Dan -  OK, OK.  So, before I get to my landing-per-usual schtick, I guess I owe you and my loyal readers (whoever you are) an explanation for my long absence from the blogosphere.  It’s really nothing all that dramatic – just a new job (tough to teach an old dog new tricks), the holidays, and a 91-year-old Mom who’s not doing so well these days.   But anyway, I figured that I needed to get back in the saddle, so here goes . . .

After my incredible 9/10 USer run, I’ll settle back to earth a little with a landing in my old nemesis, that OSer-magnet . . . MT; 115/95; 8/10; 8; 154.4.

Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to Glendive:

Here’s a broader view, showing my proximity to the Yellowstone R (the river just NW of my landing):

Here’s my GE shot, showing that I landed near the “Upper Labell Reservoir”  (about which I could find nothing  . . .)

Speaking of the Yellowstone, obviously, I landed in the Yellowstone watershed (49^th hit); on to the Missouri (364^th hit); to the MM (776^th).

Actually, as shown in this close-in map, the Yellowstone flows right past Glendive:

Here’s a shot of the Yellowstone R, a Panaramio shot taken by bmtpix from the I-94 bridge near Glendive:

Here’s another shot of the river in Glendive (by Montana Home):

I couldn’t find much of great interest about Glendive, although, as the Chamber of Commerce website points out:

“Some famous folks have set a spell here…

The Lewis & Clark Expedition spent their last night in Montana here by the Yellowstone in 1806. General Custer camped here before he met his demise on the Little Big Horn.”

Near Glendive is the Makoshika State Park.  This is an awesome place; here are a few photos, beginning with this Panaramio shot by Larens Hoddenbagh:

Here’s another, from the Montana Film Office:

As a geologist, I was excited to find that the famous K-T boundary is clearly visible at the Park.  Just in case any of my readers don’t know, “K” is geo-speak for “Cretaceous”, the geologic period that ended about 65 million years ago.  Just younger than the Cretaceous is the “Tertiary” period.  Of course, this boundary is famous for the simple reason that the dinosaurs were flourishing during the Cretaceous, and entirely absent during the Tertiary. 

As most folks know, the most widely-accepted theory is that a meteorite struck the earth just off the Yucatan Peninsula, creating world-wide havoc that quickly lead to the dinosaur’s demise. 

Anyway, in this photo by geology professor John Isbell (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), the KT boundary is marked by the black coal unit that’s visible across the middle of the outcrop:

Very cool.  Dinosaur fossils below; no dinosaur fossils above.  John has a very cool photo website; click here to see how incredibly interesting, fun and exciting it can be to study geology, in places like Antarctica, Argentina, Tasmania & the Bahamas.

I’ll close with this peaceful shot of cattle grazing near the banks of the Yellowstone (a Panaramio shot by z kubesh):

That’ll do it.

KS

Greg

© 2011 A Landing A Day

Note to casual readers:  You probably want to skip the first part of this post and start with the landing map . . .

Dan -  Are you sitting down?  You better be (and hanging on to something for extra support as well).  For the first time since landing 765 (that would be one thousand, two hundred and six landings ago, which occurred one week before Christmas, 2005), I have landed on a USer 9 times out of my last 10 landings.  And why not a landing in . . . TX; 143/173; 9/10; 7; 154.0.

And, just for the heck of it, get this:   the December 18, 2005 landing mentioned above was the first 9/10 since landing 27 (May 13, 1999).    Of course, my earliest landings were a bunch of 10/10s and 9/10s when I had a wide open map full of nothing but USers.  But anyway, only twice in 1,944 landings have I seen a 9/10.

And while I’m at it, here’s what my early landing spreadsheet looked like:

As a review, the numbers in column B are the Score.  Red means the score is the lowest ever.  States highlighted in red were hit for the first time.  Column C has a “1” for USers and a “0” for OSers.  Column D records USers/10 landings – there you’ll see the 9 for landing 27.  It’s interesting that landing 27 marked the beginning of an 0/5 run, and I said goodbye to 9/10 until landing 765 . . .

