Saturday, January 18, 2020

The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. August 15, 2019

August 15, 2019

The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad

As I mentioned last week, the highlight of my recent trip to Colorado was a memorable trip on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. We drove from Alamosa to Antonito, making certain to be there in time for the scheduled 10:00 am departure.

Sara had purchased Tourist Deluxe tickets for us, which gave us access to a car outfitted like a dining car with four person tables on one side of the center aisle and two person tables on the other. Our car was the sixth of seven cars in the train, directly following an open gondola car that provided an opportunity for passengers get “close up and personal” with the environment.

The railroad is descended from the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, which was chartered in 1870 to connect Denver with El Paso, Texas. It soon became obvious that a route west to Salt Lake City was more lucrative, so the D&RG went no further south than Alamosa; at least it did reach the Rio Grande River at that point.

In 1880 the D&RG was extended south as far as Santa Fe and west to Durango and Silverton, as narrow gauge (36 inches) lines. The western route was known as the San Juan Extension. It proved to be profitable and operated both freight and passenger trains until the mid-1960s. The D&RG abandoned the San Juan Extension in 1967.

The following year both Colorado and New Mexico established railroad authorities and jointly purchased the portion of the San Juan Extension between Anonito, Colorado, and Chama, New Mexico, renamed it the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, and have operated it successfully as a tourist railway ever since.

Leaving Antonito our train headed to the southwest on the San Luis Valley floor (elevation about 7900 feet above sea level) with sage brush as far as one could see in either direction. Sara commented that, unfortunately, it was so dry there that there was no grass growing there, thus making it unsuitable habitat for sage grouse. In the distance we could see a flat-topped rise that appeared to be a classic mesa.

After about seven miles our route made its first of eleven crossings of the Colorado/New Mexico border. Eventually it turned and climbed up the face of the mesa, an elevation change of about six hundred feet. The surface of the mesa consists of material eroded from volcanic depositions and transported here. We are now in a region of rabbitbrush and mountain mahogany, small shrubs.

Soon the train began to climb off the mesa and up into the foothills, employing long horseshoe loops with the sharp curves that the narrow gauge permitted. We came into an area dominated by ponderosa pine trees, many of them dying because of bark beetle infestation. The danger of forest fire in this area must be severe.

At the Big Horn wye we ha reached the 9,000 foot elevation and were beginning to encounter aspen trees. They occur in massive groves, reproducing from shallow roots that propagate laterally. We are soon high on the side of the mountain, with the stream Canada Jarosita in a canyon five hundred feet below us. Next we pass the remnants of Sublette, New Mexico, the site of a section foreman’s dwelling years ago.

The first tunnel, through weathered volcanic ash, is appropriately called the Mud Tunnel. Once through it the train passed through spectacular scenery with volcanic pinnacles, spires, and pedestal rocks at every turn of the perpetually twisting route. Unlike the Mud tunnel, the Rock Tunnel had to be blasted out of PreCambrian rocks (nearly two billion years old!). Once through it we were now high above Toltec Gorge, with views of the Rio de Los Pinos far below us.

Back in Colorado after our sixth border crossing we arrived at Osier and detrained for lunch. The eastbound train, from Chama, had arrived earlier and its passengers were well through their lunch. Sara, Claire, and I elected to choose the salad bar for our lunch; turkey and meatloaf were other choices. Osier is connected to civilization by Forest Road 103; it is impressive that the caterer can staff and supply the cafeteria so capably.

Back on our train we crossed Cascade Creek on the Cascade Trestle, 137 feet high and 408 feet long. It was constructed by the Pittsburgh-based Keystone Bridge Company, an Andrew Carnegie enterprise and predecessor to the American Bridge Company, in 1881.

To reach the highest point on our journey, Cumbres Pass, we had to negotiate another long loop with a hairpin curve at its middle, Tanglefoot Curve. The pass, at an elevation of 10,015 feet, is the highest point reached by any narrow-gauge railroad in North America. Colorado State Highway 17 also goes through this pass; we will go through it on our bus trip back to Antonito. The pass is also the lower boundary of the subalpine life zone, characterized by heavy snow in the winter, luxuriant wildflowers in the Spring and Summer, and very few trees.

There is a sign at the pass showing the crossing of the Continental Divide Trail. This is deceptive; the actual Continental Divide is about twenty miles farther west. From Cumbres Pass west the track begins a rapid descent on a four percent grade (dropping four feet every hundred feet). Consequently, in addition to stopping for water, the train crew conducts a brake test here before proceeding onward.

Our route now took us around Windy Point, an outlook high above Wolf Creek Valley, and then across the headwaters of Wolf Creek. We then proceeded to follow the valley to the southwest, high on the mountain above it, eventually crossing into New Mexico for the final time. The incessant squeal of the locomotive’s brakes was a constant reminder of the steep grade we were negotiating.

The Lobato Trestle is a smaller version of Cascade Creek, also constructed by the Keystone Bridge Company nearly one hundred and forty years ago. We assume from its age that the material from which it was fabricated was wrought iron.

At this point we entered “the Narrows”, an interesting geological phenomenon. Farther up Wolf Creek the valley has the classic “U-shape” associated with valleys that have been carved by glaciation. Apparently a glacier coming in from the side produced a terminal moraine that interrupted the glacial carving, leaving the original narrow, V-shaped valley.

The western terminus for the Cumbres and Toltec is Chama, New Mexico. Back below 8,000 feet we had returned to an environment of cottonwoods and willows. The railroad complex there is impressive, including a rare coaling tipple that provides coal to the tender.

