prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Bill Bryson grew up in a city that is the seat of which county ?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe
Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe is a 1991 humorous travelogue by American writer Bill Bryson  It documents the author's tour of Europe in 1990, with flashbacks to two summer tours he made in 1972 and 1973 in his college days  On his 1973 tour, he travelled with his friend Matt Angerer, pseudonymised in the book as Stephen Katz, who also appeared more prominently in Bryson's later book A Walk in the Woods, as well as in The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid 
Bryson's trip begins in the winter, in Hammerfest, Norway, where his goal is to see the Northern Lights  He visits numerous locations throughout Europe, commenting on the various aspects of life in different parts of Europe, and comparing them to how he experienced them in his earlier visits  The book ends with Bryson reaching Istanbul, Turkey, looking across the Bosphorus to Asia, and considering continuing his tour 

Places visited
Norway (Hammerfest, Oslo)
France (Paris)
Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Spa, Durbuy)
Germany (Aachen, Cologne, Hamburg)
The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Haarlem)
Denmark (Copenhagen)
Sweden (Gothenburg, Stockholm)
Italy (Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Florence, Milan, Como)
Switzerland (Brig, Geneva, Bern)
Liechtenstein
Austria (Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna)
Yugoslavia (Split, Sarajevo, Belgrade)
Bulgaria (Sofia)
Turkey (Istanbul)
Passage 2:
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines ( (listen)) is the capital and the most populous city in the U S  state of Iowa  It is also the county seat of Polk County  A small part of the city extends into Warren County  It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857  It is located on, and named after, the Des Moines River, which likely was adapted from the early French name, Rivière des Moines, meaning "River of the Monks"  The city's population was 214,133 as of the 2020 census  The six-county metropolitan area is ranked 83rd in terms of population in the United States with 699,292 residents according to the 2019 estimate by the United States Census Bureau, and is the largest metropolitan area fully located within the state Des Moines is a major center of the US insurance industry and has a sizable financial services and publishing business base  The city was credited as the "number one spot for U S  insurance companies" in a Business Wire article and named the third-largest "insurance capital" of the world  The city is the headquarters for the Principal Financial Group, Ruan Transportation, TMC Transportation, EMC Insurance Companies, and Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield  Other major corporations such as Wells Fargo, Cognizant, Voya Financial, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, ACE Limited, Marsh, Monsanto, and Corteva have large operations in or near the metropolitan area  In recent years, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Facebook have built data-processing and logistical facilities in the Des Moines area 
Des Moines is an important city in U S  presidential politics; as the state's capital, it is the site of the first caucuses of the presidential primary cycle  Many presidential candidates set up campaign headquarters in Des Moines  A 2007 article in The New York Times said, "If you have any desire to witness presidential candidates in the most close-up and intimate of settings, there is arguably no better place to go than Des Moines "

Etymology
Des Moines takes its name from Fort Des Moines (1843–46), which was named for the Des Moines River  This was adopted from the name given by French colonists  Des Moines (pronounced [de mwan] (listen); formerly [de mwɛn]) translates literally to either "from the monks" or "of the monks" 
The historian Virgil Vogel claimed that the name was derived from Moingona, an Algonquian clan name, which means "Loon" Some historians and researchers lacking linguistic or Algonquianist training concluded that Moingona meant "people by the portage" or something similar, a reference to the Des Moines Rapids  This was where the earliest known encounters between the Moingona and European explorers took place One popular interpretation of "Des Moines" ignores Vogel's research, and concludes that it refers to a group of French Trappist monks, who in the 17th century lived in huts built on top of what is now known as the ancient Monks Mound at Cahokia, the major center of Mississippian culture, which developed in what is present-day Illinois, east of the Mississippi River and the city of St  Louis  This was some 200 miles (320 km) from the Des Moines River In 2015, Michael McCafferty of Indiana University, while studying the Miami-Illinois language, concluded that the name was actually a derisive term coined by the Peoria tribe  McCafferty agrees with other linguists that the "Moines" in Des Moines is a French derivation of Moingoana  What he discovered, however, was that it was not the actual name of the neighboring tribe; it was an insulting nickname they hurled at their rivals  It translates, essentially, as "the feces-faces "

Prehistory
Prehistoric inhabitants of early Des Moines
Based on archaeological evidence, the junction of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers has attracted humans for at least 7,000 years  Several prehistoric occupation areas have been identified by archaeologists in downtown Des Moines  Discovered in December 2010, the "Palace" is an expansive, 7,000-year-old site found during excavations prior to construction of the new wastewater treatment plant in southeastern Des Moines  It contains well-preserved house deposits and numerous graves  More than 6,000 artifacts were found at this site  State of Iowa archaeologist John Doershuk was assisted by University of Iowa archaeologists at this dig At least three Late Prehistoric villages, dating from about AD 1300 to 1700, stood in or near what developed later as downtown Des Moines  In addition, 15 to 18 prehistoric American Indian mounds were observed in this area by early settlers  All have been destroyed during development of the city 

History
Origin of Fort Des Moines
Des Moines traces its origins to May 1843, when Captain James Allen supervised the construction of a fort on the site where the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers merge  Allen wanted to use the name Fort Raccoon; however, the U S  War Department preferred Fort Des Moines  The fort was built to control the Sauk and Meskwaki  tribes, whom the government had moved to the area from their traditional lands in eastern Iowa  The fort was abandoned in 1846 after the Sauk and Meskwaki were removed from the state and shifted to the Indian Territory The Sauk and Meskwaki did not fare well in Des Moines  The illegal whiskey trade, combined with the destruction of traditional lifeways, led to severe problems for their society  One newspaper reported:

"It is a fact that the location of Fort Des Moines among the Sac and Fox Indians (under its present commander) for the last two years, had corrupted them more and lowered them deeper in the scale of vice and degradation, than all their intercourse with the whites for the ten years previous" After official removal, the Meskwaki continued to return to Des Moines until around 1857 Archaeological excavations have shown that many fort-related features survived under what is now Martin Luther King Jr  Parkway and First Street  Soldiers stationed at Fort Des Moines opened the first coal mines in the area, mining coal from the riverbank for the fort's blacksmith 

Early, non-Native American, settlement
Settlers occupied the abandoned fort and nearby areas  On May 25, 1846, the state legislature designated Fort Des Moines as the seat of Polk County  Arozina Perkins, a school teacher who spent the winter of 1850–1851 in the town of Fort Des Moines, was not favorably impressed:

This is one of the strangest looking "cities" I ever saw    This town is at the juncture of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers  It is mostly a level prairie with a few swells or hills around it  We have a court house of "brick" and one church, a plain, framed building belonging to the Methodists  There are two taverns here, one of which has a most important little bell that rings together some fifty boarders  I cannot tell you how many dwellings there are, for I have not counted them; some are of logs, some of brick, some framed, and some are the remains of the old dragoon houses    The people support two papers and there are several dry goods shops  I have been into but four of them    Society is as varied as the buildings are  There are people from nearly every state, and Dutch, Swedes, etc 
In May 1851, much of the town was destroyed during the Flood of 1851  "The Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers rose to an unprecedented height, inundating the entire country east of the Des Moines River  Crops were utterly destroyed, houses and fences swept away " The city started to rebuild from scratch 

Era of growth
On September 22, 1851, Des Moines was incorporated as a city; the charter was approved by voters on October 18  In 1857, the name "Fort Des Moines" was shortened to "Des Moines", and it was designated as the second state capital, previously at Iowa City  Growth was slow during the Civil War period, but the city exploded in size and importance after a railroad link was completed in 1866 In 1864, the Des Moines Coal Company was organized to begin the first systematic mining in the region  Its first mine, north of town on the river's west side, was exhausted by 1873  The Black Diamond mine, near the south end of the West Seventh Street Bridge, sank a 150-foot (46 m) mine shaft to reach a 5-foot-thick (1 5 m) coal bed  By 1876, this mine employed 150 men and shipped 20 carloads of coal per day  By 1885, numerous mine shafts were within the city limits, and mining began to spread into the surrounding countryside  By 1893, 23 mines were in the region  By 1908, Des Moines' coal resources were largely exhausted  In 1912, Des Moines still had eight locals of the United Mine Workers union, representing 1,410 miners  This was about 1 7% of the city's population in 1910 
By 1880, Des Moines had a population of 22,408, making it Iowa's largest city  It displaced the three Mississippi River ports: Burlington, Dubuque, and Davenport, that had alternated holding the position since the territorial period  Des Moines has remained Iowa's most populous city  In 1910, the Census Bureau reported Des Moines' population as 97 3% white and 2 7% black, reflecting its early settlement pattern primarily by ethnic Europeans 

"City Beautiful" project, decline and rebirth
At the turn of the 20th century, encouraged by the Civic Committee of the Des Moines Women's Club, Des Moines undertook a "City Beautiful" project in which large Beaux Arts public buildings and fountains were constructed along the Des Moines River  The former Des Moines Public Library building (now the home of the World Food Prize); the United States central Post Office, built by the federal government (now the Polk County Administrative Building, with a newer addition); and the City Hall are surviving examples of the 1900–1910 buildings  They form the Civic Center Historic District 
The ornate riverfront balustrades that line the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers were built by the federal Civilian Conservation Corps in the mid-1930s, during the Great Depression under Democratic President Franklin D  Roosevelt, as a project to provide local employment and improve infrastructure  The ornamental fountains that stood along the riverbank were buried in the 1950s when the city began a postindustrial decline that lasted until the late 1980s  The city has since rebounded, transforming from a blue-collar industrial city to a white-collar professional city 

In 1907, the city adopted a city commission government known as the Des Moines Plan, comprising an elected mayor and four commissioners, all elected at-large, who were responsible for public works, public property, public safety, and finance  Considered progressive at the time, it diluted the votes of ethnic and national minorities, who generally could not command the majority to elect a candidate of their choice 
That form of government was scrapped in 1950 in favor of a council-manager government, with the council members elected at-large  In 1967, the city changed its government to elect four of the seven city council members from single-member districts or wards, rather than at-large  This enabled a broader representation of voters  As with many major urban areas, the city core began losing population to the suburbs in the 1960s (the peak population of 208,982 was recorded in 1960), as highway construction led to new residential construction outside the city  The population was 198,682 in 2000 and grew slightly to 200,538 in 2009  The growth of the outlying suburbs has continued, and the overall metropolitan-area population is over 700,000 today 
During the Great Flood of 1993, heavy rains throughout June and early July caused the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers to rise above flood stage levels  The Des Moines Water Works was submerged by floodwaters during the early morning hours of July 11, 1993, leaving an estimated 250,000 people without running water for 12 days and without drinking water for 20 days  Des Moines suffered major flooding again in June 2008 with a major levee breach  The Des Moines river is controlled upstream by Saylorville Reservoir  In both 1993 and 2008, the flooding river overtopped the reservoir spillway 
Today, Des Moines is a member of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA  Through ICLEI, Des Moines has implemented "The Tomorrow Plan", a regional plan focused on developing central Iowa in a sustainable fashion, centrally-planned growth, and resource consumption to manage the local population 

Cityscape
The skyline of Des Moines changed in the 1970s and the 1980s, when several new skyscrapers were built  Additional skyscrapers were built in the 1990s, including Iowa's tallest  Before then, the 19-story Equitable Building, from 1924, was the tallest building in the city and the tallest building in Iowa  The 25-story Financial Center was completed in 1973 and the 36-story Ruan Center was completed in 1974  They were later joined by the 33-story Des Moines Marriott Hotel (1981), the 25-story HUB Tower and 25-story Plaza Building (1985)  Iowa's tallest building, Principal Financial Group's 45-story tower at 801 Grand was built in 1991, and the 19-story EMC Insurance Building was erected in 1997 
During this time period, the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines (1979) was developed; it hosts Broadway shows and special events  Also constructed were the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden (1979), a large city botanical garden/greenhouse on the east side of the river; the Polk County Convention Complex (1985), and the State of Iowa Historical Museum (1987)  The Des Moines skywalk also began to take shape during the 1980s  The skywalk system is 4 miles (6 4 km) long and connects many downtown buildings In the early 21st century, the city has had more major construction in the downtown area  The new Science Center of Iowa and Blank IMAX Dome Theater and the Iowa Events Center opened in 2005  The new central branch of the Des Moines Public Library, designed by renowned architect David Chipperfield of London, opened on April 8, 2006 
The World Food Prize Foundation, which is based in Des Moines, completed adaptation and restoration of the former Des Moines Public Library building in October 2011  The former library now serves as the home and headquarters of the Norman Borlaug/World Food Prize Hall of Laureates 

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 90 65 square miles (234 78 km2), of which 88 93 square miles (230 33 km2) is land and 1 73 square miles (4 48 km2) is covered by water  It is 850 feet (260 m) above sea level at the confluence of the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers 
In November 2005, Des Moines voters approved a measure that allowed the city to annex parcels of land in the northeast, southeast, and southern corners of Des Moines without agreement by local residents, particularly areas bordering the Iowa Highway 5/U S  65 bypass  The annexations became official on June 26, 2009, as 5,174 acres (20 94 km2) and around 868 new residents were added to the city of Des Moines  An additional 759 acres (3 07 km2) were voluntarily annexed to the city over that same period 

Metropolitan area
Des Moines-West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area

Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines Combined Statistical Area

Des Moines' suburban communities include Altoona, Ankeny, Bondurant, Carlisle, Clive, Grimes, Johnston, Norwalk, Pleasant Hill, Urbandale, Waukee, West Des Moines, and Windsor Heights 

Climate
At the center of North America and far removed from large bodies of water, the Des Moines area has a hot summer type humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa), with warm to hot, humid summers and cold, dry winters  Summer temperatures can often climb into the 90 °F (32 °C) range, occasionally reaching 100 °F (38 °C)  Humidity can be high in spring and summer, with frequent afternoon thunderstorms  Fall brings pleasant temperatures and colorful fall foliage  Winters vary from moderately cold to bitterly cold, with low temperatures venturing below 0 °F (−18 °C) quite often  Snowfall averages 36 5 inches (93 cm) per season, and annual precipitation averages 36 55 inches (928 mm), with a peak in the warmer months  Winters are slightly colder than Chicago, but still warmer than Minneapolis, with summer temperatures being very similar between the Upper Midwest metropolitan areas 

Demographics
2020 census
As of the census of 2020, the population was 214,133  The population density was 2,428 4 inhabitants per square mile (937 6/km2)  There were 95,082 housing units at an average density of 1,078 3 per square mile (416 3/km2)  Ethnically, the population was 15 6% Hispanic or Latino of any race  When grouping both Hispanic and non-Hispanic people together by race, the city was 64 5% White, 11 7% Black or African American, 6 8% Asian, 0 7% Native American, 0 1% Pacific Islander, 6 6% from other races, and 9 6% from two or more races  
The 2020 census population of the city included 252 people incarcerated in adult correctional facilities and 2,378 people in student housing According  to the American Community Survey estimates for 2016-2020, the median income for a household in the city was $54,843, and the median income for a family was $66,420  Male full-time workers had a median income of $47,048 versus $40,290 for female workers  The per capita income for the city was $29,064  About 12 1% of families and 16 0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24 3% of those under age 18 and 9 8% of those age 65 or over  Of the population age 25 and over, 86 7% were high school graduates or higher and 27 9% had a bachelor's degree or higher 

2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 203,433 people, 81,369 households, and 47,491 families residing in the city  Population density was 2,515 6 inhabitants per square mile (971 3/km2)  There were 88,729 housing units at an average density of 1,097 2 per square mile (423 6/km2)  The racial makeup of the city for Unincorporated areas not merged with the city proper was 66 2% White, 15 5% African Americans, 0 5% Native American, 4 0% Asian, and 2 6% from Two or more races  People of Hispanic or Latino origin, of any race, made up 12 1% of the population  The city's racial make up during the 2010 census was 76 4% White, 10 2% African American, 0 5% Native American, 4 4% Asian (1 2% Vietnamese, 0 9% Laotian, 0 4% Burmese, 0 3% Asian Indian, 0 3% Thai, 0 2% Chinese, 0 2% Cambodian, 0 2% Filipino, 0 1% Hmong, 0 1% Korean, 0 1% Nepalese), 0 1% Pacific Islander, 5 0% from other races, and 3 4% from two or more races  People of Hispanic or Latino origin, of any race, formed 12 0% of the population (9 4% Mexican, 0 7% Salvadoran, 0 3% Guatemalan, 0 3% Puerto Rican, 0 1% Honduran, 0 1% Ecuadorian, 0 1% Cuban, 0 1% Spaniard, 0 1% Spanish)  Non-Hispanic Whites were 70 5% of the population in 2010  Des Moines also has a sizeable South Sudanese community There were 81,369 households, of which 31 6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38 9% were married couples living together, 14 2% had a female householder with no husband present, 5 3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 41 6% were non-families  32 5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9 4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 43 and the average family size was 3 11 
The median age in the city was 33 5 years  24 8% of residents were under the age of 18; 10 9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 29 4% were from 25 to 44; 23 9% were from 45 to 64; and 11% were 65 years of age or older  The gender makeup of the city was 48 9% male and 51 1% female 

2000 census
As of the 2000 census, there were 198,682 people, 80,504 households, and 48,704 families in the city  The population density was 2,621 3 inhabitants per square mile (1,012 1/km2)  There were 85,067 housing units at an average density of 1,122 3 per square mile (433 3/km2)  The racial makeup of the city was 82 3% white, 8 07% Black, 0 35% American Indian, 3 50% Asian, 0 05% Pacific Islander, 3 52% from other races, and 2 23% from two or more races  6 61% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race  20 9% were of German, 10 3% Irish, 9 1% "American" and 8 0% English ancestry, according to Census 2000 
There were 80,504 households, out of which 29 5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43 7% were married couples living together, 12 6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39 5% were non-families  31 9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10 2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 39 and the average family size was 3 04 
The age distribution was 24 8% under the age of 18, 10 6% from 18 to 24, 31 8% from 25 to 44, 20 4% from 45 to 64, and 12 4% who were 65 years of age or older  The median age was 34 years  For every 100 females, there were 93 8 males  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90 5 males 
The median income for a household in the city was $38,408, and the median income for a family was $46,590  Males had a median income of $31,712 versus $25,832 for females  The per capita income for the city was $19,467  About 7 9% of families and 11 4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14 9% of those under age 18 and 7 6% of those ages 65 or over 

Economy
Many insurance companies are headquartered in Des Moines, including the Principal Financial Group, EMC Insurance Group, Fidelity & Guaranty Life, Allied Insurance, GuideOne Insurance, Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa, FBL Financial Group, and American Republic Insurance Company   Iowa has one of the lowest insurance premium taxes in the nation at 1%, and doesn't charge any premium taxes on qualified life insurance plans, making the state attractive to insurance business   Des Moines has been referred to as the "Hartford of the West" and "Insurance Capital" because of this  The Principal is one of two Fortune 500 companies with headquarters in Iowa (the other being Casey's General Stores), ranking 201st on the magazine's list in 2020 As a center of financial and insurance services, other major corporations headquartered outside of Iowa have a presence in the Des Moines Metro area, including Wells Fargo, Voya Financial, and Electronic Data Systems (EDS)  The Meredith Corporation, a leading publishing and marketing company, was also based in Des Moines prior to its acquisition by IAC and merger with Dotdash in 2021  Meredith published Better Homes and Gardens, one of the most widely circulated publications in the United States  Des Moines was also the headquarters of Golf Digest magazine 
Other major employers in Des Moines include UnityPoint Health, Mercy Medical Center, MidAmerican Energy Company, CDS Global, UPS, Firestone Agricultural Tire Company, EDS, Drake University, Titan Tire, The Des Moines Register, Anderson Erickson, Dee Zee and EMCO In 2017, Kemin Industries opened a state-of-the-art worldwide headquarters building in Des Moines 

Culture
Arts and theatre
The City of Des Moines is a cultural center for Iowa and home to several art and history museums and performing arts groups  The Des Moines Performing Arts routinely hosts touring Broadway shows and other live professional theater  Its president and CEO, Jeff Chelsvig, is a member of the League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc  The Temple for Performing Arts and Des Moines Playhouse are other venues for live theatre, comedy, and performance arts 
The Des Moines Metro Opera has been a cultural resource in Des Moines since 1973  The Opera offers educational and outreach programs and is one of the largest performing arts organizations in the state  Ballet Des Moines was established in 2002  Performing three productions each year, the Ballet also provides opportunities for education and outreach 
The Des Moines Symphony performs frequently at different venues  In addition to performing seven pairs of classical concerts each season, the Symphony also entertains with New Year's Eve Pops and its annual Yankee Doodle Pops concerts 
The Metro Arts Alliance produces Jazz in July every year, that offers free jazz shows daily at various venues throughout the city during the entire month of July 

Wells Fargo Arena is the Des Moines area's primary venue for sporting events and concerts since its opening in 2005  Named for title sponsor Wells Fargo Financial Services, Wells Fargo Arena holds 16,980 and books large, national touring acts for arena concert performances, while several smaller venues host local, regional, and national bands  It is the home of the Iowa Wolves of the NBA G League, the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League, and the Iowa Barnstormers of the Indoor Football League 
The Simon Estes Riverfront Amphitheater is an outdoor concert venue on the east bank of the Des Moines River which hosts music events such as the Alive Concert Series 

