The Markeroni Blog
The blog of Markeroni, the Gentle Art of Landmark-Snarfing

Join in our “when will we get to 100,000 landmarks in the database” game. Open to everyone, not just members.

Join in by commenting here!.

by Scribe

Snarfing in New York City offers as much variety as you can handle. Here are some of my favorites from my recent trip home to the Big Apple.

1. The Brooklyn Bridge

The 1-mile walk over the bridge gives you a great view of the Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn skylines. It’s especially good on New Year’s Eve when you can watch them shoot fireworks on the East River.


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Possibly one of the most overused words of the past few years is the word “extreme”: “Extreme flavor”, “extreme sports”, “extreme fun,” etc.

Snarfing (the hunt for historical markers) is usually not an activity that calls for using the word “extreme.” Most markers are located in very prosaic locations where the most extreme activity required is walking a half-mile from where the car is parked.

There are exceptions to every rule, however. In my travels about the Internet, I found a marker that deserves the label extreme. Very few people will ever come within a few hundred miles of this marker, much less see it in person–and those that do will be exposed to sub-zero temperatures and howling winds.

The Cape Evans historical marker is located on Ross Island, Antarctica. It documents the base camp of Robert Scott’s British Expedition to Antarctica, 1910-13. The expedition ended in tragedy with five team members who reached the South Pole dying, including Scott.

After the remainder of the expedition members left the base camp, the structures were buried in snow. With the construction of the McMurdo Station in the 1956, the remains of Scott’s base camp were rediscovered and were restored. The cold, dry conditions have preserved the cabin and its contents in nearly the same condition as the day they were left.

This would be a truly remarkable snarf to obtain. Maybe one day, someone from Markeroni will feel like a challenge and we will have our first Antarctic snarf!

Guess when we get up to 100,000 landmarks in the database. Oh go on, give it a shot. ;)

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August is Tell Everyone About Markeroni month, a concerted effort to tell the world about our neat little corner of the internet!

ETA: (if you do kindly TEAMM with us, please try to give a link to our home page: http://www.markeroni.com because this is the blog, not the home page. :)

In that spirit, then, here are thirteen reasons why Markeroni is cool and we’d be so grateful if you could tell your friends and/or blog about the site.

1. You can find information about historical markers and historic landmarks in Australia, the USA, Canada and the British Isles.
   
2. We already have 80,000 sites in our database that you can find, and more are being added almost daily. (There are two numbers associated with Markeroni: the number of landmarks we have already found, and the number we have input for you to find.)
   
3. You can take part in our shared blog. More places to write–yay!
   
4. We’re friendly and mellow and don’t take ourselves too seriously. Markeroni is for anyone interested in history, who takes part in treasure hunting games, or who likes to have a nice day out.
   
5. You can get cute little stars after your name, like merit badges, for logging landmarks. What’s not to love? :-P
   
6. Our stated goal is to eventually be able to donate 10% of our profits to historic preservation. We need more members to reach that goal.
   
7. Eventually we want to expand to include landmarks everywhere in the world. Won’t that be cool?
   
8. Lots of families take part with their family memberships.
   
9. You get to run around the countryside wielding stuffed penguins, monkeys, Russian dolls and a variety of other mascots. (See: told you we don’t take ourselves too seriously.)
   
10. It’s the most fun you can have with historical markers. Really. Trust us on this.
    
11. If you have a competitive spirit you can be all competitivey. If you don’t, you can just landmark-hunt for the sheer joy and interestingness of what you learn.
    
12. You really start to get a sense of your local history as you start to visit museums and piece together the individual snippets of history.
    
13. You get to go to some really cool places, like this and and this and this.
    

    
    Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

    1. Susiej
    2. O So Mo Love
    3. Buck Naked Politics
    4. Puss Reboots
    5. West of Mars
    6. Kitchen Table Chatter
    7. Single Parents Unite
    8. Bending the Twigs
    9. Momma Writes About Books
    10. Colloquium
    11. While Sleepwalking
    12. Nancy Bond
    13. Vixen’s Den
    14. One Green Bus
    15. Around The Island
    Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

    The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
    View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
    

I just discovered that, most likely sometime last week, the 80,000th landmark was input into Markeroni’s database for people to find.

