document_title: The Sound of Music (film)

question_text: where did they escape to in the sound of music

text: The Sound of Music (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Maria is a free-spirited young Austrian woman studying to become a nun at Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg in 1938. Her love of music and the mountains, her youthful enthusiasm and imagination, and her lack of discipline cause some concern among the nuns. The Mother Abbess, believing Maria would be happier outside the abbey, sends her to the villa of retired naval officer Captain Georg von Trapp to be governess to his seven children—Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. The Captain has been raising his children alone using strict military discipline following the death of his first wife. Although the children misbehave at first, Maria responds with kindness and patience, and soon the children come to trust and respect her.

text: While the Captain is away in Vienna, Maria makes play clothes for the children and takes them around Salzburg and the surrounding mountains, and she teaches them how to sing. When the Captain returns to the villa with Baroness Elsa Schraeder, a wealthy socialite, and their mutual friend, Max Detweiler, they are greeted by Maria and the children returning from a boat ride on the lake that concludes when their boat overturns. Displeased by his children's clothes and activities, and Maria's impassioned appeal that he get closer to his children, the Captain orders her to return to the abbey. Just then he hears singing coming from inside the house and is astonished to see his children singing for the Baroness. Filled with emotion, the Captain joins his children, singing for the first time in years. Afterwards, he apologizes to Maria and asks her to stay.

text: Impressed by the children's singing, Max proposes he enter them in the upcoming Salzburg Festival but the suggestion is immediately rejected by the Captain as he does not allow his children to sing in public. He does agree, however, to organize a grand party at the villa. The night of the party, while guests in formal attire waltz in the ballroom, Maria and the children look on from the garden terrace. When the Captain notices Maria teaching Kurt the traditional Ländler folk dance, he cuts in and partners with Maria in a graceful performance, culminating in a close embrace. Confused about her feelings, Maria blushes and breaks away. Later, the Baroness, who noticed the Captain's attraction to Maria, hides her jealousy while convincing Maria that she must return to the abbey. Back at the abbey, when Mother Abbess learns that Maria has stayed in seclusion to avoid her feelings for the Captain, she encourages her to return to the villa to look for her life. After Maria returns to the villa, she learns about the Captain's engagement to the Baroness and agrees to stay until they find a replacement governess. The Captain's feelings for Maria, however, have not changed, and after breaking off his engagement the Captain and Maria marry.

text: While they are on their honeymoon, Max enters the children in the Salzburg Festival against their father's wishes. When they learn that Austria has been annexed by the Third Reich in the Anschluss, the couple return to their home, where a telegram awaits informing the Captain that he must report to the German Naval base at Bremerhaven to accept a commission in the German Navy. Strongly opposed to the Nazis and the Anschluss, the Captain tells his family they must leave Austria immediately. That night, as the von Trapp family attempt to leave, they are stopped by a group of Brownshirts waiting outside the villa. When questioned by Gauleiter Hans Zeller, the Captain maintains they are headed to the Salzburg Festival to perform. Zeller insists on escorting them to the festival, after which his men will accompany the Captain to Bremerhaven.

text: Later that night at the festival, during their final number, the von Trapp family slip away and seek shelter at the nearby abbey, where Mother Abbess hides them in the cemetery crypt. Brownshirts soon arrive and search the abbey, but the family is able to escape using the caretaker's car. When the soldiers attempt to pursue, they discover their cars will not start as two nuns have removed parts of the engines. The next morning, after driving to the Swiss border, the von Trapp family make their way on foot across the frontier into Switzerland to safety and freedom.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp
Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp

Bill Lee as Captain von Trapp's singing voice

Eleanor Parker as Baroness Elsa von Schraeder
Richard Haydn as Max Detweiler
Peggy Wood as the Mother Abbess
Charmian Carr as Liesl von Trapp
Nicholas Hammond as Friedrich von Trapp
Heather Menzies as Louisa von Trapp
Duane Chase as Kurt von Trapp
Angela Cartwright as Brigitta von Trapp
Debbie Turner as Marta von Trapp
Kym Karath as Gretl von Trapp
Anna Lee as Sister Margaretta
Portia Nelson as Sister Berthe
Ben Wright as Herr Zeller
Daniel Truhitte as Rolfe
Norma Varden as Frau Schmidt
Gil Stuart as Franz
Marni Nixon as Sister Sophia
Evadne Baker as Sister Bernice
Doris Lloyd as Baroness Ebberfeld

text: Background[edit]

text: The Sound of Music story is based on Maria von Trapp's memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, published in 1949 to help promote her family's singing group following the death of her husband Georg in 1947.[5] Hollywood producers expressed interest in purchasing the title only, but Maria refused, wanting her entire story to be told.[5] In 1956, German producer Wolfgang Liebeneiner purchased the film rights for $9,000 (equivalent to $79,000 in 2016), hired George Hurdalek and Herbert Reinecker to write the screenplay, and Franz Grothe to supervise the soundtrack, which consisted of traditional Austrian folk songs.[6] The Trapp Family was released in West Germany on October 9, 1956 and became a major success.[5] Two years later, Liebeneiner directed a sequel, The Trapp Family in America, and the two pictures became the most successful films in West Germany during the post-war years.[5] Their popularity extended throughout Europe and South America.[5]

text: In 1956, Paramount Pictures purchased the United States film rights, intending to produce an English-language version with Audrey Hepburn as Maria.[5] The studio eventually dropped its option, but one of its directors, Vincent J. Donehue, proposed the story as a stage musical for Mary Martin.[5] Producers Richard Halliday and Leland Heyward secured the rights and hired playwrights Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who had won the Pulitzer Prize for State of the Union.[6] They approached Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to compose one song for the musical, but the composers felt the two styles—traditional Austrian folk songs and their composition—would not work together.[6] They offered to write a complete new score for the entire production if the producers were willing to wait while they completed work on Flower Drum Song.[7] The producers quickly responded that they would wait as long as necessary.[7] The Sound of Music stage musical opened on November 16, 1959 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City and ran on Broadway for 1,443 performances, winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical.[8] In June 1960, Twentieth Century Fox purchased the film adaptation rights to the stage musical for $1.25 million (equivalent to $10,100,000 in 2016) against ten percent of the gross.[9][Note 1]

text: Production[edit]

text: For the film, Richard Rodgers added two new songs, "I Have Confidence" and "Something Good", for which he wrote the lyrics as well as the music (Hammerstein having died in August 1960), while three of the original stage songs were omitted,[10] "How Can Love Survive", "No Way To Stop It" and "An Ordinary Couple". Arranger and conductor Irwin Kostal prerecorded the songs with a large orchestra and singers on a stage prior to the start of filming, and later adapted instrumental underscore passages based on the songs. Choreographers Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood, who had worked with Andrews on Mary Poppins, worked out all new choreography sequences that incorporated many of the Salzburg locations and settings. The Sound of Music was filmed from March 26 through September 1, 1964, with external scenes shot on location in Salzburg, Austria, and the surrounding region, and interior scenes filmed at the 20th Century Fox studios in California. The movie was photographed in 70 mm Todd-AO by Ted McCord and produced with DeLuxe Color processing and six-track sound recording.

text: Screenplay and pre-production[edit]

text: In December 1962, 20th Century Fox president Richard D. Zanuck hired Ernest Lehman to write the screenplay for the film adaptation of the stage musical.[11] Lehman reviewed the original script for the stage musical, rearranged the sequence of songs, and began transforming a work designed for the stage into a film that could use the camera to emphasize action and mood, and open the story up to the beautiful locations of Salzburg and the Austrian Alps.[12] The "Do-Re-Mi" sequence in the play, for example, was originally a stagnant number; Lehman transformed it into a lively montage showing some of the beautiful sites of Salzburg, as well as showing Maria and the children growing closer over time.[12] Lehman also eliminated two songs, "How Can Love Survive?" and "No Way to Stop It", sung by the characters of Elsa and Max.[12] In January 1963, he saw the Fox English-dubbed version of the two German films, was not especially impressed, and decided to use the stage musical and Maria's memoir for most of his source material.[13] While Lehman was developing the screenplay, he and Zanuck began looking for a director. Their first choice was Robert Wise, with whom Lehman had worked on the film adaptation of West Side Story, but Wise was busy preparing work for another film, The Sand Pebbles.[14] Other directors were approached and turned down the offer, including Stanley Donen, Vincent J. Donehue, George Roy Hill, and Gene Kelly.[15]

text: In January 1963, Lehman invited one of his favorite directors, William Wyler, to travel to New York City with him to see the Broadway musical. After seeing the show, Wyler said he hated it, but after two weeks of Lehman's persuasion, Wyler reluctantly agreed to direct and produce the film.[16] After hiring musical supervisor Roger Edens, Wyler, Lehman, and Edens traveled to Salzburg to scout filming locations.[17] In two weeks they managed to see approximately seventy-five locations—an experience that helped Lehman conceptualize several important sequences.[18] During that trip, Lehman began to have reservations about Wyler's commitment to the project, and communicated this to Zanuck, who instructed the writer to finalize the first draft of the screenplay as quickly as possible.[19] Lehman completed the first draft on September 10, 1963 and sent it to Wyler, who had no suggestions or changes.[19] At that time, Lehman also secretly gave a copy of the script to the agent of Robert Wise, whom Lehman still wanted as the director.[19] Later that month, Wyler's agent approached Zanuck asking that production on the film be delayed so Wyler could direct The Collector. Zanuck told him to tell Wyler to make the other film, and that they would move ahead on schedule with another director, ending Wyler's participation.[19]

text: Meanwhile, Wise, whose film The Sand Pebbles had been postponed, read Lehman's first draft, was impressed by what he read, and agreed to direct the film.[20] Wise joined the picture in October 1963,[21] and flew to Salzburg with associate producer Saul Chaplin and members of his production team to scout filming locations, including many that Wyler had identified.[22] When he returned, Wise began working on the script. Wise shared Lehman's vision of the film being centered on the music, and the changes he made were consistent with the writer's approach—mainly reducing the amount of sweetness and sentimentality found in the stage musical.[21] He had reservations about Lehman's opening aerial sequence because they'd used a similar opening in West Side Story, but decided to keep it.[21] Other changes included replacing "An Ordinary Couple" with a more romantic number, and a new song for Maria's departure from the abbey—Rodgers provided "Something Good" and "I Have Confidence" especially for the film.[23] Lehman completed the second draft on December 20, 1963,[24] but additional changes would be made based on input from Maria von Trapp and Christopher Plummer about the character of the Captain. Plummer especially helped transform a character lacking substance into a stronger, more forceful complex figure with a wry sense of humor and a darker edge.[25] Lehman completed his final draft on March 20, 1964.[26]

text: Casting and rehearsals[edit]

