The Dawnland Dedicated to Sloane Acadia For at least the last 12,000 years, Indigenous Americans have inhabited a region of the Atlantic Coast, including Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and parts of Quebec. The people called this land Wabanakik. A group of nations – the Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki, and …
Guadalupe Peak Redux – Texas’ High Point Around 300 million years ago, western Texas and southeastern New Mexico were covered by an inland sea, called the Delaware Basin. Over time, a reef developed around the edge of the water. In these systems, calcium carbonate from organisms with shells forms limestone rock. Sometime during the Cenozoic …
An Ancient Walk to Rewrite History Since the 1970s, the predominant theory on the habitation of North America hinges on a land bridge from Asia. Approximately 13,000-16,000 years ago, near the end of the last Ice Age, climatic conditions precipitated a strip of land between Siberia and Alaska, called the Beringia land bridge. This theory …
White Sands Nestled between the San Andreas Mountains to the west and the Sacramento Mountains to the east lies the Tularosa Basin. Today, Tularosa is an endorheic basin, which means no water outflows from its cupping contours via rivers or oceans. In these types of basins, water pools internally in swamps or lakes. Since the Tularosa …
Home of the Bat I thought it was a volcano—but then I’d never seen one…I had seen plenty of prairie whirlwinds during my life on the range, but this thing didn’t move. It seemed to stay in one spot near the ground—but the top kept spinning upward. I watched maybe a half-an-hour, and being about …
The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes “The sight that flashed into view…was one of the most amazing visions ever beheld by mortal eye. The whole valley as far as the eye could reach was full of hundreds, no thousands–literally tens of thousands–of smokes curling up from its fissured floor…It was as though all the steam …
National Parks Week Saturday kicked off National Parks Week here in the United States! Each year from the 16th to the 24th of April, we celebrate what documentarian Ken Burns called “America’s Best Idea.” The National Parks of our nation are true marvels, a melting pot of biomes, history, and spiritual renewal. We’ve covered quite …
Prometheus and Methuselah The mountains of California, Nevada, and Utah contain magical creatures. These ancient beings live thousands of feet above sea level in unforgiving terrain. Sometimes, you might encounter one, a gnarled hermit, and suspect she is dead. Yet these presences are masters of survival; they have outlasted countless human civilizations; they have bested …
Hyperion Today’s title subject could refer to a variety of things. Hyperion was one of the 12 Greek Titans and a byname for the Sun, Helios. It’s the name of one of Saturn’s moons. We could discuss the genus of beetle named Hyperion or the supercluster of galaxies of the same moniker or Longfellow’s poem. …
General Sherman Though we’re big fans of history here at Mountains Headquarters, we do not ostensibly produce history-driven products. So, today’s headline topic is not the American Civil War General from Lancaster, Ohio, but she is named for the Union man. If you’re a big tree person (or a “big tree” person!), our subject needs …