OK, OK, enough of the esoteric minutiae of landing statistics.  Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to Sylvester:

FYI, Roby is the next little town just to the west of Sylvester; I had a 2009 landing in Roby where my post was all about the “Roby 43” lottery winners.

Here’s a broader view:

I landed in the Clear Fork of the Brazos River watershed (3rd hit); on to the Brazos (25th hit); on to the G of M.

Here’s my GE shot that shows an agricultural area, interspersed with some scrub and maybe some oil wells:

Here’s a little Sylvester history, from Wiki (most of which is borrowed from the Handbook of Texas website):

The Compere brothers of Abilene are credited with the founding of the community in 1903. They bought part of the AJ Ranch in anticipation of the arrival of the Kansas, Mexico and Orient Railroad.   They named the new town in honor of W.W. Sylvester, the railroad’s promotion manager.  [Pretty blatant tactics to make sure the railroad went through the town, eh?]  The rails reached Sylvester in 1905 [no surprise] and businesses followed.

By 1909, the community had an estimated population of 600.  Sylvester incorporated in 1927 although in 1930 the population had fallen to 382 residents.  It had reverted to unincorporated status by 1950 and by the 1980s, fewer than 100 people remained in the community.

Although Sylvester is unincorporated, it continues to have a post office in operation with the zip code of 79560.

Moving right along.  I stumbled on a cool blog by Steven Maier (stevenmaier.com), and he had a post entitled “Ghost Town – Sylvester, TX.  Here’s a screen shot of his post title:

Here’s another screen shot (a little scrolled down from the above), showing a couple of pictures of an abandoned school along with Steven’s commentary:

Check out the entire post (and the rest of his blog) here.

I’ll close with this Panaramio wheat field shot by Kevin McCollum:

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

© 2011 A Landing A Day

Dan -  I’m running out of superlatives, so I’ll just say “Holy Cow! -  Another USer!,” as I landed in your sort-of-erstwhile-home state of . . . VA; 16/28; 8/10; 6; 154.5. 

Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to Emporia:

Here’s a broader view:

My GE shot shows that (for the second landing in a row), it appears that I landed in a tree farm:

For only the second time, I landed in the Meherrin R watershed; on to the Chowan (4^th hit); on to Albemarle Sound (8^th hit).

So, here’s a little blurb from the Emporia city website:

The City of Emporia (pop. 5,700) is the southern gateway to Virginia. Just 8 miles from the North Carolina line, it is the first municipality on I-95 heading into Virginia. Emporia is an hour’s drive (65 miles) from the Capital City of Richmond, three hours’ drive (180 miles) from the Nation’s Capital, Washington, D.C., and strategically “mid-way between the Big Apple and Disney World.”  

Being both a geography guy and a numbers guy, I must check out the claim that Emporia is mid-way between New York & Disney World.  On to Google Maps . . .

OK.  From NY to Emporia is 404 miles, taking 7 hours and 26 minutes. 

From Emporia to Disney World is 693 mi, taking 11 hours and 15 minutes. 

BUSTED!!

Perusing the Google map, my first guess for a half-way point is Fayetteville NC (like Emporia, right on I-95).  Bingo!  From NY to Fayetteville is 548 miles and from Fayetteville to Disney World is 553. 

From the FayettevilleHotelInfo.com website:

For travelers out on the super highways, the Howard Johnson Express Inn in Fayetteville stands halfway between New York and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

Now that’s more like it. 

Obviously, any hotel in Fayetteville could make the claim, but my research indicates that only the HoJo figured this out (or cared to use the info).

Moving right along . . .

The Emporia website identifies Emporia as “perched on the fall line of the Coastal Plain . . .” 

As a geologist, I’m very familiar with the fall line.  On an eastern regional geologic map, the coastal plain runs along the coast (from NY south to GA), and is composed of a great thickness (many thousands of feet) of relatively young unconsolidated sediments – stratified layers of sand, silt and clay.  There’s a distinct boundary at the western edge of the coastal plain, where solid (and very ancient) bedrock underlies the Piedmont Province.

