Mountain men

the importance to the protected areas, which will focus on protecting gorilla habitats. Furthermore, Nielsen and Spenceley (2011) point out the success of tourism and benefits derived from tourism in Rwanda in their article. The authors claim that mountain gorilla tourism has been seen as a valuable tool to conserve animals. This is because tourists will pay large sums of money visiting these animals, which will provide funds with authorities to do conservation in Virunga National Park.…

Sami Lenox Dr. Dryer Biology 157 Greater Prairie Chickens Illinois use to be one of the largest states for Prairie Chickens. Prairie chickens didn’t only dominate the Illinois state but reached out into the entire Midwest, States in this premotor included Arkansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. Midwest flourished in these creatures. Illinois use to be top contender, with nearly 20 million acres of birds. Boomers (also known as prairies chickens) are a slight larger…

The White Mountains are a completely different animal than the Appalachian Mountains. Even so, as I hiked up Craggy Gardens off of the Blue Ridge Parkway just outside of Asheville, North Carolina a couple of days ago, I was forced to remember the first stretch of the Presidential Traverse in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The climb was gradual at first, but steady, with a low hanging forest and a stream running not far off the trail. Not 10 minutes in I was having thoughts akin to, “Oh my…

giant, 50 liter bags, and hit the trail for a few days. This past year, in early fall, I convinced my parents to don their sturdy boots and disappear into the wilds of bear state park with me for three days. We were dropped off at the top of Bear Mountain and, while my parents argued over directions, I wandered around the windswept ridge. The grasses that grew out of rocky fissures and in expanses along the tourist paths were dried from the September heat and waved golden-brown in the slight…

American life and society have created through time. The first settlers on this territory were those that had trouble with finances and other situations and were forced or “pushed” to leave their homes. Around the mid 1700’s through the early 1800’s these individuals were determined to make a new way and ventured out to the frontier. In a few routes, life on the Tennessee outskirts or frontier was altogether different than the way we live today but some components were amazingly comparable. Life…

Rip Van Winkle as a Romantic Hero Rip Van Winkle is a short story written by Washington Irving which follows a lazy farmer named Rip, who enjoys helping everyone besides himself and his wife. Rip wanders off into the mountains one day and falls asleep, only to awaken after twenty years have passed. The author endows Rip with various characteristics that portray him as a Romantic Hero. Some of these qualities include being child-like and innocent, disliking women, and going on a journey in…

communities across the nation, but often, little of this news coverage is given to the people living in Appalachia. The ABC 20/20 episode entitled A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains shines a much needed light on the daily struggles people living in Central Appalachia face. Watching Children of the Mountains was a sobering experience for me. The most surprising thing in this video was the drug abuse and drug dealing. It was stated that the prescription pill addiction rate is two times…

Sonora Gillespie Dr. Michael Perri History 1302 6 May 2015 Transformation of the Nation The transcontinental railroad network transformed post-Civil War America into a booming industry. The nation was finally physically bound from coast to coast. The railroad touched numerous phases of American life. It became America’s largest business. It employed thousands of people and made many things possible that could not be done before and of course it made things that could be done before a lot faster…

Prior to the 19th century, the idea of ‘wilderness’ was associated with desolation and an incredible fear of the unknown. This can mostly be attributed to early Christianity; in the Bible all things ‘wild’ were of hellish nature and meant only unpredictable darkness. It wasn’t until the beginning of the American romantic movement that this perception began to shift in the wake of great minds such as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Fenimore Cooper, Thomas Cole, and many other…

“Rip Van Winkle” was an iconic short story that was written by Washington Irving, in June, 1818. It was so well-known that almost every child in the United States has read it or heard about it once in their lifetime. Irving creates a simple-minded and easygoing character named Rip Van Winkle. He was cherished by the community, but his wife henpecks him day and night because of his carefree attitude. However, Irving’s illustration of Rip does not encompass the true reality of the “American Dream”…