver came from a family of rabbis. Five generations of his family before him served as rabbis. His father, Maxwell Silver, was a rabbi in New York City; his uncle, Abba Hillel Silver, was a rabbi in Cleveland, Ohio; and his grandfather, Moses Silver, was a rabbi in Jerusalem. Silver was ordained in 1951 at Hebrew Union College in New York City. Rabbi Silver&#39;s first rabbinate was as assistant rabbi at the Rodef Shalom Congregation in Pittsburgh. He went on to become rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he served from 1955 until he came to Congregation Beth Israel in 1968.</p><br>
<p>Silver was prominent in the Hartford Jewish community. He organized the first Greater Hartford Rabbinical Board of Rabbis, which brought together rabbis from different Jewish congregations and movements. He also served on a variety of community boards, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Silver also promoted cross-religious interfaith dialogue, preaching at many local churches and encouraging peace and understanding between people of different faiths. Additionally, Silver taught Judaism courses at local universities.</p><br>
<p>Rabbi Silver retired in 1993 became rabbi emeritus (see Leadership).</p><br>
<h3>Rabbi Glaser</h3><br>
<p>Silver was succeeded by Rabbi Simeon Glaser, who has served as assistant rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel at the end of Rabbi Silver&#39;s tenure as senior rabbi. Glaser was particularly popular with young families and children because of his love, and evident talent, for music and song. Glaser put on exciting Purim and Simchas Torah holiday services in which he would team up with Cantor Green and Assistant Rabbi Weiss to sing, dance, and act out the stories of the holidays. After serving four years as senior rabbi, Glaser left Beth Israel, first to serve at a small Conservative synagogue in Wethersfield, Connecticut and then to Temple Israel in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p><br>
<h3>Soviet immigration</h3><br>
<p>During the 1990s, Congregation Beth Israel became instrumental in the absorption of hundreds of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Early on, the New American Committee was formed to provide education assistance, licensure help, clothing acquisition assistance and help with the home needs of the new Americans. The New American Committee also continues to provide educational opportunities including lectures and weekly language classes (see Education). Congregation Beth Israel now has a large Russian speaking population and immigrants make up a significant demographic of the congregation.</p><br>
<h3>Rabbi Fuchs</h3><br>
<p>Rabbi Stephen Fuchs became senior rabbi in 1997 (see Leadership).</p><br>
<h2>Leadership</h2><br>
<p>Congregation Beth Israel, like most American Jewish congregations, is led by both a lay board and clergy.</p><br>
<h3>Clergy</h3><br>
<h4>History</h4><br>
<p>Beth Israel has long had a clergy system consisting of a senior rabbi, an assistant rabbi, and a cantor. Occasionally, this system has changed to better reflect realities of the offices, such as when Rabbi Weiss held the title of assistant rabbi, then associate rabbi, and then simply rabbi (with no qualification) after serving the congregation for many years from the late 1990s until early the early 2000s. Additionally, the congregation now has the position of rabbi emeritus, occupied by the previous senior rabbi, Harold Silver.</p><br>
<h4>Rabbi emeritus</h4><br>
<p>became rabbi emeritus in 2011. He had been senior rabbi since 1997, having previously served as senior rabbi of the Temple Congregation Ohabai Sholom in Nashville, Tennessee for 11 years.</p><br>
<p>Rabbi Fuchs attended Hamilton College before attending Hebrew Union College. He began his career at Temple Isaiah in Columbia, Maryland, where he served for 13 years. Throughout his career, Fuchs has been dedicated to interfaith events, having served on the board of the Hartford Seminary, a Hartford-based United Church of Christ minister training school, and annually leading Beth Israel in joint worship with churches. He is also a past chair of the Central Conference of American Rabbis Committee on inter-religious affairs.</p><br>
<p>Fuchs is also committed to social justice, having served on the Board of Directors of Saint Francis Hospital as a member of the hospital’s Medical Affairs Committee and on the Board of Directors of Foodshare, a regional foodbank for Hartford and Tolland counties. Fuchs is also the only non-African-American to be the featured speaker at the Nashville Martin Luther King banquet held annually at Tennessee State University. He also serves on the National Commission on Social Action for the Union for Reform Judaism.</p><br>
<p>In 2014, Rabbi Fuchs published the book he had been working on for 40 years:. In this book, Fuchs bids readers to draw familiar parallels between the biblical characters and their stories,&#39; and themselves as they navigate the ebb and flow of everyday life. He also explores a happy medium that takes biblical narratives seriously, irrespective of their factual or scientific truths. The book has been translated into both German and Russian.</p><br>
<p>Rabbi Fuchs second book, "ToraHighlights," was published in the fall of 2016. It is a series of 300-word comments on each of the 54 weekly Torah portions. The comments appear in both English and German to pay tribute to the heritage of Jewish life that Jews in North America have inherited from Germany. It is also a gesture of reconciliation between the Jewish people and Germany, which has done so much to atone for the Holocaust and combat anti-Semitism. Finally the beautiful hard cover book with its magnificent photographs by Lena Stein is an object of great beauty.</p><br>
<p>Between 2014 and 2016 Rabbi Fuchs and his wife Vickie have spent ten weeks each year in Germany where they teach about the Holocaust in schools based on an exhibit describing the life and journeys of Vickie&#39;s mother Stefanie Steinberg from her birth in Breslau in 1921 to today in San Francisco where she is still active as an artist. In addition Rabbi Fuchs has taught at the Abraham Geiger College, the University of Potsdam and the University of Hamburg as well as speaking in more than 20 churches and several synagogues.</p><br>
<p>Rabbi Fuchs earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Vanderbilt University Divinity School and was awarded and honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.</p><br>
<h4>Senior rabbi</h4><br>
<p>Michael Pincus is the current senior rabbi. He studied at the University of Virginia before attending Hebrew Union College in New York City. During his time at Hebrew Union College, Pincus served as student rabbi at a number of congregations in Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York.</p><br>
<h4>Cantor</h4><br>
<p>Pamela Siskin is the cantor of Congregation Beth Israel. Before pursuing cantorial studies at Hebrew Union College, Siskin studied in Rome, sung with the Royal Opera House in London and the Israel National Opera. She moved from the United Kingdom to the United States in 1985 to enroll in Hebrew Union College and study to become a cantor.</p><br>
<p>After ordination, Siskin served as cantor at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, New Jersey until 1998, when she came to Beth Israel.</p><br>
<p>Cantor Sisken also used to serve as the director of education.</p><br>
<h4>Rabbi emeritus</h4><br>
<p>Silver has continued his activity with Congregation Beth Israel as rabbi emeritus. He annually leads the Rosh Hashanah shofar service which enjoys great popularity with the congregation. He has also written a book, I Will Not Let You Go Until You Bless Me: Memoirs of a Reform Rabbi, in which he explains and examines not only his career but also Reform and American Judaism in general. Silver has also received a doctor of divinity (honoris causa) from Hebrew Union College for his rabbinical service.</p><br>
<h3>Lay leadership</h3><br>
<h4>Structure</h4><br>
<p>The lay leadership of Congregation Beth Israel set policy, hires clergy, and oversees the running of the congregation. The governing body is the board of trustees, which consists of approximately 30 active members of the congregation. The head of the board is the president, who is assisted by a number of vice-presidents, a treasurer, and a secretary. Additionally, the brotherhood president, sisterhood president, young families chair, youth group president, and the clergy sit on the board but mostly in an ex-officio capacity.</p><br>
<h4>Officers</h4><br>
<p>The officers of the board of trustees are the president, vice-presidents, treasurer, and secretary.</p><br>
<p>The president is the head of the board of trustees and the lay leader of Congregation Beth Israel. It is his job to make sure the congregation continues to run smoothly and to spearhead any new projects that become necessary.</p><br>
<p>The vice-presidents assist the president. At any given time there are usually between three and five vice-presidents. Usually vice-presidents are long standing members of the board of trustees who have been particular active, often as committee chairs. It is common for vice-presidents to eventually become president, and they are often chosen to be vice-president with this in mind.</p><br>
<p>The treasurer is in charge of the finances and the secretary takes minutes at the meetings.</p><br>
<h4>Committees</h4><br>
<p>The board of trustees has a number of committees that manage different aspects of the congregation. Some important committees include the Finance Committee, the Ritual Committee, and the Social Action Committee.</p><br>
<h2>Worship</h2><br>
<h3>General practices</h3><br>
<p>Worship at Congregation Beth Israel follows Reform Jewish practices. Men and women sit and pray together. The service usually follows a variant on the traditional Jewish service, usually mixing English and Hebrew (the English usually, but not always, reflecting at least the meaning if not a literal translation of the Hebrew). Services usually use the Gates of Prayer, the New Union Prayer Book or the book, though occasionally the clergy will write or adapt another service.</p><br>
<h3>Worship times</h3><br>
<p>The most popular regular service is the Friday night Shabbat service. It takes place in the sanctuary and is led by the clergy. Occasionally during the summer the service takes place outside instead. Over 100 people regularly attend these services.</p><br>
<p>The congregation also has Saturday morning Shabbat services, also in the sanctuary and led by the clergy. Usually the services follow Torah study, which takes place at the synagogue and is led by the clergy (see Education).</p><br>
<p>Beth Israel, like most Jewish congregations has special services for holidays. Hundreds of people annually attend the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services.</p><br>
<p>A daily minyan service is held in the chapel and is usually led by a lay person, though occasionally the clergy will lead.</p><br>
<p>Students of the Youth Education Program also attend a student and parent service on Sunday mornings in the chapel.</p><br>
<h3>Innovations</h3><br>
<p>Congregation Beth Israel has added a few innovations to services:</p><br>
<p>A monthly Friday night Shabbat family service that is aimed at children and young families.</p><br>
<p>Rabbi Stephen Fuchs has initiated an alternative Yom Kippur service, in addition to the regular service, in order to better serve the modern congregation.</p><br>
<p>One service a month using the older New Union Prayer (as opposed to the newer Gates of Prayer) in order to better serve the members who preferred the earlier book.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<h3>General</h3><br>
<p>Beth Israel has educational opportunities for all ages and types of congregants. The cantor holds the role of director of education.</p><br>
<h3>Youth Education Program</h3><br>
<p>The Youth Education Program is for children preschool through 7th grade. It teaches Jewish values, history, and traditions. Additionally, conversational Hebrew and prayer reading in Hebrew is taught. Students also attend Sunday morning services where they learn basic Jewish prayers.</p><br>
<h3>La'atid: Learning For Life</h3><br>
<p>La&#39;atid is a lifelong learning program for families and adults, the point of which is to continue Jewish education and promote knowledge and spirituality.</p><br>
<h3>Noah's Ark</h3><br>
<p>Noahs Ark was Congregation Beth Israels pre-school and early care and education program. In early 2014, the Congregation established a Task Force to find a solution to the financial challenge of the program and still allow for the continuation of quality childcare. Educational Playcare, a Connecticut-based provider of childcare and pre-school programs, became the new provider of child care programs in June 2014.</p><br>
<h3>Torah study</h3><br>
<p>Beth Israel holds weekly Torah study at the synagogue, usually just prior to Saturday morning Shabbat services (see Worship). About 20-30 congregants participate each week and the session last about an hour. Torah study sessions are led by a rabbi at Beth Israel.</p><br>
<h3>New American education</h3><br>
<p>The New American Committee provides educational opportunities including lectures and weekly language classes to Soviet immigrants (see History).</p><br>
<h2>Ellen Jeanne Goldfarb Community Learning Center</h2><br>
<p>Funded with the help of private donors, the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford and the Hartford Foundation of Public Giving, the Ellen Jeanne Goldfarb Community Learning Center opened in April, 2008.</p><br>
<h3>Facilities</h3><br>
<p>The new learning center has a number of facilities, including the Deborah Library, which boasts over 13,000 lendable volumes, the Miller Media Center, a children&#39;s room, and the Abraham J. Feldman Museum and Archives where artifacts are stored from the past 160 years.</p><br>
<p>Honey Lake is an endorheic sink within the Honey Lake Valley located in northeastern California, near the Nevada border. Summer evaporation reduces the lake to a lower level of 12 km&sup2; and creates an alkali flat.</p><br>
<p>Honey Lake recreational activities include bird-watching, picnicking, hiking, camping, warm-water fishing, and waterfowl hunting. The lake is part of the Honey-Eagle Lakes watershed of 2,770 square miles which includes the Honey Lake Basin of 2,201 square miles.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>During the Pleistocene Honey Lake and the entire Honey Lake Valley were part of Lake Lahontan in western Nevada with a lake water level of 1,332 m a level of approximately 115 m higher than the 1984 level of Honey Lake. The connection to Lake Lahontan was through Astor Pass north of the Virginia Mountains into Pyramid Lake and through Sand Pass into the Smoke Creek Desert portion of Lake Lahontan to the northeast. Both passes are at approximately 1,250 m elevation.</p><br>
<p>Toward the end of the Civil War, the California Volunteer Cavalry used the route from Camp Bidwell (Chico, California) through the Honey Lake and Surprise Valley areas as a line of protection for silver mine output in the Owyhee district of Idaho.</p><br>
<p>Honey Lake was used as a bombing test range prior to World War II and for ordinance demolition and testing through the war and into the mid 1950s.</p><br>
<h2>Honey Lake Wildlife Area</h2><br>
<p>The Honey Lake Wildlife Area (HLWA) is a California Department of Fish and Game protected area wetland of 7667 acres at the mouth of the Susan River on the north shore of Honey Lake which has numerous bird species. Mammals such as deer and antelope and a modest amount of warm-water fish are taken at Honey Lake. The state issued a special series of text-only season-long waterfowl hunting permit stamps for the area, starting with the 1956-57 season and ending with the 1985-86 season. Day permits were also sold, but these were in card form. The stamps are listed in a number of catalogs for USA fish & game stamps, including the Scott Specialized Catalog of United State Stamps & Covers.</p><br>
<p>Honey Lake Wildlife Area (HLWA) was originally acquired to provide nesting and brood-rearing habitat for resident waterfowl, which is still a very important activity. Since its beginning, the Wildlife Area has expanded, and during peak migrations as many as 30,000 snow and Canada geese and 20,000 ducks have been observed daily. During the winter, a number of bald eagles can be observed at the HLWA, and during the spring, the threatened sandhill cranes and other sensitive species such as the white-faced ibis and bank swallow can be found. Ring-necked pheasants and California quail can be observed year-round.</p><br>
<p>The Cango Caves are located in Precambrian limestones at the foothills of the Swartberg range near the town of Oudtshoorn, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The principal cave is one of the country&#39;s finest, best known, and most popular tourist caves and attracts many visitors from overseas. Although the extensive system of tunnels and chambers go on for over 4 km, only about a quarter of this is open to visitors, who may proceed into the cave only in groups supervised by a guide.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Cave paintings and artifacts indicate that the caves were in use throughout prehistory over a long period during the Middle and Later Stone Ages.</p><br>
<p>The caves were rediscovered in modern times in 1780 by a local farmer named Jacobus Van Zyl. The chamber he first was lowered down into was found to be as long as a football field, and is named Van Zyl Hall in his honor. Further exploration was done and a second chamber discovered in 1792. The caves soon became a popular place to visit.</p><br>
<p>A.J.H. Goodwin, an archaeologist at the University of Cape Town, carried out a test excavation in the Cango Caves in 1930 which found stone artefacts and other cultural material.</p><br>
