eldots53

He buried lead plates at several locations (at least 6) and also marked trees with pieces of metal announcing French claims to the land. I understand that at least one or two of the lead plates was recovered some time in the 19th Century. Does anyone know where that plate or plates ended up? Is it in the hands of a museum? If so, which one?

I'd appreciate any good book recommendations on Reconstruction.

Alan Turing has now been granted a full and free posthumous pardon by the queen. This comes on the heels of a public apology in 2009. Any thoughts from the commentariat on this event?

This may seem like a strange question, but I'm picking through some of the historical anachronisms in the movie, 12 Years a Slave, and one of the things that seemed out of place to me was the scene where Solomon Northup was shown putting his kids to bed, and one of them was shown briefly jumping on the bed. Given the fact that this would have been 1841, I would have thought this would be a bed with a rope support for the mattress, which I would not think would be springy enough to support bed jumping. I did not think that any kind of metal coil mattress support had been introduced until much more recently, like the early 20th century. Any ideas on the subject (other than comments on the status of my mental health for thinking about this) would be welcomed.

I am wondering if anyone knows anything about the Old Chittenden Road trail to the top of Mount Washburn. According to all the guidebooks, there was once a wagon/vehicular road to the top of Mount Washburn, which has been closed to vehicles and is now a trail used by both hikers and bikers. However, when you drive to the current parking lot/turnaround to access the trail, just before the parking area there is an obvious road that is totally closed off, and the marked trail does not look at all like a former road, as well as being labeled as over 5 miles. When I asked a ranger what the blocked off road was, she said it was a maintenance road - but I found it curious that anyone would construct a separate maintenance road in that terrain, when there was already a former vehicular trail in existence. Plus, I couldn't explain the discrepancy in the trail length.

If anyone can explain that blocked-off road - maybe the ranger is correct and that "maintenance road" just stubs off somewhere? I would appreciate it. I'd also appreciate an explanation of how a 3 mile trail suddenly becomes more than 5 miles - unless that continues to Dunraven Pass?

With the recent and terrible loss of life among the Granite Mountain hotshot crew in Yarnell, Arizona, I can't stop thinking about another very deadly wildfire just over a hundred years ago that killed over a hundred firefighters. I'm referring to the event that was chronicled so well by Timothy Egan in "The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America." It's sad that with as much as equipment, training and skills have improved since 1910, that there should still be such loss of life.

I'm wondering if anyone knows how effective the British WWII pigeon parachute drops over occupied France were at providing useful information. I'm reading that "thousands" of homing pigeons were parachuted in with hopes that anti-Nazis would use them to send back information. I'm just wondering if there was any payoff whatsoever.

Are there still any surviving examples of Anderson air raid shelters in Great Britain? How about other small scale air raid protection devices? I'm curious.

Are there still any surviving examples of Anderson air raid shelters in Great Britain? How about other small scale air raid protection devices? I'm curious.

Can anyone recommend a good history of India starting from Mughal times through independence from Britain?

I've been thinking about the origins of Khmelnitsky's Revolt as an interesting case of "picking the wrong guy to mess with", and how harassing the wrong guy set in motion a significant disturbance as Khmelnitsky and his allies took actions that ended up with tens of thousands of people dead, and the partitioning of Poland. Can anyone here think of any other notable historical examples of "messing with the wrong guy and changing history"?

Were there ever any assassination attempts on General Luigi Cadorna among his troops? He seems to have been such a harsh and cruel leader that I would have expected there to be serious desire to see him permanently out of the way.

I've been cooking a lot of spicy foods lately and have been cutting up fresh jalapenos. After I cut them up, even after I've washed my hands with soap and water several times, there is still a VERY spicy residue left on my fingers. Is there any way to remove this?