text: Lehman's first and only choice for Maria was Julie Andrews.[27] When Wise joined the project, he made a list of his choices for the role, which included Andrews as his first choice, Grace Kelly, and Shirley Jones.[28] Wise and Lehman went to Disney Studios to view footage from Mary Poppins, which was not yet released. A few minutes into the film, Wise told Lehman, "Let's go sign this girl before somebody else sees this film and grabs her!"[27] Andrews had some reservations—mainly about the amount of sweetness in the theatrical version—but when she learned that her concerns were shared by Wise and Lehman and what their vision was, she signed a contract with Fox to star in The Sound of Music and one other film for $225,000 (equivalent to $1,740,000 in 2016).[29] Wise had a more difficult time casting the role of the Captain. A number of actors were considered for the part, including Bing Crosby, Yul Brynner, Sean Connery, and Richard Burton.[30] Wise had seen Christopher Plummer on Broadway and wanted him for the role, but the stage actor turned down the offer several times. Wise flew to London to meet with Plummer and explained his concept of the film; the actor accepted after being assured that he could work with Lehman to improve the character;[31] Plummer later described himself as having become quite arrogant at the time, "spoiled by too many great theater roles".[32]

text: Wise also spent considerable time and effort on casting the secondary characters. For the role of Max Detweiler, Wise initially considered Victor Borge, Noël Coward, and Hal Holbrook among others before deciding on Richard Haydn.[31] For the character of Baroness Elsa Schraeder, Wise looked for a "name" actress—Andrews and Plummer were not yet widely known to film audiences—and decided on Eleanor Parker.[33] The casting of the children characters began in November 1963 and involved over two hundred interviews and auditions throughout the United States and England.[34] Some of the child-actors interviewed or tested, who were not selected, included Mia Farrow, Patty Duke, Lesley Ann Warren, Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Fabares, Teri Garr, Kurt Russell, and The Osmonds.[35] Most of the actors selected had some acting, singing, or dancing experience. Charmian Carr, however, was a model who worked part-time in a doctor's office and had no ambition to pursue a career as an actress.[36] After a friend sent her photo to Wise's office, she was asked to interview. Wise later recalled, "She was so pretty and had such poise and charm that we liked her immediately."[36] The last person to be cast was Daniel Truhitte in the role of Rolfe.[36]

text: Rehearsals for the singing and dance sequences began on February 10, 1964.[37] The husband-and-wife team of Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood, who had worked with Andrews on Mary Poppins, worked out the choreography with Saul Chaplin on piano—the arrangements could not be altered under Rodgers and Hammerstein's contract.[38] The stage choreography was not used because it was too restrictive.[39] Breaux and Wood worked out all new choreography better suited for film that incorporated many of the Salzburg locations and settings.[39] They even choreographed the newly added puppet dance sequence for "The Lonely Goatherd".[40] The choreography for the Ländler strictly followed the traditional Austrian folk dance.[39] The musical arranger Irwin Kostal prerecorded the songs with a large orchestra and singers on a stage prior to the start of filming.[41] Kostal used seven children and five adults to record the children's voices; the only scene where the child-actors actually sing is when they sing "The Sound of Music" on their own after Maria leaves.[42] The voices of some of the adult actors also had voice doubles, including Peggy Wood and Christopher Plummer.[43]

text: Filming and post-production[edit]

text: Principal photography began on March 26, 1964 at 20th Century Fox studios in Los Angeles, where scenes from Maria's bedroom and the abbey cloister and graveyard were filmed.[44] The company then flew to Salzburg where filming resumed on April 23 at Mondsee Abbey for the wedding scenes.[45] From April 25 through May 22, scenes were filmed at the Felsenreitschule (festival concert), Nonnberg Abbey, Mirabell Palace Gardens, Residence Fountain, and various street locations throughout the Altstadt (Old Town) area of the city.[45] Wise faced opposition from city leaders who opposed him staging scenes with swastika banners. They relented after he threatened instead to include actual newsreel footage of crowds cheering Hitler during a visit to the town.[32] On days when it rained—a constant challenge for the company[46]—Wise arranged for scenes to be shot at St. Margarethen Chapel and Dürer Studios (Reverend Mother's office).[47] From May 23 to June 7, the company worked at Schloss Leopoldskron and an adjacent property called Bertelsmann for scenes representing the lakeside terrace and gardens of the von Trapp villa.[48] From June 9 to 19, scenes were shot at Frohnburg Palace which represented the front and back façades of the villa.[48] The "Do-Re-Mi" picnic scene in the mountains was filmed above the town of Werfen in the Salzach River valley on June 25 and 27.[48] The opening sequence of Maria on her mountain was filmed from June 28 to July 2 at Mehlweg mountain near the town of Marktschellenberg in Bavaria.[49][Note 2] The final scene of the von Trapp family escaping over the mountains was filmed on the Obersalzberg in the Bavarian Alps.[50]

text: The cast and crew flew back to Los Angeles and resumed filming at Fox studios on July 6 for all remaining scenes, including those in the villa dining room, ballroom, terrace, living room, and gazebo.[51] Following the last two scenes shot in the gazebo—for the songs "Something Good" and "You Are Sixteen"—principal photography concluded on September 1, 1964.[51] A total of eighty-three scenes were filmed in just over five months.[52] Post-production work began on August 25 with three weeks of dialogue dubbing to correct lines that were ruined by various street noises and rain.[53] In October, Christopher Plummer's singing voice was dubbed by veteran Disney playback singer Bill Lee.[54] The film was then edited by Wise and film editor William Reynolds.[55] Once the film was edited, Irwin Kostal, who orchestrated the musical numbers, underscored the film with background music consisting of variations on Rodgers and Hammerstein's original songs to amplify or add nuances to the visual images.[54][55] When dubbing, editing, and scoring were complete, Wise arranged for two sneak-preview showings—the first one held in Minneapolis on Friday January 15, 1965[56] at the Mann Theater, and the second one held the following night in Tulsa.[57] Despite the "sensational" responses from the preview audiences, Wise made a few final editing changes before completing the film.[57] According to the original print information for the film, the running time for the theatrical release version was 174 minutes.[1] The film was eventually given a G rating by the Motion Picture Association of America.[1]

text: The Sound of Music was filmed in 70 mm Todd-AO by Ted McCord and produced with DeLuxe Color processing.[58] Aerial footage was photographed with an MCS-70 camera.[58] The sound was recorded on 70 mm six-track using a Westrex recording system.[1][58] The sets used for the film were based on the storyboards of sketch artist Maurice Zuberano,[59] who accompanied Wise to Austria to scout filming locations in November 1963.[60] Wise met with the artist over a ten-week period and explained his objective for each scene—the feeling he wanted to convey and the visual images he wanted to use.[59] When Zuberano was finished, he provided Wise with a complete set of storyboards that illustrated each scene and set—storyboards the director used as guidance during filming.[59] Zuberano's storyboards and location photos were also used by art director Boris Leven to design and construct all of the original interior sets at Fox studios, as well as some external sets in Salzburg.[61] The von Trapp villa, for example, was actually filmed in several locations: the front and back façades of the villa were filmed at Frohnburg Palace, the lakeside terrace and gardens were a set constructed on a property adjacent to Schloss Leopoldskron called Bertelsmann, and the interior was a constructed set at Fox studios.[62] The gazebo scenes for "Something Good" and "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" were filmed on a larger reconstructed set at Fox studios, while some shots of the original gazebo were filmed on the grounds at Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg.[63][64][Note 3]

text: Release[edit]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: Robert Wise hired Mike Kaplan to direct the publicity campaign for the film.[65] After reading the script, Kaplan decided on the ad line "The Happiest Sound in All the World", which would appear on promotional material and artwork.[65] Kaplan also brought in outside agencies to work with the studio's advertising department to develop the promotional artwork, eventually selecting a painting by Howard Terpning of Andrews on an alpine meadow with her carpetbag and guitar case in hand with the children and Plummer in the background.[66][67][Note 4] In February 1964, Kaplan began placing ads in the trade papers Daily Variety, Weekly Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter to attract future exhibitor interest in the project.[65] The studio intended the film to have an initial roadshow theatrical release in select large cities in theaters that could accommodate the 70-mm screenings and six-track stereophonic sound.[68] The roadshow concept involved two showings a day with reserved seating and an intermission similar to Broadway musicals.[68] Kaplan identified forty key cities that would likely be included in the roadshow release and developed a promotional strategy targeting the major newspapers of those cities.[66] During the Salzburg production phase, 20th Century Fox organized press junkets for America journalists to interview Wise and his team and the cast members.[66]

text: Critical response[edit]

text:
"No one is comfortable with an excess of hearts and flowers, but there is no valid reason for hiding honest emotion. This has always been a major element in the theatre, and it's my conviction that anyone who can't, on occasion, be sentimental about children, home or nature is sadly maladjusted."[69]

Richard Rodgers

tag: div

text: The film had its opening premiere on March 2, 1965 at the Rivoli Theater in New York City.[70][71] Initial reviews were mixed.[72] Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times, criticized the film's "romantic nonsense and sentiment", the children's "artificial roles", and Robert Wise's "cosy-cum-corny" direction.[73] Judith Crist, in a biting review in the New York Herald Tribune, dismissed the movie as "icky sticky" and designed for "the five to seven set and their mommies".[70] In her review for McCall's magazine, Pauline Kael called the film "the sugar-coated lie people seem to want to eat", and that audiences have "turned into emotional and aesthetic imbeciles when we hear ourselves humming the sickly, goody-goody songs".[74] [Note 5] Wise later recalled, "The East Coast, intellectual papers and magazines destroyed us, but the local papers and the trades gave us great reviews."[68] Indeed, reviewers such as Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "three hours of visual and vocal brilliance",[68] and Daily Variety called it "a warmly-pulsating, captivating drama set to the most imaginative use of the lilting R-H tunes, magnificently mounted and with a brilliant cast".[68] The "wildly mixed film reviews" reflected the critical response to the stage musical, according to The Oxford Companion to the American Musical.[76] After its Los Angeles premier on March 10, The Sound of Music opened in 131 theaters in the United States, including a limited number of roadshow events.[68] After four weeks, the film became the number one box office movie in the country, and held that position for thirty out of the next forty-three weeks in 1965.[77] The original theatrical release of the film in America lasted four and a half years.[77]

text: A few months after its United States release, The Sound of Music opened in 261 theaters overseas—the first American movie to be completely dubbed in a foreign language, both dialogue and music.[78] The German, French, Italian, and Spanish versions were completely dubbed, the Japanese version had Japanese dialogue with English songs, and other versions were released with foreign subtitles. The film was a popular success in every country it opened, except the two countries where the story originated, Austria and Germany.[79] In these countries, the film had to compete with the much-loved Die Trapp-Familie (1956), which provided the original inspiration for the Broadway musical, and its sequel Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika (1958)—both films still widely popular in German-speaking Europe and considered the authoritative von Trapp story.[79] Austrians took exception to the liberties taken by the filmmakers with regard to the costumes, which did not reflect traditional style, and the replacement of traditional Austrian folk songs with Broadway show tunes.[79] The film's Nazi theme was especially unpopular in Germany, where the Munich branch manager for 20th Century Fox approved the unauthorized cutting of the entire third act of the film following the wedding sequence—the scenes showing Salzburg following the Anschluss. Robert Wise and the studio intervened, the original film was restored, and the branch manager was fired.[80] The Sound of Music has never been popular in Austria and Germany.[81]

