Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming

Devils Tower is a geological wonder, 800 feet of an igneous  phonolite porphyry jutting straight into the air.  The tower itself is amazing enough, but even more interesting are the theories behind how this great spire was formed.  One of the theories is that millions of years ago magma was bubbling under thousands of feet of dirt and rock then something forced that magma to start going upward. That magma hit a huge deposit of water and cooled and hardened.  
This caused a sudden stop in the flow of magma and caused the rest of it to eventually harden into what we know as Devils Tower.  Some of you might be wondering about the pillars on the side.  Those were also caused by the cooling rock. Every element except water will contract as it cools, so naturally as Devils Tower cooled it shrunk and developed stress points. These stress points began to connect and form cracks that eventually made the pillars that we see today.      

Next stop: Yellowstone

Homestake Gold Mine and Sanford Lab, Lead, South Dakota

We went to the Homestake gold mine in lead South Dakota. This mine was founded in 1876 when the there was a gold rush in the northern Black Hills. The mine finally closed down in 2002 after 125 years of non-stop operation. Then in 2007 the National Science Foundation decided that the abandoned mine would be a perfect place to set up a lab. They proposed the 875 million dollar laboratory to the government as the US’s first national lab in over 20 years. They decided this site would be optimal as opposed to an above ground site because there is minimal interference from things like ultraviolet x-ray and gamma radiation that interfere at a subatomic level with their test results. In essence they were trying to study deeper into space and 4000 feet underground was the easiest way to replicate it. We went on a long tour of the entire place, and our tour guide told us about all of the history in Lead.  We never actually made it to the real laboratory underground, but we did go in the crank house where people would be lifted up and down to the mine shaft to get to work. When it was actually a mine there were no federal regulations on how fast you were actually able to go so you would go up to 25 miles an hour in a little steel cage. Now it is illegal for them to send anybody at above 5 miles an hour, so it takes about 10 minutes for people to get down to the lab. Right outside the crank room there were a lot of the tools that the original miners used. We saw all of the normal things like the drills and mine carts, but we also saw something entirely unexpected, a mine cart with what looked to be a wooden toilet seat on it. We learned that it is actually what miners had to use to go to the bathroom. There would be a chain that held it in place so it wouldn't roll away. The saying, “I'm just yanking your chain,” comes from the old miners. They used to play pranks on people by pulling away the chain while they were doing their business, letting them roll down the mine until they hit a wall.
Next Stop: Devils Tower

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Mount Rushmore was pretty amazing. It seemed smaller than you see in postcards but still pretty amazing. Mount Rushmore was originally thought of by Doane Robinson as a way to put South Dakota on the map.  Originally he wanted to carve local heroes into the mountain, but Gutzon Borglum vetoed that and decided that it would be better to carve the presidents as something that really represented America. He spent over a month looking around the Black Hills for the right mountain to carve in. After a while he set his eyes on Rushmore because it was a relatively flat cliff face, with few cracks, and it was soft granite which he decided would make the perfect place. Originally he was planning to do all of his carving by hand or with air powered drills until several local minors told him that it would take him several lifetimes to do the project he was planning by hand. They recommended blasting with dynamite. Originally Gutzon Borglum had assumed that blasting would just destroy the mountain, and you wouldn't have anything even close to a face. Then he learned about a thing called precision blasting. This is where you drill a hole in a certain depth and insert the proper amount of explosive then when you light it off you get a crudely

honeycombed shape.  When you chipped away the pieces that needed to be chipped you still had faces, but they were covered in little dimples that would be noticeable from the ground, and made it look like someone had slapped a golf ball on Rushmore. Seeing this, Borglum decided to use various small drills and sanders to remove all of the dimples, and that is what made the faces look so lifelike. The entire project took 14 years and 28 days to complete. The workers however didn't work every single day, and they almost never worked in the winter.  Surprisingly through this entire ordeal no one ever died. Some of the workers died of silicosis, (a disease from all of the granite dust in their lungs,) well after the project was complete, but during the actual blasting and carving no fatalities occurred.  Unfortunately Gutzon Borglum never lived to see the completion of his masterpiece, and he died almost 6 months before it was completed, and the project had to be taken over by his son.
Next Stop: Homestake Gold Mine

Wind Cave, South Dakota

Box-work

Today we went to a cave in South Dakota called Wind Cave. It is called that because the pressure in the cave is either higher or lower than the air outside it, and wind rushes out trying to reach equilibrium. Wind Cave is also the largest collection of box-work rock in the U.S. Honestly this was one of the most interesting things that we have seen since we came to South Dakota. Apart from Rushmore and the Badlands it has been mostly ranch land and power lines. On the way back to our camp site we went through a place called the Needles Highway.  The Needles Highway is a place that has these big spires of rock and looks really cool.  This was actually where people wanted Gutzon Borglum to sculpt the presidents instead of on Rushmore, but he claimed that they were too narrow, and it would be disproportionate.  Besides, the rock would crumble the second he started blasting.  My favorite part was a place we stopped called the Eye of the Needle. 

