On 06/29/2011 we started our trip to Holland, MI for the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference. Our first stop was at Shawnee Sleepy Hollow Campground near Schellsburg, PA. The office is located in the stone and log building that was bui lt in 1772 as a stagecoach stop on the Forbes Trail. The Forbes Trail was built by General Forbes during the French and Indian War in 1758. The trail was extended from Philadelphia to Fort Duquesne and renamed Fort Pitt. Today it is called Pittsburgh. The picture is of the Old 1772 Stagecoach Stop Building.
We drove over to Shanksville, PA to see the Flight 93 National Memorial, a 9/11 Memorial. On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, the U.S. came under attack when four commercial airliners were hijacked and used to strike targets on the ground. Nearly 3,000 people tragically lost their lives. Because of the actions of 40 passengers and crew aboard one of the planes, Flight 93, the attack on the U.S. Capitol was thwarted. Seven crew members assigned to Flight 93 began to prepare for the early morning non-stop flight from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, California. Thirty-three passengers were traveling for ordinary reasons. Flight 93 was a Boeing 757, with a capacity of 182 passengers. The terrorists targeted domestic flights that normally had few passengers so they would have less resistance, used the type of aircraft that they had been trained to pilot, were non-stop, coast-to-coast flights with full fuel tanks that would cause the maximum amount of destruction, and were departing at approximately the same time so they could make a coordinated, surprise attack. The hijackers on September 11, 2001, were terrorists on a suicide mission. This was the first time hijackers used commercial airliners as weapons to destroy symbolic targets, commit mass murder, and spread terror. On that morning, three of the four hijacked flights departed on schedule. However, Flight 93 was delayed more than 25 minutes due to typically heavy morning traffic. Just four minutes after Flight 93 departed, hijacked Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03 a.m., a second hijacked plane, Flight 175, hit the South Tower. At 9:37 a.m. hijacked Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. The Federal Aviation Administration, at 9:42 a.m. ordered all aircraft to land at the nearest airport at 9:42 a.m. An estimated 4,500 aircraft landed safely without incident. This was the first time such an order had been given in United States aviation history. By that time, though, Flight 93 was not responding to any orders. At about 9:28 a.m., after 46 minutes of routine flight across Pennsylvania, the terrorists on Flight 93 overtook the cockpit, turning the plane southeast on a course directed toward Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital. The passengers and crew were forced to the back of the plane and told to be quiet. Using air-phones, passengers and crew began making calls to report the hijacking. They soon learned the shocking news about the other hijacked planes and quickly realized that Flight 93 was part of a larger attack on America. This realization led to a vote and a collective decision to fight back. In just over 30 minutes, this diverse group of people on Flight 93 developed a plan and put it into action. The cockpit voice recorder (reader discretion advised) captured the sounds of their struggle shouts, screams, calls to action, and sounds of breaking glassware. To stop the uprising, the terrorist piloting the aircraft began to roll it to the left and right and pitch the nose up and down. In its final moments, the plane turned upside down as it passed over rural Western Pennsylvania. The terrorists remained in control of the plane and chose to crash it rather than risk the passengers and crew regaining control of the aircraft. At 10:03 a.m., Flight 93 plowed into an empty field at a speed of 563 miles per hour. Upon impact, the 7,000 gallons of jet fuel on board the aircraft exploded, creating a ball of fire that rose higher than the trees. The flight data recorder that was recovered from the crash site revealed that the terrorists had reprogrammed the aircraft’s autopilot system for a new destination – Washington, D.C. Recovered evidence and responses to interrogations revealed that the terrorists’ intended target was most likely the United States Capitol, where the nation’s legislators were in session. Flight 93 crashed only 20 minutes flying-time from Washington, D.C. Because of the quick and determined actions of the passengers and crew, Flight 93 was the only one of the four hijacked aircraft that failed to reach the terrorists’ intended target that day. The passengers and crew showed unity, courage, and defiance in the face of adversity. Today the National Park Service, its volunteers, and its partners work to honor their sacrifice and to try to understand more fully the legacy of Flight 93 and the other events of 9/11. The picture is of Memorial Plaza under construction.
We traveled to Plantation Park in Mercer, PA on 07/06/2011. While there we drove to Erie, PA on 07/09/2011 to visit the following: Presque Isle Lighthouse, Presque Isle North Pier-head Lighthouse, Erie Land Lighthouse, and Perry Monument. At the City of Erie, a peninsula, over six miles in length, arches out into the water of Lake Erie forming an expansive natural harbor. French explorers recognized the intrinsic value of the harbor, and in 1753, constructed Fort Presque Isle on the mainland near the harbor entrance. The name Presque Isle means “almost an island” in French and referred to the nearby peninsula. From Fort Presque Isle, fur traders could portage their goods fifteen miles to Fort Le Boeuf, located at the upper reaches of the Allegheny River near present-day Waterford, and then float downstream to Pittsburgh and on to Louisiana. Fort Presque Isle and its portage thus became a vital link between the French fur trade network in the Great Lakes and its colony on the Gulf Coast. In 1870, plans were begun for a lighthouse on the north shore of the Presque Isle Peninsula that would replace the Erie Land Lighthouse on the mainland. This new light would be several miles nearer the lake, and being located directly on the peninsula, would better mark that navigational hazard. Construction began in September of 1872, and the light from atop the forty-foot tower attached to the keeper’s dwelling was first exhibited on July 12, 1873. The hazards of navigating Lake Erie were evidenced by the loss of a scow carrying 6,000 bricks for the construction of the lighthouse. The lighthouse tower was built of bricks, five courses thick, in order to withstand the fierce storms and buffeting winds that blow off the lake. Though square on the outside, inside the tower is circular and supports a spiral staircase, forged in Pittsburgh and barged to Erie. The brick keeper’s dwelling originally had an oil room, bedroom, dining room, kitchen, and summer kitchen on the main floor, and three bedrooms and a drying room on the second floor. Beneath the dwelling were located a cistern and a cellar. The cost for the lighthouse was $15,000. The picture is of the Presque Isle Lighthouse.
