Exit78 Photo of the Day #139

When we were in Idaho in 2010, we visited a gold dredge on the Yankee Fork  Salmon River in Custer County.

Yankee Fork Gold Dredge, Custer County, Idaho, July 28, 2010 (Composite image from three Pentax K10D photos using Autostitch)

Challis-Yankee Fork Ranger District – Yankee Fork Dredge¹

In the early 1930’s several placer miners joined together to form a company to see if they could get someone interested in dredging their claims on the Yankee Fork. Twenty-nine claims were involved.

During 1938 and 1939, the Silas Mason Co.of Shreveport, Louisiana became interested. When tests indicated approximately $16,000,000 worth of gold was recoverable, they formed a subsidiary, the Snake River Mining Co., to manage the dredging. The Bueyrus-Erie Company was awarded a contract to build the dredge in 1939 and completed it in the fall of 1940. The Olson Manufacturing Company manufactured most of the steel work in Boise, Idaho. The parts were shipped by train to Mackay, then hauled by trucks to Yankee Fork and assembled in 1940.

From 1940 until it closed in August of 1952, the dredge dug out rock and recovered gold by washing and separating the rock, dirt and gold. The Snake River Mining Company operated the dredge for several years until it reached a rock dike below Bonanza in 1949. At that time they sold it to Mr. J.R. Simplot and Mr. Baumhoff who operated the dredge until 1951 when Mr. Simplot purchased his partner’s interest. The dredge was then operated until 1952 when it ran out of mining claims on which to work. The dredge has not been operated since 1952 and it remains the largest self-powered dredge ever to operate in Idaho.

(Note: I am also posting photos in a series called Photography Now & Then at Haw-Creek.com)

Endnotes:

1. USDA Forest Service, accessed May 17, 2018

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Exit78 Photo of the Day #138

There are a very large number of thermal features in Yellowstone.  Given the recent seismic and volcanic events in Hawaii, it’s only natural that people wonder about the super-volcano that lies beneath the park.  Many of the features have changed over the years as a result of seismic activities, including Seismic Pool, a 167°F – or so – thermal feature in West Thumb Geyser Basin.

Seismograph Pool, West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, August 4, 2010 (Pentax K10D)

“Seismograph and Bluebell pools used to be known as the “Blue Pools.” After the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake, which measured 7.5 on the Richter scale, the pools were renamed. At West Thumb, no one recorded the nature of the changes caused by the quake, but perhaps someone thought Seismograph Pool somehow “registered” the earthquakes. These days, Seismograph is sometimes muddy, but not from earthquakes. The mud comes from the runoff of nearby mud pots.”¹

(Note: I am also posting photos in a series called Photography Now & Then at Haw-Creek.com)

Endnotes:

1. Seismograph Pool, Montana State University, accessed May 17, 2018

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Exit78 Photo of the Day #137

Sandy Cove campground, on the east side of Canton Lake dam in western Oklahoma is one of places we’ve stopped on the first night of a couple of trips out west.

Sunset over Canton Lake, Sandy Cove swim area, western Oklahoma, August 29, 2009 (Pentax K10D)

Canton Lake¹

Canton Lake is located in west Oklahoma on the North Canadian River, 2 miles north of the town of Canton. This man-made lake offers extensive opportunity for outdoor recreational activities. Canton Lake plays host to a large number of campers, picnickers, boaters, fishermen, and hunters every year. It is one of the few places that offers these types of recreational opportunities in western Oklahoma. Its gently sloping sandy beach is an open invitation for swimming and sunbathing. Water skiing is popular on the broad expanse of water paralleling the dam where winds are subdued. Services and supplies are available on access roads leading to project areas and at the commercial concession on the lake. The Corps of Engineers operates five multi-use recreation areas that offer a combination of overnight camping and day-use opportunities to the visiting public. Sightseers may view the lake from the 2.5 mile stretch of State Highway 58A which crosses over Canton Dam. Three parking areas/pullouts with fishing jetties are located on the dam. Other features include a nature trail, overlook visitor center, outdoor amphitheater, scenic drive, and active prairie dog town. Canton Lake is Oklahoma’s leading fisherman’s paradise. It provides several species of fish, including crappie, white bass, hybrid bass, channel catfish, and largemouth bass. Canton is most widely known for an abundance of walleye and has become the primary source of walleye eggs used to stock other Oklahoma lakes. Canton Lake hosts an annual Walleye Rodeo fishing derby during the month of May. A major attraction for the hunter is the 14,862-acre public hunting area managed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. This area primarily offers hunting for bobwhite quail, deer, waterfowl, squirrel, wild turkey, and dove, and is open all year.

