In LA Traffic, Design Purity Outmaneuvers Common Sense - 2011

 

In LA Traffic, Design Purity Outmaneuvers Common Sense

In July 2011, Caltrans contractors demolished the southern half of the Mulholland Highway Bridge, which spans the busy Interstate I-405 Freeway at Sepulveda Pass in Los Angeles, California. The reasons for replacing only one-half of the stately structure at a time are obscure. Suffice to say that local homeowner groups held out for purity of design. Rather than allowing the road to jog at either end of the bridge, those groups forced Caltrans to build the same bridge twice, one-half each time. As they say, “Only in Los Angeles…”

People who drive in Los Angeles know that “The 405” is the only freeway route through the Santa Monica Mountains within twelve miles. Connecting the San Fernando Valley with West Los Angeles, the I-405 is an ever-widening ribbon of concrete, and one of the busiest highways in the world. In January 2012, I drove southbound past the construction site to Marina del Rey. My return trip that afternoon took me northbound over the same route.

On that morning, I timed my approach to the Sepulveda Pass for 10:00 AM. With luck, the morning rush would be over, producing a lull before afternoon traffic built to yet another peak. All went well until I neared the intersection of I-405 and U.S. Hwy 101. There, traffic slowed to a crawl and did not regain equilibrium for the next ten miles.

As I ascended the Santa Monica Mountain grade, traffic snapped and bucked like a Chinese dragon. In terms of vehicular energy flow, it was equivalent to an acute myocardial infarction. As I approached the crest, I could see why our traffic moved so listlessly. Appearing atop the hill since my last visit, two enormous mobile cranes stood like sentries, one on either side of the freeway. From my viewpoint, the cranes appeared to be twice the height of the 100-foot tall bridge. The scene was so startling that traffic slowed to a crawl and then stayed that way until I was well beyond the construction scene.

Based on traffic delays alone, the current replacement plan makes no economic sense. Once this slow motion economic disaster is complete, Los Angelinos can then look forward to doing it all over again. From the coming Carmageddon II, right through construction and opening, those who drive in LA shall experience traffic jam déjà vu all over again. With the uncountable hours wasted by drivers sitting in traffic below, we hope that the hilltop locals who blocked the single-phase project are happy now.

Thanks to the local “design purity movement”, motorists will experience inconvenience for years to come. I wonder what the late Steve Jobs would think of this version of design purity. Unless he personally owned a house with an unobstructed view of the finished bridge, I doubt that he would have supported this cause.

As traffic loosened up, my vitriol for the Mulholland Drive locals faded from my consciousness. Traffic broke free near Wilshire Blvd. in West Los Angeles, and I sailed along at 65 mph. After crossing under Interstate I-10 (the Santa Monica Freeway), I observed a complete absence of vehicular traffic on northbound I-405. As I approached Venice Blvd., I witnessed the culmination of a California Highway Patrol traffic break on the northbound side of the freeway. Led by an animal control van, two CHP cruisers and several CHP motor officers sped away from a phalanx of stopped traffic that stretched for miles into the distance.

Listening to a later radio traffic report, I learned that someone had called to report an injured cat on the freeway. For the sake of that feline and in honor of the kind soul who reported it, perhaps 25,000 vehicles came to an extended halt on the busiest freeway in Los Angeles. Upon entering an LA freeway, a small animal’s chances of survival are almost nonexistent. I am an animal lover and have a pet cat myself. Still, I hope that iPhone toting animal lovers do not report every small animal that enters the roadway. If they insist on doing so, Los Angeles traffic may never move smoothly again.

On my return trip, later that day, I approached Sepulveda Pass from the south. From there I could see the Mulholland Drive Bridge and its attendant cranes. Silhouetted against the northern sky, the two cranes, new concrete bridge supports and the remaining bridge deck manifested as art. It is a sight so awe-inspiring that despite traveling uphill, many drivers involuntarily slam on their brakes. As traffic-engineers know, if enough motorists hit their brakes, somewhere behind them, traffic will stop. My morning traffic had stopped three or four miles short of the dramatic hilltop scene.

As witnessed by their reactions to car crashes and brush fires, LA motorists have a perverse relationship with those who trail behind them. During such events, the collective reaction is predictable. To themselves motorists say, “I’ve been delayed by the unknown and now I can see it, so I am going to slow down and gawk to my heart’s content”. That day, of course, group consciousness among LA motorists was true to form.

