Gathering of Elizabeths Update

June 27, 2009 Elizabeth will host the second Gathering of Elizabeths. Help break the 2008 World Record of 435 Elizabeths in The Same Place At the Same Time.

For registration and more information, visit www.mostelizabeths.com.

Please send an email with a personal invitation and the website ( www.mostelizabeths.com ) to everyone on your email list asking them to forward the email to at least 10 people on their email list. If 50 members sent to 25 friends who forward to 15 of their friends who forward to 10 more friends, we would notify a potential 187,500 people about the event. If 3% of those who received the email looked at the website 5,625 would go to the site and if 10% of those registered we would have 563 register.

You could help motivate 563 Elizabeths to visit Elizabeth and bring 1 friend and additional 563! Please helpmake this event as successful as possible!

Look for more details in next week's Paririe Advocate...

Indian Tales and Stargazing at Apple River Fort

ELIZABETH ­ Native American stories about the stars, and the viewing of the stars themselves, will be featured during special evenings from June through October at Apple River Fort State Historic Site in Elizabeth, Illinois. The events, sponsored by the Apple River Fort and the Planetary Studies Foundation, are free and open to the public.

American Indian Folklore and Settler's Astronomy will be held the Saturday evenings of June 27, July 25, August 29, September 26 and October 17 beginning at sundown at the reconstructed fort itself just north of the Visitor Center. The evenings will begin with American Indian folklore of the evening skies.

The featured stories will be from the Sauk/Fox, Navajo, Shoshone, Blackfoot and Algonquin tribes, along with an explanation of how these tribes used the constellations. Visitors will be exposed to 19th century astronomy that settlers used for practical purposes.

Each evening will conclude with modern telescope viewing, depending on night viewing conditions, from inside the fort where there is little extraneous light to interfere with optimum viewing conditions. Telescopes will not be provided, but visitors are encouraged to bring their own to use and share with others. The viewing will end at 10 p.m. during June, July and August, and 9 p.m. during September and October.

Since these activities will all be held outdoors, the Indian Stories and stargazing programs will not be held if it rains.

Apple River Fort State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (www.Illinois-History.gov), is a reconstruction of the 1830s civilian fort that was the site of a battle between Black Hawk's Sauk warriors and Apple Rive settlers during the Black Hawk War. It is located along U.S. Route 20 in Elizabeth, Illinois and is open for free public tours.

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