Google Map Street View with Interesting Feature

 Below is a street view link for a view of Mt Shuksan over picture lake on the Mt Baker Highway. I'm sure most people have seen this Mt. on calenders but never knew it was in the U.S.A.
This street view has  a feature I haven't seen before. Wait until the picture appears then move your cursor over the upper right hand corner and a user photos option appears. Open the option and several photos are available to view. I've never seen this before but must be an option for famous sites such as this view. The user photos are better than the street view photo so be sure to take a look at the Mt. in all seasons.
Of course I'm partial to the area as I spent many days working in and around the lake, which is located just below the Mt Baker Ski Lodge.

 Google Map Link

Winchester Lookout and Larrabee Mt

I found this site after watching the Olympics this week and reminiscing about my time in the Northern Cascades. I was a lookout durning the summer of 1962. That will be 48 years ago this summer! I've a lot of 35mm slides but they are faded and don't scan well. So for starters take a look at these winter scenes, one shows Mt Larrabee with the Canadian border just behind.
Report from the Wet and Scrappy — Lookout for Winchester!
Another site I found was Mt Baker Club 
 The Mt Baker club has much more summer shots which I have written to request permission to repost some shots into this blog. Until then I'll settle for the link.
That summer I spent working in the Mt Baker National Forest out of the Glacier Ranger Station. Most of the time was all sorts of odd projects from cleaning campsites, rebuilding trails, making shingles to repair huts, blasting holes for sign posts, etc. But for a few weeks I was stationed all alone on that mountain with a 2-way radio for contact. We bought the gear up most of the way with horses and pack horses which was in itself quite an experience.
 The memories have faded somewhat, which may be a good thing as the grandkids could be reading this. But, these sites have brought back a real fun time when I was still a teenager (19)!!    

Connecticut's 375th Anniversary Celebration - CTnow

Year long event was launched on Wednesday. It wasn't covered  by most media. Even the Hartford Courant only had a small notice today (the day after the launch).
I guess the Tiger Woods deal is more important.

Event Launches Connecticut's 375th Anniversary Celebration - CTnow

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"This American Life" "A House on Loon Lake" podcast

I stumbled on "This American Life" podcast at the iTunes store produced by Chicago public radio. Their podcasts are free for a week. The "House on Loon Lake" is a compelling mystery , but with a story line every genealogist will love. It's about a young boy's discovery of an abandoned house filled with the contents a family left behind. His quest continues into adulthood before he finds his answers. It take's place in Freedom NH, you know that town next to Maine that Rt 25 bypassed and you always wanted take the turn off to see it. I know I will have to NOW!
If you don't have the itunes program download it for free and listen on your computer.

Treasure Chest Thursday: A Mate For The Bulldog

The frosted glass bulldog on the right was my father's and in the family probably since around 1915.  We once had a black one that my mom had picked up in the 1950's. I laid claim to the frosted one after my mom's passing as I remembered it since my early childhood.  I've looked for a match in countless shops for years with no luck. Last weekend we spent the afternoon back at the antique emporium where I had found 1953 Rockville city directory. About half way though and a hundred glass cases, there it was ! A perfect match! It wasn't black but a very nice green color with the light on it. It is an exact match right down to the same rough edge on the right ear. And yes the search will go on for the black one. 

Well I Guess Washington Didn't Stop Under our Tree

While surfing the web awhile ago, I landed on the town of Plymouth Ct web site. On the history page, there was a little story of General Washington stopping at David Smith' tavern and I said to myself that we had a David Smith in our tree. I went up the hill, to the library in Plymouth, to see what I could find and it wasn't much, just a picture of the tavern. I didn't have sources for this line so I needed to find if this was our David. My best bet would be looking though " Families of Ancient New Haven",By Donald Lines Jacobus. 
So on Monday, while the grandkids were in school I went over to the Kent NY library which has a copy. Its a new facility and has a wonderfull
genealogy research room. It's packed with books of the Putnam and Duchess county area, but also has quite a few CT related books.
 I took a lot of notes on  two David Smith family groups which stopped short of getting me to our neighborhood. I now have the source notes to help fill out the tree if  I find the connection to our Gideon Smith whose daughter married into the Barnes line. At the end of one of the family groups, a note mentions to see "Timlows Sketches of Southington, Conn. for children. So its off to find a copy and a search of World Cat and Archive.com revealed nothing, but good old Google gave me a hit. The actual name turned out to be " Ecclesiastical and other sketches of Southington, Conn."  and Google  has a copy on line. It was written by a local minister and contains local family genealogies. In most cases he did not follow a family once they moved out of town. I believe I have the correct family group now, as I found a Gideon, 6 Aug. 1763; d. in Burlington.  It looks like our Smith line traveled through Southington Ct. and not though Plymouth. So George was in the neighborhood, just not under our tree.
 And so the quest  goes on, looking for those Bits and Pieces !

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: 6 WEEKS TO SPRING!