"Home Tweet Home", the City of Burbank Tournament of Roses Float - 2017

 

 

"Home Tweet Home", the City of Burbank Tournament of Roses Float

For the past several years, I have attended the unveiling and judging of the City of Burbank Tournament of Roses parade float. Traditionally, the official judging is on New Year’s Eve, just one day before the Rose Parade, in Pasadena, California. Since the Burbank float is one of only a handful of all volunteer efforts, the rollout from the Float Barn is a community event.

Surprisingly, many elements of the 2017 entry; both physical and spiritual, came together this year on January 1 – New Year’s Day. Since New Year’s Day 2017 fell on a Sunday, the parade date shifted to Monday, January 2, 2017. For a moment on New Year’s Day, all activity at the float barn seemed to stop. After a great rush of love and appreciation swept through the open barn door, activities resumed.

It was time to attach the animatronic birds to the frame of the float. With a forklift working as a crane, each large wire-mesh bird received a hydraulic hookup, and then descended toward its slots. With some jiggling and joggling, each bird slid into place. Seemingly out of nowhere, Maria Cady, a florist from nearby Simi Valley and her crew rushed in with half a dozen huge floral displays. Now, the float was complete.

All spectators and nonessential crew cleared the scene, regrouping in the viewing area, at the nearby Burbank - Downtown Station. Like a child who wanted to see his Christmas presents the night before, I hung back and hid in a big blue porta-potty. As I opened the door and started taking pictures, Burbank’s “Home, Tweet Home” float was already on the move.

 


After following the float out to the street, I ran ahead, rejoining the parade as it entered the viewing area. As soon as it stopped, a jaunty jingle of a tune emanated from four large speakers, hidden in the structure of the float. Various animatronic birds started tilting, swiveling, hammering or riding in and out on a giant tape measure.

Then, without warning, the large birdhouse near the back of the float started to rise. At full extension of its hydraulic tower, the float looked unimaginably tall. As it was when I was a child, the float looked like something out of the Jack and the Beanstalk story to me.

The official judging did not result in a trophy for the Burbank 2017 float. Now it is time to look to the future. Soon, the Burbank Tournament of Roses Association will announce the winner of its 2018 public design contest. As of this writing, the smaller birdhouse still stands on the float chassis, but most other components have disappeared.

As much as possible, salvaged materials from the 2017 float will reappear in the 2018 float. Reuse and recycling are hallmarks of all Burbank Rose Parade floats. For instance, in 2017, recycled bed sheets helped stabilize the rigid foam shell of the float. That recycled bedding helped to make the entire float “walkable”, without fear of falling through. After a full tune-up, the custom designed chassis will return to the Float Barn, ready to support next year’s entry.

Many contemporary Rose Parade floats employ hydraulic motors and cylinders to lift or repetitively move various components. Hidden hydraulics provide the motive power to animate the big floats, yet until the 2017 Burbank entry, no medium-sized float had previously employed a “tower lift”. Unseen and unknown to most parade viewers, “Home, Tweet Home” represented a technological breakthrough for a float of its size. For 2018, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association has initiated a "Crown City Innovator" award. The new trophy will be awarded to the float that features the "Most outstanding use of imagination, innovation and technology". With this new category in mind, the 2018 Burbank Rose Parade Float will surely be in the running.

In February 2016, I installed a live webcam at the City of Burbank Float Barn. Seven days each week, you may view live images of the Float Barn. To access the live webcam, go to the homepage of the Burbank Tournament of Roses official website. You may also view the live webcam on my own BurbankFloat.com tribute website. Early in 2017, most of the work parties are on Wednesday’s and Saturdays, so be sure to tune in and watch the action.

Email James McGillis

By James McGillis at 01:05 PM | Technology | Comments (0) | Link

 

24-Hours of Moab Live Race Webcam 2011

It’s Utah’s biggest mountain biking event… 24-Hours of Moab. Not only is it a mountain bike endurance race, but also a gathering of gear heads, a vibrant tent city among the red rock, party central with drinks, food and music, and a chance to say goodbye to another summer of pedaling among Utah’s stunning scenery.

2011 marks the 17th year of the 24-Hours of Moab, and once again, thousands of racers from around the world put fat tires to the slickrock and singletrack outside Utah’s mountain biking Mecca in a remote venue twelve miles south of town. Again in 2011, an expanded field limit of 550 teams and solo riders will surely ramp-up the competition a few more notches.

