9/30 We are going to Vermont

We are currently in the Adirondack Mountains. The leaves are beautiful and it's raining a lot.  We might not have Internet connection for a while because we are in a remote area of Vermont.

9/27: Crown Point

Today we saw Crown Point, NY. This is one of the places that the guns for Boston were taken from.

The French and the British were two superpowers in Europe. They were two very strong enemies. When they came to the New World they allied with two of the local Indians groups. The French were allied with the Algonquin and the British with Iroquois. In Europe, the Seven Year War was being fought by the French and British, which was a world war, and in America the French and the Algonquin fought the British and the Iroquois in the French and Indian War. The French and British used the Indians for killing off the others' settlers because the British and the French were low on people. Both superpowers wanted to control Lake Champlain because it was a major trade route and was a good way between Canada and the New York. The French built two forts on Lake Champlain. Fort St. Frederic and Fort Ticonderoga were burned by the French, taken by the British, and looted by the Americans. The American wanted the fort because it had cannons. The cannons were needed for the American Revolution because the Americans revolted against the taxes that the British imposed on the Americans to pay off the debt of the French and Indian war.

The French made a Fort called, Fort St. Frederic. The fort was built on British territory. There was a treaty that was called Treaty of Utrecht that set a boundary at Split Rock, which was a little bit north of Crown Point where the French built their fort. The British planned an attack on Fort Frederic but the French abandoned and blow it and it burned. The British started to build another fort and the called it Fort Crown Point. This fort was the largest earthen fort built in America. Then the fort was burned by accident. The reason of the fire was one of the officers wife’s was cooking “pork and pease” when the sparks from the fire got in the chimney and started a chimney fire. The sparks from the chimney fire on the roof and caused the fort to be on fire. The cannons that were at Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga were need for the Siege at Boston. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold did like each other, so they raced from Fort Ticonderoga to Fort Crown Point to get the cannons and Bendict Arnold won.

9/26: Fort Ticonderoga

Today we saw Fort Ticonderoga and Saratoga. They are the places of two important battles in the Revolutionary War.

We saw Fort Ticonderoga first. Ticonderoga means the land between the waters in a Native American language. The people who first built the fort were the French. At first the fort was called Fort Carillon. This place was called a “key to the continent”. In 1758, the Marquis de Montcalm’s force, which was much smaller, 1 French to 5 British soldiers, had built up large walls to protect the fort from British because they didn’t want the British to reach it. Amazingly, the French forces the British forces when they attacked. After the British defeat, they still wanted to take the fort. So, in 1759 General Amherst led an attack on Fort Carillon. The French Forces retreated after blowing up the power magazine. The British were left to clean up and the fort was renamed to be “Fort Ticonderoga.” Three weeks after the battle in Concord, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys and Benedict Arnold came to attack Fort Ticonderoga. On May 10, 1775 they attacked the fort, taking the men hostage and capturing 59 cannons. The cannons were needed for Boston Siege. With many oxen they moved 59 cannons in the winter in two months. After the fort had lost its importance, after the British abandoned the fort, the settlers who were moving up there for summer homes and needed stone for building fireplaces and other stuff took stones from the fort causing it fall into disrepair. In 1816 Stephen Pell’s grandfather bought the land for a summer home on the Champlain Lake. Then when his grandfather died, he acquired the land and started to rebuild the fort to the state it was earlier. A coincidence that I found interesting was that General Howe, who attacked the fort in 1758 and was killed, and that his little brother General Howe was attacked by the Americans who used the cannons from the fort. Benedict Arnold was a major person in both Saratoga and Fort Ticonderoga.

Saratoga was one of the major battles that the Americans fought. This battle gained the help of the French, who wanted to beat down there old enemy, the British. The point of the British’s campaign was to capture the town of Albany and spilt the southern states from the northern states, thus ending the war. But on the way Gates’es army marched up to stop them. They met at Saratoga. There were a few skirmishes here and there. Then the British were told that they would get reinforcements. So they started building fortifications, but after awhile the British could not wait anymore. The Americans had gotten reinforcements. They attacked the redoubts and captured them. The British was running low on food so, they retreated, on Oct. 8^th. At the end, the Americans made the British surrender. This gained help of the French, letting us win the war with Britain.

