Orton Hall at OSU, Ohio

Postcard US-3620809 to China shows Orton Hall, one of the oldest remaining buildings on Ohio State University campus. Opened in 1893, it was named after Dr Edward Orton, Sr. who served as OSU's first president, Professor of Geology from 1873 to 1899, and Ohio's State Geologist from 1882 until his death in 1899.

According to Wikipedia, the Hall is built of forty different Ohio building stones. In the outside walls, these stones are laid in stratigraphic order according to their relative positions in Ohio's bedrock. The capitals of the numbered columns in the entrance hall feature carvings of fossils, such as trilobites, as well as other objects such as the races of Man. The bell tower was dedicated in 1915 and contains 25,000 pounds of bells that can be heard regularly tolling across campus in the key of E-flat. Encircling the top of the tower are 24 columns with gargoyle-like figures which are restorations of fossil animals. Orton Hall was placed into the National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 1970, along with University Hall and Hayes Hall. It presently hosts the School of Earth Science, laboratories of Paleontology, Historical Geology and Sedimentology, the Orton Geological Museum, and the Orton Geological Library.

Discover Nevada State Parks Day

As an official Nevada 150 event of the Silver State’s Sesquicentennial celebration, and in conjunction with National Get Outdoors Day, “Discover Nevada State Parks Day” offers visitors free day use admission and free fishing (no license required) at all of Nevada’s 23 State Parks on June 14, 2014.

I went to see the Old Mormon Fort in Las Vegas, a state historic park located next to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. It was the first European settlement in Las Vegas, Nevada. One hundred fifty nine years ago, thirty missionaries arrived and started to build a 46-meter or 150-foot square adobe fort on June 14, 1855. Therefore, June 14th is remembered as Settlement Day, the day the first non-native permanent residents set foot in the Las Vegas valley. The Mormon outpost served as a way station for travelers. The first post office in Las Vegas was established on site in 1893.

The postcard, featuring art work by local artist Ali Tenney Boyer, was a gift from completing a survey after the visit.

Model Car for Chicago "L" Train

Postcard US-2375509 has a template to make a 1:160 scale model car for the Chicago "L" Train - Red Line. Chicago's "L" Train was first built as an elevated steam line to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and later evolved into a public transit system with 1,100 cars and 290 miles of track. The Red Line is the busiest route in the city, running through Chicago from north to south and under a subway tunnel downtown.