Latest news with #FrenchandIndianWar
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Zip Trips: Roebuck
ROEBUCK, S.C. (WSPA) – Roebuck was one of the first settlements in the Upstate, settled in 1790. It all began at Walnut Grove Plantation, the oldest home in Spartanburg County. The Moore family received eight land grants spanning five square miles from King George III following the French and Indian War. Local historian Tim Fowler said it may be thanks to a few travelers who stopped at Smith's Tavern, a lodging place near the plantation, that Roebuck is what it is today. 'A couple of travelers were passing through in the late – you know – 1790s,' Fowler explained. 'They decided to come back, and they established a church which is a Bethlehem Baptist church, which was established in 1800 and that was mainly the general gathering area.' The church still stands today. 'I get a little emotional sometimes, you know I'm so proud of our folks who they were and where they came from that's why I've spent so much time and money making sure my two sons and my grandchildren know all about them,' said Tim Foster, a seventh generation at the church. Throughout the centuries many, like Foster, said Roebuck has stayed the same. They describe it as a quiet, laid-back town where people can take a break from the hustle and bustle of other booming cities. Lifetime resident Joe Parrish described Roebuck as a 'piece of countryside.' 'Oh, it's just a beautiful community,' described Parrish. 'You have all the growth of Spartanburg County, but in Roebuck, it's like the untouched, so to speak. You still have nature, you know, you can go to Spartanburg or wherever, but you get Roebuck and it's peaceful.' All whom we spoke with said they quietly hope Roebuck always remains the same. 'I think that this is a spot where you're close to the city, but you're all of a sudden immersed in nature and you're sent back in time, ' said Lauren Preston-Friedrich. 'I really think that's special.' 'We're hoping Roebuck gets to be Roebuck for as long as it can,' said Parrish. First Responder Friday: South Spartanburg Fire Department Colonial Milling Friends of Croft State Park Glenn Springs Preservation Society Grill 221 Inn the Doghouse Pauline Cafe Roebuck Greenhouses SIPSetc. Coffee Shop Spartanburg County Councilman Monier 'Mo' Abusaft Walnut Grove Plantation You can win 4 tickets to Dollywood! To enter the contest, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Yahoo
How you can spot bald eagles on the Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad
ROMNEY, (WBOY) — Last week, Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad allowed 12 News to experience all of the magic behind its three-hour trough trip, which takes riders through the mountains of West Virginia to see eagles up close. According to Operations Safety and Regulatory Compliance Manager Patton Swartzfager, the route of this trip goes from the Romney train station all the way to Sycamore Bridge for several miles. Swartzfager told 12 News that the route travels along an old, historic line that was originally built by the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad. He added that the train is operated with freight service and that the track is owned by the state of West Virginia, but the railroad leases the right-of-way from the state for a freight company to handle freight and operate the train. Nick Saban inducted into West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame The train ride travels along the south branch of the Potomac River, with Swartzfager adding that you can only travel through this area by canoe, kayak or train. 'There's really no way to drive in there, hiking is not really feasible along the train side because the tracks do run fairly close to the river,' he said. 'So if you wanna see this, if you wanna get out and see the nature—see the eagles, there's really fairly limited options to do that.' Historian Jean Shoemaker told 12 News that due to the area being fairly isolated, it's an ideal spot for eagles to nest. 'It's just a beautiful part of the country, you know,' she added. According to Shoemaker, the trough valley is 'steeped in history,' adding that the American French and Indian War and then later the Civil War played prominent roles in this area. 'The town itself changed hands 56 times during the war,' said Shoemaker. 'Changed hands so frequently, one day it changed hands three times.' Shoemaker added that former president George Washington surveyed the valley before, with it being documented that he made at least two trips, once with the survey party and then a second time as a commissioned officer with the Virginia militia during the French and Indian War, commissioning forts all down through the South Branch Valley. Throughout the entirety of the train ride, Shoemaker handles historic narration and points out sights of interest. She told 12 News that she specifically focuses on houses listed as historic landmarks, and she also points out different natural sights along the way. 'I have something different to tell people each season,' said Shoemaker. 