At Chama we were met by a C&TS tour bus which comfortably returned us to Antonito on the aforementioned Route 17. It paralleled our train route to Cumbres Pass, then went far enough north to reach the Conejos River valley which we followed back to Antonito.

Our locomotive was number 484, a member of the K-36 series. The letter “K” is from the designation “Mikado” for this style; in 1897 Baldwin Locomotive Works built a group of narrow gauge locomotives of this type for the Emperor (Mikado) of Japan. The wheel configuration is 2-8-2; two non-driven pony wheels, eight driven wheels, and two non-driven trailing wheels. The numerical designation “36” defines the magnitude of the tractive force developed by the locomotive, in thousands of pounds. The K-36 can develop 36,000 pounds of tractive force.

Baldwin built ten narrow gauge K-36 locomotives for the D&RG in 1925; the C&TS has five of them still in operational condition. The Durango and Silverton has another three. As a railfan I am happy whenever I can hitch a ride on a scenic railroad, even if it is pulled by a diesel engine. Nonetheless the thrill of riding behind steam is an order of magnitude greater. We are very fortunate that organizations like the C&TS have been able to restore and maintain these wonderful old steamers. What a thrill it would be to ride up the Chartiers Valley behind steam!

The trip from Antonito to Chama is a lesson book in geology. Sara’s “Colorado Roadside Geology” book reported that the gift shop in Antonito had a book specifically discussing geology on the C&TS. Sure enough, I was able to find “Ticket to Toltec”, an excellent book initially written by a geologist, Doris Osterwald, in 1976, and apparently updated recently by her daughter, Becky. It contains a comprehensive “mile-by-mile” description of the geology of the route. I spent most of the trip cycling between the open gondola car to soak in the experience and our dining car where I could refer to the Oserwalds’ book.

Similarly the trip is a lesson book in environment and botany, with the changes in flora obvious as the elevation changes. And let’s not forget hydrology and the role that streams play in creating the landscape that we see today. The synergy between geological features and the watersheds that define them is a science all its own.

It goes without saying that this was a marvelous experience for me, certainly one of the most memorable of my many railfan adventures. Many thanks to Sara for making it possible! And, thanks too to all the workers and volunteers who make it possible to keep this tiny bit of history alive.

Rocky Mountain High. August 8, 2019

August 8, 2019

Rocky Mountain High

I have just returned from another exciting trip to Colorado, to visit my daughter Sara and her family. There is so much to see there that it would take a lifetime to take in all the sights.

This time we decided to begin with a ride on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway. Sara and my granddaughter Claire met me at the Denver airport early one evening and drove west on I-70 past the Continental Divide to Frisco, where we checked into a Ramada Inn.

My flight had been quite pleasant, but the positive experience of the “Friendly Skies” was damaged by the fact that the one piece of luggage I had checked didn’t show up at baggage claim in Denver. Sara quickly learned that it was coming on a later flight and that it would be delivered to our motel in Frisco before morning. It was a minor inconvenience, as past experience had taught me I should carry all my essentials in my carry-on bag.

The next morning we learned that the lost bag had been picked up by a delivery service and would arrive at Frisco late that afternoon. Sara then arranged for it to be diverted to the Holiday Inn Express in Alamosa where we would be staying the next two nights.

After breakfast we got back on I-70 and followed it through spectacular scenery to its junction with Colorado Route 91, “the Top of the Rockies Byway”, which eventually brought us to Leadville. This route took us through the Arapaho National Forest up the western face of the Continental Divide to Fremont Pass (11,318 feet above sea level), with “fourteeners” Quandry Peak, Mt. Lincoln, Mt. Cameron, Mt. Democrat, and Mt. Bross in rapid succession east of us.

Colorado is blessed with fifty-three peaks at elevations more than 14,000 feet above sea level. Alaska has twenty-nine “fourteeners”; the rest of the United States, fourteen more. Each one is worthy of a sight-seeing expedition; the plethora of them in Colorado is an embarrassment of riches. This brought our total to nine, having seen Mt. Evans, Mt. Bierstadt, Torreys Peak, and Grays Peak the previous evening.

Just north of Fremont Pass we had driven through the area where Climax Molybdenum operates a massive open pit mining operation, capable of producing 15,000 tons of molybdenum a year. The huge pit on the side of the mountain and the large tailings reservoirs nearby are stark reminders of the classic challenge of extracting minerals from the earth with a minimum of disruption to the environment.

Leadville itself is an excellent tourist attraction. At an elevation of 10,152 feet, it is the largest incorporated municipality in the United States. In its heyday in the late nineteenth century it had the largest population of any city in Colorado except for Denver. Celebrities associated with Leadville include Doc Holiday, the James brothers, the “Unsinkable Molly Brown”, and Meyer Guggenheim.

We took advantage of the opportunity to explore Leadville’s silver mining past by visiting the remnants of the Matchless Mine, in the foothills east of the city. We then elected to take a drive on the “Trail of the Silver Kings”, a network of roads that allegedly connected the sites of numerous productive mines of the past.

The brochure for this trail should have reported that it was suitable only for four-wheel high clearance vehicles; the Chevrolet Cruze that Sara had rented was not of that category. As soon as the road left Matchless Mine it turned from asphalt to dirt and then quickly to a completely unimproved mountain road Sara was a good sport as I skillfully navigated our return to civilization. I reminded her of a time years ago when we had a similar experience in a station wagon in West Virginia, ending up driving on a railroad right-of-way berm till we found a paved highway.