Take a river, any river, that starts up on the Piedmont and runs towards the ocean (which, of course, they all do.)  When the river crosses the fall line, inevitably, there is a water fall (or more typically) some rapids.  Then, the river makes its way lazily across the relatively flat coastal plain.

Here’s a map showing the fall line:

Of course, Dan – our home town of Pennington NJ is a mere few miles from the fall line, and a fall line city – Trenton.

From familysearch.org, this about fall line towns:

At the southeastern edge of the Piedmont is the (water) fall line, where rivers drop to the coastal plain. Towns grew at the fall line because cargo on boats had to be portaged around the waterfalls which also served as an important early source of water power. Mills built to harness this resource encouraged the growth of towns. The larger rivers were navigable from the ocean up to the fall line, providing a trade route for those mill towns.

And this, from the same website, about the Fall Line Road:

The Fall Line Road (or Southern Road) was the road built to connect most of those growing mill towns (Emporia is between Petersburg and Warrenton).

By 1735 the Fall Line Road forked off of the King’s Highway at Fredericksburg, Virginia and continued south along the fall line. The rivers above each waterfall or rapid were relatively easy to ford because they were not subject to ocean tides, or marshes. Connecting the river fords and nearby mill towns with overland roads helped migration and trade.

I’ll close with this shot of Little Texas (just SW of my landing), from Panaramio and taken by Taber Andrew Bain:

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

© 2011 A Landing A Day

Dan -  Oh my LG!  Unbelievably, it continues with this landing in . . . GA; 34/38; 7/10 (7/8); 5; 155.1.

Here’s my landing map, showing that I landed just south of a good ol’ Georgia “round town,” Screven:

Here’s a broader view:

I landed in the Penholoway Ck watershed, on to the Altamaha R (7^th hit).

Here’s my GE shot, showing that I landed in an ill-defined agricultural setting:

Fortunately, there was GE Street View coverage on the road (Hortense Road) located 0.1 mi west of my landing.  Here’s the shot towards my landing, showing that I landed in an evergreen (Christmas tree?) farm:

So, I couldn’t find much (read “anything”) of interest about Screven.  I did find out that it was named after General James Screven, a Revolutionary War hero.  Here’s a picture of the good General:

As found at the Quarterman Family Project History website, accredited to the Midway GA Museum:

“Toward the end of 1778, the theatre of war was transferred to the Southern Provinces, and the British planned an invasion of Georgia from East Florida. One British force was sent by sea to Sunbury [about 48 mi NE of my landing, near the coast], and another by land (under Col. Prevost) to rendezvous with the Naval forcey. Colonel Prevost’s force set out in November, 1778, toward Sunbury, destroying and plundering the plantations in its path.

“Colonel John White posted about one hundred continentals with two pieces of light artillery at the Midway Church  and constructed a breastwork just south of it, hoping to hold off Prevost until help arrived from Savannah. When General James Screven arrived with some twenty militiamen, the Americans moved their position 1 1/2 miles south of the Church. During the skirmish which followed, General Screven was wounded and captured; he died while in the hands of the enemy.

Here are some more details from Stacy’s Records (a late 1895 local history), from the same website:

“ . . . Gen. Screven and some of his party crossed the swamp to reconnoitre, but falling into an ambuscade he fell mortally wounded, receiving three wounds, one of which was inflicted after he had fallen . . ..”

What a dastardly deed, shooting the General after he was already down and seriously wounded.  And then, they didn’t finish him off . . .

Obviously, General Screven and his unsuccessful skirmish in SE GA doesn’t make general Revolutionary War history books.  But hey.  The good General (and two of his troops) paid the ultimate price for supporting the revolution . . .

Here’s a plaque commemorating the battle:

I’ll close with this countryside shot taken a few miles southwest of my landing (Panaramio shot by fuscia):

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

© 2011 A Landing A Day

Dan -  Wow.  This is practically overwhelming.  Five USers in a row and 6/7, with this landing in . . . CA; 90/105; 6/10; 4; 155.7.  Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to Garberville:

By the way, this was my 1968th landing; noteworthy I guess because I graduated from high school in 1968.  Anyway, here’s a broader view (which shows the Eel R just east of my landing):

Here’s my GE shot, showing an open meadow / pasture surrounded by woods.  Off to the right, is the S Fk of the Eel R, and the (somewhat) famous Highway 101.