text: Box office[edit]

text: The Sound of Music is one of the most commercially successful films of all time.[82] Four weeks after its theatrical release, it became the number one box office movie in the United States, from revenue generated by twenty-five theaters, each screening only ten roadshow performances per week.[77] It held the number one position for thirty of the next forty-three weeks,[77] and ended up the highest-grossing film of 1965.[83] One contributing factor in the film's early commercial success was the repeat business of many filmgoers.[78] In some cities in the United States, the number of tickets sold exceeded the total population.[78][Note 6] By January 1966, the film had earned $20 million in distributor rentals from just 140 roadshow engagements in the United States and Canada.[84] Overseas, The Sound of Music broke previous box-office records in twenty-nine countries,[85] including the United Kingdom, where the film earned £4 million in rentals and grossed £6 million—more than twice as much as any other film had ever taken in.[85] By November 1966, The Sound of Music had become the highest-grossing film of all-time,[85] surpassing Gone with the Wind, which held that distinction for twenty-four years.[86][Note 7]

text: In November 1969, The Sound of Music completed its initial four-and-a-half year theatrical release run in the United States, having earned $68,313,000 in North American (United States and Canada) rentals and $44,168,000 in foreign rentals, for a worldwide total of $112,481,000 in gross returns.[87] It was the first film to gross over $100 million.[88] The film was re-released in 1973,[89][90] and increased its North American rentals to $78.4 million.[91] By the end of the 1970s, it was ranked seventh in all time North American rentals, having earned $79 million.[92] The film's re-release in 1990[90] increased the total North American admissions to 142,415,400—the third highest number of tickets sold behind Gone with the Wind and Star Wars—and about 283.3 million admissions worldwide.[93][94] The Sound of Music eventually earned a total domestic gross of $163,214,076, and a total worldwide gross of $286,214,076.[95] Adjusted for inflation, the film earned about $2.366 billion at 2014 prices—the fifth highest-grossing film of all time.[93][96]

text: Historical accuracy[edit]

text: The Sound of Music film, like the stage musical, presents a history of the von Trapp family that is not completely accurate. The filmmakers used artistic license to convey the essence and meaning of their story. Georg Ludwig von Trapp was indeed an anti-Nazi opposed to the Anschluss, and lived with his family in a villa in a district of Salzburg called Aigen. Their lifestyle depicted in the film, however, greatly exaggerated their standard of living. The actual family villa, located at Traunstraße 34, Aigen 5026, was large and comfortable but not nearly as grand as the mansion depicted in the film. The house was also not their ancestral home, as depicted in the film. The family had previously lived in homes in Zell Am See and Klosterneuburg after being forced to abandon their actual ancestral home in Pola following World War I. Georg moved the family to the Salzburg villa shortly after the death of his first wife in 1922.[97] In the film, Georg is referred to as "Baron", but his actual family title was "Ritter" (German for "knight"), a hereditary knighthood the equivalent of which in the United Kingdom is a baronetcy. Austrian nobility, moreover, was legally abolished in 1919 and the nobiliary particle von was proscribed after World War I, so he was legally "Georg Trapp". Both the title and the prepositional nobiliary particle von, however, continued to be widely used unofficially as a matter of courtesy.[97]

text: Georg was offered a position in the Kriegsmarine, but this occurred before the Anschluss. He was heavily recruited by the Nazis because he had extensive experience with submarines, and Germany was looking to expand its fleet of U-boats. With his family in desperate financial straits, and having no other marketable skills other than his training as a naval officer, he seriously considered the offer before deciding he could not serve a Nazi regime. Rather than threaten arrest, the Nazis actually continued to woo him.[97] In the film, Georg is depicted initially as a humorless, emotionally distant father. In reality, third child Maria von Trapp (called "Louisa" in the film) described her father as a doting parent who made handmade gifts for the children in his woodshop and who would often lead family musicales on his violin. She has a different recollection of her stepmother, whom she described as moody and prone to outbursts of rage. In a 2003 interview, Maria remembered, "[She] had a terrible temper ... and from one moment to the next, you didn't know what hit her. We were not used to this. But we took it like a thunderstorm that would pass, because the next minute she could be very nice."[98]

text: Maria Augusta Kutschera had indeed been a novice at Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg and had been hired by the von Trapp family. However, she was hired only to be a tutor to young Maria Franziska ("Louisa" in the movie), who had come down with scarlet fever and needed her lessons at home, not to be a governess for all of the children.[97] Maria and Georg married for practical reasons, rather than love and affection for each other. Georg needed a mother for his children, and Maria needed the security of a husband and family once she decided to leave the abbey. "I really and truly was not in love," Maria wrote in her memoir, "I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children." They were married in 1927, not in 1938 as depicted in the film, and the couple had been married for over a decade by the time of the Anschluss and had two of their three children together by that time. Maria later acknowledged that she grew to love Georg over time and enjoyed a happy marriage.[97]

text: The von Trapp family lost most of its wealth during the worldwide depression of the early 1930s, when the Austrian national bank folded.[97] In order to survive, the family dismissed the servants and began taking in boarders. They also started singing onstage to earn money—a fact that caused the proud Georg much embarrassment.[99] In the film, the von Trapp family hike over the Alps from Austria to Switzerland to escape the Nazis, which would not have been possible; Salzburg is over two hundred miles from Switzerland. The von Trapp villa, however, was only a few kilometers from the Austria–Germany border, and the final scene shows the family hiking on the Obersalzberg near the German town of Berchtesgaden, within sight of Adolf Hitler's Kehlsteinhaus Eagle's Nest retreat. In reality, the family simply walked to the local train station and boarded a train to Italy. Although Georg was an ethnic German-Austrian, he was also an Italian citizen, having been born in the Dalmatian city of Zadar, which at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later fell into Italian territory after World War I. From Italy, they traveled to London and ultimately the United States.[97]

text: The character Max Detweiler, the scheming family music director, is fictional. The von Trapps' family priest, the Reverend Franz Wasner, was their musical director for over twenty years and accompanied them when they left Austria.[97] The character of Friedrich (the second oldest child in the film version) was based on Rupert, the oldest of the real von Trapp children. Liesl (the oldest child in the film) was based on Agathe von Trapp, the second oldest in the real family. The names and ages of the children were changed, in part because the third child (who would be portrayed as "Louisa") was also named Maria, and producers thought that it would be confusing to have two characters called Maria in the film.[97] The von Trapp family had no control over how they were depicted in the film and stage musical, having given up the rights to their story to a German producer in the 1950s who then sold the rights to American producers.[97] Robert Wise met with Maria von Trapp and made it clear, according to a memo to Richard Zanuck, that he was not making a "documentary or realistic movie" about her family, and that he would make the film with "complete dramatic freedom" in order to produce a "fine and moving film"—one they could all be proud of.[100]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: The soundtrack to The Sound of Music was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and arranged and conducted by Irwin Kostal, who also adapted the instrumental underscore passages. The soundtrack album was released on the RCA Victor label in 1965, and reached the number one position on the Billboard 200 that year in the United States.[101][102] It remained in the top ten from May 1, 1965 to July 16, 1966.[103] The album has been reissued several times, including a 30th Anniversary Edition in 1995, a 35th Anniversary Edition in 2000, a 40th Anniversary Edition in 2005, and a 45th Anniversary Edition, which reached the number one position on the Billboard 200 in 2010 and again in 2013.[101][102] A 50th Anniversary Edition was released in 2015, which reached the number five position on the Top Soundtracks chart.[101][102] The Sound of Music soundtrack album was the biggest-selling album in the United Kingdom in 1965, 1966, and 1968 and the second biggest-selling of the entire decade, spending a total of 70 weeks at number one on the UK Album Charts.[104] The Sound of Music also stayed 73 weeks on the Norwegian charts, becoming the seventh best-charting album of all time in that country.[105]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text:
Award
Category
Nominee
Result
Ref

Academy Awards
Best Picture
Robert Wise
Won
[106]

Best Director
Robert Wise
Won
[106]

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Julie Andrews
Nominated
[106]

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Peggy Wood
Nominated
[106]

Best Music (Scoring of Music – Adaptation or Treatment)
Irwin Kostal
Won
[106]

Best Cinematography (Color)
Ted D. McCord
Nominated
[106]

Best Art Direction (Color)
Boris Leven (art direction);
Walter M. Scott and Ruby R. Levitt (set decoration)
Nominated
[106]

Best Costume Design (Color)
Dorothy Jeakins
Nominated
[106]

Best Sound Recording
James Corcoran and Fred Hynes
Won
[106]

Best Film Editing
William H. Reynolds
Won
[106]

BAFTA Awards
Best British Actress
Julie Andrews
Nominated
[107]

Directors Guild of America
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
Robert Wise
Won
[108]

Golden Globe Awards
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Robert Wise
Won
[108]

Best Director – Motion Picture
Robert Wise
Nominated
[108]

Best Motion Picture Actress – Musical or Comedy
Julie Andrews
Won
[108]

Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
Peggy Wood
Nominated
[108]

Laurel Awards
General Entertainment
The Sound of Music
Won
[109]

Musical Performance – Female
Julie Andrews
Won
[109]

National Board of Review
Top Ten Films of 1965
The Sound of Music
Won
[108]

New York Film Critics Circle
Best Actress
Julie Andrews
2nd place
[109]

Writers Guild of America
Best Written American Musical
Ernest Lehman
Won
[109]

tag: table

text: AFI recognition[edit]

text: The Sound of Music has been included in numerous top film lists from the American Film Institute.

text:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – No. 55[110]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – No. 40[111]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – No. 41[112]
AFI's 100 Years of Musicals – No. 4[113]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – No. 27[114]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:

"The Sound of Music" – No. 10[115]
"My Favorite Things" – No. 64[115]
"Do-Re-Mi" – No. 88[115]

text: Legacy[edit]

text: This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (October 2016)

text:
In 1966, American Express created the first Sound of Music guided tour in Salzburg.[116] Since 1972, Panorama Tours has been the leading Sound of Music bus tour company in the city, taking approximately 50,000 tourists a year to various film locations in Salzburg and the surrounding region.[116]
Sing-a-long Sound of Music revival screenings began in London in 1999, leading to a successful run at the Prince Charles Cinema which is ongoing as of 2016.[104][117] During the screenings, audience members are often dressed as nuns and von Trapp children and are encouraged to sing along to lyrics superimposed on the screen.[117] In July 2000, Sing-a-long Sound of Music shows opened in Boston and Austin, Texas.[117] Some audience members dressed up as cast members and interacted with the action shown on the screen.[117] The film began a successful run at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City in September 2000, with the opening attended by cast members Charmian Carr (Liesl), Daniel Truhitte (Rolfe), and Kym Karath (Gretl).[118] Sing-a-long Sound of Music screenings have since become an international phenomenon.[119]
In 2001, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[82]
The Academy Film Archive preserved The Sound of Music in 2003.[120]

text: Television and home media[edit]

text: The first American television transmission of The Sound of Music was on February 29, 1976 on ABC, which paid $15 million for a one-time only broadcast that became one of the top-rated films ever shown on television to that point.[121] The movie was not shown again until NBC acquired the broadcast rights and telecast the film on February 11, 1979.[122] NBC continued to air the film annually for twenty years.[121] During most of its run on NBC, the film was heavily edited to fit a three-hour time slot—approximately 140 minutes without commercials. The thirty minutes edited out of the original film included portions of the "Morning Hymn and Alleluia" sung by the nuns, part of the dialogue between Mother Abbess and Maria in the abbey, part of Liesl and Rolfe's dialogue preceding "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", Liesl's verse of "Edelweiss" sung with the Captain, the Captain and Baroness waltzing at the party, and minor dialogue cuts within existing scenes.

