Jesse Thistle

Jesse Thistle (born 1976) is a Métis-Cree author and assistant professor in the Department of Humanities at York University in Toronto. He is the author of the best-selling memoir, "From the Ashes." Thistle is an advocate for the homeless. He is a PhD candidate in the History program at York University where he is working on theories of intergenerational and historic trauma of the Métis people. This work, which involves reflections on his own previous struggles with addiction and homelessness, has been recognized as having wide impact on both the scholarly community and the greater public.
Family and personal life.
Thistle was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1979 he and his two brothers were removed from his family home and moved to Brampton, Ontario to be brought up by his paternal grandparents. During his late teens and twenties Thistle struggled with addiction, homelessness and served several brief stints in jail for petty theft. After an unsuccessful robbery attempt in 2006, Thistle turned himself in to police and entered a drug rehabilitation program. In 2012 he entered the undergraduate history program at York University.
Thistle is married to Lucie Pekarek-Thistle and lives in Toronto.
Much of Thistle's historical research is based on the stories and experience of his family and ancestors. His mother, Blanche Morissette, is Métis-Cree and was a member of the Park Valley road allowance community in Big River, Saskatchewan. His father, Cyril "Sonny" Thistle, is of Scot-Algonquin ancestry and has been missing since 1982. Thistle's maternal great grandmother, Marianne Ledoux Morissette, was present and supported the Métis Resistance in 1885 during the Battle of Batoche. The documentary "Family Camera" directed by Marc de Guerre for TVOntario includes images of the Morissette family and interviews with Thistle, his mother and aunts where they recount the history and experience of living in the road allowance community and the legacy of the Canadian government's treatment of the Métis people.
Education.
Thistle obtained a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies with a Specialized Honours in History from York University in 2015. His undergraduate thesis is entitled: "James Bay and Mattawa as an Interconnected Fur Trade Region: Illuminating Lake Timiskaming’s Historic Metis Community" and was supervised by York historian Carolyn Prodruchy. He completed a Masters of History at the University of Waterloo in 2016 where his thesis was entitled: "The Puzzle of the Morrissette-Arcand Clan: A History of Metis Historic and Intergenerational Trauma" and where he worked with Susan Roy. In the fall of 2016 Thistle began work on a PhD in the History Department at York University.
Thistle is a Trudeau Scholar, a prestigious award administered by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, a Vanier scholar and was awarded a Governor General's Silver Medal in 2016. He has won numerous other awards, including the Odessa Award in 2014 and the Dr. James Wu prize in 2015 for his paper "We are children of the river: Toronto’s Lost Metis History."
Professional work.
Thistle's use of academic research as a means of healing and understanding of his personal story as an Indigenous person growing up disconnected from his community and its history and his past experiences with homelessness, addiction and incarceration has formed the basis for his original and innovative research contributions. Thistle's historical research has used his own past and identity as a way to examine the position of Metis people and culture within Canadian society, particularly around the idea of inter-generational trauma. The idea is that trauma suffered by previous generations can echo through the generations.
Early historical research Thistle conducted to argue in favour of the possibility of habitation of Métis people in the historic area of Toronto was revisited by Thistle in 2016 in the article "Listening to History: Correcting the Toronto Metis Land Acknowledgement." Thistle's research now suggests there were no permanent Métis settlements in Toronto and he suggests the standard land acknowledgement text used in the Toronto area, in particular by the Toronto District School Board, that includes the Metis is incorrect. A position he reiterates in an article in the "New Yorker" magazine.
The main thrust of Thistle's research involves research into the road allowance Métis in Saskatchewan through the research into his own family history. The recovery of his family history and making connections to his Indigenous culture through archival documents forms the backbone of his practice and documented in the article "Archives as Good Medicine" as well as in the short film "kiskisiwin | remembering", a documentary film directed by Martha Stiegman. Along with Podruchny, Thistle conducted a series of site visits and interviews in northern Saskatchewan and his PhD thesis is entitled: "Indigence, Invisibility, and Indifference: Metis Life in Road Allowances Communities on the Canadian Prairies". His work on the Road Allowance Métis community has been featured on programs such as the CBC Radio's "Unreserved" program.
He was the National Representative for Indigenous Homelessness for the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness for their research priority areas and is a strong advocate for an Indigenous understanding of homelessness, arguing most current strategies for addressing homelessness do not account for the impacts of inter-generational trauma, the deep sense of loss of culture and connection to the idea of home for survivors of experiences such as residential schools and the Sixties Scoop, and that addressing Indigenous homelessness must take Indigenous worldviews into account. Thistle published a new definition of Indigenous homelessness in October, 2017. He joined the board of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) in 2019.
In 2019 Thistle published a memoir entitled "From the Ashes". The memoir detailed his childhood, youth, and early adulthood, dealing with issues such as foster care, homelessness and addiction. The book was praised for its openness in expressing loss and pain, and for its eloquence, especially as it relates the multigenerational impacts of colonization. "From the Ashes" has been on numerous bestseller lists. In 2020 it was selected by George Canyon as his choice for the CBC Canada Reads competition but was voted off during the second round.


Auguste Lacome

Auguste Sylvestre LaCome (October 25, 1821 – November 11, 1888) was a French settler and trader in the New Mexico territory and brother of Jean Baptiste (Juan Bautista) LaCome. He was an investigator to the White Massacre.
Biography.
Early life.
Auguste LaCome was born in the township of Ordizan near the French/Spanish border. His maternal grandfather, Alexis Doleac, left the priesthood to join the French Revolution in the name of liberty and equality. LaCome's father worked as a medical officer. His parents had three other sons besides Auguste and Jean Baptiste. One of those brothers, Joseph LaCome also left France to travel to South America. None of their three daughters survived to adulthood.
US census records list his birthplace as both France and Spain, however he and his brother are referred to as "Frenchmen" in contemporary sources. He was issued a passport on August 6, 1842, and left from the port of Bordeaux, France aboard the Talma on September 9, 1842. He landed at New Orleans before settling in the New Mexico Territory. Auguste's physical appearance is described as being 1.73 meters tall (5'10") with chestnut hair and eyebrows, oval face, and pointed chin.
Family.
Auguste married Maria Rosa Arellano April 26, 1855, at Nuestra Señora de Los Dolores in Arroyo Hondo. Maria Rosa was born in 1833 in the Mexican territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México before the Mexican Cession of the Mexican–American War. Her grandmother was known as "Josefa la Apache". She died while the LaCome family lived in San Luis, Colorado.
Juan Bautista.
Baptismal records note the brothers Auguste and Juan Bautista (Jean Baptiste) adopted José Pedro, a 3 year old Southern Paiute boy. José Pedro, was baptized on May 10, 1852, with Juan Bautista and his wife, Maria Dolores Alire, standing as godparents. The boy was originally purchased as a captive by Cura José Thomas de Jesus Abeita.
Juan Bautista was murdered later that month on May 28, 1852. Jean Latour was sought for the crime. Records list his wife and children living with Auguste and Maria Rosa.
Trading career.
Ute Missions.
In February 1850, James S. Calhoun, Indian Agent, and later first Territorial Governor of New Mexico, granted LaCome a license to trade with the Ute nation so long as he did not trade lead, weapons, or other war items. Based on the recommendation of Manuel Alvarez and William S. Messery, Calhoun charged LaCome to search for survivors of the White Massacre and ascertain whether they could be ransomed.
LaCome met with peaceful chiefs of the Ute Nation who reaffirmed their peaceful relations with the United States. They confirmed that the child had been taken by a band of Jicarilla Apache and killed shortly after Grier and Carson's attack on their camp with her body thrown in a river. The servant was killed a short time later, being unable to keep up with the band. He returned his report a few weeks later on March 16, 1850.
Based on a rumor that the child was still alive, Calhoun charged LaCome to follow up his previous mission in July 1850. He traveled with an interpreter and two peons and met up with the Muache band of the Ute. About forty warriors came to meet him, taking his rifle, and divided his trade goods among themselves, valued at about $690 in goods, one horse, and one mule.
This band stated they wanted no peace with the United States. Further, the band had resolved to kill the party with the exception of one of the peons, who was to be allowed to live to inform the governor of their actions. An arrow was shot at LaCome but the interpreter jarred the Ute who held the bow and it missed its mark. After much negotiation the Utes consigned to only give a severe whipping to the interpreter and a peon. LaCome's rifle was returned to him, being too heavy for their use, along with four of his worn out mules, two oxen and two cows.
At the same time as this second mission, an incident at the mercantile at Rio Colorado had a band of Utes arriving with local Mexicans as hostages to intimidate illegal trade. LaCome returned to Rio Colorado after his encounter with the Muache band and, based on these incidents, presented a petition on behalf of citizens of Taos County to Calhoun for a campaign against the Apache. Kit Carson was also a signer of the petition. These rising conflicts foreshadowed the Jicarilla War.
Other documented trading.
In 1852, LaCome took trade items, including knives, tobacco, coffee, lead, sugar, and other goods, loaded on mules to trade with the Navajo at Cañon de Chelly. He returned a month later.
Trading license records specify that he traded with the Navajo at the Canyon de Chelly and that he traded with other Pueblos in addition to the Zuni. They also indicate he lived in San Luis, Colorado, and Rio Colorado, New Mexico, and traded as far as Wyoming and Nebraska.
The Spiegelberg Brothers are listed on several of his licenses as providing the surety bonds required by the territorial government for trade with the Native Americans. Abraham Staab, a prominent Jewish donor for the Cathedral in Santa Fe, is also listed.
A letter in French to Manuel Álvarez, a fellow trader and lieutenant-governor of New Mexico, notes their friendship and business dealings.
The 1860 census of Taos/Arroyo Hondo lists his occupation as a merchant with real estate valued at $2000 and personal property at $8000 (approximately $55,500 and $225,000 respectively in 2013 dollars).
A Pueblo Chieftain article dated June 8, 1872, lists LaCome's mercantile as one of three stores in San Luis in addition to a blacksmith, butcher, beer saloon, carpenter, and two hotels.
Hawken rifle.
LaCome's .58 caliber percussion lock prairie rifle is displayed in the Palace of the Governors museum in Santa Fe, where he is listed as a trader with the Zuni and Navajo. It is a Hawken style with a snail breech and double set trigger in a scroll guard. The .58 caliber untapered barrel is 36" x 1-1/8" and the rifle is approximately 53" in overall length with a 13-5/8" length of pull.
The rifle was originally a fullstock, but was either damaged and repaired or intentionally cut down to a halfstock length. A custom pewter nose cap on the stock and an oak underrib were added in the modification. The front sight is a copper base with bone blade. The cheekpiece is an earlier square syle typically found on flintlocks, rather than the beavertail typical of later percussion locks.
Senate run.
In 1876 Colorado held its first state elections. At age 55, LaCome ran against William H. Meyer for State Senate in Costilla County, 18th District. Meyer would later become the Lt. Governor of Colorado. Votes cast for "Locome" and "Lacompte" were included in the count for LaCome. Meyer carried the election 349-204.
Death and legacy.
LaCome died on November 11, 1888, and was buried beneath the floor of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores church in Arroyo Hondo.
LaCome's son, José Eulogio, inherited the mercantile and went on to serve as a sheriff and New Mexico state legislator, as well as owning a saloon and hotel and silver and gold mines. Sylvestre Augustin built a house in Arroyo Hondo that still stands on LaCome Road.


