text:
Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, in Fresno and Tulare Counties, California. Originally established in 1890 as General Grant National Park, the park was greatly expanded and renamed on March 4, 1940. The park's namesake, Kings Canyon, is a rugged glacier-carved valley more than a mile (1,600 m) deep. Other natural features include multiple 14000 ft peaks, high mountain meadows, swift-flowing rivers, and some of the world's largest stands of giant sequoia trees. Kings Canyon is north of and contiguous with Sequoia National Park, and both parks are jointly administered by the National Park Service as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

The majority of the 461901 acre park, drained by the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River and many smaller streams, is designated wilderness. Tourist facilities are concentrated in two areas: Grant Grove, home to General Grant (the second largest tree in the world, measured by trunk volume) and Cedar Grove, located in the heart of Kings Canyon. Overnight hiking is required to access most of the park's backcountry, or high country, which for much of the year is covered in deep snow. The combined Pacific Crest Trail/John Muir Trail, a backpacking route, traverses the entire length of the park from north to south.

General Grant National Park was initially created to protect a small area of giant sequoias from logging. Although John Muir's visits brought public attention to the huge wilderness area to the east, it took more than fifty years for the rest of Kings Canyon to be designated a national park. Environmental groups, park visitors and many local politicians wanted to see the area preserved; however, development interests wanted to build hydroelectric dams in the canyon. Even after President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the park in 1940, the fight continued until 1965, when the Cedar Grove and Tehipite Valley dam sites were finally annexed into the park.

As visitation rose post–World War II, further debate took place over whether the park should be developed as a tourist resort, or retained as a more natural environment restricted to simpler recreation such as hiking and camping. Ultimately, the preservation lobby prevailed and today, the park has only limited services and lodgings despite its size. Due to this and the lack of road access to most of the park, Kings Canyon remains the least visited of the major Sierra parks, with just under 700,000 visitors in 2017 compared to 1.3 million visitors at Sequoia and over 4 million at Yosemite.

Geography and natural history
Kings Canyon National Park, located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada to the east of the San Joaquin Valley, is divided into two distinct sections. The smaller and older western section centers around Grant Grove – home of many of the park's sequoias – and has most of the visitor facilities. The larger eastern section, which accounts for the majority of the park's area, is almost entirely wilderness, and contains the deep canyons of the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River. Cedar Grove, located at the bottom of the Kings Canyon, is the only part of the park's vast eastern portion accessible by road (via Highway 180). Although most of the park is forested, much of the eastern section consists of alpine regions above the tree line. Usually snow-free only from late June until late October, the high country is accessible solely via foot and horse trails.

The Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness encompasses over 768000 acre in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, or nearly 90 percent of their combined area. In addition to Sequoia National Park on the south, Kings Canyon is surrounded by multiple national forests and wilderness areas. The Sierra National Forest, Sequoia National Forest and Inyo National Forest border it on the northwest, west and east, respectively. The John Muir Wilderness wraps around much of the northern half of the park, and the Monarch Wilderness preserves much of the area between the park's two sections.

Mountains and valleys
Kings Canyon is characterized by some of the steepest vertical relief in North America, with numerous peaks over 14000 ft on the Sierra Crest along the park's eastern border, falling to 4500 ft in the valley floor of Cedar Grove just 10 mi to the west. The Sierran crest forms the eastern boundary of the park, from Mount Goethe in the north, down to Junction Peak, at the boundary with Sequoia National Park. Several passes cross the crest into the park, including Bishop Pass, Taboose Pass, Sawmill Pass, and Kearsarge Pass. All of these passes are above 11000 ft in elevation.

There are several prominent subranges of the Sierra within and around the park. The Palisades, along the park's eastern boundary, have four peaks over 14000 ft including the highest point in the park, 14248 ft at the summit of North Palisade. The Great Western Divide extends through the south-central part of the park and also has many peaks over 13000 ft, including Mount Brewer. The Monarch Divide, stretching between the lower Middle and South Forks of the Kings, has some of the most inaccessible terrain in the entire park. In the northwest section of the park are other very steep and rugged ranges such as the Goddard Divide, LeConte Divide and Black Divide, all of which are dotted with high mountain lakes and separated by deep chasms.

Most of the mountains and canyons, as in other parts of the Sierra Nevada, are formed in igneous intrusive rocks such as granite, diorite and monzonite, formed at least 100 million years ago due to subduction along the North American–Pacific Plate boundary. However, the Sierra itself is a young mountain range, no more than 10 million years old. Huge tectonic forces along the western edge of the Great Basin forced the local crustal block to tilt and uplift, creating the mountains' gradual slope to the west and the nearly vertical escarpment to the east bordering the Owens Valley. Many cave systems are also formed in the rock layers, including Boyden Cave along the South Fork of the Kings River.

Glacial features
The present shape of the high country was largely sculpted by glaciations during successive Ice Ages over the last 2.5 million years. Large valley glaciers moved as far as 44 mi down the South and Middle Forks of the Kings River, carving out the distinctive deep U-shaped valleys at Cedar Grove and Paradise Valley on the South Fork, and Tehipite Valley on the Middle Fork. Ice Age glaciations did not extend all the way to the confluence of the Middle and South Forks; consequently, the canyons downstream of Cedar Grove and Tehipite are typical V-shaped river gorges, in contrast to the U-shaped valleys upstream.

The glacial valleys are characterized by flat floors and exposed granite cliffs and domes many thousands of feet high, similar in form to the more famous Yosemite Valley to the north, and in fact the term "yosemite" was used in the 19th century by John Muir to describe these valleys before they were widely known by their own names. In A Rival of the Yosemite, published in 1891 in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Muir wrote of Kings Canyon:

"In the vast Sierra wilderness far to the southward of the famous Yosemite Valley, there is a yet grander valley of the same kind. It is situated on the south fork of the Kings River, above the most extensive groves and forests of the giant sequoia, and beneath the shadows of the highest mountains in the range, where the cañons are deepest and the snow-laden peaks are crowded most closely together. It is called the Big King's River Cañon, or King's River Yosemite ... The stupendous rocks of purplish gray granite that form the walls are from 2500 to 5000 feet in height, while the depth of the valley is considerably more than a mile.

The bottom of the valley ... is diversified with flowery meadows and groves and open sunny flats, through the midst of which the crystal river, ever changing, ever beautiful, makes its way; now gliding softly with scarce a ripple over beds of brown pebbles, now rustling and leaping in wild exultation across avalanche rock-dams or terminal moraines ... From this long, flowery, forested, well-watered park the walls rise abruptly in plain precipices or richly sculptured masses partly separated by side cañons baring wonderful wealth and variety of architectural forms.

From the brink of the walls on either side the ground still rises in a series of ice-carved ridges and basins, superbly forested and adorned with many small lakes and meadows where deer and bear find grateful homes; while from the head of the valley other mountains rise beyond in glorious array, every one of them shining with rock crystals and snow, and with a network of streams that sing their way down from lake to lake through a labyrinth of ice-burnished cañons."

Other significant glacial features include Tehipite Dome, the largest granite dome in the Sierra, rising 3500 ft above the floor of Tehipite Valley. In Kings Canyon and across the high country, such sheer granite cliffs are subject to exfoliation, frost weathering and earthquakes which cause sudden and dramatic rockfalls. Over thousands of years, cliff collapses have built up large talus piles or scree slopes at their bases along almost every glacial valley in the park.

Zumwalt Meadow, one of the few large areas of flat land in the park, was formed by the accumulation of sediment behind the terminal moraine of a retreating glacier. In Kings Canyon there are in fact four such moraines, which the Kings River cascades over, forming whitewater rapids, in an area where it otherwise winds calmly across meadows. The series of moraines one behind the other are termed "nested moraines", each created during a different glacial period by glaciers of varying length.

Elsewhere in the high country, the landscape of bare rock and talus left by former glaciers is replete with hanging valleys, waterfalls, serrated ridges (arêtes), cirques, and hundreds of alpine tarns. Some of the highest peaks retain permanent snowfields and even glaciers. Palisade Glacier, the largest in the Sierra, is located near the park's edge in the John Muir Wilderness. These glaciers are not holdovers from the Ice Ages; rather, they were most likely formed during cold periods in the last 1,000 years. The park's glaciers are now melting rapidly due to increased temperatures, and may disappear completely within a few decades.

Watersheds
A number of major Sierra rivers have their origins in the park. The South Fork Kings River flows from near Taboose Pass, on the park's eastern boundary, and drains much of the southern half of the park, carving the canyon from which the park takes its name. The Middle Fork Kings River originates near Mount Powell and drains most of the park's northern half. A smaller section in the northern tip of the park is drained by the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. The Kings River falls more than 13000 ft from the Sierra crest to Pine Flat Reservoir in the San Joaquin Valley – the longest undammed drop of any North American river.

