# The United States of America, One State a Day



## Unionstation13 (Aug 31, 2006)

Oklahoma city is quiet jazzy. It is in the biblebelt and it is a rather young city for the US. But it has a lot going for it.


----------



## Nikkodemo (Aug 23, 2006)

Very nice thread!!

Amazing!!


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Montana*









_Montana (IPA: /mɒnˈtænə/) is a state in the Pacific Northwest and Great Plains regions of the United States of America. The central and western thirds of the state have numerous mountain ranges (approximately 77 named) of the northern Rocky Mountains; thus the state's name, derived from the Spanish word montaña ("mountain"). The state nickname is the "Treasure State." Other nicknames include "Land of Shining Mountains", "Big Sky Country", and the slogan "the last best place". The state ranks fourth in area, but 44th in population, and therefore has the third lowest population density in the United States. The economy is primarily based on agriculture and significant lumber and mineral extraction. Tourism is also important to the economy, with millions of visitors a year to Glacier National Park, the Battle of Little Bighorn site, and three of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park._

*Historic Elks lodge*








By *maveric2003*

_Most of Billings is located in the Yellowstone Valley, carved out by the Yellowstone River. Over 10 million years ago, this valley was underwater with the tops of the "Rims," the sandstone cliffs bordering the city, being a prehistoric beach. It is not unusual to find fossilized fish in the area.

Some of pictographs in the Pictograph Cave 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Billings are 2,100 years old. The Crow Indians frequented this area from about the year 1700. 

In 1806, William Clark traveled through the region on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He inscribed his name on Pompey's Pillar, a rock formation 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Billings, on July 25, 1806. Clark wrote that he climbed the sandstone pillar and "had a most extensive view in every direction on the Northerly Side of the river". Clark named the place "Pompys Tower" in honor of a young Shoshone boy he had nicknamed "Pompy." The boy's mother was Sacagawea, who had helped guide the Lewis and Clark expedition and had acted as an interpreter. The name of the formation was changed by 1814) to the current title. Clark's inscription is the only remaining physical evidence found along the route that was followed by the expedition.

Billings was founded in 1877 and established in 1882 in Montana Territory near the already-existing town of Coulson. Coulson had been situated on the Yellowstone River, which made it ideal for the commerce that Steamboats brought up the river. However, when the Montana & Minnesota Land Company oversaw the development of potential railroad land, they ignored Coulson, and platted the new town of Billings several miles to the West. When the Northern Pacific Railroad was built, Coulson died as Billings flourished. The land that was once the town of Coulson is now Coulson Park. Northern Pacific Railroad President Frederick Billings, along with other executives of the railroad, bought land in the Yellowstone Valley, then later sold it back to his own railroad. This practice was both legal and common at the time. A structure known as "The Castle" was erected emulating European design with its crow-step gable construction. 

As Billings grew from the tracks of the Northern Pacific Railroad, it appeared the only development would be to the south. On March 15, 1882, Frederick Billings and other Northern Pacific officials formed the Montana & Minnesota Land & Improvement Co., which platted and promoted the sale of land in what would become Billings. Two main commercial streets were built along the railroad tracks and were named Montana and Minnesota avenues after the land company. After the company was formed, the city grew quickly and earned the nickname, "The Magic City" because the city appeared to grow like magic. By mid-June that year, Billings had grown to 79 tent shelters and 81 houses. 75 more homes were being built as well. The buildings were hastily built along the south of the tracks. By the end of 1883, Billings had 400 buildings and 1,500 people. The commercial district had matured to a nine-block area. Still most homes were located in the south side with many different classes calling Billings home. South Park was also built in the new city. In had been rendered in the Billings' original outline. Billings first swimming pool was built in 1914. Mansions were also beginning to be constructed by early Billings pioneers. Two of the pioneers were the brothers Peter and Christian Yegen, two Swiss immigrants.

Billings suffered from a major flood in 1937 . After World War II, Billings boomed into a major financial, medical and cultural center in the region. In the 1960s, Billings surpassed Great Falls as Montana's largest city. In the 1970s, Billings suffered a short decline in population due to the oil crisis. The population quickly rebounded in the early 1980s and has never declined since. Billings was affected by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in May; the city received about an inch of ash on the ground. Billings received the All-America City Award in 1992._

*Montana Capitol*








By *Hometown Invasion Tour*

_The town was established on October 30, 1864, following the discovery of gold along Last Chance Creek by the "Four Georgians". Helena's main street is named Last Chance Gulch and follows the winding path of the original creek through the historic downtown district.

The town was originally named "Crabtown", after John Crab, one of the "Four Georgians". As other miners arrived and the town expanded it was decided to change the name. After many suggestions, John Sommerville suggested the name of his home town, Saint Helena, Minnesota, but the pronunciation (Hel-E-na) did not suit the miners, who preferred HELL-en-a. Dropping "Saint" from the name as unnecessary, the new name Helena was adopted (defeating the name "Tomah" by only two votes). 

The townsite was first surveyed in 1865 by Captain John Wood. However, most streets follow the chaotic paths of the miners, going around claims and following the winding streambed. As a result, few city blocks match the ideal of 30 x 60, rather they have an irregular variety of shapes and size causing many major streets to end abruptly.

By 1888, about 50 millionaires lived in Helena, more millionaires per capita than any city in the world. About $3.6 billion (in today's dollars) of gold was taken from Last Chance Gulch, over a 20-year period. The Last Chance Placer is one of the most famous placers in the western United States. Most of the production occurred before 1868. Much of the placer is now under the streets and buildings of Helena (but even as late as the 1970s, when repairs were being made to a Bank, a vein of placer gold was found under the Bank's foundation). 

The official symbol of Helena is a drawing of "The Guardian of the Gulch", a wooden fire watch tower built in 1886, that still stands on "Tower Hill" overlooking the historic downtown district. This fire tower replaced a series of observation buildings, the original being a flimsy lookout stand built in 1870 on the same site, built in response to a series of devastating fires: April 1869, November 1869, October 1871, August 1872 and January 1874 that swept through the early mining camp.

In 1889, railroad magnate Charles Arthur Broadwater opened his fabled Hotel Broadwater and Natatorium west of Helena. Damaged in the earthquake of 1935, it was closed in 1941. It was demolished in 1976. Today, the Broadwater Fitness Center stands just west of the Hotel & Natatorium's original location, complete with an outdoor pool heated by natural spring water running underneath it.

In 1902, the Montana State Capitol was completed. Helena has been the capital of Montana Territory (since 1875) and the state of Montana (since 1889). A large portion of the conflict between Marcus Daly and William Andrews Clark (the Copper Kings) was over the location of the state capital.

The Civic Center and the Saint Helena Cathedral are two of many unique historic buildings in Helena.

Helena High School and Capital High School are both public high schools located in the Helena School District No. 1. Being the state capital, a large number of Helenans work for the state government. When in Helena, most people visit the local walking mall (built in the early 1980s after Urban Renewal and the Model Cities Program in the early 1970s had virtually gutted the downtown district, leaving little more than unpaved parking lots and unfinished projects behind for over a decade), a three block long strip of stores following the original Last Chance Gulch. There is a stream in a concrete bed running the length of the walking mall, simulating Last Chance Creek.

The Archie Bray Foundation, an internationally-renowned ceramics center founded in 1952, is located just west of Helena.

Helena also has a local ski area, Great Divide Ski Area, northwest of town near the ghost town of Marysville, Montana._

*Old Copper Mansion*








By *ankneyd*

_Butte began as a mining town in the late 19th century. At first only gold and silver were mined in the area, but the advent of electricity caused a soaring demand for copper, which was abundant in the area. The small town soon became one of the most prosperous cities in the country, especially during World War I, and was often called "the Richest Hill on Earth". It was the largest city for many hundreds of miles in all directions. The city attracted workers from Ireland, Wales, England, Lebanon, Canada, Finland, Austria, Serbia, Italy, China, Syria, Croatia, Montenegro, Mexico, and all areas of the USA. The legacy of the immigrants lives on in the form of the Cornish pasty which was popularized by mine workers who needed something easy to eat in the mines.

The influx of miners gave Butte the reputation as a wide-open town where any vice was obtainable. The city's famous saloon and red-light district, called the "Line", was centered on Mercury Street, where the elegant bordellos included the famous Dumas Brothel, regarded as the longest-running house of prostitution in the U.S. In the brick alley behind the brothel was the equally famous Venus Alley, where women plied their trade in small cubicles called "cribs". The red-light district brought miners and other men from all over the region and was openly tolerated by city officials until the 1980s as one of the last such urban districts in the U.S. The Dumas Brothel is now operated as a museum to Butte's rougher days. Close by Wyoming Street is home to the public high school.

At the end of the 19th century, copper was in great demand because of new technologies such as electric power that required the use of copper. Three men fought for control of Butte's mining wealth. These three "Copper Kings" were William A. Clark, Marcus Daly, and F. Augustus Heinze.

In 1899, Daly joined with William Rockefeller, Henry H. Rogers, and Thomas W. Lawson to organize the Amalgamated Copper Mining Company. Not long after, the company changed its name to Anaconda Copper Mining Company (ACM). Over the years, Anaconda was owned by assorted larger corporations. In the 1920s, it was the fourth largest company in the world, and had a virtual monopoly over the mines in and around Butte. The prosperity continued up to the 1950s, when the declining grade of ore and competition from other mines led the Anaconda company to switch its focus from the costly and dangerous practice of underground mining to open pit mining. This marked the beginning of the end for the boom times in Butte.

Butte was also known as "the Gibraltar of Unionism", with a very active labor union movement that sought to counter the power and influence of the Anaconda company, which was also simply known as "The Company." At one time, not only was there considerable activism by the predecessor organizations to the AFL-CIO, but Butte was also a hotbed of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or the "Wobblies") organizing. There were a number of clashes between laborers, labor organizers, and the Anaconda company, including the lynching of IWW activist Frank Little, and at one point, Pinkerton Agency guards hired by The Company resorted to gunning down strikers in the Anaconda Road Massacre. Between approximately 1900 and 1917, Butte also had a strong streak of Socialist politics, even electing a Mayor on the Socialist ticket in 1914.

In 1917, copper production from the Butte mines peaked and has steadily declined since. By WWII, copper production from the ACM's holdings in Chuquicamata, Chile, far exceeded Butte's production. The historian Janet Finn has examined this "tale of two cities"--Butte and Chuquicamata as two ACM mining towns.

Thousands of homes were destroyed in the Meaderville suburb and surrounding areas to excavate the Berkeley Pit, which opened in 1955. At the time, it was the largest truck-operated open pit copper mine in the United States. Other open pit mines were dug in the area, including the still-operational East Continental Pit. The Berkeley pit grew with time, and in November 1973 the Columbia Gardens, William A. Clark's gift to the people of Butte, was torn down to expand the Berkeley Pit. In 1977 the ARCO company purchased Anaconda Mining, and only three years later started shutting down mines due to lower metal prices. In 1982, all mining in the Berkeley Pit was suspended.

