<p>Eungella Dam is one of Queensland&#39;s more established freshwater fisheries. Eungella has made a name for producing extra oversized sooty grunter and more recently barramundi.</p><br>
<p>SunWater is undertaking a dam spillway capacity upgrade program to ensure the highest level of safety for the dams is maintained. The spillway will be upgraded in the longer term. Camping is the main reason people come to Eungella Dam, as well as fishing. There are small campsites to set up around the area and small facilities such as drop-down toilets and rubbish bins.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Eungella Dam was constructed in 1969 to meet the requirements of a thermal power station at Collinsville and the town water requirement of Collinsville and Scottsville. Eungella Dam holds 131,000 ML of water at an average depth of 14.7 m and has a surface area of 890 hectare at full capacity.</p><br>
<h2>Campfires</h2><br>
<p>Campfires are allowed on the sites. There is plenty of firewood around the area to use, and leaves as well.</p><br>
<h2>Fishing</h2><br>
<p>A Stocked Impoundment Permit is required to fish in the dam.</p><br>
<p>Lake Julius was formed following the construction of Julius Dam in 1976 for irrigation and town water storage. The dam wall is located just below the junction of the Leichhardt River and Paroo Creek some 70 km North East of Mount Isa. It has a full supply capacity of 127,000 ML, a surface area of 1,255 hectare with an average depth of 8.9 m.</p><br>
<p>The dam is unique in Queensland and is a concrete multiple arch and buttress type structure, with the spillway discharging over the tops of the arches. The spillway crest is 18.3 m above bed level. The arch barrels, founded on a triangular arch base, are constructed in independent arch rings and are hinged at buttress springing lines. The spillway is a precast superstructure and the dissipation slab at ground level is post tensioned to the foundation rock.</p><br>
<p>The dam has a total storage capacity of 107,500 ML, and has a full supply level of 223.54m AHD</p><br>
<p>SunWater is undertaking a dam spillway capacity upgrade program.</p><br>
<p>Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site is an 8,000 ft&sup2; historic home and former plantation located in St. Francisville, Louisiana, United States. Built in 1835 by cotton planters Daniel and Martha Turnbull, it is one of the most documented and intact plantation complexes in the South and is known for its extensive formal gardens surrounding the house.</p><br>
<h2>House and grounds</h2><br>
<h3>Architecture</h3><br>
<p>Sited on the highest point of the plantation at the edge of a bluff on Alexander Creek, Daniel Turnbull contracted with carpenter Wendell Wright to construct a house in the transitional Federal-Greek Revival&ndash; style designed by an unknown architect. Built of cypress and cedar milled primarily onsite, the westward facing five bay, two-story house features a two-story gallery with smooth Doric columns and a bulbous vase like balustrade, matching fluted pilasters and a Doric entablature. At the center of the house, both upstairs and down, is a Federal-style elliptical arch doorway, with six horizontal panels, distinguished by boldly formed fluting, a layered entablature, a keystone, and leaded patterns superimposed on the glass. The fanlight features a series of loops in a radial design, while the side lights feature ovals and roundels. One-story brick side wings were added to the north and south of the building by T.S. Williams in 1845, with Greek-style end porticoes.</p><br>
<p>The south elevation has a three column Doric portico spanning its width, while the north wing though larger of the two has only a two column portico. The columns at the end of both wings are fluted while the pilasters are smooth, and the Doric entablature and eave treatment match the main block. Each wing is topped by a balustrade with balusters similar in shape to those on the gallery, while the main block&#39;s side elevations feature a wooden fan design in the gable peaks. The eastern facing rear elevation has a small room on each side of a porch set under a shed roof.</p><br>
<h3>Interiors</h3><br>
<p>Rosedowns floorplan is in the French or Early Louisiana design in contrast to the American scheme of a hall through the center of the house. The plan has a main entrance hall, decorated with block-printed wallpaper by Joseph Dufour et Cie of Paris, with an elliptical mahogany staircase to the second floor, a parlor to the right, music room to the left, and an office, butlers pantry and dining room in the rear that features a punkah. Upstairs are the family bedrooms. The north wing houses a guest bedroom with an en-suite bathroom that features an early form of a shower supplied with water from a cistern on the roof. The bedroom was built to house a suite of furniture that was originally to have been installed in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House for the presidency of Henry Clay. Clay lost the election in 1844 and Daniel Turnbull, a Clay supporter, purchased the 13-foot tall rosewood Gothic Revival bed. The bed was found in the room for over 150 years until the last private owner of Rosedown sold it to the Dallas Museum of Art for $450,000. The south wing houses a library that was utilized by Turnbull as an office for his oversight of the plantation. The home was furnished with imported goods from Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Europe. Most of the furnishings remained with the house during the years after the American Civil War, and a large percentage of original pieces are still displayed at Rosedown including a tapestry stitched by Martha Washington.</p><br>
<h3>Grounds</h3><br>
<p>The grounds of Rosedown are currently composed of 371 acre with the focal point being the 18 acre of ornamental gardens that were inspired by the great formal gardens of France, Italy, and England that were visited by the Turnbulls on their European Grand Tour. One of the few privately maintained formal gardens in the United States, they were overseen by amateur horticulturalist Martha Turnbull who kept a detailed garden diary during her 60-year tenure at Rosedown. The gardens were actually begun prior to the construction of the house and in 1836, there are records showing the purchase of camellias, azaleas, and other plants from William Prince & Sons in New York.</p><br>
<p>The landscaped gardens are accessed through a Greek-Revival wooden gate at the head of a 660 ft oak allée or tree avenue that terminates at a large oval forecourt with a diamond yaupon holly parterre flanked by two water oaks in front of the house. The unique length of the allée reflects a land survey technique of the 19th-century when property was measured with 66-foot long chains, meaning that the allée is 10 chains long.</p><br>
<p>Eight white marble Italian sculptures on brick pedestals accent the allée, however these are not original to the landscape. The twelve statues that the Turnbulls purchased in Italy in 1851 were removed by the previous owner, and the eight that are now found are close approximations of the originals. Flanking the allée are both Baroque gardens with formal geometrical landscaping, as well as English style gardens with meandering paths that include now rare varieties of plants.</p><br>
<p>The most sunny and open area of the gardens is what is referred to as the Flower Garden located to the southwest of the house. Planted with several varieties of roses, the layout combines rectangular forms with irregular, curved paths and ornamented with one of three latticed gazebos with onion-domed roofs found on the property. Nearby is a subterranean hothouse (heated greenhouse) and brick tool shed that had at one time been connected to a greenhouse which is no longer extant. The other two gazebos center the large gardens on each side of the allée, and are placed directly opposite from each other to imply a cross-axis. The gardens were restored in 1956 by landscape architect Ralph Ellis Gunn, whose sensitive renovations included adding a reservoir to the southeast of the house and fountains to complement the existing gardens.</p><br>
<p>Near the main house are several ancillary buildings including a Greek temple-style doctors office, privy, milk-house, wood shed, and barn. Originally Rosedown had two wings which attached to the rear of the house. The north wing housed the kitchen that was moved up and attached to the house at an unknown date, while the south wing was added in 1859 to house the Turnbulls, once they turned the house over to their daughter Sarah and her family. During the restoration in 1956, the kitchen wing was removed and reconstructed near the house, while the south wing now known as "Miss Ninas wing" was moved a few yards to the southeast to overlook the reservoir.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>19th-century</h3><br>
<p>Society in and around St. Francisville, at the time that Rosedown was constructed, was dominated by European, primarily British, settlers who became cotton planters on an enormous scale. Most of the 19th-century cotton barons in the area had requested and received their plantations lands through the Spanish government, the titles to which remained valid after the establishment of the United States government. The parents of Martha Barrow Turnbull, who owned the land that later became Rosedown, achieved high social status in West Feliciana through their immense cotton operations, and Daniel Turnbull himself was known before the Civil War as one of the richest men in the nation.</p><br>
<p>Rosedown, named for a play that the Turnbulls saw on their honeymoon, was not assembled via Spanish land grants, but in a group of seven purchases made by Daniel Turnbull from the 1820s through the 1840s. At its largest, Rosedown comprised approximately 3,455 acres, mostly planted in cotton. Daniel and Martha began construction on the main house at Rosedown in November 1834, completing it six months later in May 1835 for a total cost of $13,109.20. The contribution of slave labor to the construction and upkeep of the plantation, as well as to the agricultural prosperity and wealth accrued by Daniel Turnbull, was immense. During peak years of cotton production, Daniel owned 444 slaves with around 250 working just at Rosedown.</p><br>
<p>The couple had three children, William, Sarah, and James Daniel. James Daniel died of yellow fever in 1843, at the age of 7. William married Caroline Butler, and had two children, William and Daniel. In 1856, William drowned in a boating accident while crossing "Old River," at the age of 27. That left their daughter Sarah, who had married James Pirrie Bowman from nearby Oakley Plantation, to inherit the plantation. The Bowmans moved into Rosedown and had ten children, eight girls and two boys. Martha and Daniel Turnbull retired to a wing in the back of the house in 1859, to accommodate Bowman&#39;s growing family.</p><br>
<p>After Daniel&#39;s death in 1861, the family saw a steady decline in a way of life that could no longer be supported. Rosedown and two other Turnbull plantations were ravaged during the war both by the invasion of Union troops and by the loss of the slave workforce. The family stayed at Rosedown throughout the war, protecting and farming the property as best they could with 250 sharecroppers.</p><br>
<h3>20th-century</h3><br>
<p>Martha Turnbull died in September, 1896, leaving Sarah in sole possession of Rosedown. After Sarahs death in 1914, Sarahs four unmarried daughters Corrie, Isabel, Sarah, and Nina took over the plantation. In the 1920s, they decided to open the house to tourists interested in the remnants of the prosperous cotton culture. The sisters sacrificed to hold Rosedown, and when Nina, the last surviving sister, died in 1955, there were no bills or mortgages outstanding on the property; and they still had 3,000 acres of land and the house with all its furnishings. The family was Episcopalian and are interred at the Grace Church Cemetery in St. Francisville.</p><br>
<p>After Nina&#39;s death, Rosedown passed to her nieces and nephews, who sold the plantation in 1956 to oil heiress Catherine Fondren Underwood, herself an enthusiastic amateur horticulturalist, and her husband Milton Underwood. The Underwoods began an eight-year, $10-million restoration to restore the house and formal gardens to their former grandeur, while the plantation functioned as a working cattle farm. The house was opened to the public in 1964.</p><br>
<h3>21st-century</h3><br>
<p>Rosedown Plantation was purchased in 2000 by the Louisiana Office of State Parks as a state historic site to illustrate plantation life in the 1800s. The plantation was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2005.</p><br>
<h2>Cultural references</h2><br>
<p>In South and West: From a Notebook, Joan Didion writes that Ben Toledano&#39;s wife suggested she visit the Rosedown Plantation as well as the Asphodel Plantation, the Oakley Plantation and Stanton Hall to understand the South better.</p><br>
<p>Lake Mary Ann is situated about 5 km north of Tennant Creek, Northern Territory just off the Stuart Highway. It is a man-made dam where some water sports can be conducted such as swimming or canoeing, surrounded by landscaped grassy areas on one side and natural bushland on the other. Council is currently spending half a million dollars as first stage of a major upgrade to the facility.</p><br>
<p>Originally the site was investigated with a view to increase the water supply for Tennant Creek and Peko Mine in the late 1940s, and later again in the mid-1950s. In 1977, several local residents proposed that a recreational dam could be constructed close to Tennant Creek. The NT Government supported the proposal and construction commenced during 1979/80. It was originally called the Mary Ann Dam.</p><br>
<p>In 2014, The Federal Court determined seven native title claims in the area of Lake Mary Ann covering 37,000 square kilometres.</p><br>
<p>Maliku Kandu and Māmalē Kandu Divehi are the traditional names of the broad Minicoy Channel between Minicoy  and Ihavandippolhu  in the north of the Maldives. The latter name is given after the Malabar merchant Maamaley Marakkaaru who controlled most of the sea trade along this route before the arrival of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. The maritime boundary between the Maldives and India runs through the channel.</p><br>
<p>In the British Admiralty charts it is called Eight Degree Channel. It is so named as it lies on the 8-degree line of Latitude, north of the equator. Another local name for this channel is Addigiri Kandu.</p><br>
<p>This channel appeared in old French maps with the name Courant de Malicut.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Traditionally the northernmost atoll of the Maldives was Minicoy (Maliku). Fishermen from Thuraakunu and from Minicoy often crossed the Maliku Kandu on their boats to visit each other&#39;s islands. Marriage alliances were common.</p><br>
<p>Nowadays Minicoy is a part of India and communication between Minicoy and Maldives by sea is highly restricted.</p><br>
<p>Lake Paluma is a drinking water storage facility owned by NQ Water and is situated close to Mount Spec, high above the Paluma Range National Park. Lake Paluma has a capacity of 11,800 megalitres.</p><br>
<p>The dam is part of a unique water supply system that gravity feeds up to 50 megalitres of water per day to the city of Townsville. For most of the year water flowing from the Mount Spec part of the national park is collected and filtered at the Crystal Creek intake and then piped under gravity to Townsville. When Crystal Creek water levels are low, water is released into the creek from Lake Paluma via another gravity pipeline.</p><br>
<p>Lake Paluma is nestled among World Heritage listed, wet tropics rainforest. The lake is open for a range of nature based recreational activities such as canoeing, sailing and swimming. Lake Paluma is only accessible via a 12 km gravel road just past the township of Paluma. Visitor facilities include picnic shelters and barbecues and bookings are essential. The area is home to the platypus, peregrine falcon, eastern water dragon and a range of rainforest fauna.</p><br>
<p>Suvadiva Channel  is the broad channel that separates the northern and central Maldives from the southern atolls.</p><br>
<p>Sperm whales are a common sight on the surface of the Suvadiva Channel.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>This channel lies between Haddhunmathi Atoll and Huvadhu Atoll and it is one of the broadest channels between the atolls of Maldives.</p><br>
<p>In the British Admiralty charts it is called One and a Half Degree Channel. On old French maps it appeared as Courant de Souadou.</p><br>
<p>Roughly in the middle of the broad Huvadu channel there is a small bank known as Medutila (also called Derahaa). This place is the peak of a submarine mountain, and perhaps an atoll in the process of formation. This submerged bank is very difficult to spot for at its shallowest point there is a depth of 6 fathoms (11 m). It looks like a paler blue patch surrounded by huge expanses of the deepest ocean. There, no island can be seen in the horizon for many dozens of miles.</p><br>
<p>Kardiva Channel  is a broad channel running from southwest to northeast and cutting across the Maldive atoll chain. This channel divides the Northern from the Central atolls of the Maldives.</p><br>
<p>This channel was important for ancient mariners plying along the spice route trying to bypass the long and dangerous shallow reefs of the Maldives without harm.</p><br>
<p>In the British Admiralty charts it is called Kardiva Channel. It appeared on the old French maps as Courant de Caridou. Locally it is also referred to as the northern part being the Kaashidhoo Bodu Kandu and Kaashidhoo Kuda Kandu the southern part.</p><br>
<p>Kardiva is the ancient Sanskritised name of Kaashidhu Island. This island lies towards the eastern end of this channel and gives its name to it. ("Kardiva Channel"). Kaashidhu Island is surrounded by deep waters and there is generally heavy surf all around. It has an oval-shaped lagoon (vilu) with a narrow fringing reef on its NW side.</p><br>
<p>Halda River is a river in south-eastern Bangladesh. It originates at the Badnatali Hill Ranges in Ramgarh Upazila in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, flows through Fatikchhari Upazila, Bhujpur Thana, Hathazari Upazila, Raozan Upazila and Chandgaon Thana of the Chittagong Metropolitan City, and falls into the Karnaphuli River. The 81 km long river has a very turbulent tributary, the Dhurung River, which joins Purba Dhalai about 48 km downstream. The river is navigable by big boats 29 km into it  and by small boats 16–24 km further . The Halda reaches up 21 ft in depth and 30 ft in deepest point.</p><br>
<p>The Halda river is also famous for breeding pure Indian carp. This is the only pure Indian carp breeding field of Bangladesh, perhaps in South Asia.</p><br>
<p>The Former Bank of England building at 82 King Street, Manchester, is a historic banking building. It has been recognised as a Grade I listed building, maintained by Manchester City Council. It was designed by Charles Robert Cockerell and constructed in the 1840s, being completed in 1846.</p><br>
<p>The building is still home to the Bank of England agency for the North West. The role of the agency is to maintain contact with a wide range of businesses and institutions in Manchester, covering all sectors of the UK economy. Agents each see about fifty contacts per month, mainly through company visits. The agency makes a monthly report back to the bank where the Monetary Policy Committee uses the information to help its understanding and assessment of current economic conditions. The agency is also involved in discussions with a wide range of business organisations such as the Chambers of Commerce and the regional CBI and they maintain close contact with regional TECs, Business Links, and Manchester universities. Part of the agent’s role is also to represent the bank and explain its work and policies.</p><br>
<p>The agency consists of an agent, Tony Strachan, a deputy, Robert Burrows, and two support staff Anne Gawthorpe and Melissa Dunn. The Manchester agency also houses an information technology co-ordinator for the agency network, Michael Pearson.</p><br>
<p>The Manora fort is situated 65 km away from Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. The fort was built by Maratha ruler Serfoji II in 1814–1815 to commemorate the successful advance of the British over Napoléon Bonaparte. It is an eight-storeyed, hexagonal tower, which is 23 m high overlooking the Bay of Bengal. The fort derives its name Manora, from the word Minaret.</p><br>
<p>In December 2004, five monuments including the fort were damaged in the Indian Ocean Tsunami.</p><br>
