I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town or towns I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location.
To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is) please see “About Landing” above. To check out some relatively recent changes in how I do things, check out “About Landing (Revisited).”
Landing number 2630; A Landing A Day blog post number 1075
Dan: Today’s lat/long (N36o 0.329’, W95o 35.313) puts me in northeast Oklahoma:
My local landing map shows that I landed in the greater Tulsa metropolitan area:
The suburbs stop just west of Broken Arrow, so I once again landed out in the country.
Just east of my landing you can see the Verdigris River (7th hit), but I’ll need to head over to Google Earth for the more local details:
I landed in the Coal Creek watershed, which discharges into the original Verdigris River channel (the channelized river is off to the east).
My streams-only map:
The Verdigris discharges to the Arkansas (149th hit); on, of course, to the MM (1022nd hit).
Over on Google Earth (GE), the Orange Dude could get pretty close to my landing:
And here’s his view:
And a closer look at the entryway:
So. Of course I checked out the various small towns around Tulsa, but decided to stick with the big city (about 1,000,000 in the metro area).
What immediately jumped out at me was something I was already aware of, but hadn’t featured on this blog: the 1921 “Tulsa Race Massacre.” The event has been also been called the “Tulsa Race Riot,” and “The Black Wall Street Massacre.”
It’s likely that most of my readers are aware of this event, especially since the 100th anniversary wasn’t that long ago. Even so, a quick review of what when on isn’t a bad idea.
At least 300 blacks were murdered, and 35 square blocks of the Greenwood section of Tulsa (also known as “Black Wall Street”) were entirely destroyed.
Here’s an excellent piece from the History Channel that details how the whole thing began:
CNN did an excellent piece on the 99th anniversary of the massacre. I can’t embed the video, you’ll have to click HERE, which I strongly recommend you do.
The NY Times has an article with very cool interactive graphics that details the Black Wall Street neighborhood. I suspect you’ll need a subscription to view this (I mean, really – I can’t even insert a link to the article). Go to Google and enter Tulsa 1921 nytimes, and it’ll be the first entry.
After very few words (the fewest I can remember), I’m going to close this down with this shot posted on GE by Bret Niland. I usually don’t post people pictures, but I found this one appealing . ..
I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town or towns I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location.
To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is) please see “About Landing” above. To check out some relatively recent changes in how I do things, check out “About Landing (Revisited).”
Landing number 2630; A Landing A Day blog post number 1075
Dan: Today’s lat/long (N42o 0.828’, W88o 34.174) puts me in north central Illinois:
Here’s my local landing map:
As usual, I went to Google Earth (GE) to figure out my local landing watershed:
Although I much prefer actual natural streams, I landed in the watershed of the ingloriously-named Virgil Ditch #3, on to the equally ingloriously-named Union Ditch #3. Heading over to Street Atlas:
Union Ditch #3 discharges to the East Branch of the South Branch of the Kishwaukee River (1st hit ever!); on to the South Branch of the Kishwaukee River (1st hit ever!). Staying with Street Atlas, check this out:
Speaking of things inglorious, you can see that the East Branch of the South Branch of the Kishwaukee River comes into being at the confluence of Union Ditch #2 and Union Ditch #3. Staying with Street Atlas:
Unsurprisingly, the South Branch of the Kishwaukee River discharges to the Kishwaukee River (1st hit ever!). The three Kishwaukees are my 1279th, 1280th and 1281st rivers.
The Kishwaugee discharges to the Rock (8th hit) which makes its way to the Mighty Mississippi (1021st hit).
Moving on to DeKalb. From Wiki:
Barbed wire was a key product in DeKalb’s history. Joseph Glidden (1813-1906), a DeKalb resident since about 1850, received a patent in 1874 for inventing the conventional double-strand barbed wire that remains in common use around the world today.
Here’s his patent:
And here’s a close-up of barbed wire:
“Barbed wire” was wiki-clickable:
Before 1870, westward movement in the United States was largely across the plains with little or no settlement occurring. Large herds of cattle were not fenced in; they naturally migrated in search of fresh pasture, and to move south in the fall to avoid the cold temperatures in the Northern Plains. Cattle branding was important, as herds tended to mingle, and needed to be separated prior to shipment to markets. This was the era where large numbers of cowboys were essential to manage the herds.
