Matt & the Bull

This picture is from our 2008 trip to NYC.

#77 Saratoga NHP

Saratoga National Historical Park preserves the site of the Battles of Saratoga, the first significant American military victory of the American Revolutionary War. Here in 1777, American forces met, defeated, and forced a major British army to surrender, an event which led France to recognize the independence of the United States, and enter the war as a decisive military ally of the struggling Americans. First authorized as a New York state historic preserve in 1927 on the sesquicentennial of the Battles, the Battlefield was made part of the National Park System in 1938 when Saratoga National Historical Park was authorized by the United States Congress. The Visitors Center offers a 20-minute orientation film, fiber-optic light map, timeline and artifact displays. A brochure is available for a self-guided tour of sites in the four-square mile Battlefield in Stillwater. The General Philip Schuyler House, eight miles (13 km) north in Schuylerville, is a restored house museum open by tour. The Saratoga Monument is in the nearby village of Victory. The park is located on the upper Hudson River southeast of Saratoga Springs. It contains the famous Boot Monument to Benedict Arnold, the only war memorial in the United States that does not bear the name of its honoree. The memorial was donated by John Watts de Peyster a former Major General for the New York State Militia during the American Civil War who wrote several military histories about the Battle of Saratoga.

#76 Martin Van Buren NHS

Martin Van Buren National Historic Site preserves the estate and thirty-six room mansion of Martin Van Buren, the eighth President of the United States. Van Buren purchased the estate, which he named Lindenwald, in 1839 during his one term as President and it became his home and farm during his retirement.

#75 Vanderbilt Mansion NHS

Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, located in Hyde Park, New York, is one of America's premier examples of the country palaces built by wealthy industrialists during the Gilded Age. The severe classicism, balance, and heavy ornamentation of Hyde Park, designed for Frederick Vanderbilt by McKim, Mead & White, is a typical example of Beaux-Arts architecture. The property entered the National Park Service in 1939. The site includes 211 acres (85 ha) of the original larger property historically called Hyde Park. Situated on the east bank of the Hudson River, the property includes pleasure grounds with views of the river and the distant Catskill Mountains, formal gardens, natural woodlands, and numerous support structures. The grounds also include Italian Gardens that have been restored by the volunteer Frederick W. Vanderbilt Garden Association. Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856-1938) purchased the property in 1895 for use as a seasonal country residence. A niece, Margaret "Daisy" Van Alen, inherited the property when Vanderbilt died in 1938. Encouraged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Van Alen donated a portion of the estate, including the residence with most of its original furnishings, to the National Park Service. The crowning feature is a 54 room mansion by the distinguished architectural firm McKim, Mead & White. Completed in 1898, the house is a perfect example of the Beaux-Arts architecture style and one of the architects' finest residential projects. The interiors of the mansion are archetypes of the American Renaissance, incorporating a range of European antiques and finely crafted period reproductions.

My pictures- follow this link.

#74 Eleanor Roosevelt NHS

Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (Val-Kill) is located approximately two miles east of Springwood, the Hyde Park Roosevelt family home. FDR encouraged Eleanor Roosevelt to develop this property as a place that she could develop some of her ideas for work with winter jobs for rural workers and women. There are two buildings which are adjacent to Fallkill Creek. Stone Cottage, the original cottage which was home to Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook, which they sold back to Eleanor in 1947 and a large two-story stuccoed building that housed Val-Kill Industries and which would become Eleanor's home after Franklin's death. It was the only residence that she personally owned.

See more pictures here.

#73 Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt NHS

The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site preserves the Springwood estate in Hyde Park, New York, United States of America. Springwood was the birthplace, life-long home, and burial place of the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

See the rest of my pictures here.

Port Arthur

Port Arthur was one of Australia's most noted prisons. It is Tasmania's most popular tourist attraction for good reason. The site is a powerful reminder of Australia's early history as a penal colony. I took a 'Ghost Tour' the night I arrived and would highly recommend it.

See the rest of my pictures of Port Arthur here.

After Bamboo Bernies

This picture, from my college years, is of Keath, Steve Boldt, Tone and myself after a solid night of drinking at Bamboo Bernies.

#72 Steamtown NHS

Steamtown National Historic Site is located in downtown Scranton, PA, at the site of the former Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad. It includes a working replica turntable and roundhouse and features daily demonstrations on how such technology was used in the early 1900s.

See more pictures here.

#71 Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS

The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the first railroad constructed over the Allegheny Mountains. This inclined plane railroad operated between 1834-1854 and was considered a technological wonder in its day and played a critical role in opening the interior of the United States to trade and settlement.
Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site is located in southwestern Pennsylvania approximately 12 miles west of Altoona. Today's park covers 1249 acres. The main unit contains the Summit Level Visitor Center, the historic Lemon House, Engine House #6 Exhibit Shelter, the Skew Arch Bridge, picnic area and hiking trails. The Staple Bend Tunnel unit is located approximately 4 miles east of Johnstown, PA.

#70 Johnstown Flood NM

There was no larger news story in the latter nineteenth century after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The story of the Johnstown Flood has everything to interest the modern mind: a wealthy resort, an intense storm, an unfortunate failure of a dam, the destruction of a working class city, and an inspiring relief effort.
The rain continued as men worked tirelessly to prevent the old South Fork Dam from breaking. Elias Unger, the president of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, was hoping that the people in Johnstown were heeding the telegraph warnings sent earlier, which said that the dam might go. When it finally happened, at 3:10 P.M., May 31, 1889, an era of the Conemaugh Valley's history ended, and another era started. Over 2,209 people died on that tragic Friday, and thousands more were injured in one of the worst disasters in our Nation's history.
Johnstown Flood National Memorial is located in southwestern Pennsylvania, about 10 miles northeast of Johnstown. The park contains nearly 165 acres and preserves the remains of the South Fork Dam and portions of the former Lake Conemaugh bed.