Obviously, I landed in the watershed of the S Fk of the Eel R (2^nd hit); on to the Eel (5^th hit).  This makes the Eel the 145^th watershed on my list of watersheds with 5 or more landings.  Here’s a nice shot of the S Br of the Eel R, just north of my landing (a Panaramio shot by “aksnowbunny”):

I landed in northern Mendocino County, just south of Humboldt County.  Here’s what Wiki had to say about Garberville, under the “Economy” section:

There is a Cannabis College in Garberville, and the town has been called “the marijuana heartland of the US” by BBC News.

Cannabis College?  Really?  Well, apparently, yes, really.  Here’s a screen-saver shot of the 707 Cannabis College website (by the way, “707” is the area code):

Here’s some more info on Humboldt County, from Wiki:

Humboldt County is widely known for its cultural attributes associated with the cultivation and proliferation of marijuana. In the years before the growing and use of marijuana for medical reasons became legal – from the early 70s through the 80s – Humboldt County saw a large migration of the Bay Area counter-culture to its region. Many came looking to purchase cheap land, and ended up growing marijuana to pay for the land.

Especially around Garberville and Redway, the rural culture and hippie scene eventually collaborated to create a “hippy-billy” community in which marijuana became the center of the economy.

Kind of sounds like the wild west, eh?  Anyway, enough about the illegal weed . . .

I’ll close with shot of a bridge over the S Br of the Eel, a Panaramio Shot by Richard Campbell (during what must be the dry season):

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

© 2011 A Landing A Day

Dan -  Gettin’ even wilder ‘n crazier now, with my fourth USer in a row (and 5/6) as I landed in an erstwhile OSer but now a proud USer . . . PA; 27/29; 6/10; 156.2.  Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to Guys Mills:

Here’s a broader view:

Here’s my GE shot, showing that I landed near a north-south road that separates farm fields to the east from some wetlands to the west.  (Unfortunately, there’s no Street View coverage on the road.)

I landed in the Woodcock Ck watershed; on to the French Ck (2^nd hit); on to the Allegheny R (7^th hit); on to the Ohio R (123^rd hit); on to the MM (775^th hit).

So, I couldn’t out much about Guys Mills, however, if you check out my landing map, you’ll see the little towns of New Richmond and Lyona.  Well, between those towns is the old farmstead of John Brown.  Not just any old John Brown, but the famous abolitionist who was hung after his unsuccessful 1859 raid on the Federal Depot at Harper’s Ferry WV (to obtain weapons for a planned slave rebellion).

From ExplorePAHistory.com:

In Pre-Civil War Crawford County, Pennsylvania, the farm of the great abolitionist John Brown played a strategic role in the Underground Railroad. Disbursing “depots” in the area, John Brown aided in the passing of an estimated 2,500 slaves. In the town of New Richmond, his farm and tannery was a major stop on the Railroad, marking its place in history from 1825 to 1835. The farm, now a museum, proves to be an educational, exhilarating experience as you learn more about this great man of history and his many heroic efforts. Tour the remnants of the tannery and take a walking path to the cemetery

Here’s a picture of the “remnants of the tannery:”

Here are some excerpts from a fine article I found in HubPages.com, by “solokoyote”,

The old farm house, remnants of the tannery building, and the small cemetery remain on the isolated, rural country road. John Brown, who led the failed raid on federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry on October 16, 1859, is still remembered, in this small place called New Richmond.

The former John Brown farm, today the John Brown Museum, is located about 12 miles from the county seat at Meadville, Crawford County in northwestern Pennsylvania. The region, when Brown arrived to farm and tan hides, was then a semi-pioneer wilderness, dotted with small, almost frontier settlements in 1826. When John Brown arrived, the nation was at a threshold of history over the question of slavery..

Brown, who was born in Connecticut in 1800, spent more time at the New Richmond farm than at any other location during his lifetime. At the homestead, Brown suffered some deeply personal tragedies. He buried his first wife, Diange Lusk, on the farm not far from the house in 1832 following complications from childbirth. He married her in 1820, and together they had seven children; two children died in New Richmond and are buried in the burial plot.

