Give away results

I have used random.org to pick a winner for my give-away of WPA postcards, and the winner is...

Val!

Val, I'll be contacting you shortly for your mailing address. Congratulations!

Happy PFF: Yosemite National Park

Thank you to our hostess Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy for hosting Postcard Friendship Friday.  Today we are visiting the magnificent Yosemite National Park in California.
Giving credit where credit is due:
The back of this card says: "Works Progress Administration (WPA) circa 1939, Artist Unknown. Between 1935 and 1943 the WPA's Federal Art Project printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public's imagination for education, theater, health, safety, and travel. Due to their fragile nature only two thousand posters have survived. The National Park image shown here is also available in the original poster format from many National Park bookstores." Published by Ranger Doug Enterprises, Seattle, WA.

It's hard to believe that the first tourists arrived in the early 1860's to the "Incomparable Valley."  Environmental degradation soon followed.  According to the park website, "Parts of the landscape were exploited, spurring conservationists to appeal for protections. President Abraham Lincoln signed an 1864 bill granting Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to the State of California. John Muir helped spark the creation of Yosemite National Park in 1890."  As long ago as Lincoln!  I did not know that.

The image on our postcard this week is of one of the magnificent domes, made from glacial action and erosional action on the granite (actually granodiorite, technically) bedrock.  The most famous is Half-Dome.  Another is El Capitan.  I believe the view on this postcard is El Capitan.

The hard way up Half-Dome is technical rock climbing up the sheer northwest rock cliff.  The 'easy' way is a hike through the woods  to the base of the east side (the back side so to speak) and then onto the rock itself with a total elevation gain of 4800 feet (1460 m).  According to Wikipedia, the last 400 feet of  nearly vertical climbing is up the rock between two steel cables used as handholds, raised on a series of metal poles.  The cables are attached to the rock but the poles are not.  Look at that photo of Half Dome in profile!  No matter where you put the trail it's going to be tough, as you can see in the photo of people on the Cable trail (Pictures from Wikipedia). 

Even with all this there can be crowds and up to 1000 people a day have hiked this trail.  therefore, permits are now required to hike this trail on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Federal holidays when the cables are up (usually Memorial Day through Columbus Day).  See the National Park webpage for more information.

There is so much more to say about this park - the waterfalls, the geology, the ecology, the history... but I have a vacation to plan for and a thunderstorm is coming on.  I'll be away on Friday so I won't be able to comment on your postings.  Beth will link in this post for me - thank you dear Beth!!!

And don't forget - if you like these postcards, please do enter my contest, in honor of post #99 for this blog.  The prize to the lucky winner is my set  of 10 unused WPA poster postcards, mailed to you - anywhere in the world!

Just comment on this post.  Do so by June 29 at 6 PM Eastern USA time.

Viridian

Post #99 Give-away announcement

It’s post number 99 for Viridian’s Postcard blog! And time for a give-way.


I started this blog when my first postcard blog entry on my regular quilting blog drew more comments than any post I had done before. And I really enjoyed reading everyone else’s entries for Postcard Friendship Friday. And so another blog is born, back in April 2009.

I have described the individual postcards in several series before. The most recent series is of postcard reproductions of Works Progress Administration (WPA) posters that were made to promote various national parks in the USA. I have ten of these postcards (more are available on the Ranger Doug website) and there are two more to go.

The prize to the lucky winner is my set of 10 unused postcards, mailed to you in a sturdy cardboard mailer. I will be using the list randomizer from Random.org to choose the winner.

How to enter this contest: Leave a comment on this post and please include a way to contact you if your blogger profile does not include your email address or blog name. A mention of this contest on your blog would be great but not necessary. A give-away is also a promotional scheme after all.

Enter by Tuesday June 29 at 6 PM Eastern USA time.  (I have family vacation the week before this.) At that time I will close entries and use a random number generator or random list generator (See Random.org) to pick the winner. The next post will announce the winner. Once I have a shipping address the postcards are off to its new happy home.

Good luck!
Viridian

PFF: Lassen Volcanic National Park

Thank you to our hostess Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy for hosting Postcard Friendship Friday.

Giving credit where credit is due:

The back of this card says:"Works Progress Administration (WPA) circa 1939, Artist Unknown. Between 1935 and 1943 the WPA's Federal Art Project printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public's imagination for education, theater, health, safety, and travel. Due to their fragile nature only two thousand posters have survived. The National Park image shown here is also available in the original poster format from many National Park bookstores." Published by Ranger Doug Enterprises. Seattle, WA.

From the Lassen Park website: “On May 22, 1915, an explosive eruption at Lassen Peak, the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range, devastated nearby areas and rained volcanic ash as far away as 200 miles to the east. This explosion was the most powerful in a 1914-17 series of eruptions that were the most recent to occur in the Cascades prior to the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Lassen Peak is the largest of a group of more than 30 volcanic domes erupted over the past 300,000 years in Lassen Volcanic National Park.”

Photo of the 1915 eruption

So you can see why this poster has an erupting volcano!  I'd find it a little scary myself, and maybe choose another place to go. Don't worry, the Lassen area is being actively monitored by the US Geological Survey.
Lassen Park covers part of Shasta and Lassen Counties in Northern California.

Loomis Museum is still there, and is a major visitor's center.  it is open May 28 - October 31, 2010. Some roads in Lassen are still closed right now because of snow!!  From the park website: "B.F. Loomis documented Lassen Peak's most recent eruption cycle and promoted the park's establishment. He photographed the eruptions, explored geologically, and developed an extensive museum collection. Artifacts and photographs of the 1914-1915 eruption are on display in the Loomis Museum. New exhibits feature the original equipment Loomis used to photograph the eruptions and traditional Atsugewi basketry."


I've decided to have a giveaway!  Please check my blog within the week for a post on this.  I'll be giving away this set of WPA poster postcards to one lucky winner.

Viridian