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Great Barrington Fair
The Great Barrington Fair was a 57-acre site on the floodplain of the Housatonic River in Great Barrington, Massachusetts that once hosted the longest continually operating fair in New England. The fair was incorporated in 1848, with area farmers exhibited livestock, fruits, vegetables and other items of interest. Horse racing was added on September 30, 1859. Attendance grew rapidly after Thoroughbred racing with parimutuel betting was added in September 1940. Like many rural tracks, interest declined over the years and the facility eventually closed in 1983. A tornado wrecked the large grandstand at the racetrack in 1995. It was rebuilt and improved and parimutuel betting on the horses resumed in 1997 but lasted only two years before the track closed permanently after the 1998 racing season. A New York City firm bought the site for $2.7 million in 2006 with the intention of building mixed-use facilities there, including a 100-room hotel. Those plans never materialized and the finan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Housatonic River
The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United States. It flows south to southeast, and drains about of southwestern Connecticut into Long Island Sound. Its Drainage basin, watershed is just to the west of the watershed of the lower Connecticut River. History Indigenous history Indigenous people began using the river area for fishing and hunting at least 6,000 years ago. By 1600, the inhabitants were mostly Mohicans and may have numbered 30,000. The river's name is derived from the Mohican phrase ''"usi-a-di-en-uk"'', translated as "beyond the mountain place" or "river of the mountain place".Housatonic Valley Association. Cornwall Bridge, CT"History of the Housatonic Valley." Accessed 2015-10-1. It is referred to in the deed by which a group of twelve colonists called "The Proprietor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Great Barrington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,172 at the 2020 census. Both a summer resort and home to Ski Butternut, a ski resort, Great Barrington includes the villages of Van Deusenville and Housatonic. History 1676–1995 The Mahican Indians called the area ''Mahaiwe'', meaning "the place downstream". It lay on the New England Path, which connected Fort Orange near Albany, New York, with Springfield and Massachusetts Bay. The first recorded account of Europeans in the area happened in August 1676, during King Philip's War. Major John Talcott and his troops chased a group of 200 Mahican Natives west from Westfield, eventually overtaking them at the Housatonic River in what is now Great Barrington. According to reports at the time, Talcott's troops killed twenty-five Indians and imprisoned another twenty. Today, a plaque for John Talcott marks t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are considered " hot-blooded" horses that are known for their agility, speed, and spirit. The Thoroughbred, as it is known today, was developed in 17th- and 18th-century England, when native mares were crossbred with imported Oriental stallions of Arabian, Barb, and Turkoman breeding. All modern Thoroughbreds can trace their pedigrees to three stallions originally imported into England in the 17th and 18th centuries, and to a larger number of foundation mares of mostly English breeding. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Thoroughbred breed spread throughout the world; they were imported into North America starting in 1730 and into Australia, Europe, Japan and South America during the 19th century. Millions of Thoroughbreds exist today, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parimutuel Betting
Parimutuel betting or pool betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vigorish" are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winning bets. In some countries it is known as the tote after the totalisator, which calculates and displays bets already made. In short, the word ''parimutuel'' implies tiered winnings/earnings. The parimutuel system is used in gambling on horse racing, greyhound racing, jai alai, and other sporting events of relatively short duration in which participants finish in a ranked order. A modified parimutuel system is also used in some lottery games. Definition Parimutuel betting differs from fixed-odds betting in that the final payout is not determined until the pool is closed – in fixed odds betting, the payout is agreed at the time the bet is sold. Parimutuel gambling is frequently state-regulated, and offered in many places where gamb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1995 Great Barrington Tornado
The 1995 Great Barrington tornado (also known as the Memorial Day Tornado of 1995) was an F4 tornado that occurred in the western Massachusetts town of Great Barrington. Storm background Around 3:30 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) on May 29, 1995, scattered thunderstorms developed over the Western Catskill Mountains of New York. Over the next few hours the storms moved east, only producing isolated wind and hail. One particular thunderstorm exploded into a supercell upon crossing the Hudson River Valley, due to the presence of higher dew points flowing up the valley from the south and locally enhanced low-level shear. A tornado touched down in Columbia County at 6:40 p.m., producing F2 damage. The tornado lifted off the ground twenty minutes later and the storm moved over the mountains along the New York/Massachusetts border. Shortly after crossing into Massachusetts, the storm dropped the violent Great Barrington, Massachusetts tornado. The F4 tornado touched down at 7: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services. There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture. When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems, it is important to develop flexible business process and farming practices. Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint, playing a significant role in causing climate change (food systems are responsible for one third of the anthropogenic GHG emissions), water scarcity, water pollution, land degradation, deforestation and other processes; it is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes. Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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