Hello, I was looking for more information on the large "Algonquin Provincial Park" in the Province of Ontario, Canada, and I found a reference to something I had not heard of before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England%27s_Dark_Day The likely cause of the Dark Day was smoke from massive forest fires. When a fire does not kill a tree and the tree later grows, scar marks are left in the growth rings.[8] This makes it possible to approximate the date of a past fire. Researchers examining the scar damage in Ontario, Canada, attribute the Dark Day to a large fire in the area that is today occupied by Algonquin Provincial Park.[9] On that web page, I clicked on "1780," and found an interesting page showing "events" which happened that year, including births and deaths. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1780 FYI: http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_Provincial_Park That page says that the Park is well over 7, 500 square kilometers in size. Betty (near Lowell, MA, USA)