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eliteadventurestravel · 6 months ago

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Exploring Yosemite in Style: Private Hummer Tour 2024 Guide

Experience the exclusive Yosemite Private Hummer Tour, featuring lunch, transfers, and historical insights, as you immerse yourself in the beauty and history of Yosemite National Park.

Introduction to Yosemite Private Hummer Tour

Embark on an extraordinary adventure through Yosemite National Park with the exclusive private Hummer 4X4 tour, offering a unique and personalized exploration of the park's natural wonders. This exceptional tour not only includes a gourmet picnic lunch and convenient transfers but also provides a profound insight into Yosemite's rich history, making it an ideal choice for travelers seeking a truly immersive experience. By opting for this private Hummer excursion, visitors can expect VIP treatment that goes above and beyond, ensuring a memorable and enlightening tour of Yosemite's most captivating sights and stories.

In the realm of private tours in Yosemite National Park, the Hummer 4X4 tour stands out as a top-tier experience that caters to those looking for a blend of luxury, comfort, and educational value during their park exploration. As guests traverse the stunning landscapes and iconic landmarks aboard the rugged Hummer 4X4 vehicle, they not only witness the grandeur of Yosemite but also delve into the historical significance behind each stop, thanks to the knowledgeable guides accompanying them on this remarkable journey. This tour transcends mere sightseeing, serving as a gateway to the essence of Yosemite, promising an unparalleled adventure that is both enlightening and entertaining for all participants.

The private Hummer tour of Yosemite National Park is meticulously crafted to offer an exclusive and personalized experience for travelers seeking a deeper connection with the park's beauty and history. One of the standout features of this tour is the exceptional level of service provided to guests, ensuring that every aspect of their journey is seamlessly executed with attention to detail. From the moment guests are picked up for the tour to the moment they are dropped off, the focus remains on delivering a premium experience that exceeds expectations. This commitment to excellence sets the private Hummer tour apart as the epitome of luxury and sophistication in exploring Yosemite National Park.

History and Significance of Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park, established in 1890, holds a storied past that dates back over a century, solidifying its position as one of the oldest national parks in the United States. Its UNESCO World Heritage Site designation in 1984 further underscores its global importance, recognizing the park's unique natural and cultural heritage. Throughout its history, Yosemite has attracted visionaries and conservationists who have played pivotal roles in its preservation, leaving a legacy that continues to inspire environmental stewardship worldwide.

The park's significance extends far beyond its stunning landscapes and iconic features. Serving as a haven for a diverse array of plant and animal species, including the awe-inspiring giant sequoias that tower over the forest, Yosemite showcases the intricate tapestry of nature within its borders. The presence of varied wildlife, from black bears to mule deer, further emphasizes the ecological importance of the park, highlighting the delicate balance of the ecosystem within its boundaries. By immersing oneself in the private Hummer tour of Yosemite National Park, visitors not only witness the natural beauty of the park but also gain a profound appreciation for its historical and ecological significance, making Yosemite a cherished gem in the national park system.

Yosemite National Park's rich tapestry of history and significance is woven into every aspect of the private Hummer tour, offering guests a deeper understanding of the park's evolution over time. The tour guides often share anecdotes and stories about significant figures like John Muir and President Roosevelt, shedding light on their contributions to Yosemite's preservation and highlighting key moments in the park's past. By exploring these historical narratives firsthand during the tour, guests can forge a deeper connection with Yosemite's heritage and gain insights that enrich their overall park experience. This blend of natural beauty and historical context creates a multifaceted journey through Yosemite National Park that resonates with travelers seeking a comprehensive and enlightening adventure.

Private Hummer 4X4 Tour Itinerary

The private Hummer 4X4 tour of Yosemite National Park presents an exclusive and tailored itinerary that allows guests to delve into the park's beauty and history in a personalized manner. A highlight of the tour is the visit to Glacier Point overlook, renowned for its sweeping panoramic views of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls. This stop provides guests with a breathtaking perspective of the park, immersing them in its grandeur and offering photo opportunities that capture the essence of Yosemite's iconic landscapes.

In addition to Glacier Point, the tour includes stops at The Pioneer Village History Center, where guests can engage with exhibits and demonstrations that showcase the cultural heritage of the region. This historical site offers a window into Yosemite's past, illustrating the traditions and lifestyles of early settlers in the area. By incorporating these significant landmarks into the itinerary, the private Hummer tour ensures that travelers not only appreciate the park's natural beauty but also gain a deeper understanding of its historical and cultural roots. This blend of natural wonders and cultural insights creates a multifaceted tour experience that appeals to guests seeking a comprehensive exploration of Yosemite National Park.

When crafting the itinerary for the private Hummer tour, tour operators carefully curate each stop to provide guests with a well-rounded and engaging journey through Yosemite National Park. The inclusion of optional hiking experiences allows visitors to immerse themselves in the park's wilderness, exploring hidden trails and scenic vistas that showcase Yosemite's diverse landscapes. By offering these opportunities for outdoor adventure, the tour caters to guests seeking a more active and hands-on exploration of the park, providing a deeper connection with nature and a heightened sense of discovery. This blend of sightseeing and outdoor activities ensures that the private Hummer tour appeals to a wide range of interests and preferences, making it a versatile and enriching experience for all participants.

Lunch Options and Dietary Accommodations

Delve into the culinary delights of the private Hummer tour of Yosemite National Park, where a gourmet picnic lunch awaits guests amidst the breathtaking landscapes of the park. The tour ensures quality and variety in the lunch offerings, catering to different dietary needs and preferences to provide a satisfying dining experience for all participants. Whether guests have specific dietary requirements or special requests, the tour strives to accommodate their preferences, ensuring that everyone can enjoy a delicious meal while surrounded by Yosemite's natural wonders.

For those looking to savor local flavors, the lunch options often feature fresh and locally sourced ingredients that highlight the region's culinary offerings. Imagine relishing a gourmet sandwich crafted with artisan bread, complemented by crisp, farm-fresh salads, and delectable desserts that elevate the dining experience. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, or other dietary restrictions are thoughtfully considered, with flavorful alternatives that cater to diverse palates and preferences. This attention to detail in the lunch offerings not only ensures a satisfying meal but also enhances the overall ambiance of the dining experience, creating a memorable picnic amidst the splendor of Yosemite National Park.

The presentation of the picnic lunch is thoughtfully executed to elevate the dining experience, transforming it into a memorable moment of the tour. Picture unwrapping a carefully prepared lunch package at a scenic overlook, with the iconic Half Dome or Yosemite Falls as your backdrop, making every bite a sensory delight that complements the stunning vistas. This thoughtful approach to dining not only nourishes guests during their exploration but also adds a touch of elegance and indulgence to the overall tour experience, creating a culinary journey that mirrors the natural beauty and sophistication of Yosemite National Park.

Hotel Pickup and Drop-off Locations

When booking the private Hummer tour of Yosemite National Park, guests can take advantage of the convenient hotel pickup and drop-off services available at various locations. Whether staying in Oakhurst, Fish Camp, Mariposa, or El Portal, the tour ensures that guests are seamlessly transported to and from their accommodations, eliminating the need to worry about logistics. This door-to-door service adds a layer of comfort and convenience to the tour, allowing guests to focus on enjoying their exploration of Yosemite's stunning landscapes without the hassle of arranging transportation.

The flexibility in pickup times offered by the tour operator caters to the diverse schedules and preferences of guests, ensuring a personalized and stress-free experience. Whether guests prefer an early morning start to catch the sunrise over Yosemite Valley or a later pickup time to align with their itinerary, the private Hummer tour accommodates these requests with professionalism and efficiency. By providing this level of customization in hotel pickup and drop-off, the tour sets the stage for a seamless and enjoyable journey through Yosemite National Park, allowing guests to relax and immerse themselves in the beauty of the surroundings without logistical concerns.

Child Safety Measures and Family-Friendly Features

Ensuring the safety and comfort of children is a top priority during the private Hummer tour of Yosemite National Park. The tour adheres to specific safety regulations, including the mandatory use of car seats and booster seats for younger participants, guaranteeing a secure and worry-free journey through the park. For instance, children of varying ages or heights may require a car seat or booster seat to comply with safety standards and regulations, providing peace of mind to parents and guardians throughout the tour.

In addition to the safety measures in place, the family-friendly features of the private Hummer tour cater to the needs and preferences of young travelers, enhancing their overall experience. The tour often incorporates special activities and amenities tailored to engage children, such as interactive educational sessions about the park's wildlife and history or fun scavenger hunts that keep them entertained and excited during the journey. By combining safety with entertainment, the private Hummer tour ensures that families can create lasting memories together in the stunning landscapes of Yosemite National Park, fostering a sense of adventure and discovery for guests of all ages.

The private Hummer tour's commitment to providing a family-friendly experience extends to the guides and staff, who are dedicated to creating a welcoming and engaging environment for young travelers. These knowledgeable guides often engage children in educational discussions about the park's flora, fauna, and history, fostering a sense of curiosity and exploration that resonates with young minds. By encouraging interactive learning and discovery, the tour aims to inspire a lifelong appreciation for nature and conservation in children, instilling values of stewardship and environmental responsibility that are integral to Yosemite National Park's legacy.

Cancellation Policy and Refund Process

Understanding the flexibility offered by the private Hummer tour's cancellation policy is essential for guests planning their Yosemite National Park adventure. The tour allows for a full refund if canceled up to 24 hours in advance, providing guests with the freedom to adjust their plans without financial repercussions. This policy ensures that travelers can book their experience with confidence, knowing that they have the flexibility to make changes if unexpected circumstances arise.

To streamline the refund process and ensure clarity for guests, the private Hummer tour outlines the steps required to request a refund and the timeframe within which travelers can expect their reimbursement. By providing transparent and detailed information on the cancellation policy and refund process, the tour prioritizes customer satisfaction and aims to deliver a seamless booking experience for all participants. This commitment to transparency and customer service underscores the tour operator's dedication to ensuring a positive and stress-free journey through Yosemite National Park for all guests.

Traveler Reviews and Testimonials

Exploring Visitor Experiences

Travelers who have embarked on the private Hummer tour of Yosemite National Park have shared their firsthand experiences, offering valuable insights and feedback on the tour. Many guests have lauded the tour guides for their extensive knowledge of the park's history and geography, enriching the tour with engaging narratives and educational content. A reviewer commended the guide's ability to weave captivating stories about Yosemite's past, bringing the park's heritage to life and creating a memorable and immersive experience for guests. These anecdotes not only educate but also entertain, adding depth and context to the overall tour experience.

Personalized Service and Memorable Moments

Among the common themes in traveler reviews are expressions of appreciation for the personalized service provided during the private Hummer tour. Guests often highlight the guides' attentiveness to individual needs and preferences, creating a bespoke experience that caters to each group's unique interests. For instance, a review praised the guide for accommodating a special request for a scenic lunch spot overlooking Yosemite Falls, showcasing the dedication to creating unforgettable moments for guests. This commitment to personalized care and exceptional service contributes to the tour's stellar reputation and positive reviews from those who have explored Yosemite National Park in the comfort of a private Hummer.

The testimonials from previous guests underscore the tour's ability to create lasting memories and forge meaningful connections with Yosemite's natural beauty and history. Guests often mention the transformative nature of the private Hummer tour, with some describing it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience that deepened their appreciation for the park's wonders. By immersing themselves in the stories and landscapes of Yosemite National Park through the private Hummer tour, travelers leave with a sense of awe and inspiration that lingers long after the tour concludes, underscoring the lasting impact of this exceptional exploration of one of America's most treasured national parks.

Pricing Structure and Inclusions

When evaluating the pricing structure of the private Hummer tour package in Yosemite National Park, guests can gain insight into the value and offerings that make this experience exceptional. The tour package typically encompasses a private tour in a 4X4 Hummer, ensuring an exclusive and personalized journey away from the crowds. Travelers can enjoy the convenience of hotel pickup and drop-off, streamlining the logistics of the day and allowing them to focus on the beauty of Yosemite's landscapes. Additionally, bottled water is provided throughout the tour, keeping guests refreshed and hydrated as they explore the park's natural wonders.

The tour price often covers a delectable picnic lunch, offering guests a culinary experience amidst the stunning vistas of Yosemite National Park. The lunch options are varied and cater to different dietary preferences, ensuring that all guests can enjoy a satisfying meal during their adventure. For those seeking to enhance their experience further, optional upgrades may be available for an additional cost. These upgrades could include activities such as hiking, providing a deeper immersion into the natural beauty of Yosemite, or visits to specific historical sites within the park that enrich the overall tour experience. By offering these optional enhancements, the private Hummer tour allows travelers to customize their journey to align with their interests and preferences, creating a truly personalized and unforgettable experience in Yosemite National Park.

Comparison with Alternative Tour Options

The private Hummer tour distinguishes itself by providing an exclusive adventure away from the typical tourist crowds, with a maximum of only five travelers per tour. This intimate setting allows guests to enjoy a secluded and serene experience amidst Yosemite's breathtaking landscapes, fostering a deeper connection with nature and the park's natural wonders. The tranquility and exclusivity of the private Hummer tour create a sense of immersion and tranquility that sets it apart from larger group excursions, allowing guests to savor a peaceful and enriching journey through Yosemite National Park. By choosing the private Hummer tour, visitors can escape the hustle and bustle of traditional tours and embrace a unique and secluded experience that unfolds in harmony with the natural splendor of Yosemite.