Later, Brown also met and married, 17 year old Mary Day, who lived in Meadville and worked at the Brown tannery. Brown and Day had 13 children together. Some died in childhood, others remained with Brown and joined his militia in his later years. Day shared a final meal with Brown the day before he was hung in Charles Town on December 2, 1859.

Brown was not a hermit type farmer during his New Richmond days on the 200 acre farm. He was a community activist, a person on the threshold by today’s standards. He was appointed the first postmaster for the region by President John Quincy Adams and held the position for seven years; Brown opened the first school in the area using the second floor of his farmhouse. He was an accomplished surveyor and laid out many of the roads in the area.

Brown, during the time he spent in New Richmond, was actively involved in the anti-slavery movement. Although many of the actions of the Underground Railroad remained secret, because of the violent and tumultuous political climate, Brown appears to have been actively involved in helping to transport slaves from the then-frontier settlement of Meadville to freedom further north into Canada.

Wow.  John fathered 20, count ‘em, 20 children.  Much easier for him than for the poor missuses.  Here are a couple of pix of ol’ John; here he is as an intense younger man:

And here he is as an intense older man:

I’ll close with this Panaramio shot of Guys Mills by H.D. Pat:

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

© 2011 A Landing A Day

Dan -  Getting’ wild ‘n crazy now, with my third USer in a row (and 4/5) as I landed in an erstwhile OSer but now a proud USer . . . NC; 34/35; 5/10; 156.8.  Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to Ellerbe:

Here’s a broader view:

I landed in the Cartledge Ck watershed, on to the Pee Dee R (8^th hit), on to the AO.

Here’s my GE shot, which shows I landed in a little patch of woods near a highway, but also near some peculiarly-cleared areas:

It looks kind of like they’re clearing out the woods to build a highway, eh?  Well, wouldn’t you know.  When I activated Google Earth’s Street View feature, this very peculiar view came up:

The blue lines are roads that were present when the Google Street View camera-carrying cars went through the area taking their Street View pictures.  Obviously, these are brand new roads that were built after the date of the basic Google Earth aerial photo.  I’ve never seen this before . . .

So anyway, here’s a Street View shot of my landing from one of the newly-built highways.  I love the way the push-pin appears to be sunk down in the trees . . .

Anyway, back to Ellerbe.  Maybe the folks that live around there would disagree, but the big story the surrounds Ellerbe is the fact that Andre the Giant had a ranch near the town, and after he died in 1993, his ashes were spread there. 

So, Dan.  Do you know who Andre the Giant is?  From Wiki:

André René Roussimoff (1946 – 1993), best known as André the Giant, was a French professional wrestler.  His size was a result of acromegaly, and led to him being called “The Eighth Wonder of the World“.

André Roussimoff was born in France to parents of Bulgarian and Polish ancestry. As a child, he very early displayed symptoms of his acromegaly, reaching a height of 6’3″ and weight of 240 pounds by age 12. Unable to fit on the school bus, he was driven to school by playwright Samuel Beckett, a friend of his father.

FYI, acromegaly is the syndrome that involves the production of an excess of the growth hormone. 

Eventually reaching a height of 7’ 4” and weighing over 500 pounds, Andre was a huge hit in the wacky, weird world of professional wrestling.  His career peaked in the 70s and 80s.  In 1987, he performed in front of the largest wrestling audience of all time (90,000 fans), at “Wrestlemania” event featuring Andre and Hulk Hogan  at the Pontiac Silver Dome in Detroit.

Here’s a picture that gives you an idea of how big ol’ Andre was:

Oh yea.  That’s him on the left. . . (and the guy on the right ain’t small)

So, this is the first post where I’ve run into Samuel Beckett.  Strange, isn’t it, that Sam drove Andre to school in Paris?  But hey, true confessions:  being a geologist / engineer type of guy, I guess I knew Samuel Beckett was a writer, but I don’t really have a clue what he was all about.  Here’s a quick summary from Wiki:

Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906 – 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human culture, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.

