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Excerpt from:

Looking back: This week in eastern Idaho history - Post Register

LEWISTON It was 49 years ago, on July 16, 1973, that a man named Alexander Butterfield reluctantly revealed during a public hearing of the Watergate Investigation Committee the existence of a tape recording system in Richard Nixons White House that would upend his presidency within two years.

Three days earlier, Watergate investigators for the U.S. Senate had called Butterfield to a private meeting on an ominous Friday the 13th.

The investigators asked him: Did Nixon ever record his conversations?

They knew other presidents before him, such as Lyndon Johnson, had recorded select phone calls for posterity.

They werent sure how much was being recorded or who was in charge, said Chris Beam of Lewiston, whose job it was while working at the National Archives in Washington in the late 1970s to listen to roughly 1,500 hours of the estimated 3,700 hours of Nixons recorded White House conversations.

Why would Nixon want to record his conversations? Well, for historical purposes, for memoir purposes, Beam said in a recent interview with the Sun Journal. So, who was in charge of that? Alexander Butterfield.

Butterfield answered the Senate investigators question with: I wish you hadnt asked me that, Beam said.

Butterfield went on to describe the extensive nature of the recording system he had helped install in the White House more than two years earlier, Beam said.

Nixon was always very conscious of his place in history, Beam said. And so, looking forward to the end of his presidency, which he hoped would be at 1977, thered be a Nixon Presidential Library, and he would write his memoirs to talk about what he did, justify what he did and so forth.

In late 1970, a group of Nixon associates took a trip to Texas to talk to Johnson about his Presidential Library. They knew that Johnson had recorded a lot of his phone conversations, and Johnson had said those recordings were very valuable for the construction of his memoirs, Beam said.

When the group returned to the White House, the idea had gelled that maybe Nixon ought to have a recording system, Beam said.

Installed in February 1971, the recording setup was a low-tech affair, Beam said.

I think the overriding consideration with the taping system is that it had to be kept absolutely secret, he said.

For that reason, they didnt dispatch staffers to procure state-of-the-art high-end equipment, Beam said. Instead, they relied on tape recorders they had on hand, like the kind you might check out from the audiovisual department at a school, he said.

And instead of putting the White House Communication Agency (staffed by the U.S. Army Signal Corps) in charge of the system, which might compromise the furtive nature of the operation due to that agencys expansive workforce and shift rotation, the Secret Service was tasked with overseeing the recordings to prevent a possible leak of the tapes, Beam said.

Johnson had always been acutely aware of when he had a telephone call that he wanted recorded, Beam said. Johnson would signal to his secretary, who would press the record button on the call.

The system that was installed in the Nixon White House was far more comprehensive and they did not want well (Nixons Chief of Staff) H.R. Haldeman did not want Nixon trying to turn on and off machines because Nixon was a klutz, Beam said. So the system was set up so that Nixon never had to operate it.

Once the recording system was in place, after many, many months, I dont think (Nixon) was even aware that he was being recorded, Beam said. And nobody was allowed to listen to the tapes to check on whether the recordings were of decent quality.

It turned out that more than a few were not.

Many of the conversations are very the audio quality ranges from unintelligible to somewhat intelligible, Beam said.

Most of the incriminating statements uttered by Nixon and captured on tape about the attempted cover-up of the Watergate burglary have been made public, Beam said.

He also listened to the 18-and-a-half minutes of silence in the recordings that had apparently been erased.

Rosemary Woods, Nixons personal secretary, said that she might have done it while making transcripts of the conversations, but thats since been debunked, Beam said.

The court hired some experts who said that the gap was because of apparent erasure, Beam said, where somebody had apparently re-recorded a section to create a blank.

I think somebody else did it, he said.

Beam said hes skeptical about Nixon having the manual dexterity to successfully undertake such a task.

I think what happened was that somebody had come across potentially incriminating information during that conversation with Haldeman, erased it, and then realized theres so much stuff there that one would have to spend a lifetime listening to the tapes to glean out the Watergate-related material, he said.

To this day, no one has taken responsibility for the intentional erasure, Beam said. Because the National Archives staff made a written record of every meeting and phone call, it might be possible to narrow the list of suspects, even if it was just somebody stepping into the Oval Office on a routine matter and leaving.

The gap appears during an Oval Office conversation between Nixon and Haldeman, Beam said.

BEAM JOINS NATIONAL ARCHIVES

After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, including a tour in Vietnam, Beam earned a doctorate in history at the University of Illinois.

He landed a job in Washington, D.C., in 1977 at the National Archives.

I came on board just when the court approved the National Archives taking over Nixon presidential materials, Beam said.

