Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Buss, Jerry

(Encyclopedia)Buss, Jerry (Gerald Hatten Buss), 1933–2013, American businessman and basketball executive, b. Salt Lake City. He worked in the aerospace industry unt...

Park City

(Encyclopedia)Park City, town (1990 pop. 4,468), Summit co., N central Utah, in the Wasatch Range. A former mining town whose silver and other deposits were mined out, it was a nearly ghost town by the 1950s but ha...

Hill, Joe

(Encyclopedia)Hill, Joe, 1879–1915, Swedish-American union organizer; b. Sweden, as Joel Hägglund, also called Joseph Hillström. He came to the United States in 1902 and worked as a miner and a longshoreman, wh...

Wasatch Range

(Encyclopedia)Wasatch Range wôˈsăch [key], part of the Rocky Mts., extending c.250 mi (400 km) south from SE Idaho to central Utah. Mt. Timpanogos, the highest peak (12,008 ft/3,660 m), is the site of Timpanogos...

Mackenzie

(Encyclopedia)Mackenzie, river, c.1,120 mi (1,800 km) long, issuing from Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada, and flowing generally NW to the Arctic Ocean through a great delta. Between Great Slave Lake...

Mona, island, Great Britain

(Encyclopedia)Mona, Roman name for the island of Anglesey, Wales. It was also sometimes used to designate the Isle of Man. ...

lithium

(Encyclopedia)lithium lĭthˈēəm [key] [Gr.,=stone], metallic chemical element; symbol Li; at. no. 3; interval in which at. wt. ranges 6.938–6.997; m.p. about 180.54℃; b.p. about 1,342℃; sp. gr. .534 at 20�...

Qinghai Hu

(Encyclopedia)Qinghai Hu kōkō nōr [key], salt lake, c.1,625 sq mi (4,210 sq km), in the Tibetan highlands, NE Qinghai prov., China; one of the largest lakes in China. At an altitude of 10,515 ft (3,205 m), it is...

Danakil

(Encyclopedia)Danakil, desert region, NE Ethiopia and neighboring portions of Djibouti and Eritrea, c.350 mi (560 km) long and 50–250 mi (80–400 km) wide, between the gulfs of Zula and Tadjoura. It is bordered ...

Bridger, James

(Encyclopedia)Bridger, James, 1804–81, American fur trader, one of the most celebrated of the mountain men, b. Virginia. He was working as a blacksmith in St. Louis when he joined the Missouri River expedition of...