Most of the park's borders are formed by watershed divides between river basins. The eastern boundary follows the Sierra Crest, which to the east is drained by the Owens River, part of the Great Basin watershed. The southern boundary with Sequoia National Park is the divide between the Kings, Kaweah and Kern Rivers. Part of the western boundary follows the divide between the Middle and North Forks of the Kings River.

The forks of the Kings River converge in the Sequoia National Forest, a few miles outside the western boundary of the park, to form the main stem of the river. Here, the river forms one of the deepest canyons in North America, its walls rising as much as 8200 ft from river to rim – about half a mile (0.8 km) deeper than the Grand Canyon. The canyons upstream at Cedar Grove are also more than 5000 ft deep. Although the geology and topography of Cedar Grove and Tehipite Valley are similar to that of Yosemite Valley, the park does not have waterfalls as high and spectacular as those in Yosemite. There are several powerful but short waterfalls including Mist Falls, Roaring River Falls and Grizzly Falls in the Cedar Grove area. The backcountry is home to some much higher falls. Silver Spray Falls in Tehipite Valley drops about 700 ft in several tiers. In a 1910 article in Out West, Ernestine Winchell describes the falls and Tehipite Valley:

"... We paused a moment at the colossal doorway where Tehipite, shimmering through spaces of summer sunshine, in peaceful grandeur compelled our reverential gaze ... Across the river and below the dome Crown Creek races in sparkling cascades to grind a score of horrible pot-holes big enough to swallow a horse and rider; leaves that ferocious task to foam lightly down a cliff as Silver Spray Fall, whirls lazily at its foot, and then hurries to join King's River in its journey to the desert."

Both the Kings and San Joaquin Rivers flow west into the arid San Joaquin Valley; however, while the San Joaquin eventually empties into San Francisco Bay, the Kings ends in the terminal sink of Tulare Lake, which – before its waters were diverted for irrigation – was one of the largest freshwater lakes in the western United States. The seasonal rise and fall of the park's rivers is driven by heavy snowfall (typically between November and April) followed by a rapid melt during May and June. Runoff drops significantly by late July (or August in wet years), and rivers are usually a trickle by autumn. Snow accumulations in the higher areas of Kings Canyon National Park can be extremely large, often totaling in the hundreds of inches, although the annual snowpack fluctuates greatly between wet and dry years.

Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification system, most of Kings Canyon National Park has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb). with only the lowest of elevations having a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa). According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the Plant Hardiness zone at Cedar Grove Visitor Center at 4613 ft elevation is 8a with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of 12.3 °F.

Plants and wildlife

Over 1,200 species of plants occur in Kings Canyon and Sequoia Parks, representing about 20 percent of all plant species in the state. In 1976, Kings Canyon was designated by UNESCO as part of the Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve. Due to the large range in elevation, the park is characterized by several major plant communities. At lower elevations the park touches the fairly dry Sierra foothill zone which mostly consists of chaparral, brush and shrubs. Oaks, sycamores, willows and various hardwoods are often found along streams and springs at lower elevations.

At middle elevations, most of the park consists of montane mixed-conifer forests: ponderosa pine, incense cedar, white fir, sugar pine and scattered groves of giant sequoias prevail in areas such as Cedar Grove and the mid-elevation slopes around Grant Grove. In Kings Canyon, which runs almost due east to west, there is a marked difference between the north wall – which is hotter and drier due to receiving more sunlight – and the more cool, shaded south wall which is more heavily forested. Further up, approaching the subalpine zone, red fir and lodgepole pine are found in increasing numbers; whitebark pine, mountain hemlock and foxtail pine dominate in areas approaching the tree line. A total of 202430 acre of old-growth forests are shared by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Although its sister park to the south, Sequoia, is better known for its giant sequoias, Kings Canyon also has large stands of sequoias – including General Grant, the second largest tree on Earth, in the middle of General Grant Grove. The Redwood Mountain Grove, located a short distance further south, is the largest surviving sequoia grove in the world, covering more than 2500 acre; it also has the tallest known sequoia, at 311 ft. The Converse Basin Grove, located just outside the park boundary, is believed to have once been more than twice as large, but was almost completely clear-cut in the late 1800s. Many of the sequoia groves destroyed by logging, such as the Big Stump Grove, have begun to regenerate, a process that will take many hundreds of years.

The forests provide habitat to many mammal species such as mule deer, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, mountain lions and black bears, and a diversity of bird and reptile species. The Park Service is involved in restoring the population of bighorn sheep, which are considered endangered in the area; in 2014 several bighorns were released into the Sequoia-Kings Canyon area. Grizzly bears originally roamed the park as well, but were hunted to extinction by the early 1900s. The forks of the Kings River at these middle and lower elevations are also well known for their wild trout; the Kings is known as "one of the finest large trout fisheries in the state".

In the high alpine country, plant communities are mostly meadows, herbs and shrubs with some scattered groves of foxtail pine and stunted whitebark pine. Trees often create krummholtz formations, or a stunted, deformed growth pattern characterized by branches closely hugging the ground. Talus slopes are home to small mammals such as pikas and yellow-bellied marmots. Birds such as gray-crowned rosy finches and American pipits, and sensitive amphibian species such as mountain yellow-legged frogs and Yosemite toads, feed on insects near alpine lakes and wetlands. Larger animals such as bears may venture into the alpine zone in search of food (a behavior now exacerbated by improper disposal of waste by campers), but do not winter there.

Human impacts and management
Although most of the park is now designated wilderness, human activities have significantly modified the ecology of the area ever since Native American times. In order to clear areas for hunting game and to encourage the germination of certain plants, Native Americans set controlled burns in areas of overgrown brush and grass. During the early 20th century, ""complete fire suppression" policy led to a great build-up of debris and tinder in the park's forests. By the 1960s it became apparent that this was interfering with the reproductive cycle of the park's sequoias, whose bark is fire resistant but require regular fires to clear away competing growth such as white firs. In 1963, scientists deliberately set fire to part of the Redwood Mountain Grove, the first fire in any of the park's sequoia groves for 75 years. Thousands of new sequoia seedlings germinated. The success of the experiment led to the establishment of the park's first long-term prescribed burn program in 1972.

A major source of damage to the park in the late 19th century and early 20th century was summer livestock grazing, particularly sheep, in areas such as Tehipite Valley and the Roaring River valley (although sheep never entered Cedar Grove, due to the difficulty of accessing the bottom of Kings Canyon before Highway 180 was constructed). Ranchers drove their herds up into the Sierra Nevada to escape the drought and heat of the San Joaquin Valley. Meadows were trampled by thousands of hooves, leading to increased erosion and watershed degradation. Grizzly bears and wolves which preyed on livestock were shot, trapped and poisoned in large numbers, extirpating them from the Sierra by the early 1900s.

Although the Sierra Forest Reserve, including what would become Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, was established in 1893, as many as half a million sheep were illegally grazed there. In 1917 the federal government began to crack down on illegal grazing and established a system of regulated management and range restoration, before sheep were banned from Kings Canyon altogether following the park's creation in 1940. Livestock grazing is still allowed in some national forest lands around the park. Occasionally hikers may come across gated drift fences in the wilderness designed to control livestock movement. Visitors must close all gates behind them to prevent livestock from wandering into protected areas.

The decline of natural predators in the early 1900s led to a huge spike in the deer population, which further rose due to park visitors feeding them. Ultimately, this led to overgrazing and the vegetation understory was nearly eliminated in large areas of the park. When the park was expanded in 1940, the Park Service began shooting deer in an effort to reduce the size of the herd. Although the culling reduced deer numbers to a more ecologically stable level, the program was criticized for its reliance on brute force rather than more "hands-off" methods, such as re-introducing predators. Today, the only stock allowed in the park are pack horses and mules, which are only permitted in certain areas along major trails, and usually not early in the season in order to protect meadows in the spring while they are wet and soft.

The park continues to host a healthy population of black bears, which are typically not aggressive towards humans, but have a tendency to steal human food. The Park Service has placed bear lockers in campgrounds, required the use of bear canisters and attempted to relocate bears away from heavily visited areas. This has been successful in the backcountry, where bears have largely ceased to associate backpackers with food, but remains an issue near developed campgrounds. Visitors are encouraged to store all food and scented items in lockers, and dispose of trash in bearproof garbage cans. However, rangers are still sometimes forced to kill "problem bears" who become habituated to human food.

Indigenous peoples

People have inhabited Kings Canyon National Park for about 6,000–7,000 years. The Owens Valley Paiutes (also known as the Eastern Monos) visited the region from their homeland east of the Sierra Nevada, around Mono Lake. The Paiutes mainly used acorns for food, as well as deer and other small animals. They created trade routes connecting the Owens Valley with the Central Valley west of the Sierra Nevada. The Yokuts lived in the Central Valley and also ventured into the mountains during summer to collect plants, hunt game, and trade. Because of the inhospitable winter climate, they did not establish permanent villages in the high country. Prior to European contact, the Yokut population numbered between 15,000 and 20,000, and the Monos about 6,000.

