The United States’ oldest great civilization: Cahokia?

When we studied Native American history in school, we learned about many tribes. Chances are you don’t remember learning of Cahokia, a long-extinct civilization originally near what is now Collinsville, Illinois. First established around AD 600 and inhabited by a unique indigenous people, Cahokia was a civilization comprised of about 50 communities over 2,200 acres.

They built 120 earth mounds – some over ten stories tall – in the largest prehistoric earthen construction site north of Mexico. The Cahokians were advanced people who did not appear to be related to any major known Native American tribes. By 1250, Cahokia’s population rivaled Paris and London; at its peak in 1300, Cahokia numbered an estimated 40,000 people. It wasn’t until 1800 that a modern U.S. city would finally surpass that number.

After 1300, the population declined for unknown reasons and the city would lie vacant for another century.

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Real-life Zombieland set? Six Flags New Orleans

Sometimes Interesting

With so much that still needs to be rebuilt in New Orleans, the tragedy of Katrina is hard for some to put behind. A quick drive through some parts of the area and you’d think the hurricane hit last year, not 2005. Rebuilding a financially-strapped area is tough; understandably the last to receive aid and insurance claims would be the private recreation industry. Mired in legal battles with the insurance carriers and the city of New Orleans, Six Flags has indicated they don’t intend to rebuild the theme park. The cost to do so was prohibitive, as was the cost of demolition. While the park may never re-open, it does provide for an amazing photographic tour.

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Henry Ford’s Failed Town: Fordlândia

Sometimes Interesting

Henry Ford was a mastermind of efficiency. It wasn’t so much what he invented, it was how he made things better. His successes in streamlining auto production and the small foray into air travel gave him a well-deserved confidence. That confidence would prove to be his undoing in Brazil, where his company town start up – named Fordlândia – failed to yield the vast amounts of rubber he had expected. His cars needed tires, and in the interest of lowering costs Ford planned to build his own rubber production plant in the Amazon. Henry did little research into the area’s culture and instead relied on his inclinations to pick a location, hire a workforce, and establish rules for the town. Unfortunately Ford was not a Brazilian, geologist, nor a qualified mayor. Six years and 200 million dollars later, Ford finally closed the town with nothing to show for it. Fordlândia was such a flop it was arguably the most expensive mistake of Henry Ford’s career.

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Soviet Automotive Junkyard Museum

Sometimes Interesting

It is interesting how much culture can affect the desirability of classic cars. In the United States the transition from the late 40’s to the early 50’s brought us rock and roll, wild styling, bright colors and enthusiastic youth. World War II veterans came home and purchased cars with big fins and ‘hydramatic’ transmissions; it was a time of prosperity.

At the same time in the Soviet Union, the opposite was true: transportation was basic, sparse, and only for those with significant wealth. Is that why classic Russian cars fail to draw the same attention or desire?

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Largest Abandoned Factory in the World: The Packard Factory, Detroit

Sometimes Interesting

Packard was a premier nameplate in the United States, mentioned in the same breath as Duesenberg, Cadillac, Pierce-Arrow, and Lincoln. The crown jewel for Packard was the Packard Factory, a 3.5 million square-foot complex sprawling across 35 acres. In the years following World War II, the Packard Motor Car Company struggled to keep pace with the larger automakers that had purchased smaller companies to form “the Big Three.” Those not part of the Big Three had to merge to stay competitive: Kaiser and Willys formed Kaiser-Willys, Nash and Hudson formed American Motors, and Packard joined forces with Studebaker. The experiment was short-lived, however, and Packard ceased to exist by the middle of the twentieth century.

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Shipwrecked: MS World Discoverer Cruise Ship

Sometimes Interesting

Hidden in a remote bay of the Solomon Islands, the beached wreck of the German-built Liberian Cruise ship MS World Discoverer slowly rusts. Built in 1974, it served multiple owners faithfully for over 25 years.

In April of 2000, the ship struck an uncharted reef formation just off the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

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Budget Cuts: Detroit Schools

Sometimes Interesting

Over the last decade attendance in the Detroit school system has experienced a 50% decline, dropping from over 170,000 students to just 83,000 enrolled. Fifty-nine schools were closed in 2010. In February of 2011, city legislators approved a bill that would close another 70. Despite the closures, there will still be over 70 schools operating in the Detroit School district.

If Detroit didn’t have money to operate the schools, it comes as no surprise the city didn’t have the funds to raze them either. Dozens of abandoned facilities stand vacant around the city, a grim reminder of the declining population and industrial importance of Detroit.

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Agdam, Azerbaijan: Ghost Town of War

Sometimes Interesting

Chances are you haven’t heard of Agdam. Founded less than 300 years ago, it doesn’t have much history. Its location is of little importance and nothing historically significant ever happened there. Until 1993, that is, when the city came under siege during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Forty thousand people were forced to flee when forces shelled the town. Eighteen years later the town sits vacant, still a part of the Armenian buffer zone.

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