Full Article: https://elite-adventures.com/all-offers/f/exploring-yosemite-in-style-private-hummer-tour-2024-guide

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auctionyesterdaytractorsusa · 1 year ago

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Tractors Online Auctions In Florida

auction.yesterdaystractors is an Tractors Online Auctions that specializes in Antique Tractors and farm equipment. The site is a subsidiary of Yesterday's Tractors, which is a popular online community and resource for tractor enthusiasts.

The auction site offers a wide range of Vintage and Antique Tractor Auctions for sale, including brands like John Deere, International Harvester, Ford, and Allis-Chalmers. The site also features a variety of implements and attachments, as well as collectible items like signs, toys, and memorabilia.

One of the unique features of Auction.Yesterday's Tractors is the ability to place bids online, allowing buyers from all over the world to participate in auctions. The site also features a "Buy it Now" option for some items, allowing buyers to purchase items immediately without having to wait for an auction to end.

Overall, Auction.Yesterday's Tractors is a great resource for anyone interested in Tractors Online Auctions In Florida. With its wide range of items for sale and the ability to place bids online, it provides a convenient and accessible way for buyers to purchase these unique and historic machines

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loughboroprofessionalassociation · 2 years ago

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Exploring the History and Wildlife of Beacon Hill Country Park near Loughborough

Beacon Hill Country Park is a beautiful natural space located just outside Loughborough, Leicestershire. The park covers an area of over 135 hectares and is a popular destination for nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts alike. In this article, we will explore the history and wildlife of Beacon Hill Country Park, and why it is such a unique and special place to visit.

The history of Beacon Hill Country Park outside Loughborough is as rich and varied as the landscape itself. The park is situated on an ancient hillfort, which dates back to the Iron Age. The site was then used by the Romans as a signal station, where soldiers would light fires to warn of any impending attacks. The hill was also used as a beacon during the English Civil War, and during the 19th century, it became a popular destination for tourists, who would climb the hill to enjoy the panoramic views.

Today, Beacon Hill Country Park is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including some rare and endangered species. The park is particularly known for its birdlife, with over 40 different species having been recorded there. The bird species that can be spotted in the park include woodpeckers, nuthatches, treecreepers, and several species of owl. There are also a number of bird boxes placed throughout the park, which provide important nesting sites for the birds.

The park is also home to a variety of mammals, including badgers, foxes, and deer. The deer population in the park is particularly notable, with both roe and fallow deer being present. Visitors can often spot the deer grazing in the fields, or catching glimpses of them as they move through the trees. There are also several species of bat that can be found in the park, including the rare barbastelle bat, which is a protected species in the UK.

In addition to its rich wildlife, Beacon Hill Country Park is also home to a number of historic sites and features. The hillfort itself is a major feature of the park, and visitors can explore the remains of the fortifications and learn about the history of the site. There are also several old quarries in the park, which are a testament to the area's industrial heritage. The quarries were used to extract the famous Mountsorrel granite, which was used to build some of the country's most famous landmarks, including the London Bridge.

One of the most popular features of the park is the Old John Tower, which sits atop the hill and is a popular landmark for miles around. The tower was built in the 18th century as a folly, and offers stunning views of the surrounding countryside. The tower is a popular destination for visitors, who climb the steep steps to the top to enjoy the panoramic views.

The park also offers a range of different activities for visitors to enjoy. There are several walking and cycling trails that wind through the park, offering stunning views of the surrounding countryside. The park also offers a range of different events throughout the year, including guided walks, nature trails, and educational workshops.

Perhaps one of the most notable things about Beacon Hill Country Park is its location. The park is situated in the heart of the Charnwood Forest, which is one of the most important areas of ancient woodland in the country. The forest is a unique and special place, with a rich diversity of plant and animal life. It is home to several rare and endangered species, including the pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly and the black hairstreak butterfly.

In conclusion, Beacon Hill Country Park is a unique and special place that offers a rich history and a diverse range of wildlife. The park is a wonderful destination for nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts, offering a range of different activities and events throughout the year.

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antoine-roquentin · 4 years ago

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1952

The [United Packinghouse Workers of America] takes its advocacy outside the plant and sues a Waterloo tavern owner for failing to serve Blacks. It was one of many tactics the union used to desegregate the city. One of its most effective strategies involved white workers going from tavern to tavern to order food and drinks. Their Black coworkers came in next. When the businesses refused to serve the Black workers, the white workers walked out. From the late 1940s through the ʼ60s, the union handled discrimination complaints at other workplaces, pressured hotels to desegregate, boycotted stores that wouldn’t hire Blacks and convinced the local newspaper to stop identifying race in crime articles only when the suspect was Black.

Jimmie Porter, a locally heralded civil right activist, was central to the union’s integration efforts. A native of Mississippi, he observed that while the racism in the North wasn’t as blatant, it also wasn’t too different from what he’d left. “I pretty well knew where I stood in Mississippi, and here, I had to be told and reminded,” he said in an oral history interview. “They had conditioned most of the Blacks who lived here to never look at how well they should be doing compared to whites who they had gone to school with, but to measure themselves by their country cousin.”

1954

Anna Mae Weems becomes one of the first Black women to integrate Rath’s sliced bacon department, a bastion of white women working in a pristine environment. Born in Waterloo, Weems couldn’t understand why, after graduating from high school, she couldn’t get the jobs that her white classmates were getting. The union recruited her to further challenge the race and gender barrier at Rath. She soon became the shop steward for the bacon line.

It had been a long fight to get there. Black workers had often been assigned to the dirtiest jobs in the packinghouse. Black women were overrepresented in hog casings departments, where they “flushed worms and feces from the animal’s intestines,” one historian wrote. Meanwhile, Black men were frequently assigned to the kill floor, though the position had unexpected advantages. Whenever there was a dispute, the workers could stop the line, threatening to let the hog carcasses rot until the company resolved their grievance.

1956

Rath’s employment peaks at nearly 9,000 workers. Thanks to the jobs at the packinghouse and at other factories, thousands of Black people moved to Waterloo from the South during the Great Migration. As Rath became an increasingly popular brand, the union ensured that the workers’ economic fortunes rose with it. By the mid-1960s, wages were the equivalent of $24 to $32 an hour in today’s dollars, helping create a Black middle class.

1967

An upstart company, Iowa Beef Packers, introduces a product known as “boxed beef,” transforming the meatpacking industry. Instead of sending sides of beef to butcher shops, IBP workers stood side-by-side, each making a specific cut to disassemble a carcass moving down a conveyor. “We’ve tried to take the skill out of every step,” IBP’s president had told Newsweek in 1965. The new process sped up production and allowed the company to move its plants from cities into rural areas where livestock was plentiful and unions were scarce. Most large meatpackers would follow suit.

1968

The UPWA merges with the more conservative Amalgamated Meat Cutters as corporate power grows in the changing meat industry.

1979

The meatpacking union joins an organization of retail and grocery clerks to form the United Food and Commercial Workers. Some meatpacking workers found themselves battling with their union as much as their employers. At some plants, members of old UPWA locals tried to push back against wage cuts, but the UFCW leaders sided with the meatpackers. “It was like a shot of whiskey. When we was the UPWA, we was little but powerful,” a union leader told oral historians. “Then we joined the Amalgamated and we got like a mixed drink. Now it looks to me like we’re a shot in a quart of Squirt.”

1985

After years of financial trouble, Rath shuts its doors, contributing to an economic tailspin in Waterloo that deeply affects the Black community. Simultaneously, the 1980s farm crisis had taken a toll on Waterloo’s other big employer, John Deere, which laid off thousands. As the last ones in, Black workers were now the first to go, erasing hard-fought economic gains.

The civil rights movement had spurred the desegregation of Waterloo’s schools, but as in other cities, it prompted white flight. Without good-paying jobs, many middle-class Black families also left for opportunities elsewhere. Those who stayed faced bleak prospects. “You could have a master’s degree and be in Waterloo, and if you were Black, it was hard for you to find a job,” said the Rev. Belinda Creighton-Smith, senior pastor of Faith Temple American Baptist Church.

1988

IBP announces its plan to build the world’s largest hog-slaughtering plant in Waterloo, promising 1,500 jobs for the struggling city. Many hoped it would provide work for hundreds of laid-off Rath employees, but some leaders had their doubts. The company had a reputation for mistreating workers and had been fined by the Labor Department for failing to report injuries. Willie Mae Wright, the only Black city council member at the time, was among those skeptical of IBP. But after meeting with community members, she said in an interview, she “went along with it knowing that people didn’t have jobs.” City officials approved the IBP plant.

1990

IBP’s slaughterhouse opens to much excitement in Waterloo. But many of IBP’s initial hires don’t stay on the job for long. Some told community leaders they were overwhelmed by the speed of the processing lines, which left their hands numb. After several years, few in the local workforce wanted to work there.

1996

IBP looks elsewhere for workers. It recruits homeless people from shelters and under highway overpasses. It hires labor agencies to find workers from the U.S.-Mexico border, and appeals to California farmworkers who want out of the hot fields and a lower cost of living.

IBP also runs a recruiting operation in Mexico, buying ads on local radio stations and turning pharmacies, stores and car washes into application centers. The company eventually charters buses to transport workers directly from Mexico to its plants. While IBP insisted the workers were authorized, dozens were detained in two immigration raids on the Waterloo plant....

2018

A financial news site, 24/7 Wall St., ranks the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro area the worst place for Black people in America. The Black unemployment rate is nearly five times higher than for whites, and Black residents own homes at less than half the rate of white residents, the report notes. Despite the economic gains that meatpacking jobs had provided a generation earlier, Waterloo remains largely segregated, with a historically Black neighborhood bounded by railroad tracks on three sides. And many in the Black community haven’t fully recovered from the 1980s economic downturn.

2020

An outbreak at the Tyson plant makes Waterloo one of the country’s biggest COVID-19 hotspots. The disease disproportionately affects the city’s immigrants, refugees and communities of color — a demographic heavily employed by Tyson. “This is their first attempt to get a slice of this American apple pie and then for it to be so bitter for them is a travesty,” said state Rep. Ras Smith, who represents the city’s east side. “I don’t want Tyson to overshadow what Waterloo is.”

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sellhousefast323 · 4 years ago

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9 Top-Rated Attractions & Things to Do in Roanoke, VA

Roanoke is a popular tourist destination, whether you're a culture vulture seeking out unique museums and attractions or an active vacationer seeking out outdoor adventures. The city is a four-season destination for avid hikers, rock climbers, recreational boaters, and sportfishing enthusiasts, and is located in the picturesque Roanoke Valley in southwestern Virginia. In-town greenways, cultural diversions, diverse dining, and unique shopping discoveries await urban explorers. Whatever your vacation style, keep our list of Roanoke's top attractions and things to do handy.

1. Mill Mountain Park & the Roanoke Star

Mill Mountain Park, which is home to the famous Roanoke Star (also known as the Mill Mountain Star), has more than 10 miles of multi-use trails (hiking, walking, and biking) where visitors can experience the region's all-season natural beauty.

Take the Mill Mountain Star Trail, a 3.5-mile round-trip from the base trail, to the summit of Mill Mountain, the city's highest point at 1,703 feet, for a moderately challenging hike. Hikers are rewarded with two scenic overlooks atop the mountain after climbing 838 feet in elevation. The Star Trail parking lot, located just off Riverland Road SE at the Star/Wood Thrush Connector, has plenty of free parking and clear signage.

Connect with the short Watchtower Trail for the best panoramic views and photos right at the base of the Roanoke Star, one of Virginia's most famous landmarks. The National Register of Historic Landmarks has listed this unusual landmark, which was built in 1949 as a temporary Christmas decoration by the local merchants association. The giant star, at 89 feet in height, is America's largest star. It is visible from up to 60 miles away and is lit every evening until midnight.

Hikers are welcome to bring their leashed dogs, and there are picnic tables, restrooms, and water along the Mill Mountain Spur Trail en route to the Discovery Center, a naturalist centre with exhibits on the park, local wildlife, and trail maps. Mill Mountain Zoo, a small but lively enclave with local critters such as the Indian crested porcupine, red wolf, and yellow-spotted side-necked turtle, will appeal to children of all ages.

2. Carvins Cove Natural Reserve

Carvins Cove Natural Reserve, with more than 60 miles of trails surrounding an 800-acre reservoir, is known among locals as a haven for off-road mountain biking. The reserve, which is the second largest municipal park in the United States, spans nearly 13,000 acres, the majority of which is protected by the state of Virginia's largest conservation easement.

Trail maps are available for purchase, and bikers can get local advice on which trails are best suited for their experience level at Just The Right Gear, a cycling shop near the Bennett Springs parking lot (one of three reserve entrances — the others are Marina and Timber View). There are also rentals of high-end bikes and gear.

On the Easy Street, Kit & Kaboodle, The Skillet, and Enchanted Forest trails, beginners will find a gentler rise and more flats. On the Comet, Gauntlet, Hoe Trail, and Clownshead, riders seeking more difficult challenges will get exactly what they want. On the most difficult trails, expect to gain up to 2,400 feet in elevation.

Along these well-kept trails, riders will encounter packed dirt, loose gravel, and tamped soil. Canoeing (equipment rentals and instruction are available) and fishing are also popular activities at Carvins Cove.