<p>It was planned in 2007 by the State Tourism Department to renovate the structure and improve its infrastructure by building several additional facilities including upgrading the childrens park and building a tourists shed.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The fort was built by Maratha ruler Serfoji II (1777-1832 CE) in 1814–1815 to commemorate the successful advance of the British over Napoléon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The fort acted as a residence for the royal family and also as a light-house. A stone inscription reads “a friend and ally of the British to commemorate triumphs of British Arms and downfall of Bonaparte”.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The fort is located 65 km away from Thanjavur in a place called Mallipattinam alias Sarabendrarajanpattinam in shores of Bay of Bengal. The word Manora is believed to be derived from the word minar meaning tower. The fort is hexagonal structure and has eight storeys, raising to a height of 75 ft tapering to its top. The tower is surrounded by a wall and a moat ant it resembles a fort. The monument looks like a pagoda, with arched windows, circular staircase and eaves separating one storey from the other.</p><br>
<h2>Renovation in modern times</h2><br>
<p>The restoration and conservation of the monument was started in 2000 and completed in 2003. Tourists are allowed access up to the second level of the fort. A considerable part of the fort was damaged during the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The Tamil Nadu state Tourism Development Corporation allocated for improving the infrastructure around the fort. The project was to develop children&#39;s park to have additional facilities, provide additional lighting, install display boards, plant saplings along the road, lay new road from Sethu Road to the fort and modify thatched umbrella roof structures on the beach. The fort is one of the most prominent tourist attractions in the district.</p><br>
<p>Minaret Summit is a mountain pass on Highway 203 in the central Sierra Nevada. The pass, lying on the Madera-Mono County border, is within the Mammoth Ranger District of the Inyo National Forest and located near Devils Postpile National Monument, Mammoth Lakes, and Mammoth Mountain. The elevation of the pass is about 9,265 ft. Highway 203 ends at Minaret Summit. The road continues, now called Reds Meadow Road, until its dead end at the Reds Meadow Pack Station near the Rainbow Falls trailhead.</p><br>
<p>Plans for a highway connecting the Eastern Sierra and the San Joaquin Valley via Minaret Summit had been discussed since the early days of highway building. The gap between Minaret Road, which runs northeast into the Sierra from North Fork, California, and the end of the Reds Meadow Road is less than 10 mi. An area southwest of Minaret Summit was not included in the Wilderness Act of 1964 in order to leave a corridor for this potential highway. While Governor of California, Ronald Reagan made a horse packing trip into the area. Afterwards he supported conservationists&#39; efforts to prevent this highway. Reagan continued his efforts after being elected President in 1980 and the area was eventually designated wilderness by the California Wilderness Act of 1984. The Sierra Nevada escarpment is now a continuous Wilderness from Ball Mountain (near Inyokern) to Tioga Pass, a distance of about 150 mi.</p><br>
<p>The Summit offers views of the Ritter Range, including The Minarets, Mount Ritter and Banner Peak, to the west and the Long Valley Caldera, the Glass Mountains and the White Mountains to the east. The Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River runs through the valley between the Summit and the Minarets.</p><br>
<p>The pass receives significant snowfall during the winter. The road usually closes near the Main Lodge of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area before Thanksgiving and usually doesn&#39;t open much before Memorial Day.</p><br>
<p>In October 2008 items belonging to missing adventurer Steve Fossett were found by Preston Morrow on a hike near Minaret Lake, which is in an area visible from Minaret Summit. This led to the discovery of his remains and aircraft. behind the Mammoth Ranger District Fire Crew (Inyo National Forest) at Minaret Summit Vista Point circa August 1984. Steve Fossett&#39;s remains were found approximately at the spot in the distance behind the leftmost fireman.</p><br>
<p>The 7th Street Theatre is a theatre in downtown Hoquiam, Washington. It is one of the few remaining examples of an atmospheric theatre that remain in the United States. The not-for-profit 7th Street Theatre Association runs the theatre and coordinates a series of live shows, second-run feature films. The group aims to restore the Theatre, including new seats, rigging, and a digital projector.</p><br>
<p>The theatre was built in 1928 by Olaf T. Taylor, and was designed by Edwin St. John Griffith as a Spanish atmospheric theatre. There are murals on the ceiling in the lobby, along with a fountain. The fountain is not currently in use. Additionally, the auditorium features twinkling lights in the ceiling, and a recently installed sound system. It is currently undergoing a rigging replacement project, and a seat restoration pledge drive.</p><br>
<p>On March 20, 2008, volunteer staff unloaded a truck delivering the Theatres original organ. By 1944 theatre organs had fallen out of fashion, and the organ was sold to Parklands Trinity Lutheran Church by Balcom & Vaughan. Records indicate that three additional ranks were added at this time bringing the instrument up to a 2/7 (minus the toy counter and percussions). In 1960, the instrument was purchased by George Martin of Tacoma. Mr. Martin studied organ with Martha Green and Arnold Leverenz in the Seattle/Tacoma area between 1951 and 1953. He eventually moved the organ to his home in Clute, TX. It was purchased by a donation primarily from Tom Quigg and Pat Oleachea, and moved by truck back to the 7th Street Theatre. Estimates put the organ installation as complete as early as 2012, at a cost of approximately $12,000.</p><br>
<p>The 7th Street was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.</p><br>
<p>Peak Mountain, also called Copper Mountain, est. 730 ft, is a traprock mountain located in East Granby, Connecticut, 6 mi south of the Massachusetts border and 6 miles west of the Connecticut River. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. Peak Mountain is known for its expansive views from 200 ft high cliffs overlooking the historic Old Newgate Prison, Congamond Lake, and the Salmon Brook Valley of north-central Connecticut. The mountain is also known for its microclimate ecosystems, rare plant communities, and as a seasonal raptor migration path. It is traversed by the 51 mi Metacomet Trail.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Roughly 3 mi long by 1 mi wide, Peak Mountain rises steeply 400 ft above the Salmon Brook Valley to the west and the Connecticut River Valley to the east. The name Peak Mountain applies to the entire ridge while Copper Mountain may apply to the entire ridge or just a ledge, 672 ft, on the south side of the ridge. The Metacomet Ridge continues north from Peak Mountain to become West Suffield Mountain and south to become Hatchet Hill.</p><br>
<p>The west side of Peak Mountain drains into Salmon Brook, then into the Farmington River, thence to the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound; the east side drains into the Connecticut River.</p><br>
<p>Peak Mountain is located directly in line with the approach to Runway 15 at Bradley International Airport. In 1995, American Airlines Flight 1572 clipped trees near the summit while landing at the airport.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and environment</h2><br>
<p>Peak Mountain, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs and ridgeline of Peak Mountain. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. Peak Mountain is also an important raptor migration path; has recorded over 20 different species of raptor migrating via Peak Mountain including the bald eagle, American kestrel, golden eagle, and peregrine falcon. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Peak Mountain)</p><br>
<h2>Recreation and conservation</h2><br>
<p>Peak Mountain provides a birds eye view of Old Newgate Prison, managed as a tourist attraction since 1860, a pre-American revolutionary war prison and copper mine. Old Newgate, a National Historic Landmark, was named after Londons Newgate Prison. Old Newgate Prison is America&#39;s first copper mine and the first state prison in the United States.</p><br>
<p>The ecosystem and ridgeline of Peak Mountain are most threatened by development and quarrying. In 2000, Peak Mountain was included in a study by the National Park Service for the designation of a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail, which would include the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and the Mattabesett Trail and Metacomet Trail trails in Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>The has played an active part in the conservation of Peak Mountain and its viewshed.</p><br>
<p>Hatchet Hill, est. 510 ft, is a trap rock ridge located in East Granby, Connecticut, 11 mi northeast of Hartford, Connecticut. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. The southern edge of the ridge plunges nearly 200 vertical feet  into the Tariffville Gorge. The ridge is known for its rugged topography, unique microclimate ecosystems, rare plant communities, and as a seasonal raptor migration path. It is traversed by the 51 mi Metacomet Trail.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Roughly 2.5 mi long by 0.75 mi wide, Hatchet Hill is a collection of closely set tiered ridges and abrupt cliff faces with a high point of 510 ft. Its southern end is cut with steep cliffs at the Tariffville Gorge where the Farmington River gouges out a chasm between it and Talcott Mountain to the south. Also notable is Marsh Pond, a glacial kettle pond nestled in the center of the ridge. From Hatchet Hill, the Metacomet Ridge continues north as Peak Mountain and south as Talcott Mountain.</p><br>
<p>The northeast side of Hatchet Hill drains into the Connecticut River, thence to Long Island Sound; the rest of it into the Farmington River, thence to the Connecticut River.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and ecology</h2><br>
<p>Hatchet Hill, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called trap rock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs and ridgeline of Hatchet Hill. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. Hatchet Hill is also an important raptor migration path. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Hatchet Hill).</p><br>
<h2>Recreation and conservation</h2><br>
<p>Although among the shortest of notable peaks along the Metacomet Ridge, the sharp topography of Hatchet Hill offers a number of scenic vistas culminating in the overlook atop the Tariffville Gorge. Hatchet Hill is traversed by the Metacomet Trail, (maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association), which extends from the Hanging Hills of Meriden, Connecticut to the Massachusetts border.</p><br>
<p>The ridge is open to hiking, bird watching, snowshoeing and other passive pursuits.</p><br>
<p>The ecosystem and ridgeline of Hatchet Hill are most threatened by development and quarrying. In 2000, Hatchet Hill was included in a study by the National Park Service for the designation of a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail, which would include the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and the Mattabesett Trail and Metacomet Trail trails in Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>The East Granby Land Trust has played an active part in the conservation of Hatchet Hill and its viewshed.</p><br>
<p>Mount Chilalo is an isolated, extinct silicic volcanic mountain in southeastern Ethiopia. The highest point in the Arsi Zone of the Oromia Region, and located on the border between the Hitosa and Tiyo woreda, this mountain has a latitude and longitude of {{coord|07|55|N|39|16|E}} with an elevation of 4,036 m above sea level.</p><br>
<p>The mountain has an elliptical base (about 30 by 20 kilometers), whose major axis lies NNE-SSW or parallel to the predominant tectonic trend. Chilalo rises with gentle slopes for more than 1500 meters from the top of the plateau. At the summit, there is a large, almost circular caldera about 6 kilometers in diameter, whose southern rim is considered to be the mountain&#39;s summit. Mount Chilalo last erupted in the Pleistocene.</p><br>
<p>One authority identifies Mount Chilalo as a late Trap Series volcano. The geologist Erik Nilsson claimed to have identified traces of glaciation on Chilalo, as well as on its neighbor Mount Kaka down to about 3400 meters, which he dated to the "Last Pluvial Period". Although this mountain is located south of the East African Rift, along with Mount Gugu to the north and Mount Kaka to the south, it is considered, geologically speaking, part of the Ethiopian Highlands.</p><br>
<p>Càrn a&#39; Gheòidh is a Scottish mountain situated 15 km south of the town of Braemar. Its summit stands on the border between the council areas of Perth and Kinross and Aberdeenshire.</p><br>
<h2>Overview</h2><br>
<p>Càrn a Gheòidh reaches a height of 975 metres (3199 feet) and is classified as both a Munro and a Marilyn. It is a very accessible hill and when climbed from the Glenshee Ski Centre along with the adjacent mountains of The Cairnwell and Càrn Aosda makes for a very easy round of three Munros for the peak bagger. The mountain is not easily seen to good effect from any main road being completely hidden from the summit of the A93 road by The Cairnwell and Càrn Aosda. It is quite modest in appearance with the smooth slopes of the summit rising unpretentiously above the surrounding high moorland and the hills long ridges. The best views of Càrn a Gheòidh are obtained from nearby peaks. The mountain&#39;s name translates as “Hill of the Goose”, the meaning of which is hard to fathom, although Loch Vrotachan which lies 2km to the NE may have had geese nesting on it at some time.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Càrn a Gheòidh has a 3km NE ridge connecting to the bealach between The Cairnwell and Càrn Aosda above Butchart‘s corrie. The highest point of this ridge is Càrn nan Sac (920 metres), a subsidiary top of Carn a Gheoidh formerly listed in Munros Tables before being deleted in 1981. There are two small lochans on the ridge. Another ridge leads west and then SW to the Munro “Top” of Càrn Bhinnein (917 metres). This peak has more character than the Munro and its steep rocky slopes fall SW into upper Gleann Taitneach.</p><br>
<p>Further ridges go north and south from the summit. The northern ridge descends to the valley of the Baddoch Burn. To the south, a broad crest descends for 5km over the subsidiary tops of Càrn Mòr (876 metres) and Creagan Bheithe (759 metres) via a col of c.600m to the Corbett Ben Gulabin. All drainage from Carn a&#39; Gheoidh is to the east coast of Scotland; however the mountain stands on the watershed between the River Tay and the River Dee with rainfall reaching the North Sea at Aberdeen or the Firth of Tay more than 80 km apart.</p><br>
<h2>Ascents</h2><br>
<p>The easiest and most popular ascent of Càrn a Gheòidh starts at the Glenshee Ski Centre on the A93 road (grid reference ). The starting height of 640 metres gives an easy ascent of just over 300 metres. The route goes west through the ski area to reach the head of Butchart’s corrie and then along the NE ridge, initially skirting the lip of the steep Coire Dhirich, then passing over Càrn nan Sac to reach the summit. A longer southern approach (14km) that avoids the Glenshee Ski Area starts at Spittal of Glenshee (grid reference ) and ascends by the southern ridge. This walk can be combined with the ascent of the Ben Gulabin. The summit of the mountain is marked by a cairn of boulders and a circular wind shelter. Carn a Gheoidh is the highest ground over an area of several square kilometres and gives a good uninterrupted view of the Cairngorms and the Beinn a&#39; Ghlò massif.</p><br>
<p>Hopkins Pond  is a small pond located at the south foot of Ragged Mountain, in the town of Andover, New Hampshire, United States. It lies at an elevation of 644 ft. The pond is part of Proctor Academy&#39;s 2,500 acre campus in Andover and is jointly managed by Proctor and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. The pond area is open to the public for non-motorized boat travel, fishing and hiking.</p><br>
<p>This shallow pond has an average depth of 6 ft, is 15 ft deep at the deepest point, and covers a total area of 27 acre. It empties eastward into Mountain Brook below Elbow Pond. Mountain Brook, in turn, is a tributary of the Blackwater River, which flows via the Contoocook River and Merrimack River to the Gulf of Maine (Atlantic Ocean) at Newburyport, Massachusetts.</p><br>
<p>Hopkins Pond sits within the Merrimack River watershed, and is floristically considered part of the Sunapee Uplands sub-region of the Lower New England-Northern Piedmont Ecoregion, as defined by The Nature Conservancy, and the New England-Acadian Forest Ecoregion, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund.</p><br>
<p>The north shore of Hopkins Pond can be accessed from the west by Middle Hopkins Pond Trail. The south shore can be accessed from Lower Hopkins Pond Trail. Both shores can be accessed from the east by an NH Fish and Game access road off Elbow Pond Road.</p><br>
<p>Observed species of fish in the pond include rainbow trout and brook trout.</p><br>
<p>Rattlesnake Mountain is a traprock mountain, 750 ft above sea level, located 9 mi southwest of Hartford, Connecticut in the town of Farmington. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. Rattlesnake Mountain, a popular outdoor recreation resource of the metropolitan Hartford area, is known for its cliff-top scenic vistas, unique microclimate ecosystems, and rare plant communities. Will Warren&#39;s Den, a boulder cave located on the mountain, is a local historic site. Rattlesnake Mountain is traversed by the 51 mi Metacomet Trail.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Roughly 1 mi in diameter, Rattlesnake Mountain rises steeply 500 ft above the Farmington River valley to the west. The mountain consists of an upper summit cone that descends into a series of tiered ridges which become contiguous with the Metacomet Ridge on Pinnacle Rock to the south and Farmington Mountain to the north.</p><br>
<p>A small traprock quarry, 0.4 miles (600 m) wide, occupies the northeast side of the mountain, and a suburban development the southwest side. Two broadcasting towers (WTIC-TV and WVIT) stand on the summit.</p><br>
<p>The east side of Rattlesnake Mountain drains into Trout Brook, then to the Park River, thence into the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound; the west side into the Pequabuck River, then to the Farmington River, thence to the Connecticut River. The south side of the mountain supports the headwaters of the Quinnipiac River, which flows directly into Long Island Sound.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and ecology</h2><br>
<p>Rattlesnake Mountain, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs and ridgeline of Rattlesnake Mountain. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. Rattlesnake Mountain is also an important raptor migration path. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Rattlesnake Mountain).</p><br>
<h2>Folklore</h2><br>
<p>Will Warren&#39;s Den, a boulder cave located on the west side of the mountain, is a historic landmark of the town of Farmington. A plaque affixed to the cave reads, "Said Warren, according to legend, after being flogged for not going to church, tried to burn the village of Farmington. He was pursued into the mountains, where some Indian squaws hid him in this cave." The cave is accessible from the Metacomet Trail.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation and conservation</h2><br>
<p>Rattlesnake Mountain is traversed by the Metacomet Trail, (maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association), which extends from the Hanging Hills of Meriden, Connecticut to the Massachusetts border. Rattlesnake Mountain offers a number of clifftop views west over the Pequabuck River valley toward the eastern escarpment of the Berkshire Mountains. Suburban Farmington is visible below. The mountain is open to hiking, bird watching, picnicking, snowshoeing, and other passive pursuits. A number of rock climbing websites indicate several climbing routes on the mountain.</p><br>
<p>The ecosystem of Rattlesnake Mountain is most threatened by development and quarrying. In 2000, Rattlesnake Mountain was included in a study by the National Park Service for the designation of a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail, which would include the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and the Mattabesett Trail and Metacomet Trail trails in Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>The Farmington Land Trust is active in the conservation of Rattlesnake Mountain and its viewshed. Will Warren&#39;s Den (part of the William S. Wadsworth Memorial property) is among the many easements managed by the trust.</p><br>