Around the 1500s AD, some of the Eastern Mono migrated across the Sierra Nevada into the Central Valley, where they created settlements adjoining Yokuts territory in the Sierra foothills near the Kings River. This group became known as the Monaches, or Western Mono. They eventually divided into as many as six distinct bands, one of which lived in the area near Grant Grove. The native population suffered greatly during the American expansion in the 19th century; a smallpox epidemic killed off most of the Monache in 1862, and very few remain in the area today.

Early exploration and logging
The early Spanish exploration of California largely bypassed what is now Kings Canyon National Park. In 1805 Gabriel Moraga led an expedition through the Central Valley and crossed what is now the Kings River, bestowing the name Rio de los Santo Reyes (River of the Holy Kings) on the stream. Fur trappers also visited the areas in the 1820s, but most likely did not venture into the high country since beaver were only present at lower elevations. They were followed by prospectors during the California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. However, not much gold, nor other minerals, were discovered in this area. Hale Tharp, a disillusioned gold miner, is credited with the 1858 discovery of Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park, which led to the further exploration and discovery of the other sequoia forests in the area, including Grant Grove.

During the 1860s, a road was built to Grant Grove and many of the sequoias there were logged. The first of several sawmills opened in 1862, and logging operations expanded north and almost entirely leveled Converse Basin, then one of the largest sequoia groves in the world (although the Boole tree, the grove's biggest, was spared). The General Grant tree was discovered by Joseph H. Thomas, a sawmill operator, in 1862. Thomas' business partners, the Gamlin brothers, held a claim to the land surrounding Grant Grove, and their dwelling (built around 1872) has been preserved as a historic site.

During the 1870s a government survey "disclosed the remarkable quality of General Grant Grove, and Israel Gamlin was persuaded to give up his claim so the area could be preserved." However, this did not entirely stop logging in the area – in 1875 a 300 ft sequoia was chopped down and a section sent to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. Reportedly, "eastern people refused to accept the exhibit as part of a single tree and called it the 'California Hoax'." The Centennial Stump, and most of the tree, remain as prominent features in Grant Grove: "Ladies from a nearby logging camp used to conduct Sunday school services for their children upon the stump."

Wilderness surveys
The first non-native people to venture into what is today considered the Kings Canyon backcountry or high country were likely John C. Fremont's party in 1844, which attempted to cross the Sierra Nevada by way of the Kings River. However, a snowstorm impeded their progress and they were forced to retreat to the Central Valley. In 1858, the J.H. Johnson party successfully crossed the Sierra via the route Fremont had intended to find, via Kearsarge Pass at the far eastern end of Kings Canyon.

The first scientific expedition to the area was the 1864 Whitney Survey, conducted by the Geological Survey of California led by William Brewer. After failed attempts to summit Mount Whitney, the Brewer party descended into the Kings Canyon via Native American paths where "they remarked its resemblance to the Yosemite and were impressed by the enormous height of its cliffs." Although the rugged terrain made travel difficult, they discovered a route up the north wall of the canyon and named several prominent features, including Mount King, Mount Gardiner, the Palisades, and Mount Brewer. From the summit of the peak that would bear his name, Brewer described the view:

"Such a landscape! A hundred peaks in sight over thirteen thousand feet—many very sharp—deep canyons, cliffs in every direction almost rival Yosemite, sharp ridges inaccessible to man, on which human foot has never trod—all combined to produce a view of sublimity of which is rarely equaled, one which few are privileged to behold."

Brewer's party left Kings Canyon via Kearsarge Pass where they encountered a group of prospectors led by Thomas Keough. Although details on the Keough expedition are scarce, the miners had been prospecting on the North Fork of the Kings River and were returning to their homes in the Owens Valley, indicating that they must have crossed the Middle Fork – then considered a region impossible to access by white settlers – making them the first non-natives to do so. Around 1869, sheepherder Frank Dusy discovered and named the Middle Fork's Tehipite Valley, and later grazed his sheep there. Aside from such occasional uses, most of the high country remained little visited and mostly unexplored.

Park creation
It was not until John Muir first visited in 1873 that Kings Canyon began receiving public attention. Muir was delighted at the canyon's similarity to Yosemite Valley, as it reinforced his theory that the valleys were carved by massive glaciers during the last ice age. This competed with Josiah Whitney's then-accepted theory that the mountain valleys were formed by earthquakes. Muir's writings on the geology of the park and the magnificence of its sequoia groves led to calls for preservation of the area, and Muir himself continued to lobby for the cause. In 1880 logging claims in the Grant Grove area were suspended by the federal government, in large part due to the political efforts of Colonel George W. Stewart.

In March 1890 a bill (H.R. 8350) was introduced to Congress by Representative William Vandever proposing the creation of Yosemite National Park. Subsequently, some "political intrigue" led to its substitution with H.R. 12187, which also included provisions for a General Grant National Park and the expansion of Sequoia National Park. The origins of this bill remain largely a mystery, although local politicians with an interest in preserving the park were likely involved. Daniel K. Zumwalt, an agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad – which owned many lumber interests in California – may have seen the park as a way to force their competitors in the Sequoia-Kings Canyon area out of business. On October 1, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed the bill into law, establishing General Grant National Park – the United States' fourth national park – which today is part of the smaller western section of Kings Canyon National Park.

For many years the primary way for tourists to reach General Grant National Park was the Stephens Grade, a rough wagon road over which a stagecoach operated from Visalia beginning in the early 1900s. Initially, the U.S. Army had to station troops to protect the park from illegal grazing and hunting. Although these eventually ceased to be a problem, the rising number of visitors created its own sanitation and waste issues. In the summer of 1907 about 1,100 people visited the park. A new road reached the General Grant National Park by 1913; that summer, the park saw almost 2,800 tourists. In 1914 the park was turned over from military to civilian control (though the National Park Service was not formally established until 1916).

Park expansion and dam controversy
The future of the park's much larger eastern section remained in doubt for almost fifty years. The backcountry was largely inaccessible and unknown to tourists, requiring several days' journey on horseback through some very rugged terrain. Instead, the area was targeted by water supply and power interests including the city of Los Angeles, who wanted to build hydroelectric dams in Kings Canyon. Due to its heavy flow and long drop – 11000 ft in less than 80 mi – the Kings River has considerable hydroelectric potential, and reservoirs were proposed for Cedar Grove, Tehipite Valley and Simpson Meadow, among other sites. Development interests blocked legislation that would have made the area a national park, but at the same time, the environmental lobby prevented any of these projects from being built.

In 1935 the Generals Highway was completed connecting Sequoia and General Grant National Parks. In 1939 State Route 180 from Grant Grove to Kings Canyon was finally completed after ten years of construction, finally allowing large numbers of tourists to visit Cedar Grove for the first time. The road was built in part using state prison labor. However, a proposal to extend the state highway over Kearsarge Pass to the Owens Valley was defeated.

Well-graded hiking trails were also extended into the backcountry to replace the rough pack trails used by sheepherders – including the John Muir Trail, completed in 1933 through what is now the eastern edge of Kings Canyon National Park. For many years a tiny ranger station and a few private structures (such as Knapp Cabin) had been the only development in Cedar Grove. Starting in 1937, large campgrounds were developed in Kings Canyon by the U.S. Forest Service, but construction of more permanent facilities was foregone since the area would lie at the bottom of one of the proposed reservoirs.

Ultimately, local opposition to Los Angeles' attempts to secure the Kings River turned into significant political pressure to create a national park, which would prevent any dam projects there. United States Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes was a major proponent for the expansion of the park, and worked to unite local interests, who had widely different views on how much development should be allowed. Ickes also hired Ansel Adams to photograph and document the area, generating publicity for the preservation movement. However, in order to placate the local irrigation districts – who wanted to leave open the option of reservoirs – Cedar Grove and Tehipite Valley were specifically excluded from the new park. On March 4, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill to create Kings Canyon National Park, which added the original General Grant National Park to over 400000 acre of the High Sierra above Cedar Grove.

Later history and additions
The new Kings Canyon administration initially struggled to manage the huge park, which was more than 700 times the size of the original unit at Grant Grove. In the early years staff and expertise were often loaned from Sequoia National Park. In 1943 the administrations of Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks were combined, as a cost-saving measure due to World War II. After the war, the arrangement was preserved; today, the two parks are still managed as one. Postwar, visitation jumped enormously, from just over 82,000 in 1945 to 450,000 in 1951. Demand increased for tourist facilities at Cedar Grove, the terminus of the state highway – although the valley was not officially part of the park, having been omitted due to water-development interests. The extension of the road through the valley was controversial, due to potential ecological damage. By 1947 the Park Service had drafted a general plan including tourist lodges, concessions and a pack station.

