Groundspeak Portal

As other Waymarkers have written in other threads that they have learned about many things through Waymarking.  Add something you learned each day due to Waymarking.  It may be from a Waymark you submitted, visited, reviewed or read on line.

Mine for the today:

Summerseat a house listed in as a National Historic Landmark in Morrisville, PA was the home of two signers of the Declaration of Independence and they also were signers of the Constitution of the United States.   See WM48WK

I learned to stop getting new waymarks until you finished the ones you have.

I learned that there is a nice waterfall in Centennial Gardens in New Zealand.  What's interesting about it is that while it looks like a very nice natural waterfall, it's actually man-made.  They took an old quarry and converted it to a beautiful green space to celebrate the centennial of Napier borough and city in 1974.

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM48V9

 

I learned that the Republic of Ghana has released at least 6 different national postage stamps with the image of Abraham Lincoln or the Lincoln Memorial on them since 1959.  I waymarked this one released in 1965 in the "Philatelic Photographs" category today.   WM48YM   

Watch out - waymarking can turn you into a walking trivia machine.

I've learned to be more observant of the world as I go through it. I never saw a Peace Pole before Waymarking, and now I'm doing U-turns to go back and photograph them.

Also, take a zoom out picture and a zoom in picture, you never know when you might need a shot you didn't think to take.

I've been focused on my local history and, at this time, I provide that for waymarking instead of having the pleasure to take from it. WM4860 really has been eating away at me. My flickr set for that is here. Also been spending a lot of time reading Lindsey Williams, but that's really not new. He has several books out with U.S. Cleveland [rest in peace]. It's thanks to Lin that I can give a mini-essay on an artesian fountain instead of just telling you it's on the corner of Marian and Taylor. But I think it's significant that even if my primary motivation for studying local history and photographing local historical places isn't to create waymarks, Waymarking provides an appropriate venue to display this information and these photographs in a way that allows global exposure and participation.

I love this waymark and I wouldn't have known about it or thought about it if it wasn't a waymark.

hikenutty:

Watch out - waymarking can turn you into a walking trivia machine.

So true, my friends are always saying "how do you know this stuff". I reply that I read alot which is true but I have learned so much about my area from waymarking it amazes me.

Here is what I learned this week. No waymark yet.

There is a location in Cottage Grove that is according to Indian tradition is the origin of the creation of the earth. Hoping to go and get photos. I have seen the center of the universe waymark I hope to match or top it with the origin of the earth location.

Today I learned about a very nicely restored historic fort in North Carolina.  Fort Macon looks like a great place to visit to experience some history.

Today I learned that after the Battle of Trenton in 1776, forces under George Washington retained several hundred Hessian soldiers in a Presbyterian Church in Newtown, PA.  They were later marched to Philadelphia to be exchanged for American soldiers being held.  Newtown Presbyterian Church - WM49DP

My learning today though somewhat trivial is that the first weather satellite TIROS 1 launched in 1960 was manufactured in Newtown, PA.  The satellite was manufactured by the Lavelle Aircraft Corp. in a plant built in 1800's as the Newtown Hosiery Mill (a.k.a. The Stocking Works).  WM49NT

BruceS:

My learning today though somewhat trivial is that the first weather satellite TIROS 1 launched in 1960 was manufactured in Newtown, PA.  The satellite was manufactured by the Lavelle Aircraft Corp. in a plant built in 1800's as the Newtown Hosiery Mill (a.k.a. The Stocking Works).  WM49NT

Having been the one to review the above Waymark, for me it was cool to learn where it is built since I used the information about said satellite in one of my geocaches.

It was great to be able to add this aspect to the knowledge base.

BQ

Today?  Nothing.  And not the day before either.

The day before that ... well ... that's another story.  I learnt what the funny blobby building by the side of the entrance to Guy's hospital in London is, who designed it, what it's made of, what awards it has won and when it was built (actually I remember that last bit).  Look out for "Boiler Suit" in "Odd Shaped Buildings" (when, that is, I finish it, and if it gets approved).  I also touched on some discussions about the role of the "built environment" in healthcare.  Not something I'd really considered before.

I also learnt that I should not leave the camera on my Nokia N95 set to low res.  It effectively turns it back into a run-of-the-mill phone camera producing horrible pictures  Return visit to the site needed!

Today I learned about the Mobile & Ohio railroad.  I'm somewhat familiar with Ohio's past railroads, but I had never heard of the Mobile & Ohio until I saw this waymark pop up in the new waymarks list.  It looks like it possibly never made it actually into Ohio, although it was originally planned.  It was named as such became it ran between Mobile, AL and the Ohio River.