The Des Moines Art Center, with a wing designed by architect I  M  Pei, presents art exhibitions and educational programs as well as studio art classes  The Center houses a collection of artwork from the 19th century to the present  An extension of the art center is downtown in an urban museum space, featuring three or four exhibitions each year 

The Pappajohn Sculpture Park was established in 2009  It showcases a collection of 24 sculptures donated by Des Moines philanthropists John and Mary Pappajohn  Nearby is the Temple for Performing Arts, a cultural center for the city  Next to the Temple is the 117,000-square-foot (10,900 m2) Central Library, designed by renowned English architect David Chipperfield 
Salisbury House and Gardens is a 42-room historic house museum on 10 acres (4 ha) of woodlands in the South of Grand neighborhood of Des Moines  It is named after—and loosely inspired by—King's House in Salisbury, England  Built in the 1920s by cosmetics magnate Carl Weeks and his wife, Edith, the Salisbury House contains authentic 16th-century English oak and rafters dating to Shakespeare's days, numerous other architectural features re-purposed from other historic English homes, and an internationally significant collection of original fine art, tapestries, decorative art, furniture, musical instruments, and rare books and documents  The Salisbury House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been featured on A&E's America's Castles and PBS's Antiques Roadshow  Prominent artists in the Salisbury House collection include Joseph Stella, Lillian Genth, Anthony van Dyck and Lawrence Alma-Tadema 
Built in 1877 by prominent pioneer businessman Hoyt Sherman, Hoyt Sherman Place mansion was Des Moines' first public art gallery and houses a distinctive collection of 19th and 20th century artwork  Its restored 1,250-seat theater features an intricate rococo plaster ceiling and excellent acoustics and is used for a variety of cultural performances and entertainment 

Attractions
Arising in the east and facing westward toward downtown, the Iowa State Capitol building with its 275-foot (84 m), 23-karat gold leafed dome towering above the city is a favorite of sightseers  Four smaller domes flank the main dome  The Capitol houses the governor's offices, legislature, and the old Supreme Court Chambers  The ornate interior also features a grand staircase, mural "Westward", five-story law library, scale model of the USS Iowa, and collection of first lady dolls  Guided tours are available 
The Capitol grounds include a World War II memorial with sculpture and Wall of Memories, the 1894 Soldiers and Sailors Monument of the Civil War and memorials honoring those who served in the Spanish–American, Korean, and Vietnam Wars 
The West Capitol Terrace provides the entrance from the west to the state's grandest building, the State Capitol Building  The 10-acre (4 ha) "people's park" at the foot of the Capitol complex includes a promenade and landscaped gardens, in addition to providing public space for rallies and special events  A granite map of Iowa depicting all 99 counties rests at the base of the terrace and has become an attraction for in-state visitors, many of whom walk over the map to find their home county 

Iowa's history lives on in the State of Iowa Historical Museum  This modern granite and glass structure at the foot of the State Capitol Building houses permanent and temporary exhibits exploring the people, places, events, and issues of Iowa's past  The showcase includes native wildlife, American Indian and pioneer artifacts, and political and military items  The museum features a genealogy and Iowa history library, museum gift shop, and cafe 
Terrace Hill, a National Historic Landmark and Iowa Governor's Residence, is among the best examples of American Victorian Second Empire architecture  This opulent 1869 home was built by Iowa's first millionaire, Benjamin F  Allen, and restored to the late 19th century period  It overlooks downtown Des Moines and is situated on 8 acres (3 2 ha) with a re-created Victorian formal garden  Tours are conducted Tuesdays through Saturdays from March through December 
The 110,000-square-foot (10,000 m2) Science Center of Iowa and Blank IMAX Dome Theater offers seven interactive learning areas, live programs, and hands-on activities encouraging learning and fun for all ages  Among its three theaters include the 216-seat Blank IMAX Dome Theater, 175-seat John Deere Adventure Theater featuring live performances, and a 50-foot (15 m) domed Star Theater 

The Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, an indoor conservatory of over 15,000 exotic plants, is one of the largest collections of tropical, subtropical, and desert-growing plants in the Midwest  The Center blooms with thousands of flowers year-round  Nearby are the Robert D  Ray Asian Gardens and Pavilion, named in honor of the former governor whose influence helped relocate thousands of Vietnamese refugees to Iowa homes in the 1970s and 1980s  Developed by the city's Asian community, the Gardens include a three-story Chinese pavilion, bonsai landscaping, and granite sculptures to highlight the importance of diversity and recognize Asian American contributions in Iowa 
Blank Park Zoo is a landscaped 22-acre (8 9 ha) zoological park on the south side  Among the exhibits include a tropical rain forest, Australian Outback, and Africa  The Zoo offers education classes, tours, and rental facilities 
The Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary was established as a scientific research facility with a 230-acre (93 ha) campus housing bonobos and orangutans for the noninvasive interdisciplinary study of their cognitive and communicative capabilities 

The East Village, on the east side of the Des Moines River, begins at the river and extends about five blocks east to the State Capitol Building, offering an eclectic blend of historic buildings, hip eateries, boutiques, art galleries, and a wide variety of other retail establishments mixed with residences 
Adventureland Park is an amusement park in neighboring Altoona, just northeast of Des Moines  The park boasts more than 100 rides, shows, and attractions, including six rollercoasters  A hotel and campground is just outside the park  Also in Altoona is Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino, an entertainment venue for gambling and horse racing  Open 24 hours a day, year-round, the racetrack and casino features live racing, plus over 1,750 slot machines, table games, and concert and show entertainment   The racetrack hosts two Grade III races annually, the Iowa Oaks and the Cornhusker Handicap 
Living History Farms in suburban Urbandale tells the story of Midwestern agriculture and rural life in a 500-acre (2 0 km2) open-air museum with interpreters dressed in period costume who recreate the daily routines of early Iowans  Open daily from May through October, the Living History Farms include a 1700 Ioway Indian village, 1850 pioneer farm, 1875 frontier town, 1900 horse-powered farm, and a modern crop center 
Wallace House was the home of the first Henry Wallace, a national leader in agriculture and conservation and the first editor of Wallaces' Farmer farm journal  This restored 1883 Italianate Victorian houses exhibits, artifacts, and information covering four generations of Henry Wallaces and other family members 
Historic Jordan House in West Des Moines is a stately Victorian home built in 1850 and added to in 1870 by the first white settler in West Des Moines, James C  Jordan  Completely refurbished, this mansion was part of the Underground Railroad and today houses 16 period rooms, a railroad museum, West Des Moines community history, and a museum dedicated to the Underground Railroad in Iowa  In 1893 Jordan's daughter Eda was sliding down the banister when she fell off and broke her neck  She died two days later, and her ghost is reputed to haunt the house The Chicago Tribune wrote that Iowa's capital city has "walker-friendly downtown streets and enough outdoor sculpture, sleek buildings, storefronts and cafes to delight the most jaded stroller" 

Festivals and events
Des Moines plays host to a growing number of nationally acclaimed cultural events, including the annual Des Moines Arts Festival in June, Metro Arts Jazz in July, Iowa State Fair in August, and the World Food & Music Festival in September  On Saturdays from May through October, the Downtown Farmers' Market draws visitors from across the state  Local parades include Saint Patrick's Day Parade, Drake Relays Parade, Capitol City Pride Parade, Iowa State Fair Parade, Labor Day Parade, and Beaverdale Fall Festival Parade 
Other annual festivals and events include: Des Moines Beer Week, 80/35 Music Festival, 515 Alive Music Festival, ArtFest Midwest, Blue Ribbon Bacon Fest, CelebrAsian Heritage Festival, Des Moines Pride Festival, Des Moines Renaissance Faire, Festa Italiana, Festival of Trees and Lights, World Food & Music Festival, I'll Make Me a World Iowa, Latino Heritage Festival, Oktoberfest, Winefest, ImaginEve!, Iowa's Premier Beer, Wine & Food Show, and Wild Rose Film Festival 

Museums
Des Moines Art Center
Des Moines Police Museum & Historical Society
Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center
Jordan House Museum
Hoyt Sherman Place
Salisbury House
Science Center of Iowa
State Historical Society of Iowa
Terrace Hill – Official residence of the governor of Iowa
Wallace House Museum
World Food Prize Hall of Laureates
Wells Fargo History Museum

Government
Des Moines operates under a council–manager form of government  The council consists of a mayor (Frank Cownie) and is elected in citywide vote, two at-large members, and four members representing each of the city's four wards  In 2014, Jonathan Gano was appointed as the new Public Works Director  In 2015, Dana Wingert was appointed as Police Chief  In 2018, Steven L  Naber was appointed as the new City Engineer The council members include:
A plan to merge the governments of Des Moines and Polk County was rejected by voters during the November 2, 2004, election  The consolidated city-county government would have had a full-time mayor and a 15-member council that would have been divided among the city and its suburbs  Each suburb would still have retained its individual government but with the option to join the consolidated government at any time  Although a full merger was soundly rejected, many city and county departments and programs have been consolidated 

Transportation
Des Moines has an extensive skywalk system within its downtown core  With over four miles of enclosed walkway, it is one of the largest of such systems in the United States  The Des Moines Skywalk System has been criticized for hurting street-level business, though a recent initiative has been made to make street-level Skywalk entrances more visible 

Interstate 235 (I-235) cuts through the city, and I-35 and I-80 both pass through the Des Moines metropolitan area, as well as the city of Des Moines  On the northern side of the city of Des Moines and passing through the cities of Altoona, Clive, Johnston, Urbandale and West Des Moines, I-35 and I-80 converge into a long concurrency while I-235 takes a direct route through Des Moines, Windsor Heights, and West Des Moines before meeting up with I-35 and I-80 on the western edge of the metro  The Des Moines Bypass passes south and east of the city   Other routes in and around the city include US 6, US 69, Iowa 28, Iowa 141, Iowa 163, Iowa 330, Iowa 415, & Iowa 160 

Des Moines's public transit system, operated by DART (Des Moines Area Regional Transit), which was the Des Moines Metropolitan Transit Authority until October 2006, consists entirely of buses, including regular in-city routes and express and commuter buses to outlying suburban areas 
Characteristics of household ownership of cars in Des Moines are similar to national averages  In 2015, 8 5 percent of Des Moines households lacked a car, and increased to 9 6 percent in 2016  The national average was 8 7 percent in 2016  Des Moines averaged 1 71 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1 8 
Burlington Trailways, and Jefferson Lines run long-distance, intercity bus routes through Des Moines  The bus station is located north of downtown  Although Des Moines was historically a train hub, it does not have passenger train service  For east–west traffic it was served at the Rock Island Depot by the Corn Belt Rocket express from Omaha to the west, to Chicago in the east  The Rock Island also offered the Rocky Mountain Rocket from Colorado Springs in the west, to Chicago, and the Twin Star Rocket to Minneapolis to the north and Dallas and Houston to the south  The last train was an unnamed service ending at Council Bluffs, and it was discontinued on May 31, 1970   Today, this line constitutes the mainline of the Iowa Interstate Railroad  
Other railroads used the East Des Moines Union Station  Northward and northwest bound, there were Chicago and North Western trains to destinations including Minneapolis  The Wabash Railroad ran service to the southeast to St  Louis   These lines remain in use but are now operated by Union Pacific and BNSF 
The nearest Amtrak station is in Osceola, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Des Moines  The Osceola station is served by the Chicago–San Francisco California Zephyr; there is no Osceola–Des Moines Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach connecting service  There have been proposals to extend Amtrak's planned Chicago–Moline Quad City Rocket to Des Moines via the Iowa Interstate Railroad The Des Moines International Airport (DSM), on Fleur Drive in the southern part of Des Moines, offers nonstop service to destinations within the United States  The only international service is cargo service, but there have been discussions about adding an international terminal 

Education
The Des Moines Public Schools district is the largest community school district in Iowa with 32,062 enrolled students as of the 2012–2013 school year  The district consists of 63 schools: 38 elementary schools, eleven middle schools, five high schools (East, Hoover, Lincoln, North, and Roosevelt), and ten special schools and programs  Small parts of the city are instead served by Carlisle Community Schools, Johnston Community School District, the Southeast Polk Community School District and the Saydel School District Grand View Christian School is the only private school in the city, although Des Moines Christian School (in Des Moines from 1947 to 2006) in Urbandale, Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, and Ankeny Christian Academy on the north side of the metro area serve some city residents 
Des Moines is also home to the main campuses of three four-year private colleges: Drake University, Grand View University, and Mercy College of Health Sciences  The University of Iowa has a satellite facility in the city's Western Gateway Park, while Iowa State University hosts Master of Business Administration classes downtown  Simpson College, Upper Iowa University, William Penn University, and Purdue University Global   Des Moines Area Community College is the area's community college with campuses in Ankeny, Des Moines, and West Des Moines  The city is also home to Des Moines University, an osteopathic medical school 

Media
The Des Moines market, which originally consisted of Polk, Dallas, Story, and Warren counties, was ranked 91st by Arbitron as of the fall of 2007 with a population of 512,000 aged 12 and older  But in June 2011 it was moved up to 72nd with the addition of Boone, Clarke, Greene, Guthrie, Jasper, Lucas, Madison and Marion counties 

Radio
Commercial stations
iHeartMedia owns five radio stations in the area, including WHO 1040 AM, a 50,000-watt AM news/talk station that has the highest ratings in the area and once employed future President Ronald Reagan as a sportscaster  In addition to WHO, iHeartMedia owns KDRB 100 3 FM (adult hits), KKDM 107 5 FM (contemporary hits), KXNO-FM 106 3, and KXNO 1460 AM (sports radio)  They also own news/talk station KASI 1430 AM and hot adult contemporary station KCYZ 105 1 FM, both of which broadcast from Ames 
Cumulus Media owns five stations that broadcast from facilities in Urbandale: KBGG 1700 AM (sports), KGGO 94 9 FM (classic rock), KHKI 97 3 FM (country music), KJJY 92 5 FM (country music), and KWQW 98 3 FM (classic hip hop) Saga Communications owns nine stations in the area: KAZR 103 3 FM (rock), KAZR-HD2 (oldies), KIOA 93 3 FM (oldies), KIOA-HD2 99 9FM & 93 3 HD2 (Rhythmic Top 40), KOEZ 104 1 FM (soft adult contemporary), KPSZ 940 AM (contemporary Christian music, religious teaching, and conservative talk), KRNT 1350 AM (ESPN Radio), KSTZ 102 5 FM (adult contemporary hits), and KSTZ-HD2 (classic country)  Other stations in the Des Moines area include religious stations KWKY 1150 AM, and KPUL 101 7 FM 

Non-commercial stations
Non-commercial radio stations in the Des Moines area include KDPS 88 1 FM, a station operated by the Des Moines Public Schools; KWDM 88 7 FM, a station operated by Valley High School; KJMC 89 3 FM, an urban contemporary station; K213DV 90 5 FM, the contemporary Christian K-Love affiliate for the area; and KDFR 91 3 FM, operated by Family Radio  Iowa Public Radio broadcasts several stations in the Des Moines area, all of which are owned by Iowa State University and operated on campus  WOI 640 am, the networks flagship station, and WOI-FM 90 1, the networks flagship "Studio One" station, are both based out of Ames and serve as the area's National Public Radio outlets  The network also operates classical stations KICG, KICJ, KICL and KICP   The University of Northwestern – St  Paul operates Contemporary Christian simulcasts of KNWI-FM at 107 1 Osceola/Des Moines, KNWM-FM at 96 1 Madrid/Ames/Des Moines, and K264CD at 100 7 in downtown Des Moines 
Low-power FM stations include KFMG-LP 99 1, a community radio station broadcasting from the Hotel Fort Des Moines and also webstreamed 

Television
The Des Moines-Ames media market consists of 35 central Iowa counties: Adair, Adams, Appanoose, Audubon, Boone, Calhoun, Carroll, Clarke, Dallas, Decatur, Franklin, Greene, Guthrie, Hamilton, Hardin, Humboldt, Jasper, Kossuth, Lucas, Madison, Mahaska, Marion, Marshall, Monroe, Pocahontas, Polk, Poweshiek, Ringgold, Story, Taylor, Union, Warren, Wayne, Webster, and Wright  It was ranked 71st by Nielsen Media Research for the 2008–2009 television season with 432,410 television households Commercial television stations serving Des Moines include CBS affiliate KCCI channel 8, NBC affiliate WHO-DT channel 13, and Fox affiliate KDSM-TV channel 17  ABC affiliate WOI-TV channel 5 and CW affiliate KCWI-TV channel 23 are both licensed to Ames and broadcast from studios in West Des Moines  KFPX-TV channel 39, the local ION affiliate, is licensed to Newton  Two non-commercial stations are also licensed to Des Moines: KDIN channel 11, the local PBS member station and flagship of the Iowa Public Television network, and KDMI channel 19, a TCT affiliate  Mediacom is the Des Moines area's cable television provider  Television sports listings for Des Moines and Iowa can be found on the Des Moines Register website 

Print
The Des Moines Register is the city's primary daily newspaper  As of March 31, 2007, the Register ranked 71st in circulation among daily newspapers in the United States according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations with 146,050 daily and 233,229 Sunday subscribers  Weekly newspapers include Juice, a publication aimed at the 25–34 demographic published by the Register on Wednesdays; Cityview, an alternative weekly published on Thursdays; and the Des Moines Business Record, a business journal published on Sundays, along with the West Des Moines Register, the Johnston Register, and the Waukee Register on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays depending on the address of the subscriber  Additionally, magazine publisher Meredith Corporation was based in Des Moines prior to its acquisition by IAC and merger with Dotdash in 2021 

Sports and recreation
Sports
Des Moines hosts professional minor league teams in several sports — baseball, basketball, hockey, indoor football, and soccer — and is home to the sports teams of Drake University which play in NCAA Division I 
The Des Moines Menace soccer club, a member of USL League Two, play their home games at Valley Stadium in West Des Moines 
Des Moines is home to the Iowa Cubs baseball team of the Triple-A East  The I-Cubs, which are the Triple-A affiliate of the major league Chicago Cubs, play their home games at Principal Park near the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers 
Wells Fargo Arena of the Iowa Events Center is home to the Iowa Barnstormers of the Indoor Football League, the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League, and the Iowa Wolves of the NBA G League  The Barnstormers relaunched as an af2 club in 2008 before joining a relaunched Arena Football League in 2010 and the Indoor Football League in 2015; the Barnstormers had previously played in the Arena Football League from 1994 to 2000 (featuring future NFL Hall of Famer and Super Bowl MVP quarterback Kurt Warner) before relocating to New York  The Iowa Energy, a D-League team, began play in 2007  They were bought by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2017 and were renamed the Iowa Wolves to reflect the new ownership  The Wild, the AHL affiliate of the National Hockey League's Minnesota Wild have played at Wells Fargo Arena since 2013; previously, the Iowa Chops played four seasons in Des Moines (known as the Iowa Stars for three of those seasons )
Additionally, the Des Moines Buccaneers of the United States Hockey League play at Buccaneer Arena in suburban Urbandale 
Des Moines is also home to the Drake University Bulldogs, an NCAA Division I member of the Missouri Valley Conference, primarily playing northwest of downtown at the on-campus Drake Stadium and Knapp Center  Drake Stadium is home to the famed Drake Relays each April  In addition to the Drake Relays, Drake Stadium has hosted multiple NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The Vikings of Grand View University also compete in intercollegiate athletics in Des Moines  A member of the Heart of America Athletic Conference, within the NAIA, they field 21 varsity athletic teams  They were NAIA National Champions in football in 2013 
The Principal Charity Classic, a Champions Tour golf event, is held at Wakonda Club in late May or early June  The IMT Des Moines Marathon is held throughout the city each October 

Parks and recreation
Des Moines has 76 city parks and three golf courses, as well as three family aquatic centers, five community centers and three swimming pools  The city has 45 miles (72 km) of trails  The first major park was Greenwood Park  The park commissioners purchased the land on April 21, 1894 
The Principal Riverwalk is a riverwalk park district being constructed along the banks of the Des Moines River in the downtown  Primarily funded by the Principal Financial Group, the Riverwalk is a multi-year jointly funded project also funded by the city and state  Upon completion, it will feature a 1 2-mile (1 9 km) recreational trail connecting the east and west sides of downtown via two pedestrian bridges  A landscaped promenade along the street level is planned  The Riverwalk includes the downtown Brenton Skating Plaza, open from November through March 
Gray's Lake, part of the 167 acres (68 ha) of Gray's Lake Park, features a boat rental facility, fishing pier, floating boardwalks, and a park resource center  Located just south of the downtown, the centerpiece of the park is a lighted 1 9-mile (3 1 km) Kruidenier Trail, encircling it entirely 
From downtown Des Moines primarily along the east bank of the Des Moines River, the Neil Smith and John Pat Dorrian Trails are 28 2-mile (45 4 km) paved recreational trails that connect Gray's Lake northward to the east shore of Saylorville Lake, Big Creek State Park, and the recreational trails of Ankeny including the High Trestle Trail  These trails are near several recreational facilities including the Pete Crivaro Park, Principal Park, the Principal Riverwalk, the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, Union Park and its Heritage Carousel of Des Moines, Birdland Park and the Birdland Marina/Boatramp on the Des Moines River, Riverview Park, McHenry Park, and River Drive Park  Although outside of Des Moines, Jester Park has 1,834 acres (742 ha) of land along the western shore of Saylorville Lake and can be reached from the Neil Smith Trail over the Saylorville Dam 
Just west of Gray's Lake are the 1,500 acres (607 ha) of the Des Moines Water Works Park  The Water Works Park is along the banks of the Raccoon River immediately upstream from where the Raccoon River empties into the Des Moines River  The Des Moines Water Works Facility, which obtains the city's drinking water from the Raccoon River, is entirely within the Water Works Park  A bridge in the park crosses the Raccoon River  The Water Works Park recreational trails link to downtown Des Moines by travelling past Gray's Lake and back across the Raccoon River via either along the Meredith Trail near Principal Park, or along the Martin Luther King Jr  Parkway  The Water Works Park trails connect westward to Valley Junction and the recreational trails of the western suburbs: Windsor Heights, Urbandale, Clive, and Waukee  Also originating from Water Works Park, the Great Western Trail is an 18-mile (29 km) journey southward from Des Moines to Martensdale through the Willow Creek Golf Course, Orilla, and Cumming  Often, the location for summer music festivals and concerts, Water Works Park was the overnight campground for thousands of bicyclists on Tuesday, July 23, 2013, during RAGBRAI XLI 