'Right now, the dogwoods are beautiful and we'll be looking at houses that were built in the colonial era. The valley was first settled in the early 1700s, and then when we get to the trough, our big draw is the eagles.' Davis launches sewer projects that will expand development options According to Shoemaker, there are four nests along the trough that are very visible, but they have no idea how many nests are actually in that area. During the regular season, these rides are available to book on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. On these days, you can also book an all-day trip, which takes you from Romney to the other side of the railroad and dead ends in Petersburg. Swartzfager said that the tracks don't connect to any other railroad, so it can be a unique experience for travelers. Swartzfager said that during the fall months, particularly October, Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad opens rides up to every day of the week. During that time, it offers two train rides on both Saturday and Sunday, to give people from all around the chance to come and experience the fall foliage. 'When you're going through trough canyon along the mountain of both sides…when those leaves are changing, it is an absolute explosion of color,' said Swartzfager. 'So we add to our schedule during that time, we run more trains so that people can come and see the beauty that is West Virginia in the fall.' The trains offer different classes of service, ranging from coach all the way up to club service. Swartzfager stated that the varying meal options for these services include four-course dining, three-course dining, as well as an option for five courses of hors d'oeuvres. 'It's just a great way to get out, it's a great way to come with your family to enjoy just a nice, relaxing day,' Swartzfager added. To get out of the house, to come ride and experience nature and see the symbol of our great nation—the American Bald Eagle in its natural habitat.' Shoemaker has been responsible for historic narration during Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad's rides since 1991, making this her 35th season. She told 12 News that she was born in the valley, and still isn't tired of it because she enjoys being able to share the area's history and beauty with others. 'People come not knowing actually what they're going to see,' said Shoemaker. 'They have seen some videos on TV. They know they're going to see eagles, but a lot of these people when they walk off say they had no idea we have this much history here…so it's an eye opener for a lot of people.' To view all of the different train trip options available at Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad, it's best to take a look at its website, which includes details of special events such as the Fall Foliage Train Ride and North Pole Express. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Museums Tell Stories of American Independence
What's all that yelling? It's hard to make out the words, but at the entrance to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture's new 'Give Me Liberty' exhibition, a man's voice was registering anger — loudly enough that it threatened to drown out the director of curatorial affairs, Andy Talkov, who was giving a tour. Just four days before the exhibition's opening last month, Talkov was explaining the significance of one of the objects viewers will see when they enter the first of two second-floor galleries holding the exhibit. It is a Charles Willson Peale portrait of George Washington. But this one is different from the other six Peale portraits of the first president. Painted in 1772, it shows a younger man, dressed in the blue and red uniform of a provincial officer — which he had been, loyally serving the king of England, during the French and Indian War. Like many others, Washington's views would, of course, change over the next few years — as the exhibition shows. But wait: That angry voice seems to grow louder, if still unintelligible — and is now joined by the murmuring of others. A meeting gone wrong? Someone on the museum staff having a bad day? 'Oh,' Talkov said matter-of-factly when the din threatening to drown him out momentarily subsided. 'That's Patrick Henry.' Indeed it is — or at least an impression of the fiery 18th-century Virginia legislator, performed by the history re-enactor John Tucker, and shown on a six-minute, 30-second video loop as part of the exhibit. Standing in 18th-century finery, and with his glasses shoved up to his forehead (as was Henry's habit), Tucker was videotaped standing in the very spot Henry did — the nearby St. John's Church in Richmond, four miles east — 250 years ago. On March 23, 1775, he delivered the impassioned address that would provide a rallying cry of the Revolution — and the inspiration for this exhibit, illuminated by a collection of rare objects that include a pair of spectacles that Henry actually wore. The Virginia Museum of History & Culture is not the only institution that has plans to recognize the semiquincentennial — the 250th anniversary — of the Revolution and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Often working with state commissions that have been created to help support educational initiatives for the anniversary, history museums around the country are developing programming and exhibitions that tell the rousing story of how the country achieved independence, while also including the voices and experiences of women, enslaved and free African Americans, and Indigenous people. 'The flag waving and the bell ringing and references to inspiring patriotic comments, that all needs to be there,' said John R. Dichtl, president and chief executive of the American Association for State and Local History. 'But it also needs to be a more inclusive, fully rounded history.' And perhaps a unifying one, as well. 'For me, telling these stories can be bridge-building,' said R. Scott Stephenson, president and chief executive of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, whose own 250th-anniversary exhibitions kicked off this month with 'Banners of Liberty,' a collection of rare battle flags. 