After taking a break for the holidays, I’m back with a new blog on the creation of Grand Canyon National Monument. January 11 of 1908 was the day that President Theodore Roosevelt designated the Grand Canyon as a national monument. This set aside about 800,000 acres of land for the public use in the United […]
Category: Environmental History
The Poisoning of America & Thomas Midgley
Are you familiar with the name Thomas Midgley? If not, you should be. It’s probable that no one in United States history has more to do with the poisoning of America than Thomas Midgley, a chemist who worked for the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company in the 1920s. Midgley’s first contribution to the poisoning of America […]
Anopheles Quadrimaculatus – The Most Unappreciated of the Founding Fathers
From the day you had your first history lessons in school, you’ve probably heard stories of the American Revolution and the greatness of our nation’s founders. Even if the reasons have become a bit fuzzy, places like Lexington, Concord, Valley Forge, and Yorktown remain landmarks in our collective memory. I’ll bet, however, that your high […]
The Symbolism of the Bison
Along with the grizzly bear and perhaps the wolf, the bison is the iconic animal of the American West. The symbolism of the bison seems a key aspect of Western history. Its numbers were legendary. There were so many bison roaming the West 200 years ago that estimates were almost pointless. In his journal entry […]