Flying along Interstate 84, you might catch an ephemeral glance at a waterfall or two. If you know when to look. Traffic speeds along well above the speed limit of 65 mph. The number of cars and trucks seem to exponentially increase with the years. Pity the traveler who finds themselves stuck behind one of the giant propellors heading to the wind farms just south of the east end of the Columbia River Gorge. Road travel has come a long way since the first road was put in over 150 years ago. Basalt columns occur in many areas along the way. So, the columns and cliffs jutting up to the south of the freeway just west of the Bridal Veil exit – exit 44 – might not garner an extra glance from a speeding car. You have just missed noting the Pillars of Hercules.
Continue readingCategory Archives: History
CAPORETTO OSSUARY – CATRASTROPHIC DEFEAT REVISED AS A NEW BEGINNING
Over 600,000 Italians lie dead on the battlefields of the Great War with another 170,000 dying of illness or wounds in hospitals further back. Buried in small battlefield cemeteries, like elsewhere across the destroyed landscapes of Europe, remains in the small cemeteries were gathered up into larger cemeteries. Unlike the American example of offering repatriation of remains to families – two thirds of American families opted for that option – here in Italy, only about 50,000 remains returned to the families. By 1927, too many cemeteries remained for the State to maintain upkeep. So, the huge ossuaries – charnel houses, in England – came onto the scene. Here at the Caporetto Ossuary, mythology transposed defeat into victory of sorts. A victory leading to the Blackshirt March on Rome; a renewed and greater Italy.
Continue readingDESCHUTES RAILROADS FEUD DEEP IN THE CANYONS
Type in a query for ‘railroad wars’ and you will find three events under the Wikipedia entry for “railroad wars”. The last event was the “Deschutes Railroad War”. Of the three, this is the shortest entry. The entry focuses on the actual building difficulties of the two Deschutes railroads erected on either side of the river. But to really understand the real reason for the enmity between the competing rail companies, we need to go further back before the 1912 construction of the two lines.
Continue readingEDWARD STEICHEN BRINGS A CAMERA TO THE GREAT WAR
With the onset of heavier-than-air flight, it was only a matter of time before warfare incorporated the new adjunct into its far-flung assemblage. World War One saw America late to the scene with forces unprepared for what lay ahead in the battlefields of France and Belgium. One of the men helping bridge the wide gulf to the new industrial levels the Great War brought about was Edward Steichen.
Continue readingRAIL LAND GRANTS – PLAYING CHECKERS ON THE NORTHWESTERN MAP
Looking at maps showing Federal lands of the West, you quickly notice a checkerboard arrangement incongruously drawn without seeming reason. Certainly, no topographical purpose. You now see the result of the rail land grants – grabs – of the 19th century.
One of Abraham Lincoln’s main planks to his 1860 presidential campaign became realized by the 1862 Pacific Railway Act. This gave Congress the ability to grant land and low-cost loans to railway companies building lines across the West. Lincoln’s goal was a transcontinental line to unite California and the Pacific Coast to the rest of the country.
Continue readingRAIL STATIONS OF THE NORTHWEST – MULTIPLE STATIONS BETTER THAN ONE?
As rail travel in the western US continues to be a fade from the past, many people have forgotten several cities used to have more than one passenger terminal to use. Some of the multiple rail stations have survived in other guises. Some, simply gone.
Continue readingBEAVERS AT WAR – OAC RENOWNED FROM THE GREAT WAR
Oregon Agricultural College, OAC, is a land grant university. As such, military science and tactics became part of the curriculum. This in order for the school to receive land grants to help fund the establishment and development of the college.
All male students studied military classes for their first two years at school, taking part in military drills and parades in all the years of the school before 1917 – military classes would remain mandatory until 1961. Many remained in the classes for their entire sojourn at the school. With so many indoctrinated in the mysteries of military life, it should not surprise anyone that many students and graduates of OAC served in one branch or another during the first world conflagration the United States found itself involved with in 1917.
Continue readingBATOGNICA – GREAT WAR STALEMATE HIGH IN THE JULIAN ALPS
Rising as a bump on the long Krn-Vršič ridge just to the south of the pyramidal climax of Krn, Batognica looks nondescript from afar. Closer up, say from the peak of Krn, that impression changes. Standing not unlike an aircraft carrier as the last mound rising above the 2100-meter mark as the ridge begins its precipitous drop to the south – and the murderous grounds of Myrzli vrh – Batognica takes on a different impression.
Continue readingCAPAS – FILIPINO SACRIFICE IN THE SHADOWS OF NEW CLARK CITY
The spire of the Capas National Shrine rises 240 feet into the air above the hot, humid plains of central Luzon. There is lots of symbolism included in the site. Three parts of the towering spire represent the peoples of the Philippines, the United States and … Japan. Covering 54 hectares – 130 acres – over half of the grounds have been planted with 31,000 trees representing the 25,000 Filipinos and 6,000 Americans who perished here at Camp O’Donnell following the end of the Bataan Death March in 1942. The park was named a national shrine by President Cory Aquino in 1991 with the tower was added in 2003 with a memorial wall behind with the names of those known to have perished here at the camp.
Continue readingCORGIS ON PARADE – MAGIC IN THE COAST AIR
My wife, our Corgi and I recently escaped the summer heat of the Willamette Valley for a day at the beach, Cannon Beach to be exact. Home of the annual Corgi Day at the Beach. It was an awesome day made more mystical by swirls of fog lying along the shore. Over 500 Corgis were running up and down through the sands.
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