Giant Lizard Species Found in the Philippines

All too often we are hearing about how yet another species of animal is dangerously close to extinction so I really love reading news like this.

While he is nothing new to residents of the Philippine islands Western scientists have found a giant lizard species that is new to them.

It's a brilliantly colored, 6 ft. (1.8m) relative of the Komodo dragon named Varanus bitatawa. It has huge, curved claws that it uses to climb trees and has a diet of the fruit of the Pandanus trees.

For the past 10 years scientists had heard rumors of the giant lizard and even saw photographs of the animal being carried by hunters in 2001. In 2005, two different groups obtained young Varanus bitatawas but, for some reason, didn't collect genetic samples. In July of 2009, scientists embarked on a two month expedition to find the lizard they'd only heard stories of. Near the end of their expedition, they finally found an adult male that had been captured in the snares of a tribal hunter.

Genetic analysis, along with it's coloring, scales, body size and reproductive anatomy has confirmed the Varanus bitatawa as a new species.

You can read further about this exciting new find, and see photographs of the Varanus bitatawa here and here.

This is the sort of news I'd love to see every day when I check the headlines!

Stark Raving Mad: A Show That Should Be On DVD But Isn't

Batty, bonkers, crazy
Loopy, loony, hazy
Chaotic, neurotic, peculiar and amazing
Demented, deranged, particularly strange
Frantic, raving, shaky, flaky, making me insane!

After he was an immigrant cabbie in Wings and before he became an obsessive compulsive detective in Monk there was Stark Raving Mad. In this short lived NBC series Tony Shalhoub was the exact opposite of Detective Monk when he played Ian Stark, an off the wall horror writer with a twisted sense of humor.

Fresh off the success of his first novel, Below Ground, horror novelist Ian Stark (Tony Shalhoub) is assigned a new editor, Henry McNeeley (Neil Patrick Harris). Henry has many "issues": he is a germaphobe, easily-frightened, claustrophobic, asthmatic with vertigo and a serious-minded Yale graduate who doesn't fit in with Ian's bizarre way of doing things.

Jake Donovan (Eddie McClintock), Ian's live-in typist is short in the smarts department but tops in the humor department. He delivers enough great lines to keep the viewer constantly laughing and waiting to see what bonehead thing he will do next. McClintock does a brilliant job with not only the verbal aspect of the comedy but the physical aspect as well. Sometimes the things he does are just as funny as what he says.



Maddie Keller (Heather Paige Kent) is Ian's good friend and neighbor. Her dream is to be a psychologist so she works at the bar that is downstairs in the building she and Ian live in to pay her way through community college. She dates more than her fair share of men and has anger management issues. As Ian so eloquently puts it about Maddie "she's my only normal friend".

Topping off the cast of characters is Tess Farraday (Dorie Barton), Henry's long-time girlfriend. She's a spoiled rich girl who loves getting her own way and will often stop at nothing to get it, even going so far as trying to fix up Ian and Maddie (with hilarious results).

Fans of the show remember the classic Halloween episode where Ian insists Henry get back at his cousin who terrorized him on the holiday as a child. Henry is reluctant to do so but after a bit of teasing from his cousin he agrees to Ian's plan. Things don't quite work out the way they are supposed, however.

While every single episode is fantastic, others stand out in the only season of Stark Raving Mad such as "The Pigeon". Ian knocks a pigeons nest off his balcony while boxing with Jake. Despite a chastising from Jake, Ian doesn't give the eggs a second thought, that is, until he becomes convinced Mama Pigeon is stalking him to seek revenge for her eggs. "Four Colds & A Funeral", "The Stalker", "The Dance" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much" are other stellar episodes.