My slow trips through Sepulveda Pass that day allowed me to see the sights. If you hope to view this high art sculpture for yourself, come to LA before 2016. If you miss the first round of bridge building, plan your visit for the second round in 2013 or 2014. Perhaps Caltrans can rejoin both halves of the new Mulholland Drive Bridge by 2015. Then, hilltop homeowners can emerge from their survival shelters and enjoy the purity of design that they forced upon us all. Thank you again, local homeowners, for triggering the super slow motion Carmageddon that we now endure.

Email James McGillis

By James McGillis at 02:06 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | Link

Free Spirits Jump for Joy at Canyonlands Field, Moab, Utah - 2011

 

Free Spirits Jump for Joy at Canyonlands Field, Moab, Utah

In May 2011, I drove Hwy 191 North to Canyonlands Field, which serves as both the commercial and private aviation airport for the City of Moab, Utah. It was a clear, windless and warm day at the airport. My friends Tiger Keogh and Terry Carlson, both of whom work at the airport, had invited me out to watch the flight action on that busy Saturday. Soon after I arrived, the Great Lakes Airlines plane from Denver, Colorado landed, followed quickly by several charter aircraft. Although the commercial traffic was interesting, voices in the sky kept interrupting my photographic work.
 

 

Watch First-time Parachutists in Full-motion Video Action

 

Since the land around Canyonlands Field contains so many ancient spiritual sites, for a moment I felt those spirits calling down to me. Looking up, I saw a series of skydivers contrasted by a thin overcast of clouds. Wheeling around in the breeze, their hoots and hollers reverberated across the quiet airfield.
 
Out past the Redtail Aviation hanger, where we share our MoabAirlines.com webcam, I saw beyond to the Moab Skydiving Epicenter. There, two separate businesses, Skydive Canyonlands and Skydive Moab offer tandem parachute jumps for novices and first-timers. With shouts of joy and abandon coming from all over the sky, I captured the scene using both live video and still images. To do that required juggling my Sony Bloggie Touch for the HD video with my ancient Sony DSC-F717 digital camera for the stills.
 
As soon as I arrived, a small Cessna loaded with parachutists taxied around the corner and took off. Soon, I could hear the plane circling above, but the bright sun masked my view. Until we heard shouts from above, no one below knew that jumpers were in the air. Looking up, I soon caught sight of several first-timers preparing to land. Friends were hooting from below, which set off more hollers from above.
 
One exuberant jumper ran all the way from the landing zone to the staging area. As tears of joy streamed down her face, “It was freaking awesome,” she declared to her friends. Indeed, it was awesome to see humans descending from a blue and white desert sky. The image of mythic humans descending from above conjured my own visions Moab Rockart, which often features the spirit of the ancients floating in the air.

Email James McGillis

By James McGillis at 04:34 PM | | Comments (0) | Link

A Summer Thunderstorm in the Tonopah Desert, Arizona - 2012

 

A Summer Thunderstorm in the Tonopah Desert, Arizona

In July 2010, the Arizona “anti-illegal immigration” bill known as SB 1070 went into limited effect. I will not debate its merits here. Suffice to say that I did not agree with its intent or methods of enforcement. Rather than support that discriminatory legislation, I decided to take my business elsewhere. My August 25, 2010 medical appointment in Scottsdale, Arizona would be my last.
 

 

  Watch the video, "Thunderstorm, Tonopah Desert, Arizona"

 

On that final trip to Phoenix, I chased a desert thunderstorm east along Interstate I-10 through the Tonopah Desert. Not to be confused with Tonopah, Nevada, the Tonopah Desert of Arizona features a series of mountain ranges, just to the north of the interstate highway. From West to east, those are the Big Horn and Belmont Mountains, followed by individual peaks named Hot Rock Mountain and Flatiron Mountain. In the east, the majestic White Tank Mountains rise above this lightly inhabited stretch of Sonoran desert.
 
From Salome Road, where it crosses I-10 until well past Tonopah (fifty miles east of Phoenix), I watched as a thunderstorm to the north paralleled my direction of travel. Since I was moving at seventy miles per hour, I was able to photograph and then overtake the developing storm as I drove along. With the late afternoon sun behind me, various rainbow forms appeared as I drove. The visual effects ranged from the startling to the sublime. I hope you enjoy the view as much as I did, taking snapshots out the window as I drove.
 
