Ricketts Glen State Park is a Pennsylvania state park and American National Natural Landmark on 13,050 acres (5,280 ha) in Columbia, Luzerne, and Sullivan counties. The park has 24 named waterfalls along Kitchen Creek, as it flows down the Allegheny Front escarpment over four rock formations from the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. The earliest recorded inhabitants of the larger watershed were the Susquehannocks. The park is named for R. Bruce Ricketts, who built the trail along the waterfalls and operated a hotel there from 1873 to 1903. Ricketts made his fortune clearcutting much of what is now the park, but preserved about 2,000 acres (810 ha) of old-growth forest in its three glens. The park opened in 1944. The Benton Air Force Station, a Cold War radar installation in the park, operated from 1951 to 1975 and still serves as airport radar for nearby Wilkes-Barre and as the Red Rock Job Corps Center. The park is home to a wide variety of plants and animals and was named an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society. The state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources named it one of "25 Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricketts_Glen_State_Park> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1291: Three Swiss cantons signed the Federal Charter to create the Old Swiss Confederacy. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_of_the_Old_Swiss_Confederacy> 1798: French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of the Nile started between a British fleet commanded by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson and a French fleet under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Nile> 1834: The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force, officially abolishing slavery in most of the British Empire. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833> 1966: Charles Whitman climbed the University of Texas at Austin tower and went on a shooting spree at the school, killing 10 with sniper fire before being shot and killed by police. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman> 1991: US President George H. W. Bush delivered a speech in the parliament of the Ukrainian SSR in which he warned against Ukrainian independence. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Kiev_speech> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: amanaty: (historical) Native American hostages taken by Russian colonists. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amanaty> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: I would to God Shakspeare had lived later, & promenaded in Broadway … that the muzzle which all men wore on their soul in the Elizebethan day, might not have intercepted Shakspers full articulations. For I hold it a verity, that even Shakspeare, was not a frank man to the uttermost. And, indeed, who in this intolerant universe is, or can be? But the Declaration of Independence makes a difference. --Herman Melville <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herman_Melville> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