After completing an initial training period in 1978, the supervisor of the tapes section invited Beam to join that division because, surprisingly enough, there werent that many people who wanted to work on this, because they were very difficult to listen to, I mean, in technical quality.

Beam said he became very interested in it because the first project we did was in response to a court order for conversations in April and May of 1971, concerning anti-war demonstrations, and one of those demonstrations was by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Beam said he had come to oppose the war after his military service.

Because he became one of the senior archivists there, Beam said, I could pull some rank and so I chose to listen to work on the tapes that covered 1972 and early 1973, when big things were happening in Vietnam and also the Watergate scandal was starting to unfold. So I listened to a lot of those key conversations, he said.

Beam said he spent four-and-a-half years on that project.

They had it recorded at very slow speed and you dont get good quality recordings from that, Beam said.

Nobody was allowed to listen to the tapes to spot check if the system was working or if the audio quality was sufficient and so forth, he said. So, those of us who are working on the tapes were sitting in this windowless room, plugged into a reel-to-reel recorder and having to go back and forth and trying to figure out what people were saying.

The Nixon White House recording system was shut down on July 18, 1973, two days after Butterfield testified at a public hearing about the existence of the tapes to Watergate investigators.

What ensued was a long struggle over access to the tapes, Beam said. In April 1974, Nixon agreed to make available transcripts of certain taped conversations.

It was during those intervening months that Woods was said to have mistakenly created the gap as she was transcribing the tapes, Beam said.

WHAT CANT BE SHARED

Much of what he heard in those 1,500 hours of White House conversation, Beam said he cant share.

We didnt do a whole lot of transcription, but we would do an outline and then wed earmark those portions of the conversation with the digital number there: what should be restricted; what may be restricted for national security reasons; for personal privacy reasons; (and) for trade secrets.

There was also a category, which Bean said he never felt comfortable with, that was labeled personal political, when Nixon was speaking in his role as the head of the Republican Party.

Listening to those 1,500 hours of recordings provided Beam with a fly-on-the-wall perspective, he said.

What he remembers best is not the smoking gun statements about Watergate, he said, but learning about the people who inhabited Nixons inner circle.

He didnt meet with very many people, Beam said. He tended to be reclusive.

But among those close advisers, well, it was interesting, he said. For one thing, in addition to whatever substance they were talking about, you get a real feel for the personalities and the interpersonal dynamics between Nixon and people like H.R. Haldeman, (national security advisor and, later, secretary of state) Henry Kissinger, (chief political adviser) Charles Colson and (domestic affairs counsel) John Ehrlichman, and maybe a few others.

It was Haldeman who spent the most time conversing with Nixon on the recordings, Beam said.

Nixon would sometimes pop off with some crazy idea that was either illegal or politically dubious and Haldeman would bury these ideas until Nixon either forgot about them or had second thoughts, and he could get away with doing that because, I think, Nixon trusted him.

Haldeman ruled the White House staff pretty much with an iron fist, Beam said. He was totally loyal to Nixon. Theres no hidden agenda with him and Nixon knew it.

Beam said he has considered the parallels or lack thereof between the demise of Nixons presidency and the Jan. 6 Committees probe of the events of that day and what role Trump played in them.

Theres so much I feel I dont know about what has gone on in the Trump White House, he said, not having had the benefit of hundreds of hours of recorded conversations about efforts to reverse the election outcome.

Beam said there appears to be a crucial difference between the two presidencies.

While Nixon enjoyed loyal support from many Republicans, he didnt have anywhere near the cult following that Trump appears to have, Beam said.

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A lesser known figure in the Watergate scandal made history 49 years ago - Lewiston Sun Journal

In space, no one can hear a rage-quit.

When people quote James Cameron's 1986 sci-fi action classic "Aliens," the line that comes up the most often is a desperate one. Stranded on a desolate, hostile moon teeming with acid-blooded xenomorphs who mean to cocoon, impregnate, and otherwise slaughter all humans on sight, Colonial Marine and fan favorite Private Hudson (played by the late Bill Paxton) surveys the situation and utters the iconic line, "That's it, man! Game over, man! It's game over!"

Cameron, who had previously helmed "The Terminator" and knew a thing or two about memorable but doomed characters, encouraged the sizeable cast of "Aliens" to develop backstories for the people they play. Some actors had enough experience to handle that individual worldbuilding, but for Paxton, who only had a few (still formidable) film credits to his name at the time, the task proved daunting. That said, Paxton could see his character's jumpy, less-than-mature demeanor and decided that Hudson was, like many service members, an avid gamer, prone to hysterics when he fails to overcome the combat simulators he and his fellow Marines train on.