<p>The Kasson Public School building is located at 101 Third Avenue NW in city of Kasson, Dodge County, Minnesota, in the United States. Designed by architect Nels S. Jacobson Jr. of the architectural firm Jacobson & Jacobson, the school was constructed during the years 1917-1918. Kasson&#39;s elementary and high school students began using the building on December 5, 1918.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Summary</h3><br>
<p>The Kasson Public School was constructed during the years 1917-1918. Kasson&#39;s elementary and high school students began using the building on December 5, 1918. Samuel A. Challman, the first State Commissioner of Minnesota School Buildings and the foremost standard-bearer for the construction of Minnesota schools, expressed his approval of the school during a 1919 visit:</p><br>
<p>Commissioner Challman made the following statement about schoolhouse construction in 1914 to the National Education Association of the United States:</p><br>
<p>The school was used continuously from 1918 into 2005. For nearly ninety years the Kasson Public School played a central role in the life of the community. It served as Kasson’s only school building until 1958 when the school district merged with nearby Mantorville and combined high school classes were held at a new school north of town. It served as the Kasson Elementary School for more than four decades after that. It eventually housed an alternative school, community education and school district administrative functions. Those uses were discontinued in 2005. The 1895 Kasson Water Tower, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is located behind the school.</p><br>
<p>In early 2006 the City of Kasson, MN obtained the school. A November 2006 referendum to reuse the school as a combination city hall, police station and other governmental uses missed approval by only 122 votes. The city council soon voted to demolish the building.</p><br>
<p>In response, local citizens formed the non-profit Kasson Alliance for Restoration (KARE) in January 2007 to advocate for saving the school. In May/June 2007 KARE stopped the demolition by filing a lawsuit against the city. KARE then sponsored an effort which lead to the Kasson Public School being placed on the. The suit was settled out of court in August 2008.</p><br>
<p>As part of the settlement the city and KARE partnered to conduct an Historic Properties Reuse Study which was completed in October 2009 by John Lauber and Company. The reuse study suggested many reuses for the school to include for example apartments, library and a community center. The study instructed the city to: “Market the building to potential development partners (page 4)”. In the fall of 2009, the city formed a Citizen&#39;s Task Force (CTF)to explore the reuse options.</p><br>
<p>In April 2010 The CTF polled Kasson&#39;s citizens and discovered that a majority of them favored reusing the school. In June 2010 the city offered KARE part ownership in the school provided KARE raised $3.9 million by August 31, 2011. KARE declined this offer. In September 2010 the city formed the Kasson Public Library Building Committee (KPLBC) to explore reusing the school site as a library.</p><br>
<p>In August 2011 the KPLBC presented a $4.5 million 20,000 square foot library building plan to the city that called for first demolishing the 1918 School. The city council expressed concern about the cost. In the months preceding November 2011 numerous citizens met personally with council members, attended council meetings and wrote letters to the editor all supporting reusing the school. On November 1, 2011 the city placed the school on the market for $400,000 in an effort to attract developers. Numerous developers attended an open house at the school on November 30, 2011. On December 14, 2011 the City of Kasson received an offer from the developer Sherman Associates of Minneapolis, MN ( regarding their interest in purchasing the Historic 1918 Kasson School. On December 21, 2011 the city council voted to sign a Letter of Intent with Sherman Associates. A senior housing complex is proposed for the school.</p><br>
<h3>2005-2006: City of Kasson Obtains the School</h3><br>
<p>The school building’s future first emerged as an issue in 2005 when the Kasson-Mantorville School District moved the few programs remaining in the building to the district’s expansive campus north of town. Seeing an opportunity to meet its needs for additional space, and also to achieve a stated objective of “develop or redevelop the elementary school site to benefit the community and enhance the surrounding neighborhood if discontinue use for educational purposes,” the city retained Kane and Johnson Architects of Rochester to complete a Space Needs Study. The study, among other things, investigated the potential for reusing the school building or site to help meet the city’s long- and short-term facilities needs. As part of this study, Kane and Johnson prepared concept drawings and rough cost estimates showing how the 1918 school building could be converted into a multi-use public building housing city offices, the public library, and space for community gatherings. The Space Needs Study report recommended renonovating the school and stated that preserving the building would be more cost effective the building new. The estimated cost of the project was $3.9 million. With this information in hand the city acquired the 1918 building and site in early 2006 from the school district forgiving approximately $320,000 worth of assessments for infrastructure improvements at the expanding north school campus in exchange for the property.</p><br>
<h3>November 2006 Referendum & Vote to Demolish</h3><br>
<p>In November 2006, the Kane and Johnson conceptual plan was submitted to local citizens in the form of a referendum. An earlier ballot proposed for a July 2009 special election was deemed illegal by the Minnesota Attorney General’s office. In the November election, voters were asked to decide if the city of Kasson should “be authorized to issue its general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $3,900,000 to defray the expense of the renovation, expansion and equipping of the former elementary school for city hall, library, or other governmental purposes.” The referendum failed by a narrow vote of 894 to 1,026. Despite the close vote and no clear mandate, a few weeks later the Kasson city council voted to demolish the building without further consultation with citizens.</p><br>
<h3>2007: Kasson Alliance Formed & Demolition Stopped</h3><br>
<p>In January 2007, a group of preservation-minded advocates from Kasson formed the Kasson Alliance for Restoration (KARE). KARE was formed as a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a way to rehabilitate rather than demolish the building as well as furthering historic preservation within Kasson. In light of the statistically tied vote from November 2006, KARE members lobbied unsuccessfully at numerous council meetings in April 2007 for the city council to reverse its demolition decision and further consult with citizens on the future of the school building to include using Kane and Johnsons expertise. The council chose to move ahead and announced they would open demolition bids in May. As a result, KARE sued the city under provisions of the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act (MERA, which protects historic resources) in an effort to halt the demolition. The lawsuit was filed on the eve of the city opening demolition bids on May 23, 2007. After a hearing in June at which KARE’s attorney and the Cities legal representative from the League of Minnesota Cities presented their cases, the Dodge County Court issued a temporary injunction in June 2007 prohibiting demolition and a trial was set for February 2008. KARE proceeded to have the school listed on the National Register of Historic Places which occurred in December 2007.</p><br>
<h3>2008 Out-of-Court Settlement</h3><br>
<p>More than a year of litigation followed during which the trial was postponed to August 2008 to give the two sides more time to negotiate. In an effort to settle the lawsuit out of court and resolve the school issue, the city of Kasson and KARE, agreed in August 2008 to settle out of court and co-sponsor a Historic Properties Reuse Study of the 1918 Kasson School. The city issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the project in December 2008 and a contract for the project was awarded to a team assembled by John Lauber and Company of Minneapolis in the spring of 2009 (ironically, Kane and Johnson also bid on it). The RFP stated that the purpose of the study was “to define and evaluate reuse options regarding the 1918-era Kasson Elementary School and/or its site.”</p><br>
<h3>2009 Historic Properties Reuse Study</h3><br>
<p>The Reuse Study was jointly sponsored and funded primarily by the City of Kasson and the Kasson Alliance for Restoration (KARE). The study, which cost $30,000, was also funded in part by a grant to KARE for $2,500 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (a SWEATT Grant). The reuse study was completed in collaboration with a School Reuse Action Committee (SCHRAC) which KARE formed. SCHRAC was a nineteen-member advisory committee of area citizens, city officials, and technical experts formed to assist the Lauber Team with the effort. The Lauber Team visited Kasson and toured the school in the spring of 2009. In June 2009, the team conducted extensive interviews with Kassons citizens and conducted a community workshop followed by additional visits to Kasson later in the summer. A draft reuse study report was issued in September 2009 and the final report was published in October and presented to the City Council. The October 2009 Historic Properties Reuse Study Report and additional information can be viewed at: or the Kasson Alliances website at The City of Kasson subsequently appointed a Citizen Task Force in November 2009 to investigate options for reusing the school.</p><br>
<h3>2010 Citizen Task Force</h3><br>
<p>The Citizen Task Force began meeting in January 2010 and its members distributed a survey in April 2010 to Kasson&#39;s residents. On Wednesday May 12, 2010 the Task Force presented the survey results to the City Council. The survey forms were distributed to Kasson’s residents thru multiple sources (utility bills, web, newspaper etc.). Over 5,000 people reside in Kasson and 581 forms were returned. 58% of the respondents favored rehabilitating/reusing the school. Suggested uses for the building include library (211), community center (173), government offices (74), office space (58), apartments/condos (55), and shopping/dining (10). Similar reuse ideas and rankings were generated during the June 2009 Reuse Study community workshops. One of the respondents indicated an interest in purchasing the building.</p><br>
<h3>June 2010 Partnership Offer</h3><br>
<p>On June 9, 2010 the City of Kasson passed a resolution and proposal that offered the Kasson Alliance for Restoration (KARE) a 49% share in owning and maintaining the building provided KARE secured $3.9 million by August 31, 2011 whereupon the city would present a November 2011 referendum for $3.9 million ($7.8 mil total). The resolution, which was threatening in nature, stated that any reuse identified for the building needed to include a library component. KARE responded politely to the proposal in a letter dated June 21 stating in summary: a) it was not within KAREs advocacy mission to own and maintain buildings and b) the required planning and coordination with the library board (a huge problem in past efforts) had not yet been done to fully formulate the reuse plan for the building. KARE stated that no one would sign the proposed agreement/partnership (with a very short time frame) given that the reuse plan was still in its infancy and had not been adopted by the buildings owner (the city) or the library board. The city council subsequently reminded the library board that the cities&#39; designated site for a new, larger library is the historic school site.</p><br>
<h3>2010: Kasson Public Library Building Committee Formed</h3><br>
<p>Previous space needs studies in Kasson had shown that the city could benefit from a larger library which was housed in a 2,294 square foot building. The 2009 Reuse Study identified an expanded library as a leading candidate for reusing the 1918 School. So, on August 4, 2010, KARE board members and volunteers attended the library board meeting to voice KAREs support for the libraries quest for a larger facility and to answer questions about KARE’s mission and the potential to reuse the school as a library. On parallel path, at the council meeting on August 25, Mayor Tim Tjosaas asked the council to form a Kasson Public Library Building Committee (KPLBC) composed of citizen volunteers and non-voting public officials which was approved. The KPLBC began meeting in September 2010 followed by a tour of local libraries and a tour of the historic Kasson Public School.</p><br>
<h3>2011: Kasson Public Library Building Committee Presents A Plan</h3><br>
<p>The KPLBC continued to meet in 2011. In February 2011 the KPLBC announced that they had met with Deb Parrott of the engineering and architecture firm Widseth, Smith, Nolting and Associates. Ms. Parrott, who has experience with library design, was asked to prepare three library design proposals for the historic school as follows: Option 1) total rehabilitation of the 1918 school building, Option 2) a partial or modified rehabilitation of the school building and Option 3) a completely new structure on the general footprint of the existing building.</p><br>
<p>On August 10, 2011 the KPLBC presented the aforementioned Option 3 to the city council. That option proposed replacing the historic 1918 school with a $4.5 million 20,000 square foot library facility which included 3,000 sq. ft. of community meeting space. The plan would have been implemented after demolishing the historic school. The council did not vote to demolish the school however they did vote to have the KPLBC continue with their planning effort. The chambers were full of school supporters. Council member Mike Marti expressed concern about the cost. Letters to the editor soon started appearing supporting the reuse of the school building. On August 12, the Rochester Post Bulletin editorial board stated (quoting): “don’t demolish the school until a firm decision has been made-and funding obtained for whatever structure will replace it”.</p><br>
<h3>August 2011 Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW)</h3><br>
<p>In a move that implied that the city was contemplating demolition, on Wednesday August 24 the Kasson City Council selected a bid to conduct an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) on the historic 1918 Kasson School. An assessment worksheet is required by MN state law for any National Register Listed building prior to it being demolished. The Minnesota Historical Society, Preservation Alliance of Minnesota and all citizens can comment on the EAW. An organization called Pathfinders CRM (Robert Vogel) in partnership with the AE firm Widseth, Smith and Nolting were awarded the bid. The City Council has not voted to demolish the school but the EAW process is a step in that direction. In the meantime, Kasson&#39;s citizens are meeting with council members to discuss alternatives to demolition. Robert Vogel (from Pathfinders CRM, LLC) was selected to work on the EAW in partnership with the Architect and Engineering firm Widseth, Smith and Nolting. At this point the EAW was required by Minnesota’s Environmental Resources Act (MERA) due to KARE successfully placing the school on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in December 2007.</p><br>
<h3>November 2011: School for Sale, EAW Published and Reviewed</h3><br>
<p>In the months preceding November 2011 numerous citizens met personally with council members, attended council meetings and wrote letters to the editor all supporting reusing the school. On November 1, 2011 the city listed the 1918 school for sale thru Kathy O’Malley of Counselor Realty of Rochester, MN. On November 28, 2011 the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) announced in their newsletter that the EAW for the historic Kasson School was available for review. The city was selected by the EQB to be the Responsible Government Unit (RGU) with sole review authority over the EAW. The EAW comments were due to City Planner Mike Martin 30 days later on December 28, 2011.</p><br>
<p>On November 30, 2011 an open house was held at the school which was preceded by a presentation on the advantages of historic preservation by Bonnie McDonald, Executive Director of the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. Numerous developers attended and were clearly interesting in developing the school</p><br>
<h3>December 2011: Offer to Purchase the School, EAW Comments Due</h3><br>
<p>On December 14, 2011 the City of Kasson received an offer from the developer Sherman Associates of Minneapolis, MN ( regarding their interest in purchasing the Historic 1918 Kasson School. On December 21, 2011 the city council voted to sign a Letter of Intent with Sherman Associates. A senior housin</p><br>
<p>g complex was proposed for the school. In the meantime the EAW review process was ongoing with comments due December 28. Comments were provided by the following entities: a) Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, b) State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), Minnesota Historical Society, c) Minnesota Department of Transportation (required) and d) and many private citizens. At the city council meeting on January 25, 2102 the city determined that an EIS was not needed and that Minnesota law did not require them to modify the EAW as requested in the review comments.</p><br>
<h3>January 2012 thru December 2014</h3><br>
<h3>January 2015 thru December 2015</h3><br>
<p>Cohen-Esrey continued to express interest in reusing the 1918 school as Section 42 affordable housing apartments. The Cohen-Esrey "family of companies" has developed thousands of apartments over at least two decades. Since 1994, Cohen-Esrey Affordable Partners LLC has used housing and historic tax credits to create over 4,000 units of affordable housing for seniors and families. Cohen-Esrey Communities LLC has managed about 500 apartment complexes in about 175 cities, with more 60,000 apartments.</p><br>
<p>On May 11 the Kasson Planning and Zoning Commission in a 6-1 vote recommended that the city council approve a conditional use permit (CUP) for the school property to allow multifamily housing on the site. The commission also recommended that the city council approve a variance to allow less than 50 percent green space on the property. The general consensus was that the project, which would remove some paved areas, increased permeability over the existing condition. The room was packed with people. Tom Anderson from Cohen-Esrey made a presentation. Before voting, the commission debated how to strike a balance with the citizens and neighbors of the building who opposed the project and those supporting the schools reuse. Neighbors who opposed the project stated the density of 24 multi-family units was too large for the single family residential neighborhood. Concerns about additional traffic and other issues were also discussed. However, Minnesota law states that a CUP cannot be denied based on citizen input if the CUP application meets the requirements listed in the city code. In the end the Commission decided that the CUP application met the approval requirements listed in the cities code and the variance was approved allowing the installation of impermeable surface over 60% of the property. The Planning Commission put the following conditions on the CUP:</p><br>
<p>1. The Developer must install a combination fence and natural screening border acceptable to t the Zoning Administrator prior to the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy</p><br>
<p>2. The Developer must provide at least one outdoor, on-site smoking area acceptable to the Zoning Administrator prior to the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy.</p><br>
<p>3. The Developer must provide an ingress/egress plan acceptable to the Zoning Administrator prior to the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy.</p><br>
<p>On May 13 the city council subsequently voted to approve the CUP. A motion to approve the Conditional Use Permit for Cohen-Esrey was made by Borgstrom, second by Buck with Buck, Borgstrom and Johnson voting Aye. Coleman and Eggler voted Nay. The CUP vote passed 3-2. A motion to approve the variance request for Cohen-Esrey was made by Coleman, seconded by Borgstrom with Buck, Borgstrom, Coleman, Eggler and Johnson voting Aye. The vote passed 5-0.</p><br>
<p>Farmington Mountain, 502 ft, is a traprock ridge located 9 mi southwest of Hartford, Connecticut in the town of Farmington. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. Farmington Mountain is known for its microclimate ecosystems, rare plant communities, and for the historic Hill-Stead Museum. Farmington Mountain is traversed by the 51 mi Metacomet Trail.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Roughly 1.4 mi long by 0.5 mi wide, Farmington Mountain rises steeply 250 ft above the town of Farmington to the west. The mountain consists of an upper summit ridge with two distinct peaks and a lower plateau and ledge that hangs just above the center of Farmington. This ledge is contiguous with the lower ridges of Talcott Mountain to the north and Rattlesnake Mountain to the south. The Metacomet Ridge continues north and south from Farmington Mountain over those peaks.</p><br>