 

I also learned a lot this weekend while Waymarking some areas I've previously visited.  I can't remember all of it right now due to so many waymarks I collected, and lack of sleep, but I'll make sure to post here when I start adding them to the site.  One in particular that I DO remember is the Copus Massacre .  I previously visited the memoral of this event to gather information for a multi-cache.  At that time, I didn't know what it was, or why I was directed there.  I just thought it was an interesting memorial in the woods at the side of a gravel road.  I wanted to see it again, because I figured it would be Waymarkable.  I took pics and coords, and researched it better when I got home.  I learned a lot more about this time around.

Today I learned that there isn't a category for Eagles (Fraternal Order of Eagles) and could've sworn there was. Now I have pictures and coords of the one in Port Charlotte, Florida for when there is a category for it. I could waymark the eagle statue since the coords would apply, being within a 15-ft radius of the front door, where I took the coords, but I'll just wait for FOE to have a cat.

Actually something for yesterday.  While researching for this waymark  - Hunter--Lawrence--Jessup House, I learned about about Captain James Lawrence,  a U.S. Navy officer during the War of 1812.  After being mortally wounded he gave his final command "Don't give up the ship!", which continues as a slogan of the Navy.

This wasn't really something I learned tonight, but a way that I was able to use Waymarking to help others....so I think this story fits the theme.

This evening I was visiting my parents, and my father was lamenting the closure to the public of a stone quarry in the northwest part of Ohio.  They used to allow rock-hounds to visit and pick through their piles to find fossils.  It actually closed to the public a while ago.  My parents visited here many years ago, and my mother found a Trilobite fossil (Ohio's official state fossil), which is still her favorite fossil and a great example to boot.  She actually keeps it in her china cabinet with all of her fine china.

I remembered that I saw that s5280ft had Waymarked the Sylvania Fossil Park, and I looked at it.  The quarry operators realized they had a great resource, and disappointed many people by closing it to the public.  They opened a park, in a closed portion of the quarry, where they truck in aggregate for folks to pick through for free.  So it's the same as the old quarry, but in a much safer environment.

My folks were pleasantly surprised to hear that they could go back up there to do a little rock-hounding again.

 I learned from this Depot submission and the link that the waymarker provided that when President Lincoln's funeral train traversed the country to Illinois that they dug up the body of his son to accompany him home so they could be interred together. I also learned that an urban legend surrounding this funeral train has sprung up in different parts of the country. The legend claims that there is a "ghost train" complete with skeleton's for the crew that makes the trip over & over again.

I actually learned this over the weekend, but I just posted the Waymark, so I'll use it for today's lesson.  The barn at Malabar Farm is not the original barn.  I've been here several times in the past, and I've even looked over the various displays inside the barn.  I never paid close enough attention, until I Waymarked it, to notice that the barn was rebuilt in 1994 after a fire.  I also learned, while discussing it with my family, that my grandparents were once invited by Bromfield to attend a social event there.  My father didn't know for sure why they were invited, but assumed that it was due to his father (my grandfather) being a prominent automobile dealer in the area at the time.

Malabar Farm was built and owned by author Louis Bromfield, and the farm is the inspiration for several of his books.  He turned to agriculture, and moved to Ohio in the 1930's.  Bromfield used the farm as a tool to develop and teach new methods of sustainable farming.

I'm learning a heck of a lot in the Eagle Nest thread. There's so much I hadn't considered when I just had a whim that it's really enlightening to have a productive, intelligent discussion on the subject!

- Elle

I've been a little busy lately so I haven't been looking much at others' waymarks.  Today I learned about a beautiful national park in New Zealand.   Looks like a place I'd like to visit if I ever make it out that way.

 

Last night I also finally posted the Copus Massacre Monument  that I mentioned in an earlier post.  In doing so, I learned more than I expected about the events that occurred.  Since it was seemingly a big event at the time I'm surprised that relatively little information is out there.

While doing research about the West Point Cemetery, I learned about the Warner sisters, Susan and Anna.  These sisters lived across the river from West  Point on Constitution Island.  They were authors in the mid 19th century.  Susan wrote the book the The Wide, Wide World  which was very popular at its time.  The sisters were known for their kindness to the Cadets and taught Sunday school to the Cadets.  The most known work of the sisters now is is a children's religious song, "Jesus Loves Me" which was written by Anna.  The sisters are buried in the West Point Cemetery near the Cadet Monument.

I'm thinking of starting a What did you learn because of the "What did you learn because of Waymarking today" thread today thread

I just happened to catch a pretty darn cool sundial in France in the new Waymarks list.  I probably would have never know this existed otherwise.  It looks much more complex than any sundials I've personally seen.

I learned that the best way to find the visit requirements for a waymark is to google the waymark code on my phone.  As a bonus, if I'm having a hard time spotting it, the pictures help.

One of the most recently interesting things I learned was from a waymark submitted to my Bonaparte family category.  The FBI was founded by a descendant/relative of Napoleon!