The following is a list of National Historic Landmarks, other nationally designated sites, and notable sites of the prehistoric, historic, and scientific landscape in the Southwest, 30 to 40 degrees North, 110 to 120 degrees West.  World Heritage Sites and a narrative were provided in the previous entry.  Sites are keyed to the cultural landscape map in the previous entry.

I.  US National Historic Landmarks

Ahwahnee, Yosemite National Park, California. This resort hotel in the eastern end of Yosemite Valley was opened in 1927 and is still in use (site 1 on map). Ecoregion NA527.

Angelus Temple, Los Angeles. Made famous by a depression-era radio evangelist.

Awatovi Ruins, Hopi Tribal Land (Site 2 on map). An Indian village encountered by Coronado’s men in 1540 contains a 500-year old pueblo and a 17^th century Spanish mission. The village was abandoned in 1700 due to tensions between Hope traditionalists and Christian converts. Ecoregion NA1304. Continue reading →

A. Map boundaries: 30 to 40 degrees North; 110 to 120 degrees West

B. Countries (States): Mexico (Baja California, Sonora), United States (Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah).

C. Part II, The Cultural Landscape Expanded

This section provides an overview of National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) and other notable historic properties in the desert southwest. Part III contains a detailed listing of all sites.

The Prehistoric Landscape

Perhaps the most controversial of the sites is the Calico Early Man Site in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, California. It was made famous by Louis S.B.Leakey, the Kenyan anthropologist who discovered much evidence of early man in Africa. From 1964 until 1972, Leakey promoted the idea that the artifacts found in the American desert were similar to artifacts found in Africa. Leakey excavated an alluvial fan and considered the artifacts found to be the result of human activity. The age of the fan was believed to be over 50,000 years old (Leakey, Simpson, and Clements 1968). Today most professionally trained archaeologists question whether the alleged stone tools were manufactured by humans. However, Friends of Calico Early Man Site continues the tradition of investigating the site for evidence of early man (site 75 on map). Continue reading →

Grand water diversions, 100,000 Buddhist sculptures, and sacred mountains

Part I of Warm Temperate China

I. Map boundaries: 30 to 40 degrees North; 110 to 120 degrees East

II. Country (Provinces and Municipalities): China (Anhui, Beijing Municipality, Chongqing Municipality, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Tianjin Municipality, and Zhejiang).

III. Overview of the Cultural Landscape, or a History of China in 25 Sites

Because the ecoregions of central China are human-dominated, it appears appropriate to describe the cultural history from an ecological standpoint. It is evident that there are profound connections between the natural and cultural landscapes of central China. The tour begins with the flood-prone Yellow River (Huang) as it exits the mountains, where catastrophic natural events influenced patterns of population movement at Sanyangzhuang. It continues with religious sites such as Longmen, where limestone caves provided a landscape for art achievement, and includes the limestone mountains, whose pinnacles and precipitous topography provided sacred cultural landscapes. It ends with the tombs of emperors, which are designed to indicate harmony with the natural landscape. There are 25 sites which I have chosen to provide a whirlwind orientation tour. Additional sites are listed in the World Heritage listing and other site listings which follow. Continue reading →

A recent article (1) describes the Pensuk Great Western Resort in Thailand (pensuk.com). To get there, the route is described as “traveling across open scrubland punctuated by stark, serrated limestone cliffs and tablelands.” The road was also lined with small beef and dairy farms, and there were pastures with cowboys herding calves. All of this was amid Bhuddist temples–“the only visible sign that this was the Far East, not the Wild West.”
The resort is located in Nakhon Ratchasima province, also known as Khorat. The province is known for Khmer ruins and the Khao Yai National Park. Approximate coordinates are N 15 degrees and E 102 degrees. This area is part of the Central Indochina Dry Forests ecoregion (www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles). The characteristic forest association is an open deciduous dipterocarp forest. These forests are open and grade into savanna woodlands depending on the degree of disturbance. The grassy understory is dotted with cycads. This ecoregion covers a large area in northeastern and northern Thailand, and also extends into Cambodia. Mountain ranges in the south and west of the province are in the Southeastern Indochina dry evergreen forests ecoregion, which is dominated by different species of Dipterocarpaceae. This plant family contains the trees which dominate the lowland rain forests of southeast Asia.

(1) Thai Noon. Joshua Kurlantzick. The Atlantic 301 (5): 117-121 (June 2008).

Public Lands
Name: Paint Brush Prairie Conservation Area
Where is it? Pettis County, Missouri
Owner: Missouri Department of Conservation
Facilities: three parking lots. Explore the prairie on your own.
On June 14, 2008, the most diverse wildflower assemblage was at the first parking lot on Manila Road. While a few Indian paint brush plants (Castilleja coccinea) were still in flower, other plants were putting on the bigger show. These included beard tongue (Penstemon spicata), prairie parsley (Polytaenia nuttallii), golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea), yellow tickseeds (Coreopsis lanceolata and C. palmata), blue larkspur (Delphinium carolinianum), loosestrife (Lysimachia lanceolata), and sensitive brier (Mimosa quadrivalvis). A stop along the road in the prairie yielded New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus). The last parking stop in the prairie included a wetland habitat.