Anaconda stopped mining at the Continental pit in 1983. Montana Resources bought the property and reopened the Continental pit in 1986. The company stopped mining in 2000, but resumed in 2003 with higher metal prices, and continues at last report, employing 346 people. From 1880 through 2005, the mines of the Butte district have produced more than 9.6 million tonnes of copper, 2.1 million tonnes of zinc, 1.6 million tonnes of manganese, 381 thousand tonnes of lead, 87 thousand tonnes of molybdenum, 715 million troy ounces of silver, and 2.9 million ounces of gold. 

When mining shut down at the Berkeley pit in 1982, water pumps in nearby mines were also shut down, which resulted in highly acidic water laced with toxic heavy metals filling up the pit. Only two years later the pit was classified as a Superfund site and an environmental hazard site. Meanwhile, the acidic water continued to rise. It was not until the 1990s that serious efforts to clean up the Berkeley Pit began. The situation gained even more attention after as many as 342 migrating geese picked the pit lake as a resting place, resulting in their deaths. Steps have since been taken to prevent a recurrence, including but not limited to loudspeakers broadcasting sounds to scare off waterfowl. However, in November 2003 the Horseshoe Bend treatment facility went online and began treating and diverting much of the water that would have flowed into the pit. Ironically, the Berkeley Pit is also one of the city's biggest tourist attractions. It is the largest pit lake in the United States, and is the most costly part of the country's largest Superfund site._









By *chromaticlight*

_Small storm near Browning, Montana _

*Avalanche Lake*








By *Designer Scott*


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Wyoming*









_The State of Wyoming (IPA: /waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/) is a state in the western region of the United States of America. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains. The tenth largest U.S. state by size and is the least populous.

Several Native American groups originally inhabited the region we know as Wyoming. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were but a few of the original inhabitants encountered when white explorers first entered the region. Although French trappers may have ventured into the northern sections of the state in the late 1700s, John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, first described the region in 1807. His reports of the Yellowstone area were considered at the time to be fictional. Robert Stuart and a party of five men returning from Astoria discovered South Pass in 1812. The Oregon Trail later followed that route. In 1850, Jim Bridger located what is now known as Bridger Pass, which the Union Pacific Railroad used in 1868 — as did Interstate 80, ninety years later. Bridger also explored Yellowstone and filed reports on the region that, like those of Colter, were largely regarded as tall tales at the time.

The region may have acquired the name Wyoming as early as 1865, when Representative J. M. Ashley of Ohio introduced a bill to Congress to provide a "temporary government for the territory of Wyoming." The name Wyoming derives from the Munsee name xwé:wamənk, meaning "at the big river flat," originally applied to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, made famous by the 1809 poem Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell.

After the Union Pacific Railroad reached the town of Cheyenne in 1867, the region's population began to grow steadily, and the Federal government established the Wyoming Territory on July 25, 1868. Unlike Colorado to the south, Wyoming enjoyed no significant discovery of such celebrated minerals as gold and silver — nor Colorado's consequent boom in population — although some areas of Wyoming produced copper.

Once government sponsored expeditions to the Yellowstone country were undertaken, the previous reports by men like Colter and Bridger were found to be true. This led to the creation of Yellowstone National Park, which became the world's first National Park in 1872. Nearly all of Yellowstone National Park lies within the far northwestern borders of Wyoming.

In 1869, Wyoming extended much suffrage to women, at least partially in an attempt to garner the votes to be admitted as a state. In addition to being the first U.S. state to extend suffrage to women, Wyoming was also the home of many other firsts for U.S. women in politics. For the first time, women served on a jury in Wyoming (Laramie in 1870). Wyoming had the first female court bailiff (Mary Atkinson, Laramie, in 1870) and the first female justice of the peace in the country (Esther Hobart Morris, South Pass City, in 1870). Wyoming became the first state in the Union to elect a female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, who was elected in 1924 and took office in January 1925.

The United States admitted Wyoming into the Union on July 10, 1890.

Wyoming was the location of the Johnson County War of 1892, which erupted between competing groups of cattle ranchers. The passage of the federal Homestead Act led to an influx of small ranchers. A range war broke out when either or both of the groups chose violent conflict over commercial competition in the use of the public land._

*Wyoming state capital*








By *B. Solomon*

_On July 4, 1867, General Grenville M. Dodge and his survey crew platted the site now known as Cheyenne (Dakota Territory, later Wyoming Territory). There were many from a hundred miles around who felt the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad through the area would bring them prosperity. So, by the time the first track was built into Cheyenne four months later (November 13), over four thousand people had migrated into the new city. Because Cheyenne sprang up like magic, according to newspaper editors visiting from the East, it became known as "Magic City of the Plains".

Those who stayed and did not leave with the westward construction of the railroad were joined by gamblers, saloon owners, thieves, opportunists, prostitutes, displaced cowboys, miners, transient railroad gangs, proper business men, soldiers from "Camp Cheyenne", later named Fort D.A. Russell (now F.E. Warren Air Force Base), and men from Camp Carlin, a supply camp for fifteen northern army posts on the frontier.

The city was not named by Grenville Dodge as his memoirs state, but rather by his friends who accompanied him to the area Dodge called "Crow Creek Crossing". It was named for the Native American Cheyenne nation ("Shay-an"), one of the most famous and prominent Great Plains tribes, closely allied with the Arapaho. The Cheyenne were among the fiercest fighters on the plains. Not pleased with the changes brought about by the railroad, they had harassed both railroad surveyors and construction crews.

As the capital of the Wyoming Territory, and the only city of any consequence, as well as being the seat of the stockyards where cattle were loaded on the Union Pacific Railroad, the city's Cheyenne Club was the natural meeting place for the organization of the large well-capitalized ranches called the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. (See Johnson County War of 1892, the largest of the "range wars" of early Wyoming history). The newspaper offices of Asa Shinn Mercer's Northwestern Livestock Journal were burned down when the paper, which was founded as a public relations vehicle for the moneyed cattle interests, began to write scathing accounts of the events that were unfolding on the open range. His account is told in his book The Banditti of the Plains,. 

As a town created by the railroad, Cheyenne fittingly preserves one of the eight surviving Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives ("4004"), some of the largest steam locomotives ever built, designed for hauling freight over the Rocky Mountains at high speeds. These engines typically hauled 100 freight cars up ruling grades between Cheyenne and Ogden, Utah, at 50 miles per hour. The locomotive now resides in Holliday park in central Cheyenne. The Union Pacific's last live-steam engines still reside in Cheyenne. The Challenger 3985 and the Northern 844, UP's last steam passenger engine, are maintained there. They are used for display and excursions across the county.

Alferd Packer, the only American ever convicted of cannibalism (though the official charge was murder, since cannibalism is not a crime in the United States), was apprehended in Cheyenne, March 11, 1883. Tom Horn, the notorious Pinkerton's agent who had been operating as a hit man for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, was hanged in Cheyenne for a murder that he probably did not commit, on November 20, 1903, a day before his 43rd birthday.

The Wyoming Telephone and Telegraph Company published the first telephone directory in the United States in Cheyenne in 1881. Due to a shortage of white paper, it was printed on yellow paper instead which started the tradition of the "yellow pages" phone directory._

*Grand Teton National Park*








By *FotoMark*

_Grand Teton National Park is a United States National Park located in western Wyoming, south of Yellowstone National Park. The park is named after Grand Teton, which at 13,770 feet (4,197 m), is the tallest mountain in the Teton Range.

The mountains were named by a French trapper who viewed them from the Idaho side of the range and called them tétons, French slang for "nipples" or "teats" (presumably referring to the shape of the peaks). It was established as a national park on February 26, 1929. The park covers 484 mi² (1,255 km²) of land and water._

*Old Faithful Inn*








By *n9arx*

_The Old Faithful Inn is a hotel located in Yellowstone National Park, with a clear view of the renowned Old Faithful Geyser. 

The inn's architect was 29-year-old Robert Reamer, an architect for the Great Northern Railway.

With its spectacular log and limb lobby and massive (500-ton, 85-foot) stone fireplace, the inn is a prime example of the "Golden Age" of rustic resort architecture, a style which is also known as National Park Service Rustic. It is also unique in that it is one of the few log hotels still standing in the United States.

Initial construction was carried out over the winter of 1903-1904, largely using locally-obtained materials including lodgepole pine (the bark was later removed in 1940) and rhyolite stone. When the Old Faithful Inn first opened in the spring of 1904, it boasted electric lights and steam heat._

*Devils Tower*








By *occecid*

_Devils Tower (Lakota: Mato Tipila, which means “Bear Tower”) is a monolithic igneous intrusion or volcanic neck located in the Black Hills near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises dramatically 1,267 feet (386 m) above the surrounding terrain and the summit is 5,112 feet (1,558 m) above sea level.

Devils Tower was the first declared United States National Monument, established on September 24, 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt. The Monument's boundary encloses an area of 1,347 acres (5.45 km²).

In recent years about 1% of the Monument's 400,000 annual visitors climb Devils Tower. The monolith is featured prominently in the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind._

*Lake Marie*








By *jdolbare*


----------



## MDguy (Dec 16, 2006)

I LOVE Montanta and Wyoming, too of my favorite states :drool:


----------



## Bahnsteig4 (Sep 9, 2005)

^^ Same here. Unspoilt beauty, untouched even.


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Idaho*









_The State of Idaho (IPA: /ˈaɪdəhoʊ/) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. Idaho’s nickname is the Gem State because of its abundance of natural resources.

Humans may have been present in the Idaho area as long as 14,500 years ago. Excavations at Wilson Butte Cave near Twin Falls in 1959 revealed evidence of human activity, including arrowheads, that rank among the oldest dated artifacts in North America. Native American tribes predominant in the area included the Nez Perce in the north and the Northern and Western Shoshone in the south.

Idaho, as part of the Oregon Country, was claimed by both the United States and United Kingdom until the United States gained undisputed jurisdiction in 1846. Between then and the creation of the Idaho Territory in 1863, parts of the present-day state were included in the Oregon, Washington, and Dakota Territories. The new territory included most of present-day Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. The first organized communities, within the present borders of Idaho, were established in 1860.

After some tribulation as a territory, including the chaotic transfer of the territorial capital from Lewiston to Boise, disenfranchisement of the large Mormon minority and a federal attempt to split the territory between Washington Territory and the state of Nevada, Idaho achieved statehood in 1890. The economy of the state, which had been primarily supported by metal mining, shifted towards agriculture and tourism._

*Big Horns*








By *James Neeley*

_The Big Horn Mountains are a mountain range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana in the United States, forming a northwest-trending spur from the Rocky Mountains extending approximately 200 miles (320 km) northward on the Great Plains. They are separated from the Absaroka Range, which lie on the main branch of the Rockies in western Wyoming, by the Bighorn Basin.

