The Leadville 100 Mile Trail Race
Located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, Leadville, Colorado is a historical monument. In the mid 1800s, Leadville was a booming mining city known for its lead and zinc. People fled there looking to build their fortunes, and at one point the population rose to nearly 30,000. Today, Leadville attracts many tourists because of its frontier mentality, beauty, and historical district. Although the population has drastically dropped to 2,800, Leadville is a charming town that truly represents the spirit of Colorado.
One might ask what Leadville is well known for today? A popular event that puts the small town on the map for many people throughout the country is the Leadville Trail 100 mile race. This ultra running race which originated in 1982, is well known throughout the running community. The 100 mile race which must be completed in thirty hours or less, covers many trails and passes in Colorado. The main difficulty of the race is the challenge of the altitude. The climb and the decent of the trail totals 15,600 feet, with the lowest point being 9,200 feet and the highest point being 12,620 feet. Together, the altitude, incorporation of water crossings, changes in temperature, and steep inclines and descents, make the Leadville race one of the most difficult 100 mile races in the running world.
The $160.00 entry fee that is required to run in "The Race Across the Sky" is money well spent. Not only do individuals get to run in one of the most beautiful states in the country, but they get to experience the friendly atmosphere of Colorado. The locals from Leadville volunteer to work at the aid stations which line the course, and there is truly a spirit for running. It is not only a challenging and competitive race, but a guaranteed good time. Throughout the 30 hour race which begins at 4:00 A.M. and ends at 10:00 A.M. the following day, there are fans and volunteers to make the experience more enjoyable. There is definitely a "personal" feeling which the Leadville 100 brings to running.
The course is basically made up of a one hundred mile loop that can be broken up into ten different stages. Dana Roueche who is from Boulder, Colorado, has run the Leadville Trail 100 three times. In an effort to increase the percentage of finishers, he posted a journal which discusses the strategies he follows in completing the race.
The American Civil war is considered to be one of the most defining moments in American history. It is the war that shaped the social, political and economic structure with a broader prospect of unifying the states and hence leading to this ideal nation of unified states as it is today. In the book “Confederates in the Attic”, the author Tony Horwitz gives an account of his year long exploration through the places where the U.S. Civil War was fought. He took his childhood interest in the Civil War to a new level by traveling around the South in search of Civil War relics, battle fields, and most importantly stories. The title “Confederates in the Attic”: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War carries two meanings in Tony Horwitz’s thoughtful and entertaining exploration of the role of the American Civil War in the modern world of the South. The first meaning alludes to Horwitz’s personal interest in the war. As the grandson of a Russian Jew, Horwitz was raised in the North but early in his childhood developed a fascination with the South’s myth and history. He tells readers that as a child he wrote about the war and even constructed a mural of significant battles in the attic of his own home. The second meaning refers to regional memory, the importance or lack thereof yet attached to this momentous national event. As Horwitz visits the sites throughout the South, he encounters unreconstructed rebels who still hold to outdated beliefs. He also meets groups of “re-enactors,” devotees who attempt to relive the experience of the soldier’s life and death. One of his most disheartening and yet unsurprising realizations is that attitudes towards the war divide along racial lines. Too many whites wrap the memory in nostalgia, refusing...
In 1858, warriors from the Spokane, Palouse, and Coeur d’Alene tribes routed an expeditionary force commanded by Colonel Edward Steptoe. The running battle resulted in seven soldiers dead, two soldiers missing, two howitzer cannons buried, the complete loss of the pack train, and three interpreters killed. Colonel Steptoe and his command escaped in the middle of the night nearly out of ammunition and in desperate condition. The mounted infantry known as Dragoons rode through the next day covering approximately seventy miles to the relative safety of the Snake River.
In 1775 Boone and 30 other woodsmen were hired to improve the trails between the Carolinas and the west. The resulting route reached into the heart of Kentucky and became known as the "Wilderness Road." That same year Boone built a fort and village called Booneborough in Kentucky, and moved his family over the Wilderness Trail to their new home.
It could be said that from the beginning the Confederacy would eventually fail. By 1864-65, the final losing battles that defeated the Southern military on top of the widespread economic conditions left the South with very few options. The “lost cause” was apparent in 1865, as the South surrendered and the Confederacy dissolved. The curtain lowered on the Antebellum South, and the institution of slavery, forever shaping the former Southern way of life.
Ellsworth and Newton, Kansas, on the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad became the end of the trail for cattle drives between 1872 and 1875. Here were the chief cattle markets for several years. There "cowtowns," as they were called, consisted of gambling halls, saloons and brothels. It was a good place for cowboys to spend there pay at the end of a long drive.
