Sutro Bathhouses

What the bath house site looks like today. All pics taken from the wiki article.

It's something that I remember as a kid that we often drove by the site of the Sutro bathhouse ruins along the coast in the Bay Area, and even had a few opportunities to wander the ruins a few times. It is nothing short of a shame that the buildings have never been reconstructed. 

Adolph Sutro started construction of the bathhouse in 1894 and it was a massive undertaking. It required 100,000 square feet (9,300 square meters) of glass, 600 tons of iron, 3.5 million board feet (8,300 m3) of lumber, and 10,000 cubic yards (7,600 cubic meters) of concrete to complete. on the saltwater bath house, and opened it to the public in 1896. 

A picture of the facility on the year of it's opening.

Once opened, it was the largest indoor pool in the world and required massive upkeep and operating costs to keep running. It featured Six saltwater pools and one freshwater pool. The baths were 499.5 feet long and 254.1 feet wide for a capacity of 1.805 million US gallons. They were equipped with seven slides, 30 swinging rings, and one springboard.

It also featured a museum with an extensive collection of stuffed and mounted animals, historic artifacts, and artwork, much of which Sutro acquired himself from the Woodward's Gardens estate sale in 1894.  There was also a 2700-seat amphitheater, and club rooms with capacity for 1100, 517 private dressing rooms, and an ice skating rink in the southernmost section of the building.

A vintage picture of the interior which changed quite a bit over the structure's lifetime.

That is of course until 1964, when it closed it's doors for good and it was sold to developers for a high-rise apartment complex. That wasn't to be, as in 1966 during the demolition of the building, an arsonist started the fire that ultimately destroyed the site and left it what it is today. Currently, it is a part of the Golden Gate Park and is managed by the National Park Service.

Badass of the week: Nellie Pucell Unthank

If you haven't heard of Badass of the Week, it's a pretty interesting and very humorous take on both fictional and historical figures that are larger than life and are known for either unprecedented achievements, death defying acts, unbelievable personalities, or all of the above. Totally worth checking out, and they do have an excellent book out that follows the same formula that's also worth a read. 

A picture of Nellie in her younger years.

One great candidate for this that I don't think has been covered on their site yet, is the story of Nellie Pucell Unthank. Now that first name is unusual for today, and is jokingly associated with livestock nowadays, but you'll be hard pressed to mock her for it when she ends up being a lot tougher than the most voracious bull you'll come across. 

Now her birth name was really Ellen Purcell and she was born across the pond in England in 1846. Around the age of 9, her family, consisting of her Mother, Father, and sister Maggie (aged 14) were contacted by some quaint, kooky Americans calling themselves Mormons, and her family converted soon after. After that, they quickly made the decision to join the rest of the followers of the church that were migrating to Salt Lake City Utah. 

Now, this may not sound like a big deal to people today, but let me set the stage for you of what the situation was then. First off, the Mormons were pretty universally hated in America at that point, and had recently had to flee their homes in Missouri and Illinois because their leader was recently assassinated while in prison for trumped-up charges, mobs were attacking and threatening to run people out of their own settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois, and the governor of Missouri decided to actually legalize killing Mormons on sight with an "extermination order" like he was Lord Humongous in a Mad Max film. 

We go in, we kill them!

Because of this, the average Mormon was obviously a little disillusioned with how America was the supposed "land of the free and home of the brave" at the time. So with all this crap going down, the Mormons said, "screw this place, we are leaving the country and making our own without blackjack or hookers!"  So in 1847, they did exactly that and straight-up fled the country to what was then Mexico to settle in Salt Lake City, a feat that wasn't exactly easy at the time. 

When it comes to Nellie's family, they not only had to cross the country, but also had to make a near 4800 mile journey starting from England to get to Salt Lake City on a shoestring budget. All this at a time when just going on the average boat trip carried a reliable fatality rate and took longer than the average molasses run on a cold day, while costing your life savings and that was just to get to America to start the rest of the trip! 

To put it in perspective, most people that wanted to emigrate to be with the rest of the Mormons in Salt Lake were dirt poor. I mean, straight up "I need to take out a loan just to afford food stamps" poor, and the journey often completely bankrupted them, and that was just for the Americans that were just going cross country, let alone sailing from England.  The Purcells were undaunted though, and after almost six weeks of sailing they arrived in Boston and then after a few months more of more travelling, the family eventually made it to Iowa City, to start the next leg of the journey.

A historically accurate depiction of Mormon pioneers before they headed out.

