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What's Past is Prologue

@wpip.bsky.social
901 followers 2.4K following 1.2K posts

History adventurer & prosateur musing on the before times & visiting historic sites (mainly American Civil War, & the West). whtours.org —Quotes to live by— "MAGA is a cancer" — Dave Woodbury “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so” ― Douglas Adams

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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The 1877 Flight of the Nez Perce route from the Wallowa Valley of NE Oregon to the final battlefield just south of the Canadian border.
Map of the 1877 Flight of the Nez Perce, showing their route from the Wallowa Valley in Oregon to the final battlefield just south of the Canadian border.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
OTD in 1877, Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it, or Hinmaton Yalaktit (“Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain"), also known as #ChiefJoseph, or Joseph the Younger, surrendered to General Nelson Miles on the windswept Northern Plains. #BearPawBattlefield — The Flight of the #NezPerce comes to an end.
Historical marker on the Bear Paw Battlefield outside of Chinook, Montana, indicating where Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce surrendered some of the surviving non-treaty people who had been relentlessly pursued and attacked by the United States Army. 

Sign reads: 

October 5, 1887 11:00 a.m.
With the fighting at a standoff, Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it (Chief Joseph) met with Colonel Miles near this site. Surrender was a survival strategy, to keep the Nez Perce people alive and together. One witness reported that Chief Joseph spoke these words:

Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before I have in my heart. I an tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Tukulxućúut is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who leads the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death.