Granite Mountains (Wyoming)

The Granite Mountains are a short subrange of the Rocky Mountains in central Wyoming of the United States. The range runs approximately 100 mi (160 km) E-W along the south side of the Shoshone Basin, and north of the Sweetwater River, in eastern Fremont County and western Natrona County. The highest point is McIntosh Peak at . Independence Rock is at the east end of the range, and Split Rock was a prominent landmark on the Oregon Trail. The region is rich in uranium and other mineral deposits.


George River (Quebec)

George River (, "River of the Great Bay"; Naskapi: "Mushuan Shipu", "River without Trees"; Innu: "Metsheshu Shipu", "Eagle River"), formerly the East or George's River, is a river in northeastern Quebec, Canada, that flows from Lake Jannière mainly north to Ungava Bay.
The George is a big and wide river. It offers relatively easy and inexpensive access to Ungava Bay, compared to other major rivers of this area, making it popular for canoe camping trips.
Geography.
The George River originates about east of Schefferville in Lake Jannière, between bogs and swamps. The headwater lakes are shallow, connected by rushing rapids. After Lake Advance, the river runs through heavy whitewater until it reaches Indian House Lake (Naskapi: "Mushuan Nipi", "Big Lake in the Barrens"), which stretches if measured by Canadian topo maps, or if measured by its flatwater character.
After Indian House Lake, the George really starts to flow. It offers an abundance of rapids with various levels of difficulty until it reaches Kangiqsualujjuaq close to Ungava Bay. Because of its easy access, many people without the necessary experience and skills have travelled this river and unfortunately some lost their lives. The river is big and powerful. The power of the George leaves no room for error. Climatic conditions are ideal for hypothermia. Canoeists have to contend also with serious tidal effects in the last .
History.
The George River received its present name on 12 August 1811, by two Moravian missionaries Benjamin Gottlieb Kohlmeister and George Kmoch. These two missionaries came first to Okak in Labrador, then to Ungava Bay with a vision to evangelize the Inuit. They wrote in their diary: "We then proclaimed the name of the Kangertlualuksoak to be henceforth "George River", upon which every man fired his piece three times, the vollies being answered from the boat". The Moravian brothers wanted to honour George III, king of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760, who, in 1769, granted the Moravians land on the Labrador coast for permanent settlement.
John McLean, the factor of the Hudson's Bay Company outpost at Fort Chimo (present-day Kuujjuaq), established Fort Severight (present-day Kangiqsualujjuaq) at the mouth of the George in 1838. The Inuit of the area never settled around the post, preferring to live along the coast in summer and setting their camps about 50 km (30 mi) inland in winter.
In June 1839, McLean took a party up the George in his search for a convenient overland route between Ungava Bay and Fort Smith (present-day North West River) on Lake Melville. His predecessor Erland Erlandson had accidentally demonstrated its feasibility in 1834, but along a more circuitous route up the Koksoak. Lacking Innu guides, McLean's expedition ended in failure with the discovery of the Grand Falls (now Churchill Falls) on the Hamilton (now the Churchill) and the party retraced its steps. On the eastern shore of Erlandson's Lake (now Indian House Lake), they erected a post called in the winter of 1839–1840 to serve as a waystation and depot on the supply route they had established with Fort Nascopie on Petitsikapau Lake in the interior. Fort Trialalso referenced in HBC correspondence as "Erlandson's Post"became superfluous with McLean's 1841 discovery of a route through a series of lakes around the falls and its rapids, after which the prosperous Fort Nascopie was supplied from Fort Smith instead. The HBC closed the entire unprofitable Ungava District soon after, abandoning Fort Trial on 15 June 1842 and Fort Severight around the same time.
The old fort at the mouth of the river was reopened by the Hudson's Bay Company in September 1876, mostly to capture the local indigenous peoples' trade which had been going to the Moravians. The site abandoned again in the summer of 1878 before reopening again in 1883, after which it mostly served as a fishery for Fort Chimo until its closure in June 1952.
The George River was also the site of the ill-fated Leonidas Hubbard expedition of 1903. The subsequent successful canoe expeditions of Mina Hubbard and Dillon Wallace in 1905 and Hesketh Prichard in 1910 also followed the George.
George River caribou herd (GRCH).
The migratory George River caribou herd (GRCH), in the Ungava region of Quebec and Labrador in eastern Canada was once the world's largest herd with 800 000–900 000 animals. Although it is categorized as a subspecies "Rangifer tarandus caribou", the woodland caribou, the GRCH is migratory and like the barren-ground caribou its ecotype may be tundra caribou, Arctic, northern of migratory, not forest-dwelling and sedentary like most Woodland caribou ecotypes. It is unlike most woodland caribou in that it is not sedentary.
The dramatic decline in numbers of the George River herd has raised concerns. In the 1980s there were between 700,000 and 800,000 in the herd caribou migrating between northern Quebec and Labrador. By 2010 there were 74,000. By 2012 the numbers dropped to 27,600 and by 2014 there were only 14,200.
The "George River herd which morphologically and genetically belong to the woodland caribou subspecies, at one time represented the largest caribou herd in the world and migrating thousands of kilometers from boreal forest to open tundra, where most females calve within a three-week period. This behaviour is more like barren-ground caribou subspecies." They argued that "understanding ecotype in relation to existing ecological constraints and releases may be more important than the taxonomic relationships between populations."
According to a National Geographic Daily News article, the George River Caribou Herd (GRCH) (Rivière-George) numbered only 3,500 animals in the late 1940s. In 1958 the George River caribou herd was estimated to be numbered at 15,000. By 1988, it was the largest herd in the world with a population of 700,000. And by 1993 the numbers rose to 775,000 animals. By 2001, the herd was at 385,000 animals and continuing to decrease, totaling 75,000 animals in 2010. The most recent survey puts the herd size at fewer than 28,000. The George River herd, south of Ungava Bay, whose numbers reached about 800 000 towards 1993, had about 384 000 individuals in 2001.
In January 2013 the Innu, Inuit and Cree of Quebec and Nunatsiavut, NunatuKavut, and the Innu of Labrador formed the Ungava Peninsula Caribou Aboriginal Round Table held emergency meetings and issued a joint statement. in respond to the "critical decline" of the George River Caribou Herd (GRCH) and the "uncertain future" of the Leaf River Caribou Herd (LRCH) and Torngat Caribou Herds.
 The Government of Nunatsiavut recommended that the "George River caribou calving grounds by designating a 14,000 km2 protection zone under the Regional Land Use Plan for the Labrador Inuit Settlement Area."
Since the mid-1990s, the herd declined sharply and by 2010, it was reduced to 74,131—a drop of up to 92%.* A 2011 survey confirms a continuing decline of the George River migratory caribou herd population. By 2014 the herd was estimated to be about to 14 200, down from 27,600 in 2012, 74 131 in 2010 and 385 000 in 2001.


Kaipokok Bay

Kaipokok Bay is a bay in Labrador, Canada. The geographic feature extends for 75 km inland from the northern Atlantic Ocean. The bay is sparsely populated, with Postville being the only permanent settlement on the bay. Several trading posts existed along the bay until the 1950s.


