Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Leonard Harrison State Park

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by User:SandyGeorgia 04:26, 18 August 2008 [1].

Leonard Harrison State Park[edit]

Nominator(s): Ruhrfisch and Dincher (talk)


We are nominating this article for featured article because we believe that is represents some of the best work that wikipedia has to offer regarding state parks. It follows two FAs as models (Black Moshannon State Park and Worlds End State Park) and has undergone an extensive peer review (thanks to Dtbohrer and Jackyd101), which is archived on the talk page. Ruhrfisch and Dincher (talk) 22:17, 12 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

comment - It would be nice if the Image:Leonard Harrison2.jpg could have it's copyright status confirmed Fasach Nua (talk) 09:14, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I will email the park and see if they can clarify it Ruhrfisch ><>°° 10:10, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
What is the status on this image? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:02, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I am pretty sure that Ruhrfisch has yet to hear back from PADCNR. Dincher (talk) 17:05, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I emailed the park on August 13th, right after my comment above. I have yet to hear anything back from them. Usually Pennsylvania state park personnel are quick to reply if they know the answer, so my guess is they are still looking for a date. I do note the use of the image in the article is covered by a valid fair use claim - it just appears that Mr. Harrison is younger than age 73 in the image, which would make it a free (pre-1923 publication) image if this could be confirmed. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 17:15, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comments - sources look good, links all checked out with the link checker tool. Ealdgyth - Talk 13:12, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks very much for checking the links Ruhrfisch ><>°° 16:25, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment Pennsylvania Desert image divorced from relevant content. Should be relocated. --Dweller (talk) 13:35, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    • Thanks for pointing this out - the idea was to include it here to show the cause of all the lost species. I have changed the caption to read Clearcutting led to the "Pennsylvania Desert", caused local extinction of many species, and changed the seasonal flow of streams. to try and make it clearer why this image is here. If that still does not work for you, I think we could move it into the Lumber section of History. Please let us know what you think of it with the new caption. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 16:25, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Support Comments by Ben MacDui

Lead

  • Opening sentence seems overly long and clumsy. It includes “Pennsylvania” twice, “state park” twice and “in” thrice. Do we need to know the precise address in the lead? “Leonard Harrison State Park is a 585-acre (237 ha) nature reserve in Tioga County, Pennsylvania in the United States.” or similar?
  • The refs in the infobox are italicised. This seems to be a standard park infobox procedure, although I am not sure why.
    • Thanks. It is a Geobox. User:Caroig, who did most of the work on developing Geoboxes, has pretty much left Wikipedia, so changes in their format are very slow. I have asked that this be fixed (no italics for refs). Ruhrfisch ><>°° 17:49, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • ”named one of "10 great places to take a bike tour" in the world” Doubtless verifiable, although there is a suggestion of hyperbole here. What were the criteria – what were the others? I don’t need to know the answers, but UK newspapers do a “50 best beaches/restaurants/castles/river walks etc. etc.” on a regular basis and the lists are hardly ever the same. If you are sure the trail is a truly world class candidate I’m not in a position to contest that.
    • It is a national newspaper in the US (a rare beast) and the list was from Patricia Vance, author of bicycle touring guides. It was one of only five places in the continental United States on the list. I have hiked chunks of the trail, but not ridden it. Since the focus of the article is the park and only about one mile of the trail is in the park, I have left the USA Today quote in the Trails section, but changed the lead to Since 1996, the 63.4-mile (102.0 km) long Pine Creek Rail Trail has followed the creek through the park. Hopefully this is better? Ruhrfisch ><>°° 17:59, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Native Americans