<p>The wooded ridgeline of Farmington Mountain is less distinct that its neighboring peaks on the Metacomet Ridge. Nonetheless, the mountain contains a number of prominent features. The historic Hill-Stead Museum, known for its French Impressionist masterpieces, architecture, and stately grounds is located on the northern part of the ridgeline. The southern half of the mountain is made up of largely wooded cliffs; the Farmington Reservoir is nestled between the ridge high point and the edge of the lower plateau. Other parts of the mountain are occupied by suburban housing.</p><br>
<p>The east side of Farmington Mountain drains into Trout Brook, then to the Park River, thence into the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound; the west side into the Farmington River, thence to the Connecticut River.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and ecology</h2><br>
<p>Farmington Mountain, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs and ridgeline of Farmington Mountain. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. Farmington Mountain is also an important raptor migration path. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Farmington Mountain).</p><br>
<h2>Hill-Stead</h2><br>
<p>Hill-Stead comprises 152 acre. Buildings include the 33,000 ft&sup2; Colonial-Revival style Pope-Riddle House; an 18th-century farm house; a carriage garage with an Arts and Crafts theater; and a barn and additional farm buildings. The house is extensively furnished with paintings, prints, and art. Highlights include works by Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, James McNeill Whistler, Albrecht Dürer and postcards including correspondence from Mary Cassatt, Henry James, and James McNeill Whistler.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation and conservation</h2><br>
<p>Both the Hill-Stead Museum and the town of Farmington manage networks of walking paths on the mountain. Farmington Mountain is also traversed by the Metacomet Trail, (maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association), which extends from the Hanging Hills of Meriden, Connecticut to the Massachusetts border. The walking paths of Hill-Stead Museum, accessible at no charge from the museum parking lot, are open from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. Guidebooks are available. There is a charge for touring the museum, which is open May–October 10 am-5 pm and November–April: 11 am-4 pm. The Farmington Reservoir Trail, located on the southwest side of the mountain and managed by the town of Farmington, is open to hiking, bird watching, picnicking, snowshoeing, and other passive pursuits. The Metacomet Trail can be accessed from the same trailhead.</p><br>
<p>The ecosystem and ridgeline of Farmington Mountain are most threatened by development. In 2000, Farmington Mountain was included in a study by the National Park Service for the designation of a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail, which would include the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and the Mattabesett Trail and Metacomet Trail trails in Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>The is active in the conservation of Farmington Mountain and its viewshed. The trust has secured a number of easements on the lower slopes of the mountain and adjacent parts of Metacomet Ridge.</p><br>
<p>The George Draper Dayton House was built in 1890 in Worthington, Minnesota, United States. George Dayton hired the Sioux Falls architect Wallace L. Dow to design his grand home on a parcel that took up eight lots.</p><br>
<h2>George Dayton</h2><br>
<p>George Dayton (1857-1938) came to Minnesota from New York in 1883. His family was one of average means, and he had hoped to become a minister, but was lured by the urge to be in the business world. He married Emma Chadwick in 1878 and began buying farm mortgages in southwest Minnesota. In 1883 he and his family moved to Worthington, Minnesota, where he was able to build wealth in the growing economy.</p><br>
<p>He presided over the Bank of Worthington and founded the Minnesota Loan and Investment Company, advancing his social status and prosperity. Dayton continued to live by his religious principles by improving his community and dedicating himself to the service of others; he served on the Worthington Board of Education, and was church clerk, elder, and trustee of Westminster Presbyterian Church, teaching Sunday school and hosting church events at his home.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The home features a large front porch with columns supporting the overhanging roof, supported by brackets and complemented by dentil moulding, and balcony above, accented by a Palladian-style leaded-glass window. The shake roof is interrupted by large dormers, three chimneys, and a widow&#39;s walk. The frieze above the second-floor windows are decorated with ornamental swags.</p><br>
<p>The cherry front door is topped by a leaded glass transom and flanked by leaded glass sidelights. Woodwork includes cherry and oak pocket doors, mosaic wood flooring, carved banisters, and carved fretwork above the grand staircase.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>When the Daytons moved to Minneapolis in 1902 to found Daytons Dry Goods store (later to become Daytons department store), the home was sold to Florence and Charles Smallwood. Florences father, Justin Pierce Moulton had been a business partner of Daytons. The Smallwoods lived in the home until 1921, when it was inherited by Mary Emmaline Smallwood, who was married to State Senator John Cashel. After Mary died in 1931, Cashel married Ruth Gertz. Following John Cashel&#39;s death in 1938, Ruth converted the home to a nursing home and operated it for 50 years, during which time much of the original interior was distorted. In 2002 a non-profit historic preservation group purchased the building for $150,000. Restoration costs were approximately $2,000,000 and it is now operated as a bed and breakfast and available for receptions.</p><br>
<p>Gatecliff Rockshelter  is a major archaeological site in the Great Basin area of the western United States that provides remarkable stratigraphy; it has been called the “deepest archaeological rock shelter in the Americas”. Located in Mill Canyon of the Toquima Range in the Monitor Valley of central Nevada, Gatecliff Rockshelter has an elevation of 7,750 ft. David Hurst Thomas discovered Gatecliff Rockshelter in 1970 and began excavations in 1971. Full scale excavations occurred at Gatecliff Rockshelter for about seven field seasons in which nearly 10 m of sediments were exposed for a well-defined stratigraphic sequence. The well-preserved artifacts and undisturbed sediments at Gatecliff Rockshelter provides data and information have been applied to a range of research topics. Based on the analysis of the artifacts at Gatecliff Rockshelter, it can be determined that it was most likely a short-term field camp throughout prehistory. The latest evidence for human usage at Gatecliff occurs between ca. 5500 B.P. to 1250 B.P.</p><br>
<p>In August 1974, a short-film was created: “Gatecliff: American Indian Rock-Shelter".</p><br>
<p>In April 1979, Gatecliff Rockshelter was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<h2>Discovery</h2><br>
<p>David Hurst Thomas discovered Gatecliff Rockshelter in June 1970 following his first field season in the Reese River Valley and ancient Lake Tonopah. Thomas also conducted systematic settlement surveys of the Monitor Valley in Central Nevada in efforts to study prehistoric ecology, subsistence patterns, and chronological sequences of the Great Basin.</p><br>
<p>After a day of excavation, Thomas and his crew stopped by a local diner. At the dinner, Thomas spoke with the waitress’s husband, Gale Peer, a mining geologist with over 40 years of experience in the Great Basin. Peer gave the crew of archaeologists a few general directions to an interesting cave with possible rock art. The following year, Thomas returned and attempted to search for this cave. After searching through nearly 15 canyons in the area, driving through and getting out of the car to physically check the caves and rock shelters, Thomas ended at the Mill Canyon. At the opening of the rock shelter, Thomas observed pictographs but no visual artifacts. The paintings were human figures in red and yellow as well as cryptic motifs in black and white on the ceiling and rear wall. Thomas then dug a 30 cm deep test pit to ensure the potential of the site. The test pit revealed sub-surface deposits and incised stones with some burned bones. Given the potential for undisturbed deposits useful for establishing a chronological framework for the area, further excavations began in 1971 and continued for nearly 7 years.</p><br>
<h3>Naming</h3><br>
<p>The archaeological site Gatecliff Rockshelter was named after the Silurian Age Gatecliff Formation, in which rock shelter occurs. The formation is made up of chert and dolomite material.</p><br>
<h2>Excavation</h2><br>
<p>After the initial discovery in 1970, Thomas and a crew from the University of California Davis began an extensive, large scale excavation. By the end of the first season, the crew had excavated a 7 meter long and 3 meter deep trench. Research continued in 1973 with the sponsorship of the American Museum of Natural History and Expeditions International. The excavations that year reached a depth of 4.8 meters and obtained radiocarbon dates of approximately 2500 B.C. In 1974, the American Museum of Natural History and Education Expeditions International again sponsored the excavations at of Gatecliff Rockshelter again. By the end of this season, the crew had excavated 98 cubic meters of deposits. Due to the danger of the steep and exposed sidewalls, the excavation strategy switched from vertical to horizontal. Starting in 1975, the excavators at Gatecliff removed stratigraphic layers one by one based on their natural levels. Natural levels were determined by the different strata in the deposits seen in the excavation profile. Horizontal strategies continued in 1976 in which the excavators ultimately removed deposits until reaching bedrock. Excavations were completed in late August 1978 with a depth of nearly 12 m and a total of 650 m&sup3; of deposits removed.</p><br>
<h3>Vertical excavation</h3><br>
<p>The initial objective at Gatecliff Rockshelter, Nevada was establishing and dating a stratigraphic sequence that could be applied regionally in the Great Basin area; this would require a vertical excavation strategy. During the early excavations, the deposits were troweled and screened with a 1/8 inch mesh screen. The vertical excavation revealed a pattern of periodic floods that filled the rock shelter with silt and, when dried out, people exploited it again. Due to the hazardous, steep walls produced by the vertical excavation, Thomas and his crew changed their strategy in 1975 as well as their primary objectives; instead of working on exposing a deep, stratified profile, the crew began to remove the deposits over a larger horizontal area to document activity areas. No further excavation occurred on the sidewalls.</p><br>
<h3>Horizontal excavation</h3><br>
<p>During the excavations, Gatecliff Rockshelter proved to be more useful than just for chronology. The new objective with a horizontal excavation at the rock shelter, the previous being chronology, emphasized the reconstruction pre-historic activities and events that occurred at the site. The focus shifted to finding artifacts and mapping them on large-scale living floor maps. In 1975, over a period of ten days, the crew removed a massive chert roof fall that covered half of the rear of the rock shelter. The excavation units were removed by the visible natural levels or strata; if natural levels exceeded 10 cm, arbitrary levels were created within the natural levels. Bags of deposits were passed outside of the cave and then screened outside.</p><br>
<h2>Stratigraphy</h2><br>
<p>The decade of excavations from 1970 to 1978 exposed a remarkable stratigraphic sequence at Gatecliff Rockshelter. The lack of erosion and episodic deposits of sediments due to water provided a well-defined and intact cultural sequence that could be applied to the Great Basin area. The deposits also include a 2 cm layer of tephra from Mt. Mazama’s eruption about 6600 to 7000 B.P. The stratigraphy can also be divided into eight stages to reflect a specific climatic regime. Forty-seven radiocarbon dates were obtained and thoroughly ground the chronological sequence of Gatecliff Rockshelter.</p><br>
<h2>Paleontology</h2><br>
<p>In Gatecliff Rockshelter, the excavators recovered over 51,000 animal bones. Donald K. Grayson identified and analyzed approximately 13,000 bones and teeth of small mammals. Due to the nature of the rock shelter and the lack of taphonomic knowledge, Grayson argued that the processes that produced this massive collection of bones could not be determined. It could be a result of human activities, other animals, and natural processes. These small mammals include rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, gophers, rats, voles, mice, dogs, and coyotes; only two of the taxa found at Gatecliff are absent from the present Toquima-Monitor area.</p><br>
<p>Large mammal remains represent the bulk of the bones found at Gatecliff. Roughly 90% of the bones came from the bighorn sheep, a major prey of high-altitude hunters. Other large mammals include pronghorn, elk, and bison.</p><br>
<p>On a smaller scale, approximately 500 elements of amphibians and reptiles were recovered. The amphibians and reptiles at the rock shelter include lizards, toads, and snakes.</p><br>
<h2>Material culture</h2><br>
<p>The excavations at Gatecliff Rockshelter recovered over 400 projectile points. The sequence contains the Gatecliff series dating from ca. 4000 B.C. – 1000 B.C., the Elko series from ca. 1300 B.C. – A.D., Rosegate series from ca. A.D. 700- A.D. 1300, and the Desert series from ca. A.D. 1300 – 1850. Several turquoise mines exist throughout the Monitor Valley which could provide the turquoise source for Gatecliff; Indian Blue Mine is the best known mine located 3 miles south of Toquima Cave.</p><br>
<p>Gatecliff Rockshelter also produced over 400 incised stones – the largest known concentration in the New World. The incised stones at Gatecliff Rockshelter include simple to complex motifs of lines, rows, chevrons, circles, and striations. Incised stones have also been considered as a means of dating rock art styles.</p><br>
<p>Approximately 35 perishable artifacts were recovered in Gatecliff Rockshelter; these include 11 basket fragments and 18 pieces of cordage. The preferred material for cordage is Artemisia (genus) and Salix sp. for baskets. According to James M. Adovasio, the preference for willow, despite its sporadic distribution across Monitor Valley, comes from its durability, flexibility, consistent thickness of the bark, and the lack of lateral twigs. The techniques used in the Monitor Valley include simple twining, open and close diagonal twining, and coiling.</p><br>
<p>In addition, the excavations at Gatecliff Rockshelter recovered 17 shell beads and 4 ornaments. The shells include Olivella (gastropod), Haliotis cracherodii, and Haliotis cracherodii. Other materials include mica and stone.</p><br>
<p>Additional artifacts found at Gatecliff Rockshelter include wooden artifacts (promontory pegs, firemaking tools, bow fragments, etc.), bone artifacts (bone beads, awls, and tubes), a glass bead (possible trade bead), a few pieces of ceramic sherds, and some incised clay objects.</p><br>
<h2>Rock art</h2><br>
<p>The rock art at Gatecliff Rockshelter includes white, red, yellow, and orange pigments; black was not used on the walls but decorated small stones. The paint materials are derived from local sources. Of the images, fifty-three were recognizable with 13 different motifs and some unidentifiable blotches. The important images include human anthropomorphs and linear arrangements. “Cupule” motifs account for 11 percent of the images, handprints 9 percent, and bisected chevrons 7 present.</p><br>
<p>Pinnacle Rock, 600 ft, is a traprock mountain peak located 10 mi southwest of Hartford, Connecticut in the towns of Farmington and Plainville.</p><br>
<p>It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. Pinnacle Rock, popular as an outdoor recreation destination in the metropolitan Hartford area, is known for its clifftop scenic vistas, unique microclimate ecosystems, rare plant communities, and as a seasonal raptor migration path. Pinnacle Rock is traversed by the 51 mi Metacomet Trail.</p><br>
<p>Pinnacle Rock should not be confused with The Pinnacle, a name used for two other peaks also on the Metacomet Ridge in Connecticut (on Talcott Mountain and Higby Mountain).</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Pinnacle Rock occupies the high point of a 1 mi long mountain ridge which rises steeply 400 ft above the upper Quinnipiac River valley to the southwest and the Farmington River valley to the northwest. The summit is bald and offers extensive views west over the valleys and suburban Farmington, toward the Berkshire Mountains. The Metacomet Ridge continues north from Pinnacle Rock as Rattlesnake Mountain and south as Bradley Mountain. The Quinnipiac River, no more than a brook this far north, passes through the gap between Pinnacle Rock and Bradley Mountain.</p><br>
<p>The northeast side of Pinnacle Rock drains into Trout Brook, then to the Park River, thence into the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound; the rest of the mountain supports the headwaters of the Quinnipiac River, which flows directly into Long Island Sound.</p><br>
<h3>Former missile site</h3><br>
<p>HA-67 was a Nike 1B defensive missile base which operated from 1956 through March 1961 on the Plainville side of the rock near Loon Lake, southeast of the summit. The base is no longer in existence, with little remaining other than a parking lot and a few buildings which have been reduced to rubble. Further southeast is a small (0.4 mi/600 m wide) traprock quarry.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and ecology</h2><br>
<p>Pinnacle Rock, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs and ridgeline of Pinnacle Rock. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. Pinnacle Rock is also an important raptor migration path. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Pinnacle Rock).</p><br>
<h2>Recreation and conservation</h2><br>
<p>Pinnacle Rock is traversed by the Metacomet Trail, (maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association), which extends from the Hanging Hills of Meriden, Connecticut to the Massachusetts border. The Metacomet Trail on the mountain is open to hiking, bird watching, picnicking, snowshoeing, and other active pursuits.</p><br>
<p>The ecosystem of Pinnacle Rock is most threatened by development and quarrying. In 2000, Pinnacle Rock was included in a study by the National Park Service for the designation of a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail, which would include the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and the Mattabesett Trail and Metacomet Trail trails in Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>The Fitger&#39;s Brewing Company brewed beer from 1881 to 1972 in Duluth, Minnesota. Some of its buildings are still being used today as a brewpub, hotel, restaurants, and retail stores.</p><br>
<p>The brewery was located at 600 East Superior Street, on Lake Superior in the USA state of Minnesota. The complex included ten buildings including the garage/stable, which was built in 1911. Over the life of the company this building housed the horses and vehicle used to deliver the brewery&#39;s product.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>The beginning</h3><br>
<p>A nationwide financial crisis, the Panic of 1857, had caused most of the Duluth&#39;s early pioneers to leave. A history of Duluth written in 1910 relates, "Of the handful remaining in 1859 four men were unemployed and one of those was a brewer. Capital idea; build a brewery. The absence of malt and hops and barley did not at all embarrass those stout-hearted settlers." The men rented property on a stream that emptied into Lake Superior and owned by Sidney Luce. The stream became known as Brewery Creek, as it still is today. While the original brewery “was not a pecuniary success”, a few decades later it was to become the Fitger Brewing Company.</p><br>
<p>The original brewery was purchased in 1881 by Michael Fink, who decided to build a larger brewery a block and a half away and down the stream on Superior Street. Construction of the new building began September 19, 1881, and was completed the next year. Dubbed Fink&#39;s Lake Superior Brewery, it included offices, sleeping quarters for employees, brewing facilities, and its own drinking establishment, the Brewery Saloon. Lake Superior Brewery sold its first beer in August 1882. The brewery was very successful from the beginning and sold beer as far west as Aitkin, Minnesota, and as far east as Thunder Bay, Ontario.</p><br>