Beckett is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century. Strongly influenced by James Joyce, he is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many later writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists.  He is one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called the “Theatre of the Absurd“.

Ouch.  I’m a more-or-less straight-ahead kind of guy.  There’s probably a good reason I don’t know much about Mr. Beckett.

But hey, they built a beautiful bridge in Dublin that they named after him.  Check this out:

It’s time to turn the page on my Ellerbe chapter, but not until I show you this shot of “butt rock,” located in Blewitt Falls Lake, a dammed-up piece of the Pee Dee River located about 7 miles southwest of my landing:

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

© 2011 A Landing A Day

Dan -  Holy cow.  Two USers in a row, and a big three for four, as I landed in . . . TX; 142/172; 4/10; 1; 157.4.  I hope you noticed that after a run of 13 landings where I was 3/10 or worse, I’ve broken into the much more positive 4/10+ category.  Let’s see how long I can stay . .

Anyway, here’s my landing map, showing that I landed just south of Athens:

Here’s a broader view:

Believe it or not, this was my third landing in the Coon Ck watershed, on to the Catfish Ck; to the Trinity R (11th hit). 

Here’s my GE shot, showing that I landed on the Athens campus of the East Texas Medical Center!

Here’s a StreetView shot – I landed just to the right of the water tower. 

Here’s a nice shot of the main building on the campus:

I learned that the East Texas Medical Center is a huge regional organization with facilities all over East Texas.

But enough of health care.  This landing is actually more about . . . hamburgers.  That’s right, hamburgers.

I was checking out the Athens website, and right on the home page was this inviting link:

So, of course, I clicked, and I found an interesting article by Frank Tolbert (as written in “Tolbert’s Texas.”) 

Frank starts his article in dramatic style, thusly:

“It took me years of sweatneck research before I finally determined, at least in mine and in some other Texas historians’ estimation, that Fletcher Davis (1864-1941), also known as “Old Dave” of Athens, Texas, invented the hamburger sandwich.”

He goes on to tell a convincing tale of Old Dave’s little café in Athens that was serving what eventually was called a hamburger back in the late 1880s.  But the hamburger’s break out moment occurred at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, when Old Dave set up a booth on the midway.  His booth was noticed by a reporter for the New York Tribune, who mentioned the delicious sandwich. 

Anyway, as I was reading this, I was thinking . . .

 “Wait a minute!  Last summer, I was driving south on I-95 in Connecticut with Jody (my wife) and Robbi (a friend).  Robbi said she had a hankering for a hamburger, but she really wanted an extra-special burger that was not from a fast food joint or from any franchise for that matter.  So Robbi called our friend Bob, who was back in New Jersey near his computer.  She asked Bob to find us a good burger joint in New Haven (which was about 30 miles down the road). . . .

 “Bob (being a good-natured, helpful kind of guy), hopped on his computer and then called back in a minute, telling us that we should eat at Louis’ Lunch.”

 Here’s what you see after you Google “New Haven Hamburger” (which is what I assume Bob did):

No wonder Bob told us to eat there!  And, of course, he told us that we’d be eating at the birthplace of the hamburger.

Anyway, it’s a very cool place, but I didn’t land near New Haven, so I don’t want to spend too much time describing Louis’ Lunch.  You can Google it if you want to see pictures and learn more.  But anyway, as I read more of Frank Tolbert’s hamburger history article, I became intrigued, because Frank actually went out of his way to debunk the Louis’ Lunch claim!

 Here’s what Frank has to say:

In 1974, the New York Times ran a story in which one Kenneth Lassen claimed that his grandfather Louis Lassen “invented” the hamburger sandwich in 1900 in a small café in New Haven, Connecticut.  And Kenneth Lassen complained that “the birthplace of the American hamburger, a tiny restaurant called Louis Lunch, was in danger of being replaced by a twelve-story medical complex. . .”

The New York Times story admitted that “a serious challenge to the title is a theory supported by the McDonald’s Corporation, the nationwide hamburger chain.  McDonald’s historians have researched the problem and claim the inventor was an unknown food vendor at the St. Louis Fair in 1904.”

