Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i Cobblestone American History and Current Events for Kids and Children

There are so many islands in the world that no one has managed to count them all. An island is defined as an area of land surrounded by water that is smaller than a continent. For that reason, Australia, a continent, is not considered an island. Here’s a look at the six major types of islands. Continental islands once were connected to nearby continents. A continental island usually is located in a shallow sea off the coast of a large landmass. Some continental islands were formed when shifting continents broke apart millions of years ago. Other continental islands were formed when glaciers melted. The rising sea levels flooded low-lying areas and left sections of higher land surrounded by water. The world’s largest island, Greenland, is an example of a continental…

Bainbridge Island was formed during the last ice age, when a glacier carved out Puget Sound. It is located across the sound from Seattle, Washington, and offers views of Mount Rainier. The island’s vast natural resources meant logging and shipbuilding industries thrived there. Today, its many parks and walkability make it a popular day trip from Seattle. A 35-minute ferry ride is the most common way for visitors to get to the island. Visitors also can reach the island by car, but that can take up to two hours! Balboa Island is one of three artificial islands in California’s Newport Harbor. Bridges connect the islands to each other and the mainland. Originally simply a swampy mud flat, it was used as a wharf for a commercial shipping and trade business…

Sanibel Island boasts some of the most secluded and undeveloped beaches in the United States. It is a barrier island off the coast of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike most barrier islands, though, Sanibel Island is oriented east-west in the gulf’s waters, rather than hugging the coast in a north-south direction. More than half of the island is protected as wildlife refuges. The island also has a historical museum and village that captures its history from Indigenous peoples to the early 1900s. Maine’s Atlantic coastline is dotted with more than 3,000 islands. Mount Desert Island is the state’s largest island. In the 1800s, Mount Desert’s rustic, rocky area made it a popular summer colony and retreat from city life for wealthy Americans. One of those people, George B.…

For nearly 200 years, the Spanish were sure that an island existed off the coast of North America. They drew maps that showed a large landmass in the Pacific Ocean. They never actually explored it, but they claimed that Amazon-like women and flying griffins lived there. It also was rumored to be filled with gold and jewels. Its name? California! Alaska’s coastline extends for 6,640 miles. That’s half of the entire U.S. coastline. A lot of those coastal miles come from Alaska’s many islands. Of the 10 largest U.S. islands, Alaska claims eight. Kodiak Island is the largest Alaskan island and the second-largest U.S. island. Hawai‘i, one of the big eight Hawaiian Islands, is the largest island in the United States. Although Spanish explorers sailed up the coast of California…

New islands continue to appear naturally. Located off the coast of Hawai‘i is Lo‘ihi. Its top is about 3,200 feet below the surface of the sea. Its peak will not reach the surface for another 10,000 years, but it is an island in the making. The formation of new islands is exciting for researchers. It gives scientists the opportunity to study bio-colonization. Biocolonization is the process by which species spread to new areas. Scientists currently are studying this process on Surtsey (BELOW). Surtsey is an oceanic island off the coast of Iceland. It was created by the 1963–1968 eruption of an underwater volcano. Now, more than 50 years later, the island is beginning to show signs of plant, insect, and animal life. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site…

FLORIDA KEYS About 100,000 years ago, after the last ice age, the sea levels dropped. A chain of exposed coral reefs became fossilized. Today, this archipelago of more than 1,000 coral and limestone cays makes up the southernmost part of the United States. Many of the keys are quite small and not inhabited by people. The islands’ original dwellers were the Calusa and the Tequesta people. In 1513, Spaniard Juan Ponce de León became the first European to sail to them. For many years, the keys could only be reached by water—they became a famous site for shipwrecks. In the early 1900s, developer Henry Flagler invested in a railway to connect the islands. When a major hurricane destroyed that project in 1935, the Overseas Highway was completed along the railway’s…

Angel Island’s greatest claim to fame may be its role as a U.S. immigration station on the West Coast. But its history is much deeper than that. The island once was connected to the mainland. Rising sea levels following the last ice age separated it from the coast of California about 10,000 years ago. The earliest people associated with the island were the Coast Miwoks. They inhabited the coastal lands around the San Francisco Bay at least 2,000 years ago. Using small boats, they established camps on the island. They used it as a place for hunting, fishing, and gathering food. In August 1775, a Spanish explorer traveling from Mexico arrived off the coast of California. He sailed into San Francisco’s large bay and anchored his ship in the cove…

Atoll derives from the Divehi language of the Maldive Islands. The Republic of Maldives is a chain of more than 1,000 coral islands and sandbanks in the Indian Ocean. Atolu was first used to describe those islands. Many of them are atolls, or “coral islands consisting of a reef that surrounds a lagoon.” Lagoon is derived from the Italian language. Laguna is an Italian term that was used to describe the waters that fill the city of Venice. The French adopted the Italian word to get lagune. When spoken, that word sounds how the English word is spelled. It means a “shallow body of water that is separated from a larger body of water by a narrow natural barrier or landform.” Archipelago comes straight from the Italian word of the…

Tens of millions of years ago, a tectonic plate deep below the Pacific Ocean moved over a hot spot. It resulted in the formation of volcanoes that spewed hot lava. As the seafloor volcanoes erupted, cold ocean waters solidified the lava. The process repeated over and over until mountains of cooled lava eventually rose above the water. An archipelago of 137 islands, reefs, atolls, and seamounts stretched more than 1,500 miles across the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. Today, we know it as the Hawaiian Islands. TAKING SHAPE Most of the older islets in the northwest are uninhabited. They are referred to as the Leeward Islands. Many of these ancient volcanic mountains have been worn down below sea level. Others have been covered by coral reefs. One of the…

The seagulls were the first to flock to the 3.3-acre island in present-day New York Harbor. They feasted on the oysters that lined its banks. No wonder the Mohegan Indians called it Kioshk, or Gull Island. In 1609, the Dutch arrived in North America. They named their colony New Netherland and its largest city New Amsterdam (present-day New York City). In 1634, the Dutch governor “bought” Kioshk from the local Lenape Indians. Kioshk became part of a large tract of land owned by patroon Michael Paauw. The Dutch used Kioshk—by then called Oyster Island—mainly for harvesting oysters and drying fishing nets. Wealthy people occasionally picnicked there, too. In 1664, however, the Dutch lost all their North American colonies. Oyster Island fell into British hands. Various private individuals owned the island…

By the late 1800s, Americans had claimed all the land in the contiguous United States. They began to look beyond the nation’s land borders for ways to extend the nation’s trade and political influence. By the 20th century, the United States claimed islands in the nearby Caribbean Sea and in the more distant Pacific Ocean. Today, the U.S. government still administers 14 islands or groups of islands in those waters as territories. Nine of the island territories don’t have permanent populations. They are considered Minor Outlying Islands. The remaining five territories have permanent populations. Those residents have different opinions about the benefits of remaining a U.S. territory, applying for U.S. statehood, or becoming an independent nation. The Hawaiian Islands, granted U.S. statehood in 1959, was the last island territory to…

Separated from the mainland’s predators and diseases, islands are places where rare and unusual animals can flourish. But island habitats are delicate. They need protection as humans bring the mainland to islands . . . and islands to the outside world. King of the Dune Look closely at the sandy beaches of Florida’s Perdido Key. You might catch a glimpse of a tiny pink nose and the flash of a tan back. The creature is a critically endangered species of beach mouse that lives only on the Perdido dunes. During the day, the mice curl up in sandy burrows along the shoreline. At night, they emerge to feast on seeds and berries, and the occasional beetle. The mice may be tiny, but they have a big effect on the dunes.…