McCall, Idaho is a resort town on the western edge of Valley County, Idaho, United States. Named after its founder, Tom McCall, it is situated on the southern shore of Payette Lake, near the center of the Payette National Forest. The population was 2,991 as of the 2010 census. Originally a logging community whose last sawmill closed in 1977, McCall is now an all-season tourist destination for outdoor recreation. The resort town is known for its Winter Carnival, extended winters, and the highest average snowfall in the state.
Idaho’s Bruneau Dunes State Park in the southwestern part of the state contains North America’s tallest single structured sand dune. It stands 470 feet high.
Dunes are naturally occurring formations that can occur in a desert or on a seashore. California has notable examples of both types.
The dunes at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico aren’t composed of sand. They are gypsum. Being gypsum, they are slipperier than sand and one can slide down them on plastic disc sleds or on makeshift cardboard sleds. People can apply for a backcountry camping pass, and under a full moon and with the sands being white, you don’t need a light when surfing the dunes.
Good, clean family fun!
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army rocket range of almost 3,200 sq mi in parts of five counties in southern New Mexico. Designated historic sites on WSMR land include the
Trinity Site for the nuclear test conducted on 16 July 1945 and the site for the first US V-2 launch in 16 April 1946.
Operation Paperclip (1949–1990) was the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) program that contributed to the eventual transfer of a significant number of Germany’s V-2 missile scientists to work on the United States’ defense missile and civilian space programs. Key German scientists that worked on these USA programs included rocket scientists Wernher von Braun, Kurt Debus and Arthur Rudolph, and also physician Hubertus Strughold.
W.J. “Wild Bill” Donovan, who would later head the O.S.S., advised Charles Lindbergh immediately after the infamous kidnapping. There may be evidence that Donovan arrived at Lindbergh’s house before the March 1 kidnapping, supporting a fringe theory that the baby died earlier and Donovan helped arrange a hoax.
Retired Major General WJ “Wild Bill” Donovan is the only person to have received all four of the United States’ highest awards: The Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Security Medal. At the time of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, Donovan was a Colonel.
Another retired Army Major General who offered his assistance to Lindbergh and the kidnapping case was the Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, Also a Colonel at that time, his name was Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr. who, two years after the kidnapping, would father the son who would go on to retire as a full General and become known as 1990 Desert Storm’s “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf.
Norman, Oklahoma, best known as the home of the University of Oklahoma, was settled during the Land Run of 1889, which opened the former Unassigned Lands of the Indian Territory to American pioneer settlement. The city was named in honor of Abner Norman, the area’s initial land surveyor, and was formally incorporated on May 13, 1891.
Abner Doubleday almost certainly did not invent baseball, nor is there any compelling evidence that he had anything to do with the popularizing of the sport, nor even that he was ever associated with nor, for that matter, played the game. Yet, he remains associated with the game so closely that the Hall of Fame is in his home town, and the nearby Auburn minor league team is nicknamed the Doubledays.
Abner Haynes was a running back for the AFL Dallas Texans and Kansas City Chiefs. A four-time all star and rushing leader in the inaugural AFL season, he is often remembers for mistakenly making the wrong call in 1962 AFL Championship. At the beginning of overtime, coach Hank Stram wanted to choose field position due to the strong winds in the stadium. Haynes said “We’ll kick to the clock” when he won the coin toss; the first half of the statement was the only one acceptable, so the Texans were kicking the ball, with the Houston Oiler having both possession and the wind at their backs. Luckily for Haynes, the Oilers were unable to score, and the Texans scored in the second overtime to win the game.
Abner Doubleday is credited with firing the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter at the start of the Civil War. He also fought at Gettysburg.
Civil Twilight is the interval when the sun is below the horizon, but is still considered daytime for the purpose of enforcing laws that regulate activities in hours of darkness, such as driving or hunting or burglary. In most jurisdictions, Civil Twilight is defined as 30 minute before or after the time of official sunrise or sunset at the date and location of the activity…
Stephenie Meyer’s four Twilight books have consecutively set records as the biggest selling novels of their year.
In contrast, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the book that started the vampire craze, made him very little money in his lifetime, in spite of critical praise that set it above great novels like Shelley’s Frankenstein and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. In 1912, Stoker’s last year, he made so little from his writing that he had to petition for a compassionate grant from the Royal Literary Fund.
Depot Division in Regina, Saskatchewan is the training academy for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. All Mounties go through Depot at some point in their careers.
The RCMP does not provide any policing services at either the provincial or municipal level for Quebec or Ontario.
The RCMP is the police authority in outport Newfoundland and Labrador, but the city of St. John’s is still policed by the Newfoundland Constabulary, whose officers on patrol remained unarmed until 1996. the last large North American city with unarmed police on the beat. Previously, members were required to keep all firearms secured in the trunk of the police cruiser and were only deployed with permission from the Chief.
The world’s largest estuary is the Gulf of St. Lawrence, created by the island of Newfoundland blocking the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.
ETA, Wikipedia:
Half of Canada’s ten provinces border the Gulf of St. Lawrence: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec.
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and its sequels were mostly set in Prince Edward Island, and locations within Canada’s smallest province became literary landmarks and popular tourist sites—namely Green Gables farm, the genesis of Prince Edward Island National Park.