Then in 1948, Los Angeles unexpectedly re-filed its application to construct dams in Kings Canyon. The Kings River Conservation District (KRCD), representing local water agencies, immediately filed claims on the same sites. KRCD had no intention of constructing dams but hoped to block the possible threat to its water supply. Although the Federal Power Commission rejected Los Angeles' application, as it had prior to 1940, the city repeatedly refiled until 1963, when it was denied by both the California State Water Board and the federal government.

One factor in the project's final failure was that even though the Cedar Grove dam site was outside the park, the project required two additional dams to be built upstream if it were to be economically feasible. However, those sites were now inside the park boundary as designated in 1940. On August 6, 1965, Cedar Grove and Tehipite Valley were finally added to the park, making them permanently off-limits to new dams as well. These annexations (with the exception of a tiny section in 1984, south of Grant Grove) brought Kings Canyon National Park to its present size.

Starting in the 1950s, in response to growing traffic and crowding at national parks, the Park Service implemented Mission 66 which proposed large new visitor developments for Kings Canyon and other parks. This included new visitor centers at Grant Grove and Cedar Grove, electrification and sewage facilities at Cedar Grove, and substantial new accommodations, trails, and parking areas.

After the Cedar Grove development was delayed by the final years of the dam debacle, the Park Service released a new plan in 1972, which included cabins for 260 people, and an 11000 ft2 store and cafeteria complex, hoping to develop the area in a way similar to Yosemite Valley. In 1974 the park saw 1,216,800 visitors, a number that has not been exceeded since. However, by 1975 public hearings showed such an opposition to intense development, that ultimately only a small lodge and store were added to the canyon.

The rising number of visitors to the backcountry – from 8,000 in 1962 to over 44,000 in 1971 – created its own problems in the form of litter, illegal campfires and contact with dangerous wildlife such as bears. In 1966 and 1971 the Park Service proposed, controversially, to designate most of the park as wilderness, which would place much greater restrictions on its use. In 1973 the number of backpackers was first restricted via a quota system. Finally, on September 28, 1984, Congress designated over 85 percent of Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks as wilderness. In 1987, the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River were designated Wild and Scenic.

Recreation
Grant Grove, the only vehicular entrance to the park, is 60 mi east of Fresno via Highway 180. In addition to Highway 180 from the west, Highway 198, the Generals Highway, provides access from Sequoia National Park in the south. The roads converge in Grant Grove Village, from where Highway 180 continues another 35 mi northeast to Cedar Grove. There is no vehicular access from Highway 395 on the eastern side of the park. There is currently no public transportation to Kings Canyon National Park; the Big Trees Shuttle, which originally operated between Sequoia National Park and Grant Grove, is no longer in service.

The National Park Service maintains visitor centers at Grant Grove and Cedar Grove. Grant Grove Village is the most developed part of the park and includes the 36-room John Muir Lodge (the park's largest hotel), visitor cabins, a restaurant and a general store. Cedar Grove also has a small market, but overall the facilities there are much more limited. Barring extreme weather, the Grant Grove section is open year-round; Cedar Grove is closed in winter. Highway 180 is plowed only as far as Princess Meadow, the junction with the Hume Lake Road, which remains open to Hume Lake in winter.

Due to its limited road access, Kings Canyon receives many fewer visitors than its neighboring national parks, Sequoia and Yosemite. The overall decline in national park visitation in the late 1990s hit Kings Canyon considerably harder than the other parks; from 1970 to 1990 it averaged almost a million visitors per year, but in the 21st century, it has averaged just 560,000. In 2016, it saw an increase to 607,479 visitors, which (with the exception of 2009) was the highest count since 1995. Since records began in 1904, an approximate total of 53 million people have visited Kings Canyon.

Campgrounds and hiking
In Grant Grove, the three major campgrounds are Azalea, Crystal Springs and Sunset, with 319 sites in total. With the exception of Sunset, they operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Cedar Grove has 314 sites in the Sentinel, Sheep Creek and Moraine Campgrounds, which are also first-come, first-served; sites at the Canyon View group camp must be reserved. During high demand periods, additional campsites may be placed on a reservation system. All campgrounds have flush toilets and showers, although water use may be restricted depending on the season.

There are a number of day hikes in the parts of Kings Canyon National Park accessible by road. In the Grant Grove area a one-mile (1.6 km) trail leads to the General Grant Tree, and several longer trails reach nearby points of interest such as Redwood Mountain, the largest sequoia grove. In Cedar Grove, easy hikes include the boardwalk path through Zumwalt Meadow – providing broad views of Kings Canyon – and the short walk to Roaring River Falls; there are also many longer day hikes such as an 8 mi round trip to Mist Falls, and the 13 mi round trip climb to Lookout Peak above Kings Canyon.

A number of historical sites in the park are easily accessible via short walks, including Gamlin Cabin, built c. 1872 by the Gamlin brothers, who had a timber claim at Grant Grove before it became a national park. it is believed to be the first permanent structure built in the park area. Knapp Cabin, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the oldest surviving structure in Cedar Grove, dating back to 1925. Another point of interest is the extensive Boyden Cavern system whose entrance is located just outside the park's western boundary, in the Monarch Wilderness. As of 2016, the cave was closed due to damage from the Rough Fire.

Backcountry travel
Since most of Kings Canyon is wilderness and roads extend only a small distance into the park, backpacking (and less commonly, horsepacking) are the only way to see the majority of the park. Unlike day hikers, overnight backpackers must obtain a wilderness permit from a ranger station or visitor center. During the peak tourist season (typically between May and September), a quota applies for wilderness permits, of which 75 percent are set aside for prior reservations, with the remainder for walk-ins. Outside the quota period permits are still required, although the limit no longer applies. Although backpackers account for a relatively small percentage of the total visitors, some of the backcountry trails are still quite heavily used. Due to the popularity of some backcountry camps, stays can be limited to one or two nights. During the summer, the Park Service staffs backcountry ranger stations at McClure Meadow, Le Conte Meadow, Rae Lakes, Charlotte Lake and Roaring River.

Road's End at Cedar Grove is a major jumping-off point for trips into the backcountry. The Rae Lakes Loop, 41.4 mi, is one of the most popular backpacking trips and passes through the deep canyons of Paradise Valley, the high Woods Creek suspension bridge and exposed alpine country before reaching Rae Lakes, a chain of glacial tarns set below 13000 ft peaks. Rae Lakes Loop hikers also climb over Glen Pass reaching a peak elevation of just under 12,000 feet. From the top of the pass, hikers can see views of Rae Lakes and the surrounding basin. The combined Pacific Crest Trail/John Muir Trail forms the backbone of the trail system, winding about 77 mi from Piute Canyon at the park's northern tip to Forester Pass, 13153 ft, in the south. Many hikes in Kings Canyon, including Rae Lakes, include parts of the PCT/JMT. There are also trailheads at Grant Grove which lead to more moderate hikes in the lower western Sierra Nevada, many in the Jennie Lakes Wilderness (just outside the national park).

Many parts of the park, such as the Middle Fork of the Kings River, are more difficult to access, requiring multi-day hikes over difficult terrain. Simpson Meadow on the Middle Fork is a 23 mi, one-way hike from Cedar Grove, with well over 12000 ft of elevation change. Other trailheads outside the park provide access to some of its more isolated locations, such as Tehipite Valley, a 14 mi one-way hike from the Wishon Dam trailhead in the Sierra National Forest. The 3000 ft exposed and unmaintained descent into the valley is "notorious" as one of the park's most difficult hikes. Several trails also access the park from the Owens Valley to the east; all surmount passes more than 11000 ft high. The closest and most heavily used eastern approach is via Onion Valley Road, which terminates about a mile (1.6 km) east of the park boundary in the Inyo National Forest. The Kearsarge Pass Trail begins at Onion Valley Campground and links to the PCT/JMT via the eponymous pass.

During the spring and early summer, river crossings can be hazardous; in response the Park Service has installed bridges along some of the major trails. By late August or September of most years, rivers will have dropped to relatively safe levels. The high country is typically snow free between May and November, although in particularly wet years, large areas of snow may persist into July. In winter, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are common activities. The Park Service provides ranger-led snowshoe walks and maintains some groomed trails in the Grant Grove area. Longer trips into the backcountry are also possible, although due to the rough terrain, typically deep snows and lack of ranger patrols during the winter, this is recommended only for skilled winter travelers. As with backpacking, wilderness permits are required for any overnight trips in winter.

Climbing and canyoneering
The large, exposed granite cliffs and domes in Kings Canyon provide opportunities for rock climbing. However, many such features require long or circuitous hikes to reach their bases, which deters many climbers. These include The Obelisk, overlooking Kings Canyon at the park's western boundary, multipitch climbs at Charlito Dome and Charlotte Dome well up the Bubbs Creek Trail, and Tehipite Dome, which requires a nearly 30 mi roundtrip hike just to access. Many of the park's prominent peaks also require technical climbing – including North Palisade, the highest point in the park, and some of its neighbors along the Sierra crest. In The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, Trails (2009) North Palisade is described as "the classic peak of the High Sierra ... It is striking from a distance and has routes that will challenge climbers of all abilities and preferences."