Pompton people

The Pompton or Pamapon people were a sub-tribe of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans, who once lived northern New Jersey. The Pompton historically lived along Pompton and Pequannock Rivers, near what is now Paterson, New Jersey, but they left New Jersey after their lands had been taken without compensation by European colonists.
History.
The Pompton were native to the west bank of the Hudson above New York City in both New Jersy and New York. After the decimating Esopus War of 1664 they were invited by the Munsee to join the Wappingers. Bands of the Wappinger people inhabited the east side of the Hudson River, spanning from the Bronx to southernmost Columbia County, New York.
Memerescum, a Pompton sachem, was the "sole sachem of all the nations (towns or families) of Indians on Remopuck River, and on the east and west branches thereof, on Saddle River, Pasqueck River, Narranshunk River and Tappan, gave title to all the lands in upper or northwestern Bergen and Passaic counties.", indicating a combination of clans. His name appears on the Indian Deed of 1710 (otherwise known as the Ramapo Tract or the Schuyler Patent). Chief Katonah, who was the sachem of the condensed tribe called Ramapo in Connecticut, which originated from a tribe of Pompton and was forced to move to Connecticut by the encroachment of the Dutch. Tapgow, who was Katonah's uncle signed on the Indian Deed of 1710, the Wawayanda Patent and others.
Etymology.
Pompton is thought to mean "a place where they catch soft fish." Pequannock (in the name of the Township and of the Pequannock River) is thought to have been derived from the Lenape word "Paquettahhnuake", meaning, "cleared land ready or being readied for cultivation".


Bridger Range

The Bridger Range, also known as the Bridger Mountains, is a subrange of the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Montana in the United States. The range runs mostly in a north–south direction between Bozeman and Maudlow. It is separated from the Gallatin Range to the south by Bozeman Pass; from the Horseshoe Hills to the west by Dry Creek; from the Crazy Mountains to the east by the Shields River valley; and from the Big Belt Mountains to the north by Sixteen Mile Creek. The highest point in the Bridger Range is Sacagawea Peak (), which is visible to the northeast from Bozeman.
Although the range is mostly in Gallatin County, a small portion extends into Park County. Bozeman Pass, at an elevation of , is a narrow pass that lies between Bozeman and Livingston. The entire range is within Gallatin National Forest.
History.
The range is named after Jim Bridger, a mountain man of the 19th century who pioneered the Bridger Trail through mountains in southern Wyoming into the Bighorn Basin in 1864.
On January 10, 1938, Northwest Airlines Flight 2 crashed in the Bridger Mountains, killing all 10 aboard. This was the first fatal crash of a Northwest Airlines aircraft.
Prominent peaks.
The most prominent peaks in the Bridgers include:
Recreation.
Skiing.
The Bridger Range is also home to the ski area Bridger Bowl. With the first rope tow installed in 1951, Bridger Bowl quickly became a popular mountain with the locals. The area has a top elevation of 8700 feet and a base elevation of 6100 feet. On average the ski area receives of snow every year. Backcountry skiing is also very popular in the Bridgers, with snow being available on peaks such as Sacagawea from early November until late May/early June. Beginning in the 2008–2009 ski season, Bridger Bowl started to allow backcountry travel from the ski area via access gates on the northern and southern boundaries.
Hiking.
Though many hiking trails exist, Sacagawea Peak is a favorite hiking area in the Bridgers. The hike is a short but strenuous one-way trek through pine forest, alpine tundra and scree fields to the top of Sacagawea Peak. The Bridger Ridge Run is a race which takes place in mid-August. The race follows the ridgeline from Fairy Lake to the southern end of the range.


Chapleau, Ontario

Chapleau is a township in Sudbury District, Ontario, Canada. It is home to one of the world's largest wildlife preserves. Chapleau has a population of 1,964 according to the Canada 2016 Census.
The major industries within the town are the logging mill, Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM) (formerly, Tembec), and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) rail yards.
History.
The first European settlement in the area was established in 1777 by the Hudson's Bay Company. The settlement was a fur trading post about to Chapleau's north, on Big Missinabi Lake.
In 1885 the Canadian Pacific Railway was built through the area. The CPR chose this as a divisional point, and the town was founded. It was named in honour of Sir Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, a lawyer, journalist, businessman, politician, and most notably the 5th Premier of Quebec.
Louis Hémon, author of the French novel Maria Chapdelaine, was struck and killed by a train in Chapleau on 8 July 1913.
After a fire in 1948, the government was prompted to construct a road to Chapleau to enable logging contractors to truck timber before it rotted. The Chapleau Road (now Highway 129) was completed on January 28, 1949. In the early 1960s, Highway 101 was completed to link Chapleau with Timmins to the east, and Wawa to the west.
Chapleau also developed logging and lumber mill operations, up until 1994 the town supported no less than three lumber mills, but the United States' imposition of a softwood lumber tariff designed to benefit American lumber companies has led to many layoffs and difficult times for the town. At its largest, with large CPR and lumber operations, the town had a population of over 5,000. However, the town has been gradually shrinking since 1950.
In 1967, the Chapleau Centennial Museum was opened to showcase and celebrate local history. It is located at 94 Monk Street.
Geography and location.
Chapleau is located in central Northeastern Ontario, in the heart of the Canadian Shield. Chapleau is geographically isolated; the nearest cities are Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, and Sudbury, but all are more than a two-hour drive away. Highway 129 links the town with Highway 101, running east to Timmins and west to Wawa. Highway 129 also runs south, connecting with the Trans-Canada Highway, Highway 17 at Thessalon, from Chapleau.
Via Rail's Sudbury–White River train also connects Chapleau station with White River, Sudbury and a number of remote communities.
Three First Nations reserves are located near the township: Chapleau Cree First Nation, Brunswick House First Nation, and Chapleau Ojibway First Nation.
One unusual feature of the community's transportation network is that because a railway yard separates the community into distinct halves, the main street in the western portion of the community loops back over itself in a manner resembling a cloverleaf interchange, and then crosses over both itself and the railway yard on a grade separation before returning to street level to link to the eastern street grid.
Chapleau Crown Game Preserve.
Chapleau Crown Game Preserve to the north of the town is, at over , the largest animal preserve in the world. Protected wildlife include moose, black bears, pygmy shrews, bald eagles and loons. The preserve is a source of tourism, drawing nature-enthusiasts and fishermen to the township. All forms of hunting and trapping have been forbidden in the preserve since the 1920s. The result is an area with abundant wildlife. In fact, over 2,500 moose and over 2,000 black bears reside within the game preserve. Logging does occur within the preserve, as does fishing. There are two provincial parks and cottages located within the preserve.
Climate.
Chapleau experiences a humid continental climate ("Dfb") with warm, rainy summers and long, cold, and snowy winters.
Politics.
Chapleau was incorporated as the Corporation of the Township of Chapleau on February 1, 1901. Since that time it has been governed locally by a five-member council. The current council is made up of Mayor Michael Levesque and Councillors Rick Smith, Gerard Bernier, Nicolle Schuurman and Lisi Bernier.
Education.
The town has two high schools, Chapleau High School and École Secondaire Catholique Trillium, and three elementary schools, Chapleau Public School, École élémentaire catholique Sacré-Cœur, and Our Lady of Fatima. Chapleau High and Chapleau Public belong to the Algoma District School Board, the others belong to the French and English Catholic school boards.
Economy.
Main employers in Chapleau include the Canadian Pacific Railway and Tembec. Tourism is also an important part of the economy with several outfitters and lodges operating in the area.
In 2012, the Chapleau Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) was founded as an independent, non-profit organization. Resolution 28-371, passed by the Chapleau Town Council on September 24, 2012, established the existing agreement between the Township and the CEDC.
Goldcorp is working towards the advanced exploration phase at the Borden Gold project.
Wireless mesh Internet.
Starting on November 9, 2005, Chapleau residents began testing a wireless mesh Internet technology in a program called Project Chapleau. This Wi-Fi connection covered the entire town and was the first of its kind in Canada.
This service was designed and implemented by Bell Canada Enterprises, Nortel Networks, and the Township of Chapleau.
An analysis of the impact of high-speed internet on the residents and town of Chapleau was published in 2010 by Jessica Collins and Barry Wellman.
In April, 2007, Project Chapleau concluded without a reason being given. The Project Chapleau office (The Chapleau Innovation Centre) was converted into a public internet access point, with job search and community networking facilities.
Media.
All of the township's regular broadcast media are rebroadcasters of signals from Sudbury, Timmins or Wawa. The township's only purely local media service is CFJW-FM 93.7, a special station which airs information from the municipal government in the event of a weather or industrial emergency. The station does not broadcast on a regular basis; in the event of an emergency, the municipal fire service activates its fire sirens to alert residents to tune in the station.


Sawtooth Range (Montana)

The Sawtooth Range, el. , is a small mountain range west of Choteau, Montana in Teton County, Montana.