text: The film aired in its uncut form (minus the entr'acte) on April 9, 1995, on NBC. Julie Andrews hosted the four-hour telecast which presented the musical numbers in a letterbox format. As the film's home video availability cut into its television ratings, NBC let their contract lapse in 2001. That year, the film was broadcast one time on the Fox network, in its heavily edited 140-minute version. Since 2002, the film has aired on ABC, generally during Christmas week, and has been broadcast on its sister cable network, ABC Family, periodically around Easter and other holidays. Most of its more recent runs have been the full version in a four-hour time slot, complete with the entr'acte. ABC first broadcast a high definition version on December 28, 2008. On December 22, 2013, the annual broadcast had its highest ratings since 2007; the increase in ratings were credited to NBC's broadcast of The Sound of Music Live!—a live television adaptation of the original musical which aired earlier that month.[123]

text: In the United Kingdom, the film was first screened by the BBC on 25 December 1978 and, as of December 2016, fifteen times since, mostly around Christmas time. As the BBC is not funded by advertising there was no need to cut scenes to fit within a timeslot and the film was screened in the full 174-minute version without breaks.[124]

text: The film has been released on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD numerous times. The first DVD version was released on August 29, 2000 to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the film's release.[125] The film is often included in box sets with other Rodgers & Hammerstein film adaptations.[125] A 40th anniversary DVD, with "making of" documentaries and special features, was released on November 15, 2005.[125] The film made its debut issue on Blu-ray Disc on November 2, 2010, for its 45th anniversary.[125][126][127] For the Blu-ray release, the original 70 mm negatives were rescanned at 8K resolution, then restored and remastered at 4K resolution for the transfer to Blu-ray, giving the most detailed copy of the film seen thus far. On March 10, 2015, Fox Home Entertainment released The Sound of Music 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition—a five-disc set featuring thirteen hours of bonus features, including a new documentary, The Sound of a City: Julie Andrews Returns to Salzburg.[125][128] A March 2015 episode of ABC's 20/20 entitled The Untold Story of the Sound of Music featured a preview of the documentary and interviews by Diane Sawyer.[129]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ Twentieth Century Fox also purchased the rights to the two German films for distribution in the United States. Fox combined the two films, Die Trapp-Familie and Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika, dubbed them in English, and released them as a single 106-minute film titled The Trapp Family, which was released on April 19, 1961.[9]
Jump up ^ Maria's morning run back to Nonnberg Abbey would have been about 11 miles (18 km).
Jump up ^ At the conclusion of filming at Schloss Leopoldskron, 20th Century Fox left behind the original gazebo as a gift to the city. The film's later popularity, however, led many fans to trespass onto the private and secluded lakefront property. To provide fans easier access to the famous structure, the city moved it to its present location at Hellbrunn Palace Park.[63]
Jump up ^ Terpning also created the poster artwork for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, The Sand Pebbles, The Guns of Navarone, and the 1967 theatrical re-release of Gone with the Wind.[67] He is also known for his numerous magazine covers and his paintings of the American West and the Plains Indians.[67]
Jump up ^ Pauline Kael's review for McCall's generated a significant negative response from readers and contributed to her dismissal from the magazine.[74][75]
Jump up ^ In Salt Lake City, Utah (population 199,300), for example, 309,000 tickets were sold in forty weeks.[78] In Albany, New York (population 156,000), 176,536 tickets were sold in twenty-seven weeks.[78] In Orlando, Florida (population 88,135), 105,181 tickets were sold in thirty-five weeks.[78]
Jump up ^ The Sound of Music remained the highest-grossing film of all time for five years until 1971, when Gone with the Wind recaptured the crown following its successful 1967 widescreen rerelease.

tag: ol


document_title: Bring It On: In It to Win It

question_text: who plays brooke in bring it on in it to win it

root

text: Bring It On: In It to Win It

text: Plot[edit]

text: The West Coast Sharks Cheerleading Squad, led by Carson, are attending Camp Spirit-Thunder where they're confronted by their arch-rivals, the East Coast Jets Cheerleading Squad, led by her sister Brooke. Both are fierce rivals because each is the best on its respective coast; however, the Jets have beaten the Sharks at the annual Cheer Camp Championships for the previous three years in a row.

tag: p

text: On her first day at camp, Carson meets and hits it off with Penn. They trade phone numbers, neither knowing the other is a member of their arch-rival squad. When Carson eventually does find out that Penn is a Jet, she gives him up although she really likes him. Penn really likes her too, but is just playing it cool around his squad.

text: As part of the Camp Spirit-Thunder ritual, the West Coast Sharks are given the Spirit Stick, a "special" cheerleading item that they have to guard fiercely. Carson agrees to watch the Spirit Stick when her friends leave for a poker game, but she forgets about it when Penn arrives to ask her out. They go to a nearby amusement park and spend time together, notably riding the Double Dragons (Dueling Dragons) rollercoaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure. At this time, Penn confesses his darkest secret to Carson: he forced his team to raise money for him to go to the camp so that his father wouldn't find out he is a cheerleader.

text: Carson's friends return to her room, but find both her and the Spirit Stick missing. They search for her, eventually finding her dancing with Penn. At this time Brooke and her friends also see the duo. When the Sharks reveal that the Spirit Stick is gone, Carson accuses the Jets of sending Penn to lure her away, and she angrily announces to all, Penn's secret. The Sharks are worried, because losing the Spirit Stick means they are "cursed".

text: The Sharks decided to hold a ceremony to ask the "Cheer Gods" for forgiveness. They are interrupted when the Jets arrive, and the squads have a "cheer-rumble". This scene is similar to the scene in West Side Story in which rival gangs named the Sharks and Jets face off. The authorities arrive, and in the ensuing melee, a number of members from both teams become injured. Both squads are forced to leave the camp as neither one has enough members to compete. But before they can board their respective buses, Carson suggests to Brooke that they combine into a single squad to compete at the Cheer Camp Championship. Though reluctant at first, the squads come together as the "East-West Coast Shets," complete with new uniforms made through patching their old uniforms together. The two teams slowly bond, while Carson works on repairing her relationship with Penn.

text: The Shets sneak into Camp Victory, the rival of Camp Spirit-Thunder, to scope Camp Victory's star team, the Flamingos. After seeing their impressive performance, Carson devises a new routine, inspired by the Double Dragon ride at that amusement park. On the day of the competition, the Shets perform their routine perfectly, winning the competition outright. Carson and Penn kiss on the mat in the middle of the celebrations, and it is revealed that Camp Victory are the ones responsible for stealing the Spirit Stick.

text: The end credits feature clips of the cast dancing "all over the world", while the singer Ashley Tisdale (who is the sister of Jennifer Tisdale) performs her single "He Said She Said".

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Ashley Benson as Carson
Cassandra Scerbo as Brooke
Michael Copon as Penn
Jennifer Tisdale as Chelsea
Anniese Taylor Dendy as Aeysha
Noel Areizaga as Ruben
Kierstin Koppel as Sarah
Adam Vernier as Vance
Tanisha Harris as Chicago
Jobeth Locklear as Shelby
Ashley Tisdale as Herself

tag: ul

text: Songs[edit]

text:
#
Title
Artist

1.
"He Said She Said"
Ashley Tisdale

2.
"Spin The World"
Transcenders featuring Tracey Amos

3.
"It's On"
Superchick

4.
"Stand Up for Rock n' Roll"
Airbourne

5.
"Sangria"
I.Q.

6.
"Ride"
Diana Page

7.
"Red Hot"
Maslin Vice

8.
"Conga"
Gloria Estefan

9.
"Swaggeriffic"
Verbz

10.
"Get_Me_Bodied (Remix ft. Fabolous)"
Beyoncé

11.
"Ay Chico (Lengua Afuera)"
Pitbull

12.
"Never Stop"
Hilary Duff

13.
"Red Sky Misery Song"
Radial Bliss

14.
"Butterball"
Lauren Mayhew

15.
"Don't you Think I'm Hot"
Jennifer Tisdale

16.
"'Boom Da Boom"
Sean Van Der Wilt

17.
"Be Good To Me"
Ashley Tisdale

18.
"Return to Terrordome"
Easy D & O.C.

19.
"Division / ÷"
Aly & AJ

20.
"Together like 1,2,3"
Latin Soul Syndicate

21.
"Shake Your Boomkey"
Noel Cohen

22.
"Coming For You"
JoJo

23.
"Find Yourself In You"
Everlife

24.
"Whatever It Takes"
Samantha Ray

25.
"Get Up (Heelside Mix)"
Superchick

26.
"Just Us"
Transcenders Meets Aaron B.

27.
"Like That"
Transcenders Meets Aaron B.

