Who We Have To Thank For...

After watching some Broadway shows, being in LA, I noticed that it is custom to thank people after a successful endeavor or after receiving an award.  So after thanking God and my parents and friends for their support I thought I'd do a fun and educational post to give "thanks" both real and sarcastically to those who made the trip possible.

Our Transportation System:

Thanks Dwight D. Eisenhower!  It was your genius and leadership which foresaw that having well developed transportation network around the country would be a good thing for business, tourism, sight-seeing and for the development of our nation.  Although your reasons were mainly for defense purposes(defense against whom?), and the original idea came from that communist FDR, which ended up costing billion dollars to develop and billions more of tax dollars to maintain over the years which cut through farmlands and altered community development ever-after, it was really helpful and much quicker having a long stretch of highway that I could count on to launch me from one major city to another.  So Gen. Eisenhower, I salute you, thank you.

National Parks and Recreation

Thanks Teddy Roosevelt!  It was your love of nature which drove you to be a champion of conservation issues. Although you weren't president when the the National Parks Service Organic Act of 1916 was passed, you were one of the major figures to raise awareness to the unneccesary slaughtering Buffalo in the Dakotas.  These parks were previously managed by the Department of Interior until the independent agency was created.  Yellowstone became the first National Park in the world in 1872.  Yosemite National Park had begun has a state park managed by the state of California.  One of my other favorite parks, Death Valley, was originally inhabited by indians until 1849 when gold miners took the route passing through the valley and were stuck there for weeks.  One of the members of the team died in the valley, giving it its name "Death Valley".  Another park I highly enjoyed, and an area Teddy Roosevelt loved was the Badlands National Park.    The Lakota Indians used this area as a hunting grounds until in the 19th century western pilgrims began to settle there and also attempted to farm the area.  The natives before, found the area impossible to farm hence giving it its name "Badland".  

Cities:
Miami

I still hate that place....and we can thank Mr. Henry Flagler for expanding his railroad company into the Miami area, creating an industrial boom which allowed the city to incorporate in the late 19th century.  Although you are the "magic city" and Forbes Magazine seems to think that you are a clean city...who won the NBA finals? Nuff said.  .

Las Vegas

The Entertainment Capitol of the World, but I was unimpressed.  Vegas became a city in 1911 discovered by  Raphael Rivera nearly a hundred years before, it wasn't until Brigham Young made a failed attempt to convert the natives in the land (at that time it was held by Mexico) to Mormonism, that the area received recognition. The Mormons left the area in 1857 during the Utah War.  In 1905, the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad Company owned by US Senator Kearns and Senator William Clark, established it as, you guessed it a railroad town.   Thank you Senators, for what may possibly have been a conflict of interest.  I'm sure Mr. Young is proud to see what this city is today!

Thanks to all for making the trip possible!  ;)