Once they get there, most people (including the Purcell family), couldn't even afford a covered wagon to make the journey, and had to do so on foot while hauling a handcart. Yeah, you heard me, flee the country you just arrived in to run like a refugee halfway across the continent on foot. Also, if you aren't familiar with the concept of a handcart, imagine that you need to go halfway across the country but can't afford a bus, plane or car ride, then said, "screw it, I'll walk there while pushing a wheelbarrow full of my crap across unpaved roads the whole way." I dunno about you, but my fat butt isn't able to even keep my breath an hour after peeling an orange, let alone walking halfway across the continent like some slow-motion Forrest Gump reenactment while hauling all my crap around with me. 

But, that's exactly what they need to do. The family hooked up with a bunch of other English immigrants traveling together who called themselves the Edward Martin Company. This group consisted of 575 people with 145 handcarts and 8 wagons, leaving in late July of 1856 to start their 5 month trek. All this to journey across the bland, flat, dry construct that is the midwest, cross the rocky mountains just in time for the beginning of fall/winter so they can eventually arrive in the high desert in Salt Lake, all on freaking foot like the Bataan death march is going out of style. 

Like that, but with less technology and you're going to a place you actually want to be.

Another little detail to keep in mind here, is that these people didn't exactly have the best boots or Adidas to really help with this, but old school shoes with leather and wooden soles that weren't exactly the most comfortable crap to hike in. Add on top of that, there wasn't much civilization to speak of along the way, so if you had your shoes wear out, you were stuck walking barefoot the rest of the way, feeling like some kind of Cro-Magnon. 

That, and although a part of the trail to Salt Lake followed the Oregon Trail, there were pretty large stretches of it that were seldom-marked and areas that carried a high risk of Indian attacks that would even make John Wayne question your sanity for going there. That's not even mentioning the everyday dangers of the desert and rocky mountains like freezing river crossings, dangerous mountain passes, barbed vegetation, venomous snakes, mountain lions, bears, wolves and coyotes to deal with along the way.

Now, here's the part where Nellie's story starts getting crazy. Not only does the family convert to a new religion and sacrifice everything to emigrate to a new country, leave that country to go across the continent on foot because Americans are legally hunting you for sport like some bastardized version of Battle Royale, all while dealing with hostile Indians, low supplies, rough terrain, terrible weather, terrible medicine, wild animals, and not even having a ride to do it in, but disaster strikes the Company just like it's your last game of Oregon Trail meets hell.

Ever wonder why it's such a common ending? It actually happened.

Towards the end of this five month slog, a freak snowstorm hits the procession while they are low on supplies. People all around start suffering from frostbite, hunger, exhaustion and hypothermia. In this maelstrom, Nellie's father dies due to exposure after slipping into a stream they were crossing . Then, to add insult to injury, her mother dies only five days later, leaving just Nellie and her and her older sister Maggie to fend for themselves. All told, it's estimated that about 150 members of the company died during the journey, and most were unable to be buried because the ground had frozen over in the cold. 

As Nellie and Maggie continue on, Nellie starts developing a severe case of frostbite on her legs and feet, slowing the two down to the point that the rest of the company begins to leave them behind along with many others who are also suffering from a variety of the afflictions mentioned earlier. 

Now those who were in good condition at this point were high tailing it as fast as they could to Salt Lake City so they could get help to send back to those who were falling behind. Once they got there, they immediately hit up the current Mormon leader, Brigham Young to send a rescue party to assist. If you aren't familiar with him, just imagine a simultaneously even more jovial and pissed off Klingon version of Winston Churchill. Except, he has an epic beard, is tired of these people killing his dudes, and who actually married all the women he was planning on fooling around with...because it was the honorable thing to do. So, you can imagine he had plenty of vulgar words for all the P'takhs who showed up without all the people they were supposed to, regardless of the reason and rushed out rescue parties immediately. 

Yeah, that's the guy. See? Klingon.

The rescue parties that were dispatched eventually found the survivors, but they discovered a scene that is nothing less than horrific. Imagine a mid-winter kegger at your local party-college, but without all the fun parts, and all the bodies you find strewn about are kids and old people dying of exposure and hunger. Most of those left behind were suffering from a number of ailments, and many were found only after being dug out from under the snow and hauled back to civilization on horseback or in wagons.

For Nellie in particular, being rescued from the trail wasn't the end of it either. The frostbite was deep and she had to deal with the finest medicinal care at the time which had only just recently leveled up from using leeches on the tech tree of  Civ IV. Nellie was facing an emergency amputation of both of her legs just below the knee, and there was no anesthesia to speak of. I can only imagine that at that time, she simply slapped a leather belt in her mouth and looked the doc in the eye and just muttered, "let's do this".  Also, if you're counting, that's literally twice the number of amputations that guy from 127 Hours had to put up with, so she's winning the achievement here.