It is all happening again on October 8 & 9, 2011. This year, Moab Live, through its Moab24Live.com website will feature at least one live webcam during the entire race. Our webcam position will be in the scoring tent at race-central, Behind the Rocks near Moab, Utah. Race promoter, Granny Gear Productions, will feature our live webcam on their Real Time Race Results webpage.

Live webcam from Moab Live.

From noon, Saturday, October 8, until noon Sunday, October 9, 2011, watch as up to 1000 racers check in and out at the end of each grueling lap. Day and night, we will be there bringing you the best in Moab Live entertainment. Be sure to join us for the race at Moab24Live.com.

Email James McGillis

 

By James McGillis at 07:03 PM | | Comments (0) | Link

Nuclear Dust Storm Hits Moab, Utah - 2011

 

Nuclear Dust Storm Hits Moab, Utah

     

From August 14 – 19, 2011 I was in my favorite town of Moab, Utah. With several of eight local Moablive.com webcams in need of service and one new webcam to install, I had a busy week in Moab. Other than two brief thunderstorms, it was either warm or hot during my entire visit. When I left Moab at 3:00 AM on Friday morning, it was 76 degrees. Each day, downtown temperatures topped one hundred degrees . At the Moab Rim Campark, away from all of the concrete and asphalt, it was a bit cooler . 

On Tuesday, I visited Andy Nettell, proprietor at the back of the Back of Beyond Bookstore. A month earlier, our bookstore webcam server had failed. Luckily, the spare unit that I sent to Andy via UPS plugged right in and has worked flawlessly ever since. Next time you visit the bookstore, visit Andy’s antiquarian section at the back of the store. There you will see a red light flashing on our live webcam.

After retrieving the broken server from the bookstore, I headed over to Best Western Canyonlands Inn, intent upon getting wireless service connected to their webcam. With help from the friendly staff at the hotel, I was able to bypass their log-in screen and reconnect the Moab Canyonlands Inn “Center and Main” webcam. The webcam is located above the Peace Tree Café, in the new Main St. Suites at Canyonlands Inn. Now that their webcam is working properly, you can watch vehicular and foot traffic any time in Downtown Moab. The best place to watch is on our website.

Next, I headed twelve miles north of town on U.S. Highway 191. My destination was Canyonlands Field, also known as the Moab Airport. There, at Redtail Aviation, we have a live webcam pointing out the window of their hanger. Its field of view includes the arrival/departure area for Great Lakes Airlines, as well as the parking area for visiting private jets. Mr. Chris Bracken, pilot and mechanic for Redtail Aviation was working in the hanger that afternoon. He offered moral support as I taped the webcam back on to its designated window. Using different types of tape, we are still baffled by why the camera will not stay firmly attached to the hanger window. Chris believes it is a combination of cool air from their swamp cooler and high heat on the outside of the window glass. After I left town, the camera fell from the window, but Chris got it back in business the next day.

Thursday, August 18 was my last day in Moab, and I had one new webcam to install. An associate broker at Arches Realty in Downtown Moab had asked me to come in. After quickly deciding on the best view, I began installation of their new webcam. Six hours later, I had the webcam tested and showing a great image of Moab and the Redrocks from their first story window. Alas, a year later, the company asked me to remove their webcam. The image below is the last surviving image from that webcam.

Before I left her office, an associate broker invited me to review all of the MoabLive.com webcams on her computer screen. On the screen we could see a thunderstorm raging at Canyonlands Field, about fifteen files north of our location. A quick glance at our several Spanish Valley webcams showed increased weather activity all around. The Slickrock had clouds, thunder storms cloaked the La Sal Range and the flag flew almost straight up near the Moab Rim. From our vantage point at the computer, we could see thunder storms coming and thunder storms blowing away. Looking at that spectacular sight, we were awed by the breadth and power of nature in and around Moab.

Approaching as it did, from the north; the storm first hit Canyonlands Field, and then moved on towards Moab. As the airport-thunderstorm collapsed, it sent a torrent of cold air south, along the Moab Rim and down the U.S. Highway 191 canyon. There, the venturi effect created by narrow canyon walls accelerated the wind. At the Potash Road, the canyon widens again, thus allowing the wind to fan out over the top and sides of the Moab UMTRA site. The rounded shape of the Moab Pile allowed a low pressure zone to develop over its top. Behaving like a giant airplane wing, wind gusts entering that low pressure zone launched tons of radioactive and toxic soils into the air.

