Month: August 2014

Badlands National Park

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The Lakota gave this land its name, “mako sica,” meaning “land bad.” Located in southwestern South Dakota, Badlands National Park consists of 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. It is desolation at its truest, where you can look for miles … Read more

Bodie Ghost Town

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An original ghost town from the late 1800’s. Bodie Ghost Town stands today in a state of “arrested decay”. So coined by the State of California when they took over the town in 1962 to make it a State Historic Park. In 1859 William (a.k.a. Waterman) S. Bodey discovered gold near what is now called Bodie Ghost Town Bluff. A mill was established in 1861 and the town began to grow. It started with about 20 miners and grew to an estimated 10,000 people by 1880! By that time, the town of Bodie Ghost Town bustled with families, robbers, miners, store owners, gunfighters and prostitutes of all kinds. At one time there was reported to be 65 saloons in town. Amongst the saloons were numerous brothels and ‘houses of ill repute’, gambling halls and opium dens. Needless to say that there was entertainment for every taste.After a long day working the claims, the miners would head for the bars and the red light district to spend their earnings. The mixture of money, gold and alcohol would often prove fatal. It is said that there was a man killed every day in Bodie Ghost Town. Presumably, the undertaker never had a slow day.

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Mount Rushmore

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Mount Rushmore, also known as the Shrine of Democracy, is a National Monument and Memorial depicting four of the most prominent presidents of the first 150 years of the United States – George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson. Mount Rushmore was carved into South Dakota’s Black Hills from 1927 to 1941 under … Read more

Texas School Book Depository

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The Texas School Book Depository (now the Dallas County Administration Building) is the former name of a seven-floor building facing Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas (U.S.). Located on the northwest corner of Elm and North Houston Streets, at the western end of downtown Dallas, its address is 411 Elm Street. The building is notable for its connection to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. According to four United States government investigations, an employee in the building,Lee Harvey Oswald, fatally shot the president from a sixth floor window on the southeast corner. The case, however, was never adjudicated in the jurisdiction in which it occurred, owing in part to the death of the accused assassin. Texas School Book Depository is a Beautiful Place For Vacations.

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Empire State Building

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The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York.It stood as the world’s tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center’s North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State. The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In 2007, it was ranked number one on the List of America’s Favorite Architecture according to the AIA.

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