The Bighorn Mountains were uplifted during the Laramide orogeny beginning approximately 70 million years ago. The Bighorn Mountains consist of over 9,000 feet of sedimentary rock strata laid down before mountain-building began: the predominantly marine and near-shore sedimentary layers range from the Cambrian through the Lower Cretaceous, and are often rich in fossils. There is an unconformity where Silurian strata were exposed to erosion and are missing. Following the uplift, large volumes of sediments, rich in early Tertiary paleontological resources, were deposited in the adjoining basins. Though many cirques, U-shaped valleys and glacial lakes can be found in the mountain range, the only remaining active glacier is the Cloud Peak Glacier, which is on the east slope of Cloud Peak.

The highest peaks within the Big Horns are located in Wyoming in the 1.1 million acre (4,500 km²) Bighorn National Forest. Two peaks rise to over 13,000 feet (3,960 m) Cloud Peak (13,167 ft, 4013 m) and Black Tooth Mountain (13,005 ft, 3964 m). There are a dozen more that rise to over 12,000 feet (3,650 m). From the east the mountains present a vertical relief of over 8,000 feet (2,450 m), rising abrutly from the plains. Overall, the Big Horns are more rounded than their sister mountain ranges to the west._

*Boise, Idaho Capital interior*








By *Angelnina*

_It is commonly accepted that the area was referred to as Boise long before the establishment of Fort Boise. However, the exact details of how the name came to be applied to the area differ in the available accounts.

Some credit a story told of Captain B.L.E. Bonneville of the US Army as the source of the name. After trekking for weeks through dry and rough terrain, his exploration party reached an overlook with a view of the Boise River Valley. The place where they stood is called Bonneville Point, and is located on the Oregon Trail east of the city. According to the story, a French-speaking guide, overwhelmed by the sight of the verdant river, yelled "Les Bois! Les Bois!" giving the area the name.

But the name "Boise" may actually derive from earlier mountain man usage, which contributed their naming of the river that flows through it. In the 1820s, French Canadian fur trappers set trap lines in the vicinity where Boise now lies. In a high desert area, the tree-lined valley of the Boise River became a prominent landmark. They called this "La Riviere Boise", which means "the wooded river."

The original Fort Boise was 40 miles (64 km) west, down the Boise River, near the confluence with the Snake River at the Oregon border. This fort was erected by the Hudson's Bay Company in the 1830s. It was abandoned in the 1850s, but massacres along the Oregon Trail prompted the U.S. Army to re-establish a fort in the area in 1863, during the U.S. Civil War. The new location was selected because it was near the intersection of the Oregon Trail and a major road connecting the Boise Basin (Idaho City) and the Owyhee mining areas. Both areas were booming at the time. Idaho City was the largest city in the area, and as a staging area to Idaho City, Fort Boise grew rapidly. Boise was incorporated as a city in 1864. The first capital of the Idaho Territory was Lewiston, but Boise replaced it in 1865._

*House at Sunset*








By *captain.camera*

*Fall Creek Falls*








By *James Neeley*

_Waterfall along the South Fork of the Snake River in Swan Valley, Idaho._









By *Steve's Track*


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Nevada*









_Nevada (IPA: /nɨˈvæːdə/) is a state located in the western region of the United States of America. The capital is Carson City and the largest city is Las Vegas. The state's nickname is "The Silver State" due to the large number of silver deposits that were discovered and mined there. In 1864, Nevada became the 36th state to enter the union, and the phrase "Battle Born" on the state flag reflects the state's entry on the Union side during the American Civil War. Its first settlement was called Mormon Station.

Nevada is the seventh-largest state in area, and geographically covers the Mojave Desert in the south to the Great Basin in the north. About 86% of the state's land is owned by the US federal government under various jurisdictions both civilian and military. As of 2006, there were about 2.6 million residents, with over 85% of the population residing in the metropolitan areas around Las Vegas and Reno. The state is well known for its easy marriage and divorce proceedings, legalization of gambling and, in a few counties, legalized brothels.

Although the name is derived from the Spanish word Nevada, which is the feminine form of "covered in snow", the local pronunciation of the state's name is not IPA: [nəˈvɑ.də] (as in the "o" in "odd"), but IPA: [nəˈvæ.də] (as in the "a" in "glad"). In 2005, the state issued a specialty license plate via the Nevada Commission on Tourism that lists the name of the state as Nevăda to help with the pronunciation problem. Local residents - particularly natives of the state - resent hearing Nevada's name mispronounced in the national media, a problem that has crystallized with increased coverage of the state following the 2008 Presidential Primary Elections._

*uburn Courthouse*








By *casch52*

_Auburn/Placer County Courthouse. This courthouse was completed in 1898 and restored in 1994 100 years after construction began on this building._

*Luxor Land*








By *twoblueday*

_The Luxor is located on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip, opposite the McCarran International Airport. The resort is flanked by the Mandalay Bay to the south and by the Excalibur to the north; all three are connected by free express and local trams. All three properties were built by Circus Circus Enterprises, which later became Mandalay Resort Group.

When it opened on October 15, 1993, the pyramid was the tallest building on the strip; it cost $375 million to build. A theater and two additional hotel towers totaling 2,000 rooms were added in 1998 for $675 million. In June 2004, the Mandalay Resort Group was purchased by MGM Mirage, adding this hotel to its vast array of properties on the "Strip".

When the resort opened, it featured a more heavily Egyptian-themed interior, including a river that encircled the casino with a ferry that would carry guests to their inclinator core at the corners of the pyramid. The ride was then turned into a river ride that passed by many pieces of ancient artwork after people complained that the ferry service took too long. Most of the ancient Egypt theme and the river ride were taken away as part of a campaign to tailor the property towards more upscale tastes in 1995. According to the unofficial, albeit popular, ghost story, the Nile River attraction was removed because guests kept seeing ghosts of the three workers killed during the Luxor's construction whenever the river passed through dark tunnels.

The resort has been home to some popular entertainment attractions in the Las Vegas area. The main level featured the nightclub, RA, which closed indefinitely on July 22, 2006. From 2000 to 2005, the Luxor Theatre was the home of the enormously popular performance-art show Blue Man Group, which has since moved to The Venetian. On February 15, 2006, the main theatre became the home of the musical Hairspray which ran until 2006.

In 2006, MGM-Mirage began renovating Luxor. Rooms in the East and West Towers have been refurnished. Two upscale restaurants, Isis and Sacred Sea Room, closed. The RA nightclub, which had previously been one of the most successful in the city but had been seeing reduced attendance in recent years, was shuttered. Replacing it is the Las Vegas branch of LAX, a Los Angeles nightclub, which opened on August 31, 2007, in an event hosted by Britney Spears. Also advertised yet unopened is a restaurant named Aspen 702.

Illusionist Criss Angel signed a deal in 2006 to film episodes of his TV series Mindfreak at the hotel. Angel currently has a production office and store in the Luxor. In 2008, Criss Angel will star in a new magic-themed Cirque du Soleil production at Luxor._

*Arlington Towers*








By *Rob~Simpson*

_Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. Reno lies 26 miles (42 km) north of the Nevada state capital, Carson City, and 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Lake Tahoe in the high desert. The area of western Nevada and the California Sierra Nevada anchored by Reno has a population of approximately 650,000. Reno shares its eastern border with the city of Sparks. Reno, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World", is famous for its casinos, and is the birthplace of the gaming corporation Harrah's Entertainment. Reno residents are referred to as "Renoites."_

*Alabama Hills*








By *sgwizdak*

*Nevada Highway*








By *bhs128*


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Utah*









_Utah (IPA: /ˈjutɑː/) is a U.S. state located in the western United States. It was the 45th state admitted to the union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 88 percent of Utah's 2,645,330 people, known as "Utahns", live The name "Utah" is derived from the Ute Indian language, meaning "people of the mountains".

Utah is known for its geological diversity ranging from snowcapped mountains to well-watered river valleys to rugged, stony deserts. It is also known for being one of the most religiously homogeneous states in the Union, with approximately 61 percent of its inhabitants claiming membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church), which greatly influences Utah culture and daily life.

*In a New Light*








By *James Neeley*

Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah. Logan is located in northern Utah, north of Ogden on the Logan River; it is about 82 miles (130km) north of Salt Lake City. The city was founded in 1859 by Mormon settlers and is the location of the Logan Utah Temple which was dedicated in 1884. It is home to the main campus of Utah State University, founded in 1888, and is often known as a college town. It is also a major producer of cheese and other dairy products.

*Architectural Abstract*








By *FotoMark*

Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake, or its initials, S.L.C. It was originally known as Great Salt Lake City.

The city was founded in 1847 by a group of Mormon pioneers led by their prophet, Brigham Young, who fled hostility and violence in the midwest. The headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the L.D.S. or Mormon Church) is located in the city — and, indeed, "Salt Lake City" is a metonym for this denomination's headquarters.

Mining booms and the construction of the first transcontinental railroad initially brought economic growth, and the city became nicknamed the Crossroads of the West. In the 21st century the city has developed a strong outdoor recreation tourism industry (skiing and biking), become the industrial banking center of the U.S, and served as host to the 2002 Winter Olympics.

*Architectural Detail in Evening Light*








By *James Neeley*

Utah State University (USU) is a public land-grant university whose main campus is located in Logan, Utah.

It was established in 1888, after Anthon H. Lund introduced a bill for its creation. Originally known as the Agricultural College of Utah, its name was subsequently changed to Utah State Agricultural College, and in 1957 it became Utah State University. USU has 870 faculty, and over 23,000 students that were enrolled in autumn 2006. USU is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, and has been ranked as one of the best universities in the American West. USU has longstanding ties with the Department of Defense and NASA, and conducts extensive aerospace research. USU sends more experiments into space than any other university in the world, and has launched more student-run space experiments than any other university worldwide. USU is classified institutionally under the 2005 revision of the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as RU/H: Research Universities (high research activity), awarding at least 50 doctoral degrees per year across at least 15 disciplines. It spends approximately $186 million annually for research.

*Monument Valley*








By *mbruck77*

*Double O Arch*








By *cynical pink*

Arches National Park, Utah_


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

I kept on finding all sorts of shots of Denver and nothing else that I really liked so this time the majority of the shots come from Denver. 

*Colorado*









_The region that is today the State of Colorado has been inhabited by Native Americans for more than 13 millennia. The Lindenmeier Site in Larimer County contains artifacts dating from approximately 11200 BCE to 3000 BCE. The Ancient Pueblo Peoples lived in the valleys and mesas of the Colorado Plateau. The Ute Nation inhabited the mountain valleys of the Southern Rocky Mountains and the Western Rocky Mountains. The Arapaho Nation and the Cheyenne Nation moved west to hunt across the High Plains.

The United States acquired a territorial claim to the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains with the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803. The U.S. claim conflicted with Spain's claim that a huge region surrounding its colony of Santa Fé de Nuevo Méjico was its sovereign trading zone. Zebulon Pike led a U.S. Army reconnaissance expedition into the disputed region in 1806. Pike and his men were arrested by Spanish cavalry in the San Luis Valley the following February, taken to Chihuahua, and expelled from México the following July.