Sister cities
The Greater Des Moines Sister City Commission, with members from the City of Des Moines and the suburbs of Cumming, Norwalk, Windsor Heights, Johnston, Urbandale, and Ankeny, maintains sister city relationships with:
 Kōfu, Japan (1958)
 Saint-Étienne, France (1985)
 Shijiazhuang, China (1985)
 Stavropol, Russia (1992)
 Pristina, Kosovo (2018) (Kosovo also opened Consulate in downtown Des Moines in 2015 – List of diplomatic missions of Kosovo)
 Catanzaro, Italy (2006)
 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia (1987)

See also
List of people from Des Moines, Iowa
B-Bop's (1988)
Moingona
Des Moines Police Department
USS Des Moines, 3 ships
Des Moines-class cruiser

Notes
Passage 3:
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is a 2006 memoir by best-selling travel writer Bill Bryson  The book delves into Bryson's past, telling of his youth growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, during the 1950s and early 1960s  It also reveals the backstory between himself and Stephen Katz, who appeared in A Walk in the Woods and "Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe " Bryson also describes and comments on American life in the 1950s  The title of the book comes from an imaginary alter-ego Bryson invented for himself in his childhood, who has the ability to vaporise people The book was released on September 1, 2006, in the United Kingdom, where it was published by Doubleday  In the United States and Canada, the book was launched on  October 17, 2006, and was published by Broadway Books and Doubleday Canada respectively 

Plot
Bryson was born on December 8, 1951  He spent his childhood growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, part of the baby-boom generation born in the post-war years  He describes his early life and his parents, Bill Sr  and Mary Bryson  His father was a well-known sports writer for The Des Moines Register, the leading newspaper in Des Moines  His mother was also a writer for the Register, she also wrote for magazines like Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, and House Beautiful 
He recounts many things that were invented during his childhood that fascinated him, which include frozen dinners, atomic toilets, and television  His middle-class, all-American lifestyle is shown constantly throughout the book, and the influence of his depression-era raised parents rubs off on him  He also remembers his adventures as "the Thunderbolt Kid," an alter ego he made up for himself when he felt powerless  He was able to vaporize people with his heat vision and thought that he came from another planet  He tells amusing stories of his misadventures as Billy Bryson, including his first days in school when he figured out that when the entire class was running drills to protect themselves from a bomb, he would simply read comic books instead  However, when the principal and a police officer came in one day to supervise, he got in trouble  Trouble was something fairly common for "the Thunderbolt Kid", as throughout his childhood his teachers were unamused by his activities  In fact, Bryson recounts how he really was uninterested in getting up before noon, thus not even going to school very often  Despite his unique behavior, Bryson tells his story through the eyes of a child, filled with hilarious observations about the world — from "Lumpy" Kowalski's curious nickname to the joy that was to be had in the department stores 
Though Bryson focuses mostly on his childhood, he tells of many of the events that were happening at the time, including the development of the atomic bomb, and the beginnings of the civil rights movement  He tells of his first days in junior high and high school, and during both he began smoking, drinking, and stealing, although he didn’t get caught for any of it  He met Stephen Katz in junior high school, when they were both in the school's audio-visual club  Katz would accompany Bryson on many of his travel experiences  At the end of the book, Bryson tells the reader that "life moves on", and that he wishes that the world could be more similar to life in the 1950s and 1960s  The last lines of the book are, "What a wonderful world that would be  What a wonderful world it was  We won’t see its like again, I'm afraid "

Reception
The book received mostly positive reviews from critics  Carole Cadwalladr of The Observer wrote "What Bryson has achieved with this book is final confirmation that he is the Frank Capra of American letters", and later added "And it really is a wonderful life to be immersed in the American Midwest in the Fifties with Bill as your tour guide [   ] Bryson has to pad his tale with other stuff  And it's the other stuff at which he excels " 
Ian Sansom of The Guardian stated "He has a natural-seeming style in which he doesn't so much tell jokes as let his sentences stretch out and relax into feet-up, contented good humour " and "Bryson's descriptions of 50s Des Moines [   ] makes you wish that you could emigrate, become a child, get a flat-top haircut and some long-laced baseball boots, and sneak in and take up residence unnoticed with little Billy Bryson in his parents' household " The only complaint Tom Fort of The Daily Telegraph made about the autobiography was that "His handicap is that he is entirely free of the malice, the appetite for smut, scandal and unpleasantness — above all, the narcissism — absolutely essential to the form "The book has a 73/100 rating at the website Metacritic, earning it the rank of "Generally favorable reviews" 

Editions
ISBN 0-7679-1936-X (US hardcover, 2006)
ISBN 0-385-60826-8 (UK hardcover, 2006)
ISBN 0-385-66161-4 (CDN hardcover, 2006)
ISBN 0-7679-1937-8 (US paperback, 2007)
ISBN 978-0-552-77254-9 (UK paperback, 2007)
ISBN 0-385-66162-2 (CDN paperback, 2007)
ISBN 0-7393-1523-4 (US audiobook, 2006)
ISBN 978-0-552-15365-2 (UK audiobook, 2006)
Passage 4:
Bill Bryson's African Diary
Bill Bryson's African Diary is a 2002 book by bestselling travel writer Bill Bryson  The book details a trip Bryson took to Kenya in 2002  Bryson describes his experiences there and observations about Kenyan culture, geography, and politics, as well as his visits to poverty-fighting projects run by CARE International, to which he donated all royalties for the book 

Reception
In a review published in the Guardian Lionel Shriver was critical of the book's length, describing it as "less a book than a pamphlet"   Shriver also disliked the book's tone, "a po-faced, gee-whizz sincerity ill-suited to a writer who has made his reputation for being light and wry (and even snide) in droll travel books "
Passage 5:
Notes from a Big Country
Notes from a Big Country, or as it was released in the United States, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, is a collection of articles written by Bill Bryson for The Mail on Sunday's Night and Day supplement during the 1990s, published together first in Britain in 1998 and in paperback in 1999  The book discusses Bryson's views on relocating to Hanover, New Hampshire, after spending two decades in Britain 
The American and British editions are not quite identical as, besides spelling differences, some explanatory information suitable for each intended audience is added or omitted within individual articles  This is freely acknowledged in the introduction 

Content
The book contains articles which Bryson wrote for the Mail between 1996 and 1998  He discusses a multitude of topics in the articles such as the death penalty, the war on drugs, gardening, commercials, book tours, inefficiency, Thanksgiving, and air travel 
Passage 6:
Michael Bryson
Michael G  Bryson (August 22, 1942 – May 22, 2012) was a news and sports reporter and editor from Des Moines, Iowa and the elder brother of travel writer Bill Bryson  He co-authored a book The Babe Didn't Point: And Other Stories About Iowans and Sports with his son Michael G  Bryson Jr in 1989  He wrote The Twenty-Four-Inch Home Run in 1990 
Bryson was an editor and associate publisher of the Sun Press Newspapers in Hawaii from 1979 to 1986  He covered the New York Mets in 1969 while a sports reporter for the Associated Press  He was a news reporter for the Des Moines Register and Tribune from 1970 to 1979  He attended Drake University 
Passage 7:
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America is a book by travel writer Bill Bryson, chronicling his 13,978-mile trip around the United States in the autumn of 1987 and spring 1988   It was Bryson's first travel book He begins his journey, made almost entirely by car, in his childhood hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, heading from there towards the Mississippi River, often reminiscing about his childhood in Iowa  The journey was made after his father's death, and so is in part a collection of memories of his father in Des Moines while he was growing up 
The book is split into two sections: 'East' and 'West', the former part being considerably longer than the latter  These sections correspond to two separate journeys made in the autumn of 1987 and spring of 1988  The first section covers the Midwest, the Deep South, the East Coast and New England, before returning to Des Moines  The second section focuses on the Great Plains, the South West, California and the Rocky Mountains 
Bryson's goal in this trip was generally to avoid tourist destinations, instead choosing to experience the real every-day America, stopping at small towns and forgotten points of interest  This book is an overview of the United States from Bryson's point of view  There is less focus on factual insight into the history, geography and culture of the destinations in this book than is found in some of Bryson's later books, focusing instead on observations made with the intention of being humorous 

Bibliography
Bryson, Bill (1989): The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America  London: Secker 

See also
Americana
Passage 8:
The Mother Tongue
The Mother Tongue is a 1990 book by Bill Bryson which compiles the history and origins of the English language and its various quirks  It is subtitled English And How It Got That Way  The book discusses the Indo-European origins of English, the growing status of English as a global language, the complex etymology of English words, the dialects of English, spelling reform, prescriptive grammar, and other topics including swearing  This account popularises the subject and makes it accessible to the lay reader, but it has been criticised for some inaccuracies, such as the perpetuation of several urban myths This book has also been published in the UK by Penguin Books under the title Mother Tongue: The English Language 
Bryson has since followed up this work with Made in America 
Passage 9:
Bill Bryson Sr 
William Eugene Bryson Sr  (March 3, 1915 – January 31, 1986) was an American sportswriter who wrote for The Des Moines Register from 1937 until his retirement in 1978  He covered 32 consecutive World Series 

Early life
Bryson was born and raised in Winfield, Iowa 

Career
Bryson began his career as a reporter for the Winfield Beacon, his hometown newspaper 
Bryson Sr  has been called "one of the finest sportswriters in the country and widely recognized as such " As his son Bill describes in The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, due to the quality of Bryson Sr 's work, one prominent television sports journalist thought of him as being "possibly the greatest baseball writer there ever was " He contributed to Baseball Digest and many other publications 
The Babe Didn't Point: And Other Stories About Iowans and Sports, a book of some of his best sports stories, was published by his son Michael 

Personal life and death
Bryson married Mary Agnes McGuire (1913-2015), an editor for The Des Moines Register : 6  They had three children: Michael (who also became a sports journalist), Bill Jr  (who also became a journalist and a writer), and Mary Elizabeth  Bryson died of an apparent heart attack, on January 31, 1986, at his home in Des Moines, Iowa Bryson's son, Bill Jr , the renowned writer, published a loving tribute to his father in 2001 which described how Bryson had conducted what was probably  the very last interview with Babe Ruth, just a month before the legendary New York Yankee died in August 1948  The profile also includes the praise of Bryson noted above by a former NBC News president, who had said he "may have been the best baseball writer ever, anywhere "
Passage 10:
Down Under (book)
Down Under is the British title of a 2000 travelogue book about Australia written by best-selling travel writer Bill Bryson  In the United States and Canada it was published titled In a Sunburned Country, a title taken from the famous Australian poem, "My Country"  It was also published as part of Walk About, which included Down Under and another of Bryson's books, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, in one volume 

Summary
Bill Bryson describes his travels by railway and car throughout Australia, his conversations with people in all walks of life about the history, geography, unusual plants and animals of the country, and his wry impressions of the life, culture and amenities (or lack thereof) in each locality 
In a style similar to his book A Walk in the Woods, or William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways, Bryson's research enabled him to include many stories about Australia's 19th-century explorers and settlers who suffered extreme deprivations, as well as details about its natural resources, culture, and economy  His writings are intertwined with recurring humorous themes 

Synopsis
The book consists of three parts:
1  Into the Outback
The first part of the book mainly describes the journey taken by Bryson aboard the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Perth  He is accompanied on this journey by a young English photographer named Trevor Ray Hart  The author describes his experiences on the train, the places the train passes through on its way to Perth such as the Blue Mountains and White Cliffs  The author also supplies plenty of humor in the form of historical accounts of early explorers and settlers of Australia 

2  Civilized Australia (The Boomerang Coast)
This section of the book starts off with historical accounts from the time when Australia was discovered and goes on to illustrate how the Australians built a dynamic and prosperous society from a modest and unpropitious beginning  The rest of this section is devoted to the author's account of what he considers to be Civilized Australia, with accounts of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, the Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, and many countryside towns in between 
3  Around the Edges
This part of the journey covers the Great Barrier Reef, the cities of Cairns, Darwin, and Alice Springs, and the mighty monolithic rock Uluru   Later Bryson visits Perth and the Shark Bay area of Western Australia 
Context 2: Passage 1:
Sabal Trail Transmission Pipeline
Sabal Trail Transmission Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline that runs from central Alabama through southwest Georgia to Orange County, Florida  A minority stake in the venture is owned by NextEra Energy and Duke Energy  The pipeline has been being planned since before 2011  In July 2013 it was announced that Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) jointly awarded its parent corporation, NextEra Energy and Spectra Energy the bid to build the pipeline  In May 2015, Duke Energy bought an interest in the venture  Construction began in September 2016  The pipeline is currently scheduled to be in service by June 2017 

Environmental concerns and federal agency permission
The construction of the pipeline has drawn concern from the communities through which it is planned to be built  Protests in Albany, Georgia and Valdosta, Georgia have occurred in response to the plans to build the pipelines  The threat of eminent domain and the environmental impact are among the concerns that have been voiced by citizens 
In late October 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency recommended to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the pipeline be rerouted away from the Floridan aquifer because of the karst geology that is prone to sinkholes and also contains wetlands Environmental concerns have also been raised regarding threats to endangered species habitat along the route including crocodile, manatee and sea turtle breeding and nesting grounds  Others including Sanford Bishop, Hank Johnson, David Scott and John Lewis have voiced concern over the construction of a proposed compressor station near an already disadvantaged African American community in Albany, Georgia Despite the recommendations of Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the pipeline's route in February 2016  In August 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers approved the route through North Florida  Some citizens from the areas of the route continued to voice concerns about the environmental impact the pipeline would have the environment after it was approved by the various governmental agencies 
The federal permits require the companies constructing the pipeline to engage in mitigation banking 

Protests
The construction of the Sabal Trail resulted in extensive protests from environmentalists  On November 12, 2016, fourteen protesters were arrested at a pipeline construction site in Gilchrist County, Florida after one protester locked himself to truck on site and the others obstructed its path  They had been inspired by the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and used similar protest signage  In February of 2017, two protestors locked themselves inside a section of the pipeline, citing the danger to people and the environment which would result from a pipeline leak  On February 26, 2017 an apparent protester was seen firing a high powered rifle at the pipeline construction site  The man fled and was chased by police until he crashed and was killed by a deputy after he tried to engage police in a gunfight

Construction
In September 2016, construction began on the pipeline  
In late October 2016, drilling mud seepage began leaking into the Withlacoochee River at construction along the border of Brooks County, Georgia and Lowndes County, Georgia from a pilot hole that had been drilled underneath the river in preparation for the horizontal directional drilling hole  After the leakage was discovered, the Sabal Company installed containment booms at the site and posted a vacuum truck to capture the mud seepage  The spill prompted protests from concerned local citizens on November 16, 2016 As part of the company's biweekly report for the week ending on November 27 to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, it was reported that a sinkhole had developed 165 feet (50 m) southeast of the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) hole exit point at the work site near the Withlacoochee River  The sinkhole had been identified on November 5 by workers in the field 

Owners
Spectra Energy
NextEra Energy
Duke Energy (7 5%)

See also
Spectra Energy
Passage 2:
Duke Energy
Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina 

Overview
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy owns 58,200 megawatts of base-load and peak generation in the United States, which it distributes to its 7 2 million customers  The company has approximately 29,000 employees  Duke Energy's service territory covers 104,000 square miles (270,000 km2) with 250,200 miles (402,700 km) of distribution lines  Almost all of Duke Energy's Midwest generation comes from coal, natural gas, or oil, while half of its Carolinas generation comes from its nuclear power plants  During 2006, Duke Energy generated 148,798,332 megawatt-hours of electrical energy 
Duke Energy Renewable Services (DERS), a subsidiary of Duke Energy, specializes in the development, ownership, and operation of various generation facilities throughout the United States  This segment of the company operates 1,700 megawatts of generation  240 megawatts of wind generation were under construction and 1,500 additional megawatts of wind generation were in planning stages  On September 9, 2008, DERS updated its projections for future wind power capacity  By the end of 2008, it would have over 500 MW of nameplate capacity of wind power online, and an additional 5,000 MW in development 

Subsidiaries
Duke Energy Carolinas (formerly Duke Power)
Duke Energy Ohio (formerly Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company, via Cinergy)
Duke Energy Kentucky (formerly Union Light, Heat & Power, via Cinergy)
Duke Energy Indiana (formerly Public Service Indiana, via Cinergy)
Duke Energy Florida (formerly Florida Power Corporation, via Progress Energy)
Duke Energy Progress (formerly Carolina Power and Light, via Progress Energy)
Duke Energy Renewables
Duke Energy Retail
Duke Energy International
Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions
Duke Energy One

History
The company began in 1900 as the Catawba Power Company when Walker Gill Wylie and his brother financed the building of a hydroelectric power station at India Hook Shoals along the Catawba River near India Hook, South Carolina  When he needed additional funding to further his ambitious plan for construction of a series of hydroelectric power plants, Wylie convinced James B  Duke and his partner James Blaney to invest in the Southern Power Company, founded in 1905 
In 1917 James Blaney was the founder of the Wateree Power Company that was formed as a holding company for several utilities that had been founded and/or owned by Duke, and Blaney his associates, and in 1924 the name was changed to Duke Power  In 1927, most of the subsidiary companies, including Southern Power Company, Catawba Power Company, Great Falls Power Company, and Western Carolina Power Company were merged into Duke Power, although Southern Public Utilities, 100% owned by Duke Power, maintained a legally separate existence for the retail marketing of Duke-generated power to residential and commercial customers  Southern Public Utilities also operated transit systems, which Duke eventually converted from streetcars to buses 
In 1988, Nantahala Power & Light Co , which served southwestern North Carolina, was purchased by Duke and is now operated under the Duke Power Nantahala Area brand  In 1990, Duke sold its remaining transit operations  Duke Power merged with PanEnergy, a natural gas company, in 1997 to form Duke Energy  The Duke Power name continued as the electric utility business of Duke Energy until the Cinergy merger 

With the purchase of Cinergy Corporation announced in 2005 and completed on April 3, 2006, Duke Energy Corporation's customer base grew to include the Midwestern United States as well  The company operates nuclear power plants, coal-fired plants, conventional hydroelectric plants, natural-gas turbines to handle peak demand, and pumped hydro storage  During 2006, Duke Energy also acquired Chatham, Ontario-based Union Gas, which is regulated under the Ontario Energy Board Act (1998) 
On January 3, 2007, Duke Energy spun off its gas business to form Spectra Energy  Duke Energy shareholders received 1 share of Spectra Energy for each 2 shares of Duke Energy  After the spin-off, Duke Energy now receives the majority of its revenue from its electric operations in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana  The spinoff to Spectra also included Union Gas, which Duke Energy acquired the previous year In 2011, Duke Energy worked with Charlotte's business leader community to help build Charlotte into a smart city  The group called the initiative "Envision Charlotte"  At the time, the group decided on a goal to reduce energy use in the "urban core of the city by 20 percent"  To do so, the group focused on making energy consumption changes to commercial buildings larger than 10,000 square feet On July 3, 2012, Duke Energy merged with Progress Energy Inc with the Duke Energy name being retained along with the Charlotte, North Carolina, headquarters Duke announced on June 18, 2013, that CEO Jim Rogers was retiring and Lynn Good would become the new CEO  Rogers has been CEO and Chairman since 2006, while Good was Chief Financial Officer of Duke since 2009, having joined Duke in the 2006 Cinergy merger  Rogers' retirement was part of an agreement to end an investigation into Duke's Progress Energy acquisition in 2012 In 2016, Duke Energy purchased Piedmont Natural Gas for $4 9 billion to become its wholly owned subsidiary   Duke Energy completed selling its remaining power operations in Central and South America for $1 2 billion months afterwards   At one point Duke Energy had more than 4,300 megawatts of electric generation in Latin America  It operated eight hydroelectric power plants in Brazil with an installed capacity of 2,307 megawatts The company expects to spend $13 billion upgrading the North Carolina grid from 2017 On December 3, 2022, an attack was carried out on two Duke Energy substations located in Moore County, North Carolina  Damage from the attack left up to 40,000 residents without electrical power for several days, with officials closing schools and declaring a state of emergency  The Federal Bureau of Investigation supported local investigators in case the incident met the definition of domestic terrorism under the Patriot Act 