<p>The Cango Caves Ordinance of 1971 gave certain legal powers over the caves to what was then the Administrator of the Cape; legally, these same powers now devolve to the local government members of the executive. However, day-to-day management of the caves is the responsibility of the municipality of Oudtshoorn.</p><br>
<h3>Legends of the caves</h3><br>
<p>Mr. Johnny van Wassenaer, the cave’s first official guide is purported to have walked 29 hours to find the end of the caves in 1898. When there, he is said to have calculated that he was 25 km from the entrance, and 275 m underground; his route apparently followed an underground river. So far, they are finding more and more caves to support this story.</p><br>
<h2>Surveys and explorations</h2><br>
<p>The first rough survey was done in 1897, mapping out the first 26 chambers. In 1956 the South African Spelaeological Association was tasked to draw up an accurate mapping of the Cango Caves, and look for alternative entrances.</p><br>
<p>Their results indicated that the caves were 775 m long in a single line, and that they never rise nor fell more than 16 m. These were called Cango I. The nearest point to the surface in the caves is at the top of the shaft in the Devil&#39;s Kitchen, 52.6 m from the floor.</p><br>
<p>In 1972 James Craig-Smith, Luther Terblanche and Dart Ruiters widened an obstructed passage to discover Cango II. It stretches 270 m beyond the end of the Devil’s Kitchen. At the end of Cango II there is a shaft that descends 20 m to a chamber filled with water. This water flowed in the direction of Cango I.</p><br>
<p>In August 1975, during a symposium on cave biology, an exploration team led by Florus Koper drained the chamber of most of its water and crawled through what was previously an underwater passage. This led to the discovery of more caves, called Cango III. Altogether these caves are about 1,000 m long. The biggest of the chambers, stretches about 300 m.</p><br>
<p>Digby Ellis and Dave Land added 290 m to Cango III when they discovered a crawlway in December 1977. A further 90 m was added in June 1978. All these extensions were surveyed in August 1978 by Dave Land, Charles Maxwell, Brian Russell and Dave Crombie.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Tours are conducted at regular intervals on most days—there is a "Standard Tour" which takes an hour and an "Adventure Tour" which takes an hour and a half. The "Adventure Tour" consists of crawling through narrow passages and climbing up steep rock formations guided by small lights. The caves contain halls and limestone formations (on both tours) as well as small passages on the Adventure Tour. The smallest passage that tourists will have to pass through on the Adventure Tour is just under 15 cm to exit.</p><br>
<p>The caves are considered to be part of the R62 road.</p><br>
<p>Bagras or Baghrās, ancient Pagrae  , is a town and its nearby castle in the İskenderun district of Turkey, in the Amanus Mountains.</p><br>
<p>Strabo&#39;s Geographica mentions it as being on the borders of Gindarus, "a natural stronghold" leading to the Amanian Gate or Amanides Pylae over the Amanus Mountains.</p><br>
<h2>Castle's History</h2><br>
<p>The castle of Pagrae was erected c. 965 by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, who stationed there 1000 footmen and 500 horsemen under the command of Michael Bourtzes to raid the countryside of the nearby city of Antioch. The castle provided a base for a force to cover the Amanian Gate. It was built in two levels around a knoll, the fortification resembling Armenian work, and with water supplied by aqueducts.</p><br>
<p>It was then rebuilt about 1153 by the Knights Templar under the name Gaston (also Gastun, Guascon, Gastim) and held by them or by the Principality of Antioch until it was forced to capitulate to Saladin on 26 August 1189. It was retaken in 1191 by the Armenians (under Leo II), and their possession of it became a major point of contention between them and the Antiochenes and Templars.</p><br>
<p>After much negotiation, it was finally returned to the Templars in 1216. According to the Armenian chronicles, it withstood a siege by the forces of Aleppo at about this time. After the fall of Antioch to Baibars in 1268, the garrison lost heart, and one of the brothers deserted and presented the keys of the castle to him. The remaining defenders decided to destroy what they could and surrender the castle. Despite the loss of the castle, Hethum II of Armenia and Leo IV of Armenia soundly defeated a Mamluk raiding force in the nearby pass in 1305.</p><br>
<p>The first detailed historical and archaeological evaluation, including a surveyed plan of the entire complex, was completed in 1979 by R. W. Edwards. The fortification has more than thirty chambers which encompass the steep outcrop on three primary levels. Although the site initially had phases of Arab and Byzantine construction, most of the exterior masonry is from the Frankish occupations. Repairs to the towers and walls were made by the Armenians with their distinctive masonry during brief periods of control. Bağras was never integrated into the complex defensive system that the Armenians built along the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains of Cilicia from the 12th through the 14th centuries.</p><br>
<p>The Afon Glaslyn  is a river in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. While not of great significance in terms of its length , it is one of Gwynedd&#39;s primary rivers, and has greatly influenced the landscape in which it flows.</p><br>
<p>It has its source in Glaslyn, a cirque lake on the flanks of Snowdon. It is joined by Nant Traswnant which drains Pen-y-Pass and by Nant Cynnyd before entering the beautiful lake, Llyn Gwynant. The river then flows through Llyn Dinas before entering the village of Beddgelert. In the middle of the village it is joined by the substantial tributary, the Afon Colwyn which drains the south western flank of Snowdon. The much enlarged river flows down past Gelert&#39;s grave before tumbling down into the Pass of Aberglaslyn. This is a small rocky gorge close to the main road which provides easy public access to a most picturesque piece of Snowdonian scenery.</p><br>
<p>Passing through Pont Aberglaslyn, the river emerges from the gorge into the relatively flat agricultural land of Tremadog and Porthmadog. This wide flat valleynow called Traeth Mawrwas once the estuary of the Glaslyn before the Porthmadog Cob was created. This sealed off the mouth of the estuary enabling the land to be reclaimed. Once the river has crossed under the railway line, it meanders in large pools and marshes before eventually passing through the tidal sluices on the Cob at the south-eastern end of the town of Porthmadog, and from there into Tremadog Bay. Further south, the River Dwyryd also drains into Tremadog Bay.</p><br>
<p>The first pair of breeding ospreys in Wales nest at Pont Croesor about 4 mi upstream from Porthmadog where the RSPB have set up observation facilities. They first bred in 2005 and have returned every year since.</p><br>
<p>Fishing on the Glaslyn up to Beddgelert is controlled by the Glaslyn Angling Association.</p><br>
<p>Ruislip-Northwood was an urban district in west Middlesex, England, from 1904 to 1965. From its inception Ruislip-Northwood fell within the Metropolitan Police District and from 1933 it was part of the London Passenger Transport Area.</p><br>
<p>The urban district council presided over a huge increase in population as the Metropolitan Railway gave rise to many new development opportunities. This created many challenges to improve public services and housing while preserving the areas heritage sites. In 1931 Kings College, Cambridge sold their final plots of land to the council, having been owners of much of the land in the manor of Ruislip since the mid-15th century.</p><br>
<p>The urban district was abolished in 1965 and its former area was incorporated into the newly established London Borough of Hillingdon, as part of Greater London.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Creation</h3><br>
<p>The urban district was created on 30 September 1904, covering the parish of Ruislip, which had previously been part of Uxbridge Rural District. The parish of Ruislip included Ruislip Manor, South Ruislip, Eastcote, and Northwood. The new Urban District council held its first meeting at Northwood School on 1 October, the day after the district&#39;s formation.</p><br>
<p>An urban district council had been considered a year previously, in light of the expansion of areas within the parish, particularly Northwood. A report was prepared in 1903 which noted the population in Northwood—2,700 by that time, with 530 houses—compared with the largely rural character of the rest of Ruislip parish. The Metropolitan Railway extension from Harrow to Uxbridge was also discussed at the meeting on 28 October 1903, as a station was to be opened in Ruislip on the line. Kings College, Cambridge, owners of much of the land in the parish, were planning to sell some for development in light of the new line. As a result of these events, the council voted in favour of becoming an urban district.</p><br>
<h3>Governance and developments</h3><br>
<p>The urban district council consisted of nine councillors in 1904: the Chairman William Page Edwards; F. M. Elgood; H. J. Brewer; H. Ewer; William Gregory; S. Matheson; Rev. Harvey Roe; J. Westacott, and A. M. Hooper. A clerk was appointed, E. R. Abbot, for £100 per year. He remained in the position until 1931.</p><br>
<p>The expansion of the Metropolitan Railway caused the district to experience a sharp rise in population—from 6,217 in 1911 to 72,791 in 1961—and an increase in suburban house-building, especially in the area termed Metro-land. Consequentially, the district was one of the first in England to devise a statutory planning scheme in 1914, following the Housing and Town Planning Act 1909. The council had been prompted to follow this new act by the Chairman of the Council, Mr. Elgood, an architect, and the Clerk to the Council, Mr. Abbot. Members of the council had already raised concerns over some of the new building work around Eastcote and South Ruislip and the new development near Northwood station, which they described as "badly arranged and packed".</p><br>
<p>Three divisions were established within the new council: Finance and General Purposes; Public Health, Buildings and Sewerage; and Highways. The council sought to save money from the outset; reducing the number of workmen employed on the highways from ten to seven and cancelling the cleaning of ditches beside the roads. The lowest-paid man working on the sewers was informed he would need to move within the district and take a pay cut from £1:6s to £1:3s or be made redundant. He accepted.</p><br>
<p>The urban district council worked with Kings College to establish plots of land for development around Ruislip and Ruislip Manor. A town planning competition was held, won by A & J Soutar, town planners from Wandsworth, who sought to create a symmetrical design spreading across Ruislip parish. Many of the woods and historic sites including Manor Farm were to be demolished and cleared as part of the plan, making way for a projected total of 7,642 homes, enough for 35,000 residents. Only the church in Ruislip, St. Martins, would have been spared. An outline map was made public on 30 November 1910 with few objections. A local board inquiry followed on 17 February 1911, which required negotiations with landowners to allow for a full planning scheme to be compiled. This was presented in February 1913 with an adaptation of the original Soutars plan and received approval from the Local Government Board in September 1914.</p><br>
<p>Three roads with residential housing—Manor Way, Windmill Way, and Park Way—were completed before the outbreak of the First World War. All construction work was halted, and did not resume until 1919. The Ruislip Manor Cottage Society had been set up in 1911 to facilitate the construction of cottages and small housing in the area, though it did not manage to build as much as had been planned. As the council took on several plots in Eastcote, only four houses could be built by the society there. In Northwood, eighteen cottages were later built in 1926.</p><br>
<h3>Development after the First World War</h3><br>
<p>Manor Farm and the local woods were eventually saved from new developments in January 1930, after a member of the Royal Society of Arts visited to choose the buildings that should be conserved. The Great Barn and Little Barn were singled out, together with the old Post Office, the Old Bell public house, and the Priests House of the local church. The woods were included in a sale by Kings College to the district in February 1931. Park Wood was sold for £27,300, with Manor Farm and the old Post Office included as a gift to the people of Ruislip. Kings had wished to also present the wood as a gift but was required by the University and Colleges Act to receive payment, as it was the trustee of the land. Middlesex County Council contributed 75 per cent of the cost, as the urban district council argued that many of those who would make use of the land would be recreational day-trippers from outside the district. Under a 999-year lease, the council agreed to maintain the wood and ensure no new building was constructed without the permission of the county council. An area of the wood to the south was not included in the lease agreement and three residential roads were later constructed on it.</p><br>
<p>Copse Wood was purchased by Middlesex County Council and London County Council in 1936 for £23,250, joined by Mad Bess Wood in the same year. The urban district council purchased the 186 acre wood together with Middlesex and London County Councils for £28,000 in a compulsory purchase from Sir Howard Stransom Button. Sir Howard became High Sheriff of Middlesex in 1937.</p><br>
<p>The council purchased Haydon Hall and its 14.7 acre of ground in 1936, planning to build a civic centre there. The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 caused the plan to be suspended, and it was never continued.</p><br>
<p>During the war, the urban district saw a high number of bombing raids by the Luftwaffe during The Blitz, between 8 September 1940 and 9 May 1941. A total of 57 raids were recorded with 241 high explosive bombs, 2000 incendiary bombs and 4 parachuted landmines falling on the area; 27 people were killed and a further 231 were injured.</p><br>
<p>A public hall was built on part of the Manor Farm site in 1965 and named Winston Churchill Hall. The land upon which it was built had been Barn Close and was bought by Councillor T. R. Parker in 1932 from King&#39;s College. He presented the land to the Ruislip Village Trust as the site of a future public hall and the Trust gave it to the urban district council in 1964 stipulating that that would be the sole use.</p><br>
<h3>Abolition</h3><br>
<p>The urban district was abolished in 1965 and its area formed part of the London Borough of Hillingdon in Greater London. By this time the population within the district had reached 75,000.</p><br>
<p>The Ruislip-Northwood name survived in the Ruislip-Northwood parliamentary constituency until 2010, when it was incorporated into the Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner constituency.</p><br>
<h2>Coat of arms</h2><br>
<p>A coat of arms was granted in 1937. It is described as "argent, a hurst of oak-trees proper growing out of a grassy mount, and above them a roundel azure charged with a star of five points or; on a chief gules a silver mitre between two fleurs-de-lis or". It also had a crest, described as "on a wreath or the colours in front of two ears of rye slipped in saltire proper a boar passant sable armed and unguled."</p><br>
<p>The hurst of trees with a representation of the Pole Star above are a play on the name Northwood. The mitre and fleurs-de-lys refer to the Abbey of Bec Herlewin in Normandy, to whom the Lordship of Ruislip was granted, where there was a cell of the Order. The Manor was later seized by Henry V and granted as part of the endowment of Kings College, Cambridge. The Abbey and the College were dedicated to St. Mary, one of whose symbols is a fleur-de-lis. The rye slips&#39; are a play on the name Ruislip. The wild boar shows that the Lordship was an ancient one, granted when the land was forest roamed by wild boars.</p><br>
<p>The present coat of arms of the London Borough of Hillingdon use the Pole Star, fleur-de-lis, and rye stalks from the coat of arms of the former Ruislip-Northwood Urban District on its coat of arms.</p><br>
<p>The Afon Llyfni is a small river in North Wales which arises as Nant Drws y Coed between Mynydd Mawr and Mynydd Drws-y-Coed just to the west of Snowdon.</p><br>
<p>The main river forms at the outlet of the Llyn Nantlle Uchaf and flows past the great slate workings of Nantlle picking up drainage from the very deep flooded quarries.</p><br>
<p>It then passes to the south of Talysarn and Penygroes before eventually discharging to the sea at Pontllyfni.</p><br>
<p>For a number of years there were concerns that the quality of the river might be polluted because of illegal and historical dumping of industrial waste in one of the deep, water-filled quarries. However, it appears that there has been little or no detectable quality shift.</p><br>
<p>The Afon Clarach  is a small river discharging into Cardigan Bay north of Aberystwyth. It flows through a largely agricultural and forested landscape except in its lowest reaches where its banks are crowded with holiday developments. The Clarach is formed at the confluence of the Afon Stewi and Nant Seilo at Penrhyncoch, with both their headwaters originating in low hills at the edge of the Plynlimon range. The course of the river takes it past the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences , and the village of Bow Street. Between Bow Street and Llangorwen, the river is joined by the Bow Street Brook.</p><br>