Book Title: The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research. Contributors: Robin Higham - editor, Steven E. Woodworth - editor. Publisher: Greenwood Press. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1996
Thomas L. Connelly and Barbara L. Bellows's God and General Longstreet: The Lost Cause And The Southern Mind effectively examines numerous characteristics within the mental process of southerners and their leaders before, during, and particularly after the Civil War. This text successfully investigates the ideas of southern politicians, generals, novelists, and journalists who all in the face of defeat combined to form a Lost Cause generation who attempted to justify and explain the Confederate experience. Connelly and Bellows offer the reader a unique perspective regarding two different definitions of this lost cause phenomenon; The Inner Lost Cause and the National Lost Cause as they both respectively originated to capture the opinions of a defeated Confederacy and to interpret the situation of the south within the nation. Essentially, this particular text clearly stresses an appreciation and understanding of the influence that these Lost Cause opinions had on the former defeated Confederacy and modern day southern society.
There are many myths about the American Civil War fought from 1861-1865. One such myth is that the south was forced into action by the tyranny of the north, specifically that of newly elected President Abraham Lincoln. Another was that the war was not about slavery in any way, shape or form; rather, it was a war over a state’s right to govern itself without interference from the federal government. But no other myth has permeated through the decades more than the myth of the Lost Cause, which presupposes the inevitability of defeat to the Union army. The term was first coined by journalist Edward Pollard in his 1866 book entitled “The Lost Cause” (Civil War: A Visual History). There are people today who will still argue that those men who fought for the confederacy were fighting an invading Yankee horde and were destined to lose. The north had high tariffs and an unwanted economic d...
“In an hour and 40 minutes they run more than 15 miles over uneven red clay, dodging small herds of cattle and donkeys laden with sacks of potatoes…The route climbs more that 3,000 feet, from and elevation of slightly more than 6,500 feet at the river to nearly 10,000 at the peak, where oxygen is precious and a cruel wind slices across the face of the hill.” (Layden, par. 2)
The history of the trail is relatively limited since the ADT is fairly young, only around 20 years old. Three volunteer hikers were chosen by the American Hiker Society to test the American Discovery Trail for the first time. They projected the trail to take around 8 months to complete, taking into consideration their higher level of fitness and expertise from similar trails. However, they completed their hike in 14 months; proving the ADT to be more challenging than previously expected. The trail runs through 15 states: Delaware, Maryland (and Washington, DC), West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California.(HikaNation). The ADT also follows historic routes like the Pony Express and the Santa Fe Trail. (HikaNation). There was actually a horseback rider by the name Matt Parker who completed the trail after a little over two years. He began the ride in May of 2003 and finished in November of 2005. In 2000, the Whites House declared that the American Discovery trail was to b...
In the early 1920’s the Klan traveled on a wave of terror in the south and southwest. As the violence spread a pattern appeared. The majority of the Victorian’s were whites who had broken some kind of moral code. Such as Bootleggers, Gamblers, were favorite targets. The Klan would parade the streets at night as a reminder of the constant terror they haunted a southern town with.
The long history of the land that became the local bike trails begins with the arrival of the first Native Americans in the region between 12,000 and 18,000 years ago. These first nomadic tribes came from the plains to the west and created hunting trails through the wilderness over the centuries (Shank 3). The presence of three important river fords around the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River led to a higher concentration of trails around modern day Franklin. One of the crossings was near present day Sixth Street on the Allegheny River while the other two were around Tenth Street and Thirteenth Street on French Creek (Brady 132-39) George Washington used the Tenth Street crossing while passing through the area on a specia...
The Invisible Empire of the South, also known as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), has been a major role in shaping the views of the United States and the South, particularly speaking the eleven former states of the Confederacy. From significant national figures, down to the local county councilman, evidence of the Klan being involved in politics is clearly there. One also cannot rule out the amount of legislation that the Klan has affected due to its terrorist-like tactics. It can definitely said that the KKK not only impacted government and policy making, but it affected Southern life. Since the formation of the first Klan after the end of the Civil War, it has been clear that the KKK will not stop at nothing to ensure the continuity of the white supremacy, especially in the South. The Invisible Empire clearly had a good hold on Southern politics throughout the height of their existence.
The moment of truth was upon me. The official times, this includes whom qualified for finals, for the 400m relay had been posted. My eyes scanned the page for the bold letters that spell ANDERSON. As I ran my finger across the page to where the times were posted, my ears began to shut out all outside noises, leaving me alone with the thump of my heart and the inhale and exhale of my lungs. Both began to increase in speed as my eyes narrowed in on the time.
If asked, most people could tell you that the Iditarod is a dog race in Alaska, and maybe some could even tell you that it started with a dog team carrying a polio vaccine to Nome in a blizzard, but most couldn't tell you what the Fur Rendezvous or the Open North American are. That’s because it’s a completely different category of racing that no one really knows about. Sprint racing is shorter, faster, and in my biased opinion more exciting. My opinion is biased because I run sprint races. My parents have run, and won the Open North American, and “Fur Rondy”. Sprint races vary in length and size of the teams. From small four dog teams of sixty pound dogs built like Usain Bolt who sprint for four to five miles, to thirty mile races with teams of sixteen to twenty four dogs that are built with lanky muscle and heads that won’t