(Note: I am also posting photos in a series called Photography Now & Then at Haw-Creek.com)

Endnotes:

1. Recreation.gov, accessed May 17, 2018

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Exit78 Photo of the Day #136

Clematis blossom, west – central Arkansas, May 16, 2018 (Apple iPhone 6s)

Clematis¹

Clematisis a genus of about 300 species within the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Their garden hybrids have been popular among gardeners, beginning with Clematis × jackmanii, a garden standby since 1862; more hybrid cultivars are being produced constantly. They are mainly of Chinese and Japanese origin. Most species are known as clematis in English, while some are also known as traveller’s joy, a name invented for the sole British native, C. vitalba, by the herbalist John Gerard; virgin’s bower for C. viticella and for C. terniflora; old man’s beard, applied to several with prominent seedheads; leather flower for those with fleshy petals; or vase vine for the North American Clematis viorna.

(Note: I am also posting photos in a series called Photography Now & Then at Haw-Creek.com)

Endnotes:

1. Wikipedia, accessed May 17, 2018

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Post-processing¹ #28 |

Glen Canyon Dam Bridge, US 89, Page, Arizona, October 10, 2015 (Pentax K-3 II from 36°56’07.0″N 111°29’07.8″W)

Glen Canyon Dam Bridge²

The Glen Canyon Bridge or Glen Canyon Dam Bridge is a steel arch bridge in Coconino County, Arizona, carrying U.S. Route 89 across the Colorado River. The bridge was originally built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation to facilitate transportation of materials for the Glen Canyon Dam, which lies adjacent to the bridge just 865 feet (264 m) upstream. The two-lane bridge has an overall length of 1,271 feet (387 m) with a deck 700 feet (210 m) above the river, making it the one of the highest bridges in the United States. The bridge was the highest arch bridge in the world when completed in 1959.

The dam and bridge are in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, as is the Colorado River under the dam and downstream to Marble Canyon, Arizona.

1. Post-processing – Image editing to enhance the photo closer to what the eye “saw.” Images in this series are selected within a day or so of being edited and are either posted at the time or scheduled for posting at a later date.
2. Glen Canyon Dam Bridge – Wikipedia

Exit78 Photo of the Day #135

Hope Plaza, a 16-foot granite structure at the entrance to John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma, contains three larger-than-life bronze pieces by sculptor Ed Dwight inspired by photos from the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. One of them, titled Hostility, is of a “white man fully armed for assault​.”

“Hostility,” a “white man fully armed for assault​,” Hope Plaza, John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 26, 2013 (Pentax K-r)

Photo from Tulsa Race Riot, May 31 – June 1, 1921, used as a subject for sculpture by Ed Dwight titled “Hostility” in Hope Plaza at Tulsa’s John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park

Tulsa Race Riot (Wikipedia – accessed May 16, 2018)

The Tulsa race riot, sometimes referred to as the Tulsa Massacre, Tulsa pogrom, or Tulsa race riot of 1921, took place between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when a white mob attacked residents and businesses of the African-American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma.This is considered one of the worst incidents of racial violence in the history of the United States. The attack, carried out on the ground and by air, destroyed more than 35 blocks of the district, at the time the wealthiest black community in the nation. More than 800 people were admitted to hospitals and more than 6,000 black residents were arrested and detained, many for several days. The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 39 dead, but the American Red Cross estimated 300.

The riot began over a Memorial Day weekend after a young black man was accused of raping a young white female elevator operator at a commercial building. After he was taken into custody, rumors raced through the black community that he was at risk of being lynched. A group of armed African-American men rushed to the police station where the young suspect was held, to prevent a lynching, as a white crowd had gathered. A confrontation developed between black people and white people; shots were fired, and twelve people were killed, ten white and two black. As news of these deaths spread throughout the city, mob violence exploded. Thousands of white people rampaged through the black community that night and the next day, killing men and women, burning and looting stores and homes. About 10,000 black people were left homeless, and property damage amounted to more than $1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property ($31 million in 2018).

Some black people claimed that policemen had joined the mob; others said that National Guardsmen fired a machine gun into the black community and a plane dropped sticks of dynamite. In an eyewitness account discovered in 2015, Greenwood attorney Buck Colbert Franklin described watching a dozen or more planes, which had been dispatched by the city police force, drop burning balls of turpentine on Greenwood’s rooftops.

Many survivors left Tulsa. Both black and white residents who stayed in the city were silent for decades about the terror, violence, and losses of this event. The riot was largely omitted from local and state, as well as national, histories: “The Tulsa race riot of 1921 was rarely mentioned in history books, classrooms or even in private. Blacks and whites alike grew into middle age unaware of what had taken place.” (New York Times, June 19, 2011)

(Note: I am also posting photos in a series called Photography Now & Then at Haw-Creek.com)

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Exit78 Photo of the Day #134

In 2013, we took a roundabout, meandering route on our way to visit Jessica and family in Wisconsin.  Part of it was through western Minnesota.

