Category Archives: History

MAGIC OF WALKING ON THE GRAND RONDONEE 52

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Looking north from the top of Mangiabo on GR 52.
Looking north from the top of Mangiabo on GR 52.

Grand Randonnée 5 represents France’s premier alpine adventure running from Thonon-les-Bains on the south shore of Lake Geneva to Nice on the Mediterranean.  Many choose another alternative for the final third of the route, switching GR 52 for 5 just south of the Col de Larche.  This route – known as the Balcon du Mercantour – stays much higher than GR 5 and offers much more drama as it marches southeast and then south to finish on the Mediterranean at the boat harbor of Menton-Garavan.

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SHILOH – CONFEDERATE VICTORY ON DAY ONE

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Mortuary upturned cannon denotes the death of Confederate commander General Albert Sidney Johnston in the afternoon of the first day at Shiloh.
Mortuary upturned cannon denotes the death of Confederate commander General Albert Sidney Johnston in the afternoon of the first day at Shiloh.

Shiloh remains one of the best preserved of American Civil War battlefields. It is also one of the most important, too, for it was here that America – North and South – got a true look at what the human cost of war would actually entail. The two-day battle here – 6-7 April 1862 – proved the costliest in terms of casualties in American history to that date – almost 27,000 casualties for both sides including the life of the Confederate commander General Albert Sidney Johnston – the highest-ranking soldier killed during the entire war.

The carnage from this battle shocked both sides and demonstrated that the war would probably not be decided by one thunder stroke on the battlefield but would persist with much more bloodshed. In fact, eight battles – and innumerable smaller ones – that were larger and bloodier in scope during the three long years lay ahead.

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FISH HATCHERY – TRYING TO MAKE UP FOR LOST GROUND

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Chinook salmon circling about in a lower holding pond at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.
Chinook salmon circling about in a lower holding pond at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.

In the western United States, when something good gets discovered, it seems nothing better to do than to rush to deplete the good – gold, trees, … salmon.  Gold is mined many times at the cost of whatever lived in the area before.  Trees, centuries of age, swept away, sometimes replanted, sometimes not, always with ecological cost.  In the case of salmon, former runs of billions of salmon first suffered from overfishing, taken to extremes.  To finish off the magnificent earlier runs, primeval rivers dammed ending the prehistoric runs.  Fish hatchery to the rescue

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BUILD UP TO SHILOH – “WATER OUR HORSES IN THE TENNESSEE”

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Federal steamboats gather at Pittsburg Landing as Grant and Buell build up their forces along the Tennessee River.
Federal steamboats gather at Pittsburg Landing as Grant and Buell build up their forces along the Tennessee River.

Shiloh National Military Park sits just north of the border of southwestern Tennessee and northeastern Mississippi.  Of the major battlefields of the American Civil War, Shiloh lies farther out of reach to the average tourist than the others.  By car, the fields lie two hours by car from Memphis and three from Nashville.  As a result, you will not find as many visitors on the spread-out grounds as some of the other Battle parks. It is important to understand the build up to Shiloh to better figure out why there was even a battle here.

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ARTISTIC ESPIONAGE IN THE NORTHWEST – HENRY JAMES WARRE

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Falls of the Peloos River Henry J. Warre - note the Natives dressed in Plains Indian garb.
Falls of the Peloos River Henry J. Warre – note the Natives dressed in Plains Indian garb.

The Royal Army in 1845 sent out Lieutenants Henry James Ware and Mervin Vavasour to evaluate American presence in the Pacific Northwest and British ability to militarily respond.  The political crisis brewing since the late 1830s responsible for Warre’s mission across the North American continent, however, dissipated by the time Warre returned to Britain. 

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SMOKE ON THE BAY – A QUICK GLANCE AT REYKJAVÍK

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Alþingi sits on the south side of the Austurvöllur park.
Alþingi sits on the south side of the Austurvöllur park. Heart of Iceland’s democracy.

Two full days on an Icelandair stopover, what to do?  Sunny but cold for the first day and clouds move in for the second.  Get out of town for the first day – Golden Circle and Northern Lights.  Sleep late and enjoy cosmopolitan Iceland in its capital city of Reykjavík.

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CALDERA DE TABURIENTE – MAGIC IN THE CANARIES

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Northern and eastern rims of the Caldera de Taburiente.
Northern and eastern rims of the Caldera de Taburiente.

A recent trip took me to the Caldera de Taburiente on the island of La Palma on the western edge of the Canary Islands.  The Canaries – not named for the birds but for dogs the pre-Spanish people kept and ate – are hugely popular destinations for sunseekers from northern Europe.  The interesting geology of the islands is not what brings in the plane loads of tourists, though what they seek for a large part, results from geological processes.  Beaches, sun and alcohol, not necessarily in that order.  Fuerteventura, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote all promise kilometers of beaches for the sun-deprived northerners to escape the long winters with.

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BORDERS TO THE BATTLE LINE – FEDERAL REGULAR ARMY AND THE CIVIL WAR

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Popular view of the men making up the US Regular Army.
Mick Moloney’s version of “The Regular Army O!“. The song provided a popular view of the men making up the US Regular Army.

For neophytes to the study of the American Civil War, the function played by the pre-war Federal Regular Army before, during and after continues to reside a bit in obscurity.  Officers from the antebellum army played large roles on both sides during the war, though they rarely achieved greatness remaining a part of the Federal Regular Army, even if staying true to their oath as army officers.  Those officers usually took up new commissions in the many militia units raised by the different States – again on both sides.  Rapid promotion and the chance to play much larger roles than they played before the war represented key factors in the exodus.  Which comes back to the question, what role did the Regular Army play during the war?

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ICELAND’S MAGIC DISPLAYED IN THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

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Gullfoss pours with frozen mists coating the canyon walls.
Gullfoss pours with frozen mists coating the canyon walls.

Nature comes to mind when reflecting upon Iceland.  Two aspects of Iceland’s natural beauty come bundled together on the Golden Circle Tour through which many tourists to the island nation gain their introductions – geysirs and waterfalls in the form of the geothermal area of Haukadaulur and the amazing waterfall, Gullfoss – Golden Waterfall.

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ICELAND IMPRESSIONS – ÞINGVELLIR MAGIC MET ON THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

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Church and Prime Minister's summer home at Þingvellir.
Church and Prime Minister’s summer home at Þingvellir.

A recent trip to Europe ended up flying us through the far northern island country of Iceland.  I had wanted to visit this country since hiking about in the tundra and mountains of Norway back in the early years of the 1980s.  The vast treeless moors of the Hadangervidda and the Jotunheimen served as magnificent introductions into the immense beauty to be discovered in the subarctic.  Iceland figured to take the natural beauty up a notch or two. The tundra also provided a bridge between magical nature with the political past at Þingvellir.

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