The heavier particles (and presumably the heavier radio-nucleotides) quickly fell back to earth. With the UMTRA's direct adjacency to the Colorado River, I am sad to report that the river received a heavy dose of radioactive dust and chemical toxins, as released by the ensuing dust storm. It is always good to remember our downstream neighbors. In this case fourteen million American and Mexican citizens living downstream rely on the Colorado River for drinking water, manufacturing and crop irrigation. As sad as these facts may be, The Dust Storm of August 19, 2011 did not end there.

Writing later to a Moab friend, I said, “By the time I got to a gas station on the south side of town, a gale of dust and trash swept over me. When I arrived home at the Moab Rim RV Campark, farther south, I went down to the rail fence and took some pictures. From there, I could see wind ravaging the Moab Pile and sending tons of radioactive dust toward Downtown Moab.

From the pictures I took, it is obvious that the UMTRA site is highly vulnerable to winds streaming down-canyon past the Arches National Park entrance. Near that location, the canyon both narrows and deepens. The resultant squeezing of the air creates a venturi effect that is focused on to the northwest side of the pile. Since the UMTRA removal efforts expose more raw soil daily, it easily went airborne and precipitated out as dust throughout the City of Moab and the Spanish Valley.

Simultaneously, a similar, but larger dust storm was tearing up the land in Phoenix, Arizona and all of Maricopa County. Was that mere coincidence, or is there a definable connection between those two dust storms? Only if the DOE and the National Weather Service (NWS) cooperate and share data on such events will we begin to predict their occurrence. In this case, I suspect a weather front that stretched from Canyon Country, Utah to Tucson, Arizona. Perhaps someone of knowledge could check and correlate the timing of regional dust storms throughout the Four Corners Region.

Despite the absence of region-wide information sharing, any actions taken at the Moab UMTRA project on August 18, 2011 were inadequate. Transporting the Moab Pile by rail to Brendel and Crescent Junction, Utah appeared to be their focus. A distant second in importance is the physical integrity of the pile, as it exists today. A local resident told me that telephone complaints about UMTRA's dust bring a canned response from the contractor’s public relations office. Callers, who may be choking on UMTRA’s toxic dust, are told that ‘wind over a certain speed results in immediate suspension of grading and hauling at the site’.”

Even without coordinated dust storm alerts, UMTRA contractors can now monitor nine public webcams situated around Moab and the Spanish Valley. If they were to monitor only one screen provided me as the Moab Live Public Service Webcam Page, UMTRA contractors could see a windstorm coming long before they felt it. Greater Moab has many micro-environments and each has its own unique micro-weather. If Uranium King, Charles (Charlie) Steen (1919-2006) had foreseen the long-term threat that his company created, I doubt that he would have situated his Atlas Uranium Mill (now UMTRA) at its current location. With the ongoing threat from flooding and wind storms, old Cold War fears still haunt the area around his creation. 

The drill rig shown abandoned below the Moab Rim is of the type borrowed by Charlie Steen to make his Mi Vida Mine discovery. In fact it may be the exact same rig. In those days, and for many years thereafter, mining trucks and equipment were often abandoned around Moab. Those who brought this piece of Moab memorabilia to its current location carefully jacked it up on to several railroad ties, removed the wheels and drove away. Now, forty or more years after its derelict arrival, the machine slowly rusts away. At the rate of current decomposition, I estimate its half-life to be about 704 million years, which coincides nicely with the half-life of uranium-235 which it was used to discover. 

I have not read the Department of Energy’s (DOE) charter of the UMTRA Moab Project, but there must be something in there about using every reasonable and cost-effective method of protecting the Moab Pile from flooding downstream or blowing away in the wind. We know from previous studies that deep beneath the Moab Pile there is a large reservoir of contaminated water. In fact, the center of the pile is so wet that the latest Google Earth view of the UMTRA site shows a recently uncovered stream bed.

Water beneath the Moab Pile has only two places it can go. If allowed to, it will migrate downstream towards the Colorado River. In fact, a well-field along the riverside attempts to extract contaminated ground water and spread it atop the pile. As the water slowly dries on undisturbed parts of the pile, it forms a tough crust. With so much of the site under recent excavation, very little of the ground stays undisturbed for long. As a result, much of the UMTRA site is unprotected from another big “blow off”. 