Canyoneering, bouldering, bushwhacking and rappelling are often necessary to explore parts of the backcountry without developed trails. A notably challenging route is down Enchanted Gorge in the Middle Fork backcountry, where Disappearing Creek vanishes under huge talus piles only to re-emerge several miles downstream, hence the name. Nearby Goddard Canyon is an easier – albeit still rugged – route, and is known for its scenic meadows and many waterfalls. The Gorge of Despair above Tehipite Valley is known for its combination of cliffs, waterfalls and deep pools, whose 3000 ft descent requires rappelling gear and wetsuits to achieve. Because of the park's size, lack of cell reception and limited personnel for search and rescue operations, only experienced cross-country travelers should attempt to hike off trail.

Water sports
In Cedar Grove, about 10 mi of the South Fork are considered good waters for fly fishing. Although the river was once stocked with trout, the Park Service has not stocked the river since the 1970s, in favor of letting the fishery return to natural conditions. While rainbow, brown, and brook trout are found in various stretches of the river, only rainbows are native to the Sierra Nevada, the others having been planted by sportsmen in the early 20th century. The river is generally low and warm enough for wading by early autumn. In order to preserve the natural fishery, only catch and release is allowed for rainbows. A California state fishing license is required for visitors 16 years or older. The rainbow trout in the Kings river are small, usually no more than 8 to 9 in.

In order to protect riparian habitat, the gently flowing South Fork is closed to boating in Cedar Grove between Bubbs Creek and the western boundary of the park. However, swimming is allowed in certain sections of the river, with Muir Rock and the Red Bridge being popular swimming holes. Although there are many alpine lakes in the park at high elevations, most are impractical to access for boating or swimming. Nearby Hume Lake, formed by a historic mill-pond dam, is located in the Sequoia National Forest between the two sections of the park and is used for boating, swimming and fishing.

Most of the park's other rivers are extremely steep and fast-flowing, and are suitable only for advanced kayaking. The Kings River above Pine Flat Reservoir is a commercial whitewater run with its put-in near the western boundary of the park, but most of the run itself is on national forest. Most rivers in the park itself are inaccessible by road. The Middle Fork is one of the most difficult-to-access whitewater runs in the entire state, since boats and equipment must be carried through miles of backcountry to reach it. Canoe Kayak magazine describes the Middle Fork run, which passes through some of the most isolated parts of the Sierra, as "the very definition of epic with paddlers traveling around the world just to make a once-in-a-lifetime descent". Kayakers take about five days to descend the Class V Middle Fork from its 12000 ft headwaters to 900 ft at Pine Flat Reservoir.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Kings Canyon National Park


text:
Arrowhead Stadium

Arrowhead Stadium is an American football stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. It primarily serves as the home venue of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). The stadium has been officially named GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium (pronounced G.E.H.A.) since March 2021, following a naming rights deal between GEHA and the Chiefs. The agreement began at the start of the 2021 season and ends in January 2031 with the expiration of the leases for the Chiefs and Royals with Truman Sports Complex owner, the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority.

It is next door to Kauffman Stadium, home of Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals in the Truman Sports Complex. Arrowhead Stadium has a seating capacity of 76,416, making it the 25th-largest stadium in the United States and the fourth-largest NFL stadium. It is also the largest sports facility by capacity in the state of Missouri. A $375 million renovation was completed in 2010. The stadium is scheduled to host matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and has hosted college football games, as well as other soccer games.

History
When the Dallas Texans of the American Football League (AFL) relocated to Kansas City in 1963 and were rebranded as the Chiefs, they played their home games at Municipal Stadium. They originally shared the stadium with the Kansas City Athletics of Major League Baseball, but the Athletics relocated to Oakland, California, after the 1967 season, with the expansion Kansas City Royals being added in 1969.

Municipal Stadium, built in 1923 and mostly rebuilt in 1955, seated approximately 35,000 for football, but as part of the AFL–NFL merger announced in 1966, NFL stadiums would henceforth be required to seat no fewer than 50,000 people. The loss of the A's was a shock to local sports fans an community leaders and there was a growing sense that government subsidy of a stadium complex would be necessary to keep major league baseball and professiona footbal in the city.

When Kansas City was unable to find a suitable location for a new stadium, Jackson County stepped in and offered a location on the eastern edge of town near the interchange of Interstate 70 and Interstate 435. Voters approved a $102 million bond issue in 1967 to build a new sports complex with two stadiums. The original design called for construction of side-by-side baseball and football stadiums with a common roof that would roll between them. This design proved to be more complicated and expensive than originally thought and so was scrapped in favor of a more conventional open-air configuration. The Chiefs staff, led by team general manager Jack Steadman, helped develop the complex.

Construction
Construction began in 1968. The original two-stadium concept was initially designed by Denver architect Charles Deaton and Steadman. The baseball and football stadiums have a very different appearance, but share utilities, parking, and underground storage. Plans to have covered stadiums were dropped, leaving two open-air stadiums. Lamar Hunt included an owner's suite, complete with three bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room, to the design of the football stadium. To increase seating while limiting the stadium's footprint, the upper sections were placed at a steep incline which cannot be replicated in modern stadiums due to accessibility regulations.

Deaton's design was implemented by the Kansas City architectural firm of Kivett & Myers. Arrowhead Stadium is considered by some to have had an influence on the design of several future NFL stadiums. Construction of the stadium was a joint venture Sharp-Kidde-Webb construction firms.

1970s
Construction on Arrowhead Stadium was completed in time for the 1972 season. On August 12, 1972, the Chiefs defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 24–14 in the first preseason game at Arrowhead Stadium.

In the first regular season game at Arrowhead Stadium in 1972, the Chiefs were defeated by the Miami Dolphins, the team that defeated the Chiefs in the final game football game at Municipal Stadium, a double overtime playoff game on Christmas Day 1971 that is still the longest game in NFL history.

On November 5, 1972, 82,094 people (the largest crowd to see a game at Arrowhead Stadium) saw the Chiefs defeat the Oakland Raiders, 27-14, to mark their first regular-season victory in their new home.

In 1973, the stadium was the first in the NFL to include arrows on the yard markers to indicate the nearer goal line. (Initially, they resembled little Indian arrowheads.) This practice would eventually spread to the other NFL stadiums as the 1970s progressed, finally becoming mandatory league-wide in the 1978 season (after being used in Super Bowl XII), and become almost near-universal at lower levels of football.

On January 20, 1974, Arrowhead Stadium hosted the Pro Bowl. Due to an ice storm and brutally cold temperatures the week leading up to the game, the game's participants worked out at the facilities of the San Diego Chargers. On game day, the temperature soared to 41 F, melting most of the ice and snow that accumulated during the week. The AFC defeated the NFC, 15–13.

1980s–present
In 1984, the Jackson County Sports Authority re-evaluated the concept of a fabric dome. The concept was disregarded as being unnecessary and financially impractical. Arrowhead hosted the Drum Corps International World Championships in 1988 and 1989.

In 1991, two Diamond Vision screens shaped as footballs were installed. In 1994, other improvements were made and natural grass playing surface was installed, replacing the original artificial AstroTurf playing field.

In 2009, Arrowhead Stadium completed the installation of a multimillion-dollar integrated system from Daktronics. Two high definition video displays were retrofitted into the existing football-shaped displays in both end zones. Approximately 1,625 ft of digital ribbon board technology was also installed in the stadium.

In 2013, Arrowhead Stadium started using a new playing surface known as NorthBridge Bermudagrass. The reason the team made the switch was due to the cold weather tolerance, rapid recovery and aggressive rooting.

In 2021, the Chiefs sold the naming rights for Arrowhead Stadium to GEHA, renaming it GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

Arrowhead Stadium will be one of the hosts for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and it is scheduled to undergo small renovations in the years ahead. Seating capacity is expected to be reduced in the corners of the end zones to comply with FIFA field regulations. Space would also have to be made for hospitality and media seating (outside of the stadium's already existing press box). The field will also undergo improvement to its ventilation system. In February 2024, renovations were announced and showcased. The renovations were scheduled to begin in 2027 if an extension of a 3/8-cent sales tax from Jackson County, Missouri, voters was approved, however, the sales tax extension failed to pass.

Noise record
In 1990 in a game against the Denver Broncos, the Chiefs were threatened with a penalty if the crowd would not quiet down. After John Elway was backed up to his own goal line and unable to even run a play he quickly spoke to referee Gordon McCarter. After listening to Elway, McCarter said "Any further crowd-noise problem will result in a charged timeout against Kansas City. Thank you for your cooperation."