The most significant human created features within the Tonopah Desert Aquifer are Interstate Highway I-10, The Arizona Public Service Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station and the Central Arizona Project settling ponds, which are designed to bring Colorado River water to the desert. If you think that nuclear power plants do not use much in the way of natural resources, it is time to think again. Via a large canal, water is diverted to the ponds, where some of it evaporates, but much of it seeps into the aquifer. Photographic images of the nuclear plant show it sitting beside a huge lake. All of that cooling water comes either directly or indirectly from the Colorado River. No wonder the Colorado River runs dry before it ever reaches the Sea of Cortez. The whole system is like one huge nuclear swamp cooler designed to cool Phoenix, Arizona.

My hope is that the electorate of Arizona will soon welcome everyone back to that great state. Perhaps they will remember the missives of the ascended masters, which entreat us to welcome and include all people who love this Earth. Until then, my travel plans within the Four Corner States will focus on Nevada, Utah and New Mexico. I will miss you, Arizona highways.

Email James McGillis

By James McGillis at 10:54 PM | Travel | Comments (0) | Link

An Ancient Spirit Revealed at the Cane Creek Anticline Overlook - 2012

 

An Ancient Spirit Revealed at the Cane Creek Anticline Overlook

One of the best day trips out of Moab, Utah that I know is to the Anticline Overlook at Hatch Point, south of town in San Juan County. To get there; take U.S. Highway 191 South thirty-three miles to the Needles/Anticline Overlook Road turnoff. According to my DeLorme Utah Atlas, the Needles/Anticline Overlook Road becomes the Anticline Overlook Road and as you approach your destination, it becomes the Hatch Point Road. Google Maps simply calls it the Needles Overlook Road, but if you follow their road names, you will detour on to a misidentified portion of County Road 133. After you pass the Needles Overlook turnoff, things change. From that point on, the road is graveled and Google gets it right, calling it the Hatch Point Road. Most GPS units will get you to the Anticline Overlook without any detours.
 
While conducting research for this article, we found disagreement on the proper name for the Anticline Outlook. Since there are two Creeks in the area with similar names (Cane Creek and Kane Creek), many websites tend to confuse the two. The proper name for the anticline itself is the “Cane Creek Anticline”. Ironically, when you stand at the Cane Creek Anticline Overlook on Hatch Point, the creek that is directly below you is Kane Creek. If you take a few steps back from the precipice and look across the Colorado River toward the center of the collapsed anticline, the unseen Cane Creek descends at a place called Potash. For simplicity, I shall call our destination the shorter, “Anticline Overlook”.
 
The Anticline Overlook is located in the BLM controlled Canyon Rims Recreation Area, which spans most of the area between Moab and Monticello, to the south. Located just off the road, several miles from the overlook, there is the BLM Hatch Point Campground, with nine campsites. If you camp there, be sure to plan well, as it is almost sixty miles and several hours travel time to Moab. Only six miles in from U.S. Highway 191, the Wind Whistle Campground has fifteen campsites and easier RV access.
 
All of the websites I checked indicate that the graveled road to the Anticline Overlook is well graded and properly maintained. Although that may be true, there is a tendency to get overconfident while speeding along that road. I use the word “speeding”, because many visitors ignore the speed limits and rocket down the road at full speed. On one visit, I was guilty of speeding and found my rental car drifting on top of the gravel as if it were ice. Luckily, the car had a warning light that came on when traction was lost.
 
Thinking that I could avoid mishaps so far from town, on my next visit, I stayed much closer to the posted speed limit. What I did not count on was oncoming traffic. Just after a small SUV passed me going the other way, I heard a loud crack as a rock hit my windshield. Over the next few minutes, the resulting star-shaped crack propagated like a snake slithering across the glass. The speeding SUV driver never knew what he or she had done.
 
Although the Needles Overlook is closer to the highway and is accessible on a paved road, I prefer taking the longer route and visiting the Anticline Overlook. With fewer visitors willing to risk traveling fifteen miles on a gravel road, you might find yourself alone at one of the grandest vistas in all of the Southwest. At the same moment that you stand alone, listening only to the breeze, thousands of people might be at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, downstream in Arizona. The Grand Canyon is deeper and wider, but to me, the view at the Anticline Overlook is every bit as awe-inspiring.
 
