Discovering Lewis & Clark from the Air

 

Two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s Corps of Discovery to find a water route to the Pacific and explore the uncharted west. Lewis and Clark were everything Jefferson hoped for as explorers—they were literate in their description of flora and fauna, they were trained mapmakers, they had a scientific sense of observation, and they could lead a party of men through the unknown. While they didn’t find the woolly mammoths, erupting volcanoes, or mountains of pure salt that Jefferson imagined, their discoveries were no less mind-boggling: some 300 species unknown to science, nearly 50 Indian tribes, and thousands of miles of uncharted territory. This online “Journey Log” catalogues every tribe, plant, and animal they   

encountered on their expedition, presented with their journals, maps, and drawings, as well as contemporary photographs and illustrations. Visitors follow the Corps of Discovery in this dynamic site through 22 discrete segments based on geographic milestones. A crop of the original William Clark map from 1806 illustrates each segment so that visitors can explore every plant or animal that was discovered, each tribe that was encountered, and examine the related journals and maps. The database-driven backend organizes all the content according to location and time, giving visitors chronological and geographical context for all their findings. In addition, the flexible structure easily accommodated the addition of new content modules over the three-year bicentennial celebration of the expedition.
They went throught the states Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia,Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri , Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Sought and North Dacota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

http://lewis-clark.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition

Population

If you want to learn some useful information about the population of Massachusetts, click on these web sites:
http://www.city-data.com/states/Massachusetts-Climate.html

It was interesting for me to learn that Massachusetts is the most populous state.Its population grow steadily since colonial timesits population grow steadily since colonial times.However, since the early 1800s, its growth rate has often lagged behind the rest of the nation's. Massachusetts's population, according to the 1990 federal census, was 6,016,425 (13th in the US), an increase of 4.9% over 1980, and much better than the 0.8% growth rate of the 1970s. Reasons behind the population lag include a birthrate well below the US average, and a net out-migration of 301,000 people between 1970 and 1983, the largest drop of all New England states.

Geography

Here you can find detail information about geography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Massachusetts

Visiting these sites:
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/us/A0859527.html
http://www.city-data.com/states/Massachusetts-Climate.html
http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/ma_geography.htm
http://geography.howstuffworks.com/united-states/geography-of-massachusetts.htm
you'll find out information about humid continental climate and basic facts, such as total area, highest and lowest point, major rivers and lakes.

Massachusetts History

Here you can find detail information about history of   Massachusetts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts

It was interesting for me to read about Early European Exploration and Colonization on this site:
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/us/A0859530.html

It is written, that the coast of what is now Massachusetts was probably skirted by Norsemen in the 11th  cent., and Europeans of various nationalities (but mostly English) sailed offshore in the late 16th and early 17th cent. Settlement began when the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower and landed (1620) at a point they named Plymouth (for their port of embarkation in England). Their first governor, John Carver, died the next year, but under his successor, William Bradford, the Plymouth Colony took firm hold. Weathering early difficulties, the colony eventually prospered.Other Englishmen soon established fishing and trading posts nearby—Andrew Weston (1622) at Wessagusset (now Weymouth) and Thomas Wollaston (1625) at Mt. Wollaston, which was renamed Merry Mount (now Quincy) when Thomas Morton took charge. The fishing post established (1623) on Cape Ann by Roger Conant failed, but in 1626 he founded Naumkeag (Salem), which in 1628 became the nucleus of a Puritan colony led by John Endecott of the New England Company and chartered by the private Council for New England.

Opening these sites, you’ll have a possibility to look at the timeline (the most important dates in Massachusetts history):
http://www.shgresources.com/ma/timeline/
http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/american-timelines/21-massachusetts-history-timeline.htm

The Mayflower

The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, (which would become the capital of Plymouth Colony), in 1620.

Here you can see two very interesting videos about the history of Mayflower. These videos are not exactly conventional, but very original. Information presented briefly and imaginative. See and you will not regret it.

1)http://www.history.com/topics/massachusetts/videos#the-mayflower               

2)http://www.history.com/topics/massachusetts/videos#deconstructed-mayflower

Symbols

The Massachusetts flag    

The Massachusetts flag was two-sided from 1908 to 1971. The current flag (above) bears the arms of the state on a white field. The arms show an American Indian holding a bow and arrow and a white star in the upper left of the shield. The state motto appears below it. The other side of the former flag had a green pine tree on a blue shield. The pine tree had been a traditional symbol of the state since the founding of the original colony.

The State Seal  

  

The state seal of Massachusetts has remained essentially the same since 1780, though details changed and were standardized in 1898. The arms, as on the state flag, include a crest (an arm holding a sword) and a ribbon with the state motto Petit Placidam Sub Libertate Quietem (By the Sword We Seek Peace, but Peace Only Under Liberty).

Here you can find some interesting information about state symbols. You can learn here about Massachusetts State animals, plants, dishes and so on. -  http://www.msp.umb.edu/symbols.html

Massachusetts

INTRODUCTION  

The name Massachusetts comes from Algonquian Indian words that mean the great mountain, an apparent reference to the tallest of the Blue Hills, a recreation area south of the town of Milton. Massachusetts is nicknamed the "Bay State", for the early settlement on Cape Cod Bay. Like other New Englanders, Bay Staters are popularly referred to as Yankees. (Not if they are Red Sox fans!)

Much of the American heritage is embodied in Massachusetts. The windswept seacoast of this small northeastern state may have been the first part of what is now the United States seen by Europeans. The Mayflower colonists who reached Plimoth (Plymouth) in December 1620 (in the words of Governor William Bradford) found it "fitt for shipping; and marched into ye land, & found diverse cornfields, & little running brooks, a place fitt for situation".These Pilgrims were refugees from religious persecution that had already driven them to another alien land. The English-speaking colony they founded became the New World's hub of liberty and culture, its cradle of commerce and industry.


Here you can find a short information about the state, it's area, population, presidents, some geographical facts and some interesting facts about Massachussets symbols.                        
 http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/massachusetts/