3. Smith Mountain Lake

Smith Mountain Lake, one of Virginia's most popular — and the state's largest — has nearly 500 miles of shoreline, earning it the title of "Jewel of the Blue Ridge Mountains." Because state fisheries keep the lake well stocked, SML, as it's known by locals, has an especially impressive striped bass population. Anglers can book half- or full-day charters with a number of licenced guides who have plenty of experience traversing the 21,000-acre lake. They'll provide bait, equipment, and all of the necessary expertise to ensure that those fishing have a safe and enjoyable time on the water.

Crappies, bluegills, largemouth and smallmouth bass, as well as stripers, are among the tasty fish that make freshwater fishing at SML a popular tourist destination.

Waterskiing and wakeboarding, boating and sailing, and jet skiing are all fun activities to do on the lake. Swimming is also available at a family-friendly beach, and there are several golf courses nearby.

4. Roanoke Valley Greenways

The interconnected Roanoke Valley Greenway allows visitors to walk or bike along miles of trails in the area, which are safe, well-populated, and well-maintained. A popular trail in and around Roanoke is right along the Roanoke River, where deer, herons, geese, and other wildlife can be seen even in the city. Vic Thomas Park, just off Memorial Drive south of the river, is a great place to start your exploration. From there, you can easily join the Roanoke River Greenway.

A short distance away is the well-known Black Dog Salvage. Every visit to this nationally recognised purveyor of reclaimed architectural, commercial, and industrial fixtures and elements yields a fascinating, one-of-a-kind inventory. Visitors come from all 50 states to see Black Dog, which specialises in doors, windows, wrought iron, period lighting, garden statuary, and other specialty home components.

Head southeast on the Roanoke River Greenway towards Wasena Park after visiting Black Dog. At the Wasena Skate Park, kids can be seen hanging ten on their longboards. The park is always bustling with activity, and the locals' fancy footwork on their skateboards and blades is entertaining to watch.

On your way to the Tinker Creek Greenway, continue on the greenway and cross the Mill Mountain Greenway. Follow that road north for less than a mile and reward yourself with a picnic at Fallon Park's picnic area.

5. Taubman Museum of Art

The Taubman Museum of Art, one of the city's newest attractions (it opened in 2008), is a must-see for art lovers and casual culture consumers alike. The museum's permanent collection of 2,000 unique pieces is spread across 11 different galleries, including works by Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins, Purvis Young, and John Cage, and is housed in a stunning modern design by renowned architect Randall Stout.

Visiting exhibits featuring work by some of America's best artists, including John James Audubon and Norman Rockwell, to name a few, are common. Photographic, folk art, and design-related exhibits are among the other highlights.

If you're travelling with children, look into children's programmes, such as hands-on workshops and interactive displays. On-site amenities include a café.

6. McAfee Knob

McAfee Knob is one of the most photographed places on the Appalachian Trail, thanks to its incredible vistas and spectacular rock overhang perch. The 3.5 miles of intermediate-to-difficult trails that lead up to the knob from the Virginia 311 parking lot are popular with hikers.

Climbers know it for the more than 70 gnarly sandstone and slick quartzite boulders that make for days of mini-summits. The majority of boulders are between 10 and 20 feet tall, with many crimps, jugs, pockets, and edges. Bring pads, lunch, and a buddy; it's never a good idea to go rock climbing alone, and McAfee is often deserted.

Another popular recreational area in Roanoke is the recently re-opened Explore Park, which is located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. The park features 1,100 acres of breathtaking scenery, numerous walking and hiking trails, as well as thrilling ziplines and a treetop adventure course that is appropriate for families with younger children. It also has a visitor centre and a gift shop, as well as camping and rustic cabins.

7. Bottom Creek Gorge Preserve

Bottom Creek Gorge Preserve is a popular destination for birders, nature lovers, and photographers. Bottom Creek, located less than 20 miles south of Roanoke, is one of the most important headwaters for the Roanoke River, and it offers visitors several well-marked trails to enjoy the vast hardwood forest, unspoiled landscape, and Virginia's second highest waterfall.

For the best vantage point to photograph the 200-foot cascading waterfall, the second tallest in Virginia, photographers should take the Red Trail (the longest trail here, at five miles round-trip). Bring a long/telephoto lens because the overlook at the end of the trail offers a clear, open shot, but the falls are a long way away. A side path off the Yellow Trail leads to other viewpoints of the falls.

8. Roanoke City Market

The historic City Market, also known as the Farmers' Market by locals, is open all year and offers boutique shopping, local produce, flowers, meat and cheese, local dining favourites, and some of Virginia's best people-watching. Pay close attention to the market's four mosaic tiled entrances, each of which contains over 2,000 pounds of porcelain tiles that reveal a little bit of the history of this storied public space.

9. Roanoke Pinball Museum

We’ve recently started a new family hobby – vintage record collecting! In keeping with this new found connection over the beloved old, we were delighted to take our girls to the Roanoke Pinball Museum and show them how we entertained ourselves long before the internet.

From the 1932 styles to the slightly more modern Munster’s machine which had a baby pinball inside the bigger one to play, you could get lost in here playing over 65 machines for hours.

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creepingsharia · 5 years ago

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Thanksgiving on the Net: Roast Bull with Cranberry Sauce

Debunking revisionist history about Thanksgiving. Take the time to read it all, print it, and share it with your children no matter what age they are.

EDITORS NOTE: Due to the length of this article it has been presented here in three (3) parts. You may access the other pages by clicking the links at the bottom of this page or from the 'Related Links' section in the right column of the page.

http://www.sail1620.org/discover_feature_thanksgiving_on_the_net_roast_bull_with_cranberry_sauce_part_1.shtml

Thanksgiving on the Net: Roast Bull with Cranberry Sauce Part 1

by Jeremy D. Bangs

Jeremy Bangs (Ph.D., Leiden University), a Fellow of the Pilgrim Society, is Director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, having previously been Visiting Curator of Manuscripts at Pilgrim Hall Museum, Chief Curator at Plimoth Plantation, and Curator of the Leiden Pilgrim Documents Center. Among his books are "Pilgrim Edward Winslow: New England's First International Diplomat" (2004); "Indian Deeds, Land Transactions in Plymouth Colony, 1620-1691" (2002); and "The Seventeenth-Century Town Records of Scituate, Massachusetts" (3 vols, 1997-1999-2001), all published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society. He has written many articles about the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony, and is currently completing the manuscript of a book about the Pilgrims and Leiden. He was awarded the Distinguished Mayflower Scholarship Award by the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the Commonwealth of PA in 2001. Bangs is among a small, select number of historians of the Pilgrims (those who have no family relation to them whatsoever!). He has also published articles and books on Dutch history and art history of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Setting people straight about Thanksgiving myths has become as much a part of the annual holiday as turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. But should historians bother? Jane Kamensky, a professor of history at Brandeis, thinks not. She asks on the website "Common-Place" (in 2001) whether it's worth while "to plumb the bottom of it all - to determine, for example, [...] whether Plymouth's 'Pilgrims' were indeed the grave-robbing hypocrites that UAINE describes [i.e. United American Indians of New England]. [...] Was the 'first Thanksgiving' merely a pretext for bloodshed, enslavement, and displacement that would follow in later decades? Combing period documents and archaeological evidence, we might peel away some of the myths [...] But to do so would be to miss a fundamental point of these holidays. [...] in this new millenium, these sacred secular rites are once again pressed into service - this time by new nations, with new visions of the present, to be reached through new versions of the past. In place of one origins myth, the inventors of Indigenous Peoples' Day [intended to replace Columbus Day] and the National Day of Mourning [intended to replace Thanksgiving Day] invoke another. One in which all Europeans were villains and all Natives, victims. One in which indigenous peoples knew neither strife nor war until the treachery of Columbus and his cultural heirs taught them to hate and fear. To ask whether this is true is to ask the wrong question. It's true to its purposes. Every bit as true, that is, as the stories some Americans in 1792 and 1863 told about the events of 1492 and 1621. And that's all it needs to be. For these holidays say much less about who we really were in some specific Then, than about who we want to be in an ever changing Now."

"And that's all it needs to be"? I disagree. I think that anyone who wants to approach the question of Thanksgiving Day as a historian in the "ever changing Now" will need to ask "the wrong question" - what of all this is true?

Surveying more than two hundred websites that "correct" our assumptions about Thanksgiving, it's possible to sort them into groups and themes, especially since internet sites often parrot each other. Very few present anything like the myths that most claim to combat. Almost all of the corrections are themselves incorrect or banal, and otherwise not germane to the topic of what happened in 1621. With heavy self-importance they demonstrate quite unsurprisingly that what was once commonly taught in grade school lacked scope, subtlety, and minority insight. The political posturing is pathetic.

Commonly the first point scored is that lots of people gave thanks before the Pilgrims did it in 1621. Local boosters in Virginia, Florida, and Texas promote their own colonists, who (like many people getting off a boat) gave thanks for setting foot again on dry land. Several sites claim that Indians had six thanksgivings every year; at least one says that every day, every act, every thought was carried out with thanksgiving by pre-contact Indians. (My thanksgiving is bigger than your thanksgiving?) Among many examples:

* http://www.new-life.net/thanks01.htm

* http://www.oyate.org/resources/shortthanks.html

The Text

Many sites point out in a rankly naive sort of way that only one brief documentary account records Plymouth Colony's 1621 harvest festivities, the specific descriptive words of Edward Winslow, while additional information can be derived from the seasonal comments of William Bradford, who mentioned that the Pilgrims ate turkey among other things. See, for example, Pilgrim Hall Museum's website, which is consistently informative and of high scholarly quality:

Reporting on the colonists' first year, Winslow wrote that wheat and Indian corn had grown well; the barley crop was "indifferently good"; but pease were "not worth the gathering." Winslow continues: "Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent foure men on fowling; so that we might after a more speciall manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours. They foure in one day killed as much fowle as, with a little help besid, served the company almost a weeke. At which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some nintie men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted. And they went out and killed five deere, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our Governour, and upon the Captaine and others. And although it be not alwayes so plentifull, as it was at this time, with us, yet by goodnesse of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plentie."[1]

Governor William Bradford, in Of Plymouth Plantation, reported that fishing had been good all summer, and, in the fall, "begane to come in store of foule, as winter approached [...] And besides water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids venison, etc."[2]

Archaeologist James Deetz made much of the fact that Winslow did not name the turkeys Bradford mentioned.

This startling revelation (that in this case one should ignore Bradford's general comments and suppose that Winslow was providing a complete menu listing) recurs in various websites, such as the 2002 article posted by the Christian Science Monitor.

More frequently repeated is Deetz's emphatic reminder that Winslow did not use the word "thanksgiving" - drawing the conclusion that therefore the 1621 event was not a thanksgiving but some sort of traditional English harvest festival he characterized as "secular."

I've discussed this oversimplification previously in an previous article.

Further, see "Re-bunking the Pilgrims" [subscribers]

On the one hand, whatever their folk customs may have been, harvest festivals in England with which the Pilgrims had been familiar were not "secular." (The Elizabethan and Jacobean-period Anglican Book of Common Prayer included an obligatory harvest thanksgiving prayer among the prayers whose use was increasingly enforced in the early seventeenth century.) On the other, Winslow's description includes biblical phrases referring to texts whose completion includes thanksgiving (particularly John 4:36 and Psalm 33). Winslow's contemporaries, unlike modern archaeologists, caught the meaning of the full texts to which he alluded. They knew their Bible.

But Deetz's assertion that there was no thanksgiving in 1621 is repeated in numerous websites. Often authors explain that what took place was so unlike later Puritan thanksgivings that it couldn't have been a true thanksgiving (usually citing, for the definition of what that would have been, William DeLoss Love, The Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England (Boston, New York: Houghton and Mifflin, 1895), a book whose title alone seems to have inspired the common web article notion that in New England people fasted as an _expression of thanksgiving). For example, in "Top 10 Myths About Thanksgiving,' Rick Shenkman announces that Thanksgiving was not about religion.

Had it been, he says, "the Pilgrims never would have invited the Indians to join them. Besides, the Pilgrims would never have tolerated festivities at a true religious event. Indeed, what we think of as Thanksgiving was really a harvest festival. Actual 'Thanksgivings' were religious affairs; everybody spent the day praying. Incidentally, these Pilgrim Thanksgivings occurred at different times of the year, not just in November."