At Hatch Point, the Anticline Overlook is at 5700 feet elevation. Hurrah Pass, directly below is at 4780 feet. Potash, along the far bank of the Colorado River is at 4025 feet. In other words, from the overlook to the river is about 1700 vertical feet. For perspective, the new 1 World Trade Center building in New York City will top out at 1776 feet. Make no mistake about it; at the Anticline Outlook, you are way up there. The good news is that you are standing on a sturdy mesa, with desert plants and weathered rocks all around. Unless you hang your head over the rail and look straight down, there is little of the vertigo producing effect of standing on top of a high building. Sturdy steel pipe-rails help add to your feeling of security.
 
Since the Cane Creek Anticline is like a huge bubble of stone on the surface of the Earth, from your vantage point you can see and almost feel the Earth’s curvature. From the overlook, there is an unobstructed view south to the Abajo (Blue) Mountains. On a clear day, you will see the Henry Mountains farther south. Looking southwest across the Colorado River, you will see Dead Horse Point State Park. Directly to the west, are the brightly colored settling ponds at Potash. Looking upstream beyond Potash, the backside of the Moab Rim hides your view of Moab. The Portal, which is the natural river-cut through the Moab Rim looks like a small notch in such a large landscape. Over the top of the Moab Rim, you will get a glimpse of the Big Bend area along the Colorado Riverway. On the horizon to the north, you will see the Book Cliffs, beyond Crescent Junction.
 
After taking in the view, see if you can find the Ancient Spirit of the Anticline. Near the farthest and highest spot at Hatch Point, he reclines beneath a protective rock ledge. With eyes that simultaneously look east and west, he rests there, and watches as the Colorado River slowly washes away untold volumes of land below him. When he first stopped to rest there, the anticline was whole, blocking the eroded views that I just described. After waiting with great patience for eons to pass, he appears to smile as he looks out on one of the best views in the world.

Email James McGillis

 

By James McGillis at 12:17 PM | | Comments (0) | Link

No Holdups - Chase Bank ATM Stolen and Cleaned Out in Record Time - 2011

 

No Holdups - Chase Bank ATM Stolen and Cleaned Out in Record Time

In May 2008, I published an article titled “Bank Robbery Made Easy”. There, I described a new type of bank robbery that had recently burst upon the scene. Gone were the days of blowing up the safe with dynamite and then getting away on horseback. The new technique involved breaking into the ATM room, behind the scenes. Rather than targeting an old-fashioned brick and mortar bank, the robbers began looking look for bank branches housed within retail strip centers. After cutting through the roof of an adjacent storefront, the robbers could penetrate the demising wall between the suites and gain access to the ATM room. Once they were safe inside, the robbers would disable any security cameras and and alarm systems, and then go to work.
 
Work, in this case, meant cutting through the steel doors that armor the back of most ATMs. After strategically cutting through the armor, the robbers could remove several cassettes, which may collectively hold up to $125,000 in untraceable twenty-dollar bills. After loading the bills into bags, the robbers could retrace their steps and exit the building through the roof of the adjacent business.
 
For the cutting of steel, an old-fashioned kerosene blowtorch or even an acetylene cutting-torch will not suffice. The armor is too thick and the temperatures generated thereby are too low for adequate cutting. What, aspiring bank robbers ask, should they use to torch an ATM? Never fear, dear bank robbers, because you have unlimited access to the Magnum USA “Sea and Land” or “Blackhawk” labeled cutting torches. As stated in the Magnum USA website, “Consider the advantages in deploying a hand held "particle accelerator in a tube"™ to gain advantage over project initiatives. Operation is uncharacteristically quiet and it cuts like a master of improvisation. Sublimation is the key and our burning process, as it converts metal to a liquid state…”
 
As we said in our 2008 article, the (older model) MAG 9000 cutting torch “cuts through an ATM like butter”. Better yet, the unit is Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) approved. In other words, an agency of the federal government officially approves of these tools. It is sad that the Secret Service has not noticed the threat to U.S. currency. The Department of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) is too busy cleaning up its gunrunning business to Mexico to focus on this threat. The new model MAG 9003, with 24-volt ignition creates a white-hot flame, yet it is not a firearm. MAG 9003 owners receive no protection under the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees a well organized militia the right to bear arms. This device is a bank robber’s dream coming true; an unlicensed, self-contained system that can cut steel plate wherever and whenever necessary.
 
ATM Ram Raid
 
On Friday December 23, 2011, thieves made a coordinated attack on an ATM at a Chase Bank branch in Laguna Hills, California. Using the cable-winch on a stolen flatbed tow truck, they attempted to wrench the ATM from its moorings. When the cable parted, they went to Plan-B, which consisted of ramming the ATM with the truck. Once they had freed the ATM, they pulled it up on to the flatbed and drove away.
 