28.
Cheer TV Theme
Tony DiMaio

29.
Hawaiian Tiki Music
Jeremy Sweet and Michael Whittaker

30.
"Get Grown"
Transcenders

31.
"I'm That Chick"
Jada written by The Writing Camp *Bonus Track*


question_text: when did the great sand dunes become a national park

text: History[edit]

text: The oldest evidence of humans in the area dates back about 11,000 years. Some of the first people to enter the San Luis Valley and the Great Sand Dunes area were nomadic hunter-gatherers whose connection to the area centered around the herds of mammoths and prehistoric bison. They were Stone Age people who hunted with large stone spear or dart points now identified as Clovis and Folsom points. These people only stayed when hunting and plant gathering was good, and avoided the region during times of drought and scarcity.[11]

text: Modern American Indian tribes were familiar with the area when Spaniards first arrived in the 17th century. The traditional Ute phrase for the Great Sand Dunes is Saa waap maa nache, "sand that moves." Jicarilla Apaches settled in northern New Mexico and called the dunes Sei-anyedi, "it goes up and down." Blanca Peak, just southeast of the dunes, is one of the four sacred mountains of the Navajo, who call it Sisnaajini. These various tribes collected the inner layers of bark from ponderosa pine trees for use as food and medicine. The people from the Tewa/Tiwa-speaking pueblos along the Rio Grande remember a traditional site of great importance located in the valley near the dunes: the lake through which their people emerged into the present world. They call the lake Sip'ophe, meaning "Sandy Place Lake", which is thought to be the springs and/or lakes immediately west of the dunefield.[11]

text: In 1694, Don Diego de Vargas became the first European known to have entered the San Luis Valley, although herders and hunters from the Spanish colonies in present-day northern New Mexico probably entered the valley as early as 1598. De Vargas and his men hunted a herd of 500 bison in the southern part of the valley before returning to Santa Fe. In 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza and an entourage of men and livestock probably passed near the dunes as they returned from a punitive raid against a group of Comanches. At this time, the valley was a travel route between the High Plains and Santa Fe for Comanches, Utes, and Spanish soldiers. The dunes were likely a visible landmark for travelers along the trail.[11]

text: The first known writings about Great Sand Dunes appear in Zebulon Pike’s journals of 1807. As Lewis and Clark’s expedition was returning east, U.S. Army Lt. Pike was commissioned to explore as far west as the Arkansas and Red Rivers. By the end of November 1806, Pike and his men had reached the site of today’s Pueblo, Colorado. Still pushing southwest, and confused about the location of the Arkansas River, Pike crossed the Sangre de Cristos just above the Great Sand Dunes.[11]

text: After marching some miles, we discovered ... at the foot of the White Mountains [today’s Sangre de Cristos] which we were then descending, sandy hills…When we encamped, I ascended one of the largest hills of sand, and with my glass could discover a large river [the Rio Grande] …The sand-hills extended up and down the foot of the White Mountains about 15 miles, and appeared to be about 5 miles in width. Their appearance was exactly that of the sea in a storm, except as to color, not the least sign of vegetation existing thereon.

text: In 1848, John C. Frémont was hired to find a railroad route from St. Louis to California. He crossed the Sangre de Cristos into the San Luis Valley in winter, courting disaster but proving that a winter crossing of this range was possible. He was followed in 1853 by Captain John Gunnison of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. Gunnison’s party crossed the dunefield on horseback.[11]

text: In the years that followed, the Rockies were gradually explored, treaties were signed and broken with resident tribes, and people with widely differing goals entered the San Luis Valley from the United States and Mexico. In 1852, Fort Massachusetts was built and then relocated to Fort Garland, about 20 miles southeast of the Great Sand Dunes, to safeguard travel for settlers following the explorers into the valley. Although many settlers arrived via the trails from Santa Fe or La Veta Pass, several routes over the Sangre de Cristos into the valley were well-known to American Indians and increasingly used by settlers in the late 1800s. Medano Pass, also known as Sand Hill Pass, and Mosca Pass, also called Robidoux’s Pass, offered more direct routes from the growing front range cities and dropped into the valley just east of the Great Sand Dunes. Trails were improved into wagon routes and eventually into rough roads. The Mosca Pass Toll Road was developed in the 1870s, and stages and the mail route used it regularly through about 1911 when the western portion was damaged in a flash flood. Partially rebuilt at times in the 1930s through the 1950s, the road was repeatedly closed due to flood damage and is now a hiking trail.[11]

text: The Herard family—after whom Mount Herard is named[17]—established a ranch and homestead along Medano Creek in 1875, using the old Medano Pass Road to travel to and from their home. The modern unpaved road follows the old route and is open only to four-wheel drive, high-clearance vehicles as it passes through deep sand, rises to Medano Pass, and continues east into the Wet Mountain Valley. The Herards grazed and bred cattle in the mountain meadows, raised horses, and established a trout hatchery in the stream. Other families homesteaded near the dunes as well, including the Teofilo Trujillo family whose sheep and cattle ranch in the valley later became part of the Medano–Zapata Ranch, owned by the Nature Conservancy since 1999. The Trujillo's extant homestead and the ruins of a destroyed one were declared a National Historic Landmark in 2004.[18] Frank and Virginia Wellington built a cabin and hand-dug the irrigation ditch that parallels Wellington Ditch Trail located south of the park campground.[11]

text: Gold and silver rushes occurred around the Rockies after 1853, bringing miners by the thousands into the state and stimulating mining businesses that are still in operation. Numerous small strikes occurred in the mountains around the San Luis Valley. People had frequently speculated that gold might be present in the Great Sand Dunes, and local newspapers ran articles in the 1920s estimating its worth at anywhere from 17 cents/ton to $3/ton. Active placer mining operations sprang up along Medano Creek, and in 1932 the Volcanic Mining Company established a gold mill designed to recover gold from the sand. Although minute quantities of gold were recovered, the technique was too labor-intensive, the stream too seasonal, and the pay-out too small to support any business for long.[11]

text: The idea that the dunes could be destroyed by gold mining or concrete manufacturing alarmed residents of Alamosa and Monte Vista. By the 1920s, the dunes had become a source of pride for local people, and a potential source of tourist dollars for local businesses. Members of the P.E.O. Sisterhood sponsored a bill to Congress asking for national monument status for Great Sand Dunes. Widely supported by local people, the bill was signed into law in 1932 by President Herbert Hoover. Similar support in the late 1990s resulted in the monument’s expansion into a national park and preserve in 2000-2004.[11]

text: Geology[edit]

text: The park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America,[7] rising to a maximum height of 750 feet (229 m)[4] from the floor of the San Luis Valley on the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Range. The dunes cover an area of about 30 sq mi (78 km2) and are estimated to contain over 5 billion cubic meters of sand.[8]

text: Creation of the San Luis Valley began when the Sangre de Cristo Range was uplifted in the rotation of a large tectonic plate. The San Juan Mountains to the west of the valley were created through extended and dramatic volcanic activity. The San Luis Valley encompasses the area between the two mountain ranges and is roughly the size of the state of Connecticut. Sediments from both mountain ranges filled the deep chasm of the valley, along with huge amounts of water from melting glaciers and rain. The presence of larger rocks along Medano Creek at the base of the dunes, elsewhere on the valley floor, and in buried deposits indicates that some of the sediment has been washed down in torrential flash floods.[9]

text: In 2002, geologists discovered lakebed deposits on hills in the southern part of the valley, confirming theories of a huge lake that once covered much of the San Luis Valley floor. The body of water was named Lake Alamosa after the largest town in the valley. Lake Alamosa suddenly receded after its extreme water pressure broke through volcanic deposits in the southern end of the valley. The water then drained through the Rio Grande, likely forming the steep Rio Grande Gorge near Taos, New Mexico. Smaller lakes still covered the valley floor, including two broad lakes in the northeastern side of the valley. Large amounts of sediment from the volcanic San Juan Mountains continued to wash down into these lakes, along with some sand from the Sangre de Cristo Range. Dramatic natural climate change later significantly reduced these lakes, leaving behind the sand sheet. Remnants of these lakes still exist in the form of sabkha wetlands.[9]

text: Sand that was left behind after the lakes receded blew with the predominant southwest winds toward a low curve in the Sangre de Cristo Range. The wind funnels toward three mountain passes—Mosca, Medano, and Music Passes—and the sand accumulates in this natural pocket. The winds blow from the valley floor toward the mountains, but during storms the winds blow back toward the valley. These opposing wind directions cause the dunes to grow vertically. Two mountain streams—Medano and Sand Creeks—also capture sand from the mountain side of the dunefield and carry it around the dunes and back to the valley floor. The creeks then disappear into the sand sheet, and the sand blows back into the dunefield. Barchan and transverse dunes form near these creeks. The combination of opposing winds, a huge supply of sand from the valley floor, and the sand recycling action of the creeks, are all part of the reason that these are the tallest dunes in North America.[9]

text: Sufficient vegetation has grown on the valley floor that there is little sand blowing into the main dunefield from the valley; however, small parabolic dunes continue to originate in the sand sheet and migrate across grasslands, joining the main dunefield. Some of these migrating dunes become covered by grasses and shrubs and stop migrating. The dunes system is fairly stable as the opposing wind directions balance each other out over time. Also, the main dunefield is moist beneath a thin layer of dry surface sand. While the top few inches of sand are blown around during windstorms, the moist sand remains largely in place.[9]

text: Scientists estimate that Lake Alamosa disappeared about 440,000 years ago, but the dunes themselves apparently originate from sand deposits from later, smaller lakes. A relatively new dating process, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), is still in development. This method takes core samples of sand from deep within a dune, and attempts to measure how long quartz grains have been buried in the dark. If the deepest sand deposits can be accurately dated, the age of the dunes could be determined. Samples of sand from deep in the dunes have returned OSL dates varying between a few hundred years to tens of thousands of years old. The oldest dated deposits found so far would have accumulated in the late Pleistocene epoch, during the middle years of the current ice age's third stage.[9]

text: The dunes contain dark areas which are deposits of magnetite, a mineral that has eroded out of the Sangre de Cristo Range. Magnetite is both attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a magnet itself; it is the most magnetic mineral in nature.[19] Magnetite is an oxide of iron which is heavier than the surrounding particles of sand. When overlying sand is removed by wind, magnetite deposits stay in place and are visible as dark patches in the dunefield.[20]

text: Geography[edit]

text: Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is located in Saguache and Alamosa Counties, Colorado at approximately 37.75° north latitude and 105.5° west longitude. The national park is located in the San Luis Valley while the national preserve is located to the east in an adjacent section of the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains.[5] Elevations range from 7,515 ft (2,291 m) in the valley west of the dunes, to 13,604 ft (4,146 m) at the summit of Tijeras Peak in the northern part of the preserve.[21][10]

text: The dunes cover an area of about 30 sq mi (78 km2) while the surrounding relatively flat sand sheet which feeds the large dunes is actually the largest component of the entire dunes system, containing about 90% of all the sand in the park.[8] The forested and often snowcapped mountains exceeding 13,000 ft (4,000 m) to the east are the most prominent feature, towering over the high dunes. Other features include snow-fed creeks originating high in the mountains, and several alpine lakes. Two spring-fed creeks in the sand sheet along with a few small lakes in the valley's sabkha section southwest of the dunes create a wetland that nurtures wildlife.[10]

text: The main dunefield measures roughly 4 mi (6.4 km) east-to-west and 6 mi (9.7 km) north-to-south, with an adjacent 6 sq mi (16 km2) area to the northwest called the Star Dune Complex, for a total of about 30 sq mi (78 km2). The park and preserve together are approximately 15 mi (24 km) east-to-west at the widest point, and approximately 15 mi (24 km) north-to-south, also at the widest point.[5] The park encompasses 107,342 acres (167.7 sq mi), while the preserve protects an additional 41,686 acres (65.1 sq mi) for a total of 149,028 acres (232.9 sq mi).[1]

text: The Rio Grande National Forest is located to the north and southeast while the remaining forested slopes directly to the east of the dunes were redesignated the Great Sand Dunes National Preserve. The San Isabel National Forest is located to the east of the preserve just beyond the ridge of the Sangre de Cristo Range. Private property abuts most of the southern boundary of the park. The San Luis Lakes State Wildlife Area lies adjacent to the southwestern corner of the park, while the Rio Grande flows through the valley farther to the southwest. The Baca National Wildlife Refuge lies adjacent to the west, and the slopes of the San Juan Mountains begin at the western edge of the valley. Private property of the Baca Grande subdivision of Crestone lies adjacent to the northwest.[5]

text: The nearest city is Alamosa which is about 30 mi (48 km) away by road to the southwest.[22][23] The nearest towns are Crestone to the north, Mosca and Hooper to the west, Blanca and Fort Garland to the south, and Gardner to the east. Colorado Springs and Denver are located a few hours away by car to the northeast.[23] The major roads through the San Luis Valley are U.S. Route 160 on an east–west alignment passing south of the park, and U.S. Route 285 on a north–south alignment passing west of the park and generally parallel to Colorado State Highway 17, which is the closer of the two north–south roadways.[23]

text: Climate[edit]

text: The Great Sand Dunes are located in the high elevation desert of the San Luis Valley, just west of the Sangre de Cristo Range. The summer high temperatures are atypical for a desert area as the average high temperature is only slightly above 80 °F (27 °C) in the warmest month of July; however, the large spread between high and low temperatures is typical of a high desert climate. Low temperatures during winter nights can be extremely cold, with average low temperatures well below 32 °F (0 °C) and record low temperatures below 0 °F (−18 °C) from November through April.[24] Precipitation is very low on the dunes, averaging just 11.13 inches (283 mm) of rainfall per year.[25] The high evaporation rates on the dunes qualify the area as a desert, even though precipitation exceeds 10 inches (250 mm).