On October 13, 2013, in a game between the Chiefs and Oakland Raiders, the crowd at the stadium set a Guinness World Record for the loudest stadium, with 137.5 dB. That record would be broken by Seattle Seahawks fans at CenturyLink Field on December 2, 2013 at a home game against the New Orleans Saints. Seattle gained the record by reaching a noise level of 137.6 decibels. The Chiefs reclaimed the title on September 29, 2014 in a Monday Night Football game against the New England Patriots, hitting 142.2 decibels.

College football
Arrowhead Stadium has hosted five Big 12 Conference football championship games: Kansas State versus Oklahoma in 2000 and 2003, Colorado versus Oklahoma in 2004, Nebraska versus Oklahoma on December 2, 2006, and Missouri versus Oklahoma in 2008.

From 2007 to 2011, Arrowhead Stadium hosted the Border War between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Missouri Tigers. The 2007 game between the No. 2 Jayhawks and No. 3 Tigers, dubbed "Armageddon at Arrowhead" by media and fans, drew the second largest crowd in stadium history, at 80,537, with the Tigers winning 36-28. Kansas also played Oklahoma at Arrowhead in 2005. Missouri played Arkansas State in 2005 and BYU in 2015 as home games at Arrowhead. Missouri was scheduled to play Arkansas in 2020; however, the game location was changed to Columbia due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2009 and 2010, Arrowhead Stadium hosted the annual "Farmageddon" game (a reference to the shared agricultural roots of the two competing schools) between the Iowa State Cyclones and the Kansas State Wildcats. Iowa State previously played at Arrowhead against the Florida State Seminoles in the 2002 Eddie Robinson Classic, while Kansas State played Cal in the 2003 Eddie Robinson Classic.

In 1998, Oklahoma State moved its scheduled home game vs. Nebraska to Arrowhead. The move was done to boost attendance and revenue: Lewis Field in Stillwater sat less than 50,000 fans at that time, the Huskers were the defending national champions, and with many Nebraska supporters living only a few hours' drive via Interstate 29 from Arrowhead, it made sense for a program which, at the time, one of the Big XII's lesser teams.

The stadium also played host to the annual Fall Classic at Arrowhead, a Division II game that featured two nearby powerhouse programs in Northwest Missouri State University and Pittsburg State University. The 2004 game featured No. 1 Pittsburg State defeating No. 2 Northwest Missouri State in the only Division II game to feature the nation's top two teams playing in the regular season finale.

For their 2024 season, Kansas will play four conference home games at the stadium due to renovations at their stadium.

 * Win vacated

Soccer
With the formation of Major League Soccer in 1996, Arrowhead Stadium became home to the Kansas City Wiz, now known as Sporting Kansas City. After the 1996 season, the team was renamed the Wizards. They left after the 2007 season, after being sold by the Hunt Family to On Goal, LLC, once their lease ended. This was also beneficial so that construction work on Arrowhead Stadium's renovation could take place during the NFL off-season. The Wizards moved to CommunityAmerica Ballpark, now known as Legends Field, in 2008 and did not return to Arrowhead except for one friendly.

That friendly was played on July 25, 2010; the Wizards faced Manchester United at Arrowhead Stadium for the English team's third preseason friendly in America during 2011. Due to ticket demand, they could not play the game at their new home stadium, CommunityAmerica Ballpark. The match ended with Kansas City winning 2-1 with Dimitar Berbatov scoring the only goal for Manchester United on a penalty kick.

The stadium has hosted two US Men's National Team matches and three Women's National Team matches.

Arrowhead hosted MLS teams Sporting Kansas City and Inter Miami in a 2–3 victory for the later on April 13, 2024 to accommodate for the large demand for tickets to see Inter Miami player Lionel Messi. It was Sporting's first game at the stadium since 2010 and attracted a crowd of 72,610, the fourth highest attended MLS event.

2026 FIFA World Cup
Arrowhead Stadium was chosen as one of the 16 venues that will host games during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico. The stadium will require renovations. Kansas City, Missouri mayor Quinton Lucas estimated the cost of the necessary renovations at $50 million. The stadium will host six matches, including four group stage matches, one Round of 32 match, and one quarterfinal match.

Renovations

On April 4, 2006, Jackson County voters approved a tax increase to finance municipal bonds to pay for $850 million in renovations to Arrowhead Stadium and nearby Kauffman Stadium. Before the bond election, the NFL awarded the 49th Super Bowl in 2015 to Kansas City provided it would have a climate-controlled stadium. With the passing of the stadium bill, the Chiefs signed a new lease which ensures that the team will remain at Arrowhead until at least 2031.

However, a second bond issue to build the rolling roof shared with Kauffman Stadium that was part of the original 1967 stadium plan was defeated by voters, and Kansas City chose to withdraw its request to host Super Bowl XLIX in 2015; the game was played at the University of Phoenix Stadium (now State Farm Stadium) in Glendale, Arizona.

On August 15, 2007, the Chiefs announced final plans for the renovated Arrowhead Stadium, which would cost $375 million. The cost to the city was reduced by $50 million thanks to an additional payment by the Hunt family, which originally had intended to donate $75 million. The renovated stadium features the Chiefs Hall of Honor, a tribute to Lamar Hunt, and "horizon level" seating in which luxury suite owners sit outdoors.

Reconstruction for the stadiums started on October 3, 2007. Refurbishment of nearby Kauffman Stadium, home to the Kansas City Royals baseball team, commenced at that time, and both completely-refurbished stadiums were ready for play by the 2010 season.

In 2019, the Chiefs announced multiple renovations for the 2020 season, which included replaced seats in the lower level, a new video display on the East end, and locker room upgrades.

In 2027, renovations were planned to begin as announced in February 2024, it will include more seating capacity but won't include a retractable roof, but funding to help the project was rejected in April 2024 elections ballot.

Stadium music
From 1963 to 2008, the TD Pack Band was a mainstay at every Chiefs home game. The band was founded by trumpeter Tony DiPardo. The band was previously known as The Zing Band while the Chiefs played at Municipal Stadium. DiPardo, nicknamed "Mr. Music", was born in St. Louis, Missouri on August 15, 1912. DiPardo has written songs about the team such as "The Chiefs are on the Warpath" and "The Hank Stram Polka". DiPardo received a Super Bowl ring for the Chiefs' victory in Super Bowl IV.

title: Arrowhead Stadium


text:
Metafiction

Metafiction is a form of fiction that emphasizes its own narrative structure in a way that inherently reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story-telling, and works of metafiction directly or indirectly draw attention to their status as artifacts. Metafiction is frequently used as a form of parody or a tool to undermine literary conventions and explore the relationship between literature and reality, life, and art.

Although metafiction is most commonly associated with postmodern literature that developed in the mid-20th century, its use can be traced back to much earlier works of fiction, such as The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer, 1387), Don Quixote Part Two (Miguel de Cervantes, 1615), "Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz" (Johann Valentin Andreae, 1617), The Cloud Dream of the Nine (Kim Man-jung, 1687), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Laurence Sterne, 1759), Sartor Resartus (Thomas Carlyle, 1833–34), and Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847).

Metafiction became particularly prominent in the 1960s, with works such as Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, "The Babysitter" and "The Magic Poker" by Robert Coover, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, and Willie Master's Lonesome Wife by William H. Gass.

Since the 1980s, contemporary Latino literature has an abundance of self-reflexive, metafictional works, including novels and short stories by Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao), Sandra Cisneros (Caramelo), Salvador Plascencia (The People of Paper), Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties), Rita Indiana (Tentacle), and Valeria Luiselli (Lost Children Archive).

History of the term
The term 'metafiction' was coined in 1970 by William H. Gass in his book Fiction and the Figures of Life. Gass describes the increasing use of metafiction at the time as a result of authors developing a better understanding of the medium. This new understanding of the medium led to a major change in the approach toward fiction. Theoretical issues became more prominent aspects, resulting in increased self-reflexivity and formal uncertainty. Robert Scholes expands upon Gass' theory and identifies four forms of criticism on fiction, which he refers to as formal, behavioural, structural, and philosophical criticism. Metafiction assimilates these perspectives into the fictional process, putting emphasis on one or more of these aspects.

These developments were part of a larger movement (arguably a meta referential turn ) which, approximately from the 1960s onwards, was the consequence of an increasing social and cultural self-consciousness, stemming from, as Patricia Waugh puts it, "a more general cultural interest in the problem of how human beings reflect, construct and mediate their experience in the world."

Due to this development, an increasing number of novelists rejected the notion of rendering the world through fiction. The new principle became to create through the medium of language a world that does not reflect the real world. Language was considered an "independent, self-contained system which generates its own 'meanings. and a means of mediating knowledge of the world. Thus, literary fiction, which constructs worlds through language, became a model for the construction of 'reality' rather than a reflection of it. Reality itself became regarded as a construct instead of objective truth. Through its formal self-exploration, metafiction thus became the device that explores the question of how human beings construct their experience of the world.