  • The first two sentences do not seem quite right to me. I had to read it twice to understand that the second clause of the first sentence and the second sentence were referring to different peoples (I think) and “stone tools” is repeated. Suggest “Humans have lived in what is now Pennsylvania since at least 10,000 BC. The first settlers were Paleo-Indian nomadic hunters known from their stone tools.[15][16] The hunter-gatherers of the Archaic period, which lasted locally from 7000 to 1000 BC, used a greater variety of more sophisticated stone artefacts.” You could also link “stone tool”
  • ”whose earliest recorded inhabitants “ you tell us when they left but it would be interesting to know either the date of the records or when they arrived.
    • The earliest recorded contact with the Susquehannocks I am aware of is when Captain John Smith of Jamestown met some near the mouth of the Susquehanna River in 1608, while sailing around Chesepeake Bay. He did not even make it to their main towns in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. let alone all the way upstream to Pine Creek. By the time colonists got to the Pine Creek area, the Susquehannocks were pretty much wiped out (and they left no written records I am aware of). As for dates of their arrival, that is only guesswork - the problem is most of what we know of the Susquehannocks is either from limited early contacts (they were big players in the beaver pelt trade in southeast Pennsylvania, perhaps part of why the Iroquois attacked them) or vague accounts from the Iroquois or archeological evidence that is thought to be from them. I am not sure how to succinctly include this in the article, but will mull it over. Suggestions welcome. Thanks, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 19:39, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      • I suggest a footnote alluding to the early 17th century. Ben MacDui 09:06, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        • There is now a footnote that reads The earliest written record of contact with the Susquehannocks comes from Captain John Smith of Jamestown, who met members of the tribe near the mouth of the Susquehanna River on Chesepeake Bay in 1608. The tribe controlled the Susquehanna drainage basin and are believed to have lived there for at least a few centuries prior to this contact. Hopefully this is clearer. Thanks, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 18:49, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • ”however some isolated bands” might be better as “although some isolated bands”

Lumber era

  • “The demand for lumber slowly increased and by the time of the American Revolution the lumber industry” “Lumber” appears twice and starts the next sentence too: “The demand for wood products slowly increased”?
    • The old version does sort of lumber along, so changed to yours, thanks Ruhrfisch ><>°° 19:39, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • ”Each 1 acre”. Surely “Each acre”?
  • ”while the last log drive on Little Pine Creek and Pine Creek was in 1905. The west rim, which became Colton Point State Park, had a logging railroad by 1903, which was able to harvest lumber on Fourmile Run that had been inaccessible before.” Do you mean “drives” and if not there is an implication of a later drive on some other tributary and Pine Creek. “had been inaccessible before that” or "had been previously inaccessible.” might be better.
    • Changed it to while the last log drive in the Pine Creek watershed started on Little Pine Creek in 1905. There is a great photo of this last drive here. Just as a note, there were other log drives elsewhere on the West Branch Susquehanna River and its tributaries until 1909, when the Susquehanna Boom closed. Changed the inaccessible phrase to your version, thanks, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 19:39, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ecology

  • You might be able to legitimately link “foxes" to the more specific Vulpes.
  • ”Some of the earliest settlers to canoe up Pine Creek found so many rattlesnakes on its banks that they had to sleep in their canoe, further upstream insects forced them to do the same” reads a little oddly. Full stop or “and” after “canoe”?
    • Full stop it is - they put a crude bark roof over the canoe to try and keep the insects out, sounds comfortable... thanks Ruhrfisch ><>°° 20:00, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • ”Pine Creek were home to large numbers of fish” Were it now?
    • Aaargh, it were! (sheepish grin) Good catch, changed now and thanks, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 20:00, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • “shad, salmon (these may have been shad)” also reads oddly. Could the dubiety about the salmon be put into a footnote?
    • Now in a footnote that reads "Early accounts of salmon in Pine Creek may have been referring to shad." Thanks, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 20:00, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • ”a thriving population of deer” “of deer” is redundant
  • chestnut and otters could be linked. You may be able to safely link to North American Porcupine although I’m not sure.
    • Chestnut is now linked. River Otters are linked in the first paragraph already and we tried not to link any plant or animal more than once in the body of the article. North American Porcupine is now the porucpine link - seems very reasonable. Thanks, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 20:00, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Recreation