Responding to this in reverse order: (1) that Thanksgivings were not limited to November does not mean that the first one held by the colonists in Plymouth (which incidentally was presumably in September or early October) was not a thanksgiving. (2) The modern idea that in a religious thanksgiving "everyone spent the day praying" is inconsistent with the only description of the specific activities of a definitely identified thanksgiving day in early Plymouth Colony - the thanksgiving held in Scituate in 1636 when a religious service was followed by feasting. (See my book The Seventeenth-Century Town Records of Scituate, Massachusetts (Boston: NEHGS, 2001), vol. 3, p. 513.) (3) That "what we think of as Thanksgiving was really a harvest festival" (as if that meant it could not have been a thanksgiving) repeats Deetz's incorrect opinion that an English harvest festival was non-religious or even irreligious. (4) That the Pilgrims "would never have tolerated festivities at a true religious event" presumes a narrow definition of what a true religious event was before arriving through circular argument at a denial that what the Pilgrims did was such an event, because it differed from the axiomatic definition. (Ever been to a midwestern church picnic? Did tossing horseshoes and playing softball make it non-religious?) (5) As is repeatedly demonstrated by the writings of the Pilgrims' minister John Robinson, the Pilgrims attempted to pattern their religious activities according to biblical precedent. The precedent for a harvest festival was the Old Testament Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkoth (Deut. 16: 13-14). This harvest festival (as described in the 1560 Geneva translation of the Bible, used by the Pilgrims) was established to last "seuen daies, when thou hast gathered in thy corne, and thy wine. And thou shalt reioyce in thy feast, thou, and they sonne, and thy daughter, and thy servant, and thy maid, and the Levite and the stranger, and the fatherles, and the widow, that are within thy gates." The biblical injunction to include the "stranger" probably accounts for the Pilgrims' inviting their Native neighbors to rejoice with them, although Winslow does not explicitly say anything about invitation. Besides Sukkoth, the Pilgrims' experience of a Reformed Protestant thanksgiving every year in Leiden probably contributed to what they considered appropriate. Leiden's October 3 festivities commemorated the lifting of the Siege of Leiden in 1574, when half the town had died (an obvious parallel with the experience of the Pilgrims in the winter of 1620-21). Lasting ten days, the first Leiden event was a religious service of thanksgiving and prayer, followed by festivities that included meals, military exercises, games, and a free fair. To summarize, the common assumption that the Pilgrims' 1621 event should be judged against the forms taken by later Puritan thanksgivings - whether or not those are even correctly understood - overlooks the circumstance that the Pilgrims did not have those precedents when they attempted something new, intentionally based not on old English tradition but on biblical and Reformed example.

Shenkman has not invented these views. Attempts to be accurate frequently make the same assumptions. For example, the History Channel states that, "the colonists didn't even call the day Thanksgiving. To them, a thanksgiving was a religious holiday in which they would go to church and thank God for a specific event, such as the winning of a battle. On such a religious day, the types of recreational activities that the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians participated in during the 1621 harvest feast - dancing, singing secular songs, playing games - wouldn't have been allowed. The feast was a secular celebration, so it never would have been considered a thanksgiving in the pilgrims minds."

The identical text is copied without credit on the webpage of the International Student & Scholar Programs of Emory University:

It's worth pointing out that Winslow says nothing about "dancing, singing secular songs, [or] playing games." Those might be intended among Winslow's general term "recreations," but to specify and cite them as proof that the Pilgrims' day was "a secular celebration" is over-reaching.

Thanking Whom?

Assuming the nature of the festival was non-religious, some sites proclaim that there was a thanksgiving, but that the Pilgrims were not thanking God. Instead they were thanking the Indians for the help that had contributed to the colonists� survival during the first year. For example, "Rumela Web" says, "The Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock held their Thanksgiving in 1621 as a three day 'thank you' celebration to the leaders of the Wampanoag Indian tribe and their families for teaching them the survival skills they needed to make it in the New World."

A site that provides Thanksgiving Day recipes and menus says, "The Pilgrims invited the Native Americans to a feast to thank them for all they had learned."

Another site [member account required] provides a psychological analysis: "Not only was this festival a way to thank the Wampanoag, but it also served to boost the morale of the remaining settlers."

Such redirection of the thanks is consistent with the modern assessment expressed in "The Truth about the First Thanksgiving," by James Loewen, "Settlement proceeded, not with God's help, but with the Indians'."

We think the Pilgrims should have thanked the Indians. Nonetheless, while most modern historians explain events without dependence on providential intervention, it is still inaccurate to bend the evidence to suggest that the Pilgrims' attitude was not predominantly providential, and did not result in thanks to God for help received from the Indians.

Bending evidence, plus inventing details found in no historical source, is not a monopoly of the secular interpretation. For example, Kathryn Capoccia's online Sunday School lesson, "American Thanksgiving Celebrations," displays an incredibly imaginative disregard for historical evidence:

"Two weeks before the celebration was to take place a proclamation was issued stating that a harvest festival was to be held, which would be preceded by a special religious service and would be open to both Separatist church members and nonmembers. Everyone was urged to publicly offer gratitude for God's provision. The invitation was also extended to chief Massasoit." [...] "In response to the invitation Massasoit appeared in camp with three braves. Two days later he was joined by ninety other braves who provided five deer, a flock of geese, fifteen swordfish and small sweet apples for the celebration. The ceremonies began on the last morning of the festival [sic] with a worship service led by Elder Brewster. Then ground sports, such as foot racing and wrestling were held, as well as knife throwing contests. The settlers demonstrated musket drilling and shot a cannon volley. Then the feasting began in mid-afternoon at the fort. Everyone was seated in the open at long tables. At the end of the meal the settlers toasted the Indians as friends. The adults exchanged gifts with each other: Massasoit was given a bolt of cloth by Bradford, the warriors received cooking pots and colored beads in strings. The Indians reciprocated with a beaver cloak for Bradford and several freshly killed deer that could be smoked and stored for winter. The Indians presented the children with lumps of candy made from sugar extracted from wild beet plants. When the ceremonies were completed Elder Brewster quoted the Bible as a benediction, 'I thank my God upon every remembrance of you'". This level of fabrication is rare. It recalls the oratory of a century ago, that inspired the balloon-pricking emotions of countless would-be debunkers.

Colored Clothes, No Buckled Hats! My Goodness!

Similarly disconnected from Winslow's version are the common corrections to misconceptions about Pilgrim costume. Numerous sites let us know that the Pilgrims did not always wear black, and some even assert excitedly that it is important that we know about this discovery.

Timothy Walch, writing for History News Services, says, "Finally, it's important to dispel one last Thanksgiving myth — that the Pilgrims dressed in black and white clothing, wore pointed hats and starched bonnets and favored buckles on their shoes. It's true that they dressed in black on Sundays; but on most days, including the first Thanksgiving, they dressed in white, beige, black, green and brown." Surprisingly, Walch talks about buckles on shoes, instead of the common cartoon iconography of buckles on hats (itself an anachronism derived from a brief fashion in the 1790's). While Walch's point about color in workday clothing is true, I'm not sure it can come as a surprise to very many people. Nowadays most illustrations show Pilgrims in multi-colored clothing, often using photographs of the colorful actors at Plimoth Plantation. Even children now in their thirties will have learned about the Pilgrims from pictures showing varie-colored clothing. It wasn't always that way (cheaper books once were restricted to monochrome illustrations), but none of the websites gives a good explanation of the origin of the stereotype - the error is paraded simply as yet another example of inherited ignorance.

Only one genuine portrait of a Pilgrim exists - that of Edward Winslow (now in Pilgrim Hall Museum). Painted in 1651 in London, where Winslow acted as a diplomat representing the interests of New England colonies before various government committees, it shows him dressed appropriately in the very expensive black formal wear that most Pilgrims could not afford. From his portrait, as well as from other 17th-century portraits (that tended to show rich people) history painters of the early 19th century derived some ideas of costume. But they did not restrict their research to portraits of the rich, they also looked at pictures of common people in Dutch genre paintings. In romantic visions of historical scenes, the 19th-century history painters showed Pilgrim leaders in black, but others in a variety of colors. None of the dozen or so history paintings on Pilgrim themes at Pilgrim Hall Museum (the foremost collection) shows the Pilgrims uniformly in black - most wear scarlet, russet, green, ochre, grey, blue, or brown.

However, 19th century Americans became familiar with the Pilgrims through black and white stereoptype engravings, not paintings. At the same time, black clothing had become cheaper to produce and was expected for Sunday-best attire, not just among the wealthy. It was easy to imagine that the Pilgrim leaders as seen in black-and-white engravings were dressed in a way that was nearly familiar.

And, yes, they did call themselves "Pilgrims."

Almost as frequent as remarks about the color of their clothes are the website assertions that these colonists did not call themselves "Pilgrims." James Loewen, in "The Truth About the First Thanksgiving," writes that "no one even called them 'Pilgrims' until the 1870s."

This sort of belief is derived from a common misconception that because the manuscript of William Bradford's journal "Of Plymouth Plantation" was lost from the late 18th until the mid 19th century, no one was familiar, until the rediscovery, with his famous phrase, "They knew they were Pilgrims." The discovery of that phrase is thought to have appealed strongly to the Victorian imagination and to have led to the term "Pilgrims" as a designation for the Plymouth colonists. Bradford, however, was not the first to apply the name in print to these colonists - that was Robert Cushman in 1622 (in the book now called Mourt's Relation). Bradford's own words were excerpted and published by Nathaniel Morton in New England's Memorial, first printed in 1669 (and reprinted in 1721, 1772, and twice in 1826). The term Pilgrim, never forgotten, was used repeatedly in the later 18th century and throughout the 19th century, at celebrations in Plymouth that attracted attention throughout New England if not farther. If Mr. Loewen thinks the word "Pilgrim" was not applied to these people before the 1870's, one wonders what he thinks the local worthies of Plymouth were doing when in 1820 they founded the Pilgrim Society.

The Plymouth colonists considered themselves and all other earnest Christians to be on an earthly pilgrimage to a heavenly goal. Most of them were serious about their faith and puzzled by the presence among them of a few who demonstratively were not. Referring to themselves in that context they used the New Testament image expressed in print by Robert Cushman in 1622: "But now we are all in all places strangers and pilgrims, travelers and sojourners [...]" The full Bible citation, which these people knew and recognized as a text that gave re-assuring self-identification, was this (Hebrews 11:13-16, Geneva translation, 1560):

"All these dyed in the faith, and receiued not the promises, but sawe them a farre of[f], and beleued them, and receiued them thankefully, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrimes on the earth. For they that say suche things, declare plainely that they seke a countrey. And if they had bene mindeful of that countrey, from whence they came out, they had leasure to haue returned. But now they desire a better, that is an heauenlie: wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God: for he hathe prepared for them a citie."

The foregoing unifying phrase - strangers and pilgrims on the earth - is misunderstood as a dichotomy in George Willison's book Saints and Strangers (New York: Reynall & Hitchcock, 1945). Willison�s Hegelian analysis of Pilgrim history as a conflict between religious fanatics he calls "saints" and disinterested, economically motivated opponents to them, whom he identifies as "strangers," has become a rarely questioned presumed truth, never doubted on the internet. It is basic to Willison's dismissive interpretation of the Mayflower Compact as an instrument of minority control. For Willison, the dialectical tension was resolved by a happy synthesis that bore similarities to the democratic triumph of the American common man over tyranny at the end of World War II. Willison was speaking to people who saw themselves in his description of the Pilgrims, as people who "were valiantly engaged [...] in a desperate struggle for a better order of things, for a more generous measure of freedom for all men, for a higher and nobler conception of life based upon recognition of the intrinsic worth and dignity of the individual." Stirring words, they introduce Willison�s description of the process of conflict that was for him the meaning of being a Pilgrim.

For the Pilgrims themselves, in specific contexts other identifying terms were useful. In their application to move to Leiden, they said they were members of the Christian Reformed religion - thus indicating that they were the sort of people Leiden wanted as immigrants. Distinguishing themselves from Puritans who stayed in the Church of England, they called themselves Separatists. In New England, for legal purposes connected with rights to distribution of the common property and land, the colonists referred to anyone who had arrived before the 1627 division as "Old Comers" or "First Comers." Their general self-identification, however, was "pilgrims" in the New Testament sense. Their first use of the term in America is seen in the name given the first child born in the colony - Peregrine White. "Peregrine" comes from the Latin peregrinus meaning "pilgrim" or "stranger."

[1]Mourt's Relation, published in cooperation with Plimoth Plantation by Applewood Books, Bedford MA, Edited by Dwight B. Heath from the original text of 1622 and copyright 1963 by Dwight B. Heath, p. 82.

[2]Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647 by William Bradford. A new edition by Samuel Eliot Morison; First published Sept. 19, 1952; 21st printing Jan. 2001, p. 90.

Thanksgiving on the Net: Roast Bull with Cranberry Sauce Part 2

The Fake Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1623

The invented secular harvest festival augmented by the redirection of thanks towards the Indians and the assertion that "Pilgrims" was a name not used by the colonists, has become widely accepted. What's to be done? Fake it! Instead of simply pointing out that this version of the past fails to account for the Pilgrims' habitual piety and is thoroughly inconsistent with the documentary evidence, someone has felt it necessary to invent a document that replaces the 1621 purported non-thanksgiving with a celebration that does include all the sentiments and specifications that Winslow's description lacks. Many websites whose authors would like to maintain an emphasis on the Pilgrims' religious attitudes to support their own, quite different convictions now tell a fake story instead.

The cute text, widely circulated on internet sites (or excerpted, for example), is: "William Bradford's Thanksgiving Proclamation (1623)

Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

— William Bradford Ye Governor of Ye Colony"

["Ravages of the savages" indeed! Ye, ye, ye, ye!]

This is demonstrably spurious, as my friend Jim Baker pointed out in 1999. His remarks are repeated by various people - usually without credit to Baker - Dennis Rupert, for example.

