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9651_14 | The power demand of Sochi at the end of May 2009 was 424 MW. The power demand of the Olympic infrastructure was expected to be about 340 MW.
Poselkovaya electrical substation became operational in early 2009.
Sochi thermal power station reconstructed (expected power output was 160 MW)
Laura and Rosa Khutor electrical substations were completed in November 2010
Mzymta electrical substation was completed in March 2011
Krasnopolyanskaya hydroelectric power station was completed in 2010
Adler CHP station design and construction was completed in 2012. Expected power output was 360 MW
Bytkha substation, under construction with two transformers 25 MW each, includes dependable microprocessor-based protection
Earlier plans also include building combined cycle (steam and gas) power stations near the cities of Tuapse and Novorossiysk and construction of a cable-wire powerline, partially on the floor of the Black Sea.
Transportation |
9651_15 | The transport infrastructure prepared to support the Olympics includes many roads, tunnels, bridges, interchanges, railroads and stations in and around Sochi. Among others, 8 flyovers, 102 bridges, tens of tunnels and a bypass route for heavy trucks — 367 km (228 miles) of roads were paved.
The Sochi Light Metro is located between Adler and Krasnaya Polyana connecting the Olympic Park, Sochi International Airport, and the venues in Krasnaya Polyana.
The existing , Tuapse-to-Adler railroad was renovated to provide double track throughout, increasing capacity and enabling a reliable regional service to be provided and extending to the airport. In December 2009, Russian Railways ordered 38 Siemens Mobility Desiro trains for delivery in 2013 for use during the Olympics, with an option for a further 16 partly built in Russia. |
9651_16 | At Sochi International Airport, a new terminal was built along a runway extension, overlapping the Mzymta River. Backup airports were built in Gelendzhik, Mineralnye Vody and Krasnodar by 2009.
At the Port of Sochi, a new offshore terminal from the shore allows docking for cruise ships with capacities of 3,000 passengers. The cargo terminal of the seaport would be moved from the centre of Sochi.
Roadways were detoured, some going around the construction site and others being cut off.
In May 2009, Russian Railways started the construction of tunnel complex No. 1 (the final total is six) on the combined road (automobile and railway) from Adler to Alpica Service Mountain Resort in the Krasnaya Polyana region. The tunnel complex No. 1 is located near Akhshtyr in Adlersky City District, and includes:
Escape tunnel, , completed in 2010
Road tunnel, , completed in 2013
One-track railway tunnel, , completed in 2013 |
9651_17 | Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin stated the road construction costed more than 200 billion rubles.
In addition, Sochi's railway stations were renovated. These are Dagomys, Sochi, Matsesta, Khosta, Lazarevskaya, and Loo railway stations. In Adler, a new railway station was built while the original building was preserved, and in the Olympic park cluster, a new station was built from scratch, the Olympic Park railway station. Another new railway station was built in Estosadok, close to Krasnaya Polyana.
Other infrastructure
Funds were spent on the construction of hotels for 10,300 guests. The first of the Olympic hotels, Zvezdny (Stellar), was rebuilt anew. Significant funds were spent on the construction of an advanced sewage treatment system in Sochi, designed by Olimpstroy. The system meets BREF standards and employs top available technologies for environment protection, including tertiary treatment with microfiltration. |
9651_18 | Six post offices were opened at competition venues, two of them in the main media centre in Olympic Park and in the mountain village of Estosadok. In addition to standard services, customers had access to unique services including two new products, Fotomarka and Retropismo. Fotomarka presents an opportunity to get a stylized sheet of eight souvenir stamps with one's own photos, using the services of a photographer in the office. Retropismo service allows a customer to write with their own stylus or pen on antique paper with further letters, winding string and wax seal affixing. All the new sites and post offices in Sochi were opened during the Olympics until late night 7 days a week, and employees were trained to speak English.
The Games
Torch relay |
9651_19 | On 29 September 2013, the Olympic torch was lit in Ancient Olympia, beginning a seven-day journey across Greece and on to Russia, then the torch relay started at Moscow on 7 October 2013 before passing 83 Russian cities and arriving at Sochi on the day of the opening ceremony, 7 February 2014. It is the longest torch relay in Olympic history, a 60,000-kilometre (40,000 miles) route that passes through all regions of the country, from Kaliningrad in the west to Chukotka in the east. |
9651_20 | The Olympic torch reached the North Pole for first time via a nuclear-powered icebreaker (50 Let Pobedy). The torch was also passed for the first time in space, though not lit for the duration of the flight for safety reasons, on flight Soyuz TMA-11M to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft itself was adorned with Olympic-themed livery including the Games' emblem. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky waved the torch on a spacewalk outside the ISS. The torch returned to Earth five days later on board Soyuz TMA-09M. The torch also reached Europe's highest mountain, Mount Elbrus, and Siberia's Lake Baikal.
Opening ceremony |
9651_21 | The opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics was held on 7 February 2014 at Fisht Olympic Stadium, an indoor arena built specifically for the ceremonies. The ceremony featured scenes based around aspects of Russian history and arts, including ballet, classical music, the Russian Revolution, and the age of the Soviet Union. The opening scene of the ceremony featured a notable technical error, where one of five snowflakes, which were to expand to form the Olympic rings, malfunctioned and did not expand (a mishap mocked by the organizers at the closing ceremony where one of the roundrelay dance groups symbolizing the Olympic rings "failed" to expand). The torch was taken into the stadium by Maria Sharapova, who then passed it to Yelena Isinbayeva who, in turn, passed it to wrestler Aleksandr Karelin. Karelin then passed the torch to gymnast Alina Kabaeva. Figure skater Irina Rodnina took the torch and was met by former ice hockey goalkeeper Vladislav Tretiak, who exited the stadium |
9651_22 | to jointly light the Olympic cauldron located near the center of Olympic Park. |
9651_23 | Participating National Olympic Committees
A record 88 nations qualified to compete, which beat the previous record of 82 set at the previous Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The number of athletes who qualified per country is listed in the table below (number of athletes shown in parentheses). Seven nations made their Winter Olympics debut: Dominica, Malta, Paraguay, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, and Zimbabwe.
Kristina Krone qualified to compete in her second consecutive games for Puerto Rico, but the island's Olympic Committee once again chose not to send her to compete. Similarly, South Africa decided not to send alpine skier Sive Speelman to Sochi. Algeria also did not enter its only qualified athlete, Mehdi-Selim Khelifi. |
9651_24 | India's athletes originally competed as Independent Olympic Participants and marched under the Olympic flag during the opening ceremony, as India was originally suspended in December 2012 over the election process of the Indian Olympic Association. On 11 February, the Indian Olympic Association was reinstated and India's athletes were allowed the option to compete under their own flag from that time onward. Although Shiva Keshavan competed as an Independent athlete and is recorded as such, he was permitted to walk under the flag of India at the Closing Ceremony.
National houses
During the Games some countries had a national house, a meeting place for supporters, athletes and other followers. Houses can be either free for visitors to access or they can have limited access by invitation only.
Sports
The 2014 Winter Olympics featured 98 events over 15 disciplines in 7 sports. A total of twelve new events were contested, making it the largest Winter Olympics to date. |
9651_25 | Biathlon
Bobsleigh
Curling
Ice hockey
Luge
Skating
Skiing
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each separate discipline.