In the 1870s, more ranchers began moving out on the plains and more ranchers resulted in more private land ownership. Owners needed to fence their land in against encroaching farmers and other ranchers. The railroads throughout the growing West needed to keep livestock off their tracks, and farmers needed to keep stray cattle from trampling their crops.
Traditional fence materials used in the Eastern U.S., like wood and stone, were expensive to use in the large open spaces of the plains, and hedging was not reliable in the rocky, clay-based and rain-starved dusty soils. A cost-effective alternative was needed to make cattle operations profitable.
Barbed wire’s introduction in the West in the 1870s dramatically reduced the cost of enclosing land.
One fan wrote the inventor Joseph Glidden [DeKalb’s own]:
It takes no room, exhausts no soil, shades no vegetation, is proof against high winds, makes no snowdrifts, and is both durable and cheap.
Barbed wire emerged as a major source of conflict with the so-called “Big Die Off” incident in the 1880s. This occurred because of the instinctual migrations of cattle away from the blizzard conditions of the Northern Plains to the warmer and plentiful Southern Plains. However, by the early 1880s vast areas were already divided and claimed by ranchers. The ranchers in place, especially in the Texas Panhandle, knew that their holdings could not support the grazing of additional cattle, so the only alternative was to block the migrations with barb wire fencing.
Many of the herds were decimated in the winter of 1885, with some losing as many as three-quarters of all animals when they could not find a way around the fences. Cattlemen, especially in central Texas, opposed the closing of the open range, and began cutting fences to allow cattle to pass through to find grazing land. In this transition zone between the agricultural regions to the south and the rangeland to the north, conflict erupted, with vigilantes joining the scene causing chaos and even death.
The Fence Cutting Wars ended with the passage of a Texas law in 1884 that made fence cutting a felony. Other states followed, although conflicts occurred through the early years of the 20th century.
Barbed wire is cited by historians as the invention that tamed the West and ended the golden age of cowboys.
Next up is Cortland, which is the hometown of Charles Nash. From Wiki:
Nash was born to a poor farming family in Cortland, Illinois His parents separated when he was six years old and abandoned him.
[Zing! Just like that – abandoned by his parents at aged six . . .]
As a result of a court order, he worked as a farmhand in Michigan as an indentured servant under an agreement that was to last until he was 21. He had only three months of schooling per year while he was “bound out” to perform farm chores.
[Wow. Where is Child Protective Services when you need them?]
At age 12, Nash ran away and became a farmhand for $8 per month; he quit after finding a similar job paying $12 per month. He learned the carpentry trade and formed the “Adams & Nash” concern to press hay.
He was married in 1884, and in 1890 he was hired by the Durant-Dort Carriage Company in Flint, which constructed horse-drawn carriages. He was paid $1/day as an upholstery stuffer.
[He quickly separated himself and became a super-achiever . . .]
Within six months, he was promoted to superintendent of the factory. Within 10 years, Nash became vice president and general manager of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company.
He worked for General Motors, but after a corporate power struggle, vowed never to work for someone else. He bought the Jeffrey Motor Company, the maker of Ramblers. He went on form the Nash Motor Company, building the company to #4 in the US (behind GM, Ford & Chrysler). From Wiki:
Charles W. Nash’s achievements by 1926 were characterized as a genuine success story. Quoting from the book “Automotive Giant of America: Men Who Are Making Our Motor Industry:”
Nash – a man who in the short space of nine years – built up a business on which there is not a dollar of bonded indebtedness, whose stocks have a market value approximating $137,000,000, whose profits have exceeded $56,000,000, and whose bank balance tops $30,000,000. Surely, he must be regarded as a very practical authority on what makes for success.
Here’s a picture of Mr. Nash celebrating his one millionth vehicle:
Here are some Nash vehicles, starting with a 1917 fire truck:
1922:
1936 (Nash’s last year in charge):
And this post-Nash 1949 ad:
And through the 1950s, there were still Nash automobiles. I remember this Metropolitan from my youth. Here’s a very cool 1957 convertible:
I’ll close with a barn shot, posted on GE by Rich R, just down the road and around the corner from my landing:
I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town or towns I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location.
To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is) please see “About Landing” above. To check out some relatively recent changes in how I do things, check out “About Landing (Revisited).”
Landing number 2630; A Landing A Day blog post number 1075
Dan: Here I am pretty much retired, and I’m having a terrible time keeping up with my landings. This one is a whole week late!
