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Watershed Restaurant announced today that it will be closing its current location after dinner next Saturday, Aug. 6th. The restaurant is relocating to an undisclosed location but the email sent to customers makes it sound as though it will no longer be in Decatur. It seems that Watershed is trying to reinvent itself, even using the phrase "the 'new' Watershed" in the announcement. The new location is slated to open by the end of the year.
Here are excerpts from the email announcement:
The new location (to be announced) will combine a fine dining experience with a casual and comfortable atmosphere. The "new" Watershed will continue to serve the outstanding southern-inspired cuisine it has become famous for, including the award winning Southern Fried Chicken and Sunday Brunch. The restaurant design will offer guests a vibrant bar, spacious dining room, large outdoor patio, and ample parking. It will also include a private dining room where neighborhood residents, businesses and other community groups will be able to entertain, conduct business meetings, or celebrate special occasions. Owner Emily Saliers commented, "While it was not an easy decision to leave Decatur, we are unable to offer our guests these added amenities in our current location. We are deeply grateful to the Decatur community for 13 years of support." Watershed's Decatur location will be closing after dinner on Saturday evening August 6th so that the owners can begin working on the new restaurant which they anticipate opening by the end of the year.
–by Jenny Turknett, Food & More blog
– Jenny Turknett writes about Southern and Neighborhood Fare for the AJC Dining Team. She also publishes her own blog, Going Low Carb.
July 31st, 2011
9:15 pm
Total bummer.
July 31st, 2011
9:49 pm
Odd that they're not staying open until the new location is ready. Wonder if there's more to this story.
July 31st, 2011
10:09 pm
I thought Emily Saliers had sold her interest in the Watershed a while ago…….
July 31st, 2011
10:21 pm
I got the same email tonight. Something sounds a little off to the story though….
July 31st, 2011
10:22 pm
I hope gift cards are refundable… I just gave two as gifts!!
July 31st, 2011
10:27 pm
Liked the food, but thought it was over-priced. Maybe they'll "reinvent" those, too.
July 31st, 2011
10:39 pm
Wow, even the Folkies are cashing in as they follow the money to North Fulton.
July 31st, 2011
10:41 pm
I hope the rebranding means new chef
August 1st, 2011
12:05 am
I ate there once years ago and thank goodness my wife never made me go back. I just took a look at their menu on their website; no wonder they're closing.
August 1st, 2011
12:14 am
I've only eaten there once before and didn't think it was all that.
August 1st, 2011
8:16 am
I just read about this place in an article "Top Ten restaurants owned by Entertainers" maybe it has cause an increase and they need a bigger location. But just like some of the comments I viewed the menu and thought the pricing was on the high side!
August 1st, 2011
8:24 am
John Kessler, you must have some inside poop. Is the lease up?
August 1st, 2011
8:36 am
Wow, I will miss paying $20 for 2 pieces of fried chicken. Bottom line- Decatur has great restaurants now and people don't want to ripped off at Watershed anymore. It will NOT be missed.
August 1st, 2011
8:38 am
Obviously SAWB hasn't been to Decatur lately. There are more new, great restaurants here than you can shake a stick at.
August 1st, 2011
8:49 am
I wonder if Farmburger killed Watershed. Farmburger patrons dominate the small parking lot and you can tell from Watershed's statement that parking has been an issue.
Decatur has a lot of great restaurants, but Watershed will be missed.
August 1st, 2011
8:56 am
yeah $5 for mac n cheese! what a deal! 31 for grouper. who pays that? nothing like 300% markup. i prefer to eat my grouper when i go to fla and it's fresh.
Today's Soup7
Fried Oysters, Caper Remoulade, Pickled Vegetables 10
Crispy Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps, Steen's Cane Syrup, Dijon, Creamy Coleslaw 8
Sapelo Island Littleneck Clams Steamed in White Wine, Garlic, Leeks, Smoked Bacon12
Crawfish Pies 9
Selection of Southern Cheeses13
Butter Bean Hummus, Crudités, Homemade Pita12
Pimento Cheese with Crisp Celery8
Beet Salad with Pistachios, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Shaved Fennel 8
Wedge Salad with Roasted Red Pepper, Soppressata, Gorgonzola, Olives 8
Seafood Jambalaya 26
Porcini Crusted Sea Scallops, Tuscan Kale, Potato Gnocchi, Wild Mushrooms24
Day Boat Grouper, Sauteed Okra, Feild Peas, Tomato, Mint 31
Grilled Heritage Pork Chop, Okra, Tomato, Peanuts, Bacon Jam 22
Prime Beef Burger, Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese, French Fries or Onion Rings14
Baked North Georgia Trout, Lump Crabmeat, Shaved Asparagus, Creole Butter 25Sauce
Grilled Marinated Hanger Steak, Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Marmalade20
Seasonal Vegetable Farrotto16
Side Dishes
Field Peas and Tomato Salad 5
Fried Okra 5
Buttered Asparaus 5
Okra, Tomatoes, Peanuts 5
French Fries5
Onion Rings5
Fried Cauliflower5
Mac-n-Cheese 5
August 1st, 2011
9:11 am
From one restaurant owner to another – closing to reopen in a newer better location in 3 – 4 months doesn't REALLY mean closing to reopen in a newer, better location. "By the end of the year" any loyal customers will have found somewhere else newer and better. Even the best customers won't hang around that long. I think the uniqueness of Watershed brought in a lot of customers, but the prices kept them from coming back. Newer and better is always more expensive, so as I see it, so long Watershed.
August 1st, 2011
9:13 am
@Chris – I thought the same thing. Now, maybe FB can expand or switch spaces?
There are so many good paces to eat in Decatur and I didn't make the effort to go to Watershed. I wish them well and hope they stay close to Decatur.
August 1st, 2011
9:16 am
We stopped going there years ago because: their chairs are uncomfortable, their menu was stagnant, the restaurant was dingy, and it was a bit pricey for what you got. Looking forward to what is going to move in that location.
August 1st, 2011
9:20 am
We loved it, and cannot wait to see where it ends up…. it was a neat location. You all sound crabby to me.
August 1st, 2011
9:32 am
One of my favorite restaurants. A little pricey, but always worth it. Sorry to see them go.
August 1st, 2011
9:35 am
Watershed = Over Rated!
August 1st, 2011
9:41 am
Hmmm…. I'm wondering if they will be moving to Roswell. Downtown historic Roswell is exploding with new restaurants these days, and we just saw yesterday where another historic house on Canton is being converted to what looked to be a new upscale southern-cooking place. Could it be the reincarnation of Watershed? Roswell is about the only other place I know where people would pay close to $20 for good fried chicken. They already do at Greenwoods. Hmmmm……
August 1st, 2011
9:45 am
I would bet they wont be back like so many other restaurants and small businesses, even chains, that have closed during the difficult economic times. And while I went to the same HS as Emily Sailers, her younger sister was in my class, I think Watershed is overrated too. Maybe they are losing business to Farm burger in that same small area. But I would be surprised if they close up in an area where they do have a dedicated following, an area that has foot traffic, a big fish in a small pond to move…where? Buckhead? OTP? Downtown, East Atl? I think they are done.
August 1st, 2011
9:49 am
Sounds fishy to me. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. You've got a loyal clientele and now you're moving away… if you don't really close for good. I think it's a mistake.
August 1st, 2011
10:07 am
Something fishy going on here. (pun intended) Watershed had a decent run in Decatur but something's not being said regarding the closing. For me, it was not one of those "I must return agin and again" places. Too pricey for the offerings. But I truly respect that it IS a must for some. At any rate, "moving" a niche restaurant is almost always a disaster. In a way it says to the current clientele 'We're better than you and we're moving to where the YOU are better!' No bueno! Even if it is "re-invented" in Alpharetta, Johns Creek, etc. look for it to be gone again in <6 months.
August 1st, 2011
10:22 am
Lovely restaurant with great history and a chef who is committed to Atlanta. I will miss Watershed in that spot.
Wishing them only the best.
August 1st, 2011
10:28 am
I went there only a couple times and although the food was good it was too expensive. One shouldn't have to pay $100 for a fried chicken and vegetable dinner for 2, even if you get a glass of wine with it. Besides, the fried chicken at Colonnade or Matthew's Cafeteria is twice as good. The folks at Watershed act as though they invented this type of food. Any southerner knows it's been here forever.
August 1st, 2011
10:41 am
I really liked how you had to shout to be heard at your own table. It still had the acoustics of a gas station. But overall, I deeply regret this move / closing. Watershed put Decatur on the map for quality / fine dining. We went on very special occasions. They don't need to move and get a patio — they need acoustic tiles and a retooled menu for post-recession customers. Come on Emily — think.
August 1st, 2011
11:02 am
WATERSHED has the best everything…including AIR! What, oh what, shall I now do when I want overpriced food, with snobby service and horribly uncomfortable seating? What to do, what to do?
THE RESTAURANT SKY is falling, THE RESTAURANT sky is falling!
August 1st, 2011
11:06 am
Maybe the new chef didn't work out…
August 1st, 2011
11:24 am
Ta-ta Watershed….you've been off my radar for a while. Your food was tasty but very overpriced for southern fare, and Decatur deserves better.
August 1st, 2011
12:07 pm
Decatired, I'm sure you have quite a few places in the city to choose from : )
August 1st, 2011
12:07 pm
We tried to eat in there on a Sunday a couple of years ago – the wait was horrible, and the noise level deafening. Maybe the new location will be larger and quieter…
August 1st, 2011
12:08 pm
Oh darn. I don't get to have the option to buy overpriced food and overpriced wine. Oh darn, darn darn!!
August 1st, 2011
12:10 pm
I wish we would have known this last Saturday night. Our party of 8 could have avoided a horrible meal and pretentious and unqualified staff… it will not be missed
August 1st, 2011
12:10 pm
They are closing for good …. count on it.
August 1st, 2011
12:12 pm
It was too noisy anyway! I hope the new location will be quieter!
August 1st, 2011
12:18 pm
Wow, very glad to see the other "overpriced restaurant" statements. Like I said, good food but horrible prices.
August 1st, 2011
1:11 pm
I liked the place – particularly the hummus and shrimp toast. Sorry to see them go and hope they reincarnate closer to Midtown.
August 1st, 2011
1:11 pm
Wow, the fangs are out today! It's amazing how many people bear ill will towards a restaurant. You would think Satan himself was behind the grill!
I think that the word over-priced applies to about half of the trendy restaurants in this (or any other) town.
And isn't the current chef one of Kessler's buddies? I wonder if he can spill the beans about the new 'move?'
August 1st, 2011
1:14 pm
And it doesn't strike me as odd to close before the new location is ready; who wants two mortgages/leases?
August 1st, 2011
2:01 pm
It was never really special although it was priced that way , about all I can say at this point is Buh Bye..
August 1st, 2011
2:13 pm
The speculation is just that. WS will be new and won't be in a too small noisy building (concrete floors) with no special events space, a landlord unwilling to renew the lease (kind of a key issue) and inadequate parking. Access to Decatur for the bulk of Atlanta is awful and that stiffled WS's growth potential. Though WS was a Decatur redevelopment pioneer almost 15 years ago, Decatur alone can't/won't support it. Did I forget to mention the landlord won't renew the lease? Minor detail.
August 1st, 2011
2:43 pm
Went a few years ago with my wife for the 'award winning southern fried chicken' and I've had better at Kroger (it wasn't even crispy, what's the point?) and it wasn't $20. Never went back. Good luck with that.
August 1st, 2011
2:46 pm
Just read Atlanta magazine ranked Watershed in the top 50 restaurants in the city. Congrats, Watershed! I hope you do well in your new location and are able to move far from all the haters on this blog.
August 1st, 2011
3:03 pm
Atlanta Magazine? Wow, there is an endorsement (did you also see their ads in the previous issues??)…..Not haters, just people that want a good experience and friendly staff when having an evening out.
August 1st, 2011
4:56 pm
I had one of the worst meals of my life at Watershed a year or so ago and have not been back. I was ok with the prices, but have never cared for the environment (chairs, screaming children, noise level). Once the food turned me off, I lost all of my tolerance for the other stuff.
August 1st, 2011
5:13 pm
Went there once; it was overrated.
August 1st, 2011
6:52 pm
THEY GAVE THEIR STAFF A FIVE DAY NOTICE!!!!!!! Hmmmm….that's a sign right there that something was not right.


