Once again, this comes courtesy of Knoxville Curating, Inc.
Monthly Archives: July 2016
Cooler Air
The wildfire smoke started to drift into the valleys on Saturday, which was followed by the rain on Sunday. After 90 degree weather last week, the high today was 55F, with a constant mist in the air. The rain gauge says we have received 1.15″ in the past 36 hours. I felt like I was working inside an aquarium all day.
If you don’t like the weather in Alaska, just hang around, it is bound to change in an hour or two.
Beating a Deadhorse
It’s been a warm week here in Interior Alaska. 90 degrees hit Fairbanks, although I’m not sure if that was official “Airport Temperature”. It was over 90 on the roof I was replacing, let me tell ya.
How warm was it in the Far North? Deadhorse hit 85! Deadhorse!
This is what Deadhorse normally looks like.
Deadhorse lies at the Northern End of the “Haul Road”, or Dalton Highway if you prefer. It is just short of Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean. 85 degrees was an all time record high for Deadhorse. In fact, it was the warmest temperature ever recorded within 50 miles of Alaska’s Arctic Ocean coastline. The average temperature in Deadhorse at this time of year is 57 degrees.
Even Eagle, the little community on the Yukon River, hit 85 degrees.
I’m not complaining, mind you, even if I was hauling shingles and as wet as a good bird dog during duck season. The last time Fairbanks hit 90 degrees was in 2013. So far in 2016, Alaska’s average temperature is 9 degrees above normal.
Even at 85 degrees, it’s good to remember that bears like to wander around Deadhorse. As well as caribou, musk oxen, etc.
A nice honor
Major League Baseball honored both Rod Carew and Tony Gwynn at the All Star Game in San Diego on Tuesday.
The American League batting title will now be known as the “Rod Carew Batting Championship Award”.
Carew, who played for the Minnesota Twins (1967-1978) and the California Angels (1979-1985) was an 18 time All Star, and won the AL batting title seven times. The left handed hitter was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1967. In 1977, he finished the year batting .388, which was the highest average since Ted Williams hit .388 in 1957, earning Rodney the AL MVP award that year. Carew hit .328 for his career with 3053 hits. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. Carew’s #29 has been retired by both the Minnesota Twins and California Angels.
Photo credit: The San Diego Padres
The National League batting title will now be known as the “Tony Gwynn Batting Championship Award”.
Gwynn played his entire career with the San Diego Padres. A 15 time All Star, and winner of the NL batting title eight times, Gwynn was known as “Mr Padre”. Tony had a career average of .338 and collected 3141 hits. Gwynn was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. His number was retired in San Diego in 2004. Tony Gwynn died of salivary gland cancer in 2014 at the age of 54.
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton died on this date in 1804, a day after suffering a gun shot wound in a duel.
Born out of wedlock and orphaned as a child, Hamilton was somewhat influential in his 47 years:
One of the Nation’s Founding Fathers, chief staff aide to George Washington, founder of the Nation’s financial system, first Secretary of the United States Treasury, founder of the Federalist political party, founder of the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as The New York Post newspaper. Serving in the Continental Army, Hamilton commanded a New York light infantry battalion, which took Redoubt No. 10 in the battle for Yorktown. Of the 85 articles in The Federalist Papers, Hamilton wrote 51 of them.
Alexander Hamilton in the New York Artillery uniform. Painting by Alonzo Chappel
“When shall unspotted faith and naked truth ever find
his equal? He dies lamented by many.”
—Horace
Hamilton v Burr
The duel between Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and the sitting Vice President Aaron Burr took place on this date 212 years ago.
The feud between the two men had been festering for years, hitting its peak after New York’s gubernatorial race of 1804. Hamilton had brutally criticized Burr as he ran and then lost the race for governor.
Burr challenged Hamilton to the famous duel, and the two men, with their seconds rowed across the Hudson River to Weehawken, New Jersey.
Details of the actual duel are sketchy, at best. Dueling was illegal in both New York and New Jersey, although authorities in New Jersey were not as aggressive in prosecuting the crime. The unwritten rules of dueling at the time had the seconds standing with their backs to the duelists, that way they had plausible deniability, and could say that they didn’t actually see any shots fired.
All accounts say that both men fired, although the timing of the shots and the intentions of the duelists remain controversial. Most agree that Hamilton fired first, his shot going high in the air, with the musket ball hitting a tree. Whether Hamilton missed intentionally or the pistol went off too soon due to a hair trigger, is openly debated.
Burr did not miss, probably intentionally. Hamilton was struck in the abdomen, the musket ball deflecting off of a rib and shattering it. Severe damage was done to his liver and diaphragm. Hamilton knew immediately that he was mortally wounded.
Alexander Hamilton, former chief staff aide to General Washington during the Revolution and the Nation’s first Secretary of Treasury, died from his wounds the following afternoon.
Aaron Burr would be charged with murder in both New York and New Jersey, but neither case would go to trial. He would go on to finish his term as vice president, although his political career was basically over. His arrest and trial for treason during President Thomas Jefferson’s second term, further led to his political exile, even though he was acquitted of all charges. He would die in 1836 at the age of 80 in Staten Island, NY.
Philip Hamilton
In a twist to the story, Alexander Hamilton’s son, Philip had been killed in a duel three years earlier in 1801. That duel also took place at Weehawken. Between the years of 1700 and 1845, 18 duels are known to have taken place at Weehawken.
The Wogdon dueling pistols used in the Hamilton-Burr duel are on display at the headquarters of JP Morgan Chase & Co in New York City.
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