<p>In past centuries, the upper reaches of the river have been affected by lead and silver mining and the quality of the river has suffered as a result. There is some organic pollution from diffuse agricultural inputs and from the discharge of treated sewage from the Bow Street sewage treatment works.</p><br>
<p>The river discharges into the sea over the beach at Clarach Bay thus limiting the population of migratory fish able to access the river. Consequently, Atlantic salmon and sea-trout are rare, however brown trout, brook lampreys, millers thumb and stone loach are commonly found.</p><br>
<p>The picture below shows a Bridge over the Afon Clarach at Clarach Bay, where the river meets the sea.</p><br>
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<p>Glentress Forest is located near Peebles in the Scottish Borders, about 30 miles south of Edinburgh. Part of the Tweed Valley Forest Park along with Traquair Forest in Innerleithen, it is the home of a mountain biking centre which is one of the 7stanes mountain bike trails operated throughout southern Scotland by the Forestry Commission.</p><br>
<p>There are currently 5 mountain bike waymarked routes and a freeride park in Glentress Forest. The historic cycle trails, aimed at children and families, provide an interesting way to explore the forest and its history. The blue, red, and black mountain bike routes provide a challenge for all abilities. The red route is noted for a high-speed section with many bermed corners known as Spooky Woods. The green trail is a "skills loop", and is designed for those new to mountain biking, although there are some challenges for those wishing to practice rocky sections or raised wooden trails too.</p><br>
<p>The trails have been designed by local engineer Pete Laing, and are considered to be among the best in the world.</p><br>
<p>All routes are constructed to be weather proof and so are rideable all year round, although certain trails are best avoided in torrential rain.</p><br>
<p>Innerleithen is just a few minutes away by bike or car, and is one of the UK&#39;s most popular downhill mountain biking venues (though it also has very good cross-country trails).</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>During the 1930s, unemployed men were set to work in Glentress Forest, breaking ground, building tracks, and undertaking other heavy labour. The men lived in a work camp at Eshiels, which was one of a number of so-called Instructional Centres run by the Ministry of Labour in order to harden young men who had been out of work for some time. By 1938, the Ministry was operating 35 Instructional Centres across Britain, with a total capacity of over 6,000 places. By 1939, unemployment was declining in the face of impending war, and the Ministry closed down its work camps.</p><br>
<p>The forest itself was planted in the 1920s in response to the national shortage of timber brought about by the First World War. Some of the original stands of Douglas Fir still remain to this day. There are remains of an Iron Age hill fort at the top of Janet&#39;s Brae which offers a spectacular vista over the town of Peebles. A short walk will lead you to the site where a reconstruction of a timber round house from the same Iron Age period used to stand until it was burnt down in 2010.</p><br>
<p>Lake Wallenpaupack is a freshwater lake in northeastern Pennsylvania. It is the third largest lake in Pennsylvania measuring 52 miles of shoreline, 13 miles in length, 60 feet deep at points, and has in excess of 5,700 acres of surface water. It was created in 1926 by PPL, the Pennsylvania Power & Light Company, for hydroelectric purposes as well as flood control; however, it is best known as one of several major recreational destinations in the Pocono Mountains. It is located near the borough of Hawley, and forms part of the boundary between Pike and Wayne counties.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Lenape Indians named the area "Wallenpaupack" which means "The Stream of Swift and Slow Water." William Penn later owned the land and then deeded it to his son, who then gave it to James Wilson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.</p><br>
<p>In order to create the lake, PPL constructed a dam on Wallenpaupack Creek at Wilsonville and a levee (Tafton Dike). The project took 2700 men almost two years to complete and seven months for the reservoir to fill after the dam was closed off. The land of Wilsonville and the surrounding area in the valley was purchased by PPL from about 100 owners at about $20 an acre and most of the property was razed or moved. Some houses remained, and as the valley was flooded the water was so clear that one could see the houses under the water. In all, 17 mi of roads and utility poles were rerouted, and Purdytown cemetery had to be relocated. The former town of Wilsonville now lies under the water near the dam. Water travels 3.5 miles in a 13-foot diameter steel pipe (originally wood) to power two turbines which combined can generate 44 megawatts of energy. Discharge is into the Lakawaxen River, which flows into the Delaware River.</p><br>
<p>PPL managed the 3,300 acres of land around the lake until June 2015. While homeowners have access rights, they must apply for permits for things such as landscaping to installing exterior lights and cannot cut down vegetation to improve their view of lake — a provision to keep the man-made lake&#39;s shore natural looking when viewed from the water and to minimize erosion.</p><br>
<p>Because the lake exists to generate hydroelectic power, every spring the water level is allowed to rise to an elevation of 1,187 feet, and then during the summer and fall, becomes progressively lower until it reaches 1,180 feet. People with waterfront property move their private docks out as the water recedes. A legal point: homeowners have access rights but not privacy rights - anyone can walk along the shoreline below the high water line. Fences or other barriers are not allowed.</p><br>
<h2>Ownership changes</h2><br>
<p>In June 2014 PPL announced it would be divesting its electrical generation facilities. Plans called for a spinoff to a newly created company Talen Energy formed from the generation assets of PPL and Riverstone Holdings.</p><br>
<p>On June 1, 2015 Talen Energy became the official owner of Wallenpaupack Hydroelectric Project generation plant and therefore control, under the FERC license, of Lake Wallenpaupack.</p><br>
<p>In order to comply with a FERC regulation, on October 8, 2015 Talen Energy announced plans to sell the Lake Wallenpaupack hydroelectric project to Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P of Toronto, Canada. The sale was completed on April 1, 2016. Brookfield maintains website information about its management of Lake Wallenpaupack.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation</h2><br>
<p>An integral part of the Lake Region of the Pocono Mountains, Lake Wallenpaupack is both a regional, as well as local, recreation attraction in the tri-state area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York), and is popular with seasonal visitors from the New York City and Philadelphia areas, particularly in the summertime. The lake provides boating, swimming, and fishing access in the summer, as well as ice skating and ice fishing in the winter. A notable activity during the winter months on Lake Wallenpaupack is its annual "Ice Tee Golf Tournament", which takes place on the frozen lake. The tournament is a 9-hole competition hosted by The Chamber of Northern Poconos.</p><br>
<p>Its wooded shoreline also provides opportunities for hiking and viewing wildlife, including whitetail deer and black bear. Lake fish include smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rock bass, bluegill, walleye, muskellunge, northern pike, pickerel, rainbow trout, brown trout, lake trout, catfish and yellow perch. Striped bass and hybrid striped bass have been stocked in the lake. The lake is 13 mi long, has 52 mi of shoreline, and is about 60 ft deep at its maximum depth.</p><br>
<p>There are four islands, all open to the public for daytime visits but no overnight camping. From east to west: Epply, Kipp, Burns and Cairns. Kipp may be closed to the public until August every year because bald eagles have established a nest site on the island, and return to it each spring.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>Lake Wallenpaupack faces a number of environmental problems, including water-quality issues from heavy boat usage, algal blooms and rapid sedimentation related to agricultural runoff, and an invasion of purple loosestrife along the shores. Concerted efforts to improve water quality led to the lake being removed from Pennsylvania&#39;s list of impaired waters in 2016, twenty years after having been so designated. The lake is used as an educational resource to teach ecology to students of the Wallenpaupack Area School District.</p><br>
<h2>Popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Lake Wallenpaupack was featured as a retreat location in the popular TV show The Office in the eleventh episode of the second season, titled Booze Cruise. However, the episode was not filmed on Lake Wallenpaupack. Principal filming took place in Long Beach Harbor, California.</p><br>
<p>The lake is the setting of the children&#39;s book Baked Beans for Breakfast (1970; republished in 1974 as The Secret Summer) by Ruth Chew.</p><br>
<p>Cove Haven Resort, a couples-only hotel, with heart-shaped bathtubs, has been in business since 1958, and is part of the reason the Poconos are referred to as "The Honeymoon Capital of the World."</p><br>
<p>Burphu Dhura is a Himalayan mountain peak situated in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand, India. The altitude of the summit is 6,334 m. It is situated at the end ridge over the Kalabaland Glacier in the eastern part of the district, left to the Milam Glacier. Kalabaland Dhura  is situated to the west of this peak on the same massif. Burphu Dhura massif is the part of divide between Kalabaland and Goriganga valleys. This peak was first of all climbed to summit in 2000 from south on 27 September 2000 by Loveraj Dharmashaktu, Balwant Singh Kapkoti and Ramesh by an Indian team led by Wing Cdr S S Puri. The peak has two approaches—one from the Kalabaland glacier above the icefall and another from Burphu village in the Milam valley.</p><br>
<p>Svartisen is a collective term for two glaciers located in northern Norway. The system consists of two separate glaciers,</p><br>
<p>Vestre (western) Svartisen (221 km), which is the second largest glacier on the Norwegian mainland (there are larger glaciers on Svalbard) after Jostedalsbreen</p><br>
<p>Østre (eastern) Svartisen (148 km), which is the country&#39;s fourth largest.</p><br>
<p>There are also a number of minor glaciers in the area, such as Glombreen in the northern part of Meløy, and Simlebreen in Beiarn. One of the outlet glaciers of Svartisen, Engabreen ends at the lowest point of any glacier on the European mainland, at 20 meters above sea level (in 2007). The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate has monitored the glacier mass balance of the glacier since 1970 and operates a sub-glacial laboratory beneath Engabreen.</p><br>
<p>Svartisen is part of Saltfjellet-Svartisen national park, located in the Saltfjell mountain range.</p><br>
<p>Water from the glacier is collected and used for hydropower production via runoff into the streams and lakes and through intakes borred beneath Engabreen.</p><br>
<h2>The name</h2><br>
<p>The first element is svart swart, black, the last element is the finite form of is m ice; glacier. The old ice of the glacier is considerably darker than fresh ice and newfallen snow.</p><br>
<p>Mechanicsburg Gap  is a water gap through Mill Creek Mountain in Hampshire County in the USA state of West Virginia.</p><br>
<p>Mechanicsburg Gap allows for the passage of the Northwestern Turnpike (USA Route 50/West Virginia Route 28) and Mill Creek through Mill Creek Mountain. It takes its name from the community of Mechanicsburg at the gap&#39;s western entrance.</p><br>
<p>Today, Mechanicsburg Gap has a number of interesting features within it. Near The Burg (an 18th-century home) lies the Romney Spring which flows from a PVC pipe at the foot of the gap which is visited daily by its patrons along the side of USA Route 50. Mechanicsburg Gap is also home to the now closed limestone rock quarry which has cut a massive hole into the gaps northern wall. Adjacent to the quarry is the former Evelyns Restaurant, which was long a popular steakhouse and truck stop. The site is now home to Good &#39;n Gooder, a store with a variety of used items.</p><br>
<p>The Municipal Corporation Building, Mumbai located in South Mumbai in Maharashtra, India is a Grade IIA heritage building  opposite to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus  at the junction of Dadabhai Naoroji Road and Mahapalika Marg. It is also known as the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation Building, or BMC building for short.</p><br>
<p>As the name suggests, the building houses the civic body that governs the city of Mumbai, which is now named the Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Palika (बृहन्मुंबई महानगर पालिका) or the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and which has as its motto, "यतो धर्मस्ततो जय" (Sanskrit: Yato Dharmastato Jaya or, Where there is Righteousness, there shall be Victory), inscribed on the banner of its Coat of Arms. It is said to be the largest civic organization in India as well as in Asia: it covers an area of 434 km&sup2</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The BMC was created in 1865 and Arthur Crawford was its first Municipal Commissioner. The Municipality was initially housed in a modest building at the terminus of Girgaum Road. In 1870, it was shifted to a building on the Esplanade, located between Watson Hotel and the Sassoon Mechanics Institute where the present Army & Navy building is situated. On December 9, 1884, the foundation stone for the new building of the Bombay Municipal Corporation was laid opposite to the Victoria Terminus now known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, by the Viceroy of the time, Lord Ripon.</p><br>
<p>Two designs were considered for the building; one of the Gothic designs done by Frederick William Stevens and the other in the Indo-Saracenic design presented by Robert Fellowes Chisholm. The Gothic design was finally selected. The building was completed in 1893.</p><br>
<h2>Heritage status and restoration</h2><br>
<p>The Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee of the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai has categorized the heritage buildings of Mumbai under the guidelines prepared for the purpose. According to these guidelines, the Municipal Corporation Building, Bombay has been categorized by the Bombay Municipal Corporation as Grade II A. The list of heritage buildings, as categorized on April 24, 2005, under Grade I, Grade II, Grade IIA, Grade III and Precincts are 591. For the Bombay Municipal Corporation Building, the details are elaborated below.</p><br>
<p>157. Grade-IIA Bombay Municipal Corporation (MCGM Headquarter) - Value Classification - A(his), I(sce), C(seh) A(arch), B(per), B(des), F</p><br>
<p>Grade-II (A&B) is defined as:</p><br>
<p>Buildings, of regional or local importance, possessing special architectural or aesthetical merit, cultural or historical value, though of a lower scale than in Heritage Grade. They are local landmarks, contributing to the image and identity of the City.</p><br>
<p>As per the defined “Scope for Changes (Grade-IIA)”, the restorations permitted are:</p><br>
<p>Internal changes, and adaptive reuse will be generally allowed, but external changes will be subject to scrutiny Care would be taken to ensure the conservation of all special aspects for which it is included in Heritage Grade-II.</p><br>
<p>The “Abbreviations of Criteria (Classification)” used for listing of buildings and conservation areas are:</p><br>
<p>a) Value for architectural, historical or cultural reasons A</p><br>
<p>- architectural A(arc)</p><br>
<p>- historical A(his)</p><br>
<p>- cultural A(cul)</p><br>
<p>b) The date and / or period and / or design and / or unique use</p><br>
<p>of the buildings or artefact B</p><br>
<p>- period B(per)</p><br>
<p>- design B(des)</p><br>
<p>- use B(uu)</p><br>
<p>c) Relevance to social or economic history C (seh)</p><br>
<p>d) Association with well-known persons or events D (bio)</p><br>
<p>e) A building or groups of buildings and / or areas, of a distinct architectural design and / or style, historic period or way of life having sociological interest and / or community value E</p><br>
<p>- Style</p><br>
<p>- Historical</p><br>
<p>f) The unique value of a building or architectural features or artifact and / or being part of a chain of architectural development that would be broken if it were lost F</p><br>
<p>g) Its value as a part of a group of buildings G (grp)</p><br>
<p>h) Representing forms of technological development H (tec)</p><br>
<p>i) Vistas of natural / scenic beauty or interest, including</p><br>
<p>water&ndash;front areas, distinctive and / or planned lines of sight, street line, skyline or topographical I (sce)</p><br>
<p>j) Open spaces sometimes integrally planned with their associated areas having a distinctive way of life and for which are and have the potential to be areas of recreation J</p><br>
<p>In keeping with the above categorization, the restoration works of the Municipal Corporation Building, Mumbai was planned by a panel of three conservation architects, namely, Abha Narain Lambah, Shashi Prabhu and Shimul Zaveri Kadri. The restoration plan for the 125-year-old BMC Gothic structure envisages a) restoration of interiors and the exterior &ndash; from the roof tiles to the exquisite Minton tiles inside and to stained glass work and b) strengthening several wooden beams.</p><br>
<p>In the first phase the structure would be restored to its original glory involving replacement of broken tiles, repair of statues, and removal of plants and moss.</p><br>