'We can see what we have in common, through the Revolution,' Stephenson said. Jamie Bosket, the Virginia museum's president and chief executive, believes that the exhibition can tell Virginia's part of this history in a balanced way. 'We're going to be respectful, thoughtful, reflective, comprehensive and celebratory,' he said. The fact that 'Give Me Liberty' opened more than 15 months before the actual 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is telling. 'We want to meet the moment,' Bosket said. 'This is a major, multiyear, multimillion-dollar investment.' With its collection of more than nine million objects, the Virginia museum — itself nearly 200 years old — seems well positioned to tackle the American Revolution, with all its repercussions, achievements and contradictions. By contrast, the New Castle Court House Museum in quaint New Castle, Del., is a bit of a hidden gem. In a restored Georgian-style building from 1732, it has no plans for an exhibit. 'The museum is an exhibit,' said its site supervisor, Juliette Wurm, with a chuckle. For the 250th, 'we are mostly looking at programming. We have the period rooms already set up.' They include the second-floor Assembly Room where representatives from what were then the lower three counties of Pennsylvania—New Castle, Kent and Sussex — met on June 15, 1776, to vote on separating from that larger colony. Separation Day — as it's now remembered in Delaware — was soon followed by independence (with one of Delaware's delegates, Caesar Rodney, riding overnight to Philadelphia to cast the deciding vote). As the 250th anniversary of both events approaches next year, the museum will hold a mock vote on separating from Pennsylvania, as well as lectures from historians about Delaware and the Revolution; educational programming for children on how colonial government worked; and a re-enactment of the reading of the Declaration of Independence from the second-floor balcony of the courthouse. In New York on July 9, 1776, pro-independence enthusiasts pulled down the two-ton equestrian statue of George III on Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan. The shattered sovereign was then melted into bullets. Some pieces, however, were saved from the furnace. One such fragment of the original George III statue, found in a swamp in Connecticut, will be part of the Museum of the City of New York's 250th-anniversary exhibition, spotlighting the grim period between that celebratory moment and the departure of British forces in 1783. 'Occupied City: New York During the American Revolution,' opening May 2026 and presented with the Gotham Center for New York City History, will relate — in about 200 maps, documents, art and archaeological artifacts — what the museum's director and president, Stephanie Hill Wilchfort, calls 'an incredible story of resilience.' Barely three months after celebrating independence, Washington's army was in full retreat and the city was under British occupation until his triumphant return in 1783. Said Peter-Christian Aigner, director of the Gotham Center, 'I think people will be surprised to learn that in many ways, New York was the city at the heart of the Revolution.' Noelle N. Trent might respectfully disagree. 'As far as Massachusetts and Boston is concerned, we helped start this thing so it's appropriate for our museums to lead in this moment,' said Trent, director of the Museum of African American History in Boston and Nantucket, Mass. For Trent and her staff, the challenge was how to interpret the views of people, already marginalized, in a society that was shifting beneath their feet. 'For us, the question was, 'What was the Black community, particularly in Boston, thinking at this time?'' she said. Her museum's exhibition — 'Black Voices of the Revolution' — will feature A.I.-driven holographic images of Black Americans from that period, both Loyalist and Patriot. And, she said, the exhibit is likely to remain up well after its scheduled opening on Juneteenth. 'Remember that the Revolutionary War wasn't just a 1776 moment,' Trent said. 'The war goes from 1775 to 1783. We see people's stances evolve over time, and that's an opportunity for us to present some different perspectives.' For some museums, it's a distant perspective — not just chronologically, but geographically. In 1776, what is now the western United States was far from the fighting. So what can a museum in, say, Colorado, present to its audiences that would be relevant? Plenty. Because 2026 will also be the sesquicentennial of Colorado's entrance into the Union in 1876, state history museums are planning exhibitions that look at both events — what was happening there during the American Revolution, and how the memory of 1776 was invoked during its rise to statehood a century later. 'Obviously, Colorado was not a part of the American Revolution, but I find that immaterial,' said Nathan Richie, director of the Golden History Museum and a member of the state commission planning the commemorations. 'This is more about the spirit of our nation and the ideals of our democracy than it is about the minute details of any specific battles.' Perhaps no one exemplified that spirit and articulated those ideals as memorably as Patrick Henry. Even though his words, in the re-creation projected at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, are loud ('We have to get that volume adjusted,' said Talkov, the curator, making a note), it's hard to hear its famous climax and not be moved. 'Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?' Henry thundered. 'Forbid it, almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!'