New nuclear power plant
On March 16, 2006, Duke Power announced that a Cherokee County, South Carolina site had been selected for a potential new nuclear power plant  The site is jointly owned by Duke Power and Southern Company  Duke plans to develop the site for two Westinghouse Electric Company AP1000 (advanced passive) pressurized water reactors  Each reactor is capable of producing approximately 1,117 megawatts  (See Nuclear Power 2010 Program )
On December 14, 2007, Duke Power submitted a Combined Construction and Operating License to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with an announcement that it will spend $160 million in 2008 on the plant with a total cost of $5 billion to $6 billion  The plant was approved in 2016 In August 2017, Duke decided to seek permission from the North Carolina Utility Commission to cancel the project due to the bankruptcy of Westinghouse and "other market activity", although they will retain the option of restarting the project at some point in the future if circumstances change This site would have been adjacent to the old site, which was never completed and abandoned in the early 1980s, and used by James Cameron as a film set for the 1989 movie The Abyss 
In 2018, Duke Energy decided not to include new nuclear power in its long-range plans 

Headquarters buildings
J A  Jones designed the first headquarters building, known as the Power Building, which was completed in 1927 at 440 South Church  It was five stories and 503,000 square feet (46,700 m2)  The Electric Center at 526 South Church Street opened in 1975 with an addition in 1988  State Farm Insurance sold the Power Building in 2004 for $8 million to The Dilweg Cos , who anticipated significant development  Novare Group bought 5 13 acres (20,800 m2) at 408 South Church Street for $17 million from The Dilweg Cos  in a deal announced March 27, 2006   The Power Building was demolished February 24, 2007 Duke Energy Center at 550 South Tryon Street was announced as the company's headquarters in 2009  The company announced May 17, 2021 that the headquarters will move in 2023 to Duke Energy Plaza, across the street from the current headquarters  Childress Klein is developing the new building, which will allow Duke to sell its Church Street and College Street buildings, and end its lease at 400 South Tryon  Previously named Charlotte Metro Tower, the 40-story building will be purchased when completed for up to $675 million by Childress Klein and CGA Capital, in the largest real estate deal in the city's history, announced in December 2019 

Finances
For the fiscal year 2017, Duke Energy reported earnings of US$3 059 billion, with an annual revenue of US$23 565 billion, an increase of 3 6% over the previous fiscal cycle  Duke Energy's shares traded at over $79 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$58 8 billion in November 2018 

Environmental record
In 1999, the United States Environmental Protection Agency commenced an enforcement action against Duke Energy for making modifications to very old and deteriorating coal-burning power plants without getting permits under the Clean Air Act  Duke asserted that a "modification" under the Clean Air Act did not require a permit  Environmental groups asserted that Duke was using loopholes in the law to increase emissions  Initially, Duke prevailed at the trial court level, but in 2006 the case was argued before the Supreme Court (Environmental Defense v  Duke Energy Corp  (05-848))  The Court unanimously ruled on April 2, 2007 that the modifications allowed the power plants to operate for more hours, increasing emissions, so Clean Air Act permits were needed In 2002, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst identified Duke Energy as the 46th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with roughly 36 million
pounds of toxic chemicals released annually into the air  Major pollutants included sulfuric and hydrochloric acid, chromium compounds, and hydrogen fluoride  The Political Economy Research Institute ranks Duke Energy 13th among corporations emitting airborne pollutants in the United States  The ranking is based on the quantity (80 million pounds in 2005) and toxicity of the emissions  This change reflects the purchase of fossil fuel-heavy Cinergy, which occurred in 2005 

In early 2008, Duke Energy announced a plan to build the new, 800-megawatt Cliffside Unit 6 coal plant 55 miles (89 km) west of Charlotte, North Carolina  The plan has been strongly opposed by environmental groups such as Rising Tide North America, Rainforest Action Network, the community-based Canary Coalition as well as the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has threatened to sue Duke if it does not halt construction plans  On April 1, activists locked themselves to machinery at the Cliffside construction area as part of Fossil Fools Day 
Duke Energy has been "one of the most vocal advocates" for a "cap-and-trade" system to combat global CO2 emissions, "and the company's CEO, Jim Rogers, thinks the company will profit from cap-and-trade"  The company left the National Association of Manufacturers in part over differences on climate policy In a joint venture with the French-based global energy firm AREVA, under the nominal name of ADAGE, Duke Energy has planned a "Green" biomass burning facility in Mason County, Washington and is negotiating with forestland owners to secure the 600,000 tons of wood debris it needs yearly to fuel its $250 million biomass plant 
The joint venture between electric power company Duke Energy and global nuclear services giant AREVA was created to build wood waste-to-energy power plants around the country 
ADAGE president Reed Wills announced the first Northwest outpost will be in the struggling timber town of Shelton, Washington 
The following pollutants are provided by DUKE-AREVA-ADAGE in their application for permit to the Department of Environmental Protection for a similar type of plant in Florida 

248 tons per year – particulate matter
288 tons per year – particulate matter 10
233 tons per year – particulate matter 2 5
249 tons per year – NOx (nitrogen oxides)
246 tons per year – SO2 (sulfur dioxide)
248 tons per year – CO (carbon monoxide)
40 tons per year – H2SO4 – (sulfuric acid mist)
63 tons per year – VOC (volatile organic compounds)
29 tons per year – F (fluorides)

Generating facilities
This list is partially complete due to the July 3, 2012, merger with Progress Energy 

Biomass fired
Shelton Biomass Facility (proposed)

Nuclear
Catawba Nuclear Station
McGuire Nuclear Station
Oconee Nuclear Station
Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant
H  B  Robinson Nuclear Generating Station
Brunswick Nuclear Generating Station
Crystal River Nuclear Power Plant (retired February 2013)
William States Lee III Nuclear Generating Station - Future

Coal-fired
Allen Steam Station
Belews Creek Steam Station
Beckjord Power Station
Cayuga Generating Station
Crystal River Energy Complex
East Bend Station
Edwardsport Station
Gallagher Station
Gibson Station
Marshall Steam Station
Mayo Plant
Miami Fort Power Station (purchased by Dynegy, 2014)
Riverbend Steam Station (retired)
Roxboro Steam Plant
Wabash River Station
William H  Zimmer Power Station (purchased by Dynegy, 2014)

Hydroelectric
Conventional hydro
Following is a list of Duke Energy's thirty conventional hydroelectric facilities, in order of average electric production   All properties are 100% owned by Duke, and all but Markland are located in North Carolina and South Carolina (Markland is located in southern Indiana) 
Blewett Falls Hydroelectric Plant
Cowans Ford Hydro Station, 350 MW average capacity
Keowee Hydro Station, 158 MW
Walters Hydroelectric Plant, 112 MW
Tillery Hydroelectric Plant, 87 MW
Rocky Creek & Cedar Creek Hydro Stations, combined 73 MW
Great Falls & Dearborn Hydro Stations, combined 70 MW
Markland Hydro Station, 65 MW
Mountain Island Hydro Station, 60 MW
Lake Wylie Hydro Station, 60 MW
Wateree Hydro Station, 56 MW
Fishing Creek Hydro Station, 37 MW
Oxford Hydro Station, 36 MW
Bridgewater Hydro Station at Lake James, 31 5 MW
Rhodhiss Hydro Station, 26 MW
Lookout Shoals Hydro Station, 26 MW
Blewett Hydroelectric Plant, 22 MW
Ninety-Nine Islands Plant, 18 MW
Gaston Shoals Plant, 9 MW
Tuxedo Plant, 5 MW
Marshall Plant, 4 MW
and ten clustered locations at Nantahala, in mountainous southwestern North Carolina, producing a cumulative 99 MW

Pumped-storage hydro
Bad Creek Hydroelectric Station
Jocassee Pumped-Storage Generating Station

Oil and gas-fired
Anclote Station
Asheville Combustion Turbines
Bartow Combined Cycle Station
Buck Steam Station
Buzzard Roost Station
Cayuga Combustion Turbine Station
Cliffside Steam Station
Connersville Peaking Station
Dan River Steam Station
Darlington County Electric Plant
Henry County Peaking Station
Hines Energy Complex
H F  Lee Energy Complex
Lee Steam Station
W S  Lee Steam Station
Lincoln Combustion Turbine Station
Madison Peaking Station
Miami-Wabash Peaking Station
Mill Creek Combustion Turbine Station
Noblesville Station
Rockingham Station
Smith Energy Complex
Sutton Combined Cycle Plant
Wabash River Repowering Station
Wheatland Peaking Station
Woodsdale Station

Solar farms
Citing the falling cost of building solar farms, Duke Energy announced plans in 2017 to launch three new such projects in Kentucky  Two will be in Kenton County and one will be in Grant County  Together the three plants will create more than 6 7 MW of power  These join several other solar farms including:

Davidson County Solar Farm
Martins Creek Solar Farm 1 MW (Murphy, NC)
Culberson Solar Farm 1 MW (Murphy, NC)
Osceola Solar Facility 4 MW (St Petersburg, Fla)Additionally, Duke Energy added 451 MW of solar capacity to North Carolina’s grid in 2017 
Hamilton Solar Power Plant 74 9 MW (Jasper, FL)
Columbia Solar Power Plant 74 9 MW (Fort White, FL) (opening in 2020)
Live Oak Solar Power Plant ? MW (Live Oak, FL)In 2020 Duke Energy began commercial operations of several farms in Texas, operating alongside its Farm from 2010 
Blue Wing Solar Project (San Antonio, TX)
Lapetus Solar Project 100 MW (Andrews County, TX)
Holstein Solar Project 200 MW (Nolan County, TX)
Rambler Solar Project 200 MW (Tom Green County, TX)

Wind farms
Los Vientos Wind Farm
Shirley Wind

Electric vehicles
Duke Energy announced in October 2018 that it would install 530 electric car charging stations around Florida  Ten percent of the stations will go into low income communities 

Awards
Duke Energy has been chosen as one of The 50 Best Employers In America by Business InsiderIn 2002, Duke Energy was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Economics for "adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world" 

Criticism
In December 2000, Cinergy Corp agreed to pay $1 4B to settle allegations that its coal plants illegally polluted the air  Duke Energy completed its acquisition of Cinergy Corp in 2006 In July 2004, Duke Energy agreed to pay $208M to settle allegations that it had engaged in price gouging in California during the energy crisis of 2000 and 2001 In December 2009, Duke Energy agreed to spend approximately $93M to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act  Duke became obligated to make investments that were expected to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 86% On February 14, 2011, Greenpeace launched a campaign in which Phil Radford called on Duke Energy to abandon mountaintop removal coal, produce a third of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, and abandon coal altogether by 2030 "In May 2011, Duke agreed to pay $30M to resolve allegations that changes made to the company pension plan disproportionately harmed employees over 40, costing many of them up to half of their accrued benefits In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign criticized Duke Energy for spending $17 47 million on lobbying  It also criticized Duke for not paying any taxes from 2008 to 2010 and receiving $216 million in tax rebates, in spite of turning a $5 4 billion profit and extensively raising executive compensations In 2012, Greenpeace protested Duke's lobbying of the Democratic Party, including its funding of the 2012 Democratic National Convention In July 2012, Duke Energy was criticized for paying former Progress Energy CEO Bill Johnson $44 7 million in compensation, including a $10 million severance, for something close to 20 minutes on the job as Duke's CEO In 2012, Duke Energy sued Citrus County, Florida claiming its tax bill was too high  The county hired an outside appraiser who found that there were a lot of unreported and underreported items and the tax claim was actually too low In May 2013, university students launched a campaign for Brown University to divest fossil fuels, specifically referring to Duke Energy and other coal plant operators On February 2 2014, the massive Dan River coal-ash spill led to a grand jury investigation into Duke Energy  The initial investigation was overseen by Governor Pat McCrory, who was accused of intervening on Duke's behalf as he had been a Duke Energy employee for 28 years  Prosecutors went looking for any cash or items of value that might have been given to Governor McCrory and members of his administration in exchange for cheap settlements  Duke Energy was prosecuted, pled guilty to nine charges of criminal negligence, and agreed to pay $102 million in fines and restitutions  Duke Energy was also ordered to close all of its 32 ash ponds in the state of North Carolina by 2029 In September 2016, the Government Pension Fund of Norway, then worth $900 billion, excluded Duke Energy and its subsidiaries from the fund, citing "risk of severe environmental damage" In August 2020, environmental watchdog EWG released a report accusing Duke Energy of charging Indiana ratepayers for $12 billion worth of failed projects  This was the direct consequence of a controversial bill passed in Indiana earlier that year  Projects included two natural gas pipelines and two retired nuclear power plants 
In 2021, investigative reporting by the Orlando Sun Sentinel revealed that Duke Energy, FPL (Nextera Energy), and TECO Energy put forth more than $3 million to promote "ghost" spoiler candidates in key Florida legislature races  The scheme involved former senator Frank Artiles and was effective in costing the Democrats at least one election In January 2021, Duke Energy agreed to a settlement, which the company proposed, to absorb $1 1 billion worth of coal-ash pond closure and cleanup costs, in North Carolina, between 2015 and 2030  The parties involved also waived all rights to challenge the “reasonableness and prudence” of Duke Energy’s coal ash management practices and costs before March 2020  Duke estimates the costs to be between $8 and $9 billion, the settlement reduces the cost on the ratepayer by 60% In August 2021, Indiana city officials from Bloomington, Carmel, and West Lafayette, and other lawmakers sent a letter to Duke Energy deploring its progress towards renewables and asking it to stop overcharging low-income homes for electricity 

December 2022 rolling blackouts
In December 2022, a major winter storm impacted much of the United States  On December 24, 2022, Christmas Eve, Duke Energy implemented rolling blackouts for the first time in their history, due to unprecedented energy demand  The rolling blackouts came without warning and lasted hours  In addition to facility failures, Duke reported failures related to the software that regulated the controlled blackouts  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission initiated an investigation in response to the blackouts 

See also
2005 Atlantic Power Outage
Harlan County USA—1976 Academy Award-winning documentary film covering the efforts of 180 coal miners on strike against the Duke Power Company in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1973 
Fixed bill
Holiday Junction
Passage 3:
Duke Energy Florida
Duke Energy Florida, formerly Florida Power, was the generation, transmission, and distribution sector of Florida Progress Corporation   The company distributed power over much of central and north Florida  Their service area covers approximately 13,000 square miles  Along with that, the company supplies electric service to approximately 1 8 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in the state  Florida Progress merged with Carolina Power & Light in 2000 to form Progress Energy  Progress Energy merged with Duke Energy in 2012  Today the Florida operations operate as Duke Energy Florida 

History
In 1899, Frank A  Davis founded the St  Petersburg Electric Light and Power Company in the newly founded town of St  Petersburg, Florida 
In 1911 it started offering 24 hour service to their customers 
After a series of expansions, in 1927 St  Petersburg Electric Light and Power Company became Florida Power Corporation 
Reddy Kilowatt became the company's mascot in In 1939 
The Honner family received free television from Florida Power Corporation in 1952 in celebration of the company installing its 200,000th meter 
In 1963, the company installed a specially designed underwater cable in the Gulf of Mexico  It was believed to be the longest one-piece installation in Florida back then  Land was also purchased to build their first nuclear power plant in Citrus County 
Andrew H  Hines became the company's president in 1972 
In 1977, the nuclear power plant was finally built in Citrus County 
In 1982, in hopes of diversifying beyond utility operations, Florida Power reorganized as a holding company, Florida Progress Corporation 
Louie the Lighting Bug became the mascot for their television ads in 1983 
The company reached 1 million customers in 1986 
In 2000, Florida Progress merged with Raleigh, North Carolina-based Carolina Power & Light to form Progress Energy Inc 
Progress Energy merged with Duke Energy in 2012 

Future Projects
On March 25, 2019, Duke Energy Florida announced the new locations of where they will be putting their newest universal solar power plants  The three locations are Lake Placid in Highlands County, Trenton in Gilchrist County, and DeBary in Volusia County   Duke Energy Florida is predicting that these three solar plants will eliminate nearly 800 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions in Florida each year upon commercial operation 

External links
https://www duke-energy com/our-company/about-us/our-history


== Regerences ==
Passage 4:
Sean Healey
Sean Michael Healey (1961 – May 26, 2020) was an American businessman who was chairman and chief executive officer of Affiliated Managers Group, Inc  (NYSE: AMG), a global asset management firm whose affiliates in aggregate managed approximately $736 billion as of December 31, 2018 

Early life and education
Healey was born in San Rafael, California   Healey attended high school in Oceanside, California, followed by Harvard College, where he was a member of the varsity wrestling squad  In 1983, he received an A B  in history and literature, magna cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa 
After graduating from Harvard, Healey was awarded a Rotary Scholarship to study philosophy at University College in Dublin, Ireland, and was awarded a master's degree in philosophy with first-class honors in 1984   In 1987, he earned a J D  from Harvard Law School, and he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review 

Early career
Upon graduation from law school, Healey joined Goldman Sachs as an associate in the Mergers and Acquisitions Department, then transferred to a group that provided investment-banking services to financial institutions, where he worked under J  Christopher Flowers 

Affiliated Managers Group
In April 1995, Healey was recruited to join Affiliated Managers Group (AMG), then a three-person start-up firm seeking to invest in boutique money managers  AMG was founded in 1993 with private equity backing from TA Associates and made its first investment in 1994  When Healey joined AMG as Executive Vice President, the firm had a single investment in a manager with under $1 billion of assets under management With Healey on board, AMG received its second round of capital and subsequently invested in several U S -based investment firms  By October 1996, AMG had approximately $18 billion under management  In October 1997, AMG closed its investment for a 70% stake in Tweedy, Browne Company LLC, a well-known value-oriented investment management firm In November 1997, Healey led AMG’s initial public offering in which the company raised $176 million, priced at $23 50 per share  With proceeds from the offering, AMG continued to expand, and named Healey president and chief operating officer in October 1999  In 2001, AMG was named in Fortune magazine’s list of 100 Fastest-Growing Companies and had approximately $81 billion in assets under management  Healey became president and chief executive officer in 2005, and chairman and chief executive officer in 2011 AMG’s business model of leaving a portion of equity with each firm’s management as motivation for continuing to produce good performance and growth has been highly successful under Healey's leadership   AMG also uses employment contracts to ensure that asset management firms retain talented managers, and establishes long-term succession plans with managers   Healey has also been noted for being extraordinarily selective of his affiliate partners, stating in a recent interview that the company ultimately backs away from many more potential investments than it pursues Healey also helped AMG to expand globally   AMG opened the firm’s first distribution office in Australia in 2007, and thereafter expanded into Europe, Asia and the Middle East, to help its affiliates develop relationships in overseas markets  AMG furthered its expansion with the formation of AMG Wealth Partners in 2011 After AMG posted three-year average earnings growth of 40%, Fortune magazine again named AMG to its list of 100 Fastest-Growing Companies in 2012 In May 2018, Healey was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a motor neuron disease otherwise known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease) and AMG announced that Healey was stepping back to become Executive Chairman while Nate Dalton, AMG's long-time President and Chief Operating Officer, was named CEO 

The Healey Center for ALS
In November 2018, Healey, with support from AMG and a group of friends and colleagues, established the Sean M  Healey and AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital with an initial donation of $40 million  The Healey Center is led by Dr  Merit Cudkowicz, a world-renowned ALS researcher and Chair of the Neurology Department at MGH  The Healey Center is the largest hospital-based ALS research program in the world and supports a broad range of early stage trials of promising ALS treatments 

Personal life
Healey held a number of nonprofit board positions, including serving as co-chairman of the board of trustees of the Peabody Essex Museum; as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; the Visiting Committee of the Harvard Law School; and the board of trustees of the International Game Fish Association In 2006, Healey was appointed by President George W  Bush to serve on the President’s Export Council, the U S ’s principal advisory committee on international trade Healey was an avid big-game hunter and sport fisherman, having boated a 93 5 pound white marlin, which was the winning fish in the 2010 White Marlin Open, the world’s largest billfish tournament He was previously married to Kerry M  Healey, the former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts  They had two children  Healey remarried in 2018 to Amy Broch  The couple had one daughter  
Healey died from amytrophic lateral sclerosis on May 26, 2020, at the age of 59 
Passage 5:
Darrell Crate
Darrell W  Crate (born 1967) is an American investor, private equity manager, and philanthropist  He is currently the managing principal of Easterly, a private investment firm he founded in 2009 in Beverly, Massachusetts A native of New York City, Crate attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine before attending Columbia Business School in New York City  He began his career with Chase Manhattan Bank and Chase Manhattan Securities  His last assignment as the managing director of Financial Institutions Group based in London  Soon after he was asked to join Affiliated Managers Group where he helped to scale the business from 1998 to 2011, as Chief Financial Officer 
After departing AMG, Crate founded Easterly, where he has focused on a number of ventures, including founding a publicly-traded REIT, sponsoring a SPAC and building an asset management platform which owns stakes in third-party investment management businesses and assists them with their strategic growth 

Early life and education
Crate was born in New York City in 1967  Crate received his Bachelor of Arts in economics from Bates College in 1989 and his M B A  from Columbia Business School in 1995 

Investment career
Chase bank
Crate began his career with Chase Manhattan and Chase Manhattan Securities in New York  His last assignment as the managing director of the Financial Institutions Group based in London, focusing exclusively on investment management firms in England, Spain, France, Italy, Germany and the Benelux region 