The United States relinquished its claim to all land south and west of the Arkansas River as part of the U.S. purchase of Florida from Spain with the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. México finally won its independence from Spain in 1821, but it surrendered its northern territories to the United States after the U.S. invasion of México with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The United States divided the area of the future Colorado among the Territory of New Mexico and the Territory of Utah organized in 1850, and the Territory of Kansas and the Territory of Nebraska organized in 1854.

Most American settlers traveling west to Oregon, Deseret, or California avoided the rugged Rocky Mountains and instead followed the North Platte River and Sweetwater River through what is now Wyoming. In 1851, Hispanic settlers from Taos, New Mexico, settled the village of San Luis, then in the New Mexico Territory, but now Colorado's first permanent European settlement. Gold was discovered along the South Platte River in western Kansas Territory in July of 1858, precipitating the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. The placer gold deposits along the rivers and streams of the region rapidly played out, but miners soon discovered far more valuable seams of hard rock gold, silver, and other minerals in the nearby mountains.

The Provisional Government of the Territory of Jefferson was organized on 1859-10-24, but the new territory failed to secure federal sanction. The election of Abraham Lincoln for U.S. President on 1860-11-06, led to the secession of six slave states and the threat of civil war. Seeking to augment the political power of the free states, the Republican led U.S. Congress hurriedly admitted the eastern portion of the Territory of Kansas to the Union as the free State of Kansas on 1861-01-29, leaving the western portion of the territory, and its gold fields, unorganized.

Thirty days later on February 1861, outgoing U.S. President James Buchanan signed an act of Congress organizing the free Territory of Colorado. The original boundaries of Colorado remain unchanged today. The name Colorado was chosen because it was commonly believed that the Colorado River originated in the territory. Early Spanish explorers named the river the Rio Colorado for the reddish-brown silt the river carried from the mountains. In fact, the Colorado River did not flow through the State of Colorado until House Joint Resolution 460 of the 66th United States Congress changed the name of the Grand River to the Colorado River on 1921-07-25.

On 1876-08-01 (28 days after the Centennial of the United States), U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed a proclamation admitting the State of Colorado to the Union as the 38th state and earning it the moniker "Centennial State". The discovery of a major silver near Leadville in 1878, triggered the Colorado Silver Boom. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 envigorated silver mining, but the repeal of the act in 1893 led to a major collapse of the mining and agricultural economy of the state.

Colorado women were granted the right to vote beginning on November 1893, making Colorado the first U.S. state to grant universal suffrage by popular vote. By the 1930 U.S. Census, the population of Colorado exceeded one million residents. The state suffered through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, but a major wave of immigration following World War II boosted Colorado's fortune. Tourism became a mainstay of the state economy, and high technology became an important economic engine._ (From Wikipedia)

*Colorado Capitol*








By *jebrandt99*

_The City and County of Denver (pronounced /ˈdɛnvɚ/) is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Southern Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is located immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, approximately 15 miles (24 km) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile (5280 feet or 1609.344 m) above sea level. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich passes through Denver Union Station, making it the reference point for the Mountain Time Zone._

*Court Yard*








By *uriahwest*

_Denver City was founded in November of 1858 as a mining town during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush in western Kansas Territory. That summer, a group of gold prospectors from Lawrence, Kansas, arrived and established Montana City on the banks of the South Platte River. This was the first settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The site faded quickly, however, and was abandoned in favor of Auraria (named after the gold-mining town of Auraria, Georgia) and St. Charles City by the summer of 1859. The Montana City site is now Grant-Frontier Park and includes mining equipment and a log cabin replica.

On November 22, 1858, General William Larimer, a land speculator from eastern Kansas, placed cottonwood logs to stake a claim on the hill overlooking the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek, across the creek from the existing mining settlement of Auraria. Larimer named the town site Denver City to curry favor with Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver. Larimer hoped that the town's name would help make it the county seat of Arapaho County, but ironically Governor Denver had already resigned from office. The location was accessible to existing trails and was across the South Platte River from the site of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The site of these first towns is now the site of Confluence Park in downtown Denver. Larimer, along with associates in the St. Charles City Land Company, sold parcels in the town to merchants and miners, with the intention of creating a major city that would cater to new emigrants. Denver City was a frontier town, with an economy based on servicing local miners with gambling, saloons, livestock and goods trading. In the early years, land parcels were often traded for grubstakes or gambled away by miners in Auraria.

The Colorado Territory was created on February 28, 1861, Arapahoe County was formed on November 1, 1861, and Denver City was incorporated on November 7, 1861. Denver City served as the Arapahoe County Seat from 1861 until consolidation in 1902. In 1865, Denver City became the Territorial Capital. With its new-found importance, Denver City shortened its name to just Denver. On August 1, 1876, Denver became the State Capital when Colorado was admitted to the Union.

Between 1880-1895 the city experienced a huge rise in city corruption, as crime bosses, such as Soapy Smith, worked side-by-side with elected officials and the police to control the elections, gambling, and the bunko gangs. In 1887, the precursor to the international charity United Way was formed in Denver by local religious leaders who raised funds and coordinated various charities to help Denver's poor. By 1890, Denver had grown to be the second largest city west of Omaha, but by 1900 it had dropped to third place behind San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In 1901 the Colorado General Assembly voted to split Arapahoe County into three parts: a new consolidated City and County of Denver, a new Adams County, and the remainder of the Arapahoe County to be renamed South Arapahoe County. A ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, subsequent legislation, and a referendum delayed the creation of the City and County of Denver until 1902-11-15. Denver hosted the 1908 Democratic National Convention to promote the city's status on the national political and socio-economic stage.

Early in the 20th Century, Denver, like many other cities, was home to a pioneering brass age automobile company; Colburn was copied from the contemporary Renault.

Beat icon Neal Cassady was raised on Larimer Street in Denver, and a portion of Jack Kerouac's beat masterpiece On the Road takes place in the city, and is based on the beat's actual experiences in Denver during a road trip. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg lived for a time in a basement apartment on Grant Street (no longer standing), and Kerouac briefly owned a home in the Denver suburb of Lakewood in the late spring and summer of 1949. In addition, Ginsberg helped found the "Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa," in nearby Boulder at the Buddhist college Naropa University, then Naropa Institute.

Denver was selected to host the 1976 Winter Olympics to coincide with Colorado's centennial celebration, but Colorado voters struck down ballot initiatives allocating public funds to pay for the high costs of the games, so the games were moved to Innsbruck, Austria. The notoriety of becoming the only city ever to decline to host an Olympiad after being selected has made subsequent bids difficult. The movement against hosting the games was based largely on environmental issues and was led by then State Representative Richard Lamm, who was subsequently elected to three terms (1974-1986) as Colorado governor._

*Denver Art Museum*








By *uriahwest*

*Colorado Farm*








By *Scott Ingram*

*Lower Sand Creek Lake Reflection*








By *toddegan_co*


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*New Mexico*









_The State of New Mexico (pronounced /njuːˈmɛksɨkoʊ/) is a state in the southwestern region of the United States of America. Over its relatively long history it has been inhabited by Native American populations and has been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S. states, New Mexico has simultaneously the highest percentage of Hispanic Americans (comprising both recent immigrants and descendants of Spanish colonists) and the second-highest percentage of Native Americans after Alaska (mostly Navajo and Pueblo peoples). As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong Spanish, Mexican, and American Indian cultural influences. The climate of the state is highly arid and its territory is mostly covered by mountains and desert. At a population density of 15 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth most sparsely inhabited U.S. State._

*Santa Fe House*








By *blinddaytrader*

_The City of Santa Fe was originally occupied by a number of Pueblo Indian villages with founding dates between 1050 to 1150.

Santa Fe was the capital of Nuevo México, a province of New Spain explored by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and established in 1515. The "Kingdom of New Mexico" was first claimed for the Spanish Crown in 1540, almost 70 years before the founding of Santa Fe. Coronado and his men also traveled to the Grand Canyon and through the Great Plains on their New Mexico expedition.

Spanish colonists first settled in northern New Mexico in 1598. Don Juan de Oñate became the first Governor and Captain-General of New Mexico and established his capital in 1598 at San Juan Pueblo, 25 miles north of Santa Fe. The city of Santa Fe was founded by Don Pedro de Peralta, New Mexico's third governor. Peralta gave the city its full name, "La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís", or "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi." 

A settlement on the site that would become Santa Fe was first established by Juan Martinez de Montoya ca. 1607-1608 The town was formally founded and made a capital in 1610, making it the oldest capital city and perhaps tied with Jamestown, Virginia (1607) for second oldest surviving American city founded by European colonists, behind St. Augustine, Florida (1565).

Except for the years 1680-1692, when, as a result of the Pueblo Revolt, the native Pueblo people drove the Spaniards out of the area known as New Mexico, later to be reconquered by Don Diego de Vargas, Santa Fe remained Spain's provincial seat until the outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. In 1824 the city's status as the capital of the Mexican territory of Santa Fé de Nuevo México was formalized in the 1824 Constitution. 

In 1841, a small military and trading expedition set out from Austin, Texas, with the aim of gaining control over the Santa Fe Trail. Known as the Santa Fe Expedition the force was poorly prepared and was easily repelled by the Mexican army. In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico, and Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny led the main body of his Army of the West of some 1,700 soldiers into the city to claim it and the whole New Mexico Territory for the United States. By 1848 it officially gained New Mexico through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Colonel Alexander William Doniphan under the command of Kearny recovered ammunition from Santa Fe labeled "Spain 1776" showing both the quality of communication and military support New Mexico received under Mexican rule, or that it was a peaceful city until Anglo-Americans arrived.

In 1851, Jean Baptiste Lamy arrived in Santa Fe and began construction of Saint Francis Cathedral. For a few days in March 1862, the Confederate flag of General Henry Sibley flew over Santa Fe, until he was defeated by Union troops. 

Santa Fe was originally envisioned as an important stop on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. But as the tracks progressed into New Mexico, the civil engineers decided that it was more practical to go through Lamy, a town in Santa Fe County to the south of Santa Fe. The result was a gradual economic decline. This was reversed in part through the creation of a number of resources for the arts and archaeology, notably the School of American Research, created in 1907 under the leadership of the prominent archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett. The first aeroplane to fly over Santa Fe was piloted by Rose Dugan, carrying Vera von Blumenthal as passenger. Together they started the development of the Pueblo Indian pottery industry, a major contribution to the founding of the annual Santa Fe Indian Market.

In 1912, New Mexico became the country's 47th state, with Santa Fe as its capital._









By *dr fractal*

*School for Advanced Research*








By *zadro*

_The oldest chartered college in the State of New Mexico, the College of Santa Fe was founded in the Lasallian tradition of education, a Roman Catholic teaching order in which the schools are run by laymen. The institution's first incarnation opened in 1859, as St. Michael's College. It was run by four Christian Brothers as a preparatory school for boys, and it operated out of an adobe hut. It was granted a charter for higher education in 1874, as the College of the Christian Brothers of New Mexico. The college was heavily represented at the first constitutional convention of New Mexico, in 1910. However, after World War I, the higher education program was dropped, and it was a dedicated preparatory school until after World War II.