The DOE should require the contractor to take immediate action to design and deploy a far larger array of sprinklers at the site. Ideally, an onsite reservoir would feed the sprinkler system, which could quickly cover the entire pile. With better weather monitoring and forecasting, the contractor could start deploying large volumes of sprinkled water ahead of the next dust storm, rather than afterwards, or as on August 18, 2011, “not at all”.  Whoever monitors the weather and calls for future halts in work at the site should be an employee of the NWS, not the DOE or the contractor. When danger lurks for the Moab Pile, no one should second-guess an early weather-shutdown, rather than a late one. In the current situation, shutting down “on time” is often too late.

Many in Moab grew up with or within the nuclear industry. Despite the toll it took on mine workers and processors, Moab is tolerant to the point of nostalgia about its ranching and mining past. That familiarity may breed complacency, which Moab can ill afford. Even if many residents consider a nuclear dust-bath to be an acceptable occurrence in town, most tourists and visitors do not. The only way to assure the safety of all in Moab is to take immediate measures to change the Moab UMTRA charter, making environmental protection at least as important as removal and transportation of contaminated material.

Email James McGillis

On Any Monday, in Moab...2011

 

On Any Monday, in Moab...

On Monday, August 1, 2011 a U.S. congressional mandate to allow the world to go on spinning was still one day away. If agreement on raising the artificially contrived federal debt ceiling could not be reached by the following day, the sky would fall and the world would revert to being flat. That prospect seemed like a big setback to most conscious humans.

 

However, sixty or seventy Flat-Earthers recently elected to the U.S. House of Representatives seemed to relish in their power to send us all back to the economic Dark Ages. Like petulant children playing with a new chemistry set, “So what”, they said, “If we explode society as we know it?” “Not our fault”, they assured us. “This has been going on for years…” Since I began writing this story, the Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked by over 500 points and then rose by an unreassuring sixty-points the following day.

That evening, rather than dwelling on such morose potentials, I clicked on an unpublicized webpage, which commands a simultaneous view of all nine Moablive.com Utah webcams. Viewing the scene across my own personal energy bridge, I found myself looking through the front office window at the Moab Rim Campark. Suspended there, over Moab's Slickrock Trail I saw a webcam image of a double-rainbow. Looking in turn at each of five webcams in the Spanish Valley, I could see different slices of the scene. Stitching it together in my mind, I watched a summer storm hit Moab and then dissipate on the slopes of the La Sal Range.

If we are to believe what the mainstream media tell us about our world, it is a sad and dangerous place. If we believe our own eyes, we know that our world is a wild and wondrous place, almost begging for our attention. As heat and drought imperil crops and lives throughout the middle section of the U.S. this summer, Moab has recorded several substantial rainstorms. Airflow from the northwest has vied for position with a strong monsoonal flow from the south. During July 2011, storms from the south followed storms from the northwest. The combination kept rivers running high and replenished the local water table.  

In this world, one Moab was located in ancient Syria, near the Dead Sea. The other, manifested more recently in Southeastern Utah. The name “Moab” means “the far country”, and each Moab qualifies for that title. When we are not there to witness events firsthand, forgotten is the beauty of those wild places. On this page I compiled a slideshow of webcam images captured that evening. Even if our economy grinds to a halt, we can live in hope that such beautiful weather events will continue to sweep through the far country each summer, and forever.

Email James McGillis

 

By James McGillis at 04:44 PM | | Comments (0) | Link

Tsunami Hits Port Orford, Oregon - 2011

 

Tsunami Hits Port Orford, Oregon

On March 11, 2011, I awoke to stories about an earthquake and tsunami in Japan. My heart goes out to all who suffered loss in that epic event.

 

By 8:30 AM PST, I was online and watching our live webcam at the MoabLive website. The webcam faces east on to the beach from the Port of Port Orford. I did not have to wait long before the water surged around the Port Orford Heads and into the Port. Over the next ninety minutes I counted at least five surges, most of which rose to cover the entire beach.

 

 Watch the Port Orford Tsunami Video  

In order to capture the moment, I copied a series of JPG images from the webcam. Since the camera uploads a shot every three seconds, there was plenty of action to record. After saving the images, I compiled them in WMV file format. The generic term for such a file is a "wave movie". After uploading the video to YouTube, I embedded it here on my blog.

 

Luckily, there was no apparent damage at Port Orford, although Coos Bay to the North and Brookings Harbor to the south did not fare as well. After all of the excitement was over, we developed a bug in the webcam. In this case, it was a real bug that walked in front of the lens and stayed there until the webcam shut off for the night.