9/23 Fort Niagara and Power Vista

We are in the Niagara Falls area. Today we saw Fort Niagara and Power Vista.

First we went to Fort Niagara. This fort was the center of several battles. Three nations fought over the area. They were American, French and British. First the French built the French Castle, otherwise known as the “the peace building”, but was set up for warfare; the walls were very thick, the windows barred, and the building had a powder magazine. They also built some other structures. The first fort was completed in 1727. The British also wanted the control of the river. They attacked the French fort in 1759, while French and Indian war waged. After the 19 day siege, the British captured the fort.  Then after the American Revolution, the British were forced to give up the land by a treaty in 1796. Then, in 1813 the British took the fort back. In that battle 65 Americans died and only 6 British died.  After the War of 1812, the fort was no longer needed the fort was returned to the Americans in 1815. The fort was used later for training new troops during wars. Then in 1963 the fort’s last troops were withdrawn.  The first enlisted soldier to get a pension salary in the United States military was a person who looked after this fort.

Then we when to Power Vista in the area where there is a hydroelectric plant called Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant. In this power plant, 2,400MW are produced. That’s enough to power to power 2.5 million houses. The Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant is the 2^nd largest power plant in the US. The dam was built in three years, which most people thought it was impossible, but it happened anyways. The workforce consisted of 10,000 skilled workers. The reason the people built the plant was because the previous one collapsed into the river. 600 thousand gallons a second of water is diverted from above the falls to go over the dam; and flows through conduits into a 22 billion gallon holding tank. That is almost as much as the amount of water that goes over the falls. All of this goes into making power.  

9/22:Niagara Falls American Side

Wow!! Niagara Falls are a roaring rush of water. The largest falls, Horseshoe Falls, has 675,000 gallons of water per second thundering over the falls and it's plung pools are around 160-200 feet deep. It's so powerful that we could see the mist from miles away. There are two other falls in the area. They are American Falls and the Bridal Valle Falls. They are a little bit taller than the Horseshoe Falls.  Down river of the falls is another strong force at work a whirlpool.  The whirlpool is caused by the weakness in the rock because of the last Ice Age that carved a valley where the river used to flow.

Many geologic processes have shaped the Niagara Falls. The last Ice Age changed the channel that the Niagara River used to flow in. The old channel was filled in with moranine. The falls started ona  fault line that caused an escrapment. The cliffs are made of Dolostone, Limestone and Shale. The Dolostone is on top and also is the strongest rock. Under that is the Shale which is the weakest. There is limestone at the bottom. The Dolostone breaks away when the falls erodes the shale and undercuts it.. During the last 12,000 years the falls have moved back 7.5 miles. This formed the falls we see today.

The falls were first discovered by American Indians. Then the first westerner to discover the falls was a French explorer. Then people started to develope the area. On one of the islands there was a paper mill and by the river there is ruins of a power plant that fell into the river. There are many tours to the falls and around the area.

9/21: On the Move Again

We got unstuck from Elk Rapids, Michigan. We stayed there for 4 days. My sister learned to bike and is now a great biker. Now we are staying in Niagara Falls, New York for 4 days.

9/18:Sleeping Bear Dunes

We’ve been driving a lot so there was not a lot to talk about the past days but we did see Lake Superior, which is a glacial lake.

We were on way to Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan when our car broke down in Elk Rapids, Michigan. Luckily we broke in front of a body shop with a tow truck.  They took our car and the local campground host took our trailer to the campground that was close to where we broke down.  We ate a restaurant called The Riverwalk and had white fish.