  • ”persons using the rustic camping facilities in 2003.[2] Rustic campsites had no modern amenities” I’m confused – did they stop being rustic after 2003? "have no modern"?
    • Thanks, I tried to make it clearer - now reads Camping is a popular pastime at Leonard Harrison State Park, with 3,511 persons using the rustic camping facilities in 2003.[2] The DCNR classifies camping facilities as "rustic" if they do not have flush toilets or showers. The DCNR has since renovated the park camping area, building modern bathrooms with flush toilets and hot showers, and no longer considers it "rustic". Is this better? Ruhrfisch ><>°° 20:27, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      • Yup, although you might want to avoid starting two consecutive sentences with "The DCNR" Ben MacDui 09:06, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • “may be fished during trout season” missing “the”?
    • Local usage omits "the", if it would be clearer for a worldwide audience, we can add it. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 20:27, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Agree with Ruhr again, I am a local and I don't think I have ever heard 'the' used before any sort of hunting or fishing season. Dincher (talk) 21:54, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Do Scottish tourists tell the locals how cute this sounds?
They try, but the locals are too busy admiring their accents, kilts, and sporrans. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 18:49, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • ”notable fishermen” – “fishermen of note” might be better unless you mean they were prize-winning anglers.

Refs

  • If You Go: Two State Parks, Divided by a Canyon.. What was retrieved? Ditto refs 37-9. Square brackets look wrong in #53, (pdf) missing in 57.
    • I have online access to the New York Times, but it is a fee-based service, so I removed the URLs but not the accessdate. They are gone now. The square brackets were from using "origdate" instead of "date" in the cite template, good catch. PDF is in too, thanks Ruhrfisch ><>°° 20:27, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Finally, good work. Ben MacDui 14:12, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks so much for you careful reading and thoughtful comments. I am working on replying to them. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 17:49, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • PS You are lucky to have porcupines, but “layers of ancient rock” – I’ll show you "ancient".
    • While these rocks can not hope to compete with their Scottish cousins, I am happy to report they are growing more ancient every day. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 17:49, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Although sadly further away. Ben MacDui 09:06, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      • I believe all of the issues save two (dates for the Susquehannocks and "the" in trout season) are now addressed. Thanks so much for making this a better article and your time and care, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 20:27, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        • As a local, I put my two cents on regarding the 'the' and also doubt that we can get any solid information on the arrival of the Susquehannocks. Thanks for the helpful comments that improved this and other articles. Dincher (talk) 21:58, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        • You are most welcome, and see above suggestions. Ben MacDui 09:06, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
          • Thanks very much for your support - I have copied the first sentence discussion to the talk page and will reply to the other suggestions in the next few hours. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 14:26, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the support! Dincher (talk) 19:11, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

CommentsSupport by Choess (talk)

