CANNINGS OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT

Report From Iron Mountain

In a tradition of political satire that ranges from A MODEST PROPOSAL to DR. STRANGELOVE falls the perplexing, ingenious, and ceaselessly curious REPORT FROM IRON MOUNTAIN. Upon its first appearance in 1967, this best-selling "secret government report" sparked immediate debate among journalists and scholars with its disturbingly convincing claim: a condition of "permanent peace" at the end of the Cold War would threaten our nation's economic and social stability. Although finally identified as an antimilitarist hoax by writer/editor Leonard Lewin, who conceived and launched the book with a consortium of peace movement intellectuals including future NATION editors Victor Navasky and Richard Lingerman, novelist E.L. Doctorow, and economist John Kenneth Galbraith, IRON MOUNTAIN would eventually take on a life of its own.

From 1963 to 1966 the U.S. government assembled a team of prominent thinkers from all walks of life to determine what would happen if "peace broke out." The group, surprisingly but with unassailable logic, determined that war was necessary and desirable and that the government should do all it could to maintain the status quo. If peace became inevitable, the report suggested everything from creating an outer-space menace to setting up some new, socially acceptable form of slavery. The report was leaked in 1967 by a conference member harboring a guilty conscience, and it scandalized Washington.
Not.
The ultimate compliment for any form of political satire is to be taken seriously by the people it is skewering. On that scale Report from Iron Mountain, which has been a lightning rod for both Right and Left since its appearance, could hardly be more successful. The hoax, written in perfect think-tankese, captures the mix of Olympian detachment and awesome cynicism that has flowed out of Washington for much of the American Century. Lewin's book (and he really did write it) exposes the mindset that we can thank for Vietnam and so much else.
Report from Iron Mountain was bolstered, if not trumped, by reality--the Pentagon Papers and the Pax Americana, a Defense Department plan to take over Latin America, emerged soon after. But the book's enduring popularity, particularly among those who never got the joke (apparently Lewin had to sue to get right-wing groups convinced of the book's authenticity to stop printing and selling copies) suggests that the governmental worldview that Report from Iron Mountain lampoons--as well as the paranoia that that immorality unleashes in the citizenry--is very much with us. --Michael Gerber

We are coming through one of the three one-lane tunnels on Iron Mountain Road with a perfectly framed view of Mount Rushmore. In the direction we were traveling, we got to see this view twice. The third tunnel affords the view in the other direction. The distortion in the bottom left of the frame is the windshield of the motorcycle (all of these were taken from the back seat of a moving motorcycle)

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Probably the best drive in the Black Hills is Iron Mountain Road which is Route 16A between Keystone and Custer. We rode the portion that extends from Route 244 south to the entrance of the Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park. It ranges from gorgeous sweeping vistas to twisty treacherous hairpin turns.

This is also part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway. This particular section is called the Peter Norbeck Memorial Byway and at its highest point is a small memorial to the governor whose vision and perseverance brought us this magnificent road and all its quirky features.

There are three one-lane tunnels on this portion of Iron Mountain Road, all of which afford a spectacular view of Mount Rushmore as you pass through (depending on which direction you are going, you either see it in front of you as you pass through, or look behind you to see it) They were designed and blasted to frame the faces as you pass through, and they even keep paths cleared through the trees so that nothing obstructs the view of it.

Iron Mountain Road is also home to three pigtail bridges. These are bridges that curve around and go under themselves. When Peter Norbeck first envisioned a highway going through the Black Hills, he was committed to having as little impact as possible on the environment. A pigtail bridge is a particular form of spiral bridge, first built for Iron Mountain Road. Its purpose is to allow for the road to negotiate sudden changes in elevation while minimizing the impact on the surrounding environment. Several of these bridges are located at the entrance/exit of one lane tunnels, which makes for a spectacular ride. They were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps and constructed of natural materials such as local lumber. They were expensive...and well worth it.

The third distinctive feature of Iron Mountain Road is its sections of divided roadway - where the two lanes split and you drive on a narrow one-lane section. This, again, was done because of Norbeck's insistence that the road have as little impact as possible on the environment and natural beauty.

Probably the best drive in the Black Hills is Iron Mountain Road which is Route 16A between Keystone and Custer. We rode the portion that extends from Route 244 south to the entrance of the Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park. It ranges from gorgeous sweeping vistas to twisty treacherous hairpin turns.

This is also part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway. This particular section is called the Peter Norbeck Memorial Byway and at its highest point is a small memorial to the governor whose vision and perseverance brought us this magnificent road and all its quirky features.

There are three one-lane tunnels on this portion of Iron Mountain Road, all of which afford a spectacular view of Mount Rushmore as you pass through (depending on which direction you are going, you either see it in front of you as you pass through, or look behind you to see it) They were designed and blasted to frame the faces as you pass through, and they even keep paths cleared through the trees so that nothing obstructs the view of it.

Iron Mountain Road is also home to three pigtail bridges. These are bridges that curve around and go under themselves. When Peter Norbeck first envisioned a highway going through the Black Hills, he was committed to having as little impact as possible on the environment. A pigtail bridge is a particular form of spiral bridge, first built for Iron Mountain Road. Its purpose is to allow for the road to negotiate sudden changes in elevation while minimizing the impact on the surrounding environment. Several of these bridges are located at the entrance/exit of one lane tunnels, which makes for a spectacular ride. They were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps and constructed of natural materials such as local lumber. They were expensive...and well worth it.

The third distinctive feature of Iron Mountain Road is its sections of divided roadway - where the two lanes split and you drive on a narrow one-lane section. This, again, was done because of Norbeck's insistence that the road have as little impact as possible on the environment and natural beauty.

An old man is dying.
When the old man is dead they will come for him.
And they will come for her, to make him hurt.

John Hart has written three New York Times bestsellers and won an unprecedented two back-to-back Edgar Awards. His books have been called “masterful” (Jeffery Deaver) and “gripping” (People) with “Grisham-style intrigue and Turow-style brooding” (The New York Times). Now he delivers his fourth novel—a gut-wrenching, heart-stopping thriller no reader will soon forget.

HE WOULD GO TO HELL
At the Iron Mountain Home for Boys, there was nothing but time. Time to burn and time to kill, time for two young orphans to learn that life isn’t won without a fight. Julian survives only because his older brother, Michael, is fearless and fiercely protective. When tensions boil over and a boy is brutally killed, there is only one sacrifice left for Michael to make: He flees the orphanage and takes the blame with him.

TO KEEP HER SAFE
For two decades, Michael has been an enforcer in New York’s world of organized crime, a prince of the streets so widely feared he rarely has to kill anymore. But the life he’s fought to build unravels when he meets Elena, a beautiful innocent who teaches him the meaning and power of love. He wants a fresh start with her, the chance to start a family like the one he and Julian never had. But someone else is holding the strings. And escape is not that easy. . . .

GO TO HELL, AND COME BACK BURNING
The mob boss who gave Michael his blessing to begin anew is dying, and his son is intent on making Michael pay for his betrayal. Determined to protect the ones he loves, Michael spirits Elena—who knows nothing of his past crimes, or the peril he’s laid at her door— back to North Carolina, to the place he was born and the brother he lost so long ago. There, he will encounter a whole new level of danger, a thicket of deceit and violence that leads inexorably to the one place he’s been running from his whole life: Iron House.