The operation was a success, but medicine being what it was at the time, her legs never fully healed from the amputation and caused her great pain the remainder of her life. However, you would think this would turn her into into a grumpy, jaded, angry, piss and vinegar type of person after having to deal with all of that, but she was generally known as a pleasant woman by those who met her. I'm personally convinced that they invented the phrase "eating danger and crapping victory" just for this girl, cause I would have certainly been bitter by that point if I was in the same Lieutenant Dan situation.

Yeah, that would be my reaction.

Eventually, Nellie settled in Cedar City, Utah, and married a nice bloke named William Unthank. She did have wooden legs made for her, but they only aggravated her condition, so she rarely wore them. In her later years, she would volunteer to regularly clean the local church building with her children as gratitude to the church for helping her survive and was known as an active member of the community her whole life.

Today, standing on the south side of the Southern Utah University campus in Cedar City is a statue of her in her younger years still with her legs with a plaque that details the epic story of her journey, perseverance and strength despite such tragedy. 

A picture of her memorial on the SUU campus in Cedar City. 

Sources: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nellie-unthank-memorial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Trail
https://www.suu.edu/news/2017/07/nellie-unthank-pioneer-settler.html
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/1986/10/ellen-pucell-unthank?lang=eng

https://medium.com/shero-stories/a-pioneer-whose-story-stands-tall-4441dac77eb4

Sunday Secret Treaties

Also, talk about a killer choice for an album cover with an Me 262.

Blue Oyster Cult: Astronomy

UMs: Unusual Crimes

It's that same time again for more of the weekly dose of mysterious mysteries. So put on the famous theme song in it's best guise and read about the tales below of some weird/odd, or just plain unusual crimes:

Despite plenty of video evidence of the crime, no one can identify the UK man who pushed a woman in front of an oncoming bus and killed her, seemingly without reason:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/mt9jei/its_been_4_years_and_despite_viral_cctv_evidence/

I may have mentioned the Max Headroom incident before, but despite the statute of limitations having passed, there are still no suspects and no one admitting to the crime:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/9zamw6/this_thanksgiving_i_am_thankful_for_a_hilarious/

LAX has had a rash of reports from pilots on approach that there is a lone man with a jetpack intruding into the airspace:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/oxwi18/the_jetpack_guy_is_backpilots_flying_near_lax/

What's the frequency Kenneth? A seemingly random assault in NYC is still unsolved. There's also an excellent video to go with the article:
m/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/ql37au/whats_the_frequency_kenneth_a_mystery_in/

A woman escapes being abducted by a long-haul trucker, and helps police arrest the suspect. Upon further investigation, enough is found to ask, is this a previously unknown serial killer?
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/fc5at7/other_long_haul_trucker_kidnaps_woman_but_she/

L. W. Wright is a man who seemed to be a up an coming NASCAR driver, but skipped town with a bunch of stolen goods and bad checks:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/m0j25x/in_1982_a_man_claiming_to_be_a_professional_race/

22 year old Ukrainian woman poses as an 11 year old child and is inadvertently adopted by a Canadian family. Hijinks ensue:  
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/d6rv2h/the_11_year_old_girl_who_was_really_22/

Haunted houses/attractions are a common thing in many places, but the McKamey Manor in Tennessee, is accused of being far more than just an amusement: 
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/fr7e3o/mckamey_manor_a_haunted_attraction_is_a/

Holy crap in a hat!

Finally! SIG comes out with a modern striker-fired pistol I actually want for once!  Somehow, actually good 10mm auto pistols are so hard to come by.  To be honest, I would still prefer a baseline EAA Witness in 10mm if I can get one (since it's cheaper and is a steel frame), but if I can't get that, I'm getting one of these:

For the uninitiated, I've been wanting a good 10mm pistol for ages, as it's basically the power of a .357 mag in an automatic pistol.  For the longest time, your only options for one were either a Glock 20 (that leaves a Glock-y taste in the mouth) or a 1911.  Both of which are not appealing to me, because Glocks have that crappy grip angle and are boring, and 1911s are far too expensive and fragile.  So this is why I look like the picture below at the thought of a 10mm P320 for a reasonable price.

Taggart's Grill

A view of the back of the restaurant. All pics sourced from their official site.

Morgan, Utah is the little town with a lot of surprising things there to discover. One of the many joys is Taggart's Grill. The Place is off it's own exit on I-84 just a few miles east of the town of Morgan proper. 

It's lovely little family owned hidden gem that is home to an excellent changing seasonal menu, log cabin interiors, very nice outdoor seating with grass, a Koi garden, and even peacocks. The place is very highly rated and with good reason, all of it's menu items are fantastic, and they are equally as well known for their expansive and excellent dessert menu as well that is all made in house. Go give them a look see. 

A better view of the outdoor seating.

Forgotten Films: Dirty Work

Highly underrated and nearly forgotten compared to other SNL movies. 

