Give me a mind-blowing history fact

175,545 Views | 1088 Replies | Last: 6 hrs ago by Cinco Ranch Aggie
BQ_90
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AG
CanyonAg77 said:

BQ_90 said:

CanyonAg77 said:

Side note, the National WWI Museum in Kansas City is fantastic. A bucket list item
we need another thread on best history museum to go to
I like that idea so much, I'm stealing it



https://texags.com/forums/49/topics/3463115
i was hoping for it, i was too lazy to start it
LMCane
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I just saw this while working on my book.

Union General Phillip H. Sheridan stated after the war while he was a Military Governor of the former Confederacy:

"If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell."
Jabin
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LMCane said:

I just saw this while working on my book.

Union General Phillip H. Sheridan stated after the war while he was a Military Governor of the former Confederacy:

"If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell."
That statement's been known for just about forever!
Slicer97
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Hey Nav said:

Quote:

grizzly 150 lbs
That seemed a little small, based on my limited experience being way to close to grizzley bears in Alaska. A quick search indicates average grown males are maybe 3 or 4 times heavier - not sure, though, on harvest weight.

Fascinating info, though.
I don't recall where I read this, but harvest weight from a grizzly is supposed to be around 40% of body weight.

For bovines, it's closer to 60%. Deer are in the neighborhood of 50%.

It'd also depend on when the bear was harvested. It'd be higher for a bear coming out of hibernation than for one going in.
UTExan
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LMCane said:

I just saw this while working on my book.

Union General Phillip H. Sheridan stated after the war while he was a Military Governor of the former Confederacy:

"If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell."


The flaws in his judgement are exemplified when the Army created the M551 AR/AAV, the Sheridan vehicle which had zero useful armor, very unreliable electronics and an overly big spout out of which oversized projectiles were launched.
“If you’re going to have crime it should at least be organized crime”
-Havelock Vetinari
BQ78
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Yeah and a buddy and I have talked about going to West Point, dig him up and bring him to Texas for reburial so he can be in hell and Texas at the same time.
Rongagin71
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My favorite version, sung by a Scot who emigrated to Texas and used to entertain.
Rabid Cougar
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ReloadAg said:

What's a good book to read on the L&C expedition?


My personal favorite is "Lewis and Clark Amongst the Indians" by James Ronda.
Rabid Cougar
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Slicer97 said:

Hey Nav said:

Quote:

grizzly 150 lbs
That seemed a little small, based on my limited experience being way to close to grizzley bears in Alaska. A quick search indicates average grown males are maybe 3 or 4 times heavier - not sure, though, on harvest weight.

Fascinating info, though.
I don't recall where I read this, but harvest weight from a grizzly is supposed to be around 40% of body weight.

For bovines, it's closer to 60%. Deer are in the neighborhood of 50%.

It'd also depend on when the bear was harvested. It'd be higher for a bear coming out of hibernation than for one going in.


The expedition was halted by the great bison migration as it crossed the Missouri River. Every Grizzly Bear for miles around was also there feasting on the drowned bison carcasses . These were the first bears they came across. So they were probably just coming out of hibernation.
lurker76
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Slicer97 said:

Hey Nav said:

Quote:

grizzly 150 lbs
That seemed a little small, based on my limited experience being way to close to grizzley bears in Alaska. A quick search indicates average grown males are maybe 3 or 4 times heavier - not sure, though, on harvest weight.

Fascinating info, though.
I don't recall where I read this, but harvest weight from a grizzly is supposed to be around 40% of body weight.

For bovines, it's closer to 60%. Deer are in the neighborhood of 50%.

It'd also depend on when the bear was harvested. It'd be higher for a bear coming out of hibernation than for one going in.


I'm not a hunter, so I don't know, but it seems the bears would be heavier going into hibernation instead of coming out. They put on as much weight as possible beforehand to allow the body to use the fat during hibernation. Is that wrong?
Hey Nav
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In my travels in Alaska, I never did see a Polar Bear, but I did have the pleasure to travel to Kodiak several times .I think they have the new and most modern C-130J's these days at USGG Kodiak.Good for them.

Saw a few Kodiak bears there on the island. I did do some hiking and camping back when I was a youngster.