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Louisville, KYUSA
Hometown: Enterprise, AL
August 20, 2012
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Star Wars, Netrunner
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I'm a recovered M:TG player who has picked up on euro board games and LCGs. Currently into Netrunner's resurgence.
Hey Billy! If you like magic you'll love Warhammer Invasion. Stop by on Friday and give it a try if you can!
Welcome, Billy! We've a big interest in LCGs obviously and member and AGoT host Dodd is excited about Netrunner as well. Hope to see you at a meetup soon.
Welcome to the group! We're small yet, but growing.... Hope to see you at our next meetup! Thanks for joining, and I look forward to meeting you!
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
The NFL is almost into week number 5, and even though Jake Locker was named the starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans, he will not start this coming Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.
With a re-injured separated left shoulder Locker will sit at the very least one week. Veteran Matt Hasselbeck will step to the plate to solely take over the quarterback position. Hasselbeck has had that same injury in the past and feels bad for Locker, but knows he "needs to step up because the rest of the team is counting on (you)."
Head coach Mike Munchak was available this afternoon to talk about the condition of Locker's shoulder but in short he made it very simple, that it has not improved at all and he remains just as sore. They are unsure of when he will be able to return, as of right now he is listed as day-to-day.
Locker stating in an interview today that he is definitely frustrated because it is never fun to just sit and watch but he is "not as comfortable this time" with the injury and getting back onto the field right away.
For those of you with Locker on your fantasy team, I can expect that this is probably going to be a two week deal. You will want to make sure you have another quarterback available. When Locker is able to return you can bet he won't be the same right away. He can pass the ball fine; he will be more reluctant to get hit though so you won't see him rush as much.
The entire offense is going to have to do some adjusting, as far as Hasselbeck returning, it will be a lot like last year. When Locker comes back tough, the offensive line is going to really have to provide him with a lot of protection.
The Titans are not looking good as a whole so far this season. Jake Locker had not put on too bad of a performance this season though. Chris Johnson finally got more than 100 yards but they still have a long way to go.
Even though the Titans are better at home, they should be able to get a win against the Vikings in week 5. Check back tomorrow for a week 5 preview Tennessee Titans vs. Minnesota Vikings.


text:
Our oldest surviving poetry dates from the sixth century – predating all European literature except Greek and Latin. Welsh poetry developed as an oral art. This led to cynghanedd (harmony), a very complicated system of alliteration and internal rhyme, still rewarded today at the National Eisteddfod.
In mediaeval times Welsh bards or poets played a social role; their job was to praise their lords and masters, often the Welsh princes. This tradition lasted from the 6th to the 16th century. Dafydd ap Gwilym - a 14th Century poet – was a bit different from the rest. He wrote on everyday themes and in common language. He is considered a true revolutionary and still holds his own among the great European poets.


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Summer drinks can be so refreshing (especially when sipped poolside, right?). But most of those drinks can pack a caloric punch. But here's some good news: You can still enjoy a refreshing summer beverage without packing on the pounds. Here are some great tricks and tips to...
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374 members3136 Comments 57 Likes
526 members157 Comments 40 Likes
Please Click on the story or banner if you want to read the story!! :
What if Bella knew Alice's story?
good i'm on another rp site better than this site.
Hi Alice how are you today?
© 2014 Created by Hachette Book Group.
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text:
- - Overview and review proposed v3 CDF
- - Review output from BoFs held at FOSDEM and ELC on the common display framework
- - Considerations for Android
- - Cover member panel / board status and Linaro plans forward
- - Gather Kernel team input
When you think about current display technology, you might be thinking in terms of HDMI or DVI. However on embedded boards there are other mechanisms to connect to a panel besides those standards. The overall CDF project goal is to develop a common framework to allow the display subsystem to interact with the variety of buses, control protocols, etc. through a common API. The initial RFC can be seen here:http://lwn.net/Articles/512363/
Card: http://cards.linaro.org/browse/CARD-290
Remote Participation Instructions can be found at:http://www.linaro.org/connect/schedule
Link to Etherpad for this session can be found at: http://pad.linaro.org/Common-Display-Framework-CDF
Day 2 Blog Post - http://www.linaro.org/linaro-blog/2013/03/04/open-collaboration-is-key-linaro-connect-day-2/


text: I tried in the update yesterday to discourage reading too much into the Today show live filming cancelation. Having worked in the news business, I know how iffy remote shoots are until the moment that they actually happen. I wouldn't be surprised to see something from Universal on the show tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised not to see something, either.


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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
[quote] Alsides said...
This is by far the worst article i've read.
1. 10 mans are by far more easy than 25 mans. WRONG
2. 10 mans are for casual, 25 man for hardcore... yeah you can pug a 25 man, but its hard to finish it unless its a joke like Sarth no drake. Any player with little time to play can log, ask for an invite in a 10 man pug and get some free loot. But the actual 25 man raider has to study strats, farm for mats for pots and stuff, need to have the enchants on their gear and has to improve himself everytime. Why wouldnt 25 man raiders get better loot? WRONG
What 25 man requirements do is force people to join big guilds. @5 man naxx fights are far easier than 10 man in terms of win/wipe ration imo.
25 manning isn;t about having SKILLZ - it is about being in a large group.
Lol - this is the same response people used to have when Blizz went from 40-man down to 25-man raids.
I agree with the OP. Give 10 man same loot.
But have normal and heroic versions.
Thats the way to define whether the players are skilled or not.
Currently what we know is that gearing isnt definied by how skilled you are - its about how big a guild you are in.


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I don't know about you but February is the worst. It's deceivingly long, cold, and bleak. You are so close to spring yet NOT THERE YET. And don't get me started on the endless to-dos that are clogging our brains.
But listen, it's Friday and all I want is to get out, grab a few drinks, get a little messy and laugh with my friends. You feeling me?
I urge you to get on our there and strut your stuff. You're a hot, gorgeous thing and you deserve a little me time. And nothing will get you more ready for some fun than Rilo Kiley's new song, "Let Me Back In". Yes, it's a little soulful and is definitely not a club jam but you guys. I. CAN'T. STOP. LISTENING. TO. IT. Since my friend Taylor sent it my way, I've been obsessed. It makes me think of California, cold beers and open skies. Sigh, I miss California… Can you tell? So now, I share it with you. Click on over to Spin magazine and give it a listen.