What better syntax to capture utter defeat than the near-universal "Game over?" The phrase was a pop culture grenade, good enough for the Jigsaw killer to repeat when a victim failed to pass his survival tests in James Wan's "Saw" and its numerous sequels, nearly two decades after "Aliens" hit box office gold. For his performance, Paxton earned a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor and the undying devotion of horror fans worldwide. (Anya Stanley)

See the article here:

The Best Unscripted Moments In Horror History - /Film

These ideas have been around, said William C. Leonard, a history professor at Emmanuel College.

The Colonists, of course, codified slavery in Massachusetts in 1641, more than a century before the United States declared its independence. (The state abolished slavery in the 1780s.) In the early 1700s, the local Colonial legislature passed a law prohibiting interracial marriage and sex. The ban on sex was removed in 1786, but the ban on mixed marriages was expanded to include Native Americans. Two years later, local authorities prescribed whipping for nonresident Black people who stayed in the state more than two months.

In 1849, the states highest court ruled that the Massachusetts Constitution allows for segregated schools, and the US Supreme Court would later use that ruling to make the legal case for a separate but equal doctrine.

The anti-immigration movement also has roots in Massachusetts. In the 1890s, a trio of Boston Brahmin intellectuals founded the Immigration Restriction League, which laid the intellectual groundwork for many contemporary hard-line beliefs.

Its always had a nativist opposition to outsiders, Leonard said of the region, going back to Puritans.

For much of its history, there has been a political and social dichotomy in New England, a tension between the regions progressive impulses and the underlying realities of segregation and racism. As some academics point out, no matter what New Englanders tell themselves about the distinctiveness of their local history, it is still America.

Massachusetts is part of America, and America is entrenched in white supremacist dogmas and ideas, said Kerri Greenidge, a professor at Tufts Universitys department of studies in race, colonialism, and diaspora. Its part of the DNA of the region, alongside this idea of progressivism.

She added, Just because somebodys progressive, doesnt mean that theyre not racist. Progressivism doesnt mean that racism doesnt exist.

By 1925, the Ku Klux Klan had more than 130,000 members in Massachusetts, according to research from historian Mark Paul Richard, and Worcester had become a focus of Klan activity, which took aim at Catholic and Jewish immigrants as well as Black people.

More recently, any history of racism in Boston is incomplete without the turmoil of the court-ordered desegregation of the citys schools in the 1970s. South Boston politician Louise Day Hicks came to personify the working-class white resistance to busing, which was met with violence in some corners of the city and cemented Bostons national reputation as racist.

Hicks was once called the Bull Connor of Boston, a reference to the brutally racist police commissioner of Birmingham, Ala. Hicks served as a city councilor and school committee member and had one term in Congress. In 1967, she came within 12,000 votes of being elected mayor.

Amid the outcry over busing in 1976, Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, a staunch segregationist, was met with a foot-stomping reception in South Boston.

A good part of South Boston is now considered Wallace country, The New York Times reported.

Other anecdotes of high-profile local instances of systemic racism are numerous, including the police response to the Charles Stuart case.

Ted Landsmark, a public policy professor at Northeastern University, knows white mob violence firsthand. The same year Wallace was campaigning in Boston during the presidential primaries, Landsmark, who is Black, was assaulted outside City Hall, a moment that was captured in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph.

The recent white supremacist march did not remind him of the anti-busing mob that attacked him decades ago, which was largely made up of high school students who did not conceal their identities. What it reminded him of was the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C.

The cowardice of white racists continues to reflect planned efforts to intimidate without identifying who the intimidators ... actually are, he said.

The recent march, though, shows that Bostons and New Englands racist legacy still lingers, Landsmark said.

While race relations have improved markedly since the 1970s, racial and socioeconomic disparities remain entrenched, particularly in the private sector, which Landsmark said sustains the sense that New England is not prepared to address its racist present.

I dont like to think of outside agitators as being the sole source of racial animus across New England, but we have a reputation that has brought negative, racially motivated white supremacists to the region, he said. And until we demonstrate such white supremacist attitudes will not be tolerated, they will continue to come to this area.

The Southern Poverty Law Center last year tracked 14 hate groups in Massachusetts, including white nationalist groups such as Revolt through Tradition and Patriot Front, the group that orchestrated this months march, as well as outright neo-Nazi organizations such as the Nationalist Social Club.

Patriot Fronts manifesto is an expression of virulent racism, according to the law center, stating that An African, for example, may have lived, worked, and even been classed as a citizen in America for centuries, yet he is not American. He is, as he likely prefers to be labelled, an African in America.

In mainstream society, such views are vigorously denounced, and the white supremacist march through Boston sparked immediate outrage. But the structures of society remain tilted against people of color, helping to preserve white predominance, Greenidge and others said.

