Massacre Rocks State Park
Massacre Rocks State Park is a history-focused public recreation area in the Northwest United States featuring the Massacre Rocks, a famous spot along the Oregon Trail and California Trail during the middle 19th century. The state park is located along the Snake River, southwest of American Falls, in Power County, Idaho. Description The park features a configuration of boulders along the south bank of the Snake River, known alternatively as Massacre Rocks, "Gate of Death", or "Devil's Gate". Emigrants gave this name to the narrow passage of the trail through the rocks, from the fear of possible ambush by Native Americans. According to diaries of emigrants, settlers in five wagons clashed with Shoshone just east of the rocks on August 9–10, 1862. At least eight emigrants from four wagon trains died, with at least 20 Shoshone also killed. The skirmishes took place east of the park and not at Devil's Gate as commonly believed. Some confrontations may have occurred there, but ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Power County, Idaho
Power County is a county located in the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2010 Census, the county had a population of 7,817. The county seat and largest city is American Falls. The county was created by the Idaho Legislature on January 30, 1913, by a partition of Cassia County. It is named for an early hydroelectric power plant (1902) at the American Falls. Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.7%) is water. Adjacent counties * Bannock County – east * Oneida County – south * Bingham County – north * Blaine County – northwest * Cassia County – southwest Major highways * Interstate 86 * US 30 * SH-37 * SH-39 National protected areas * Caribou National Forest (part) * Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve (part) * Curlew National Grassland (part) * Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge (part) * Sawtooth National Forest (part) Government Power County's commissioners are: *Ronald Funk (Chairm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth sciences, including hydrology, and so is treated as one major aspect of integrated Earth system science and planetary science. Geology describes the structure of the Earth on and beneath its surface, and the processes that have shaped that structure. It also provides tools to determine the relative and absolute ages of rocks found in a given location, and also to describe the histories of those rocks. By combining these tools, geologists are able to chronicle the geological history of the Earth as a whole, and also to demonstrate the age of the Earth. Geology provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and the Earth's past climates. Geologists broadly study the properties and processes of E ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North American Beaver
The North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') is one of two Extant taxon, extant beaver species, along with the Eurasian beaver (''Castor fiber''). It is native to North America and introduced in South America (Patagonia) and Europe (primarily Finland and Karelia). In Canada and the United States, the species is often referred to simply as "beaver", though this causes some confusion because another distantly related rodent, ''Aplodontia rufa'', is often called the "mountain beaver". Other vernacular names, including American beaver and Canadian beaver, distinguish this species from the other Extant taxon, extant beaver species, ''Castor fiber'', which is native to Eurasia. The North American beaver is one of the official national wildlife of Canada symbols and is the official state mammal of Oregon and New York (state), New York. Taxonomy Evolution The first fossil records of beaver are 10 to 12 million years old in Germany, and they are thought to have migrated to North Amer ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bald Eagle
The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as the bald eagle in the Palearctic. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting. The bald eagle is an opportunistic feeder which subsists mainly on fish, which it swoops down upon and snatches from the water with its talons. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species, up to deep, wide, and in weight. Sexual maturity is attained at the age of four to five years. Bald eagles are not actually bald; the name derives from an older meaning of the word, "white headed". The adult is mainly brown with a white ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pelican
Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before swallowing. They have predominantly pale plumage, except for the brown and Peruvian pelicans. The bills, pouches, and bare facial skin of all pelicans become brightly coloured before the breeding season. The eight living pelican species have a patchy global distribution, ranging latitudinally from the tropics to the temperate zone, though they are absent from interior South America and from polar regions and the open ocean. Long thought to be related to frigatebirds, cormorants, tropicbirds, and gannets and boobies, pelicans instead are now known to be most closely related to the shoebill and hamerkop, and are placed in the order Pelecaniformes. Ibises, spoonbills, herons, and bitterns have been classified in the same order. Fossil ev ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Grebe
Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Some flightless species exist as well, most notably in stable lakes. The order contains a single family, the Podicipedidae, which includes 22 species in six extant genera. Although, superficially, they resemble other diving birds such as loons and coots, they are most closely related to flamingos, as supported by morphological, molecular and paleontological data. Many species are monogamous and are known for their courtship displays, with the pair performing synchronized dances across the water's surface. The birds build floating vegetative nests where they lay several eggs. About a third of the world's grebes are listed at various levels of conservation concerns—the biggest threats including habitat loss, the introduction of invasive predatory fish and human poaching. As such, three spe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Great Blue Heron