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- Helen Rong
- Shanghai
- China
J.D. Power & Associates
This conversation is closed.
Is it time for companies to establish global R&D centres in China? Is it time for "Designed in China, for global markets"?
While lots of companies say how much they are committed to the China market, there is still the US (or Europe) centric approach when it comes to product developments. The consumer market here offers a test ground for most advanced ideas for almost every industry. So is it time to start a new product from China, rather than throw a product to China to make people here swallow it? What's holding companies from shifting the R&D centre to China? Do we have ample talents from within China to drive global product innovations? Is IPR protection the main roadblock?
Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.
May 6 2011: Greetings Helen
What's a holding company from shifting the R&D canter to China?
1. China must be seen as providing an economic or intellectual advantage to research and development groups.
2. China is often perceived in the west as being led by two separate and sometimes corrupt governments, rightly or wrongly, the party and the military seem to act at odds with each other, neither having much control over the other. This leads to corruption and the occasional disappearance of people who disagree with government policy. Whatever Chinas decisions are regarding intellectual property rights they must be seen as monolithic and consistent foreign companies will not invest talent or money where they may be lost at a bureaucrat's whim.
Is IPR protection the main roadblock?
1. Yes china must be seen as the world leader in the protection of IPR rights if it wishes to attract foreign research and development, this is the number one thing China can do to attract research and development. Companies are motivated almost solely by profit any research that's coopted by a government or criminal organization is an unacceptable loss of profit.
2. The secondary consideration is that any government regulation of a given field must be one stop shopping, bureaucrats and red tape are the eternal enemy of innovation. Government regulation and or interference must be kept to a minimum.
So is it time to start a new product from China, rather than throw a product to China to make people here swallow it?
1. China is more than innovative and capable of starting it's owe new products the question is will the best minds in China stay in China or go somewhere with better IPR protections.
2. It is important to note the western companies often develop products for western markets only, and for many companies China is a secondary market that is often an afterthought. This is not malicious it is in most cases a matter of economic necessity R&D develops what a free market demands first.
Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.


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Welcome to college, freshman! Now go run out on the football field and win us the game! No pressure!
Due to a back injury suffered by Michael Brewer, true freshman walk-on Baker Mayfield will be the starting quarterback for the Texas Tech Red Raiders during tonight's game against Southern Methodist. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Mayfield only received two FBS scholarship offers coming out of Lake Travis High School — from the Florida Atlantic Owls and the New Mexico Lobos — despite putting up big numbers, having thrown for 6,255 yards and 67 touchdowns while leading his team to a 25-2 record during his time as a starter. (Interestingly, the quarterback for the SMU Mustangs, Garrett Gilbert, is also a graduate of Lake Travis. Small world! Maybe they'll exchange yearbooks afterwards.)
Mayfield's high school coach, Hank Cater, spoke to ESPN last week about the tenacious walk-on: "Baker is a player. Such a smart and tough competitor. That would be the thing I'd say about Baker. He welcomes the underdog role and he always has."
We'll all be rooting for you tonight, Mayfield. Just don't buy an elevator pass from anyone!
[Source: ESPN]


text:
The internet is a magical place, full of unicorns, cupcakes and claymores. Video games make it totally legal to shank my friends and influence people. These are snippets from the life of a 5'8" video game-playing, internet meme-loving, former model and model nerd.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Morning Listening: 36 covers of "Paranoid Android," melded together to create one amazing song.
:0 wow. i love this.
Woooot! 10 points if you notice Tosin!


text:
Many 'usual suspects' make N-R's Top 10 list
Jan 3, 2014 | 1 Comment
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Weather unpredictable? Really! If that be true (which it is), why do some people become enthralled with dire predictions of rising temperatures because humans (supposedly) are heating up the planet?
Ask yourself, how close to actual are the daily predictions made by forecasters? Sometimes accurate, sometimes not even close. Go a couple days in advance, and the correct ratio falls steeply.
Last year, a meteorologist complained that people were paying to much attention to the predictions made by a groundhog's activities. He explained that the groundhog had only a 37% correct ratio, so those predictions were quite faulty. But when asked, the man literally boasted that the human weather predictions 'rose' to the 38% correct category. Yet 1% less is faulty?
So, if using similar weather models to predict daily weather can only be around 40% correct, how does one put much faith in the predictions made for 30, 40, or 100 years from now? Not the wisest choice.
All the scientists with impressive credentials that study weather can make all the predictions they wish, but one big belch ( or lack of one ) from the Sun changes everything. Historical change of climate, temperatures, and life forms has a direct correlation to activities of the Sun -- and the scientists blame humans -- it's the only factor they can actual chase (and possibly control).
• Air quality deemed unhealthy (4255)
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• Cyclists' ride pays off for local businesses (2778)
• Linfield survives Panthers' scare (2627)
• Bypass work full-bore (2212)
• Cover Oregon: Tax credit error hit at least 775 (2006)
• Olympians run away from Grizzlies (1941)
• Pro and Con on Measure 91 - Legalizing recreational marijuana (1734)
• Sports Fan: The argument for Curt Schilling, Hall of Famer (3)
• Pro and Con on Measure 92 - Labeling of certain GMO foods (2)
• Letters to the Editor - Sept. 12, 2014 (1)
• Being 'Not Editor' may be hardest job (1)
• Pot producers add demand on Northwest power grid (1)
• Court invalidates search that found heroin, cash (1)
• Salem considers sidewalk smoking ban (1)
• State to mail 900,000 voter-registration reminders (1)
• Analyzing advice on portly puppies (1)
• Pro and Con on Measure 91 - Legalizing recreational marijuana (1)