<p>On November 11, 1882, Fink hired a young German brewmaster named August Fitger, a graduate from a premier German brewing school, Weihenstephan Brewing School in Munich (now part of Technical University of Munich, the German equivalent of the MIT and home of many Nobel laureates). Just months later, in April 1883, Fitger purchased half of the company for $18,000. It was agreed that the other half would be purchased by Percy Anneke, a native of Milwaukee and auditor and sales rep for Schlitz. Anneke was a friend of Fitger, and son of famous German-American political activist, abolitionist and feminist Mathilde Anneke and her husband Colonel Fritz Anneke. The company was renamed A. Fitger & Co./ Lake Superior Brewery.</p><br>
<h3>Prohibition</h3><br>
<p>Beer production continued for 40 years until Prohibition began in 1920, forcing breweries to close their doors or change production. Fitgers was able to fill markets other than beer to produce, and was one of the few brewers in the entire country that remained open throughout Prohibition. Fitger and Anneke sold their shares and retired to California. Percys son Victor H. Anneke, who had taken over from his father in 1920, wanted to keep as many employees as possible, but the beer sales could not justify that. In order to keep employees, he decided to begin making soft drinks and candy and distributing cigars. Fitger and Anneke had set out a strategy several years earlier in order to keep the brewery open during Prohibition, which they only expected to last a short time. The company produced five-cent candy bars such as The King Bee Nougat, the Flapper, the Spark Plug, the Nut Goodie, and the Skookum. Candy sales steadily increased for several years, but did not ultimately prove profitable.</p><br>
<p>Fitger&#39;s was one of the first breweries to start distributing carbonated soft drinks by the bottle. The soft drinks were made in numerous flavors that often changed. Some of the usual flavors included grape, orange, and strawberry, but they also experimented with other flavors such as imitation chocolate milk shake, black calf, black cow, ginger ale, lemon soda, strawberry fizz, and carbonated water. Their experimenting lead them to the production of champagne-like beverages such as Extra Dry and Silver Spray. Both of which were immediate successes through mass amounts of advertising.</p><br>
<p>However, the most innovative idea for promoting Silver Spray came not from advertising and sales people but from Victor H. Anneke himself. In September 1927, Anneke opened the Silver Spray Gym at Fitgers. He converted the building that had replaced the old brewery into a boxing gym, harnessing the popularity of the sport. The Silver Spray Gym was considered high-class for its time. The main floor was a boxing arena and the basement was a training facility. Anneke believed the gym would be a benefit to the community and also good publicity for Fitgers. Many popular boxers visited the gym, making the facility well known, among them the German boxing legend Max Schmeling during his first tour of the USA in 1928.</p><br>
<p>When prohibition was finally repealed in 1933, the demand for strong Fitger’s beer grew. From 1933 to 1936, Fitgers experienced tremendous growth and record sales. Much of the success was due to the companys continual creation of new products and innovative ways to market them. One of the most successful revolutions in the business was the invention of canned beer. Fitger&#39;s became one of the first USA companies and the first in the Midwest to offer canned beer.</p><br>
<h3>World War II and after</h3><br>
<p>But with the onset of World War II, Fitgers once again had to fight to stay open. It became extremely difficult to get supplies to keep the brewery going. Many resources were reused because of the lack of materials. Still, Fitger’s came out with new beers known as "War Beer", watered down because ingredients were scarce and labor was shorthanded. Also since workers were limited because of the draft, women were brought in to work in the factory. Before Prohibition, there were more than 70 breweries in Minnesota and now only 23, with Fitgers being one of them.</p><br>
<p>In 1944, the Beerhalter family bought the brewery.</p><br>
<p>After the war, regular beer returned with ingredients and labor. Fitger’s also managed to purchase brand-new equipment, and it was said that Fitger&#39;s beer was now "more pure".</p><br>
<p>In 1972, Fitgers received a letter from the State of Minnesota about two problems. Minnesota Pollution Control ordered the installation of expensive pollution abatement equipment and that State Highway Department planned to purchase some of Fitger’s property for the possible expansion of I-35. Fitgers was unable to afford the equipment, and on September 30, 1972, it closed its doors, ending 115 years of brewing on the shores of Lake Superior.</p><br>
<h3>Revival</h3><br>
<p>The complex was eventually purchased by a group of prominent Duluth business owners, and reopened in December 1984. Two years later, the construction of Interstate 35 hurt business. In 1994, Fitger&#39;s-on-the-Lake LLC became the new owners of the complex.</p><br>
<p>Today Fitger&#39;s houses a brewpub, a variety of retail stores and four restaurants. There is also a museum about the brewery and a self-guided tour of parts of the historic complex.</p><br>
<p>Crouse College, also known as Crouse Memorial College and historically as John Crouse Memorial College for Women, is a building on the Syracuse University campus. It was funded by John R. Crouse, an "enormously wealthy Syracuse banker". The architect, Archimedes Russell, was charged with coming up with a spectacular building, and used the Romanesque revival—Richardsonian Romanesque style.</p><br>
<p>The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Crouse College was home to the first College of Fine Arts in the United States and now is known for both its College of Visual and Performing Arts and the Rose, Jules R., and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music.</p><br>
<h3>Construction</h3><br>
<p>The first cornerstone for the new college was laid in June 1888, and the building was completed in September 1889. The building cost almost half a million dollars and was a gift from local merchant and banker, John Crouse, and his son, D. Edgar Crouse. The elder Crouse was a trustee of the university and built the college as a memorial to his wife. The architect, Archimedes Russell, exceeded the original budget.</p><br>
<p>The building was intended for use as a women&#39;s college and was originally named the John Crouse Memorial College for Women; however, John Crouse died during its construction and his son opened the institution for use by both men and women.</p><br>
<p>At the time of construction, it was the third building on campus and the highest structure in the city. It was built in the Romanesqueue Revival style "with High Victorian Gothic qualities."</p><br>
<p>The structure is supported by a "stout" granite foundation and the exterior is covered with Longmeadow brownstone. Architectural details include high roofs, gables, dormer windows and rounded arches. The interior is "distinctively" Romanesque and carved hardwood woodwork designs, representative of the period, are displayed throughout.</p><br>
<h3>Sculpture and stained glass</h3><br>
<p>Winged Victory, a sculpture that was modeled after the original, which was discovered in the Mediterranean Sea and since moved to the Louvre, is located at the bottom of the main staircase. The building also contains stained glass "associated with religious subject matter and spiritual renewal." The stained glass was designed by Richard Wolff, a former faculty member, and students from the college’s School of Art and Design and was installed in 1970.</p><br>
<h3>Setnor Auditorium</h3><br>
<p>An auditorium seating about 700 people was included, although intended at first as a chapel. There is a pipe organ in the auditorium which is one of America&#39;s most important historic instruments. It represents a style of American organ building that flourished in the mid-20th century and is closely associated with builder Walter Holtkamp. It is widely considered to be his magnum opus.</p><br>
<h3>Bell tower</h3><br>
<p>The bell tower of the building housed the first "tower chimes" installed in Syracuse, which is still in use today.</p><br>
<h3>Recent usage</h3><br>
<p>Today, Crouse College houses Syracuse University&#39;s College of Visual and Performing Arts. Chiefly, its classrooms and auditorium are at the service of the Setnor School of Music.</p><br>
<p>The Hall of Languages is a Syracuse University building designed by Horatio Nelson White in the Second Empire architectural style, and built in 1871–73. It is made of Onondaga limestone and features three large towers or cupolas. It was the first building constructed on the Syracuse University campus and the building originally housed the entire university. The building served as creative inspiration for the Addams Family home.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<p>The interior was completely rebuilt in 1978–79.</p><br>
<p>The iconic building has been prominently displayed as a representation of the University in many forums. Most recently starting in 2010 the Syracuse Orange men&#39;s basketball team started wearing NIKE jerseys that feature an aerographic of the Hall of Languages.</p><br>
<p>St. Luke&#39;s Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 1514 15th Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C. Completed in 1879, it is home to the oldest African-American Episcopal congregation in the city. It was designated a USA National Historic Landmark in 1976 for its association with Rev. Alexander Crummell , a leading figure advocating black self-sufficiency and civil rights in the mid-19th century.</p><br>
<p>St. Luke&#39;s continues as an active parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. As of 2012, the Priest-in-Charge is the Rev. Ray D. Massenburg.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>St. Lukes Episcopal Church is located west of Washingtons Logan Circle, on the west side of 15th Street at its junction with Church Street. It is a masonry structure, built mainly out of Chesapeake bluestone with an ashlar finish and laid in random courses. It is covered by a steeply pitched slate roof. The main facade is symmetrical, with a large central entry portico consisting of two pairs of double doors set in a Gothic-arch surround, with a large Gothic-arched window in the gable above. Flank lower wings each have smaller but still substantial Gothic windows. The interior is finished in dark aok, and has a barrel vaulted ceiling with posts of iron and wood supporting the roof trusses.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In 1875, some members of St. Marys Chapel for Colored People in Foggy Bottom and their rector, the Rev. Alexander Crummell of New York City, left St. Marys to found St. Lukes as the first independent black Episcopal church in Washington. St. Lukes was chartered as a Colored Episcopal Mission. Its neighborhood of Columbia Heights had numerous black families. Calvin T. S. Brent, generally considered to be Washington&#39;s first black architect, designed the church after an Anglican church in Coventry, England. Construction on the church began in 1876 and was completed in 1880.</p><br>
<p>The first service was held on Thanksgiving Day 1879. Alexander Crummell served as rector until his retirement in 1894.</p><br>
<p>The Von Allmen Dairy Farm House in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 11, 2007. Built in 1919, it was owned by Emil Von Allmen, a Louisville dairy leader. It was described as "the last vestige of a well-known dairy farm".</p><br>
<p>The house is of Bungalow/Craftsman style, 1½ stories high, with Neo-classical detailing.</p><br>
<p>Eventually, the consolidation of dairy farming caused the farm to stop producing. Of the original 226 acre, only 4 acre remain of the property, with the rest consumed by Louisville sprawl.</p><br>
<p>Dean Corbett, chef of the Equus restaurant in St. Matthews, Kentucky, planned to restore the building into a new upscale restaurant called "Corbett&#39;s: An American Place". On December 13, 2007, it had a "soft opening" with a hard opening on December 15, 2007.</p><br>
<p>The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library, originally called the Central Building and more widely known as the Main Branch or as the New York Public Library, is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system and a prominent historic landmark in Midtown Manhattan. The branch, opened in 1911, is one of four research libraries in the library system. It currently contains area of 646,680 ft&sup2; and 4 stories open to public. The main entrance steps are on Fifth Avenue opposite East 41st Street.</p><br>
<p>The Librarys famous Rose Main Reading Room (Room 315) is a majestic 78 by, with 52 ft-high ceilings. The room is lined with thousands of reference works on open shelves along the floor level and along the balcony, lit by massive windows and grand chandeliers, and furnished with sturdy wood tables, comfortable chairs, and brass lamps. It is also equipped with computers providing access to library collections and the Internet as well as docking facilities for laptops. Readers study books brought to them from the librarys closed stacks. There are special rooms named for notable authors and scholars, many of whom have done important research and writing at the Library. But the Library has always been about more than scholars; during the Great Depression, many members of the general public, out of work, used the Library to improve their lot in life, as they still do.</p><br>
<p>The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, and designated a New York City Landmark in 1967. It was renamed in 2008 after businessman Stephen A. Schwarzman, who donated a large sum of money for the refurbishment of the building.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Marble on the library building is about three feet thick, and the building is Vermont marble and brick all the way through. The exterior is 20,000 blocks of stone, each one numbered in preparation for a renovation announced in 2007. It stretches 390 feet along Fifth Avenue.</p><br>
<p>Two stone lions (made of Tennessee marble) lie at either side of the stairway to the entrance. The famous pair guarding the entrance were sculpted by Edward Clark Potter. Their original names, "Leo Astor" and "Leo Lenox" (in honor of the library&#39;s founders) were transformed into Lord Astor and Lady Lenox (although both lions are male), and in the 1930s they were nicknamed "Patience" and "Fortitude" by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who chose the names because he felt that the citizens of New York would need to possess these qualities to see themselves through the Great Depression. Patience is on the south side (the left as one faces the main entrance) and Fortitude on the north.</p><br>
<p>Before the end pavilions are flagpoles, whose sculpted bronze bases designed by Thomas Hastings in 1912 were realized by the sculptor Raffaele Menconi, who often worked closely with New York architects of the Beaux-Arts generation and had a deft command of the 16th-century Italian Mannerist classical idiom that was required by Hastings design. The bronzes were cast at Tiffany Studios in Long Island City. They were rededicated to New Yorks former Reform mayor, John Purroy Mitchell.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Construction</h3><br>
<p>The consolidation of several libraries into the New York Public Library in 1901, along with the large Tilden bequest and a donation of $5.2 million from Andrew Carnegie, allowed for the creation of an enormous library system befitting the nation&#39;s largest city. However, the founders also wanted an imposing main branch.</p><br>
<p>A prominent, central site for it was available at the two-block section of Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, then occupied by the Croton Reservoir, which was obsolete and no longer needed (traces of the old reservoir still exist on the library floor).</p><br>
<p>Billingss plan called for a massive reading room on top of seven floors of book-stacks, combined with the fastest system for getting books into the hands of those who requested to read them. Following a competition among the citys most famous architects, the relatively unknown firm of Carrère and Hastings was selected to design and construct the new library. The result, regarded as the apex of Beaux-Arts design, was the largest marble structure up to that time in the United States. The cornerstone was laid in May 1902.</p><br>
<p>Work progressed very gradually on the library, which ultimately cost $9 million to build. During the summer of 1905, giant columns were put into place and work on the roof was begun. By the end of 1906, the roof was finished and the designers commenced five years of interior work. In 1910, 75 miles worth of shelves were installed to hold the collections that were designated for being housed there, with substantial room left for future acquisitions. It would take an entire year to transfer and install the books which theretofore had been located in the Astor and Lenox libraries.</p><br>
<h3>Opening</h3><br>
<p>On May 23, 1911, the main branch of the New York Public Library was officially opened. The ceremony was presided over by President William Howard Taft and was attended by Governor John Alden Dix and Mayor William Jay Gaynor.</p><br>
<p>The following day, May 24, the public was invited. The response was sensational. Tens of thousands thronged to the Librarys "jewel in the crown." The opening day collection consisted of more than 1,000,000 volumes. The New York Public Library instantly became one of the nations largest libraries and a vital part of the intellectual life of America. True to Dr. Billings plan, library records for that day show that one of the very first items called for was N. I. Grots Nravstvennye idealy nashego vremeni ("Ethical Ideas of Our Time") a study of Friedrich Nietzsche and Leo Tolstoy. The reader filed his slip at 9:08 a.m. and received his book six minutes later.</p><br>
<h3>Growth and renovation</h3><br>
<p>Dr. Harry Miller Lydenberg served as director between 1934–1941.</p><br>
<p>Over the decades, the research collection grew until, by the 1970s, it was clear that the collection would eventually outgrow the existing structure. Thus, it was decided to expand the library by burrowing under the west side of Bryant Park. In the 1980s the central research library added more than 125,000 ft&sup2; of space and several miles of bookshelf space to its already vast storage capacity to make room for future acquisitions. This expansion required a major construction project in which Bryant Park, directly west of the library, was closed to the public and excavated. The new library facilities were built below ground level. The park was then restored on top of the underground facilities and re-opened to the public.</p><br>
<p>In the three decades before 2007, the building&#39;s interior was gradually renovated. In December 2005, the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division space, with richly carved wood, marble, and metalwork, was restored.</p><br>
<p>On December 20, 2007, the library announced that it would undertake a three-year, $50 million renovation of the building exterior, which had suffered damage from weathering and automobile exhaust. The Vermont marble structure and the sculpture elements on it were to be cleaned, 3,000 cracks were to be repaired, and restoration work would also be done on the roof, stairs, and plazas. All of the work was scheduled to be completed by the centennial in 2011. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, on behalf of the library, asked the mayor of Paris to lend to New York the services of François Jousse, the city engineer responsible for lighting Paris&#39; monuments, structures and official buildings. Library director Paul LeClerc said in 2007 that “my ambition is for this to be the building you simply must see in New York at nighttime because it is so beautiful and it is so important.”</p><br>
<p>As of 2004, streaks were already blackening the white marble and pollution and moisture were corroding the ornamental statuary, causing architectural details to erode, including the edges of cornices and features on carved faces. “Tiny particles of rubber scattered by passing car tires have accumulated on the building, mixing gradually with water to turn the marble into gypsum, which causes the outer layer to crumble in a sugaring effect,” according to an article in The New York Times.</p><br>
<p>By late 2007, library officials had not yet decided whether to try to restore damaged sculptural elements or just clean and "stabilize" them. Cleaning would be done either with lasers or by applying poultices and peeling them off.In 2008, the library announced that the main branch building would be renamed in honor of Stephen A. Schwarzman, in recognition of his unconditional donation of $100 million toward the renovation and expansion of the building.</p><br>