The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to coastal Spain, the Azores, and areas of far southern Europe. An all-white population found in south Florida and the Florida Keys is known as the great white heron. Debate exists about whether this represents a white color morph of the great blue heron, a subspecies of it, or an entirely separate species. The status of white individuals known to occur elsewhere in the Caribbean, and their existence is rarely found elsewhere besides in eastern North America. Taxonomy The great blue heron was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work, '' Systema Naturae''. The scientific name comes from Latin ''ardea'', and Ancient Greek (), both meaning "heron". The great blue ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Canada Goose
The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), or Canadian goose, is a large wild goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is occasionally found during migration across the Atlantic in northern Europe. It has been introduced to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands. Like most geese, the Canada goose is primarily herbivorous and normally migratory; often found on or close to fresh water, the Canada goose is also common in brackish marshes, estuaries, and lagoons. Extremely adept at living in human-altered areas, Canada geese have established breeding colonies in urban and cultivated habitats, which provide food and few natural predators. The success of this common park species has led to its often being considered a pest species because of its excrement, its depredation of crops, its n ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Idaho Department Of Transportation
The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) is the state of Idaho governmental organization responsible for state transportation infrastructure. This includes ongoing operations and maintenance as well as planning for future needs of the state and its citizens. The agency is responsible for overseeing the disbursement of federal, state, and grant funding for transportation programs in the state. Overview Idaho's state transportation system consists of more than (lane miles) of roads, more than 1,800 bridges, approximately of rail lines, 126 public-use airports, and the Port of Lewiston. The agency is also responsible for 29 rest areas and 12 ports of entry. History The Idaho Legislature created the State Highway Commission in 1913. The group consisted of the Secretary of State, the State Engineer and three other members to be appointed by the governor. The Commission was empowered to: *plan, build and maintain new state highways *alter, improve or ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roadside Park
A roadside park is a designated park on the wide side of a road for the traveling tourist usually maintained by a governmental entity, either local, state, or national. It is for recreational use such as a picnic spot or a trail head. A roadside park will generally be found in a rural setting, whereas a rest area will be found on an interstate highway in a suburban setting or between major destinations like cities. A rest area is specifically designed for the rest and relaxation of the motoring public. The roadside park with the use of picnic tables is the predecessor of the modern rest area / travel plaza. Different states would have formal and informal designations for these spots, including "roadside table," "wayside table," "wayside park," or "wayside picnic area." Many roadside parks have restroom facilities or at least pit toilets, where some small roadside parks have no restroom facilities at all. Some have water and many are designated on state maps with a small picnic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lake Bonneville
Lake Bonneville was the largest Late Pleistocene paleolake in the Great Basin of western North America. It was a pluvial lake that formed in response to an increase in precipitation and a decrease in evaporation as a result of cooler temperatures. The lake covered much of what is now western Utah and at its highest level extended into present-day Idaho and Nevada. Many other hydrographically closed basins in the Great Basin contained expanded lakes during the Late Pleistocene, including Lake Lahontan in northwestern Nevada. Geologic description Shorelines of Lake Bonneville are visible above Salt Lake City along the western front of the Wasatch Mountains and on other mountains throughout the Bonneville basin.Gilbert, G.K., 1890. Lake Bonneville. U.S. Geological Survey Monograph 1. 438 pp. These shorelines appear as shelves or benches that protrude from the mountainside above the valley floor, are visible on the ground from long distances and on satellite images, and have both de ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bonneville Flood
The Bonneville flood was a catastrophic flooding event in the last ice age, which involved massive amounts of water inundating parts of southern Idaho and eastern Washington along the course of the Snake River. Unlike the Missoula Floods, which also occurred during the same period in the Pacific Northwest, the Bonneville flood only happened once. The flood is believed to be the second largest in known geologic history. Cause and events About 14,500 years ago (radiocarbon dating, 17,400 years ago calendar, "calibrated" dating), pluvial Lake Bonneville in northern Utah reached its highest water level since its formation. The lake occupied the present-day basin of the Great Salt Lake, and was far larger, covering about . As it rose the lake level caused seepage at, then breached, the ancient level of Red Rock Pass, a mountain pass at the headwaters of the Portneuf River, a tributary of the Snake River above present-day American Falls Reservoir. Ancient Red Rock Pass was the site o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |