Hiawatha

Hiawatha (also known as Ayenwatha, Aiionwatha, or Haiëñ'wa'tha in Onondaga) was a pre-colonial Native American leader and co-founder of the Iroquois confederacy. Depending on the version of the narrative, he was a leader of the Onondaga, or the Mohawk or both. According to some versions, he was born an Onondaga, but adopted into the Mohawk.

Hiawatha was a follower of the Great Peacemaker (Deganawida), a Huron prophet and spiritual leader who proposed the unification of the Iroquois peoples, who shared common ancestry and similar languages. The Great Peacemaker was a compelling spiritual presence, but was impeded in evangelizing his prophecy by foreign affiliation and a severe speech impediment. Hiawatha, a skilled and charismatic orator, was instrumental in persuading the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks to accept the Great Peacemaker's vision and band together to become the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy. The Tuscarora nation joined the Confederacy in 1722 to become the Sixth Nation.

Olympian Hiawatha

The Olympian and its successor the Olympian Hiawatha were passenger trains operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (the "Milwaukee Road") between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. The Olympian operated from 1911 to 1947 and was, along with its running mate the Columbian, the first all-steel train to operate in the Pacific Northwest. The streamlined Olympian Hiawatha operated from 1947 to 1961 and was one of several Milwaukee Road trains to carry the name "Hiawatha." The Olympian Hiawatha was designed by industrial designer Brooks Stevens and included the distinctive glassed-in "Skytop" observation-sleeping cars. It later featured full-length "Super Dome" cars.

History

Heavyweight Olympian

In 1909 the Milwaukee Road opened the "Puget Sound extension" from South Dakota to Seattle and Tacoma, completing the last line from Chicago to the coast. The Milwaukee Road ordered cars for two new all-steel luxury trains to run Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Paul-Seattle-Tacoma. The two new trains debuted on May 28, 1911. They were the first all-steel trains to operate in the Pacific Northwest. The Milwaukee Road named the two trains the Olympian and Columbian. The Olympian took 72 hours between Chicago and Seattle, necessitating seven sets of equipment to cover the service. Starting in 1914 the Olympian used the route of the Union Pacific Railroad to serve Spokane, Washington.

Super Dome (railcar)

The Super Dome was a dome lounge built by Pullman-Standard for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("Milwaukee Road") in 1952. The ten Super Domes were the first full-length dome cars in revenue service, first operating on the Olympian Hiawatha and Twin Cities Hiawatha in late 1952. Although a mixed blessing in passenger use, the cars garnered much publicity for the Milwaukee Road and several remain in operation.

Design

The first successful dome design in the United States was the "Vista Dome." The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad ("CB&Q") rebuilt a stainless steel Budd-built coach in their shops in Aurora, Illinois, with the Vista Dome design imagined and sketched by Cyrus Osborn. The dome area featured seats positioned lengthwise in the cabin facing double-pane windows which were designed to improve insulation. On July 23, 1945, the car was tested in the consist of the Twin Cities Zephyr. No fewer than five Budd-built domes would be found in each equipment set of the new California Zephyr when it debuted in 1949. Not to be outdone, Pullman delivered its first four domes, which it dubbed "Astra Liners", in 1947 for use on the Union Pacific Railroad.

Wackiki Wabbit

Wackiki Wabbit is a 1943 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, starring Bugs Bunny. It was written by Tedd Pierce and directed by Chuck Jones. Voices were provided by Mel Blanc (Bugs), Tedd Pierce (the tall, thin man), and Michael Maltese (the short, fat man - the two men's appearances are rough caricatures of the actual men). The musical score was conducted by Carl Stalling.

Wackiki Wabbit is notable for its experimental use of strongly graphic, nearly abstract backgrounds. The title is a double play on words, with "Wackiki" suggesting both the island setting (as in "Waikiki") as well as suggesting "wacky" (crazy) along with the usual Elmer Fudd speech pronunciation of "rabbit", although Elmer does not appear in this picture.

This cartoon has fallen to the public domain after United Artists (successor to Associated Artists Productions) failed to renew the copyright on time. The cartoon can be found, restored, on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3.

Plot

The cartoon opens with two castaways adrift on a small raft in the middle of the ocean, underscored with "Asleep in the Deep". Delirious from hunger, they start imagining each other (or even their own limbs) as food. They spot an island in the distance and rush ashore, underscored by "Down Where the Trade Winds Play", a song used several times in the cartoon (and in others, such as Gorilla My Dreams), where they meet Bugs Bunny, who is munching on his carrot as usual. To his friendly, "What's the good word, strangers?" they answer "FOOD!" and start after Bugs, who leaps away on a vine with a Tarzan yell.

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad

The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (often referred to as the Milwaukee Road) (reporting mark MILW), was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1980, when its Pacific Extension (Montana, Idaho, and Washington) was abandoned following a bankruptcy. The eastern half of the system merged into the Soo Line Railroad on January 1, 1986. The company went through several official names and faced bankruptcy several times in that period. The railroad no longer exists as a separate entity, but much of its trackage continues to be used by its successor and other roads, and is commemorated in buildings like the historic Milwaukee Road Depot in Minneapolis, Minnesota and in railroad hardware still maintained by railfans, such as the Milwaukee Road 261 steam locomotive.

At the end of 1970 it operated 10,448 miles of road on 15,295 miles of track, not including subsidiary Washington Idaho & Montana. That year it carried 17,510 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 267 million passenger-miles.