Survival Expert Bristlecone Pine

The biblical Methuselah, ancestor to Noah, was said to have lived 969 years. The world's oldest living thing, the Methuselah Tree, a Bristlecone Pine in California's White Mountains, has endured almost five times as long. It thrives and survives in conditions that would strike fear into the phloem of virtually all other plants.
In the rain shadow of the mighty Sierra Nevadas, which blocks weather approaching from the west, the average annual precipitation is less than 12 inches, and most of that falls as snow in winter. In summer, which can provide as few as six weeks of warmth for bristlecone pines to generate growth and reserves for overwintering, precipitable moisture ranks among the lowest recorded anywhere on earth. Moreover, the soil the bristlecones cling to is not dirt as most plants know it but dolomite, a limestone substrate with few nutrients. With so little time to get energy from the sun, and so little energy to be had from the soil, growth is grindingly slow. A bristlecone pine may add to its girth no more than an inch per century.

Bristlecone Pine trees (Pinus longaeva) have evolved survival strategies that might make other, less hardy plants, well, green with envy. They put a greater premium on getting by than on getting big. It is an ability that, perhaps more than any other, allows the species, in standout cases, to last longer than most civilizations. The tallest sequoia, a coast redwood also found in California, is 367 feet tall. The tallest bristlecone pine is but 60 feet tall, and most of its kind are much shorter. Clearly, bigger is not better in such a brutal environment as that found at high altitude in the White Mountains.

Some gnarled old bristlecones have only a thin strip of living bark, which sustains a single living branch and its needles. In a sense, these ancients have gone back to being seedlings. Can they still be called a living tree? Well, if reproductive ability is a prerequisite to being considered alive, then the answer is a resounding yes, for even the hoariest bristlecones can generate cones with viable seeds. And however truncated that tree is, it is still the very same tree that was a seedling when, say, King Tut was a boy.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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1817 N Orleans St Old Town Chicago

Steeped in the historic pedigree of Chicago's Old Town Triangle District, this old Victorian was built less than ten years after the Great Chicago Fire. The home still smoulders with curb appeal, and its traditional interiors have a renewed sense of confidence.

History, charm and pedestrian friendliness are only a few of Chicago's Old Town drawing cards. The neighborhood's long list of qualities reads like a What's What of coveted characteristics that many communities would love to call their own. Qualities like nearby beaches, lakefront parks, public transportation, locally-owned shops and restaurants, nationally-known nightlife venues, excellent schools and crowd-pleasing arts shows and festivals. And, oh yes, looming just a few moments' cab or bus ride away, all the pleasures North Michigan Avenue and the Loop have to offer.

Forty years ago, people descended on this urban patch, and particularly its hub at North Avenue and Wells Street, for its reputation as the Haight-Ashbury of Chicago. Today, culture has replaced counterculture as a neighborhood focus. And traditional button-down collars and ties have supplanted hippie beads as preferred neckwear. But the artistic spirit is still here, both literally and figuratively. Old Town Chicago is a neighborhood that knows the contradictions within its boundaries, and lives with them.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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Old Town Chicago Living

History, charm and pedestrian friendliness are only a few of Chicago's Old Town drawing cards. The neighborhood's long list of qualities reads like a What's What of coveted characteristics that many communities would love to call their own. Qualities like nearby beaches, lakefront parks, public transportation, locally-owned shops and restaurants, nationally-known nightlife venues, excellent schools and crowd-pleasing arts shows and festivals. And, oh yes, looming just a few moments' cab or bus ride away, all the pleasures North Michigan Avenue and the Loop have to offer.

Forty years ago, people descended on this urban patch, and particularly its hub at North Avenue and Wells Street, for its reputation as the Haight-Ashbury of Chicago. Today, culture has replaced counterculture as a neighborhood focus. And traditional button-down collars and ties have supplanted hippie beads as preferred neckwear. But the artistic spirit is still here, both literally and figuratively. Old Town Chicago is a neighborhood that knows the contradictions within its boundaries, and lives with them.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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Route 66 - Cool Springs Camp, AZ

The story of Cool Springs in western Arizona reflects the story of Route 66. The Mother Road gave it life. The hey-day of Route 66 was the hey-day of Cool Springs. When Route 66 declined in this area, so did Cool Springs.

With the huge volume of traffic travelling route 66, back when cars needed frequent service, gas stations were all along the route. Cool Springs Service Station was built in the mid-1920s and eventually had a cafe added as well as eight tourist cabins. For early motorists, Cool Springs represented a life-saving stop, to check for oil, water, gas up and maybe grab a bite to eat - or to calm their nerves before 'climbing' or after descending from the steep grades of Sitgreaves Pass with its narrow road, and hairpin curves. Of all the stretches along Route 66 this was perhaps the most intimidating of all. Some travelers of old Route 66 would pay the locals to drive their car up the grade for them or even have their vehicle towed over the summit. As the main route between Chicago and Los Angeles the traffic on Route 66 increased. It became a particularly dangerous road and Sitgreaves Pass a particularly dangerous stretch.

However, this part of Route 66 was bypassed around 1953, and Interstate 40 follows this new alignment across the desert today. The era of the Interstates had begun, and travel via the "old route" through the Black Mountains and Oatman slowed to a trickle. In 1964 Cool Springs station was abandoned. The final blow came a few years later. In the mid-sixties, a fire burned Cool Springs to the ground. Nothing remained but fragments of the stone foundations and the original stone pillars. For the next quarter of a century Cool Springs was just a forgotten memory, a crumbling stone relic along a forgotten road, home to lizards, tarantulas, and tumbleweeds. Then briefly in 1991 Cool Springs came to life again when Hollywood used it as a location for their movie "Universal Soldier". They built a facade for the movie and then blew it up. The film crew cleaned the area before they left, and the locals began using it for their local dumping grounds.

In 2001 Ned Leuchtner, a real estate agent from Chicago, was intrigued by the beauty, history and majesty of the area. He bought the site and began its careful restoration. He has done a really good job in bringing the old station back to life. Since 2004 Cool Springs Camp & Station is fully restored and has the look and feel of the 20's.

Route 66 became the highway America couldn't forget. And the restoration of Cool Springs represents the end of the old era, and the beginning of the new appreciation for the days of the past. It is a very neat place to stop as you travel the now famous Old Route 66 from Kingman, AZ up to Sitgreaves Pass. The trip is about 15-20 miles through the desert, and before you get to the pass you'll be passing Cool Springs Station.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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Chicago River - The River That Flows Backwards

The Chicago River system has played a central role in the history of Chicago and is an example of the link between nature, natural resources, and urban development. That's why to many Chicago residents, the Chicago River is a body of water dyed green on St. Patrick's Day, or a river that flows backwards from its original mouth at Lake Michigan, or the cause of a 1992 flood in the Loop.

Flowing through downtown Chicago, the river that bears the name of the city has an interesting history. Once a corridor of commercial activity, the river has been transformed into a recreational area with sightseeing boats and kayaks. Along the banks are pedestrian friendly promenades lined with caf� and eateries.

Many of Chicago's greatest buildings border the Chicago river, making the river ideal for architectural boat tours. In 1999 Chicago's mayor initiated a project to turn Chicago's riverfront - at that time mostly inaccessible to the public - into a public walkway known as the Riverwalk. The first completed section, on the south bank of the river between State Street and Lake Michigan opened in 2009.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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