The false proclamation does not appear in any 17th-century source - not in Bradford, not in Winslow, not in Morton's New England's Memorial, not anywhere. Internal evidence suggests it is a 20th-century fraud. No mention of Plymouth Rock exists before it was pointed out in the mid-18th century, and the term "great Father" (for God) is a 19th-century romantic quasi-Native term that Bradford never used in his acknowledged writings. There are further anachronisms. For example, in 1623 there was no pastor in Plymouth Colony. Pastor John Robinson was still in Leiden, so services were led by the deacon, Elder William Brewster. William Bradford never referred to himself as "your magistrate" in years when he was governor. Bradford dated documents "in the year of our Lord" - sometimes adding the year of the monarch's reign. He never referred to landing on Plymouth Rock (not even as "Pilgrim Rock") and certainly did not use it as a date-base. The Pilgrims did not imagine themselves as seeking "freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience." They wanted freedom to worship according to their interpretation of biblical commands, which they thought was exclusively correct - and correct externally to any dictates of their own consciences. Finally, it's amusing that the 29th of November 1623 (Old Style) was not a Thursday but a Saturday (according to the tables in H. Grotefend's Taschenbuch der Zeitrechnung des Deutschen Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (ed. Th. Ulrich, Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1960).

While it is often impossible to locate the ancient origin of such internet myths, this fraud is relatively recent. Samuel Eliot Morison was unaware of it when editing Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation (New York: Knopf, 1952); Eugene Aubrey Stratton does not mention it in his Plymouth Colony, Its History & People, 1620-1691 (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986). I have not discovered whether it appears anywhere before it made its way into William J. Federer's America's God and Country: An Encyclopedia of Quotations (Coppel, TX: Fame, 1994) and the source Federer gives - David Barton's The Myth of Separation (Aledo TX: Wallbuilder Press, 1991), p. 86. The text has been dropped from recent editions of Barton's book, but that doesn't put an end to repetition of the nonsense, especially on internet sites. A request to David Barton for information on this remains unanswered. On Barton's historical inventiveness, see:

Rob Boston, "Sects, Lies and Videotape: Who Is David Barton, And Why Is He Saying Such Awful Things About Separation of Church And State?" (Originally published in Church & State, 46, Nr. 4, April 1993, pp. 8-12).

Rob Boston, "David Barton's 'Christian Nation' Myth Factory Admits Its Products Have Been Defective." (Originally published in Church & State, 49, No. 7, July/August 1996, pp. 11-13).

Jim Allison, "An Index to Factual Information About David Barton And His Books".

Nicholas P. Miller, "Wallbuilders or Mythbuilders".

That people stressing the religious attitude of the Pilgrims use this invented 1623 "Thanksgiving Proclamation" is ironic. They might have been satisfied with the truth. The 1621 event did express the Pilgrims' religious attitude of thankfulness for God's providence and therefore should be adequate for their modern purposes. Moreover, in the summer of 1623 the Pilgrims held another special day of thanksgiving to God when they considered that their prayers for rain were answered, a drought ended, and their crops were saved. It wasn't in November and no stirring proclamation is preserved. Yet the "secular" interpretive ignorance that denies that the 1621 event was a thanksgiving had triumphed to the extent that someone from among the fundamentally disgruntled must have thought it clever to fight back. It is another question entirely, what the relation of the Pilgrims' religious attitude bears to modern understanding, that would make it urgent to use faked evidence to prove the Pilgrims were thanking God. Obviously the Pilgrims were religious - but what has this to do with anything other than an honest understanding of the past? Their religiosity scarcely provides support for any particular doctrinal viewpoint now; and no one is likely to become religious because it has been proven that the Pilgrims were.

Bartonis interest is to paint a picture of America as a particular sort of Christian nation since the beginning of its colonization. To make the Pilgrims even more religious than is indicated by their own words is dishonest. Removing the spurious quotation is a commendable step in the right direction. Considering that the Pilgrims interpreted their religion to mean that the Christian community bore responsibility to treat the Indians with respect and legal equality (see my book Indian Deeds, Land Transactions in Plymouth Colony, 1620-1699 (Boston: NEHGS, 2002)); noticing that the Pilgrims' laws proclaim that the community bore responsibility for the care of widows, orphans, the poor, and the infirm; and discovering that the Pilgrims' minister John Robinson argued in favor of cautious religious toleration and asserted that the church had no special authority over the magistrate, which he said was required to deal equitably with non-believers as well as believers, I'd be happy to see such Christian principles applied to modern America. Good luck to Mr. Barton and his colleagues in ensuring this happens!

The Libertarian's First Thanksgiving

Fred E. Foldvary has picked up the false 1623 date eagerly and given it a different twist. "The rains came and the harvest was saved. It is logical to surmise that the Pilgrims saw this as a sign that God blessed their new economic system, because Governor Bradford proclaimed November 29, 1623, as a Day of Thanksgiving." That's the opinion of Foldvary, Editor (1998) of The Progress Report and Lecturer in Economics, Santa Clara University.

So - the Pilgrims weren't thankful to God for a bounteous harvest as such, nor were they expressing gratitude to the Indians for help received. They were congratulating themselves on the discovery of the benefits of individualist capitalism!

The Ludwig von Mises Institute in 1999 published Richard J. Maybury's article "The Great Thanksgiving Hoax" (originally seen in The Free Market, November, 1985). Maybury (self-styled business and economic analyst) wants to correct our idealized view of the Pilgrims: "[T]he harvest of 1621 was not bountiful, nor were the colonists hardworking or tenacious. 1621 was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves." [...] "they refused to work in the fields. They preferred instead to steal food." [...] "The prevailing condition during those years was not the abundance the official story claims, it was famine and death. The first 'Thanksgiving' was not so much a celebration as it was the last meal of condemned men." Then it all changed: "in 1623 Bradford abolished socialism. He gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit. In other words, he replaced socialism with a free market, and that was the end of famines." [...] "Before these free markets were established, the colonists had nothing for which to be thankful." [...] "Thus the real reason for Thanksgiving, deleted from the official story, is: Socialism does not work; the one and only source of abundance is free markets, and we thank God we live in a country where we can have them." So there you have it - neither God's providence nor helpful Indians, just materialistic private profit.

The theme recurs in numerous imitative articles online. In 2004, Gary M. Galles, professor of economics at Pepperdine University, ended his praise of Pilgrim property with a political admonition: "Though we have incomparably more than they did, we can learn much from their 'way of thanksgiving.' But we should also remember that our material blessings are the fruits of America's system of private-property rights and the liberties they ensure, including the freedom to choose our employment and spend money as we see fit. Those rights are under constant assault today, from limits on people's ability to contract as they wish, especially in labor relationships, to abuses of government's eminent domain." Robert Sheridan, who teaches constitutional law at the San Francisco Law School, quotes the full text (from the San Francisco Chronicle) and expertly dissects Galles' underlying assumptions about modern society, in his own article "Thanksgiving Nonsense and Propaganda".

A slightly abbreviated version of Galles' remarks is published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

The Independent Institute's website has a similar article that was published for Thanksgiving in 2004 in the Charlotte Observer and in the San Diego Union-Tribune. "The economic incentives provided by private competitive markets where people are left free to make their own choices make bountiful feasts possible," says Benjamin Powell, professor of economics at San Jose State University. "That's the real lesson of Thanksgiving."

Elaborating on Maybury's view of Thanksgiving, Newsmax columnist Geoff Metcalf becomes even more definite: "[A]n economic system which grants the lazy and the shiftless some 'right' to prosper off the looted fruits of another man's labor, under the guise of enforced 'compassion,' will inevitably descend into envy, theft, squalor, and starvation. Though many would still incrementally impose on us some new variant of the 'noble socialist experiment,' this is still at heart a free country with a bedrock respect for the sanctity of private property - and a land bounteous precisely because it's free. It's for that we give thanks - the corn and beans and turkey serving as mere symbols of that true and underlying blessing - on the fourth Thursday of each November."

True history? Does it make any difference? As Kamensky says, "It's true to its purposes."

For the purposes of historical accuracy, nevertheless, I think it's worth mentioning that the Pilgrims' initial system of working the land by changing field assignments each year had nothing at all to do with socialism - it was the consequence of an early and unrestrained form of capitalism whereby the colony, its products, and the colonists' productive labor were absolutely and entirely mortgaged to the London investors, whose loans had to be paid off before any of the Pilgrim colonists could own free-hold property. The colony as a whole and its colonists were indentured. Their contract is now lost; probably it was among the missing first 338 pages of William Bradford's letter-book. The shift away from rotating field assignments did not result in private property, just a modification of the organization of the indentured labor. Private real property came for these colonists in 1627 when a small group among the colonists - the "Purchasers" - bought the debt and the responsibility to pay it off. A temporary monopoly on the fur trade was reserved to them as compensation for their higher personal responsibility and financial exposure.

A Cornucopia of Grievances

So if Thanksgiving was not about the discovery of private property's profitability, not about help offered to the colonists by the Wampanoag Indians, not about God's providence - what was it?

"The first day of thanksgiving took place in 1637 amidst the war against the Pequots. 700 men, women, and children of the Pequot tribe were gathered for their annual green corn dance on what is now Groton, Connecticut. Dutch and English mercenaries surrounded the camp and proceeded to shoot, stab, butcher and burn alive all 700 people. The next day the Massachusetts Bay Colony held a feast in celebration and the governor declared 'a day of thanksgiving.' In the ensuing madness of the Indian extermination, natives were scalped, burned, mutilated and sold into slavery, and a feast was held in celebration every time a successful massacre took place. The killing frenzy got so bad that even the Churches of Manhattan announced a day of 'thanksgiving' to celebrate victory over the 'heathen savages,' and many celebrated by kicking the severed heads of Pequot people through the streets like soccer balls." So says Tristam Ahtone, at 13Moon.com. There were preliminary events before this celebration of atrocity, according to Ahtone. Although the 1621 harvest festival in Plymouth was not in his opinion a thanksgiving, he informs us that "Two years later the English invited a number of tribes to a feast 'symbolizing eternal friendship.' The English offered food and drink, and two hundred Indians dropped dead from unknown poison." This echoes the words of James Loewen (quoted by Jackie Alan Giuliano in "Give Thanks - Un-Turkey Truths"): "The British offered a toast 'symbolizing eternal friendship,' whereupon the chief, his family, advisors, and two hundred followers dropped dead of poison." Loewen places this event in Virginia.

Ahtone's remarks connecting the "First Thanksgiving" with the Pequot War are frequently copied or excerpted, with slight variations. Sometimes it's not Massachusetts Bay responsible, but the Pilgrims. "The next day, the English governor William Bradford declared 'a day of Thanksgiving', thanking God that they had eliminated the Indians, opening Pequot land for white settlement." That proclamation was repeated each year for the next century." This was posted by "Ecuanduero" on the Discovery Channel.com, in 2003.

William Loren Katz, author of Black Indians, A Hidden Heritage, writes that, "In 1637 Governor Bradford, who saw his colonists locked in mortal combat with dangerous Native Americans, ordered his militia to conduct a night attack on the sleeping men women and children of a Pequot Indian village. To Bradford, a devout Christian, the massacre was imbued with religious meaning."

Clearly we should realize that these people were not nice, but just exactly how bad? "Not even Charles Manson and Jim Jones combined could compare with that murderous Doomsday cult — the Pilgrims," says a website article called "The Pilgrims, Children of the Devil: Puritan Doomsday Cult Plunders Paradise." The site calls itself the Common Sense Almanac, Progressive Pages (and claims to be a project of the Center for Media and Democracy).

The story forms the foundation for stirring generalizations. "It is a serious mistake to practice holidays based on a false history," one site admonishes us. "The young people find out on their own that they are involved in a lie, and it makes them rage with fury and contempt. [...]It should surprise no one that after raising children honoring the memory of the Pilgrim fathers, that they grow up to hate freedom as much as the Forefathers did. It should surprise no one that a society that worships the Pilgrims — who ruthlessly scalped the Indians (teaching them how to do it), who indiscriminately torched Indian villages, and murdered their women, children and elders in the precursors of total war, and holocaust — should produce children who grow up to join street gangs, and who seek the experience of murdering other human beings for kicks."

The story told by Ahtone, Katz, and others is derived from a report that surfaced in the 1980's. "According to William B. Newell, a Penobscot Indian and former chairman of the anthropology department at the University of Connecticut, the first official Thanksgiving Day commemorated the massacre of 700 Indian men, women and children during one of their religious ceremonies. [...]"

This version in First Nations News is from an article by Karen Gullo that first appeared in Vegetarian Times, 1982. Newell's material is quoted over and over. Newell, who is described in one site as having degrees from two universities [wow! Fancy that!], was convinced about the solidity of his research: ""My research is authentic because it is documentary," Newell said. "You can't get anything more accurate than that because it is first hand. It is not hearsay." http://www.s6k.com/real/thankstaking.htm

What's not authentic is the claim that William Newell was head of the anthropology department at the University of Connecticut, whose faculty cannot recall him at all. When the department was founded in 1971, Newell was 79 years old. See the letter by department chair Jocelyn Linnekin. And what is completely untrue is the idea that the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony participated in the 1637 Pequot massacre. Although asked to send military assistance, the Plymouth court did not respond until two weeks after the slaughter had been carried out by a mixed force of soldiers from Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, and the Narragansett tribe (no "Dutch and English mercenaries"). As Bradford himself reports, the Pilgrims were told their aid was too little, too late; they could stay home. (See my book,

Pilgrim Edward Winslow: New England's First International Diplomat (Boston: NEHGS, 2004), pp. 164-168.)

Is this important? Or is the lie "true to its purposes"?

