- What are trail markers, and what are they really called?
- Why are some of the trees protected from beavers?
- Why were covered bridges covered?
- Why were covered bridges and barns red?
- Why is gunpowder falls river called the gunpowder?
- Is the big gunpowder falls a deep and dangerous river where scouts perish?
- Are there monsters in the gunpowder?
- Did the Jerusalem Mills Quaker Village make guns?
- Where was gunpowder first made?
- Is gunpowder hard to make?
- How is gunpowder made?
Since beavers use trees for food and building materials, fencing their preferred trees (such as aspen, poplar, cottonwood, and willow) cuts beavers off from these needed supplies. This can make the area less inviting for beavers (beavers don’t like to venture far from water, it is their protection from predators because they aren’t very fast). Trees along riverbanks can provide protection from erosion, so some conservationists suggest tree protection from beavers. But this is a debated point.
). Many other animals also rely on these dead trees for food, shelter and places to perch. The death of trees may look unattractive to us, but they are a necessary and extremely important habitat to many other species in the ecosystem.
The loss of these trees also allows significantly more sunlight to reach the water. The sunlight, water, and suspended nutrients in the slower/pond water combine to stimulate the immense growth of algae, microorganisms, invertebrates and aquatic plants that then become the foundation of the wetland food chain. These life forms become food for innumerable larger species and create prolific biodiversity of species in and around a beaver pond. Beaver ponds are seven times more bioproductive than the most fertile farmland. They become magnets for wildlife. So at first glance the death of these trees appears to be a destructive act by the beaver, but it is actually an absolute requirement to support the abundance of life that makes wet areas and wetlands so valuable.
Rust was plentiful on farms and because it killed fungi and mosses that might grow on barns, and it was very effective as a sealant. It turned the mixture red in color. When paint became more available, many people chose red paint for their barns in honor of tradition.( https://www.farmersalmanac.com/barns-painted-red-240 )
As for the river’s name, even the Baltimore Public Library doesn’t know for sure, but thinks it is probably due to the saltpeter discovered along its banks. Saltpeter is an ingredient in gunpowder.
No, but plenty of fish. The upper Gunpowder Falls tailwater consists of 97% brown trout with rainbow and brook trout comprising the remaining three percent. The rainbow trout are found mostly in the 1.2 miles of river between the dam and Falls Road.
Yes. David Lee and several of his Quaker neighbors carved black walnut stocks and assembled rifles for the Continental army in the gunshop that stands behind the gristmill.
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Mill_Village )
No. Anyone can make it with a mortar and pestle, and its ingredients are affordable and fairly easily found. But it is hard to make well. The quality of gunpowder is determined by the fineness (how small) and the regularity of its grain – both of which require rather sophisticated manufacturing techniques, which the United States excelled at, largely due to the efforts of Du Pont. From age 16 to 20, Eleuthère Irénéé du Pont had assisted Antoine Lavoisier, chief of the French gunpowder works (and founder of modern chemistry). After the du Pont family immigrated to the United States from France in 1800, Du Pont immediately put his expertise to work. In 1802 he sited and began building the mill along the Brandywine River near Wilmington. In 1803 the mill refined its first saltpeter, and du Pont notified family-friend President Thomas Jefferson and soon received Army contracts for refining saltpeter, followed by substantial orders for gunpowder. Brandywine River Powder Mills produced its first gunpowder in 1803.