Quote:

An average adult male measures 244 cm (8 ft 0 in) in length, and stands 133 cm (4 ft 4 in) tall at the shoulder. The largest recorded wild male weighed 751 kg (1,656 lb), and had a hind foot measurement of 46 cm (18 in).[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodiak_bear#cite_note-Wood-12][12][/url] A large male Kodiak bear stands up to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) tall at the shoulder when it is standing on all four legs. When standing fully upright on its hind legs, a large male could reach a height of 3 m (9.8 ft).[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodiak_bear#cite_note-factsheet-3][3][/url] The largest verified size for a captive Kodiak bear was for a specimen that lived at the Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, North Dakota. Nicknamed "Clyde", he weighed 966 kg (2,130 lb) when he died in June 1987 at the age of 22. According to zoo director Terry Lincoln, Clyde probably weighed close to 1,089 kg (2,400 lb) a year earlier. He still had a fat layer of 9 in (23 cm) when he died.

So, Clyde the bear might have weighed 2400 pounds. That's my contribution of an awesome fact.

Will do my best to not hijack this thread anymore.
USAFAg
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Nah, just adding to the discussion of the gut-blowing fact!

12thFan/Websider Since 2003
p_bubel
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A. J. Goddard was a Klondike Gold Rush era sternwheeler owned by Seattle businessman Albert J. Goddard and built for transport of men and supplies on the Upper Yukon River in Canada.

She was assembled from pieces which were manufactured in San Francisco, shipped up to Skagway, Alaska, hauled over the Coast Mountains by horse and men, and finally assembled at Lake Bennett. She made one trip to Dawson during the gold rush, was sold and sank in a storm on Lake Laberge in 1901. Her wreck was discovered in 2008 by Doug Davidge and was designated as a Yukon Historic Site.



The story of the steamboats of the Yukon River and their remains is an interesting one.
Rongagin71
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For some time, like decades, the Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo
has laid claim to being the busiest in the world.
Slicer97
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lurker76 said:

Slicer97 said:

Hey Nav said:

Quote:

grizzly 150 lbs
That seemed a little small, based on my limited experience being way to close to grizzley bears in Alaska. A quick search indicates average grown males are maybe 3 or 4 times heavier - not sure, though, on harvest weight.

Fascinating info, though.
I don't recall where I read this, but harvest weight from a grizzly is supposed to be around 40% of body weight.

For bovines, it's closer to 60%. Deer are in the neighborhood of 50%.

It'd also depend on when the bear was harvested. It'd be higher for a bear coming out of hibernation than for one going in.


I'm not a hunter, so I don't know, but it seems the bears would be heavier going into hibernation instead of coming out. They put on as much weight as possible beforehand to allow the body to use the fat during hibernation. Is that wrong?
Yeah, they'd be heavier going in, but a lot of that weight would be fat. Fat, bone, and innards don't count as part of the yeild.
Jabin
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Slicer97 said:

lurker76 said:

Slicer97 said:

Hey Nav said:

Quote:

grizzly 150 lbs
That seemed a little small, based on my limited experience being way to close to grizzley bears in Alaska. A quick search indicates average grown males are maybe 3 or 4 times heavier - not sure, though, on harvest weight.

Fascinating info, though.
I don't recall where I read this, but harvest weight from a grizzly is supposed to be around 40% of body weight.

For bovines, it's closer to 60%. Deer are in the neighborhood of 50%.

It'd also depend on when the bear was harvested. It'd be higher for a bear coming out of hibernation than for one going in.


I'm not a hunter, so I don't know, but it seems the bears would be heavier going into hibernation instead of coming out. They put on as much weight as possible beforehand to allow the body to use the fat during hibernation. Is that wrong?
Yeah, they'd be heavier going in, but a lot of that weight would be fat. Fat, bone, and innards don't count as part of the yeild.
I think fat would have counted as yield to mountain men and the L&C crew. Everything I've read is that such men craved fat. They'd eat lard straight if they could get it.

Also, innards definitely count as yield. It's interesting that we've gotten so comfortable as a society that we no longer eat innards. My grandparents, who were definitely not poor but grew up in rural Texas, ate just about everything off the critter and even seemed to prefer many of the innards to the meat itself. They even ate pickled pigs feet which I thought was disgusting.

But we're discussing details, now. The main point still holds true, which is the L&C team ate an amazing amount of meat from an incredible amount of critters that they had to kill.
Slicer97
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It's possible you're correct. Fat would be consumed because of caloric content. I was an Animal Science major and was speaking from the way we calculated it in those classes.

But yeah, they would have had to consume an incredible amount of calories every day to make that trip.

A group of us hiked Guadalupe Peak last spring. A guy in the group had one of those exercise apps and it calculated our calorie burn at around 5000. And that was only carrying about 5 liters of water and snacks. The poster that claimed they were burning through 10,000+ calories daily is probably right on the mark.
Stive
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Not that they were weighing the yield but they likely would have definitely eaten the fat.
Slicer97
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They would have had to. 9 calories per gram vs 4 for protein and carbs.
Jabin
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My nephews while playing HS basketball had trouble keeping their weight up while eating 10,000 calories/day.