Affiliated Managers Group
As chief financial officer
From 1998 to 2011, he served as the chief financial officer of Affiliated Managers Group a publicly traded asset management holding company  During his tenure at AMG, assets under management grew from $50 billion to over $340 billion through mutual fund, pension, and high-net-worth accounts globally, with over half of its clients domiciled outside the United States  During his tenure as CFO, the firm acquired interests in over 30 firms including Third Avenue Management, ValueAct Capital, AQR Capital Management, BlueMountain Capital Management and Tweedy, Browne Company  Over this same period, the company’s valuation increased materially, from $450 million to $6 billion

Easterly
As founder
In 2009, Crate founded Easterly Capital, LLC, a firm based in Beverly, Massachusetts, that builds operating businesses to gain exposure to the growth in both asset management and non-bank finance sectors   He joined the firm full-time in 2011 

As chairman
In February 2015, Crate became the chairman of Easterly Government Properties, Inc , a publicly traded REIT on the New York Stock Exchange that is focused primarily on the acquisition, development and management of Class A commercial properties that are leased to U S  Government agencies that serve essential functions  According to Business Wire, Crate became the chairman of Easterly Acquisition Corp , a publicly traded blank check company in July 2015 In March 2019, Easterly purchased the institutional investment business of Levin Capital Strategies, establishing Levin Easterly Partners, a long-only asset manager  Levin Easterly had approximately $6 1 billion in assets under management upon closure of the transaction   Levin Easterly is a fundamental, contrarian value investment management firm focusing on US Large and All Cap Value strategies based in New York and New Canaan, CT  One area of focus for the firm has been special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs)  They are one of the most experienced investors in these vehicles, with a track record of investing in SPACs that spans over a decade In May 2020, Easterly acquired an equity interest in James Alpha Advisors, LLC, a boutique asset management firm specializing in Global REITs, Structured Credit and Hedged Equity  In addition, the firm provides a platform of liquid alternative portfolios for institutional and individual investors  James Alpha Advisors had over $1 1 billion in assets under management at the time of the transaction Easterly Alternatives is the alternatives-focused arm of Easterly and has raised more than $500 million in private and platform vehicles in sectors including real estate, healthcare and transportation  Easterly Alternatives recently has launched a SPAC Fund, in which it will invest in the best new-issue SPAC IPOs that come to market 

Personal life
Crate currently lives in Florida, Maine and Hamilton, Massachusetts He is involved with a number of non-profit, political, and charitable organizations  He has been a trustee of Bates College since 2003 and served on the college's advancement and investment committees  On February 8, 2016, the college announced that Crate was among seven families to donate $19 million to endow professorships and launch the college’s new digital and computational studies program  Crate also serves as a trustee of Think of Us, a not-for-profit technology platform with the ultimate goal of helping foster youth successfully transition into a prosperous adulthood 
Crate currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA)  A licensed private pilot since 1993, Crate has more than 6,000 flight hours and has flown his single-engine TBM plane to all of the 48 continental states  He also serves on the advisory counsel to the National Park Foundation  He has a particular focus and interest in the National Parks located in Maine, North Carolina and Montana Crate is a member of the Advisory Council of the Robert F  Kennedy Children's Action Corps (2006), a national leader in child welfare and juvenile justice programs and services  In 2019, the RFK Children’s Action Corps honored Crate with its prestigious "Robert F  Kennedy Embracing the Legacy Award” for his work on behalf of at-risk youth  Crate also served as a Trustee of Think of Us, a not-for-profit technology platform with the ultimate goal of helping foster youth successfully transition into a prosperous adulthood Other interests include serving as a trustee of Islesboro Island Trust (2002), Adams Memorial Foundation (2011),  Ethel Walker School (2015) IRYS School of Technology and Trades (2020)and an advisor to The Trustees of Reservations (2002) 

Political involvement
According to Boston com, Crate served as treasurer and a member of the executive committee of the Romney for President campaign in 2012, a role that he also held during the 2008 cycle  From 2003 to 2007, Crate served as the chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, and a senior advisor to Governor Mitt Rommney 

See also
List of Bates College people
List of Columbia University people
Massachusetts Republican Party
Passage 6:
Affiliated Managers Group
Affiliated Managers Group, Inc  (NYSE: AMG) is a strategic partner to independent investment management firms globally, with equity stakes in a number of partner-owned traditional investment managers, hedge funds, and specialized private equity firms which it calls “Affiliates ” The company has principal offices in West Palm Beach, Florida; Prides Crossing, Massachusetts; Stamford, Connecticut; and London, United Kingdom  The company was founded in December 1993 by William J  Nutt in Boston, Massachusetts, as a privately owned company with initial backing from TA Associates; Its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange occurred in November 1997   Today, AMG’s Affiliates manage $651 billion in assets in aggregate  
AMG’s strategy is to generate value by investing in an array of independent firms and supporting their long-term growth, through an approach in which significant equity ownership is retained by the management partners of each Affiliate, and each Affiliate operates and invests autonomously from AMG and from other Affiliates   The Affiliate principals’ ‘skin in the game’ incents them to maximize long-term value creation, and their retained investment independence preserves the entrepreneurial cultures of each Affiliate firm   AMG’s approach aligns incentives between AMG shareholders, Affiliate principals, and Affiliate clients, and is unique in the investment industry   AMG also offers its Affiliates growth capital, distribution and marketing capabilities, and other strategic support, and its intention is to “magnify” its Affiliates’ growth opportunities without interfering in their operations 

History
In 1993, AMG was founded by William Nutt In 1997, AMG invested in Tweedy, Browne and completed its initial public offering, listing on the New York Stock Exchange  
In 2004, AMG established a U S  retail platform which would enable its Affiliates to manufacture, market, and distribute products to the U S  wealth marketplace   AMG also made a minority investment in AQR, a quantitative investment manager and hedge fund firm, its first investment in an alternative investment firm, and its first minority investment In 2005, Sean M  Healey was named chief executive officer In 2007, AMG opened its first non-U S  institutional distribution office in Sydney, Australia, to provide sales and marketing services to institutional clients in Australia and New Zealand   Today, AMG operates distribution capabilities serving the Asia, Australia, Europe / U K , and Middle East marketplaces In 2009, AMG announced investments in Harding Loevner and Gannett Welsh & Kotler In 2010, AMG acquired a majority stake in Pantheon Ventures   The private equity company was AMG’s largest investment to date   AMG also invested in Artemis Investment Management  In 2016, AMG made an investment in leading technology-driven liquid alternative firm Systematica Investments In 2018, after being diagnosed with ALS, Sean Healey stepped down from his position as chief executive officer  He died in May 2020   Nathaniel Dalton, previously president and chief operating officer, succeeded him In 2019, Jay Horgen succeeded Dalton as president and chief executive officer   Horgen joined AMG in 2007 and previously served as chief financial officer, as well as executive vice president, focusing on investments in new AMG Affiliates In 2021, AMG invested in four companies, including Parnassus Investments, the largest ESG-dedicated fund manager in the U S In 2022, AMG increased its investment in Systematica Investments, a quantitative and systematic investment firm Other Information
AMG is known for its research  ,, on independent firms’ advantages in consistently generating excess returns The company is also known for its commitment to corporate citizenship and community engagement   AMG was a founding donor to the Sean M  Healey and AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, and continues to support the Center with fundraising and charitable events 
Passage 7:
Progress Energy Inc
Progress Energy, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a subsidiary of Duke Energy and prior to its merger with Duke Energy was a Fortune 500 energy company with more than 21,000 megawatts of generation capacity and $9 billion in annual revenues  Progress Energy includes two major electric utilities that serve approximately 3 1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida  As an independent company, the last chairman and CEO of Progress Energy was William D  Johnson; his predecessor was Robert McGehee, who died on October 9, 2007 at the age of 64 of a stroke while on a business trip to London 
Progress Energy is the majority owner and operator of the Brunswick, Crystal River 3, Robinson, and Shearon Harris nuclear power plants 
On October 16, 1999, third quarter earnings of Florida Progress Corp  fell 20 5 percent as damage from Hurricane Floyd On August 24, 1999, Carolina Power & Light Co  said that it would acquire Florida Progress Corp  for $5 3 billion, creating the nation's ninth-largest electric utility The company's current slogan is, "People, performance, excellence "

History
In 2000, Carolina Power & Light bought Florida Power Corporation and changed its name to Progress Energy  Progress Energy represents a family of companies, including CP&L, Florida Power, Progress Telecom, NCNG and SRS, and an important new organization, Energy Ventures  The company built a new headquarters in downtown Raleigh in 2004 On January 10, 2011, Duke Energy announced plans to take over Progress Energy in a $26 billion deal resulting in the country's largest electric utility with 7 1 million customers  Duke Energy plans to "maintain substantial operations in Raleigh " When the merger was completed on July 3, 2012, Duke Chairman James E  (Jim) Rogers became Chairman and CEO of the new combined company, while Progress CEO Bill Johnson resigned 

Environmental record
In 2008, the Corporate Responsibility Officer named Progress Energy to its list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens  Progress Energy was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005 The company is investing $300,000 in a UNC Chapel Hill study to map the offshore wind power potential of North Carolina  Progress Energy launched its SunSense-branded solar incentive programs in 2009 Progress Energy has installed flue-gas desulfurization technology, or scrubbers, to remove sulfur dioxide emissions from its nine largest coal-fired power plant units Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have identified Progress Energy as the 29th-largest corporate producer of Air pollution in the United States in 2002, when it released roughly 39 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air  Major pollutants included nickel compounds, chromium compounds, sulfuric acid, and hydrochloric acid  Progress has also been named a potentially responsible party at the Carolina Transformer Co  Superfund toxic waste site, according to the Center for Public Integrity 

Naming rights
Progress Energy owns the naming rights to the University of Central Florida's Progress Energy Welcome Center, St  Petersburg's Progress Energy Park, home of Al Lang Field, Progress Energy Center for the Arts-Mahaffey Theater, and the "Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts" in downtown Raleigh, NC 

See also
List of power stations in Florida
Passage 8:
Gulfstream Natural Gas Pipeline
Gulfstream Natural Gas Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline that brings gas from Mississippi and Alabama, underwater across the Gulf of Mexico, to Florida   It was owned by Duke Energy, but is now owned by Enbridge   Its FERC code is 183 

See also
Florida Gas Transmission Pipeline
Passage 9:
Crystal River Energy Complex
The Crystal River Energy Complex consists of seven power-generating plants on a 4,700-acre (1,900 ha) site near the mouth of the Crystal River in Citrus County, Florida   Crystal River 1, 2, 4, and 5 are fossil fuel power plants  Crystal River 3 was previously the sole nuclear power plant on the site (1977-2013)  The Crystal River Combined Cycle site consists of two Mitsubishi gas turbines, which came on-line in 2018   The complex was developed in the early 1960s by the Florida Power Corporation and sold to Progress Energy Inc in 2000  Following Progress Energy's merger with Duke Energy in 2012, the facility is owned and operated by Duke Energy In February 2013, Duke Energy announced that Crystal River 3 would be permanently shut down 

Power plants
See also
Levy County Nuclear Power Plant
Progress Energy Inc
List of power stations in Florida
Passage 10:
Crescent Communities
Crescent Communities is a real estate investor, developer, and operator of mixed-use communities with headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina  It has approximately 115 employees  The company has offices in Charlotte, Washington, D C , Atlanta, Orlando, Nashville, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City 

History
In 1939, Duke Power (now Duke Energy) established a forestry department to manage company land not used for power generation  In 1963, this department became the company South Carolina Land and Timber  As the holdings expanded to include land in North Carolina, the organization was renamed Crescent Land and Timber in 1969  Some of the original land was sold to Crescent Land and Timber by the Singer Corporation In the mid-1980s, the company was renamed Crescent Resources as it began to actively develop residential communities  Crescent Resources began work on its first commercial development, Coliseum Centre, in 1990  As of 1991, Crescent Resources managed 270,000 acres of land  Holdings included part of what became Lake James State Park, which it later sold to the state of North Carolina  Crescent Resources became a separate entity from Duke Energy in 2006,  with Duke Energy selling its 49% stake to Morgan Stanley Crescent Resources filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and has emerged from it separated from the utility company  The company aimed to rebrand itself, renaming itself "Crescent Communities" in 2013 

External links
Crescent Communities
Context 3: Passage 1:
Chad Plummer
Chad J  Plummer (born November 30, 1975) is a former American and Canadian football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL)  He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the sixth round of the 1999 NFL Draft  He also played for the Indianapolis Colts, Toronto Argonauts, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats  He played college football at Cincinnati as a quarterback and wide receiver  He was the MVP of the 1997 Humanitarian Bowl 
Passage 2:
Mike Eben
Michael Eben (born January 29, 1946) is a former wide receiver who played ten seasons in the Canadian Football League, mainly for the Toronto Argonauts  Eben also played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Ottawa Rough Riders and Edmonton Eskimos  Eben was initially drafted by the BC Lions in 1968 as the first overall draft pick in the CFL draft  Eben played college football at the University of Toronto and won the Hec Crighton Trophy in 1967 as the most outstanding Canadian university player  While playing professional football he earned his doctorate in German literature from the University of Toronto 
He taught at Upper Canada College for 22 years  Eben taught French at Sterling Hall School, an independent school in Toronto, Canada following his retirement from UCC  He now consults at various schools in the Toronto area  Married with two children, Eben has been doing voice over work and narration for radio and television for more than fifteen years  He has done numerous commercials, sports promotions and recently was a German translator on the 10 part series "The Greatest Tank Battles" featured on The History Channel 

External links
MIKE EBEN (1968-69, 71-77)
Passage 3:
Arland Bruce III
Arland Richard Bruce III (born November 23, 1977) is a former Canadian football wide receiver  He is a two-time Grey Cup champion, having won in 2004 with the Toronto Argonauts and in 2011 with the Lions  He has played 10 seasons in the CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Toronto Argonauts, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and BC Lions  During the 2011 season, he became the 14th CFL receiver to record over 10,000 yards receiving in a career 

High school career
Bruce attended Olathe North High School in Olathe, Kansas, and was a letterman in football  As a senior, he was a BlueChip Illustrated Top-100 pick, the Kansas State Player of the Year, and finished the year with 1,696 rushing yards   Bruce finished his high school career with more than 3,000 rushing yards and 50 touchdowns 

Junior college career
Bruce then attended Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas  As a freshman, he was named a First-team All-American selection and rushed for over 1,000 yards  During his sophomore season, he ran for 997 yards and 10 touchdowns and was named a Second-team All-American selection 

NCAA Division I-A career
Bruce played college football for the University of Minnesota   As a senior, he helped lead his team to an 8–3 record and a Sun Bowl berth 

Professional career
Kansas City Chiefs
On April 19, 2000, Bruce was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs only to be cut by the team later on 

Winnipeg Blue Bombers
On May 1, 2001, Bruce joined the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers where he got his first opportunity as a professional to receive significant playing time, playing in all 18 regular season games   In his rookie season, Bruce had 818 receiving yards with 7 touchdowns   His team went on to play in the Grey Cup championship, only to lose to the Calgary Stampeders 
In 2002, Bruce surpassed the 1000 yard receiving mark by amassing 1062 receiving yards with 12 touchdowns in 17 games 

San Francisco 49ers
In 2003, Bruce returned to the U S  to try his luck once more with the NFL   On March 3 of that year, he signed with the San Francisco 49ers where he spent much of his playing time on special teams 

Toronto Argonauts
In 2004, after being released by the 49ers following their training camp, Bruce returned to the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts, signing with them on September 3, more than halfway through the CFL season and just shortly before their Labour Day Classic game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in which he played   For the remaining seven games in the regular season, Bruce had 247 receiving yards with just one touchdown   In addition to playing receiver, Bruce also served as one of two kick returners on the team alongside incumbent Bashir Levingston   In that role, Bruce returned two kick returns for touchdowns that season   In the East Division final, Bruce led all receivers with 12 receptions for 101 yards, and returned a kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter, helping the Argonauts advance to the Grey Cup championship that year   In the big game, the kick returning threat of both Bruce & Levingston induced the opposing BC Lions to punt the ball out of bounds for much of the game to neutralize the threat   In addition, Bruce was once again a go to receiver amassing 79 yards on 5 receptions   Bruce and the Argos went on to win the Grey Cup 

In 2005, Bruce established himself as the Argonauts top receiver with 1205 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns   In that same year, Bruce was named an East division all-star marking the first time in his CFL career he had ever been named to an all-star team 
In 2008, after acquiring a touchdown against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Bruce was fined an undisclosed amount by the CFL for donning a Spider-Man mask during his touchdown celebration In 2009, he received two objectionable conduct penalties and an undisclosed fine from the CFL for a touchdown celebration against the Tiger-Cats on July 1, in which he removed his helmet, jersey, and shoulder pads, and laid down in the end zone in what he said was a tribute to the recently deceased pop star, Michael Jackson  The Argonauts publicly supported the fine and disciplined Bruce additionally and he apologized to teammates at a team meeting the following day  Head coach Bart Andrus took some responsibility on himself, however, noting that, "I made the mistake of telling him in camp that once he got to the end zone I didn't care what he did but he's straight with it now and I think next time around he will celebrate in an appropriate manner "

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
On July 29, 2009, Bruce was traded to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in exchange for the rights to Corey Mace, a third round pick in the 2010 CFL Draft, and a conditional third round pick in the 2011 CFL Draft a week after a dispute with coach Andrus became public and Bruce was left home for the Week 4 game in Winnipeg In July 2011, Bruce declared his intention to change his name to "Runako Reth" 

BC Lions
On August 3, 2011, Bruce was traded to the BC Lions in exchange for a third-round draft pick in the 2012 CFL Draft and an additional conditional draft pick in the 2013 CFL Draft  Bruce had a productive season with the Lions, recording 49 catches for 755 yards and eight touchdowns in 12 games  In the 99th Grey Cup game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, he had 73 yards receiving and a touchdown and won his second championship  During the following off-season, he signed a contract extension with the Lions  On January 18, 2013, Bruce was released by the BC Lions 

Montreal Alouettes
On January 21, 2013, Bruce signed with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League  Arland Bruce had a respectable 2013 season with the Alouettes  He contributed 64 pass receptions, his most since 2010, for 851 yards with 5 touchdowns  In February 2014, Bruce was fined an undisclosed amount by the CFL following his Instagram post in which he told openly gay NFL prospect Michael Sam to, "get on his knees and submit to God fully"  Bruce was released by the Alouettes in late February  Bruce's high salary along with the belief that new head coach Tom Higgins would start two Canadian wide receivers were cited as the reasons for his dismissal 

Statistics
Personal life
His parents are Yolanda Bruce and Arland Richard Bruce Jr  Bruce was married to Linda Bruce, their children include three sons named Arland Bruce IV, Aiden Bruce, and Akobi Bruce  He has two sisters Denise (Kansas) and Kama (California) and one brother Bryson (North Carolina)  Bruce is the cousin of former NFL wide receiver Isaac Bruce 
Passage 4:
Oklahoma Sooners football
The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma (variously "Oklahoma" or "OU")  The team is a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is in Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)  The program began in 1895 and is one of the most successful in history, having won 934 games and possessing a  725 winning percentage, both sixth all time  As of the end of the 2022 season, Oklahoma has appeared in the AP poll 882 times, including 101 No  1 rankings, both third all time 
The program claims seven national championships, 50 conference championships, 167 first-team All-Americans (82 consensus), and seven Heisman Trophy winners  In addition, the school has had 29 former players and coaches inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and holds the record for the longest winning streak in Division I history with 47 straight victories  Oklahoma is also the only program with which four coaches have won more than 100 games each The Sooners play their home games at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma  Brent Venables is the head coach and has served since 2022 
On July 26, 2021, while showing interest in joining the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas sent a joint letter of intent to the Big 12 Conference stating that they do not intend to extend their media rights contracts with the conference, which are set to expire after the 2024 season  In February 2023, the Big 12 announced that the schools had negotiated a combined $100 million early termination fee in order to leave for the SEC in 2024, prior to the expiration of the media rights deals and a year earlier than initially intended 

History
Early history (1895–1904)
The first football game in the university's history was played on December 14, 1895, 12 years before Oklahoma became a state  The team was organized by John A  Harts, a student from Winfield, Kansas who had played the game in his home state  Oklahoma was shut out 34–0 by a more experienced team from the Oklahoma City High School in what was the Sooners' only game that season  Oklahoma failed to record a first down throughout the entire game, which was played on a field of low prairie grass just Northwest of the current site of Holmberg Hall  Several members of the Oklahoma team were injured, including Harts; by the end of the game, the Oklahoma team was borrowing members from the opposing squad so they would have a full lineup  After that year, Harts left Oklahoma to become a gold prospector 

After playing two games without a coach in 1896, a professor named Vernon Louis Parrington became head coach in 1897  Parrington had played football at Harvard and was more exposed to the game, having come from the East Coast  In his four years as head coach, Parrington's teams recorded nine wins, two losses, and one tie  After the 1900 season, football began interfering with Parrington's teaching, and he stepped down as head coach  He would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1928 at the University of Washington The Sooners had three more coaches over the next four seasons, beginning with Fred Roberts, who led the Sooners to a 3–2 record in 1901  Mark McMahon followed, finishing 11–7–3 in his two years as coach in 1902 and 1903  Fred Ewing followed McMahon, achieving a 4–3–1 record in 1904  The 1904 season marked the first game between Oklahoma and in-state rival Oklahoma A&M  The game was played on November 6 at Mineral Wells Park in Guthrie, Oklahoma, with Oklahoma winning 75–0  The game was the first football matchup in the Bedlam Series, the athletic rivalry between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University 