New events
On 6 April 2011, the IOC accepted a number of events that were submitted by their respective sports federations to be considered for inclusion into the official program of these Olympic Games.
The events included a Figure skating team event, Women's ski jumping, Mixed relay biathlon, Ski half-pipe, and Team relay luge.
On 4 July 2011, the IOC announced that three events would be added to the program. These events, which were officially declared by Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge on 4 July 2011, were: Ski slopestyle, Snowboard slopestyle, Snowboard parallel special slalom. |
9651_26 | Team alpine skiing was also presented as a candidate for inclusion in the Olympic program but the Executive board of the IOC rejected this proposal. The International Ski Federation persisted with the nomination and this was considered. There were reports of bandy possibly being added to the sports program, but the IOC rejected this request. Subsequently, the international governing body, Federation of International Bandy, decided that Irkutsk and Shelekhov in Russia would host the 2014 Bandy World Championship just before the Olympics.
On 28 November 2006, the Executive Board of the IOC decided not to include Ski mountaineering, Ski-orienteering, or Winter triathlon in the review process of the program.
Closing ceremony |
9651_27 | The closing ceremony was held on 23 February 2014 between 20:14 MSK (UTC+4) and 22:25 MSK (UTC+4) at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi.
The ceremony was dedicated to Russian culture featuring world-renowned Russian stars like conductor and violinist Yuri Bashmet, conductor Valery Gergiev, pianist Denis Matsuev, singer Hibla Gerzmava and violinist Tatiana Samouil. These artists were joined by performers from the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters.
Medals
Sochi's medal design was unveiled in May 2013. The design is intended to resemble Sochi's landscape, with a semi-translucent section containing a "patchwork quilt" of diamonds representing mountains; the diamonds themselves contain designs that reflect Russia's regions. Those who won gold medals on 15 February received special medals with fragments of the Chelyabinsk meteor, marking the one-year anniversary of the event where pieces of the cosmic body fell into the Chebarkul Lake in the Ural Mountains in central Russia.
Medal table |
9651_28 | The top ten listed NOCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation, Russia, is highlighted.
To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, click on the icon next to the column title.
Podium sweeps
Legkov and Vylegzhanin were initially disqualified by the IOC for doping offenses in November 2017, and their 2014 Olympic medals were stripped (gold and silver respectively). However, their results were restored on 1 February 2018 following a successful appeal.
Calendar
Security |
9651_29 | Measures |
9651_30 | Security during both the Olympics and Paralympics were handled by over 40,000 law enforcement officials, including police and the Russian Armed Forces. A Presidential Decree signed by President Vladimir Putin took effect on 7 January, requiring that any protests and demonstrations in Sochi and the surrounding area through 21 March (the end of the Paralympics) be approved by the Federal Security Service. For the duration of the decree, travel restrictions were also in effect in and around Sochi: "controlled" zones, dubbed the "ring of steel" by the media, covered the Coastal and Mountain clusters which encompass all of the Games' venues and infrastructure, including transport hubs such as railway stations. To enter controlled areas, visitors were required to pass through security checkpoints with x-ray machines, metal detectors and explosive material scanners. Several areas were designated as "forbidden", including Sochi National Park and the border with Abkhazia. An unmanned aerial |
9651_31 | vehicle squadron, along with S-400 and Pantsir-S1 air defense rockets were used to protect Olympic airspace. Four gunboats were also deployed on the Black Sea to protect the coastline. |
9651_32 | A number of security organizations and forces began stationing in and around Sochi in January 2014; Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) was stationed in Sochi for the Games beginning on 7 January 2014. A group of 10,000 Internal Troops of the Ministry of Interior also provided security services during the Games. In mid-January, 1,500 Siberian Regional Command troops were stationed in a military town near Krasnaya Polyana. A group of 400 cossacks in traditional uniforms were also present to accompany police patrols. The 58th Army unit of the Russian Armed Forces, were defending the Georgia-Russia border. The United States also supplied Navy ships and other assets for security purposes.
All communication and Internet traffic by Sochi residents was captured and filtered through deep packet inspection systems at all mobile networks using the SORM system. |
9651_33 | Former professional speed skater and current deputy of the Russian State Duma Svetlana Zhurova has stated that the 2014 Sochi Olympics were Vladimir Putin's personal project to showcase Russia to the world.
Incidents and threats
Organizers received several threats prior to the Games. In a July 2013 video release, Chechen Islamist commander Dokka Umarov called for attacks on the Games, stating that the Games were being staged "on the bones of many, many Muslims killed ...and buried on our lands extending to the Red Sea." |
9651_34 | Threats were received from the group Vilayat Dagestan, which had claimed responsibility for the Volgograd bombings under the demands of Umarov, and a number of National Olympic Committees had also received threats via e-mail, threatening that terrorists would kidnap or "blow up" athletes during the Games. However, while the IOC did state that the letters "[contained] no threat and appears to be a random message from a member of the public", the U.S. ski and snowboarding teams hired a private security agency to provide additional protection during the Games.
Media
Broadcasting rights
In most regions, broadcast rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics were packaged together with broadcast rights for the 2016 Summer Olympics, but some broadcasters obtained rights to further games as well. Domestic broadcast rights were sold by Sportfive to a consortium of three Russian broadcasters; Channel One, VGTRK, and NTV Plus. |
9651_35 | In the United States, the 2014 Winter Olympics were the first in a new, US$4.38 billion contract with NBCUniversal, extending its broadcast rights to the Olympic Games through 2020.
In Canada, after losing the 2010 and 2012 Games to Bell Media and Rogers Media, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation re-gained broadcast rights to the Olympics for the first time since 2008, gaining rights to the 2014 and 2016 Games. Bell and Rogers sub-licensed pay-TV rights for their TSN, Sportsnet and Réseau des sports networks, as well as TVA Group's TVA Sports.
In Australia, after all three major commercial networks pulled out of bidding on rights to both the 2014 and 2016 Games due to cost concerns, the IOC awarded broadcast rights to just the 2014 Winter Olympics to Network Ten for A$20 million. |
9651_36 | Filming
Several broadcasters used the Games to trial the emerging ultra high definition television (UHDTV) standard. Both NTV Plus and Comcast filmed portions of the Games in 4K resolution; Comcast offered its content through smart TV apps, while NTV+ held public and cinema viewings of the content. NHK filmed portions of the Games in 8K resolution for public viewing. Olympic sponsor Panasonic filmed the opening ceremony in 4K.
Concerns and controversies |
9651_37 | A variety of concerns over the Games, or Russia's hosting of the Games, had been expressed by various entities. Concerns were shown over Russia's policies surrounding the LGBT community, including the government's denial of a proposed Pride House for the Games on moral grounds, and a federal law passed in June 2013 which criminalized the distribution of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships" among minors. Severe cost overruns made the 2014 Winter Olympics the most expensive Olympics in history; with Russian politician Boris Nemtsov citing allegations of corruption among government officials, and Allison Stewart of the Saïd Business School at Oxford citing tight relationships between the government and construction firms. It was reported that Putin's annexation of Crimea may have been intended to distract local Russians from corruption stories related to the Games. |
9651_38 | Some Circassian organizations objected to the Games being held on land their ancestors held until 1864, when most of them were vanquished at the end of the Russian-Circassian War (1763–1864), in what they consider to be ethnic cleansing or genocide. The use of Krasnaya Polyana ("Red Hill" or "Red Glade") as an event site was considered insensitive, as it was named for a group of Circassians who were defeated in a bloody battle with Russians while attempting to return home over it in 1864. Some Circassian groups demanded that the Games be cancelled or moved unless Russia apologized for their actions. Other groups did not outright object to the Games, but suggested that symbols of Circassian history and culture be incorporated into the Games, as Australia, the United States and Canada did for their indigenous cultures in 2000, 2002, and 2010 respectively. |
9651_39 | U.S. broadcaster NBC largely avoided broadcasting material critical of Russia, although several segments deemed "overly friendly to Russia" were criticized by some commentators.