Next stop: Mount Rushmore 

The Badlands National Park, South Dakota

As beautiful as the Badlands are on the outside, it is hard to enjoy them when you know how fragile they are.  On the outside they look solid, as if they have stood there for a thousand years just as they are. Unfortunately the Badlands are eroding at an incredibly fast rate, almost an inch a year in fact. It is estimated than in about 500,000 years it will be a huge pile of dirt.  

The two little specks are my dad and me

Well, enough with the depressing stuff.  Let's focus on how beautiful the badlands were. When we were there it was so amazing.  The rock towers rose over a hundred feet and had so many different levels and colors.  Also they rose in tiers so you can rock climb up them and get to where you can see for 50 miles around, which admittedly isn't that hard in South Dakota with the land so flat. In addition you can see millions of years into the past.  Just by climbing down one tier you go thousands of years back.  In some cases you can even see the differences in time by the color or texture of the rock.  There is one layer called the fossil layer, called that because, you guessed it, it has a ton of fossils in it.  In fact the badlands are the largest discovered collection of mammal fossils in the world.  There was also a place called the yellow layer.  It is where some of the oldest rock is, and is bright yellow because millions of years ago the Black Hills and Rocky Mountains began to rise and drained the sea from the badlands. As the sea receded the black mud became oxidized and turned yellow.  Now it is just a really cool place to drive through.  

That's me up on the rock

As we exited the rock formations we came to a huge stretch of grass land.  As we looked off to our right we saw dozens of little holes riddling the ground and several people off to our left just staring at the holes and taking pictures.  We pulled over, got out of the car, and immediately heard a constant squeaking.  It turned out that there was an entire colony of prairie dogs in the field, and boy are they loud.  

After the prairie dogs got annoying (which happened surprisingly  fast) we found something even more surprising.  A herd of big horn sheep grazing right beside the road. As we drove by we took a few pictures, and it was shocking how the sheep weren't afraid at all.  In fact one of them crossed the road right in front of us as if we weren't there at all. My experience at the Badlands is definitely going to be hard to top, and I think that I will remember it for the rest of my life.







Next stop: Wind Cave

Minuteman Missile National Monument, South Dakota

The Minuteman II was a missile system designed to protect the U.S from nuclear threats. This kind of protection was call mutually assured destruction (M.A.D) It basically entails that if you destroy our country with bombs we will destroy you the same way.  This is why on July 31, 1991 President George Bush signed The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (S.T.A.R.T) which made both the U.S, and the Soviets greatly reduce their nuclear arms possession.  The Minuteman site we visited wasn't actually the real silo where the disarmed missile still sits, but we did see the museum where they talked about the Minuteman project.  The only funny thing in the museum was a video from the Cold War.  It was a little cartoon that the government would put on TV called "Duck and Cover". It described what to do if a bomb dropped.  It was just so different from what our cartoons are that it was funny.  I have enclosed a link in case anyone wanted to check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9scNl9h4Q
Next stop: Badlands

The Adler Planetarium and The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

The Adler Planetarium is a cool building that sits on the shore of Lake Superior.  It was a great day because we were able to learn about the universe by watching movies. The movies were shown in rooms shaped like a dome so the movie surrounded us, and made it feel like we were in space.  My favorite movie was called Planet Nine which was about a planet that they just recently theorized existed. Scientists think that they have discovered a new planet in the outer reaches of our solar system. They found this out when they studied the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is a belt of meteors and asteroids, some roughly the size of Pluto, and some much smaller that are orbiting the outer reaches of our solar system.  While most of the objects in the Kuiper Belt have a circular orbit some of them orbit in the shape of

an egg.  This wouldn’t seem strange if the oblong orbit was inconsistent, but all of the objects orbited in the same general direction, so scientists said, “What the heck?”  The only explanation they could come up with is that there is a small planet, but still significantly larger than Pluto pushing the few irregular objects out of their orbit. They have not found anything in their satellite imaging that proves Planet Nine’s existence, but they are still scanning. If the computer simulations are correct it should only be visible for a very short time every couple years. This makes it hard to find especially since we don't know exactly where it will be. We watched about five other movies that were all very good, but I'd fall asleep if I tried to describe them all.