CBS News
14-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Here's how the Revolutionary War started in Massachusetts 250 years ago
This Saturday, April 19, marks 250 years since the start of the Revolutionary War in Massachusetts. It began with the "Shot heard 'round the world" on April 19, 1775 in Lexington and it marked the end of a decade of simmering tension between the colonies and Britain. You could say it started in 1763 over a cup of coffee. Following the French and Indian War, the English monarchy was heavily in debt. King George III imposed the Sugar Act, which taxed foreign imports of sugar and molasses. It also levied taxes on other items, like coffee. This riled colonists but the king wasn't done. In 1765 came the Stamp Act. This was a tax on any printed material in the form of a stamp. Newspapers, pamphlets even playing cards all had to have the stamp, and that cost money. By this time, the colonists had had enough. They started organizing in places like the Green Dragon Tavern in downtown Boston. "Sam Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere. They all met in the Green Dragon, and they had a secret society, the Sons of Liberty," explains Noelle Somers, whose family now owns the cozy pub. The original location was on Union Street, but the current Dragon on Marshall Street is a page from another century. It was in places like this where the idea of revolution took shape. It was also convenient for gathering intelligence on British troops. "The bar was an English bar, a British bar and the redcoats would come and enjoy a pint and discuss what was coming," said Somers. It was after this that the rallying cry "No taxation of representation" was adopted. Resistance was so strong, the king repealed the Stamp Act a year later. To reassert sovereignty, George III legislated the Declaratory Act in 1766, which affirmed England's absolute right to rule over the colonies and tax them as it wished. The Townshend Act followed, which was a series of taxes on all manner of items. It was meant to raise more revenue for England but also raised tensions. On March 5, 1770, emotions bubbled over. Boston locals and English troops got into a confrontation, leading to the Boston Massacre. "It's chaos. With the firing, the crowd calms down of course. There are three people dead in the street, a couple others mortally wounded," explained Dr. Robert Allison of Suffolk University, an expert on the Revolutionary War. Five people were killed, six were wounded. The greatest impact, however, was how colonials used it as propaganda and a rallying cry against British rule. "Samuel Adams always said, 'Putting your enemy in the wrong and keeping him in the wrong is a good lesson,'" said Allison. The massacre was largely an organic event. Three years later, another watershed moment took place after weeks of planning. "We look at it as the single most important event leading up to the American Revolution," said Evan O'Brien, the creative services director of the Tea Party Ships & Museum in Boston. Between 100 and 150 people took part in what was the worst kept secret in town. More than 1,000 came to watch. "A combination of regular townsfolk, the Sons of Liberty, people from of all different backgrounds and classes all came down, right to this location on Griffin's Wharf," said O'Brien. Just like that, 92,000 pounds of tea went overboard and the Boston Tea Party became legend. King George III was livid. In the spring of 1774, he passed the Intolerable Acts. It closed down Boston Harbor and limited self-governance in Massachusetts. The colonists responded. In the fall of that year, the Continental Congress was formed. They outlined their grievances, organized resistance and prepared for the inevitability of conflict.
Gulf Today
03-04-2025
- Business
- Gulf Today
Government contracting is an easy but elusive target
Justin Fox, Tribune News Service Of all the things Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is trying to do in Washington, putting the squeeze on government contractors is generating the least popular backlash. There's a widespread and seemingly bipartisan belief that, as tech entrepreneur and Obama administration veteran Josh Miller put it on X a few weeks ago, 'the most wasteful work & spending' in government is 'done by for-profit contractors & consultants.' The Trump administration agenda for federal procurement is certainly ambitious. DOGE has been canceling contracts right and left. The new federal acquisition service commissioner at the General Services Administration has been pressing the biggest contractors to justify their work and is acting to centralize federal procurement at the GSA in hopes that this will drive down costs. The administration has already cancelled several Biden administration executive orders related to contracting and aims to overhaul and slim down the Federal Acquisition Regulation that governs procurement. 'This is a sea change of monumental consequences,' said James F. Nagle, a government-contract-law expert at Smith Currie Oles in Seattle and author of 'A History of Government Contracting.' Financial markets see it as a big deal, too, with the market capitalization of Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., the closest thing to a pure-play federal contractor among publicly traded companies (99.2% of its revenue over the past four quarters came from the US government), down by more than $10 billion, or 43%, since Election Day in November. It's harder to say, though, whether this 'sea change' will actually have a lasting impact on Washington's dependence on contractors. Federal contracting is such a vast and complex field that it can be difficult to say much of anything intelligent about it, but some history and data can at least put the current moment in context. Nagle again: 'While Booz Allen Hamilton and the other government contracts are going to take a hit in the short run, I think a lot of those companies