Following the closing ceremony, commentators evaluated the Games to have been successful overall.
Russian doping scandal |
9651_40 | Following the Games, reports began to emerge that the Russian Olympic team had participated in a state-run doping program, which supplied their athletes with performance-enhancing drugs. These allegations first emerged in a December 2014 documentary by German public broadcaster ARD, and were detailed further in a May 2016 report by The New York Times—which published allegations by Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of Russia's anti-doping laboratory. Rodchenkov alleged that a conspiracy of corrupt anti-doping officials, FSB intelligence agents, and compliant Russian athletes used banned substances to gain an unfair advantage during the Games. Rodchenkov stated that the FSB tampered with over 100 urine samples as part of a cover-up, and that at least fifteen of the Russian medals won in Sochi were the result of doping. |
9651_41 | The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commissioned an independent report by Richard McLaren, which corroborated claims that Russian authorities had been discreetly swapping out urine samples that tested positive for performance-enhancing substances. The report concluded that the program had been operating from "at least late 2011 to August 2015", and had covered up 643 positive samples across Olympic and non-Olympic sports. As a result, WADA considered the Russian Anti-Doping Agency to be non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, and recommended that Russia be banned from competing in the 2016 Summer Olympics. |
9651_42 | Russia was not banned from the 2016 Olympics by the IOC, a decision that was widely criticized by both athletes and writers; the IOC only required Russia's athletes to be cleared by an internal panel and their respective sports federations. The IAAF had suspended Russia from international track and field events due to the scandal, but did allow Darya Klishina to participate in the Olympics because she was confirmed not to be a part of a doping program, despite claims that surfaced in her appeal that a sample of Klishina's that had been collected on 26 February 2014 had yielded an illegal Testosterone/Epitestosterone ratio of 8.5 had been subject
to a “SAVE” order by the Ministry of Sport on 3 March 2014. The International Paralympic Committee suspended the Russian Paralympic Committee and banned the team from the 2016 Summer Paralympics. |
9651_43 | On 5 December 2017, the IOC voted to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee, thus banning it from sending athletes under the Russian flag to the 2018 Winter Olympics. Cleared Russian athletes were allowed to participate as "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR). Two of them, curler Alexander Krushelnitskiy, who won a bronze medal, and bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva, failed drug tests during the Games. |
9651_44 | The IOC's Oswald Commission disqualified and banned 43 Russian athletes, and stripped thirteen medals they earned in Sochi. In December 2017, 42 of the 43 punished athletes appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). On 1 February 2018, the CAS found that the IOC provided insufficient evidence and cleared 28 athletes from IOC sanctions. In total, Russian athletes won back 9 of the 13 medals collected. For 11 other athletes, the CAS decided that there was sufficient evidence to uphold their Sochi sanctions, but reduced their lifetime bans to only the 2018 Winter Olympics. The IOC said in a statement that "the result of the CAS decision does not mean that athletes from the group of 28 will be invited to the [2018 Winter Olympic] Games. Not being sanctioned does not automatically confer the privilege of an invitation” and that “this [case] may have a serious impact on the future fight against doping”. The IOC found it important to note that the CAS Secretary General "insisted |
9651_45 | that the CAS decision does not mean that these 28 athletes are innocent” and that they would consider an appeal against the court's decision. Later that month, the Russian Olympic Committee was reinstated by the IOC, despite failed doping tests during the 2018 Olympics, and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency was re-certified in September, despite the Russian officials not accepting the McLaren report. |
9651_46 | See also
2014 Winter Paralympics
2014 Summer Youth Olympics
References
External links
Olympstroy State Corporation - responsible for Sochi Olympics construction and development
Sochi 2014 links on Open Directory Project (DMOZ)
Sochi satellite image on Google Maps
2014 Winter Olympics
Olympics
2014 in multi-sport events
2014 in Russian sport
Olympic Games in Russia
Sports competitions in Sochi
2014
Articles containing video clips
February 2014 sports events in Russia
Winter multi-sport events in Russia
21st century in Sochi
Doping in Russia |
9652_0 | is a city in Okhotsk Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the most populous city and the commercial center in the subprefecture, although the subprefecture capital is Abashiri.
Kitami is physically in the middle of Okhotsk Subprefecture. The Kitami Mountains are nearby and are the main reason behind the city's name. The city is the result of the merge of Kitami, Tanno, Tokoro and Rubeshibe towns in 2006 administrative's reform. Kitami developed mainly in commerce and industry/service industries, Tanno in agriculture, Tokoro in fishery/agriculture, and Rubeshibe in forestry / hot springs.
Due to the characteristics of the region, Kitami has the highest onion and white flower bean production in Japan. Scallop fishing also flourishes, which makes it the "birthplace of scallop farming" in the country. In addition, the region is home to historical and tourist places like the Pearson Museum, Wakka Wild Flower Garden, and Tokoro Ruins, which are listed as "Hokkaido Heritage" sites. |
9652_1 | As of November, 2021, the city has a population of 115,351, in 61,793 households. The population density is . The total area is .
Etymology
The name came as a suggestion of the Japanese explorer and cartographer Matsuura Takeshirō during the Meiji Era when imperial bureaucrats were registering the place for initiating the region's development through the Hokkaidō Development Commission. Before the imperial intervention, there was no Ainu name for the place.
The meaning of the name consists of the kanji's combinations of characters 北 (North) 見 (See) and 市 (City), which means "City of the North View". The reason behind this meaning is due to the region's mountains that allow a vision of the sea and the island of Sakhalin. |
9652_2 | Originally, the name refers to a vast area between the Mountains and the Sea of Okhotsk. Since the merger of Kitami City with the surrounding Tokoro, Rubeshibe and Tanno towns in 2006, it is often referred to as the area around the Kitami Basin, the so-called Kitami Inland Area, excluding the former Tokoro Town area in the coastal area.
Chronology
The Edo period
The Edo period is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional daimyo. During this period, there is no registration of continuous human settlement in this place. The nearest populations were composed of Ainu Tribes. Nowadays, one of their old settlements has become the Tokoro Ruins. The history began to appear in the final years of the Edo period, as a result of the Meiji Restoration and the Boshin War.
1856: Japanese explorer Matsuura Takeshirō passed over the region for the first time on the Tokoro River. |
9652_3 | Meiji Era
The Meiji era is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. In this period, the Boshin War was over and the short-lived Ezo Republic was conquered by the Japanese Imperial Army. Due to the risk of having new revolts in the border of the empire and the constant expansion of the Russian Empire at the north, the imperial bureau started the mass colonisation of the region and the "Japanization" of the natives through forced assimilation and segregation. |
9652_4 | 1869 (Meiji 2): The Meiji government renames Ezo as "Hokkaido" and creates the Hokkaidō Development Commission.