Minnesota River Valley National Scenic Byway, Minnesota, September 7, 2013 (Pentax K-r)

Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway (HowStuffWorks.com)

Historical Qualities of the Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway

Once a wild and untamed river valley, the land of the Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway used to belong solely to the Dakotas. The land was rich and fertile and seemed ripe for the picking, yet struggles erupted during the same years that the Civil War was raging.

In 1862, the largest and bloodiest Native American war in the history of the United States occurred. For ten years, the land was divided between the Dakota people and new settlers and the first reservations were developed, but the Dakotas eventually wanted their land and their way of life back. The result was a six-week war in which many settlers and Dakotas were killed.

When the war was over, Abraham Lincoln pardoned many of the more than 300 Dakota men who were going to be hanged. The remaining 38 men became part of the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

Natural Qualities of the Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway

When you aren’t driving through enchanting towns and pastoral fields, you see that the land is overtaken by nature and the wilderness that’s native to Minnesota. Prairies and woodlands combine to form natural areas full of plants and animals. The natural areas along the byway are perfect places to see the Minnesota River Valley’s natural ecosystems.

The Minnesota River is now gentle and calm. However, the river valley was once filled by the Glacial River Warren. The glacial river carved the valley down into ancient bedrock and exposed outcrops of gneiss. The valley topography varies from one to five miles in width and from 75 to 200 feet deep. The Minnesota River flows from the Hudson/Mississippi Continental Divide in Browns Valley through the steep bluffs and low floodplain area that characterize one of the most impressive landscapes in Minnesota.

(Note: I am also posting photos in a series called Photography Now & Then at Haw-Creek.com)

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Exit78 Photo of the Day #133

Mossy Cave Trail, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, October 8, 2015 (Pentax K-3 II)

Mossy Cave Trail (Utah.com)

The Mossy Cave Trail in the northern end of Bryce Canyon National Park offers hikers the chance to experience up close the hoodoos and spires of the park without having to descend 1,000 feet to the bottom of the amphitheaters. This trail follows a stream that leads to a natural grotto, a shelter cave that looms protectively over the trail, bearing ice sickles in the winter and lichen and moss in the warmer seasons.

Trail Head: 37.666277, -112.10997
Trail Type: Hiking
Length: 1 mile round trip
Difficulty: Easy

Unlike the majority of the hikes within Bryce Canyon, this trail is not reached by turning south onto Highway 63. Visitors coming in from the west will pass that highway, and the main park entrance, and will instead continue for 4 miles as if they were en route to Tropic.

Mossy Cave Trailhead

The stream was artificially created by pioneers who needed to find an irrigation source for the towns of Tropic and Cannonville. The ‘Tropic Ditch’ has changed the geology along its course, creating an actual erosion-canyon, as opposed to the rest of the park’s canyons formed from frost-wedging.

Fork in the Trail

The trail forks just over a quarter of a mile in.

Right Fork (Waterfall)

This fork of the trail heads north, following the stream until it dead ends at a small waterfall.

Left Fork (Mossy Cave)

The left fork of Mossy Cave Trail swings southwest until it reaches the cave.

(Note: I am also posting photos in a series called Photography Now & Then at Haw-Creek.com)

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.

Exit78 Photo of the Day #132

Heading west, our first stop is often a state park or Corps of Engineer park somewhere in Oklahoma.  We’ve stayed at Canton Lake’s Sandy Cove campground twice.

Sunset, boys at play on swim area marker rope, Sandy Cove, Canton Lake, Oklahoma, August 29, 2009 (Pentax K10D)

Sandy Cove (Recreation.gov)

Overview

Sandy Cove Campground is located on the north end of Canton Dam in northwest Oklahoma on the North Canadian River, just 2.5 miles from the town of Canton.
Canton Lake hosts a large number of campers, picnickers, boaters, fishermen and hunters every year, as one of few places in western Oklahoma to offer all of these activities.

Natural Features:

The campground is nestled in a woodland of blackjack oak and post oak trees, providing an excellent camping environment.

Recreation:

Canton Lake is known for its fishing opportunities, especially walleye fishing. The Walleye Rodeo fishing derby is held annually in May and draws thousands of visitors to the area.
The lake’s gently sloping sandy beaches are inviting for swimmers and sunbathers. Water skiing is popular on the broad expanse of water paralleling the dam, where winds are subdued.

Facilities:

Though none of the campsites are adjacent to the lake, Sandy Cove is a very popular destination. It offers 35 family sites and one day-use group picnic shelter, all with electrical hookups. Amenities include flush and pit toilets, showers, drinking water and a large swim beach.

(Note: I am also posting photos in a series called Photography Now & Then at Haw-Creek.com)

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.