Joppenbergh Mountain is a nearly 500-foot (150 m) mountain in Rosendale
Village, in Ulster County, New York. The mountain is composed of a
carbonate bedrock overlain by glacially deposited material. It was named
after Rosendale's founder, Jacob Rutsen, and mined throughout the late
19th century for dolostone that was used in the manufacture of natural
cement. Extensive mining caused a large cave-in on December 19, 1899,
that destroyed equipment and collapsed shafts within Joppenbergh. During
the late 1930s, Joppenbergh became the site of several ski jumping
competitions, which continued until the early 1940s. Skiing began again
in the 1960s, when a new slope was built on the mountain, and the
revived competitions continued until 1971. In March 2011, the Open
Space Institute offered to purchase Joppenbergh and sell it to the town.
The Rosendale town board initially agreed to the deal the following
month, with payment planned to come from a surplus fund. That June,
however, the board found that the surplus fund had already been
exhausted and could not cover the entire cost of the purchase.
Ultimately, the OSI completed its purchase of Joppenbergh in October
2011, without town money.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joppenbergh_Mountain>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1542:
The Prome Kingdom, in present-day central Burma, was conquered
by the Taungoo Dynasty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prome_Kingdom>
1743:
French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a
mercury thermometer with the centigrade scale where zero represents the
freezing point of water and 100 its boiling point.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: A Continental Army garrison west of
Montreal surrendered to British troops in the Battle of The Cedars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_The_Cedars>
1911:
Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, was
established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the
Interior.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parks_Canada>
1997:
The Sierra Gorda Biosphere, which encompasses the most
ecologically diverse region in Mexico, was established as a result of
grassroots efforts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Gorda>
2010:
In Bangkok, the Thai military concluded a week-long crackdown
on widespread protests by forcing the surrender of opposition leaders.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Thai_military_crackdown>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
front runner:
(idiomatic) The most likely winners in a contest, election, etc.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/front_runner>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Upon the progress of knowledge the whole progress of the human
race is immediately dependent: he who retards that, hinders this also.
--Johann Gottlieb Fichte
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johann_Gottlieb_Fichte>