Boston is a place that much of the overtness of racism doesnt happen to the extent we saw two weeks ago, Greenidge said. We are shocked because its fascism, right? And America is used to saying fascism doesnt exist here. Fascism is a form of racism. I think Massachusetts isnt used to seeing that particular form of racism, like a fascist march. but that doesnt mean that thats the only incarnation of it that exists.

Spikes in white supremacist activity in Boston also occurred in the 1970s and 1990s, Greenidge said. Such waves show that that a bubbling of white hatred is always present. That context should be considered when analyzing events like the recent march through downtown Boston.

It doesnt mean that when theres no surge, theres nothing there, she said.

Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Danny__McDonald.

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In progressive Massachusetts, a long history of white supremacy - The Boston Globe

The Rams franchise has won two NFL Championships in the Super Bowl era of the NFL. The most recent Super Bowl victory, SB LVI, was the first victory for the LA Rams for the city of Los Angeles California. But the team also won a Super Bowl for the city of St. Louis, Missouri. That victory came at the expense of a very good Tennessee Titans team and sealed the legacy of the Rams franchises Greatest Show On Turf era.

The team was heralded for the nearly unstoppable offense, the brainchild of head coach Dick Vermeil and offensive coordinator Mike Martz. But there is more to the story of that team than simply an overwhelming effective offense. That defense was solid as well.

It was a bit of Destiny taking matters into its own hands as the team was all set to play with quarterback Trent Green under center. But Green injured his knee and the Rams were forced to start back up quarterback Kurt Warner.

They were not just a long shot, the team was literally the longest shot in NFL history. Thats quite the hurdle. At the opening kickoff, even the team itself was focused on playing competitive football. Nobody was talking playoffs or even Super Bowls.

Four players: RB Marshall Faulk (2011), OT Orlando Pace (2016), QB Kurt Warner (2017), and WR Isaac Bruce (2020) have all been inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame from that team. Head Coach Dick Vermeil will be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame class of 2022.

Now, we have one more item on the NFL Hall of Fame To Do list.

The Saint Louis Rams were way ahead of their time. At a time when fullbacks and tight ends were still quite common in NFL offenses, the Rams were putting pressure on defenses by throwing multiple eligible receivers into the secondary, creating mismatches, and then throwing the ball to the open receiver.

What we now consider standard offensive packages were incredible innovations at that time. But it all worked to set the stage for the Rams to innovate and win today.

Read the original here:

Rams History: The Greatest Show on Turf was better than you think - Ramblin' Fan

From both famous and infamous, Mesa Cemetery holds history both for the city and the country.

MESA, Ariz. Over sections of green grass, surrounded by fencing, Vic Linoff searches for the next plot.

"It's a thrill," Linoff, a historian, said.

He's walking through Mesa's Cemetery, full of history, not just for the city, but the country too.

"Every one of these people had lives and some were ordinary, some were extraordinary," Linoff said.

Linoff sees the cemetery differently than some might, maybe because of those who stay here.

"There are over 38,000 permanent residents," Linoff said with a smile. "Not winter visitors, permanent residents."

Linoff said that's nearly the population of Sun City.

The cemetery is technically full, Linoff said, but it's been expanded and more land has been recently acquired by the City of Mesa to keep expanding.

One of those 38,000 includes Waylon Jennings, the legendary musician who pioneered the outlaw movement in country music.

"Usually you can spot it because it's probably the most visited grave in the cemetery," Linoff said.

Jennings' black stone grave marker, with a picture of his smiling face, stands out from the others in its row. It's larger, and one of the more decorated ones in the row.

On this particular day, the marker has flowers and a can of beer, along with coins left by people who've stopped by.

It's not the only grave of someone well-known in the city's cemetery.

"In the confines of this cemetery is one of the most infamous people in US history," Linoff said.

Linoff is referring to the grave of Ernesto Miranda, of Miranda Rights.

Even though in June, the Supreme Court ruled police officers can't be sued if they don't properly tell people under arrest of those rights.

"That resulted in a major change in which the way arrests were made," Linoff said, referring to the original Supreme Court case.

In between their graves, lie many who most passing by may not know.

"Every one of these headstones tells some story," Linoff said.

But their graves and stories are still equally important. Among them, include Dr. Lucious Alston, an African American doctor who lived in the Washington-Escobedo neighborhood.

"He was practicing medicine when there was significant segregation in the city," Linoff said.

Others, hold special plaques, marking those who spent 177 days aboard the Brooklyn Pioneer and survived. The ship made the trek from the east coast to the west coast.