The next day we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes which was named that after the Indian legend about the area. The legend said the mama bear and her cubs swan across Lake Michigan but the cub didn’t make it and drown and the mother bear sleeps their on the dunes waiting for her cubs whose graves are the Manitou Islands

The area is rich in geologic features were formed by the glaciers.  Before The Great Lakes were even formed there were many rivers in the area of The Great Lakes. When the glaciers, which were 2 miles deep, covered the area they widened the valleys a lot, left moraines around the ends of the glaciers and depressed the land forming the lakes.  As the glaciers melted the land rebounded and tilted southward blocking the northern exit from Lake Heron when the lakes tilted they flowed into the Mississippi River.

The Sleeping Bear Dunes are “perched dunes” on top of the old moraines created by the glaciers. The coastlines are very steep because the moraine has been craved away by the wind-driven waves in the lake.  We also saw peninsulas on The Great Lakes. They were made by medial moraines, which were made when two glacial lobes joined together.

People climbing 450 foot sand wall

I saw all the diverse life zones of the park. There are 5 different life zones. They are: Beech/Maple Forest, Pine Forest, The Shrub Zone, Active Dunes and The Beach. The Beech/Maple Forest is the climax forest of the area. Under the Red Leaf Maple, White Birch, Beech, Basswood and Hemlock canopy forests live many deer, cougars (no longer there), opossums, coyotes and owls.  The Pine Forest is the other kind of forest. In the less thick red and white oak and the red and white pine forest live squirrels, hedgehogs, bobcats and piliated woodpeckers. The Shrub Zone is where the forests change into the dunes. In the drier envornment juniper, buffalo berry and jack pine survive. Badgers, red fox, many rodents and prairie warbler live in the plants around them.  The Active Dunes are very deserty and expose ghost forest as they blow backwards into the forests. Dune grasses and strong trees survive the harsh envornment . The animals that live there must be very strong like the seagulls and smaller animals. The beach is home to many wading and shore birds. The plants that live on the beach are mostly shrubs. Also, otters play along the shore and streams.

9/13: Interstate State Park: Ice Age

Today we explored the Interstate State Park in Wisconsin along the St. Croix River. This place has geologic significance. One billion years ago lava was laid down from a volcano 100 miles from here. When the ice melted it moved in a river and the rapids were so quick that rocks, sand and pebbles could go in a crevice and carve the lava forming a pothole which are like pots. They could be 15’ deep and 6 or 7’ wide.

During the Ice Age a glacier covered a lot of the area forming many of the interesting formations that we see today. One of types of the formations are eskers which are formed when a retreating glacier has a steam that drops pebbles and sand under the melting ice. The hills look like a serpent. Drumlins are elongated hills that are like eskers but not curved. End moraines are glacial dumps at the end of a glacier. Kames are cone-like hills that are formed by streams flowing with sediments moving down a hole in the ice called a moulin. A kettle is formed when an ice block melts below the ground making the surface fall in, forming a pond.

After these geologic process people came to the area. Some of the native Americans who lived near here were the Ojibwe who gathered wild rice from the marshes. The “wild rice” is not actually rice, but rather is a seed of a grass.

French fur traders and trappers were some of the first Western people to come to the area looking for beaver pelts and other furs. They named many of the local rivers and places. After them came the loggers looking for the white and red pines. They cut down the trees and floated them down the St. Croix river, creating mile long log jams!

9/11: Trip starts

We just started our road trip yesterday. Today we are going in the car for 12 hours. We are in Colorado right now We will be stopping Omaha, Nebraska at around 9:00. Today nothing much is going to happen. We won’t be able to blog for about a week because of internet connection. But when we get Niagara Falls I will tell you all about my adventures.

We leave tomorrow

We leave on our 7 week trip tomorrow.  First up is driving through Colorado and then Nebraska. Wish us luck.

Getting ready for my Fall Road Trip

This is my third fall road trip. My family and I are going to the east coast for 7 weeks.  We will be going to national parks and visiting many monuments.