80,000! Whoah.

(For visitors, this does not mean that we have found 80,000 landmarks. It means that we have made 80,000 landmarks available to be logged in the site without being requested first.)

[tags]markeroni[/tags]

I recently ran across an unusual marker at a rest stop along Interstate 5 in California. The marker contained the coordinates of the California center of population for the 2000 census.

So what is a center of population? One way to think of it is as if California were a flat surface in the shape of the state. Weights representing individual people are placed on the top of the surface in the locations that the individuals registered for in the census. The center of population would be the point in the state upon which the entire flat state and the weights would be in perfect balance.

Obviously, no one sits around with a bunch of state shapes, weights and a pointy object to balance them on. These locations are calculated by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), a part of the United States government. Each state’s center and the center for the entire country are calculated with each census. The NGS places the national population center plaque every ten years and encourages states to place markers indicating their population centers.

California is one state which places a marker. The population center of California (pdf file) has moved quite a bit since the center was first calculated in 1880. In 1880, it was located just west of the city of Stockton. The growth of Southern California is clear as the center has moved consistently south since that time. As of 2000, the center is west of the city of Bakersfield, a distance of about 200 miles!

So where is the center of population for entire country? For 2000, it is located in Phelps County, MO.

Your state may have a marker too. This map shows where the centers were for the 2000 census. The colors on the map indicated the status of state markers but is obviously out of date–California has one now but is only shown as being interested on the map. Your state may have one. Get out there and find those centers!

[tags]population center, california population center, history, california history[/tags]

Today, we can hop a red-eye airline flight to just about anywhere in the world. A plane flying at night is not seen as being much of a problem with technologies such as radios, radar and GPS navigation.

80 years ago, it was a different story. Aviation was mostly a daylight activity. There was radio but it hadn’t been developed for use in navigation yet. Radar was still 20 years in the future and the idea of launching something like a GPS satellite into space was the realm of HG Wells and Jules Verne.

The United States mail service was looking for ways to shorten delivery times and airmail was put into use as a quick way to move letters around. The problem was that airplanes could only fly during the day as they couldn’t navigate easily in the dark. To solve the problems with flying at night, a network of light towers, called airway beacons, was constructed across the country along pre-designated flight paths.

The first tower was installed in Moline, IL on Dec. 7, 1926. Within seven years, there were 1,550 towers guiding planes over 18,000 miles of flight paths.

Every ten miles initially, and later, fifteen miles as lighting technology improved, along a flight path was one of the airway beacon towers. The tower was topped with a rotating light and a pair of fixed lights, one pointing toward each of the next towers in the line. Most of the lights were red, indicating a tower location only. Some of the towers had an emergency airfield located next to the tower. These were indicated by a green light.

For over 20 years, the lights guided America’s growing air transportation system. By the 1950s, technology had made the system obsolete and most of the airway beacons were removed from service.

Some airway beacons do remain in service, however. The FAA transferred 14 towers to the State of Montana in the 1970s and they are still maintained and in use today.

Thirteen Things #3 13 Snarfs in Scotland

All the links open in a new window and load on top of one another, so you can keep two windows open and see them one at a time.

1. Ullapool War Memorial
   A very unusual war memorial, in the guise of a clock. The east coast town of Ullapool is so remote that this memorial is not just for Ullapool, but for the entire valley. The names are written on the base. Next time I’m there I must remember to get a better photograph.

2. Beauly Boer War Memorial
   Here’s something you just never see in the USA. The Boer War was fought in South Africa from 1899 to 1902…primarily over gold. Actually, this is the first Boer War memorial that I ever recall seeing.

3. Cawdor Castle
   No kidding. It’s that Cawdor Castle. Of course, the Macbeth story was sheer propoganda designed to make a writer’s king happy. Macbeth was a perfectly capable, non-murderous king. Cawdor Castle is pretty, and has giant thistles in the garden. It also has the distinction of being the only castle where I have read all the interpretive panels while going through. They were funny.

4. Duntulm Castle
   On the Isle of Skye. It’s slowly vanishing into the sea, I think. I’m sad because when I first went here, one could actually go right in. The second time, it was blusteringly windy and we were the only visitors. Signs warned that it was dangerous, but you still could go right in. Now, you cannot.