After a pleasant lunch in the Tennessee Pass Café we walked around “downtown” Leadville till Claire found an ice cream parlor to provide us with dessert. We then headed south, on Colorado Route 24, which we had joined just north of Leadville. We were now in the valley of the Arkansas River with the Sawatch Mountains to the west and the Mosquito Range to the east.

Mount Massive dominated the western skyline at Leadville; Sherman in the Mosquito Range, and Elbert a few miles farther south boosted our count to twelve. All the fourteeners had some snow cover remaining, a glorious sight late in July.

An indispensable companion throughout the trip was Sara’s copy of “Roadside Geology of Colorado”. I think we bought it when Sara and Jim first moved to Colorado. Its identification of exposed rocks at highway cuts and discussion of the geological events that produced them adds a lot to my sightseeing enjoyment. Sure enough, at the village of Granite we were able to stop and investigate a massive granite hillside.

South of Buena Vista we stopped at a “Point of Interest” and were learning the history of water rights in that area when Sara received a text message from “Nick”, the delivery service agent who was driving to Alamosa with my bag. Turned out he was only fifteen minutes behind us on the same route. We were happy to wait there till he arrived; he was happy to have avoided the long remaining drive to Alamosa.

At about this point Route 24 takes off to the east, a route we will follow on our return north. We continued on south on Route 285, “the Collegiate Peaks Byway”. The Sawatch fourteeners continued with Princeton, Antero, Tabeguache Peak, and Shavano, each equally majestic. At Poncha Springs we crossed the south branch of the Arkansas River, which joins the main river as it begins it long journey east to the Mississippi.

Our route then climbed out of the valley and up to Poncha Pass (9,010 feet) between the Sawatch range on the west and the Sangre de Cristo range to the east. From that point we descended rapidly into the narrow north end of San Luis Valley. We left route 285 and took route 17 on to Alamosa.

The San Luis Valley is a dramatically different environment. “Bigger than Connecticut”, it is a high (7,600 feet) desert with sufficient water to become the headwaters of the Rio Grande River. Seventy five miles wide and one hundred twenty five miles long, it was created when parallel north-south faults occurred during the Laramide Orogeny permitting the basin to remain level as mountains were uplifted on both sides.

The San Luis Valley is also a hotbed of UFO conspiracy advocates, with numerous reports of cattle mutilation. Locals call route 17 “the cosmic highway”. A well-known tourist attraction is the UFO watch tower, adjacent to which are some carefully placed rocks “that are the opening to a parallel universe”. We bypassed it, having our hands full with this universe.

A legitimate natural wonder in the valley are the Great Sand Dunes. Remnants of an ancient inland sea, the dunes cover thirty square miles and are seven hundred feet high in places. Colorado is indeed a geologic museum.

We checked into a Holiday Express Motel in Alamosa and enjoyed dinner nearby at a Chili’s Restaurant. The next day we rode on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway, a fine experience that will be documented in next week’s column.

Our trip north the next day retraced our previous route as far as the junction of route 285 and route 24 south of Buena Vista. At this point we took 24 to the northeast, through a high pass in the Mosquito Range and into another montane valley. Our destination was the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, south of the village of Florissant, on the Gold Belt Tour and Scenic Byway, route 1. To an outsider, Colorado’s obsession with identifying the mountain roads as scenic byways seems like overkill. To quote someone else’s comment, “there is a postcard in every direction in Colorado”.

The Fossil Beds Monument was well worth visiting. It is the site of an ancient lake where millennia of deposition of diatoms accompanied by numerous nearby volcanic eruptions have produced a rich treasure of fossils, primarily Eocene Era (thirty-four million years ago) plants, insects, and small animals. In addition, there are numerous petrified stumps of large redwood trees of that time.

We toured the museum, watched the obligatory film, followed a trail to the petrified stumps and a typical fossil shale outcropping, then ate a picnic lunch in a shelter near the Visitor Center. The picnic was particularly nostalgic, reminiscent of many predecessors in similar locations where our children were young.

Sara and I had just had a discussion of the merits of the federal government taking over the health care system, with my commenting that I was concerned about the government’s ability to do anything well. This was obviously the wrong thing to say to a government employee, and certainly this specific site is a perfect example of something extremely well done. Perhaps we should assign the responsibility for health care to the National Park Service.

I also came away from this visit with a renewed respect for paleontologists. I suspect I see this as merely one more subdivision of historical studies; at any rate I am impressed with the work they do and with the insight into our environment they provide.

From Florissant we drove east to Woodland Park, then followed route 67 north through gorgeous scenery in Pike National Forest, with Pike’s Peak (our seventeenth fourteener!) to the southeast. This is the region devastated by the Hayman forest fire in 2002. For quite a distance the ridges to the west of the highway were peppered with the trunks of dead trees. I was surprised at the absence of new growth despite the fire occurring seventeen years ago.

We eventually found our way to route 285 and then to I-470 and fought our way north to Fort Collins, through rush hour traffic. The Interstate highway system is outstanding, but it still is overtaxed everywhere it goes through urban metropolises.

Sara and Claire were excellent travelling companions. As is true of most third children, they are both easy going, “half-full glass” type persons, eager to try out new things and very slow to complain about things that go wrong.

The highlight of the rest of my visit with Sara’s family was attending two performances of the musical play “Matilda”, in which Ian played the role of Nigel. I was completely unfamiliar with this show, which is based on a novel by Roald Dahl about a precocious young girl with psycho-kinetic powers. Nigel is one of her classmates.

Once I figured out what the play was all about, I was able to appreciate the accomplishments of everyone involved in it. It was produced by a theater arts academy that provides aspiring young actors and actresses with a three-week-long workshop culminating in the performance of a challenging musical drama.