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Chapter 3:
By the time North Cascades National Park had been created, national parks were a century old, yet the tensions between preservation and development, at the heart of many philosophical arguments on the purpose and management of parks, continued unabated. Traditionally, the Park Service had modified parks like Yosemite and Mount Rainier to accommodate tourists, providing roads, campgrounds, and other conveniences. These developments increased the popularity of national parks, especially in the first several decades of this century, but they did so at the expense of wilderness preservation. Moreover, the Park Service faced a different situation in its development plans for the North Cascades. The agency inherited a physical plant developed by the Forest Service. True, modifications were needed to meet park standards, yet at the same time, managers had a system of trails, roads, campgrounds, front and backcountry ranger stations, waterfront recreation facilities, to name a few things, at their disposal. However advantageous this situation was, park managers encountered controversy with their proposals. They still found themselves pressured by groups interested in different, and often opposing, uses. As was often the case, the agency tried to find a middle ground between the two, but like shooting at a moving target, the results were mixed.
As the debates over the establishment of North Cascades demonstrated, Park Service officials and a large sector of the public had concluded that the answer to overcrowded parks and imperiled natural resources was not the development of more roads and parking lots but limitations on, or alternative forms of, visitor access. By the early 1970s, for example, Yosemite closed off the eastern third of the valley and the Mariposa Grove to automobiles, offering instead access to both areas by public transportation, and was considering closing all of the valley to cars. Around the same time proposals for yet another tramway to Glacier Point surfaced, as a way to relieve pressure from crowds in the valley, setting off a firestorm of protest. Though the proposal was defeated, it suggested that there were no simple solutions to decades-old management traditions, only redirection. [1] Even in a park dedicated to wilderness like North Cascades, Park Service officials confronted similar problems as they set out to develop the complex for visitor use.
Park managers believed that concentrating visitor services in the recreation areas would solve the development problems experienced in other national parks. In one of his first discussions about the new parkland, Superintendent Contor related this management concept:
The wilderness concept may have been the main focus of management, but traditional development concerns and park uses were on the minds of many park boosters, politicians, and Park Service officials. More important, centering development in the recreation areas -- or wilderness thresholds -- merely transferred rather than eliminated tensions between preservation and use. As one reporter noted, "the park's destiny cannot be realized until both the highway and mass-recreation facilities are completed." Otherwise, a wilderness park inaccessible to the American people "is only an exercise in futility." [3]
The park's 1970 master plan proposed the most traditional park experiences for the Skagit Valley, lying within Ross Lake NRA. Here the majority of developments would be oriented toward automobiles. Once Highway 20 opened, windshield tourists would drive through the narrow valley surrounded by rugged terrain and view the park's scenery from their cars. For this reason, the agency planned to improve upon existing Forest Service facilities and install new conveniences for tourists along the highway. As we have already seen, both the Forest Service and the Park Service planned visitor centers on the eastern and western entrances to the new parkland. Moreover, from the highway, visitors would find access to Ross, Diablo, and Gorge lakes, ascend to the high country in one or more tramways for a territorial view of the peaks, and take advantage of a series of overnight accommodations, such as campgrounds, hostels, and lodges. In addition, to the Skagit Valley, the plan proposed expanded facilities for boating and camping (and a possible ferry terminal) at Hozomeen at the north end of Ross Lake.
On the other hand, visitors to the Stehekin Valley in Lake Chelan NRA would have a less traditional park experience, one not as oriented toward the automobile, since no outside road reached Stehekin. The emphasis would focus more on the slower pace of valley life and the region's impressive scenery. In the Stehekin River country, all developments should, the plan stated, "center around its isolated, relaxed, 'away-from-it-all' character and its unique position as a wilderness threshold."
The master plan proposed developments for two areas outside the recreation areas as well. These, like the Skagit, would also focus on windshield tourists. One area was the Nooksack Cirque near Mount Shuksan in the far northwestern corner of the national park. Superintendent Contor was particularly fond of this proposal, for it would have brought motorists within easy reach of, but not directly to, one of the park's most significant resources: glaciers. Here the agency could interpret the park's glacial and geologic story in dramatic scale with the Nooksack Glacier pushing down the slopes of Mount Shuksan in the foreground. The other area was the popular Cascade Pass. It is one of the few places where visitors could drive close to the park's scenic high country and reach the pass after a relatively short hike or ride on horseback. Because of this easy access, it is one of the most popular entrances into the park and, for that reason, the sensitive alpine environment suffered serious impacts. Rather than expand developments here, the agency proposed its first limitations on the use of the park.
In June 1970, the Park Service held public hearings on its master plan, including its wilderness recommendations. In general, preservationists "praised" the National Park Service for producing "one of the best plans" they had seen. It recognized the "truly superb wilderness character" of the park complex, and displayed a progressive "vision and willingness" in its decision to designate sections of the recreation areas as wilderness. Overall, it demonstrated the agency's willingness to place biological resources above hurried development -- and to study the potential impacts its plans could have on the region's environment. [4]
Not surprisingly, preservationists, who made up the majority of those who attended the hearings, reacted strongly to any potential threats to wilderness protection. The most controversial items that emerged out of the hearings had their roots in the study team's proposals, especially those offered by Park Service Director George B. Hartzog, Jr., regarding access. Initial plans had called for building four aerial trams at Price Lake, Arctic Creek, Colonial Peak, and Ruby Mountain. Preservationists fought to have them removed from the park's final plan, and only two were retained in the final plan, one for Arctic Creek, the other for Ruby Mountain. This latter tramway received the greatest emphasis, since its terminal would be the most developed site in the complex, serving visitors along Highway 20 with facilities for eating, parking, and interpretation.
The question of whether tramways should be built in the park and recreation areas touched upon important issues confronting national parks in the late 1960s and 1970s -- overcrowding by automobiles -- for which North Cascades became an important testing ground for Park Service policy. During the congressional hearings on North Cascades, Hartzog stated that both the nation and national parks were at a crossroads in their relationship with the automobile. In the past, "we have taken the view that access to the great national parks should be by roads," but with a rising population and thus rising visitation, "we are simply strangling to death in roads," and "I don't believe that we can continue to build roads to take care of the people who want to see these parks by automobile." The historic concept of automobiles as one of the primary means of seeing a national park had become "obsolete," and there must be "some other access or we will destroy the very values that we are trying to save." [5]
In Hartzog's mind, substituting tramways for roads in the North Cascades would protect its wilderness values, much in the same way his predecessor, Conrad Wirth, justified the construction of roads during the Mission 66 program. The idea of installing tramways in national parks was not new; various proposals had arisen during the first decades of the Park Service's existence. This was the first time, however, that the agency considered them appropriate -- as "a substitute for automobiles and a highway." Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall supported Hartzog's proposal, for example, as a serious "attempt to solve some of the old [park access] problems in a new way and to show that we can provide transportation in parks by means other than the automobiles." Nevertheless, the tramway concept appalled park supporters who saw trams as a way of defacing the very natural wonders they were supposed to be bringing visitors to see. "We had one proposed on top of the Grand Teton," Senator Clifford Hansen stated. "Everybody in Wyoming...was up in arms about it." Were the Park Service to reverse its policy and build tramways in a park, he concluded, where would it stop? [6]
Hartzog and Udall assured members of Congress that the tramways would be unique to the North Cascades. They were a substitute for roads but not for the traditional kind of national park experience -- the ability to have a territorial view of the park landscape. Park Service policy, Udall stated, has not been to keep machines out of national parks," since most national parks have roads. Furthermore, those roads led motorists to the rim of the Grand Canyon or through the ethereal heights of Rocky Mountain. Nothing like this was available to visitors to North Cascades without a tramway. Unlike the other national parks, Udall noted, "you really have to get up high." Building a road to a peak would have been exceedingly difficult and expensive from an engineering standpoint and, more importantly, environmentally costly. Even the contemplated road down Ross Lake, Hartzog declared, would have desecrated the range's alpine scenery, for it would have blasted away so much of the narrow canyon that it would have looked like any interstate highway. [7]
The debate over automobiles and trams introduced a new direction in how Americans visited and experienced national parks, and it called into question the "basic park philosophy" of Stephen Mather, the Park Service's first director. Mather, who had promoted road building and automobile use in the national parks, helped shape a vision of parks as large, wilderness settings in which people were welcome and certain modern conveniences, such as roads and cars, were allowed as long as the majority of the park landscape was preserved in its natural state. At a time when traffic jams and air pollution made roads and cars increasingly out of fashion in American life, Secretary Udall reflected on the Mather era as a time when the agency was "a bit too addicted to the idea of roads." In a period of rising ecological awareness, the Park Service was already considering ways to limit automobile access to national parks, such as Yosemite, as a way to protect biotic resources. North Cascades, Udall concluded, offered a park where "we can plan from the beginning." Were Yosemite coming into the park system today, we might not "plan to put a road right in the heart of the valley. We might very well decide that we would have people park at the edge of the park and have electric trains run into the heart of the valley and keep the automobile with all its noises and odors out of the center of the national park." [8]
As further justification for building tramways, Director Hartzog suggested that his agency would use design principles similar to those employed by Park Service landscape architects to build park roads in harmony with the natural landscape during the 1920s and 1930s. That is, he envisioned tramways as roads by another name. Typically, ski lifts or European tramways, such as those found in Switzerland or Germany, were built in wide-open spaces with high tension cables cutting a swath through a forest or across the horizon like power lines. Instead, Park Service planners had carefully chosen the routes of the trams for the North Cascades to screen them from the park's wilderness high country or popular hiking trails up the Big and Little Beaver creeks adjacent to Ross Lake. The Arctic Creek tram, for example, would fit inside the valley's "compressed and compact" terrain, and as Udall elaborated, the agency planned to blend and hide it in "the natural setting to the highest degree possible." Like park roads, tramways would provide visitors the "magnificent views" of the North Cascades and conform to topographical features as much as possible. Seemingly, they, too, would not intrude on the park landscape. [9]
The debate over tramways struck at the heart of wilderness protection for the nation's parks as well as North Cascades. The question on the minds of many was: What kind of wilderness experience should parks provide? Should wilderness be accessible or remote? Legal scholar Joseph L. Sax argues that national parks should promote "reflective recreation" in a setting of unmodified wilderness, and thus preserve as much wilderness as possible. "To make wilderness areas more accessible by installing roads there, he asserts, "would put the visitor in the wilderness without exposing him to it, and would also intrude upon others' opportunities to experience challenging wild areas." Tramways should not provide a convenient solution for most visitors who wanted a wilderness experience but neither had the time nor the ability to hike into a park's backcountry. Transporting them to the top of a mountain might give them a truly "wilderness threshold experience," but "Peering into the wilderness from a tramway station, however, is not a wilderness experience; the sense of wilderness is not achieved by standing at its threshold, but by engaging it from within." Visitors should have the choice whether to experience true wilderness, which tramways or similar devices only "falsified or domesticated." [10]
There were no simple answers to the problem of access and wilderness protection. Preservationists, led by the North Cascades Conservation Council (N3C), objected to the tramways in North Cascades for reasons advanced by Sax. They were willing, however, to accept the Ruby Mountain tram -- only after extensive environmental analysis -- because it lay entirely inside Ross Lake NRA, and would not invade or infringe upon the park's wilderness setting. Ironically, N3C, with the endorsement of the Sierra Club, Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs, and National Parks Association, had earlier suggested constructing a spur road from Highway 20 to the top of Little Jack Mountain as an alternate "high-vista-point." Finally, conservationists were not always united in their views on tramways and access. Ira L. Spring, noted outdoor photographer, proposed Colonial Peak to the Park Service as a "very exciting possibility" for a tramway," one "as spectacular as any ride in the Alps." [11] And renowned mountaineer James Whittaker heartily approved of tramways in North Cascades as one of the best ways to view the range's scenic magnificence.
Though retained in the park's master plan, the Ruby Mountain tram was, like many controversial topics, debated for years. Both Superintendent Contor and his successor, Lowell White, supported the project; they believed the views that the tramway would offer were superlative. The congressional delegation of Senator Jackson and Representative Meeds also pressed for the project. Meeds was especially active in seeking to develop the park for mass recreation. Even though North Cascades was a wilderness park, Meeds wanted its management to be "pro people." [12]
The Ruby Mountain tram would be a significant step in this direction, particularly when Highway 20 opened in 1972 bringing hundreds of thousands of visitors to the upper Skagit Valley. Meeds feared, of course, that they would have no place to stop and nothing to see, and thus the new park would be a political failure. But in the early 1970s, the cost of building the tram and related facilities -- from planning to finished product -- hovered near $8 million, a significant sum that delayed the project. In addition, upper level officials within the Park Service were uncomfortable with the project and did not support it. Although indebted to Meeds as a political ally, the agency apparently did not want to fight a political battle with environmentalists over the tramway's design and construction. In addition, Park Service managers were ill at ease with the environmental damage that the tramway's installation would cause. They also knew that once built the tramway would create more development pressures, since skiers would pressure the agency to develop a ski area on Ruby Mountain. In the meantime, other construction programs both in the park and throughout the service were given higher priority, primarily to satisfy basic visitor needs and special initiatives. By the late 1970s, estimates for the tramway and related facilities had inflated to more than $13 million, forecasting still more delays. Finally, when Meeds left office late in the decade, the tramway project lost its biggest supporter and suffered a crippling blow. [13]
Another controversial development project was proposed for Roland Point on the eastern shore of Ross Lake, several miles north of Ross Dam. Like the Ruby Mountain tram, Congressman Meeds pressured the Park Service to complete this large-scale waterfront development, which included an overnight lodge, marina, and campground, to serve the multitude of automobile tourists traveling through the park complex along Highway 20. More than the Ruby Mountain tram, park planners believed, Roland Point would be the major development complex connected to the highway for windshield tourists.
Meeds saw Roland Point as critical to the park's success. It would open the southern end of Ross Lake to cars and boats; otherwise visitors could only reach the lake from the north over a long, unsurfaced road from Hope, British Columbia, to Hozomeen. With road access from Highway 20, the Roland Point development would help fulfill Meed's vision of the park complex as "people friendly." It would make Ross Lake NRA a model of visitor dispersion; here people would leave their cars behind and head off onto the lake to boat, fish, hike, camp, or hunt. Roland Point would be a key point in the concept of the recreation area as a wilderness threshold. Visitors could explore the lake and surrounding environment with a modicum of solitude, freedom, and comfort, using shoreline campgrounds, backcountry hostels, and possibly the Arctic Creek tramway. A passenger ferry would also operate on the lake, carrying visitors from north to south, for example, in place of a road along the lake's eastern shore.
Preservationists objected to the Roland Point development because it emphasized automobiles and power boats. A high concentration of cars and motor boats, they contended, would ruin the serenity of the fjord-like lake (no matter that it was man made) damage the fisheries, and pollute the aquatic environment with gas, oil, and sewage. Groups like N3C supported using Roland Point for camping but wanted it accessible by water and trail only. [14]
The park's master plan retained the Roland Point access road, despite these protests, primarily to appease Meeds. However, just as in the case of the Ruby Mountain tram, the Park Service seemed reluctant to press forward with the project. The critical element in the Roland Point development, as with so many park developments, came down to the construction of a road: the five-mile access road from Highway 20. The spur road would have created a long, ugly scar across the southern and western slopes of Jack Mountain, a scar visible from both the lake and the highway. Environmental assessments determined that the road's construction would have a significant impact on the natural landscape as well, causing serious erosion in the steep terrain. Finally, construction costs were substantial, ranging from $6.5 million to $10 million. [15]
Initially, Meeds lobbied the Park Service to build the road and request the funding. He charged that the agency was dragging its feet and that it would be ill-prepared for the onslaught of tourists after Highway 20 was completed in the fall of 1972. As Meeds wrote to Director Hartzog in March 1972, "We've known all along that when the highway opens this September, it will be only a short time before the North Cascades becomes very heavily visited. And where are the people going to go?" [16] Without the development at Roland Point, the congressman anticipated that sightseers would be frustrated and resentful. More important, he would bear the brunt of their dissatisfaction.
Eventually, park managers convinced him that the road to and development of Roland Point was not feasible at the time. Similar to other plans, the Roland Point facility had been proposed prior to detailed studies and in advance of environmental assessments and environmental impact statements required by the recently enacted National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Another factor working against the development of Roland Point was Seattle City Light's proposal to raise the height of Ross Dam and subsequently the level of Ross Lake by some 125 feet. Were this to happen, it would have inundated most of Roland Point, and because the dam project turned into an international environmental issue with Canada, dragging on from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the Park Service shelved its plans for Roland Point indefinitely. [17]
Nevertheless, the central issue of visitor services still needed to be addressed. The crux of the problem was drive-in campgrounds along the highway corridor in the upper Skagit Valley. At the time the North Cascades Highway opened, there were less than eighty campsites available in the recreation area. Visitation climbed from 250,000 people before the highway opened to 750,000 afterwards. "The facilities to accommodate more than a handful of the people who want to visit this magnificent park just don't exist," Meeds observed. "Unless you can afford a boat or you are hardy enough to carry a pack, there is almost no camping space available for you in the North Cascades National Park." [18]
Early on park planners estimated that there would be approximately 800 campsites in the upper Skagit Valley, half of them at Roland Point. (After further study, planners trimmed this figure to 140 sites.) The others were to be found at Colonial Creek and at a campground planned for Newhalem. The loss of Roland Point forced the Park Service to make up the difference by enlarging the proposed Newhalem campground from 250 to 300 sites, adding 200 sites on the north side of the highway at Goodell Creek, and increasing the number of sites at Colonial Creek to 150. There was also the possibility of building 100 sites on Diablo Lake, east of the Diablo Lake Resort. [19]
By the mid-1970s, with Meeds leading the charge, the park had made significant advances in campground expansion. Colonial Creek, for example, had been enlarged to more than 160 campsites and included boat launching facilities and other visitor services. Hozomeen campground, though outside the Skagit corridor, was doubled in size (to 72 sites). But this still only brought the drive-in capacity to just over 230 sites. [20]