1872 (Meiji 5): The village of is founded, starting the process of settle in the region.
1882 (Meiji 15): Hokkaidō Development Commission is abolished, and the first three prefectures are established in Hokkaido. This area belonged to Nemuro prefecture, one of those firstly created.
1897 (Meiji 30): 112 immigrants arrives and settle, which led to the substantial growth of the region.
1899 (Meiji 32): Is produced the first mint in the region.
1904 (Meiji 37): Rice cultivation begins.
1910 (Meiji 43): Train service arrives (then called the Ikeda Railway Line), connecting the village to Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido. |
9652_5 | Taishō Era
Taishō is a period dating from 30 July 1912 to 25 December 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Emperor Taishō. During this Era, the emperor wasn't capable of using his power due to cerebral meningitis contracted in his childhood. Because of his personal limitations, the imperial government was led informally by an oligarchy of notables called Genrō (元老). Thanks to this power vacuum, Japan developed a political system that allowed a liberal government, with the creation of political parties and a major role of the National Diet.
1914 (Taisho 3): Pearson Museum is opened in the old house of the Pearson, an american couple of missionaries.
1915 (Taisho 4): Tokoro Village is created.
1921 (Taisho 10): Rubeshibe Town is created. |
9652_6 | Showa Era
This chapter of Japanese history corresponds to the reign of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) from December 25, 1926, until his death on January 7, 1989. This time represents the most intense changes in Kitami, Hokkaido, and Japan. In the beginning, the city started to specialise in the production of Mint, meanwhile, the Empire of Japan was under a militaristic rule with expansionist actions that led to the participation of the country in the Second World War.
After the end of the conflict, Japan started to concentrate its economic efforts on mass industrialisation, which, in consequence, led Japan to the second most important economy in the world. Kitami had an industrial development during this progress and the city reached its highest population in the middle of the 80s. |
9652_7 | 1928 (Showa 3): Mr. and Mrs. Pearson leave Kitami and come back to the United States.
1934 (Showa 9): The Japanese Red Cross hospital is completed.
1934 (Showa 9): Kitami's Mint Memorial Hall is opened.
1939 (Showa 14): Kitami's mint production gets 70% of the world market and reaches its peak.
1942 (Showa 17): Kitami becomes a city.
1947 (Showa 22): 50th anniversary of the creation of Kitami City. Enactment of the Kitami City coat of arms.
1954 (Showa 29): "Kitami Commerce and Industry Festival" is held for the first time
1960 (Showa 35): Establishment of the Kitami College of Technology.
1971 (Showa 46): "Kitami Winter Festival" held for the first time.
1979 (Showa 54): The population of Kitami City exceeds 100,000.
1983 (Showa 58): The 100th anniversary of the creation of Tokoro.
1984 (Showa 59): Kitami Cultural Center in the Kitami area opens.
1988 (Showa 63): Tokorocho Curling Hall (currently Tokorocho Curling Hall, Kitami City ) was completed. |
9652_8 | Heisei Era
Is the period corresponding to the reign of Emperor Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. Heisei's era was marked by turbulent politics and a prolonged economic slowdown. Since the economic downturn, Kitami never recovered its economic dimensions since the burst of the Japanese financial crisis and its population started to slowly decrease until nowadays. In this era, the actual city administrative divisions were created. |
9652_9 | 1991 (Heisei 3): "Solar Challenge in Hokkaido" (solar car race) held for the first time (ended in 2003).
1996 (Heisei 8): Marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of Kitami.
1997 (Heisei 9): The "Kaoryanse Festival" is held for the first time.
1999 (Heisei 11): Hokkaido's Japanese Red Cross College of Nursing is opened in the city.
2000 (Heisei 12): "Kitami Severe Cold Yakiniku Festival" was held for the first time.
2001 (Heisei 13): The Pearson Museum and Wakka Wild Flower Garden are selected as "Hokkaido Heritage".
2004 (Heisei 16): A record blizzard hits (snow cover , Ancient archaeological sites along the Okhotsk coast including the Tokoro archaeological site have been selected as " Hokkaido heritage ".
2006 (Heisei 18): Kitami, Tokoro, Rubeshibe and Tanno surges as City of Kitami.
2008 (Heisei 20): The first community broadcast "FM Okhotsk" opens.
2009 (Heisei 21): "Kitami Half Marathon" held for the first time. |
9652_10 | 2014 (Heisei 26): Kitami's daily maximum temperature recorded the highest value (37.2 degrees). |
9652_11 | Reiwa Era
Reiwa is the current era of Japan's official calendar. It began on 1 May 2019, the day on which Emperor Akihito's elder son, Naruhito, ascended the throne as the 126th Emperor of Japan.
2019 (first year of Reiwa): On May 26, the highest temperature in the history of observation was observed in Kitami City at 38.1 C.
Towns and Autonomous Regions
Kitami is the result of the administrative unification of small towns with the main city, which was made in 2006. Thanks to this merging, Kitami is the biggest city in the Okhotsk Subprefecture. These small towns still exist as Autonomous Region Districts (自治区). There are 4 autonomous regions/towns in total. |
9652_12 | City of Kitami
Translated as North View (北見), it is the main urban area of the region. The city flourished during the prewar era through the production of mint, which at the time accounted for 70% of world production. Nowadays Kitami is the commercial, industrial, and service center of the Okhotsk area. The government makes efforts to develop the city through an industry-academia-government collaboration involving universities and other higher education institutions that are also based in the area. |
9652_13 | Town of Tanno
Translated as Edge Field (端野) which is based in the native Ainu name nufu-un-keshi (edge of the field), the district is mainly a farm field with smooth hills and a rural landscape in the Tokoro river basin. The district has an educational zone with elementary and junior high schools, social education facilities, and parks in the main centre of the district. The rural landscape is also shaped by farms with urban convenience. In the last population survey (2005) the town had an estimated population of 5,425 and a density of 33 persons per km². The total area was 163.50 km². |
9652_14 | Town of Tokoro
Agriculture and fisheries thrive in this district with abundant nature, including Wakka Wild Flower Park, where flowers stand out on the sandbar between the Sea of Okhotsk and Lake Saroma. It has a year-round curling hall, which is one of the largest of its kind in Japan, as well as historical sites such as the Tokoro Site and the birthplace of scallop cultivation. As of 2004, the town had an estimated population of 4,885 and a density of 17.55 persons per km². The total area was 278.29 km². |
9652_15 | Town of Rubeshibe
Translated as Legacy of the Detained Pistils (留辺蘂), the district is surrounded by thick forests at the foot of the Taisetsu mountains and along the Muka River. Its key industries are White Flower (shirohana-mame) beans production, for which it boasts the nation’s largest yield, and the forest products industry, which uses locally produced wood. As a tourist spot, Yama no Aquarium (Kita no Daichi no Aquarium) in the Onneyu Onsen resort is attracting nationwide attention with its unique display tanks. . Before the unification with Kitami, the town had an estimated population of 8,704 and a density of 15.41 persons per km². The total area was 564.69 km².