After this New York Times story was published I got a letter from a New Haven native, Neil E. Shay, now of Dallas.  He wrote:

“A pox on the New York Times for bulldozing honest facts out of the way.  Let me state that Looie (Louis Lassen) sold one fine steak sandwich but it was never a hamburger.  Up until I left the City of the Elms and New Ideas, New Haven, circa 1933, Louis Lassen was still serving this steak sandwich – never a hamburger.  It was probably beef off the rump, cut in thin slices.  And it was really something to take to bed with you around midnight after a social event.”

When he heard about the New Haven Preservation Trust having plans to declare “the dimly lit, twelve-by-eighteen, Louis Lunch building a historic landmark,” Clint Murchison, Jr. [the grandson of an Athens banker who knew Old Dave and has been in contact with Frank Tolbert], told me:

“Let’s face it: if we let the Yankees [not the baseball team, but all of us damn northerners] get away with claiming the invention of the hamburger sandwich they’ll be going after chili con carne next.  The New Haven claim as the birthplace of the American hamburger is a phony one, and the quicker they tear down that old building and raise the medical complex the better.”

Phew.  Don’t mess with Texas . . .

 So, Frank goes on with significant evidence that in fact it was Old Dave who had the booth at the World’s Fair.  Anyway, one other interesting tidbit from Frank’s article is about how French Fries got their name.  You’ll never believe it, but this is all tied in with Old Dave’s trip to the St. Louis World’s Fair.  Once again, quoting Frank:

. . .Fletcher Davis was “interviewed by a fancy dan reporter for the New York Tribune who also asked about the fried potatoes served with thick tomato sauce.”  Mr. Davis told the reporter that the sandwich was his idea but he learned to cook the potatoes that way from a friend who lived in Paris, Texas.

Clint Murchison, Jr., quoted his grandfather as saying: “Apparently the 1904 reporter thought Old Dave said Paris, France, in referring to the way the potatoes were cooked.  For the New York Tribune story on the hamburger said the sandwich was served with french fried potatoes.”

Hey Dan, notice the “fancy dan” reference?  Aren’t you a fancy dan reporter for the Denver Post?

Anyway, click here to read all of Frank’s hamburger history article:

 I’ll close with this lovely picture of a Great Blue Heron, taken at nearby Lake Athens  (Panaramio shot by Larry David Hodge):

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

© 2011 A Landing A Day

Dan -  Wow.  All the way up to 3/10 with this landing in . . . NM; 70/79; 3/10; 13; 157.9.  Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to Des Moines:

Here’s a broader view:

Here’s my GE view, showing an ill-defined arid, very rural, landscape:

I landed in the Corrumpa Ck watershed (Ay Corrumpa!); on to the Beaver R (7^th hit); to the N Canadian R (14^th hit); to the Canadian R (39^th hit); to the Arkansas R (108^th hit); to the MM (774^th hit).

OK, so it’s not “Ay Corrumpa,” the expression is actually “Ay Corumba.”  Hey close enough.  I Googled Ay Corumba and was embarrassed to find out what it means.  However, it’s common enough, even being one of Bart’s expressions on The Simpsons . . .

Speaking of Corrumpa Creek, here’s a picture of where the Santa Fe Trail heads down from the rim of the Corrumpa Creek valley (McNees Crossing).  This is somewhere in Union County, which is county I landed in.  I think we’re looking at the actual trail itself.  Very cool.  The early 1800s version of an interstate highway . . .

By the way, McNees crossing was named after Robert McNees who was killed by Indians there in 1828.

So what about Des Moines?  Well, it’s one of four US towns called Des Moines.  Iowa has the big one, of course, but there’s also one in WA and one in CA.   I’d guess these towns grew up around Catholic monasteries, as  “Moines” in French means “monks.”  Des Moines NM has all of 177 people (as of the 2000 census).

Des Moines is very close to not one, but two volcanoes.  I bet you don’t think about volcanoes when you think of NM, especially not the NE corner, near the OK Panhandle.  Here’s another landing map, which shows the two volcanoes.  Sierra Grande is west of my landing, and Capulin Volcano National Monument is northwest of Sierra Grande. 