<p>In late 2012, a Central Library Plan was announced, in which two nearby branches would be closed and their activities merged into the main building. The plan was abandoned in May 2014.</p><br>
<p>In May 2014, one of the "gilded-plaster rosettes" in the ceiling of the Rose Main Reading Room fell to the floor 50 feet below. The NYPL closed the Rose Main Reading Room and the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room for renovations. The $12 million restoration project included “recreating and replacing the rosette that fell, reinforcing each rosette with steel cables, and installing LED lighting.” The NYPL commissioned EverGreene Architectural Arts to recreate the mural in the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room, which had “suffered irreparable discoloration, overpainting and water damage” during its 105-year history. The NYPL also installed a $2.6 million book delivery system, using a conveyor belt and 24 book carts that could each carry up to 30 lbs through the library&#39;s eleven levels. The restored Rose Main Reading Room and Bill Blass Public Catalog Room reopened October 5, 2016.</p><br>
<p>From August 2017 through early 2020, the Main Branch is set to host an interim library at 42nd Street. The interim library will host part of the collection of the NYPL Mid-Manhattan Branch, located across the street at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street, since the Mid-Manhattan Branch is slated to close for renovation until 2020. The Mid-Manhattan Branch&#39;s collection of pictures would also be relocated to the Main Branch.</p><br>
<h2>Library Way</h2><br>
<p>Leading up to the Main Branch, on 41st Street between Park and Fifth Avenues, is a series of plaques known as Library Way. Library Way comprises a series of illustrated bronze sidewalk plaques featuring quotes from famous authors, poets, and other notables. It features 48 unique plaques in all, duplicated (to thus total 96 plaques) embedded along the north and the south sides of 41st Street The Wall Street Journal reports: "The quotes were selected during the 1990s by a panel that included representatives from the library; the Grand Central Partnership, which manages the Grand Central Business Improvement District; and the New Yorker magazine. And the plaques, which are graphically intriguing in their own right, were designed by Gregg LeFevre." Brochures are available at the Friends of the Library counter on the first floor of the New York Public Library (41st Street and Fifth Avenue).</p><br>
<p>Library Way is one block north of the Mid-Manhattan Library, located at 455 Fifth Avenue (at 40th Street). Granite plaques have also been placed in the sidewalks of lower Broadway in honor of ticker-tape parades held there in the past. In the garment district from 39th to 41st Street on Broadway, plaques commemorate fashion designers including Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Geoffrey Beene.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<h3>On-screen</h3><br>
<p>The Main Branch has frequently appeared or been referenced in artistic, literary, and cultural works.</p><br>
<p>It was featured in the 1978 film The Wiz when Dorothy and Toto stumble across it, one of its lions comes to life, and joins them on their journey out of Oz. It was a major location in the 2004 apocalyptic science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow. It is also featured prominently in the 1984 film Ghostbusters, when a librarian in the basement reports seeing a ghost which becomes violent when approached. Additionally, the building is featured as a wedding venue in the 2008 film Sex and the City. It was also prominently featured in the 2011 film The Adjustment Bureau.</p><br>
<p>Other films in which the library appears include 42nd Street (1933), Portrait of Jennie (1948), Breakfast at Tiffanys (1961), Youre a Big Boy Now (1966), A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Chapter Two (1979), Escape from New York (1981), Regarding Henry (1991), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and The Time Machine (2002).</p><br>
<p>In television, the library was featured in "The Library" episode of Seinfeld, in which Cosmo Kramer dates a librarian there, Jerry Seinfeld is accosted by a library cop named Mr. Bookman for late fees, and George Costanza encounters his high school gym teacher living homeless on its stairs. It is the setting for much of "The Persistence of Memory," the eleventh part of Carl Sagan&#39;s Cosmos TV series.</p><br>
<h3>In literature</h3><br>
<p>The Library also appears in literature. Lynne Sharon Schwartzs Writing on the Wall (2005) features a language researcher at NYPL who grapples with her past following the September 11 attacks. Cynthia Ozicks novel Heir to the Glimmering World (2004) set just prior to World War II, involves a scholar who has fled from Nazi Germany researching the Karaite Jews at NYPL. Matthew Reillys novel Contest (1996) sets an intergalactic gladiatorial fight in the NYPL, resulting in the buildings total destruction.</p><br>
<p>Lawrence Blochmans Death Walks in Marble Halls (1942) features a murder committed using a brass spindle from a catalog drawer. Jane Smileys Duplicate Keys (1984), also a murder mystery, featured an NYPL librarian who stumbles upon two bodies of people who died in 1930. Allen Kurzweil&#39;s novel The Grand Complication (2001) is the story of an NYPL librarian whose research skills are put to work finding a missing museum object.</p><br>
<p>Several poems involve the Library, including E. B. Whites "A Library Lion Speaks" and "Reading Room" in Poems and Sketches of E.B. White (1981); Richard Eberharts "Reading Room, The New York Public Library," in Collected Poems, 1930-1986 (1988); and Lawrence Ferlinghetti&#39;s "Library Scene, Manhattan," in How to Paint Sunlight (2001). Excerpts from several of the many memoirs and essays mentioning the New York Public Library are included in the anthology Reading Rooms (1991), including reminiscences by Alfred Kazin, Henry Miller, and Kate Simon.</p><br>
<p>The Grand Army of the Republic Hall, also known as the General Frederick W. Lander Post No. 5, Grand Army of the Republic, is an historic building located at 58 Andrew Street in Lynn, Massachusetts, in the United States. The hall was built in 1885 by members of the Grand Army of the Republic as a memorial to the Union Army veterans of the Civil War. It was one of many such halls built in the country. On May 7, 1979, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The hall is now the Grand Army of the Republic Museum.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The hall was the meeting place of the General Frederick W. Lander Post No. 5, which was one of 210 GAR posts in Massachusetts. It was designed by Wheeler & Northend, Lynn architects.</p><br>
<p>It is now the Grand Army of the Republic Museum.</p><br>
<p>Beechwood is a Gilded Age estate located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Built in 1851 for New York merchant Daniel Parrish by architects Andrew Jackson Downing and Calvert Vaux, it later became the summer estate of the Astor family. Before moving in, Mrs. Astor hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to do many renovations including the addition of a ballroom to fit the famous "Four Hundred". Beechwood became the show place for many of Mrs. Astors dinner parties. Beechwood also boasts a library, dining room and a music room with wallpaper imported from Paris. When Mrs. Astor died she left it to her son John Jacob Astor IV, who married his second wife Madeleine in its ballroom. After Johns death on the Titanic in 1912, it passed to his widow Madeleine, who turned the entire third floor into her own personal walk-in closet. After she died it was turned into Newports only living history museum and featured actors portraying the daily lives of those who inhabited, ran, and cared for the estate. While run as a tourist attraction, the estate was marketed as Astors Beechwood Mansion.</p><br>
<p>During off-season months (February to May), servants of the Astor family provided tours of the estate as if they were still living in 1891. Visitors were considered to be "applicants" for a summer job on Mrs. Astor&#39;s staff, and "applied" for any job they wished. Positions included: gardener, footman, butler, chef, housemaid, and many others. During the summer months while the Astor family was living in the mansion, Astor family members gave tours to guests. Everyone living and working in the mansion acted as though it was 1891 and acted in character throughout the tour.</p><br>
<p>The tour included two sides of the house: first, the familys side where the Astors lived, and second, the servants side, which included kitchens and servants quarters, as well as an area for the children to live. Children of the family lived with the servants until the age of 17, when they were considered adults and fully prepared for social functions. Children of the family were quickly wed at the age of 18, or as soon as possible after reaching 18.</p><br>
<p>Beechwood was featured in a season two episode of Ghost Hunters in which the TAPS team investigated claims of paranormal activity.</p><br>
<p>In January 2010 the Beechwood Theatre Company was reorganized under the umbrella of the 501c3 non-profit Beechwood Foundation as the, and the property was sold for $10.5 million to Oracle Corporation founder Larry Ellison. Ellison, who was in Newport during the summer of 2009 for training with his BMW/Oracle Racing, is linked to a deed filed at City Hall that documents the $10.5 million sale of the 39-room estate.</p><br>
<p>As of 2012, Ellison plans to convert the mansion&#39;s first floor into Beechwood Art Museum, displaying his collection of 18th and 19th century art.</p><br>
<p>Beardy Waters, a watercourse and part of the Macintyre catchment within the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Northern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The name of the river derives from two bearded stockmen, William Chandler and John Duval, who were among the first European settlers of the district through which the river flows. The river was previously known as Maybole Creek, The Beardy Water, Beardy River and The Beardy Waters.</p><br>
<h2>Course</h2><br>
<p>Beardy Waters rises below the Waterloo Range and Great Dividing Range, and flows generally north-east then north, before reaching its confluence with the Severn River, north of Glen Innes; descending 317 m over its 76 km course.</p><br>
<p>A weir construction across the Beardy Waters was commenced in October 1930 after a grant of 5,500 was made available for the work. This money was granted to pay men working on unemployment relief. Completed in July 1932 at a cost of 10,847 it has a capacity of 100 e6impgal with the flood gates closed.</p><br>
<p>Indianhead Mountain is located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Wakefield Township, Gogebic County. Indianhead Mountain is in an area called "Big Snow Country", so named because of the annual 200 in average snowfall, courtesy of the lake effect from Lake Superior. The area is home to several popular ski resorts such as Big Powderhorn and Blackjack Ski Resort.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The roots of Indianhead Mountain Resort tie in closely with the past and current economy of the area. In the late 1950s, Jack English, an amateur pilot from Chicago, over flew Indian Head Mountain. After seeing the abundant snow and area conditions, he developed Indianhead Mountain Resort. This was the impetus for the local ski industry—in the following years, other resorts opened and the area became a skiing hotspot. English is credited with creating the ski industry in the area, and shifting the local economy away from the failing iron mines to one of the most popular ski destinations in the country. An indication of how important skiing has become to the region is Gogebic Community College&#39;s ski area management program, one of the few in the country.</p><br>
<h2>Winter activities</h2><br>
<p>The area offers snowshoeing, ice skating, cross-country skiing and other winter activities. The area is best known for downhill alpine skiing. Indianhead itself only offers downhill alpine skiing.</p><br>
<h3>Skiing</h3><br>
<p>Indianhead features runs from very easy greens through double diamond. Over 95% of the hill is groomed, and although there is no official tree skiing, adventurous skiers manage it anyway. There are 10 Beginner Green runs (the largest, Voyagers Highway is in itself the size of many Midwest ski areas), seven More Difficult Blue runs, seven Most difficult Black runs, and four Expert Double Diamond runs primarily because of moguls.</p><br>
<p>The facilities normally found at the hill base are on top of the hill at Indianhead. This means that all skiing begins at the hill top, so your last lift ride for the day is up and off the hill. There are no accommodations at the base of the hill, but there are numerous trailside condos, hill top condos, and rental cabins in the area.</p><br>
<p>Indianhead is considered to be a family friendly ski area. Youngsters under age nine years ski free with a paid adult.</p><br>
<p>The mountain is serviced by three double chairlifts, one quad lift, one triple lift, one Poma lift, two T-bar lifts and a towrope. The T-bar lifts are at the base of some Expert runs.</p><br>
<p>The hill also offers NASTAR racing and has a ski school with private and group lessons. The NASTAR run has permanent course start and end structures for registration, start, timing, etc. on Sundance.</p><br>
<h2>Summer activities</h2><br>
<h3>Hiking</h3><br>
<p>The mountain is popular in the summer months with many hiking clubs and groups. Many clubs consider it a difficult, albeit enjoyable hike.</p><br>
<h3>Wildlife</h3><br>
<p>In May, the slopes become home to herds of Whitetail deer.</p><br>
<h3>Waterfalls</h3><br>
<p>The mountain is near the Black River, which provides access to some of the most well known waterfalls in the Western U.P.</p><br>
<h2>Fall colors</h2><br>
<p>The views from the top of Indianhead Mountain provide some of the best views of the Fall Colors. People travel from all over the world to see the varieties of Maple, Oak and other hardwoods change color. Indianhead Mountain is on one of the many Fall Color Routes.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Indianhead Mountain ski area is located in northwestern Michigan, 200 mi northeast of Minneapolis St. Paul via I-35 to US 2, 110 mi from Duluth, and 1.5 mi from Wakefield.</p><br>
<h2>Photographs</h2><br>
<p>Gortynia  is a municipality in the Arcadia regional unit, Peloponnese, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Dimitsana. The municipality has an area of 1,050.882 km.</p><br>
<h2>Municipality</h2><br>
<p>The municipality Gortynia was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 8 former municipalities, that became municipal units:</p><br>
<p>Dimitsana</p><br>
<p>Iraia</p><br>
<p>Kleitor</p><br>
<p>Kontovazaina</p><br>
<p>Langadia</p><br>
<p>Trikolonoi</p><br>
<p>Tropaia</p><br>
<p>Vytina</p><br>
<h2>Province</h2><br>
<p>The province of Gortynia (Επαρχία Γορτυνίας) was one of the four provinces of Arcadia Prefecture. It was abolished in 2006. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipality Gortynia and the municipal unit Gortyna.</p><br>
<p>Fowler Mountain, est. 750 ft, is a traprock mountain located 7 mi southeast of the center of Meriden, Connecticut. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. Fowler Mountain is known for its rugged topography, unique microclimate ecosystems, and rare plant communities. It rises steeply 300 ft above the Ulbrich Reservoir and the Quinnipiac River valley to the west. The mountain is traversed by the 50 mi Mattabesett Trail.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Located within the towns of Durham and Wallingford, Connecticut, Fowler Mountain is 1.2 mi long by 0.5 mi wide, although rugged topography makes the actual square mileage much larger. Fowler Mountain is an important aquifer; two reservoirs lie at the base of it: Ulbrich Reservoir to the west, in the town of Wallingford and Pistapaug Pond to the south, between Fowler Mountain and Pistapaug Mountain. The mountain is largely wooded with a few lookouts from rugged ledges over the reservoirs below.</p><br>
<p>The Metacomet Ridge continues north from Fowler Mountain as Trimountain and south as Pistapaug Mountain. The western half of Fowler Mountain drains into Muddy River, then into the Quinnipiac River, thence to Long Island Sound; the east side drains into the Coginchaug River, thence into the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and ecology</h2><br>
<p>Fowler Mountain, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs and ridgeline of Fowler Mountain. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. Fowler Mountain is also an important raptor migration path. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Fowler Mountain).</p><br>
<h2>Recreation and conservation</h2><br>
<p>Much of the summit and the west side of Fowler Mountain has been conserved as part of the undeveloped Trimountain State Park and as municipal watershed land. Suburban housing occupies the lower slopes of the east side of the mountain. Activities enjoyed on the mountain include hiking, snowshoeing, picnicking, and other passive pursuits. Swimming, boating, and fishing are prohibited in the reservoirs. The Mattabesett Trail (maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association), which stretches from the northern end of Lamentation Mountain, south to Totoket Mountain and north again to the Connecticut River, traverses the ridgeline of Fowler Mountain. A trailhead can be found on the south side of Fowler Mountain where the blue blazed Mattabesett trail crosses Howd Road after descending from Pistapaug Mountain. After traversing Fowler Mountain the trail continues directly to Trimountain; a trailhead can be found on route 68 after this traversal.</p><br>
<p>Threats to the ecosystem of Fowler Mountain include development and quarrying. In 2000, Fowler Mountain was included in a study by the National Park Service for the designation of a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail, which would include the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and the Mattabesett Trail and Metacomet Trail trails in Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>The and the have been active in conserving the viewshed of Fowler Mountain.</p><br>
<p>Wing Hall is a building on the campus of Cornell University that was built during 1912-1914. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Wing Hall was designed by architect E.B. Green, himself a Cornell alumnus, of Buffalo architectural firm Green & Wicks.</p><br>
<p>Along with Fernow Hall and Caldwell Hall, designed by the same firm, it was funded by a New York State appropriation in 1912.</p><br>
<p>It is a three-story building. Its main entrance is centered in its long elevation, with a central bay projecting slightly from flanking walls. It has a two-story three-bay-wide Ionic-columned portico, with pilasters defining the bays of the third story above.</p><br>
<p>It was built for teaching of animal husbandry, and was located near recently-built university barns, about one-half mile east of the original college buildings. Its NRHP nomination describes that "It combined extensive practical laboratory space with a library containing the herd and flock books of different breeds and an auditorium into which live animals could be brought."</p><br>
<p>The Andrew Dickson White House, commonly referred to as the "A.D. White House," is a High Victorian Gothic house on the campus of Cornell University, designed by William Henry Miller and Charles Babcock. It houses the Cornell University Society for the Humanities.</p><br>
<p>The house was commissioned in 1871 by Andrew Dickson White, co-founder and first president of the university. The house is richly decorated with stone carvings according to Whites tastes, intended to remind students of mens accomplishments and inspire them to higher purpose and an appreciation of beauty. White left the house to the university for the perpetual use of its later presidents. Presidents still use the study on the southeast side of the building as a private office/retreat.</p><br>
<p>In 1953, the house was renovated for use as the University Art Museum, and its carriage house converted into what is now the Big Red Barn, a graduate student lounge. It served in this role until 1973, and was considered for demolition. Henry Guerlac, Director of the university&#39;s Society for the Humanities, led the cause to prevent its destruction and have it placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The house library is now called the Guerlac Room in his honor. Since the construction of a new Johnson museum, the house has been used for offices of the Humanities Society.</p><br>
<p>Deke House, the Delta Kappa Epsilon or "Deke" House on the campus of Cornell University, was built in 1893 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<p>It is located at 13 South Avenue in Ithaca, New York.</p><br>