Anyway: today’s lat/long (N47o 47.770’, W119o 46.611) puts me in central Washington:
I landed out in the boonies, as you can see (it’s 30 miles from Orlondo to Mansfield):
That’s Chelan Lake west of my landing; more about Moses Coulee coming up.
I went over to Google Earth (GE) to check out my watersheds:
I landed in the watershed of McCateney Creek, on to Douglas Creek, on to the Columbia River (193rd hit).
While we’re in the neighborhood, let’s take a look at my landing:
Here’s what the Orange Dude sees:
A closer look at my landing spot:
The light-colored area is a wheat field; the darker-colored area (where I landed) is, for some reason, unsuitable for wheat. This is a glaciated region, and my first suspicion was that the dark areas were small internally-drained wet areas, carved out by the glaciers. However, a quick check with the GE elevation tool shows that my cute little theory is all wet (unlike the dark areas).
Back in November 2017, I landed near this area. In that post, I went heavy-duty into local geology. I’m going to lift a portion of that post, Here goes:
So of course, I checked the numerous small towns in the vicinity of my landing. Guess what? They were all
As I checked out the town of Chelan, of course I noted that it was at the downstream end of Lake Chelan. And then – what the heck – I Googled the lake. So, it’s a very beautiful lake and all, but where’s the hook?
Then I googled “Lake Chelan Geology.” I came across a You Tube video posted by Central Washington University geology professor Nick Zentner entitled, appropriately enough, “Lake Chelan Geology.” Of course, I clicked.
After just a couple of minutes of viewing, I knew I had my hook.
I told my wife Jody (who, like me, is a geologist) that I landed near Lake Chelan, Washington. She immediately perked up. Lake Chelan?? Cheryl’s brother Darrel and sister-in-law Carol live there!!
Now wait a minute. Cheryl, Darrel and Carol?
But anyway, this isn’t just any Cheryl. This is Cheryl, one of the “Feathers,” a group of Media PA women (including Jody) who went to school together back in the 1960s. The seven of them (alas, now only six) were good friends in Junior High & High school and referred to themselves as the Feathers – based on a pillow fight gone bad.
So Jody and Cheryl and Sooze and Kathy and Debbie and Sally and (sigh) Sue stayed in touch through all these years, periodically getting together, but emailing and calling each other on a regular basis. The husbands/significant others joined the fun, and all 14 of us got together on numerous occasions. Amazingly (and I mean truly amazingly), all 14 of us really got along and enjoyed each other’s company.
We gentleman were jealous of the moniker the women had, so we came up with one of our own. Proudly, we’re the Peckers.
But of all the Feathers, Cheryl has a special place in my heart because she (of all the Feathers) is the only devoted A Landing A Day follower. And Cheryl saw a similarity in how I view the world with how her brother Darrel views the world, so she turned him on to my blog.
I was well aware that Darrel lived in Washington and was very tuned into geology, particularly the wondrous story of the Glacial Lake Missoula floods. I knew that he and Cheryl went on a geology field trip, visiting the scablands and the Dry Falls.
I had corresponded with Darrel just a little, and I do believe that at some point he told me he lived at Lake Chelan – which, of course, I promptly forgot.
Well, Darrel (and Cheryl) – this post is for you!
Back to Lake Chelan geology. I listened to the entire hour and seven minutes of Nick Zentner’s lecture, and totally enjoyed it. And I learned a lot, as well. I therefore cordially invite you, my readers, to similarly partake of the good Doctor’s lecture. At least give it a shot, and see if he hooks you like he hooked me.
But I’m a realist, and know that probably the majority of my readers are already thinking “No way I’m using up an hour of my life listening to a geology lecture.”
So what did I do? I rewound the tape (yea, right), but this time, I was typing, pausing, typing, pausing, etc., preparing not Cliff Notes but Greg Notes.
So here’s the lecture. The Greg Notes (for those who’d rather spend 10 minutes reading than an hour watching) follow below.
Nick’s premise: You’re a Washington geologist and you have a geologically-oriented friend named Jerry from New Jersey. Jerry calls out of the blue and says that he has one day to spend in the State of Washington and he wants to learn as much about Washington geology as possible. Considering the great geologic diversity in Washington, that’s a tall order. Where do you meet him?
