- George — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
The little town of George, Washington, has two claims to fame: it is the only town in the country bearing the full name of a United States president, and its popular Fourth of July celebration features what is believed to be the world’s largest cherry pie, weighing in at one-half ton. Located at exit 149 off Interstate 90 in Grant County, George is midway between Seattle and Spokane. The town was built in the mid-1950s by Charles (Charlie) Brown, a pharmacist from nearby Quincy, who placed the winning (and only) bid of $100,000 on 339 sand-swept and desolate acres of land in an auction managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Reclamation. Brown put in waterlines, platted streets, sold pie-shaped lots, and built a truck stop he called the Martha Inn. The town was dedicated on July 4, 1957, and incorporated on July 4, 1961. After Brown died in 1975, George was purchased by a group of investors that had big plans that never materialized. Modest development followed in the early 2000s, but George never attained the special status that Brown had hoped for. In 2010, it was home to 503 residents.
- Vindemiatrix (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
VINDEMIATRIX (Epsilon Virginis). Just over the line into third magnitude (2.83) and third brightest in the constellation Virgo following first magnitude Spica (the Alpha star) and Porrima (Gamma), Vindemiatrix still wound up with Bayer’s Epsilon designation.
- Epsilon Virginis (Wikipedia)
Epsilon Virginis (ε Virginis, abbreviated Epsilon Vir, ε Vir), formally named Vindemiatrix /vɪndiːmiˈeɪtrɪks/, is a star in the zodiac constellation of Virgo. The apparent visual magnitude of this star is +2.8, making it the third-brightest member of Virgo. Based upon parallax measurements made by the Gaia spapecraft, Vindemiatrix lies at a distance of about 108 light-years (33 parsecs) from the Sun, give or take 0.7 light-years.
