Presidential Address: Revealing the Origin of Human-Nature Dualities in Christian Political Structures
Martha L. Henderson, 15
The Gaming Zone: A One-Mile Limit at Stateline
Katherine Heslop and Paul F. Starrs, 28
Transcendent Lake Tahoe landscapes and a fervent gambling economy were first conjoined in an odd mid-twentieth-century partnership. A 1946 article in the Nevada State Journal titled “Curb on Clubs at Lake Tahoe Being Sought” reported on petitions being circulated by residents in southeastern Lake Tahoe that sought immediate legislative action to control post-World War II commercial development, targeting gaming and liquor establishments. Lake Tahoe millionaires, by and large lured to the Lake by a Depression-era One Sound State program designed to entice the wealthy to Nevada with tax advantages, were militant and vociferous in opposing haphazard growth. Faced with easing travel restrictions in the post-war years, an imminent opening of the Highway 50 Echo Summit all-weather route in 1947, and second-home real estate growth, Tahoe’s privileged residents attempted to limit change brought on by easier access. The resultant political alliance, Citizens’ Committee for Tahoe Township—forged decades before the creation of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) in 1969—recognized a need for throttling development near southeastern Lake Tahoe. The outcome was an interdiction of gambling from a “one-mile limit” outward, with ensuing zoning ordinances that restricted heavy commercial and gambling establishments to the Stateline area. It can be argued the Citizens’ Committee for Tahoe Township was taking action to preserve their Old Tahoe culture. Seeking to regulate and restrict gambling was not environmentalism, in the sense of curing past damage; it was about future self-interests protecting a secluded Depression-era lifestyle.
Case Hardening Vignettes from the Western USA: Convergence of Form as a Result of Divergent Hardening Processes
Ronald I. Dorn, Jacob Dorn, Emma Harrison, Eyssa Gutbrod, Stephen Gibson, Philip Larson, Niccole Cerveny, Nicholas Lopat, Kaelin M. Groom, and Casey D. Allen, 53
The rock weathering literature contains the hypothesis that case hardening exemplifies equifinality, where the same end state can be reached by many potential processes in an open system. We present analytical data from six different sites in the western USA to assess the hypothesis of equifinality. Case hardening can be produced on: (1) sandstone in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, from the addition of silica glaze, rock varnish and heavy-metal skins; (2) sandstone in Whoopup Canyon, Wyoming, from silica glaze that formed originally inside subsurface joints combined with externally applied iron film, silica glaze, and rock varnish; (3) welded tuff in Death Valley, California, from the accumulation of rock varnish and heavy metal skins of Mn and Fe; (4) sandstone in Sedona, Arizona, from the protective effects of rock varnish accretion and heavy metal skins of Mn and Fe; (5) basalt on the Big Island, Hawai‘i, from the accumulation of silica glaze inside vesicles; and (6) sandstone at Point Reyes, California, from a lithobiont mat of fungi and lichen. Each developed the general form of a case-hardened shell, protecting the surface from erosion. In accordance with the hypothesis of equifinality, the processes that led to similar appearance differ.
Considering the Photography of Leonard Nadel
Stefano Bloch, 76
In this photo essay, I bring to light the work of Leonard Nadel. As the sole photographer for the Los Angeles Housing Authority from approximately 1949 to 1952, Nadel captured images of abject poverty and substandard housing reminiscent of New York City’s Lower East Side at the turn of century. Nadel may not, however, be included on the list of great social reformist photographers such as Jacob Riis, because his images, perhaps unwittingly, inspired slum clearance, the displacement of communities, and the bad policy that led to some of the worst housing stock and concentrated poverty in the nation. Nevertheless, students and scholars may find more to discuss in the juxtaposition of his images, using Nadel’s pictures as visual data and a view of post-War housing upheavals and short-lived triumphs in Los Angeles.
A Colorado Sheep Wars Incident, 1894
Forrest R. Pitts, 96
In the summer of 1894, one of the most destructive raids in the western Colorado sheep wars occurred, with thousands of sheep killed. Many details remain unknown. This paper looks at three aspects of the incident: the general record, local memories, and a family connection.
Building the Cornerstone: Vinnie B. Clark and Geography: 1878–1971
Barbara Fredrich, Alan Osborn, and Stephanie Weiner, 102
Our research documents the contributions of Vinnie Clark to the establishment of the Department of Geography at San Diego State University. We begin with a description of Clark’s early environment, her education at the Oshkosh State Normal School, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her teaching career in that region. We then follow her to the State Normal School of San Diego and through its transition to a teachers college and San Diego State College. We note how Clark influences the hiring of Alvena Suhl Storm and we review their working relationship. We include Clark’s communication with Carl Sauer, and offer some reasons for her decision to resign from the college in 1937. We conclude with an assessment of Clark’s legacy in the development of the Department of Geography at San Diego State University.
Depopulation in Some Rich Nations: Good News for Planet Earth?
Gary L. Peters, 122
Geographers have long been interested in population and its interactions with Earth’s natural systems. In recent decades it has become continually more apparent that steady population growth, coupled with increasing affluence, has wreaked havoc on many natural systems, has caused the decline and even extinction of many species of plants and animals that share the planet with us, has changed our global climate, and has exacerbated numerous other problems. Now populations in some countries, including Japan, Russia, and Germany are, or soon will be, starting to decline. This trend would seem to bode well for the planet, but the depopulation of some rich countries may be drowned out by the continuing wave of population growth in the United States and in many poor countries.
In Memoriam: Dr. James W. Scott
Todd Welch, 141
Meeting Report, 143
Distinguished Service Award, 146
APCG Student Paper Award Winners, 148