<p>The subsequent phases of restoration would involve a) reorganization of office space within the building to improve the operational efficiency of staff members, b) Citizens Facilitation Centre and party offices in the ground floor and c) Corporation Hall to be modified for a larger seating arrangement by including outer corridors and opening the wooden doors to increase its seating capacity from 200 to 300.</p><br>
<p>Estimated to cost Rs 80 crore (US$16 million, at current exchange rate), approved by the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee and the civic administration, it is the largest and most comprehensive conservation concept undertaken in the city, without disturbing the routine work of the civic affairs and administration of the BMC.</p><br>
<p>The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), as the primary agency responsible for urban governance, has also signed an MOU with NGO Council to work closely with NGOs in the fields of education, public health, creation of urban amenities, art and culture and heritage conservation.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture and Design</h2><br>
<p>Before construction, two designs were considered for the building; one of the Gothic designs done by Frederick William Stevens and the other in the Indo-Saracenic design presented by Robert Fellowes Chisholm. The Gothic design was finally selected.</p><br>
<p>The building is known for its 255 ft tall tower. The chief architectural feature is the central dome that rises to a height of 71.5 m. The gable has a huge winged allegorical figure representing the urbs prima in Indis, the first city of India as it was to be known then. The richly molded and paneled Council Chamber has a ceiling of unpolished teak. Records also support that at these environs Phansi Talao or Gallows Tank, where public hangings took place, was located.</p><br>
<p>In the period from 1100 to 1500 AD, the architecture of churches constructed with ornamental arches, with ribs supported by buttresses resulted, in the subsequent idea of the framed structural design with grandeur and monumentality during the renaissance period of 1500&ndash;1700 AD, as the distinct style; the Bombay Municipal Corporation building, the Victoria Terminus, the Rajabai tower and the University of Bombay are some examples of this style. The old style of dome construction was also revived and became popular; 1750 onwards was considered to be the period of modern architecture.</p><br>
<p>The Gothic architecture with controlled composition custom&ndash;made to the climatic extremes of the city has cusped window arches and elaborately domed corner towers.</p><br>
<p>At the entrance to the BMC stands an impressive bronze statue of Sir Pherozeshah Mehta that gives a picturesque view of the roads and buildings in front (pictured).</p><br>
<p>The McMillan Reservoir is a reservoir in Washington, D.C. that supplies the majority of the citys municipal water. It was originally called the Howard University Reservoir or the Washington City Reservoir, and was completed in 1902 by the USA Army Corps of Engineers. The reservoir was built on the site of Smith Spring, one of the springs previously used for drinking water. Washingtons earliest residents relied on natural springs but this came to be inadequate as the citys population grew. In 1850, Congress determined that the Potomac River should be the citys principal source of water.</p><br>
<h2>Construction history</h2><br>
<h3>Washington Aqueduct</h3><br>
<p>A Congressionally funded engineering study was conducted to determine the most available mode of</p><br>
<p>supplying water to the city. Work and study conducted under the leadership of Lieutenant Montgomery C. Meigs culminated into the development of the Washington Aqueduct which began operations on January 3, 1859. (Initially the system provided water to the city from the Little Falls Branch in Maryland, until the aqueduct construction was completed.) Regular water service from the Potomac River source through the aqueduct commenced in 1864.</p><br>
<h3>Washington City Tunnel</h3><br>
<p>In the early years of operation the water was routed through the system&#39;s two earlier-built reservoirs, Dalecarlia and Georgetown, which were designed to settle sediment out of the water. In 1873 the Army began construction of a new water supply tunnel, known as the Washington City Tunnel, to provide more storage, sedimentation and distribution capacity for the system. Construction of the tunnel was halted in the 1880s due to a variety of problems including funding shortages, cost overruns, bribery and fraud associated with the construction process. During that period some improvements were made to the Dalecarlia portion of the system, and work on the tunnel finally resumed in 1898. The tunnel was completed in 1901 and the McMillan Reservoir began operation in 1902.</p><br>
<h3>Filtration plant</h3><br>
<p>All the District&#39;s water needs were thought to have been quenched by the water aqueduct system, but by 1902 it became apparent that it was no longer adequate. To handle population growth and municipal sanitation needs, officials added the McMillan Reservoir Filtration Plant in 1905. This facility implemented an innovative water purification system relying on sand instead of chemicals to filter 75 million gallons (280 million liters) per day. It helped quell typhoid epidemics and other communicable diseases throughout the city.</p><br>
<p>In 1907 the reservoir and filtration plant were named in honor of Senator James McMillan of Michigan, who chaired the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia and supported development of the water supply facilities. The Congress officially designated the site as a park in March 1911.</p><br>
<p>Subsequent improvements to the city water system were initiated beginning in the 1920s. The regular use of chlorine as a disinfectant began in 1923 at the McMillan filtration plant. Another treatment plant was completed in 1928, and this was built adjacent to the Dalecarlia Reservoir. The growth of the city population led to further expansions at the Dalecarlia site in the 1950s.</p><br>
<h2>McMillan Fountain</h2><br>
<p>The McMillan Fountain is a public artwork by American artist Herbert Adams located on the Reservoir grounds. The fountain, completed in 1912 and dedicated in October 1919, consists of a bronze The Three Graces placed upon a pink granite base. Cast by Roman Bronze Works, the fountain was originally part of a large landscape setting designed by Charles A. Platt. A tribute to James McMillan, the fountain was paid for by citizens of Michigan, who raised $25,000 by way of pennies, nickels and dimes donated by public school children. Congress also funded totaling $15,000 towards the completion.</p><br>
<h2>Recent developments</h2><br>
<p>The slow sand filter plant at McMillan was replaced in 1985 with a new rapid sand filter plant.</p><br>
<p>The old water treatment site was purchased by the District of Columbia from the federal government in 1987 for $9.3 million, and since has deteriorated due to lack of maintenance. The question of what to do with the property is up for debate.</p><br>
<p>The 25 acre (100,000 m²) McMillan Reservoir, located between Michigan Avenue, North Capitol Street, and First Street in Northwest Washington, D.C., was designated a DC Historic Landmark in 1991.</p><br>
<p>Baldy Mountain , Baldy Peak, Mount Baldy, or Old Baldy is the highest peak in the Cimarron Range, a subrange of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. It is located in Colfax County, about 6 mi northeast of Eagle Nest. It rises abruptly, with 3,640 ft of vertical relief , from the Moreno Valley to the west and has a total elevation of 12,441 ft.</p><br>
<h2>Philmont Scout Ranch</h2><br>
<p>Baldy Mountain lies on the northwestern border of the Boy Scouts of America&#39;s Philmont Scout Ranch. The valleys on the eastern side of the peak are home to some of the many small camps that are scattered throughout the Ranch. Four wheel drive roads and a radio tower exist high on the western slopes. In 1963 Norton Clapp bought 10,098 acre around the mountain and donated it to the Boy Scouts of America.</p><br>
<h2>Mining</h2><br>
<p>Copper and gold were mined in the area starting in 1866, and the top of Baldy Mountain was developed as the Mystic Lode copper mine. Other mines near Baldy Mountain were the Aztec, French Henry, Bull-of-the-Woods, Homestake, Black Horse, and Montezuma mines. Mine workings and prospects are still evident on the slopes of the mountain as well. There are about 70 mi of mines in the whole mountain. A total of $4 million was made from the gold in the mountain.</p><br>
<p>Baldy Summit Ridge.JPGBaldy Summit Ridge</p><br>
<p>Baldy from Copper Park.jpgBaldy Mountain from Copper Park, Philmont Scout Ranch</p><br>
<p>Baldy from Wilson Mesa.JPGBaldy Mountain from Wilson Mesa</p><br>
<p>Lake Shetek is the largest lake in southwestern Minnesota, United States, and the headwaters of the Des Moines River. It is located in The Lakes, an unincorporated community in Murray County a few miles north-northwest of Currie. The name Shetek is derived from "pelican" in the Ojibwe language.</p><br>
<p>Since large lakes are rare in southwestern Minnesota and for some distance over the borders into Iowa and South Dakota, Lake Shetek is a significant regional draw for water recreation. Lake Shetek State Park lies on its eastern shore.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Lake Shetek covers 3,596 acre to a maximum depth of just 10 ft. This modest depth is wholly typical for the Prairie Pothole Region. The shoreline totals 31.7 mi, about 85% of which is in private development. The watershed-to-lake ratio is 23:1, with much of that watershed under cultivation.</p><br>
<p>Lake Shetek is by far the largest of Murray County&#39;s hundred or so lakes. The next largest is currently 1,176 acre Lake Sarah just to the northwest. Great Oasis Lake at 1,466 acre was once second-largest but was drained in the early 20th century for farmland.</p><br>
<p>It is the headwaters of the West Fork of the Des Moines River, considered the river&#39;s main fork. Lake Shetek contains three main islands: Valhalla, Keeley, and Loon Islands. Causeways connect the first two to the western shore, and another connects the third to the eastern shore. Shetek also connects to Bloody Lake Fremont Lake and Armstrong Slough.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Lake Shetek and the surrounding landscape of wetlands and rolling hills are the result of glaciation. The lake lies on the Altamont Moraine, a terminal moraine marking the farthest extent of an ice lobe during the Wisconsin glaciation. This most-recent glaciation deposited a very thick blanket of till over the area.</p><br>
<p>Lake Shetek began forming as the climate started to warm 15,000 years ago. Water from the melting glaciers carved channels into the moraine. Where one channel—now occupied by Beaver Creek—intersected the channel now occupied by the Des Moines River, a buildup of sediment and slumping banks partially dammed the outflow, creating a large, shallow lake.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<p>Lake Shetek has long harbored a robust population of rough fish, native but economically undesirable. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources commenced fish stocking in 1987, introducing game fish such as walleye, northern pike, yellow perch, crappie, sunfish, and black bass.</p><br>
<p>Aquatic vegetation is sparse, which is typical for lakes in the region. Due to its shallowness, the entire basin constitutes the littoral zone, which harbors common invertebrates like snails and insect larvae.</p><br>
<p>Five common species of waterfowl all breed on Lake Shetek: the American coot, gadwall, mallard, northern shoveler, and ruddy duck. White pelicans, the lake&#39;s namesake, are often seen during migration.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The earliest humans around Lake Shetek were likely following the bison that came there to drink. Archaeologists identify the first permanent inhabitants as members of the Great Oasis culture.</p><br>
<p>French explorer Joseph Nicollet camped beside the lake for three days in 1838. He noted that the region&#39;s Dakota people called the lake Rabechy, meaning "place where pelicans nest." However his journals and maps opted for the Ojibwe language equivalent, which was already in use by voyageurs.</p><br>
<p>Pioneers established a small settlement along the east shore of Lake Shetek in the late 1850s. However the Dakota War of 1862 broke out and 15 settlers were killed and a dozen taken captive at Slaughter Slough. Euro-American settlement was dampened for a while, but within a decade Archibald and Neil Currie built a flour mill and a general store near the lake&#39;s outlet, from which grew the town of Currie.</p><br>
<p>Two summer resorts opened on Lake Shetek in the early 20th century, Tepeeotah on the east shore and Valhalla Pavilion on Valhalla Island. Two excursion boats carried visitors around the lake. To protect fishing and recreation interests, locals prompted the state Game and Fish Department to stabilize the water level with a dam in the mid-1920s. This initial tourist economy peaked in the Roaring Twenties and subsided with Valhalla Pavilion burning down in 1928 and the onset of the Great Depression.</p><br>
<p>To combat unemployment during the Depression, the federal government authorized several job creation programs to conduct public work projects. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) arrived in 1934 with an ambitious plan to build a road system across Lake Shetek and a state park on the wooded eastern shore. From their camp on Keeley Island the WPA men built five causeways running from island to island. However the program was disbanded in 1940 with the sixth and final causeway incomplete.</p><br>
<p>The Tepeeotah Resort closed in the 1960s just as housing subdivisions burgeoned around the shore of Lake Shetek. Although the shoreline was greatly developed, better runoff management practices throughout the watershed improved Shetek&#39;s water quality.</p><br>
<h2>Issues</h2><br>
<p>As a shallow lake with a fairly high watershed-to-basin ratio, Lake Shetek can be strongly affected by environmental issues. Maintaining the water level has been a local concern for decades. The lake was dammed in the 1920s, then raised another 18 in in the 1930s. Additional improvements were made to the dam in 1966 and 1995.</p><br>
<p>Siltation from human activities has been slowly filling in the lake. In 1973 Shetek&#39;s deepest point was documented at 12 ft whereas today it is only 10 ft. Surface runoff from farms and lawns threatens to carry in excessive nutrients that can cause algal blooms.</p><br>
<p>Moreover the shallow lake freezes solid every seven years on average. This leads to significant winter fishkill, and since rough fish like carp rebound faster than desirable game fish, it has been a struggle to maintain the sport fishery.</p><br>
<p>Cumberland Caverns is a national natural landmark and show cave located in McMinnville.</p><br>
<p>It is the second longest cave in Tennessee and makes the list of longest caves in the United States and in the world.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The main entrance was discovered by Aaron Higgenbotham in 1810 while he was surveying the nearby Chickamauga Trail on Cardwell Mountain in what is now Warren County. According to legend, Higgenbotham was the first man to enter the cave and it was named Higgenbotham Cave in his honor. Another smaller cave, also located on Cardwell Mountain, was also discovered about this time and was named Henshaw Cave. Although not nearly as big as Higgenbotham Cave, Henshaw Cave proved to be a source of saltpeter (the main ingredient of gunpowder) and was operated as a saltpeter mine during perhaps both the War of 1812 and the Civil War.</p><br>
<p>Higgenbotham Cave became a favorite spot for local adventurers during the 19th century and groups would ride out to the entrance in hay wagons and make the strenuous trip to a point in the cave now known as the Ten Acre Room. In the days of the hay wagon parties, it was called the Big Room. Here, many visitors left their names and the date candled on the ceiling.</p><br>
<p>In the early 1940s, members of the National Speleological Society (NSS) began to explore Higgenbotham Cave. Within a decade, they had greatly increased the known extent of the cave. In 1953 a connection was discovered between Henshaw Cave and Higgenbotham Cave. This connection was named the Meatgrinder because of its small size and shape. Soon afterwards, some of these explorers leased the cave from its owner, Mr. Andy Powell, and developed it into a commercial cave. The cave opened under the name Cumberland Caverns on July 4, 1956 and has been open to the public since that time.</p><br>
<p>A portion of the Trail of Tears passes through Cumberland Caverns property. A walking trail is open to the public.</p><br>
<h2>Commerce</h2><br>
<p>The Cumberland Caverns company offers year-round commercial tours of the cave, claiming it is the largest show cave in Tennessee. Tours include a daytime walking tour, spelunking tours, overnight tours, and educational field trips. Weddings, banquets, and birthday parties are also hosted. Before reaching the cave, tourists pass through a gift shop that sells tour tickets, souvenirs, and novelty items.</p><br>
<p>Cumberland Caverns is home to Bluegrass Underground, a monthly music event that takes place in the cave&#39;s Volcano Room. The event has become a nationally syndicated program airing on PBS.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Cumberland Caverns formed in Mississippian Monteagle limestone on the western escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau. The cave is home to stalagmites, stalactites, helictites, flowstone, cave pearls, botryoidal coral, gypsum flowers, needles, and pure white gypsum snow, as well as a variety of cave life.</p><br>