The school reintroduced the college program, and assumed its modern form, in 1947. The first class had 148 students, with 15 faculty members, all Christian Brothers (by contrast, the current faculty are mostly secular). The president at that time was Brother Benildus of Mary, for whom the largest academic building is named. In 1966, Saint Michael's College changed its name to the College of Santa Fe, and enrolled its first female students in that year.

The college has continued expanding since it became co-educational. In 1980 it opened the evening-weekend program, with the intent of offering degree programs to adults who work every weekday. In 1985 it was accredited to award the Master of Business Administration. In 1986, after the closing of the University of Albuquerque, it opened its Albuquerque branch.

In the late 1980s College of Santa Fe expanded enormously, with the Greer Garson Theatre, Communications Center and Studios, the Driscoll Fitness Center, the Visual Arts Center, and on-campus student apartments. It also began offering many new degrees, including a masters in education, and bachelor of arts in environmental science and conservation. It also opened the Contemporary Music Program._

*Shiprock New Mexico*








By *bmooneyatwork*

_The peak and surrounding land are of great religious and historical significance to the Navajo People. Foremost is the peak's role as the agent that brought the Navajo to the southwest. According to the legend, after being transported, the Navajos lived on the monolith, "coming down only to plant their fields and get water."[4] One day, the peak was struck by lightning, obliterating the trail and leaving only a sheer cliff, and stranding the women and children on top to starve. This gives one reason that Navajos do not approve of anyone climbing the peak, "for fear they might stir up the chį́įdii (ghosts), or rob their corpses."

In a legend that puts the peak in a larger geographic context, Shiprock is said to be either a medicine pouch or a bow carried by the "Goods of Value Mountain", a large mythic male figure comprising several mountain features throughout the region. The Chuska Mountains comprise the body, Chuska Peak is the head, the Carrizo Mountains are the legs, and Beautiful Mountain is the feet.

One legend has it that Bird Monsters (Tsé Ninájálééh) nested on the peak and fed on human flesh. In one version, after Monster Slayer destroyed Déélééd at Red Mesa, he killed two adult Bird Monsters at Shiprock and changed two young ones into an eagle and an owl. (In another version, the Warrior Twins were summoned to rid the Navajo of the Bird Monsters.)

The peak is mentioned in stories from the Enemy Side Ceremony and the Navajo Mountain Chant. It is associated with the Bead Chant and the Naayee'ee Ceremony._

*The Road To Galisteo*








By *Kittroid*


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Arizona*









_The State of Arizona (IPA: /ˌeɪrɪˈzoʊnə/) is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The five next largest cities are Tucson, Flagstaff, Mesa, Glendale, and Yuma. Arizona was the 48th and last of the contiguous states admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912. Arizona is noted for its desert climate, exceptionally hot summers and mild winters, but the high country in the north features pine forests and mountain ranges with cooler weather than the lower deserts. New population figures for the year ending July 1, 2006 indicate that Arizona was at that time the fastest growing state in the United States, exceeding the growth of the previous leader, Nevada.

Arizona is one of the Four Corners states. It borders New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, touches Colorado, and has a 389 mi (626 km) international border with the states of Sonora and Baja California in Mexico. In addition to the Grand Canyon, many other national forests, parks, monuments, and Indian reservations are located in the state._

*Arizona State Art Museum*








By *kgphotography*

_Arizona State University (ASU) is a public research university comprising four campuses across the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It first opened as the Temple Normal School for the Arizona Territory in Tempe, Arizona in 1885—the first institution of higher learning to open in the territory. Steady growth and expanded academic offerings caused the institution to be renamed Arizona State University in 1958. As of fall 2007, the Tempe campus is the third-largest university campus by student enrollment in the country, with a student body of 51,481.

In addition to the original campus in Tempe, ASU comprises three additional campuses: West campus was created in 1984 in northwest Phoenix, Polytechnic campus was opened in 1996 in Mesa, and the Downtown campus in Downtown Phoenix was opened in August 2006.

In the 2006–2007 academic year, 13,629 students graduated from the university's four campuses. In 2007, 148 National Merit Scholars chose to attend ASU. Many are part of Barrett, The Honors College, which has produced numerous grant and scholarship winners since its founding in 1988. Under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, ASU is classified as a "RU/VH" (very high research activity--formerly "Research 1") university._

*The Old and New West*








By *videoal*

_In the foreground is the old mining ghost town, Goldfield, Arizona. In the background is Apache Junction which is spreading out closer to the famed, Superstition Mountain range. It is said that over 1.5 million dollars of gold (in the 1800's money value) was mined out of one Goldfield mine._

*Prescott Victorian Homes*








By *txcraig75*

*Grand Canyon lightning*








By *tony.eckersley*

_The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park — one of the first national parks in the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of preservation of the Grand Canyon area, and visited on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery.

The longstanding scientific consensus has been that the canyon was created by the Colorado River over a period of six million years, but research released in 2008 suggests a much longer 17 million year time span. The canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles (6.4 to 29 km) and attains a depth of more than a mile (1.6 km). Nearly two billion years of the Earth's history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. The "canyon started from the west, then another formed from the east, and the two broke through and met as a single majestic rent in the earth some six million years ago. The merger apparently occurred where the river today, coming from the north, bends to the west, in the area known as the Kaibab Arch."

During prehistory, the area was inhabited by Native Americans who built settlements within the canyon and its many caves. The Pueblo people considered the Grand Canyon ("Ongtupqa" in Hopi language) a holy site and made pilgrimages to it.[citation needed]

The first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was García López de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived in 1540.

The Grand Canyon was largely unexplored until after the U.S. Civil War. In 1869, Major John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran with a thirst for science and adventure, made the first recorded journey through the canyon on the Colorado River. He accomplished this trek with nine men in four small wooden boats, though only six men completed the journey. Powell referred to the sedimentary rock units exposed in the canyon as "leaves in a great story book"._

*Antelope Canyon - Arizona - Navajo Tribal Park*








By *Farol's Fotos*


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*California*









_California (IPA: /ˌkælɪˈfɔrnjə/) is a state located on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, and Arizona to the southeast, as well as by Baja California in Mexico to the south. The most populous U.S. state, California's capital city is Sacramento, and its four largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. California is known for its varied climate and geography, as well as for its ethnically diverse population. The state is divided into 58 counties.

Before becoming a part of the United States, Alta California was colonized by the Spanish Empire, beginning in 1769. Alta California became a part of the newly independent nation of Mexico in 1821, and remained so until 1846. That year, an independent California Republic was declared. The Republic's first and only president was William B. Ide, who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt. His term lasted twenty-five days and concluded when California was occupied by U.S. forces during the Mexican-American War. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, Mexico formally ceded California to the United States. California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state on September 9, 1850.

California is the third largest U.S. state by land area; it contains a diverse geography, which ranges from the sandy and rocky beaches of the Pacific coast, to the rugged snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, to desert areas in the southeast and the forests of the northwest. The center portion of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world and the largest of any U.S. state. The Sierra Nevada mountains contain Yosemite Valley, famous for its glacially-carved domes, and Sequoia National Park, home to the giant sequoia trees, the largest living organisms on Earth. The state is home to Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States, as well as the second lowest and hottest place in the Western Hemisphere, Death Valley. Many of the trees located in the California White Mountains are the oldest in the world; one Bristlecone pine has an age of 4,700 years.

The California Gold Rush began in 1848, dramatically changing California with a large influx of people and an economic boom. The early 20th century was marked by Los Angeles becoming the center of the entertainment industry, in addition to the growth of a large tourism sector in the state. Along with California's prosperous agricultural industry, other industries include aerospace, petroleum, and computer and information technology. California ranks among the ten largest economies in the world, and were it a separate country, it would be 34th amongst the most populous countries, just behind Poland, as well as the world's sixth-largest economy._

*Downtown Los Angeles*








By *my hovercraft is full of eels*

_Los Angeles (IPA: /lɑˈsændʒələs/;or Los Ángeles/los ˈanxeles/ in Spanish) is the largest city in the state of California and the second-largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A., it is rated an alpha world city, having an estimated population of 3.8 million and spanning over 469.1 square miles (1,214.9 square kilometers) in Southern California. Additionally, the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to nearly 17,776,000 people who hail from all over the globe and speak 224 different languages. Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populous and most diverse county in the United States. Its inhabitants are known as "Angelenos" (IPA: /ændʒəˈlinoʊz/).

Los Angeles was founded in the year 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula). It became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its independence from Spain. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican-American War, Los Angeles and California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thus becoming part of the United States; Mexico retained the territory of Baja California. It was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850 — five months before California achieved statehood.

Los Angeles is one of the world's most prominent centers of culture, technology, media, business, and international trade. It is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and it is one of the most important economic engines of the United States, with the city and surrounding region having a GDP that is among the twentieth largest in the world. Los Angeles also leads the world in producing popular entertainment — such as motion picture, television, video games and recorded music — which forms the base of its international fame and global status._

*San Francisco*








By *Premshree Pillai*

_The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 14th most populous city in the United States. One of the most densely populated major cities in the US, San Francisco is part of the much larger San Francisco Bay Area, which is home to approximately 7.2 million people. The city is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, with the Pacific Ocean to the west, San Francisco Bay to the east, and the Golden Gate to the north.

In 1776, the Spanish settled the tip of the peninsula, establishing a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named for Francis of Assisi. The California Gold Rush in 1848 propelled the city into a period of rapid growth. After being devastated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt.

San Francisco is a popular international tourist destination renowned for its steep rolling hills, an eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture, and famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, the cable cars, Coit Tower, and Chinatown. The city is also known for its diverse, cosmopolitan population, including large and long-established Asian American and LGBT communities. While the climate includes chilly summer fog, the winters are mild._

*Main Trolley Station - Downtown San Diego*








By *Michael in San Diego*

_San Diego (pronounced /ˌsændiˈeɪgoʊ/) is a coastal Southern California city located in the southwestern corner of the continental United States. It is the second largest city in California and the eighth largest city in the United States. 

San Diego County lies just north of the Mexican border—sharing a border with Tijuana—and lies south of Orange County. It is home to miles of beaches, a mild Mediterranean climate and 16 military facilities hosting the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Marine Corps.

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the affiliated UCSD Medical Center combined with nearby research institutes in the Torrey Pines area of La Jolla make the area influential in biotechnology research. San Diego's economy is largely composed of agriculture, biotechnology/biosciences, computer sciences, electronics manufacturing, defense-related manufacturing, financial and business services, ship-repair and construction, software development, telecommunications, and tourism._

*Santa Cruz - Cliff Road*








By *jackfrench*

_Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California, United States. It is located on the northern edge of the Monterey Bay, about 72 mi (115 km) south of San Francisco and is considered the overlapping portion of the San Francisco Bay Area with the Central Coast of California.