<p>The original 1893 building was designed to house only 16 students. Two sides of the exterior were clad with marble from the St. Lawrence Marble Company of Gouverneur, New York. It was built on land leased to the fraternity by Cornell University.INDENTURE dated 1 October 1893, "Cornell University to D.K.E. Fraternity," Tompkins County NY Liber 141</p><br>
<p>(Deeds), pp. 386-8, recorded 25 October 1893. Except for World War II, it was occupied continuously by the fraternity from September 1894 through May 2014. During World War II, it was occupied by Navy personnel being trained at Cornell. From September 2014 through May 2018, it will house single, male graduate and professional students.</p><br>
<p>In 1900, Miller was retained to design an addition to the original 12 x 15 foot dining room. He enclosed the loggia on the west side of the building to add 500 square feet.</p><br>
<p>In 1910, the fraternity hired the architectural firm of Gibb and Waltz of Ithaca, New York to design a new addition on the east side of the house. In response to objection of the professor occupying 9 South Avenue, Cornell required that the new east wall of the house not have any windows "except such as may be stationary and glazed with cathedral or prism glass or otherwise so that the interior may be invisible from the outside.” This wing brought the house to its present form.</p><br>
<p>In the 1990s the south half of the property was converted into a university parking lot. In 1991, the building was added to the national register, and in 2003 the City of Ithaca designated it a Landmark.</p><br>
<p>The Gordon House is a residence designed by influential architect Frank Lloyd Wright, now located within the Oregon Garden, in Silverton, Oregon. It is an example of Wright&#39;s Usonian vision for America.</p><br>
<p>It is one of the last of the Usonian series designed for American working class consumers, which—in 1939—was considered $5,000–6,000 per year. The house is based on a design for a modern home commissioned by Life magazine in 1938.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The house was designed in 1957 for Evelyn and Conrad Gordon, and finished in 1963 (four years after Frank Lloyd Wright&#39;s death). It was originally located adjacent to the Willamette River, near Wilsonville, Oregon. When its 2001 owners intended to destroy it, the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy obtained a three-month reprieve to dismantle it,</p><br>
<p>and move it to the Oregon Garden, about 21 miles (34 km) southeast of its original location. Dismantling began on March 9, 2001. The upper floor, containing two bedrooms and one bath, was moved as a single unit. Overall neglect required refurbishing of the structure&#39;s siding and roofing which was arranged by grants from the Architectural Foundation of Oregon and the Oregon Cultural Trust. A new foundation replicating the original was constructed.</p><br>
<p>The house opened one year later as the only publicly accessible Frank Lloyd Wright home in the Pacific Northwest.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>With 2,133 ft² (203 m²) of floor space, the house boasts twelve-foot (366 cm) floor-to-ceiling windows and glass French doors in the living room and Wrights classic horizontal designs and features connecting interior and exterior space. The second story features two bedrooms, each with its own private balcony. Designed based on a seven-foot square grid, the house is visually anchored to a single mass of windowless concrete block forming the walls of the small basement and kitchen and extending beyond the roofline, obscuring various vents and the large skylight to the kitchen ("workspace") below. The house is constructed of cedar and painted cinder block and continues Wrights tradition of custom patterned wood cutout window lattice known as fretwork.</p><br>
<p>The Gordon House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 22, 2004. It is cared for by the Gordon House Conservancy and available for small catered gatherings. When not reserved, the house is available for public tours as a historic house museum.</p><br>
<p>Pistapaug Mountain, also known as Paug Mountain, est. 700 ft, is a traprock mountain located 11 mi northeast of New Haven, Connecticut. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. Pistapaug Mountain is known for its rugged topography and bluff overlooks, unique microclimate ecosystems, and rare plant communities. It rises steeply 300 ft above the Pistapaug Pond and the Quinnipiac River valley to the west. The mountain is traversed by the 50 mi Mattabesett Trail.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Located within the town of Durham, Pistapaug Mountain is 2 mi long by 0.5 mi wide, although rugged topography makes the actual square mileage much larger. The Metacomet Ridge continues north from Pistapaug Mountain as Fowler Mountain and south as Totoket Mountain. Pistapaug Mountain is an important aquifer; Pistapaug Pond, located at the foot of the mountain to the east, is a drinking water supply. The mountain is largely wooded but offers a few clifftop overlooks to the west over Pistapaug Pond and the Quinnipiac River Valley.</p><br>
<p>The western half of Pistapaug Mountain drains into the Farm River, thence to the East Haven River and Long Island Sound; the east side drains into Parmalee Brook, then into the Coginchaug River, thence into the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and ecology</h2><br>
<p>Pistapaug Mountain, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs and ridgeline of Pistapaug Mountain. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. Pistapaug Mountain is also an important raptor migration path. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Pistapaug Mountain).</p><br>
<h2>Recreation and conservation</h2><br>
<p>Much of the east side of the mountain is private property; the west side is municipal watershed land. The Mattabesett Trail (maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association), which stretches from the northern end of Lamentation Mountain, south to Totoket Mountain and north again to the Connecticut River, traverses the ridgeline of Pistapaug Mountain. Activities enjoyed on Mattabesett Trail include hiking, snowshoeing, picnicking, and other passive pursuits. Pistapaug Pond is not open to the public. The trailhead for Pistapaug Mountain and the Mattabesett Trail is located between Totoket Mountain and Pistapaug Mountain on Connecticut Route 17, 4 mi east of Northford center and 3.3 mi west of the junction of Connecticut Route 77. Parking is available alongside Route 17.</p><br>
<p>The ecosystems and ridgeline of Pistapaug Mountain are most threatened by development. In 2000, Pistapaug Mountain was included in a study by the National Park Service for the designation of a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail, which would include the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and the Mattabesett Trail and Metacomet Trail trails in Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>The and the have been active in conserving the viewshed of Pistapaug Mountain.</p><br>
<p>The Herbert C. Hoover Building is the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the United States Department of Commerce.</p><br>
<p>The building is located at 1401 Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C., on the block bounded by Constitution Avenue NW to the south, Pennsylvania Avenue NW to the north, 15th Street NW to the west, and 14th Street NW to the east. It is located in the Federal Triangle, east of President&#39;s Park South (the Ellipse), north of the National Mall, and west of other Department of Commerce buildings, the John A. Wilson Building (District Building with the government of the District of Columbia / Washington, D.C.), and the Ronald Reagan Building. The building is owned by the General Services Administration.</p><br>
<p>Completed in 1932, it was renamed after Herbert Hoover in 1981. Hoover served as Secretary of Commerce (1921–1928) and later President (1929–1933). The closest Washington Metro station is Federal Triangle.</p><br>
<p>The White House Visitor Center (on the first floor) is in the Hoover Building.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Department of Commerce was established after President William Howard Taft signed legislation creating the department on his last day in office, March 4, 1913, splitting the former Department of Commerce and Labor into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor.</p><br>
<p>In 1928, Congress authorized the purchase of land in what is now known as the Federal Triangle for departmental offices. The authorization was part of a wave of government construction; the 1926 Public Buildings Act permitted the government to hire private architects for the design of federal buildings, which led to large-scale construction of public buildings, including the development of the 70 acre Federal Triangle site between the Capitol and the White House.</p><br>
<p>Soon afterward Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon and the Board of Architectural Consultants, composed of leading architects and headed by Edward H. Bennett of the Chicago architectural firm of Bennett, Parsons, and Frost, developed design guidelines for the site. Under Bennett&#39;s direction, each member of the board designed one of the buildings in the Federal Triangle complex to "provide each government agency or bureau with a building that would address its functional needs, while combining the individual buildings into a harmonious, monumental overall design expressive of the dignity and authority of the federal government."</p><br>
<p>Louis Ayres, a member of the board, was selected as the architect for the Department of Commerce Building. Ayres, Arthur Brown Jr. (assigned to the Interstate Commerce Commission building, now one of the Environmental Protection Agency buildings) and William Adams Delano (assigned to the United States Post Office Department Building, now the William J. Clinton Federal Building) were charged with forming the west end of the Triangle and creating an open green mall.</p><br>
<p>Construction began on October 4, 1927, when Herbert Hoover was the Secretary of Commerce, and the cornerstone was laid on July 10, 1929, early in Hoovers presidential term. The building was completed in 1932; The building was renamed after Hoover in December 1981 by act of Congress. USA Representative Arlan Stangeland of Minnesota co-sponsored the bill and asked the House of Representatives to "pay tribute to this great Commerce Secretary," making no mention of Hoovers presidency, which was marked by the beginning of the Great Depression. Democratic Representative John G. Fary of Illinois, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds brought the bill up for consideration as a favor to Republicans. An aide was quoted as saying, "He was a little concerned what some people might think of him bringing up a bill to honor Herbert Hoover in the midst of a Republican recession." The building was officially dedicated as the Herbert C. Hoover Building on April 25, 1983, coinciding with the release of the first volume of George H. Nash&#39;s biography The Life of Herbert Hoover: The Engineer.</p><br>
<p>Only limited upgrades were made to the Herbert Hoover Building after 1932. By 2007, all other buildings in Federal Triangle had been renovated except the Herbert Hoover Building.</p><br>
<p>In 2007, the General Services Administration announced an eight-phase, 13-year, $960 million modernization and renovation of the Herbert Hoover Building. The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approved the renovation project in 2007. The phases, each of which is to last 18 months, include:</p><br>
<p>Phase 1 — Construction of "swing space" to house staff while renovations occur; replacement of the HVAC system cooling towers on the roof.</p><br>
<p>Phase 2 — Renovation of the interior Corridor 1 (which runs parallel to Constitution Avenue NW); restoration of the entire exterior facade; and replacement of major utilities serving the building.</p><br>
<p>Phase 3 — Renovation of the interior and replacement of the roof on Corridor 2 (the second corridor north of Constitution Avenue NW).</p><br>
<p>Phase 4 — Renovation of the interior and replacement of the roof on Corridor 3 (the third corridor north of Constitution Avenue NW).</p><br>
<p>Phase 5 — Renovation of the interior and replacement of the roof on Corridor 4 (the fourth corridor north of Constitution Avenue NW).</p><br>
<p>Phase 6 — Renovation of the interior and replacement of the roof on Corridor 5 (the fifth corridor north of Constitution Avenue NW).</p><br>
<p>Phase 7 — Renovation of the interior and replacement of the roof on Corridor 6 (the sixth corridor north of Constitution Avenue NW).</p><br>
<p>Phase 8 — Renovation of the interior and replacement of the roof on Corridor 2 (the corridor parallel to Pennsylvania Avenue NW).</p><br>
<p>GSAs Federal Building Fund will contribute $605 million toward the renovation, while the Department of Commerces contribution is $128 million. Another $225.6 million, provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, funded Phases 2 and 3. Both GSA and the Department of Commerce contributions are dependent upon annual congressional appropriations. The Great Recession provided GSA with $40 million in savings.</p><br>
<p>The project also proposed creating a new Constitution Avenue entrance for the National Aquarium. The NCPC approved this redesign in 2010.</p><br>
<p>By late 2012, however, budget cuts led to an indefinite delay in completing the project. Nonetheless, GSA pressed ahead with plans in February 2012 to create a more secure barrier around the Herbert Hoover Building. GSA proposed a steel cable barrier concealed by stone cladding, deep-buried steel piers, and collapsing sidewalks. Beautification elements included two reflecting pools along 14th Street NW, which would include public seating and Capital Bikeshare stations.</p><br>
<h2>Design and art</h2><br>
<p>The building is rectangular and measures approximately 320 ft east to west and 1,020 ft north to south. It forms almost the entire west side of the Federal Triangle from Constitution Avenue to E Street. The building contains more than 3300 rooms joined by unbroken corridors one thousand feet long. Flexible partitions rather than permanent walls were a part of the original design for many of the offices to allow for changes in departmental organization. The New York Times has described it as "sprawling."</p><br>
<p>The Malcolm Baldrige Great Hall (named after Howard M. Baldrige, Jr., Commerce Secretary 1981–1985 under Ronald Reagan) is located on the first floor of the north end of the building, facing Pennsylvania Avenue, houses the White House Visitor Center, operated by the National Park Service.</p><br>
<p>The Great Hall is 225 ft long and 62 ft wide and was originally used as the Patent Search Room for more than three million patents cataloged by the Department of Commerce (the United States Patent and Trademark Office is part of the Commerce Department). As part of the United States Bicentennial celebrations, the Great Hall became the Bicentennial Visitor Center in 1976 and until 1989 housed the Washington Tourist Information Center. Renovations began in July 1993 with the restoration of the ornate plaster ceiling to restore the simple elegance of the Great Hall. The original Indiana limestone walls, bronze doors, Vermont marble base and accent flooring, and Italianate bronze chandeliers were cleaned and refurbished. In March 1995 the White House Visitor Center was opened.</p><br>
<p>Aspects of other buildings built in Federal Triangle in the 1930s are present in the building, including courtyards (natural light and ventilation are provided to inner offices by six interior courtyards and a Neoclassical (Greek Revival) architectural style (a Doric colonnade on three sides).</p><br>
<p>The 15th Street facade stretches almost three city blocks and has four pedimented pavilions featuring pediment sculpture by James Earle Fraser and Haig Patigian. The National Aquarium was located in the basement and was open to the public since the building was completed in 1932 until 2013.</p><br>
<p>Also located inside the building is the Commerce Departmental Library (also called the USA Department of Commerce Main Library), a Federal Agency Library which is open to the public but is used mainly by Commerce and other federal government employees and academics. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Census Bureau, all part of the Department of Commerce, maintain their own library collections.</p><br>
<p>Because the Census Bureau is a part of the Commerce Department, the official Population Clock at one point was located in the lobby of the Hoover Building. It briefly malfunctioned in 1982 when it showed some 50 million more Americans than estimated. The clock now resides at the Census Bureau&#39;s headquarters in Suitland, Maryland.</p><br>
<h2>National Aquarium in Washington, D.C.</h2><br>
<p>The National Aquarium in Washington, D.C. was an aquarium in Washington D.C. It was located in the Herbert C. Hoover Building that was moved to the building since its creation in 1932. It was the nation&#39;s first free and public aquarium in US. It closed on September 30, 2013 after Budget sequestration in 2013, having permanently lost its location due to the renovation of the Herbert C. Hoover Building. This was the first time that the Aquarium closed in the 140 years since its opening in 1873. The Museum is considering ways of opening at another location in Washington, D.C., but, has no specific plans yet.</p><br>
<p>Loch Gruinart  is a sea loch on the northern coast of isle of Islay in Scotland. Land at the head of the loch, Gruinart Flats, is a designated nature reserve owned by the RSPB. It is an important winter roosting site for barnacle geese. Ardnave Point is a coastal promontory near the mouth of the loch on the northwest of Islay.</p><br>
<p>The Battle of Traigh Ghruinneart was fought on the sands at the south end of the loch on 5 August 1598 between a force from Mull led by Sir Lachlan Mor MacLean of Duart and the Islay men led by Sir James MacDonald, 9th of Dunnyveg, son of Angus MacDonald of Dunyvaig and the Glens, in which Macleans were defeated and all killed including Sir Lachlan save one who survived by swimming to Nave Island.</p><br>
<p>The pìobaireachd Lament for Sir Lachlan Mor harks back to this battle which was also remembered in Islay folklore.</p><br>
<p>Besek Mountain also known as Black Mountain, est. 840 ft, is a traprock mountain ridge located 4.75 mi southeast of Meriden, Connecticut. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. Besek Mountain is known for its 3 mi long line of open cliffs, unique microclimate ecosystems, and rare plant communities. The mountain is traversed by the 51 mi Mattabesett Trail, and is home to the Powder Ridge Ski Area.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>According to the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, the word "Besek" is a corruption of "Besett", a Native American word for "black."</p><br>
<p>Considered particularly scenic is Black Pond, located on the northwest side of the mountain. Cliffs and talus slopes plunge 200 ft into the pond from the ridgeline. Other bodies of water on the mountain include the developed Besek Lake on the east side of the mountain, and the lower end of the Mount Higby Reservoir on the north side. Powder Ridge Ski Area is located on the east side of the mountain and extends to the summit. The northeast side of the mountain is occupied by a housing development, which reaches to the ridgeline. Powder Ridge or Powder Hill, 550 ft, forms the lower, eastern tier of Besek Mountain beneath the ski area. Powder Ridge is dominated by apple orchards and agricultural fields, and is traversed by Powder Hill Road; the ridge offers expansive views to the east over the Connecticut River Valley, and is a popular local scenic drive.</p><br>
<p>The Metacomet Ridge continues north from Besek Mountain as Higby Mountain and south as Trimountain. The east side of Besek Mountain drains into the Coginchaug River, thence to the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound; the southwest side drains into the Muddy River, thence into the Quinnipiac River and Long Island Sound; and the northwest side into Harbor Brook, thence into the Quinnipiac River.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and ecology</h2><br>
<p>Besek Mountain, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs and ridgeline of Besek Mountain. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. Besek Mountain is also an important raptor migration path. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Besek Mountain).</p><br>
<h2>Conservation and Recreation</h2><br>
