Betcha y’all didn’t know 134

[953 nut 65,846]

May 14, 1904, The Third Olympiad of the modern era, and the first Olympic Games to be held in the United States, opens in St. Louis, Missouri. The 1904 Games were actually initially awarded to Chicago, Illinois, but were later given to St. Louis to be staged in connection with the St. Louis World Exposition. Like the Second Olympiad, held in Paris in 1900, the St. Louis Games were poorly organized and overshadowed by the world’s fair.

There were few entrants other than Americans in the various events, and, expectedly, U.S. athletes won a majority of the competitions and the unofficial team championship. In the field events, the Americans made a near-perfect sweep, winning everything but lifting the bar and throwing the 56-pound weight. Twenty years later, the first truly successful Olympic Games were held in Paris, and since then, with increasing popularity, the games have been held in various cities around the globe.

[ri702bill 12,062]

Note to self - do not conduct two world wide events at the same time & place. About as offbeat as popping a surprize wedding on all in attendance at a family reunion....

[953 nut 65,846]

10 hours ago, ri702bill said:

Note to self - do not conduct two world wide events at the same time & place. About as offbeat as popping a surprize wedding on all in attendance at a family reunion....

Particularly if the bride to be and the groom to be already are members of the family.     

[wh500special 2,401]

Those Olympic Games were held on the grounds of Washington University where I went to college.  Of course I was there 90 years late to watch anything. 

 

There are some funny stories about the STL Olympics.   Some marathon runners were reportedly shuttled closer to the finish line via automobile or carriage.  Weather was apparently characteristically hot and humid and many athletes suffered heat related ailments.  
 

There is some debate on whether the relocation of the event ftom Chicago to STL was a negotiated thing or more of a thievery.   The more I read, the more it sounds like it wasn’t a mutual agreement. 
 

1904 was a big year for St. Louis with the World’s Fair and the Olympics both happening.  The former claims to have given us ice cream cones and iced tea, the latter has been considered the first modern Olympics.  
 

Many temporary buildings were erected for the Fair and Olympics and some remain in Forest Park which still serves as home to an amazing zoo and some world class attractions.  Most of which have completely free admission.  
 

I literally just got home from the zoo an hour ago.  My daughter is home ftom college and it’s a beautiful day so we ran over to the zoo to walk around for a while and see what’s new. We go probably 10 times a year at least.  I’m not a zoo nut, but since we traveled quite a bit with the kids when they were little we’ve been to a lot of them.  Indy, Washington, San Diego, Cincinnati, Chicago…STL’s absolutely holds its own against the best of them and you can spend 15 minutes or all day and get your money’s worth either way. 

Come to STL

 

Steve
 

 

[Beap52 2,225]

Went for electric bike ride this afternoon along the abandoned Fresno RR tracks that was made into a bicycle trail..  Our destination was Graydon Springs about half way between Bolivar and Springfield Missouri.  The signboard was too faded to clearly read but one sentence that stood out was "Graydon Springs water won first prize for mineral content and purity at 1904 St. Louis World's Fair."

 

Graydon Springs is now a dead RR town that folks used to travel to for the mineral water spring.  We had no idea of the first place win at the world's fair for such a small town.  The photo is one I found on Facebook and is much clearer than the one we tried to read along the tracks.