Thanksgiving on the Net: Roast Bull with Cranberry Sauce Part 3

The National Day of Mourning

The purposes can best be understood as fitting in with the description of the Pilgrims that animates the so-called National Day of Mourning sponsored by the United American Indians of New England. "The pilgrims (who did not even call themselves pilgrims)" [yes, that again] "did not come here seeking religious freedom; they already had that in Holland. They came here as part of a commercial venture. They introduced sexism, racism, anti-lesbian and gay bigotry, jails, and the class system to these shores. One of the very first things they did when they arrived on Cape Cod — before they even made it to Plymouth — was to rob Wampanoag graves at Corn Hill and steal as much of the Indians' winter provisions of corn and beans as they were able to carry. [...] The first official "Day of Thanksgiving" was proclaimed in 1637 by Governor Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of men from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who had gone to Mystic Connecticut to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men."

This characterization of the Pilgrims was written in 2003 by UAINE leaders Mahtowin Munro and Mooanum James, whose father Frank James (Wamsutta) made the 1970 protest speech that started the Day of Mourning at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Wamsutta spoke out against decades of inequality in words historically vague and not entirely accurate. He clearly announced the continued presence of Wampanoag Indians to a society that he thought had too often treated them as bygone relics. But his measured anger at real injustice bore little of the demonizing divisiveness championed by UAINE in later years.

From the repetition of Mahtowin Munro's and Mooanum James' remarks in countless websites associated with Native American interests, it would appear that the Wampanoag tribes consider themselves best represented by the UAINE protests. The words of Russell Peters published by Pilgrim Hall Museum contradict this.

Russell Peters, A Wampanoag leader, died in 2002. Who was he? "Mr. Peters [M.A., Harvard] has been involved in Native American issues at a state, local and national level. He [was] the President of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1976 to 1984, a member of the Harvard Peabody Museum Native American Repatriation Committee, a member of the White House Conference on Federal Recognition in 1995 and 1996, a board member of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, a board member of the Pilgrim Society, and the author of Wampanoags of Mashpee (Nimrod Press), Clambake (Lerner Publications), and Regalia (Sundance Press)." Russell Peters expressed regret at the deterioration of the social potential of the Day of Mourning. "While the day of mourning has served to focus attention on past injustice to the Native American cause, it has, in recent years, been orchestrated by a group calling themselves the United American Indians of New England. This group has tenuous ties to any of the local tribes, and is composed primarily of non-Indians. To date, they have refused several invitations to meet with the Wampanoag Indian tribal councils in Mashpee or in Gay Head. Once again, we, as Wampanoags, find our voices and concerns cast aside in the activities surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday in Plymouth, this time, ironically, by a group purporting to represent our interests."

The 1970 event at which Wamsutta spoke was organized by the American Indian Movement, whose leader Russell Means wrote, in his autobiography Where White Men Fear to Tread (with Marvin J. Wolf, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), "Americans today believe that Thanksgiving celebrates a bountiful harvest, but that is not so. By 1970, the Wampanoag had turned up a copy of a Thanksgiving proclamation made by the governor to the colony. The text revealed the ugly truth: After a colonial militia had returned from murdering the men, women, and children of an Indian village, the governor proclaimed a holiday and feast to give thanks for the massacre. He also encouraged other colonies to do likewise - in other words, every autumn after the crops are in, go kill Indians and celebrate your murders with a feast. In November 1970, their descendants returned to Plymouth to publicize the true story of Thanksgiving and, along with about two hundred other Indians from around the country, to observe a national day of Indian mourning."

One of the odder results of the "Day of Mourning" is the appearance in a couple of Thanksgiving Day sermons of the unfounded claim that some Pilgrims considered having a day of mourning to commemorate those who had died the previous winter, but that instead they chose to thank God for their continued preservation. This colonization of the protest rhetoric can be seen at Presbyterian Warren [excerpted at] Trinity Sermons.

Genocide

That's a mild contrast to Mitchel Cohen's "Why I Hate Thanksgiving" (2003), now re-duplicated incessantly. "First, the genocide. Then the suppression of all discussion about it. What do Indian people find to be Thankful for in this America? What does anyone have to be Thankful for in the genocide of the Indians, that this 'holyday' commemorates? [...] all the things we have to be thankful for have nothing at all to do with the Pilgrims, nothing at all to do with Amerikan history, and everything to do with the alternative, anarcho-communist lives the Indian peoples led, before they were massacred by the colonists, in the name of privatization of property and the lust for gold and labor. Yes, I am an American. But I am an American in revolt. I am revolted by the holiday known as Thanksgiving. [...] I want to go back in time to when people lived communally, before the colonists' Christian god was brought to these shores to sanctify their terrorism, their slavery, their hatred of children, their oppression of women, their holocausts. But that is impossible. So all I look forward to [is] the utter destruction of the apparatus of death known as Amerika � not the people, not the beautiful land, but the machinery, the State, the capitalism, the Christianity and all that it stands for. I look forward to a future where I will have children with Amerika, and ... they will be the new Indians." See, for some sanity, Guenter Lewy's "Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?"

Mr. Cohen is co-editor of "Green Politix," the national newspaper of the Greens/Greens Party USA. He's annoyed. (Who wouldn't be - loving nature and living in Brooklyn?) He's also a romantic with an ideal view of Natives living in a pristine environment, rather like the peaceful, ecologically wonderful place imagined by Plimoth Plantation's Anthony Pollard (known as Nanepashemet). "The Wampanoag way of life fostered a harmonious relationship between the People and their natural environment, both physical and spiritual. [...] fighting was just part of the search for harmony when conditions had become intolerable or justice was denied."

Lies My Teacher�s Telling Me Now

The annual clamor of the aggrieved finds significant expression in website materials aimed at providing school teachers with a balanced (meaning non-colonial) view of Thanksgiving. One of the most important and widely copied articles is an introduction to "Teaching About Thanksgiving" written by Chuck Larson of the Tacoma School District.

Originally issued in 1986 by the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Washington, "Teaching About Thanksgiving" is no longer available from that State. It continues to be distributed by the Fourth World Documentation Project and the Center for World Indigenous Studies, among others. I hope it has been withdrawn by the state in response to the withering criticism it received from Caleb Johnson, whose Mayflower topics website presents much documentary material about the Pilgrims.

"The author of the 'Fourth World Documentation Project' lesson plan on Thanksgiving, published all over the internet as well as distributed in printed form, claims to have a strong background in history," writes Johnson. "But nearly every sentence of the entire lesson plan has a significant factual error, or is simply story-telling (making up stories and details to fit within a set framework of given historical facts)." Johnson's detailed, devastating line-by-line corrections attracted the attention of the New York Times. I have seen only one website for teachers that carries the Larson material and that also includes a reference to Johnson's work, and then only as if to provide an alternative to the nonsense they continue to present as the main material. But Johnson definitively destroyed the credibility of the lesson plan - why keep on providing it? Are the lies true to some purpose?

Mentioning that Johnson's work is worth looking at is, nonetheless, at least more generous than the ad hominem attack on Johnson that was mounted by Jamie McKenzie of the Bellingham, Washington, School District.

McKenzie complained in 1996 that Caleb Johnson did not list his own academic credentials that would suggest his website should be considered authoritative. Johnson had, after all, cast doubt on the value of Larson's "strong background in history." McKenzie, on the other hand, did not take the time to compare Johnson's careful quotations of source materials with the slipshod work of his academically qualified colleague down in Tacoma. (Although Johnson's essays are typically not footnoted, having only a source list at the end, Johnson has taken the trouble to re-publish the texts of many of the original documents on his site.) But McKenzie's major complaint in 1996 was that the internet in general did not provide much information about Thanksgiving, and that scholars with credentials were not creating the sites. There's certainly more now, and some of it is provided by professors. If one has doubts about the professor of anthropology William B. Newell, who's been forgotten by the University of Connecticut, there's the University of Colorado's Professor of Ethnic Studies, Ward Churchill, asking us, "what is it we're supposed to be so thankful for? Does anyone really expect us to give thanks for the fact that soon after the Pilgrim Fathers regained their strength, they set out to dispossess and exterminate the very Indians who had fed them that first winter? Are we to express our gratitude for the colonists' 1637 massacre of the Pequots at Mystic, Conn., or their rhetoric justifying the butchery by comparing Indians to 'rats and mice and swarms of lice'"?

And there's the late Professor James Deetz, who thought Thanksgiving only became associated with the Pilgrims around 1900, evidently disregarding the implications of Winslow Homer's famous Thanksgiving Day illustrations in Harper's Weekly, Nov. 27, 1858, Dec. 1, 1860, Nov. 29, 1862, and Dec. 3, 1864, as well as Thomas Nast's "Thanksgiving Day, 1863" (published as a double-page center illustration in Harper's Weekly, Dec. 5, 1863). Nast includes a vignette in the lower right corner labelled "country," whose main praying figure is recognizably derived from the representation of the Pilgrims' minister John Robinson in Robert Weir's painting "The Embarkation of the Pilgrims," completed in 1843 in the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington.

Despite its filiopietistic motivations, the huge desert of misinformation has left Caleb Johnson's work as one of a small number of oases of calm study, equalling the level of the so-called Plymouth Colony Archive Project established by James Deetz, Patricia Scott Deetz, and Christopher Fennell (which, however, despite valuable information about the colony, says nothing significant about Thanksgiving).

McKenzie also objects to Johnson�s "failing to mention some of the information which other sites provide about the Pilgrims taking the Native American corn and digging up and taking things from grave sites." In fact, Johnson publishes all the evidence there is about those issues. Because no evidence supports the inflated claims, McKenzie thinks that the Pilgrims have been "sanitized."

Unsanitized would be the word for Brenda Francis's version. She says that she "read on Binghamton University's website that the Pilgrims were starving and even went so far to dig up some remains of the Wampanoag people and eat them as a means to survival."

This directly contradicts William Bradford, who, after repeating the second-hand rumor that some Spanish colonists had been reduced to eating "dogs, toads, and dead men," proclaims that "From these extremities the Lord in his goodness kept these his people [the Pilgrims], and in their great wants preserved both their lives and healths; let his name have the praise." (Bradford's History "Of Plimoth Plantation" (Boston: Wright & Potter, 1901), p. 165: [subscribers].

The Binghamton site that is Brenda Francis' source has a student newspaper article (Nov. 21, 2003) by Rachel Kalina, who relays that the "Pilgrims were able to survive their first winter partially because of guidance by the natives and because they dug up the deceased Wampanoags to eat the corn offerings in the graves." That's not quite the same as necro-cannibalism.

Quoting from James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), p. 91, the teacher of a course in "Debunking and Dissent" - Colby Glass of Palo Alto College (TX), maintains that "...the Pilgrims continued to rob graves for years."

There are three points of interest here: first, Winslow's description of examining graves (our only source of information) does not support these assertions; second, the corn found by the Pilgrims was not found in graves; third, I'm unaware of any evidence so far found to indicate that corn was included in graves on Cape Cod at all. Let alone that the Pilgrims were cannibals!

In the book now called Mourt's Relation, Edward Winslow wrote that the Pilgrims, exploring, found a path that took them to "certain heaps of sand, one whereof was covered with old mats, and had a wooden thing like a mortar whelmed on the top of it, and an earthen pot laid in a little hole at the end thereof. We, musing what it might be, digged and found a bow, and, as we thought, arrows, but they were rotten. We supposed there were many other things, but because we deemed them graves, we put in the bow again and made it up as it was, and left the rest untouched, because we thought it would be odious unto them to ransack their sepulchres." Passing through several fields recently tended, they came upon a house, from which they removed a European ship's kettle. Next to the house was a heap of sand, which when excavated yielded two baskets filled with Indian corn. One contained thirty six ears, "some yellow, and some red, and others mixed with blue [...] The basket was round, and narrow at the top; it held about three or four bushels." Filling the kettle with loose corn, two of the Pilgrims suspended it on a stick and carried it away. The rest of the corn they re-buried. Two or three days later, they returned for the remaining corn, also finding and taking some beans and more corn, totaling around ten bushels. The following morning they found a much larger mound, covered with boards. It turned out to be the grave of a man with blond hair, whose shroud was a "sailor's canvas cassock" and who was wearing a "pair of cloth breeches." The body was accompanied by a "knife, a packneedle, and two or three iron things." Clearly this was the body of a European. An infant's body was buried together with this man. Reburying the bodies (as was customary in Europe), they continued to look for corn but found nothing else but graves, which, considering their desire not to "ransack their sepulchres," they presumably did not disturb once it was clear the mounds did not contain baskets of corn. Having learned to recognize graves, three days later the Pilgrims avoided disturbing a cemetery. They "found a burying place, one part whereof was encompassed with a large palisade, like a churchyard [...] Within it was full of graves [...] yet we digged none of them up, but only viewed them and went our way." Mourt's Relation (1622) has been republished numerous times. Caleb Johnson has made it available online at Mayflower History.com.

Winslow's words are our only evidence. Nothing impels us to doubt his information that the Pilgrims opened the grave of a European sailor and his child, reburying them after removing from the grave a few items that to a European would not have been considered grave offerings having any symbolic significance. The Pilgrims exhibited memorable sensitivity in refraining from disturbing Indian graves, once they learned to recognize them. They did not dig up graves in order to eat corn buried as grave offerings. There is no indication they removed corn from any graves. The corn was found in baskets whose shape when packed in earth would result in domed pit spaces. There is nothing to support the idea that corn was placed in graves as offerings, although small gifts of corn have been found in graves excavated by archaeologists working hundreds of miles away (the American southwest and Peru, for example).