Notable Guest Stars: Steven Weber (Brian Hackett from Wings) appears as Ian's obsessed stalker "Rattlesnake Rod" in episode 8 "The Stalker". Kelsey Grammer of Frasier fame makes a guest appearance in episode 17 "The Grade" as Maddy's contemporary literature professor who gives her a "B" on a paper she turned in about "Below Ground"--a paper Ian and Henry wrote! Harriet Sansom Harris (known to Frasier fans as Bebe Glazer, Frasier's conniving agent) appears as Henry's boss, Audrey Radford. Much like her character on Frasier, Harris' Radford steals every scene she's in with her over the top behavior. Chris Sarandon appears twice as Audrey's husband, Cesar who is more interested in men than Audrey. Director Wes Craven appears in episode 18 "The Pigeon" as Terrance Sterling, a famous author who is Ian's idol.

With actors like the amazing Tony Shalhoub, the always fantastic Neil Patrick Harris, the adorable Eddie McClintock and very talented ladies like Kent and Barton it's unfortunate that Stark Raving Mad only had a run of 22 episodes from September 23, 1999 through mid 2000. The show was certainly capable of becoming a long-running series as it had strong characters, great humor and writing and excellent actors to present the material.

Hopefully, at some point Stark Raving Mad will be released on DVD so the fans of the show can finally have each and every episode in crystal clear quality so we won't have to watch the split episodes on You Tube to get our Stark Raving Mad fix! (Note: all 22 episodes can be found on You Tube here.)

Ian: You hugged the world's greatest childrens author to death.
Henry: I didn't kill anybody.
Ian: You didn't use a gun or knife, but, surely sir, you took his life.
Henry: Would you cut that out?
Ian: If you hadn't let him get so near ya, he wouldn't-a died from your bacteria.
Henry: Please, Ian, would you show some respect? My childhood hero just died.
Ian: No one's denied the man has died. His death is surely bonafied. But you must
confide, he wouldn't have died if you hadn't committed homicide.
Henry: Alright, I've heard enough. I'm leaving.
Jake: But still the children keep on gravy!
Ian: Grieving.
Jake: Grieving!
--Episode 4: "Four Colds & A Funeral"

Fort Heiman, Kentucky: 2002 Photographs

The photographs of the remains of Fort Heiman presented here were taken on June 8th, 2002.



This sign is located approximately one-half mile to one mile from the entrance to Fort Heiman. As you can see beneath the sign, there is information pertaining to the unfortunate development of the fort.



This sign is located approximately a few hundred feet past where the original entrance sign (this can be seen above) was located.



As difficult as it is to tell from this photograph, this is a trench. Upkeep on the Fort leaves much to be desired.



Another trench that has been taken over by underbrush.



This is a wonderful view of the Tennessee River was taken atop one of the many hills that comprise the Fort. This isn't too far from where the cemetery and ammunition bunker used to be.



Same as above.



This is a view of the Tennessee River taken not far from the cemetery and ammunition bunker. There is pretty much a straight drop to the river. When the water-level of the lake was low you used to be able to see the remains of an old road that existed, to my best guess, around the time of the War.



Same as above.



This is a trench directly across the road from the above photos. If you look very hard on the right of the photo is the road leading to where the cemetery and ammunition bunker was located.



Same as above.



Another view of the hill overlooking the Tennessee River described above.



Same as above.



Trench.



When the Fort was cut into tracts and sold this is the replacement for the old house (see photos above) originally located on top of one of Heiman's hills. The trench in the previous photo is in the back yard of this house. If you are in front of this house you have a magnificent view of the Tennessee River. The fifth, sixth and seventh photos I posted yesterday (the 1980's photos) were taken from that viewpoint before the Fort was sold. From the rock in photo number seven you can see the general area where Fort Henry once stood.



Another view of the trench.



Another view of the house.

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I hope you have enjoyed looking at these pictures and taking your "virtual tour" as much as I have enjoyed posting them for you.

If you have any information about Fort Heiman that you wouldn't mind sharing, please post in the comments or drop me a note and I will, with your permission, post the information or references you have. I will give proper credit.
As I find historical information regarding Fort Heiman I will be certain to share it with you.

Fort Heiman, Kentucky: 1980's Photographs

**In this, my second-to-last post about Fort Heiman, I will be sharing with you photographs I took when I was able to visit the fort with my family back in the mid-1980's. Please note that it has been a very long time since I've been to Fort Heiman. Anything I have marked in red as no longer being in existence was at the fort in the 80's but NOT there when I last visited on my own in 2002. If any of the signs that I have marked as being no longer in existence have been restored I am unaware of it at this time. While areas such as the ammunition bunker and empty Union cemetery surely still exist, the last time I was there extremely thick underbrush had overtaken the areas. I am hopeful that now the National Park Service owns Fort Heiman they will do whatever they can to restore these areas so they can be viewed once again.**



This is the sign signifying the outer defenses of the fort. This is no longer in existence.



This is the entrance sign leading from the main road back into the fort. This is no longer in existence.

This structure is no longer standing nor was it part of the original Civil War fort. To the best of my knowledge, this house was built by a former professor of Murray State University in the 1960's. The property it sat on is now private property as it was purchased when the fort was sold off. A new building, looking much like this one, has been constructed in its place. I would imagine the current owner assumed this building was "period" and copied its style for the structure he built. Tomorrow I will be posting a picture of the "new" house that was built to take the place of this.

The back and side of the old house. This side of the house was a large living room. The chimney belonged to a huge fireplace, suitable for cooking in. Walking out of the living room, was a kind of 'dog-trot' as my grandmother called it. (A dog trot is an open breeze way between two parts of a structure.) Across the dog trot was the kitchen of the house. The kitchen and living room were the only rooms I was ever in.

This photo, as is the one below, is the river view just before proceeding down a small path that is located in front of the old building. This view and the two photos below are now on private property and cannot be accessed.

This is a path in front of the building that leads to a very large rock. From this rock there is a magnificent view of the river. Standing or sitting on this rock, I couldn't imagine anyone not being able to dream of a little bit of the past. I vaguely remember also being able to see a path below the rock that may or may not have been some sort of road at one time.

The following three photographs are some of the trenches of the fort.

The sign reads: OLD POWDER MAGAZINE Here, Cannonballs & Black Powder
Were Stored For the FORT This is no longer in existence. I could not find the sign for this and the area where it was once located consists of very thick underbrush.

This is the Ammunition Bunker. When this photo was taken, it had rained just a few days prior which is why there is so much standing water in the bunker. While the bunker itself surely still does exist, (or I'd like to think it still does!) I could not find the sign for this and the area where it was once located consists of very thick underbrush.

The sign reads: EMPTY UNION CEMETERY After the Civil War The bodies were
taken home or reburied in Dover at the NATIONAL MILITARY CEMETERY. This is no longer in existence. I could not find the sign for this and the area where it was once located consists of very thick underbrush.

This is the where the empty Union cemetery is located. This is no longer in existence. I could not find the sign for this and the area where it was once located consists of very thick underbrush.

This is one of the final trenches you can see on your way out of the fort. The area where this is located consists of extremely thick underbrush.

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I hope you have enjoyed looking at these pictures and taking your "virtual tour" as much as I have enjoyed posting them for you. Tomorrow, I will be posting photographs taken in 2002.

If you have any information about Fort Heiman that you wouldn't mind sharing, please post in the comments or drop me a note and I will, with your permission, post the information or references you have. I will give proper credit.
As I find historical information regarding Fort Heiman I will be certain to share it with you.

Fort Heiman, Kentucky: Related Newspaper Articles

Ft. Heiman Proposed Stop on Civil War Trail

Murray Ledger & Times Monday, August 5, 2002

LOUISVILLE, Ky (AP)--State and economic development officials, Civil War buffs, university professors and local officials are working together to map out driving trails for tourists that promote Kentucky's role in the Civil War.

The idea is for motorists to follow marked highway routs to historic sites, stopping along the way to see displays about local skirmishes and take tours of places that became important during the conflict.

Sites along the three proposed trails include Fort Heiman, a Confederate outpost that fell to then-Brig. Gen. Ulysses Grant in 1862, and Octagon Hall, an eight-sided antebellum estate in Simpson County that served as a shelter for Confederate troops. Officials hope at least one trail will be ready by spring.

Kentucky officials don't have an estimate on how many visitors the trails might draw, but they see the approach as a package giving tourists a variety of places to visit.

"If we can make it that much easier for the visitor, I think it does increase not only tourists to the state, but it increases the level of satisfaction to those who come to the state," said Carole Summers, cultural heritage tourism coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Travel. "They have a better visit."

Kentucky never seceded from the Union, but as a border state its loyalties were divided. Both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, were natives of the state, and Union and Confederate forces battled for strategic points here until the war ended.

The three planned Kentucky trails are:

*The Cumberland Valley Trail, which will tell the importance that transportation routes played in the war. Trail sites include Octagon Hall, Camp Nicholas and a burial site of executed Confederate prisoners in Simpson County; Dumont Hill, an encampment at Allen Springs and guerrilla activity sites in Allen County; and Fort Webb, Riverview and Fort Albert Sidney Johnson in Warren County.

The Cumberland trail system runs along U.S. 31W in Warren and Simpson counties, Ky. 231 in Warren and Allen counties and Ky. 100 from Simpson County through Allen County. The trail also dips into six Tennessee communities.

*The John Hunt Morgan Trail, named for the Alabama-born cavalry leader whose raids reached the outskirts of Cincinnati. The trail will include links to Morgan trails in Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio.

The Morgan trail will show "the flow or the movement of that campaign as it was conceived by Gen. John Hunt Morgan, and actually what happened on that march," said Thomas Fugate, Civil War sites preservation coordinator for the Kentucky Heritage Council. The trail is a work in progress that includes sites in 16 counties and carves a north-south path down the middle of Kentucky.

*The Fort Heiman Trail in Calloway County. Fort Heiman is where the Union supply vessel Mazeppa, sunk by Confederate cavalry in 1864, sits on the bottom of the Tennessee River. Fort Heiman visitors can also see the remains of Fort Henry, on land partially submerged across the river, and it is near Fort Donelson in Tennessee.

The three forts guarded the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, cutting of river movement of Union soldiers and supplies until February 1862, when Grant-led Army-Navy join operation captured them.

The development costs, and estimated completion times, vary for the trail projects. The Morgan trail is expected to cost $231,700 and will be completed within six to nine months; the Cumberland Valley Trail will cost $48,680 and will be finished within six months after the project gets a state grant, which is blocked until the legislature passes a budget; and the Fort Heiman Trail will cost $750,000 and will be completed in the next two years. Plans call for Fort Heiman to become a part of the National Parks system.

The trails will take motorists down historic paths that run along federal, state and county roads. Along the way, signs will direct visitors to roadside exhibits featuring maps, brochures and other displays to help people understand the sites in a historic context.

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Below is the text and scans of the Saturday, June 15, 2002 Murray Ledger & Times newspaper article providing information about the federal land grant awarded to Calloway County towards the purchase of Fort Heiman.

Click on the thumbnails to see the full images.

City, County get funding for Miller Annex, Fort Heiman

By Edward Sheridan

Staff Writer

The four-day span of June 11 through June 14 may go down as one of the most propserous times in Calloway County history.

Just three days after welcoming the Pella Corporation and its new jobs to the local community, two grants administered through the Kentucky Department of Local Government were delivered to Murray Friday that will aid local preservation efforts.

A $60,000 federal land and water conservation grant was presented that will enable the Calloway County Fiscal Court to apply for additional funding to go toward the purchase of land where Civil War site Fort Heiman once stood. An additional $500,000 community development block grant from the department of local government was presented to the Murray Main Street program which will allow for the renovation of the Miller Courthouse Annex.