The present-day site of Santa Cruz was the location of a Native American settlement since ancient times. It was also one of the earliest settlements of the Spanish during the exploration of Alta California in the later part of the 1700s. During the late 1800s, after California became part of the United States, Santa Cruz became widely popular for its idyllic beaches and Coastal Redwoods and became a popular resort community. Now known for its alternative community lifestyles and liberal political leanings, Santa Cruz is a bastion for many sub-cultures and counter-cultures._

*Limekiln State Park*








By *tch1337*


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Oregon*









_Oregon (IPA: /ˈɔɹəgən/) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It joined the Union on February 14, 1859 as the 33rd state. Previously, the region was part of the Oregon Territory that was created in 1848 after Euro-American settlement began in earnest in the 1840s. The state lies on the Pacific coast between Washington on the north and California and Nevada on the south; Idaho lies to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers form much of its northern and eastern boundaries, respectively. Salem, the state's third most populous city, is the state capital, while the most populous city is Portland.

The valley of the Willamette River in western Oregon is the most densely populated and agriculturally productive region of the state and is home to 8 of the 10 most populous cities. Oregon's largest private employer is Intel, located in the Silicon Forest area in Portland's western suburbs. Nike is the only Fortune 500 company headquartered in the state. The state has 199 public school districts, with Portland Public Schools as the largest. There are 17 community colleges, and seven publicly financed colleges in the Oregon University System. Oregon Health & Science University, the state's only medical school, is affiliated with the system. Oregon State University in Corvallis and the University of Oregon in Eugene are the two flagship universities of the state, while Portland State University has the largest enrollment. Willamette University in Salem is the oldest college in Oregon.

Major highways include Interstate 5 which runs the entire north-south length of the state, Interstate 84 that runs east-west, U.S. Route 97 that crosses the middle of the state, U.S. Route 101 that travels the entire coastline, and U.S. Route 26 that runs east-west, among many other highways. Portland International Airport is the busiest commercial airport in the state, run by the Port of Portland, the busiest port in Oregon. Rail service includes Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway freight service, Amtrak passenger service, as well as light rail and street car routes in the Portland metro area.

Oregon has a diverse landscape with tall, dense forests that stretch a third of the way across the state in the north and halfway across the state in the south; and its accessible and scenic Pacific coastline and its rugged, glaciated Cascade volcanoes. Other areas include semi-arid scrublands, prairies, and deserts that cover approximately half the state in eastern and north-central Oregon, and sparser pine forests in the northeast. Mount Hood is the highest point in the state at 11,239 feet (3,425 m) above sea-level. Crater Lake National Park is the only National Park in Oregon._

*Portland Panorama Sunset*








By *Eyes Wide Open Artworkz*

_ Portland is a city located near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. With an estimated population of 568,380 it is Oregon's most populous city, and the third most populous city in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. Approximately two million people live in Portland metropolitan area (MSA), the 23rd most populous in the United States as of July 2006.

Portland was incorporated in 1851 and is the seat of Multnomah County. The city extends slightly into Washington County to the west and Clackamas County to the south. It is governed by a commission based government headed by a mayor and four other commissioners. Portland's first mayor was Hugh O'Bryant who served for one year.

The city and region are noted for strong land-use planning and investment in public transit, supported by Metro, a distinctive regional-government scheme. Portland lies in the Marine West Coast climate region, which is marked by warm summers and rainy but temperate winters. This climate is ideal for growing roses, and for more than a century Portland has been known as "The City of Roses," with many rose gardens – most prominently the International Rose Test Garden. Portland is also known for its large number of microbreweries, and as the home of the Trail Blazers NBA basketball team._


*Water Lab*








By *lidox1*

_This was taken at the Water Pollution Control Laboratory in Portland, Oregon._

*Flavel House Astoria*








By *Eyes Wide Open Artworkz*

_The Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1805-1806 at Fort Clatsop, a small log structure south and west of modern day Astoria. The expedition had hoped a ship would come by to take them back east, but instead endured a torturous winter of rain and cold, then returned east the way they came. Today the fort has been recreated and is now a national monument.

Several years later, in 1810, John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company sent the Astor Expedition that founded Fort Astoria as its primary fur-trading post in the Northwest, and in fact the first permanent U.S. settlement on the Pacific coast. It was an extremely important post for American exploration of the continent and was influential in establishing American claims to the land. The company failed, however, and the fort and fur trade were sold to the British in 1813. The house was restored to the U.S. in 1818, though the fur trade would remain under British control until American pioneers following the Oregon Trail began filtering into the port town in the mid-1840s.

Washington Irving, a prominent American writer with a European reputation, was approached by John Jacob Astor to mythologize the three-year reign of his Pacific Fur Company. Astoria (1835), written while Irving was Astor's guest, cemented the importance of the region in the American psyche. In Irving's words, the fur traders were "Sinbads of the wilderness", and their venture was a staging point for the spread of American economic power into both the continental interior and into the Pacific.

As the Oregon Territory grew and became increasingly more settled, Astoria likewise grew as a port city at the mouth of the great river that provided the easiest access to the interior. The first U.S. Post Office west of the Rocky Mountains was established in Astoria in 1847. In 1876, the community was legally incorporated. It attracted a host of Scandinavian settlers, and the area still holds a high concentration of descendants of these original settlers.

In 1883, and again in 1922, downtown Astoria was devastated by fire, but the city economy was strong enough in both cases to rebuild and thrive. Astoria has served as a port of entry for over a century and remains the trading center for the lower Columbia basin.

Eclipsed by Portland and other ports further inland along the Columbia, Astoria's economy centered around fishing, fish processing, and lumber. In 1945, about 30 canneries could be found along the Columbia; however, in 1974 Bumblebee Seafood moved its headquarters out of Astoria, and gradually reduced its presence until 1980 when the company closed its last Astoria cannery. The timber industry likewise declined; Astoria Plywood Mill, the city's largest employer, closed in 1989, and the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway discontinued service in 1996.

In 1966 the Astoria-Megler Bridge was opened; it completed U.S. Route 101 and linked Astoria with Washington State on the opposite shore of the Columbia.

In addition to the replicated Fort Clatsop, a popular point of interest is the Astoria Column, a tower 125 feet high built atop the hill above the town, with an inner circular staircase allowing visitors to climb to see a breathtaking view of the town, the surrounding lands, and the mighty Columbia flowing into the Pacific. The column was built by the Astor family in 1926 to commemorate the region's early history.

*Oregon Coast*








By *fusionpanda*

*Multnomah Falls*








By *Loren Daniels*_


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Washington*









_Prior to the arrival of explorers from Europe, this region of the Pacific Coast had many established tribes of Native Americans, each with its own unique culture. Today, they are most notable for their totem poles and their ornately carved canoes and masks. Prominent among their industries were salmon fishing and whale hunting. In the east, nomadic tribes traveled the land and missionaries such as the Whitmans settled there.

The first European record of a landing on the Washington coast was by Spanish Captain Don Bruno de Heceta in 1775, on board the Santiago, part of a two-ship flotilla with the Sonora. They claimed all the coastal lands up to the Russian possessions in the north for Spain.

In 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook sighted Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but the straits would not be explored until 1789, by Captain Charles W. Barkley. Further explorations of the straits were performed by Spanish explorers Manuel Quimper in 1790 and Francisco de Eliza in 1791, then by British Captain George Vancouver in 1792.

The Spanish Nootka Convention of 1790 opened the northwest territory to explorers and trappers from other nations, most notably Britain and then the United States. Captain Robert Gray (for whom Grays Harbor County is named) then discovered the mouth of the Columbia River. He named the river after his ship, the Columbia. Beginning in 1792, Gray established trade in sea otter pelts. The Lewis and Clark Expedition entered the state on October 10, 1805.

In 1819, Spain ceded their original claims to this territory to the United States. This began a period of disputed joint-occupancy by Britain and the U.S. that lasted until June 15, 1846, when Britain ceded their claims to this land with the Treaty of Oregon.

What was to become Washington state's first family was that of Washington's founder, the black pioneer George Washington Bush and his caucasian wife, Isabella James Bush, from Missouri and Tennessee, respectively. They led four white families into the territory and settled what is now Tumwater, Washington. They settled in Washington to avoid Oregon's racist settlement laws.

Because of the overland migration along the Oregon Trail, many settlers wandered north to what is now Washington and settled the Puget Sound area. The first settlement was New Market (now known as Tumwater) in 1846. In 1853, Washington Territory was formed from part of Oregon Territory.

Washington became the 42nd state in the United States on November 11, 1889.

Early prominent industries in the state included agriculture and lumber. In eastern Washington, the Yakima Valley became known for its apple orchards, while the growth of wheat using dry-farming techniques became particularly productive. The heavy rainfall to the west of the Cascade Range produced dense forests, and the ports along Puget Sound prospered from the manufacturing and shipping of lumber products, particularly the Douglas fir. Other industries that developed in the state include fishing, salmon canning and mining.

For a long period, Tacoma was noted for its large smelters where gold, silver, copper and lead ores were treated. Seattle was the primary port for trade with Alaska and the rest of the country, and for a time it possessed a large shipbuilding industry. The region around eastern Puget Sound developed heavy industry during the period including World War I and World War II, and the Boeing company became an established icon in the area.

During the Great Depression, a series of hydroelectric dams were constructed along the Columbia river as part of a project to increase the production of electricity. This culminated in 1941 with the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest concrete structure in the United States.

During World War II, the state became a focus for war industries, with the Boeing Company producing many of the nation's heavy bombers and ports in Seattle, Bremerton, Vancouver, and Tacoma were available for the manufacture of warships. Seattle was the point of departure for many soldiers in the Pacific, a number of which were quartered at Golden Gardens Park. In eastern Washington, the Hanford Works atomic energy plant was opened in 1943 and played a major role in the construction of the nation's atomic bombs.

On May 18, 1980, following a period of heavy tremors and eruptions, the northeast face of Mount St. Helens exploded outward, destroying a large part of the top of the volcano. This eruption flattened the forests, killed 57 people, flooded the Columbia River and its tributaries with ash and mud, and blanketed large parts of Washington in ash, making day look like night._

*Seattle Skyline*








By *surrealeyenikon*

_Seattle (pronounced /siˈætl ̩/) is a coastal port city and the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located in the state of Washington between an arm of the Pacific Ocean called Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 96 miles (154 km) south of the Canada – United States border in King County, of which it is the county seat.

The Seattle area has been inhabited for at least 4,000 years, but European settlement began only in the mid-19th century. The first permanent white settlers—Arthur A. Denny and those subsequently known as the Denny party—arrived November 13, 1851. Early settlements in the area were called "New York-Alki" ("Alki" meaning "bye and bye" in the local Chinook Jargon) and "Duwamps". In 1853, Doc Maynard suggested that the main settlement be renamed "Seattle," an anglicized rendition of the name of Sealth, the chief of the two local tribes. Seattle is the hub and largest city of the Seattle metropolitan area, often called Puget Sound, which also includes Tacoma, Bellevue, and Everett. From 1869 until 1982, Seattle was known as the "Queen City". Seattle's current official nickname is the "Emerald City," the result of a contest held in the early 1980s; the reference is to the lush evergreen trees in the surrounding area. Seattle is also referred to informally as the "Gateway to Alaska," "Rain City," and "Jet City," the latter from the local influence of Boeing. Seattle residents are known as Seattleites.

