Tag: Native American

  • The Park You Cannot Visit

    The U.S. National Park Service currently has 394 units, with one more arriving soon. These include all manner of parks, monuments, historic sites, battlefields, seashores, recreation areas, trails and various other interesting designations. Each one is a beloved national treasure. They include the famous like Yellowstone National Park. But they also include the more obscure…

  • W Towns Outside Boston

    Reader “HH” brought an interesting situation outside of Boston, Massachusetts, to my attention this week. He discovered this many years ago and has been wondering about it every since. On the surface it doesn’t seem like much, just a ride along U.S. Route 20. It has a bit of historic importance in its own right,…

  • Half-Breed Tract

    My hobbies sometimes run together. That happened again as I searched an 1896 land ownership map for Wabasha County, Minnesota. There I hoped to find the footprints of a peripheral ancestor. I knew the Nineteenth Century property ownership existed, in fact I’d visited the site in person. However, I’d never seen this particular vintage map…

  • Nation, State or County?

    The sovereignty of Native American nations in the United States presents a complicated set of issues, wrapped in various viewpoints and interwoven with the past, present and future. However, this entry doesn’t discuss the historical or political situation, it points to current geography. Please excuse me as I sidestep the sensitivities while focusing on boundaries…

  • Chugwater

    There’s no telling what might register on my mind when I examine a map closely. Anything out-of-the-ordinary will jump to the forefront. It may be an odd shape like the perfect circle of Corona, a stranded bit of land like Carter Lake or a strange town name like Yeehaw Junction. It doesn’t matter. If it…