A major source of the problem had been the new park's modest appropriations for construction programs. This situation had distressed, naturally, both Meeds and Jackson and thus the Park Service. In addition, some of the problem stemmed from the fact that many of the park's projects were still in the planning stages, and that some of the park's more controversial proposals also came with high price tags. Nevertheless, Meeds put some of the blame on the Park Service. In 1975, while requesting $2.5 million for the Newhalem campground before the House Interior Subcommittee, he noted that North Cascades ranked seventh out of thirty-eight major parks with serious development backlogs. "Parks are for people," he stated, "and I am disturbed at the Park Service's reluctance to recognize this." By the late 1970s, park managers seem to have come around to Meeds' way of thinking and identified the development of the Newhalem campground as the park's "highest priority," expanding its capacity to 450 sites. [21]
Improving campground facilities at Colonial Creek and Newhalem marked an important achievement in visitor services and development during the park complex's first decade. As Superintendent Lowell White remembered, they released political pressure from developing Roland Point. There were, of course, other improvements being carried out to accommodate increased numbers of visitors. At the Stehekin Landing, for example, park managers barged out old, abandoned cars, constructed a new sewage and water system, provided for (or assisted in) garbage removal, and carried out renovations to the docks. Other improvements, such as a ranger station at Hozomeen, were accomplished, and water quality projects for this site, as well as Marblemount and Colonial Creek, were in the planning stages. As for Ross Lake, the High Ross controversy limited, or put on hold, many improvements except for basic maintenance of shoreline campgrounds, trails, docks, and other recreational developments inherited from the Forest Service. [22]
Issues revolving around tramways and campgrounds illustrated one of the challenges of managing North Cascades as a wilderness park -- when it came to access and services, traditional national park developments prevailed. Rather than walk, visitors still expected some mechanical means of conveyance. Hence roads still played a central role in experiencing the park.
Highway 20. Highway 20 lies entirely within Ross Lake NRA, but nevertheless for most park visitors, this is their park -- and wilderness -- experience. They follow the Skagit River past City Light's dams, with their chain of emerald-green lakes; the company towns of Newhalem and Diablo, with their well-kept homes, trim lawns, playgrounds, and picnic tables. Nature along this corridor is more engineered than truly "wild." Most visitors, however, never differentiate between the recreation area and national park, never fully realizing where one ends and the other begins. Off in the distance and ethereal heights, sharped-edge peaks, snowfields, and glaciers enter the viewshed of drivers, making this a truly windshield wilderness.
The history of the highway's construction is a colorful and dramatic story, nearly a century in the making, but the essential theme is how the Park Service approached its management. As we have seen already, the park's master plan focused on developing the majority of the park's visitor services along the highway corridor. Yet the agency did not own the road. As part of the park complex's creation, law makers had allowed the state to retain control of the road's construction and maintenance. The state's main concern had been any possible limitations the Park Service might impose on the highway, especially since at the time the park was being created the road was not yet finished. Specifically, the state was concerned that the Park Service might limit, or impose fees for, commercial traffic on the highway itself. At the time, the highway's main purpose had been to tie the eastern and western portions of the state into a closer economic relationship as well as open up more forest lands to timber harvesting. Once the highway opened, however, tourism soon became the road's greatest boon. Symbolizing this was the state's decision to change the name from the North-Cross State Highway to the North Cascades Highway.
Like so much of the park complex's management history, any involvement in managing the highway involved other agencies or local governments in some form of cooperative management. In 1968, the Park Service issued a special use permit to Washington State for the highway crossing federal land (basically transferring the one originally issued by the Forest Service.) The Park Service also entered into a memorandum of understanding with the highway department that would outline the park's relationship with that state agency, namely in such matters as establishing the right-of-way boundaries. [23]
But park managers also asserted their role in the highway's completion and future management through their involvement with the governor's North Cascades Reconnaissance Task Force. Superintendent Contor, for example, was able to have his agency's concerns recognized regarding the highway's alignment in order to protect and enhance the natural beauty of the drive. This included adding several viewpoints and pullouts at strategic locations along the highway -- Gorge Dam, Gorge Falls, and Diablo Lake overlooks among them. In addition, Contor voiced his agency's concern with maintaining the aesthetics of the drive leading into the park complex. Mainly, Contor recalled, "we wanted to avoid creating another West Yellowstone or Estes Park" in gateway towns like Winthrop or Marblemount. And they did. The task force reached an agreement with Okanogan and Skagit county commissioners, who agreed to limit commercial development -- at least along the highway corridor near the entrances of the park complex -- by zoning for residential, agricultural, and recreational uses. [24] The fact that the road was closed in the long winter months of the North Cascades helped the agency prevent the new park area from being over used and kept its approaches from being commercially developed.
Cascade River Road. Highway 20 may have run through or between the northern and southern halves of North Cascades National Park, but there were few roads that actually ran into it. Short, dirt roads led up Damnation and Newhalem creeks from Highway 20; however, they offered few impressive views of the park's alpine grandeur. The only road that did was the Cascade River Road. This unsurfaced, twenty-five-mile road led from Marblemount along the Cascade River to Mineral Park. There it forked; one section turned to follow the North Fork of the Cascade River and extended some five miles inside the park's boundary to the foot of Cascade Pass. Here motorists, daring the narrow, tortuous old mining road, could view the range's scenic charms -- its awesome relief, chiseled peaks, and hanging glaciers. A hike or ride on horseback up a trail several miles would provide a park visitor an even closer encounter with this subalpine country. One could ascend to the pass and drop down into the Stehekin River Valley. In the distant and recent past, this route had been known as "the way through," one of the easier passes through the rugged northern Cascades. Used by native peoples, it was coveted by miners, boosters, and highway builders as the natural route for a transCascade road, for it would unlock the mineral and scenic riches of the range. For various reasons, those dreams were never realized, and the establishment of North Cascades as a national park ended further plans to join the Cascade River Road with the Stehekin Valley Road.
The road and river valley were also at the center of controversy over access to the new park. During the park campaign, preservationists had argued for including the Cascade River Valley in the park to protect its scenic and wilderness qualities from destructive forest management practices. Based on Forest Service plans to manage the area for its natural beauty, politicians left the valley out of the park. After the park was established, however, the main point of contention became the protection of the sensitive, subalpine environment of Cascade Pass and nearby lakes.
The pass, easily accessible to millions of urban denizens of the Puget Sound, helped popularize the otherwise hidden wonders of the North Cascades. At peak periods in the summer, it was estimated that some one thousand people a day drove to the foot of the pass. [25] The problem, of course, was that this sensitive terrain suffered serious damage from overuse, and the Park Service found itself in a familiar paradox of preservation and use. By controlling access, park managers could restore the natural environment -- revegetate, remove campgrounds, renovate trails, ban or limit horses, and impose day-use policies. Yet they also had to satisfy a traveling public who were accustomed to automobile access to national parks, an expectation rendered all the more serious given the uniqueness of Cascade Pass.
The park's first master plan declared that the Park Service would limit access to Cascade Pass, especially once Highway 20 opened, so its fragile environment could heal. In 1974, park managers followed through on this statement with the Cascade Pass plan to help repair the area's natural conditions. An important part of this plan was controlling access to the pass itself by closing the Cascade River Road just beyond the North Fork Bridge, building a parking lot here, and implementing a shuttle service to transport visitors for most of the remaining distance, approximately three-and-a-half miles. The shuttle buses would stop near the park boundary (at the Valuemine access road), leaving less than a mile (.7 miles) for visitors to walk to road's end and the trail head to the pass. The former parking lot at the end of the road would be converted into a small campground. [26]
Getting visitors out of their cars and into closer contact with the natural world was a trend in park management during the mid-1970s. As the plan's authors noted, until the shuttle system was operational, visitors would have "the privilege of walking this very scenic" section of road. But it was this aspect of the plan to which most people objected. At the public meetings held in Mount Vernon and Marblemount in the spring of 1974, for example, those in attendance protested restrictions on their "equal access rights," a perspective that resonated throughout the history of national parks and the belief that they belong to the American people, all of whom have a right to see them. [27]
Those who protested the road's closure represented a cross-section of the general public who, for one reason or another, were not endeared to public transportation. Climbers did not like the shuttle system because its schedule might inconvenience them. More important, others noted that the road offered the only vehicle access to one of the park's most scenic places. To close it would unfairly deny those who could not easily walk the last section of road -- the elderly, physically challenged, and families with young children. Though it was only a short distance to walk, the road here was rugged and steep, and the most spectacular view of the pass and surrounding alpine scenery was at the end of the road. [28]
Other factors worked against the road's closure as well and typified some of the problems managers confronted in the new park. The Park Service inherited the road from the Forest Service but not ownership of the entire road within the park's boundaries. Only the last several miles of the road were on government land and managed by the Park Service. The rest of the road, both in and outside the park's boundaries, belonged to Skagit County. Although Skagit County commissioners initially supported the road closure plan, they later opposed it after the plan's public meetings; it was simply politically unwise for them to back the proposal. Without the county's consent, the Park Service decided to scuttle the road closure and shuttle bus plan from its plan approved in the summer of 1974. In addition, while the county had the final word on the subject, park managers had to seek out the support of the Forest Service for constructing a parking lot on its lands and private property owners, namely the owners of the Valuemines, to assure them that they could still reach their operations. Gaining the cooperation of all groups, let alone one, exemplified the steps park managers had to take in most of their projects.
Stehekin Valley Road. The Stehekin Valley Road was the only road to penetrate for any distance into an otherwise roadless national park. Yet, as a result of the park campaign and subsequent legislation, it remained the "road to nowhere," confined to the U-shaped valley and cutoff from the outside world. To residents of Stehekin and preservationists like Grant McConnell, the road had a "quality of perfection." It had evolved almost organically. True, various government entities -- Chelan County, the Forest Service, and state -- had influenced its development, but it developed through human use over time and only then because people followed the natural corridor of travel: from the landing, along the river, through the woods, up the valley until it narrows, steepens, and ends some twenty-five miles later near today's Cottonwood Camp. Travel over it was always subject to weather and the changing conditions of the mountains. [29]
The reality of Park Service management, however, was much different than the idyllic landscape McConnell described, and the Stehekin Valley Road posed the greatest controversy for the new park where a road was concerned. On the one hand, preservationists believed that the road should be closed to motor vehicles at Bridge Creek, several miles into the southern unit of the national park. In this way, nature could soften the final eleven miles of the road, and return the valley to its wilderness state. On the other hand, the Park Service saw the road's purpose differently. Similar to Highway 20 and the Cascade River Road, it allowed park visitors to experience this new parkland in a familiar way; it was a way familiar to the Park Service as well -- by automobile and from the roadside. For this reason, one of the agency's first development projects was the reconstruction of the Bridge Creek Bridge in 1970, which had been closed because it was unsafe for vehicles. Afterwards, the service reopened the valley road to Cottonwood Camp.
The conditions in the Stehekin country differed, of course, from the park's other roads. There were a limited number of automobiles in the valley, and most visitors relied on private taxi services or the Park Service's successful shuttle service (entirely beyond High Bridge), which it instituted shortly after the park's creation. Still, the Park Service's decision to leave the entire length of the road open to Cottonwood was rooted in tradition, to ensure that all people could see the park. "Our main reason," Superintendent Roger Contor wrote, was "to provide the non-hiker and the elderly visitor a recreational opportunity in the Valley." (Ironically, the agency had proposed the opposite for the Cascade River Road.) Contor added that there was also a resource protection aspect to this position. By having the road end at Cottonwood, some five miles from Cascade Pass, instead of Bridge Creek, it would lighten the impact on Cascade Pass because hikers could reach the pass in a day hike and would be less inclined to camp overnight, a serious source of erosion for the area's fragile plants and soils. (This held true for hikers trekking up the pass from either the east or west sides.) [30]
The decision to keep the road open aroused considerable publicity and a "divergence of opinion," Contor observed, but the superintendent and agency officials tried to disarm their critics by assuring them that just as the road had been reopened above Bridge Creek, it could also be closed at a later date. Nevertheless, preservationists like McConnell and his fellow members of N3C fired back that the Park Service's actions to limit vehicle traffic in the recreation area and park had been ambiguous. To be sure, through its shuttle busses the agency had controlled the number of cars motoring up the road during the tourist season. However, the agency was missing an opportunity to "restore the wildness of the upper Valley" and give visitors the chance to have a "wilderness experience" by rationing the "heavily used high country near Cascade Pass." [31]
In fact, its improvements to the road over the years portended increased visitation and traffic in this otherwise wild country. In addition to Bridge Creek, for example, the agency replaced two other major bridges along the road, Tumwater (1973) and High Bridge (1975). It also expended considerable sums of money to maintain the entire road, but especially the upper section that was prone to heavy snows, avalanches, and washouts. Nature wanted to reclaim the road, but the Park Service resisted.
Perhaps the most troubling improvement came in 1973 when the agency paved the lower valley road, from the landing to Harlequin Bridge, to solve problems with dust during the dry season. While park managers surfaced the road to reduce maintenance costs (grading and snow removal), they also improved the road to please visitors accustomed to modern roadways -- or at least roads in other national parks -- and make their tour of the valley smoother and more enjoyable. Seemingly an innocent act, surfacing the road changed the character of the Stehekin Valley in the minds of McConnell and others. The primitive road, which they valued, had been modernized and the valley with it. It invited people to drive their cars at higher speeds, and thus quickened the unhurried pace of valley life. It also invited private landowners to bring more vehicles to the valley, causing still more traffic and congestion at the landing. It stood to invite further development of summer homes and private lodges, too, and possibly pressures to improve the entire length of the road as a two-lane highway. Instead of maintaining the historic character of the valley, the Park Service seemed to open the door to a world from which it was supposed to be protecting it. [32]
This depiction perhaps overdraws the intent of the Park Service, for, as with any issue involving life in the Stehekin Valley, things were much more complex than this. To be appreciated fully, the agency's approach to the Stehekin Road will be handled in a broader perspective elsewhere, yet it is relevant here to note that the Park Service's activities surrounding the road were mired in issues over its ownership, which the agency assumed in the early 1970s after a rather complicated process, and by its ownership its subsequent responsibilities to visitors, residents, and property owners. Pressure came from different directions, and the agency's improvement of the long-neglected Chelan County road could not satisfy everyone. Some residents, for example, welcomed federal ownership as a means to assure maintenance of the road and, above all, snow removal. In this respect, the agency was less a custodian of the nation's natural wonders and more a county road crew. Others, like McConnell, disagreed with the agency's road policies as a slow invasion of the park's wilderness. For its part, park managers thought they had struck a fair compromise, particularly in a park, Superintendent Contor noted, that had "fewer roads than any other major park in the system." [33]
While controversy surrounded the "few" roads that penetrated or led through some of the park complex, the primary means of access to the extensive backcountry of the new parkland went largely unnoticed. The Park Service inherited more than three hundred miles of trails from the Forest Service in the North Cascades. In the early 1970s, park officials, like Skagit Subdistrict Ranger Robert Hentges, contemplated a number of new trails. Some of these would have reached the proposed system of hostels or would have created new high scenic routes. More importantly, trails, according to the wilderness theme of the park, would be the central focus of the park experience. Throughout much of the park complex's first decade, maintenance crews and backcountry managers -- and to a large degree, private contractors -- opened and repaired the area's trails, following the standards outlined in the backcountry management plan and leaving the system relatively in the same way as the Forest Service had left it. Some of the major accomplishments centered on the completion of new trail bridges in the mid-1970s across Thunder, Big Beaver, Lightning, and Devil's creeks. Safety played an important part in replacing the old log bridges, hand lines, or other means of crossing that may have been responsible for several drownings. Two drownings happened on the Chilliwack River, where a third bridge was planned, to replace an unsafe hand line. Another trail-related problem stemmed from the Forest Service's rerouting of the Pacific Crest Trail in 1975, when it completed the four-mile Maple Pass Trail from Rainy Pass to the park complex's boundary. The reroute, park managers believed, was the Forest Service's way of "forcing" their hand to relocate the Pacific Crest Trail within the complex itself, a project that was estimated to cost up to $200,000.
The park complex's 1970 master plan set forth an interpretive concept that would allow visitors to experience the deep valleys, high peaks, and wild backcountry to gain an appreciation of the North Cascades as a scenic wonder and a tangible, thriving natural environment. Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, the park complex's interpretive program built on this theme through many kinds of services. These included evening -- or campfire -- programs given at the complex's major campgrounds, and exhibits and publications available at visitor information centers at Concrete, Newhalem, Marblemount, and Stehekin, as well as other points of entry into the park complex, such as Hozomeen and the boat bringing visitors up Lake Chelan (from Lucerne to Stehekin). Other forms of public education involved the development of ranger-guided and self-guided nature walks, with the installation of waysides at trail heads, and research into and the interpretation of the park area's rich human history. This program was especially important in Stehekin where park interpreters began to document the valley's history and focused a great deal of their attention on interpreting the Buckner Ranch, as well as other structures and sites evoking a sense of the valley's pioneer past. Still other aspects of interpretation emphasized environmental education sending park interpreters into local schools. [34]
The greatest source of interpretation, however, was Highway 20. Initially, park planners intended to concentrate most of their efforts at the Ruby Mountain tram; the experience of ascending from valley floor to summit would expose the visitor to the park on a sweeping scale. They also proposed to make Roland Point a main focus for evening programs. But when both projects were delayed, the highway corridor itself became the central means of introducing visitors to the park complex and conveying to them its wilderness significance. [35]
This turn of events placed greater importance on visitor information centers adjacent to the highway, located at Concrete (opened in late 1974), Marblemount, and Newhalem, as well as the Forest Service installation at Early Winters. These circumstances also highlighted the interpretative program already developed by Seattle City Light. In addition to its popular dam and lake tours, the city also offered a guided nature trail and museum at Newhalem. The park complex's 1976 interim interpretive prospectus also recognized the importance of the highway to interpretation. It proposed relocating the information center at Concrete to a larger facility at Newhalem (the Newhalem school), foreshadowing the need for a visitor center. Most of the park was hidden from motorists, the plan noted, unless they took the time to stop and acquaint themselves with the area. Thus, in addition to and while awaiting funding for a visitor center, the plan proposed waysides at key points along the highway. Of all the problems associated with interpreting the park from the narrow valley, the plan noted one of the most restrictive: there were few places, save the Diablo overlook, to provide extensive roadside facilities. [36] These and other aspects of the park complex's interpretation would await attention of managers in the following decade.
Last Updated: 14-Apr-1999