Email James McGillis

 

 

By James McGillis at 09:15 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | Link

 

Two New Live Streaming Webcams in Simi Valley, California - 2010

 

We recently completed the installation of two new webcams, streaming from Simi Valley, California.

 

 
Image refreshes every 3 seconds 

 

Webcam Number One streams live from an RV storage lot in Simi Valley, California. The eight-acre storage and rental facility is located near the Simi Valley Animal Shelter. Two separate freeway off ramps provide easy access to and from Highway 118.

 

At at the storage yard, 33-foot wide aisles separate 400 well-marked parking spaces.

 

Our camera view includes the landscaped grounds and the 400-space storage facility. In the background, hills provide open space around the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Behind the ridge line stands one of two original Air Force One jet airplanes. One of two nearly identical airplanes served each American president from John Kennedy to Ronald Reagan. Now on featured display at the presidential library, this venerable four-engine Boeing 707 began its career in 1972. 

 

With our live streaming webcam facing southwest, you can expect to see some spectacular Ventura County, California sunsets views. Please join us often for a unique and refreshing view of Southern California at its finest.

 

To view the Simi RV webcam, streaming live from Simi Valley, California, click on the webcam image above, or click HERE.

 

---

 

Webcam Number Two is a street view, Live from Casa Carrie in Simi Valley, California. The Camera faces east, towards the rising Sun. In keeping with the ancient Navajo tribal tradition, each morning we face east and share with you our first rays of morning light. Framing the view is a residential street in the Texas Tract at Simi Valley. In the background is Rocky Peak, which separates Los Angeles County from Ventura County.

 

 
Image refreshes every 3 seconds 

 

With webcams streaming live from California, Oregon and Utah, the Moab Live group of websites is now the largest provider of low cost, streaming webcams in the Western United States.

To view the Casa Carrie webcam, streaming live from Simi Valley, California, click on the webcam image above, or click HERE.

By James McGillis at 11:26 AM | Technology | Comments (0) | Link

 

Two New MoabLive.com Webcams - 2010

In October 2010, we completed a 3500 mile RV trip, including major stops in Port Orford, Oregon, and Moab, Utah. With almost 800 photographs to review, we will write here soon about our recent adventures in the Great American West.

While in Oregon, we completed work on a new live webcam at the Port of Port Orford. Here is the press release:

For Immediate Release - Moab Live and Port Orford Property Management & Vacation Rentals proudly announce their newest live webcam. Shooting east, from the commercial fishing dock in Port Orford, Oregon, the live webcam features beach activity and wave action along the rugged Oregon coast. As their general manager says, “If you are looking for a great Vacation Rental, Beach House, Cabin or Lodge in Port Orford, Elk River, Garrison Lake or Sixes, we have it! Port Orford Property Management & Vacation Rentals can serve all of your rental needs!”

 

 
Image refreshes every 3 seconds 

To view our live webcam from Port Orford, Oregon, click the webcam image above, or click HERE.

After our webcam success in Port Orford, we traveled east across Oregon, Idaho and on to Moab, Utah. There, we collaborated with Redtail Aviation to install another new webcam at their Canyonlands Field fixed base operation. Here is the press release:

For Immediate Release - Moab Live and Redtail Aviation are proud to announce their newest webcam, live from Canyonlands Field (the Moab airport) - 18 miles north of town on US Highway 191. The new webcam is great for viewing Great Lakes Airlines flight arrivals and other aircraft activities at the field. As an aid to both commercial and private pilots, the new Redtail Aviation webcam shows a north-facing weather view. Accessible from the air on any smart phone, Redtail pilots are already using the new webcam to check field conditions prior to arrival.

Since their founding in 1978, Redtail Aviation has specialized in scenic flight tours and charter flights throughout Southeastern Utah. For Your Safety - Redtail Aviation is an FAA Approved Carrier. All pilots are FAA certified and specially trained for Canyonlands flights. In respect for safety and visitor enjoyment, all flights maintain a minimum altitude of 2000 feet above sensitive areas and park lands.

 

 
Image refreshes every 7 seconds 

To view our live webcam from Redtail Aviation, Canyonlands field, Moab, Utah click the webcam image above, or click HERE.

We are making plans for another live webcam at the airport in nearby Green River, Utah. Check back soon to hear more about our trip and yet another exciting new webcam project.

