Saga of Cottonwood Farm

I am beginning my story of Cottonwood Farm - an autobiography of sorts. This is from the ND State Historical Society and will be included in a section on the first people to find Grand Forks County. I will be grateful for suggested sources to read and study.

First People
Before Euro-American settlement
of the Northern Plains began in the 19th Century, the land had been occupied for many centuries. Archeological investigations document the presence of big game hunting cultures after the retreat of the continental glaciers about 10,000 years ago and later settlements of both hunting and gathering and farming
peoples dating ca. 2000 B.C. to 1860. When the first white explorers arrived,
distinct Indian groups existed in what is now North Dakota.

These included the Dakota or Lakota nation (called "Sioux", or enemies by those who feared them), Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara. Groups of Chippewa (or Ojibway) moved into the northern Red River valley around 1800, and Cree, Blackfeet, and Crow frequented the western buffalo ranges.

New Activity on the Hill

One of the actions I promised myself was to read Roman and Greek history when I had the time to do so. Recently I discovered an organization called "The Teaching Company." They offer hundreds of courses on Science and Math, Religion, Literature and the English Language, Classics, History and Philosopy on DVD taught by professors of top standing. At the moment I am pursuing "Masters of Greek Thought: Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle,"in 36 half hour lectures taught by Robert Bartlett from Emory University.

Earthquake Science

Here in Crockett we probably spend more time discussing possible earthquakes rather than the election or Paris Hilton. The only thing ranking higher in our interest is the coming desert (read drought) and the size of our water bill. Who would have thought that this North Dakota raised Crockettonian would concern himself with the movement of tektonic plates??

RUSSIAN RIDGE — At the summit of Rolph Hill, in a corner of the Russian Ridge
Open Space Preserve closed to the public, stands an alien-looking machine — a
small white dome balanced on three long 'legs' sunk deep into moss-covered
bedrock.
Inside is a small, powerful GPS receiver that's measuring the
movement of the earth via satellite every 15 seconds and a cellular modem that
sends the data hundreds of miles away. Scientists are using it to calculate
earthquake hazards across the San Andreas Fault, which lies a few miles to the
east."

Bear on Watch

Actually, Bear is waiting for direction frpm his owner, Pete. They had just discovered the lair of a mountain lion in our hills. Bear, who loves to chase cats, knew that the cat he had just discovered was not the ordinary feline. It took him about a week to get over the trauma.

Smokey Air and View

For the past several days, near synrise and sunset, it has been possible to look directly at the sun without colored glasses. The smoke from the various fires up and down California hangs in the atmoshere dimming the rays from the sun. One of these days it will clear up. Maybe next November!!!

Even in Crockett

Anyone with Swedish blood coursing through their veins will feel the pull to dance and celebrate all through this day. And remember all the Swedes you have known.



The Local - The Lowdown on Swedish Midsummer: "What exactly are we celebrating?

Held on the evening of the Friday between June 19th and 25th, Midsummer marks the the longest day of the year. In Sweden, a country with dark winters and short summers, celebrating the light and the warmth is a natural thing to do.

Strong pagan elements to the festival persist, although their exact links to pre-Christian Sweden are hard to pin down. Pagan societies in northern Europe were known to celebrate summer solstice, but there are no sources to indicate exactly how pagan Midsummer celebrations in Sweden might have looked.

Attempts by the church to adapt the day to the feast of St. John the Baptist never really took off in Sweden, and celebrations retain a reassuringly profane feeling."

Happy Father's Day

We will journey down the hill to my son's house for lunch. It's warm enough to sit in his back yard. He usually has a selection of foods to challenge the most hungry. The picture has nothing to do with his home - it's a view across the Strait from Crockett to Glen Cove.

Traffic Snarls Cost Gas

I-80 is probably the heaviest loaded in the Bay Area. Certainly between Crockett and San Francisco, every day, there gas-eating jams.

Museum Volunteer

After 15 years I have resigned my jobs at the Museum in Crockett. I'll still be a member, use its resources, write for the Signal and all that good stuff. But, for various reasons, I can no longer commit to Wednesday and Saturday. If any Crockett people read this blog, the Crockett Historical Society can use your help.

Presidential Campaign

Generally I have avoided any comments or messages reflecting my political position. This message is simply to state that I am rooting for Obama to be the Democrat nominee.

Powerful quake inevitable in next 30 years, odds show - ContraCostaTimes.com

One of Crockett's advantages is that the Hayward-Rogers Creek fault does not bisect the town. But it runs just west of us by a couple miles. Oh well, ......................

Two faults that we are particularly concerned about with respect to high
probabilities are the southern San Andreas and the Hayward-Rogers Creek," Field said. "Both have elevated probabilities relative to their long-term
averages."

FOXNews.com - Huge Oil Reservoir May Lie Under Northern Plains - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News

Well, its a lot less than the 200 billion barrels some folks have forcast but as technology advances, so grows the resource. I stll beats ethanol.

"The government estimates up to 4.3 billion barrels of oil can be recovered from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and Montana, using current technology. The U.S. Geological Survey calls it the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed.
An assessment by USGS in 1999 found the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge had 10.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil, said Brenda Pierce, a geologist for the agency The Bakken Formation encompasses some
25,000 square miles in North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan and Manitoba."

SALMON SEASON GONE

For any of you expecting fresh, newly caught northwestern salmon, it will be a long wait. Might be the time to buy an ocean going skiff....