When I was a lot younger, I liked to go on week-long backpacking trips, eating freeze-dried food the entire time. By the end of the trip, we would be craving fatty foods.
Hey Nav
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It has been 40 years and a few months since I attended USAF Arctic Survival.

A few things I remember:

"Sir, you may be a lean mean fighting machine, but you need to put on weight if your're going to survive in the Arctic".

Muktux. Whale blubber. Google if you really want to know. Yikes.
Rabid Cougar
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And to add... that was when they could find game. There were numerous extended periods where their hunters could not find anything. During their 118 days at Fort Clatsop during the winter of '05-'06 they shot out the deer and elk population near the fort and had to resort to traveling further and further afoot, often several days travel to find fresh meet. They were in the process of preserving as much as they could for the journey back too. Thus the continuous manning of the salt works on the coast their entire stay.

Side note: The Captains recorded only 11 days of sunshine during those 118 days.

Sorry but this has "triggered" all the built up nebulous facts that I stored away while doing well over 100 presentations in the three years of doing living history for USACE along the trail..


Belfountain, Missouri September 2006

Camp Du Bois, Illinois . Departure May 2004

4th of July Creek, Atchison, Kansas 2004. A confirmed campsite from July 4, 1804. This image hung in the main corridor of the Pentagon from 2004 to 2006.


Bismarck, North Dakota, October 2004


agrams
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The SR-71 was originally designated RS-71, but the Skunk Works was forced to change about 29,000 blueprints to SR-71 when Lyndon Johnson turned the letters around during his 1964 announcement acknowledging the existence of the airplane.

But the official transcript shows it wasn't a flub by President Johnson. Supposedly Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay preferred the SR (Strategic Reconnaissance) designation and wanted the RS-71 to be named SR-71. Before the July speech, LeMay lobbied to modify Johnson's speech to read SR-71 instead of RS-71.
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BQ78
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29,000 drawings would have been an expensive name change
nortex97
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The first major wagon train of nearly 1,000 pioneers left Elm Grove, Mo., and set out to follow the Oregon Trail in search of a new future on May 22, 1843. Five days later, on May 27, 1843, Alexander Bain filed his patent for the fax machine. It's crazy to think that newly arrived pioneers could have sent a fax to their east coast family to let them know they'd arrived safely.
BQ78
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Or that the first A&M football recruit could fax his letter of commitment to Dudley Perkins.
Jabin
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nortex97 said:

The first major wagon train of nearly 1,000 pioneers left Elm Grove, Mo., and set out to follow the Oregon Trail in search of a new future on May 22, 1843. Five days later, on May 27, 1843, Alexander Bain filed his patent for the fax machine. It's crazy to think that newly arrived pioneers could have sent a fax to their east coast family to let them know they'd arrived safely.
Well, if it had worked well at all, and if someone had strung up telegraph wires across the transcontinental US. Yeah, then they could have faxed their families.
BQ78
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The sawmills around the Chickamauga Battlefield in North Georgia refused to accept lumber from the battlefield through the early 1900s because it was so full of lead and iron that it was tearing up the mill equipment.
Rabid Cougar
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BQ78 said:

The sawmills around the Chickamauga Battlefield in North Georgia refused to accept lumber from the battlefield through the early 1900s because it was so full of lead and iron that it was tearing up the mill equipment.


It amazing that they could even find each other in some of the locations around there…
agrams
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vicksburg had some similarly dense and rough terrain
Rongagin71
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New Ireland, AKA Maine, and the Penobscot Expedition
that lost close to 40 American ships in the Revolution
do seem to be forgotten history (to me).
BQ78
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Not on the siege lines, that had all been clear cut to open fields of fire and why the initial assaults failed so dramatically.
BQ78
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Another interesting fact associated with that is there was an inordinate number of left arm wounds in the battle, as most of the men found themselves firing from behind the trees.

One more Chickamauga fact, James Longstreet's wing made the decisive charge at the Brotherton Farm. One of his corps commanders in that charge was A.P. Stewart. The charge split the Army of the Cumberland, commanded by William S. Rosecrans and caused most of it to rout from the field.

Longstreet, Stewart and Rosecrans were roommates at West Point.
Cen-Tex
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German diplomat and lawyer Adam von Trott zu Solz, was hanged in for his role in Operation Valkyrie, the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler. He was also the GGG grandson of John Jay, one of the US Founding Fathers and 1st Chief Justice of the United States.
 
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