By James McGillis at 05:24 PM | | Comments (0) | Link

Rock Art & Live Webcams at Moab, Utah - 2009

 

Rock Art & Live Webcams at Moab, Utah

 

I just finished a new website devoted to the Indian Rock Art found near Moab, Utah. The Home Page at MoabRockart.com includes a story about author and naturalist Craig Childs, as he leads a writers group up Seven Mile Canyon during the Confluence Celebration 2008.

 

·    The website also includes a two-part article about Native American rock art along Mill Creek, in Moab, Utah.

 

During my August 2009 visit to Moab, I repaired or replaced several of our old webcams with higher quality Logitech, International. units. Currently, we have three live webcam feeds from Highway 191 South, at the Moab Rim CamPark. Additionally, Moab Ranch has a live webcam feed from the Pueblo Verde Tract in the Spanish Valley. To review all of our webcam feeds, go to the MoabLive.com Webcam Page. There you will see live webcams from Downtown Moab to the Spanish Valley.

 

Currently, we have two webcam systems that are tested and ready for deployment in Moab. If you live in the area and have a business and a great view; let us talk about a shared feed through MoabLive.com. We are actively looking for business partners and will lease an entire system on an annual basis or barter our webcam placement for your services in return.

 

While in discussion with Michele Hill, newly appointed Facility and Event Promoter at the Moab Area Travel Council, (developing conference and event planning for Moab), we mentioned how fun it was travel throughout the West and always be able to see four live views of Moab. Apparently, we made it sound like the sole purpose of the Moab webcams was for personal pleasure. In explaining that we sometimes succumb to hyperbole, we told Michelle that our writer hero is Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). Known during his lifetime as an American prophet and a humor writer, Mark Twain enjoyed making up his own version of any facts that were not readily at hand.

 

Then it struck us; what would Mark Twain have to say about webcams and streaming video? Clemens lived from 1835 until 1910. Imagine meeting the spirit of Mark Twain that less than one century after his death. There, you would describe a worldwide viewing-port, capable of producing live images of his favorite places on Earth. Might he think you were telling a story as tall as his own, "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". According to his biography, Clemens met with Alexander Graham Bell regarding investing in the fledgling Bell Telephone Company. Bell offered Clemens as many shares of stock in the new company as he might want, at any price he was willing to pay. Although Clemens spent his fortune and over a decade of time funding an ill-fated typesetting machine, he did not see the value of Bell’s telephonic device. Maybe if Bell had a working webcam at the time…

 

From our place of understanding, one of the most popular searches on the internet is for webcams that are local to the searcher’s point of interest. Believing in that theory and believing in the beauty of the land, sky and weather around Moab, we launched our first webcam in October 2008, at the Moab Rim RV CamPark. There, it stands today.

 

Over the past year, we had our share of webcam failures. From power failures to hardware and software glitches, we experienced it all. Since early August 2009, all four webcam systems have operated flawlessly. In our case, “flawlessly” means that from time to time, individual frames may drop out. Using a cable modem or DSL at the head-end of our systems, available bandwidth does not allow for an infallible feed. More costly, dedicated bandwidth would solve that issue.

 

As of August 2009, we are proud to say that no other organization has more live webcams streaming from Moab and the Spanish Valley. Here, we tip our hat to Red Cliffs Lodge for their pioneering webcam work along the Colorado River. Although their Colorado River webcam is reliable, the MoabLive webcams refresh every three seconds, rather than every three minutes.

 

We see a future in which almost every business in Moab will have at least one webcam. By offering MoabLive, and in color to the world, interest in tourism surely would grow. How could any distant viewer resist the beauty that we see each day, around Moab and the Spanish Valley?

   

Currently we are in Simi Valley, California, writing and developing new webcam systems. To view our current test, look at CasaCarrieCam, live from Simi Valley. In early October 2009, we will return to Moab, for both business and pleasure. While there, we will cover the 24-Hours of Moab Bicycle Race. While the race is on, we will post an updated article on our blog.

 

If you go to Moab24Live.com, you will see our coverage of last year’s race. In October 2008, we followed Dax & Dean of Team Shake & Bake. From prerace to podium, we covered their first-in-class victory. This year, we have agreed to cooperate further, reporting their story through the written word, still images and video. Dax has assured me that he and partner, Dean will win their class again in 2009.