My people some of them have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are, perhaps freezing to death. I want to look for my children and see how many I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me my chiefs, I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
[2027 tour] Modoc War in the Lava Beds 1872–1873 talks and guided battlefield tours Tour Dates: August 12–14, 2027 (Klamath Falls, Oregon) whtours.org/the-modoc-wa...
Announcement of 2027 tour, "Modoc War in the Lava Beds," showing a) a photo of Captain Jack, b) three books on the Modoc and the Modoc War, and c) map from the Lava Beds National Monument showing sites related to the Modoc War of 1873
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
History of the Modoc Nation #Modoc
modocnation.com
History - Modoc Nation
HISTORY The ancestral home of the Modoc Nation, or Captain Jack’s Band of Modoc Indians, consisted of over 5,000 square miles along what is now the California-Oregon border. On the west loomed the per...
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Modoc Nation Honoring Ancestors Virtual Walk October 9 - November 16, 2026 #ModocNation
modocnation.com
Virtual Walk - Modoc Nation
Modoc Nation Honoring Our Ancestors Virtual Walk October 9 – November 16, 2026 Registration to Participate Join us for the Modoc Nation Honoring Our Ancestors Virtual Walk, a time of remembrance for t...
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"Shaken, not disturbed. After the 1906 earthquake, much of the University lay in ruins. The Mausoleum? 'Not a crack,' observed a reporter."
stanfordmag.org
What You Don’t Know About The Mausoleum
Carved out for remembrance, the place is also a party haven.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Four sphinxes stand guard over the tomb of Leland Stanford. During construction, this & another buxom statue flanked the mausoleum entrance, but Jane Stanford "found the artistic effect not pleasing." She had the 2 lady sphinxes move to the back, and installed less voluptuous sphinxes in the front.
A large-breasted Greek-style sphinx outside the mauseleum where Leland and Jane Stanford, and Leland Stanford, Jr., are entombed. On the campus of Stanford University.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Prayer to Corn People, 1975, Terrance Talaswaima (Honsvantewa), #Hopi. www.adobegallery.com/artist/terra...
CIrcular red and green painting depicting Hopi and cornstalks, offering "Prayer to Corn People."
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
2027 HISTORY ADVENTURE Plains, Deserts, & Mountains: THE DONNER-REED ODYSSEY on the CALIFORNIA TRAIL Sept 27–Oct 3, 2027 Fly into Salt Lake City; fly out of Sacramento [historian-guided motor coach tour; seating is limited to approx. 25] TOUR PAGE: whtours.org/plains-deser... #DonnerParty
illustration of rescuers in a snowy mountain landscape. "Arrival of a relief party, February 1847." Frontispiece for, The Expedition of the Donner Party, by Eliza P. Donner. Houghton, 1920Dust jacket photos and descriptions of six books published on the Donner Party Tragedy and the California TrailPhoto of the Donner Memorial, at Donner Memorial State Park, California, showing an emigrant family walking and looking into the distance
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
In all my days, I've never even thought of marking a bacterial mat. There's no point in starting now [Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring]
Photo of the steamy and colorful Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, with a sign warning visitors: "D not mark bacterial mat."
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Bucket of Blood Saloon, Virginia City, Nevada. Truly, the Wild West was wild as hell. [Google Street View]
Photo of the sign for the Bucket of Blood saloon in Virginia City, Nevada, with an American flag flying by the front door.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Simon & Schuster (September 8, 2026). 448 pages #BookSky💙📚
Front cover of "The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker: A True Tale of Love, Murder, Treason, and Ordinary Folks Who Saved America," by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz. Published Sept 2027Author Photo (jpg): Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
Photograph by Chisum Pierce
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
"It’s the story of what happened outside William Parker’s house in the dawn hours of Sept 11, 1851. But it’s also a much larger story involving decades of tenacious, ever-evolving anti-slavery and Black rights efforts spread out across Philadelphia and rural southeastern Pennsylvania..." #BookSky💙📚
lithub.com
The True Story of the Actual First Shot Fired in the Civil War
It was the autumn of 1865—a quiet, bitter autumn after four hollowing years of war—when James Gilmore received a manuscript from a ghost. Well, not a ghost exactly. There’d been rumors, of course, …
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Adventures in History lineup for 2027
a new flyer for Woodbury Historical Tours offerings for the year 2027: War on the Powder River tour (April 2-4, 2027); 4th Central Coast Conference (April 30-May 2, 2027); The Wilderness & Spotsylvania tour (June 3-6, 2027); Captain Jack's Stronghold, the Modoc War of 1872-73 (August 12-14, 2027; and Plains, Deserts, & Mountains: The Donner Party Tragedy on the California Trail (September 27-October 2, 2027).
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
September 22, 1862 marked a major turning point in the Great Slaveholders' Rebellion. Preliminary Draft of #EmancipationProclamation. Abraham Lincoln, July 22, 1862. Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833-1916. Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Manuscript Division.
Photo of the hand-written Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln (from the Library of Congress)
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"All [constitutional amendments] are equal but some [constitutional amendments] are more equal than others" —(with apologies to George Orwell) Gun fetishists become apoplectic if someone hints at enhanced gun control (2nd Amendment), but are strangely quiet when 45 vetoes the 1st Amendment
Photo of a reproduction of the Bill of Rights from the U.S. Constitution
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Born OTD in 1944, the great Jesse Ed Davis. In his short life (died at age 43), he had an amazing career, and left his mark. An outstanding biography, "Washita Love Child," came out in 2024. wwnorton.com/books/978132... #BookSky💙📚#JesseEdDavis
A photograph of Jesse Ed Davis sitting on a wicker chair, playing the guitar, along with an image of the front cover of a recent (2024) biography, entitled "Washita Love Child, The Rise of Indigenous Rock Star Jesse Ed Davis, by Douglas K. Miller.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
wondering whether one can place a Kalshi wager on how long before Arlington is ordered to formally unveil the Donald J. Trump Eternal Flame at JFK's gravesite.
Photo of the eternal flame at the gravesite of John F. Kennedy, Arlington National Cemetery
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The Donner-Reed Party thought the Hastings Cutoff would save them a lot of time and distance. Big mistake.
atlasobscura.com
The Deadly Temptation of the Oregon Trail Shortcut
Dying of dysentery was just the beginning.
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Reposted by What's Past is Prologue
Gordon Wark 🤬💥😡🔥🕗🕕🕓🕖 @1stwark.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Sunday Truth.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
