The Grand Marais Municipal Plantation

[David Yuhas]

Inland Empire, Part LXIX...The Grand Marais Municipal Plantation

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Proposed Western State Cavalry Railway & Plantation Consortium
Great Western Railway & Great Plains Express Engineering Consortium
$800 million for Land Acquisition & Lay-out
Dwight Beranek, Railroad Designer, Army Corps of Engineers,

William Herzog, Herzog Railroad Construction
Paul Copeland, Beatty-Balfour Rail Inc.
William M. Stout, Atlas Railroad Construction
Jeffrey M. Levy, Railworks Inc
Lorenzo Simonelli, GE Transportation
John Cavanaugh, Electro-Motive Diesel Inc.
Jens Soeby, Vestas Wind Systems
John Krenicki, Jr., GE Energy,
WSC Headquarters & 21 Plantations Consortium
$200 million for Land Acquisition & Lay-out
Michael Graves, Michael Graves Associates, Architect for Cheyenne, WSC
Headquarters, Great Hall Design for 21 Plantations, 31 Passenger &
Freight Train Stations
Wes Jackson, The Land Institute, Plantation Perennials
Prof. Joseph Thomasson, Ft. Hays State University, Greenhouses & Great
Plains Horticulture
Ernie Els, 18-Fairway Plantation Design
Retief Goosen, 18-Fairway Plantation Design
Proposed Honorary, Project Consultants
Mayor of Pueblo, Dave Galli
Mayor of Colorado Springs, Lionel Rivera
Mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper
City Manager of Greeley, Roy H. Otto
City Manager of Ft. Collins, Darin Atteberry
Governor, C.L. Otter
Mayor of Idaho Falls, Jared Fuhriman
Chairman of Ft. Hall/Pocatello, Alonzo A. Coby
Mayor of Wichita, Carl Brewer
Governor, Brian Schweitzer,
Mayor of Billings, Ron Tussing
City Manager of Bozeman, Chris Kukulski
Mayor of Butte, Paul Babb
Governor, Dave Heineman,
Mayor of Lincoln, Chris Beutler
Governor, John Hoeven,
Mayor of Fargo, Dennis Walaker
Governor, Brad Henry
Mayor of Oklahoma City, Mick Cornett
Governor, Mike Rounds,
Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin
Mayor of Sioux Falls, Dave Munson
Governor, Rick Perry,
Congressman, Ron Paul
Mayor of McAllen, Richard F. Cortez
Mayor of Laredo, Raul G. Salinas
Mayor of Del Rio, Efrain V. Valdez
Mayor of Midland, Wes Perry
Mayor of Lubbock, Tom Martin
Mayor of Amarillo, Debra McCartt
Mayor of Logan, Randy Watts
Mayor of Ogden, Matthew R. Godfrey
Mayor of Salt Lake City, Ralph Becker
Mayor of Provo, Lewis K. Billings
Governor, Dave Freudenthal,
Mayor of Cheyenne, Jack Spiker
Mayor of Laramie, Klaus Hanson
Mayor of Casper, Paul Bertoglio
Mayor of Sheridan, Dave Kinskey

Distinguished Friends,

"Inland Empire", the name of this newsletter, is not, as some might think, a reference to a certain regiion in southern California, but to a proper, agrarian Empire that existed for at least 200 years right here in the US of A.

From the years 1000 to 1200 & maybe even to 1400, from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains... based in what is now East St. Louis, Illinois, was a proper Aztec Empire that drew Native, North American Indians eager to learn the art of agriculture.

For Indians whose survival during the winter months depended on hunting, learning the cultivation of beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers & above all corn, was considered a great blessing.

In corn we have a crop that is little understood even I would say by the likes of Nobel prize-winning, plant-genetecist, Norman Borlaug.

What we call "Corn", Zea Mays, is a shortened form of "Indian Corn", named by the English, for whom "Corn" means "Wheat" & the Scots, for whom "Corn" means "Oats". The meaning here is "Indian Staff of Life".

