All the way to Michigan........
FACTOIDS: • At the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the scattered marble markers record the approximate locations where the Seventh Cavalry soldiers, scouts and civilians fell in battle against Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians on 25-26th June, 1876. • Custer National Cemetery contains burials that are historic to Northern Plains events as well as burial of veterans and dependents from 1879-present. • The Devil’s Tower was proclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt as America’s first National Monument on September 24th, 1906. It may also be referred to as a ‘Natural Monument’. • The Devil’s Tower began its creation about 50 million years ago, as molten magma was forced into sedimentary rocks above it and cooled underground. Today the tower rises 867 feet from its base and stands 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River. • There are many different versions, from each local Indian tribe, that tells a legend of how the Devil’s Tower came into being. The Tower is considered sacred by many American Indians and plays an important role in many of their stories, and traditional cultural beliefs. • The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog, a type of burrowing rodent, is a social animal that lives with many others in ‘towns’. The Prairie Dog town at Devil’s Tower National Monument is approximately 40 acres in size. Prairie-dog tunnels may extend downward from 3-10 feet and then horizontally for another 10-15 feet. • In 1927, then President, Calvin Coolidge dedicated the worksite at Mount Rushmore with the words, “ The union of these four Presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt & Lincoln) carved on the face of the ever-lasting Black Hills of South Dakota.....will be distinctly American in its conception, in its magnitude, in its meaning.....” • “A monument’s dimensions should be determined by the importance to civilisation of the events commemorated .....Let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what matter of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away.” (Gutzon Borglum, Master Sculptor). • During the fourteen years of construction, over 360 men worked on the Mount Rushmore, with an average of 35 men working at any one time. • The faces of the 4 President’s are 60 feet from chin to forehead. The Sparkle in Lincoln’s eye is a block of granite 12 inches long! • Mount Rushmore was named, in the 1880’s after a New York Lawyer who was being driven through the Black Hills. He happened to ask the name of the particular mountain, and as it had no name, it was decided have it named after him. Rushmore later donated $5,000 towards the carving of the monument that bore his name. • The Jewel Caves in South Dakota are among the longest known caves in the world. It was given National Monument status by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908.
Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:58:06 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  USA