When a YMT tour bus has a long drive, the guide may play a video. I complimented our tour director on her video choices.
I had seen "Horatio's Drive" before. It is the story of a 1903 fifty dollar bet made by Dr. Horatio Jackson that he could drive one of those new-fangled automobiles across the US from San Francisco to New York. The bet was the result of a discussion as to whether cars were a passing fad or would someday come to be important to people. I found this a very educational film since it helps to make clear how our current lives differ from the pre-auto age and what is needed and used today to keep us going. Horatio was only 32 but because of his new wife's wealth, could afford to pay a blacksmith companion to go with him. There were only cow paths and minimal roads, poor or incorrect maps, very spotty locations to buy fuel. There were no motel chains, no credit cards, no ATM's. Cars were not made as solidly as today and there were frequent breakdowns. You can see this memorable, prize winning film on YouTube.
We saw several other valuable videos. The end of the Ice Age created lakes of melted water held back temporarily by ice that eventually broke away under pressure. This phenomenon created one or more floods of unbelievable power and force. Walls of water of 50 or 100 or much higher heights could suddenly be released to tear across the landscape at speeds of 45 to 80 miles an hour. This subject goes by several names, including Megafloods (Nova tv), Missoula floods, Dry Falls floods and Bretz floods (after the geologist who proposed a solution in a 40 year argument about what happened and when and how.)
We saw a video about the making of the Grand Coulee Dam, a very big project badly needed at the very time the US was in the grip of that terrible depression. It was a hell of an undertaking but it helped cut down on devastating floods and moderated droughts while providing work, purpose and income for many. Finally, we saw one about Lewis and Clark and their surveying and exploration of the Louisiana Purchase, carried out with the help of the Indian woman we have sometimes called Sacajawea. She was invaluable in many ways, not least by finding that one of the groups that could have wiped out the explorers was headed by her long-separated brother. One book I saw said that she was traded to another man by her husband in gambling but other accounts make no mention of that or state that she was sold as a slave before joining the expedition
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