"They got blown off course, almost to Africa, had to go all the way around South America," Linoff said.

Their graves lie in the older portion of the cemetery. It's easier to spot with actual headstones versus grave markers.

Some of the graves in the cemetery weren't even originally buried at the current location off of Center Street and Brown Road.

The first location of Mesa's cemetery was built just south of there at Center Street and University Drive in 1183. But Linoff said the smallpox outbreak gave evidence that the city would need more room to bury people.

Linoff said Native Americans were hired to dig up those graves at the original site and move them to the current cemetery in 1891.

Still, others have graves that go unmarked. Like Alexander McPherson's grave.

"He was the first African-American that we know of to take residency within the city limits," Linoff said.

The limits of the cemetery hold children, mothers, fathers and good Mesa High School football players.

"There's so many sad stories in the cemetery, this is one of the saddest," Linoff said, standing in front of a dark-colored headstone.

Zedo Ishikawa was just 17 years old when he died. Linoff said he accidentally shot himself while trying to separate a pair of fighting dogs.

As he was dying, he left a final message for his teammates.

"Tell the boys to 'carry on', and 'carry on' has been a rallying cry of Mesa High ever since," Linoff said.

It's those who've passed, impacting those now present in Mesa.

"It's representative of the population we have today," Linoff said.

Linoff is also part of the group that helps give tours of the Mesa Cemetery each October, highlighting even more of the graves that lie there.

For 2022, the Mesa Historical Museum will hold its cemetery tours on October 22 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. More information can be found here.

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'Every one of these headstones tells some story': From local to nationwide, Mesa Cemetery holds history of community around it - 12news.com KPNX

Verdes (she/they) is a queer, nonbinary dyke. She is the board president of Lambda Archives of San Diego and lives in Normal Heights.

The significance of knowing our history as queer people is that the past helps us to make sense of the present and who we are as a community. We should expect, and welcome, that people with different lived experiences dont always see the past the same way. We all use history to make meaning of our sense of identity and the role that our lives and actions play in our collective history. Its important to recognize the difference between memory and history. Memory is something that we own. History is something to be interpreted (and reinterpreted) as time goes on.

Many recognize the Stonewall Uprising, for example, as the start of our modern LGBTQ+ movement. The Stonewall Uprising occurred in response to state-sanctioned violence where the queer community fought back against police raids at the Stonewall Inn in New York City over five days in June 1969. Although it was clearly a significant historical event, there are many other well-documented events where similar raids and subsequent riots took place, thereby quashing the narrative that Stonewall was the genesis of the modern LGBTQ+ movement. Chief among these other incidents are the Pepper Hill Club Raid, Baltimore, 1955; the Coopers Do-Nuts Raid, Los Angeles, 1959; the Black Nite Brawl, Milwaukee, 1961; the Comptons Cafeteria Raid, San Francisco, 1966; and the Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, 1967.

In June 1970, gay rights activists marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising with a march on Central Park the first LGBT Pride parade. Similar events began to develop and continue throughout the world to this day. In San Diego, our first permitted Pride did not occur until 1975, but the local gay rights movement had experienced a boost in momentum in the years leading up to what would eventually become our annual Pride parade and festival. Locally, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was started by Jess Jessop, widely known as one of the key figures in the fight for our modern LGBTQ+ movement. Jessop, who was a student at San Diego State University at the time, started the San Diego GLF to explicitly serve gay students.

The GLFs focus expanded and, in 1973, it formed the Gay Information Center hotline, which would eventually become the San Diego LGBTQ Community Center. The following year, the center held a Stonewall Anniversary yard sale and potluck in an effort to fundraise for the fledgling LGBTQ center. This event is the backdrop of one of the most contentious aspects of our local history surrounding Pride, with some arguing that there was a spontaneous march in 1974 that many recognize as the first Pride in San Diego while others insist that the first Pride technically occurred (with the proper permits) in 1975.

Before Pride became its own nonprofit and had a board of directors, ad hoc committees would meet to plan Pride parades and rallies and eventually added a festival. Thanks to the efforts of Christine Kehoe, Neil Good and other community members, San Diego Pride hired its first ever executive director, which then led to Pride becoming its own nonprofit in 1994. Like any other worthwhile effort, it took community muscle and organizing for the organization and our movement to become what it is today.

The heated disagreement that often happens with regard to our local history is significant because it demonstrates how important it is for all of us to solidify our place within the narrative that becomes our shared history. The point is not to discredit the advances made during the Stonewall Uprising or to discredit those who claim to have marched in the first San Diego Pride March in 1974. The point is to recognize and celebrate that our queer movement, both locally, nationally and globally is, and has always been, made up of the efforts of many.