<p>Formations of interest within the cavern include:</p><br>
<p>the "Volcano Room," where many of the cave&#39;s commercial events are hosted.</p><br>
<p>"Monument Pillar," a large flowstone formation.</p><br>
<p>"Crystal Palace," which contains crystals and gypsum flowers.</p><br>
<p>three spelunking tunnels known as "the Devil&#39;s Backbone" due to their winding spine-like walkways.</p><br>
<p>the "Lemon Squeezer," so named because its widest point is only 11 in.</p><br>
<p>"Bubblegum Alley," a passageway similar in size to the Lemon Squeezer but with damper ground that makes it sticky.</p><br>
<p>"the Hall of the Mountain King," whose dimensions of 600 ft long by 150 ft wide by 140 ft tall make it one of the largest cave rooms in eastern North America.</p><br>
<h2>Popular culture</h2><br>
<p>The 1985 movie What Waits Below was filmed in Cumberland Caverns.</p><br>
<p>St. Paul&#39;s Episcopal Church is a church located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee. Noted for its Tiffany windows, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated Milwaukee Landmark.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Founded in 1838, St. Paul&#39;s parish is the oldest Episcopal parish in Milwaukee and the third established in Wisconsin. It is located in the wealthy downtown east neighborhood of Juneautown. Members included many prominent citizens of the time, which helped the church to become the most influential Episcopal congregation in the state.</p><br>
<p>The building was designed by local architect Edward Townsend Mix in Romanesque Revival/Richardsonian Romanesque style and built in 1884 using Lake Superior Sandstone, a dark red sandstone found near the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. It features wrought iron by Master Blacksmith Cyril Colnik.</p><br>
<p>St. Pauls Church also has the largest collection of Tiffany stained glass windows in the state. This includes the largest window ever made by Tiffany Studios of New York City. Spanning 30 feet long, 24 feet high and up to two inches thick, it is a copy of Gustave Dorés masterpiece "Christ Leaving the Praetorium."</p><br>
<p>It is believed that the building closely resembles one which was designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose plans were published in the Architectural Sketch Book in 1873, but never built.</p><br>
<p>A committee appointed by the church established Forest Home Cemetery on Milwaukees south side, the final resting place of many of the citys famed beer barons and social elite. When the land was selected it was located nearly two miles outside of the city limits. At the time this was believed to be far enough from urban development to remain rural.</p><br>
<p>It was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1969 and was designated a Milwaukee Landmark in 1972.</p><br>
<p>Madresfield Court, Madresfield, near Malvern, Worcestershire is a country house. The house has been the home of the Lygon family for nearly six centuries, and has passed only by inheritance since the 12th century. The present building is largely a Victorian reconstruction, although the origins of the present house are from the 16th century, and the site has been occupied since Anglo-Saxon times. The novelist Evelyn Waugh was a frequent visitor to the house and based the family of Marchmain, who are central to his novel Brideshead Revisited, on the Lygons. Surrounded by a moat, the Court is a Grade I listed building.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The house has been the home of the Lygon family since 1450. In 1593 Madresfield Court was rebuilt, replacing a 15th-century medieval building. It was again remodelled in the 19th century to resemble a moated Elizabethan house. In 1806, William Lygon was made a baronet and subsequently enobled as Earl Beauchamp in 1815. Madresfield was the home of the 7th Earl Beauchamp. Evelyn Waugh was a frequent guest to the house.</p><br>
<p>In January 2006, documents revealed by the National Archives showed that emergency plans were made to evacuate Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret of the British Royal Family to Madresfield in the event of a successful German invasion following the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.</p><br>
<p>Five years later, Worcestershire County Council&#39;s Historic, Environment and Archaeology Service showed that the 1940 plan was simply part of pre-existing 1938 invasion contingency plans. In the event of an invasion breaking out of a likely lodgement in Kent and threatening London, the whole UK government would move to Worcestershire with the Royal family residing at Madresfield.</p><br>
<p>Before her death in 1989, Countess Beauchamp, the widow of William Lygon, 8th Earl Beauchamp, the last Earl Beauchamp, endowed the Elmley Foundation to ensure the Court&#39;s many generations of tradition as a patron of the arts in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Madresfield Court has never been sold or bought in all its long history, instead simply remaining in the hands of the Lygon family.</p><br>
<p>Madresfield Court is currently (2009) the home of Rosalind, Lady Morrison, niece of the 8th and last Earl Beauchamp.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture and description</h2><br>
<p>"A moated house of considerable size," the existing building has its origins in the 16th century, the site having been occupied earlier. The Tudor house followed the plan of a standard moated manor. The original bridge and entrance tower are 16th century in origin, although they have been restored. Charles Robert Ashbee decorated the library. The house was extensively restored and rebuilt between 1866-1888 by Philip Charles Hardwick for the 5th Earl, creating the current "Victorian fantasy." Work continued under the 6th Earl and was completed c.1890.</p><br>
<p>The original Great Hall, built in the 12th century, stands at the core of this building.The chapel was designed by the architect Philip Charles Hardwick and decorated in the Arts and Crafts style by Birmingham Group artists including Henry Payne, William Bidlake and Charles March Gere.</p><br>
<p>Upper Seletar Reservoir  is Singapore&#39;s third impounding reservoir, after MacRitchie Reservoir and Peirce Reservoir . It is located within the Central Water Catchment area of Singapore island.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Upper Seletar Reservoir was formerly known as the Seletar Reservoir, before the completion of the Lower Seletar Reservoir near Nee Soon, formed by the damming up of the mouth of Seletar River, in 1986. The Seletar Reservoir was built to meet the surge in water demand after World War I. Built while D. J. Murnane was Municipal Water Engineer, a contemporary description of the project scope and construction in 1939 is included in the footnote. The construction work was overseen by Murnane&#39;s deputy F. G. Hill. It was completed in 1940 and officially opened on 10 August 1969 by HRH Princess Alexandra.</p><br>
<h2>Highlights</h2><br>
<p>The Upper Seletar Reservoir Park, formerly known as Seletar Reservoir Park, covers a large expanse of open space on the eastern side of the reservoir. The 15-hectare park was completed in 1973. It features a viewing tower, and is a frequent venue for joggers, walkers and fishing enthusiasts. Formerly, Hash Harriers and horse riders visited the Upper Seletar Reservoir Park as well.</p><br>
<p>The Singapore Zoo, formerly known as Singapore Zoological Gardens, the Night Safari and the Mandai Orchid Garden are located on the margins of the Upper Seletar Reservoir.</p><br>
<p>It is said there are crocodiles currently living in the reservoir, however no concrete evidence have been found, as all past reports were based on eyewitnesses accounts. Nonetheless, signboards with "Beware of Crocodile" have been placed along various locations at the sides of the reservoir.</p><br>
<p>The Agror valley is located in Mansehra District, Hazara in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It consists of three mountain glens, 10 mi in length and 6 mi in breadth, located between</p><br>
<h2>Environment</h2><br>
<p>The lower portions of the Agror valley are heavily cultivated and contain many villages and hamlets. The valley area has few strictly level spaces, but consist of terraced flats, water is abundant year round.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>The main tribe are Swatis, Tanolis, Gujars and Awan</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Agror is the ancient Atyugrapura of the Rajatarangini and the &#39;Ιθάγονρος town in Ούαρσα mentioned by Ptolemy. From the time of Timur until the beginning of the eighteenth century the Agror valley was held by a family of Karlugh Turks. These were expelled in 1703 by a Saiyid named Jalal Baba, (who happened to be a son-in-Law of last Turk ruler of Hazara, Sultan Mehmud Khurd) with his bigoted Swati lashker and the conquered country was divided among the Swatis, Agror valley was divided between two Swati groups, one half to the Swati khans of Shamdhara and one half to an upstart Mullah from the tribe, Akhund Sad-ud-din, who died in 1783, rising to the position of self-proclaimed Khan of Agror, by dint of his cunning machinations.</p><br>
<p>Painda Khan, a renowned chief of the Tanoli tribe took over the valley in 1834, but in 1841 it was restored by the Sikhs to Ata Muhammad, a descendant of the Mullah or Akhund Sad-ud-din. At annexation in 1849 Ata Muhammad was recognized as chief of Agror; but the arrangement did not work satisfactorily as Ata Muhammad khan conflicted with the british demands British. An expedition had to be sent in 1852 to avenge the murder of two officers of the Salt department; and in consequence of the unsatisfactory attitude of the chief and of repeated complaints by the cultivators, it was resolved in 1868 to place a police station in Agror and to bring the valley more directly under the administration of Government. This incensed the Khan of Agror, at whose instigation the newly built police station was burnt by a raid of The Black Mountain (Tor Ghar) Tribes, Akazais, Hassanzais, Chagharzais etc.</p><br>
<p>An expedition was dispatched, and Ata Muhammad Khan was deported to Lahore for a time, but in 1870 reinstated in his chieftainship after making slavish representations to the British government. His son and successor, Ali Gauhar, was removed from the valley in 1888 in consequence of his instigating and abetting raids into British territory, and in 1888 as per the orders of government, the Agror jagir was suspended pending a final decision. In order to maintain the peace of the border, expeditions were dispatched against the Black Mountain tribes in 1888, 1891, and 1892. The Agror Valley Regulation (1891) later formally declared the rights of the Khan of Agror to be forfeit to Government.</p><br>
<p>The land reforms of the valley was assessed by the Sikhs at Rs. 1,515. This demand was continued on annexation and raised to Rs. 3,315 in 1853 and Rs. 4,000 at the regular settlement, in which the engagement was made with the Khan. The settlement was revised in 1901.</p><br>
<p>During British rule, the sole manufacture of the valley was cotton cloth, and trade was purely local, except for a small export of grain. The chief place in the valley was the village of Oghi, the headquarters of the Hazara border military police.</p><br>
<p>The Katsura River is a continuation of two other rivers, the Hozu River, a small, speedy river which begins in the mountains near Kameoka and then slithers through the mountains separating Kameoka and Kyoto; and the Ōi River , which emerges from those mountains and expands into a shallow, slow-flowing river until Togetsukyo Bridge in Arashiyama. From that point forward, the river is referred to as the Katsura River, and its flow continues for several kilometers through Osaka Prefecture until it joins the Kamo and Uji rivers.</p><br>
<p>The Katsura River area features some of the oldest shrines in Kyoto and Japan, such as Matsuo Shrine, and, as a counterpoint to the channelled Kamo River, supports acres of agricultural area on its flood plain. It also is known for its summer supply of ayu and is a popular place for holding barbecues.</p><br>
<p>Mount Konocti is a volcano in Lake County, California on the south shore of Clear Lake. At 4,305 ft, it is the second highest peak in the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, which consists of numerous volcanic domes and cones ranging from 10,000 to 2.1 million years old. Although it is often described as extinct, it is actually classified as High Threat Potential. Mount Konocti, California, USA—Geology—About.com</p><br>
<p>Clear Lake Volcanic Field&#39;s alert level is currently classified as Normal.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The volcano is the most visible landmark in Lake County other than the lake. The mountain is located between the towns of Lakeport and Clearlake. It lies directly south of Soda Bay and Riviera Heights and east of Kelseyville. Konocti Harbor and Soda Bay sit at the base of the mountain. From the summit of Mount Konocti, the taller peaks and ridges around Snow Mountain can be seen to the northeast.</p><br>
<p>Mount Konocti has five distinctive peaks: Wright Peak (4,299 ft), Howard Peak (4,286 ft), South Peak (4,286 ft), Buckingham Peak (3,967 ft) and Clark Peak (2,880 ft). Wright Peak, Howard Peak, and South Peak make up the main part of the mountain, while Buckingham Peak and Clark Peak are located off to the side. Konocti Road runs about 4 mi west from the Taylor Planetarium & Observatory in the town of Kelseyville, snaking between Howard and South Peaks and ending at the mountain&#39;s summit, Wright Peak.</p><br>
<p>Benson Ridge lies to the south of Clark Peak and west of South Peak. Buckingham Peak lies north of Howard and Wright Peaks and northeast of Clark Peak. South Peak is directly south of Howard Peak and southwest of Wright Peak. Wright Peak lies east and a little north of Howard Peak.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Mount Konocti probably first erupted some 350,000 years ago and last erupted 11,000 years ago. Mount Konocti has an explosive, eruptive history with devastating lava flows ending about 13,000 years ago that formed the mountains from Clearlake Oaks to Ukiah, all of which now are covered by trees so the ancient flows are really hard to find. Clear Lake is much older and is possibly the oldest securely dated lake in North America. Core samples taken by USA Geological Survey geologists in 1973 and 1980 have been dated to 480,000 years.</p><br>
<p>Archaeologists have found evidence that native people, principally Pomo people and Wappo, have inhabited the area around Konocti for as much as 11,000 years. The name "Konocti" is derived from the Pomo "kno", mountain, and "htai", woman.</p><br>
<p>The mountain is covered with heavy concentrations of chaparral similar to the European maquis shrubland. Oak, Pacific madrone, manzanita, western white pine and other plant species of the California coastal mountains dominate the area. On the northeast slope of Mount Konocti is a steep, heavily forested area known locally as the "Black Forest", because it never gets direct sunshine. The Black Forest contains heavy stands of Douglas fir.</p><br>
<p>Local people have long known that Konocti is riddled with natural caves. Although most of the natural caves collapsed or were filled in for safety in the early 20th century, persistent local belief holds that Konoctis central magma chamber is a vast, empty vertical cavern, partly filled with Clear Lake water and connecting with the lake via an underground seep. This cavern might be the largest on Earth, though its existence is difficult to prove due to the unstable and eroding structure of the volcanos cone. Heavy vegetation also conceals cave entrances. No accurate map or survey of the caves has been created due to the heavy underbrush and unstable hillsides. The majority of Konocti is owned by private parties, who have discouraged exploration and study of the mountain in recent years. The County of Lake recently purchased 1,520 acres on top of the mountain. As a result, Mt. Konocti County Park opened to the public on September 24, 2011.</p><br>
<p>Pomo legend has it that around the year 1818, after a long drought, the level of Clear Lake dropped so low that a previously unknown cave on the eastern flank of Konocti was exposed. A group of Pomo men entered the cave, and discovered a vast underground lake, containing "blind fish". Repeated attempts by divers to locate this cave have been unsuccessful.</p><br>
<p>Although the peak of Konocti was owned privately for a long time, it was acquired by Lake County in 2009. It is now called the Mount Konocti County Park, and is open to the public.</p><br>
<h2>Geological status</h2><br>
<p>The USA Geological Survey classifies the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, of which Mount Konocti is the most prominent volcano, as High Threat Potential.</p><br>
<p>Tumamoc Hill  is a butte located immediately west of "A" Mountain and downtown Tucson, Arizona. It is home to many radio, television, and public safety transmitters. The University of Arizona  owns a 340 acre preserve and leases another 509 acre as a research and education facility. The Steward Observatory maintains a small astronomical observatory with a 20 in telescope on the hill. Besides being a prominent landmark, Tumamoc Hill has a long and varied history, and is currently an important site for ecological and anthropological research as well as a refuge and a recreational option for the people of Tucson.</p><br>
<h2>Official Designations and Management</h2><br>
<p>National Environmental Study Site</p><br>
<p>Arizona State Scientific and Natural Educational Area</p><br>
<p>National Historic Landmark</p><br>
<p>National Register of Historic Places</p><br>
<h2>Human history</h2><br>