text: Spring can sometimes bring high winds, mainly in the afternoon. Spring conditions vary greatly, from mild and sunny to cold and snowy. March is the snowiest month of the year, though some days are above 50 °F (10 °C). In late spring, when Medano Creek usually has its peak flow, snow or high winds are still possible. In summer, daytime high temperatures average 75–80 °F (24–27 °C); however, sand surface temperatures can soar to 150 °F (66 °C) on sunny afternoons. Summer nights are cool—the park is located 8,200 ft (2,500 m) above sea level—with nighttime temperatures often dropping below 50 °F (10 °C). Afternoon thundershowers are common in July and August with cool winds, heavy rain and lightning. Fall is generally mild, with Indian summer days when temperatures reach 60 °F (16 °C) and higher, but chilly nights below freezing. Occasional fall storms bring icy rain or snow. Cold temperatures well below freezing are typical in winter, although the sunshine is generally abundant and the dry air doesn't feel as cold as more humid areas. The average winter high temperatures are just above freezing even in January, which is the coldest month of the year.[26]

text:
[hide]Climate data for Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (1950–2006)

Month
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Year

Record high °F (°C)
67
(19)
63
(17)
72
(22)
78
(26)
89
(32)
96
(36)
94
(34)
90
(32)
87
(31)
80
(27)
67
(19)
60
(16)
96
(36)

Average high °F (°C)
35.1
(1.7)
39.2
(4)
46.8
(8.2)
56.3
(13.5)
66.2
(19)
76.6
(24.8)
80.8
(27.1)
77.9
(25.5)
71.5
(21.9)
60.5
(15.8)
45.5
(7.5)
36.4
(2.4)
57.7
(14.3)

Daily mean °F (°C)
22.4
(−5.3)
26.5
(−3.1)
33.9
(1.1)
42.1
(5.6)
51.5
(10.8)
60.9
(16.1)
65.6
(18.7)
63.2
(17.3)
56.6
(13.7)
46.1
(7.8)
32.8
(0.4)
23.9
(−4.5)
43.8
(6.6)

Average low °F (°C)
9.8
(−12.3)
13.9
(−10.1)
21.0
(−6.1)
28.0
(−2.2)
36.8
(2.7)
45.2
(7.3)
50.5
(10.3)
48.5
(9.2)
41.7
(5.4)
31.7
(−0.2)
20.1
(−6.6)
11.3
(−11.5)
29.9
(−1.2)

Record low °F (°C)
−25
(−32)
−22
(−30)
−9
(−23)
−6
(−21)
15
(−9)
25
(−4)
31
(−1)
33
(1)
22
(−6)
2
(−17)
−12
(−24)
−19
(−28)
−25
(−32)

Average precipitation inches (mm)
0.44
(11.2)
0.37
(9.4)
0.77
(19.6)
0.89
(22.6)
1.09
(27.7)
0.86
(21.8)
1.79
(45.5)
2.00
(50.8)
1.22
(31)
0.86
(21.8)
0.49
(12.4)
0.36
(9.1)
11.13
(282.7)

Average snowfall inches (cm)
6.8
(17.3)
5.3
(13.5)
8.3
(21.1)
5.7
(14.5)
1.4
(3.6)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0.1
(0.3)
2.6
(6.6)
4.7
(11.9)
5.6
(14.2)
40.5
(102.9)

Source #1: https://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliGCStT.pl?cogrea (temperatures) [24]

Source #2: https://wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?cogrea (precipitation/snowfall) [25]

text: Ecology[edit]

text: The four primary components of the Great Sand Dunes system are the mountain watershed, the dunefield, the sand sheet, and the sabkha. The mountain watershed receives heavy snow and rain which feeds creeks that flow down from alpine tundra and lakes, through subalpine and montane woodlands, and finally around the main dunefield. Sand that has blown from the valley floor is captured in streams and carried back toward the valley. As creeks disappear into the valley floor, the sand is picked up and carried to the dunefield once again. The recycling action of water and wind, along with a 7% moisture content below the dry surface holding the sand together, contributes to the great height of the dunes.[8]

text: The dunefield is composed of reversing dunes, transverse dunes—also called crescentic or barchan dunes—and star dunes. The sand sheet is the largest component of the system, comprising sandy grasslands that extend around three sides of the dunefield. Almost 90% of the sand deposit is found in the sand sheet, while the remainder is found in the dunefield. Small parabolic dunes form in the sand sheet and then migrate into the main dunefield. Nabkha dunes form around vegetation. The sabkha forms where sand is seasonally saturated by rising ground water. When the water evaporates away in late summer, minerals similar to baking soda cement sand grains together into a hard, white crust. Areas of sabkha can be found throughout western portions of the sand sheet, wherever the water table meets the surface. Some wetlands in the sabkha are deeper with plentiful plants and animals, while others are shallow and salty.[8]

text: Flora[edit]

text: There are hundreds of plant species in the park and preserve, adapted for environments as diverse as alpine tundra and warm water wetlands. Trees include aspen, Douglas fir, pinyon pine, ponderosa pine, Rocky Mountain juniper, three-leaf sumac, bristlecone pine, red osier dogwood, and narrow-leaf cottonwood.[27][28]

text: Among the flowering plants are alpine phlox, dwarf clover, alpine forget-me-not, fairy primrose, alpine aven, Indian paintbrush, lousewort, blue-purple penstemon, aspen daisy, western paintbrush, elephantella, snow buttercups, scurfpea, Indian ricegrass, blowout grass, prairie sunflower, Rocky Mountain beeplant, rubber rabbitbrush, speargrass, small-flowered sand verbena, narrowleaf yucca, prickly pear cactus, Rocky Mountain iris, and white water buttercup.[27][28]

text: Inland saltgrass is the primary type of grass around sabkha wetlands in the park.[27]

text: Fauna[edit]

text: Mammals include—from alpine tundra to low elevation grasslands—the pika, yellow-bellied marmot, bighorn sheep, black bear, snowshoe hare, Abert's squirrel, cougar, mule deer, water shrew, beaver, kangaroo rat, badger, pronghorn, and elk. Over 1500 bison are currently ranched within park boundaries on private land owned by The Nature Conservancy which is only open to the public through tours.[29]

text: Over 200 species of birds are found throughout the park. From higher to lower elevations and dependent on season, some of the bird species include the brown-capped rosy finch, white-tailed ptarmigan, red-breasted nuthatch, peregrine falcon, mountain bluebird, northern pygmy owl, dusky grouse, hummingbird (four species), western tanager, burrowing owl, bald eagle, golden eagle, sandhill crane, American avocet, and great blue heron.[30]

text: Various reptiles live in the park, such as the short-horned lizard, fence lizard, many-lined skink, bullsnake, and garter snake.[31]

text: Fish living in the park's streams include the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, Rio Grande sucker (Catostomus plebeius), and fathead minnow.[32]

text: Amphibians include the tiger salamander, chorus frog, northern leopard frog, spadefoot toad, Great Plains toad, and Woodhouse's toad.[33]

text: The park harbors several endemic insects including the Great Sand Dunes tiger beetle, a circus beetle (Eleodes hirtipennis), Werner's (Amblyderus werneri) and Triplehorn's (Amblyderus triplehorni) ant-like flower beetle, as well as undescribed species of clown beetle, noctuid moth, and robber fly. More than a thousand different kinds of arthropods have been found at the Great Sand Dunes.[34]

text: Ecosystems[edit]

text: Alpine tundra is the highest elevation ecosystem at Great Sand Dunes where the conditions are too harsh for trees to survive, but wildflowers, pikas, yellow-bellied marmots, ptarmigans, and bighorn sheep thrive. The tundra begins about 11,700 ft (3,600 m) and continues upward to the highest peaks in the park. At subalpine elevations near the tree line grow krummholz (meaning "crooked wood")—trees which are stunted and twisted due to high winds, snow, ice, short growing seasons, and shallow, poorly developed soils. The transition zone between subalpine forest and alpine tundra is an important refuge during storms for some mammals and birds who primarily live on tundra. Bristlecone and limber pines grow at an extremely slow rate, with small statures that belie their true ages as some are more than a thousand years old.[10]

text: Subalpine forests and meadows capture heavy snow in winter and soaking rains in summer. The highest diversity of Rocky Mountain species of plants and animals are found in this ecosystem. Subalpine forest extends from 9,500 ft (2,900 m) to tree line at 11,700 ft (3,600 m). Montane forests and woodlands are found along the drier foothills at approximately 8,000 ft (2,400 m) to 9,500 ft (2,900 m). Pinyon-juniper and ponderosa pine woodlands are found on open, drier slopes, while cottonwood and aspen trees are in drainages. Cougars hunt mule deer here at night. Owls, dusky grouse, turkeys, and bullsnakes all find habitat in these drier, open woodlands.[10]

text: The riparian zone follows creeks through the subalpine and montane ecosystems at Great Sand Dunes. Cottonwood and aspen trees, red osier dogwood, and alder grow well in this wet environment, in turn providing shade and habitat for black bears, water shrews, and western tanagers. Rio Grande cutthroat trout are found in Medano Creek.[10]

text: While the top few inches of the dunefield are often dry, the dunes are moist year-round due to ongoing precipitation. Moisture content of 7% beneath the surface sand allows species such as Ord's kangaroo rat, Great Sand Dunes tiger beetle, scurfpea, and blowout grass to survive here. Many animals visit the dunes from other habitats, including elk, pronghorn, bison, coyotes, bobcats, and raptors.[10]

text: The sand sheet includes extensive grasslands and shrublands that surround the dunefield on three sides, from 7,500 ft (2,300 m) to 8,200 ft (2,500 m). The sand sheet varies from wet meadows to cool-grass prairie to desert shrubland, depending on proximity to groundwater and soil type. Elk and pronghorn are common, while burrowing owls nest in the ground and other raptors float through the skies searching for mice, kangaroo rats, and short-horned lizards.[10]