Bennie Owen era (1905–1926)
After a decade of football, the program acquired its first long-term head coach in Bennie Owen, a former quarterback of the undefeated 1899 Kansas Jayhawks team led by coach Fielding H  Yost  Owen had previously coached under Yost at Michigan, and his Bethany College teams had defeated Oklahoma in 1903 and 1904 

Owen's first two years at Oklahoma were spent between Norman and Arkansas City since Oklahoma lacked a large enough budget to employ him all year  As a result of these budgetary limitations, Owen would occasionally schedule up to three road games in a single short trip, exhausting his players in the process  However, even early in his tenure, Owen's teams found success  In 1905, Oklahoma won its first victory over rival Texas, winning the eighth meeting between the two schools by a 2–0 margin  In 1908, the Sooners went 8–1–1, losing only to the undefeated Kansas Jayhawks  Owen's 1908 team relied on hand-offs to large runners, as the forward pass was just becoming common  In contrast, his 1911 team had several small and fast players that the quarterback would pass to directly  That team finished 8–0 Oklahoma had undefeated seasons in 1915 and 1918  In 1920, the Sooners moved to the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association after three seasons in the Southwest Conference, of which it was a founding member  In the new conference, they went 6–0–1, tying only Kansas State  Owen retired after the 1926 season  During his 22-year career at Oklahoma, he went 122–54–16 ( 677), won three conference championships, and achieved four undefeated seasons  In 1951, the inaugural year of the College Football Hall of Fame, he became Oklahoma's first inductee 

Between Owen and Wilkinson (1927–1946)
In 1927, Adrian Lindsey became Oklahoma's first new head coach in over two decades  Like Owen, Lindsey had played football at Kansas and been the head coach at Bethany College prior to his arrival in Norman  However, he was unable to achieve Owen's success, resigning quietly after a five-year tenure  The Sooners achieved a notable win in 1930, defeating Nebraska 20–7 in the Cornhuskers' worst in-conference loss in two decades  Despite this achievement, Lindsey finished an inconsistent stint in Norman with a 19–19–6 record Following Lindsey's resignation, Owen, who had remained Oklahoma's athletic director after his retirement from coaching, hired Vanderbilt backfield coach Lewie Hardage as head coach  Upon his hire, Hardage emphasized speed by fabricating new lighter uniforms and trimming the grass on Owen Field  However, in three seasons he failed to produce a successful team  His final record at Oklahoma was 11–12–4, making him the first coach in program history with a losing record aside from John A  Harts, who only coached a single game 

Although the next head coach, Lawrence "Biff" Jones, went an unspectacular 9–6–3 across two seasons, his impact on the athletic department's administration and finances was significant  Jones was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954 following a career that also included coaching stints at Army, LSU, and Nebraska  After his departure from Norman, assistant coach Tom Stidham became head coach  In 1938, Stidham led the team to a 10–1 record, a fourth-place finish in the final AP poll, and the first bowl game in school history, a 17–0 Orange Bowl loss to undefeated Tennessee  Although Stidham's other teams would not be as successful, he left Oklahoma after four seasons with a  750 winning percentage, the highest of any coach since Vernon Louis Parrington ( 792) Stidham left for Marquette in 1941, and assistant coach Dewey "Snorter" Luster succeeded him  After Luster's first season, a 6–3 campaign, with the United States having entered World War II, many players left the team to join the military  The Sooners regressed to a 3–5–2 record in 1942 but rebounded to finish 7–2 in 1943 and 6–3–1 in 1944  Luster stepped down after the 1945 season due to ill health  He attained a 27–18–3 record in five seasons at Oklahoma, and his teams never finished below second place in the Big Six  However, despite two conference championships, the Sooners were not invited to a bowl game during Luster's tenure After Luster's resignation, several candidates were interviewed for the head coaching job, among them North Carolina native Jim Tatum  Tatum was joined at his interview by his assistant, Bud Wilkinson, with whom athletic director Lawrence Haskell was more impressed  However, it was decided that usurping Tatum and giving the job to Wilkinson would be unethical  Tatum was hired as head coach, with Wilkinson joining the staff as an assistant, over several other coaches, including Bear Bryant  The 1946 season saw the Sooners finish 8–3, including a 73–12 Bedlam Series win and a victory over NC State in the Gator Bowl  Tatum left Oklahoma after one season to accept the head coach position at Maryland 

Bud Wilkinson era (1947–1963)
Following Tatum's departure, Bud Wilkinson was promoted to head coach 
In his first season, the Sooners went 7–2–1 and shared the conference title with Kansas for the second year in a row  Over the next two years, Oklahoma lost only a single game and went undefeated in conference play, winning two straight Sugar Bowls  In 1949, despite going undefeated and winning the Sugar Bowl, the Sooners were not awarded the national championship, which went to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, though they did not play in a bowl game  At the time, however, most major championship selectors, including the AP and Coaches Polls, did not consider bowl game results when deciding their champion In 1950, Wilkinson guided the Sooners to their first national championship, though they lost the Sugar Bowl to Bear Bryant's Kentucky team  That loss was the Sooners' first since a season-opening defeat to Santa Clara in 1948, 31 games earlier  The team's success began to influence the culture of football at the university  "People talk a lot about the tradition of football at Oklahoma  The person who started that tradition was Bud Wilkinson," Oklahoma native and Hall of Fame wide receiver Steve Largent later said  In 1951, while seeking funding to improve the school, university president George Lynn Cross told the Oklahoma legislature that he "would like to build a university of which the football team would be proud "In 1952, Oklahoma had its first Heisman Trophy winner in halfback Billy Vessels, a local player from Cleveland, Oklahoma  Vessels became the first thousand-yard rusher to win the Heisman and scored 18 touchdowns for the Sooners, who finished 8–1–1, their only loss coming on the road to Notre Dame  The 1953 team would open the season with a loss to the Fighting Irish and a tie with Pitt 

47-game winning streak
The Sooners went undefeated for the remainder of the 1953 season, culminating in an Orange Bowl victory over national champions Maryland, coached by Jim Tatum  They went 10–0 in 1954 and 11–0 in 1955, concluding the latter season with another Orange Bowl win over Tatum and Maryland  The Sooners won the national championship in 1955 and repeated the feat in 1956, when they went 10–0, including a 40–0 rout of Notre Dame that marked the 35th win in the streak At the start of the 1957 season, with the streak standing at 40 games, speculation arose that the team was not as good as it had been in previous years, having lost 18 lettermen from 1956  Wilkinson commented that "this year we'll have to work faster and organize better than ever before " The Sooners won their first seven games that year, but fell to Notre Dame on November 16, suffering their first defeat in more than three years The record of 47 consecutive wins has never been seriously threatened; since it ended, no FBS school has achieved a streak longer than 35 wins  During the streak, the Sooners outscored their opponents 1620–269 and recorded 23 shutouts  In addition to their back-to-back national championships during the streak, the Sooners won 14 straight conference titles from 1946 to 1959, one under Jim Tatum and 13 under Wilkinson  Oklahoma went undefeated in conference play from November 23, 1946, to October 31, 1959; their record was only blemished by two ties 

Dominance and decline
Wilkinson's best teams came during the first 11 years of his tenure  In that time, he recorded winning streaks of 31 and 47 games and went 114–10–3 for a  909 winning percentage  After a pair of one-loss seasons in 1957 and 1958, the Sooners fell to 7–3 in 1959, then 3–6–1 in 1960  Oklahoma would finish that season unranked, the first time that they had done so under Wilkinson  They finished unranked in 1961 as well, and although they rebounded to secure a conference championship in 1962, the Sooners were unable to replicate the success of the previous decade  Wilkinson retired from coaching after the 1963 season, finishing with a record of 145–29–4, 14 conference titles, and 123 straight games without being shut out  He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1969 

Prentice Gautt
During Wilkinson's tenure, Prentice Gautt became the first black football player at the University of Oklahoma  Gautt had been a superior student in high school, where during his junior and senior years he had helped his team amass a 31-game winning streak  He was also the first black player to participate in the Oklahoma state all-star game  Some members of Gautt's team did not want to play with him; one player even left Oklahoma because he refused to play with an African American  However, most of the team had his support  After a freshman game in Tulsa, when Gautt was refused service at a restaurant, his teammates left and found a restaurant that would serve him  Gautt was twice named to the All-Conference team and scored a touchdown in the 1959 Orange Bowl 

Jones, Mackenzie, and Fairbanks (1964–1972)
Following Wilkinson's retirement, his assistant coach, Gomer Jones, was promoted to head coach, a move supported by Wilkinson  His first year was a sharp contrast from Wilkinson's early years; the Sooners went 6–4–1  Less than a month before the team's Gator Bowl loss to Florida State, it was discovered that four starters had signed professional football contracts before their college eligibility had expired, and they were dismissed from the team Following a 3–7 season in his second year as head coach, Oklahoma's worst record since its inaugural season in 1895, Jones was replaced by Arkansas assistant Jim Mackenzie  Seeking discipline from his players, Mackenzie set a curfew and required them to enroll in a physical education class  His first team went 6–4, including a win in the Red River Showdown over a rival Texas team coached by former Oklahoma defensive back Darrell Royal, their first win over Texas since 1957  They also beat rival Nebraska, then ranked fourth in the nation, by a score of 10–9  On April 28, 1967, at the age of 37, Mackenzie died of a heart attack Assistant coach Chuck Fairbanks succeeded Mackenzie, and in 1967, the Sooners went 10–1, including a 26–24 win over second-ranked Tennessee in the Orange Bowl  The Sooners finished the season ranked third in the country  The Sooners lost four games in each of the next three seasons, with highlights including Steve Owens becoming the Sooners' second Heisman Trophy winner in 1969 

The wishbone offense
In the 1970s, several college football teams began implementing the wishbone offense, a run-based scheme designed to expand the possibilities of the option offense by placing three rushers in the backfield behind the quarterback  In a traditional option play, the quarterback determines which rusher carries the ball by reading the alignment of the defense  The wishbone relies on the triple option, in which the quarterback has three potential candidates to carry the ball (himself and two backfield rushers)  One innovation of the wishbone was to place a third rusher in the backfield to serve as a lead blocker  Head coach Fairbanks and offensive coordinator Barry Switzer were among the early adopters of the wishbone and used it to widespread success in Norman  Their 1970 team tied an Alabama squad that also used the wishbone in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl  During the next season, the Sooners beat No  17 USC, No  3 Texas and No  6 Colorado in consecutive weeks  After these wins, Oklahoma was ranked second in the country ahead of a "Game of the Century" matchup against top-ranked Nebraska  On November 25, Nebraska edged Oklahoma, 35–31, Oklahoma's only loss of the season  Nebraska went on to win the national championship with a 13–0 record, while Oklahoma went on to beat No  5 Auburn in the Sugar Bowl to finish the season ranked second  Led by quarterback Jack Mildren and running back Greg Pruitt, Oklahoma's wishbone offense averaged 44 5 points per game, at the time the second most in team history  The offense gained 472 36 rushing yards per game, an FBS record that still stands  Pruitt averaged nine yards per carry, and Mildren's performance led to his adopting the moniker "the Godfather of the Wishbone "In 1972, the Sooners went 11–1, finishing the year at No  2 after a Sugar Bowl victory over Penn State  Following the season, Fairbanks left Oklahoma to become the head coach of the New England Patriots 

Barry Switzer era (1973–1988)
Switzer ascended to head coach following the departure of Fairbanks  His tenure began with a scandal when the university self-reported violations involving the alteration of a player's high school transcript  Although the Sooners forfeited eight games from the 1972 season, the university now recognizes the wins and the Big Eight Conference championship won that year 
The Big Eight punished the team with a two-year bowl ban beginning in 1973 and a two-year ban on television appearances beginning in 1974  During the next three years, while the bans were in place, Oklahoma went 32–1–1 and won three straight conference championships  They claimed back-to-back national championships in 1974 and 1975, the two years in which they could not appear on television during the regular season  As it was a postseason game, NBC did air Oklahoma's 1976 Orange Bowl win over Michigan, which secured the team's fifth national championship Oklahoma performed exceptionally well during their probation  In 1973, the Sooners had seven ranked teams on their 11-game schedule and beat six of them, tying No  1 USC and finishing the year undefeated  In 1974, the run-heavy wishbone offense averaged 43 points per game and set an FBS record that still stands with 73 91 rushing attempts per game  In both 1974 and 1975, the team had six players rush for over 300 yards, with Joe Washington earning All-America honors in both seasons as the team's rushing leader  Additionally, due to the frequency of quarterback rushes in the wishbone, signal caller Steve Davis rushed for more yards than he passed in both seasons Following the 1975 season, several key players left the team  Defensive tackle Lee Roy Selmon was selected first overall in the 1976 NFL Draft, and Washington was taken three picks later  Davis departed and was replaced at quarterback by Dean Blevins, who was unable to match his predecessor's contributions in the running game  In 1978, Oklahoma would get their third Heisman Trophy winner in running back Billy Sims, who rushed for 1,896 yards and broke the Big Eight regular season rushing record  The Sooners finished third in the final AP poll after an Orange Bowl victory over Nebraska, the closest they came to a national championship in the second half of the 1970s  Despite never losing more than two games in any season during the these years, Oklahoma never finished in the top two in the final AP poll During the 1970s, Switzer's teams went 73–7–2 in seven years, and the Sooners won the Big Eight every year from 1972 to 1980  However, during the early 1980s, the team's performance worsened  They lost four games each in 1981, 1982, and 1983  In 1984, the team improved to 9–2–1 and defeated Nebraska when the Cornhuskers were ranked No  1 in the country  The win allowed Oklahoma to claim a share of the conference championship and receive an Orange Bowl bid against Washington, which they subsequently lost Switzer's teams returned to contention for the national championship during the next three seasons, earning an 11–1 record and a Big Eight title in each  However, in all three years, the Sooners lost to Miami, directly costing them the opportunity to win at least one championship  In 1985, the Sooners won the national championship despite their loss, rebounding to defeat top-ranked Penn State in the Orange Bowl  In 1986, the Sooners won another Orange Bowl but finished No  3 behind Penn State and Miami, who had faced each other for the championship in the Fiesta Bowl with the Nittany Lions emerging victorious  1987 saw the Sooners play in two No  1 vs  No  2 games in a row, defeating top-ranked Nebraska to end their regular season undefeated before facing Miami the Orange Bowl to decide the national title  No  2 Miami defeated the Sooners, who had risen to the top of the polls following the Nebraska game, 20–14  In 1988, the Sooners finished 9–3, with highlights including a 70–24 win against Kansas State in which the team rushed for 768 yards, which remains an FBS record Switzer's tenure ended in scandal  After the 1988 season, the NCAA placed the Sooners on probation for violating several rules, including offering improper benefits to players and recruits  In one example, a recruit was offered $1,000 to enroll at the university  It was determined that Switzer had personally paid for rental cars for students entertaining recruits on campus  Meanwhile, several of his players were in trouble with the law  Despite knowing that certain players had problems with alcohol or drugs, Switzer had recruited them anyway due to their talent  Notable players Charles Thompson and Brian Bosworth were found to be involved with drugs or steroids  Switzer's home was robbed in 1989, and Thompson was alleged to be one of the burglars  On multiple occasions, players were caught attempting to sell cocaine to undercover agents  A shooting and a gang rape took place in the athletic dorm within eight days of each other; two players were later convicted for the rape  Former Sooner Jim Riley later said that amid the turmoil, "Barry was just trying to keep it together "The probation lasted three years, including a two-year bowl ban, a one-year television ban, and a two-year reduction in scholarships  Facing immense pressure to resign, Switzer stepped down as head coach in 1989  He finished his tenure in Norman with a 157–29–4 record, an  837 winning percentage, 12 conference championships, and three national titles 

Gibbs, Schnellenberger, and Blake (1989–1998)
Switzer's ouster marked the beginning of what Stan Dorsey, writing for The Sporting News, called "a pratfall of unspeakable scope and unfathomable dimension" for the Sooners  Defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs was promoted to head coach  Dorsey characterized Gibbs as being uncomfortable around alumni and the media, as well as with being a head coach in general  During his six-year tenure, while Oklahoma attempted to recover from probation, the team finished a combined 44–23–2, never reaching higher than second in the conference or No  16 in the final AP poll  Gibbs punctuated a middling record with losses to Oklahoma's rivals; the Sooners went a combined 2–15–1 against Texas, Nebraska, and Colorado during his tenure  He announced his resignation prior to the end of the 1994 season Gibbs was replaced by Howard Schnellenberger, whose resume included a national championship at Miami  Convinced that the 1994 Copper Bowl loss to BYU was "clearly the lowest point in the great history of Oklahoma football," Schnellenberger sought to reshape the program, beginning by ordering files from previous seasons to be thrown out  Instead, they were archived without his knowledge  Schnellenberger often said that "they will write books and make movies about my time [at Oklahoma]," and his first team started out well  The Sooners rose to No



ground_truth: Polk County

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Are both Duke Energy and Affiliated Managers Group based in Massachusetts?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  10 in the AP poll after three wins to begin the 1995 season, but a home loss to fourth-ranked Colorado started a 2–5–1 stretch to finish the year  The season ended with shutout losses to Oklahoma State and national champions Nebraska  Schnellenberger resigned after one season in Norman, having failed to live up to his own expectations for success Oklahoma then hired former player John Blake as head coach  Although he was Switzer's preferred candidate, Blake had very little experience, having never previously held a head coach or coordinator position  In the 101 years preceding Blake's hire, Oklahoma had nine losing seasons  Under Blake, the Sooners had three losing seasons in three years  The team's eight losses in 1996 set a team record that was matched the following season  Blake's 12–22 record gave him the worst winning percentage of any Oklahoma head coach since the single-game tenure of John A  Harts in 1895  He was fired after presiding over the worst three-year stretch in team history Despite his poor record as head coach, Blake contributed to success after his tenure by recruiting several players who would help achieve more favorable results for his successor  Future NFL players Roy Williams and Rocky Calmus were key starters on teams that returned the Sooners to national prominence under Bob Stoops 

Bob Stoops era (1999–2016)
Under pressure to find a head coach who would turn the program around, athletic director Joe Castiglione vetted each candidate personally  He eventually selected Stoops, then the defensive coordinator at Florida, who improved the Sooners to 7–5 in his first season 

Perennial BCS contention
Oklahoma began the 2000 season ranked No  19 in the AP poll, their first preseason AP poll appearance in five years  After a 4–0 start, the Sooners defeated No  11 Texas 63–14; running back Quentin Griffin broke a school record with six rushing touchdowns in the game  The next week, the Sooners beat No  2 Kansas State 41–31, then defeated top-ranked Nebraska 31–14 two weeks later  The Sooners finished the regular season undefeated and beat Kansas State in the conference championship game to win their first conference title since 1987  In the years since that victory, the Big Eight had dissolved and the Sooners had joined its successor conference, the Big 12  Additionally, the BCS format had been established, with each season culminating in a national championship game between the top two teams in the system's rankings  Oklahoma was ranked No  1 following the conference championship win and played Florida State in the Orange Bowl for the BCS title  The Sooners defeated the heavily favored Seminoles 13–2 to claim the school's seventh national championship  The team produced consensus All-Americans for the first time since 1988, including quarterback Josh Heupel, who finished runner-up for the Heisman in one of the closest votes in the award's history to that point The influence of John Blake's recruiting classes on the championship would be a difficult question for Stoops, even years after the title  More than half of the 2000 team's starters were recruited by Blake, although Stoops brought in the quarterback (Heupel) and running back (Griffin)  Despite continued success throughout the rest of his tenure in Norman, Stoops never won another national championship after 2000 
The following years saw Oklahoma contend for conference and national championships while qualifying for major bowl games  In 2001, after rivalry losses to Nebraska and Oklahoma State, Oklahoma did not earn a spot in the conference championship game, but the Sooners were granted a Cotton Bowl Classic berth, their first in school history, against unranked Arkansas and won 10–3  In 2002, the Sooners won the Big 12 and advanced to the Rose Bowl for the first time, defeating No  7 Washington State 34–14 

Oklahoma went undefeated in the regular season in both 2003 and 2004  2003 included a 77–0 defeat of 2003 Texas A&M and a 65–13 defeat of Texas, the latter being the biggest win in Red River Showdown history  Led by Heisman Trophy winner Jason White, the team was ranked No  1 in every AP poll of the season until an upset in the Big 12 Championship Game by Kansas State dropped them to third  However, the Sooners were ranked first in the BCS rankings and were thus able to play for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl  They were defeated 21–14 by LSU  White, a Tuttle, Oklahoma native, threw for 3,846 yards and 40 touchdowns in his Heisman campaign but was kept in check by the LSU defense, completing just over 35 percent of his passes and throwing two interceptions  The next year, freshman running back Adrian Peterson emerged as a star with 1,925 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground  The AP, Coaches Poll, and BCS all ranked USC at No  1 and Oklahoma at No  2 in every poll of the season until the two undefeated conference champions met in the Orange Bowl for the national championship  Oklahoma would lose their second straight national championship game, and Peterson would finish second in Heisman voting behind USC quarterback Matt Leinart  Following the season, several key players departed as 10 Sooners were selected in the 2005 NFL Draft, more than any other school 

