Ricketts Glen State Park is a Pennsylvania state park and American
National Natural Landmark on 13,050 acres (5,280 ha) in Columbia,
Luzerne, and Sullivan counties. The park has 24 named waterfalls along
Kitchen Creek, as it flows down the Allegheny Front escarpment over four
rock formations from the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. The
earliest recorded inhabitants of the larger watershed were the
Susquehannocks. The park is named for R. Bruce Ricketts, who built the
trail along the waterfalls and operated a hotel there from 1873 to 1903.
Ricketts made his fortune clearcutting much of what is now the park, but
preserved about 2,000 acres (810 ha) of old-growth forest in its three
glens. The park opened in 1944. The Benton Air Force Station, a Cold War
radar installation in the park, operated from 1951 to 1975 and still
serves as airport radar for nearby Wilkes-Barre and as the Red Rock Job
Corps Center. The park is home to a wide variety of plants and animals
and was named an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society. The
state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources named it one
of "25 Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricketts_Glen_State_Park>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1291:
Three Swiss cantons signed the Federal Charter to create the
Old Swiss Confederacy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_of_the_Old_Swiss_Confederacy>
1798:
French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of the Nile started
between a British fleet commanded by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson and a
French fleet under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Nile>
1834:
The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force, officially
abolishing slavery in most of the British Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833>
1966:
Charles Whitman climbed the University of Texas at Austin tower
and went on a shooting spree at the school, killing 10 with sniper fire
before being shot and killed by police.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman>
1991:
US President George H. W. Bush delivered a speech in the
parliament of the Ukrainian SSR in which he warned against Ukrainian
independence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Kiev_speech>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
amanaty:
(historical) Native American hostages taken by Russian colonists.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amanaty>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I would to God Shakspeare had lived later, & promenaded in
Broadway … that the muzzle which all men wore on their soul in the
Elizebethan day, might not have intercepted Shakspers full
articulations. For I hold it a verity, that even Shakspeare, was not a
frank man to the uttermost. And, indeed, who in this intolerant universe
is, or can be? But the Declaration of Independence makes a difference.
--Herman Melville
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herman_Melville>