<p>Tumamoc, which is an Oodham word for "regal horned lizard", was a home to the ancient Hohokam people. It is the site of the earliest known trincheras village, consisting of 160 foundations of round stone structures, as well as large stone perimeter walls. Over 460 petroglyphs and a prehistoric garden beside the hill provide further evidence of Tumamoc’s importance to these people. For long after that time, 1,300 years ago, the site continued to provide resources to the Tohono Oodham, Akimel Oodham, and the Hopi. It has also been reported to be a burial site for the Apache and the Oodham.</p><br>
<p>Captain Juan Mateo Manje, a Spanish military commander, wrote the following about Tumamoc Hill after seeing it on one of his expeditions with Father Kino between 1693 and 1701:</p><br>
<p>Note that Manje refers to "former" wars, indicating that the fighting took place in prehistoric times (before the arrival of Europeans). Being that the Oodham are probably descendants of the Hohokam, it does not seem unreasonable to conclude that the Hohokam, who lived only a few centuries before Manjes expedition, did as their later relatives apparently did and used their trincheras to fall upon their enemies and kill them.</p><br>
<p>European settlers prized the rock and clay found on the hill for building in the late 19th century, and early ecologists just after the turn of the 20th century selected it for the site of the Carnegie Institutes Desert Laboratory. The hill continues to be a landmark and a sanctuary for the people of Tucson today. The road up Tumamoc Hill is a popular destination for walking and running. The entrance to the road up the hill is located across from St. Marys Hospital on the south side of Anklam Road. It is open to pedestrians in the early mornings and evenings. The steep hill provides a strenuous workout, as well as citywide vistas. Lectures on the unique history and ecology are presented for the public at the site.</p><br>
<h2>History of ecological research</h2><br>
<p>Frederick V. Colville, chief botanist of the Department of Agriculture, in 1903 convinced the Carnegie Institute of Washington to fund the creation of a Desert Laboratory near the small mining and ranching town of Tucson. This research continued until the 1940s, during which time the scientists there were instrumental in the development of the field of ecology in the United States. They began publishing a journal, Plant World, which later became the major journal Ecology.</p><br>
<p>Due to financial difficulties from the Great Depression, as well as a disconnect between the Carnegie Institute’s mission of making use of the desert and the researchers’ admiration of it, the Carnegie Institute turned the Desert Laboratory over to the Forest Service in 1940. They initially offered it to the University of Arizona for $1, but were turned down. Twenty years later, on July 20, 1960, after several easements and loss of research and records, the University purchased the reserve for considerably more.</p><br>
<p>The long term observations and experiments on Tumamoc Hill’s vegetation have provided insights on saguaro boom and bust population dynamics, blue palo verde’s dependence on riparian areas, disease and other threats to desert tortoises, and the interactions of a community of small winter annuals and the insects and rodents that prey on their seeds.</p><br>
<p>Dzibilchaltún  is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán, approximately 10 mi north of state capital Mérida.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>In the view of modern researchers, the ancient builders of Dzibilchaltún may have chosen the site of the city to be as close as possible to the coastal salt-producing region (some 22 km away), while still being located on a reasonably fertile and habitable terrain. The region between Dzibilchaltún and the sea coast is less suitable for human habitation, being either mangrove swamps or bare rock.</p><br>
<h2>Overview</h2><br>
<p>The site has been continuously occupied for thousands of years, although it has expanded and contracted from mid-sized city to small town more than once in its long history. It is about 30 minutes from Mérida and the famous sea that supposedly was the site of impact of the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The most famous structure is the Temple of the Seven Dolls, so named because of seven small effigies found at the site when the temple was discovered under the ruins of a later temple pyramid by archaeologists in the 1950s. On the vernal equinox, the site is crowded by visitors observing the sunrise through the temple&#39;s doorways, but there is no archaeological feature marking the observation spot; the relationship of the orientation with the equinoxes is thus highly unlikely. The temple is connected to the rest of the site by a sacbe, or "white road," so-called because they were originally coated with white limestone, built over stone-and-rubble fill.</p><br>
<h2>Surroundings</h2><br>
<p>The other major feature of Dzibilchaltún is its cenote, Cenote Xlakah, located around the center of the citys ruins. It is thought that the availability of this source of clean drinking water influenced the builders choice of the location. Archaeological findings retrieved from the cenote by divers indicate that it was the center of a religious cult. These days the cenote is used as a swimming hole by local residents and tourists year round.</p><br>
<p>Dzibilchaltún also contains the ruin of a 16th-century Spanish church built at the site after the conquest.</p><br>
<p>The Dzibilchaltun archeological site also includes a visitor center with maps, restrooms and gift shops. The renovated museum housing Mayan artifacts located at the site has re-opened.</p><br>
<p>Maynooth Castle is a ruined 12th century castle in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland which stands at the entrance to the South Campus of Maynooth University.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The area covered by modern Kildare was granted by Strongbow to Maurice Fitzgerald in 1176. The castle was built at the junction of two streams in the late 12th century and became the home of the Fitzgerald family from then on and was expanded by Sir John Fitzgerald in the 15th century. The Fitzgeralds became the Earls of Kildare and Lords Deputy of Ireland.</p><br>
<p>The Fitzgerald occupation of the castle ended with the 1534 rebellion of Silken Thomas, the son of the ninth Earl of Kildare. An English force led by William Skeffington bombarded the massive castle in March 1535, the heavy modern siege guns of the English army making a ruin of much of the Medieval structure. The castle fell after a ten-day siege and the garrison summarily executed before the castle gate. Silken Thomas was captured shortly afterwards and committed to the Tower of London with his five uncles. They were executed for treason at Tyburn on 3 February 1537.</p><br>
<p>The Castle was restored in 1630-35 by Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, after his daughter had married George FitzGerald, 16th Earl of Kildare but much of this building was destroyed in the 1640s during the Eleven years war. Only the gatehouse (on which united arms of the Boyles and FitzGeralds can still be viewed) and the Solar Tower survive. The Fitzgeralds left Maynooth for good and made first Kilkea Castle and then Carton House their family seat.</p><br>
<p>Restoration work on the castle was restarted by the Office of Public Works in February 2000 to develop it into a Heritage Site. It is now open to the public from June to October, 10.00 a.m. - 5.45 p.m. Today the partly ruined building remains as a tourist attraction, with limited access possible.</p><br>
<p>The River Deveron , known anciently as the Dovern, is a river in the north east of Scotland. The river has a length of 60 mi, and has a reputation for its Atlantic salmon, sea trout and brown trout fishing. In its upper reaches peaty water flows over a bottom of shingle and rock and is fast flowing.</p><br>
<p>The river has its source in the Ladder Hills between Glenbuchat and the Cabrach, part of the Grampian range. It begins as a small highland stream among peaty and heather covered country before leaving the hills and entering the rolling lowlands of fertile farmland. The two main streams in its upper course are the Alt Deveron and the Black Water. Some 17 miles downstream from the river&#39;s source, the river passes through the town of Huntly, where it is joined by its tributary, the River Bogie.</p><br>
<p>The Deveron is "the dark-rolling stream Duvranna" of James Macpherson&#39;s Ossian.</p><br>
<p>Four miles further downstream the Deveron&#39;s second tributary, the River Isla flows in from the northwest. From this point on the Deveron becomes a mature river, pursuing a winding course through Turriff and finally flowing into the Moray Firth between the twin towns of Banff and Macduff.</p><br>
<p>Mabul  is a small island off the south-eastern coast of Sabah in Malaysia. The island has been a fishing village since the 1970s. In the 1990s, it first became popular to divers due to its proximity to Sipadan island.</p><br>
<p>Located 15 km from Sipadan, this 20-hectare piece of land surfaces 2–3 meters above sea level, consists mostly flat grounds and aerial view is oval-shaped. Surrounding it are sandy beaches, perched on the northwest corner of a larger two square kilometre reef.</p><br>
<p>Mabul island is administered as a part of Semporna, Tawau district.</p><br>
<h2>Native settlements</h2><br>
<p>There are two main villages on the island, "Kampung Mabul" and "Kampung Musu". The 1999 census recorded approximately 2000 villagers living in Mabul, half of them children below 14 years old. The majority are immigrants from relatively nearby clusters of islands in the southern Philippines. These residents are mainly Bajau Laut and Suluk Muslims who live a nomadic lifestyle.</p><br>
<p>Basic amenities include a mosque, schools, community and fishermen&#39;s hall. The main transportation mode between places is via boat.</p><br>
<p>As most residents mainly work as fishermen, the village source of income depends on ocean-based products such as squid and fish. Traditional fishing methods are called "Payau" and "Sangkaliya". Mabul fishermen prefer catches close to the Malaysia-Philippine borders, perhaps due to the abundance of fish stocks. An average fishing trip will take 3–5 days out at sea. When the men return, their catches are sold at Semporna on the mainlad.</p><br>
<p>It was said that Mabul was owned by a man from Menampilik island. Back in the 1970s, he and the villagers planted coconuts on the island, in addition to fishing. In 1992, Sipadan Mabul Resort (SMART) purchased a part of land on the east of Mabul intended for tourism.</p><br>
<h2>Diving Mabul</h2><br>
<p>Mabul&#39;s reef is on the edge of the continental shelf and the seabed surrounding the reef slopes out to a depth of 25 to 30 m. There are several dive resorts operating on Mabul island.</p><br>
<p>Mabul is arguably one of the richest single destinations for exotic small marine life anywhere in the world. Flamboyant cuttlefish, blue-ringed octopus, mimic octopus and bobtail squids are just a few of the numerous types of cephalopods to be found on Mabul&#39;s reef. Many types of gobies can be found including the spike-fin goby, black sail-fin goby and metallic shrimp goby. Frogfish are everywhere; giant, painted and clown frogfish are regularly seen along with most of the scorpion fish family.</p><br>
<p>There are six resorts here providing accommodation for scuba divers - most located on the island or on stilts over the water, while one is on a converted oil platform about 500 meters from the beach. There are also several homestay & backpacker accommodations which can arrange diving. All of the resorts/homestays can arrange a day trip to the nearby island of Pulau Sipadan. There is a permit system for Sipadan and all permits may be booked months in advance.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>Flights to Tawau Airport, the nearest airport to Mabul, from Kota Kinabalu take 55 minutes. From Kuala Lumpur a 2 and a half hour flight is required to get to Tawau. From there a bus, taxi or minivan can be arranged from Tawau&#39;s airport to Semporna, where boats ferry passengers from the jetty there to the island itself.</p><br>
<p>The Auburn University Chapel is the second-oldest building and oldest building in its original location on the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The chapel was built in 1851 as a Presbyterian church in the Greek Revival style. During the Civil War, the building briefly served as a Confederate hospital for wounded soldiers, and later in the century was temporarily divided into classrooms when the main building of the nearby Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College burned in 1887.</p><br>
<p>Around 1900, the church was renovated in a Gothic style. The building was sold to the college in 1921, where it became the YMCA/YWCA center for a few years. From 1927 to 1973, it housed the Auburn Players Theater, the college&#39;s acting troupe. Between 1973 and 1976, the structure underwent a significant renovation for conversion to the Auburn University Chapel, an interdenominational, multipurpose building, a function it still serves today. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Auburn Players Theater on May 22, 1973.</p><br>
<p>Kapalai  is an island in Tawau Division, Sabah, Malaysia, known for its scuba resorts.</p><br>
<p>The island of Kapalai, just 15 kilometres off Sipadan, was a beautiful island two hundred years ago, but now remains as only a sand bar. Erosion has reduced the island to sea level and the village now sits on the edge of the extensive Ligitan Reefs. All of the buildings rest on stilts resting on the underwater reef. There is only one private resort on the island, with the rest of the island uninhabited.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Kapalai is situated a couple of hours from the east coast of Borneo. Though the island is a relatively remote location to reach, there are daily flights from Kota Kinabalu, less than a one hour flight from Tawau.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>As Kapalai Island is located off the east coast of Sabah / Borneo, Malaysias easternmost state, direct flights are available to Tawau and Kota Kinabalu on Sabah from Kuala Lumpur on peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. The closest airport to Kapalai is Tawau, located approximately one hour from Sempornas jetty by minivan. Semporna&#39;s jetty serves as the speedboat departure point for Kapalai and the neighboring Sipadan Island and Mabul Island.</p><br>
<p>Kapalai Island is located to the northeast of Sipadan Island. Many tour operators provide roundtrip transfers from Tawau Airport to Semporna and onward to Kapalai Island.</p><br>
<p>Green Island  is a small  artificial island in the Red Sea at the southern mouth of the Suez Canal.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Green Island was a fortress built by the British army to protect the Suez Canal from air and sea attack during World War II. This waterway was of enormous strategic significance for Britain at this time. Located three kilometers south of Port Ibrahim and four kilometers south of the city of Suez and the mouth of the Suez Canal, the fortress was built on a bed of stable corals and made out of reinforced concrete. It consisted of a one-storey building with a large courtyard. At one end of the island, a concrete bridge jutted out into the water toward a circular five-metre-high tower supporting a radar site and two heavy anti-aircraft machine guns. A wall reinforced with thick rows of barbed wire was built at the water&#39;s edge, to deter attack from the sea. Heavy machine guns were emplaced in the roof, and there were over a dozen machine gun nests. A series of concrete bunkers sat atop an 8 ft seawall, ringed by razor wire three rolls deep. There were several gun emplacements .</p><br>
<p>In 1969, during the War of Attrition between Israel and Egypt, the island was heavily defended. Its garrison consisted of approximately seventy Egyptian infantrymen and twelve special forces commandos, fourteen machine gun positions (14.5 mm to 25 mm), two 37 mm anti-aircraft guns, and four 85 mm anti-aircraft guns. On the night of July 19, 1969 the island was raided by Israeli commandos (Operation Bulmus 6). The Egyptian facilities on the island were completely destroyed with Israeli casualties of three Sayeret Matkal and three Shayetet 13 commandos killed, and 11 wounded—a casualty rate of approximately fifty percent.</p><br>
<p>Derwent Edge is a Millstone Grit escarpment that lies above the Upper Derwent Valley in the Peak District National Park in the English county of Derbyshire. An Ordnance Survey column marks the highest point of the Edge at Back Tor . North of Back Tor the edge extends into Howden Edge and enters the county of South Yorkshire.</p><br>
<h2>Geography and geology</h2><br>
<p>The Millstone Grit forms the edge of the high peat moorland plateau on the eastern side of the valley above Ladybower Reservoir, the edges being the last remains of the gritstone which originally covered all of the Peak District, most of which was scraped off by glaciers in the last ice age.</p><br>
<p>The Edge itself is notable for its unusual gritstone tors and its views of the Derwent Valley and the Dark Peak landscape; these features along with its proximity to Sheffield have made it a popular venue for walkers. Its popularity has led to substantial path erosion and the most affected parts of the edge between The Salt Cellar and Lost Lad Hillend have been paved with natural stone slabs to reduce further damage as part of the Lottery Paths Project.</p><br>
<h2>Tors</h2><br>