Wherever one went from the Caribbean to New England to the Great Plains, Indians depended, especially in winter, on a diet of Corn.

The remarkable thing about Corn is that it doesn't grow in the wild. Corn that is not husked, shelled & planted by humans every year will simply disappear from the earth.

What this means is that Corn, unlike Wheat, Barley or Rice is not simply a domesticated grain...but a human creation...in this case, the result of thousands of years of breeding by MesoAmerican peoples who lived along a couple of small rivers that emptied into the Gulf of Mexico.

As corn is wind-pollinated rather than bee-pollinated, a State, breeding-program, would have included the eradication the wild ancestor of Corn throughout Mexico.

Thus when the Nobel-Laureate Borlaug spent much time & effort looking for the "Wild Ancestor of Corn"...& thinking it might have been a plant called "Teosinte", I could have told him that he was barking up the wrong plant. If Teosinte could be cross-bred with Corn it would have been another victim of a State, eradication program, several thousand years ago.

The river bottoms at the juncture of the Mississippi, Missouri & Ohio Rivers, like the river bottoms in the MesoAmerican homeland writ large, were ideal to practice a type of agriculture that used wooden, Planting Sticks rather than plows.

At East St. Louis today we have the remnants of the Capital of this Inland Empire, called "Cahokia", which is just a made-up name I would rather not use. The Capital's proper name, I am convinced, was something in the Aztec language...the Aztecs being the heirs to the Olmecs & the Mayas much as the Romans were heirs to the Egyptians & the Greeks.

Like the MesoAmerican Indians, but unlike North American Indians, the society at today's East St. Louis was priestly, highly-structured & one that specialized in pyramid building, astronomy & human sacrifice.

Not far from East St. Louis, just up the Ohio River is a remarkable, astronomical earthwork in the form of a snake ...the symbol of the Aztecs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_Mound

In the movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales", there is a scene where Josey makes a pact with the Comanche chief, Ten Bears...the Comanche being the first cousins of the Aztecs...& Josey tells Ten Bears that when the Comanche are up in Wyoming during the summer, he will brand a few of his cattle with the sign of their tribe, the "Snake"

YouTube - The Outlaw Josey Wales Meeting Ten Bears

The Snake on the Ohio River, the Snake on the Mexican flag & the Snake of the Comanche, I say, are all the same Aztec Snake.

Not only did all the Indians of North America come to East St. Louis to learn the cultivation of Corn, they also learned a process that was not understood in Anglo America, in Europe or in Africa until the 1920s.

By boiling & steeping corn kernels in an alkaline solution, typically water with wood ash, niacin & amino acids are released. This process, known by its Aztec root is called "Nixtamalization"..."Nixta" meaning "Wood Ash" & "Tamale" meaning "Corn Dough".


Without processing the corn in this way, a corn-heavy winter diet, was certain to give one pellagra.

East St. Louis" then, was Americas first big city, with a population of over 20,000 drawn from across North America. It was our country's first & most influential Ag School with the biggest work-study program ever....AND, with its bizarre rituals, being something of a precursor to Texas A & M.

East St. Louis, today, a shadow of its former self, is currently the epicenter of US unemployment.

Now the Community Plantation that I have been promoting, once again, would have four standard specifications...

1. 160 Acres (64 ha)

2. 18-agricultural Fairways, 3 in penned pasture

3. A formidable & forbidding perimeter hedge

4. An associated Mason-jar Canning Kitchen

The typical protocol for setting up a Standard-spec Community Plantation would be that 400 citizens would each put up $500 Dollars, $200,000 in all, for land-acquisition & lay-out.

Then the receipts would be sent to our Vice President, Joseph Biden who is in charge of the Stiumulus Money...& the VP would match that sum with $200,000 of his own.

Being a $500 shareholder in one's Community Plantation would not entitle one to any dividends per se...only to work on the Plantation with hours put in registered. When dividends, then, are paid out, they would be paid out according to one's hours.

