Lost To The Depths: The Story of the Frank H. Goodyear

 

The Frank H. Goodyear

        Sinnemahoning is a name synonymous with northern Pennsylvania Its origin lies with the Lenni-Lenape or Delaware who once inhabited the region. Their word "Achsinnimahoni" meaning  "at the stony lick", transformed into Sinnemahoning with the arrival of hunters and fur trapper after the American Revolution. You would think that such a unique word could be found no where else. Yet, the name Sinnemahoning can be found hundreds of miles away and 160 feet below the surface of Lake Huron. Why it can found there can be tied to one man and the empire he built in the rugged Pennsylvania wilderness.

The Watchman Printing House (Centre County)

 

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! Bellefonte was once the home of several news periodicals. Some of the names that once graced the headlines included, American Patriot, Daily News, True Democrat, Centre Farmer, Bellefonte National, Centre Democrat, and the Centre Magnet. What were once frontline newspapers are now relegated to the archives. Analyzing these periodicals and their content gives us a cross-section of what society was like at the time. Today's scoop focuses on one such paper and its editor who became a target of the United States government.     

Rocks and Rapids vs. Steam and Steel: The Story of Steamboats on the Susquehanna River

The Rumsey Monument overlooking the Potomac River
Author's Photo

Standing high above the Potomac River in Shepardstown, West Virginia sits a monument to a man and his machine. While the invention would eventually revolutionize transportation, the inventor has largely faded from public recognition. When his machine made its way to the Central Pennsylvania, it would usher in a new era of transportation. 

The Lost Elk of Centre County

A Rocky Mountain Bull Elk
Photo Retrieved From:https://www.fws.gov/

    Elk Creek, Elk Gap, and Elk Street are all locations that can be found amongst the ridges and valleys of southern Centre County. These names are remnants of an era long since passed, when the magnificent bugle of a bull elk could be heard echoing across the ridges. According to some sources, it was here that 140 years ago that the last native elk was killed and a species that had once prospered across the state was gone forever. Following their demise, it was thought that their absence would be permanent. However, an effort in the early 20th Century found elk once again roaming the region. Sadly, their return would only be temporary as they would disappear once again even quicker than the first time.

Now You See It, Now You Don't: The Death of the American Chestnut in Central Pennsylvania

A century old chestnut stump
Author's Photo

    "Now you see it, now you don't!" is a phrase that often accompanies a stage magician's vanishing act. A card or coin is visible one moment and if by magic, disappears the next. At the end of the act, the object reappears much to the amusement and disbelief of the crowd. However, no magician could match the vanishing act that occurred in the early 20th Century. Instead of a coin or card, a much beloved symbol of the forests and landscape, the American chestnut, vanished and no amount of magic could bring it back.

Miller's Spring Trestle Disaster (Centre County)

Looking across what remains of Miller's Spring Trestle

Safety and progress are forever in a race against each other. However, when progress outdistances safety, only disaster awaits at the finish line. On June 11, 1878, that is exactly what awaited a train bound for Bellefonte.       

Killing the Town Too Tough to Die: The Austin Dam Disaster (Potter County)

The ruins of the infamous dam that caused the Austin Flood

    Remember playing with dominos? At some point in our lives, all of us have made a long line of neatly stacked dominoes. If you did everything right, once you toppled the first domino, the entire line would follow suit in a spectacular chain reaction. In the end, there was always quite a mess to clean up. 

    Engineering disasters are, to a degree, a lot like this simple form of amusement. Rarely are they the work of a singular cause, but rather are the product of multiple factors that when linked together at the right time and the right place culminate in destruction. Unbeknownst to the residents of a bustling lumber town in northcentral Pennsylvania, their community laid at the end of a domino chain of disaster that once set in motion, would change it forever.