<p>Derwent Edge has several examples of unusually shaped gritstone tors which have been formed by the actions of wind, rain and frost over many centuries. These tors have been named over the years by local residents and have now been officially titled on Ordnance Survey maps. These include the Cakes of Bread, the Coach and Horses and the Salt Cellar. The Coach and Horses (also known as the Wheel Stones and thus named on Ordnance Survey maps) resembles a coach and horses on the horizon when viewed from the A57 road to the south. Lost Lad Hillend is worth visiting as it has a stone built topographic indicator to aid identifying landmarks in the extensive view.</p><br>
<h2>Walking</h2><br>
<p>Derwent Edge is popular with walkers and is described in many walking guides. Mark Richards describes a 10.5 mile walk in his book “High Peak Walks”, starting at the Fairholmes car park in the Upper Derwent Valley (Grid Reference ) at the northern end of Ladybower Reservoir; it is also possible to access the edge from Cutthroat Bridge (lay by parking) on the A57 or from Strines Reservoir car park near the Strines public house. The outcrops along Derwent Edge are popular with rock climbers, particularly the largest, Dovestone Tor, which has about 50 different routes ranging from difficult to Extremely Severe; however, it is not as well used as the nearby Stanage Edge.</p><br>
<h2>Conservation</h2><br>
<p>Much of the moorland around Derwent Edge has been declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because of its special vegetation and rare birds and animals, such as the Eurasian golden plover, red grouse, ring ouzel and mountain hare. Rare species of plants such as common cottongrass, mountain strawberry, and crowberry grow in the area. It has been proposed as a Special Protection Area for birds under a European Directive. The edge is part of the National Trust&#39;s High Peak Estate and visitors are free to roam at will but are urged to keep to established routes to avoid disturbing breeding birds. There are occasional times that the moors are closed for management purposes and for grouse shooting – signs are posted at these times.</p><br>
<p>The Cullars Rotation is a soil fertility experiment on the Auburn University campus in Auburn, Alabama and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Cullars Rotation experiment, which started in 1911, is the oldest ongoing cotton fertility experiment in the United States, the oldest soil fertility experiment in the Southern United States, and the second oldest continuous cotton experiment in the world.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In the late 19th century, the land on which the Cullars Rotation sits was used in a number of agricultural experiments, including one that established the disease cotton rust was caused by a deficiency of potassium. In 1911, the Alabama Legislature set aside money for an experiment to study the long-term effects of fertilization on a three-year rotation of cotton, corn, and wheat and soybeans. The Cullars site was chosen for this study and the experiment has continued unabated since. In 1938, the site was purchased by the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, which administered the study. In 2001, the portion of the Cullars site not occupied by the Cullars Rotation was landscaped as the grounds of the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art; however, a 40-foot buffer is maintained between the museum grounds and the rotation to ensure experimental integrity.</p><br>
<h2>Experiment</h2><br>
<p>The Cullars Rotation consists of three sets of 14 soil treatments, with one set of treatments for each of the three crops (cotton, corn, and wheat and soybeans) in the rotation. Each treatment fills a roughly 2000 square foot (184 m²) plot, with a two foot (60 cm) buffer between plots. The 14 soil treatments are:</p><br>
<p>Legumes planted, but no nitrogen fertilizer</p><br>
<p>No legumes or nitrogen fertilizer</p><br>
<p>Nothing added to soil</p><br>
<p>Nitrogen fertilizer added, but no winter legumes</p><br>
<p>No phosphorus added</p><br>
<p>No micronutrients added</p><br>
<p>Excess potassium added</p><br>
<p>Rock phosphate added</p><br>
<p>No potassium added</p><br>
<p>Two-thirds of regular amount of potassium added</p><br>
<p>No lime added</p><br>
<p>No sulfur added</p><br>
<p>Complete fertilization with micronutrients</p><br>
<p>One-third of regular amount of potassium added</p><br>
<p>Continuous farming of the plots which have not been given treatments have made certain sections of the Cullars Rotation some of the most nutrient poor soil in the United States.</p><br>
<h2>Miscellaneous</h2><br>
<p>The Cullars Rotation is located east of the grounds of the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at the corner of College Street and Woodfield Drive in Auburn. As an ongoing experiment, the Rotation is not open to the public, but can be viewed from the museum grounds. The Rotation was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 18, 2003.</p><br>
<p>The Timor Gap is an area of the Timor Sea between Australia and Timor Island, which is divided between independent East Timor and West Timor province of Indonesia.</p><br>
<p>It is part of the Australia-East Timor border, Australia-Indonesia border, and East Timor-Indonesia border. The Timor Gap is 480 km (300 statute miles) wide.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Australia and Indonesia negotiated the border in 1972 and the Timor gap is part of the line they could not define because Portugal, who governed colonial East Timor then, declined to participate in the negotiations until the conclusion of UNCLOS negotiations, due to the extremely complex nature of both international law and the complex geographical problems posed.</p><br>
<h3>Timor Gap Treaty</h3><br>
<p>Australia and Indonesia each posed different delimitation boundaries on their borders, while Portugal chose to abstain until a formal determination of an appropriate method for delimitation could be discerned. East Timor was later annexed by Indonesia in 1975, removing the need to include Portugal in negotiations. Australia and Indonesia negotiated the Timor Gap Treaty in 1989.</p><br>
<p>East Timor became independent in 2002. However, they have yet to establish maritime boundaries with their neighbouring countries, Indonesia and Australia.</p><br>
<p>Negotiations determining the ownership of the tens of billions of dollars&#39; worth of oil and gas located on the seabed of the Timor Sea, including completing the undefined boundary known as the Timor Gap, have been underway between Australia and East Timor since 2002, but despite several interim agreements, permanent maritime boundaries are yet to be settled. Australia and international oil companies have been accused of pressuring East Timor to accept a petroleum revenue-sharing formula while deferring permanent boundary resolution and foregoing legal avenues.</p><br>
<h3>Timor Sea Treaty</h3><br>
<p>On its independence day, East Timor signed the Timor Sea Treaty with Australia. This treaty virtually puts East Timor in the place of Indonesia in the Timor Gap Treaty, except that the ratio of revenue distribution in the Joint Petroleum Development Area, known as the Zone of Cooperation under the 1989 treaty, was changed to 90:10 in favour of East Timor. The 2002 treaty provided for the future "unitisation" - treating a gas or oil field which straddles one or several borders as one unit - of the Greater Sunrise gas field, of which only 20% was located within the JPDA while the rest was deemed to be in Australian territory. In East Timor&#39;s view, this distribution could be disputed as it did not recognise the borders, drawn between Australia and Indonesia, which placed the bulk of Greater Sunrise in Australian territory.</p><br>
<p>On 20 February 2007, East Timor&#39;s parliament agreed to ratify the agreement with Australia over the management of oil and gas resources in the Greater Sunrise field in the Timor Sea. The Australian and East Timor governments formally exchanged notes in Dili on 23 February 2007 to bring into force the two treaties that provided the legal and fiscal framework for the development of the Greater Sunrise gas field in the Timor Sea.</p><br>
<p>The notes covered the Sunrise International Unitization Agreement (Sunrise IUA) and the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS). Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, using a power invoked only six times in its history, invoked a "national interest" exemption clause to fast-track ratification of the CMATS treaty through the Parliament without scrutiny by its Joint Standing Committee on Treaties.</p><br>
<p>Huayna Picchu  is a mountain in Peru around which the Urubamba River bends. It is located in the Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Machupicchu District. It rises over Machu Picchu, the so-called lost city of the Incas. The Incas built a trail up the side of the Huayna Picchu and built temples and terraces on its top. The peak of Huayna Picchu is 2,693 m above sea level, or about 260 m higher than Machu Picchu.</p><br>
<p>According to local guides, the top of the mountain was the residence for the high priest and the local virgins. Every morning before sunrise, the high priest with a small group would walk to Machu Picchu to signal the coming of the new day. The Temple of the Moon, one of the three major temples in the Machu Picchu area, is nestled on the side of the mountain and is situated at an elevation lower than Machu Picchu. Adjacent to the Temple of the Moon is the Great Cavern, another sacred temple with fine masonry. The other major local temples in Machu Picchu are the Temple of the Condor, Temple of Three Windows, Principal Temple, "Unfinished Temple", and the Temple of the Sun, also called the Torreon.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Huayna Picchu may be visited throughout the year, but the number of daily visitors allowed on Huayna Picchu is restricted to 400. A steep and, at times, exposed pathway leads to the summit. Some portions are slippery and steel cables (a via ferrata) provide some support during the one-hour climb. The ascent is more challenging between November and April because the path up the mountain becomes slippery in the rainy season. Better conditions for climbing can be expected during the dry season, which runs from May to September.</p><br>
<p>From the summit, a second trail leads down to the Gran Caverna and what is known as the Temple of the Moon. These natural caves, on the northern face of the mountain, are lower than the starting point of the trail. The return path from the caves completes a loop around the mountain where it rejoins the main trail.</p><br>
<p>The Old Rotation is a soil fertility experiment on the Auburn University campus in Auburn, Alabama. The Old Rotation experiment, which started in 1896, is the third-oldest ongoing field crop experiment in the United States and the oldest continuous cotton experiment in the world. It was the first experiment to show that a cotton/legume crop rotation would allow soil to support a cotton crop indefinitely. The Old Rotation is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>For much of the latter part of the 19th century, cotton yields in the Southern United States suffered declines caused by planting the same crop on the same land year after year, a process which caused significant soil nutrient loss. In 1896, Professor J. F. Duggar of the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College set up the Old Rotation experiment on a one-acre (1,600 m²) plot of land one mile (1.6 km) south of the campus to test whether soil nutrient levels could be maintained by growing a crop of legumes on the same land as cotton, but in the winter months when cotton doesn&#39;t grow. This rotation of cotton and soybeans has continued uninterrupted since. In addition to the cotton/legume rotation, additional rotations have been added in adjacent plots consisting of a cotton/corn, cotton/corn/legume and cotton/corn/legume/soybean rotation. It became evident within a few years that adding the winter legume crop as a rotation was sufficient to restore adequate nutrients to the soil to maintain a yearly cotton crop indefinitely.</p><br>
<h2>Experiment</h2><br>
<p>The Old Rotation consists of 13 plots of six planting systems:</p><br>
<p>A control test where cotton is planted without rotation or fertilizer</p><br>
<p>Cotton rotated with winter legumes but not fertilized</p><br>
<p>Cotton just fertilized</p><br>
<p>Cotton rotated with corn and winter legumes</p><br>
<p>Cotton rotated with corn, winter legumes, and fertilizer</p><br>
<p>Cotton rotated with corn, winter legumes, and soybeans</p><br>
<p>After 110 years of continuous plantings, cotton yields remain high for the rotated plots, producing nearly three times the yield of the unrotated plots.</p><br>
<h2>Miscellaneous</h2><br>
<p>The Old Rotation is located adjacent to the Donald E. Davis Arboretum on Lem Morrison Drive in Auburn. The Rotation was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 14, 1988.</p><br>
<h2>Photo gallery</h2><br>
<p>Noble Hall, also known as the Frazer-Brown-Pearson Home, is a historic Greek Revival style plantation house in Auburn, Alabama. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 24, 1972.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Noble Hall was built in 1854 as the main residence of a 2,000 acre (8 km²) cotton plantation. The house was constructed utilizing rock masonry, with eight rooms featuring 12 foot (3.7 m) ceilings and 18 inch (46 cm) thick exterior walls. The front and rear both feature full-width cantilevered balconies and four monumental Doric columns, for a total of eight. Built behind the home were the exterior kitchen, carriage and smokehouse, and overseer&#39;s house. As with most of the larger plantation houses in the antebellum South, Noble Hall was built with slave labor, though the owner brought in a contractor from Kentucky to manage the construction.</p><br>
<p>During the American Civil War, the home housed a number of sick and injured Confederate soldiers. Toward the end of the war, Union troops came to ransack the mansion, but were persuaded to take only the horses and mules when one of the residents showed a Masonic sign.</p><br>
<p>The home remained in the hands of the original owners, the Frazer family, until cotton prices collapsed in 1922. In 1932, Noble Hall was purchased by J.V. Brown, who restored the home and grounds to their original condition. In 1941, Brown sold the house and surrounding lands to Alabama Polytechnic Institute president Luther Noble Duncan. His daughter inherited the home in 1951, and named it Noble Hall, after her father. Noble Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, making it the first structure in Lee County to be listed.</p><br>
<p>Pebble Hill, also known as the Scott-Yarbrough House, is an antebellum cottage in Auburn, Alabama listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It currently serves as the location of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Colonel Nathaniel J. Scott built Pebble Hill in 1847 at the center of a 100 acre plantation. The structure was built in the Greek Revival style with hand-hewn heart of pine floors and joists and rafters held together by wooden pegs. During the Civil War, Wilson&#39;s Raiders looted the home, but were unable to find many of the valuables, which had been buried near a spring on the property. By the end of the Civil War, Scott was forced to sell the home, which saw a number of different owners over the following decades. In 1912, the home was purchased by Cecil S. Yarbrough, a state representative and three-time mayor of Auburn. The home remained in the Yarbrough family until 1974, when it was purchased and restored by the Auburn Heritage Association. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 16, 1975. In 1985 the property was donated to Auburn University, which located its Center for the Arts & Humanities in the structure.</p><br>
<p>The Black Mountains are a mountain range in western North Carolina, in the southeastern United States. They are part of the Blue Ridge Province of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The Blacks are the highest mountains in the Eastern United States. The range takes its name from the dark appearance of the red spruce and Fraser fir trees that form a spruce-fir forest on the upper slopes which contrasts with the brown  or lighter green  appearance of the deciduous trees at lower elevations. The Eastern Continental Divide, which runs along the eastern Blue Ridge crest, intersects the southern tip of the Black Mountain range.</p><br>
<p>The Black Mountains are home to Mount Mitchell State Park, which protects the ranges highest summit and adjacent summits in the north-central section of the range. Much of the range is also protected by the Pisgah National Forest. The Blue Ridge Parkway passes along the ranges southern section, and is connected to the summit of Mount Mitchell by North Carolina Highway 128. The Black Mountains are mostly located in Yancey County, although the range&#39;s southern and western extremes are part of Buncombe County.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Black Mountains form a J-shaped semicircle that opens to the northwest. The Blacks rise southward from the Little Crabtree Creek Valley in the north to the steep 6,327 ft summit of Celo Knob. A few miles south of Celo, the crest drops to 5,700 ft at Deep Gap before rising steeply again to the summit of Potato Hill in the north-central section of the range. The crest continues southward across the north-central section, which contains 6 of the 10 highest summits in the eastern United States, including the highest, Mount Mitchell, and the second-highest, Mount Craig. South of Mount Mitchell, the crest drops to just under 6,000 ft at Stepp&#39;s Gap before rising again to 6,520 ft at the summit of Mount Gibbes. On the slopes of Potato Knob, just south of Clingmans Peak, the Black Mountain crest bends northwestward across Blackstock Knob before dropping again to 5,320 ft at Balsam Gap, where it intersects the Great Craggy Mountains to the southwest. The crest then turns northward across Point Misery and Big Butt before descending to the Cane River Valley.</p><br>