Postseason letdowns
The 2005 season saw Oklahoma fall out of the AP poll for the first time since the 1999 season en route to an 8–4 record and a Holiday Bowl victory over No  6 Oregon  In both 2006 and 2007, the Sooners won the Big 12 but suffered upset losses in their bowl games  In the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, the Sooners lost a back-and-forth game in overtime when Boise State executed a Statue of Liberty play on a two-point conversion attempt to win 43–42  Oklahoma qualified for the Fiesta Bowl again the following year and were favored against West Virginia, however, a 48–28 loss ended their season Prior to the 2007 season, the NCAA announced sanctions due to violations committed by players on the 2005 team who had been paid for unperformed work at a Norman car dealership  The NCAA found Oklahoma guilty of a "failure to monitor" the improper employment benefits and punished the team by vacating its victories from the 2005 season  However, in 2008, the NCAA partially reversed its decision and reinstated the vacated wins At the end of the 2008 regular season, the Big 12 South finished in a three-way tie between Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech, with each team having suffered one loss at the hands of another  As the team with the highest BCS ranking, Oklahoma advanced to the conference championship game on a tie-breaker  The Sooners won the game, and quarterback Sam Bradford won the Heisman Trophy  His 53 combined passing and rushing touchdowns are tied for the most ever in a Heisman campaign  The Sooners advanced to the BCS National Championship Game but were defeated by Florida 

Late Stoops era
After a Fiesta Bowl victory in 2010, the Sooners, led by Stoops and new co-offensive coordinator Josh Heupel, were ranked No  1 in the polls to start the 2011 season  After maintaining their ranking for three weeks, the Sooners achieved their 100th No  1 ranking in the AP poll, becoming the first team to accomplish the feat since the poll began in 1936 2011 marked the final time that the Sooners were ranked No  1 under Stoops  However, Oklahoma remained competitive throughout the rest of the BCS era, including a 2014 Sugar Bowl win over defending national champions Alabama in their last game before the introduction of the College Football Playoff  Under this system, four teams are selected to compete in yearly national semifinal games in which the winners advance to the national championship game  The Sooners received their first playoff berth in 2015 and subsequently lost 37–17 to Clemson in their semifinal game, the Orange Bowl  Despite winning the Big 12 in 2016, Oklahoma lost two regular season games and did not make the playoff  They defeated Auburn in the Sugar Bowl, 35–19 In 2017, Stoops announced that he was stepping down as head coach, with offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley immediately appointed as his replacement  Stoops said that he felt that the time was right to retire, with a source indicating to Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN that Stoops wanted to leave on his own terms while he still could, without the university or his health forcing him to step aside  During his tenure in Norman, Stoops produced a 190–48 ( 798) record, 10 conference titles, and a school-record 18 bowl game appearances  His 2008 team scored the most points in college football history to that point, averaging over 51 per game  In 2021, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame 

Riley and Venables (2017–present)
In his first season, Riley led the Sooners to 12 wins, beating the 10-win record held by Chuck Fairbanks and Barry Switzer for most victories by a first-year coach in program history  The Sooners entered the playoff against Georgia in the Rose Bowl, losing 54–48 in double overtime  2017 was the first of three consecutive 12–2 seasons for the Sooners under Riley, however, each ended in a College Football Playoff semifinal loss  As of the end of the 2022 season, Oklahoma has an 0–4 playoff record and more playoff appearances without a win than any other FBS team  However, the Sooners did win the 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 Big 12 Championship Games during Riley's tenure Under Riley, the Sooners had two consecutive Heisman Trophy winners who became No  1 overall picks in the NFL Draft  In 2017, Baker Mayfield broke his own FBS record for single-season passing efficiency while throwing for over 4,600 yards and 43 touchdowns  He was selected first overall in the 2018 NFL Draft  The following season, ex-Texas A&M starter Kyler Murray topped Mayfield's passing efficiency mark and became the seventh Heisman winner in program history  He was selected first overall in the 2019 NFL Draft  To replace Murray for the 2019 season, Riley turned to ex-Alabama starter Jalen Hurts  The Sooners lost 63–28 to eventual national champion LSU in the Peach Bowl, and Hurts finished second in Heisman voting to LSU quarterback Joe Burrow  As of the end of the 2022 season, Mayfield, Murray, and Hurts collectively own four of the top 12 passing efficiency seasons in FBS history In July 2021, Oklahoma and Texas announced that they would leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) upon the conclusion of the Big 12's current media rights contracts, which are set to expire in 2025  The surprising move initiated a widespread wave of conference realignment that saw, among many other moves, Pac-12 teams USC and UCLA announce their intention to join the Big Ten  Oklahoma and Texas have been criticized for abandoning their historic conference roots and setting the stage for other teams to do so, thereby creating a landscape in which the SEC and Big Ten are poised to dominate the sport at the expense of other conferences  In February 2023, the two defecting universities negotiated a combined $100 million early termination fee with the Big 12 in order to leave the conference a year early, prior to the end of the media rights deals  Oklahoma and Texas are currently scheduled to begin SEC play in the 2024 season 
Prior to the end of the 2021 season, Riley accepted the head coach position at USC, becoming the first head coach to leave Oklahoma for a different job since Chuck Fairbanks in 1973  Chuck Carlton, writing for The Dallas Morning News, said that the departure "blindsided most of the college football world " During his tenure in Norman, Riley compiled a 55–10 ( 846) record and achieved the highest winning percentage of any coach in program history  Bob Stoops was named interim head coach for the team's Alamo Bowl appearance and led the Sooners to a victory  Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables, who had once held the same position at Oklahoma under Stoops, was hired as Riley's replacement  In his first year at the helm, the Sooners finished 6–7, their season punctuated by a 49–0 loss to Texas, Oklahoma's worst loss in Red River Showdown history and the biggest shutout loss that the Sooners have ever suffered 

Conference affiliations
Oklahoma has been independent and a member of three conferences 
Independent (1895–1914)
Southwest Conference (1915–1919)
Big Eight Conference (1920–1995)
Big 12 Conference (1996–present)
Southeastern Conference (joining on July 1, 2024)

Championships
National championships
Oklahoma claims seven consensus national championships won by selection in the major college football polls : 13  In addition, in ten years other than those seven championship seasons, Oklahoma has appeared atop lists by selectors designated by the NCAA as "major", primarily using math rating formulas : 108–115

Claimed national championships
Unclaimed national championships
In general, math formula rankings are not recognized as national championships   For years other than the seven in which Oklahoma was selected by a major poll as national champion, the following created math rating systems that selected Oklahoma:

Richard Billingsley: 1915*
Clyde P  Berryman: 1953*, 1957*, 1986*, 2003
Richard Poling: 1967, 1978
Richard C  Dunkel, Sr : 1973, 1978, 1980, 1986
Harry DeVold: 1973, 1978, 1986
Jeff Sagarin: 1973*, 1978, 1986
David Rothman: 1978
Edward Litkenhous: 1978
Herman Matthews: 1978, 1980
The New York Times: 1986Others:

own selection: Bill Schroeder 1978
member polling: College Football Researchers Association 1949* 1953*, 1973*, 1986* retrospective selection

Conference championships
The team has captured 50 conference titles, including 14 in a row from 1946 to 1959 
† Co-championship
‡ Both Nebraska and Oklahoma: 6  claim the 1972 championship, despite Oklahoma in early 1973 forfeiting eight games from the 1972 season and the Big 8 crown 

Division championships
The Sooners have been a member of only one division, the Big 12 South, in their entire history  They were members from 1996 until 2010, after which the Big 12 ceased divisional play 

† Co-championship

Head coaches
The Sooners have had 23 head coaches in their history  The current head coach, Brent Venables, was hired on December 5, 2021  Since the first head coach, John A  Harts, guided the team for one game in 1895, the Sooners have played in more than 1,300 games  Four men have coached the team in more than 100 games; all of them have more than 100 wins at Oklahoma  Oklahoma is the only program with four 100-win coaches in its history  The coach with the highest winning percentage in school history is Lincoln Riley, who went 55–10 ( 846) across five seasons  The lowest winning percentage aside from Harts, who lost his only game, belongs to John Blake, who went 12–22 ( 353) across three seasons Ten coaches have led the Sooners to postseason bowl games: Tom Stidham, Jim Tatum, Bud Wilkinson, Gomer Jones, Chuck Fairbanks, Barry Switzer, Gary Gibbs, Bob Stoops, Riley, and Venables  Nine coaches have won conference championships with the Sooners: Bennie Owen, Stidham, Dewey Luster, Tatum, Wilkinson, Fairbanks, Switzer, Stoops, and Riley 
Wilkinson, Switzer, and Stoops have each received National Coach of the Year honors from at least one organization  Six Sooner coaches (Owen, Lawrence Jones, Tatum, Wilkinson, Switzer, and Stoops) have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame 

Coaching staff
Stadium
The Sooners play their home games at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium also known as The Palace on the Prairie  The stadium was formerly called Oklahoma Memorial Stadium but the administration decided to add 'Gaylord Family' to recognize the contributions made by Edward K  Gaylord and his family over the years (estimated at over $50 million)  The playing surface is called Owen Field after Bennie Owen, Oklahoma's coach from 1905 to 1926  The stadium was built in 1923 with an original capacity of 500  In 1925, 16,000 seats were added and 16,000 more seats were added in 1929 bringing the total capacity to 32,000  The stadium has had a natural grass playing surface for the majority of its existence  The stadium had an artificial turf from 1970 to 1994  The stadium had a major renovation in 2003 when a new upper deck was added to the east side of the stadium, adding over 8,400 new seats  The official seating capacity of the stadium, following renovations in 2015, is 83,489  which makes it the 15th largest college stadium in the U S  and second largest in the Big 12 Conference  Despite the official capacity, the Sooners routinely average well above capacity, most recently 86,735 for the 2018 season  The largest crowd ever was 88,308 on November 11, 2017, against TCU 

Rivalries
Nebraska
Oklahoma's rivalry with the Nebraska Cornhuskers historically had national championship implications, with the winner usually advancing to the Orange Bowl  The teams often met on Thanksgiving  For the majority of the 20th century Oklahoma and Nebraska competed as part of the Big Eight Conference where from 1907 to 1995 the programs won a combined 77 conference titles  The teams are noted for playing in the Game of the Century, in 1971 which OU lost 35–31  In 1996, the teams joined the Big XII Conference when Nebraska joined the North Division, and Oklahoma joined the South Division, thus ending the annual match-ups between the programs in 1998 and 1999  In 2000 the series resumed with Nebraska and Oklahoma being ranked number one and two in the BCS rankings  OU won 31–14  Oklahoma leads the series 47–38–3  On September 18, 2021, Oklahoma  defeated Nebraska 23–16  Oklahoma beat Nebraska 49–14 on the last matchup on September 17, 2022 

Oklahoma State
Oklahoma leads the series 91–19–7 through the end of the 2022 season 

Texas
The Red River Showdown or the OU–Texas Game is the annual matchup in Dallas during the State Fair of Texas between Oklahoma and the Texas Longhorns  Since 1929, the game has been played annually at the Cotton Bowl, halfway between Norman and Austin  For the majority of the 20th century the game was a non-conference match-up  Texas competed in the Southwest Conference  In 1996, the two programs became part of the Big XII Conference South division  That year Oklahoma won the first overtime game of the series, after a tie the previous year  The stadium is split along the 50-yard line with Oklahoma fans occupying the south half of the field  Texas leads the series 63–50–5 through the end of the 2022 season 

Missouri
Oklahoma leads the inactive series 67–24–5  As of the end of the 2022 season, the most recent game in the series was played in 2011  Once Oklahoma joins the SEC in 2024, the series, which will be Missouri's most-played conference rivalry by a significant margin, will continue 

Pageantry
School colors
Oklahoma's official school colors are crimson and cream  These colors were picked in 1895 by May Overstreet, the only female faculty member at the time  The colors were her own personal choice and she decided on them after viewing many color samples and materials  After her decision, the colors were brought in front of the student body who enthusiastically approved of her selections  In recent years, red and white have sometimes replaced crimson and cream 

Mascot
Oklahoma has had several mascots  The first was a stray dog named Mex  Mex was found in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution by Mott Keys, an army hospital medic  Keys' company adopted the dog and Keys took the dog back to Hollis, Oklahoma when he completed his duty  When Keys was enrolled in the university, he took Mex with him to Norman  With his experience as an army medic, Keys landed a job with the football team and a residence at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house  Mex's main duty during games was to keep stray dogs from roaming the field  He wore a red sweater with a big "O" letter on the side  Mex received national attention in October 1924 when the Oklahoma football team lost a game against Drake University  Mex was lost when the team boarded a train in Arkansas City, Kansas  The media blamed the loss on the field on the loss of their mascot  Mex was found later by two Oklahoma graduates  Mex died of old age on April 30, 1928  The campus was closed and classes were canceled on the day of his funeral  He was buried in a casket somewhere under the stadium 

Never an official mascot, Little Red began appearing at games in 1953  He was an Indian who wore red tights, breech cloth and a war bonnet and was last portrayed by Randy Palmer   In April 1970, Little Red was banished by Oklahoma president John Herbert Hollomon, Jr  The student court issued a temporary restraining order to keep Little Red from appearing at Sooner games  Despite this order, Palmer showed up as Little Red for the 1970 season opener where he was met with cheers from the crowd  When Palmer was drafted after the 1971 season, no one showed up for try-outs to replace him The mascot for Oklahoma is the Sooner Schooner, a conestoga wagon similar to the primary method of transportation used by early settlers in Oklahoma  The Schooner is maintained and driven by members of the RUF/NEKS, the university's all-male spirit organization, along with two white ponies named Boomer and Sooner  In 2005, the university also introduced two costumed mascots also named Boomer and Sooner to serve as mascots for football games and events that do not permit a covered wagon 

Music
The official fight song of the Sooners is "Boomer Sooner "  This song is played frequently at football games and is played by the band after touchdowns, field goals, after significant plays, and when the team or crowd need a boost of energy   "OK Oklahoma" is another school song that is played after an extra point and when the Sooner Schooner rolls onto the field   The official Alma Mater song is the "OU Chant", which is sung by OU fans before sporting events and at ceremonial occasions   Other tunes frequently heard at OU football games include the state song "Oklahoma" and "Fight for OKU "
The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band is a nationally renowned ensemble founded in 1904   The largest student organization on campus, the band performs at all home games and frequently travels to other games   The band holds a game ball from the Bedlam Series game in 1983, the day "the Pride" won 

Awards
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Trophy is awarded annually to the nation's most outstanding college football player  Seven Oklahoma players have won the Heisman Trophy, six more finished runner-up  Kyler Murray is the most recent winner having won the 2018 Heisman Trophy 

Other awards
All-Americans
Every year, several publications release rosters of the best college football players in the country  The athletes on these lists are referred to as All-Americans  The NCAA recognizes five All-American lists  They are the Associated Press, American Football Coaches Association, Football Writers Association of America, The Sporting News, and the Walter Camp Football Foundation  A consensus All-American is typically defined as a player who is named to three or more lists  Oklahoma has had 167 first-team All-Americans in its history, with 82 of them being named consensus All-Americans 

College Football Hall of Fame
Oklahoma has 29 inductees in the College Football Hall of Fame  The first was coach Bennie Owen, who was inducted as part of the inaugural class in 1951  The most recent is Roy Williams, who was inducted in 2022 

Future opponents
SEC Conference opponents
The Oklahoma football program will join the SEC in 2024  The SEC will expand the conference to 16 teams and will eliminate its two divisions in 2024, causing a new scheduling format for their members to play against the other members of the conference  Only the 2024 conference schedule was announced on June 14, 2023, while the conference still considers a new format for the future 

2024 Conference Schedule
Non-conference opponents
Announced non-conference schedules as of June 25, 2023 

See also
The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band
RUF/NEKS
OU Chant
List of Oklahoma Sooners in the NFL Draft
Play Like a Champion Today
Heisman Trophy

Notes
Passage 5:
Djems Kouamé
Djems Kouamé (born April 5, 1989, in Montreal, Quebec) is a former professional Canadian football wide receiver and defensive back in the Canadian Football League who is currently a free agent  He was drafted 18th overall by the Toronto Argonauts in the 2011 CFL Draft and signed with the team on May 31, 2011  He played college football for the Montreal Carabins  On June 17, 2013, Kouamé was released by the Argonauts 
Passage 6:
Justin Brown (wide receiver)
Justin Brown (born March 10, 1991) is a wide receiver for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL)  Before his 2013 draft selection by the Pittsburgh Steelers, he played college football at Oklahoma for his senior season after transferring from Penn State   After being drafted, Brown was on the Steelers practice squad for his rookie season  He played eight games during the 2014 season for a total of 12 passes for 94 yards and one lost fumble  Following the 2014 NFL season, Brown was waived by the Steelers  On February 3, 2015, the Buffalo Bills claimed Brown off waivers  On August 9, 2015, Brown was waived/injured by the Bills  On August 13, 2015, he reached an injury settlement with the Bills and was released 
On May 11, 2017, Brown signed with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League 
Passage 7:
Mike Bradwell
Mike Bradwell (born July 11, 1986) is a former Canadian football wide receiver who played for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League  He was drafted in the second round of the 2008 CFL Draft by the Toronto Argonauts  He began playing football in his final year at Leaside High School and played CIS football with McMaster University 

Personal life
Bradwell enjoys watching movies and golfing in his free time and is a strong supporter of the Sian Bradwell Fund For Children With Cancer  He has two older siblings, Dave, a PhD graduate from M I T , and Suzanne, an emergency department doctor in St  Catharines  Bradwell majored in civil engineering at McMaster University and works as a field co-op student with PCL Constructors during the off-season 
Passage 8:
Rashaun Woods
Rashaun Dorrell Woods (born October 17, 1980) is a former American college and professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL) for two seasons during the early 2000s   Woods played college football for Oklahoma State University, and received All-American honors   He was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the NFL's 49ers and the CFL's Toronto Argonauts 
Woods currently coaches at Enid High School in Enid, Oklahoma (2019-present) 

Early years
Woods was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma   He attended Millwood High School in Oklahoma City, and played for the Millwood high school football team 

College career
While attending Oklahoma State University, Woods played for the Oklahoma State Cowboys football team from 2000 to 2003   He finished his college career with 293 receptions, 4,414 yards and 42 touchdowns—all Big 12 records   Woods was a two-time all-American, including being recognized as a consensus first-team All-American in 2002   He became the eighth player in NCAA Division I-A annals to gain over 1,000 yards receiving in a season three times in a career   Woods also holds the NCAA single-game record for most touchdown receptions in a game (7 against Southern Methodist University in 2003) and most touchdown receptions in a half (5 in the first half of the same SMU game)  All seven touchdowns were thrown by former Kansas City Royals infielder Josh Fields   In 2001, his biggest touchdown catch made during his college career was against Oklahoma Sooners down in Norman, where the unranked OSU Cowboys upset the highly ranked Sooners  Also, the following year he had 3 touchdowns against the Sooners, in the annual Bedlam game 2002 
Woods has two brothers who followed him to Oklahoma State  D'Juan who graduated in 2007, who played wide receiver and Donovan, a former Oklahoma State linebacker who spent time at safety and quarterback, graduated in 2008  D'Juan was picked up by the Jacksonville Jaguars as a free agent after the 2007 NFL draftJaguars com while Donovan was a practice squad member of the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl Championship team 

Professional career
Woods had 7 catches for 160 yards and 1 touchdown in his rookie season (2004) and spent the 2005 season on injured reserve with torn ligaments in his thumb   In April 2006, he was traded to the San Diego Chargers for cornerback Sammy Davis  In August 2006, he was cut from the San Diego Chargers  On August 3, 2006, he was claimed off waivers by the Denver Broncos but failed his physical and was released  In Dec  of 2006 he worked out with the Minnesota Vikings [1]

NFL Europa
In 2007, the Hamburg Sea Devils selected Woods in the 5th round of the NFL Europa free agent draft 

CFL career
On July 23, 2007, Woods signed with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League   He was released by the Toronto Argonauts on August 8, 2007   He was signed by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on October 4, 2007  On June 22, 2008 Woods was 1 of 14 players to be cut from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats final roster 

Coaching career
After his playing career ended, Woods worked as an assistant football coach at Millwood and at Star Spencer High School, and also as a high school football radio commentator and professional bass fisherman  In January 2013, Woods was selected to be head football coach at John Marshall High School in Oklahoma City  He led John Marshall to the 3A state championship in 2017  In January 2019, Woods was named head football coach for Enid High School in Enid, Oklahoma   Rashaun Woods announced Friday morning, Jan  20, 2023, he has accepted a head football coaching position at Tyler High School in Tyler, TX, effective immediately 

See also
List of NCAA major college football yearly receiving leaders
List of NCAA Division I FBS career receiving touchdowns leaders
Passage 9:
Emanuel Tolbert
Emanuel Tolbert (born December 2, 1958) is a former American college and professional football player who was a slotback and wide receiver in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for eleven seasons during the 1980s and early 1990s   Tolbert played college football for Southern Methodist University, where he was an All-American  He played professionally for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Toronto Argonauts, Calgary Stampeders and British Columbia Lions of the CFL, and played a key role in the Argonauts' 1983 Grey Cup victory by recovering a fumble on the game-winning drive 
Tolbert was tried for and convicted of rape and violating a minor in 2001   He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the rape plus four years for the violation, to be served concurrently 



ground_truth: no

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: A wide receiver for the Toronto Argonauts played college football for a team that represents the University of Oklahoma, which belongs to what conference?

