Showing posts with label National Park Service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Park Service. Show all posts

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Bike, stroll, rock and roll the Mt. Vernon Trail

On the Mt. Vernon Trail in Alexandria, you can fish solo and ponder the meaning of ......? You choose/By Patricia Leslie
 Or fish with a friend/By Patricia Leslie
 Or ride/By Patricia Leslie
 Run/By Patricia Leslie
 Run almost naked in 50 degree weather/By Patricia Leslie
 Ponder solo/By Patricia Leslie
 Ponder with a friend/By Patricia Leslie
 Bike/By Patricia Leslie
 Rendezvous or find sculpture in wood/By Patricia Leslie
 Fish with a group/By Patricia Leslie
 Contemplate a science project/By Patricia Leslie

 Find Mother Nature/By Patricia Leslie
 Study Mother's effects/By Patricia Leslie

 
It's heave ho on the Mt. Vernon Trail/By Patricia Leslie

 Admire the sinewy trunk that remains/By Patricia Leslie
 All the way up to the tippy-top and wonder when it will fall/By Patricia Leslie
 Find beauty everywhere and admire the craftsmanship of bridge designers. The 18.5 mile trail will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2023/By Patricia Leslie
 See the gorgeous Potomac River sights/By Patricia Leslie
 Bike with friends/By Patricia Leslie
 

Walk instead of ride the challenging last mile before Mt Vernon, George's home/By Patricia Leslie
But if you get a running start and think you can ..../By Patricia Leslie
 You can!/By Patricia Leslie
 It's a demanding finish/By Patricia Leslie
 Easier to walk/By Patricia Leslie
 Than ride/By Patricia Leslie

 Or strategize on the best way to top it/By Patricia Leslie
Whatever you do, enjoying the outdoors and escaping inner space are delightful on the Mt. Vernon Trail. Thank you, National Park Service!/By Patricia Leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com

Sunday, May 31, 2020

The towns drown May 31, 1889


The president of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club near Johnstown, Pennsylvania was Col. Elias J. Unger who lived in this house and took care of the property.  He and his team tried frantically to build and hold the dam as the water crept higher and higher, but to no avail and the dam gave way flooding villages and killing thousands of people downstream

Does this picture remind you of Auntie Em's house in The Wizard of Oz? Would that the Johnstown Flood was a mere dream likeThe Wizard of Oz!/Photo by Patricia Leslie



It was rich vs. poor in Pennsylvania in the 1880s when wealthy industrialists fled Pittsburgh and its high summertime temperatures to Lake Conemaugh 67 miles east. At the lake and the surrounding community, the visitors enjoyed cooler weather and the luxuries of a manmade lake with fishing, boating, and nearby lodging in "cottages" or a clubhouse.

They were members of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club which owned the dam which broke on May 31, 1889 flooding four villages before engulfing Johnstown and killing 2,209 people, many never identified, many, Welsh and German immigrants who worked in the city's steel mills.

The dam needed repairs but who had the money? Or wanted to spend it on a dam structure

Improvements were ignored, and so on a day which saw six to ten inches of rain fall, the most ever recorded for that time period, according to the U.S. Army Signal Corps, the water from Lake Conemaugh breeched the dam and sped down the valley at 40 mph before destroying Johnstown 14 miles away.

Today marks the 131st anniversary of the Johnstown Flood.
Many residents never received warning. The lake's owners and the failed maintenance were never found guilty of anything.

The site lies about four hours from Washington, D.C., now a national park, where I was driven by a book, The Johnstown Flood (1968) by David McCullough which makes visiting the scene much more rewarding if you read it ahead of time. (Johnstown is also about 30 minutes from the September 11, 2001 Flight 93 crash site.)  Although the visitor center is still closed at Johnstown for covid-19, the grounds are open and well worth a visit for the love of history and learning about another chapter in our nation's past.


An engraving from Harper's Weekly June 15, 1889 depicting the tragedy at Johnstown/Wikimedia Commons
The entrance to the park with a path on the left leading to the north fork overlook of the dam's remains, now overgrown/Photo by Patricia Leslie
A view from the north fork overlook trail up the hill at the former location of Lake Conemaugh on the far right, Col. Unger's home, center, and his barn, now the Visitor Center, on the left/Photo by Patricia Leslie
On top of the hill is Col. Unger's home and in the distance on the left is the town of Saint Michael with cottages and the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Lake Conemaugh was below Col. Unger's house/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Col. Unger's home with Highway 219 in the distance, near the dam's former site in the center/Photo by Patricia Leslie
The Visitor Center on top of the hill, formerly Col. Unger's barn/Photo by Patricia Leslie
A view from the north fork overlook and the water's path/Photo by Patricia Leslie
A trail to the north fork overlook/Photo by Patricia Leslie


Across Lake Conemaugh in Saint Michael's is the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Clubhouse  at 186 Main Street. The three-story building had.47 rooms and lodged club members and their families who did not own "cottages." Now, you can drive up, park onsite, and peer in the windows of the clubhouse where repairs are underway/Photo by Patricia Leslie
From the porch of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Clubhouse/Photo by Patricia Leslie
One of the "cottages" in Saint Michael's which belonged to a member of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, now under renovation. The sign says this style of house is :Victorian Queen Anne "shingle."/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Another view of the "cottage" undergoing renovation, formerly owned by a member of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club/Photo by Patricia Leslie
A restored "cottage" in Saint Michael's, privately owned/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Looter then, looters now. Francis Schell and Thomas Hogan made this wood engraving of the flood's aftermath including looters, pictured in Harper's Weekly, June 15, 1889/Wikimedia Commons


What:  Johnstown Flood National Memorial.