Robert Scholes identifies the time around 1970 as the peak of experimental fiction (of which metafiction is an instrumental part) and names a lack of commercial and critical success as reasons for its subsequent decline. The development toward metafictional writing in postmodernism generated mixed responses. Some critics argued that it signified the decadence of the novel and an exhaustion of the artistic capabilities of the medium, with some going as far as to call it the 'death of the novel'. Others see the self-consciousness of fictional writing as a way to gain a deeper understanding of the medium and a path that leads to innovation that resulted in the emergence of new forms of literature, such as the historiographic novel by Linda Hutcheon.

Video games also started to draw on concepts of metafiction, particularly with the rise of independent video games in the 2010s. Games like The Magic Circle, The Beginner's Guide, and Pony Island use various techniques as to have the player question the bounds between the fiction of the video game and the reality of them playing the game.

Forms
According to Werner Wolf, metafiction can be differentiated into four pairs of forms that can be combined with each other.

Explicit and implicit
Explicit metafiction is identifiable through its use of clear metafictional elements on the surface of a text. It comments on its own artificiality and is quotable. Explicit metafiction is described as a mode of telling. An example would be a narrator explaining the process of creating the story they are telling.

Rather than commenting on the text, implicit metafiction foregrounds the medium or its status as an artifact through various, for example disruptive, techniques such as metalepsis. It relies more than other forms of metafiction on the reader's ability to recognize these devices to evoke a metafictional reading. Implicit metafiction is described as a mode of showing.

Direct and indirect
Direct metafiction establishes a reference within the text one is just reading. In contrast to this, indirect metafiction consists in metareferences external to this text, such as reflections on other specific literary works or genres (as in parodies) and general discussions of an aesthetic issue. Since there is always a relationship between the text in which indirect metafiction occurs and the referenced external texts or issues, indirect metafiction always impacts the text one is reading, albeit in an indirect way.

Critical and non-critical
Critical metafiction aims to find the artificiality or fictionality of a text in some critical way, which is frequently done in postmodernist fiction. Non-critical metafiction does not criticize or undermine the artificiality or fictionality of a text and can, for example, be used to "suggest that the story one is reading is authentic".

Media-centred and truth- or fiction-centred
While all metafiction somehow deals with the medial quality of fiction or narrative and is thus generally media-centred, in some cases there is an additional focus on the truthfulness or inventiveness (fictionality) of a text, which merits mention as a specific form. The suggestion of a story being authentic (a device frequently used in realistic fiction) would be an example of (non-critical) truth-centred metafiction.

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, Part Two
In 1615, Miguel de Cervantes published a second part to his Don Quixote, which had appeared ten years earlier in 1605 (the two parts are now normally published together). Cervantes produced the sequel partially because of his anger at a spurious Part Two that had appeared in 1614 written by Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda. In Cervantes’s Part Two, several of the characters are assumed to have read Part One, and are thus familiar with the history and eccentricities of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. In particular, an unnamed Duke and Duchess are delighted at meeting the pair they have read about and use their wealth to devise elaborate tricks and practical jokes playing on their knowledge. For example, knowing from Part One that Sancho dreams of becoming governor of a province, they arrange for a sham governorship of a village on their estate. At one later point, Don Quixote visits a printing house where Avellaneda’s book is being printed and the protagonists encounter a character from that book, whom they make swear that the Quixote and Sancho in Avellaneda’s book are imposters.

Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
"It is with LOVE as with CUCKOLDOM—

—But now I am talking of beginning a book, and have long had a thing upon my mind to be imparted to the reader, which if not imparted now, can never be imparted to him as long as I live (whereas the COMPARISON may be imparted to him any hour of the day)—I'll just mention it, and begin in good earnest.

The thing is this.

Of the several ways of beginning a book which is now in practice throughout the known world, I am confident my own way of doing it is the best—I'm sure it is the most religious—for I begin with writing the first sentence—and trusting to Almighty God for the second."

In this scene Tristram Shandy, the eponymous character and narrator of the novel, foregrounds the process of creating literature as he interrupts his previous thought and begins to talk about the beginnings of books. The scene evokes an explicitly metafictional response to the problem (and by addressing a problem of the novel one is just reading but also a general problem, the excerpt is thus an example of both direct and indirect metafiction, which may additionally be classified as generally media-centred, non-critical metafiction). Through the lack of context to this sudden change of topic (writing a book is not a plot point, nor does this scene take place at the beginning of the novel, where such a scene might be more willingly accepted by the reader) the metafictional reflection is foregrounded. Additionally, the narrator addresses readers directly, thereby confronting readers with the fact that they are reading a constructed text.

David Lodge, The British Museum is Falling Down
"Has it ever occurred to you that novelists are using up experience at a dangerous rate? No, I see it hasn't. Well, then, consider that before the novel emerged as the dominant literary form, narrative literature dealt only with the extraordinary or the allegorical – with kings and queens, giants and dragons, sublime virtue and diabolic evil. There was no risk of confusing that sort of thing with life, of course. But as soon as the novel got going, you might pick up a book at any time and read about an ordinary chap called Joe Smith doing just the sort of things you did yourself. Now, I know what you're going to say – you're going to say that the novelist still has to invent a lot. But that's just the point: there've been such a fantastic number of novels written in the past couple of centuries that they've just about exhausted the possibilities of life. So all of us, you see, are really enacting events that have already been written about in some novel or other."

This scene from The British Museum Is Falling Down (1965) features several instances of metafiction. First, the speaker, Adam Appleby (the protagonist of the novel) discusses the change the rise of the novel brought upon the literary landscape, specifically with regard to thematic changes that occurred. Second, he talks about the mimetic aspect of realist novels. Third, he alludes to the notion that the capabilities of literature have been exhausted, and thus to the idea of the death of the novel (all of this is explicit, critical indirect metafiction). Fourth, he covertly foregrounds the fact that the characters in the novel are fictional characters, rather than masking this aspect, as would be the case in non-metafictional writing. Therefore, this scene features metafictional elements with reference to the medium (the novel), the form of art (literature), a genre (realism), and arguably also lays bare the fictionality of the characters and thus of the novel itself (which could be classified as critical, direct, fiction-centred metafiction).

Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair
The Eyre Affair (2001) is set in an alternative history in which it is possible to enter the world of a work of literature through the use of a machine. In the novel, literary detective Thursday Next chases a criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. This paradoxical transgression of narrative boundaries is called metalepsis, an implicitly metafictional device when used in literature. Metalepsis has a high inherent potential to disrupt aesthetic illusion and confronts the reader with the fictionality of the text. However, as metalepsis is used as a plot device that has been introduced as part of the world of The Eyre Affair it can, in this instance, have the opposite effect and is compatible with immersion. It can thus be seen as an example of metafiction that does not (necessarily) break the aesthetic illusion.

Toby Fox, Undertale
One contemporary example of metafiction in a video game is Undertale, a 2015 role-playing game created by Toby Fox and Temmie Chang. Undertale has many examples of metafiction, with the largest overall example being how the game uses one of its characters, "Flowey the Flower", to predict how the player will view and interact with the game. Flowey was given the ability to "save/load" the game, like how a player is able to save/load a game file in most video games. Flowey uses their powers to see the world play out differently based on his actions, such as being nice to everyone, and killing everyone. This follows a similar way the player would experience the game, being nice to everyone, and being prepared to murder everyone. However, Flowey stops you, and directly asks you not to restart the game after the "True Pacifist" route, requesting you let the characters live their life in the best possible way. This presents the player with an indirect choice, to ignore Flowey, or to ignore the game. The game is fully prepared for both of these options, and, if you perform a "Genocide" route by ignoring Flowey and killing everyone, he assists the player in their mass murder, until Flowey is killed as well.

Anthony Horowitz, The Word is Murder
British mystery novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz took a highly metafictional approach to his series of satirical murder mysteries that began with The Word is Murder in 2017. Horowitz casts himself as a modern-day Dr. Watson who is hired by a brilliant but enigmatic ex-Scotland Yard man named Daniel Hawthorne to chronicle Hawthorne's cases. Alongside the mystery plots, Horowitz mixes anecdotes about his own professional and personal life as a TV writer living in London.

title: Metafiction


text:
Jay Sebring

Thomas John Kummer (October 10, 1933 – August 9, 1969), known professionally as Jay Sebring, was an American celebrity hair stylist, and the founder of the hairstyling corporation Sebring International. Sebring was murdered by members of the Manson Family along with his ex-girlfriend Sharon Tate.

Early life
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Sebring was the son of an accountant, Bernard Kummer, and his wife, Margarette Gibb. He grew up with one brother and two sisters in a middle-class home in Detroit, Michigan.