English Neighborhood

The English Neighborhood was the colonial-era name for the towns in eastern Bergen County, New Jersey, along the Hudson Palisades between the Hudson River and the Hackensack River, particularly around its main tributary, Overpeck Creek. The region had been part of the Dutch New Netherland colony of Bergen, whose main town was located at Bergen Square in today's Jersey City. The name speaks to the geography of the region, "bergen" being the Dutch word for "hills." Earlier attempts at settlement at Achter Col ("behind the ridge") and Vriessendael had been compromised in conflicts with the precolonial population, phratries of the Lenape known by their exonyms, the Hackensack and the Tappan.
History.
After the surrender of Fort Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan and annexation of the entire Dutch province by the British in 1664, northeastern New Jersey became part of the proprietary colony of East Jersey. In order to encourage settlement the land was quickly divided and flurry of land titles were given or confirmed by the new government. While many were awarded to the existing New Netherlander population, many were given to migrating English and Huguenot settlers, some who may have come from Europe, many who made their way from New England, Long Island, or the West Indies. On June 10, 1669, Samuel Edsall, received a patent "for land betw. Hudson R. and Overpeck's", which encompassed much of the area. By 1675 it was being called the English Neighborhood. Born in Reading, England about 1630, Edsall had come to New Amsterdam at the age of eighteen, where he was listed among the new arrivals as "a bever maker," or hatter. His industry, and possibly his marriage with Jannetje Wessels, qualified him as a small burgher and property owner. He took up residence on Bergen Neck, learned the Lenape language, and acted as interpreter for Robert Treat's purchase of the Newark Tract. After the British takeover he was able to purchase of a tract of nearly two thousand acres, with a frontage of almost two and a half miles on the Hudson, extending northward
from Bulls Ferry and stretching back to Overpeck Creek and the Hackensack River, siting own farm near what is now Palisades Park. From time to time he sold or leased other parts of the estate.
In 1683, administrative districts in the form of counties were established, with Bergen County encompassing the land between the aforementioned rivers from Bergen Point in the south to the newly created and ambiguous state line with New York. In 1693, the county was divided into two townships, separated at the current Hudson-Bergen line, with Hackensack Township to the north and Bergen Township to the south. In 1710, the nearby village of Hackensack became the county seat.
Prior to the American Revolutionary War, a liberty pole was erected at a major crossroads, but the English Neighborhood was soon occupied by the British Army after George Washington's retreat from Fort Lee, which had crossed the area. The Continental Army maintained a presence in the area to observe the movement of the British in New York. Its position between the two armies led to many foraging parties and skirmishes. sometimes called the Forage War. Major John André, executed for his collusion with Benedict Arnold, mentions the English Neighborhood in his poem "The Cow Chase", in which he muses on the foiling of Anthony Wayne's attempt to secure cows from Bergen.
On March 22, 1871, Hackensack Township was subdivided into three new Townships, each stretching from the Hudson River on the east to the Hackensack River in the west. The southernmost portion, the English Neighborhood, became Ridgefield Township. In 1878, the New Jersey Legislature provided for the formation of a borough within a township not exceeding four square miles. The passage of a revised Borough Act resulted in a series of subdivisions creating new boroughs. Municipalities created from Ridgefield Township (or portions thereof) were Bogota (1894), Leonia (1894), Undercliff (1894; renamed "Edgewater" in 1899), Fairview (1894), Teaneck (part) (1895), Cliffside Park (1895), Englewood (part) (1895), Palisades Park (1899). The creation of Fort Lee, New Jersey on April 18, 1904 put an end to Ridgefield Township.
The area underwent significant growth as its villages expanded and agricultural land was developed as suburbs, spurred by expansion of the railway system in the late 19th century. The Erie Railroad ran trains to its Hudson waterfront Pavonia Terminal (later via the Susquehanna Transfer with connecting bus service to Manhattan via the Lincoln Tunnel). The last train on the Northern Branch from the terminal to the area was on December 12, 1958. There are proposals to restore service with extension of a Hudson Bergen Light Rail line known as the Northern Branch Corridor Project.
Though the term English Neighborhood is no longer widely used there are still places which continue to bear the name. The Dutch Reformed Church in the English Neighborhood in Ridgefield was built in 1793 by a congregation established in 1770.
In Fairview, the English Neighborhood Park
and the English Neighborhood Public School
are still used describe places in part of the borough. The Union School of the English Neighborhood, moved from its original location, is a landmark
in Englewood. The name also survives in the names of Englewood and Englewood Cliffs themselves, which derive from a corruption of English Neighborhood.


List of the major 3000-meter summits of the Rocky Mountains

The following sortable table comprises the 184 peaks of the Rocky Mountains of North America with at least of elevation and at least of topographic prominence.
The summit of a mountain or hill may be measured in three principal ways:
In the Rocky Mountains, 62 major summits exceed elevation, 137 exceed , and the following 184 exceed elevation.
Major 3000-meter summits.
Of the 401 major 3000-meter summits of greater North America, the following 184 (or 46%) are in the Rocky Mountains.
Of these 184 major 3000-meter summits of the Rocky Mountains, 116 are located in Colorado, 17 in Wyoming, 15 in Montana, 12 in Alberta, 11 in British Columbia, seven in New Mexico, five in Idaho, and four in Utah. Three of these summits lie on the Great Divide between Alberta and British Columbia. The 30 highest major summits of the Rocky Mountains are all located in Colorado.


Little Grand Rapids

Little Grand Rapids is a community in east central Manitoba, Canada, near the Ontario border. It is located approximately 280 kilometers or 173 miles north-northeast from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
It is a fly-in community, with only a winter road. Planes fly into Little Grand Rapids Airport. It features a Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment and a Northern Store.
It is along the Berens River, which is part of the Lake Winnipeg watershed.
Demographics.
In the 2011 Census, the Little Grand Rapids designated place had a population of 10 living in 2 private dwellings. In the 2016 Census, there is no individual living in this community.


Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba

Lac du Bonnet is a town in Manitoba, Canada located northeast of Winnipeg on the west shore of the Winnipeg River. It is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet. The word "Bonnet" is pronounced by locals as "bonny."
History.
The lake after which Lac du Bonnet takes its name was so called by the French explorer and fur trader Pierre Gaultier La Verendrye, circa 1732. The shape of the lake, itself part of the Winnipeg River, is said to have reminded him of a bonnet. The name "Lac du Bonnet" appears on a map of the explorer Joseph Derouen as early as 1760.
Beginning in 1926, Lac du Bonnet was home to the #1 Wing of the Royal Canadian Air Force. As a backup communication system to wireless telephone transmitters, aircraft carried pigeons aboard, and as such a pigeon rookery was established on the air force base. RCAF operations in Lac du Bonnet continued until 1937.
Demographics.
In the 2016 Census, Lac du Bonnet had a population of living in of its total private dwellings.
Attractions and events.
On the first of July there's the Canada Day parade, with fireworks, carnival rides, car show, and bingo. There are also usually many other community-hosted events to attend.
In November Christmas-themed lighting is set up on the streets, kids can visit Santa, and the Christmas tree is all set up.
There are designated snowmobile trails into Lac du Bonnet and specific areas for snowmobile operators to park.
During the weekend in early March the river is dotted with one thousand holes for the local ice fishing derby.
The annual Fire & Water Music Festival takes place on August-long weekend. Artists from across the country come to perform their music.
Trivia.
Lac du Bonnet was the location of the first airmail flight in Manitoba, on 4 October 1927. This event is commemorated with a plaque and marker on the E side of Park Avenue by 3rd Street, next to the parking lot. According to the plaque, the flight was some 85lbs of mail, taken from here to Bissett and Wadhope.
Media.
Radio and television.
CBWT-2 first went on the air on May 27, 1968. In early 1969 the province-wide microwave system replaced the kine recordings and citizens of Lac Du Bonnet have had live television since then.


William Charles (fur trader)

William Charles (March 5, 1831 – May 21, 1903) was a Pacific coast pioneer, Hudson's Bay Company factor, and a prominent figure in the early history of British Columbia.
Life.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of John Charles (1805-1882), one of the early factors of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Jane Auld, the daughter of fur trader William Auld, Charles was educated at Hill Street School and University of Edinburgh. The family moved to 42 Inverleith Row (then a new villa) in the late 1840s.
In May 1852 he travelled between Liverpool and New York on the SS Great Britain.
He came to the Pacific coast of Canada from Edinburgh by way of Panama in 1852, and was for a time employed by Breck & Ogden of Portland, Oregon. In June 1853, he joined the HBC at Fort Vancouver (Vancouver, Wash.) as an apprentice clerk. He was stationed at different times at old Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River, Fort Hall, Utah, and at Fort Boisé. He was transferred to Victoria, British Columbia in 1858 and was subsequently in charge of Fort Hope, Fort Yale and Fort Kamloops.
The Fraser gold-rush of 1858, transformed the HBC in British Columbia from a fur-trading to a retailing company as the HBC placed steamers on the lower Fraser and on Kamloops Lake and entered the retail trade, selling hardware and food at all its posts in the gold districts. Joseph William McKay and Ovid Allard worked with Charles on these projects.
In 1874 he was promoted to the grade of chief factor and placed in charge of the Victoria establishment. Later, in 1874, he was made inspecting chief factor of the western department, an important post, including in its jurisdiction all the Hudson's Bay establishments in and west of the Rocky mountains, retaining this position up to the time of his retirement in 1885, thereafter residing permanently in Victoria to the time of his death in 1903.
Family.
On October 3, 1859, Charles married Mary Ann Birnie, a native of Astoria, Oregon. They had two daughters and a son.