We are all a part of the fabric that makes up our collective history. This includes every memory weaved together every year during Pride. It includes the way that leather daddies, dykes on bikes and the pansexual community march alongside each other during the parade. It includes the way that our elders and transgender youth coexist at the festival. Pride is made up of all of our efforts, big and small, and although our history is shared, our individual memories at each and every Pride are ours to keep and carry with us.

Read more:

Opinion: Knowing the history of San Diego Pride helps us make sense of who we are as a community - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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The NY Giants have seen several players with immense talent come and go over the years. Linebacker is no exception, as this position has arguably seen the most talent during the Giants history.

In the greater aspect of the NFL, likely no other teams historic linebackers compare to that of Big Blue. Especially towards the top of the list.In order to, in our opinion, accurately put into order the top 10 linebackers of all time, there will be multiple different factors that come into consideration.

Something to keep in mind is that the NFL did not officially start tracking tackles until 1994, and sacks until 1982. With this some players have their tackles listed by official sites online, and others dont. However, that doesnt take anything away from the guys on our list. Here are the 10 best linebackers in NY Giants history:

While Brian Kelley, who posted eight sacks and 15 interceptions in 143 games, may be the most forgotten of the famous crunch bunch, he was still a nightmare on the field during his time. Despite not having any tackles recorded on official sites, older NY Giants fans will tell you just how great Kelley was.

After being selected in the 14th round of the 1973 NFL Draft, Kelley would not see the field that much in his first fall, only starting in six games. However, things would only go up hill for the 22 year old. After his sophomore season in the NFL, Kelley would start in every game he played in for the remainder of his career.

Kelley was a part of the legendary crunch bunch linebacker core. This featured some of the other players on this list whom of which we will not spoil.Despite never making a Pro Bowl or winning a Super Bowl, Kelley was a very special talent.

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Ranking the Top 10 linebackers in NY Giants history - GMEN HQ

BLOOMINGTON Most visitors to the McLean County Museum of Historyare there either to experience the architecture of the former courthouse or explore the local history documented within, including the area's ties to Abraham Lincoln.

But once they reach the main floor and begin to look up, another key historic space is visible but not accessible to the general public. The clocktower dome towers above the downtown Bloomington skyline;inside the museum, the rotunda rises over 100 feet in the center of the building and is finished at the top with a painting said to represent peace and prosperity.

The clocktower dome above the McLean County Museum of History formerly the county's courthouse also appears as part of the county symbol.

Museum officials last week agreed to give a tour of the dome interior to Pantagraph journalists as part of a new series, "Off Limits," that seeks to offer a glimpse into places that are typically restricted.

That's not to say that you couldn't get a peek inside the dome yourself. Museum staff offer tours as an incentive for small groups or individuals who have either won a prize in a raffle or raised money for another nonprofit.

Jeff Woodard, director of marketing and community relations, said he'll bring prospective staff members up during the interview process.

A view from inside the dome of the McLean County Museum of History.

Maybe 10 or 20 years from now, when they might even have their own kids, people will look from a distance and see this dome and theyll never look at this building the same again," he said.

Keeping county time

The museum inhabits the former McLean County Courthouse, which was built between 1900 and 1903 after the Great Fire of June 1900. In the 1960s, it was determined that the courthouse was not large enough to support all the courtrooms, government offices and employees based there.

Instead of razing and replacing the building with something newer, the courthouse was preserved, and the Mclean County Historical Society entered an agreement with the county to be a tenant of the building in 1991.

Jeff Woodard, director of marketing and community relations, speaks about the history of the dome that sits atop the McLean County Museum of History. Behind him, the signatures of former staff members and other visitors can be seen on the walls.

Inside the dome itself, names from past workers, local officials and residents line the brick walls holding up the four individual sides of the clocktower. The original "brain" of the clock sits off to the side, while the new digital system moves the hands each minute, Woodard said.

A bell and a clock were both key parts of historical McLean County courthouse buildings. The county's third courthouse the immediate predecessor to the building that now houses the history museum was built in 1868 and in service by 1871, when a bell was added to summon parties to court sessions. A clock was installed in the tower in 1878, and it was decided that the bell would toll every hour and half-hour.

In those days, the county's clock provided an important standard for its residents.

A view of the McLean County Museum of History, looking down from above.

Greg Koos, executive director emeritus at the museum, said the whole notion of having public time can be foreign concept to most, but at the time, county leaders were proud of their ability to provide a precise time to all.

For example, the board of supervisors of McLean County would set their watches to the courthouse clock, and they would bring that back to Saybrook or Arrowsmith or wherever they were from as an official county time, Koos said.