This is the eighth major play or musical in which Ian has performed – four with this academy and four with the high school. The Academy will be repeating its workshop for younger students next week, again to perform “Matilda”. Ian is going to help this effort as an intern; Claire is trying out for a role in the show.

In the meantime Nora is eagerly awaiting the next school year; she will be a Freshman at Rocky Mountain High School. This week she is off to Estes Park for a three-day workshop with next year’s Student Council members at the school.

My trip home was uneventful; I even was able to find my luggage in baggage claim. All told, it was a wonderful trip. Nonetheless, “East, West, Home’s Best!”

Whiskey Rebellion, 2019. August 1, 2019

August 1, 2019

Whiskey Rebellion, 2019

Two hundred and twenty-five years ago the brand new United States government faced its first major domestic crisis when a large group of farmers in western Pennsylvania rose up in opposition to an onerous excise tax on the production of whiskey, threatening armed rebellion. We have been aware of this momentous event for many years, but continue to be eager to learn more about it.

Fortunately there are a number of local organizations dedicated to enhancing our understanding of this significant bit of our heritage, primarily in the form of memorial festivals. Thanks to fortuitous scheduling this year we were able to spend two weekends in July enjoying these festivals.

The first weekend was in “little” Washington, which has staked its claim on being the focal point of the Rebellion on its favorite son, David Bradford. Their festival is always rewarding; this year was no exception. It features a series of realistic re-enactments of Whiskey Rebellion events by the “Historical Street Theater” on South Main Street in downtown Washington. This year we were particularly impressed by a confrontation between John Neville and John Holcroft which clearly defined the issues that led to the rebellion.

The Washington Festival includes live music concurrently in three different venues, with genres including archaic, Celtic, bluegrass, and contemporary folk. My favorite this time was the Beau Street players, four local musicians who perform early American and Baroque music.

Food is always a major part of such festivals. I settled on a cup of lemonade and a corn dog for my lunch and was surprised when my dog turned out to be a “foot long”. I eagerly attacked the end of the dog and immediately encountered a problem with the spike down its middle. Nibbling around the side worked for a while, till the remainder was so small it fell off. Sounds like a good engineering problem. At any rate, I enjoyed the portion I didn’t lose.

I rode the shuttle bus to Washington Park to the re-enactors encampment where I watched Wayne’s Legion go through its “School of the Soldier” drill. They, of course, are old friends from Woodville Plantation who provide credible re-enactments of eighteenth century soldiery at events all over the country. Rob Windhorst, Dave Frankowski, and Dan Ragaller are fixtures with this group.

My final stop was at the Pioneer Room of the George Washington Hotel where I was delighted to find Andrew Knez Jr. with a table of his masterful artwork. One of Andrew’s masterpieces is “Remembering”, a portrait of Iroquois war chief, Logan, examining one of the few artifacts remaining from the massacre of his family at Yellow Creek.

In preparation for the painting Andrew commissioned the crafting of a prototype for the artifact, a knife and sheath, which he proudly showed me. The sheath is exquisitely made, with a pattern that depicts the sad tale of Logan and his family. The knife itself is made from an eighteenth century file and the handle includes a tiny piece of wood from the famous elm tree under which Logan gave his famous “Logan’s Lament”.

Andrew is indeed a treasure; the contribution that he continues to make to our understanding of life two centuries ago is immense and is exemplified by the scholarship upon which his paintings are based. We are extremely fortunate to have an artist of his caliber in this area.

The following weekend my focus shifted to Woodville Plantation. I have enjoyed their re-enactments of the events at Bower Hill in the past; this year they were supplemented by “Market Faire”, a recreation of an eighteenth century community market. This turned out to be even more impressive than I had anticipated.

No eighteenth-century fair would be complete without a medicine show; this one featured Dr. Balthasar, impeccably portrayed by re-enactor Mike Follin. The combination of his high-speed auctioneer patter and his interaction with the audience would convince even the most reluctant customer to shell out a few bucks for his elixir, guaranteed to cure whatever ails you.

For this specific event the Neville Plantation was able to import the villain whose influence brought about the Whiskey Rebellion, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton himself. Portrayed by re-enactor Pete Fernbaugh, Hamilton convincingly presented the federal government’s rationale for the Excise Tax of 1791. He and a re-enactor portraying a rebellious farmer (John Holcroft?) performed a cute musical skit as part of the presentation.

Also entertaining was Jack and Maddie’s Turnip Wagon, a curio show featuring children’s peepshows, marionettes, hobby horses, and period songs. In addition fiddler Zac Gordon provided a selection of eighteenth century tunes, accompanied by a tap-dancing puppet, as well as providing mandolin accompaniment to a young lady playing a primitive flute.

A variety of wares were available from an impressive group of sutlers. Master horner Willy Frankford displayed the products of his remarkable scrimshaw work on powder horns and other historical artifacts. The Liberty Pole Spirits distillery offered seven different whiskeys including two that are authentic throwbacks to the Monongahela rye whiskeys of 1794. I presume they paid Mr. Hamilton’s tax.

I purchased a large pewter spoon from “Muggs and Juggs” and learned that it had been cast from an original mold that identified the original manufacturer. Other sutlers were selling period clothing, antique reproductions, and blankets. Three different re-enactors enhanced the eighteenth century motif by emulating native Americans.

I was pleased to see an encampment of members of the 8^th Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line re-enactment unit. One of my neighbors and close friends, Mike Mongelli, was active in that organization a few years ago. He served as model for Andrew Knez Jr.’s painting “The Sentry” which depicts a bedraggled member of the 8^th at Valley Forge, warming his hands over a fire.