 

With proper exposure, this race could have enormous TV appeal. Couch potatoes all over the country would like to be riding free in the wind, as Dax & Dean shall for the 24 Hours at Moab. The race starts at Noon, local time on Saturday, October 10. The race will conclude at Noon on Sunday, October 11, 2009, with award ceremonies to follow.

Email James McGillis

By James McGillis at 04:52 PM | | Comments (0) | Link

Moab, Utah - I've seen fire and I've seen webcams - 2008

Moab, Utah - Matheson Wetlands Wildfire

On Wednesday, October 22, I departed Moab, Utah after three weeks of hard work, learning and meeting many new friends.  There is so much about Moab, the place, the time and the happenings that I want to share, it is hard to know where to start.

 

While ensconced in my Pioneer travel trailer at the Moab Rim Campark the night before, I heard fire engines racing north, on nearby Highway 191.  Although the nearest fire department to the south is in Monticello, Utah, fifty miles away, that fact did not register with me.  Somehow, it was nice just to hear that an emergency was receiving an emergency response, as we would wish if our property were in peril. 

 

On Wednesday morning, I hustled down to the RV Park office to create the final changes on our new webcam, streaming live from that location.  With the consent of Jim and Sue Farrell, the proprietors at Moab Rim Campark, we had installed a webcam up under the eaves of their second story.  Offering a panoramic view of the RV Park, Highway 191, the Slickrock area and the La Sal Mountains, our new webcam offers the world a completely new view of Moab, Utah and its weather patterns.  If you like, you can view the webcam at MoabLive.com or MoabRV.com.  Just click on either link and be patient as the webcam loads.  With the view changing every five seconds day or night, I assure you that you will not be disappointed.

 

Wednesday morning, I was so busy with the webcam that I failed to notice a column of smoke rising from the  Matheson Wetlands Preserve, which fills the space between the City of Moab and the nearby Colorado River.  According to the Wildlife Action Plan (WAP) for the area, the Matheson Preserve's lowland riparian habitat is the most critical habitat type in all of Utah.  As a unique wetland, it formed when the Colorado River bend in the Spanish Valley eroded its outside bank, leaving its former watercourse as a tangled swamp or reeds, bulrushes and non-native Tamarisk trees.

 

As with so much of the Desert West, the Matheson Wetlands are no longer as wet as they once were.  Although the water table there rises and falls with spring runoff or the occasional thunderstorm, a system of irrigation and water control dikes has turned much of the southern pond into “solid ground”.  Hunters and others camp or party in clearings, amidst the tangled undergrowth found throughout the preserve.  Did one such individual or group leave a campfire unattended the prior day?  Perhaps ironically, the fire appears to have overlapped a prescribed burn originally planned for October 2008.  That burn was only a small part of a wetlands restoration project planned for the preserve.

 

As I connected my pickup and travel trailer that morning, the wind came up and swept the fire from up near Highway 191 and the Colorado River, downstream to the gap where Kane Creek Road meets the river canyon.  Luckily, the firefighters stopped the fire there, but it was dramatic to watch, even from several miles away.

 

As I prepared to drive back to Los Angeles, I remembered a bit of Moab history.  In 1855, eight years after founding Salt Lake City, a party of forty-three Mormon men built a rock fort in the area now called the Matheson Wetlands Preserve, near the Colorado River.  Growing crops and attempting to convert local Native Americans to their religion became the Mormons’ primary challenges.  Additionally, they sought control of the strategic river crossing and trade with travelers along the wagon road known as the “Old Spanish Trail”.

 

The naming of Moab retains elements of controversy.  Some say that the original settlers named Moab for its appearance, supposedly being similar to an area located on the eastern side of the River Jordan.  Others say Moab was a bastardization of the Paiute Indian word “moapa”, meaning mosquito.  Either way, with the coming of regular postal service and incorporation of the town in 1902, the name Moab became official.

 

Several months after their 1855 arrival, Native Americans attacked the Moabites, burning crops and killing three settlers.  The Mormons then abandoned Moab, not to officially return until 1878.  With its cultural affinity and geographical proximity to Colorado and Arizona, Moab grew into the twentieth century more as a typical Western town than as a Mormon colony.

 

To my knowledge, the remnants of the old fort did not survive the one hundred fifty-plus years of mud and floods visited upon the Matheson Wetland Preserve by the mighty Colorado River.  Perhaps the denuding of that area will lead to renewed archeological interest in locating remnants of Moab’s original, if brief, non-native culture.

 

Email James McGillis

 

By James McGillis at 06:25 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link