Mystical Horizons is an astronomical-themed site located near Carbury, North Dakota on North Dakota Highway 43 near the North Dakota and Manitoba border. The attraction contains a working solar calendar built from granite pillars, intended to represent a 21st-century Stonehenge, and other instruments intended to explain astronomical phenomena and principles.
A plaque at the site reads "dedicated to Jack Olson's vision of a Century 21 Stonehenge". [1] The concept was the vision of Jack Olson, an aerospace engineer and designer. [2] Though Olson died of cancer in 2001 before construction began, the community raised funds to make his dream a reality, along with partnerships including the North Dakota Forest Service, North Dakota Department of Transportation, and the city of Bottineau. [2] Mystical Horizons opened on October 21, 2005. [3]
Mystical Horizons includes multiple components designed to connect visitors with the cosmos: [4]
Each instrument is accompanied by information about how to use the devices and explanations of the scientific principles demonstrated.
A panoramic view of the Turtle Mountains, as well as the surrounding valley, is available from the site. [5]
John (Jack) Olson was an aerospace engineer and inventor. He was born on a farm near Bottineau on October 24, 1922. [7] Olson served in the Army Air Forces during World War II as a B-24 instructor pilot. [8] In 1950 he joined Brown & Bigelow as the chief designer in metal and plastic products, receiving 120 mechanical and design patents and designing the Tupperware party favor "the pickle plucker". [8]
Olson worked for Boeing from 1958 to 1984, working on projects such as the Boeing Jetfoil and the Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit system. [9] He was also part of the engineering and design team for the landing pads for the Apollo Lunar Module and the Lunar Landing Vehicle. [10] He held a seat on the National Space Society Board of Governors. [9] Olson was also an artist of illustrations of space exploration, and 21 of his space paintings were displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. [9] He earned a diamond badge from the Soaring Society of America, demonstrating advanced gliding skills, and held a master-photographer certification from the Photographic Society of America. [11] Olson was the author of a book about his life growing up in the Turtle Mountains published posthumously in 2009: Once In The Middle Of Nowhere: The Center of the Universe: A Collection of Turtle Mountain Tales. [4]
In his retirement, Olson spent time in Bottineau, creating a series of community projects, including making plans for Mystical Horizons. [7] He died in Normandy Park, Washington, on August 28, 2001. [8]
Archaeoastronomy is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultures". Clive Ruggles argues it is misleading to consider archaeoastronomy to be the study of ancient astronomy, as modern astronomy is a scientific discipline, while archaeoastronomy considers symbolically rich cultural interpretations of phenomena in the sky by other cultures. It is often twinned with ethnoastronomy, the anthropological study of skywatching in contemporary societies. Archaeoastronomy is also closely associated with historical astronomy, the use of historical records of heavenly events to answer astronomical problems and the history of astronomy, which uses written records to evaluate past astronomical practice.
Bottineau County is a county in the U.S. state of North Dakota. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 6,379. Its county seat is Bottineau.
Bottineau is a city in Bottineau County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Bottineau County and is located just over ten miles (16 km) south of the Canada–United States border. The city's population was 2,211 at the 2010 census.
Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) is a public community college in Bottineau, North Dakota. It offers Associate of Applied Science (AAS), Associate of Arts (AA), and Associate of Science (AS) degrees with a focus on general education requirement for degree completion; AA and AS degrees are transferable to bachelor's degree programs at many colleges and universities. Diploma, certificate, and certificate of completion programs are also offered, which require fewer credits completed than that required for an associate degree.
To some indigenous peoples of North America, the medicine wheel is a metaphor for a variety of spiritual concepts. A medicine wheel may also be a stone monument that illustrates this metaphor.
Petroforms, also known as boulder outlines or boulder mosaics, are human-made shapes and patterns made by lining up large rocks on the open ground, often on quite level areas. Petroforms in North America were originally made by various Native American and First Nation tribes, who used various terms to describe them. Petroforms can also include a rock cairn or inukshuk, an upright monolith slab, a medicine wheel, a fire pit, a desert kite, sculpted boulders, or simply rocks lined up or stacked for various reasons. Old World petroforms include the Carnac stones and many other megalithic monuments.