I liked the Museum of Science and Industry a lot more than the Franklin Institute, but mostly because I got to stand in a tornado.  When I first got in to the museum I immediately knew two things: first I was going to love it, second I knew my dad would find several dozen ways to turn it into teachable moments.  Naturally when I got in I wanted to beeline for the physics and forces section because I wanted to study up and learn all that I could.  OK no. I only wanted to go there because I could stand in a man made tornado and launch tennis balls out of an air powered bazooka across the room.  My parents made me go to the patterns in nature section, which basically was going on and on about how butterflies wings look like corn, and that a shell is a spiral.  

Mirror Maze

My favorite part of the museum was the mirror maze. I'm not even sure what it had to do with patterns in nature, but it was a lot of fun. I eventually gave up on getting through the maze for two reasons.  First of all, I was assuming at this point that there was no exit, and they were just playing with us. Secondly, if I stayed in there any longer I would have gotten a concussion from slamming into so many mirrors. At one point my dad and I were trying to find each other and ended up both slamming into mirrors because we thought that the other one was in the complete opposite direction. Then when we finally turned around I almost poked him in the gut because I had chosen to keep my hands out the entire way back. I also photo bombed about 30 people because in the mirrors it was pretty much impossible not to. I thought that there was a huge group right in front of me trying to take a picture, so I said, "Hold on, let me get out of your way." I backed up and ended up ramming into one of the people who I thought was in front of me. Looking back on it I realized it was pretty stupid. I should've noticed something was up when I saw myself next to the people in the mirror, but by that point I think I'd already suffered mild brain damage. 

After we were done with the patterns in nature we went into the chemistry section. It wasn't super interesting in terms of bright flashy things that you could poke and spin, but this is where my dad got in most of the teachable moments of the day. After a while we decided to let him roam around while I went down to the part I had been thinking about all day, the tornado.  Before I got down to it there were a few other things I needed to try out. There was a section that demonstrated light refraction by having you make a prism rotate and get the rainbow where you wanted it. There was also a part where you could control how big a fire got and sprinkle green glitter in it. I'm not entirely sure what that was about, but it was still pretty cool. In addition there were these little chambers that you could go in that claimed they had 80 mile an hour winds. Let me tell you - not even close. It felt more like 5 miles an hour at the most. I was hoping it would be something where you got pushed up against the wall, but no such luck.  Remember how I talked about the tennis ball bazooka earlier? It turns out they could even turn that into something involving math and physics. First you had to figure out what angle and speed you wanted the ball to go at.  You were trying to make it so you hit a certain target. It was impossible to completely miss the other basket, but you had to have it almost perfect to hit the target. They made it so you could only shoot it at 27° or above at a max of 25 miles an hour, but it was still fun to watch it fly around. There was also another launcher on the other side of the room so you could shoot it back and forward. The tornado was one of my favorite things I did here. It was a 20 foot tall cyclone of water vapor that got kicked up from a pad

underneath and spun up by the winds coming from the sides. By the time I got out my shoes were squeaking and my hair felt like I had just taken a shower. It smelled really weird in the vapor, but the woman operating it told me that it was just on an off day, so the water smelled really funky.
Next Stop: Minuteman Missile

Indiana Sand Dunes, Indiana

The Indiana Sand Dunes were beautiful. There were signs all around the dunes saying that they were a long strenuous hike, and you should bring lots of snacks and water.  It said that to do what we did it takes the average hiker about an hour to an hour and a half.  It appears that they were basing that average on Indiana hikers where those dunes are the tallest things around. For me and my parents it took about 30 minutes.

Lake Michigan

The three dunes are called Mt. Holdan, Mt. Jackson, and Mt. Tom. Mt. Jackson is the shortest at a mere 176 feet above Lake Michigan.  Mt. Holdan is the second tallest at 184 feet tall.  Mt. Tom is the tallest at a whopping 192 feet. Do you see what I'm getting at? The dunes are tiny compared to what we are used to in Vermont. The only hard part about them was that the sand was loose and wet, but that just made it nice to hike barefoot.
Next Stop: Chicago 

Liberty Bell, Franklin Institute, and Independence Hall, Philadelphia

After living in Vermont for my entire life seeing Philadelphia came as a huge shock. In Montpelier the apartment buildings are the tallest things around. In Philadelphia there are huge buildings that look like they are entirely made of glass and made me dizzy.  While we were in Philadelphia we went to three places. First we visited the Liberty Bell, then we went to Independence Hall, and finally the Franklin Institute.