North Wabasca Lake

North Wabasca Lake is located in northern Alberta, Canada, 322km north of Edmonton and is the fifteenth largest lake in Alberta. The hamlet of Wabasca is located on the southeast shore of the lake, and along the path of the river flowing north from South Wabasca Lake. Two First Nations Reserves border the lake, Wabasca 166C in the northeast, and Wabasca 166B in the south.
Geography.
Surface area of the lake measures and is over long and at its widest point. North Wabasca Lake averages in depth and is at its deepest. The South Wabasca Lake outlet and Willow River in the south are the primary inflows. The lake drains northwards into the Peace River by way of the Wabasca River and is located in the watershed which comprises part of the south-central headwaters of the Mackenzie River System.
Ecology.
Flora.
Located in the Wabasca Lowland Ecoregion, the land in the watershed supporting the lake is mostly covered in forests of Trembling aspen, Balsam poplar, and White spruce. This is followed by shrub-land and grassland interlaced with areas of muskeg and Black spruce. Urban and industrial development make up a small percentage of the land use with agricultural use being almost entirely non-existent.
Fauna.
Common sport fishing species found in the lake are Northern Pike, Walleye, Yellow Perch, Lake Whitefish and Burbot. Other species of fish found in the lake include Northern Cisco, White Sucker, and Longnose Sucker. Over 25 species of zooplankton are found in North Wabasca Lake and are an important indicator of the health of the lake. Some examples of species native to the lake include Rotifer, Cladocera, Calanoida Copepod, Cyclopoida Copepod, and Nauplii. These small and microscopic animals are an important link in the food web of the lake.
Conservation and development.
The Southeast and Northeast shores have both seen extensive development by the hamlet of Wabasca and Wabasca 166B in the south and Wabasca 166C in the north. According to the 2016 Government of Canada Census, a total of 1680 people live on the lakes shores. There are currently no protected areas in the vicinity of the lake beyond small municipal parks.
The lake hosts many recreational activities year round. Eli Cardinal Park features a concrete boat launch and swimming dock, while the Lions Club Campground further north provides a sandy beach and lakeside camping facilities in the summer months as well as an additional smaller boat launch. Fishing is popular and it's common to find ice fishing shacks on the lake in the winter months.
Highway 754 runs south along the east of the lake and crosses the Wabasca river where the road meets Highway 813. It then runs along the southern shore of the lake, crossing the Willow River and heading on towards Slave Lake.


Le Pensie

Le Pensie is an uninhabited locality and former trading post in Northern Manitoba. It is located southeast of Lac Brochet, on the Cochrane River, just north of Cann Lake.
History.
The site is named for Adolphe Lapensée, known in English as Adolf La Pensie. Lapensée was a Hudson's Bay Company post manager and fur trader, originally from Plantagenet, Ontario.
After leaving the HBC, he became an independent fur trader in 1922, operating a post in the Cochrane River area. In 1930, he moved to Brochet with his children so they could attend school, and the post was closed.
The site was first noted on a map by the Department of the Interior in 1925. The name's official status was revoked in 1950, but reinstated in 1979.


Moose Factory

Moose Factory is a community in the Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River, which is at the southern end of James Bay. It was the first English-speaking settlement in lands now making up Ontario and the second Hudson's Bay Company post to be set up in North America after Fort Rupert. On the mainland, across the Moose River, is the nearby community of Moosonee, which is accessible by water taxi in the summer, ice road in the winter, and chartered helicopter in the off-season (break-up or freeze-up).
A private company also offers freighter-canoe ferry service across the Moose River. As of 2020, the MV Niska 1 ferry was operating between Moosonee and Moose Factory, carrying passengers and vehicles.
The settlement is mainly inhabited by the Cree, but the hospital that provides healthcare services to the people of the island and surrounding area (collectively known as the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority) employs a diverse group of people.
The term "Factory" refers to the jurisdiction of a factor (a business agent or merchant in charge of buying or selling) of the Hudson's Bay Company.
History.
The area was explored by Pierre-Esprit Radisson (an HBC employee) in the winter of 1670/71 from the base at Rupert House. In 1673, Charles Bayly of the Hudson's Bay Company, Governor of the HBC, established a fur-trading post originally called Moose Fort. The property was located on traditional Môsonîw Ililiw (Cree) lands. According to the Government of Canada, the Cree traded furs and also "supplied necessary provisions and labour ... throughout the 1700s".
In addition to trading, the site was also intended to protect the company's interests from French traders to the south. The fort was profitable and had a direct impact on the fur trade in New France. So in 1686, Chevalier de Troyes led a small contingent of French soldiers north on an expedition to raid HBC forts. The English defenders were caught by total surprise and surrendered. The French captured Moose Fort and renamed it to Fort St. Louis.
Ten years later in 1696, the English recaptured it and burned it to the ground. No trace has remained of this original fort.
In 1713, the fort was formally given to the British under the Treaty of Utrecht but it was not reoccupied for almost two decades.
The Hudson's Bay Company set up a new fort in 1730, one mile upstream from the old site, to accommodate Cree traders for whom travel to the other James Bay posts was too dangerous. Five years later, this one also was destroyed by a fire that started in the kitchen, but was rebuilt over a period of seven years.
By the early 1800s, the settlement was the "headquarters for the HBC’s Southern Department".
In 1821, when the Hudson's Bay Company merged with the rival North West Company, there were no longer any serious threats and the post expanded beyond the fort's palisades. Thereafter it came to be known as Moose Factory. It became HBC's main base on James Bay, being the administrative headquarters of the Southern Department. The Governor of Rupert's Land and Council met frequently there to plan for the coming year's operations.
In 1905, the Cree signed a treaty (Treaty 9) with the government that established the Factory Island Indian Reserve. Around the same time, the Parisian furrier company Revillon Frères set up a trading post on the west bank of the Moose River. This post, first known as Moose River Post, grew into the town of Moosonee and provided stiff competition to the HBC Moose Factory post.
Isolated until 1931, the community was finally connected by the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway to Moosonee and it became a service type economy. Supplies could be delivered from the south by train, thereby making redundant the once-yearly sea voyages on which the settlement had previously relied. In 1936, the last supply ship arrived.
After World War II, the Hudson's Bay Company transformed into a retail business, and in 1960 it opened a modern retail store in Moose Factory. The HBC staff house and other historic properties were converted into the open-air museum of Centennial Park that opened in 1967. The HBC continued to operate in Moose Factory until 1987, when its operations in northern Canada, including Moose Factory, were sold to The North West Company. Today, the North West Company operates a grocery and general goods store at the Moose Cree Complex selling "food, as well as general merchandise such as clothing, electronics and housewares" near some of the historic HBC buildings.
Climate.
The Moose Factory and Moosonee area has a very cold humid continental climate. The climate data is from Moosonee, around to the west.
Economy.
The economy of the island is based on the healthcare, service, tourism, and construction industries. The largest employer is the Weeneebayko General Hospital, followed by Moose Cree First Nation and Northern Stores.
Northern Stores, G.G.'s and QuickStop are the main stores on the island. "The Complex" is the retail and community centre containing a grocery store (Northern Stores), a restaurant, a Canada Post outlet, a pharmacy, and offices.
Although few people practice a solely traditional lifestyle (i.e. living only off the land), the majority of people still participate in the spring and fall moose hunt. Traditional skills such as preparing and tanning of moose hides as well as the creation of moccasins and moose hide mitts with beading are still practiced today. Other crafts practiced in Moose Factory include the production of tamarack geese, snowshoes, and soapstone carvings which are sold locally.
Healthcare.
In 1949 the Moose Factory General Hospital was built – a $3 million project – as a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients on Moose Factory Island "in order to isolate the disease" in response to a tuberculosis epidemic. It served both First Nations and Inuit patients.
Today the Weeneebayko General Hospital provides medical services as part of the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority to residents of Moose Factory, Moosonee as well as Fort Albany, Ontario, Attawapiskat First Nation, Kashechewan First Nation and Peawanuck First Nation. The medical staff (consisting of 12 family physicians, 1 anesthetist and 1 surgeon) work with their tertiary care facilities in Kingston, Toronto, Sudbury, and Timmins.
The hospital provides various specialized services:
Chartered aircraft "schedevacs" or "medivacs" are used to provide patients with transportation to diagnostic tests (e.g. CT and MRI) and specialize care. Queen's University is the primary university link with many medical students completing placements at the hospital. However, there are also associations with the University of Toronto, McMaster University, University of Ottawa, and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
Education.
Moose Factory has three schools:
Some post-secondary programs are provided by Northern College via distant learning (correspondence, video, and web-based courses) or Ontario Learn Courses (web-based). James Bay Education Centre Northern College-Education Complex is a liaison base for the community college.
In Moose Factory, Bishop Horden Memorial School also known as Horden Hall Residential School, Moose Factory Residential School, Moose Fort Indian Residential School (1907-1963), named after Bishop Horden, serving all the communities in the James Bay area, was run by the Anglican Church. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated the school which, like others across Canada, where the highest number of premature deaths among children at these schools was from tuberculosis.
Political organization.
The island is politically divided into two political entities:
The Electoral districts include:
The Mushkegowuk Tribal Council, a non-profit Regional Chiefs' Council representing eight Cree First Nations in northern Ontario, has its headquarters in Moose Factory.
The namesake Moose Factory 68 Reserve, also belonging to the Moose Cree First Nation, is about upstream on the east banks of the Moose River.
Attractions and tourism.
Notable attractions include the Centennial Park with its 19th-century buildings associated with the Hudson's Bay Company post, Cree Cultural Interpretive Centre, the Cree Village Eco Lodge and St. Thomas' Anglican Church. Outdoor tourism in summer and winter, such as trap-line tours, canoe expeditions, and snowmobile trips, are locally provided. The Tidewater Provincial Park is nearby on the adjacent island facing Moosonee. Visitors also take freight canoe tours that leave from Moose Factory or Moosonee downstream to James Bay at the mouth of the river, or upstream to Fossil Island.
Tourism agencies recommend the Polar Bear Express as a "great rail excursion", between Cochrane, Ontario and Moosonee, to view the "hydroelectric dams, isolated homes and perhaps even some wildlife." The train, operated by Ontario Northland, offers passenger and freight service; tickets are sold by phone or at the offices Cochrane, Moosonee, Moose Factory and Timmins. The train will stop on demand in some locations as part of the flag stop service. Service on the Express operates six days a week in summer, and five days per week during other seasons. No meal service is available.
The Lonely Planet guide lists the Polar Bear Habitat & Heritage Village in Cocrhane and the Cree Cultural Interpretive Centre as tourist attractions in the "Cochrane to Moose Factory & Moosonee" region.
Moose Cree First Nation Tourism indicates that available activities from members include boat, island and snowmobile tours, "traditional cooking, fishing (summer and winter)" and HBC historical tours.
Cree Cultural Interpretive Centre.
Cree Cultural Interpretive Centre is an interpretive centre that displays many aspects of Cree culture and crafts.
Cree Eco Lodge.
Cree Village Eco Lodge is an eco-tourist lodge with modern rooms and a restaurant; it opened in 2000. Traditional bannock and goose (in season) is prepared in a teepee adjacent to the lodge. From the lodge visitors can see Sawpit Island on the southern side of the canal and Charles Island on the opposite side of the canal.
Boat rides (for a fee) are available out the Moose River to James Bay, or "on fishing and canoeing trips to the Moose River Migratory Bird Sanctuary and the Cree Cultural Interpretive Centre". Other types of boat tours are also available.
Centennial Park.
The "Moose Factory Buildings National Historic Site of Canada" "consisted of several buildings, of which only the Staff House is at its original location. Built in 1847-50, it is the last surviving fur trade officer’s dwelling in Canada and the oldest building in the James Bay area. The Powder Magazine, built in 1865-66, is situated some distance away on its original location, in what is now Centennial Park."
The 19th-century buildings associated with the Hudson's Bay Company post were designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1957.
The "Moose Factory Hudson's Bay Company staff house" was originally the officers' dwelling for HBC doctors, captains, clerks, and secretaries; it is now used as a museum and tourism office. The staff house was built between 1847 and 1850, making it the oldest building in the James Bay area and the last surviving HBC officers' dwelling. Like several other buildings in this National Historic site, the Staff House is a historic listed building, recognized by the Ontario Heritage Trust.
In the "Hudson's Bay Company cemetery" the oldest tombstone is dated 1802 and marks the grave of the Cree wife and children of John Thomas who was the post's factor at that time. There are only a few graves of British men, since they would return home upon retirement or completion of their contract. In total, 51 graves stones can be found here.
"Joseph Turner House" is the oldest known surviving servant house of the HBC, built in 1863 and named for HBC trader Joseph Turner (1783-1865), son of an English surveyor and Ojibway wife.
William McLeod House was the carpenter's house built in 1889-90 by HBC carpenter William McLeod. The house, historically listed by the Province and by the federal government, once served as the home for the McLeod family.
"Ham Sackabuckiskum House" is the only surviving Cree summer home and one of the first balloon-frame construction house in Moose Factory, built in 1926 by the HBC as an incentive to ensure loyalty from Cree trappers. It is also a historically listed building. In the early days, the house was the residence of Sackabuckiskum, a "Cree fur-trapper and HBC affiliate".
The "blacksmith shop" is the last known surviving HBC blacksmith shop, built in 1849, and was used until 1934.
The "powder magazine" is the only stone structure, built in 1865, was part of the palisaded warehouse complex. In the early 20th century, it was converted from gunpowder to general storage.
St. Thomas' Anglican Church.
St. Thomas' Anglican Church is a historic Carpenter Gothic style Anglican church built by the Hudson's Bay Company. Construction began in 1864 and was completed in 1885.