According to a legend passed down by the Erie Indians, Manitou, the Great Spirit, led the tribe to the shores of an inland sea where they would find game in abundance and enjoy the cool, health-giving breezes coming from the land of snow and ice. One day, the Eries ventured into the great waters to discover where the sun sank in the evenings. This intrusion greatly angered the spirits of the lake who caused a terrible storm to build on the waters. Hearing the cries of his favored people, the Great Spirit stretched forth his left arm into the sea to protect his children from the turbulent water and allowed them to paddle their canoes safely back to shore. Where the benevolent arm of the Great Spirit had blocked the waters, a vast sandbar formed which ever since has provided protection and a safe harbor to his favorite people, the Erie. The present white tower, with its distinctive black band, is mounted on the outer end of the north pier which forms the entrance to Presque Isle Bay and Erie Harbor. The lighthouse has been guiding mariners since 1857. Known as the Presque Isle North Pier-head Lighthouse or Erie Harbor Pier-head Light, the beacon has a design that is unique among surviving U.S. lighthouses. The lighthouse exhibited a fixed red light until 1995, when its fourth-order Fresnel lens was removed, and a modern flashing red light was installed in its place. The classic lens can now be seen at the Erie Maritime Museum. The picture is of the Presque Isle North Pier-head Lighthouse.
Anxious to add a port on the Great Lakes to its western frontier, Pennsylvania paid $151,640 for a triangular section of land in 1792 that included forty-five miles of lakeshore on Lake Erie. Three years before this deed was granted by President George Washington, Pennsylvania had paid the Iroquois Nation $2,000 to relinquish its rights to the land and pave the way for the sale. A slender, seven-mile-long peninsula, named Presque Isle, which means “almost an island” in French, extends from a section of this lake shore and forms a fine natural harbor, nearly five miles long and one mile wide, that has been called the finest on Lake Erie. Recognizing the need to improve navigation on the Great Lakes and mark important harbors, Congress passed an act in 1810 authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to establish such a light as he deemed proper “on or near Presque Isle, in Lake Erie.” Soon thereafter, two acres of land on a mainland bluff overlooking the eastern entrance to the harbor were obtained from John Kelso. Though Congress provided money for construction of the lighthouse in 1810 and 1811, the work was delayed by the outbreak of the War of 1812. A new allocation of $17,000 was made on March 3, 1817 for the construction of two lighthouses on Lake Erie, and the Presque Isle Lighthouse was completed and commenced operation in 1818. This light along with the original Buffalo Lighthouse are considered to be the first American lighthouses built on the Great Lakes. The contract for the lighthouse, which later became commonly known as the Erie Land Lighthouse after beacons were erected on the Presque Isle Peninsula, called for a twenty-foot stone tower with a diameter of 9 ½ feet at its abase and 7 ½ feet at its top. Surmounting the tower was a nine-foot-tall iron lantern sheltering an array of ten lamps and reflectors. Nearby, a one-story frame dwelling comprising three rooms was provided for the keeper. The picture is of the Erie Land Lighthouse.
Presque Isle played a part in the victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Erie, during the War of 1812. Oliver Hazard Perry commanded the fleet in battle. He strategically used the peninsula’s Presque Isle Bay as a pier and, a place to construct six out of nine of the ships in his fleet. Using this location protected the men by creating an obstacle for potential attackers because they would have to travel all the way around the peninsula to reach them. The small bay near the tip of the peninsula (next to the current Perry’s Monument) was later named Misery Bay, because of the hardships that took place there after the men returned from battle, during the winters of 1812–1814. Many men suffered from smallpox and were kept in quarantine in the area of the bay. A great deal of the infected died and were buried in a pond now called Graveyard Pond. In 1926, the Perry monument was built to commemorate Oliver Hazard Perry on his victory over the British in the battle on Lake Erie. The monument is a 101 feet (30.8 m) obelisk located at Crystal point on Presque Isle. The picture is of the Perry Monument.
Then on 07/10/2011 we drove back to Erie, PA to see the Erie Maritime Museum. Enter the world of Lake Erie. Learn its history. Find out about fishing. Starting with the War of 1812 through the present day, the Erie Maritime Museum will take you through time, the people, and the events surrounding Lake Erie. When in homeport, the ship herself is the major “exhibit”. Berthed within yards of the museum, the Flagship Niagara is visible from the museum’s bay side picture window. Inside, the centerpiece exhibits of the museum range from a former steam-powered electricity generating station, a reconstruction of the mid-ship section of the Lawrence, and a separate section of the Lawrence replica that has been blasted with live ammunition from the current Niagara’s own cannons. The picture is of Erie Maritime Museum War of 1812 exhibit.
