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Where the Rivers Merge MO352
Early explorers marveled at the vast resources along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Boatmen reported fish large enough to upset canoes and described fertile wetlands arranged along the river edges as pearls on a necklace. Just as you are here, people have always been drawn to this powerful place. River use changed over the centuries and the Missouri River and Mississippi River were altered to meet demands. Riverboats loaded with people no longer travel the streams. Instead, roadways line the banks to bring explorers back to the beauty of the river. Many needs have shaped the rivers that now flow past dams and levees for controlling floods. Waters float barges loaded with grain and coal, meet the needs of agriculture and generate electricity. The rivers are priceless resources. The flood of 1993 reconnected the rivers with much of their historic floodplains, giving all within reach a new respect for the power of all rivers. Several government agencies, including the Missouri Department of Conservation, have come together with a new vision for the rivers. Their goal is to reconnect the life-giving waters with areas of floodplain. The nation is awakening to the role that people play as stewards of the great rivers.
How deep was the floodwater of 1993 at this spot? The tip of the 15-foot pole above you marks the water level.
Minidoka Dam 341
An important pioneer federal reclamation dam and power plant provides water and electricity for farms and cities nearby. Constructed 5 miles east of here between 1904 and 1906 at a cost of $675,000. Minidoka dam diverts water into canals 86 feet above Snake River. In order to reach still higher farms south of Burley a $423,000 powerplant was completed in 1913. Local Irrigation districts have repaid costs of this project. This early federal power program led to national Rural Electrification Administration services.
Pioneer Log Cabin MO295
This pioneer log cabin, originally located on a 160 acre plot in southwest Ripley County that was owned by George and Sally Ferrill Patterson, was probably constructed between 1865 and 1867. Numerous logs had decayed and were replaced when the cabin was moved and re-erected in 1997. Note the unusual design of the fireplace and the plaster used on the inside. It served as a source of heat and was used for cooking. There was no electricity until about 1934. Their water had to be carried from a spring, which was about ¼ mile from the cabin. This cabin is a classic example of the sturdy and practical home style that was used throughout our whole Western frontier. As you view the cabin, think what life was like in the 1800's: no electricity, no running water, no indoor toilet or bath facilities, no refrigeration or air conditioning, no telephone, television or radio. But it was home and the family was proud of their home.
Thayer MO173
What was once a railraoad boom town at the southernmost tip of Missouri has settled into a comfortable Ozark community called Thayer.
The Mouth of Pimmit Run VA1730
Thomas Lee patented land in this area in 1719. Here at the head of Navigation of the Potomac River, he established an official tobacco inspection warehouse in 1742. The beginning of Arlington’s first industrial complex. After 1794, Philip Richard Fendall and Lewis Hipkins, then owners of 200 acres in the Pimmit Run regiona, built a grist mill, brewery, distillery, cooper and blacksmith shops, and other structures. After 1815 a cloth mill, woolen factory, and paper mill were established along the run. Later to be abandoned. In the 1890’s the Columbia Light and Power Company used Pimmit Run to Generate electricity. Stone from nearby quarries was loaded on scows moored to the iron ring that can still be seen embedded in the rocks below.
Frist REA Project in Kansas KS111
At this site the first power pole for the Brown-Atchison Electric Cooperative was dedicated in a special ceremony on November 10, 1937. Brown-Atchison was the first rural electric project to energize in Kansas financed by loan funds from the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). On April 1, 1938, central station electricity generated at the Horton Power Plant was sent into the first section of line to farms in Brown and Atchison counties, signaling an end to darkness and drudgery for rural people. Thirty-eight other electric cooperatives followed in Kansas to deliver the wonders of electricity into every rural area of the state. Rural electrification became known as the best "hired hand" the farmer/rancher could have. Few other occurrences have impacted so positively on rural areas as has the rural electrification program. This marker is dedicated to all the rural electric cooperative pioneers in Kansas who proved that working together for their own and the common good, produces a better life for themselves and their neighbors.