The amount the Pilgrims found in storage baskets - two or three bushels in the first, and three or four in the second - is a large, bulky quantity. From 1986-1991, I was Chief Curator of Plimoth Plantation. The collections at that time included all the archaeological material from excavations of burial sites in the Plymouth Colony area carried out by Harry Hornblower II and James Deetz, and others with whom they worked. I carried out a detailed examination of the thousands of items in the collections, specifically looking for corn - in hopes of having it studied scientifically so we could replicate the exact type of corn growing in the area in the early 17th century. Although some floral remains had been saved from excavations that included burial sites, there was no corn, not a single kernel. Had it been the practice to bury bushels of corn as grave offerings, surely there would have been some in the materials carefully excavated from these ten Native burials. There was nothing. Neither was any discovery of corn recorded in the careful notebooks kept by Hornblower (there were no Deetz notebooks present, and no published reports). This absence is consistent with the absence of corn among grave goods from several Cape Cod Native burials, recently transferred to Native authorities for reburial, from the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.

Throughout the accounts of these discoveries of storage baskets of Indian corn, Winslow repeats the intention to try to meet the Indian owners and negotiate repayment for the corn that had been taken That was an intention to provide compensation for what the Pilgrims understood would be considered theft if no payment were made. (During the first year, Pilgrims stole corn; Indians stole abandoned tools.) Establishing that neither side would steal from the other was an important part of early negotiation between them. Attempts to locate the specific owner of the corn were ultimately successful and repayment was made (see Pilgrim Edward Winslow, p. 36).

In "Deconstructing the Myths of 'The First Thanksgiving,'" Judy Dow and Beverly Slapin contradict the documentary evidence. They base their comments largely on information provided to them by Margaret Bruchac, an "Abanaki scholar" working in collaboration with Plimoth Plantation's Wampanoag Indian Program. "There is no record that restitution was ever made for the stolen corn, and the Wampanoag did not soon forget the colonists� ransacking of Indian graves, including that of Massasoit's mother."

One may surmise that Bruchac was confused in making the reference to the grave of Massasoit's mother, which is undocumented. Probably what is meant is the removal later of two bearskin rugs from over the grave of the mother of Chickatabut, sachem of the Massachusetts (see my book Indian Deeds, p. 13). It is meretriciously clever, nonetheless, to turn Winslow's statement of respect for the Indians and their graves into a pronouncement about the Wampanoags' long memory of "the colonists' ransacking of Indian graves." The up-to-date construction of "memory" and "oral history" to fit the needs of current political concerns is blatant.

Dow and Slapin end their deconstruction with the remark that "As currently celebrated in this country, "Thanksgiving" is a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for friendship."

Alternatively, Russell Peters said, "The time is long overdue for the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags to renew a meaningful dialogue about our past and look towards a more honest future."

Does it matter what of this is true? Was that the wrong question? Who do we want to be in the ever-changing Now? Intrepid demolishers of straw-man myths? Inventors of new myths to serve new political purposes? Historians?

#History #Thanksgiving #Religion #America

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wizteamincil · 2 years ago

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Top 5 Things To Do In Lake Zurich, IL

Some of the most beautiful places in Illinois are tucked away in the northwest corner of the state. The village of Lake Zurich is a small town with big heart and home to many natural attractions. Visit one or all of these 5 places and you'll experience what makes Lake Zurich a unique place to visit!

1. Lake Arlington

If you’re in the mood for a day of fun in the great outdoors, Lake Arlington has you covered. There are plenty of places to hike and bike around this beautiful lake, but if you want something a little more adventurous and adrenaline-inducing, try swimming or canoeing/kayaking.

If fishing is more your thing, Lake Arlington offers some great fishing spots. For those who prefer to just relax on the water while enjoying a nice day outdoors, there are boating rentals available at Lake Arlington as well as boat tours around its lovely shores (and even hot dog stands!).

2. Palatine

Palatine is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 47,841 at the 2010 census. It is one of many suburbs of Chicago. The village has an area of 9 square miles (23 km2). You can go to Downtown Palatine for some great shopping and dining options. It's also home to the Fox River which goes through downtown Palatine and on into Lake Michigan!

There are plenty of things to do in Palatine for families with kids! We loved visiting the parks along the river or going biking on one of their trails!

3. Buffalo grove

Buffalo Grove is a great place to visit for its many attractions, restaurants and shops. The area has a lot of history with many historical sites.

The village is named after the American bison that once roamed this part of northern Illinois. The village was settled by John Kinzie, who was part owner of Chicago's Fort Dearborn and one of the first traders at Fort Dearborn's trading post. Kinzie left Chicago after being implicated in the 1812 massacre at Fort Dearborn; he moved to Lake Zurich where he bought land grants from John Kelso in 1831. He planned on establishing a farm on his property but never did so because he joined the military during another conflict between Native Americans and United States settlers known as Black Hawk War (1832). Afterward, he returned home only long enough to pack up all his belongings before leaving again due to threats against him by local Native Americans who retaliated against their loss during Black Hawk War by attacking white settlers such as those found within Lake Zurich's boundaries today

4. Lake Zurich Beach

Lake Zurich Beach is the perfect place to spend the day. The park offers a large beach area, picnic areas and playgrounds for kids, as well as lifeguards throughout the summer.

If you're looking for more than just swimming in Lake Zurich , this is your spot! You can fish from shore or rent a boat from one of their many marinas . There are also volleyball nets available for use at no additional cost. And if you want to get active on this beautiful day, there are plenty of trails that lead through the forested areas along Lake Zurich .

5. Indian creek

With its lush vegetation, Indian Creek is a great place to enjoy the outdoors. The trail is easy enough for families but challenging enough that you'll get your workout in. There's plenty of wildlife here too, making it an excellent spot to go bird-watching or take pictures of deer and squirrels.

If you're feeling hungry after exploring the nature trails along Indian Creek, have a picnic at one of the many picnic tables scattered throughout the park. Pack some sandwiches or salads for an afternoon snack!

Lake Zurich is about 20 minutes away by car; there are plenty of restaurants along Rand Road where you can stop for lunch or dinner before heading back home from your trip out on Lake Zurich .

Having a family vacation is the best way to bond with your loved ones. If you are planning for an enjoyable trip with your family, then Lake Zurich is the perfect destination for you! It has everything that one needs and wants during this time. You can visit here during any season and enjoy yourself.

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#Carpet Cleaning #hard surface cleaning #Hard Wood Cleaning #Steam Cleaning #Upholstery cleaning #Air Duct Cleaning

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playkilop · 2 years ago

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Obsidian scalpel amazon

#OBSIDIAN SCALPEL AMAZON HOW TO#

6Ī particularly well-preserved prehistoric blade mounted onto a handle was found in 1991, preserved in ice near the Austrian-Italian border (see Figure 1). Fracture and flake techniques were then employed to refine these early blades into cutting instruments with desired characteristics, making these objects among the first human-refined tools. 5īlades were initially composed of flint, jade, and obsidian, with specific pieces chosen for their sharp edges. 4 Excavations of archaeological sites dating to the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods revealed knives for surgical use as early as 10,000–8,000 BC. Kirkup, circumcision with sharpened stones, one of the earliest recorded elective procedures, evolved into knives used for basic procedures. John Kirkup, MB, BS-a retired surgeon and honorary curator of the Historical Instruments Collection at the Royal College of Surgeons of England-researched the history of surgical tools for more than 20 years. Thumbnails for newborn circumcisions, scarification via plant stems, and venesection with sharks’ teeth served as the first examples of sharp tools for procedures on the human body. Shells, razor-like leaves, bamboo shoots, and even fingernails may all be viewed as early surgical instruments. Pinpointing a specific period of time when a cutting implement became the first surgical knife depends largely on perspective. Tracing the history of this tool reflects the evolution of surgery as a culture and as a profession. The quintessential instrument of surgeons, the scalpel is the longstanding symbol of the discipline. Today’s advances in scalpel technology include additional safety measures and gemstone and polymer coatings. Later, surgeons prized speed and sharpness. Barber-surgeons embellished their scalpels as part of the art of their craft. As surgery developed into a profession, knives dedicated to specific uses also evolved. While the word “scalpel” derives from the Latin word scallpellus, the physical instruments surgeons use today started out as flint and obsidian cutting implements during the Stone Age. The surgical knife, one of the earliest surgical instruments, has evolved over 10 millennia. For more information, please visit the ACS website. The session is sponsored each year by the Surgical History Group. Wood from private and public land, including juniper and pine, is harvested locally to construct their furniture.Editor’s note: The following article is based on a poster presented at the History of Surgery Poster Session at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2017 in San Diego, CA. Wood handles and all wood used to construct their furniture is obtained close to Prairie City, Oregon. Bone handles are a by-product of the fur industry, and no animal is harmed to obtain them. Dale buys antlers shed annually from local deer and elk which are mostly picked up by ranchers who know the animal''s whereabouts at all times. Most of the high quality obsidian used comes from Central Oregon and Northern California and come in a variety of colors such as mahogany, rainbow, midnight lace, clear green, Burns green, silver sheen and more. Materials needed to produce these knives are obtained locally. It was then that Dale decided to start making artifacts that eventually turned into a full-time job. It was then that Dale began making arrowheads for friends simply as a hobby, but in 1988, while Dale was falling timber in the Seneca, Oregon area, he discovered a lot of obsidian laying around on the ground.

#OBSIDIAN SCALPEL AMAZON HOW TO#

Dale became very interested in the technique and so he asked the other fellow to teach him how to make an arrowhead. In 1963, while Dale Duby was working in the woods as a timber faller, he saw a fellow logger making an arrowhead from a piece of obsidian during their lunch break.

#Obsidian scalpel amazon

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online-journalist · 2 years ago

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Alumni Achievement Award: Jim Paquette

Jim Paquette of Negaunee developed an interest in history and archaeology at a young age, in large part because his paternal grandfather instilled pride in the family’s French Canadian-First Nation Métis ancestry and traditional lifestyle. As he grew older, Paquette wanted to learn more about his family’s history in the region. He read and copied volumes of material from the library at Northern Michigan University, his alma mater, and began searching for and locating early cultural sites where various ancient stone and copper artifacts helped to reveal the story.

This led to an avid passion for more discoveries and a partnership with NMU faculty, both of which continue today. The 1974 NMU graduate was honored during Homecoming weekend as the 2022 Alumni Achievement Award recipient.

Since May of 1984, Paquette has been conducting an ongoing archaeological survey project in the central Upper Peninsula. One of his most prominent revelations was in 1987 at the 10,000-year-old Gorto Site on Deer Lake in Ishpeming, where he and John Gorto — also also an NMU alumnus — found a cache of more than 30 Paleo-Indian spear points in a small area.

“That discovery shook the archaeological world,” Paquette said. “At the time, we were trying to prove that early people that are referred to as Paleo-Indians lived in the U.P. since the end of the Ice Age. There was a lot of doubt among professional archaeologists that this was true and people told us that we wouldn’t find anything, but we did.

“We’ve since found other Paleo Period artifacts, many even older than what we found on Deer Lake. But that discovery opened the door to professional inquiry into the earliest part of our Upper Peninsula pre-history. NMU’s Dr. Marla Buckmaster and then-NMU student John Anderton led our 1987 excavation of the Gorto Site cache.”

Another highlight is the Goose Lake Outlet #3 site, an early Anishinaabe family’s winter camp/hunting site. It traces back to the pre-1650 Protohistoric period, when European-manufactured goods such as colored glass beads, axes and knives were first being traded/gifted to Indigenous peoples living in the Lake Superior region, but before any historic records of such contact exist. Buckmaster and Anderton headed the first excavations of this site as well. Paquette himself has led the most recent 2021 and 2022 excavations at the site, using NMU’s equipment with the assistance of Professor Scott Demel.

“We’ve dated the site to the 1630s time period, which was prior to the Europeans’ arrival in the U.P.,” Paquette said. “It represents the earliest contact between Native peoples living in this region and the earliest of the French explorers and traders who brought trade goods with them. It is also probable that some of the trade goods got here from ‘down the line trade’ among eastern and western Great Lakes Native populations themselves.

“We found moose, beaver and porcupine bones, stone arrowheads, brass finger rings from the French, and an incredible array of glass trade beads. When it comes to searching for signs of my French and Native ancestors, this site really nailed it. There’s a powerful spiritual connection I feel when I’m there.”

Paquette has several related professional archaeological publications and numerous public presentations to his credit, yet archaeology was neither his academic major nor his career. He enrolled at NMU with the intent of becoming a history teacher, but was convinced by an NMU department head lamenting the slow job market to change his major to social services and minor in history.

“That was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me,” he said. “I had incredible professors who taught me about human beings and how to value, treat, and deal with them. I also learned how to communicate effectively through writing and speaking, and how to do proper research and ‘always’ get my facts right. So much of what I have achieved throughout my life I owe to what I learned at Northern.”

With scholarships, Paquette enjoyed a free ride at NMU, which was a relief to his financially strapped family. But beyond the monetary incentive to stay close to home was personal motivation. He didn’t have to leave his high-school sweetheart, Karen, who became his wife before his senior year at NMU.

Paquette said he went to college so he wouldn’t have to work in the local iron ore mines, but after graduation, the mines offered more than double the starting pay of a social worker, plus full benefits and a good retirement plan. He planned to give it a month before transitioning to his field of study. Instead, he launched a 35-year career with the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company.