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"During the last 18 months, Anttix has toured the UK supporting some of the biggest names in music, clocking up performances to over 2 million people alongside artists including The Saturday's, McFly, Rita Ora, Ed Sheeran and Conor Maynard. To date, Anttix has also received global online coverage with millions of views of live sessions and promo videos shared around the world.
After attracting attention from Simon Cowell's label Syco, Anttix is preparing to smash his way into the charts with the release of his hotly anticipated debut single 'Tornado'. Described by critics as "a pop smash" and "one of summers biggest anthems", 'Tornado' is attracting attention from across the globe. With his self-titled, cult following fan base 'Fanttix' bombarding TV and radio stations to support the track, international support for Anttix is growing rapidly.
Heralding a new era in Brit pop with the remix of 'Tornado' by the mighty Cutmore storming straight up the official UK club charts debuting at number 6, Anttix fusion of self penned tracks, infectious personality and charismatic hi-energy live show is taking the music industry by storm."
Debut single 'Tornado' is set to release 28th July 2013, pre order now http://tinyurl.com/bph3exh
You can also follow Anttix on Twitter @officialanttix


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Medical Marijuana
What does it mean for you?
By WNPR Staff
Published: Jun 13, 2012
marijuana plant
Photo:The Equinest
Medical Marijuana
Download Audio
Audio Playlist
Medical Marijuana
Last month Governor Dannel Malloy signed into law the Medical Marijuana Bill, which will allow patients with certain medical condtions to obtain and use marijuana to ease the symptoms of their ailments. The state Department of Consumer Protection has been charged wtih implementing the law.
Commissioner William Rubenstein of the Department of Consumer Protection talks about what we can expect from the regulations which go into effect on October 1, 2012.


