This Day in NPS History

On November 12, 1930, John Lorenzo Hubbell died after having operated trading posts on the Navajo Indian Reservation for more than 50 years.  One of them near Ganado, Arizona, remains in operation as Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site.

This Day in the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Monday, November 12, 1804 – “…The Interpeter Says that the Mandan nation…lived in Several Villages on the Missourie…Smallpox  destroyed the greater part of the nation…the Sioux and other Indians waged war, and killed a great maney, and they move up the Missourie…the Mandans are at War with all who make war on them…wish to be at peace with all nations…”

This Day in the Morning Report

The following story from Ross Lake NRA, submitted by PIO Tim Manns, appeared in the Morning Report on this date in 1999….

“At about 11 a.m. on November 8th, a tractor trailer hauling gasoline-contaminated soil left the North Cascades Highway at high speed and sank in Diablo Lake in approximately 30 feet of water.  The driver escaped the submerged cab through the rear window and clung to a floating log.  One of the occupants of a second truck approaching the crash scene dove in to rescue the driver, and both were plucked from the water by a Seattle City Light boat crew (Seattle City Light is the public utility which operates dams within the park). The driver was transported to a Seattle hospital with back injuries and a fractured pelvis.  The contaminated soil was from a clean-up operation underway further east on State Route 20 outside of Ross Lake, where a tank truck overturned on October 29th and spilled 7,000 gallons of gasoline.  Rangers and other park staff, Washington State Patrol officers, and Washington State Department of Ecology personnel responded to the scene of the November 8th accident.  A unified command was established and several oil-absorbing booms were put in place to contain the oil sheen. A large crane was brought to the scene, and the truck and trailer were retrieved from the lake by early afternoon on November 9th.  The Department of Ecology's preliminary estimate is that the 32,000 pounds of contaminated soil which the truck was hauling may have contained as little as one to two gallons of fuel.”

The Night Sky

The Moon is "new" today. It lines up between Earth and the Sun, starting a new cycle of phases. It's lost from view in the Sun's intense glare. It will return to view in a couple of days as a thin crescent in the southwest shortly after sunset.

A Closing Observation

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself.  Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Credits

Park history – Park Dates (http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/hisnps/NPSHistory/parkdate.htm)
In Memoriam – Jeff Ohlfs, Joshua Tree NP.
Lewis and Clark history – Dick Prestholdt, Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.
Morning Report history – MR archives (http://data2.itc.nps.gov/morningreport/archives.cfm)
Sky observations – Star Date (http://www.stardate.org/nightsky/weekly.php) or Sky and Telescope (http://skyandtelescope.com/ - click on “Observing” and “Sky at a glance”)
Closing observation – Katy Sykes, Rocky Mountain NP.