Welcome to my blog

Hi! I'm Buddy and this is my blog. I look like a bear, but I'm a kid. I live with my mommy and daddy and go places with them. My daddy is in the army and he's away a lot. I put pictures of me here so he can see me whenever he wants and see what I'm doing.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

The Bud-man of Alcatraz


Here I am in my cell with my bedroll.
The island was named "La Isla de los Alcatraces" by the Spanish. It means "The Island of the Pelicans.” Over the years, the shortened Spanish version "Alcatraz" became popular and is now what everyone calls it. I think it sounds better than “Pelican,” don’t you?

The island was bought for $5,000 in the name of the US government and President Fillmore ordered that Alcatraz Island become a military reservation called Camp Alcatraz. It was the first garrison on the island in and had 200 soldiers and 11 cannons. It was supposed to protect San Francisco from people coming from the ocean. Then the Civil War started the island had 85 cannons.  Pretty soon there were 105 cannons. It was also the San Francisco Arsenal storing firearms and keeping them from Confederate guys.

Because of Alcatraz sits out in the cold, strong, mean currents of the ocean, Civil War prisoners were sent there. A brick jailhouse was built so the prisoners weren’t in basements anymore. That’s when they made it into a long-term military prison. Then the Fed’s took it over for a regular prison. And for 29 years it held some of really bad guys like: Al Capone, the Birdman of Alcatraz, Machine Gun Kelly, and Alvin “Creepy” Karpis (he spend the most time there as a prisoner).

No prisoner escaped from Alcatraz but 36 prisoners tried. 2 guys tried twice, 23 were caught, 6 were shot and killed, 2 drowned and 5 are listed as missing/most likely drowned. (Did you see the movie with Clint Eastwood?) There was one escape attempt that they call the Battle of Alcatraz. 5 were killed. 12 were injured, and 2 surviving convicts were executed. That was in 1946.

The prison closed in 1963 because it cost too much to run. Indians took over the island in 1969 and stayed there for 2 years!

They declared Alcatraz a National Historic Landmark in 1986. You can go visit it and but it costs money to ride the ferry over. That’s how I got there.

Visit Alcatraz and tell me if you think you could escape!
By WPPilot - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27725542


Tuesday, February 9, 2016

This canyon is grand!

Here I am walking along the rim at Grand Canyon.

I'm a pretty lucky kid to be able to travel all over the world with my Mom and Dad, but I really like  the cool places I've seen right here in the USA.

One of my favorites is the Grand Canyon! It's in the state of Arizona and is
277 miles long! In some places it's 18 miles wide and is over a mile deep in spots. Cool, huh? How did it get there? Well, the Colorado River carved it. It took nearly two billion years to do that! Talk about a long time!

Many Native Americans built settlements in the Canyon and it's many caves. The Pueblo Indian tribes believe it to be a holy place.

Sunrise at a rest stop on our way to the Grand Canyon!
President Theodor Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon in 1903, and established the Grand Canyon Game Preserve on November 28, 1906. Roosevelt added adjacent national forest lands and re-designated the preserve as a National Monument in January 1908. Grand Canyon National Park was finally established as the 17th U.S. National Park by an Act of Congress signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on February 26, 1919. (I know all that cuz I wrote a report on it for school!)

A lot of people visit the Grand Canyon. It's one of the world's leading natural attractions, with about five million visitors per year. Overall, 83 percent are from the United States: California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, and New York represent the top domestic visitors. Seventeen percent of visitors were from outside the United States; the most prominently represented nations were the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Germany, and The Netherlands. The South Rim is open all year round weather permitting. The North Rim is generally open mid-May to mid-October.

If you get the chance to go see it, go! You will be impressed! I was and I'm just a kid! If you need more information, just head over to the Grand Canyon National Park website. They have all kinds of info, photos, videos, and other links