Nothing Lasts Forever...Except for Oil, But Not How You Want it to Last

Today marks the 25th anniversary of one of the largest offshore oil spill in US history. It is only second to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon BP oil explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The second largest occurred in Prince William Sound in Alaska when the oil tanker Exxon Valdez crashed into a reef.

The tanker had just filled up with unrefined oil at the Alyeska pipeline terminus in Valdez, Alaska. As the tanker was heading South to California, it ran aground on Bligh Reef. 10+ million gallons of unrefined oil leaked out of the single-hull tanker. Eventually, the oil covered over 1,000 miles of coastline. The major difficulty with the Exxon Valdez oil spill was its remoteness. The ship crashed at 12am on March 24th and spill was only accessible by helicopter and boat in the distant waters of the Gulf of Alaska

The oil spill devastated the habitat for numerous animals including fish, mammals, birds and shellfish. Sea otters have only just been declared as having been recovered,a pod of orcas has never recovered, and the findings of the investigation are still awaiting peer review prior to publication. However, the oil spill was also devastating to people as well.

The oil spill devastated the herring fishing industry as well as salmon fishing. This caused people in commercial fishing to lose their jobs. After the oil spill, there were a reports of an increase in suicides, divorces, and health complications.

25 years later, Exxon has declared the spill cleaned up and over with but the government and the natural world say differently. Along the affected coastline, oil can still be found in the sand, where brown bears dig to find food. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has faded from memory for now, but what will be said about it 15 or 20 years down the line?

Foresters Once! Foresters Twice!

Tonight marks the beginning of the 97th Foresters Ball at the University of Montana. Students in the Forestry department take on the incredible task of building a replica logging town in the Auxiliary gyms in the Adams Center in a week. The town is used only two nights and by Sunday, it's all gone, as if it never happened.

A nearly 100 year tradition is rather momentous for a school that is just over 120 years old. In 1905 the US Forest Service was established. With the creation of the Forest Service, forestry courses were offered in a number of schools in order to train Forest Rangers. It wasn't until 1914 that the School of Forestry at UM was established.

February 18th, 1916, the Foresters hosted the first Lumberjack dance. This dance was free and included an orchestra, vaudeville performances by the lumberjacks as well as dinner. In addition to dinner, there was a dress code of flannel, high boots, corduroy and hunting outfits. If the wrong clothes were worn, the wearer was fined .50¢. And so began the tradition of the Forester's Ball.

Another major element of the Forester's Ball is the rivalry between the Law School and the School of Forestry. In 1926, the Forestry's mascot, Bertha, was donated to the school. Not long after, other groups of students began to kidnap Bertha but the Law School was the most successful and there has been a rivalry between the two schools since the 1930s. The kidnapping of Bertha has actually become a tradition. In the fall, Law students steal Bertha and take her out for a drink. The Forestry students, of course, have to retaliate. But come Ball weekend, Bertha takes her place at the Forester's Ball.

http://exhibits.lib.umt.edu/forestry/timeline?destination=forestry/timeline

Butte: More Irish than Boston

Butte, Montana is known famously for its St. Patrick's Day celebration, but why does this mining town in Montana have such a connection to Ireland?

In the mid 1800s, Ireland was struck by a potato blight which led to the Great Irish Famine. 1 million Irish lost their lives during the famine, because the English chose not to help its colony. An additional 1 million Irish left to try and survive. My own ancestors were among those who chose to leave, however we did not settle in Butte.

A large portion of Irish found their way to Butte, Montana to work in the mines. So many Irish immigrants settled in Butte that Gaelic was the common language spoken in the mines. By 1900, the Irish made up a quarter of the population in Butte, which was more than any other city in the US at the time.

St. Patrick's Day was not always about drinking green beer and getting plastered. March 17, 461 was the day that St. Patrick died. During his time as a priest, Patrick went to Ireland where he began to convert the pagans to Christianity. To do this, he defied the pagan king and explained the Holy trinity by using a shamrock. In the pagan tradition, the shamrock represented life with its green color and the three leaves represented three pagan goddesses. For this reason, shamrocks and the color green are associated with St. Patrick and his Feast Day of March 17th.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

St. Patrick's Day might be considered a day for drinking and revelry today, but it's primary purpose is to celebrate St. Patrick and the Irish heritage.