Salmon Fishing Banned in U.S. Northwest
Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seatac,
WashingtonAssociated Press
April 11, 2008

West Coast fisheries
managers voted Thursday to cancel all commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts this year. The Pacific Fishery Management Council decided to allow limited recreational fishing of coho salmon on holiday weekends off the Oregon coast, but no recreational fishing off California after several members of the
panel argued that every salmon counts.Scientists and government officials are expecting this year's West Coast salmon season to be poor because of the collapse of Sacramento River chinook, one of the West Coast's biggest wild salmon runs.Although commercial salmon fishing off the Washington coast is scheduled to begin May 1, fisheries managers do not predict a good season off either the north or south Pacific coasts."For the entire West Coast, this is the worst in history," said Don McIsaac, executive director of the Pacific Fishery Management Council.The council's decision still must be
confirmed by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency in charge of salmon management.Relief for FishersEven before the vote, however, officials were on to the next step: disaster relief for fishers, said Mariam McCall, an attorney with the marine fisheries service.The governors of Washington, Oregon, and California have already signed letters seeking a disaster declaration. Congress will be asked to make a fast decision on money to alleviate the suffering of fishers and any other negative effects the cutback might have, said Brian Gorman, a NOAA Fisheries spokesperson.Scientists are studying the causes of the Sacramento River chinook collapse, with possible
factors ranging from ocean conditions and habitat destruction to dam operations and agricultural pollution. But a proposal to allow limited fishing for scientific purposes was struck down by the panel.Last year average quotas for the southern coast were allowed, while fishing was restricted north of Cape Falcon to the Canadian border.

Norwegian Wisdom

The Oslo newspaper is worth reading from time to time.

'The worst US president'A Norwegian professor who's considered one of the country's leading experts on US politics has ranked George W Bush as the worst US president in history. The best: Abraham Lincoln.
Professor Ole O Moen, who has followed American politics most of his career, has just written a book about all the US presidents. Aftenposten's weekly magazine A-magasinet asked Moen to choose who he thinks are the five best presidents and the five worst.
Two members of the Republican party landed as both the worst and the best presidents. Bush, in Moen's opinion, is the worst.
"His administration stands for a dangerous blend of arrogance and ignorance," Moen told A-magasinet, claiming that Bush has lacked an ability to listen to and cooperate with other heads of state, and with the US Congress.
Moen cited the invasion of Iraq, the resulting chaos that has erupted in the country and the intelligence reports that Bush's basis for the invasion (alleged weapons of mass destruction) didn't exist. Bush also defied international opinion on a host of other issues, from
the Kyoto agreement to rules for an international court, and his tax measures have widened the gap between rich and poor.
A federal budget surplus inherited from the Clinton administration has turned into a huge deficit and now the US is widely believed to be heading into a recession. Bush's approval ratings are currently at a low point in the US, but Bush himself has indicated that he doesn't care about his legacy.
Moen's choice for the "next-worst" US president is James Buchanan, a Democrat, whose term ran from 1857-1861 and who is often called the father of the American Civil War. Buchanan is followed by
Warren G Harding, a Republican who was president in the early 1920s and whose isolationist policies destabilized the world economy and helped fuel Germany's desire for military revenge.
Moen chose Calvin Coolidge, president from 1923-27) who continued an isolationist strategy, as the fourth-worst president,
and Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) as the fifth worst, because he allowed defeated southern states into the union without insisting that they reform themselves.
The Norwegian professor's favorite president is Abraham Lincoln,
also a Republican, who insisted on a government "of the people, by the people and for the people," and who rose from a poor background to save a nation that had descended into civil war.
Franklin D Roosevelt is Moen's choice as second-best president, for bringing the US out of the Depression, launching social reforms and leading the nation to victory in World War II. George Washington, the country's first president, was ranked third-best, Thomas
Jefferson fourth and Woodrow Wilson fifth.

Aftenposten's reporterLars KlugeAftenposten English Web
DeskNina Berglund

Only in California

California Town Digs for Ideas for Historic Ditch Story by Margaret Foster / Jan. 8, 2008

In California, where water is king, an irrigation ditch can have more historic clout than Plymouth Rock.
A Southern California group wants to create parkland around a historic 12-mile-long ditch, built in 1819 in Redlands, Calif.
Located in San Bernardino County, the Zanja, which is Spanish for ditch, delivered water to the local Spanish mission, San Bernardino Asistencia; it has been a flood-control channel for the past 80 years.
A third of the trench has already been cemented over and erased by apartment buildings and other development, so now is the time to act, says Sherli Leonard, executive director of the Redlands Conservancy, which will welcome the public's ideas in a Jan. 28 meeting.
"It's so important to the history of this community that we feel we ought to do something about it," Leonard says.
Last year, the city bristled at plans for an apartment building that would have taken down trees and redirect part of the Zanja, which has been listed on the National Register since 1977.
To create an eight-mile-long park with a trail, interpretive signs, and parks the Redlands Conservancy wants to buy and place easements on the privately owned sections of the Zanja, Leonard says. It also plans list the entire stretch on the local register, which offers more protection than the state and National Register.
"We'd have to find foundations or agencies that would support this project," Leonard says. "I'm really hoping we can get it all done by 2019. We're in the very early stages."
© Preservation Magazine

Another Victory for Life

New Jersey is now my favorite state. They recently eliminated the death penalty as a punishment for crimes. Hopefully other states will have the courage to take similar action.