Jeff Woodard, director of marketing and community relations, walks around a narrow way to get to the interior of the dome of the McLean County Museum of History.

Preserving that piece is important to us and I think for the community as part of the overall architecture of the building; then theres a sonic component which is the bell, Koos said. The unique voice of that bell has been part of the sonic environment of downtown Bloomington since 1868.

Records said the original clock in the current history museum building was a Johnson Pneumatic Time System that would release a gallon of water every 60 seconds, creating air pressure that moved the clock hands forward.

In August 1959, lightning struck the dome, stopping the clocks at 3:39 a.m. Starting in the 1970s, the clocks didn't work reliably, and by the 1990s they didn't work at all. New driver motors were installed in 2000.

In the mid-2000s, the museum undertook extensive restoration efforts that saw the dome clad in new copper. In 2005, close to 400 residents gathered in the old courthouse to hear the bell ring for the first time in 50 years, according to museum records.

The rotunda rises over 100 feet in the center of the building and is finished at the top with an allegorical painting representing peace and prosperity.

Today, the bell no longer rings on the hour and half-hour, but can be rung on special occasions.

Koos said he worked in the history museum for 30 years, but never ran out of aspects to marvel at.

Every day there was a new way of looking at what was there, Koos said. I recall walking to work and coming on a foggy day and seeing this beautiful stone building gently unfolding itself in a deep fog. Theres just so many different ways to experience it, and it was an ever-changing opportunity to see something new.

Gathering place

In many ways, the former courthouse still remains at the heart of the county. The silhouette of the dome appears on the official McLean County symbol. A variety of community groups host events inside the building, and demonstrations of all kinds frequently take place in the plaza outside.

This door leads to a closer view of the dome at the McLean County Museum of History.

Museum Executive Director Julie Emig said one of her main goals was to get word out that the museum is not just a place to access stories and history, but a space for the community to use for events, meetings and dialogue.

Whatever the issue, whatever the topic, people come here to gather and we just ask that they give us a heads up, Emig said. I always keep the county (government) in the loop about anything thats happening because they own the building and as long as people are gathered peacefully and all of that, we love hosting for whoever needs a space.

During the month of June, the museum hung Pride flags donated by a community member off the railing of the rotunda. Currently, the Bloomington Public Library is hosting most of its programs there as the library is under construction, Emig said.

As for tours of the clocktower dome, Emig said it is something they offer as an incentive for small groups or individuals who have either won a prize in a raffle or have raised money for another nonprofit but only if the groups or individuals are physically abled to do so.

Jeff Woodard, director of marketing and community relations, speaks about the history of the McLean County Museum of History.

Another goal is to continue to partner with all religious organizations in the community and really amplify holidays that significant to them and use the dome as a centerpiece for rotating displays while providing background information, Emig said. Were really committed to revamping our entrance so its much more of a welcoming place, turning it into a plaza, making the entrance more of a centerpiece and creating more space for people to gather. All of that should really ratchet up what it is we want to communicate about what's underneath the dome.

For Woodard, the memory of first coming to the museum as a volunteer in 2000 is crystallized.

He walked in the front entrance, which was on the east side of the building on Main Street at the time, walked up the stairs to first floor and looked up.

I was just shocked because Im just a big fan of architecture and was hooked on it, but to come up here and actually see this space from the inside and see the mechanical working and all the craftsmanship that goes into it. Thats what it means to me, Woodard said.

And then have the ability to just continue to do that for people, offer that authentic experience and totally engage the public," he said. "This is the center of the county and you cant get any more central than this.

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Off Limits: Explore the dome at the McLean County Museum of History - The Pantagraph

Through far-reaching military conquests and benevolent rule, Cyrus the Great transformed a small group of semi-nomadic tribes into the mighty Persian Empire, the ancient world's first superpower,in less than 15 years.

Cyrus the Great (second from left), on a horse-drawn chariot, as he is driven into the city of Ecbatana

Photo by Science Source/Photo Researchers History/Getty Images

Born around 600 B.C., the founder of the First Persian Empire(also known as the Achaemenid Empire)belonged to the semi-nomadic Pasargadae tribe, which raised sheep, goats and cattle in the southwest of present-day Iran. Little is definitively known about the youth or lineage of Cyrus the Great (also known as Cyrus II) except that he was part of the Achaemenid royal family through either birth or marriage.

Five years after ascending to the throne in 558 B.C. as a vassal king of the Median Empire (which controlled most of present-day Iran), Cyrus united the chiefs of other Persian tribes and led a rebellion against the Median king Astyages. With the aid of the a defecting Median general, Cyrus defeatedAstyages'forces at the Battle of Pasargadae and seized the capital of Ecbatana in 550 B.C.