When:  The park's grounds are open from sunrise to sunset, but covid-19 has closed the Visitor Center. If summertime hours resume (June - September) and the visitor center opens, reservations presumably may be made to take a ranger-led hike (of four-five or eight miles) or a four-hour van tour which includes access to the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club and a ride by "cottages" owned by club members (which may be done in your own vehicle). 

Reservations for the tours are important but I found neither their cost nor how to make them on the NPS website.

Nine of the 16 original "cottages" are still standing; three are owned by the National Park Service and six are private. 


Where:  Johnstown Flood National Memorial, 733 Lake Road
South Fork, PA 15956 

Cell phone tour:  Available at no charge


How much: No charge to visit the park


For more information:  (814) 886-6170 and visit the website


patricialesli@gmail.com

Monday, May 25, 2020

In memoriam Flight 93 Sept. 11, 2001


The name of one of the passengers and her unborn child listed on the Wall of Names at the crash site  of United Flight 93 in Stoystown, Pennsylvania September 11, 2001/Photo by Patricia Leslie
At the entrance to the Flight 93 National Memorial and visible from Highway 30 is the unfinished Tower of Voices, 93 feet high with 40 wind chimes, a "living memorial," the National Park Service writes in its brochure, dedicated on Sept. 9, 2018, a musical monument unique to the world.  About 10 of the wind chimes have been installed (there is presently no sound at the Tower) with the rest to be added at irregular times, according to Wikipedia. (A simulated sound may be heard at the NPS website.)/Photo by Patricia Leslie
The Tower of Voices at the Flight 93 National Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie
The Tower of Voices at the Flight 93 National Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Inside the Tower of Voices at the Flight 93 National Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie
At the visitor center about 1.5 miles away from the Tower of Voices is this walkway which leads to the Western Overlook of the site, following the plane's path before it went down/Photo
At the Visitor Center, the times and locations of the other three plane crashes are carved in stone on the walkway to the Western Overlook. This says: "9:37:46 AM   Pentagon   American Airlines Flight 77"  /Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Western Overlook at the Visitor Center/Photo by Patricia Leslie
At the Memorial Plaza below the Western Overlook and Visitor Center, the victims' pictures and names are shown with other displays. A cell phone tour  is available at no charge. Victims' names are also listed in the memorial brochure and on the Wall of Names/Photo by Patricia Leslie


The Wall of Names looking towards the Visitor Center on the top of the hill. The locations of the Wall and the Visitor Center follow the trajectory of the plane as it crashed. Paul Murdoch Architects conceived the site with victims' names carved in separate white marble slabs, in a design reminiscent of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. For any memorial of this magnitude, of course there was controversy, and the architect changed the design/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Looking in the opposite direction at the Wall of Names towards the locked gate (in the distance) which leads to the crash site, a holy place where victims' families are permitted to enter. To the left in the distance beyond the black wall border is the crash site/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Beyond the black granite border at Memorial Plaza on the right is the crash site. Places for visitors to leave tributes are fashioned into the wall and collected. Visitors may also leave cards at the Visitor Center/Photo by Patricia Leslie
This direction is opposite the picture two above, with the black granite border on the left defining the crash site. Beyond is the Wall of Names/Photo by Patricia Leslie
 At Memorial Plaza/Photo by Patricia Leslie
/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On this Memorial Day we also remember and pay tribute to the victims of United Airlines Flight 93, the 33 passengers and seven crew members who ended terrorists' efforts on September 11, 2001 before the plane could strike Washington, D.C.*

Only 20 minutes from Washington, the heroism, strength, and bravery of the crew and passengers prevented another tragedy of an aircraft, intending to destroy a national monument.

Flight 93 was the only one of four planes hijacked that awful day which missed its target.

Rather, this plane barreled upside down into the ground at 593 mph in a Pennsylvania field leaving a crater measuring 30 feet by 15 feet deep which the coroner ordered covered. Remains of every victim were found and returned to families and also, left here.


Now a 17-ton sandstone marks the point of the impact with a cluster of hemlock trees nearby.

Flight 93's grave is one of solemnity and peace whose design and place are marked by a sense of guilt and pride that passengers and crew members on a plane took over with nothing more than sheer determination, mission, and force on their side.

Although it is a sad place, still I was left with astonishment over the bravery and charge of strong men and women who did not hesitate to seize control from the perpetrators and save our nation from more terror. The victims made deadly life-changing decisions in seconds. They are forever heroes whose legacy remind us of what we can do on a moment's notice when called to stand and serve.

I wondered what I would do on a plane like this. How about you?
  
American heroism grows stronger, never ceasing to overcome adversity and challenge like that we face today.  We, too, can stand and serve our nation and do the right thing.


* The exact target, the U.S. Capitol or the White House, has never been determined.

What: Flight 93 National Memorial


When:  The park is open seven days a week from sunup to sundown, however, the Visitor Center is still closed for covid-19 reasons. When open, the Visitor Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. all week with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.

Where:  6424 Lincoln Highway, Stoystown, PA 15567. (Searching for the park's name will take you to the wrong entrance.) It is a trash-free park.


How much: No charge but donations are welcome!

Getting there: Directions are found on the NPS website. From D.C. it's about 3.5 driving hours away.

For more information(814) 893-6322 or the NPS website 

patricialesli@gmail.com