<p>The northern section of the Black Mountains are drained by the Cane River to the west and the South Toe River to the east, both of which are part of the upper Nolichucky River watershed. The southwestern part of the range is drained by the upper French Broad River which, like the Nolichucky, is west of the Eastern Continental Divide and thus its waters eventually wind up in the Gulf of Mexico. A few of the streams in the southeastern section of the range are part of the Catawba River watershed, and are thus east of the Eastern Continental Divide.</p><br>
<h3>Notable summits</h3><br>
<p>While the crest of the Black Mountain range is just 15 mi long, within these fifteen miles are 18 peaks climbing to at least 6300 feet (1900 meters) above sea level. The Black Mountains rise prominently above the surrounding lower terrain. This is particularly noticeable from the range&#39;s eastern side, which rises over 4500 feet (1375 meters) above the Catawba River Valley and Interstate 40, providing some impressive mountain scenery.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Black Mountains consist primarily of Precambrian gneiss and schists formed over a billion years ago from primordial sea sediments. The mountains themselves were formed roughly 200-400 million years ago during the Alleghenian orogeny, when the collision of two continental plates thrust what is now the Appalachian Mountains upward to form a large plateau. Weathering and minor geologic events in subsequent periods carved out the mountains.</p><br>
<p>During the last Ice Age, approximately 20,000-16,000 years ago, glaciers did not advance into Southern Appalachia, but the change in temperatures drastically changed the forests in the region. A tree-less tundra likely existed in the Black Mountains and surrounding mountains in elevations above 3,500 ft. Spruce-fir forests dominated the lower elevations during this period, while hardwoods "fled" to warmer refuges in the coastal plains. As the ice sheets began retreating 16,000 years ago and temperatures started to rise, the hardwoods returned to the river valleys and lower slopes, and the spruce-fir forest retreated to the higher elevations. Today, the spruce-fir forest atop the Black Mountains is one of ten or so spruce-fir "islands" remaining in the mountains of Southern Appalachia.</p><br>
<h2>Plants and wildlife</h2><br>
<p>The forests of the Black Mountains are typically divided into three zones based on altitude: the spruce-fir forest, the northern hardwoods, and the Appalachian hardwoods. The southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest (sometimes called the "boreal" or "Canadian" forest) is dominated by red spruce and Fraser fir, and coats the elevations above 5,500 ft. The northern hardwoods, which consist primarily of beech, yellow birch, and buckeye, thrive between 4,500 ft and 5,500 ft. The more diverse Appalachian hardwoods, which include yellow poplar and various species of hickory, oak, and maple, dominate the slopes and stream valleys below 3,000 ft. Pine forests, consisting chiefly of Table Mountain pine, pitch pine, and Virginia pine, are found on the drier south-facing slopes. mountain paper birch, which is rare in North Carolina, grows sporadically on the slopes of Mount Mitchell.</p><br>
<p>Wildlife in the Black Mountains is typical of the Appalachian highlands. Mammals include black bears, white-tailed deer, raccoons, river otters, minks, bobcats, and the endangered northern flying squirrel. Bird species include the wild turkey, the northern saw-whet owl, and the pileated woodpecker, although peregrine falcons and various species of hawk are known to nest in the upper elevations. Brook trout, which are more typical of northern latitudes, are found in the streams at the base of the Black Mountains.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Prehistory</h3><br>
<p>Native Americans have likely been hunting in the Black Mountains for thousands of years. At Swannanoa Gap, just south of the range, archaeologists have uncovered evidence of habitation dating to the Archaic period (8000-1000 BC), the Woodland period (1000 BC - 1000 AD), and the Mississippian period (c. 900-1600 AD). The Mississippian-period village of Joara was located near the town of Morganton to the southeast.</p><br>
<p>The Hernando de Soto expedition, which was attempting to travel from the Florida coast to the Pacific Ocean, is believed to have passed through the North Toe River valley in May 1540, and thus would have included the first Europeans to see the Black Mountains. An expedition led by Juan Pardo probably crossed the Blue Ridge at Swannanoa Gap in October 1567. Both expeditions spent considerable time at Joara.</p><br>
<h3>Early settlement</h3><br>
<p>For much of the 18th century, the Black Mountains were a hunting ground on the eastern fringe of Cherokee territory. By 1785, however, the Cherokee had signed away ownership of the Black Mountains to the United States, and Euro-American settlers moved into the Cane and South Toe valleys shortly thereafter. The early settlers farmed the river valleys and sold animal furs, ginseng, tobacco, liquor, and excess crops at markets in nearby Asheville. The early farmers also brought large herds of cattle and hogs, which thrived in the valleys and mountain areas.</p><br>
<p>In 1789, French botanist André Michaux, who had been sent to America by the King of France to collect exotic plant specimens, made his first excursion into the Southern Appalachian Mountains, which included a brief trip to the Blacks. Michaux returned to the Blacks in August 1794, and collected several plant specimens that thrive above 4,000 ft. Michaux&#39;s findings, published in the early 19th century, were among the first to bring attention to the diversity and significance of the plants of Southern Appalachia.</p><br>
<h3>Elisha Mitchell and Thomas Lanier Clingman</h3><br>
<p>In the early 19th century, Mount Washington in New Hampshire was believed to be the highest summit in the Eastern United States, an assumption many North Carolinians began to question in light of Michauxs findings (Michaux believed that Grandfather Mountain was the highest). In 1835, the state dispatched North Carolina professor Elisha Mitchell (1793–1857) into the western part of the state to measure the elevation of Grandfather, the Roan Highlands, and the Black Mountains. Using a crude barometer, Mitchell gained measurements for Grandfather and Roan with apparent ease, although he struggled to discern which of the Blacks was the highest. After measuring Celo Knob, Mitchell descended to the Cane River Valley to obtain advice from the valleys residents. Two local guides (one of whom was William Wilson, a cousin of the later renowned mountain guide, Thomas "Big Tom" Wilson) led Mitchell up a bear trail to what they believed to be the highest summit. Although exactly which mountain they summited has long been disputed, it was likely Mount Gibbes, Clingmans Peak, or Mount Mitchell. Nevertheless, Mitchell obtained a measurement of 6,476 ft (later determined to be too low), placing the Blacks at a higher elevation than Mount Washington and thus the highest in the Eastern United States.</p><br>
<p>Mitchell returned to the Blacks in 1838 and 1844, gaining a higher measurement on each trip. Several surveyors visited the Blacks in subsequent years, including Nehemiah Blackstock (1794–1880) in 1845, Arnold Guyot (1807–1884) in 1849, and Robert Gibbes in the early 1850s. As early as Mitchells third trip (1844) to the Blacks, the locals were calling what is now Clingmans Peak 35.735&deg; latitude, -82.286&deg; longitude "Mount Mitchell", as they believed this was the summit measured by Mitchell as the highest. In 1855, Thomas Lanier Clingman (1812–1897), a politician and former student of Mitchells, climbed a summit north of Stepps Gap known as Black Dome (what is now Mount Mitchell) and measured its elevation at 6,941 ft. Clingman reported his findings to Joseph Henry, the head of the Smithsonian Institution. Henry, using Guyots more careful and accurate measurements taken several years earlier, agreed with Clingman that Black Dome was higher (although Guyot noted Clingmans measurement of 6,941 feet was off by 200 feet), and the highest mountain in the Appalachians was to be named for Clingman.</p><br>
<p>When Mitchell learned of Clingmans find, he claimed that the mountain he had measured in 1844 was in fact Black Dome, and that locals had mistakenly named the summit to the south (the modern Clingmans Peak) after him. Clingman rejected Mitchells claim, arguing that the route Mitchell took led south of Stepps Gap (i.e., to what is now Mount Gibbes or Clingmans Peak), and that a broken barometer found by Blackstock on Mount Gibbes in 1845 could only have been Mitchells. The two bickered back and forth in the local newspapers throughout 1856, each claiming to have been the first to summit and measure the higher Black Dome. The debate was intensified by the political climate of the 1850s, as Mitchell was a Whig supporter and Clingman had recently left the Whig party to join the pro-secession Democrats. Zebulon Vance, a Whig politician and friend of Mitchells, located the two guides Mitchell had recruited for his 1844 excursion, and when the two described the route they had followed, it appeared that Mitchell had indeed summited Mount Gibbes. Finally, in 1857, Mitchell returned to the Blacks in an attempt to gain still more accurate measurements. One evening, while attempting to reach the Cane River Valley, he slipped and fell into a gorge along Sugar Camp Fork, near the waterfall that now bears his name. His body was found 11 days later by the legendary mountain guide Thomas "Big Tom" Wilson (1825–1909).</p><br>
<p>Mitchells death sparked an outpouring of public sympathy across North Carolina. Zebulon Vance led a movement to verify Mitchell as the first to summit the highest mountain in the Eastern United States, and to have the mountain named for him. Vance convinced several mountain guides to change previous statements and claim the route they had taken actually led to Black Dome, rather than Mount Gibbes. Mitchell was buried atop Black Dome on land donated by former governor David Lowry Swain. Clingman continued to deny that Mitchell had measured Black Dome first, but was unable to overcome the shift in public sentiment. By 1858, Black Dome had been renamed "Mitchells High Peak." In subsequent decades, Mount Mitchell was renamed "Clingmans Peak", and Mitchells High Peak was renamed "Mount Mitchell." Clingman eventually turned to the Great Smoky Mountains to the west, which he claimed were higher. Guyots measurements in the Smokies rejected Clingman&#39;s assertions, although Guyot did manage to have the highest mountain in that range, known as Smoky Dome, renamed Clingmans Dome.</p><br>
<h3>Tourism and logging</h3><br>
<p>The revelation that the Black Mountains were the highest in the Appalachian Range made them an immediate tourist attraction. By the 1850s, a lodge had been established in the southern part of the range, and locals such as Jesse Stepp and Tom Wilson had built several rustic cabins on the higher mountain slopes and were thriving as mountain guides. The American Civil War (1861–1865) brought a temporary halt to the tourism boom, but by the late 1870s, the industry had recovered. In the 1880s, brothers K.M. and David Murchison established a large game preserve in the Cane River Valley which was managed by Tom Wilson.</p><br>
<p>As forests in the north were cut down to meet the growing demand for lumber in the late 19th century, logging firms turned to the virgin forests of Southern Appalachia. Between 1908 and 1912, northern lumber firms, namely Dickey and Campbell (later Perley and Crockett), Brown Brothers, Carolina Spruce, and Champion Fibre, bought up timber rights to most of the Black Mountains and began a series of massive logging operations in the area. In 1911, Dickey and Campbell managed to construct a narrow-gauge railroad line connecting the Swannanoa Valley with Clingmans Peak. Other narrow-gauge lines quickly followed. Between 1909 and 1915, much of the forest on the upper slopes and crest was cut down. An increase in demand for red spruce during World War I led to the rapid deforestation of much of the spruce-fir forest in the higher elevations. As forests were removed, forest fires (caused by the ignition of dried brush and slash left by loggers) and erosion denuded what was left of the landscape.</p><br>
<h3>The conservation movement</h3><br>
<p>Many North Carolinians, among them Governor Locke Craig and state forester John Simcox Holmes, were alarmed at the abusive logging practices that were stripping bare the Black Mountains. After the North Carolina state legislature rejected an initial attempt to create a state park at the summit of Mount Mitchell in 1913, Craig began negotiating with (and may have threatened) Perley and Crockett to preserve the forest atop Mitchell while he and Holmes lobbied for the creation of a state park. The state legislature finally approved the purchase of a stretch of land between Stepps Gap and the summit of what is now Big Tom in 1915, which became the core of Mount Mitchell State Park. The Pisgah National Forest, established in 1916, also began buying up and replanting lands that had been logged over.</p><br>
<p>In 1922, the Mount Mitchell Development Company (which had been formed by Fred Perley, a partner in Perley and Crockett) completed the first automobile road to Mount Mitchell, connecting the summit with the Swannanoa Valley. Adolphus and Ewart Wilson (the son and grandson of "Big Tom" Wilson) completed a road connecting the Cane River Valley with the summit of Mitchell shortly thereafter. The state eventually condemned the Wilsons&#39; road, but allowed Ewart Wilson to operate an inn at Stepps Gap until the early 1960s. NC-128, which connects Mount Mitchell with the Blue Ridge Parkway, was completed in 1948.</p><br>
<h2>Environmental threats</h2><br>
<p>The Black Mountains, like many other ranges in the Appalachians, are currently threatened by acid rain and air pollution. Much of the ranges once-famous red spruce and Fraser fir trees are dead or dying due in part to the pollution. A more significant threat to the firs, however, is the balsam woolly adelgid, an insect which may have an easier time killing the firs than it normally would due to them being weakened by the acid rain. In some recent studies, individual Fraser fir trees which are resistant to the adelgid have been found, lending hope to the possibility that these will again repopulate a healthy, mature fir forest at the mountains highest elevations.</p><br>
<p>At lower elevations of the Black Mountains, eastern and Carolina hemlock trees grow on moist slopes near streams (a National Forest recreation area on the Toe River at the base of Mount Mitchell is called "Carolina Hemlocks" for this reason). These too are under attack by an introduced pest, the hemlock woolly adelgid. Arriving only in the last few growing seasons, the health of the hemlocks in the region is rapidly declining. Research is currently underway in releasing predator beetles that will, hopefully, eat enough adelgids to balance their population and allow the hemlocks to flourish.</p><br>
<p>The area around the Black Mountains is also experiencing rapid population growth as retirees from other states pour into the region. Due to a lack of zoning laws, this has resulted in rapid development of ridgetop cabins, large second-homes on the lower ridges, and deforestation that threatens the natural beauty of the region. And although many people visit the Black Mountains for their legendary scenic views, visibility has been greatly reduced due to particulate matter in the air, mainly coming from large TVA coal-fired powerplants "upstream" of the Black Mountains in the Midwest.</p><br>
<h2>Photo gallery</h2><br>
<p>The Muar River  is a river which flows through the states of Johor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang in Malaysia. The river also flows through Muar town.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Muar River formed part of the Penarikan, an ancient overland trade route, which was a short-cut from the west to the east coast of the Malay Peninsula.</p><br>
<h2>Bridgings</h2><br>
<p>The river is bridged by two bridges in Muar town. The old bridge, Sultan Ismail Bridge, was built in 1967 to replace the ferry service. The Muar Second Bridge was completed in 2005. There are many minor bridges along the river in Pagoh and Negeri Sembilan.</p><br>
<h2>Popular Attractions Along the River</h2><br>
<p>One of the attractions of Muar River is Taman Tanjung Emas, the Muar town&#39;s recreational park, which is located at the estuary of Muar river. It is outlined by a picturesque esplanade overlooking the scenic river. Oysters catchers can be seen daily at low tide collecting oysters for making o-chien at the local food stalls. The park also houses a 9-hole golf course, which is much visited during the weekends.</p><br>
<p>The Muar River is an excellent example of a meander in the last 12 miles of its length before entering the sea.</p><br>
<p>There are two Jamek Mosques along the Muar River. The older Sultan Ibrahim Jamek Mosque, which was built in 1927, has been a major landmark of the town for many years. The Sultan Ibrahim Jamek Mosque is situated in Muar town, on the southern bank of the Muar River. Its design incorporated many British influences due to its construction during the British colonial period. It has a prominent 4-storey minaret in its backyard. The newer Sultan Ismail Jamek 2 Mosque, which is located at the northern bank of the Muar River in Tanjung Agas, is the latest icon of Muar town as well as the river. Completed in 2002, it is also the biggest mosque in town. The second mosque&#39;s design is similar to the earlier mosque. Both mosques offer a breathtaking scenery when viewed from the mouth of Muar River.</p><br>
