Envirothon

 As a freshwoman, Caroline joined two academic competition teams at LHS, Science Olympiad and Envirothon. She didn't crack varsity for Sci-Oly, but for Enviro she made the A team. Envirothon focuses on Environmental Sciences and the kids study wildlife, soils, water ecology, forestry, and current issues about their home state. In May the LHS team competed in the Mass state meet and won, earning entry to the national competition at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio held in late July. I used the drop-off as opportunity to tour a few park sites and visit friends in Indiana.     

I've heard of an arch enemy, but what's an arch entry?

Right, it's the Gateway Arch at Jefferson Expansion National Park. Now St. Louis has done a lot to beautify the area around the arch but in my opinion this is not a National Park. It could be a National Monument, Memorial, Shrine, Historical Park, or Rivershore. It was recently promoted and follows the theme of Midwest wannabes established at Cuyahoga Valley in Cleveland and Indiana Dunes on Lake Michigan. 

This relief is meant to compare the size of the arch (visible on the left) to other famous American icons. Yep, we've seen these ones.

and all of these except Rainbow Bridge (we were close once but you have to take a boat across Lake Powell) 

The museum described the era of American expansion into the west when St. Louis was the hub of pioneer transit

Aah Jefferson, did you really think we'd name another state Sylvania? Were you secretly hoping they'd go for Jeffersylvania instead? Assensipia - c'mon? Michigania, Illinoia, and Washington were prescient but my favorite has to be Metropotamia - could have been our only hexasyllabic state.

The museum celebrated famous Missourians, of which the list is not overwhelming. How many can you name (answers below)? Now Laura Ingalls Wilder, those Little House books were read-aloud staples for all three kids. 

There's the Mississippi. Famous MO-ans include Mark Twain, Harry Truman, George Washington Carver, Dred Scott, Walt Disney, Scott Joplin. See the complete list here.

Nearby was a monument to Dred and Harriet Scott

We'd seen his birthplace in Kentucky, the childhood home in Indiana, his residence in DC, site of his famous Gettysburg address, and Ford's Theater where he was assassinated. Now it was time to visit his home in Springfield, Illinois.

Soda vending machine in the visitor center - what do you think Abe would think about this? 

If the Midwest is in park promotion mode, I would make Lincoln's Home a National Park

Continuing east from Springfield, one encounters Effingham, the town that completes this fill-in-the-blank: Can someone get me some ________ for my F-ing sandwich?

George Rogers Clark National Monument on the Wabash River in Vincennes, IN celebrates 

a) Meriwether Lewis's travel partner

b) The founder of a major shoe brand

c) site of a World War I training center

d) site of a Revolutionary War battle

The Heerssen-Trinidad home in Bloomington, IN is not yet a National Park site, but B&B proprietor Jon cooks up a mean onion burger

There was a wayward merlin hanging around their neighborhood

and on the way to Oxford they guided us to the St. Leon roadcut, famous for its abundance of Paleozoic marine fossils. Indeed we left with a couple of bags full of shale embedded with ancient shells. Some of them were later traded by Caroline at the first night of Envirothon where teams broke the ice by exchanging items. 

At Miami of Ohio Caroline got a taste of college life, living in dorms, dining in mess halls, and playing ultimate frisbee until her blistered feet gave in. Her team studied hard for the competition and were aided by the fact that Ohio and Massachusetts are geologically and ecologically similar. The oral presentation was about how to build a new road to a landfill with least environmental impact. (It was an actual project for the event's biggest sponsor, Ohio's largest landfill company. Another major sponsor was Smithfield, maker of hams and other meat products, who also have an environmental image problem.) When scores were totaled across the 40 teams from US and Canada, Lexington was announced in the top 3, which meant that they repeated their oral presentations in front of the whole audience for rescoring and final rankings. We were able to watch it all on a YouTube livestream.

Timepoint 1:23 has the good part

They did it, becoming the first team from MA ever to win. And Caroline earned $3,000 that we'll put towards college. Congratulations Lexington High Envirothon team!