Seattle is often regarded as the birthplace of grunge music, and has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption; coffee companies founded or based in Seattle include Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee, and Tully's. There are also many successful independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafes. _

*Pacific County Courthouse*








By *ultomatt*

_South Bend is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. It is the county seat of Pacific County. It is widely known for its delicious oysters and beautiful scenery._

*Grand Stairway*








By *Cap'n Surly*

_The University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Also known as Washington and locally as The U or UW (usually pronounced "U-Dub"), it is the largest university in the Northwestern United States and the oldest public university on the west coast. The UW maintains three locations, with its flagship campus in Seattle's University District and branch campuses in Tacoma and Bothell. The university is known as a Public Ivy, an American term for state-funded institutions of higher learning that "provide an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price."_

*Olympic Peninsula*








By *eldan*

*Cascade Sunset*








By *kjellarsen*

_Mt. Shuksan in the Northern Cascades._


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Alaska*









_Alaska (IPA: /əˈlæskə/, Russian: Аляска) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent. It is the largest U.S. state by area (by a substantial margin), and one of the wealthiest (per capita) and most racially diverse.

The area that became Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867, for 7.2 million dollars. The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory on May 11, 1912 and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959. The name "Alaska" was already introduced in the Russian colonial time, when it was only used for the peninsula and is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland," or more literally, "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed." It is also known as Alyeska, the "great land", an Aleut word derived from the same root._

*Anchorage, Alaska*








By *akphotograph.com*

_Anchorage was established in 1914 as a railroad construction port for the Alaska Railroad, which was built between 1915 and 1923. Ship Creek Landing, where the railroad headquarters was located, quickly became a tent city; Anchorage was incorporated on November 23, 1920. The city's economy in the 1920s centered around the railroad. Between the 1930s and the 1950s, the city experienced massive growth as air transportation and the military became increasingly important. Merrill Field opened in 1930, and Anchorage International Airport opened in 1951. Elmendorf Air Force Base and Fort Richardson were constructed in the 1940s.

On March 27, 1964, Anchorage was hit by the magnitude 9.2 Good Friday Earthquake, which killed 115 Alaskans and caused $1.8 billion in damage (2007 U.S. dollars). The earth-shaking event lasted nearly five minutes; most structures that failed remained intact the first few minutes, then failed with repeated flexing. Rebuilding dominated the city in the mid 1960s.

In 1968, oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay, and the resulting oil boom spurred further growth in Anchorage. In 1975, Anchorage merged with Eagle River, Girdwood, Glen Alps, and several other communities. The merger expanded the city, known officially as the Municipality of Anchorage. The city continued to grow in the 1980s, and capital projects and an aggressive beautification campaign took place._

*Alaska Capital and Ice*








By *therealgijim*

_The City and Borough of Juneau (pronounced /ˈdʒuːnoʊ/) is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel on the Alexander Archipelago in the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-Alaska Territory was moved from Sitka.

The municipality unified in 1970 when the City of Juneau merged with the City of Douglas and the surrounding borough to form the current home rule municipality.

The area of Juneau is larger than that of Rhode Island or Delaware and almost as large as the two states combined. Juneau is nestled at the base of Mount Juneau and across the channel from Douglas Island. 

Juneau was named after gold prospector Joe Juneau, though the place was for a time called Rockwell and then Harrisburg (after Juneau's co-prospector, Richard Harris—several books credit the Tlingit Chief Kowee with showing these prospectors where the gold was). The Tlingit name of the town is Dzántik'i Héeni "river where the flounders gather", and Auke Bay just north of Juneau proper is called Aak'w "little lake" in Tlingit. The Taku River, just south of Juneau, was named after the cold t'aakh wind, which occasionally blows down from the mountains. Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, with tides averaging 16 feet (4.9 m), below steep mountains about 3,500 to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) high. Atop these mountains is the Juneau Ice Cap, a large ice mass from which about 30 glaciers flow; two of these, the Mendenhall Glacier and the Lemon Glacier, are visible from the local road system; the Mendenhall glacier has been generally retreating; its front face is declining both in width and height.

The current Alaska State Capitol is an office building in downtown Juneau, originally built as the Federal and Territorial Building in 1931. Originally housing federal government offices, the federal courthouse, and a post office, it became the home of the Alaska Legislature and the offices for the governor of Alaska and lieutenant governor of Alaska._

*Tern Lake*








By *lancehankins*

_This is Tern Lake on the Kenai Peninsula at sunrise in the summer. The lake is named for the Arctic Tern - they nest here during the summer then fly to the tip of South America for summer down there._

*Margerie Glacier*








By *Ethan J. Brown*

_Margerie Glacier is a 21-mile-long (34 km) glacier in Glacier Bay in the U.S. state of Alaska. It begins on the south slope of Mount Root, at the Alaska-Canada border, and trends southeast and northeast to Tarr Inlet, one mile (1.6 km) north of the terminus of Grand Pacific Glacier and 87 miles (140 km) northwest of Hoonah. It was named for famed French geographer and geologist Emmanuel de Margerie (1862–1953), who visited Glacier Bay in 1913._

*Jim Creek, Alaska*








By *bugcatcher*


----------



## Bahnsteig4 (Sep 9, 2005)

Hey, where's my Denali pic?


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

Bahnsteig4 said:


> Hey, where's my Denali pic?


Huh? Hehehehehehe! :lol:

I hope you guys have liked this thread!


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Hawaii*









_The State of Hawaii (pronounced /həˈwaɪiː/ or /həˈwaɪʔiː/; Hawaiian: Mokuʻāina o Hawaiʻi) is one of the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, making it the 50th state. Its capital is located in its major city, Honolulu on the island of Oahu. 

This state encompasses nearly the entirety of the volcanic Hawaiian Island chain, which is made up of hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles (2,400 km). At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight "main islands" are (from the northwest to southeast) Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and Hawaiʻi. The last is by far the largest, and is often called the "Big Island" or "Big Isle" to avoid confusion with the state as a whole. This archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania._

*Waikiki from Diamond Head*








By *JPhilipson*

_It is not known when Honolulu was first settled by the original Polynesian migrants to the archipelago. Oral histories and artifacts indicate that there was a settlement where Honolulu now stands in the 12th century. However, after Kamehameha I conquered Oahu in the Battle of Nuʻuanu at Nuʻuanu Pali, he moved his royal court from the Island of Hawaiʻi to Waikīkī in 1804. His court later relocated, in 1809, to what is now downtown Honolulu. 

Captain William Brown of England was the first foreigner to sail, in 1794, into what is now Honolulu Harbor. More foreign ships would follow, making the port of Honolulu a focal point for merchant ships traveling between North America and Asia.

In 1845, Kamehameha III moved the permanent capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom from Lahaina on Maui to Honolulu. He and the kings that followed him transformed Honolulu into a modern capital, erecting buildings such as St. Andrew's Cathedral, ʻIolani Palace, and Aliʻiōlani Hale. At the same time, Honolulu became the center of commerce in the Islands, with descendants of American missionaries establishing major businesses in downtown Honolulu.

Despite the turbulent history of the late 19th century and early 20th century, which saw the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, Hawaii's subsequent annexation by the United States, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Honolulu would remain the capital, largest city, and main airport and seaport of the Hawaiian Islands.

An economic and tourism boom following statehood brought rapid economic growth to Honolulu and Hawaii. Modern air travel would bring thousands, eventually millions (per annum) of visitors to the Islands. Today, Honolulu is a modern city with numerous high-rise buildings, and Waikīkī is the center of the tourism industry in Hawaii, with thousands of hotel rooms._

*Orton Byodo-In Temple Hawaii*








By *Downwind*

*Pali Panorama*








By *zachwass2000*

_The Nuʻuanu Pali was the site of the Battle of Nuʻuanu, one of the bloodiest battles in Hawaiian history, in which Kamehameha I conquered the island of Oʻahu, bringing it under his rule. In 1795 Kamehameha I sailed from his home island of Hawaiʻi with an army of 10,000 soldiers. After conquering the islands of Maui and Molokaʻi, he moved on to Oʻahu. The pivotal battle for the island occurred in Nuʻuanu Valley, where the defenders of Oʻahu, led by Kalanikupule, were driven back up into the valley where they were trapped above the cliff. More than 400 of Kalanikupule's soldiers were driven off the edge of the cliff to their deaths 1,000 feet below.

In 1845 the first road was built over the Nuʻuanu Pali to connect Windward Oʻahu with Honolulu. In 1898 this road was developed into a highway which during construction 800 skulls were found believed to be the remains of the warriors that fell to their deaths from the cliff above. This road was later replaced by the Pali Highway and the Nuʻuanu Pali Tunnels in 1959 which is the route used today._

*Palms & Moon*








By *Marc Brassard*

*Pounders*








By *Magnus9*


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

*Territories of the United States*

_Most of the historic territories of the United States, including all the ones that eventually became U.S. states, were incorporated organized territories, that is, incorporated territories for which Congress established a local civil government. The distinction between unincorporated territories and incorporated territories did not arise until the 20th century, following the acquisition by the United States of possessions arising from the Spanish-American War, including the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Previously, the United States had acquired territory only through annexation, with all territories being de facto incorporated territories.

The distinction between incorporated and unincorporated territories was clarified in the 1937 United States Supreme Court case People of Puerto Rico v. Shell Oil Co., in which the Court determined that the Sherman Antitrust Act, which had referred only to "territories," applied to Puerto Rico even though it was not an incorporated territory of the United States..

In the contemporary sense, the term "unincorporated territory" refers primarily to insular areas. There is currently only one incorporated territory, Palmyra Atoll, which is not an organized territory. Conversely, a territory can be organized without being an incorporated territory, a contemporary example being Puerto Rico._

*Guam*
















By *GIJON*

_Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, sailing for the King of Spain, reached the island in 1521 during his circumnavigation of the globe. General Miguel López de Legazpi claimed Guam for Spain in 1565. Spanish colonization commenced in 1668 with the arrival of Padre San Vitores, who established the first Catholic mission. The islands were then governed as part of the Spanish East Indies from the Philippines. Between 1668 and 1815, Guam was an important resting stop on the Spanish trade route between Mexico and the Philippines. Guam, along with the rest of the Mariana and Caroline Islands, was treated by Spain as part of their colony in the Philippines. While Guam's Chamorro culture is unique, the cultures of both Guam and the Northern Marianas were heavily influenced by Spanish culture and traditions.