According to a KABC-TV Los Angeles report, the thieves than drove to a location in nearby Lake Forest, where they “Used a blowtorch to open the machine and remove the cash…” From there, the perpetrators stole another truck and disappeared. As of this writing, the ATM robbers are still at large. If you meet someone in the islands with five-thousand twenty-dollar bills in their possession, it might be our robbers. If our robbers are sitting on an island, Googling this article, they are naive. They should know that IP address are traceable, back to their source. Did I just hear someone in the islands go "Gulp"?
 
In our previous article, we had some suggestions for the banking community. As we said then, every bank should quickly:
1. Add armor plating to all ATM rooms that share walls with neighboring businesses.
2. Add motion detection, smoke alarms and high-decibel horn alarms to all ATM rooms, thus making any break-in immediately obvious to the bank’s security department and painful to the robbers’ ears.
3. Add an additional armor to the identified weak points on all ATMs.
4. Require handgun type registration in order to purchase any high technology cutting torch (e.g., The MAG 9003).
 
To our original list, we now add one more suggestion. In front of each exposed ATM, install crash barriers capable of stopping a Mack Truck. Even in the Old West, banks utilized concrete and steel to armor their vaults. With the advent of storefront ATMs and a new class of cutting torch “firearms”, we need storefront safety barriers sufficient to protect both our bank deposits and anyone standing in front of an ATM. If the banking industry does not get serious about ATM security, we predict a future filled with ram raid ATM robberies. Protecting ATMs from theft is not brain surgery. It is more like “Banking 101”.

Email James McGillis

By James McGillis at 04:53 PM | Technology | Comments (2) | Link

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California - 2011

 

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California

Who was Ronald Reagan? My first recollection of him was as the host of the TV anthology series, “Death Valley Days”. In 1967, soon after I began my studies at UCLA, Reagan became governor of California and the de facto head of the University Of California Board Of Regents. Although few governors before or since played such an active role in the governing of the university, Reagan was determined to make his mark.

While the Vietnam War raged, the University of California at Berkeley became “Ground Zero” for opposition, protests and demonstrations. In response to what he perceived as spoiled and unprincipled students and faculty, Reagan forced budget cuts across the entire UC system. Around that time, some unprincipled and spoiled demonstrator threw a rock and broke a large window at UCLA's old English Building. Becoming an icon for both sides of the conflict, there were sufficient funds to board-up the hole, yet there was no replacement glass installed during my tenure at UCLA.

  Watch the video, "Air Force One Departs the Reagan Library"

In the years 1967 – 1970, the war raged higher and tensions increased on campuses all across the country. Ronald Reagan, to his great displeasure, hosted one of the last UC Regents’ meetings openly held on a UC Campus. There, at the UCLA Faculty Center in 1967, Reagan’s attendance brought out one of the largest political demonstrations ever at UCLA. At the time of the meeting, Reagan and the other regents sat behind a glass wall, obscured only by draperies. Outside, unruly students released the parking brakes on several cars and began pushing them around the adjacent parking lot. With only a few campus police on hand, it was all that they could do to prevent mayhem.

In the spirit of the day, someone in the crowd of several hundred started a chant. Knowing just how to rile the tradition-bound and conservative Ronald Reagan, the student demonstrators repeatedly chanted, “F*** Ronald Reagan. F*** Ronald Reagan”. The chant was so loud that it was impossible for the governor and the UC Board of Regents to conduct business. After it was evident that they had adjourned and left the building, campus police regained control and dispersed the crowd. Eventually, the events of that day began a spiral of budget cuts and UC fee increases that continues to this day.

Ronald Reagan, like Bob Hope, John Wayne and a host of other establishment actors came to epitomize the far side of the “generation gap” from the one that I represented. I opposed the Vietnam War, the UC faculty salary cuts and student fee increases. My parents were Eisenhower Republicans. They condoned no form of violence in our home. Out of respect for my upbringing and my parents, I observed the UCLA anti-Reagan protest, but other than joining in the chant, I did nothing more that day. With the perspective of time, I feel that Ronald Reagan represented in a courteous way, a set of political beliefs that were unlike my own. If we students had not breeched the decorum that Reagan expected in his life, would the budget cuts have been as deep and would the fee increases have been as steep?