Economy |
9652_16 | History and actual situation
Kitami's first economy was the natural production of Mentha (Mint). During at one time (pre-war) the region exported mint (known as hakka locally) in a scale that represented the supply of 70% of the world's mint consumption at its peak. Nowadays It is the most important city of the Okhotsk region. Due to its size, Kitami is the main industrial and commercial pole of the region. The number of employees by industry is divided by 7.6% for the primary industry, 18.8% for the secondary industry, and 73.6% for the tertiary industry (2010). These economic proportions are comparable to major cities in Hokkaido but, in terms of primary industry, the percentage is higher when compared with other cities alike. |
9652_17 | Agriculture
The xxtensive farmlands of the city are surrounded by grand nature stretches over 110 km east to west from the foot of the Taisetsu mountains to the Sea of Okhotsk coast. Abundant sunlight and fertile soil support the production of diverse produce, including rice, wheat/barley, potatoes, beet, beans and other upland crops, onions and other vegetables, as well as dairy products, beef, pork and other livestock products.Efforts are being made to produce diverse farm products by making the most of the climate and characteristics of each district. Clean agriculture harmonious with the natural environment is promoted by minimising the use of chemical fertilisers and synthetic pesticides to deliver safe, reliable and high-quality farm products to consumers.
Onions |
9652_18 | The total production of onions in FY 2019 was approximately 221,000 tons, accounting for roughly 25% of the total production of Hokkaido as well as being the largest yield in Japan. The total area of onion fields in the city is approximately 3,500 hectares. Farmers are busy transplanting seedlings in spring, and rows of large, plump onions fill vast fields in autumn.
White Pea Beans
White Pea Beans are known as the “queen of beans”. These pure white, large-grained beans are used as an ingredient for the white bean paste in high-class Japanese confectionery. Kitami, which has a cool, inland climate, is ideal for cultivating white pea beans and is a major production area in Hokkaido. The large and tasty white pea beans produced in Kitami are distributed as high-grade beans trough Japan. |
9652_19 | Fishery
In Kitami, which faces the resource-rich Sea of Okhotsk and Lake Saroma, open-sea scallop and fixed-net salmon/trout fisheries are among the city’s key industries. Hairy crabs, sea urchin and flatfish are also caught, and sustainable fishery is promoted. Scallop and oyster farming and Hokkai shrimp fishing are popular on the lake. The Tokoro Fishing Port is being developed to provide safer and more reliable seafood. With an eye on the conservation of the fishing ground environment, fishing operators are actively engaged in tree planting activities to grow forests.
Scallops
The lake Saroma is the birthplace of scallop farming. After many hardships, fishermen established propagation and culture technology to build the foundation of the Tokoro area as one of the world’s leading scallop producing areas. The scallops grown in Lake Saroma and the Sea of Okhotsk are plump and sweet, and have an exceptional texture. They are distributed all over the world as a luxury food item. |
9652_20 | Oysters and Hokkai shrimp
From mid-October to the end of March, oyster fishing is popular on Lake Saroma. The oysters, which are small yet have a rich flavor, are highly valued especially for eating raw. Hokkai shrimp, which is shipped only in July and August, is mainly boiled in salt. With a saltiness that pairs perfectly with sake, moderate elasticity, crispy texture, and sweetness that spreads in the mouth, it is known as a summer specialty of the Okhotsk area. |
9652_21 | Industry |
9652_22 | Efforts to revitalise the local economy include the "cultivation" of new sales channels and the development of new products with higher added value to overcome the problem of logistics costs. Product development is promoted via inter-industry collaboration and by attracting enterprises to the Kitami Industrial Complex and Kitami HighTech Park, both of which make the most of local resources. Kitami Institute of Technology’s Cooperative Research & Community Collaboration Center serves as a contact point for joint research with the private sector. The Okhotsk Collaborative Research Center and the Kitami Office of the Hokkaido Branch of the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation have been established as “one-stop service bases” to support R&D and commercialization in the local community. Measures to promote local industries, such as the enhancement of technological capabilities and the development of new products, are taken while strengthening |
9652_23 | industry-academia-government collaboration. There is important private enterprises installed in the city like Kyocera Corporation and Hitachi, Ltd. |
9652_24 | Commerce |
9652_25 | As the central city of the Okhotsk area, Kitami has expanded its retail trading zone in the last years. The commercial district in the downtown area, where retail, service and restaurant establishments are concentrated, has long been a place for interaction among citizens. Various events are held to make the commercial district more attractive. A new shopping zone formed in the suburbs has further livened up the commercial sector of Kitami. Lively and diverse commercial activities are promoted by making the most of local creativity while facilitating the participation of local residents in the development of a community. In financial matters, the annual sales of both wholesale and retail businesses in Kitami City are declining, and the number of business establishments and employees is also declining. This decline occur mainly due the Japanese economic crisis, faster ageing population and urban exodus. In the tourism industry, there are about 1.5 million tourists a year, mainly in |
9652_26 | Lake Saroma and Onneyu Onsen. However, the total number of overnight guests has been around 450,000 a year, making it a so-called “passing-type” tourist destination. |
9652_27 | Education
Kitami is home to the Kitami Institute of Technology, an engineering university that originally opened in 1960, and the Japanese Red Cross Hokkaido College of Nursing, established in 1999 by the Japanese Red Cross through consolidation of several other institutions. The Kitami Central Library is the main library of the city. In December 2015, the library was relocated to a new building on the south side, making it easily accessible from the downtown area. The library has a collection of approximately 330,000 books and supports the learning of residents with a network of nine facilities in the city, which have 799,000 books in total. It provides an audiovisual area where DVDs and music can be enjoyed and a literature museum area that exhibits valuable materials of the poet Mokichi Saito. PCs and Wi-Fi can be used freely by residents and non-residents alike. New services such as e-books are also available.
Universities
National
Kitami Institute of Technology |
9652_28 | Private
Japanese Red Cross Hokkaido College of Nursing
High schools
Public
Hokkaido Kitami Hokuto High School
Hokkaido Kitami Hakuyou High School
Hokkaido Kitami Ryokuryo High School
Hokkaido Kitami Commercial High School
Hokkaido Kitami Technical High School
Hokkaido Rubeshibe High School
Hokkaido Tokoro High School
Private
Kitami Fuji Girls' High School
Festivals
The Kitami Winter Festival, held annually during the 2nd week of February.
The Kitami Bonchi Festival (Summer Festival) in early July.
The Kitami Chrysanthemum festival in mid October−early November.