With the death of Norm Macdonald not too long ago, I am remiss in mentioning his own SNL movie that was made and sadly forgotten by most people, Dirty Work. I suppose with his passing, it may have gotten a resurgence in popularity, but I feel I need to mention it anyways. 

As with most SNL movies, it's low budget and full of a lot of dumb humor, but hey, you know exactly what you're getting with this one. In my mind, it's hard to go wrong with Norm Macdonald and Artie Lange along with some of the SNL cast in a movie. I'd also be remiss in not mentioning that it was also one of Chris Farley's last film roles before passing and despite being a minor role, its one of the funniest characters he ever plays on screen. Add to that, a great list of cameos, with parts by Don Rickles, Chevy Chase, and small snippets of Adam Sandler, John Goodman, Rebecca Romijn, David Koechner, and the movie was even directed by Bob Saget.

Worth it for his role alone.

There are a lot of SNL movies out there, but this one is one that deserves a little more attention and appreciation that it has gotten in the past, so go give it a watch if you're a fan of old SNL when it was actually funny, Norm, or Chris. It's a cheap, lowbrow movie, but still gets me to laugh pretty dang hard, and is among the best of the SNL movies to this day.

Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple

A close up view of the temple, all pics sourced from the wiki page.

Utah has long been synonymous with Mormonism, and with good reason. You simply cannot discuss the history of the state without at least having a passing familiarity with it. It's like trying to discuss the history of Rome in the past few hundred years without discussing Catholicism. That having been said, it does make me laugh when butthurt people complain about Utah history teachers when they talk about Mormons in classes about Utah history.

Anyways, we aren't here to talk about that, but rather another popular religious institution that is pretty well celebrated in Utah, the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple.

The place was built relatively recently in 1998 in part by a man named Charu Das who was inspired to do so when visiting BYU in the 70s. The place is for International Society for Krishna Consciousness (also known as Hare Krishnas/Hindus), and is built with a traditional Indian temple style, and includes an animal park, and a large natural amphitheater as well. It is often open for art displays, has regular tours, as well as a gift shop, and you can check their schedule on their official site.

Most famously though is the fact that the temple is host to The Holi Festival, known to most as the Festival of Colors and is one of the largest (if not THE largest) held in the western world. Theologically, it is to celebrates the eternal and divine love of Radha Krishna as well as the triumph of good over evil. There is a bot more to it that that, but you can check out the rest on the Wikipedia page. 

The festival is famous for the paint powder that is thrown at each other by participants, but is also host to an animal park, a vegetarian buffet, as well as something called the Sunday Love Feast.

A pic of the festival of colors in action back in 2013.

Devil's Slide Hanging Bunker

A view of the bunker from the north side. All pics sourced from Atlas Obscura. 

In Pacifica CA, there is an abandoned military bunker on the beach of devil's slide that was another staple of my childhood, having visited it many times. However, it wasn't until much later in life that I was able to do some home work on the history of the place and what it was actually used for. 

It was originally built by the US Army Corps of Engineers immediately before WWII (in 1940) as one of a large series of buildings used for triangulation and observation. I couldn't find too much on it's triangulation duties, but I assume it was to assist with aircraft and ship navigation, possibly with various radio equipment. As for observation, it was also a station in which a watchman with optics would be a lookout for enemy shipping within visual range. In the event enemy activity is spotted, they would have assisted with spotting for the friendly coastal artillery batteries to the target. As technologies and needs changed after the war, the site was quickly shut down in 1949.

Another view from further north.

After the war, in the 1970s, the bunker and land was purchased by a private owner, and the land immediately surrounding the bunker was bulldozed off giving it the precarious and unstable look it has today. The land project that the bulldozing was needed for has yet to come to any fruition and it has now been covered with graffiti from trespassers. Unfortunately, the land is currently fenced off and is still private property, but can still be seen easily from the Devil's Slide trail and the nearby highway.

A close up view from the South side. 

Saul on Sunday

In other news, Breaking Bad was a pretty good show, but I'm really enjoying the spin off Better Call Saul a lot more, as he was easily one of the top three characters in the show.  Most of the characters in Breaking Bad were pretty unlikable, so I'm glad I can watch a show revolving around more of the actually enjoyable characters. 

Little Barrie - Better Call Saul Theme

and just for kicks and giggles, all the original Better Call Saul promos:

UMs: Unexplained Events part 2

Here we are again on another Saturday with all sorts of tales documenting various weirdness. So strap in and sound the theme tune and get to reading:

The Circleville letters are still unsolved, though, in my opinion, Karen Freshour, and her husband, Paul are responsible, and possibly others connected to them. The question is: how many were actually involved?