The Liberty Bell is way overstated, when I saw it the first thing I thought was, "That's it." I'm not

exactly sure what I was expecting, but maybe something more than a four foot iron bell with a crack in it.  The more interesting part was the museum section before the bell telling us what the bell stood for.  Over the years the bell symbolized many different things.  In the early 19th century it became a rallying point for abolitionists trying to stop slavery, and in the late 1800s it was a symbol of pride for our growing nation.


Independence Hall was next, and honestly it was my least favorite thing we visited in Philadelphia.  All it was, was a tour of the building where the Continental Congress convened.  We learned that the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were signed there.  Independence Hall was without a doubt not not quite as interesting as the Liberty Bell but at least there was air conditioning.
The Franklin Institute had so many amazing things that I would fill up several pages trying to talk about them all so I will just say the highlights.  First of all there was the main exhibit. Every year or so the museum does a special exhibit with the science behind some sort of popular movie or historical event. This year they did the science behind how Pixar animation works. There was a whole room filled with computers and different sorts of interactive things that shows you how Pixar creates things to look as real as they do. My favorites were the lighting ones where you could change how it looked by modulating the color intensity and direction of light. It also explained of the challenges behind creating character movements and reactions to look like humans. We watched a video that some of the people who worked on Pixar had been interviewed for. They said that out of all of the movies one of the most difficult they had ever worked on was Brave. They said getting the main characters hair right was very difficult, and eventually they had to use an algorithm used to create springs and model her hair after that. 
Another cool part of the museum was the machines  section. My two favorite parts were a demonstration of how an Archimedes screw worked, (which I admit doesn't sound that interesting but since I had never understood how It worked it was nice to see a demo.) On a slightly more exiting note there was this giant grabber arm that you could operate, and pick up random foam blocks littered around a small area.  
Next stop: Indiana Sand Dunes  

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Valley Forge was an important spot in the revolutionary war.  On December 19, 1777, 12,000 soldiers and 400 women and children marched into what would soon be known as Valley Forge making it the fourth largest city in America.  It would consist of 1,500 log huts and over two miles of fortifications ringing the city.  In the span of exactly six months Valley Forge became a training camp where a vast majority of American troops trained in uniform military tactics.  This is why Valley Forge is noted as one of the tipping points in the war.  
We talked to a ranger who told us that in addition to being a training camp it was where many of history's notable figures in the war met and planned. Some of these people included George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Marquis de Lafayette, and Hercules Mulligan.  From here Washington would send the British misinformation and plot the next course of action. All in all Valley Forge wasn't the most exiting place on the outside, but the history behind it is amazing.

Next Stop: Philadelphia

Phosphorescent Mine, New Jersy

On August 8th we went to a zinc mine in New Jersey. This mine has been abandoned since 1987 due to lack of business from oversea zinc shipments, and ever since it has been a museum/tour.  All of that was really interesting, but the best part was that the mine glowed.  It was pretty amazing that there were certain minerals in the rock such as Willemite, Franklinite, and Scheelite that made them glow under an ultraviolet light. These colors looked cool, but they also served a function in the mining. Franklinite and Willemite glow green whereas Scheelite glows red. Franklinite's formula is Zn Fe2 O4, Willemite's is Zn2 Sio4. As you can see both contain zinc (Zn), and that's exactly what they were mining for. Scheelite on the other hand is Ca Wo4, and contains no zinc. Therefore it wasn't useful to the company. 

There was also a museum right outside the mine with samples of the rock under a UV light and plaques explaining how they glowed. The funny thing is that I have been studying electrical flows and how a light bulb emits light.  The rocks glowed in the exact same way. The only difference was the trigger. In a LED the electrical current excites the electrons and bumps them up to a higher energy state. When the electrons go back to their original state they release energy in the form of a photon, or a quanta of light. In the rock it does the same thing except the ultraviolet radiation triggers the higher energy state.  I thought this was a pretty cool place despite the fact that outside the mine it was blistering hot.












Next Stop: Valley Forge