Penrose Peak (Montana)

Penrose Peak is a mountain in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, United States.


Jean Baptiste Rousseau (fur trader)

Jean Baptiste Rousseau was born in Montreal, New France, but became an influential fur trader, merchant, and translator under British administration of Upper Canada.
His father, Jean-Bonaventure Rousseau, was a fur trader, operating out of the area around Lake Ontario. Through his own work in the fur trade, Rousseau learned the languages of the local First Nations. In 1770 Rousseau's father was licensed to trade fur at the mouth of what is now known as the Humber River, a stopping place for First Nations people travelling from Lake Ontario to the upper lakes.
Rousseau had strong ties with Joseph Brant, the influential Mohawk leader who had fought with the British during the American Revolution. His second wife, Margaret Clyne, was Brant's adopted daughter. Rousseau and his wife named one of their sons Joseph Brant. Rousseau would later purchase 12,000 acres of Mohawk land through Brant.
John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, granted Rousseau 500 acres around his fur trading post on the eastern bank of the Humber River in what is now the Swansea neighbourhood.
Rousseau became one of the first merchants in York, and later Hamilton. He was owner, or part-owner, of multiple grist mills and taverns, in Kingston, York, Ancaster and Brantford.
Rousseau had been a long-time officer in the militia. He was a Lieutenant Colonel when he served during the Battle of Queenston Heights, in October 1812. He survived the battle, without being wounded, but fell ill and died in November, 1812.


Fort Altena


Bonnie Brooks

Bonnie Brooks (born 1953) is a Canadian department store executive who is former vice-chairman of Hudson's Bay Company, having formerly served as president and CEO of its department store arm Hudson's Bay.
On July 6, 2016 Hudson's Bay announced via press release that Bonnie Brooks would retire in December 2016.
Brooks was born in 1953 to Gordon and Rose Brooks and was raised in London, Ontario. After university she worked at Dylex's owned Fairweather, then with upscale retailer Holt Renfrew before moving to Hong Kong to work for Lane Crawford as president from 1997 to 2008.
In December 2016, Brooks was named a Member of the Order of Canada.


Johannes Hansen (mayor)

Johannes Hansen or Hans Hansen (1695 – 1756) was the Mayor of Albany, New York from 1731 to 1732.
Early life.
Hansen was born on 1695 in Albany, New York. He was the eldest son of seven children born to Albany mayor Hendrick Hansen (1665–1724) and Debora Van Dam (c. 1670–1742), His siblings were Debora Hansen (1693–1745), who married Jacobus Beekman (1685–1739), Maria Hansen (1697–c. 1697), who married David A. Schuyler (1692–c. 1697), Nicholas Hansen (b. 1698), who married Engeltie Wemp, and Ryckert "Richard" Hansen (1703–1766), who married Sara Thong (d. 1733) and after her death, he married Catharina Ten Broeck (1717–c. 1780s).
His paternal grandparents were Eva Gillis de Meyer and Hans Hendrickse, a Beverwyck trader, and Eva Gillis de Meyer Hansen. His mother was the only daughter of Claes Ripse Van Dam (d. 1709), an carpenter and Justice of the Peace for Albany County and Maria (née Bords) Van Dam.
Career.
According to his fathers 1723 will, and upon his father's death in 1724, he inherited, by right of primogeniture, his father's "lot of ground in Albany, on the north side thereof." He also received, equally divided with his brother Nicholas, his father's farm and 2,000 acres of land that was situated "on the north side of the Maqueses river" near Ticonderoga. The land was granted to him by Patent from Brig. Gen. Robert Hunter who served Governor of the Province of New York. One was to get the house, barn, barracks, and other buildings along with the responsibility to assist and pay upkeep towards the other half. His father's mill was to be held in partnership between the sons.
In 1721, he served as a Constable of Albany. In 1731, surprising many, he was appointed the Mayor of Albany, New York by John Montgomerie, succeeding Johannes de Peyster III. He served in that role for a year until De Peyster was again appointed mayor. He was again appointed mayor in 1754 by James De Lancey, succeeding Robert Sanders. He was reappointed and died in office in 1756.
Again following after his father, he served as a Commissioners of Indian Affairs for a total of 2 years, having been appointed in 1754.
Personal life.
In 1723, he married Sara Cuyler (b. 1693), daughter of mayor Johannes Cuyler (1661–1740) and Elsje Ten Broeck (d. 1752), herself the daughter of Albany Mayor Dirck Wesselse Ten Broeck (1638–1717). Together, they were the parents of seven children, including:
Hansen left a will dated March 10, 1756, and died later that same year 1756 in Albany.