Mass Media
Newspapers
Hokkaido Shimbun - Kitami Branch
Yomiuri Shimbun - Hokkaido's Kitami Branch
Asahi Shimbun - Hokkaido's Kitami Branch
Mainichi Shimbun Hokkaido's Kitami Communication Department
Hokkaido Construction Newspaper - Kitami Branch
Tabloids
Densho Hato Kitami Headquarters, Rubeshibe Office
Doshin information magazine "Mint"
Gra Style
Broadcasting stations
TV |
9652_29 | NHK Kitami Broadcasting Station
Hokkaido Broadcasting (HBC) Kitami Broadcasting Station
Sapporo Television Broadcasting (STV) Kitami Broadcasting Station
Radio
FM Okhotsk
Sports
Curling
The city has strong associations with the sport of curling, inherited from the former town of Tokoro absorbed into the city in 2006. Interest in the sport grew following a friendship visit in 1980 by a curling team from Alberta in Canada. An outdoor curling rink was built in Tokoro the following year, and it hosted the 1st NHK Cup Curling Championship. In January 1988, the town built a dedicated 5-lane curling hall, the first in Japan. This eventually closed in early 2013, replaced by a new, larger, all-year-round structure. |
9652_30 | Curling was introduced in schools in Tokoro as part of the physical education curriculum, and the two produced a number of Olympic curlers. Five members of the Japanese curling team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano were from Tokoro, three members of the Japanese curling team at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino were from Tokoro, and three members of the Japanese curling team at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver were from Tokoro. |
9652_31 | Geography
Kitami City is located in a mild valley close to the Kitami Mountains. This Mountains, especially the Mount Mikuni, is where the headwaters of the Tokoro River are located. The river belongs to in-Mukagawa basin, which leads to the Sea of Okhotsk. This course has more than 110 km of extension. Tokoro Autonomous Region district has its limits based in the course of the basin. Besides of the Sea of Okhotsk and Lake Saroma, there is the Abashiri Quasi-National Park, where is located the Wakka Natural Flower Garden. The park is listed as a Hokkaido heritage site.
Terrain and Mounts
Mt. Mukayama (1,759 m)
Mt. Mikuni (1,541 m)
Kitami Fuji (1,291 m)
Nikoroyama (829 m)
Rivers
Tokoro River
Kunneppu River
Mukagawa
Nikoro River
Komachigawa
Lakes
Lake Saroma
Lake Tomisato
Vegetation
Mainly Wakka Primitive Flower |
9652_32 | Climate
Kitami has a humid continental climate with cold winters and relatively warm summers. The coldest month is January, with an average low of , and the warmest month is August, with an average high of . Kitami's inland location creates a larger temperature range than some coastal cities. Due to the mountains nearby, the Foehn wind effect occurs in summer when prevailing winds are from the southeast, so that Kitami often has the hottest temperatures in Hokkaido during this season and averages about 5 °C (9 °F) hotter than Kushiro. Traces of snow fall every day during the winter and cover is heavy, usually peaking at , though Kitami still receives less overall precipitation than any other town in Japan as it is shielded from the heaviest moisture from both the Sea of Japan and Pacific Ocean. University of Tokyo's snow monitoring system is located in the city, which main coverage consist in the area of eastern Hokkaido.
Transportation
Highway
Tokachi-Okhotsk Expressway |
9652_33 | Bus
The Hokkaido Kitami Bus Company has a number of inter-city as well as out-of-city routes.
Rail
The JR Hokkaido Sekihoku Main Line that passes through Kitami reached the city on October 19, 1910, when the town was still called Notsukeushi. The largest station is Kitami Station, with Nishi-Kitami Station, Hakuyo Station, and Itoshino Station also located in Kitami.
Air
The city is served by Memanbetsu Airport in the neighboring town of Ōzora.
Sister cities
Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States. Signed on June 12, 1969.
Poronaysk, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. Signed on August 13, 1972.
Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea
Barrhead, Alberta, Canada (Barrhead Town had a relationship with the former town of Tokoro. In 2006, Tokoro merged into Kitami city so Kitami takes over the relationship.)
Kōchi, Kōchi, Japan
Sakawa, Kōchi, Japan
Marumori, Miyagi, Japan
Ono, Gifu, Japan |
9652_34 | Notable people from Kitami
Jake Lee, Zainichi Korean professional wrestler (Real Name: Lee Che-Gyong, Hangul: 이 체경)
Shinya Abe, Japanese curler and curling coach
Miz, Japanese pop/rock singer and actress (Real Name: Mizuki Watanabe, Nihongo: 渡邊瑞枝, Watanabe Mizuki)
Whiteberry, five-piece all-girl pop/rock band
Kosuke Aita, Japanese curler
Takuya Furuya, Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball
Chinami Yoshida, Japanese curler and older sister of Yurika Yoshida
Yurika Yoshida, Japanese curler and younger sister of Chinami Yoshida
Akira Takase, Japanese footballer (ReinMeer Aomori) and older brother of Megumi Takase
Megumi Takase, former Japanese football player and younger sister of Akira Takase
Sayaka Yoshimura, Japanese curler
Makoto Tsuruga, Japanese curler
Osamu Uno, Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). |
9652_35 | Tsuyoshi Ryutaki, Japanese male curler
Kiyofumi Ohno, Japanese pop singer-songwriter
Yasumasa Tanida, Japanese curler
Yoshiyuki Ohmiya, Japanese curler and curling coach
Ayumi Ogasawara, Japanese curler and curling coach
Mari Motohashi, Japanese curler
Akemi Niwa, Japanese curler, a three-time (1993, 1997, 1998) and a three-time Japan women's champion (1997, 1998, 1999)
Ami Kikuchi, Japanese gravure idol, tarento, radio personality and J-pop idol, former member of J-pop girlgroup Idoling!!!
Chiharu Kitaoka, Japanese voice actress
Yuta Matsumura, Japanese curler
Taro Kondo, Japanese speed skater
Tatsuki Nara, Japanese footballer who plays for J1 League club Kashima Antlers.
Kazuhiko Ikawa, Japanese curler
Takehiko Itō, Japanese manga artist (NG Knight Ramune & 40, Outlaw Star, among others)
Mao Ishigaki, Japanese curler
Yumie Funayama, Japanese curler (Real Name: Yumie Hayashi, Nihongo: 林 弓枝, Hayashi Yumie)
Satsuki Fujisawa, Japanese curler (Skipper) |
9652_36 | Hiroshi Sato, Japanese curler and curling coach
Yumi Suzuki, Japanese curler
Yōsuke Shinoda, Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). |
9652_37 | In pop culture
The 2019 manga series Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! is set in Kitami and its author, Kai Ikada, is a native of the city.
Notes
References
External links
Official Website
Cities in Hokkaido
Populated places established in 1872
1872 establishments in Japan |
9653_0 | The tracklaying race of 1869 was an unofficial contest between tracklaying crews of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads, held during the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad. In their competition to determine who would reach the meeting place at Promontory, Utah first, starting in 1868, the railroad crews set and broke each other's world records for the longest length of track laid in a single day, culminating in the April 28, 1869 record set by Chinese and Irish crews of the Central Pacific, who laid of track in one day. That record was broken by approximately in August 1870 by two crews, working from both ends, during the construction of the Kansas Pacific.
History |
9653_1 | Rivalry
In July 1866, the Pacific Railway Act was amended, authorizing the Central Pacific (CP) to build east until it met the line being constructed by the Union Pacific (UP). The amount of land and money each railroad would be granted was proportional to the number of miles of track laid, causing the two railroads to start building in earnest.
