Reports from the Knowledge Labs about our recent findings, research topics, and interviews with lifestyle leaders who are creating their own futures.
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How to stimulate your own powers of foresight. Consider the following thought provokers. Ask yourself, in these categories what are the brand new trends and forces? Which are the ones growing in importance? Which current forces are loosing their steam? Which have peaked or are reversing themselves? Which are the "wildcards" about to disrupt us in the future? POLITICAL AND TECHNICAL thought for food: Electronics, Materials, Energy, Fossil, Nuclear, Alternative, Other, Manufacturing (techniques), Agriculture, Machinery and Equipment, Distribution, Transportation (Urban, Mass, Personal, Surface, Sea, Subsurface, Space), Communication (Printed, Spoken, Interactive, Media), Computers (Information, Knowledge, Storage & Retrieval, Design, Network Resources), Post-Cold War, Third World, Conflict (Local, Regional, Global), Arms Limitation, Undeclared Wars, Terrorism, Nuclear Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Governments (More/Less Power and Larger or Smaller Scale), Taxes, Isms: Nationalism, Regionalism, Protectionism, Populism, Cartels, Multinational Corporations, Balance of Trade, Third Party Payments, Regulations (OSHA, etc.) Environmental Impact, U.S. Prestige Abroad. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC Food for thought:
Labor Movements, Unemployment / Employment Cycles, Recession, Employment Patterns, Work Hours / Schedules, Fringe Benefits, Management Approaches, Accounting Policies, Productivity, Energy Costs, Balance of Payments, Inflation, Taxes, Rates of Real Growth, Distribution of Wealth, Capital Availability and Costs, Reliability of Forecasts, Raw Materials, Availability and Costs, Global versus National Economy, Market versus Planned Economies, Generations: Y, X, Boomers, Elderly, Urban vs. Rural Lifestyles, Affluent vs. Poor, Neighborhoods and Communities, Planned or Organic Growth.
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The Journal of 2020 Foresight
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Thursday, December 16, 2004
Napoleon's Guest Ranch, The First Bush, Jed & Joe
Chapter Three: The Outpost
By Steve Howard, CKO
The Knowledge Labs
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Basecamp
Chapter Two: The Ridge
Chapter Three: The Outpost
Chapter Four: The Tribal Territories
“When you add to it the partnership of Lewis and Clark; the young Indian woman, Sacagawea, who made a significant contribution to its success (while carrying her infant son with her no less); York's role; the brotherhood the party formed; and the danger, adventure, and hardship of the journey - from rapids and grizzly bear attacks to maddening mosquitoes and hunger - it is easy to see why we are still fascinated by the expedition today. It is full of life lessons that we can benefit from today. It seems to touch something is all of us and is often used to epitomize the American spirit.“
James J. Holmberg
BRIDGEPORT, CA That was close! If we had delayed a few hours later we never would have made it through the pass. Add Sonora Pass to the list of road closures. At least we're not backtracking any longer. On the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Range our journey should be clear sailing from here on in - after a short diversion to the guest ranch founded in 1861 by Napoleon - Napoleon Boneparte Hunewill. Over breakfast in Bridgeport at the Hays Street Café, we soak up the scenery and pull out the map of the Sierra Gateway.
Journal of 2020 Foresight: Up ahead of us, as we leave Bridgeport, moving southeast on 395, we can make Sierra Gateway stops at Bodie, at Mono Lake, and at Lee Vining (northeast portion of the map) before we rendezvous with Trailblazer at the Eagle Lodge in Mammoth.
Eagle: Speaking of Rendezvous, you can't help but associate this area with Jedediah Smith and his explorations.
Explorer: A decade after and Hunt's adventures and Henry's expeditions, on behalf of the competing fur companies roughly from1820 to 1830 Jedediah Smith was the first to open the coastal trade route from California to Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River.
Pathfinder: In July 1825, he attended the first Mountain Man rendezvous at Henry's Fork then accompanied General William Ashley back to St. Louis with the season's bounty of furs. En route downriver, Ashley took Jedediah as partner to replace the retiring Andrew Henry.
Explorer: Instead of maintaining a permanent trading post, like in John Astor's business model, some claim it was Jedediah Smith who convinced William Ashley to bring a caravan of supplies from St. Louis and meet the trappers at Henry's Fork on the Green River.
J2020F: What began as a practical gathering to exchange pelts for supplies and reorganize trapping units evolved into a month long carnival (reenacted even to this day) in the middle of the wilderness. The gathering was not confined to trappers, and attracted women and children, Indians, French Canadians, and travelers.
Eagle: By then the North American Fur Trade had become big business with a half a dozen groups - companies French, Colonial America, Hudson's Bay Company, North West Company, Russian, and American -- controlling the routes along which trade flourished from the 1500s to the mid-1800s.
Pathfinder: It is estimated that 1,000 trappers roamed the American West in this manner from 1820 to 1830, the heyday of the Rocky Mountain fur trade. You have to remember that in 1835 a map of the The Missouri territory or the Unorganized Indian Country extended north to Canada and but only east to what is now Texas, and excluded Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and California - all claimed by Mexico.
Explorer: The rendezvous tradition lasted 15 years until 1840 with the Green River as the most popular location -- although locations were tried like Cache Valley, Bear Lake, Pierre's Hole, Popo Agie River and Horse Creek in 1840. And, it's legacy is still embraced by associations like the American Mountain Men.
J2020F: Not only was Jedediah Smith the first American to traverse California's rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains but, he was the first to cross the enormous Great Basin Desert and return east, overland from California.
Pathfinder: What he and others found, of course, was that Nevada lies almost entirely within the Great Basin. Most of its rivers, except for the Colorado, flow inward and are impounded today by dams that now hold water once lost to evaporation.
Explorer: Jedediah and the early explorers followed the rivers as a way through the mountainous areas. The most important river is the Humboldt, which loops southwestward across the northern part of the state. In the southeast region the Colorado River marks 150 miles of the Nevada-Arizona border.
Pathfinder: And several streams in the northeast feed into the Snake River-Columbia River watershed. North-South mountain ranges crease the level floor of the Great Basin. Several have peaks more than 10,000 feet high; Boundary Peak in the White Mountains and Wheeler Peak in the Snake River exceed 13,000 feet."
J2020F: The Toiyabe and Humboldt national forests, encompassing about 5.8 million acres, fill in most of the wooded areas. Of the more than 300 mountain ranges in Nevada, 14 of the highest peaks cover approximately 750,000 acres.
Eagle: Weren't these ranges designated protected areas by the Wilderness Protection Act, signed into law by President George Bush, the first?
J2020F: That's correct. They're administered by the U.S. Forest Service and are protected from encroachment via roads, automobiles, mechanical equipment or man-made structures; access is allowed only on foot or horseback.
Eagle: The way it must have been for the original inhabitants and early fur traders. Before Fremont published his reports and the gold and silver fever fueled the greed of prospectors and visions of a new start for the wave after of wave of homesteaders.
Explorer: Most people forget Joe Walker.
Eagle: Who?
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Copyright ©2002 - 2006 Aarnaes Howard Associates. All rights reserved worldwide.
7:13 AM
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