Flower Mound, Texas

Flower Mound is an incorporated town located in Denton and Tarrant counties in the U.S. state of Texas. Located northwest of Dallas and northeast of Fort Worth adjacent to Grapevine Lake, the town derives its name from a prominent 12.5-acre (5.1 ha) mound located in the center of town.

After settlers used the site for religious camps during the 1840s, the area around Flower Mound was first permanently inhabited in the 1850s; however, residents did not incorporate until 1961. Although an effort to create a planned community failed in the early 1970s, Flower Mound's population increased substantially when Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport opened to the south in 1974. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 64,699, reflecting a 28 percent increase over the 50,702 counted in the 2000 Census. Flower Mound is the largest town in terms of population in Texas, and the only town with a population greater than 20,000.

Flower Mound's municipal government, operating under a council–manager system, has invested in a public park system highlighted by an extensive network of trails. The town's public schools comprise part of the Lewisville Independent School District. With its moderately affluent population and proximity to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Flower Mound has used a smart growth system for urban planning, and has recently experienced more rapid light industrial growth to match the growing needs of the primarily residential community. In 2012, Flower Mound was ranked at #8 as one of the Best Dallas Suburbs according to D Magazine.

Mound

A mound is an artificial heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. The most common use is in reference to natural earthen formation such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. The term may also be applied to any rounded area of topographically higher elevation on any surface. Artificial mounds have been created for a variety of reasons throughout history, including ceremonial (platform mound), burial (tumulus), and commemorative purposes (e.g. Kościuszko Mound).

Archaeology

North American archaeology

In the archaeology of the United States and Canada, the term "mound" has specific and technical connotations. In this sense, a mound is a deliberately constructed elevated earthen structure or earthwork, intended for a range of potential uses. In European and Asian archaeology, the word "tumulus" may be used as a synonym for an artificial hill, particularly if the hill is related to particular burial customs.

While the term "mound" may be applied to historic constructions, most mounds in the United States are pre-Columbian earthworks, built by Native American peoples. Native Americans built a variety of mounds, including flat-topped pyramids or cones known as platform mounds, rounded cones, and ridge or loaf-shaped mounds. Some mounds took on unusual shapes, such as the outline of cosmologically significant animals. These are known as effigy mounds. Some mounds, such as a few in Wisconsin, have rock formations, or petroforms within them, on them, or near them.

Marching band

A marching band is a group in which instrumental musicians perform for entertainment, and prepare for a competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear some kind of uniform (often of a military style) that includes the school or organization's name or symbol.

Marching bands are generally categorized by function, size, age, gender, instruments and by the style of show they perform. In addition to traditional parade performances, many marching bands also perform field shows at special events like competitions. Increasingly, marching bands perform indoor concerts that implement many songs, traditions, and flair from outside performances.

History

Band is a general term for an instrumental group. The marching band originated with traveling musicians who performed together at festivals and celebrations throughout the ancient world. It evolved and became more structured within the armies of early city-states, becoming the basis for the military band, from which the modern marching band emerged. As musicians became less important in directing the movement of troops on the battlefield, the bands moved into increasingly ceremonial roles. This intermediate stage led to the modern instrumentation and music for marching bands. Many military traditions survive in modern marching band. Bands that march in formation are often ordered to "dress their ranks" and "cover down your file." They may be called to "attention," and given orders such as "about face" and "forward march." Uniforms of many marching bands still resemble military uniforms.

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs. Flowers may facilitate outcrossing (fusion of sperm and eggs from different individuals in a population) or allow selfing (fusion of sperm and egg from the same flower). Some flowers produce diaspores without fertilization (parthenocarpy). Flowers contain sporangia and are the site where gametophytes develop. Flowers give rise to fruit and seeds. Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to cause them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen.

In addition to facilitating the reproduction of flowering plants, flowers have long been admired and used by humans to beautify their environment, and also as objects of romance, ritual, religion, medicine and as a source of food.

Mound Westonka High School

Mound Westonka High School is a grades 8–12 public high school in Mound, Minnesota. Mound Westonka competes in the Wright County Conference. Mound Westonka, located west of Lake Minnetonka, serves the westernmost portion of the lake and is located west of Minnetonka and south of Orono. Mound Westonka houses over 900 students in grades 8-12. It began as Mound Consolidated High School, which opened in the fall of 1917 in downtown Mound as part of District 85. In 1958, District 85 became Westonka District 277. In the fall of 1971, Mound High School was relocated several miles to a new building at its present location in Minnetrista and “Westonka” was added to its name. Mound High School adopted the “Mohawk” mascot in the 1930s, in part because Mound was named for the ancient Indian mounds located within its borders. In the fall of 1997, the school mascot was changed to the White Hawks.

History

Mound Westonka High School was founded as Mound High School.

Awards & Recognitions