i've always had a passion for "things old", still love to get out and explore the early canals that are close to me, three actually, the Pennsylvania&Ohio canal which is only about 15 miles south of me and the sandy beaver canal about 35 miles south of me, (there's also an abandoned train line and tunnel that i found last spring just east of this canal), and the ohio/eire canal about 30 miles west of me, also i really like vintage audio, tube style and early solid state units.........a few pics..................
looks like fun, you should probably take up metal detecting around those area. My hobby is scuba diving, I am in the process of buying an underwater metal detector. shark in tonic immobility.....it works.
Nice pics old40. I also like to find old logging camps and old mining sites in this area. No pics, but if I get back to them this year, I will definitely take some and post them. Found some old bottles...one thing about these old sites, they all had their dumps close by.
Cool pics. I'm always looking for evidence of our forefathers in the bush, usually while out hunting. It always amazes me how quickly the forest can reclaim an old homestead. I always think of how much work, time and effort these old farmers took to clear the land by hand only to be overgrown and forgotten in a generation or two.
funny you should mention metal detecting, on one of my many journeys back to lock shown in the first pic, i met a guy that was doing just that, he found a dime dated from 1910, so it must have been from someone like me just visiting the lock, this canal shut down in 1852 after a dam broke on cold run reservoir which is also still visible today, i went there this last spring as well, still many more spots to check on this old canal (the sandy beaver), the east end is most impressive, beautiful country through there..............
i just recently sold my vintage/antique beer can collection over this past year, i used to get out i find old dump sites in the Allegheny forest in western pa, the earliest and in still pretty decent shape can i found, was a low profile cone top can that dated to around 1936, beer cans had come on the scene in 1935, so it's one of the first..........
another lock i visited two years ago, that comes with a story, also just north of this lock is the site where pretty boy floyd was gunned down, lots of cool history nearby for me, can't get enough, and always looking for more.................sorry, i f'd up and didn't hit full size images, you'll need to click on these for full view........
Only found one cone top beer can but it was in such bad shape..... Man, Gretchen's family was full of tragedy! Wonder if you'll find any old slugs with the detector related to the pretty boy killing? .45 caliber probably?
look closely at the marker for floyd, someone shot it up, these markers are made of thick cast iron!....
yep, kinda sucks, just up stream from gretchens lock is vondergrens lock, i haven't made it that far up yet, it also is one of the best preserved locks on the canal, these locks on the east end of the canal were built under gill's strict supervision and detail, maybe this spring i'll get up there.........a couple pics of it...........
wow really cool pics Old We have a canal here in Hollidaysburg also. Really neat history how they would unbolt the canal boats and take them up the mountain in 3-4 pieces by rail then reassembled in Johnstown, Have you ever been to McConnell's Mill state park?
yep, sure have, more than once, though it's been a while, i used to go to an antique power show in portersville, then drive through the park after leaving the show............there's also a canal that runs north and south in western pa know as the eire extension canal, there's one well preserved lock in sharpsville and a portion of the canal can still be seen off I80 just west of route 18 near hermitage, it can be seen by using google maps as well, it's the canal the the Pennsylvania&Ohio canal runs into..........
here's a couple pics of lock #10 in sharpsville, i haven't been to this one yet, but will in the near future, it can also be seen via google maps.................
if i remember right, it's about a 1000 feet or more, this tunnel is just east of grimms bridge, an old bridge that crosses the little beaver river, which is also right where the canal ran on the east bank of the river, the tunnel curves through the hillside, so you can't see all the way through, back in 1963 a strip mining crew unknowing was blasting nearby and inadvertently caused a landslide on the southern portal, which is why it has filled with water, a google search for "grimms bridge tunnel" will give you more history on it, here's a couple pics of grimms bridge...........BTW, which part of maine are you in, my parents used to live in winthrop
great topic .. I like to visit older homes in area.. my sister purchased an old home near aquasco md . Built in 1749 , many owners some 20 families passed thru there. horse hair was used in original plaster in walls and latrr redone in newer style plaster in 1800's. No nails in oldest part of home except for drywall. Its amazing to think that was built before the revolution. There are other homes in the area built in same era.
another cool place to visit nearby from the sandy beaver canal is the cherry valley coke ovens, over 200 were built, these are some of the best preserved "bee hive" style coke ovens in the U.S., i visited this place in the fall of 2013, the next spring they wanted to try and drain the water to help preserve the area, once done, they deemed the park unsafe until they can raise funds to build fencing to avoid possible accidents, glad i got there to see it before this happened, these coke ovens were built for a large steel factory in the north end of leetonia ohio in 1866, hope they get the park open again soon............
