Appropriately enough, on Memorial Day Sunday, at the foot of snow covered, 10,000 ft. Mt. Shasta, we happened upon the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden, a sculpture memorial dedicated to veterans of all conflicts. It turned out to be quite moving. Below is a Navy Commander giving a Memorial Day tribute (significant local audience) in front of a wall of remembrance of veterans from the local area.
As it happened, an ex-Marine, Dennis Smith, working through post traumatic difficulties from the VietNam war, created (in iron) a number of sculptures dedicated to different aspects of veterans of America's wars. Both Marlene and I were very moved by the simplicity of the sculptures, their elegance and their setting in Klamath National Forest. The entry plaque reads "A place to remember where we have been: A place to remember what we've been through: A place to remember those faces so well of friends and loved ones: A place to remember, A place to mend. To bring our minds back to reality again. To help see our futures so we can move on."
Above, one of my favorites, dedicated to "The Korean War Veteran"; A soldier sits, head in hand, remembering. "While Vietnam Memorials were popping up like mushrooms, who remembered the Korean War Vet? We did. This one's for you, my spiritual uncles......Semper Fi."
Above, "The Peaceful Warrior", a tall figure, arm raised. "There must be those who, loving peace, will fight against agression to preserve that peace. There is no contradiction in this. As long as such warriors are needed, The Peaceful Warrior honors those who step forward when asked to do so."Wonderful experience, great story.
This area is a very active geographic area. Above is Lassen Peak, one of the recently active (1915) line of Cascade volcanos (includes Mt. St. Helens). Due to heavy winter snows, we could not look into the bubbling pools of hot mud or into the dome of Lassen, formed during the massive eruption in 1915. Below, Marlene next to the remaining snow, as far as they would let us go. A father and his teenage daughter were there, getting ready to walk halfway up the moutain in order to snowboard down (said it would take them about 2-3 hours to get up there).
Below is Burney Falls state park; I tried to do a video; messed it up; can't seem to get enough of these waterfalls. You can walk right down to the foot of the falls. Park was packed for the weekend.
Below, Mt. Shasta, over 10,000ft high, still has a lot of snow as of the end of May. Snow melts and flows into Shasta Lake, developed when Shasta dam was created in 1945. Beautiful area.
Interesting story behind the Shasta Dam, below. Built in 1938-1945, it is the second largest dam in the US (in amount of material used). Extra thick with complex expansion joints to withstand an 8.5 earthquake, the dam is in great shape. It controls flooding in the Redding area, provides measured water for all the central California agricultural areas, and produces electricity. The gentleman who was the genius behind building the dam, Frank Crowe, developed an efficient, but very precise way to build the dam so that they finished 2 years (yes, 2 years) ahead of schedule, and this was during the WWII years when concrete was more difficult to come by than original forecast. Dam is in great shape; Crowe did a magnificent job.
Below a diagram of Crowe's construction layout. The square at the top of the diagram is where the main tower was sent buckets of concrete down a zip line to a spot over where it was to be poured. The curved lines were railroad tracks so that the zip line could be adjusted precisely to drop the concrete exactly over the block of area they were filling. Other dams had to re-assemble their concrete deposit methods everytime they moved to a different part of the dam, resulting in longer time requirement. With 6.5 million cubic yards of concrete, you can see how this innovation could offer dramatic savings. Did all their calculations with slide rule technology, not easy.
Finally, went into town, visited the Turtle Creek Exposition Park, home of their noted Sundial Bridge, a cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge, designed by Santiago Calatreva, finished in 2004. Pretty neat.
Below, Marlene took a shot of some unusual flowers at the Turtle Creek gardens.
This area is a very active geographic area. Above is Lassen Peak, one of the recently active (1915) line of Cascade volcanos (includes Mt. St. Helens). Due to heavy winter snows, we could not look into the bubbling pools of hot mud or into the dome of Lassen, formed during the massive eruption in 1915. Below, Marlene next to the remaining snow, as far as they would let us go. A father and his teenage daughter were there, getting ready to walk halfway up the moutain in order to snowboard down (said it would take them about 2-3 hours to get up there).
Below is Burney Falls state park; I tried to do a video; messed it up; can't seem to get enough of these waterfalls. You can walk right down to the foot of the falls. Park was packed for the weekend.
Below, Mt. Shasta, over 10,000ft high, still has a lot of snow as of the end of May. Snow melts and flows into Shasta Lake, developed when Shasta dam was created in 1945. Beautiful area.
Interesting story behind the Shasta Dam, below. Built in 1938-1945, it is the second largest dam in the US (in amount of material used). Extra thick with complex expansion joints to withstand an 8.5 earthquake, the dam is in great shape. It controls flooding in the Redding area, provides measured water for all the central California agricultural areas, and produces electricity. The gentleman who was the genius behind building the dam, Frank Crowe, developed an efficient, but very precise way to build the dam so that they finished 2 years (yes, 2 years) ahead of schedule, and this was during the WWII years when concrete was more difficult to come by than original forecast. Dam is in great shape; Crowe did a magnificent job.
Below a diagram of Crowe's construction layout. The square at the top of the diagram is where the main tower was sent buckets of concrete down a zip line to a spot over where it was to be poured. The curved lines were railroad tracks so that the zip line could be adjusted precisely to drop the concrete exactly over the block of area they were filling. Other dams had to re-assemble their concrete deposit methods everytime they moved to a different part of the dam, resulting in longer time requirement. With 6.5 million cubic yards of concrete, you can see how this innovation could offer dramatic savings. Did all their calculations with slide rule technology, not easy.
Finally, went into town, visited the Turtle Creek Exposition Park, home of their noted Sundial Bridge, a cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge, designed by Santiago Calatreva, finished in 2004. Pretty neat.
Below, Marlene took a shot of some unusual flowers at the Turtle Creek gardens.
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