BALLARAT - THE AMERICAN CONNECTION by I.W.J.Pontefracht Confederate fighting ship "Shenandoah" arrived in Melbourne, January 1865. A group of officers visited Ballarat, February 10, and were warmly received. A ball was held in Craig's Hotel to celebrate the occasion. Craig's Hotel is still an impressive edifice on the Ballarat street-scape. Ballarat born, William H. Corbould, a renowned geologist, mining engineer and metallurgist, was in America and, in particular, St Louis, Missouri 1889-90. He was admitted to membership of American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, 1892. Elected to Legion of Honour 1942, after fifty year membership. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) visited Ballarat in October 1895. He stayed at Craig's Hotel and delivered lectures in the Mechanics Institute which is in Sturt Street. Herbert Hoover (later President), lived in Western Australia 1897-99. Thereafter, with London as his base, visited Australia every couple of years. He was unsuccessful in his search for gold to the north of Ballarat in 1905. PICTURE: RM Of more than ninety Civil War veterans buried in Australia, three are buried in this area: William Kenna Ballarat William Black Miller Creswick (GRAVESTONE PICTURED ABOVE) Denis Sullivan Eganstown Of American doctors on the goldfields, Charles James Kenworthy was a most active member of the community for many years (1853-1864). He was one of the first honorary medical officers at the Ballarat Hospital, a popular lecturer at the Mechanics' Institute, first president of the Ballarat Horticultural Society and, as the director of a mining company, influential in mining disputes. During- the 1850s ice was imported from Lake Wenham, nearBoston, and brought to Australia packed in rice bran and chaff in the hulls of sailing ships. Some was brought up to Ballarat from Geelong by bullock dray and sold from Spencers Depot. The trip took between 3-4 months and 40 per cent of the ice was lost over the whole journey. Hotel keepers bought from here and used it to cool the cocktails of their patrons - at the cost of 2 shillings and 6 pence a glass (equivalent to some $12 a glass today). Ballarat, California - The townsite, established in the 1890s at the mouth of Pleasant Canyon in Panamint Valley, was named after this famous gold district. Today, it is a ghost-town with only a few dwellings and a cemetery remaining.