Now that Ronald Reagan is gone from the scene of life, he lives on in many memories. Some ardent followers see him as the conservative messiah, while for others he was the bane of both the environmental and peace movements. Did Reagan’s funding of the “Peacekeeper”, the multiple-warhead, independently targeted intercontinental ballistic MX-Missile help end, or did it extend the Cold War?

At inception, I felt that the International Space Station (ISS) was yet another Reagan make-work project for the military industrial complex. Although that may have been its original impetus, I have come to believe that with its $160 billion+ in federal government funding, that the ISS was a good investment after all. Keeping an active manned space program keeps our engineering and planning skills sharp. In any event, Ronald Reagan’s funding of both the Peacekeeper and ISS projects takes him into the ranks of the biggest spending presidents in U.S. history. Who says that the government did not create jobs or stimulate the economy, even if it was for questionable purposes?

  Watch the video, "The White House in Miniature"

In December 2010, I made my first visit to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Although I did not agree with many of his policies or decisions as either governor or president, I hold no ill feelings for the man. Under the circumstances of the times, he did the best he knew how to do. As I approached the library on foot, I let bygones be bygones. Regardless of my previous feelings about Ronald Reagan, there was enough attraction for me to visit his library, museum and final resting place.

With a traditional Spanish style courtyard at its entrance, and strong touches of California ranch architecture in both its finish and details, I found it a handsome building in a beautiful setting. Sitting at the brow of a hill the site has a commanding view of high chaparral in the Los Padres National Forest. On a clear day, one can also see the Pacific Ocean, near Ventura. Despite the close proximity of cities such as Simi Valley and Moorpark, the view is only slightly changed from what it must have been during the nineteenth century Spanish Rancho era. With Ronald Reagan's love of the ranching lifestyle, this site reflects the man in his most favorable light.

In a remote, yet picturesque corner of the grounds is the Ronald Reagan Crypt. Its inscribed comments are brief, mentioning little more than the bare facts of his life. The Presidential Seal, rendered as a brass plaque is its only adornment. With its spectacular view of Ventura County both around and below, who could stand on that spot and harbor hostility toward the man, or anything else, for that matter?

It was the holiday season at the Reagan Library. Poinsettias adorned the courtyard. Inside, Christmas trees representing each decade of the republic were on display. The gift shop was abuzz, selling Ronald Reagan logo items along with other patriotic souvenirs. Except among the omnipresent security force, there was a festive mood throughout the museum.

Other than the spectacular view, the second most amazing feature at the Ronald Reagan Library is Air Force One. Trucked to the site in pieces, and then assembled to look like new, it stands on pedestals in a custom-designed pavilion. In front of the airplane is a picture window large enough for the plan to fly through, unimpeded. Of course, there is the issue of getting the plane up to speed in such a short distance. Through the wonders of stop-action video-capture, you can watch a YouTube video of Air Force One Departing the Ronald Reagan Library on a clear afternoon.

After watching Air Force One take off, we visited the Christmas tree display area. There, stood a series of trees, each decorated to represent a decade since 1776. Near the display of Christmas trees stood John and Jan Zweifel’s White House in miniature. At one-foot-to-one-inch scale, the model is sixty feet in length. The Zweifels and a select group of volunteers put over 500,000 hours of labor into creating their masterpiece. Our YouTube video, The White House in miniature starts with a gingerbread White House in the lobby of the Library and proceeds with a snowy-night Christmas tour of the presidential mansion.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was dedicated in 1991. In 1994, as he felt the slow release of Alzheimer’s disease, Ronald Reagan wrote his public farewell message. Until near that time, he had been actively involved with the planning of the Reagan Library. According to the docent on our tour, he was especially keen to include a full-scale replica of his presidential Oval Office. With some difficulty, the architects accommodated what we might call Reagan’s last wish. Major construction at the library culminated with the opening of the Air Force One Pavilion in 2005. After his death in 2004, the remains of Ronald Reagan, the fortieth president of the United States found peace on the grounds of his presidential library. If you are near Simi Valley, California, I recommend that you make time for a visit. It is Cold War history at its finest.

Email James McGillis

By James McGillis at 01:56 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (0) | Link

Respecting the Spirit of the Ancients at Kin Klizhin Ruin - 2011

 

Respecting the Spirit of the Ancients at Kin Klizhin Ruin

In May 2011, I visited one of my favorite places within Chaco Culture Historical Park, which is Kin Klizhin Ruin. On my way from camp to Kin Klizhin, I had already seen an elk herd on the mesa and visited Windmill Hill, where ranchers had installed a new windmill over a dry hole. Now it was late afternoon and time to head for the ruin in time for sunset.
 