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Do guys really like party girls?
I've tried the whole party scene and I'm just not into it, but it seems like guys more attracted to these "wild" girls. So what's the best way for a non-party girl to get a guys attention? Thanks for reading!Mandy
What's Your Opinion?
Most Helpful Opinion
oh god! WE like the wild girls cause they are easy to screw! Believe me, you don't want to hit the party scene looking for party guys, specially if you're not the party type of girl. That is the wrong venue to be looking for a guy. And yes, guy will go for these girls cause they know they can get sex easy! You don't go to parties to find ur serious gf! You go looking for a quick hook up!So to answer your question----plenty of non party guys around. Are you in college, are you working? Before you go out looking for a guy, I think you first need to define what type of guy you're looking for. Once you have that in mind, then is easier to go out and hunt for guys.
What Guys Said 2
well, the types of girls guys meet at parties may seem fun and wild and that is attractive but its a temporary kind . . not someone they look to for a long term relationship
I, too, tried the party scene and found that it wasn't my cup of tea. The best way to get a guy's attention is to be yourself.Sounds lame, but it's true! Nothing sexier than a woman who is comfortable in her own skin.
What Girls Said 4
just be yourself around them you don't have to party to get guys to like you. Seriously find a different crowd of guys if ur not into that thing!
if you are not a party girl then certainly the guys who like party girls aren't ur type, don't worry you will find the one who would like you just the way you are
Usually the case with guys that are looking for party girls is that they aren't looking for a serious relationship.If your truly interested in finding a guy, look for one with higher standards and whos willing to put more effort into finding a girl.These guys who hook up at parties don't give a shit who the girl is because hello- They met at a party and she's probably a slut. I wouldn't wanna be that girl.I suggest maybe going to a local concert for an acoustic artist (I don't know if you have those were you live, but around here there's a lot of places like that)Around here all of the good guys hang out at local cafes which means they have money to spend, and don't mind sitting around reading a book and drinking coffee which might be more relationship type.