Their rivalry was notably unfriendly. In February 1869, crews for the UP and CP were grading parallel routes on the Promontory Range. At that time, the UP's primarily Irish crews began bullying the CP's primarily Chinese crews, first throwing clods of earth and escalating to a series of raids in which the UP crews attempted to dislodge the CP by attacking while wielding pick handles. Eventually, the UP crews began setting off heavy charges without warning, seriously injuring several CP workers; when the CP crews began grading at a higher elevation, they retaliated by setting off a surprise explosion, which buried several UP workers alive. |
9653_2 | Tracklaying
Building the railroad started with surveying the route and grading the roadbed; for the CP, grading was delayed by the route chosen through the rugged Sierra mountain range. During the first five years of construction, the CP spent only 95 weeks laying tracks, while the remainder had been consumed in grading. |
9653_3 | In the CP's traditional approach to tracklaying, once the grading was complete, a loaded tracklaying car was sent to the end of the line, carrying a single crew and eight pairs of rails along with a commensurate number of ties, spikes, and splices. One pair of rails was unloaded at a time and the tracklaying car only advanced once the crew had completed that pair of rails. When the line curved, the rails were pre-bent (and the inside rail was shortened) prior to being loaded onto the tracklaying car. The slow pace of the tracklaying car and limited manpower that could be brought to bear meant that CP managed to complete only of track during the first five years of construction from 1863 to 1868, building east from Sacramento, despite adopting speedier techniques for curved rails and splices in 1866. |
9653_4 | Meanwhile, the UP had built from Omaha, Nebraska west to Cheyenne, Wyoming by 1868. In 1867, General Jack Casement of the UP described their current pace of laying of track per day as "a little slow at first, to get the new hands broke into their places" and confidently predicted they would double the rate to per day by the end of the summer. UP crews under Casement and his brother Daniel would lay of track in a single day in August 1867, prompting CP Vice President Collis P. Huntington to ask if they should send a spy to watch the UP at work. |
9653_5 | In March 1868, a former UP tracklayer joined the CP, happy to share the UP's technique to speed up tracklaying. Rather than have a single crew take on all aspects of tracklaying work, the crews of the Casement brothers were organized more like an assembly line: crews were specialized, employing more men in total, but having each man be responsible for a limited set of tasks such as rail handling, spiking, splicing, etc. In addition, the tracklaying car was advanced over the loose rails, before they were completely spiked in place, allowing work to take place simultaneously along a longer distance of track. One contemporary newspaper account described the UP process in military terms, with workers divided into armies of suppliers, graders, tie setters, and track-layers. Tracklaying in this fashion was limited mainly by supplies and supply lines, typically to per day. The rapid pace of the work was thought to be affecting its quality, but the tracks laid in this manner had no issues in |
9653_6 | passing mandatory government inspections, which were required to release funds to the UP. |
9653_7 | Record-setting pace
On August 17, 1868, UP crews laid of track in a single day; their bragging aroused a competitive instinct in Charles Crocker, head of the CP, who instructed his construction superintendent James Harvey Strobridge to beat it. CP crews responded by laying a few feet beyond on August 19, and UP's riposte was to lay of track in a single day on October 26, working from 3 AM until midnight. |
9653_8 | The disparity in pace continued into 1869; on February 18, Oliver Ames Jr., president of UP, testified before the Congressional Pacific Railroad Committee, pointing out that while the CP was from the prearranged meeting spot in Ogden, Utah, the UP was only away, and should be entitled to continue building west past Ogden. CP's Huntington, also testifying that day, retorted UP's pace was purchased at the cost of quality. On March 12, 1869 Mark Hopkins sent the coded message "Roving Delia Fish Dance" to Huntington, letting him know his crews were laying of track per day regularly. This proved the production gains of adopting Casement's techniques and set the stage for the Ten Mile Day of April 28, 1869.
Ten Miles of Track, Laid in One Day |
9653_9 | As the two railroad companies approached the meeting point at Promontory Summit, the UP's advance slowed significantly as some of the heaviest work was ahead; at one point, the UP graders were just ahead of the tracklaying crews. Thomas C. Durant, the vice-president of the UP, reportedly had a bet with Crocker for $10,000; the winner would be determined by whose crews could lay the most track in a single day, but there is no contemporary evidence to prove the bet existed. California Governor Leland Stanford had a much smaller wager of $500 with the chief track-layer, Mr. Horace Minkler, which Stanford was happy to pay.
The CP's first attempt at a tracklaying record was abandoned on April 27, after a locomotive derailed. The CP had laid of rails that day. At that point, the CP was just short of completing their section of the line, while the UP was from Promontory, ensuring that should the CP set the record, the UP would be unable to break it without taking up completed track. |
9653_10 | The next day, work began at daybreak. One railcar, fully loaded with 8 pairs of rails, spikes, and other supplies, was pulled up to the end of the track by teams of horses; when it met an empty car returning to the supply base, the empty car was tipped on its side to allow the loaded car to pass. As the loaded car reached the end of the line, one pair of rails was pulled down and laid over the ties by a team of four rail handlers, then the car was advanced over the loose rails while another team of spikers started spikes to secure the rails. Additional teams finished the spiking and buried the ends of the ties.
A correspondent for the Daily Alta California timed the pace for two carloads; the cars, each containing of track, were emptied in 80, then 75 seconds. By lunch, were complete, approximately 6 hours after work began. |
9653_11 | The crews took an hour-long break to eat before resuming work, saucily naming the site Camp Victory. After lunch, an hour was spent bending rails for the upcoming route, a curving ascent. The eight-man rail-laying team refused to be relieved after lunch and continued their work hauling rails off the work cars. When work ceased at 7 PM that night, the CP crews had laid of track in a single day, setting the record. To prove the track was sound, a locomotive was run over the newly-laid track, completing the route in 40 minutes. CP crews completed the remainder of their part of the line to Promontory Summit the next day. In total, 25,800 ties, 3,520 rails (averaging each), 55,000 spikes, and 14,080 bolts were used that day, consuming of material. |
9653_12 | A delegation from the Union Pacific had been invited to witness the record attempts. When the first attempt failed on April 27, the UP delegates privately expressed skepticism that their record could be broken; by the end of the Ten-Mile Day, one delegate admitted "the organization of the Central Pacific is far superior to [ours]."
The names of the eight Irish rail-layers, who were responsible for hauling the rails off the loaded cars, and the two men who gauged the track were recorded in foreman George Coley's log book. The contribution of numerous Chinese workers was undeniable, although the roles they played were not well-described. The relationship between the Chinese and Irish crews of the CP was described as amicable. |
9653_13 | Legacy
Some of the UP crews who were denied a chance to break the CP record later worked on the Kansas Pacific, who set a new record with laid in a single day at Comanche Crossing near Strasburg, Colorado on August 15, 1870, completing the first continuous transcontinental railroad. Despite the new record that was set in 1870, the Southern Pacific (successor to the CP) continued to claim the record into the early 20th century. |
9653_14 | The ten-mile rail segment laid in 1869 (and the Promontory Golden Spike site) was bypassed in 1903 with the completion of the Lucin Cutoff, although service continued for several years on the original route, which the Southern Pacific called its Promontory Branch. The abandoned rails were eventually taken up for scrap and reuse in 1942. At the Golden Spike National Historical Park, the West Auto Tour is a route that takes tourists to a replica of the sign erected by the CP at the site to commemorate the April 28 record. The original sign is thought to be in the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City; a replacement sign that may have stood at the site is on display at the visitor's center in Promontory, and a replica is displayed at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. |
9653_15 | In art
April 28, 1869 is a prominent day in author Frank Chin's 1991 novel Donald Duk; the eponymous protagonist dreams of the events of that day and awakens, outraged to find that history has recorded only the names of the eight Irish tracklayers who worked that day.
