Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Saint Joseph, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Saint Joseph, river, 210 mi (338 km) long, rising in S Mich. and flowing generally westward in wide curves to Lake Michigan at Benton Harbor, Mich. South Bend, Ind., is on the river, which was an impo...

corn

(Encyclopedia)corn, in botany. The name corn is given to the leading cereal crop of any major region. In England corn means wheat; in Scotland and Ireland, oats. The grain called corn in the United States is Indian...

steel industry

(Encyclopedia)steel industry, the business of processing iron ore into steel, which in its simplest form is an iron-carbon alloy, and in some cases, turning that metal into partially finished products or recycling ...

Poughkeepsie

(Encyclopedia)Poughkeepsie pəkĭpˈsē [key], city (1990 pop. 28,844), seat of Dutchess co., SE N.Y., on the Hudson River; settled 1687 by the Dutch, inc. as a city 1854. It is a trade center and was once a major ...

Sandy Hook

(Encyclopedia)Sandy Hook, low, sandy peninsula, NE N.J., projecting 5 mi (8 km) N toward New York and separating Sandy Hook Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. At the northern end is a Coast Guard station and the former F...

Constitution Island

(Encyclopedia)Constitution Island, in the Hudson River opposite West Point, SE N.Y.; part of the U.S. Military Academy. The ruins of Fort Constitution, built in 1775, are there. During the American Revolution, a ch...

Block, Adriaen

(Encyclopedia)Block, Adriaen, fl. 1610–24, Dutch navigator. Eager to establish a fur trade with the Native Americans, Amsterdam merchants sent (1613) Block and another Dutch navigator to explore the region discov...

Saint Lawrence

(Encyclopedia)Saint Lawrence, one of the principal rivers of North America, 744 mi (1,197 km) long. It issues from the northeastern end of Lake Ontario and flows northeast, first along the U.S.-Canadian border, the...

Maxim

(Encyclopedia)Maxim măkˈsĭm [key], name of a family of inventors and munition makers. Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, 1840–1916, was born near Sangerville, Maine. After launching on a career of inventing, he moved to...

Campbell, Robert, Canadian fur trader and explorer

(Encyclopedia)Campbell, Robert, 1808–94, Canadian fur trader and explorer, b. Scotland. Employed as a young man by the Hudson's Bay Company, he was sent in 1834 to the Mackenzie River region, where he remained un...
 

Browse by Subject