New Light Sets on Chesterton

New Light Sets on Chesterton

Chesterton Today

Chesterton has turned into a major eco-tourism destination from the ghost town of logging and mining.

In the past decades, it has seen development of world-class skiing with booming whitewater of almost 200 rafts into the Old Horse River every summer.

History of Chesterton

Chesterton built by Logging Company became a thriving community of over 300 men, women and children in 1891.

During the WWI, the airplanes were built to meet the increase in population, seeing rising population to almost 4000.

After the War, the pioneering Mount Freeman Daniel of the region operated a zinc mine in the 1820s. As a result, Chesterton was greatly prosperous in the late 1920s, even after shutdown of sawmill.

However, the existence of Chesterton Regional Park set a new birth of tourists including skiers, hikers and campers after the collapse of zinc market during the Great Depression.

 

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Flood Continues Worse and Death Tolls Rise in Thailand and Cambodia

Flood Continues Worse and Death Tolls Rise in Thailand and Cambodia

Children make the best of a bad situation as villagers paddle through a flooded street in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district. Photo by Meng Kimlong/ Phnom Penh Post

Hundred-of-thousand hectares of land in Thailand and Cambodia have been submerged by the torrential rain and severe floods in recent months. The mishap has impacted countless families, rice fields and claimed hundreds of lives. The flood continues to be deteriorating.

The rain in Thailand began in July, generated by the tail end of the Nock Ten typhoon, and has caused wide-spread flooding in the north, northeast and central regions of the country. The capital, Bangkok, is also affected, as it lies only two meters above sea level.

The Chao Phraya River has overflowed into roads in some areas, although the authorities have reinforced its banks to prevent more serious flooding. More than 2 million acres of farmland there are now under water, an area 11 times the size of Singapore.

“Twenty-three provinces in the lower north and central Thailand are under water and nearly 2 million people have been affected by severe floods and heavy rain,” Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation has said.

Farmers in affected areas have been unable to harvest their crops properly and others in non-affected areas are rushing to harvest early so as to avoid having their crops washed away when the floods hit their regions. Thailand is the world’s biggest rice exporter and its main crop of the year is normally harvested from October. Despite flooding, Thailand is forecast to produce 25.1 million tons of rice in the main crop this year, up from 24 million last year.

Cambodia’s Economy Sees Possible Growth 8.7 pc this year

Cambodia’s PM says the country’s economy will be likely to grow up to 8.7 percent this year, its highest hike in ten years.

Photo from google

Cambodia’s economy can grow as much as 8.7 percent this year, its strongest in a decade, propelled by a resurgence in its garments and tourism industries, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday.

The Cambodia government’s official estimate for economic growth in 2011 is 6 percent, but Hun Sen said that could be topped by a wide margin.

 “There is a possibility of higher growth of 8.7 percent,” Hun Sen told a graduation ceremony at a university in the capital Phnom Penh, agreeing with an estimate by a local think-tank, the Economic Institute of Cambodia (EIC).

 Hun Sen, however, cautioned that “unclear economic situations in the US and Europe” will affect the country and that Cambodia should diversify its economy into other sectors such as agriculture and mining.