Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Niagara, river, United States and Canada

(Encyclopedia)Niagara nīăgˈrə [key], river, 34 mi (55 km) long, issuing from Lake Erie between Buffalo, N.Y., and Fort Erie, Ont., Canada. It flows north around Grand Island and over Niagara Falls to Lake Ontar...

Colorado, rivers, United States and Mexico

(Encyclopedia)Colorado [1] kŏlərădˈə, –rădˈō, –räˈdō [2] kŏlərāˈdə, –räˈdə [key]. 1 Great river of the SW United States, 1,450 mi (2,334 km) long, rising in the Rocky Mts. of N Colo., and f...

Spanish moss

(Encyclopedia)Spanish moss, fibrous grayish-green epiphyte (Tillandsia usneoides) that hangs on trees of tropical America and the Southern states, also called Florida, southern, or long moss. It is not a true moss ...

governor, in government

(Encyclopedia)governor, chief executive of a dependent or component unit in a political system. In the United States, a governor is the chief executive of each state and is elected by the people of the state. In th...

Smith, Emmitt

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Emmitt (Emmitt James Smith 3d), 1969–, U.S. football player, b. Pensacola, Fla. An All-America running back at the Univ. of Florida, Smith spent nearly his entire National Football League car...

Yamasee

(Encyclopedia)Yamasee, Yamasi yĕmˈ– [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Muskogean branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In the late 16th cent., wh...

Red River, rivers, United States and Canada

(Encyclopedia)Red River. 1 River, 1,222 mi (1,967 km) long, southernmost of the large tributaries of the Mississippi River. It rises in two branches in the Texas Panhandle and flows SE between Texas and Oklahoma an...

Duval, William Pope

(Encyclopedia)Duval, William Pope do͞ovôlˈ, –vălˈ [key], 1784–1854, American frontiersman, territorial governor of Florida (1822–34), b. near Richmond, Va. He went to Kentucky as a young man, studied law...

Eustace, Alan

(Encyclopedia)Eustace, Alan (Robert Alan Eustace), 1956–, American computer scientist and adventurer, b. Pine Hills, Fla., Ph.D. Univ. of Central Florida, 1984. He worked for Digital Equipment Corp., Compaq, Hewl...

sisal hemp

(Encyclopedia)sisal hemp sīˈsəl, sĭsˈəl, sēsälˈ [key] [from Sisal, former chief port of Yucatan], important cordage fiber obtained from the leaves of the sisal hemp plant, an extensively cultivated tropica...