Although I had seen the re-enactment of the Bower Hill battles before, it was a treat to see it again. Even though you know it is all make-believe, re-enactments do an excellent job of providing contemporary viewers with a rough idea of what actually occurred.

My lunch at Woodville was at the Atria tent, where their cuisine equalled that of their restaurants. I chose a “Chopin’ Blocks Best” a BBQ beef brisket on a weck, which turned out to be an excellent decision. Of course, I was too embarrassed to inquire what a “weck” was; since then I have learned it refers to a kimmelweck roll, an invention of a German baker in western New York. In Pennsylvania Dutch, kimmel means caraway and weck is the word for roll. So much for my linguistic skills!

My schedule did not permit me to take in the Whiskey Rebellion re-enactment at the Oliver Miller Homestead this year. The combined effect of the re-enactments at each site is synergistic; together they provide a vivid picture of these climactic events. Watching re-enactors depict Marshal Lenox and John Neville attempt to serve a writ on William Miller will always be more effective than using one’s imagination to portray it.

It was a treat to see the re-creation of an eighteenth century market; our congratulations to Dan Ragaller and all the Neville House Associates folks for making it happen. I certainly hope this is the first event of an annual series.

Monday, December 9, 2019

Playing Grandpa. July 25, 2019

July 25, 2019

Playing Grandpa

My talents as a grandfather were severely tested last month when my seventeen-year old grandson Ian McCance visited me for two weeks. I had a wonderful time and hope that it was equally rewarding for him.

The primary reason for his visit was a week spent at Jazz Camp at Duquesne. Unlike me, Ian is a very competent musician, playing trumpet in both his high school band and their jazz band. He had a good experience at camp at Duquesne last year and was happy to have the opportunity to return this year.

This is a lot of fun for me, both vicariously and as a spectator. Although I love all types of music, I was never able to perform myself. My darkest day in junior high was the one in which Alma Weise ridiculed me for my inability to sing. Consequently I am impressed with anyone who can play an instrument. Ian no only plays well, but he appears to understand musical theory as well.

The collateral advantage of Jazz Camp is the fact that I was able to attend an hour-long jazz concert every day. The camp faculty performed at the end of the day for the first three days, demonstrating different concepts each day. For example, on Monday they concentrated on improvisation, with each of them playing improvised solos on well-known songs.

The seven faculty members together make up a jazz band that is easily the equivalent of any I have heard in my long career as a jazz fan. The camp director Mike Tomaro plays saxophone as well as he manages the camp. Jeff Bush on trombone and Joe Badaczewski complete the front line and are aptly supported by a rhythm section made up of Max Leake on piano, Eric Susoeff on guitar, Paul Thompson on bass, and Thomas Wendt on percussion.

Each of these men is a consummate professional; they are all performing regularly in local jazz venues, often as leaders of their own small groups. We were fortunate to have Jeff Bush put together a quartet to entertain at our retirement banquet last April.

Thursday afternoon the campers performed a concert in small groups, with each student coming up with his/her improvised solo. Friday they played as a large (twenty four piece) orchestra. I was quite impressed at their performance, an impression that has been reinforced by watching the video version that I recorded on my cell phone. I continue to be amazed at the accomplishments of young people today, especially as compared to what I recall from my youth days.

Ian will be a senior at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, Colorado, this year, and is beginning to get serious about college next year. We described our campus visit to Penn State in an earlier column; it was followed by one at Pitt a week later. Unlike the very general one at Penn State, the Pitt tour focused on the School of Arts and Sciences.

At this point Ian is contemplating majoring in history, a decision that I certainly would support. In an effort to gain a little bit of experience in that area, he spent his other week here as a pro-bono intern for the Bridgeville Area Historical Society. We want to transform the mass of information developed in our series of workshops on George Washington in western Pennsylvania into something accessible to the general public.

A possible candidate is a collection of short narrated video presentations, one for each of Washington’s seven visits here. Ian’s project is to produce this series of five or six minute videos; his progress to date has been impressive. The prototype is a video dedicated to the Fort Necessity campaign. In support of it we visited Jumonville Glen, Fort Necessity, and Braddock’s Grave.

I am pleased with the tangible product of Ian’s efforts, something that is of value to the Society. I am much more pleased with the knowledge that he does indeed understand the subject matter and its significance to the history and heritage of this area. History may indeed be the appropriate niche for him. He attended the Historical Society’s program on the Bethel Brink’s Robbery and my brother’s talk on the local war dead and appeared to enjoy both of them.

Theater arts is another subject that Ian enjoys and at which he excels. Here too he is succeeding in an area in which I was a dismal failure. Despite my eloquent rendition of “Casey at the Bat” for my audition for the Dramatic Club in high school, my application was turned down. Even worse, based on my performance as Ogden McCloskey in our Junior Class play, Jane Patton was unable to find a role for me in our Senior play. In contrast, Ian has already performed in four or five community and school theatrical productions and is currently involved in a presentation of the play “Matilda”, based on the well-known novel by Roald Dahl.

This provided me with an excuse to watch a few movies with him while he was here. We started out with “The Benny Goodman Story”, an appropriate supplement to Jazz Camp. Then three classic Westerns – “High Noon”, “Lonely Are the Brave”, and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, justified as examples of superb film-making.

We also watched the baseball fantasy movie, “The Natural”, as a complement to going to a Pirate game. The game we saw was close to being a fantasy; the Pirates beat San Diego 11 to 10 in eleven innings, incorporating three different comeback rallies en route to the victory. It certainly is difficult to beat the drama of a baseball game between two evenly matched teams.