Without it, slavery would have ended earlier

On March 14, 1794, Eli Whitney's patent for the cotton gin was approved.

The cotton gin was a machine that Whitney developed so that cleaning the seeds off of cotton bolls. He said that his machine would do the work of fifty men and that he would make a fortune with his invention. However, cotton farmers chose to "invent" their own versions to avoid paying money to use Whitney's.

When Whitney invented the cotton gin, the cotton industry and the tobacco industry were on the decline in the South. It has been speculated that if the cotton gin had not been invented, slavery would have ended earlier than it actually did. Instead, the increase in production that the cotton gin yielded, resulted in the expansion of slavery and extending it until finally, the Civil War was fought and slavery was ended.

(Whitney's patent drawing)

(Example of a cotton gin)

James Earl Ray

March 10, 1969, James Earl Ray was convicted for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination in order to avoid a trial and be sentenced to death by execution. Since he pleaded guilty, he was sentenced to 99 years.

A couple of days after his confession, Ray attempted to retract his guilt. Instead, he attempted to make it appear as if he had been a part of a conspiracy to shoot King. Evidence though, was against him and Ray remained in jail.

After he shot MLK, Ray escaped to Canada where he hid for a month and obtained a fake passport. He was caught in the London Heathrow Airport because of his fake passport and was extradited to Tennessee. His assassination of MLK was not his first crime. Ray died on April 23, 1998 while imprisoned.

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated about five years after President JFK.

Boston Massacre

On March 5, 1770, the event known as the Boston Massacre took place. Many people see this as an inciting incident for the American Revolution.

What transpired on that day was "patriots" and British soldiers got into an altercation. The city of Boston was an epicenter of unhappiness with Parliament and how the colonies were being governed. Prior to the scuffle, the colonists were being taxed on commodities such as sugar and stamps and this time, they were being enforced. These, and other taxes, were put in place because the British government felt that the colonists should help pay for the Seven Years War, or the French and Indian War as it was called in the colonies.

The "Massacre" started because some patriots were shouting at soldiers and started throwing snowballs at them. Without any official orders, the soldiers moved into the crowd and fired. They killed three civilians and injured others. One of the civilians killed was Crispus Attuks. He was leading the Patriots in their scuffle with the soldiers and was the first killed. Attuks was an African American and is considered to be the first casualty of the American Revolution.

The event was widely discussed and disseminated in the forms of images for propaganda use.

(Headstone of the victims of the Boston Massacre)

(Site of the Boston Massacre)

(The Boston Massacre took place outside of this building, the Old State House, or at the time, it was the Massachusetts General Court)

The Cold War: It's Not Actually Over, Right?

Ukraine, to most Americans, is currently a country that Russia might invade at any moment. To others, it demonstrates that the Cold War hasn't actually ended. Let's take a look at what's actually going on. 

The very main issue is that President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an agreement with the European Union. Many Ukrainians saw this as a return to Russia and a desire to join the Eurasian Union, which is a union of former Soviet states. In addition to this issue is the fact that Ukraine is extremely divided. 

Like the country of Poland, Ukraine has not always been a nation state on the map. In the 1300s, Poland attacked Ukraine and divided it up with Lithuania. Later, Russia went to war over the region of Ukraine, which resulted in the division of Ukraine: the East fell under Russian control while the West was controlled by Poland. It is this division that has created many problems. 

Under Catherine the Great, the Eastern portion of Ukraine underwent Russification. In addition to the language division, the country is also ecologically divided. Due to this divide, Ukraine fought for both sides in World War I. During World War II, the country was unified for the first time in many years but it still was not its own country. After being a part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine finally gained its independence in December of 1991. This December will mark it's 23rd year of independence.

So, can we claim that the issues in Ukraine are just the Cold War continuing? No. 

The problems in Ukraine are more complicated than that and stem from a time in history when Communism wasn't even an idea yet. 

Still want to know more? Check out this website. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/01/30/9-questions-about-ukraine-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask/

Can you see the split in the country?