5. Aviemore Ring Cairn and Stone Circle
   Nestled slap-bang in the middle of a housing estate, this ancient monument still contrives to keep a stillness about it. It’s like stepping in time. The tree is a rowan, and was bristling with red berries when I was there.

6. Hugh Miller Cottage and House
   Hugh Miller was a famous writer and geologist born in Cromarty, which happens to be one of my favorite places in Scotland. The cottage where he was born is teeny-tiny and as cute as pie.

7. Urquhart Castle
   Urquhart Castle is well-preserved and perched precariously on the shores of Loch Ness, very grand for monster-spotting. The visitor center is awesome and has a flair for drama–you’ll see. My parents have taken disabled friends there; they offer golf carts and flat paths if you can’t walk too well.

8. Dun Troddan
   A bronze age broch. These structures were living places and strongholds for people in the bronze age, and three of them can be found by going down the narrow road of Glenelg.

9. Beauly Priory
   Isn’t this gorgeous? Beauly derives its name from the French “beau lieu,” which is apparently what Queen Elizabeth the I remarked when she came here. It was built in the 13th Century. The rose-colored stone is typical of this area.

10. The Cleopatra Sails
    Written by Hugh Miller, this historical marker/prose talks of those who emigrated during the clearances, and how they went with mixed feelings–hope for a better life, and pain at leaving behind and being left behind.

11. The Eagle Stone
    Carved with the symbols of an eagle and a horseshoe, this 6th century Pictish stone may have been a meeting place. It is steeped in legend.

12. Kilvaxter Souterrain and Homestead
    On the Isle of Skye, this was an unexpected and exciting find. It had only recently been excavated. Souterrains were long, winding, very low tunnels used for storage. A flashlight had been left out for exploring. I got creeped out when I lost sight of the doorway, and walk-squatting didn’t do much for me either. But I felt like a Real Live Historian while crawling along in these ancient tunnels.

13. Deep Freeze Mountains
    Part of the Knockan Crag trail, Knockan being where some people finally figured out how geology “worked,” this shows a wonderful view with a picture in front showing how much used to be under ice.
    

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

1. Amy’s Random Thoughts
   
2. Momma Writes About Books
   
3. Buck Naked Politics

On the 17th of July I visited the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk for the umpti-umpth time. Santa Cruz is one of my favorite places and it celebrated its 100th birthday this year. Apparently, it did this by unveiling a new historical walking tour. This week’s Thursday Thirteen picks out thirteen different snarfs from among the two dozen or so available just by walking the Boardwalk end to end.

Click the boardwalk tag to see other Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk landmarks.

1. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
   The entire Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is State Historic Landmark #903. You can play and be all historically appreciative at the same time.

2. Original boardwalk boards
   Some of the original boardwalk boards were preserved.

3. Looff Carousel
   This is one half of a double National Historic Landmark, the crè de la crè of Stateside landmarks and by far and away my favorite ride.

4. Looff Giant Dipper
   This is the other half. A thrill on a “rickety” old rollercoaster. It was recently awarded landmark status by the American Coaster Enthusiasts.

5. Santa Cruz Seaside Company
   The boardwalk started life as a casino with dance hall etc. It burnt down. The original company went bust and this one took over in 1915. They’re still going strong.

6. Before the Boardwalk
   The story of the original casino which burnt down.

7. Boardwalk Goes Hollywood
   Several movies were filmed here, including one of my all-time favorites, The Lost Boys.

8. Beauty and the Beach
   Various beauty pageants were held here, with or without scandal.

9. Daredevils
   The beach was also a playground for people who liked to hang from thin ropes and other feats.

10. Dancing Through the Years
    There was a dance hall here, and many events were held over the years.

11. The Plunge
    One could also swim, though perhaps not at the same time as dancing.

12. Whiting’s Foods
    I liked the giant ice cream cone, actually.

13. A Love Story
    The couple who now run several shops here met as teenagers in the Summer of Love. They’re now a two-generation business.
    

Other Thursday Thirteeners

1. Bad Jokes and Oven Chips
   
2. Soliloquy: That’s Life
   
3. Momma Writes About Books
   
4. The Accidental Novelist
   
5. A Lady’s Diversion
   
6. Vixen’s Den