After graduating from Detroit Catholic Central in 1951, Sebring served in the Navy for four years, and during this time he fought in the Korean War. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he adopted the name "Jay Sebring": Jay, after the first initial of his middle name, and Sebring after the famous Florida car race.

In Las Vegas, on his 27th birthday October 10, 1960, Sebring married model Bonnie Lee Marple, nicknamed Cami – a union which ended unofficially in August 1963.

Career
In Los Angeles, he graduated from beauty school and opened a shop on Fairfax Avenue, designing and building it for less than $500. Kummer cut hair for 13 hours a day, sleeping in the back, but was challenged by mounting costs. He promptly "invented a whole new way of cutting men's hair". His innovations including shampooing men's hair before styling it, cutting their hair with scissors instead of clippers, and using blow dryers, which were popular in Europe but not well known in the United States. He used hairspray in an era when Brylcreem was the accepted hair product for men.

His breakthrough happened after meeting actress Barbara Luna at a party. She told Vic Damone, who liked him enough to fly him to Las Vegas for a trim. In turn, he introduced Kummer to Peter Lawford and Frank Sinatra. Kummer would rename himself after the Sebring International Raceway, after seeing images of it in a magazine.

In Los Angeles, his modish salon and his style of cutting hair proved popular. He taught his methods to others who then opened Jay Sebring Salon franchises; his styling techniques were still being taught 40 years after his death. In 1967 he opened the company Sebring International to franchise his salons and sell hair care products.

At a time when barbers charged $1 to $2 for a haircut, Sebring charged $50 and more. His hairstyling clients included Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen. He flew to Las Vegas every three weeks to cut the hair of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. At Kirk Douglas's request, Sebring did the hairstyling for the movie Spartacus. He later designed The Doors' Jim Morrison's free-flowing style.

His business, Sebring International, was flourishing by the late 1960s, with profitable salons in West Hollywood, New York City and London. Sebring maintained a playboy lifestyle, with high-profile Hollywood personalities like Beatty among his closest associates.

Sebring assisted with launching the film career of Bruce Lee, after meeting him at the International Karate Championships in Long Beach in 1964. He introduced Lee to his producer friend Bill Dozier, who started Lee's career with The Green Hornet.

Although not seeking an acting career himself, Sebring made a cameo appearance in a December 1966 episode of the TV show Batman, playing a character based on himself called Mr. Oceanbring. Sebring also appeared in a 1967 episode of The Virginian titled "The Strange Quest of Claire Bingham", playing a frontier barber. Sebring also appeared as himself on the January 28, 1963 episode of To Tell the Truth. He received three of four possible votes.

Jay Sebring was one of the people profiled in the 1967 cult documentary, Mondo Hollywood. Bobby Beausoleil, a future member of the notorious Manson Family, was also seen in it. Beausoleil was arrested for the murder of Gary Hinman two days before the Tate–LaBianca murders that took Sebring's life.

Back in 1969, Sebring was nicknamed The Candyman and was said to have used his salon to peddle drugs to the stars. Jim Markham was Sebring’s protege and business partner in a budding franchise of men’s hair salons and has made this statement publicly.

Relationship with Sharon Tate
Sebring was introduced to Sharon Tate by journalist Joe Hyams in October 1964 and they began a relationship. Sebring bought the former home of Paul Bern, husband of Jean Harlow, on Easton Drive in Benedict Canyon, then owned by Sally Forrest.

Tate went to London in early 1966 to work on The Fearless Vampire Killers with film director Roman Polanski. They began a relationship, and Tate ended her relationship with Sebring, who travelled to London to meet Polanski. He befriended Polanski, while remaining a friend to Tate. Polanski would later comment that despite Sebring's lifestyle, he was a very lonely person, who regarded Tate and Polanski as his family.

In the summer of 1968, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate introduced Sebring to Polanski's friend Wojciech Frykowski and his girlfriend, Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger, who had recently moved to Los Angeles from New York state. Folger later invested in Sebring's hair-care products for men.

In early May 1969, Sebring opened a new salon at 629 Commercial Street in San Francisco, and a champagne reception followed. Guests included Abigail Folger and her mother, Ines, as well as Paul Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward.

Death on Cielo Drive

On August 8, 1969, Sebring, Tate, Frykowski, and Folger went to El Coyote, a Mexican restaurant, together. After they returned to the Polanski residence on Cielo Drive, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins and Charles "Tex" Watson, members of the "Manson Family", entered the home. After coercing the four occupants of the house into the living room, they ordered them to lie face down on the floor. Sebring protested and asked the intruders to consider Tate's advanced pregnancy. Watson then shot Sebring, and kicked him several times in the face as he lay dying, breaking his nose and eye socket. He was then stabbed seven times and died from blood loss caused by his stab wounds. The group then murdered Frykowski, Folger, and Tate. Sebring's body was found lying down and bloodied, his face disfigured. A long nylon rope was placed around his neck and hung over one of the living room's ceiling beams. At the other end, Tate's body lay with the same rope around her neck. While the coroner's inquest found that Tate was still alive when she was hanged, in Sebring's murder it was found that he was hanged lifeless.

On Wednesday, August 13, funerals for Tate and Sebring took place the same day; the funerals were scheduled several hours apart (first for Tate and then Sebring) to allow mutual friends to attend both.

Sebring was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan. Steve McQueen gave the eulogy.

Legacy
A feature-length documentary Jay Sebring....Cutting to the Truth was released in September 2020 by Shout! Factory. Directed and produced by Sebring's nephew Anthony DiMaria, the film has received widely positive reviews.

Emile Hirsch portrays Sebring in the 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, directed by Quentin Tarantino, which contains a revisionist interpretation of the night of the Manson murders. In the film's version of events, Sebring survives, as the murderers do not attack at the Tate / Polanski address, but next door at the fictional Rick Dalton home.

title: Jay Sebring


text:
General Sherman (tree)

General Sherman is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) tree located at an elevation of 2109 m above sea level in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, in the U.S. state of California. By volume, it is the largest known living single-stem tree on Earth.

History
The General Sherman tree was named after the American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman. The official story, which may be apocryphal, claims the tree was named in 1879 by naturalist James Wolverton, who had served as a lieutenant in the 9th Indiana Cavalry under Sherman.

Seven years later, in 1886, the land came under the control of the Kaweah Colony, a utopian socialist community whose economy was based on logging. Noting the pivotal role that Sherman had played in the Indian Wars and his forced relocation of native American tribes, they renamed the tree in honor of Karl Marx. However, the community was disbanded in 1892, primarily as a result of the establishment of Sequoia National Park, and the tree reverted to its previous name.

In 1931, following comparisons with the nearby General Grant tree, General Sherman was identified as the largest tree in the world. One result of this process was that wood volume became widely accepted as the standard for establishing and comparing the size of different trees.

In January 2006, the largest branch on the tree (seen most commonly, in older photos, as an "L" or golf-club shape, protruding from about a quarter of the way down the trunk) broke off. There were no witnesses to the incident, and the branch—with a diameter of over 2 m and a length of over 30 m, larger than most tree trunks—smashed part of the perimeter fence and cratered the pavement of the surrounding walkway. The breakage is not believed to be indicative of any abnormalities in the tree's health and may even be a natural defense mechanism against adverse weather conditions. On September 16, 2021, the tree was threatened by the KNP Complex Fire in Sequoia National Park. Park and firefighting personnel wrapped the tree's base in a protective foil usually used on structures in case the wildfire approached the General Sherman Tree—which, in the end, was left unharmed.

Dimensions
While it is the largest tree known, the General Sherman Tree is neither the tallest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to Hyperion, a Coast redwood), nor is it the widest (both the largest cypress and largest baobab have a greater diameter), nor is it the oldest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to a Great Basin bristlecone pine). With a height of 83.8 m, a diameter of 7.7 m, an estimated bole volume of 1487 m3, and an estimated age of 2,300–2,700 years,  it is nevertheless among the tallest, widest, and longest-lived of all trees on the planet.

While General Sherman is the largest currently living tree, it is not the largest historically recorded tree. The Lindsey Creek tree, with more than 90000 cuft almost twice the volume of General Sherman, was reported felled by a storm in 1905. Another larger tree, the Crannell Creek Giant, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) cut down in the mid-1940s near Trinidad, California, is estimated to have been 15–25% larger than the General Sherman Tree by volume. Similarly, the Mother of the Forest, another giant sequoia, may have historically been larger than General Sherman. Two other historical and exceedingly enormous giant sequoias, the Discovery Tree with a near-30 m circumference, and especially the long-fallen "Father of the Forest" from Calaveras Grove, reportedly 435 ft high and 110 ft in circumference, are widely considered to have once been larger than General Sherman. In addition, the Burnt Monarch from Big Stump Grove had a much larger base than General Sherman and could have easily been larger as well.

title: General Sherman (tree)