text: The sabkha is a wetland region where groundwater rises and falls seasonally, leaving white alkali deposits on the surface. Inland saltgrass is common in this area. Toads can reproduce in sabkha wetlands when they are seasonally filled with sufficient fresh water. Shore birds such as the American avocet hunt tadpoles and insects in the shallow water. Wetlands speckle the San Luis Valley and are important habitat for sandhill cranes, shore birds, amphibians, dragonflies, and freshwater shrimp. Grassland species such as elk also use these waters for drinking. The sabkha and wetlands are at approximately 7,500 ft (2,300 m) in elevation.[10]

text: Features[edit]

text: The park preserves the tallest sand dunes in North America,[7] as well as alpine lakes and tundra, mountain peaks over 13,000 feet (3,962 m) in elevation, mixed conifer forests, grasslands, and wetlands.[35]

text: Medano Creek, which borders the east side of the dunes, never finds a permanent and stable streambed as fresh sand falls in the creek. Small underwater sand ridges that act like dams form and break down, creating surges of water which resemble waves. The surges occur at an average interval of about 20 seconds. In a high-water year, the surges can be as high as 20 in (51 cm). The "surge flow" mainly occurs during the peak flow period from late May to early June in most years.[12]

text: Big Spring Creek is a unique spring-fed creek formed by an unconfined aquifer which creates wetlands that support rare species and plant communities in a generally arid area. The creek was designated a National Natural Landmark in 2012.[36]

text: Recreation[edit]

text: Accessing the dunes requires walking across the wide and shallow Medano Creek. The creek typically flows past the main dunes parking area from late April through late June, with peak flow occurring from late May to early June in most years. In other months, the creek is usually only a few inches deep, if there is any water at all.[12] Hiking is permitted throughout the dunes, with the warning that the sand can get very hot in the summer, up to 150 °F (66 °C).[13] Sand wheelchairs are available at the visitor center.[37] Sandboards and sand sleds can be rented just outside the park entrance or in Alamosa which is the closest city.[14]

text: Mosca Pass Trail is a 7 mi (11 km) roundtrip hike that follows a small creek through aspen and evergreen forests to Mosca Pass—elevation 9,737 ft (2,968 m)[5]—in the Sangre de Cristo Range. American Indians and early settlers used this route for travel between the San Luis Valley and the Wet Mountain Valley to the east. Several trails located in the northeastern section of the park lead to alpine lakes high in the mountains. A trail to Medano Lake and the summit of Mount Herard is located off Medano Pass Road. A trail along Sand Creek leads to the Sand Creek Lakes and Music Pass—elevation 11,380 ft (3,470 m)[5]—with a view of the Upper Sand Creek basin. Spur trails along Sand Creek lead to the four alpine lakes which feed the creek, and to several 13,000 ft (4,000 m) peaks above the basin. The Sand Ramp Trail traverses between the dunefield and the mountains, connecting the park's campground to Medano Pass Road (follow the road up to Medano Lake and Pass), as well as the base of the Sand Creek Trail.[13][5] Most of the park's grasslands, shrublands and wetlands have no established trails but are generally open to hiking. The Nature Conservancy's Medano Ranch property may only be visited on a guided tour. A fence surrounds the property to contain the Conservancy's bison herd and demarcate the boundaries.[38]

text: Medano Pass Road is a 22 mi (35 km) four-wheel drive (4WD) road that begins where the main park road ends.[39] The unpaved road crosses Medano Creek nine times and traverses 4 mi (6.4 km) of deep sand. Only street-licensed 4WD motor vehicles or motorcycles, and bicycles are permitted.[15] Fat tire bikes are the only type of bicycle recommended by the park service due to the deep sandy stretches.[40] The road winds around the eastern side of the dunefield, up through a forested mountain canyon inside the National Preserve, and then over Medano Pass—elevation 9,982 ft (3,043 m)[5]—at the 11.2 mi (18.0 km) mark. The road then continues down into the Wet Mountain Valley and connects with Colorado State Highway 69. Travellers are advised that hunting is permitted in the National Preserve during the months of autumn.[15]

text: Most of the national park and the entire national preserve are open to horseback riding and pack animals. Prohibited zones include all developed areas—such as the Pinyon Flats campground, picnic areas, and the visitor center—all paved roadways and many of the hiking trails, along with the dunes area from the parking lot to as far as the High Dune, which is for pedestrian use only. All national park horse camping areas are in the wilderness in designated backcountry campsites or other wilderness areas at least 0.25 mi (0.4 km) from roads or trails. Camping is permitted anywhere in the national preserve and at designated sites along the Medano Pass Road, as long as minimum impact guidelines are followed. Permitted pack animals in the national park and the preserve include horses, mules, burros, donkeys, alpacas, and llamas. Overnight guests at the Zapata Ranch may take guided trips into the park; Zapata Partners is the only NPS-licensed provider of horseback riding in the Great Sand Dunes.[41][42]

text: Unlike all other national parks in the contiguous United States, Great Sand Dunes National Park is located directly adjacent to a national preserve. The preserve is also managed by the National Park Service and seasonal hunting is permitted there.[16] Sport hunting has regulations which include not pursuing a wounded animal if it leaves the preserve and enters the national park. Mountain lion hunting with dogs is also allowed in the preserve, but unless the dogs have spotted the lion and are pursuing it, they are required to be leashed.[43] Other game species include turkey, bear, bighorn sheep, elk and mule deer.[44]

text: Designations[edit]

text: The dunes and surrounding area were designated a national monument in 1932 after a bill—sponsored by the P.E.O. Sisterhood and widely supported by local residents—was signed into law by President Herbert Hoover. Similar support in the late 1990s resulted in the monument’s redesignation as Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in 2000-2004.[11] The original boundaries protected an area of 35,528 acres (55.5 sq mi).[6]

text: In 1976, the U.S. Congress designated the Great Sand Dunes Wilderness—a wilderness area encompassing 32,643 acres (51 sq mi) within the monument. This wilderness is the only one in the U.S. that protects a saltbush-greasewood ecosystem and includes the entire dunefield as well as much of the area west of the dunes.[45][46] Congress also designated the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness in 1993, which contains a total of 219,776 acres (343.4 sq mi) of mountainous terrain.[47] Most of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness is managed by the U.S. Forest Service while the National Park Service manages the area that has since been designated a national preserve.[48] Mechanized transport and motorized equipment or vehicles are not permitted in wilderness areas, while ATVs are not permitted anywhere in the national park and preserve.[47] The restrictions of a wilderness designation protect native wildlife such as the endemic Great Sand Dunes tiger beetle from potential extinction caused by human activities.[49] Both of the wilderness area designations exclude the existing road corridors that pass through them, specifically the paved park road and the unpaved Medano Pass Road.[46]

text: In 1999, the Nature Conservancy purchased surrounding state-owned land.[50] The land is within the Medano–Zapata Ranch, located to the west and south.[51] Some of the ranch land is located within the current national park boundary in its southwestern corner,[5] and includes a fenced area that contains a bison herd within 44,000 acres (68.8 sq mi)[50]—an area that can only be visited on a guided tour.[52][53] The objective of the Nature Conservancy, as well as the federal and state governments, is to combine conservation and sustainable use of the ecosystem, in a manner similar to the protected area mosaic recommended in the early 1980s for parts of the Yukon in Canada.[51]

text: The eventual redesignation as Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve was authorized on November 22, 2000 when President Bill Clinton signed the Congressionally-approved Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act. The act directed the Secretary of the Interior to "establish the Great Sand Dunes National Park when sufficient land having sufficient diversity of resources has been acquired to warrant its designation."[54] The new designation as a national park and preserve would not be made official until 2004 after sufficient land had been acquired.[55][56]

text: In 2002, the Nature Conservancy purchased the Baca Ranch—an area of 97,000 acres (151.6 sq mi)—for $31.28 million. Financing was provided by the Department of the Interior, the Colorado State Land Board and private donors. The Baca Ranch had property located in the valley and the adjacent mountains, ranging in elevation from 7,500 ft (2,286 m) west of the dunes to the 14,165 ft (4,317 m) summit of Kit Carson Peak. The purchase approximately tripled the size of the monument. The ranch was split into three sections: the Sangre de Cristos section east of Crestone became part of the Rio Grande National Forest; the section west of the dunes was designated the Baca National Wildlife Refuge and managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service; the section east of the dunes was transferred first to the Rio Grande National Forest and later redesignated a national preserve in 2004 managed by the National Park Service. The national preserve remains open to regulated seasonal hunting, as it was when designated national forest land, but is protected from logging and mining activities which are generally permitted in national forests.[57]

text: The boundaries of the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve were established by an act of Congress on September 24, 2004.[2]

text: In 2016, the federal government began negotiations toward purchasing 12,518 acres (19.6 sq mi) of the Medano–Zapata Ranch from the Nature Conservancy. The plan is to complete the park, making it fully accessible to the public, by acquiring the final piece of privately-held land located within the current park boundaries. The land includes the area presently occupied by the bison herd, as well as adjacent meadows and wetland areas. The purchase is expected to be completed by 2018.[56]


document_title: List of Stranger Things characters

question_text: who plays mike's mom on stranger things

question_tokens: who plays mike 's mom on stranger things

text: List of Stranger Things characters

text: Overview[edit]

text:
Character

Portrayed by

Appearances

Season 1

Season 2

Main characters

Joyce Byers

Winona Ryder

Main

Jim Hopper

David Harbour

Main

Mike Wheeler

Finn Wolfhard

Main

Eleven

Millie Bobby Brown

Main

Dustin Henderson

Gaten Matarazzo

Main

Lucas Sinclair

Caleb McLaughlin

Main

Nancy Wheeler

Natalia Dyer

Main

Jonathan Byers

Charlie Heaton

Main

Karen Wheeler

Cara Buono

Main

Martin Brenner

Matthew Modine

Main

Main[a]

Will Byers

Noah Schnapp

Recurring

Main

Steve Harrington

Joe Keery

Recurring

Main

Max Mayfield

Sadie Sink

Does not appear

Main

Billy Hargrove

Dacre Montgomery

Does not appear

Main

Bob Newby

Sean Astin

Does not appear

Main

Sam Owens

Paul Reiser

Does not appear

Main

Recurring characters

Ted Wheeler

Joe Chrest

Recurring

Calvin Powell

Rob Morgan

Recurring

Lonnie Byers

Ross Partridge

Recurring

Does not appear

Barb Holland

Shannon Purser

Recurring

Does not appear

Phil Callahan

John Paul Reynolds

Recurring

The Monster / "The Demogorgon"

Mark Steger

Recurring

Does not appear

Connie Frazier

Catherine Dyer

Recurring

Does not appear

Scott Clarke

Randy Havens

Recurring

Lead Agent

Tobias Jelinek

Recurring

Does not appear

James

Cade Jones

Recurring

Does not appear

Holly Wheeler

Anniston Price[b]Tinsley Price

Recurring

Florence

Susan Shalhoub Larkin

Recurring

Russell Coleman

Tony Vaughn

Recurring

Guest

Donald Melvald

Charles Lawlor

Recurring

Guest

Tommy H.