This is a list of Stonehenge replicas and derivatives that seeks to collect all the non-ephemeral examples together. The fame of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in England has led to many efforts to recreate it, using a variety of different materials, around the world. Some have been carefully built as astronomically aligned models whilst others have been examples of artistic expression or tourist attractions.
Turtle Mountain, or the Turtle Mountains, is an area in central North America, in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of North Dakota and southwestern portion of the Canadian province of Manitoba, approximately 100 km south of the city of Brandon on provincial highway 10. It is a plateau 2,000 ft above sea level, 300 ft to 400 ft above the surrounding countryside, extending 20 mi (32 km) from north to south and 40 mi (64 km) from east to west. Rising 1,031 feet, North Dakota's most prominent peak, Boundary Butte, is located at the western edge of the plateau.
A moonbase is a facility on the surface of the Moon, enabling human activity at the Moon. As such it is different from a lunar space station in orbit around the Moon, like the planned Lunar Gateway of the Artemis program. Moonbases can be for uncrewed or crewed use, in both cases not necessarily including habitation facilities.
The Rural Municipality of Morton is a former rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was originally incorporated as a rural municipality on November 1, 1890. It ceased on January 1, 2015 as a result of its provincially mandated amalgamation with the Town of Boissevain to form the Municipality of Boissevain – Morton.
The Rural Municipality of Winchester is a former rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was originally incorporated as a rural municipality on November 1, 1890. It ceased on January 1, 2015 as a result of its provincially mandated amalgamation with the Town of Deloraine to form the Municipality of Deloraine – Winchester.
Lake Metigoshe State Park is a public recreation area occupying some 1,500 acres (610 ha) on the shores of Lake Metigoshe in the Turtle Mountains, 14 miles northeast of Bottineau, North Dakota, on the Canada–US border. The state park lies adjacent to the southwest corner of the much larger Turtle Mountain Provincial Park in Manitoba. A small portion of the lake extends northward into the Rural Municipality of Winchester but is not part of either park.
Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin (1863-1952), was a Métis Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians attorney and Native American rights activist. In 1914 Baldwin was the first Native American student to graduate from the Washington College of Law. She worked in the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, and was an officer in the Society of American Indians. "Her appointment [to the Bureau] ... was approved by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. She was an accountant in the Education Division of the Bureau."
Butte Saint Paul State Recreation Area is a public recreation area located seven miles (11 km) northwest of Dunseith in Bottineau County, North Dakota. The state park unit encompasses 580-foot (180 m) Butte Saint Paul. A 12-foot (3.7 m) stone cairn and commemorative plaque sit atop the peak. A circular trail to the top of the peak allows hikers to take in expansive views of the surrounding Turtle Mountain region.
Kubrick Mons is the name given to the largest of a series of mountain peaks on Pluto's moon Charon that rise out of depressions in the Vulcan Planum region. The feature was first recorded by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard the New Horizons spacecraft during a flyby on 15 July 2015.
North Dakota Highway 43 (ND 43) is a state highway located in extreme north-central North Dakota. It is about 23 miles (37 km) long and passes through Bottineau and Rolette counties.
Women's suffrage in North Dakota began when North Dakota was still part of the Dakota Territory. During this time activists worked for women's suffrage, and in 1879, women gained the right to vote at school meetings. This was formalized in 1883 when the legislature passed a law where women would use separate ballots for their votes on school-related issues. When North Dakota was writing its state constitution, efforts were made to include equal suffrage for women, but women were only able to retain their right to vote for school issues. An abortive effort to provide equal suffrage happened in 1893, when the state legislature passed equal suffrage for women. However, the bill was "lost," never signed and eventually expunged from the record. Suffragists continued to hold conventions, raise awareness, and form organizations. The arrival of Sylvia Pankhurst in February of 1912 stimulated the creation of more groups, including the statewide Votes for Women League. In 1914, there was a voter referendum on women's suffrage, but it did not pass. In 1917, limited suffrage bills for municipal and presidential suffrage were signed into law. On December 1, 1919, North Dakota became the twentieth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
Coordinates: 48°56′55″N100°31′24″W / 48.94861°N 100.52333°W
| Structure and surroundings |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Replicas and derivatives | ||
| Studies | ||
| In culture | ||
| Concepts | ||