The ideal place to launch a National Community Plantation Campaign, in my opinion, would be East St. Louis, Illinois...but until a few days ago, I have not given this town serious consideration.

To begin with, practically the entire population of the town is African-American to whom the term "Plantation" is likely to be synonymous with "Slavery".

Moreover, I could not imagine the $200,000 raised amongst this largely unemployed population.

Finally, I could not imagine anyone who might be able to manage it.


While African-Americans have been in this country for three centuries (& frankly, would not be here at all if not for the American Plantation), they have yet to produce a single Plantation Colonel.

They have produced an "Uncle Ben" & an "Aunt Jemima'...but still not a "Colonel Sanders".


Unlike a military "Colonel", an official Rank, the term "Colonel", in the Plantation sense, is more like "Don" amongst the Sicilians...an honorific that one comes to answer to.

A recent article in the New York Times, however, introduced me to an individual who is within striking distance of being America's first "Plantation Colonel" of African descent.



I give you Mr. Will Allen...

YouTube - 2008 MacArthur Fellow: Will Allen

So...here is my plan for the City of East St. Louis & Mr. Will Allen, currently of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

At the edge of East St. Louis is an 18-hole golf course called "Grand Marais". It is a private club at a time when most private clubs are going public. Given its peculiar location, I don't see this club going public.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/sp...d=1&_r=1&fta=y

As a Standard-spec Community Plantation consists of 18 Fairways anyway, converting the Grand Marais Golf Club into a "Grand Marais Municipal Plantation", owned by the City of East St. Louis, & managed by Mr. Will Allen is something that could gainfully employ any number of underemployed locals...even if not full time.

As VP Joe Biden is currently having an awful time spending his Stimulus Money in a way that creates jobs, I would ask the VP to approach Grand Marais & ask if the Club would be interested in selling its property to the City of East St. Louis for the sum of $10 million.

Now if Mr. Will Allen is coming down to East St, Louis I would suggest he do so in style...tailor-made, Ice-cream Suit & smart, Plantation Hat. This should entitle him to answer to "Colonel".

I mention this because I am aware that the "Height of Fashion" up in Wisconsin is a Packers Jacket & a chapeau consisting of a large wedge of Emmenthaler....all wrong for East St. Louis.

Just as early Americans traveled to a Great Plantation to learn how to survive a harsh winter, today's Americans determined to survive a Global Economic Collapse might well follow suit.

In the words of W. B. Yeats...

"And what rough beast...it's hour come round at last, slouches towards East St. Louis to be born?"

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Connecting the Dots...

1. Americans today carry half of the vitamin D in their bodies that they did in 1990.

2. The obesity rate in the US today is twice what it was in 1990.

3. Medical students, who often choose pediatrics as their field when they would rather not deal with such degenerative diseases as heart disease & diabetes, because of an epidemic of childhood obesity, find themselves dealing with them anyway.

4. When faced with a budget crisis a US grade school or high school will almost automatically respond by cutting out recess & bringing in vending machines.

5. Two Ag Schools that one would think would offer a degree in "Plantation Management" but don't, are Mississippi State & Auburn.

6. The two fattest States in the Union are Mississippi & Alabama.

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http://www.wervel-wind.nl/egypt/49

A Ringtone for Egyptologists

Having been subjected to watching the finals of the World Hot-Dog Eating Championship for several years in a row, a competition I would rather see is MIT vs Cal Tech in a "Great Pyramid Coffer-cutting Championship".

Identical Granite Blocks from the Granite State of New Hampshire.would be provided to the two teams.

Drills, as on the original Coffer, rather than Saws would be used...& the resulting Coffer, when struck, must produce the same sonorous & lovely tone as the original.

Regards,

Boulder, Neo Confederate

David Yuhas


p.s..

Vet-Center, Team Leaders on this mailing list who are keen to remain on it are kindly requested to let me know by next Saturday. Thank you.

p.p.s.

YouTube - Brenn Hill - Live in Park City

[Galileo Galilei]

A good friend of mine who used to be on the Federal Reserve Board lives in Grand Marais.