Sierra Grande is a “shield volcano,” which is a low-rise volcano composed of lava flows.  Here’s a picture of Sierra Grande, taken from Capulin (from Wiki):

About Capulin, from Wiki:

Capulin Volcano National Monument is a well-preserved, relatively young (58,000 to 62,000 years old), symmetrical cinder cone. It rises steeply from the surrounding grassland plains to an elevation of 8,182 feet above sea level. The irregular rim of the crater is about a mile in circumference and the crater about 400 feet deep.

A paved road spirals around the volcano and visitors can drive up to a parking lot at the rim. Hiking trails circle the rim as well as lead down into the mouth of the volcano.

Definately worth a road trip.  One of these days . . .

I’ll close with this shot of Capulin:

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

© 2011 A Landing A Day

Dan -  Well, well. What a surprise.  Back to an old-time OSer . . . MN; 71/54; 2/10; 12; 158.5.  Here’s my landing map, showing that I landed near Ulen:

Here’s a broader view:

My GE shot shows that I landed right next to a road (no StreetView coverage, unfortunately), in the expected farm setting:

For the second time, I landed in the watershed of the S Br of the Wild Rice R; on to the Wild River (7th hit); on to the Red R (43rd hit); on to the Nelson (60th hit); on to Hudson’s Bay.

Here’s a StreetView shot of downtown Ulen:

From LakesnWoods.com about Ulen:

ULEN was named in honor of Ole Ulen, its first settler. He was born in Norway, April 18, 1818, and died in Ulen village, January 19, 1891.

As you may suspect, Ulen is pretty much bereft of internet information.  However, one point of interest is the Ulen sword.  I guess I’ll start with Wiki:

The Ulen Sword is a purported Viking sword found in a field 3 miles west of Ulen, Minnesota, where it is currently on display in the Ulen Historical Museum.  However, it bears no resemblance to any sword of known early Medieval provenance and is almost certainly a 19th-century French military sword.

The sword was found buried underground by Hans O. Hansen on his farm on April 20, 1911. Because of drought, Hansen decided to set his plow blades much deeper than usual, and unearthed the artifact.

The sword’s crossguard has a design on each side: one side depicts a helmeted soldier, and the reverse is a breastplate covering a dagger and two crossed axes.

Hmmm.  Sounds like there is some skepticism.  But this is one of those unreferenced Wiki pieces, so I’ll do a little more research.

Here’s a more supportive Ulen Sword website (Geir Odden’s Site of Norwegian heritage, www.geirodden.com):

On April 20, 1911, Hans Strand, according to affidavits, found a rusted sword buried in his field about 3 1/4 miles west of Ulen, MN. Strand bought the farm in 1898, and was the first to cultivate it, but had been tilling the land at a shallow level prior to 1911. As there had been some drought in the previous years, he set his plow at six inches, which was supposed to help retain moisture in the ground and it was at the deeper level that the sword was pulled up.

The length of the blade is 16 inches, and the point has been hammered off, apparently by some blunt instrument. The pommel is brass, with a simple thick cross guard. At the place where the cross guard meets the blade, there is a design, a helmeted soldier on one side and a breastplate over crossed axes and a dagger. The sword is in the museum in Ulen, Minnesota.

From The Viking Rune, where there are some posted discussions:

Tom Thowsen February 28, 2010 at 6:17 pm

Right now we [the Kensington Rune Stone International Supporters Club] are debating the Ulen sword, found in Minnesota in 1911. This sword bears a sign, which actually shows it might have belonged to Paul Knutsson.

FYI, Paul Knutson is some ancient Viking guy who was known to have gone to Greenland, and is speculated to have been one of the explorers who made it to the upper Midwest.

Moving right along . . . here’s a Flickr shot of a Ulen establishment that’s cashing in on the Viking/Norwegian flavor of the area (by afiler, aka Andrew Filer):

To see afiler’s Ulen shots, click here.

I’ll close with this shot also by Mr. Filer.  It’s a bit of a head-scratcher . . .

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

© 2011 A Landing A Day