Mary Ann Fraser wrote and illustrated the children's book Ten Mile Day, which was published in 1993 and documented the events of April 28, 1869.
Artist Mian Situ sold a painting entitled Ten Miles in One Day, Victory Camp, Utah, April 28, 1869 at the Autry Center's annual American West Masters show in 2007.
Notes
References
External links
First Transcontinental Railroad |
9654_0 | The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike (also known as the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, as well as a number of variations on these names) lasted eighty-three days, and began on May 9, 1934 when longshoremen in every US West Coast port walked out. The strike peaked with the death of two workers on "Bloody Thursday" and the San Francisco General Strike which stopped all work in the major port city for four days and led ultimately to the settlement of the West Coast Longshoremen's Strike.
The result of the strike was the unionization of all of the West Coast ports of the United States. The San Francisco General Strike of 1934, along with the Toledo Auto-Lite Strike of 1934 led by the American Workers Party and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 led by the Communist League of America, were catalysts for the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s, much of which was organized through the Congress of Industrial Organizations. |
9654_1 | Background
Longshoremen on the West Coast ports had either been unorganized or represented by company unions since the years immediately after World War I, when the shipping companies and stevedoring firms had imposed the open shop after a series of failed strikes. Longshoremen in San Francisco, then the major port on the coast, were required to go through a hiring hall operated by a company union, known as the "blue book" system for the color of the membership book. |
9654_2 | The Industrial Workers of the World had attempted to organize longshoremen, sailors and fishermen in the 1920s through their Marine Transport Workers Union. Their largest strike, the 1923 San Pedro Maritime Strike, bottled up shipping in that harbor, but was crushed by a combination of injunctions, mass arrests and vigilantism by the American Legion. While the IWW was a spent force after that strike, syndicalist thinking remained popular on the docks. Longshoremen and sailors on the West Coast also had contacts with an Australian syndicalist movement that called itself the "One Big Union" formed after the defeat of a general strike there in 1917. |
9654_3 | The Communist Party had also been active in the area in the late 1920s, seeking to organize all categories of maritime workers into a single union, the Marine Workers Industrial Union (MWIU), as part of the drive during the Third Period to create revolutionary unions. The MWIU never made much headway on the West Coast, but it did attract a number of former IWW members and foreign-born militants. Harry Bridges, an Australian-born sailor who became a longshoreman after coming to the United States, was repeatedly accused for his acknowledged Communist party membership. |
9654_4 | Militants published a newspaper, The Waterfront Worker, which focused on longshoremen's most pressing demands: more men on each gang, lighter loads and an independent union. While a number of the individuals in this group were Communist Party members, the group as a whole was independent of the party: although it criticized the International Seamen's Union (ISU) as weak and the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which had its base on the East Coast, as corrupt, it did not embrace the MWIU, but called instead for creation of small knots of activists at each port to serve as the first step in a slow, careful movement to unionize the industry. |
9654_5 | Events soon made the MWIU wholly irrelevant. Just as the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act had led to a spontaneous significant rise in union membership among coal miners in 1933, thousands of longshoremen now joined the fledgling ILA locals that reappeared on the West Coast. The MWIU faded away as party activists followed the mass of West Coast longshoremen into the ILA. |
9654_6 | These newly emboldened workers first went after the "blue book" union, refusing to pay dues to it and tearing up their membership books. The militants who had published "The Waterfront Worker", now known as the "Albion Hall group" after their usual meeting place, continued organizing dock committees that soon began launching slowdowns and other types of job actions in order to win better working conditions. While the official leadership of the ILA remained in the hands of conservatives sent to the West Coast by President Joseph Ryan of the ILA, the Albion Hall group started in March, 1934 to press demands for a coastwide contract, a union-run hiring hall and an industry wide waterfront federation. When the conservative ILA leadership negotiated a weak "gentlemen's agreement" with the employers that had been brokered by the mediation board created by the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bridges led the membership in rejecting it. |
9654_7 | The sticking point in the strike was recognition: the union demanded a closed shop, a coastwide contract and a union hiring hall. The employers offered to arbitrate the dispute, but insisted that the union agree to an open shop as a condition of any agreement to arbitrate. The longshoremen rejected the proposal to arbitrate.
The Big Strike |
9654_8 | The strike began on May 9, 1934, as longshoremen in every West Coast port walked out; sailors joined them several days later. The employers recruited strikebreakers, housing them on moored ships or in walled compounds and bringing them to and from work under police protection. Strikers attacked the stockade housing strikebreakers in San Pedro on May 15; police fired into the strikers, killing one and injuring many. The killing of Dick Parker created resentment up and down the coast. Daily similar smaller clashes broke out in San Francisco and Oakland, California, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. Strikers also succeeded in slowing down or stopping the movement of goods by rail out of the ports. |
9654_9 | The Roosevelt administration tried again to broker a deal to end the strike, but the membership twice rejected the agreements their leadership brought to them and continued the strike. The employers then decided to make a show of force to reopen the port in San Francisco. On Tuesday, July 3, fights broke out along the Embarcadero in San Francisco between police and strikers while a handful of trucks driven by young businessmen made it through the picket line.
Some Teamsters supported the strikers by refusing to handle "hot cargo"goods which had been unloaded by strikebreakersalthough the Teamsters' leadership was not as supportive. By the end of May, Dave Beck, president of the Seattle Teamsters, and Mike Casey, president of those in San Francisco, thought the maritime strike had lasted too long. They encouraged the strikers to take what they could get from the employers and threatened to use Teamsters as strikebreakers if the ILA did not return to work. |
9654_10 | Shipping companies, government officials, some union leaders and the press began to raise fears that the strike was the result of communist agitation. This "red scare" also helped ignite a controversy about the New Deal Public Works of Art Project murals that were at the time being completed in San Francisco's Coit Tower (on Telegraph Hill, close to the location of the strike in San Francisco), leading to the postponing of the tower's July 7 opening, and later to the removal of communist symbols from two of the American Social Realism style murals.
"Bloody Thursday" |
9654_11 | After a quiet Fourth of July, the employers' organization, the Industrial Association, tried to open the port of San Francisco even further on Thursday, July 5. As spectators watched from Rincon Hill, the police shot tear gas canisters into the crowd, then followed with a charge by mounted police. Picketers threw the canisters and rocks back at the police, who charged again, sending the picketers into retreat. Each side then refortified and took stock. |
9654_12 | The events took a violent turn that afternoon, as hostilities resumed outside of the ILA strike kitchen. Eyewitness accounts differ on the exact events that transpired next. According to some witnesses, a group of strikers first surrounded a police car and attempted to tip it over, prompting the police to fire shotguns in the air, and then revolvers at the crowd. Other eyewitness accounts claim that police officers started shooting in the direction of the strikers, provoking strikers to defend themselves. Policemen fired a shotgun into the crowd, striking three men in intersection of Steuart and Mission streets. One of the men, Howard Sperry, a striking longshoreman, later died of his wounds. Another man, Charles Olsen, was also shot but later recovered from his wounds. A third man, Nick Bordoise – a Greek by birth (originally named Nick Counderakis) who was an out of work member of the cook's union volunteering at the ILA strike kitchen – was shot but managed to make his way around |
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