  • Lead: In the first sentence of the first paragraph, I might change "the gorge" to "its gorge", but I don't insist on it. Just feels a little better somehow. The second sentence of the second paragraph feels like a run-on: "Native Americans once used...later this was used by lumbermen..." I'd break the sentence before "Later" and restate it as "The path was later used by lumbermen...". In the third paragraph, I think there should be a comma after "second-growth forest".
    • I prefer "the gorge" (and I think it is the second sentence) - "its gorge" seems too possessive, especially since the Pine Creek Gorge is 47 miles long and this park is about 1 mile of one side of that. Sentence split and comma inserted, thanks Ruhrfisch ><>°° 21:13, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Pine Creek Gorge: "Natural Area" should probably be consistently capitalized.
  • Native Americans: "Artefacts" should be "artifacts" (American vs British spelling?). Wikify date for formatting.
    • Now "artifacts", dates not linked per note below. Thanks, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 21:13, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Lumber era: Wikify dates. "rafts of spars floated" should perhaps read "rafts of spars were floated". It might be helpful to add a parenthetical note after "...to allow loose logs to float better" to explain why dam construction helped the logs float better—and I see we need a stub for splash dam. Hmmm, I'll have to see if I have a relevant Taber volume to source it. Replace "log drives had up to" with "log drives floated up to" for clarity. Use an unspaced mdash in the photo caption.
    • I have a few Taber volumes - I think "Williamsport Lumber Capital" has a nice free (PD old) photo of a splash dam. Will have to check. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 21:13, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      • Except for the splash dam note (still working on it), I made all of the changes requested - thanks Ruhrfisch ><>°° 03:20, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Nessmuk and Leonard Harrison: Move the sentence beginning "Nessmuk's words..." to the end of the first paragraph. Use an unspaced ndash between birth and death dates in the photo captions. Maybe change "substantial amount of acreage" to "substantial amount of land"? The former sounds a little odd to me. Change "the era" to "that era". End the sentence with "descent of the logs"; it's already been explained where the sawmills are. "invited to public to enjoy of beauty of Pine Creek Gorge." should read "invited the public to enjoy the beauty of Pine Creek Gorge." The sentence about Tioga State Forest is confusing, because we've been talking about the land in the gorge that's part of the park. I had to go back and look at the map. Try to explain that the land that went to the State Forest surrounds the park and gorge. (Or was the park part of the forest at the time?)
Fixed these except for the last bit which I will leave alone for now. Not sure how to handle it. Dincher (talk) 21:48, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The park was doanted in 1922 and the state forest in 1925, so Leonard Harrison was not part of the forest. (Not in this article, but since Colton Point was not established until 1936, I believe it was taken from state forest lands, of course it was a "State Forest Park" then too.) Anyway, I think I got a better explanation of the Tioga State Forest now. Thanks, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 03:20, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Modern era: Use unspaced ndash between 1933 and 1936. Is it accurate to replace "lumber paths" with "logging roads," IMO a more familiar term?
n dash added switched from lumber paths to logging roads, good suggestion. Dincher (talk) 21:27, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Ecology: the names of animals should not be capitalized, with the exception of the proper noun "American" in "American bison". Add a comma after "Further upstream".
Comma added. Dincher (talk) 21:19, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • State Natural Area and wildlife: Omit the comma after "second growth forest" here. More decapitalization for the trees. Add comma after "Prior to the lumber era".
commas moved. Dincher (talk) 21:16, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Trails: link "red pines".
Linked and removed two peacock words. Dincher (talk) 21:16, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Hunting, fishing, and whitewater: decapitalization.

A fine job, as usual. This is my first detailed FAC comment, so I hope this is useful. Choess (talk) 19:45, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

  • Thanks very much for your careful reading of the article and very useful suggestions - we will work through these. Two notes before that: first, date linking is no longer required by the MOS and User:Tony1 actually delinked all the dates in the last FAC I nominated; second, the article follows the convention that the names of species are capitalized, while the names of genera etc. are not. This is currently being discussed at WIkipedia Talk:Manual of Style and follows the convention used in the two model state park FAs. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 20:52, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thanks for the comments and careful reading. The conversation about caps will probably just cause confusion and frustration. Not recommended reading. =) Dincher (talk) 21:16, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    • Too late. Sweet suffering Sasquatch! And people are wondering why I don't engage in more policy discussions. I'm tired just from reading that section. Well, I stand wholly corrected in regards to two important formatting issues. Choess (talk) 02:40, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    • I believe we've covered most the the suggestions. Thanks again. I left the part about Tioga State Forest in the Nessmuk section for Ruhr. Let us know of any other suggestions. Dincher (talk) 21:50, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      • Looks good. Switching to support. I do have some more style issues to raise, although they're not dealbreakers:
        1. Another sentence or two about the JSPC&B Ry. might be worthwhile, to emphasize the fact that it was part of a through coal line rather than a logging railroad. I think that's my department, so I'll try to add something. Sentence added; keep it if you like it.
        2. The last two paragraphs of "Modern era" are a little jarring; lots of facts in chronological order, but not necessarily a clear flow between them. (I know I do this in my own stuff too.) Maybe this could be rearranged into one paragraph about publicity and one about improvements, or something like that?
        3. It's a little jarring to see the end of passenger train service mentioned without having really discussed what that meant for the gorge. I've searched around to see if I could find documentation of NYC specials for sightseeing in the gorge or at the park, but no luck so far. I'll let you know if I find anything. (Also, it should probably say "regular passenger service"; Lancaster Chapter NRHS had an excursion to the gorge as late as 1987!) Choess (talk) 02:40, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
          • 1) The RR sentence looks good. 2) I worried a bit about organization of the Modern era section - see this here - second paragraph - and can try to reorganize the section based on that idea. 3) Will add "regular". Owlett and Dillon do not mention these excursions in their books on the gorge, though Owlett does metnion some wanted a steam excursion train instead of a rail trail. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 03:44, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the support. I'll be busy IRL this weekend, a tree fell in my yard and I finally have the chainsaw to clean it up. Here's to hoping I have all my limbs at the end of the weekend.Dincher (talk) 03:01, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks from me too - I made a few more comments above and have a few more yet to add, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 03:20, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Support and comments and license check: Having not looked at this article until this evening, I did three sets of things. First, I added a few missing no-break codes, changed a bit of punctuation, and fixed two or three typos. Second, I compiled comments on the following few small things:

  • Lead: Should the last sentence of the first paragraph specify "western" terminus of Route 660 since the highway has two?
  • Native Americans, second paragraph, first sentence: A drainage basin isn't a "who". How about "... drainage basin, the earliest recorded inhabitants of which... "?
  • Native Americans, last paragraph: "as it was unclear if the border" might be better as "as it was unclear whether the border".
  • Lumber era, second paragraph: Should Owlett be rendered as Steven E. Owlett on first mention in the text and identified in some way by area of expertise?
    • Changed to According to Steven E. Owlett, environmental lawyer and author, ... Ruhrfisch ><>°° 11:35, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Modern era, first sentence: Delete the extra word "some" from "some time"? Ditto for "just" in the phrase "just one" in the second paragraph? Ditto "now" in "achievements of the CCC now stands"?
  • Ecology, last paragraph. Maybe "canoes" would be better. I hope they had more than one.
    • On rereading the source, I changed the sentence to In 1794, two of the earliest white explorers to travel up Pine Creek found so many rattlesnakes on its banks that they had to sleep in their canoe. They also saw a herd of nearly 200 elk on Pine Creek and put a roof of tree bark and clay (with a smoldering smokey fire on top) over their canoe to keep the bugs out, while they slept inside (but I tried to limit the detail) Ruhrfisch ><>°° 15:31, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Important Bird Area, second paragraph. "Used" rather than "utilized"? Last paragraph: "are more often heard rather than seen" might be better as "are more often heard than seen".

Third, I checked the licenses on all of the images in the article, and they look fine. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I've never checked the licenses on anything at FAC before, but I thought this would be a good article to start with after reading User:Elcobbola's most helpful tutorial. Finetooth (talk) 03:58, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks very much for your copyedits, helpful comments, image check and support. I am calling it a night, but will attend to your suggestions tomorrow. They all look quite reasonable, except I think there really were just two guys in one canoe - I will double check tomorrow against Owlett. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 04:17, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the support, comments and suggestions. Dincher (talk) 14:28, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

User:Tony1's response, copied from User:SandyGeorgia's talk page:

Sandy, the triple hyphenated expression is always going to be a problem when inserting a conversion. The simple solution is to remove the redundant word:
Thanks to both of you, I have made the needed changes, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 01:40, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Of course once I made the changes, Tony had another idea on his talk page:

  • Either "a path 0.6 mile (1.0 km) long", or "a 0.6-mile (1.0 km) path". Tony (talk) 01:48, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I will leave it as changed for now, but welcome any comments and am OK with either formulation. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 02:14, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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