Inukjuak

Inukjuak (, "Inujjuaq" or "Inukjuaq" in Latin script, meaning 'The Giant') is a northern village (Inuit community) located on Hudson Bay at the mouth of the Innuksuak River in Nunavik, in the region of northern Quebec, Canada. Its population is 1,757 as of the 2016 Canadian Census. An older spelling is ; its former name was Port Harrison.
It is not accessible by road, but by boat in summer and year-round by air through Inukjuak Airport.
The police services for Inukjuak are provided by the Kativik Regional Police Force, which has one police station in the village.
'The Giant' is the literal translation of the word Inukjuak, but originally it was Inurjuat, which means "many people". In the past there was an Inuk (singular for the word Inuit) who went down to the river of Inukjuak to fetch some water. While there, the person saw many Inuit in kayaks approaching from the mouth of the river, and then yelled back out to the community "". That is where the name for the community comes from.
History.
The many archeological sites near Inukjuak indicate that the area has long been inhabited by the Inuit.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Révillon Frères company set up a fur trading post in Inukjuak, originally called Port Harrison. To compete with them, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) established a post in 1920. In the same year, Révillon Frères paid for Robert J. Flaherty to film "Nanook of the North" (released 1922) in the area.
The HBC bought out Révillon Frères in 1936 and continued its trade monopoly here until 1958. In 1927 an Anglican mission was established, followed by a post office and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) detachment in 1935, a nursing station in 1947, and a school in 1951. From this time on the Inuit started to give up their traditional nomadic way of life and live permanently in the community. A cooperative store was formed in 1962. Inukjuak was legally established as a municipality in 1980.
In 1953, the Canadian government controversially relocated some of the area's inhabitants to Resolute and Grise Fiord—then in the Northwest Territories, but now part of Nunavut. The relocation has been described as a humanitarian gesture to save the lives of starving native people and enable them to continue a subsistence lifestyle and conversely described as a forced migration as part of a plan to establish a Canadian presence in the High Arctic and assert its sovereignty with human flagpoles. This relocation caused families to be split up and relocated persons faced hardships in the much more severe conditions of the far north.
Artist Leah Nuvalinga Qumaluk was born in Inukjuak in 1934.
Geography.
Despite its bitterly cold climate, Inukjuak is actually not very far north – especially for an area above the tree line. It is by North American standards located far south of warm-summer inland areas like Yellowknife and Fairbanks where vegetation thrives. Being on the 58th parallel it is located closer to the equator than cities like Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Saint Petersburg, all of which have far gentler year-round climates. It is also on the same parallel as the extremely mild northern tip of mainland Scotland (Thurso). With the North American population centres being further south due to the cold climate it still lies far north of provincial centres Montreal and Quebec City, being located in the distant wilderness from the majority of Quebec's population. It also lies at a distance from Nunavik's largest population centre Kuujjuaq that is on a similar latitude but further to the east.
Climate.
Inukjuak has a polar climate with a July average of and February average of . The climate is influenced by the freezing of the shallow Hudson Bay combined with extremely moderated summers with very pronounced seasonal lag as the bay thaws. As a result, Inukjuak gets an extremely cold climate for the latitude, especially considering its maritime position. On similar latitudes in Scandinavia in northern Europe, or the northernmost tip of mainland Scotland the summers are close to warmer and winters are around the freezing point – demonstrating the extreme chilliness of the climate.
For example, Stockholm is warmer annually, in spite of being a full degree farther north. Maritime climates in northern Scotland such as Thurso even make the mark of being milder annually on the same latitude. Even compared to geographically analogous locations in the Russian Far East, Inukjuak has an annual mean colder than Aldan and colder than Magadan, whilst receiving about an hour less sunshine each day than those two localities. Due to the cold summers, Inukjuak is above the tree line despite lying more than from the pole.
Temperatures in Inukjuak are below freezing from mid-October to late May – the pronounced seasonal lag means May averages colder than October, April colder than November, and March colder than December. Only during a freakish warm wave on 5 December 1923 has Inukjuak recorded a temperature above between November and April, while January has only topped freezing in 1940. During the early winter snowfall is very heavy, averaging in November but tapering off somewhat as the freezing of Hudson Bay completes and reduces the availability of moisture. The most monthly snowfall has been in November 1933 and the most in one day on 11 November 1934, whilst the highest depth of snow on the ground has been on 14 April 1955.
Snow usually melts when temperatures rise above freezing late in May, with typically only remaining on the ground at the beginning of June. Summer weather in Inukjuak, due to the cool Hudson Bay and prevailing cyclonic weather, is generally damp and unsettled, with rainfall especially frequent in August and September as the bay thaws completely: these months expect rain on more than half the days. Occasional spells of hot weather occur when the wind drives air from the hotter continent onto the coast: the record high temperature is on 8 June 1955. By the end of September temperatures are already falling to near freezing and October sees the beginning of the long winter and a return to heavy snow driven by the western side of the Icelandic Low.
Education.
The Kativik School Board operates the Innalik School and the Vocational Education at Nunavimmi Pigiursavik Centre. Adl.


Jonas Michaelius

Jonas Michaëlius (1577 - after 1638) was the first clergyman to lead a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in America.
Biography.
He was probably born "Jonas Joannis Michielsz" in Hoorn. He studied at the University of Leyden from 1600-1605, and worked as a clergyman in various towns in Brabant from 1607-1612, from 1612-14 in "Nieuwbokswoude" (modern Nibbixwoud), and from 1614-1624 in Hem. He married in 1614. In 1624 he traveled, presumably with the fleet of Piet Hein, to Salvador, Brazil, where he served until the town was recaptured by the Portuguese in May 1625. From there he crossed the Atlantic to Guinea where he stayed until 1627. After briefly returning to the Netherlands, he went to New Amsterdam in January 1628, and was thus the first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in what would become the United States. He organized a consistory, and administered the sacraments, but returned to Holland in a few years, probably before the arrival of his successor, Everardus Bogardus, in 1633.
Michaëlius' wife died in New Amsterdam shortly after his arrival. The classis of Amsterdam wished to send Michaëlius back to America in 1637, but he did not return owing to political opposition from New Amsterdam.
It was long supposed that Bogardus was the first Reformed Church clergyman in the future United States, but the precedence of Michaëlius was established by a letter from him to Adrian Smoutius, dated New Amsterdam, 11 August 1628, which was found in the late 19th century in the Dutch archives at The Hague. In this letter he describes the degraded state of the natives, and proposes to educate their children without trying to redeem the parents. The letter is printed in an appendix to Mary L. Booth's "History of the City of New York" (New York, 1859).


Lucien Fontenelle

Lucien Fontenelle (1800 - 1840) was a prominent fur trader in the Nebraska area in the early-19th century who was born to François and Marie-Louise Fontenelle on the family plantation south of New Orleans. His parents were killed by a hurricane while he was away attending school in New Orleans. He left New Orleans in 1816 after having been raised for a time by an aunt, and began working in the lower-Missouri fur trade in 1819.
He later became involved in the Missouri Fur Company. He married Bright Sun, also known as Me-um-bane, a daughter of the Omaha Chief Big Elk. Among their children was Logan Fontenelle.
Early in his career Fontenelle was involved in fur trading into the Rocky Mountains. However starting in the late 1820s he was in command at Fontenelle's Post in what would become Bellevue, Nebraska, along the Missouri River. In 1831 he led a trading expedition to the Cache Valley of Utah and Idaho with Andrew Drips. On their return to St. Louis they were joined by some Nez Perces people seeking to get Christian missionaries to come to their people.


John Drew (trader)

John A. Drew was a prominent American trader in the Mackinac area in the early 19th century; it is now considered within the boundaries of Michigan. He also was a politician, serving in the Michigan House of Representatives for the 1841 session.
Biography.
Early in his career, Drew was an agent under Michael Dousman, trading with the local Ojibwe and Odaawaa. Later, together with Edward Biddle, Drew was part owner of Biddle & Drew.
In the 1836 Treaty of Washington, with the Ottawa, etc. (), Drew was granted a tract of one section and three quarters, to his Indian family, at Cheboygan rapids, at the rate of four dollars.
Later in his career, he served as a Michigan House of Representatives for the 1841 session.
Like many fur traders who lived in the country among the tribes, John Drew had liaisons with Native American women. In Leech Lake he had a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Drew (b 1806-d June 2, 1888), with an Ojibwe woman whose name is not recorded. Mary Elizabeth married Joseph Lecuryer. He worked for Drew after the trader set up a partnership known as Aiken and Drew. Lecuryer later was appointed as the first lighthouse keeper in Michigan; he was responsible for the Potawatowam Light House on Rock Island.
While living in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, John Drew had a relationship with Marie Saugeuaqua, an Ojibwe neighbor. They had a daughter, Polly Drew (b. December 13, 1817-d. Feb 11. 1897). Saugeuaqua had been married to John Baptiste Cadotte II, a fur trader in the same village.
John Drew married Margaret Lasley on May 27, 1822, in the Mackinac area. Their children were:


Gros Ventre Range

The Gros Ventre Range ( ) is part of the Central Rocky Mountains and is located west of the Continental Divide in U.S. state of Wyoming. The highest summit in the range is Doubletop Peak at . The Gros Ventre Range is mostly within the Gros Ventre Wilderness of Bridger-Teton National Forest. To the northwest of the range lies the valley known as Jackson Hole. Snow King ski resort is in the range adjacent to the town of Jackson, Wyoming. Also in the Gros Ventre Range is the Gros Ventre landslide, which in 1925 slid down the north slope of Sheep Mountain.


Cornelius Hendrickson

Cornelius Hendrickson was a Dutch mariner and explorer who charted the North American coastline near present-day New Jersey.
Early life.
Cornelius Hendrickson was born around 1572, the son of Lambert Barrentje Hendrickson, an admiral in the Dutch Navy. Nicknamed "Pretty Lambert", the admiral was a friend and associate of Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk, and commanded "De Tijger" in the Battle of Gibraltar of April 1607.
"Onrust".
In November 1613, Dutch fur trader Adrian Block was preparing to return to Holland with a cargo of furs when his ship, the , caught fire and was destroyed while moored in the North River near the tip of Manhattan Island. Over the winter, Block and his crew built the (Restless), which he used to explore the East River and Long Island Sound. The "Onrust" was long with a capacity of 16 tons. Later that year, Block rendezvoused with Hendrick Christiaensen off Cape Cod. Before boarding the "Fortuyn" to return to the Netherlands, Block turned the "Onrust" over to Hendrickson.
In 1614, Hendrickson navigated the "Onrust", through Barnegat Inlet to the Toms River, which he charted, along with Barnegat Bay, and Great Bay to the south.
In mid-to-late 1615, Hendrickson sailed into Godins Bay (Delaware Bay) and up the Zuyd Rivier (South River) to the Schuylkill River, searching for a site to establish a trading post for the Dutch West India Company. Hendricksz's voyage was made aboard the "IJseren Vercken" (Iron Hog), a vessel built in America.
During the winter of 1614–1615, some Dutch sailors remained at Fort Nassau to engage in the fur trade. Interested in the benefit of Dutch firearms, the Mohawk persuaded three to accompany them on a raid against the Susquehannocks. That spring the sailors were captured by the Susquehannocks who brought them south. In the course of his explorations Hendrickson he met a band of Susquehannock (Minquas) and ransomed the three for kettles, beads, and trade goods. In 1616, in Amsterdam, he filed the first definitive map of the New Jersey coastline.
He died in 1650, in Utrecht.