From previous visits, I knew that the current road to Kin Klizhin paralleled an ancient pathway, which entered Chaco Canyon from the south. Rather than following the varied terrain, Anasazi visitors to the area tended to travel in alignment with the cardinal points of the compass. Looking east from the road, I could see occasional small mounds that may have been marked the trail for ancient travelers.
 
After stopping to inspect one mound, I walked carefully back to my truck. Once disturbed, the fragile soils of the area are subject to rapid erosion. By following a sandy watercourse, I avoided stepping on the cryptobiotic soils that make up much of the local terrain.  Closer to the road, I found an area scoured by wind and water. Lying among the pebbles on the sandy surface was a number of potsherds.
 
The largest of the fragments was almost pure white; its concave shape indicating that it was a small part of a much larger pottery vessel. When I reached down and turned it over, I could see that it was an elegant piece of black on white pottery. Found as far north as Wilcox Ranch, Utah and as far south as Antelope Mesa, Arizona, the high-contrast decoration of black on white pottery can turn utilitarian objects into great art.
 
On my fragment, three rippled waves of water lay beneath a white cloud, which was rolling across a dark sky. The symbolism left little doubt that the original vessel served to carry water across the dry terrain. According to Author Craig Childs, “archeologists excavate (black on white) painted jars as large as watermelons” from one Chaco Canyon site. Because of its remote location, I assume that someone dropped the water carrier along the trail. However, because of their ubiquity in the environment, early ranchers coined the word “potshot” for target practice using ancient vessels. Either way, this was a potsherd to love and cherish, if only in pictures.
 
After cleaning the fragment and taking several pictures, I returned it to its original spot. Although it would have made a fine artifact under glass, its real home was where I found it. By placing it back, face down in the spot where I had found it, I allowed another to come along and find it in the future. By publishing its image and identifying its native surroundings, I add to the general knowledge of black on white ware.
 
The U.S. Antiquities Act of 1906 made it illegal to remove any ancient artifact from public lands. Over the years, many people have ignored the law, taking whatever they found and placing those objects in private collections. As Craig Child’s argues in his book, “Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession”, once any artifact is removed from its surroundings, its historical context is lost forever.
 
The following day, when I described my discovery to the Gallo Campground host, he was pleased that I had respected the artifact and its context. “When we find a particularly nice potsherd, we dig a hole with our heel and bury it there”, he told me. Although his method may secure the future of the artifact for another century or two, mine left it on the land, where it belonged. I hope that when I visit Kin Klizhin once again, my treasure will still be there, reflecting light like a windmill in the sun. If you find this or other artifacts, I hope that you will respect the spirit of the ancients, allowing them to stay at home in the High Southwest.
 
I was the only human visiting Kin Klizhin that afternoon. Although not as large as other Chaco Canyon great houses, the unusual setting and architecture allows Kin Klizhin to stand out from its peers. Unique in Chaco Culture, Kin Klizhin featured three above-ground circular kivas, each set within a rectilinear outer structure. The inner walls of the largest kiva are more than twice as high as the other two. Looking up from inside the larger Tower Kiva, I felt the grandeur of this ancient place. Perhaps that is what early visitors to Chaco Canyon felt upon arrival at this outlier, or welcome center.
 
The main west-facing wall of Kin Klizhin is its largest bulwark. The remainder of the structure, including a former enclosed courtyard was to the east of there. Although it is massive, there are only two small ventilation holes or Ancestral Puebloan windows on the west wall. One is set low, probably used to draw air to a hearth inside. The other is at eye-level, and is an obvious viewing port. From a relatively small inside hole-in-the-wall, the opening expands as it penetrates toward the exterior. This arrangement allowed someone inside to have a wide field of view, but kept the penetration of the structure as small as possible.
 
As sunset approached, I stayed inside the roofless structure, waiting for the right moment. Any photographer will tell you that catching the right moment requires luck, skill and many shots. Of the dozen portal shots I took that day, the pair pictured here are my favorites. The small image is from the outside, looking into the structure. If you click on that image, you will see the larger picture, looking out towards the sunset at Kin Klizhin, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

Email James McGillis

By James McGillis at 09:29 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link