The once-subjugated Persians had become the conquerors. Rather than seeking vengeance, however, as ruler Cyrus demonstratedclemency and restraint. He bestowed a princely retirement upon Astyages, kept Ecbatana intact as his summer capital and gave Median nobles high positions in his court and army. But his mercy had its limits: He hadAstyages'son-in-law and grandchildren killed because he saw them as threats to his power.

The ascendancy of Cyrus troubled Croesus, the king of Lydia, which occupied the western half of present-day Turkey. As he contemplated an attack on the rising power of now-neighboring Persia, Croesus dispatched a messenger to consult the Greek Oracle at Delphi. If Croesus goes to war, he will destroy a great empire, the medium to the gods was said to have reported.

Buoyed by the divine message, Croesus led a huge army across the Halys River and attacked the Persians in 547 B.C. After an indecisive battle, Cyrus surprised the retreating Lydian forces by following them through the wintertime cold toward the capital of Sardis.

With his Persian forces outnumbered in the decisive Battle of Thymbra, Harpagus, thedefecting Median general,mounted cavalrymen on the armys baggage camels and placed them at the front of the battle line. The stench of the camels so repelled the charging Lydian horses that they bolted from the battlefield.Retreating inside the walls of Sardis, the Lydians eventually surrendered after a Persian siege.

The oracles words to Croesus had proven true. An empire had been destroyedbut it was his.

As with the Medes, Cyrus adopted a conciliatory approach to the Lydians. He kept the treasury at Sardis and brought Croesus into his court. He permitted local cultures, religions and laws to be maintained, which helped him gain the loyalty of his new subjects. Cyrus was able to quickly assimilate or take over the existing administrative structures of the places he conquered, often leaving local elites in place, says John W. I. Lee, a professor of history at University of California, Santa Barbara.

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The Persian kings leniency was hardly absolute, however. When the aristocrats in charge of the Lydian treasury revolted, Cyrus had the rebels executed and their followers enslaved. The general Harpagus followed the conquest of Lydia by brutally laying siege to Greek settlements in Ionia, forcing many to migrate to Italy and abandon entire cities.

There is a lot of myth-making, both ancient and modern, about Cyrus as a benevolent ruler, Lee says. While Cyrus was certainly tolerant of local customs and religions and although he worked with local elites, contemporary documents such as cuneiform tablets show that the Persian Empire, like all empires, was focused on extracting wealth and labor powerincluding through slaveryfrom the people it conquered.

The siege of Babylon by Cyrus the Great

Print by Gilbert. Photo by Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images

As the Persian Empire grew, its military strengthened. Cyrus developed an elite corps of mounted warriors who were skilled at shooting arrows on horseback and deployed war chariots with blades attached to the wheels. His troops seem to have been highly motivated and well trained, and Cyrus himself appears to have been an inspirational leader, Lee says. He seems to have been able to move his armies more rapidly than enemies anticipated, even during winter.

After his army vanquished territories east of Persia, Cyrus set his sights on conquering the last remaining major power in the west of Asiathe Neo-Babylonian Empire.

In 539 B.C., Persian forces invaded the wealthy, fertile empire and routed the Babylonian army to seize the strategic cityof Opison the Tigris River. A week later, the Persian army reached the walls of Babylon, the ancient worlds largest city, and seized it without a fight.

According to the Cyrus Cylinder, a barrel-shaped piece of clay with Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions that was unearthed in 1879, the Persian king triumphantly entered Babylon in peace, amidst joy and jubilation.

Shortly after Babylons fall, Cyrus liberated the Babylonian Jews who had been forced into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar II after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem 50 years earlier. Released from their Babylonian exile, many returned to their spiritual home in Jerusalem.The Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament extols Cyrus as being anointed by God to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor.

With the conquest of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire sprawled from the Aegean Sea in the west to the Indus River in the east.Cyrus had created one of thelargest empiresthe ancient worldhad ever seen and was able to boast (per the Cyrus Cylinder): I am Cyrus, king of the universe.

Little is known about the death of Cyrus, which occurred around 529 B.C. By some accounts, he died of a battlefield wound during a military campaign on the empires eastern frontier. His body was returned to Pasargadae, placed in a gold sarcophagus and laid to rest in an immense stone tomb oriented toward the rising sun.

Cyrus was succeeded by his son, Cambyses II, who continued to spread the boundaries of the empire by conquering another ancient civilization in Egypt. The Persian Empire remained prosperous and stable for two centuries until it fell in 330 B.C. to the armies of Alexander the Great.

WATCH: Engineering an Empire on HISTORY Vault

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How Cyrus the Great Turned Ancient Persia Into a Superpower - History