Another highlight of his visit was our attending a live performance of “Oklahoma” at the Bendum Theater, accompanied by my daughter Elizabeth and grand-daughter Rachael. After seeing it I concluded that “Oklahoma” must be the greatest musical of all time. Ian and I also watched the movie version, with Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones; that did nothing to reduce my opinion of the show.

I am still not certain how a grandfather is expected to behave; both of my grandfathers had died before I was born. I suspect I attempt to overcompensate for this by being overly permissive. At any rate I enjoyed his visit immensely and hope it was equally enjoyable for him.

Almost Forgotten July 18, 2019

July 18, 2019

Almost Forgotten

It was my privilege recently to attend a presentation in South Fayette’s “local authors” series which featured my brother, Joe, and his book, “Almost Forgotten”, a record of the men from the Bridgeville and South Fayette area who lost their lives while serving in the military.

He began his talk with an explanation of how the project that led to the book began. In 2004 he attended a Memorial Day weekend service at Bethany Church in which the pastor focused on honoring our ancestors. Joe commented that it would be appropriate to mention the men from the church who had lost their lives while in the service and volunteered to come up with a list of their names. The next year and every year since then these men have been remembered at Bethany on Memorial Day on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

While researching this group of casualties Joe quickly turned up information on numerous other local men who deserved to be honored, and he decided to extend his project to include everyone from the general Bridgeville/South Fayette area and to record their stories in a book. The book was completed in 2011 and self-published through “Author House”.

The original book includes the stories of 107 men ranging from the Civil War through the Vietnamese conflict. Since then he has learned of nine more men; they are discussed in two addenda. The book is still available for purchase at the Bridgeville Area Historical Society.

The main body of “Almost Forgotten” is divided into six sections – Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, the Cold War, and Vietnam. In each section the author records all the information available about the specific individual and his death, supplemented by his personal experiences interviewing family members and friends.

Nine of the eleven fatalities in the Civil War were members of Company D, 149^th Pennsylvania Volunteers. This company was organized in the Robinson Run area in August, 1862, and performed in distinguished fashion throughout the war. Similarly Company K of the First Pennsylvania Cavalry was organized a year earlier in Bridgeville and had an equally distinguished war record. Two of the local area fatalities, Richard Lesnett and Thomas Boyce, were members of Company K; Lesnett losing his life in the Cold Harbor Campaign and Boyce losing his life during the Siege at Petersburg.

The story of Company D is recorded in an excellent book compiled by one of its veterans, John W. Nesbit, published in 1906. Company K’s story also deserves to be told – it would be a constructive project ; there is considerable information available.

Twenty two area men lost their lives in World War I. For me the most poignant tale is that of Roy Purnell, a young African-American man who left his wife Viola and baby Amy and went off to France. He died there, probably from the flu epidemic, and is buried in the Oise-Asne Cemetery. After the War, the Gold Star Mothers pressured the U. S. Government to send survivors to France to visit the graves of their loved ones. In 1929 the program was approved and nearly 6,700 widows and mothers made the pilgrimage.

Unfortunately African-Americans were not included in the initial program. Enraged, Viola’s employer, Dr. Fife, responded by volunteering to pay for her passage. The photograph of her at her husband’s gravesite in France is extremely touching. Their baby grew up to become Amy Perkins, a well-known Bridgeville resident who became a Centarian before dying last year.

World War II produced sixty-two more deaths. Among the ones Joe highlighted in his talk was the very first one, Alexander Asti. He was a seaman on the USS Juneau and perished along with the five Sullivan brothers, when it was torpedoed and sunk at Guadalcanal in November, 1942. His photograph on the cover of “Almost Forgotten” is an excellent prototype for all the young men immortalized in the book – what a tragedy that they were deprived of the opportunity for a long, happy life.

Nine men died during the Korean War. Hardest for us to accept was our childhood friend and neighbor Amos Jones. He was an airman on a Navy Neptune patrol bomber that crashed in Iceland on December 17, 1953, while searching for Russian submarines. The bodies were recovered twenty-eight years later and interred at the Arlington National Cemetery.

Six men lost their lives in the period between the Korean and Vietnamese Wars, a period Joe designated as “the Cold War”. Included are two more personal friends – Dick Johnson and Sam Patton – both of whom died in accidents. In some respects illness and accidental deaths are even more tragic than those occurring in combat. Every time I see the pictures of Dick and Sam, I lament the waste of two fine young lives.

Another six young men lost their lives in Vietnam. Joe showed a Cy Hungerford cartoon that could have applied to any of the 116 men in Joe’s project. A somber Uncle Sam, hat in hand, is looking at a cross on which is inscribed “Killed in Action, Cpl. George Verdinek of Bridgeville, Pa., Age 19”. That never fails to make my eyes mist over. Uncle Sam’s comment “No teenage delinquency here!” could well be the theme of Joe’s entire project.

The entire project is extremely emotional. I am impressed that Joe is able to get through a presentation like this without breaking up. I suspect that the saving grace for him is the positive reactions he has experienced from survivors who are grateful to him for his efforts keeping the memory of their loved ones alive.

Evidence of the effectiveness of his project is the fact that this recent presentation was attended by three Lesnett descendants. It is heartwarming to realize that Richard Lesnett, who died on a hospital ship en route to Washington, D. C., from wounds received on May 28, 1864, in a large cavalry battle at Haws Shop, Virginia, is still being remembered by his kinfolk.

Joe has made a major contribution to local history by his scholarship in researching this extremely relevant subject and recording it in a book that is peppered with interesting anecdotes about the folks he met along the way.

