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Vol 8, No 210

July 29, 1878

Monday Evening

Total Solar Eclipse falls over Fort Worth

Born This Date
Artist Doug Michels born in Seattle
SEATTLE WA   (1943)   On this date in 1943, Doug Michels, founding member of the San Francisco artists' collective, The Art Farm, was born in Seattle, Washington. Among The Ant Farm's most famous "works" are "Media Burn" in which Michels drove a white Cadillac through a pyramid of burning television sets, and "Teleport", a futuristic room created for a Houston banker, and resembling a lounge on "Star Trek".
   But by far, Michel's most famous work of art is the legendary "Cadillac Ranch" located west of Amarillo off I-40. The brainchild of helium millionare, Stanley Marsh 3, the work depicts 10 half buried 1948-1963 Cadillacs, as a tribute to Route 66 and the age of fins on automobiles.
   Today, the Cadillac Ranch is a Mecca for roadside tourists from all over the world and one of dozens of unusual must-see tourist stops in the Texas Panhandle.   

Scientists invade City
FORT WORTH  (1878)   On this date in 1878, Leonard Waldo from Harvard Observatory and W.H.Pulsifer of Washington University in St Louis and other scientists from around the nation set up their equipment in Fort Worth to study the total solar eclipse which fell upon the metro area.
   Among the experiments being conducted was a spectroscopic observations of the changing light from the solar chromosphere. Many observers produced sketches of their observations (see below). One study estimated the height of the suns chromosphere at 524 miles.
   These were the first scientific studies of the sun ever conducted in Texas, and one of the first serious studies of the solar eclipse in the United States.

Military Desk
Tarrant Field opens in Fort Worth
FORT WORTH   (1942)    On this date in 1942, Tarrant Field, later named Carswell Air Force Base opened in Fort Worth.
   As part of the Strategic Air Command, Carswell AFB became home to several squadrons of America's B-52 bomber fleet during the Cold War. Carswell AFB, and its successor, Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, have played a major roll in the development of Fort Worth, and in the defense of the United States.