Ots-Toch

Ots-Toch (1600–c. 1640) was a Mohawk woman from Canajoharie, New York.
Name.
The source for this name is unknown; contemporary records of New Netherland do not mention it.
Personal life.
Ots-Toch was born in 1600 near Canajoharie, New York. She married Dutch settler Cornelise Antonnisen Van Slyke and founded the Van Slyke family in New Netherland. She was married sometime around 1620 and died in 1646. Ots-Toch and Cornelise had at least 3 children who survived to adulthood and served as interpreters between the Mohawk nation and the Dutch, including Jacques Cornelius Van Slyck (Itsychosaquachka), Marten Maurice van Slyck, and Hillitie.
Family.
Little is known of Ots-Toch, although she is indirectly referenced in many histories of early New York. For example, her daughter, Hillitie, chose to live with the Dutch, but served as an official Mohawk interpreter. Ots-Toch had at least three other children with Cornelise Van Slyke, and may have had more children by a Mohawk father. Cornelise Van Slyke lived with the Mohawk according to matrilineal tradition, and he was chosen as an official delegate of New Netherlands to the Mohawk. Their children also became interpreters for the Mohawk.
Some variants of Ots-Toch's legend claim that her father was French, Jaques Hertel. It should be noted, however, that the fullest early record of her says that her daughter Hilletie and her son Jacques Van Slyck were "half-breeds", indicating mixed race, but there is no indication that Hilletie's staunchly anti-Christian mother was daughter of a French Catholic. This record, from a 1680 interview with Hilletie, appears in the "Journal of Jasper Danckaerts." That journal and other records from her lifetime do not mention her name. She is not mentioned by name in writing until the 1800s, causing some researchers to question its reliability.
Legacy.
In local lore, Ots-Toch is often compared to Pocahontas, another 17th century Native American who married a European colonist. But Pocahontas eventually moved to Great Britain and converted to Christianity, whereas Ots-Toch remained with the Mohawk and is reported to have rejected European religion.


Harmen Jansen Knickerbocker

Harmen Jansen Knickerbocker (ca. 1648 – ca. 1720) was a Dutch colonist associated with the settlements of Albany (formerly Beverwyck and Fort Orange), Schaghticoke, Red Hook and Tivoli and in New Netherland. It appears to be the case that he never used the surname Knickerbocker, as we know it, during his own lifetime; that he went by a variety of surnames including Van Bommel, and the variety of forms that would evolve into Knickerbacker towards the end of his life, and Knickerbocker after his death. There is no evidence that either Knickerbacker or Knickerbocker are Dutch surnames, and it's possible that the Knickerbocker name may have been a nickname, or that it evolved out of one. Very occasionally the name Van Wye or Van Wijhe appears as part of the evolving name, or in addition to it, and Van Alstyne says this indicates he came from Wijhe.
Knickerbocker 'probably arrived in New Netherland/New York sometime in 1674 during the brief re-occupation of the colony by the Dutch in the third Dutch-Anglo War. First addressed as Van Bommel in Albany City records, it is fairly certain that he came from the general region called Bomlerswardt, lying between the Dutch fortified towns of Bommel-Zoutbommel and Maas Bommel.' If, indeed, Knickerbocker did come to the colony from the Bommel area, then it is much less clear why he's twice identified as being 'Van Wijhe"; perhaps, he'd lived in the tiny village of Wijhe, in Overijssel province, as well; perhaps, as some family historians claim, his family roots are associated with the village and a family of minor nobility originating there.
Historians associated with Castle Wijenburg, a Wijhe family holding in Echteld, Netherlands, have observed, "In the USA, the family Knickerbocker circulates a pedigree in which they (possibly) descend from Roelof van Wijhe of the Arnhem van Wijhe branch. We have not found any evidence for this. In this Knickerbocker family tree Roelof van Wijhe has a son Johannes van Wijhe (van Bommel) who married Jannetje Jansen from Masterlandt. Their son was Harmen Jansen van Wye (or Wijhe) who arrived in the USA in 1674 and in 1682 signed a contract with the name "van Wyekycback". This name then became Knickerbocker in America." In 2016 castle historians indicated they've been researching the history of both the castle and the family for more than a decade and state: " Roelof had two daughters but we've never found any proof for a son" and "We have never found any proof for a link between the Knickerbocker family and the Van Wijhes from Echteld."
Harmen married Elizabeth Bogaert, the daughter of Jan Bogaert and Cornelia Everts of Harlem, New York. Before 1682, Harmen settled near what is now Albany, New York, and there in 1704 he bought through Harnie Gansevoort one-fourth of the land in Dutchess County near Red Hook, New York, which had been patented in 1688 to Pieter Schuyler.
In 1722, Schuyler deeded seven (of thirteen) lots in the upper fourth of his patent to the seven children of Knickerbacker. The eldest of these children, Johannes Harmensen, received from the common council of the city of Albany a grant of of meadow and some acres of upland on the south side of Schaghticoke Creek. This Schaghticoke estate was held by Johannes Harmensen's son Johannes (1723–1802), a colonel in the Continental Army in the War of Independence, and by his son Herman, (1779–1855), a lawyer, a Federalist Party (United States) representative in Congress in 1809-1811, a member of the New York Assembly in 1816, and a famous gentleman of the old school, who for his courtly hospitality in his manor was called the "prince of Schaghticoke," and whose name was borrowed by Washington Irving for use in his (Diedrich) Knickerbocker's "History of New York" (1809).
Largely owing to Irving's book, the name Knickerbacker/Knickerbocker has passed into current use as a designation of the early Dutch settlers in New York and their descendants. Herman's son David Buel Knickerbacker (1833–1894), who maintained the original spelling of the family name, graduated at Trinity College in 1853 and at the General Theological Seminary in 1856. He was a rector for many years at Minneapolis, Minnesota, and in 1883 was consecrated Protestant Episcopal bishop of Indiana.


Laramie Mountains

The Laramie Mountains are a range of moderately high peaks on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S states of Wyoming and Colorado. The range is the northernmost extension of the line of the ranges along the eastern side of the Rockies, and in particular of the higher peaks of the Front Range directly to the south. North of the range, the gap between the Laramie range and the Bighorn Mountains provided the route for historical trails, such as the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the Pony Express.
The Laramie Mountains begin in northern Colorado and extend discontinuously into southeastern Wyoming between Cheyenne and Laramie and northward to Casper. (By some definitions the Laramies are only in Wyoming.) They are named after the Laramie River, which cuts through the range from southwest to northeast and joins the North Platte River east of the range in eastern Wyoming. The mountains in turn give their name to the Laramide orogeny, the uplift of the North American Plate approximately 70 million years ago that created the present Rocky Mountains.
The highest portions of the Laramie mountains are mostly in public ownership, forming part of the Medicine Bow-Routt and Roosevelt national forests.
Geology.
The mountains consist of a series of Precambrian Sherman granite monadnocks rising above a broad erosion surface that form extensive unwooded parks whose surfaces are generally at about above sea level. The high peaks of the range, which are much lower than those commonly associated with the Rocky Mountains, rise abruptly above the surrounding peneplain to altitudes between and above sea level, with the exceptions of Laramie Peak in Wyoming which tops out at and South Bald Mountain in Colorado rising to . The granitic soils were formed from the erosion of the surrounding monadnocks and have an effective depth of less than .
Three principal life zones are represented in the Laramies: Upper Sonoran, Transition and Canadian. Some early sources indicated that the Hudsonian Zone occurs on Laramie Peak but there is nothing distinctive about either the flora or fauna on the top of this peak, for it consists of nothing but a large granite outcrop. On the eastern and north eastern slopes of the range the prairie/mountain transition is very gentle at the south end (between Cheyenne and Laramie) and much more abrupt and broken farther north. The elevation is lowest, about (1370 m), along the North Platte River. On the western slopes the total relief is much less, as the floors of the three intermontane basins that border the Laramies on this side (Shirley, Hanna and Laramie basins) rarely drop below . An extensive high plain and semi-desert extends from the Laramie Mountains south west as far as the Shirley Mountains. The Laramie Basin separates the Laramie Mountains from the Medicine Bow Mountains to the south and west, and its floor is above except for a few depressions and blowouts (such as Cooper Lake).
The Laramie Mountains are bisected by the Laramie River, which cuts a canyon through the mountains roughly due west of Wheatland, and then continues its generally eastward course to join the North Platte River near the town of Fort Laramie. The division marks the southern end of the continuous coniferous forest in the range, and separates the range into two parts. The southern part is generally drier and much more open, with little or no forest except for the southern end at Pole Mountain and surrounding area, where the interesting granite outcrops at Vedauwoo provide climbing practice and grand picnic scenery.
The range is prominently visible from Interstate 25 between Casper and Cheyenne. Interstate 80 and the Union Pacific Railroad cross the range between Cheyenne and Laramie on an outlying ramp of the High Plains called the "Gangplank".


La Plata Mountains

The La Plata Mountains are a small subrange of the San Juan Mountains in the southwestern part of Colorado, United States. They are located on the border between Montezuma and La Plata counties, about northwest of Durango. Their name is Spanish for "silver".
The peaks of the range are easily visible from U.S. Route 160, which skirts the range on the south. The La Plata River and the Mancos River have their headwaters in the range. The Colorado Trail accesses even towards the northern peaks.
The best-known and highest peak in the La Plata Mountains is Hesperus Mountain, which is the Navajo sacred mountain of the north. The six of the highest summits are listed below.