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/rrh499/who_was_the_circleville_letter_writer/

The Belgian UFO wave is one that is tough to explain as the stories and descriptions are all very consistent and detailed with many credible witnesses: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/l62z80/some_of_the_most_credible_and_widespread/

The Boston Art Heist of 1990, also called the Gardner Art Heist. The real crime here seems to be gross levels of incompetence at both the museum and the FBI, but what else is new?

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/o5rkze/watching_netflixs_this_is_a_robbery_re_the/

Several people are harassed on their cell phones and are also possibly being watched/stalked in the town of Fircrest, WA in 2007:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/akacgd/i_prefer_lemons_was_the_mysterious_cellphone/

A mysterious illness called Havana Syndrome is affecting multiple american diplomats in Cuba without explanation. What isn't mentioned here is that the government has recently ruled out any technological device as the cause in their ongoing investigation:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/owlxh9/whats_really_behind_havana_syndrome_the/

Darpa Derp

DARPA logo

I actually love DARPA, as they usually have really cool concepts and prototypes that really help further new technologies into the mainstream. At the same time, they also seem to equally love just doing wacky, near impossible concepts without any regard to feasibility, and they usually die at either the concept stage or the small scale model point of the program, despite wanting working conceptual prototypes by the end of most programs. 

Enter a new project I recently saw from DARPA called the "Liberty Lifter" project that aims to create a long-range, low-cost X-plane following the ekranoplan concept that was featured in an article on The War Zone.

Concept art of the Liberty Lifter. Dunno why they don't go with jets as they would likely be for efficient, and have been proven in both seaplanes and ekranoplans. All pics sourced from The War Zone article.

The US DoD has long wanted super-sized air transports and seaplanes, and this seems like an almost lazy continuation and mash-up of the two concepts. I would agree the US DoD is dumb and wasteful for not pushing seaplanes for the roles of transport, maritime patrol, anti-shipping, anti-sub, airborne command communications and control, and even AWACS would be welcome. See the the Martin P6M SeaMaster for an example of a major missed opportunity. 

Now, that's not to say I don't think this project can't have enormous potential, just that I think the Navy's abandonment of seaplanes in the modern age is a big, bone-headed mistake. If they really want a capability that can accommodate this new DARPA concept, they need to start operating an off the shelf platform that can start the Navy on the path of having well ironed out operations that can pave the way for more advanced platforms. For example, why not just buy some ShinMaywa US-2s for use by the navy to prove the concept of the operations, facilities and roles it can accommodate? Or, there has also been talk of Lockheed creating a possible MC-130J Amphibious version for the U.S. Special Operations Command that would also be another option that could help offset the cost if more are bought. Heck, I say why not get both just to see if one is a better concept than the other in critical areas?

The Japanese US-2 Seaplane

MC-130 Amphibious variant. Both are good options to implement a capability that's been missing in the military for about 50 years. 

Basically, DARPA has a lot of cool ideas that do end up helping to mature revolutionary concepts, but at the same time have just as many failed, go nowhere, does nothing programs that may have a bit better chance of succeeding if they were tied in better to the actual DoD activities/operations. So when I see this I just see another pie in the sky concept that the military isn't really on board with, otherwise they'd be doing something about it. 

Anyways, here's a video of the project and goals below from DARPA themselves:

Forgotten Films: House (1986)

House is a movie that isn't talked bout that much these days, and I really doubt it was talked about that much when it came out either, but it's worth checking out as a solid B-movie horror flick. 

Now, I'm pretty picky about my horror movies, and I personally cannot stand ones that just revolve around nothing but gore-fests and jump scares, or even the popular slasher flicks. I prefer my horror movies to have a sizable psychological element to them, and this one fits the bill.

The movie is paced a bit slower than most, but it builds to the ending. Its a bit of a twist on the standard haunted house idea in that the house has no dedicated spirits haunting it, but it preys upon and amplifies the deep fears and pains of it's occupants, in this case, a Vietnam Vet with deep regrets revolving around his son and his wartime experience. The house itself is really cool as well, and I wouldn't mind living in it, provided it's not supernatural as in the film. 

It does have it's issues, but overall the movie is pretty good, and I like to think (but it's not likely) that the movie's Vietnam antagonist was inspired by Stormtroopers of Death: 

Really? I never talked about this one?

I doubt Utah has very many places to eat that are genuinely world famous, but the Burger Bar is actually one of them.  It's little mom and pop, family owned, drive in type of joint that opened way back in 1956 in the town of Roy, and has been doing well in the same location ever since. 

Click the pic to check out their site.

To this day, they still source local bread, potatoes, and beef for their burgers, dogs, fries, tots, and buns. The have a massive menu that has not only the staples, but many other items that many would miss at other places, such as tater tots, buffalo and elk burgers are offered regularly, as well as a huge variety of drinks, shakes, and sundaes. 