"This has been a great week for Murray and Calloway County and the entire region," state Sen. Bob Jackson (D-Murray) said during a check presentation ceremony held Friday afternoon on the steps of the courthouse annex.

Department of Local Government Commissioner and Calloway native Jody Lassiter added additional good news by announcing that the Fort Heiman project would not only receive the $60,000, but would also be eligible to add another $15,000 onto the grant total if efforts to preserve went above the original grant total.

"The $60,000 is going to be the first step to purchase the most important part of Fort Heiman," he said. "Before it's all done, Calloway County is going to have the second national park in Kentucky, as (Fort Heiman) becomes part of the Fort Donelson system."

According to Steve Zea, president of the West Kentucky Corporation, the entire $60,000--or $75,000--will be used to provide matching monies for a larger TEA 21 grant that, if approved, will be used to purchase the property. News on that grant could come within the next 30 days.

"They want to see an effort of other money," Zea said. "We're going to have to use this money to match the other money."

Whatever monies are acquired will be used to purchase the portions of Fort Heiman that are in the most danger of succumbing to commercial development. Much of the fort is currently under private ownership.

Additional federal monies for Fort Heiman could be on the way if it is included on the list of sites under consideration for the Vicksburg Train. U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) said during the ceremony that there is currently a technical corrections bill pending in Congress that would place Fort Heiman on that list.

Note: all portions of the article relevant to Fort Heiman end here. The remainder of the article deals with the grant to renovate the Murray Couthouse Annex.



Image Caption: Jody Lassiter DLG Commissioner



Image Caption: MORE MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS...From left, Commissioner for the Department for Local Government Jody Lassiter, Senator Bob Jackson, Sandy Forrest, Calloway County Judge Executive Larry Elkins and Murray Mayor Freed Curd display a check for $500,000 for community development and preservations projects for Murray and Calloway County and a check for $60,000 for the Fort Heiman Civil War Preservation. Lassiter, representing Paul Patton's office, presented the checks during a ceremony Friday afternoon.

Special Note: Paul Patton was governor of Kentucky at the time and the ceremony was Friday, June 14, 2002.

Happy Good Friday!

Happy Good Friday to all!

Have a pleasant and safe Easter weekend!

Fort Heiman, Kentucky: Maps & Illustrations

Here's a collection of maps and illustrations about Forts Henry and Heiman. The drawings and maps collected here were taken from Forts Henry and Donelson: The Key to the Confederate Heartland by Benjamin Franklin Cooling. University of Tennessee Press, 1987. If you look hard enough, you can also find a few scattered maps and illustrations (most likely the same that I have here) in copies of old newspapers from the Civil War era as well as books that focus on illustrations and maps of the era. I know my focus in all my posts has been Fort Heiman but I have included illustrations and maps of Fort Henry because you pretty much can't talk about one without focusing on the other as well.

Click on the thumbnails to see a larger image.


The Western Theater, 1861-62


Twin Rivers Area, 1862


Interior of Fort Henry, the morning after its capture, February 2, 1862. Sketch by H. Lovie, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 15, 1862.


Landing of Federal troops below Fort Henry, February 4, 1862. Sketch by H. Lovie, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 15, 1862. (I apologize for the center crease of the book spine.)


Foote's Flotilla Attack on Fort Henry, February 6, 1862. Sketch by S.O. Hawley, Massachusetts Order of Loyal Legion Collection, U.S. Army Military History Institute.


Confederates defend Fort Henry, February 6, 1862. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 1, 1862. (I apologize for the center crease of the book spine.)


Country between Forts Henry and Donelson, 1862. U.S. Army Infantry School. Military History Methods of Research Compilation of Sources (Fort Benning, 1937).


Environs of Fort Henry, 1862. U.S. Army Infantry School. Military History Methods of Research Compilation of Sources (Fort Benning, 1937).