Mt. Rainer; the Dry Falls; the west coast? Nope. Nick would take Jerry to Lake Chelan. Here’s what’s at (or very near) the Lake:
Continental ice sheets Alpine glaciers Third-deepest lake in the U.S. The Columbia River Glacial Lake Chelan Ice age floods Basalts “Exotic terrains” (having to do with bizarre west-coast plate tectonics) Metamorphic Rocks Granite Batholiths The biggest earthquake ever recorded in Washington
Everything but an active volcano. OK, so maybe Jerry’ll need a separate trip to Rainier.
Back to now.
In that post, I dutifully covered all of the above topics. For this truncated posted, I’ve decided to pick just one topic: the glacial origin of Lake Chelan.
Back to my earlier post:
Lake Chelan is 50 miles long, one mile wide. Most long and narrow lakes are naturally (or artificially) formed by damming up a river. Not Lake Chelan.
Here’s a GE shot of the long, narrow lake:
Note the Narrows. That’s going to be part of our story in a bit.
This is the third deepest lake in the U.S.:
Crater Lake – 1949’ deep Lake Tahoe – 1645’ Lake Chelan – 1459’ Lake Superior – 1332’ Lake Pend Oreille – 1152’
If you guessed the glaciers made the lake, you’d be right. But the bottom of Lake Chelan is 386 feet below sea level! How did the glaciers do that?
Other nearby glacial lakes are formed when alpine glaciers (glaciers formed in a particular valley and limited in extent to the valley) push up moraines that dam the valley, creating a lake. But these are much, much shallower. For years, Nick didn’t think much about it; he just figured that the alpine glacier in the Chelan valley somehow dug a deeper hole.
But he had to think again. It turns out that the Canadian Ice Sheet made its way down to Central Washington. That’s the same ice sheet that was 3000’ feet thick in Seattle. And the same ice sheet that created the Lake Missoula floods [discussed numerous times in this blog.]
The ice sheet was about 5000’ thick in the Chelan valley.
The massive ice sheet crawled over and around the North Cascade Mountains. An arm of it passed over a low spot in the mountains to the north, and ground its way down the Chelan Valley. Five thousand feet of ice is a lot of ice that can move a lot of rock and gouge out a very deep valley.
But there’s more to the story. There was another arm of the same ice sheet that actually flowed north up the Chelan Valley. It came from the east before curling up the valley. The northern arm made it down to the Narrows. The southern arm made it up to the Narrows:
Remember – these two “arms” are connected to the vast Canadian Ice Sheet.
For nerdy, curious geologists, this is a big deal. And if one were to make the claim about two separate continental ice sheet arms coming in from different directions, one better have good evidence. Well, good evidence there is.
So, both arms of the ice sheet left moraines and till deposits – the moraines are the earthen debris that the glacier pushed out to the edges the valley (actually, much like an alpine glacier), and the tills are what it left behind as the ice melted. Of course, geologists have studied the moraines and tills from both ends of the valley, and guess what? They are entirely different!
The northern arm came from the Cascade Mountains to the north and west, and the rocks in the moraines and tills are typical of the rocks in the Cascades: granites, lava rock and light basalt (andesites).
The southern arm came from the east and was “bearing different gifts.” This ice had traveled through the dark flood basalts (“layer after layer of German Chocolate cake”) of eastern Washington, and low and behold, the till and moraines of the southern end of the lake are loaded with these dark basalts.
Any questions? And this unique glacial set-up also set up some interesting hydrology. There were times when the two arms retreated, leaving a lake in the valley between the two ice masses. Fed by meltwater, this lake reached elevations as high as 700’ above current lake level!
As happens with ice dams holding back huge volumes of water, the dam will fail, and a massive flood results. For Glacial Lake Chelan, the massive flood headed south, towards the Columbia River. The water left coulee scablands similar to those left behind after the much-more-massive Glacial Lake Missoula flood.
Once again, back to now.
Speaking of the glacial Lake Missoula flood and the scablands left behind by the floodwaters, the drainage from today’s landing ends up in such a scabland valley, the Moses Coulee.
I found an informative (and lovely) You Tube video (“complements of Bruce Bjornstad”) about the coulee. It’s a little long — 15 minutes — but loaded with gorgeous drone footage. Watch as much or as little as you like:
I lifted a number of screen shots from the video, including this at the end that sheds doubt on the origins of the coulee:
And this, that points out that my teeny watershed stream is dwarfed by this huge valley:
I’ll close with these lovely screen shots from Bruce’s video:
A Landing a Day 