However, the real claim to fame has also been a long running and fun tradition of having a specialty meat that they offer and change out each month that has ranged from camel, kangaroo, alligator, bison, alpaca, wild boar, and many others over the years; all of which are worth a try.

Fleishhacker Pool/Bath house

An aerial view taken from the wiki page that shows how really big it was. 

When detailing some of the stuff I have that is in San Francisco, I've mostly only covered the real success stories (ie. the stuff that's still standing), but this one will be a bit different as there's really nothing left. 

Back when I was a kid, I remember always driving by the remains of the Fleishhacker Pool not far from the San Francisco Zoo. This was right around the early 90s, so it was already in a state of disrepair and neglect by the time my memories of it started. It even had a fence surrounding the property with signage stating the property was condemned by the city.

However, it's architecture was always prominent even back in the day and it was an obviously a product of another time when San Francisco was just growing. Even in the time that I was around to gawk at it while passing by it was still an impressive sight. 

In short form, the history of the place starts in 1925 having been constructed by the local philanthropist named Herbert Fleishhacker as a seawater pool filled by pumps feeding directly from the Pacific Ocean, after being filtered and heated. At the time, it was the largest swimming pool in the USA, and may have been the largest outdoor heated pool in the world. 

A picture long after it's closure taken in 1979

Unfortunately in 1971, a storm damaged the drainage for the pool and it was unable to continue and the city did not have the budget to repair it. They attempted to convert it to a freshwater pool, but water quality problem forced it's permanent closure that same year. In 1999, it was given to the San Francisco Zoo, who filled the pool with gravel and used it as a parking lot. The facility was finally ravaged by a fire in 2012 and was subsequently demolished. 

Today, all that remains are the frames to the three doorways that consisted of the main building's entrance. It has been added to the register of national historic places as well. 

The only thing that remains of it now.

Skinwalker Ranch

One of the entrances to the ranch taken from the Wiki page.

I remember that when I was a kid in southern Utah, the Skinwalker Ranch was a hot topic back in the day for a while. Supposedly, there was talk of all sorts of supernatural occurrences on the property, and with the internet in it's infancy, there wasn't much to verify it all. 

So after having the time and info to research it all, I was pretty disappointed with the real story out there compared with the rumors of the day. In reality, it seems it was mostly all a fever dream of a man that was suckered into buying the property after being told a number of tall tales by the old caretaker of the place. The previous owner had set up numerous cameras and sensors to investigate the alleged activity for years with nary a second of suspicious footage. There were even several TV specials filmed there, but they all seemed to be that new history and discovery channel style trash that just isn't interesting to even watch and I can guarantee that they all end with everybody leaving empty handed. 

However, the website for all of the paranormal investigations is still up, and you can see it here: https://www.skinwalker-ranch.com/. It seems that after all that investigating turned up a whole lot of nothing, the new owners are seeking to market is as a filming location of some kind. 

Strays on a Sunday

Stray Cats - Stray Cat Strut 

Thank you, Breda

For years I have been insulted, disrespected and called names and all sorts of labels for insisting that transgenders are suffering from a mental illness and that they are not the gender that they cosplay to be. Despite not holding any ill will to any trans people for being such, some of that drama has played out here on this blog.  

Anyways, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned the Squirrel Report here a couple times before, it featuring several of my favorite former gun-bloggers hosting a podcast. I was watching #448 recently, and one of my personal heroes, Breda, hit it out of the park on the recent "trans" community issues as of late with this quote of the decade:

"It's a mental illness. Honestly, I have seen in the gun blog community certain trans people think they have PMS. No you don't honey! Everybody wants to be so nice, oh well, you know, so and so thinks they are a woman, so we have to be nice. You know what, that is to our detriment! At a certain point, you have to like draw a line and say y'all are crazy and get fucked! Stop humoring people when they are acting crazy!"

As I've said before, you can live your life how you like, as long as you aren't making it my business, but if you are making it my business don't get surprised when I call a duck a duck when I say that transgenderism is blatantly a serious mental illness, and I say it with friends who are trans who tell me the same damn thing. 

Full episode for context:

UMs: Murder/Unexplained Death part 3

Back to the most popular topic of the reddit r/unresolvedmysteries thread is of course, mhur-dher. So let's set the mood again with the proper music and read on:

An army intelligence vet and state department bureaucrat allegedly kills his immediate family and is spotted throughout Europe sever times in later years:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/f7nv3w/what_happened_to_brad_bishop_why_did_a_handsome/

An aviation student takes off for a routine flight and is never seen again, despite his aircraft wreck being discovered 30 miles off course:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/hnwjtx/on_a_sunny_sunday_afternoon_in_may_1995_student/

The Osage Indian tribe is nearly wiped out completely in the 1920, with over 60 deaths in 5 years. Was it coincidence, or a systematic elimination? 