The following are given passages.
Context 4: 

Format
When the show was announced, it was cast as a topical news series aiming to "pull apart the week's big news stories and see what makes them tick", with Addison describing it as "four relatively ill-informed idiots fail to take the news seriously for an hour" 

Hosts and regulars
The following people have hosted the show during its run:

As well as the host there are usually two other regulars plus a guest   For series 1 and 2 regulars were Andy Zaltzman and Sarah Millican   For series 3 Rebecca Front replaced Sarah Millican 

Broadcasts
Last updated January 2018The show aired on Sundays from 11 am to noon  It once aired at 9 pm on 31 January 2010  The series occasionally missed a week for sporting events (Formula 1 Grand Prix, London Marathon, etc ) 
Series One featured 20 episodes which were broadcast between 10 January 2010 and 6 June 2010   There were no episodes broadcast on 7 February 2010, 25 April 2010 Series Two consisted of 26 episodes, broadcast between 5 September 2010 and 3 April 2011  There were no episode broadcast on 19 September 2010, 3 October 2010, 26 December 2010, 2 January 2010 and 30 January 2010 Series Three had 15 episodes which were broadcast between 8 January 2012 and 6 May 2012  No episode was broadcast on 25 March 2012 Series Four also had 15 episodes, began on 9 September 2012, and ended on 16 December 
In 2013, the show returned for a new, slightly different series: it was moved to Saturdays, renamed 7 Day Saturday, had 11 episodes between 8 June and 24 August, kept Al Murray as host, and featured Andy Zaltzman and two guests each programme  There was also a Christmas special, 7 Days of Christmas, broadcast on 24 December 2013 
Series Five only had 5 episodes, broadcast between 11 May and 8 June 2014 
The last edition of 7 Day Sunday was broadcast on 9 August 2015  This edition was hosted by Jenny Eclair, with the final guests included Andy Zaltzman, Holly Walsh and Stephen Grant 
The show was made available on the BBC's iPlayer service and as a podcast, which features additional material 

Reception
After the first show, Jane Thynne of The Independent questioned the lack of variety, covering as it did mainly the heavy snowfall with little political content, which given Addison had made his name in a political satire, she found odd  She ultimately reserved judgement on the show, calling Addison witty but recommending he slow down the pace and stop his "nervous giggling" Chris Campling of The Times criticised the first episode as being a duplicate of the "dismal, desperate" The Christian O'Connell Solution it replaced, with a turgid format  Persevering, he described the second episode as just as dreary with no chemistry and "none of the News Quiz-esque scoring of laughter points, where clever people fall over each other in their desperation to be funnier than the last "After the third episode, Elisabeth Mahoney of The Guardian said the show was "really quite funny" but the listener needed to stay focussed on the content as the four way dialogue was quite involved as it covered a comprehensive sweep of topics  For listeners who might want to multi-task on a Sunday morning, she recommended Dave Gorman's show on Absolute Radio 
Passage 9:
John Jackson (writer)
John Jackson is an English television screenwriter 

Life and career
After leaving Cambridge University, John Jackson developed and script edited the ITV soap Night and Day  Altogether he wrote 35 episodes for the TV Series  In 2009 he wrote the episode The King Is Dead, Long Live the King…  for the BBC One series Robin Hood  From 2010 to 2012 he wrote two episodes of the serial drama Lip Service  From 2011 until 2013 he wrote three episodes for the supernatural drama Being Human  This brought him a Writers' Guild of Great Britain award for Best TV Drama Series  He also wrote two episodes for the Being Human spin off Becoming Human In 2014 Jackson wrote an episode for another BBC Three series, In the Flesh  He would become a regular writer on ITV's Grantchester, and in 2020, was lead writer on season 3 of Sky's Riviera 

Filmography
Awards and nominations
Awards
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award:

2012: Best TV Drama Series (Being Human)
Passage 10:
Egypt (TV series)
Egypt is a BBC television docudrama serial portraying events in the history of Egyptology from the 18th through early 20th centuries  It originally aired on Sunday nights at 9 pm on BBC1 in 2005  The first two episodes explored the work of Howard Carter and his archaeological quest in Egypt in the early part of the twentieth century  The next two episodes focused on the eccentric explorer "The Great Belzoni" played here by Matthew Kelly  The final two episodes dramatise the discovery and deciphering of the Rosetta Stone by Jean-François Champollion (Elliot Cowan) 
The music was recorded by the Warsaw Radio Orchestra and is featured on the CD Timeless Histories by Chappell music, produced by Clare Isaacs 

Production
The series was a major new docudrama series produced by the BBC for the Autumn 2005 schedule 
"The whole idea behind the series was to be able to discover Ancient Egypt through the eyes of Howard Carter – famous for uncovering the tomb of Tutankhamun; The Great Belzoni – an amazing adventurer and explorer; and the scholar Jean-François Champollion, who was the first to decipher the Rosetta Stone and open up the meaning of hieroglyphics "
In order to create a sense of "seeing the treasures of Ancient Egypt for the first time", Dolling and Bradshaw felt it essential to film at the actual archaeological sites referenced in the series 

"We had fantastic help from the Government and a local production crew, they managed to fix it for us to film in areas that, as far as we know, have never been used by other television or film productions "
"Being the first UK TV company to attempt such a project in the most amazing historical sights was very exhilarating, and to be able to return them - with additional sets and some computer imagery - to how they were during the time of the Pharaohs was incredible "
Filming at such invaluable and popular sites created new challenges for the film makers 

"Keeping people out of shot was one — sometimes this was nearing impossible — but we tended to shoot early in the day so disruptions were kept to a minimum  The other was obviously making sure we didn't damage anything, which thankfully we managed!"
"It was difficult keeping such a unique project running so far from home, and it is a tribute to the cast and crew that we managed to succeed  The series really is great and looks fantastic, well worth all the hard work "
The co-production between BBC and The Learning Channel was initially budgeted at around £6 5m but problems filming on location in Egypt, including the weather and illness, meant the producers required another £2million  Post production costs involved in recreating Ancient Egypt meant that the final costs could have resulted in a £5million overspend but the BBC denied this 

"To suggest the overspend is anything in the [range of] £5m is utterly ridiculous — it is simply not true  This was a huge project shot on location in Egypt and, as with any project of such scale, we had contingency funds available to us — so the unavoidable overspend was accommodated for and fully authorised "
"I think it's useful to point out that the cost per hour of Egypt will still be lower than other comparable programmes such as Pompeii, Genghis Khan and Pyramid  In fact, due to the international co-financing, this is actually incredibly good value for money providing full period drama for the budget normally associated with a documentary "
Several multi-media productions were commissioned to tie-in with the series including interactive drama BBC Egypt Interactive, award-winning online-game Death in Sakkara: An Egyptian Adventure, and an interactive exhibition at BBC Birmingham A companion series Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank, in which architectural historian Cruickshank travels the country to explore some of the intriguing stories that have emerged from ancient Egypt, was broadcast concurrently on BBC Two 

Reception
Reviews
Sam Wollaston writing about episode one in The Guardian said that he "was expecting to hate this show," fearing it would be "narration interspersed with lame reconstruction," but he was pleased to discover it was, in fact, "a proper drama, with a very decent script and real actors " "And it's a great story, too," he states, although he did not enjoy the re-enactments of the life of Tutankhamun, which he described as "olive-skinned actors with non-speaking parts and an awful lot of eye-liner, wandering around in a semi-darkness lit by flickering candles," and claims were not necessary, "but maybe that will help to sell it to America " He concludes that he is "looking forward to part two "David Liddiment writing in The Guardian complimented the cleverly twinning of this docudrama with the more cerebral Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank on BBC Two but he points out that this was done during the final stages of the BBC's charter renewal review and insists that the corporation should keep up standards after this process is completed 

Ratings
Episode one (2005-10-30): 7 million viewers (29% audience share) 
Episode two (2005-11-06): 6 million viewers (24% audience share) 
Episode three (2005-11-13): 5 7 million viewers (23% audience share) 
Episode four (2005-11-20): 4 8 million viewers 
Episode five (2005-11-27): 4 5 million viewers (18% audience share) 

Episodes
Part one: Howard Carter
The story of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter and the popular belief in the Curse of the Pharaohs, a supposed result of Carter's disturbing Tutankhamen's resting place  The episodes include short dramatizations of the life of Tutankhamun 

Episode one: The Search for Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun vanished from history in 1324 BC following his hurried burial and the erasure of his name from all monuments  In the winter of 1898 Carter is at the temples of Deir el Bahri recording wall reliefs threatened by a freak storm when he is thrown from his horse and makes a discovery in the sand  Retired Boston lawyer Theodore M  Davis funds Carter's excavation of Queen Hatshepsut's tomb but it is found to be empty and Carter deprived of further funding is reduced to selling his paintings to tourists on the street 
In 1905 Lord Carnarvon arrives in Luxor to convalesce after a road accident and is shown an artifact bearing the cartouche of the mysterious Tutankhamun discovered by Davis on his new dig  Tutankhamun succeeded his heretical father as pharaoh at the age of 8 and was named in honour of Amun to symbolise his mission to restore the old gods and save the empire from turmoil  An inspired Carnarvon employs Carter but they are denied access to the Valley of the Kings for which only Davis has a permit  Amidst the flurry of construction that marked the beginning of Tutankhamun's reign the most important to the boy Pharaoh would have been that of his tomb  An ailing Davis announces his discovery of this, the final Pharaoh's tomb, prior to his retirement  Carter doubts the find and convinces Carnarvon to take up the concession  The methodical and meticulous excavation commences in 1914 but is quickly interrupted by World War I 
The Carnarvons return to Egypt at the end of the war and Carter recommences his excavation but with a continued lack of results leading to doubts that any undiscovered tombs are left in the valley the funding is finally cut in 1922  Tutankhamun's tomb was well concealed to ensure his undisturbed afterlife  Carter convinces Carnarvon to fund one last season during which the tomb is finally unearthed  When the tomb is opened in the presence of Carnarvon and his daughter it is revealed to be the only unplundered pharaoh's tomb in the valley 

Episode two: The Curse of Tutankhamun
In 1922 Carter goes to the Egyptian Antiquities Service in Cairo to announce his discovery but disagrees with Director Pierre Lacau over the clearance and cataloguing of the contents  The discovery revealed a dark time in the history of Egypt and the death of its boy king  Carter assembles an international team of experts to commence the work under the unwelcome scrutiny of Lacau's inspector and the western press  Carnarvon's cavalier attitude to the finds he considers his property starts to infuriate both Carter and Lacau 
As the finds are slowly catalogued and removed Carter becomes close to Carnarvon's daughter Evelyn but his strictness begins to alienate his team  Tutankhamun was married to his own sister but the union failed to produce an heir to secure the future of the kingdom  Stories of the curse begin to circulate as Carter breaks through into the burial chamber to reveal an intact tomb  As Lacau threatens to take over the excavation and several of the experts quit, Carnarvon questions Carter over his leadership and his relationship with Evelyn  When he came of age Tutankhamun took over control of the kingdom from his military advisor Ay only to die from unknown causes shortly thereafter  Carter rushes to Carnarvon's death-bed where the two make-up  Upon Tutankhamun's death Ay seized the throne and married the widowed queen  Carter, disappointed by Evelyn's engagement to another man, returns to continue his work  Tutankhamun's death came before the royal tomb could be completed so he was hastily buried in the tomb Ay had prepared for himself  Lacau takes over the running of the tomb in 1924 when Carter and his team stop work to protest continued Egyptian interference 
The following year Carter is called back by Lacau to reopen the tomb with funding from Lady Carnarvon  The team start to extract the nested coffins revealing one of them to be made of pure gold that confirms the presence of a Pharaoh  The team begin to notice evidence that the burial was done in a hurry as the body itself is finally uncovered  When Ay died without heir a new dynasty took to the throne that erased all references to the Boy King  In 1932 with his work complete Carter leaves the tomb for the last time and hands the key to Lacau 

Cast
Stuart Graham as Howard Carter
Julian Wadham as Lord Carnarvon
Caroline Langrishe as Lady Carnarvon
Alex Weaver as Evelyn Carnarvon
Valentine Pelka as Pierre Lacau
William Hope as Theodore M  Davis
Laurence Fox as Leonard

Part two: The Great Belzoni
The story of Italian engineer and circus strongman Giovanni Belzoni who became the most unlikely Egyptologist the world has ever seen, intercut with Flashbacks to the life of Ramses the Great, in whose footsteps Belzoni would continually stray 

Episode three: The Pharaoh and the Showman
A dissatisfied Belzoni leaves England with his wife, Sarah, and servant, James Curtin, to see the world  Finding themselves destitute in the streets of Cairo after work on an irrigation project falls through, they are rescued by the eccentric John Lewis Bukhardt who introduces them to British Consul Henry Salt  Belzoni is hired to recover the massive Head of Memnon, later revealed to a statue of the Pharaoh Ramesses the Great, as a gift for the British Museum  Arriving in Luxor in 1816 amidst a gold rush of black market antiquities dealers Belzoni finds himself unwelcome 
At the Ramesseum Belzoni examines the head and devises a plan for its removal  The local Caimakan, under advice from Belzoni's French rival Bernardino Drovetti, denies Belzoni's permit and initially refuses to supply labour until threats bring him around  Ramesses marriage to his true love Nefertari was fruitful and secured the family line and the country too was fertile thanks to the annual flooding of the Nile  The approaching flood season however threatens to strand the head in the heart of the flood plain bringing an abrupt halt to Belzoni's mission  When the local labourers finally arrive Belzoni immediately sets to work moving the head using the same techniques its builders had used 3,000 years previous  Belzoni sends the ailing Jim back to Cairo to request a bigger boat so that they can collect even more antiquities and with time running out is forced to take greater risks to get the head to the bank of the Nile 
With the head secured the Belzonis heads south along the Nile to Abu Simbal in uncharted Nubia to expand the collection of antiquities  Ramesses built two temples at Abu Simbal; one dedicated his beloved wife and the other to his military prowess in the first victorious campaign  Belzoni locates the entrance to the Great Temple but finds it blocked, and so forced to head back to Cairo he vows to return to excavate the site the following season 

Episode four: The Temple of the Sands
Belzoni, arriving back in Cairo, is informed by Salt that only the head is to be sent to the British Museum while the rest of the antiquities he has collected are to be kept at the consulate  Salt refuses to fund an excavation at Abu Simbal and Belzoni is sent south again with Salt's secretary William Beechey and a local dealer called Yanni  Belzoni, whilst becalmed at Minya  spots Yenni talking to his French rival Drovetti and hastily rides to Luxor determined to get there first  Arriving to late Belzoni discovers that the entire area licensed to Drovetti and he must dig elsewhere 
Belzoni, guided by the image of Ramesses, digs in an unlicensed area and discovers a perfectly preserved bust  An infuriated Drovetti has the local ruler issue an edict against Belzoni  With no other option Belzoni heads south to the Island of Philae to collect the antiquities he has stored there only to discover upon arrival that the French have ransacked them  Funds arrive from Salt to begin excavation at Abu Simbal and Belzoni heads to the site with two British Royal Navy officers  Work progresses slowly in the shifting desert until Belzoni devises a plan to build a palisade to hold back the sand  With the entrance uncovered the group cautiously enter to view the magnificent interior  Belzoni records every detail of the temple decorations, which celebrate the capture of Kadesh that made Ramesses a great warrior king  Back in Luxor Belzoni, reunited with Sarah and Jim, is threatened by Drevetti but undeterred he heads deep into the western hills where he enters the Valley of the Kings  Belzoni learns from Yanni and Beechey that Salt is selling off the antiquities he collects rather than donating them to the British Museum 
Persuaded to go on with his explorations Belzoni constructs a battering ram to break through the thick walls of the valley side and open up an undiscovered tomb  Defying booby-traps Belzoni pushes on into the lavish interior of the tomb where he enters the burial chamber of the Pharaoh Seti I  It was here upon the death of his father that Ramesses started his reign, which would bring peace and prosperity to Egypt  The discovery of Belzoni's Tomb secures the Egyptologist's reputation and makes him a celebrity in his adopted home of London where the British Museum would later honour him 

Cast
Matthew Kelly as Belzoni
Lynsey Baxter as Sarah Belzoni
Nevan Finnigan as James Curtin
Robert Portal as Henry Salt
Richard Dempsey as William Beechey
Thomas Lockyer as John Lewis Bukhardt
Joseph Long as Bernardino Drovetti

Part three: Champollion
Jean-François Champollion uses the Rosetta Stone to unlock the mysteries of the lost civilisation of Ancient Egypt which had been closed off to Europeans for centuries prior to the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798  The stone, discovered by the French in 1799, had been created as a work of propaganda by the Greek-speaking Pharaoh Ptolemy V to establish his place in Egyptian cosmology and flashbacks are included to explain this belief system 

Episode five: The Mystery of the Rosetta Stone
The young Champollion, encouraged to develop his gift for languages by his elder brother, becomes obsessed with deciphering hieroglyphs as a means to telling the age of the world and revenging France against the British who had confiscated the stone in 1801  When Alexander the Great had conquered Egypt, he had fuelled local resentment by bringing in a Greek speaking elite to rule  Their descendant King Tutankhamun had commissioned a series of stones written in Greek, common Egyptian and hieroglyphs for temples across the land to extol his virtues and underline his claim to the throne 
Champollion studies under Silvestre de Sacy in Paris but finds the professor who had himself failed decipher hieroglyphs dismissive of further attempts believing them to be symbolic rather than a true language  English scientist Thomas Young uses mathematics to decipher the inscription like a code whilst Champollion believing hieroglyphs to be representative of a spoken language attempts to relate them to the Coptic language of Egypt's ancient Christian communities  Young makes a number of breakthroughs including the spelling of Ptolemy in hieroglyphs while Champollion finds work as assistant professor at the University of Grenoble  France is thrown into political turmoil in 1815 following defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and the republican Champollion is arrested for sedition and exiled to Figeac until 1821  Eccentric Egyptologist Giovanni Belzoni discovers an obelisk inscribed with the name of Cleopatra in Greek and hieroglyphs at Philae and sends it back to Young in England 
Young makes a mistake in translating the obelisk setting back his work whilst Champollion using a copy of the obelisk creates a hieroglyphic alphabet that he uses along with Coptic to translate the name of Ramesses the Great from sketches of Abu Simbal  Champollion's discovery arouses the suspicions of the Catholic Church who fear hieroglyphs might disprove the historical accuracy of the Bible  Young wishes Champllion good luck in proving his theories but Sacy and the Church are determined to stop him 

Episode six: The Secrets of the Hieroglyphs
Champollion is determined to travel to Egypt to prove his theory but poor and jobless he is reduced to buying up whatever scraps of papyrus he can find and this obsession alienates his wife  The Dendera zodiac purchased by the French King Charles X threatens to challenge the biblical chronologies of church scholars, as it is believed by some to date to before the Great Flood of 2349 BC  Champollion is called in to confirm Sacy's dating of the antiquity to around 2000 BC; he disputes Sacy's dating but not Church authorities by dating it to some 2,000 years later than that during the Roman period 
Champollion is sent to Turin by the King to value a collection put up for sale by the French Consul to Egypt Bernardino Drovetti  Prior to his departure Champollion's wife announces that she is pregnant and she is not pleased by his new job  Champollion builds a strong reputation for himself in Italy even being invited for an audience with Pope Leo XII  Returning to Paris with a large collection of antiquities for the King he is put in charge of the Egyptian collection at the Louvre  The King finally agrees to fund Champollion's expedition to Egypt on the proviso that he does not publish any finds that contradict the teachings of the Church  Champollion, arriving in 1828, starts by studying the Great Pyramid at Giza discovering it to be a tomb built for the Pharaoh Khufu around 2560 BC  At Saqqara he finds the site largely stripped by dealers but in a forgotten tomb he discovers ancient hieroglyphs he translates to prove his theories  Eager to understand the Ancient Egyptians he pushes on to the ancient capital of Thebes where at the sprawling Temple of Karnak he reads the story of Ramesses the Great and the battle against the Hittites at Kadesh 
At Belzoni's Tomb in the Valley of the Kings the ailing Champollion reads the story of Pharaoh Seti I and learns of the burial rites of Pharaohs  He is thus able to comprehend the belief system of the Ancient Egyptians for the first time  Champollion dies back in France 18 months later but his legacy allows Egyptologist to comprehend the meaning behind monuments such as the Great Pyramid of Giza and to decipher papyri that lead to such discoveries as the Tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter 

Cast
Elliot Cowan as Jean-François Champollion
Stuart Bunce as Jacques-Joseph Champollion

Media information
DVD release
Released on Region 2 DVD by BBC Video on 2006-02-06 Also released on Region 1 DVD (2 discs, but does not include the bonus 'Pyramid') by BBC Worldwide 2006-05-23

Companion book
The 2005 companion book to the series was written by author and archaeologist Joyce Tyldesley expands on the series to tell the full story of the discoveries and the colourful characters who made them 

Selected editions
Tyldesley, Joyce (6 October 2005)  Egypt, How A Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered  BBC Books (hardcover)  ISBN 978-0-563-52257-7 
Tyldesley, Joyce (1 June 2003)  Egypt, How A Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered  BBC Books (paperback)  ISBN 978-0-563-49381-5 
Tyldesley, Joyce (18 September 2005)  Egypt, How A Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered  UC Press (hardcover)  ISBN 978-0-520-25020-8 

See also
Building the Great Pyramid



ground_truth: Big 12 Conference