#69 Flight 93 NM

This memorial is only a temporary one while the permanant one is being designed and built. This is the only NPS memorial to September 11th, 2001.

Read about the Memorial Design here.

#68 Fort Necessity NB

The battle at Fort Necessity in the summer of 1754 was the opening action of the French and Indian War. This war was a clash of British, French and American Indian cultures. It ended with the removal of French power from North America. The stage was set for the American Revolution.
See More of my Pictures here.

Another Arcadia Sunset

Can't really get enough of those Camp Arcadia Sunsets!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

#67 Friendship Hill NHS

Friendship Hill National Historic Site, maintained by the National Park Service, was the home of early American politician Albert Gallatin. It overlooks the Monongahela River near Point Marion, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh.
The home itself is made up of six sections. The earliest of which is the original brick house built in 1789. This original house is built in the Federalist style with a Flemish bond. Along the north side of the brick house, a simple frame house was added in 1798. A stone kitchen was added in 1823, a State Dining Room in 1895, a south bedroom wing was finished in 1902, and the servant's quarters were added in 1903.
This is a statue of Gallatin and I from my visit in August 2004.
Here are more pictures- (now that my website is back up and running again!)

#66 Scotts Bluff NM

Scotts Bluff National Monument has been a landmark for travelers headed west since at least 1812, when it was first spotted fur traders heading west.

#65 Fort Laramie NM

Much like Bents Old Fort (#10), Fort Laramie started out as a primary trading hub along the California and Mormon trails, and later became a military outpost in the United States military operations against the native American population in the upper Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.

#64 Fossil Butte NM

This site preserves the best paleontological record of Tertiary aquatic communities in North America and possibly the world, within the 50-million-year-old Green River lake beds. Fossils preserved, including fish, alligators, bats, turtles, dog-sized horses, insects, and many other species of plants and animals suggest that the region was a low, subtropical, freshwater basin when the sediments accumulated, over about a 2 million-year period.

#63 Golden Spike NHS

This site, north of Salt Lake City, Utah, memorializes the completion of the first transcontinental raidroad, when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads met here on May 10th, 1869. The site has reproductions of steam locomotives from the time as well as recreations of the Golden Spike ceremony.

Beaver Island Sunset

Rafting the Tulley River

I did this rafting trip outside of Cairns, Australia. It was fun, but I had gotten bit on the eyelid right before the rafting itself began, and by the end of the trip my whole right eye had swollen shut!

#62 Timpanogas Cave NM

I feel bad about counting Timpanogas Cave in my countdown at all. The thing is, I didn't hike the cave. I had one day in the area, and I chose to spend it with my friend Kirk and his family. I did visit the visitor's center where I got the obligatory brochure and learned about the cave. I do plan on hiking the cave on another visit.

#61 Great Basin NP

This is Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park, located in East Central Nevada near the Utah border. This picture may look clear, but a freak snow storm prevented me from driving up the road that climbs to near the summit of the peak. The park is home to the bristlecone pine, a sturdy and long-living tree which grown in the parks sub-alpine regions. Another popular activity in the park is touring Lehman Caves.
The rest of my pictures are here.

#60 Death Valley NP

Death Valley National Park is one of America's largest and best-known National Parks. It contains the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, Badwater Basin, at 282 feet below sea level. The park also contains multiple Ghost towns and mine ruins. It also encompasses mountain ranges. Near Badwater is Furnace Creek, where a hotel was built in 1927, helping begin the park's long history of tourism. The diversity of the park's biological regions can also be seen in it's diverse array of wildlife, from Bighorn Sheep, Coyote, Foxes and Mule Deer, to the Death Valley Pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times in the park.
See more of my pictures from the blazing hot day I visited in May of 2004.

#59 Manzanar NHS

Manzanar is most widely known as the site of one of ten concentration camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in California's Owens Valley between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, it is approximately 230 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Manzanar (which means “apple orchard” in Spanish) was identified by the United States National Park Service as the best-preserved of the former camp sites, and was designated the Manzanar National Historic Site.

Long before the first prisoners arrived in March 1942, Manzanar was home to Native Americans, who mostly lived in villages near several creeks in the area. Ranchers and miners formally established the town of Manzanar in 1910, but abandoned the town by 1929 after the City of Los Angeles purchased the water rights to virtually the entire area. As different as these groups might seem, they are tied together by the common thread of forced relocation.

Since the last prisoners left in 1945, former prisoners and others have worked to protect Manzanar and to establish it as a National Historic Site that preserves and interprets the site for current and future generations. The primary focus is the Japanese American Internment era, as specified in the legislation that created the Manzanar National Historic Site. The site also interprets the town of Manzanar, the ranch days, the settlement by the Owens Valley Paiute, and the role that water played in shaping the history of the Owens Valley.

I had the good fortune of visiting in 2004, shortly after the visitor's center was completed. The site itself has no buildings left. Only a memorial to those imprisoned and the outlines and foundations of buildings marked with simple plaques. The site is still immensely powerful, aided by the stirring and heartbreaking exhibits in the visitors center.

See more of my pictures here.

#58 Santa Monica Mountains NRA

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a large area northwest of the city of Los Angeles. The area is maintained by the National Park Service and California State Parks. The recreational opportunities available include biking, hiking, horseback riding, camping, and birding.
See more pictures here.

The "Bad Glasses" phase

This picture of my mom always makes me laugh.