The Coverdale Brinks Armored Car Robbery July 11, 2019

July 11, 2019

The Coverdale Brinks Armored Car Robbery

The final presentation in the Bridgeville Historical Society’s 2018/2019 program series dealt with the very first robbery of a Brink’s armored truck in history. It occurred on March 11, 1927 in Bethel Park on what is now Brightwood Road, close to its intersection with Route 88.

The speaker was Courtney Williams, a multi-talented Bethel Park High School teacher. One of her responsibilities is directing the school’s dramatic production each Fall. In 2017 she decided to write her own play, based on an actual event that had taken place in her community. The result was “The Heist”, a fictionalized version of a very significant historical event.

The actual robbery was perpetrated by a notorious Detroit gang, the Flatheads. They took their name from the physical appearance of their leader, Paul Jaworski. Newspaper photographs do indeed resemble the old Dick Tracy comic strip gangster, Flattop. According to Wikipedia Gould based the character on “Pretty Boy” Floyd; based on my perusal of the photographs, I would bet on Jaworski.

Although the Flatheads were based in Detroit and committed a number of highly publicized robberies there, they regularly came here and specialized in robing coal company payroll shipments. Apparently one or more of the gang members was a local resident who had intimate knowledge of the procedures followed by the different coal companies. In 1927 they decided to take on the challenge of robbing the payroll of the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company’s Coverdale mine.

The surface facilities for Coverdale mine were in the general area of what is today Industrial Boulevard in Bethel Park. Adjacent to it was one of the largest “mine patch” communities in the area, over 250 company houses. Payroll day (twice a month) was an important event in the lives on the miners.

One day earlier, on March 10, someone had broken into the powder supply house at the company’s nearby Number 3 mine at Mollenauer and stolen five hundred pounds of black powder, a battery, and a long length of electrical wire. An annoying event, whose relevance was not apparent at the time. This was an era when payroll robberies were common. The Brink’s Express Company responded by developing the ultimate delivery vehicle, the steel-sided “armored car”, an obvious descendant of the tanks used successfully in World War I.

On this day a Brink’s armored car picked up a payroll of over $100,000 at the coal company office in the Wabash Building in downtown Pittsburgh and, accompanied by a second vehicle full of guards, proceeded south to deliver its cargo to the Coverdale mine. Before it reached its destination two massive explosions threw the armored car “75 feet in the air” and deposited it upside down, with its occupants stunned. The support car was in a large cavern left by a second explosion; the guards in it were also incapable of resistance.

The robbers had buried the black powder in the roadbed and set off the explosions with a remote plunger, precisely when the two vehicles were directly over the charges. They efficiently scooped up all of the payroll envelopes, got into two getaway cars and disappeared. None of the Brink’s guards was seriously injured: one of them was able to identify the license number on one of the cars, a blue Stearns-Knight touring car.

The massive manhunt that ensued found paydirt at the farm house of Joseph Wenchoski at Ginger Hill, near Monongahela City. Following a tip from a neighbor who described Wenchoski as a strange farmer who could afford fancy cars and expensive farm machinery, but only sold three cans of milk a day, a large posse descended on his house. They apprehended Jaworski there, along with numerous items of incriminating evidence, including uncirculated currency that was identified as part of the payroll.

The Stearns-Knight getaway car was found nearby, hidden in a ravine. Eventually two buried milk cans containing about $30,000 in currency were discovered at the farm. Except for Stanley Malaskey, who was captured with Jaworski, none of the other nine gang members involved in the robbery were caught.

Included in one of the newspaper photographs of the posse at the farmhouse was Allegheny County Detective Robert L. McMillen, a well-known Bridgeville resident. I was not surprised to see him involved in this incident; McMullen figured prominently in all the law enforcement incidents in this area in the early part of the twentieth century. County detectives were quite important law officers in those days.

Five months later, while Jaworski was being held in the Allegheny County Jail, his brother Sam masterminded a daring jail break. He smuggled in five “automatic revolvers”, tossed three of them through the bars to Paul, and turned the other two on the startled guards. Retrieving the cell key from a guard he released his brother and John Vasbinder, a convicted murderer awaiting execution. In the ensuing dash to freedom two lawmen were seriously injured. The escapees drove off in a getaway car with a female driver.

Jaworski and the Flatheads’ next well publicized robbery was at the offices of the Detroit News on June 25, 1928. It netted them $14,000 and cost police Sergeant George Barstad his life. Jaworski fled to Cleveland. On September 13, 1928, he and an accomplice, Frank “Whitey” Kraft, were enjoying a meal in a restaurant when a nearby diner recognized him and notified the police.

It turns out that Jaworski had been spotted by the director of the church choir in which he had sung as a young boy. He fought his way out of the restaurant, only to be cornered in a nearby house and severely injured by a shotgun blast from a policeman. Medical personnel were able to save his life and permit him to be extradited to Pittsburgh where society finally got its justice when he was electrocuted on January 2, 1929.

Jaworski was born in Poland in 1900; his name then was Paul Poluszynski. His family came to Cleveland while he was still quite young. When his father complained that Paul’s behavior would bring dishonor to the family name, he changed his name to Jaworski.

Although Jaworski and the Flatheads are remembered for the Coverdale robbery, it was actually the third such escapade in this area. The first heist occurred on December 23, 1922, when the gang successfully intercepted the payroll for Pittsburgh Coal Company’s Harrison mine in Beadling. The paymaster had picked up the payroll at the First National Bank in Carnegie and was transporting it by automobile to Beadling. Chief Clerk John Ross Dennis was riding in front of the car on a motorcycle.