Hollenberg Ranch and the Pony Express KS28
STATION HOLLENBERG RANCH AND THE PONY EXPRESS Begun in 1858, the Hollenberg Ranch, four miles north and one mile east of here, served as a stop on the Oregon-California Trail until the late 1860s. Gerat and Sophia Hollenberg, German emigrants, sold food and other supplies, lodging, and draft animals to passing travelers. Settlers, freighters, soldiers, stagecoach passengers, and Pony Express riders all stopped there. For a year and a half in 1860 and 1861, the Pony express operated like a relay race delivering mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Wiry riders, often mere boys, hurried their horses between stations that were about ten miles apart. At each station they changed to a fresh mount, and at every third station a rested rider took over. Through such teamwork the mail could cross half a continent in about a third of the time required by stagecoach. By mid-1861, however, the transcontinental telegraph was carrying messages at the speed of electricity, and the Pony Express could not compete.
Bartlett Electric Cooperative TX313
Although the town of Bartlett had regular electric service by 1905, farmers in the surrounding rural area were not supplied with electricity until thirty years later. On May 11, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an executive order establishing the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) as part of his New Deal emergency relief program. Designed to bring electricity to the rural areas of America, the REA also became a lending agency to help finance such projects. In 1935, the REA lent $33,000 to the Bartlett Community Light & Power Company. Later known as the Bartlett Electric Cooperative, the BCL&P built a 59-mile power line to serve the rural areas surrounding Bartlett. The first section of the line, which was to serve 110 farm homes, became operative in March 1936. Power was provided by the city's municipal light plant, which had been built two years earlier. As the first REA project in Texas and the first in the nation to be enegized under an REA loan, the Bartlett Electric Cooperative played an important role in the modernization of area farms.
C. T. Beck Ranch TX6023
Born in 1846, Charles Theodore (C.T.) Beck migrated with his parents from their native Germany to the United States in 1851. The family landed at Indianola and made their way to Victoria. Though he was too young to serve in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, C.T. Beck worked for the cause. After the war he became a cattle driver. His father, Charles (Carl) August Beck (1810-1885) purchased 40 acres near this site for a family homestead in 1862. C.T. Beck married Johanna Lentz in 1872, and in 1893 the Becks purchased this additional acreage from George W. Norton. The main barn was erected between 1905 and 1906; the ranch house was crafted by Johanna Lentz Beck's brothers in 1907. A fever tick outbreak in the early 1920s prompted C.T. Beck to build a cattle dipping vat. Neighbors from miles away brought their cattle to the ranch's vats to fight the epidemic. C.T. Beck died in 1923 and ownership of the ranch passed to Willie T. Beck, the oldest of his and Johanna's seven children. Modernization came with the second half of the 20th century. After World War II, a small tractor and truck replaced the work animals. Electricity was furnished by the National Rural Electrification Administration in 1946. The first telephone was installed in the ranch house in 1952 and surrounding roads were paved in 1962. Though a significant portion of the original 20,000 acres was developed with the growth of the greater Victoria area, much of the ranch property continued to be held by the family at the end of the 20th century.
Caldwell County Courthouse TX9760
The first Caldwell County Courthouse was erected on this site in 1848, when the county was organized and named for Mathew Caldwell, a Texas Ranger and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. It was replaced in 1858 by a 2-story limestone edifice, measuring 65 feet by 40 feet, with six offices and two rooms for storing records. By 1893, that building had become too small for a growing county. In April 1893, Judge George W. Kyser and Commissioners J.H. Jolley, G.A. McGee, C.R. Smith, and R.A. Tiller approved plans for the present courthouse. The cornerstone was laid by Lockhart Lodge No. 690, A.F.& A.M., on August 15, 1893. Contractors Martin, Byrne, and Johnston completed the building on March 19, 1894. The 3-story structure is built of sandstone with red sandstone trim. It displays the fine workmanship and elaborate detail common to architecture of the period. The mansard roof is characteristic of the second empire style that was often used for public buildings. The courthouse is topped by a central clock tower, with additional towers at each corner and flanking the north and south entrances. When it was built, the structure was equipped with the latest conveniences of the day, including electricity. Display # 1 - 10 of 36 |