Not Only

I write for my Blogspot every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It is difficult to keep the articles fresh and interesting. Sometimes I resurrect a story because I’ve thought of more to add or to run a parallel tale with it. I also post story of my family’s history on the National Minerd-Miner-Minor Website every Thursday. At least three times per year I gather information to compose the bulk of the Chestnut Ridge Historical Society’s newsletter Sometimes my river of ideas runs dry and I have to dig deeper or reach farther than I really want to for any of my writings. For the newsletter, I like the information to be kept local to the Laurel Highlands, its history, its people, or places to share our rich history with others. It’s paramount that I research our files and with the assistance of the computer makes the searching a bit easier in gathering information, but it still takes that solid germ of an idea to build the newsletters around.

In the last issue of “Down Memory Lane,” our newsletter posed a question that we weren’t able to answer. Someone messaged the Society asking where the distillery was located on the Old Distillery Road near Stahlstown, Pennsylvania. Research in our files was fruitless so we asked our readers if they had any information. As of yet, no one has been able to enlighten us with any information. The fact made me wonder about the many other roads, streets, trails, and highways with odd or unusual names. We thought it would be interesting if people would share those quirky names and any information on how they earned those names with the Society. I’m sure there are other people who’ve driven by streets or have seen road names and wondered how they got their name.

For our next newsletter, I plan to expand that idea to include odd or unusual town names, roadside attractions, or almost lost historical facts of our area and just a bit beyond into the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. I want to share little known places to visit and to resurrect tidbits of forgotten history. I have a fellow writer who has written several books about haunting on Route 22 and Route 30. I won’t try to steal his glory or livelihood, so I will stick more to folklore and things that are more factual.