From Anza to AI: 250 Years of San Francisco History at Mission Dolores and the Presidio
garykamiya.substack.com
From Anza to AI: 250 Years of San Francisco History at Mission Dolores and the Presidio
San Francisco has come a long way since a handful of Spanish settlers celebrated their first Mass in a chapel made of brushwood, and erected a feeble fort at the mouth of the Golden Gate.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Video of President John F. Kennedy visiting #Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland, April 7, 1963. The battle, fought OTD in 1862, is one of the most important and consequential days in American history. The U.S. victory spurred President Lincoln to issue the preliminary #EmancipationProclamation
youtu.be
President John F. Kennedy visit Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland, April 7, 1963
YouTube video by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Battle of Antietam— On this date in 1862, 132,000 Americans — divided into opposing armies — engaged in a mighty battle outside the town of Sharpsburg, along western Maryland's #Antietam Creek. It remains the deadliest single-day battle in the nation's history.
Photo of the Dunker Church on the Antietam battlefield, one of the most recognizable battlefield landmarks. In the foreground are three artillery pieces, and an informational sign with a photo of the same view from 1862, showing the church, a cannon, and dead soldiers.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
this week I put a new t-shirt into the rotation
T-shirt showing a high school mascot for the Chinook (Montana) Sugarbeeters: an angry red sugar beet menacingly swinging its arms
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"By the time the Sultana went down, they had endured seemingly everything the world can throw at you: violence, deprivation, sickness, humiliation, the loss of friends and brothers, betrayal by their own country and in some cases by fellow soldiers." #BookSky💙📚
Cover of Alan Huffman's book, SULTANA: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History (https://alanhuffman.com/books/sultana/)
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"After two years of combat and deprivation, disease and psychological despair in Confederate prisons, the men who boarded the Sultana had long since burned through their reserves of physical, mental and emotional calories."
alanhuffman.substack.com
When death by natural cause comes as a surprise
Tracking the lives of men who survived the sinking of the steamboat Sultana, the worst maritime disaster in American history
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Big sky over Bear Paw Battlefield 48.37590° N, 109.21029° W #NezPerce
Photos of treeless landscape of Northern Montana, near Chinook, showing brown prairie grass, clouds, and a blue sky over the Bear Paw Battlefield. Our tour bus can just be seen in the distance. (Nez Perce War of 1877)
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Before audiobooks, you had to get someone to call you from one of these library stations, and read a book to you over the phone. Limited selection, and very inconvenient. #BookSky💙📚
Photo of an old free-standing pay telephone box that has been converted into a "Free Books" library.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"In all corners of America, Indigenous people confronted the chaos of the Civil War. While Native history has usually been pushed to the margins of Civil War history, Native people intervened. . .and made their voices heard in national debates over slavery, state power, sovereignty, and citizenship"
storymaps.arcgis.com
The Civil War in Indian Country
Visualizing Native America,1861-1865
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
“Anything can happen, and anything does;” ― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Photo of Annie Dillard in Key West. She died at age 81 on September 15, 2026
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
altaonline.com
Poetry: ‘California Villanelle’
Dean Rader adapts a classic poetry form for “a land of great contradictions.”
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“I felt betrayed, the way you do when you discover that your cat has a secret secondary life and is being fed by neighbors who call him something stupid like Calypso. Worse is that he loves them as much as he loves you, which is to say not at all, really." ― David Sedaris, Calypso #BookSky💙📚
Photo of author David Sedaris hunched over an old manual typewriter.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Detail from "The Battle of Greasy Grass," by Allan Mardon, 1996, oil on linen; wooden frame with painted tin figures. Buffalo Bill Center of the West [centerofthewest.org] #LittleBigHorn
Detail from "The Battle of Greasy Grass," by Allan Mardon, 
1996, oil on linen; wooden frame with painted tin figures. Buffalo Bill Center of the West [https://centerofthewest.org] — depiction of the fighting during the Battle of the Little Bighorn
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Detail from "The Battle of Greasy Grass," by Allan Mardon, 1996, oil on linen; wooden frame with painted tin figures. Buffalo Bill Center of the West [centerofthewest.org] #LittleBigHorn
Detail from "The Battle of Greasy Grass," by Allan Mardon, 
1996, oil on linen; wooden frame with painted tin figures. Buffalo Bill Center of the West [https://centerofthewest.org] — depiction of the fighting during the Battle of the Little Bighorn
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The GOP will "finally meet the fate to which it has been destined since January 6, 2021, and cement its place in history as the most corrupt political party ever to emerge in the United States of America for its second attempt in six years to defy the will of the American people on Election Day."
newrepublic.com
The Final Battle for America’s Democracy
Forget November 3. It’s January 3 when Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans might bury our democracy once and for all. Here’s how.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
#Anza250 On the exact date of the Presidio's own 250th anniversary, the Presidio Historical Association, with the support of the San Francisco Historical Society, present the world premiere of "Anza 250: A Documentary Film."
presidiotheatre.org
Anza 250: A Documentary Film
Every start has its end, every journey its revealsPresented by the Presidio Historical Association250 years ago, explorer Juan Bautista de Anza arrived with an
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
OTD in 1813: Battle of Lake Erie, a significant U.S. naval victory in the War of 1812. Battle of Lake Erie, depicting Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry transferring to the U.S. brig Niagara, painting by William H. Powell, 1865; in the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. Library of Congress
Battle of Lake Erie, depicting Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry transferring to the U.S. brig Niagara, painting by William H. Powell, 1865; in the U.S. Capitol, Washington,
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
merry-go-round, if you dare [Bannack State Park]
Photo of an old merry-go-round, all wood slats and metal bars, and a warning sign, "Antique Merry-Go-Round, Use at Own Risk"
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"Kin in the Cotton Fields" blackstudies.yale.edu/event/depart...
Description of September 17 lecture by Rashauna Johnson, Professor of History at the University of Chicago:

September 17, 2026
Kin in the Cotton Fields: A Blues History of Black Lijfe

This talk uses archival research and family memories to illuminate the lives and times of select figures who died and, critically, also lived in the long shadow of King Cotton. Drawing on select moments in the history of the author’s maternal grandmother’s birthplace, Louisiana’s Feliciana region, it meditates on the deeply contingent experiences of 19th-century “development” and “progress” and the ways those divergent experiences and the memories to which they gave rise haunt us all.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"Led by an Angolan named Jemmy, a band of twenty Africans organized a rebellion on the banks of the Stono River."
zinnedproject.org
Sept. 9, 1739: The Stono Rebellion
Uprising by enslaved people in South Carolina.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Stono Rebellion—"the largest uprising of enslaved people in the British mainland colonies prior to the American Revolution. More than twenty white Carolinians and nearly twice as many Black Carolinians were killed before the rebellion was suppressed." #StonoRebellion
loc.gov
Today in History - September 9
The Stono Rebellion
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. 2/2
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” (from Macbeth speech) by William Shakespeare Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. 1/2
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
two images from the Indian Memorial on Last Stand Hill, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
A portrait of the Cheyenne Wooden Leg, along with a quote by him, on a panel of the Indian Memorial at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. Quote reads, "We had killed soldiers who had come to kill us" (1906).Photo of the lead rider at the Indian Memorial at Little Bighorn Battlefield — a sculpture that shows a warrior with bow and arrow on horseback, with a long flowing feather headdress. Cloth prayer offerings have been affixed to the sculpture by visitors
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Two countries separated by a common language. . . They say biscuit, and we say cookie. They say chips, and we say fries. They arrest child-rapists and we arrest children.
Mike Lukovich political cartoon showing "Justice" in the UK on the left (policeman arresting Prince Andrew), and "Just Ice" in the US on the right (ICE agent arresting a child).
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The Chinese Hour . . . Recorded from the Golden Star Radio space between 1939 to 1979—it the first Cantonese language radio show in North America, and also served as a lifeline for scores of new San Francisco residents who had recently immigrated from China. Read: www.sfgate.com/local/articl...
May Chin Tong, shown in elegant dress, sitting with a KSAN microphone, was one of just a few women working in broadcast at that time, and known as the “voice of Chinatown.” Photo on SFGATE, courtesy of Ron Tong
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Change of Seasons by T.D. Kelsey (b. 1946) 1994, bronze, edition 6 of 10 Buffalo Bill Center of the West Cody, Wyoming
Bronze sculpture of two bison, one standing and one lying down.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Elk Bar and Good Food Chinook, Montana The neon lady is drinking a martini while sitting in a #martini, because that's how it's done way up in the North Country.
Photo of an old neon sign in Chinook, Montana, for the Elk Bar. It features a neon graphic of a woman drinking a martini while sitting in a martini glass.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
OTD 245 years ago —LOS ANGELES— "On September 4, 1781, the 11 men, 11 women, and 22 children recruited by Alta California Governor Felipe de Neve founded El Pueblo de la Reyna de Los Angeles (The Town of the Queen of the Angels)" [Library of Congress]
La Plaza, as seen from the Pico House, c. 1869. The "Old Plaza Church" is to the left, the brick reservoir on the right, and in the center of the plaza, was the original terminus of the Zanja Madre aqueduct.
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What's Past is Prologue @wpip.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
49 YEARS AGO, on Sept. 5, 1977, #NASA launched #Voyager1 "On Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2026, at 2:16:07 a.m. PST, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft will be 16.094 billion miles (25.902 billion kilometers) away from Earth — or, the distance light travels in 24 hours, also known as one light-day "
science.nasa.gov
Voyager - NASA Science
Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft ever to reach the edge of interstellar space..
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