<p>Activities enjoyed on Besek Mountain include hiking, picnicking, snowshoeing, and other passive pursuits. Downhill skiing, snowboarding, and snow tubing are offered at the Powder Ridge Ski Area. Fishing and boating are allowed on Black Pond. The mountain is traversed by the Mattabesett Trail (maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association), which stretches from the northern end of Lamentation Mountain, south to Totoket Mountain and north again to the Connecticut River. A trailhead for the Mattabesett Trail on Besek Mountain is located just west of the junction of Connecticut Route 68 and Connecticut Route 157 in Reeds Gap between Trimountain and Besek Mountain, 3 mi west of Durham center. Black Pond can be accessed via a small parking lot off East Main Street in Meriden, 1.2 mi east of Connecticut Route 15. The mountain may also be accessed via the parking area for Higby Mountain on Connecticut Route 66, just east of Black Pond, and via the ski slopes of the Powder Ridge Ski Area on Powder Hill Road in western Middlefield. Black Pond, undeveloped and scenic, is part of the Black Pond Wildlife Management Area.</p><br>
<p>The Powder Ridge Ski area, in operation for 47 years, went up for sale in 2007 after the owner was forced into bankruptcy. A Middlefield town referendum in April 2007 to buy the Powder Ridge property was voted in favor, 1,097 to 151 votes. Residents have authorized the town to bid up to $2.85 million for purchase of the property, however, due to legal complications, the sale has been postponed. In December 2007, the Powder Ridge Ski Area website indicated that the ski area was closed. In 2012, the ski park was sold to the owner of Brownstone Exploration & Discovery Park in nearby Portland, Connecticut, and was reopened as Powder Ridge Mountain Park & Resort in December 2013.</p><br>
<p>Besek Mountain, its habitat, and access to its ridgeline are most threatened by potential development. In 2000, Besek Mountain was included in a study by the National Park Service for the designation of a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail, which would include the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and the Mattabesett Trail and Metacomet Trail trails in Connecticut. United States National Park Service. Retrieved November 4, 2007.</p><br>
<p>The and the are active conservation partners in the area.</p><br>
<h2>Historic events</h2><br>
<p>The infamous aborted Powder Ridge Rock Festival was to be held on Besek Mountain July 30, August 1 and August 2, 1970 at Powder Ridge Ski Area. A legal injunction forced the event to be cancelled just a few days before it was to begin, keeping the musicians away; but a crowd of 30,000 attendees arrived anyway, to find no food, no entertainment, no adequate plumbing, and at least seventy drug pushers.</p><br>
<p>Mooki River, a perennial stream that is part of the Namoi catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Northern Tablelands district of New South Wales, Australia.</p><br>
<p>The river rises at the junction of Omaleah Creek and Phillips Creek, and forms below the Liverpool Range, south-west of Quirindi, and flows generally west of north, joined by three minor tributaries, before reaching its confluence with the Namoi River north-east of Gunnedah; descending 88 m over its 128 km course.</p><br>
<p>The towns of Quirindi and Werris Creek lie within the basin of the Mooki River, much of which is prime agricultural land. Little natural vegetation remains in the plains but river gums and other trees grow on the banks of the Mooki River. The Kamilaroi Highway and the North-west railway line cross the Mooki River near Breeza.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The earliest recorded exploration of this area is that of John Oxley and his party travelling through here in August 1818. Mooki was the name given to the river by Aboriginal tribes roaming the lower reaches.</p><br>
<p>Major flooding occurred in and around Gunnedah when the Mooki River flooded in November 2000.</p><br>
<p>Mention is made of the Mooki River in The Old Timer&#39;s Steeplechase by A. B. "Banjo" Paterson.</p><br>
<p>Mooki River.JPGMooki River at McDonagh Bridge, Oxley Highway, near Gunnedah.</p><br>
<p>Higby Mountain or Mount Higby 892 ft, is a traprock mountain ridge located 3.75 mi east of Meriden, Connecticut. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. Higby Mountain is known for its high cliff faces, unique microclimate ecosystems, and rare plant communities. It rises steeply 600 ft above the Quinnipiac River valley and the city of Meriden to the west as a continuous 2 mi long ledge. The mountain is traversed by the 50 mi Mattabesett Trail.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Located within the towns of Middletown, Meriden, and Middlefield, Higby Mountain is 3 mi long by 1.2 mi wide at its widest point, although rugged topography makes the actual square mileage much larger. Higby Mountain is an important aquifer; two reservoirs and one pond lie at the base of it: Higby Mountain Reservoir at its east foot; Adder Reservoir, on the upper eastern slope; and Black Pond between Besek Mountain and Higby Mountain. The mountain forms a conspicuous, sharp 2 mi long cliffline visible throughout the upper Quinnipiac River Valley and metropolitan Meriden. Camel&#39;s Hump, est. 750 ft, also called The Pinnacle is a prominent southern high point on the ridge just above a shallow gap called Preston Notch. (The Pinnacle should not be confused with a similarly named peak on Talcott Mountain, or with Pinnacle Rock of Farmington, Connecticut, both part of the Metacomet Ridge to the north of Higby Mountain). Interstate 91 cuts through the gap between Higby Mountain and Chauncey Peak to the north.</p><br>
<p>The Metacomet Ridge continues northwest from Higby Mountain as Chauncey Peak and south as Besek Mountain. A line of smaller hills extends from the Higby Mountain ridgeline north into Middletown; most notable of these is Fall Hill from which tumbles the 50 ft high Westfield Falls, visible from Interstate 91 just north of Higby Mountain. The north and east sides of Higby Mountain drain into Fall Brook, then Sawmill Brook, then the Mattabesett River, thence to the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound. The west and south side drain into Harbor Brook thence into the Quinnipiac River and Long Island Sound.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and ecology</h2><br>
<p>Higby Mountain, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs and ridgeline of Higby Mountain. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. Higby Mountain is also an important raptor migration path. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Higby Mountain).</p><br>
<h2>Recreation and conservation</h2><br>
<p>Activities enjoyed on the mountain include hiking, snowshoeing, bird watching picnicking, and other passive pursuits. Swimming, boating, and fishing are prohibited in the reservoirs but fishing and boating are allowed on Black Pond. The Mattabesett Trail (maintained by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association), which stretches from the northern end of Lamentation Mountain, south to Totoket Mountain and north again to the Connecticut River, traverses the ridgeline of Higby Mountain. Higby Mountain has two trailheads. There is a roadside parking area at the south end of the mountain on the westbound side of Connecticut Route 66, 1.5 mi east of Connecticut Route 15 in Meriden. The second trailhead is located at the north end of the mountain at the junction of Miner Street and Interstate 91, exit 20 in Middletown; parking is permitted along the road. Black Pond can be accessed via a small parking lot off East Main Street in Meriden, 1.2 mi east of Connecticut Route 15.</p><br>
<p>The Nature Conservancy maintains a 158 acre reservation on the south ridgeline of Higby Mountain. The town of Middletown owns part of the mountain, both as open space and as watershed. Black Pond, undeveloped and scenic, is part of the Black Pond Wildlife Management Area.</p><br>
<p>Threats to the ecosystem and ridgeline of Higby Mountain include development and quarrying. In 2000, Higby Mountain was included in a study by the National Park Service for the designation of a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail, which would include the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and the Mattabesett Trail and Metacomet Trail trails in Connecticut.</p><br>
<p>The and the have been active in conserving the viewshed of Higby Mountain.</p><br>
<p>Boč, also called the Triglav of Slovene Styria , It belongs to the municipalities of Poljčane  and Rogaška Slatina . Boč, which is among the southernmost extensions of the Karawanks mountain range, is the central mountain of the Boč–Donatus Mountain Landscape Park. It has two peaks, which are five minutes apart. At one peak, there are transmitters . In the other, a 20 m lookout tower has stood since 1962. The mountain, covered with forest and protected as a natural park, has a number of trails that vary in difficulty level and is also home to the protected Greater Pasque Flower . The plant grows in the vicinity of St. Nicholas Church  and the Hut Under Mt. Boč on the southern slope of Boč. A sculpture of the Greater Pasque Flower, work of the sculptor Franc Tobias from Razvanje, has been put on display on a small rise near its growing place.</p><br>
<p>Saltonstall Mountain, also known as Saltonstall Ridge, with a high point of  320 ft above sea level, is a traprock mountain ridge located 3 mi east of New Haven, Connecticut and 1.75 mi north of Long Island Sound. It is part of the Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. Saltonstall Mountain is known for its 100 foot scenic cliff faces and sharp ridgeline, unique microclimate ecosystems, rare plant communities, and for Lake Saltonstall, a 3 mi long by 0.3 miles  wide municipal reservoir nearly enclosed by the mountain. Saltonstall Mountain is traversed by a number of hiking trails managed by the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority  and Branford Land Trust.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Saltonstall Mountain rises steeply 200 ft above the surrounding landscape, with a high point of (est.) 320 ft. It is roughly 5.75 mi long by 1.25 mi wide and shaped like a hunting bow. The mountain lies within the towns of Branford, North Branford, and East Haven, Connecticut. Its western side is steepest, with vertical ledges and talus slopes, while its eastern side is lower and punctuated by hilly rises. The high point lies at the north end of the mountain; Lake Saltonstall is sandwiched in the mountains southern arms. Beside Lake Saltonstall, the mountain shelters several other small bodies of water, including Lidyhites Pond, located in the center of the ridge north of Lake Saltonstall; Linsley Pond and Cedar Pond, located at the mountains northern foot; and the two Branford Supply Ponds, located at the eastern foot. The Farm River runs along the western foot of the mountain. Interstate 95 cuts through the southern tip of the ridge.</p><br>
<p>The Metacomet Ridge continues north from Saltonstall Mountain as Totoket Mountain and south as Beacon Hill where the ridge terminates at Long Island Sound. To the west, the Metacomet Ridge continues from Saltonstall Mountain through urban East Haven and New Haven as a series of parallel traprock rises culminating in East Rock. An outlying peak, Peter&#39;s Rock, lies to the north-northwest of Saltonstall Mountain.</p><br>
<p>The west side of Saltonstall Mountain drains into the Farm River, thence to the East Haven River and Long Island Sound; the east side into Pisgah Brook, thence into the Branford River and Long Island Sound.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and environment</h2><br>
<p>Saltonstall Mountain, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs and ridgeline of Saltonstall Mountain. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. Examples rare plant and animal species (protected by the state of Connecticut) that live on Saltonstall Mountain include the Eastern Box Turtle, Red-shouldered Hawk, and Violet Wood Sorrel. Saltonstall Mountain is also an important raptor migration path. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Saltonstall Mountain).</p><br>
<h2>Conservation and recreation</h2><br>
<p>The southern half of the mountain is protected as public watershed managed by the SCCRWA. The SCCRWA maintains a number of hiking trails and pedestrian/bicycle roads on the ridge and along the shore of Lake Saltonstall. A permit (good for a year, fee charged), available from the SCCRWA, is required to visit the property. Permitted activities on the mountain include hiking, bicycling, picnicking, snowshoeing, and other passive activities. Notable trails include an interpretive nature trail and a dead-end ridgeline trail with precipitous views to the west. The 28 mi Branford Trail, a recreational footpath that loops around the town of Branford and visits the towns many conservation properties, passes through the east side of the SCCRWA watershed property. Fishing and boating (using the SCCRWAs boats only) are allowed on Lake Saltonstall, where the SCCRWA manages a boat rental shop and handicap accessible fishing pier in season. Swimming and dogs are prohibited, and most of the southernmost 0.5 mi of the mountain is off limits to the public.</p><br>
<p>The northern half of the mountain is surrounded by suburban subdivisions; a few reach to parts of the ridgeline. Nonetheless, the Branford Land Trust and the town of Branford manage 800 acre of protected open space on the north summit and adjoining parts of the mountain. The Branford Trail crosses through these properties. Passive activities such as hiking and picnicking are encouraged. The town of East Haven maintains open frontage on the Farm River at the west base of Saltonstall Mountain where fishing is allowed.</p><br>
<h3>Trailheads</h3><br>
<p>The SSCRWA parking lots are located off Hoseley Avenue, 1.9 mi north of USA Route 1 in Branford. A permit is required to park and use the trails or lake. There are two parking areas for the Branford Trail. The first is located on Laurel Hill Road via Brushy Hill Road, 1.25 mi north of its junction with Route 1. The second is located on Northford Avenue via Mill Plain Road, 1.2 mi north of Route 1. Three parking lots for the Branford Supply Ponds trails are located on Chestnut Street and its extension, Short Rocks Road, 0.3 miles (0.5 km) north of Route 1. Permits are not required to use the Branford Trail and Branford Supply Ponds parking areas.</p><br>
<p>Beacon Hill,  130 ft above sea level, is a traprock outcrop located 1.2 mi southeast of New Haven, Connecticut overlooking the mouth of the Farm River 1.2 miles north of Long Island Sound. It is the southern-most notable summit of the Metacomet Ridge which extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to nearly the Vermont border. Beacon Hill is known for its scenic ledges overlooking a surrounding salt marsh and the greater Sound and for its unique microclimate ecosystems and rare plant communities. Beacon Hill is traversed by several trails, most notably the 28 mi Branford Trail. The Shoreline Trolley Museum runs trolley service to the base of the hill.</p><br>
<p>Beacon Hill should not be confused with Beacon Hill of New Haven, another traprock hill, 2 mi to the west.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Beacon Hill rises steeply 100 ft above the surrounding landscape and (est.) 130 ft above Long Island Sound. It is roughly 0.8 mi long by 0.3 miles (0.5 km) wide. The hill lies within the town of Branford. The Farm River runs along the west side of the hill and a tributary salt marsh extends around the south and southeast sides. USA 1 borders the hill to the north and separates it from Saltonstall Mountain. A small rock quarry (Johnson&#39;s Quarry) abandoned in 1942, occupies the south end of the hill.</p><br>
<p>The Metacomet Ridge continues north from Beacon Hill as Saltonstall Mountain. Low outcrops of traprock continue south from the hill to the shore of Long Island Sound and out into the sound as tide-swept rock outcrops and tiny islands.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and ecology</h2><br>
<p>Beacon Hill, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The hill formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and earthquake activity tilted the strata, creating the cliffs of Beacon Hill. Hot, dry upper slopes, cool, moist ravines, and mineral-rich ledges of basalt talus produce a combination of microclimate ecosystems on the mountain that support plant and animal species uncommon in greater Connecticut. (See Metacomet Ridge for more information on the geology and ecosystem of Beacon Hill).</p><br>
<h2>Conservation and recreation</h2><br>
<p>Beacon Hill, open to hiking, picnicking, snowshoeing, bird watching, and other passive pursuits, is isolated from the surrounding suburban areas of Branford and East Haven by salt marsh, riverway, and other wetlands. The hill is steep, with talus slopes in several locations, and offers scenic vistas of Long Island Sound and protected salt marsh from a number of outlooks. Several hiking trails cross the property, most notably the Branford Trail, which loops around the circumference of the town of Branford, passing through a number of scenic conservation areas. Short Beach, also a Branford Land Trust property, lies 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south of Beacon Hill along the Branford Trail.</p><br>
<p>An historic trolley, run by the non-profit Shoreline Trolley Museum, drops hikers and picnickers at a platform at the base of Beacon Hill. The Shoreline Trolley is the oldest running suburban trolley in the United States. Parking for Beacon Hill and the Branford Trail is located on a cul-de-sac at the end of Dominican Road in Branford, less than 0.25 miles (0.3 km) south of USA 1 near the East Haven border.</p><br>
<p>Beacon Hill and several surrounding parcels were conserved by the cooperative effort of the Branford Land Trust, the state of Connecticut, the Town of Branford, and other partners.</p><br>
<p>Jintang Island  is an island in the Zhoushan prefecture-level city in China&#39;s northeastern Zhejiang province. It has a population of about 41700.</p><br>
<p>It is one of the closest islands to the continental shore of Zhejiang, being only 3.6 km from the southern Ningbo Beilun port and 6.25 km from the eastern Zhoushan Island. Jintang is Zhoushan&#39;s fourth largest island with an area of 76.4 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The name Jintang Island is literally translated as "Golden Pond Island".</p><br>
<p>It derived its name from the 2 ponds built on the western side of the island by the locals to prevent erosion of the western coastline. The soil of the inner pond coastline became fertile and rich in minerals, bringing about bountiful harvests to the locals who dub the island "Golden Pond" (金塘).</p><br>
<h2>Industries</h2><br>
<p>factJintang Island is largely an agricultural community. Its thriving industries include farming, fishing and furniture production.</p><br>
<p>It is most famous for the production of Jintang Plums (金塘李), a local fruit. The fruit has received a number of awards and accolades, earning a Zhejiang Province High Quality Agricultural Product Exhibition Silver Award in 1998 and subsequently a Gold Award in 1999 when the island was also conferred the namesake of "Jintang Plum Township (金塘李之乡)" by the provincial government.</p><br>
<p>Jintang Island coastal waters produce a large number of marine products, such as squid, cuttlefish, fish, and more.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>Transport between Jintang and Zhoushan is made by boat.</p><br>
<p>In April 2006 work began for the construction of two bridges, the Xihoumen Bridge (西堠门大桥) and Jintang Bridge (金塘大桥) connecting Zhoushan Archipelago with the country&#39;s continental area, an improvement long-awaited by Zhoushan people. They are scheduled to be completed in 2008.</p><br>
<p>The two bridges are the second phase of a huge "continent-island joint project" launched by Zhoushan in 1999 to link the archipelago with the mainland through five bridges. Construction of the other three bridges have been completed.</p><br>
<h3>Xihoumen Bridge</h3><br>
<p>The 5.3-kilometer-long Xihoumen Bridge, linking Jintang and Cezi, two major islands of the archipelago, is a suspension bridge consisting of a 2.6-kilometer sea-crossing bridge and 2.7-kilometer side joint sections on both ends, costing 2.48 billion yuan (US$299.87 million). It allows the passage of ships of 30,000 dead weight tonnage.</p><br>
<h3>Jintang Bridge</h3><br>
<p>The Jintang Bridge, linking Jintang Island and Zhenhai (on Ningbo prefecture), will be 27 km long. The 7-billion-yuan project consists of an 18.5 km sea bridge and joint sections totaling 8.5 km.</p><br>
<p>On 27 March 2008, there has been an accident involving a Taizhou freighter that hit the bridge construction site. Two pieces of reinforced concrete from the bridge weighing 3000 tons each got stuck in the cockpit of the freighter, which was moving at a fast pace. The accident will result in further delay to the completion of its construction.</p><br>
<p>There are plans by a Sino-Italian consortium to build an archimedes bridge in the 3,300 m Jintang strait.</p><br>
<p>is also planning to build a proposed 12 container berths worth 10 billion yuan (US$1.25billion) in future at Jintang Island in anticipation of fierce competition from Shanghai&#39;s.</p><br>