will do better in the long run.' Paying private businesses to accomplish government tasks has been the norm here since before there was a US government — Nagle's 'History of Government Contracting' starts with the French and Indian War of the 1750s and 1760s — and while procurement spending has waxed and waned it has never come close to going away. In recent decades such spending has tended to go up in Republican administrations and fall in Democratic ones, mainly because the Department of Defense does the majority of it and defense spending usually goes up under Republicans. This time around, DOGE's emphasis on reducing headcount at government agencies and shutting things down that may eventually have to be reopened could also generate new work down the road for contractors. Federal government contracting in the US was a $771 billion business in the 2024 fiscal year, according to Bloomberg Government's contracts database. Adjusted for inflation, that's slightly lower than in the 2023 fiscal year but on the high side for the past quarter century. Putting together a consistent picture of pre-2000 government contract spending is harder, but numbers I've culled from a 2000 General Accounting Office (since renamed Government Accountability Office) report and a 1983 law review article by US Senator William Cohen allow one to go back at least to 1972, which reveals that real spending on contracts is higher now than in the 1970s through 1990s. Of course, federal spending and US gross domestic product have grown faster than inflation since the 1970s as well. Expressed as a percentage of either, procurement spending is lower than in the 1970s and 1980s. But its share of the ever-shrinking share of federal spending considered 'discretionary' — that is, it's appropriated by Congress each year and not tied up in 'mandatory' programs such as Social Security and Medicare — has held reasonably steady. One thing that all these different ways of measuring procurement spending show is that it fell in the late 1980s and 1990s and rose sharply in the 2000s. The decline was a combination of defense cutbacks after the Cold War, bipartisan efforts to reduce the budget deficit and a political crackdown on contracting abuses that Nagle dubs in his book the 'criminalization of government contracting.' This combined with a decades-long buildup of laws and regulations governing contractor behavior to make federal contracting 'much less attractive,' he wrote. Efforts to make life simpler for federal contractors began to gain traction in the mid-1990s, and in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks came a huge increase in spending on defence and other security efforts (the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002). Booz Allen, founded as the Business Research Service in 1914, was a big beneficiary — intelligence-contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden worked there — and spun off its corporate management consulting business in 2008 (it is now the Strategy& division of PwC) to focus entirely on government work. Defence procurement spending then fell under Barack Obama and rose during Donald Trump's first term, following the usual partisan pattern, but over the past five years overall spending has remained high despite a slight pullback by the Defence Department. In the 2024 fiscal year, nondefense procurement spending made up 38% of the total, up from 27% in 2008 and 18% in 1985. Which nondefence departments are doing the spending? The big three in 2024 were Veterans Affairs, Energy, and Health and Human Services, all of which experienced big increases since 2019. What are they spending it on? 'The VA was paying for PowerPoint slides and meeting notes, for the watering of plants, and consulting contracts to do the work that we should be doing ourselves,' the new secretary of veteran affairs, Doug Collins, said recently. Fine, but those things add up to a lot less than $67.6 billion. The three biggest recipients of VA contract spending in the 2024 fiscal year, if I'm reading the data on correctly (delving into federal contract data has made me a lot more understanding of the many errors DOGE makes in estimating the savings from canceling contracts) are QTC Medical Services, a division of Leidos Inc.; Optumserve Health Services, a division of UnitedHealth Group Inc.; and Veterans Evaluation Services Inc. They all do VA medical disability exams, while Optumserve also runs VA Community Care Networks in 36 states. No. 4 is Booz Allen Hamilton, which works with the VA on, among other things, upgrading its digital capabilities. Next is Dell Federal Systems, the former Perot Federal Systems, which also provides various information technology services. And so on. The large amount of federal procurement spending that now goes to IT services is a source of frequent comment and complaint in and outside of government. Tech entrepreneur and DOGE Internal Revenue Service embed Sam Corcos said on Fox News that the agency's $3.5 billion annual IT operations budget and $3.7 billion modernization effort were 'way beyond any reasonable cost for what you would expect at a private company for this.' But that's not really true: The annual IT budget at JP Morgan Chase & Co. is $17 billion, about half of which is earmarked for modernization; at Bank of America Corp. the total is $12 billion, of which $4 billion goes to 'new technology initiatives.' Nationwide, employment in what government statisticians call computer systems design and related services has doubled since 1999, and real output is up fivefold. It's not just the federal government that is spending a lot on this. Can it get by with spending less? Sure. It's possible that DOGE will be able to cancel enough contracts and the GSA will be able to renegotiate enough of them to make a serious dent. But given the amount of wreckage DOGE has been leaving in its wake, a lot of new contractors may have to be hired to clean it up.