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/cfekui/in_the_1920s_members_of_the_osage_nation_if/

A tale straight out of the Thing, but it's an extraterrestrial, but a human killing in the frozen waste by poisoning a colleague:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/jih474/murder_in_the_south_pole_on_may_11th_2000/

Bellingham's Georgia-Pacific West plant had a body found in it's Boiler No. 9. The body is still unidentified and no one knows who put it there:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/sfcian/in_1987_a_mans_skeleton_was_found_in_the/

A box with a human skull is left by a man in person at the police station for a homicide detective. Police are unable to identify the man in it or the one who delivered it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/seky1r/an_unknown_man_walked_into_a_las_vegas_police/

Delta Force are considered the elite of the elite in the US military and counterterrorism teams, but what happens if they are being systematically murdered?

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/nu16e4/two_us_servicemen_one_who_was_a_member_of_the/

The Roddenberry Archive

Big hat tip to Scott at the Unwanted Blog for posting about this one a while back, and I figure I'll forward the news along. 

So the big news in nerd circles a couple weeks ago was the announcement of the Roddenberry Archive and the projects it announced. First, they stated they will be making full digital recreations of all of the Enterprise starships, including ones not seen on screen, all of which will include every room and prop in excruciating detail. 

Next they announced a project to recreate the pilot episode of "The Cage" as a a full scale holodeck simulation, whatever that means. I assume that they mean a VR-style, fully 3d experience, but that's just a guess. But, they do include the famous Michael Okuda in the project as well as the original director of the episode as well. Below is a little video of the projects they are working on at the archive so far:

Now, as Scott pointed out, how the projects will be digested or distributed is a complete mystery to me at this point, and I don't know if they will be products to consume by the public at large, or just an internal thing, so we'll see how that pans out, I guess. Hopefully is is something that the average person can enjoy, as true Trek fans have been getting nothing but runny excrement with nutty chunks as official content for more than decade or so.  

Thought so...

This one has been making the rounds on social media lately and with good reason. The truth hurts, don't it? Turns out black lives don't actually matter to BLM, but I can't say I didn't see that coming. In other news, I want to give this guy some kind of medal for this epic verbal beatdown. 

Wheelgats

Revolvers just were not really my thing for a long time, but I have to admit they are far better than modern guns for teaching and refreshing yourself on some of the essentials of shooting. That, and some of them actually look really good, but as with a lot of things I enjoy, I tend to have taste that my wallet just can't cash. There are really only a few revolvers that I think would be fun to have, one of which feels like it would be cheating. 

The Model 28 has a classic look to it.

The first would be a solid classic, the .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson Model 28, also called the Highway Patrolman. Most of them seem to be of the short barrel variety (about 4in), but I would really only want the longer 6in barrel if I were to get one at all, as it just looks better. The only problem here is that it is hideously expensive.

The Model 610 on the other hand looks better with the short barrel.

As an alternative, the Smith & Wesson Model 610 in 10mm Auto is also a fun choice that I actually thinks looks a bit better in the shorter barrel style that would be cool. Just as you can shoot .38 Special out of a .357 mag to save on ammo, you can also shoot .40 S&W out of the Model 610 as well as 10mm, which is pretty neat. 

Thing is so cool it looks like it would be in the original Blade Runner.

Another one I would like is probably considered heresy by most wheel gun fans, as it's a total space-gat. The Smith & Wesson Model 327/R8/TRR-8 is an eight shot .357 magnum that also sports a lot of rail space on it for all the modern doo-dads, and I love the fact you get a couple extra shots in there. Another hideously expensive gun, but at least you literally get more bang for your buck. 

This Uberti repro is just gorgeous. Dunno if I want the short or long barrel, as both are good looking. 

Lastly, I've always liked the idea of going a little retro, and just grabbing a cartridge cylinder conversion to shoot modern .45 Long Colt loadings out of an old west type of revolver like a reproduction Remington Model 1858 by either Uberti or Pietta. My dad actually used to own one of these back in the day, but without the cylinder conversion, and used to load up and wax the cylinders himself and I have some fun memories of that. It's also nice that it's likely the most economical option on the list, too.

Despite all these being desirable, I think if I were to actually get a revolver, I'd still only buy one, so I'll have to make up my mind at some point. As just an added thought, I really would love an .45 ACP M1917 revolver as well, but they are just stupidly expensive for what you're getting, so fugheddaboutit. 

May 10, 1972

Forgot that yesterday was the 50th anniversary of Randy "Duke" Cunningham's ace kill in Vietnam in an F-4 Phantom, as well as the end of the mythical story of the fictional Col. Tomb in a MiG-17.  Here is a video in his own words, of Cunningham's experience on that day:

Then, there is a nice video by Mark Felton about the myth of the Ghost of Kiev and how nearly the same thing was done by Vietnamese with Col. Tomb in 1972:

Cliff House

The place is still really pretty in it's third incarnation. 