The United States took control of the island in the 1898 Spanish-American War. Guam came to serve as a station for American ships traveling to and from the Philippines, while the northern Mariana islands passed to Germany then Japan. During World War II, Guam was attacked, and invaded, by the armed forces of Japan on December 8, 1941. Before the attack, most of the United States citizens were transported from the island and away from imminent danger. The Northern Mariana Islands had become a Japanese protectorate before the war. It was the Chamorros from the Northern Marianas who were brought to Guam to serve as interpreters and in other capacities for the occupying Japanese force. The Guamanian Chamorros were treated as an occupied enemy by the Japanese military. After the war, this would cause some resentment by the Guamanian Chamorros towards the Chamorros in the Northern Marianas. Guam's occupation lasted for approximately thirty-one months. During this period, the indigenous people of Guam were subjected to forced labor, family separation, incarceration, execution, concentration camps and prostitution. Approximately a thousand people died during the occupation according to Congressional Testimony in 2004. The United States returned and fought the Battle of Guam on July 21, 1944, to recapture the island from Japanese military occupation. To this day, Guam remains the only U.S. soil, with a sizeable population (in the thousands), to have ever been occupied by a foreign military power - the Japanese Imperial Army. The U.S. also captured and occupied the Northern Marianas. After the war, the Guam Organic Act of 1950, which established Guam as an unincorporated organized territory of the United States, provided for the structure of the island's civilian government, and granted the people United States citizenship._

*Northern Mariana Islands*
















By *lorliw*

_The first European exploration of the area was that led by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, who landed on nearby Guam and claimed the islands for Spain. After being met offshore and accepting the refreshments offered to them by the native Chamorros, the latter then helped themselves to a small boat belonging to Magellan's fleet. This led to a cultural clash because in the old Chamorro culture there was little if any private property and to take something that one needed, such as a boat for fishing, was not considered thievery.

Due to that cultural misunderstanding, around half a dozen locals were killed and a village of 40 homes burned before the boat was retrieved. The archipelago thus acquired the ignominious name Islas de los Ladrones ("Islands of the Thieves").

Three days after he had arrived, Magellan fled the archipelago under attack--a portentous beginning to its relationship with the Spanish. The islands were then considered by Spain to be annexed, and therefore under their governance, from the Philippines, as part of the Spanish East Indies. The Spanish built a Royal Palace in Guam for the Governor of the Islands. Its remains could still be seen in 2006.

Guam was an important stop-over from Mexico for galleons carrying gold and other cargo between the Philippines and Spain. There are several lost sunken Spanish galleons off Guam.

In 1668 the islands were renamed by Padre Diego Luis de Sanvitores as Las Marianas after Mariana of Austria, widow of Spain's Philip IV.

Nearly all of the islands' native population (90%-95%) died out under Spanish rule, but new settlers, primarily from the Philippines and the Caroline Islands, were brought in to repopulate the islands. Despite this, the Chamorro population did gradually resurge, and Chamorro, Filipino and Carolinian language and ethnic differences remain basically distinct in the Marianas.

To facilitate cultural and religious assimilation, Spanish colonists forced the Chamorros to be concentrated on Guam for a period of time. By the time Chamorros were allowed to return to the present-day Northern Marianas, Carolinians (from present-day eastern Yap State and western Chuuk State) had settled in the Marianas. Hence Carolinians and Chamorros are both considered as indigenous to the Northern Marianas and both languages are official in the commonwealth (but not on Guam). 

After the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain ceded Guam to the United States and sold the rest of the Marianas (along with the Caroline and Marshall Islands) to Germany.

Japan declared war on Germany during World War I and invaded the Northern Marianas. In 1919, the League of Nations, pre-cursor of the United Nations, awarded the islands to Japan by mandate. During Japan's occupation, sugar cane became the main industry of the islands, and labor was imported from Japan and associated colonies (especially Okinawa and Korea).

Hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, Japanese forces from the Marianas launched an invasion of Guam on December 8, 1941. Chamorros from the Northern Marianas, then under Japanese rule for more than two decades, were brought to Guam to assist the Japanese administration. This combined with the harsh treatment of Guamanian Chamorros during the brief 31-month occupation created a rift between the two populations that would become the main reason Guamanians rejected reunification referendum approved by the Northern Marianas in the 1960s. 

Near the end of World War II, the United States military invaded the Mariana Islands on June 15, 1944, beginning with the Battle of Saipan, which ended on July 9 with the Japanese commander committing seppuku (a traditional Japanese form of ritual suicide). U.S. forces then recaptured Guam beginning July 21 and invaded Tinian (see Battle of Tinian) on July 24, which provided the take off point for the Enola Gay, the plane dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima a year later. Rota was left untouched (and isolated) until the Japanese surrender in August 1945, due to its military insignificance.

The war did not end for everyone with the signing of the armistice. The last group of Japanese soldiers surrendered on Saipan on December 1, 1945. On Guam, Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi hid out in the village of Talofofo until 1972.

Between the end of the invasion and the Japanese surrender, the Saipan and Tinian populations were kept in concentration camps. Japanese nationals were eventually repatriated, and the indigenous Chamorro and Carolinians returned to the land. 

After Japan's defeat, the islands were administered by the United States as part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands; thus, defense and foreign affairs are the responsibility of the U.S. The people of the Northern Mariana Islands decided in the 1970s not to seek independence, but instead to forge closer links with the U.S. Negotiations for territorial status began in 1972. A covenant to establish a commonwealth in political union with the U.S. was approved in 1975. A new government and constitution went into effect in 1978. The islands are not represented in the U.S. Congress._

*Puerto Rico*
















By *locklin*

_I was going to sumerize the history of Puerto Rico, but instead I’ll include the link as there is too much history to sumerize or gloss over. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Puerto_Rico_

*Virgin Islands*
















By *PlumpChump*

_The Virgin Islands were originally settled by the Ciboney, Carib, and Arawaks. The islands were named by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 for Saint Ursula and her virgin followers. Over the next three hundred years, the islands were held by many European powers, including Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Denmark-Norway.

The Danish West India Company settled on Saint Thomas in 1672, on Saint John in 1694, and purchased Saint Croix from France in 1733. The islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754, their name translating to Jomfruøerne in Danish. Sugarcane, produced by slave labor, drove the islands' economy during the 18th and early 19th centuries, until the abolition of slavery by Governor Peter von Scholten on July 3, 1848.

For the remainder of the period of Danish rule, the islands were not economically viable and significant transfers were made from the Danish state budgets to the authorities in the islands. In 1867 a treaty to sell Saint Thomas and Saint John to the United States was agreed, but the sale was never effected. A number of reforms aimed at reviving the islands' economy were attempted, but none had great success. A second draft treaty to sell the islands to the United States was negotiated in 1902, but was narrowly defeated in the Danish parliament.

The onset of World War I brought the reforms to a close, and again left the islands isolated and exposed. During the submarine warfare phases of the First World War, the United States, fearing that the islands might be seized by Germany as a submarine base, again approached Denmark with a view to buying them. After a few months of negotiations, a selling price of $25 million was agreed. The Danish Crown may have felt some pressure to accept the sale, thinking that the United States would seize the islands if Denmark was invaded by Germany. At the same time the economics of continued possession weighed heavily on the minds of Danish decision makers, and a bipartisan consensus in favor of selling emerged in the Danish parliament. A subsequent referendum held in late 1916 confirmed the decision to sell by a wide margin. The deal was thus finalized on January 17, 1917, when the United States and Denmark exchanged their respective treaty ratifications. The U.S. took possession of the islands on March 31, 1917 and the territory was renamed the Virgin Islands of the United States.

U.S. citizenship was granted to the inhabitants of the islands in 1927.

Water Island, a small island to the south of Saint Thomas, was not included in the original sale. It remained in the possession of the Danish West India Company until 1944, when it too was bought by the USA for $10,000. It was initially administered by the U.S. Federal government and did not become a part of the U.S. Virgin Islands territory until 1996, when 50 acres of land was transferred to the territorial government. The remaining 200 acres (0.81 km²) of the island were purchased from the US Department of the Interior in May 2005 for $10, a transaction which marked the official change in jurisdiction._


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

That's it folks. I have covered all fifty states and the main territories of the United States of America. There are also a bunch of uninhabited islands that are also owned by the USA, but I decided to keep the last portion to the main territories. 

I tried to pick the best pictures, or at least ones that I found interesting. I am sorry if I had not shown the view, building, image that you wanted to see, but each state had only five pictures and I kept strictly to that for the fifty states.

Thanks again for wading through this thread and I hope you learned or saw something you hadn't seen before.


----------



## Bahnsteig4 (Sep 9, 2005)

> Huh? Hehehehehehe!


Don't be so cruel! Remember this one?











Other than that, great thread! Sad that it's done already.


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

Oh yea, sorry about that!


----------



## multifamilyinvestor (Dec 25, 2004)

Very well done!!! :applause:


----------



## fettekatz (Oct 17, 2007)

nice collection... though I'm no fan of HDR
giving some information about the states is a good very idea...


----------



## MDguy (Dec 16, 2006)

Great thread! Everday i looked forward to seeing what state was next. Always great photos and great information. Thanks for this thread! Very well done!


----------



## Somnifor (Sep 6, 2005)

Nice thread, but you forgot American Samoa. Everyone always does.:lol:


----------



## Shukie (Mar 29, 2007)

Great pictures, though I sometimes felt they were a bit too edited. It's impressive that you were able to find so many high quality pictures of every state though.


----------



## TU 'cane (Dec 9, 2007)

Awesome thread. 

This picture really caught my eye. Thanks for posting it.


----------



## Liwwadden (Nov 12, 2005)

Thanks Brothejr, I really enjoyed watching al those beautifull shots. kay:


----------



## Sky_Line (May 19, 2007)

To sump up , The USA has a great cultural legacy from United Kingdom and Spain. 

PD: And worderful landscapes.


----------



## ZZ-II (May 10, 2006)

that mountain shot is awesome!!!


----------



## brothejr (Jul 6, 2005)

Liwwadden said:


> Thanks Brothejr, I really enjoyed watching al those beautifull shots. kay:


No problem I'm glad you liked it.



Sky_Line said:


> To sump up , The USA has a great cultural legacy from United Kingdom and Spain.
> 
> PD: And worderful landscapes.


Yes, USA has gotten a lot of it's heritage from the UK and Spain, but I would like to think that a lot of other influences came from more countries then I can name! Also, it must be said that the USA has come up with it's own styles from time to time.


----------



## 0591 (Apr 19, 2005)

I really enjoyed watching this thread, thanks for all pics and information


----------



## Patachou (Dec 1, 2007)

Awesome thread.
Thank you very much.


----------



## nestor morales (Feb 1, 2008)

Amazing ,wonderful all the pictures! congratulations! I'd like to know USA but I live so far from there.well, someday it will possible to visit it and watching all those landscapes,mountains,rivers,shores,towns,etc,etc.


----------



## ♣628.finst (Jul 29, 2005)

Bear Creek, Idaho


----------



## ♣628.finst (Jul 29, 2005)

Wheat Breeding in Utah










Daniel Lake, Idaho


----------



## ♣628.finst (Jul 29, 2005)

Wheat Breeding in Utah










Daniel Lake, Idaho


----------



## ♣628.finst (Jul 29, 2005)

Near Logan, Utah










Test fire in Utah


----------