Chester Rushing

Recurring

Carol

Chelsea Talmadge

Recurring

Marsha Holland

Cynthia Barrett

Guest

Recurring

Terry Ives

Aimee Mullins

Guest

Recurring

Becky Ives

Amy Seimetz

Guest

Recurring

Kali / Eight

Linnea Berthelsen

Does not appear

Recurring

Claudia Henderson

Catherine Curtin

Does not appear

Recurring

Murray Bauman

Brett Gelman

Does not appear

Recurring

Erica Sinclair

Priah Ferguson

Does not appear

Recurring

text:
Jump up ^ Modine only appears in two episodes of season two, but is credited as a star in the episodes where he appears.

Jump up ^ Anniston Price is only credited in season one, while in season two Holly is played only by Tinsley Price.

text: Main characters[edit]

text: Joyce Byers[edit]

text: Joyce Byers (portrayed by Winona Ryder[5]) is the mother of Will and Jonathan Byers and is divorced from Lonnie Byers, the father of her two children. Joyce works as a retail clerk at Melvald's General Store located in the downtown area of Hawkins, Indiana. She was born and raised in Hawkins, and she attended Hawkins High School with the future chief of police, Jim Hopper, and her season two love interest, Bob Newby.

text: Jim Hopper[edit]

text: Jim Hopper (portrayed by David Harbour) is the chief of Hawkins Police Department.[5] Hopper divorced after his young daughter died of cancer, which caused him to lapse into alcoholism. Eventually he grows to be more responsible, saving Joyce's son as well as taking Eleven as his adopted daughter.

text: Mike Wheeler[edit]

text: Mike Wheeler (portrayed by Finn Wolfhard[6]) is son of Karen and Ted, younger brother of Nancy, and one of three friends of Will Byers. He is an intelligent and conscientious student and is committed to his friends. He develops romantic feelings for Eleven.

text: Eleven[edit]

text: Eleven (portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown[6]), nicknamed "El", is a young girl with psychokinetic abilities, an unusual appearance, and a limited vocabulary. She escapes from Hawkins Laboratory where experiments were being performed on her. She befriends Mike, Dustin, and Lucas and develops romantic feelings for Mike. It is eventually revealed that she is actually Jane Ives, the biological daughter of Terry Ives.

text: Dustin Henderson[edit]

text: Dustin Henderson (portrayed by Gaten Matarazzo[6]) is one of Will's friends. His cleidocranial dysplasia causes him to lisp. He befriends Steve Harrington in the second season.

text: Lucas Sinclair[edit]

text: Lucas Sinclair (portrayed by Caleb McLaughlin[6]) is one of Will's friends. He is wary of Eleven, yet befriends her later on. In season two, he becomes a love interest for Max.

text: Nancy Wheeler[edit]

text: Nancy Wheeler (portrayed by Natalia Dyer[6]) is the daughter of Karen and Ted, older sister of Mike, and girlfriend of Steve Harrington.

text: Jonathan Byers[edit]

text: Jonathan Byers (portrayed by Charlie Heaton[6]) is the older brother of Will Byers and the son of Joyce Byers. Considered an outsider at school, he is a quiet teenager and an aspiring photographer. He is very close with his mother and brother.

text: Karen Wheeler[edit]

text: Karen Wheeler (portrayed by Cara Buono[7]) is the mother of teenaged Nancy, middle schooler Mike, and toddler Holly.

text: Martin Brenner[edit]

text: Martin Brenner (portrayed by Matthew Modine[8]) is the scientist in charge of Hawkins Laboratory and the experiments performed there. He is manipulative and remote. He and his team are searching for Eleven.

text: Will Byers[edit]

text: Will Byers (portrayed by Noah Schnapp[6]) is the younger brother of Jonathan Byers and the son of Joyce Byers. He vanishes after encountering the monster that escaped through a rift to the "Upside Down", an alternate dimension, discovered by the Hawkins Laboratory scientists.[9] Schnapp was promoted to series regular for the second season, after recurring in the first.[10]

text: Maxine Mayfield[edit]

text: Maxine "Max" Mayfield / "Madmax" (portrayed by Sadie Sink) is Billy's younger step-sister, and the tomboy of the group who catches the attention of both Lucas and Dustin.[10]

text: Steve Harrington[edit]

text: Steve Harrington (portrayed by Joe Keery) is the boyfriend of Nancy Wheeler. A popular student at the high school, he initially tries to develop a relationship with Nancy and ostracize Jonathan Byers, though he comes to regret the latter.[11] Keery was promoted to series regular for the second season, after recurring in the first.[10]

text: Billy Hargrove[edit]

text: Billy Hargrove (portrayed by Dacre Montgomery) is Max's psychotic older step-brother.[10]

text: Bob Newby[edit]

text: Bob Newby (portrayed by Sean Astin) is a former schoolmate of Joyce and Hopper, who now runs the Hawkins Radio Shack,[12] and becomes Joyce's boyfriend, putting him at odds with Hopper.[13]

text: Sam Owens[edit]

text: Sam Owens (portrayed by Paul Reiser) is a Department of Energy executive who replaced Brenner at Hawkins Laboratory who is as committed to science research and stubborn as his predecessor, but much more empathetic to the residents of Hawkins.[12]

text: Robin[edit]

text: Robin (portrayed by Maya Hawke) is an "alternative girl" bored with her job until she stumbles onto one of the secrets of Hawkins. She will be introduced in the third season.[14]

text: Recurring characters[edit]

text: The following is a list of guest characters that have recurring roles throughout the series. The characters are listed by the order in which they first appeared.

text: Introduced in season one[edit]

text:
Joe Chrest as Ted Wheeler, husband of Karen, father of teenager Nancy, middle schooler Mike, and toddler Holly.[15]
Rob Morgan as Calvin Powell, one of Hopper's officers. He is serious and by the book.
Shannon Purser as Barbara "Barb" Holland, best friend of Nancy Wheeler. She is concerned that her friendship with Nancy may be threatened by Nancy's relationship with Steve.[16]
John Paul Reynolds as Phil Callahan, another of Hopper's officers.[15] Not nearly as serious as his partner, he still works hard in the search for Will Byers.
Mark Steger as the Monster, a creature that exists in the Upside Down. Referred to as "the Demogorgon" by Mike, Lucas and Dustin.[17]
Catherine Dyer as Connie Frazier,[18] Brenner's FBI enforcer who has no qualms about murdering those who have come into contact with Eleven.
Randy Havens as Scott Clarke, the boys' teacher. He encourages their interest in science and technology and helps them whenever asked.[19]
Hugh Holub as the lead scientist at Hawkins Laboratory.
Tobias Jelinek as the lead agent at Hawkins National Laboratory, who assists Brenner.[20]
Cade Jones as James, a school bully who hangs around with Troy.[21]
Anniston and Tinsley Price as Holly Wheeler, daughter of Karen and Ted, younger sister of Nancy and Mike.[22]
Susan Shalhoub Larkin as Florence ("Flo"), the secretary at the Hawkins Police Station.[23]
Tony Vaughn as Russell Coleman, the principal at Hawkins Middle School.
Peyton Wich as Troy, a school bully of Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will.[21]
Charles Lawlor as Donald Melvald, the owner of a convenience store where Joyce Byers works.
Chester Rushing as Tommy H., former friend of Steve, and boyfriend of Carol.[24]
Chelsea Talmadge as Carol, former friend of Steve, and girlfriend of Tommy.[25]
Robert Walker-Branchaud as an agent of Hawkins Laboratory who disguises himself as a repairman.
Cynthia Barrett as Marsha Holland, Barbara Holland's mother.[26]
Aimee Mullins as Terry Ives, a woman who claims her daughter, Jane, was stolen from her shortly after she gave birth, but she has since gone into a mental state where she is unaware of her surroundings. She is the biological mother of Eleven.[27]

text: Introduced in season two[edit]

text:
Linnea Berthelsen as Kali / Eight, a young woman with illusion manipulation abilities, who along with Eleven, were experimented on at the Hawkins Laboratory but later managed to escape.[12][28] Vanathi Kalai Parthiban portrays a young Kali.
Catherine Curtin as Claudia Henderson, Dustin's mother.[29]
Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman, a former journalist that became a conspiracy theorist, who visits Hawkins to go after a cold case.[30]
Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair, Lucas' younger sister.[31]

text: Introduced in season three[edit]

text: Francesca Reale as Heather, a popular lifeguard at the Hawkins Community Pool who becomes the centerpiece of a dark mystery.[32]

text: Guest characters[edit]

text: The following is a supplementary list of guest stars  that appear in lesser roles, make significant cameo appearances or who receive co-starring credit over multiple appearances. The characters are listed in the order in which they first appeared.

text: Introduced in season one[edit]

text:
Ross Partridge as Lonnie Byers,[33] the drunk, egotistical, selfish ex-husband of Joyce Byers and father of Jonathan and Will. He has a much younger girlfriend named Cynthia.
Chris Sullivan as Benny Hammond, owner and chef of Benny's Burgers, and friend of Hopper.[34][35]
Andrew Benator as a scientist at Hawkins Laboratory.[36]
Glennellen Anderson as Nicole,[37] a classmate of Nancy, Steve and Jonathan.
Pete Burris as the head of security at Hawkins Laboratory.
Jerri Tubbs as Diane Hopper, Jim's ex-wife.
Amy Seimetz as Becky Ives, Terry's sister who takes care of her.[38]
Elle Graham as Sara Hopper, Jim and Diane's daughter, who died of cancer.[39]

text: Executive producer Shawn Levy makes a cameo appearance as a morgue worker.[40]

text: Introduced in season two[edit]

text:
Kai L. Green as Funshine, a member of Kali's crew.[29]
James Landry Hébert as Axel, a member of Kali's crew.[29]
Anna Jacoby-Heron as Dottie, a member of Kali's crew.[29]
Gabrielle Maiden as Mick, a member of Kali's crew.[29]
Aaron Muñoz as Mr. Holland, Barbara's father.[26]
Karen Ceesay as Mrs. Sinclair, Lucas and Erica's mother.[26]
Drew Scheid as Nancy, Steve and Jonathan's classmate.
Pruitt Taylor Vince as Ray,[29] a technician at Hawkins Laboratory who electrocuted Terry Ives, contributing to her deteriorated mental state.
Arnell Powell as Mr. Sinclair, Lucas and Erica's father.[26]
Will Chase as Neil Hargrove, Billy's father, Max's stepfather, and Susan's husband.[41]
Jennifer Marshall as Susan Hargrove,[42] Max's mother, Billy's stepmother, and Neil's wife.
Joe Davison as a technician at Hawkins Laboratory.[26]

text: Introduced in season three[edit]

text:
Cary Elwes as Mayor Kline, a politician who is more concerned with his own image than with the people of the small town of Hawkins.[43]
Jake Busey as Bruce, a journalist for "The Hawkins Post" with questionable morals and a sick sense of humor.[43]