“The skills I learned at Northern gave me a tremendous advantage in a mine setting. I started as an hourly employee and was the first college-educated iron ore miner to ever take one of the union jobs. I sat across from senior management when I was only 24 years old to negotiate local issues and argue miners’ grievances. I also became editor and writer of the first union newspaper at the Tilden Mine. But mine safety was always my first concern and I dedicated myself to get every miner home safe and sound to their families at the end of every shift.

“When I was approached to join management after working for 17 years as a rank’n file employee, I accepted in order to help others within the management group who wanted to change and improve the culture at the mines. We introduced computers and other modern tools such laser alignment; improved vacation leave and work scheduling and conditions; and brought on new equipment to promote miner safety, which continued to be my passion. The successful root cause analysis accident/incident investigation system I helped to develop and manage at our Cliffs Michigan Mining Operations is still being used.”

Paquette’s 2009 retirement allowed him to turn more attention to historical research and archaeology. He has also channeled his union activist spirit toward advocating for human rights on behalf of individuals mistreated because of their gender, religion or ethnicity.

Jim and Karen will celebrate their 50th anniversary in June. Their four daughters all graduated from Northern with honors: Nicole Hyttinen, Jill Miller, Jodi Niemi and Kerri Smith.

#Jim #KarenPaquette

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gingerradiohour · 2 years ago

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Ginger Radio Hour #023

Show Notes August 16, 2022

Listen to archived episode.

Theme: Celebratory grief.

Featured: A conversation with Catskill artist Marc Swanson. He has a new show called A Memorial To Ice At The Dead Deer Disco. The series of installations is jointly presented at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and MASS MoCA. According to the exhibition, his works "exist as both memorial and monument aligning climate change with the AIDS crisis. Swanson is interested in the fact that we seem to be living in the ruins of our future – mourning a world that will no longer exist as we know it, resulting from the impending loss and inevitable results of climate change, alongside the inability to control or change this outcome."

Playlist:

Manu Dibango “Soul Makossa” Album: Café Mundo 2004

Alabaster Deplume “People: What’s the Difference?” Album: GOLD 2022

Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra “Xanadu” Album: Xanadu 1980

Marshall Jefferson “Move Your Body” Album: Move Your Body 2011

Chic “Everybody Dance” Album: Chic 1977

Arcade Fire “Here Comes The Night Time II” Album: Reflektor 2013

Depeche Mode “Walking In My Shoes” Album: The Best Of Depeche Mode, Volume I 2006

Björk “Future Forever” Album: Utopia 2017

#ginger radio hour #community radio #music #art #thomas cole #catskills #hudson valley #inspiration

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someacademicssomelife · 2 years ago

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15 Best Things to Do in Cedar Falls, Iowa

Cedar Falls is a city in Black Hawk County located on the Cedar River, just west of Waterloo.

In 1845, William Sturgis and other pioneers settled in the area, and they laid out the town and named it for its cedar trees along the river.

Originally named "Sturgis Falls" after its first settler city, it was later renamed after the river that runs through it.

Cedar River is a non-navigable stream in the north-central United States that flows from southeastern Minnesota southeastward across Iowa, joining the Iowa River about 20 miles south of the Mississippi River.

After the American Civil War and the railroad's arrival in 1866, Cedar Falls became a shipping point for grain, livestock, and lumber.

The city's population grew rapidly during this time; now, it houses Iowa's three state universities premiering opportunities for academic, cultural, and athletic activities.

Now that you know more about Cedar Falls, it's time to create your travel bucket list with the 15 best things to do in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Dig Deep in The Ice House Museum

This Victorian-era home was built on the riverfront at Sturgis Park and is an icehouse built for the Cedar Falls Ice and Fuel Company

It replaced an earlier icehouse that was destroyed by fire in 1858 and was rebuilt in 1921.

Dating back at least 150 years, the icehouse can hold 16 million pounds of ice cut.

Today The Ice House Museum is a museum for the Cedar Falls Historical Society, which also manages the Victorian House Museum.

You can experience the icehouse's atmosphere and learn about the ice trade and how the Cedar River has shaped Cedar Falls.

Don't forget to snap images of its furnishings from that period: photographs, everyday objects, and many more.

Ride Through the Past at John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum

At the John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum, you can step back in time to witness the evolution of the tractor and engine industry from horse-drawn to horse-powered; you'll see how innovations in technology have shaped our world.

It is located on the west side of the TechWorks Campus and is a 30-acre advanced manufacturing, innovation, and commercial center in downtown Waterloo, Iowa.

The museum is open to the public with free admission so your family can enjoy the rich heritage and learn more about its shared history.

Moreover, the museum presents a unique look at how technology has changed farming over time, and you'll be amazed by interactive displays and classic machines that will take your breath away.

The collection includes an original tractor from 1896 used at a farm owned by Henry Ford's father; it is estimated that less than 20 such tractors still exist.

Enjoy The Serenity In George Wyth State Park

The George Wyth State Park is an "urban sanctuary" offering diverse outdoor activities for visitors.

The park was named in 1956 after a well-known Cedar Falls businessman, and its secluded environment is the perfect get-away near the cities of Waterloo and Cedar Falls.

You can stroll the paved multi-use trails that are more than three miles available for hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, fat tire biking, and other winter trail activities.

For birders, you can enjoy spotting more than two hundred species of birds at George Wyth State Park's bird blind, located on the east side of the park near its entrance off Highway 30.

Experience a different camping experience in the large campground, featuring electric and non-electric sites, modern showers and restrooms, and a trailer dump station.

Additionally, you can have picnic dates near the river or avail the day-use lodge for significant events such as wedding receptions and family reunions.

They have an online reservation system, too.

Realign with Nature at the Hartman Reserve Nature Center

The Hartman Reserve is 340 acres and is located at the heart of the metropolitan Black Hawk County.

It was named Camp Hartman when it was owned and operated by the YMCA and was only 56 acres then.

It's home to various exhibits that help us understand our environment through education, recreation, and community involvement.

Witness the variety of wildlife like turkeys, deer, otters, hawks, foxes, vultures, and bald eagles at the Hartman Reserve.

Enjoy the nature center, trail, exhibits, and library for free.

Commemorate Our Heroes at Sullivan Brothers Veterans Museum

The Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum honors the service and sacrifice of all Iowa veterans from the Civil War to the present.

Step into stories through traditional exhibits, interactive activities, and an electronic Wall of Honor, just an 11-minute walk away from Waterloo Center for the Arts

Experience over 35 interactive exhibits ranging from a memorial to World War I hero and Medal of Honor recipient Lieutenant Henry "Hank" Ketchum to a tribute to Medal of Honor recipient Sergeant Francis P. Reynolds.

You can also listen to the Interviews collected via the Voices of Iowa Oral History Project, totaling over 1,500, with more than 400 still in progress.

With its free admission, this state-of-the-art facility aims to play a role in preserving the history and service of Iowa veterans and serve as a facility for research and genealogy studies.

Discover the Cedar Valley Nature Trail

The Cedar Valley Nature Trail is a 69-mile trail that runs through the Cedar River bottomlands, along forested banks and open vistas.

Spanning four counties, the trail is one of the pioneer "linear parks" in Iowa.

The northern portion of the trail is designated for the Bird Area, so you'll be able to see various birds while you're out there!

Besides hiking, you can also stroll the trail by biking, in-line skating, cross-country skiing, running, and even nature study.

Enjoy the scenery as it follows the floodplain of the Cedar River through forested areas, wetlands, and rolling farmlands.

Meet at Main Street!

Main Street is a beautiful little town with a lot to offer—it's home to over unique stores and restaurants you won't find anywhere else.

Community Main Street, the organization that preserves the architecture and helps revitalize the local economy, was formed in 1987 and has won awards for its efforts.

You can visit more than 30 one-of-a-kind stores and boutiques, including antique shops, specialty boutiques, art galleries, vintage clothing stores, bookstores, and more.

Walk down the historic downtown area, which is pedestrian-friendly, picturesque, and full of inviting shops and restaurants.

When you want a near and affordable place to settle, downtown Cedar Falls is a destination for arts and entertainment: from early morning to late night, you'll find something new every day of the week.

Channel Your Inner Artist at Hearst Center for The Arts

The James & Meryl Hearst Center for the Arts is a cultural center that presents local art, musical, and film events and classes for all ages.

Built-in 1972, you can find the center in downtown Cedar Falls; you can easily visit it since it's just a 3-minute drive from the University of Northern Iowa.

Additionally, it has two galleries for visual arts, an auditorium with seating for 150 people, three classrooms, a ceramics studio, meeting rooms, and a sculpture garden.

Moreover, you can also view the center's two galleries holding more than 1,000 works of art by local artists

Open and free all-year round, you can experience the center's art classes, films, concerts and recitals, lectures and readings, and other performing arts offerings.

Enjoy The Beauty of The Cedar Valley Arboretum and Botanic Gardens

The Cedar Valley Arboretum and Botanic Gardens is a stunning 40-acre oasis of beauty and serenity on the outskirts of Waterloo, Iowa.

What began as the work of a small group of volunteers has flourished into a stunning botanical garden comprising of flora both native and exotic.

Explore its many beautiful gardens, including the Hillside Welcome Garden, Rose Garden, perennial display garden, Shade Garden, and an award-winning Children's Garden.

You can enjoy the garden from sunset to sunrise with free admission.

With over 320 other gardens in the country, membership will give you free admission to the museum, free parking, discounts, and other benefits.

Spectate The Wonders Of The Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center

The Gallagher Bluedorn is a state-of-the-art performing arts center on the University of Northern Iowa's campus.

This was the first venue of this size to open in Iowa in over two decades, costing $25 million and covering more than 100,000 square feet.

You can watch over 300 performances each year, ranging from big Broadway musicals to bold modern dance and other types of performances.

Get fascinated by Davis Hall, a 225-seat flexible rehearsal and recital hall, and Jebe Hall, home to a $500,000, 38-rank tracker organ built for the center.

Experience quality performances with state-of-the-art rigging, lighting, audio systems, and an orchestra pit that converts the hall easily from concerts to theatricals.

Practice Your Biking Skills at Tondro Pray Bike Park

Tondro Pray Bike Park is a place for BMX bicyclists, cyclocross riders, and mountain bikers to practice their skills in a fun environment.

It's just north of the Cedar River—a 14-minute walk from Cedar Falls Community Garden.

You can enjoy the flat landscape; it's a sprawling flood plain repurposed by the City after the historic flood in 2008.

The land was established by early land developers Tondro, Pray, and Boone, and the underlying platting bears their names.

This park is perfect for beginners as you can use the pump track, a single track, and a fast, fun cyclocross course.

Get In Touch with Nature at Black Hawk Park

The Black Hawk Park is a 1,490-acre greenbelt located on the Cedar River in Iowa and named after Chief Black Hawk of the Sauk Indian tribe.

It was the first park acquired by Black Hawk County Conservation and is now one of the largest county parks in Iowa

Make your best memories at the two campgrounds for overnight stays, hiking and biking trails for all fitness levels, and picnicking areas with tables and grills.

There are also public hunting areas for small-game animals and fishing opportunities on both sides of the waterway from Cedar Falls to Cedar-Wapsi Road Bridge.

You can also enjoy canoeing, boating, and kayaking.

Experience Real Camping at Big Woods Lake Campground

Big Woods Lake Campground offers visitors the chance to experience a rustic, rural atmosphere while being close enough to Cedar Falls to enjoy all the city has to offer.

With its 65-acre lake, you can do various activities such as fishing, boating, swimming, relaxing, and enjoying nature.

The lake is 86 acres and 32 feet deep at its deepest point, excellent fishing for largemouth bass, panfish, walleye, and northern pike.

In addition to the lake and campgrounds, there are several recreational opportunities you can enjoy within an urban boundary but with a rural feel.

You might even be lucky to witness the variety of wildlife, including deer, raccoons, and foxes.

Beat The Heat at The Falls

The Falls Aquatic Center on Main Street is a must-visit for anyone who loves the water, especially if you're looking for a place to splash around on hot summer days.

It's located on the edge of the University of Northern Iowa campus on the edge of town.

The complex has recently expanded its competition pool to 50 meters (Olympic size), making it an ideal place for swimmers of all ages and skill levels.

With its resort-style atmosphere, you can quickly bring friends and family along with you and offer them a great place to cool off and relax after spending time in the pool or on the slide.

The park is surrounded by plenty of shaded areas—perfect for those days when you want to lounge around after playing all day!

Stroll and Relax at the Overman Park

Overman Park, located just west of downtown Cedar Falls, is the oldest public park in the city.

Acquired in 1853, it was named after a former mayor, who donated the land as part of his estate.

The park is surrounded by elegant 19th-century houses of the Vintage Home District and is used for many events throughout the summer.

Enjoy the Cedar Falls Municipal Band that performs here every Tuesday evening in June and July, while there are also movies under the stars on Friday nights.

If you visit May through October, don't forget to pass by for the Cedar Falls Farmers' Market on Saturdays.

Final Thoughts

Thanks to its diverse and welcoming community, Cedar Falls is a popular destination for visitors.

Warm, welcoming residents make Cedar Falls an ideal place to call home, while visitors have a wide range of things and places to go.

You can also visit several places in Cedar Falls that will provide you with unique experiences and memories for years to come.

Visitors will find museums where they can learn about local history and modern living.

There are also several theaters around town where you can catch plays or musicals put on by talented artists from around the country who have come here to perform their work.

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