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Has Apple lived up to its own hype with its new flagship device?
Pure Jongo S3 review
What is it?
Stream music to the Pure Jongo S3 wireless speaker from any device. You can use it alone or link multiple S3s up for multiroom listening throughout your home.
What's great?
It's easy to use and set up, the sound quality is very decent and they are excellent value for money.
What's not?
Streaming over Wi-Fi is limited to the Pure Connect app and the Pure Music service catalogue is not what it could be.
The bottom line:
It's a really good option for those looking to go Sonos-style without spending the megabucks.
Pure Jongo S3: Review
It's impossible not to start a review of a multiroom wireless speaker music system without mentioning Sonos, so that's exactly what we're going to do. Sonos has set the standard with its high end audio set up that allows you to stream songs, podcasts and radio stations all around your home and all at the touch of an app. It's of little surprise then that we've seen other brands following suit and most with a good degree of success.
Pure is the latest such gadget maker to do so with the Pure Jongo speaker system as debuted at CES 2013 in Las Vegas back in January. Four months later and this stalwart of the radio world has got them up onto the UK shelves for us to peruse and maybe even buy. So, are they worth our time and money? Stay tuned for the details.
Pure Jongo S3: Design
For a portable speaker, the Pure Jongo S3 is not very easy to carry. It's not that it's particularly big but there's a slightly unwieldy combination of the 1.25kg weight and comparatively small 131 x 139 x 135mm body which make this unit surprisingly dense. That would be okay but, unlike other such devices out there, there's no handle or any kind of good way to grip it. It also quite a bulky, boxy, awkward shape to carry around in a bag as opposed to, say, the Jawbone Jambox or the Braven range. Ultimately, the design doesn't particularly inspire us to take the Jongo S3 out and about on our travels.
Where the S3 is portable, however, is in and around the home. It's easy enough to take out into the garden on a sunny day or from the bookshelf of your living room into the kitchen if you'd like a little aural accompaniment to your cooking or washing up. The 10-hour battery life - thanks to the removable Li-ion packs within - fits just perfectly with this ethos although playback is, of course, possible while plugged into the mains for charging too.
As for the aesthetics, the Jongo S3 is typical of what Pure has produced through its Evoke and other radio lines. It looks good. What is very simply a square-based cylinder is jazzed up with a choice of black or white combined with some colourful, interchangeable speaker covers which wrap around the device and come in a choice of monochrome, orangey/red, lime green and a kind of near mustard yellow. In short, they're dead trendy and will look good on any surface in any room of your abode.
Pure Jongo S3: Ease of use
A big key to success for any wireless streaming system for the house is ease of use. Why? Well, because if it's a music system for the whole home, then it's a music system that everyone in the house is going to need to be able to use - not just the gadget geek in residence. So, to test out the usability of the Pure Jongo S3, we decided to get a regular Joe (or Josephine as it was in our case) to set it up.
The results were positive. Unlike the Sonos system, there's no Zone Bridges to set up. Each Jongo speaker is connected to your home Wi-Fi rather than them creating a network of their own. There's a few steps to follow to make that possible but, so long as you stick with the quick start guide in the manual, there should be no problems. Of course, the flipside of using your own home network is that the signal strength is only as good as the power of your wireless router. In other words, if the Wi-Fi signal in your kitchen is poor, then you're not going to get any music on your Jongo there either. Fortunately, the wireless receiver in the S3 is as good as it can be. In our tests, it managed to get onto our home Wi-Fi in places that many of our other devices couldn't manage. Besides, there's always the Bluetooth option if you can't.
Dan Sung
Pure Jongo S3: Streaming
Getting your music from A to B, with A being your player and B being your Jongo, is not quite as straight forward as one might have hoped. There are three ways that you can do it. You can use Wi-Fi, you can use Bluetooth and there's also a aux-in socket where you can plug in a 3.5mm cable from the headphones jack of your laptop or phone or tablet. The last of these methods is simple enough. It's the difference between the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that's the problem.
It's only with Wi-Fi that you can play to more than one Jongo speaker at once; that might be two or more in one room or multiple speakers in different parts of the house. Bluetooth is a one-speaker-at-a-time-only situation. "That's okay, I'll just play everything over Wi-Fi," you're thinking. Well, it's not quite as simple as that. You can only play over Wi-Fi using the Pure Connect app. The S3 is not an Apple AirPlay certified device.
You can get the app for iPad and iPhone, and there's a rudimentary version for Android as well, but that's it. From those, you can stream any songs that you have downloaded and stored locally - i.e. on the phone or tablet itself - and any digital and internet radio stations and podcasts. What's more, if you subscribe to Pure Music (a £4.99 per month all you can stream music service) you can also use Wi-Fi to send a full catalogue of millions of tracks to Jongos all over your house.
What you can't stream over Wi-Fi are other services such as your Spotify subscription (if you have one) and that's a touch frustrating because, although Pure Music is good, there are quite a few gaps. All too often you'll get the message that the track you're after isn't available for streaming. Quite shocking is that you can't stream over Wi-Fi using a laptop or other computer even if you're playing through the Pure Music website. Another niggle is that the search functionality isn't that good either. You'll eventually find what you're after but it might take some lateral thinking.
See also: Best wireless speakers for smartphones and tablets
Pure Jongo S3: Sound quality
You're very much getting what you pay for in terms of the sound quality of the S3 wireless speaker. Clearest of all is the upward facing 3.5-inch bass driver which is probably the showpiece of the five speakers on offer within each unit. The other four are the 3/4-inch high frequency tweeters spaced evenly about the faces of the Jongo which certainly complete the job of supplying a balanced, if ever so slightly tinny at the top end, sound. Like we say though, you're not going to find a wireless speaker with fantastic detail at this price.
The Audio button on the side of the S3 controls the configuration of the five drivers. You can set them to mono where they all play the same sound. They can be in stereo where one side plays as a left speaker and the other the right or you can even have them in forward facing stereo where the back speakers are shut off so that you're not wasting any output that might be lost if the S3 is positioned right up in the corner of a room. Sadly what you can't do at the moment is have two S3 speaker playing together in stereo. You can have each working as a left and right speaker on their own but the system does not allow one to take over the job of the left while the other becomes the right. Pure says that's something that will be coming within the next few weeks as a software upgrade but, for the moment, it's not possible.
What we do really like, however, is the Outdoor Boost mode which is enough to turn even one little S3 speaker into a fully-fledged portable party device. You'll have no issues of volume with the Jongos.
Pure Jongo S3: User experience
At the time of review, the Pure Jongo S3 wireless speakers were in their first stage and apparently due a software update within a few weeks. It's not clear exactly what that might clear up but there are one or two bugs that certainly need ironing out if the Jongo system as a whole is to succeed.
Music can be a touch slow to change volume or start and stop, and there's also a problem that you can sometimes close down the Pure Music app and the song you were last playing will continue. It's not criminal but, if not cut out, it's kind of reason why someone might look elsewhere for a complete home music solution.
Fortunately, most of the rest of the user experience is very good and we've a particular nod towards the battery and power system. There's a complex code of lights around the power button to let you know whether the S3 is in play mode, is pairing, is in standby or is off. Frankly, it doesn't really matter whether you understand it or not. Start playing your tracks from the app. If nothing's coming out, then press the power button and it will.
Better still, you don't even have to turn them off if you don't want to. After a while, the S3 gets the picture that you've abandoned it for the time being and powers itself down to save on battery. Just how and when this occurs is different depending upon whether you've got it plugged into the mains or not. You're welcome to work out the specifics if you wish but what we think is rather key to the UX is that you don't have to bother.
The only warning that we would give is that it takes a while to charge the battery up again. Oh, and if you're blasting the beats outside in boost mode, you can forget about getting 10 hours of use from a single charge.
Pure Jongo S3: Verdict
We could chew that fat about the strengths and weaknesses of the Pure Jongo S3 all day but what it really boils down to is whether you should choose Jongo over Sonos or any other multiroom system out there. Sure, the S3 is a single, portable wireless speaker in its own right but if you've not got your eye on investing further into the ecosystem, then you're rather missing the point.
At getting on for £100 less than the equivalent Sonos device, the Pure Jongo S3 and friends make a very compelling start. The ease of use, good looks and quality of sound do nothing but back that up all the way. The only frustrations with the S3 are with the Jongo system as a whole but it's simply not possible to review one without the other.
Pure needs to increase the options for streaming over Wi-Fi, it needs to iron out the bugs that already exist and it needs to get proper stereo pairing between multiple Jongos going on. Some of this will hopefully be fixed in future software updates but the slightly wanting catalogue with the Pure Music subscription service might well be a sticking point for those of more alternative tastes. Still, at half the price of Spotify Premium, it's not a bad deal at all.
Ultimately, the Pure Jongo S3 is great in itself but the system as a whole needs a little work. That said, we like what Pure is doing in this space and we've no doubt it will become the well-oiled machine that it needs to be in no time at all.
Pure Jongo S3: Available now - £169.95 - check the latest prices with Bing.
Also on MSN Tech:
Sonos Playbar review
Get started with Twitter #music


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Story No. 1 – Smoking ordinance public hearings: After months of discussion, residents of Athens are going to get the chance to be heard on the city's proposed no smoking ordinance. The first of two public hearings is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 23.
Why it is important: It doesn't matter if you smoke or don't smoke, or even if you are a resident of Athens or not … this ordinance will have an effect on you if you go in public in the city.
Learn more: The Review has the story on the public hearing.
Story No. 2 – Election confusion: Federal and state officials are still having trouble figuring out the once-a-decade redistricting from 2011, and the result is confusion all across Texas politics.
Why it is important: If you are waiting on a voter registration card, you are going to have to wait a little bit longer.
Learn more: Both the Review and The Malakoff News had the story.
Story No. 3 – Time for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Monday is the annual MLK holiday. Johnson Chapel AME Church will be hosting the Annual Gospel Explosion starting at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and the annual Candlelight Vigil will be held 7 p.m. Monday at New Hope Corinth CME Church. Both churches are in Malakoff.
Why it is important: Civil rights, nonviolence, service, equality, courage, faithfulness … Dr. King is an example for us in so many ways.
Learn more: Check out the official website.
Story No. 4 – TVCC back in session: Students registered this week for the spring semester at Trinity Valley Community College.
Why it is important: Basketball is back, for one. Another reason is a new requirement for students this semester is a bacterial meningitis vaccination.
Learn more: Here's info about the vaccination.
Story No. 5 – Meeting for big outreach: The big rally might be over, but Henderson County Christians are looking to keep the momentum going forward. A planning meeting is scheduled for Monday at Sand Springs Baptist Church for a February outreach.
Why it is important: There are plenty of poor and down-on-their-luck people in Henderson County right now who need help – hopefully this is a step in that direction.
Learn more: Henderson County Christian has info.
*BONUS STORY – Day for friggatriskaidekaphobia: That's right, it is Friday the 13th… the first of 2012. There will be two more this year (April, July).
Why it is important: Seriously, how many times do you get to use friggatriskaidekaphobia?
Learn More: Time to turn to Wikipedia.