Shortly after the cavalcade reached left “the Carnegie road” and went onto Beadling Road, a single gunman shot Dennis, knocking him to the ground. He then killed him with a shotgun blast at close range. Five other bandits surrounded the car, forced its three occupants to lie face down in the road, and absconded in a getaway car with the $20,000 payroll. The case was never solved although the authorities tried to pin it on Daniel Rastelli. Initially convicted of the Dennis murder, he was eventually exonerated in a second trial. Years later Jaworski claimed responsibility for the robbery and murder.

I presume this robbery was committed on the portion of Beadling Road between its intersections with Cedar Boulevard and Gilkeson Road, close to the Mt. Lebanon Township maintenance facilities. “The Carnegie Road” was probably either a combination of Cochran Road and Cedar Boulevard or, perhaps, Swallow Hill Road, Segar Road, and Lindendale Drive. The fact that Dennis was taken to the home of Andrew Smith reinforces this presumption. “The Smith Castle”, on the hillside west of Cedar Boulevard is still a well-known landmark.

The other payroll robbery was at the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company’s Mollenauer mine, not far from Coverdale. It was perpetuated on December 23, 1925. Paymaster Leroy Hutton and two guards – Isaiah Gump and Francis Mahoney, picked up the payroll at the coal company’s offices in downtown Pittsburgh. Divided into two bags, it totaled $67,000. They boarded the Pittsburgh and West Virginia train at the Wabash Terminal, got off at Mollenauer, and proceeded toward the mine office.

At this point an automobile passed them, stopped, and discharged six bandits. Gump was immediately shot, the other two coal company employees thrown to the ground, and the bags of cash appropriated. The gang then jumped into their car and drove away safely. Gump died a few hours later. The case went unsolved until Jaworski claimed responsibility for the murder and robbery a few years later.

I am surprised that the overall career of Jaworski and the Flathead Gang is not better known. He claimed to have killed twenty-six men, including four policemen and his fellow jail-breaker Vasbinder. His record of evil doing matches those of “Baby Face” Nelson and “Pretty Boy” Floyd, highly publicized villains of the era. Perhaps he needed a better nickname.

The Historical Society will kick off its 2019/2020 program series on September 24, 2019 with a program by Steve Mihaly entitled “Marketing the Presidency”. This appears to be an appropriate time to compliment Program Chairperson Rosemary Kasper on another fine season of presentations.

Market Faire at Woodville Plantation July 4, 2019

July 4, 2019

Market Faire at Woodville Plantation

Most of the time when we report on current events, it is “after the fact”, and our readers frequently comment that they wish that had known about the event early enough to attend it. Consequently this week we are going to discuss a future event, one which we are eagerly anticipating.

Each summer Woodville Plantation sponsors a re-enactment of the signature event of the Whiskey Rebellion, the Battle of Bower Hill, in mid-July. This year that will take place at Woodville Plantation on July 20 and 21. We have seen this several times and can confirm that it warrants attendance.

This year however the celebration has been greatly expanded by the addition of an authentic Eighteenth Century Market Faire featuring entertainment, sutlers, craftsmen, and a menu of food appropriate for colonial times.

The sponsors of the Faire have promised that the nefarious Alexander Hamilton, portrayed by re-enactor Pete Fernbaugh, will make several appearances to encourage Federal Marshall David Lenox to ignore President Washington’s instructions and to “use whatever force is deemed necessary” to collect his hated Excise Tax. This time perhaps the rebels will do more than just hang Hamilton’s portrait upside down.

Also at the Faire will be Dr. Balthasar and his array of patent medicines designed to cure all ills. Portrayed by Ohio Historical Society interpreter Mike Follin, this “Snake Oil Salesman” hawks a magical medicine guaranteed to cure “consumption, baldness, the "summer complaint," dropsy, drunkenness and death of two weeks’ standing.”

A popular attraction at colonial market fairs were the curio (or raree) shows where travelling entertainers displayed rare and exotic artifacts (“the stones that David did not throw at Goliath) and entertainment (Punch and Judy shows). Jack and Maddie’s Turnip Wagon will re-enact this diversion at Market Faire. Children’s peepshows, marionettes, hobby horses, and occasional eighteenth-century songs are part of their repertoire.

No colonial fair would be complete without a wide variety of sutlers, vendors eager to sell their wares to the settlers attracted by the entertainment. The Midway at Market Faire will include an impressive collection of them.

Interested in a set of playing cards from the 1760s, or a Paul Revere lantern, or “fancy shoe buckles”? Be sure to visit the “Smoke and Fire” stand. The “Celtic Forge” booth will be perfect if you are interested in Celtic jewelry. The Small Canoe Trading company will offer eighteenth-century clothing and items. Products offered at other booths include pottery, bladed weapons, and leather jackets.

Don’t pass up the chance to see a legitimate period style craftsman in action. An excellent example is Master Horner “Wild Willy” Frankford, whose talents lie in scrimshaw and powder horns. Ralph Babcock will portray an eighteenth-century sutler making and selling wooden boxes and chests.

To get into the Whiskey Rebellion mood, we suggest you visit the Liberty Pole Spirits booth. Their distillery in Washington, Pa. produces seven different whiskeys including two that are authentic throwbacks to the Monongahela rye whiskeys of 1794. I wonder if they have paid Mr. Hamilton’s tax?

When you combine Market Faire with two days of re-enactment of the Battle of Bower Hill, the result is a must-see event for everyone even remotely interested in local history. Plenty of parking will be available in the ChemTech lot on the other side of the Washington Pike.