Another landmark location in San Francisco that has some interesting history is the Cliff House.  Officially a part of Golden Gate National Park, it is administered by the National Park Service and has technically be the site of three separate buildings with the same name. 

The first original Cliff House was built by Senator John Buckley and a man named C. C. Butler in 1863 and operated as a restaurant serving nearby horseback riders, as it was quite a ways a away from the city proper at the time. After the Point Lobos toll road was built a year later, the place continued to rapidly grow in popularity due to the increased traffic and was even visited by three US Presidents in it's time.

A picture of the original Cliff House circa 1868. All pics from the Wiki article. 

On January 16, 1887, there was a schooner named Parallel that ran aground nearby and was abandoned by her crew with her oil lamps still lit and now unattended while the ship was carrying dynamite. The blast was heard a hundred miles away and destroyed the entire north wing of the house. Amazingly, the house was repaired and returned to normal operations after the explosion and continued to operate for another 7 years.

Obviously, the same house is no longer standing today, because on Christmas night 1894, the house was burned down completely due to faulty venting. 

Isn't that thing just awesome looking?

The second Cliff House, in my opinion, is the most visually impressive of the bunch and was built by Adolph Sutro of the Sutro bathhouses (built later) and Sutro District fame in 1896. The second house was also called "the Gingerbread Palace" due to it's impressive size and distinctly Victorian Chateau style. Other than that, there's not too much to it's history as it did not exist for long.

The second house has a very tragic story, with it surviving the great 1906 earthquake with relatively little damage, but was subsequently burned to the ground just a year later. The place only stood for a total of 11 years, but at least it was immortalized on the cover of Blue Oyster Cult's Imaginos album. 

The look of the third cliff house after it's 1949 renovations (top), and it's current look, meant to recreate it's original style it had in 1909.

The third house is the one that exists on the same spot today, and was built in 1909 by Sutro's daughter, Dr. Emma Merritt with a distinct neo-classical style. It continued to be run as a restaurant until 1937, when it was bought by another owner. In 1949 is was significantly remodeled to reflect a more modern style and was a stop for a sky tram until 1966.

The house officially became a part of the national Park system in 1977, and for most it's time was host to the Musée Mécanique, which is what I remember it most for, having gone there a few times as a child. It also still housed a restaurant for most of that time as well, until 2020, with the NPS refusing to renew the lease due to some virus that was running around at that time.  The NPS has said they still plan on finding a new vendor to continue to operate a restaurant in it for the future. 

Youtubers worth watching: Regular Car Reviews

There are those frustrating times that are between seasons/specials of The Grand Tour, in which you just need something that scratches that car humor itch. I think I found Regular Car Reviews on reddit to specifically answer that problem. It's certainly it's own combination of educational info and brand of humor, but I really like 'em.

That being said, it's been a while since I watched them and this one on the 1995 Grumman Long Life Vehicle is by far one of the most interesting and humorous ones to date. The first three minutes alone had me nearly on the floor laughing. 

Hidden Highway

Lincoln Highway logo taken form the Association site.

The old Lincoln Highway was the first official transcontinental highway made specifically for automobiles in the US, spanning from New York City to San Francisco. Many states have the historic route marked along the current streets and highways that the many versions of the route took over the years. Most of the original and updated routes can still be traveled in the eastern portion of Utah on modern roads. The western half, on the other hand, is another story. 

You can see an interactive map of the routes the highway took on the official association site that took many years to painstakingly research the original routes. Coming from the eastern side of Utah, you can trace the path of the Lincoln Highway by going along the current routes of I-80 to the I-84 loop, then to the current I-15 route south to SLC where it branches off west to the current Highway 171, and back to I-80 in Magna. It then follows either highway 138 and 196 through Grantsville, or Highways 36 and 199 through Tooele until reaching Dugway Proving grounds. 

At this point you can no longer follow the original route, as almost the entire rest of the original route lies within the restricted area of the Dugway Army Base until it meets up with the original Pony Express Road. 

Pics taken form the Atlas Obscura site.

As far as I know, there are no major historical markers for the Lincoln Highway in Utah other than the one that is unable to be visited by the public because it is inside the Dugway restricted areas. Just off the area containing the major chemical labs, about 12 miles within the main gate, there is a small monument. Made by the National Register of Historic places it stands near an unassuming little wooden bridge that is over 100 years old, one of the only original remaining structures created in 1918 for the highway. Now with it's only visitors being members of the Army and other security authorized personnel are allowed to visit it, though to be fair, like most things I post, the history is usually far more interesting than the place itself. 

Feel free to visit the Official Lincoln Highway Association site for more detailed info on the history of the highway.